The bakery she worked at was about a good 15 minutes walk, but she didn't mind it. The streets this time of day were much busier than at night, people were rushing everywhere. As she stepped in the store her friend, Lucy greeted her with big smile, which suddenly turned into a worried look after noticing how Anna looked. "You look like shit."
"Thanks, I feel like shit." She walked behind the counter next to her. The store was mostly empty, only two people were sitting and eating pastries at the tables, and one was standing and eyeing the selection, trying to decide.
"Just let us know if you need help, sir." Lucy smiled at him. He nodded, and kept trailing his eyes.
Lucy turned to Anna whispering. "What time did you get back home last night? Is everything ok?"
"Too late, or actually, too early. Around 5 in the morning. "
She rounded her mouth "Jeez, that's crazy. Did you get any rest at all?"
"Not much, maybe a couple hours. But it's fine, I will sleep tonight." She covered her yawn while turning her back to the people.
Lucy helped out the customer who finally made his decision on what to get. The others were leaving as well, so the store got quiet for a while. It will usually picks up later in the afternoon.
"Lucy, I don't think I can get out of this." Anna swallowed.
"What do you mean? You'll pay off your dad's debt this year, or maybe next. That's how we calculated remember?"
"Yeah, but the boss doesn't think that way. Last night he said I'm only one tenth done, but I know he just doesn't care, and never calculated it. I don't think he wants to let me go." She lowered herself on the chair in the back of the store.
"You always call him boss, do you know his name?" Lucy asked.
"Nobody does. He wants to stay anonymous for a reason, only his closest guards know I believe, but even that I'm not sure." Anna covered her face in her palms, thinking of the blood on them from last night. Daredevil's blood. "Awww, I just wish I could end this, this whole thing."
"Actually, maybe you could..."
"What do you mean? It's not like I can waltz there kicking everyone's asses and they will leave me alone. It's one of the biggest drug cartel in the whole city, I can't do anything. Every one of them has at least 3 guns on them and they won't hesitate killing me." She sighed deeply.
Lucy walked to the back and started digging in her purse looking for something. "Do you remember Wilson Fisk? How he got taken down?"
Anna looked at her all confused. "Yeah, some lawyers found a key witness and put that son of a bitch behind bars."
Lucy reached out with a paper in her hand. "Here. This is their number."
Anna bursted out laughing. "Are you joking, right? Do I look like I have money for lawyers? I don't even have food in my fridge!"
"Just think about it. You know a lot about this organization, they could maybe help you taking them down the same way they did with Fisk."
"Yeah, but I'm in this as well. I will end up behind bars with Boss and his men, and I don't think they will throw a welcome party for me in there. They will kill me! They would kill me for just to think about this. Maybe I can fight off one or maybe two men, but not a whole mafia with guns. Let's be reasonable."
Lucy pushed the paper in her hand. "They can make a deal for you, maybe witness protection, or something like that. Just give them a shot. It's not like you have too many options?"
Anna looked up at her from her chair. "Ok, I take this piece of paper and think about it. But I don't think this is the way to go. Plus, I still don't have the money for lawyers."
"I heard they work for almost free, whatever people can afford."
"Well, I ate my last slice of old bread, but maybe can donate this old backpack to them, the straps are still holding on ok." She took a deep breath. "I'm broke, Lucy, this job barely covers my rent and my dad's care house bill."
"He doesn't deserve you, you know that right?"
"But he's my only relative. And I can't just let him die on the street."
"Yeah, but he's a..." she stopped at mid sentence as a customer walked into the store. It's just a matter of minutes before the store starts getting busy, so Anna stood up and walked to the counter to help out another woman.
She actually liked when the bakery was busy, time flew much faster and there's no time to feel how tired she was.
A very confused Daredevil walked down the stairs of his roof access. Last night after getting seriously injured and hiding between those dumpsters to put his life in God's hand, he was quite sure he's gonna die that night. He had nobody to call for help. Claire the nurse who helped him a few times was out of town for a couple weeks, or maybe more. And nobody else knew about his nighttime activities to call for help. He made sure to keep his friends out of danger and hide his identity from them well.
But he's healed and feeling better than before. How is this possible? He always thought he doesn't deserve redemption or saving for what he does. He saves people sure, but beats up a lot more. He's been struggling with this since he put on the mask in the first place.
