Log: Matt & Laurie (backdated)

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Backdated to June 12, 2012

After Matt's escapades to the city and snarking at each other on the journals, Matt and Laurie finally talk and realize the other is not a terrible person from the planet suck. Plans are made to listen to New York City.



Laurie entered the mansion from the front door, a bow over one shoulder and a quiver full of arrows against her back. Since Eamon had arrived, and all her people were back where they belonged, where she could keep an eye on them she felt a lot better. She'd even been able to go practice her archery without having a panic attack about being alone, the feel of the bow in her hands and the sound of arrows hitting target had calmed her in a way she couldn't really explain. She noticed Matt heading away from her almost immediately.

"Matt! Wait up," she called out, hurrying after him.

Matt had heard Laurie enter the foyer, but had decided to avoid her. The girl was cray-cray and he didn't want it to somehow be contagious. He paused though when she called him specifically, adjusting the hold he had on his school books. He was headed to put them away so he could go do the chores he was assigned for his punishment.

"Thank you for not running away," Laurie said, catching up with him. "I was a little hard on you on the journals, I wanted to apologize."

He stood there, expressionless for a moment, "Alright," he finally said with a slight nod. She was still crazy. Absolutely batshit.

"I'm not exactly dealing well with being back," Laurie admitted with a wry smile. She pushed her bow higher on her shoulder so it was resting more comfortably. "Your journal post kinda made me see red, and I took it out on you. That wasn't very fair of me, so I'm sorry. What are you studying?"

She gestured to the books he was carrying, trying to find a piece of common ground so they wouldn't be left standing uncomfortably in silence. She never had been all that good at small talk, or knowing what it was that normal people talked about to each other. "Algebra II," he was not interested in the class, but he had to take it to graduate. He was supposedly graduating in a year, he had to take it now. "Anyways, you're not the only one having trouble. It shows up in different ways, you know? The thing is, with New Yorkers, you knock us down, we get back up swinging. 'Specially me. Murdock's are fighters."

"Algebra is fun, they give you all the answers and all you have to do is figure out where to slot them in," Laurie replied, smile a little easier now. She liked maths, it was a topic she could talk about quite easily. "I can get that. You're saying you're having trouble too?"

"Algebra sucks because it's all in your head and I can't see it," Matt was a very tactile person. Mathematical concepts that he couldn't see made little sense to him. He liked geometry. He shrugged, noncommittal, "I think everyone is," he finally replied. "Stuff that happened...hurt everyone."

"Did you know it was created by the Greeks?" Laurie asked, holding the door open for them as they moved from the main hall into the residential parts of the mansion. "Sometimes I think it's hard to see past your own damage to other peoples."

"Then the Greeks suck," Matt stated. Being Irish, he felt completely okay saying that, "That's always hard," he agreed. "The thing is, everyone's got their damage. That's the problem with life, you know? No one gets out alive."

"I'm sure the Trojans would agree with you," Laurie replied, the tips of her mouth sliding upwards into a smile. They were becoming easier, now that she didn't feel so much like she had to keep everything moving forward all by herself. "So why did you and Molly head off to New York? Were you trying to cheer her up?"

"Me," he finally admitted softly. Matt wasn't about to tell Laurie that he had found Molly sleeping under her bed instead of in it though, "I wanted to go home, but don't got a home. So I wanted to go to the city and Molly's good company, you know? Pretty much always cheerful. So we went to FAO Schwartz to hang out. I really didn't mean to worry anyone. We had our phones and I knew the train schedule to get us back by dinner." Except that hadn't worked. In the extreme. He also didn't mention what else he had done while in the city. "I understand," Laurie said softly, resisting the urge to touch his shoulder, knowing it would probably be more comforting to herself then to him. "But you know, you do have a home. I know that you came here because you didn't have a choice, but people is really what make a home, and I figure you have people you care about here? People like Molly?"

This was the closest to home he had found since his dad had died, but....it didn't quite feel like it yet. Maybe it just took time? "This place isn't so bad," he agreed, "I don't wanna leave it, but...it still ain't New York City." He paused outside his suite door, then opened it and went to his room to put his books away. There was a light switch to his room and a light, but he didn't flip it on.

"My Dad lives in New York, I usually drive in at least once a week to go see him," Laurie noted, peering around, as she hadn't been in Matt's room before. It was different from her own, but then she supposed everyone's was different. "Once you're done with your grounding, you could always come in with me and bring whoever you wanted to. It'll be a lot safer then having to catch a bus in, and it won't get you grounded."

She knew what it was like to want to just be in a place you knew, she'd headed for her mother's house often enough when she was a teenager when things got too intense at the school. If she could help Matt out without him doing something dangerous, like going off with only another kid for protection, even if that kid was Molly and super strong, well, she'd help.

"You ever just walk the streets?" he asked her, curious. He set his book on his desk, fingertips trailing along the other book spines until he found the algebra book's proper place. Matt wasn't much for decorating, but he kept things neat out of necessity. "Listen to the beat of the city around you?"

"Not so much," Laurie admitted, leaning against the door-jam, unwilling to enter any further without an invitation. "I'm not the personality type for it, really. You do that a lot?"

Matt didn't think to invite her in or not. They were talking, they were in his room, whatever she wanted to do was fine. "Not here," he replied. "Kinda not in the city. Should try it sometime though. Not in Salem. In New York."

"Maybe you can show me one day, when you're not grounded," Laurie suggested with a smile. "I'm not sure I'll have the patience, but we can give it a shot."

"How long do you think it'll take?" Matt asked, amused. "I'm not talking walking all night or anything. I guess you could, but...not quite the point," Matt knew plenty of people who had done stuff like that or different reasons, but it wasn't to listen to the city.

"It's mostly just that I don't spend a lot of time 'communing with the universe'," Laurie noted, smiling wryly when she remembered how many of her friends and teachers had demanded that she do just that. "With school, and training and everything else I do in my spare time, I don't have a lot of time left over for doing things like that."

"Then we do it asap," Matt agreed. This was important. "I'll let you know when I'm free?" That is, when his grounding was over.

"Done, and done," Laurie agree, an alarm from her phone alerting her to the fact that she had maybe an hour before she had to be down in Medlab for her shift. "And no rest for the wicked, I've got to go. We'll talk later, yeah?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Matt agreed. "Just shut the door on your way out?"