Chapter Text
Karen's laughter spilled across the room, from the makeshift desk where she'd been typing to the bed where Matt was stretched out, giving his aching muscles a rest.
He wet his lips and savored the sound like a gourmet meal.
"We're not actually doing this," she said, but amusement curled in each word.
He smiled. "Are you a scaredy cat, Miss Page?"
"Oh, fine." She abandoned her laptop and turned toward him in her chair. "Truth."
He'd been so focused on the sweet strains of her voice that he was taken aback. "Hmm. I really didn't think this far ahead."
Matt realized, too late, that he'd maneuvered them both into a minefield. He didn't want to do anything that could puncture this rare moment of lightness under Fisk's suffocating regime. He didn't want to do anything that could jeopardize the bond between the two of them, which was deep as ever but also tentative and new again.
"Uh... who was your first kiss?" he asked quickly. That seemed like the standard kind of question, and safe enough.
"Have I not told you that?"
"If you did, I'm not remembering now."
"Okay." Karen tucked her hair behind her ear. "Um, so when I was in junior high, I had to ride the bus home every day, and I hated it. I was always dropped off last. And the guy who was dropped off right before me was my neighbor, this guy Christian, who was kind of shy but would talk more when it was just us. And one day we were in the back of the bus, just bored and goofing around a little, and I don't even know how we got on the subject, but I asked him if he'd ever kissed anyone and he turned really red, and it just happened."
"He said you tasted like strawberries," Matt said. Halfway through, he'd realized the story was chiming with his memory.
"Because of my chapstick, yeah," Karen confirmed.
"I do remember you telling me." But everything about those days was bittersweet at best now, and Matt didn't let himself think hard enough about them to recall when or where Karen had told this story before. Instead, he asked, "So was this Christian your first love?"
"God, no. I was just curious."
"Who was then?"
Karen hesitated. "Isn't it your turn?"
"I mean, only if we're playing strictly by the rules." He chuckled. "Since technically I already knew the answer, I thought I could ask a follow-up question."
"Okay. Then dare."
Matt's eyebrows went up, just like Karen's heartbeat. "What?"
"I choose a dare instead."
"You really don’t want to tell me?"
"It’s embarrassing." The temperature was rising under her skin.
"How embarrassing could it be?" Matt asked, having too much fun to play it safe. "Did you date your cousin or something?"
"Okay, city boy. Not everyone who grows up in a rural area dates their cousin."
"Not a relative, then. An older man?"
She swallowed. "Not by much."
"So nothing cradle robber-y?"
"No."
"Well, then, does he rob banks or something?"
"Or something." Karen's teeth pressed into her lower lip.
"He’s a criminal?"
"I don’t think he would put it that way."
"How would he put it?"
She took in a deep breath, her whole silhouette fiery-hot to his senses now. "You tell me."
Matt felt like he was falling, like the bed and the floor had failed and he was plunging right through them. He inhaled noisily — he had temporarily stopped breathing. "Karen."
It was all he could manage to say.
She shook her head self-consciously. "There have been other people I… cared about. But with… you and me… I realized that I’d never really been in love before. So, yeah..."
Matt sat up slowly, shifting so his feet hit the floor and he was facing her.
"Anyways, let's not make a big thing of it," Karen said, waving her hand.
It was a big thing, though, because he loved her and he'd missed her, and it had never been more clear that she was his everything.
But maybe for her, this was all past tense.
He wanted to say what was in his heart, but he didn’t know how. He was Daredevil, after all, not Truthteller.
“Hey, Karen,” he said, softly. “If I dared myself to kiss you right now, would that be okay?”
The air around him sparkled and snapped with signals from her, scent and sound and warmth. “Maybe,” she said, in a way that definitely didn’t sound like no.
But not “no” wasn’t really enough.
“All right. I’ll wait. You just tell me if the answer is ever yes.”
He heard a smile in the way she exhaled, and his own lips turned up.
“It’s a deal,” she said.