But this girl helped him and saved his life. And kept his identity intact. He knew she was telling the truth about it, her heartbeat was steady when he was listening to it. How is it possible to heal him like this anyway? Maybe she's some weird scientist working on some sort of experiment what she tested on him. Which luckily worked.
He threw his mask back into the chest and walked to his shower to clean up. He left from her apartment in a hurry, for multiple reasons, but now he feels like he needs to learn more about her. There was something in her drawing him in. Maybe her honesty, voice, or smell, which was very pleasant by the way. Vanilla with some lilies. She sounded about his age, maybe a few years younger. He decided he needs to meet her again, but what he didn't expect or planned was he only had to wait for less than 24 hours.
Thankfully tonight's job was short and uneventful for Anna, she was back at her apartment by midnight. She just kicked her shoes off and did some pushups and sit-ups, as a short training to stay in shape mostly, then dropped down on her couch, eyes closed. It felt so good, she decided to stay here for a few, just five, maybe 10 minutes.
She startled by some knocking noise, and immediately sat up, eyes scanning her living room. She must have fallen asleep there. It was just after 2am, so pretty sure she was just dreaming. Lucy wouldn't knock on her door this time of night, and she didn't have anyone else who would visit her. There were three knocks again, coming from the window. Anna stood up and walked closer to notice a dark figure standing on her fire escape, leaning toward the railing. There's only one person who could this be, she smiled inside, actually surprised how happy she was to see him again.
"Hi." She greeted him after pushing the window up so he can climb in, but he was just standing there.
"Sorry to wake you up."
"Actually, I fell asleep on my couch accidentally, so you saved me from a terrible neck pain, which I would sure felt by the morning." She eyed him carefully, as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, standing a bit bent backwards. "Is everything ok? Seems like you hurt your back?"
"Yes, it was my fault. Walked into a trap and while was fighting with 3 guys more came from the back and I was too slow to avoid their blades. One got me badly.
Anna stepped aside, motioning him to come inside. He climbed through slowly, wincing at the movement.
"I'm really sorry to bother you, it's just I don't really have anyone who could help."
"So, you don't have a full army of medical nurses supporting you?"
He smiled. "Not really. The one I go sometimes is out of town. And the cut is on my back, so I can't really stitch it up by myself, and it doesn't want to stop bleeding."
Now that he was inside in her lighted living room she noticed how pale he is. He lost a lot of blood again.
"Sit down on that chair, backwards please." She called out from her bathroom while fetching the medical kit. "I need to take a look and see how bad it is."
He did as he was told, facing the back of the chair. Anna switched the light on in her dining area, which was basically a corner of her living room. At least it had a separate light fixture to give a better look. His lower back was covered with blood, and there was a decent size cut on his shirt. "Ok, I need to pull your shirt up a little, this might hurt." He didn't say anything as she pulled the fabric up and out from the wound it was stuck in, just enough to reveal a nasty and deep cut on his lower back. "This is very deep. Definitely needs stitches, and it's gonna be painful for a long time."
He lowered his head. "I need to go back there. They took a kid, and I'm sure he was in the warehouse somewhere in the back. They just out-powered me."
"That's horrible, why did they kidnap a kid?"
"It's my fault, they were trying to get me and set a trap. They knew I was coming. I need to go back and save him."
Anna sighed, she needs to heal him. He can't fight an army like this.
"These guys are bad people. They run a big drug cartel out of Hell's Kitchen, and I'm making their life difficult lately. They wanted to get back on me."
Anna's brown eyes widened. "You said drug cartel? Are these people Russians?"
"Yes. Why?"
She hesitated, not sure how much she should share. "Well, let's say they're making my life difficult lately..."
"Maybe I can help?" He asked, turning his face backwards toward her, but immediately regretting the motion.
"Maybe. But first, I need to heal you, fast."
He nodded. "Thank you. Seems like you don't like doing this as much. You don't have to if it's too difficult, or if you don't have the supplies for it."
She frowned. "It's not that. I just got into troubles because of it, and trying to be more careful." She went quiet, trying to search for words how to explain the process to him without sounding too creepy. Last time she healed him he was unconscious.
