“Wow,” Claire put her hands on her hips and deeply inhaled the scent of the freshly-cleaned and emptied apartment. “I can actually hear myself think in here. This is so weird.”
Matt stepped inside just after her, closing the door behind him. “No more potty training, no more screaming running up and down the hallway—this is like living in the lap of luxury,” he agreed, smiling as he set his cane down by the door.
“I can’t believe we’re moving,” Claire sighed. She tossed her hair and looked over at Matt. “I know I’m not usually the sentimental type, but—”
“Oh! Never,” Matt teased.
“I am gonna miss this place,” she shrugged, raising an eyebrow at him. “We’ve lived here for so long.” The entire place, deep orange paint and all, was empty and bare. Their voices even echoed off the walls, though the faint strains of the Creole couple next door’s late night music floated through the walls.
She could still remember stitching him up on her couch, the imprints of which were still marking the carpet. Claire sighed; that all seemed so long ago.
“We’ve seen a bit more excitement over here than the average middle-class family from Hell’s Kitchen,” Matt chuckled, as he removed his suit, tie, and glasses. Realizing there wasn’t anywhere to set it down in the empty room, ha draped it across the bar top in front of the sink.
He moved beside Claire and, as the two exchanged a loving smile, grasped her hand in his own as they gently pulled each other along through the old apartment rooms.
“Everything seems pretty clean,” Matt noted, “though I could have told you that before we ever got here.”
Claire snorted. “I know that, Matt. Double-checking never hurts. We wouldn’t want to leave behind Jack or Janie’s favorite toy ever because your super-senses couldn’t detect them as we were leaving, heaven forbid.”
Matt leaned in a little closer, his voice lowering to a gravelly, romantic one. “I know you do; I was just implying that maybe, you simply dragged me all the way back here just so that you could say a final good-bye to the old place.”
His breath ghosted against her ear, and Claire flashed him a knowing look, eyelashes fluttering. “I’m not THAT sentimental about the place I stitched you up twice in, after finding you in a dumpster that night. Sorry to disappoint, love.”
“Well, we can’t just leave without doing anything,” Matt whispered next to her hair, taking her other hand in his as well, so the two were pressed close together completely. “It would be a waste of a trip. We even got Foggy to babysit. He’d be so disappointed.”
“Mmm,” Claire acknowledged wordlessly. “What exactly did you have in mind, Mr. Murdock?”
“Can you hear that?” Matt breathed, meaning the music playing from next door. The slow, Latin tunes played sweetly and just loud enough that Claire could, indeed, hear as well.
She nodded against his chest, savoring how her cheek rubbed against the warmth beneath his shirt.
“Well, Mrs. Murdock,” Matt slowly, tenderly wrapped his arms around her and brought one hand just up under her neck, “Would you have this dance?”