Continuation of the Matt Murdock prompt...
“Excuse me.” A finger taps on yours and Matt’s shoulders. Both of you turn around, and you can feel Matt’s grip tense up on your arm which causes you to tense up as well. “Did I hear you say that you can hear a person’s heartbeat? From a distance?”
“Not necessarily,” you trip over yourself in answering an earn a raised eyebrow from the man. He has his hands in his pockets and assumes a casual presence.
“Tell me the truth,” he says.
“Yes, but we were talking about me. I can hear heartbeats from a distance,” you butt in. Matt’s grip tightens on your arm, and you can tell he’s worried.
“Can you?” The man cocks his head in interest.
“Yes,” you insist and hold on to Matt’s hand.
“Right.” The man tugs on an earlobe for a moment. “Interesting. Tell me your name.”
“Not a bad one. Kilgrave’s mine. Alright, tomorrow morning at 10, meet me back here. I can’t stay,” you notice some traces of blood on his face like he’d been in a fight, “but I’ve got more questions for you. Now, get out of my way.”
You twist your fingers together and look around with an air of forced calm. At ten o’clock, the sun is barely peeking over the edges of the buildings of Hell’s Kitchen. You stand against the wall just mere feet away from where you and Matt ran into Kilgrave the day before. Scanning around, you can catch a glimpse of someone on the roof of a building across the street, and you feel relief in knowing it’d be Matt keeping watch.
Not too far away, with his nose buried in a newspaper, you can see Foggy lingering and keeping an eye on you. Somewhere, Karen would be situated with a cop on hand should something drastic happen.
A glance at your phone tells you it’s minutes past 10, and you release a long exhale and lean against the brick wall. Maybe he wouldn’t be show. Maybe he forgot. You feel the ropes of Kilgrave’s persuasion begin to slip away, and with that, you move away to join others on the sidewalk.
Or so you were thinking. You manage to bump face-first into someone’s chest, and hands fly up on your shoulders to steady you.
“Sorry,” you manage to blurt out before looking to see who it is.
“You should have heard me coming,” he says, his fingers tapping on your shoulders.
“You’re late,” you argue, stepping away so his hands fall off.
“That was a test. You weren’t even aware of me coming.”
“That was a stupid test,” you say and back up even more, fervently casting glances between Foggy and Matt’s position. They aren’t there.
“Even now I’m starting to doubt your superior listening skills.” Kilgrave rubs his nose. “Heartbeats, then. You couldn’t hear mine before I showed up?”
“All heartbeats sound the same. There’s no distinction between yours and anyone’s.” You’re surprised you can come up with that excuse on the spot, but the thoughtful nod from Kilgrave says that he believes you.
“Sounds reasonable enough,” he says. “You have a mobile on you, yeah? Hand it over.”
“Mobile? You mean phone?” You dig into your pocket and pull out your phone to hand to him.
“You know how pretentious you sound saying that?” He takes your phone and presses some button.
“Do you know how pretentious you sound with just that accent alone?” The retort alone earns you a pinched look on his part. After a moment, he gives you back your phone, and you look through it to see that he’s added a number to your list of contacts. “What’s this for?”
“To keep in touch. I can’t hang about today- too much to do and very little time to do it in.”
You become wary, choosing your next words carefully as to not arouse any suspicion. “What exactly are you doing?”
It doesn’t work. He narrows his eyes at you and evaluates your person. “Nothing you need to be concerned about. Now, I can tell that there is more to your super hearing than you’re letting on; therefore, you’re going to await instructions via mobile. I can’t stay, but I can’t let a potential slip away.”
He makes shushing noises and flaps his hands. “Don’t worry about that. Whatever instructions I have for you, follow them.” Then he spins his head around as though he’s on the lookout for someone.
“What are you- oh!” The wind is knocked out of you when someone runs into you and carries you off, but not without some stumbling in the beginning. Someone’s hoisted you onto their shoulders, and you’re left staring at Kilgrave and watching as he disappears into the crowd with a look of surprise.
When he’s gone, you finally take notice of who’s got a hold of you. The image of their butt doesn’t help, so you try to hold yourself up to look at the face of your captor.
His face is all red from exertion, and it doesn’t take long for him to turn into any alleyway and collapse, dropping you onto the sidewalk. You fall onto your hip and yell, and Foggy is on his knees panting hard.
“You could probably stand to lose some weight,” he bites out. It’s clear he isn’t thinking, but you puff out your cheeks anyways and prepare a remark when someone lands next to you.
“Never tell a girl she could lose some weight, Foggy. That’s an automatic death wish,” Matt says, offering you a hand in your general direction to help you up. He’s dressed in his Daredevil outfit.
“Ah, you’re right,” Foggy groans and works on standing up with an apologetic look towards you. “I’m sorry, ____, that was out of line.”
You bark a laugh as the smarting pain starts to ebb from your hips. “Alright, that’s fine. Did you two actually plan an escape to get me out of there? Because that could have been executed better.”
“It was dangerous to leave you there with him any longer than necessary,” Matt explains. “We need to get out of here before anyone gets curious.”
“I don’t think it would have mattered,” you say softly, stopping Matt and Foggy in their tracks. They turn back towards you, and you’re holding up your phone. “He’s made a way to stay in touch. I don’t think we’re out of the woods, yet.”
“Damn,” Foggy frowns and rubs his neck.
“Damn indeed,” Matt agrees. “Let’s go.”