"Ok, so there are no supplies or medications involved, it's nothing like that. I'm not a doctor." She rubbed her eyes. "This might gonna sound creepy..." she took a deep breath and let it out to ease her nervousness. "The way it works is I have to connect with you mentally, and basically draw your pain out and help your body to heal fast. That's why I have to connect to your mind, the brain controls the body, and heals it. I just give it a boost, sorta."
He stayed very still, this wasn't what he was expecting. No chemicals, no experimental drugs?
Ok, maybe this sounded too creepy already? - she thought. When he didn't respond she continued. "So I touch your wound, we both close our eyes and focus on each other's breathing. When you start feeling my presence in your mind, you need to let me in, otherwise I can't heal you."
He shifted his weight in his seat slightly. "So you're gonna be in my head and read my thoughts?"
She smiled. "Not exactly. I just feel what you feel. But no mind reading." He was quiet again. Oh, of course, he's probably worried about his identity, or her intruding and seeing all his memories and thoughts.
"But you don't have to do this if you don't want to."
"I want to." He said after a long wait, his curiosity is winning over his suspicions.
"Right, so." She moved her own dining chair a little closer and placed her hand on his wound. His skin was hot, and she was feeling the blood still pouring out. He's loosing a lot of blood again, just a day after she fixed him. How often he ends up like this?
"Close your eyes, and focus on my breathing." She said very quietly and closed her own eyes as well. She felt his back rising and falling in a slow steady rhythm. After a few seconds she felt his heartbeat, so focused on that for a short while. Then she tried connecting, but feeling him tense right away. "It's ok, just stay calm and focus on my breathing. I'm not gonna hurt you." She whispered, and he did exactly that. Her ears suddenly hurt from the loud noises, exactly like last time. She heard his and her own heartbeats hammering in her head. She heard the city as loud as if she was outside in the middle of the busiest intersection. She heard all sorts of people talking, and then exactly as last night the strong smells hit her senses. The neighbors left out their leftovers on their table, some weird guy down the street wearing way too much perfume. She smelled an old moldy pretzel under her sink - she needs to clean that area. Her skin felt the fabric rubbing at it, like it was sandpaper. Then she felt her own hand against her back, a pleasant warm feeling. Ok, Anna, you need to focus. Finally she felt the pain in her back, arching it slightly as the blade cut through it. She felt him tense and felt his emotions change to serious worry as he realized she's hurting. She needs to do this fast before he snaps out of this. "Just relax." She whispered again and felt the heat from her palms spread through his wound, until the deep cut slowly closed, healed to a scar. She removed her hand and pulled back. She felt the tiredness overwhelming her again, but not as much as last night.
He slowly turned his face toward her, tilting his head slightly. "You did great, it worked." She gave him a weak smile.
"Are you hurt?" He asked, worry in his voice.
"I will be good as new in a few hours." She tried calming him down, didn't want to make him worry about her. He has plenty problems of his own.
"You're cold." It was a statement, not a question. He carefully stood up just to grab the blanket from the couch next to them, and covered her with it. Then sat back down on his chair, facing her this time.
"Thank you."
"I didn't know this makes you hurt. I'm sorry, if I knew..."
She cut into his words. "No, it's fine. Really. Only lasts for a short while, don't have to worry. This wound wasn't as bad as yesterday's ones, so you also should recover from the dizzy feeling much sooner."
He thinned his mouth, still feeling guilty. Anna reached out carefully and touched his right arm. "I'm fine. It's nothing compared to what it can provide. And now you can save that boy, so for me it's totally worth it."
She felt him tremble a little by her touch, was surprised how sensitive he was. Then she remembered how her skin felt as the clothes touched it just a few minutes ago while they were connected. Does he feel that way all the time? What were those loud noises? And strong smells? She never had these while healing others, never. Yesterday she thought it's just some flaw, one time thing, maybe because she hasn't used her abilities for a while. But it happened again. With him. She made a mental note to ask him later, maybe next time when he's not injured or in a rush to save someone. If they gonna meet again.
"At least can I stay with you for a little, just until you feel better?"
Anna nodded. "You could also use that few minutes, can't climb that fire escape while dizzy." She watched him repositioning himself, noticing some stiffness in his movements. Most likely he's pretty sore in other parts of his body, probably bruised. All those fighting he does... "You never thought about wearing an armor, or something more protective?"
"Oh, I had a special suit, lightweight, but protective, but got destroyed at Midland Circle. The guy who made it is in prison, and it's not like I can just order a new one from Amazon."
She laughed. "True." Wasn't sure what happened at Midland Circle, but must have been something serious if it destroyed a suit like that. Before she could ask, he spoke up.
"So, do you want to tell me what those Russians doing to you?"
She grimaced and looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "My Dad was, is a drug addict. He got mixed up with these guys. A little I knew about it when I moved to New York 3 years ago. I didn't even know he lived here. He worked for the Russian cartel, only for drugs in return, but he abused their deal by stealing from them. He piled up an extreme amount of debt, so he showed up on my doorstep with two guys pointing guns at him. They said if I don't pay his debt they're gonna torture and kill him right there, then kill me afterwards. I didn't have much money, so ended up working off his debt. I know my Dad is a piece of work, but he's my only relative, I can't just let him die. This has been going on for 2 years now."
He watched her in shock, she wasn't sure if he felt disgust toward her, or her dad, or something else. It was hard to read him with that mask covering half of his face.
"Where is he now? Your Dad." He asked after a short silence.
"He got a heart attack shortly after that incident, but survived. Now he's in a caring facility, can't really talk or do much, but alive."
She saw him sadden, and she didn't want him feeling that.
"Hey, but maybe I can help you!" She snapped, breaking the awkward silence. "I know them, most of the big guys, what weapons they have on them, how they fight, where are their preferred hiding spots, and so on. I also can be your eyes and ears there! I can be an asset! You're working on taking them down, right?" Anna got very excited all of a sudden, feeling a light at the end of the tunnel.
"Yes, but it's dangerous. If they find out you're helping me, they can kill you!"
"They won't! They would never suspect me, Boss thinks he has me around his fingers and I'm some scared girl who would never do anything stupid. I'm very good at playing that role. Plus, I'm already in this, and maybe you taking them down would give my freedom back. I need this as much as you do. Please, let me help!"
He thinned his lips again, she saw this before when he's trying to decide on something he doesn't like particularly. "Alright. If you promise you won't do anything stupid and dangerous. "
"I cross my heart."
Anna filled him in very fast what she knows about the warehouse he's about to attack and the possible guards there. Boss always had his favorites to use for important jobs. After a few minutes he was gone.
The next morning while walking to the bakery a newspaper article got her attention at the newspaper stand.
"Kidnapped boy is back home with his parents safely, thanks to Daredevil." Her smile grew big on her face and she started skipping as she continued walking to work. She busted through the door almost dancing, feeling the happiest ever in a very long time.
Lucy hold up her hands in terror. "What happened to you? Are you all right? I've never seen you happy like this!" She was seriously worried.
"I'm feeling great!" Her smile didn't fade a bit.
"Oh! Is it a man? Or wait, it's the lawyers! You finally met them?"
"Who? What? Oh no, no, nothing like that. But I was with someone last night, and..."
Lucy cut her sentence "I knew it! Is he handsome? Please tell me every details!"
"Well..." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "I wasn't with him like that. But, he's gonna help me get out from the Russians."
Lucy's eyes grew huge and she got all excited as well. "That's great! Is he also a lawyer?"
Anna suddenly realized she's not sure if it's a good idea involving her best friend in this. It's plenty dangerous for her knowing about the Russians. Daredevil is a criminal in the eye of the police, and he made a lot of enemies among very bad criminals. So she twisted the truth a little.
"More like a PI, investigating on the Russians, and trying to take them down. "
Lucy went quiet for a while, seems like her excitement disappeared. "Oh. Are you sure he's trustworthy? Don't want you to get into more trouble."
"Yes, he's fine, I trust him." She was actually surprised she didn't lie this time. She really trusted him.
Lucy smiled wickedly. "So, is he hot?"
Anna blushed. "If you really want to know, well, he is very strong built, obviously needed for his job. He also has a very pleasant voice, that deep one, which brings out my goosebumps. So yeah, he's hot." Her face turned into full red now.
Lucy made a very high pitched squeak. "I want to know everything!"
"Later, we have to work now, remember?" Anna silenced her eying the people just entered the store.
After they closed the bakery at 6pm Anna rushed home. She had a couple hours until her night time job, and she wanted to use every minute of it. She sat down at her dining table with a notepad and a pen. She decided to write down everything she knows about the cartel, so she can hand it to Daredevil next time they'll meet. She stopped on her track. They didn't talk about meeting again, and she doesn't know his phone number. Does he even have one? She shook her head and pushed these thoughts away, and started writing.
Three nights passed and no word from Daredevil. Little she knew about the dark figure watching over her from the rooftops.
She was wondering if he got hurt maybe, or just simply changed his mind about helping her. Also possible that her weirdness scared him away. She didn't have much time to think about it as she headed out into the night. It was always better to focus on her surroundings. She made the pickup, then started her distribution route. She was thankful that these junkies only cared about getting their drugs, not to pick fights with her. The only problem was sometimes is they didn't have the money. She was firm and never gave away more than what they were able to pay for.
The last stop was with a new customer. She was always more careful with them, since she could never know if it's a trap set up by cops, or the guy is legit or not. His name was Aldo. She arrived earlier to check out the meeting point, making sure there is nobody hiding in the shadows. So far everything seemed quiet and normal. The meeting point was at a empty road under an overpass, just next to the railroad tracks. Right on time she saw a car approaching, that must be her guy. Just to be safe she stepped closer to the concrete pillar of the overpass. The car stopped maybe 10 feet in front of her, and just idling there. She was just thinking to walk closer when the doors of the car finally opened, revealing 4 men with automatic guns. She recognized the one at the driver's side, Robbie. Shit! she cursed inside, she knew that fight few nights ago will backfire on her eventually. She looked to her left behind the bridge pillar, thinking to jump there to get in cover when Robbie made a clicking noise with his tongue motioning at the men behind her emerging from the darkness with more guns of course. They must have parked their car nearby - she thought. She was too far of a distance from every men to safely attack them, but close enough for firing range. She needs to close the distance somehow, to gain some advantage, since running away seemed more dangerous.
"Did you think you can get away with what you did, little bitch?" Robbie addressed her. "I brought my buddies with me this time! Let's see how tough you are."
"Seriously, Robbie?" Anna rolled her eyes. "Six men with machine guns against one 105 lbs woman?" She started laughing. "You're more pathetic than I first thought!"
She didn't have much experience with men, but one thing she was certain: their minds get clouded when they're pissed and they can't focus as well.
"It's too dark for me to tell, but maybe Mommy also joined to help you out?"
She saw Robbie's head turning red, she hit a nerve.
"Why don't you guys put down those guns and show me you're not pussies and can actually fight, ha?" Anna continued teasing him. "Or maybe you are all afraid of fighting a girl, that's why you brought guns?"
That was enough for Robbie, he growled, motioning the others to drop the guns and started walking toward Anna with quick steps. "Alright little piece shit, you're gonna regret this! You would have died in a second, but now we're gonna beat the crap out of you!"
Anna turned her back to the post, so nobody can sneak up on her from behind, and calculating the distances of each men as they were approaching fast. Tom's words in her head saying when you fight with more than one men, go for the gap, and try to line them up. Avoid letting two attack you at the same time.
She turned to the left first to the first guy, blocking his punch with her left arm while hitting him on the nose with her right knuckles. He stumbled a little backwards, so Anna duck forward to deliver a back kick to the second guy arriving from the opposite direction. He fell backwards on his butt. There was a split second until the third came with swinging both of his arms like a windmill. She stepped in close in front of him, toe to toe, since the guy left an opening there while his hands were around his ears swinging, she reached up high above her head with both hands, palms up, fingers together and flipped her fingers straight into his eyes. He yelped and stopped swinging his arms, instead covering his eyes now. By this time the first guy recovered and grabbed her long hair from behind. She smirked, because they played this situation plenty of times with Tom while training. Weak men liked grabbing girl's hair and dragging them away. So she didn't pull into his grab, instead stepped backwards toward his chest, bent over while turning to her left a little and delivered a hard punch to his groin with her left hand. He cried out and bent forward automatically, releasing her hair, so she clenched on his neck to lower his head more, then lifted her knee into his face. She heard his nose breaking, which filled her with a pleasant feeling, so she brought up her other knee to his face as well. Two more, and he was laying on the ground unconscious. One guy watched her with wide eyes, and turned around to run away. Three more to go, she thought.
She was about to turn around when someone bear hugged her from the back, trying to lift her up and drag her away. The guy smelled like Vodka. But before that happened, she hooked her right ankle behind his, so he wasn't able to lift her up. But unfortunately Robbie stepped in front of her and punched her in the stomach while she was still in the other man's trap. She coughed, but didn't lose all her air. She knew how to take a punch in the stomach. He reached into his pocket for his knife and lifted up to her throat.
Anna stilled. This is not good. Her arms are still trapped, and even she could get out from this hug, the blade from Robbie would cut her while doing it.
"You're feisty, I like it!" He smirked. "Little sad I need to kill you now."
She struggled a little in the other man's brace, just enough to feel the blade cut her throat slightly by her own movements. So she stilled again, then tried kicking Robbie instead. He unfortunately expecting it and stepped to the side, pushing the blade to her throat stronger. She felt the blood started dripping down her neck. I guess that's it, ha? She thought to herself. Couldn't see any way out from this situation, so closed here eyes, waiting for her blood to pour down her chest. But it didn't happen, instead she heard a thud and a yelp left Robbie's mouth and the pressure of the knife disappeared from her throat. She opened her eyes to see Daredevil beating him, then kicking the second guy who was just standing around until now. The Vodka guy who's holding her started panicking behind her, so she figured it's time to teach him how to release a girl. She shifted her hips to the right, grabbed his right wrist hugging her and with one smooth movement she pushed her hip backwards, ducked and twisted her body underneath his armpit, stepping to his right and twisting the wrist she was still holding in a painful bent angle behind him. Vodka guy got surprised by her sudden actions, so she had a second to lift that arm of his straight up behind him. This made him hunch forward to avoid more pain, but also made him lower to her level. While holding his right wrist high in her left hand, securing it under her left armpit in a strong grip, she bought her right elbow as high as she could above his, using her own body weight and pushing it down to break his arm backwards by the elbow joint. It made a loud crack, and Daredevil stopped fighting with the other guy for a second and turned to her direction with surprise, and smirking. She stepped away from the guy to catch her breath. The masked man did a backflip to kick his guy unconscious, then rushed up to the now broken armed one, jumping up to his head level to deliver a roundhouse kick at his temple, knocking him out as well. She watched him amazed how smoothly he's fighting, how effortlessly jumping up high and kicking. She heard rumors of him being a ninja, now she knew why.
He stood there above the guy, chest raising and falling for a second, then turned to Anna.
"You're bleeding." He gently touched her neck where the cut was.
She heat up immediately by his touch, even through the glove.
"It's not too bad, just a small cut. Thank you for saving me."
"Sorry I didn't come sooner, this shouldn't have happened." He had that guilty look on his face again, and she felt bad about it. This wasn't his fault, but seemed like he liked to carry the world every problems on his shoulders.
"I'm fine, really. And alive. Thanks to you." She smiled at him weakly, trying to make him feel better.
"You were really good there. Where did you learn fighting like that?" He asked while they slowly started walking away from the now unconscious people on the ground. They stepped over Robbie's body casually.
"From my old friend." She smiled, genuinely this time. There wasn't a day passed when she wouldn't say thank you to Tom for teaching her.
"I walk you home." He said, while she picked her backpack up from the ground. Meeting boss needs to wait until later, she didn't have the energy to walk there now.
They were walking quietly for a while, just listening to the sound of their footsteps on the empty sidewalk. What would happen if someone sees them now? Like he was reading her mind, he grabbed her arm gently and turned her to the alley way.
"It's a shortcut." He said. It was dark, no street lights there.
Anna knew exactly what could happen in alleyways like this. "Maybe, but I don't think this is the safest way home. If we want to get there in one piece."
He smiled reassuring. "It's empty, nobody's there."
Anna wrinkled her forehead. "How do you know? Do you have laser eyes? Or night vision sorta thing?"
He laughed. "Something like that."
She looked up at his masked face, seeing him smiling slightly. She liked seeing him smiling, and made her calm down a little. What could happen? She's not alone, she's walking with the Devil. Who would pick a fight with him?
He reached his hand out for her to grab, and she placed hers in it. She felt the warmth even through his thick gloves, and blushed slightly. Jeeez, Anna, don't be embarrassing, he's just helping you walk through the dark alley, nothing more. She coughed nervously, and they started walking. Hope he didn't notice me blushing. She thought, but she wasn't that lucky, obviously he heard exactly when her heart rate picked up and felt as her face heat up. He smiled contently to bring these feelings out of her, what she didn't see in the darkness.
They kept their fingers locked in each other's until they reached her apartment building.
"Would you like to come up?" She asked without thinking, then immediately realizing the meaning of it. She blushed again, bright red this time and started babbling in embarrassment. "I mean come up to talk, or have a glass of water before you head home, not like... you know... I didn't mean like that, not that you would want that... or anything like that, but only meant in business like. Like come up and talk about business. I actually have something for you."
He smiled at her, she was cute when babbling. "I would like to." He said, and walked away toward the fire escape to meet her upstairs.
She literally ran upstairs, taking two stair steps at a time. Running released some of her nervousness. How can you be so embarrassing!? Grrrr...
She shot the door behind her and taking a deep breath before walking to her window to let him in.
He climbed through with ease without making any sound. She motioned towards her dining table while she walked to the kitchen for some water. She put down one glass in front of him and sat down as well. They both drank some in quiet, then he tilted his head towards her, like listening to something. He pulled both of his gloves off and placed them on the table and slid his chair closer to hers. Their knees were touching, and Anna's heartbeat sped up again. She felt it hammering in her chest so loud. He slowly reached out with one hand, touching her neck gently. She unconsciously leaned into his touch a little until she realized what he was doing.
"The cut on your neck reopened, you're bleeding again." He said with worry in his voice.
"Oh." She immediately reached up with her hand to feel the blood dripping very slightly. "I'm sorry, I will be back with some bandaid." She jumped up right away and rushed toward the bathroom. While there, stared at herself in the mirror, shaking her head. Why do you need to be this embarrassing all the time? She asked herself. Thinking something more into things? You need to stop, you promised him business, information, so stick to it.
She grabbed the first aid kit and was about to turn around with it when bumped into a wall what pretty sure wasn't there before. She dropped the box when she realized it's him standing in front of her. He caught the falling box with ease before it hit the ground. She eyed him in shock, that was some serious reflex.
"Let me help you, I guess from the first aid kit that you can't heal yourself?"
"No, I can't." She made a step backward to create more space between them in the small bathroom. He was dangerously too close and she was afraid he's gonna hear her loud heartbeat. "But it's not that bad of a cut, I had worse."
"Maybe, but since I'm here and you're not alone this at least I can do after you saved my life twice." He said, and when she didn't move, he motioned towards the dining room to walk there. She did and sat down in her chair.
He took out a piece of disinfecting wipe, and gently cleaned the area around the cut. "It's not too deep, so you don't need stitches." He said, and she nodded slightly. She tried to focus on something else, something neutral, other than his breath on her skin and his hand touching her neck. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
After cleaning it he applied a few pieces of wound closure adhesive on the cut, then covered it with a gauze. His fingers felt calloused, rough, but gentle at the same time, someone's hand who fights a lot. She found it very pleasant against her soft skin.
"Oh, I almost forgot! I made a list for you." Anna said all of a sudden, jumping up from her seat, trying to get away a little from his closeness before she felt overwhelmed. It was too intense, and brought out feelings she never had before and wasn't sure how to process them.
She went to the kitchen to pull out the notepad from her drawer.
Daredevil turned towards her with confused look. He wasn't sure what did he do what made her jump up like that.
"I wrote down everything I know about the cartel! This way I won't leave anything important out, and if something happens to me, you will have my written statement." She said proudly.
Now Daredevil was out of words. First of all, he can't really read her notes, at least not that easily. Secondly it made him feel uneasy the fact that she's thinking of them killing her. He wasn't sure how to react.
"This is very nice of you, but I would rather listen to those facts from you." He said finally. "You will be here to tell me everything important I need to know. I won't let them hurt you, I promise."
She nodded as a thank you. His words really made her feel better.
"Ok, but just in case, take it please. You don't have to read it if you don't want to, and I'm happy to tell you everything in real words." She smiled at him.
"I take your words for it." He said as he started walking toward her window.
"How can I reach you if I have any new information?" She asked, this time not forgetting about it.
"I will stop by tomorrow night if that's ok. And you can tell me everything."
She nodded and with that he jumped out through her window, disappearing into the night.