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[waywardxrhea]

Chapter 8 - Strawberry Mentos

What happens when you lie to the Devil? How long can one woman keep a lifetime of secrets from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen? The answer may surprise you...

installment list

pairing: Matt Murdock x enhanced!fem!OC

series content: coffee shop AU, fluff, humor, friends to lovers, pining, language, canon typical violence, angst, drinking, implied smut, medical emergencies, mental health disorders (PTSD, panic disorder).

"you started eating my favorite candy, you buy a pack in every store you're in, stocking up on strawberry mentos so when you kiss me it'll taste like them" / "i've been searching for someone like you my whole life, so i pick up black licorice in every candy isle, and even though i hate the taste of it, i know that when i kiss you it'll make you smile" - strawberry mentos, leanna firestone

word count: 2k

A taste of domestic life with Matt: implied smut, Josie's, fluff, a little bit of angst.

One night a few weeks later Crystal headed over to Matt’s place to meet him before going to Josie’s with Marci, Foggy, and Karen. After knocking on the door, she was greeted by one of Matt’s usual charming smiles as he opened the door. “Well don’t you look dashing?” Crystal asked as she took in Matt’s look of a dark red tie, grey slacks, and white button-up. 

“Oh it’s nothing special, we just got out of court,” he told her.

“Well I think you look fantastic,” she replied, her arms settling on his shoulders as she leaned up to kiss him. 

After a few moments, Matt pulled away from the kiss, his head tilting to the side a bit as he ran his tongue over his lips, asking, “Dark chocolate? I thought you hated dark chocolate.”

Crystal felt her heart flutter at the statement and heat rising to her cheeks as she replied bashfully, “Well I know that you like it a lot, so I went out and bought a bag of that organic dark chocolate you like so that…” She paused for a moment before shaking her head as she said, “Well now it sounds daft saying it out loud…”

Matt ran two of his knuckles gently across Crystal’s jaw, his gaze nearly landing on hers before he said, “Go on, you don’t have to be embarrassed around me, sweetheart.”

She took a quick breath and ensured that no one else was in the hallway before telling him, “Well I just thought that…with your senses and all that you would like the taste of it when you kiss me… It’s silly, I know, but-”

She was cut off abruptly though as Matt leaned in for another kiss, pulling her into the darkened entryway and shutting the door behind her. After a few more heated moments of kissing, Matt pulled away, resting his forehead on Crystal’s before mumbling, “That is the most thoughtful thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

As Matt leaned back in for another far more heated kiss, he began running his hands over her body, pulling her hips into him as she wrapped one leg around his, trying to get their bodies as close as possible to ease the building tension between her thighs. Between kisses, Matt managed to get out, “Berry lip gloss? And a silk blouse? You’re practically begging me to fuck you against this door right now sweetheart…”

“Maybe that was the plan for later,” she whispered before running her hands over his muscular chest and shoulders. 

“Well I think later’s going to have to come right now,” he told her, his hands already fidgeting with the waistband of her pants. 

“What about Josie’s?” Crystal whispered as his hands began skillfully undoing the button and zipper of her jeans. 

“It can wait,” he told her as he started peppering kisses down her jaw and neck. 

A little over an hour later, Matt and Crystal finally showed up at Josie’s, Matt’s hand around Crystal’s arm to feign her guiding him without his cane. “It’s about time you two finally showed up, what took so long?” Foggy shouted from across the bar as he saluted them with a beer. “Actually, I probably don’t wanna know.”

“Don’t ask and we won’t tell,” Matt said with a wide smile gracing his lips, a look of mischief behind his dark red lenses. 

“Well I for one am asking,” Marci said, a smirk making its way onto her lips. “So I’ll ask you again, Miss London girl, what’s the difference between the British and New York men?”

“Let’s just say there’s less left to the imagination here…” Crystal replied with a laugh before she took off to order herself and Matt a drink. 

When she returned and gave Matt his drink, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders after opening his beer. Across the table, Foggy smiled at them before saying, “You know, I’m glad you two finally sucked it up and got together.”

“It was only a matter of time,” Matt told him with a quiet laugh, then took a sip from his beer.

“Oh no it wasn’t, you had a crush on her for months before you made a move, Murdock!” Karen countered, disbelief in her voice at his statement. 

“What finally happened that made you ask, Matt?” Marci asked curiously before taking a sip of her drink. 

Crystal’s heart stuttered in her chest at the question, knowing that Marci didn’t know about his late night persona, much less hers, unlike Foggy and Karen. She threw a quick glance in Matt’s direction and saw him loosen his tie with one hand before replying, “It was after we went to karaoke at Stardust.”

“But didn’t she go home with Raeyes that night?” Marci asked, one eyebrow raising into her forehead.

“Matt walked with them home, remember Marc?” Foggy asked.

“Probably not, we all had a lot of wine that night,” Karen said with a laugh. 

Crystal leaned into Matt’s embrace a little more as she smiled and asked, “Didn’t you think there was a reason I chose the song I did?”

A look of skepticism crossed Marci’s face for a moment before she finally said gleefully, “I knew it! I knew that’s why you chose that song!”

“Guilty,” Crystal replied with a quiet laugh. “I just didn’t know how to approach the situation so…”

“Well I say it was perfect,” Matt said, kissing the top of her head before the six of them began engaging in conversation for the evening. 

After a few drinks and good conversation, Crystal and Matt began to make their way back to his place when all of a sudden a storm rolled in with loud thunder echoing off the tall buildings and rain pouring down hard. Crystal saw the way Matt cringed at the volume of the thunder, so she grabbed his hand and said, “Come on, let’s get you back to your flat, it’s no good for you out here right now.” Matt nodded in response and the two took off at a faster speed down the sidewalk until they finally emerged into the dry sanctuary of Matt’s building. 

As the two of them got into the flat, Matt offered Crystal some of his clothes to change into since hers got thoroughly soaked on the walk back. When she got changed and re-emerged into the sitting area, she saw Matt standing by the window, the bright light from the sign outside illuminating his face as he said, “Well if there was any chance of going out on patrol tonight that’s out the window now…”

“Too loud?” Crystal asked softly as she gently ran her hands over Matt’s arms to try and soothe the tension in his now exposed muscles. 

Matt nodded. “Usually if it’s just raining I’m fine to go out, but with this downpour and the thunder, it’s just…a lot. Too hard to tune out what’s not important.”

“I get that,” she said while wrapping her arms around him and hugging him from behind. “It’s hard for me out in this weather too. Everything gets super unpredictable and hard to control so I usually don’t bother on nights like tonight.”

“So then it sounds like we’re staying in,” Matt said as Crystal released him from her embrace. 

“I can make those brownies you like,” she offered. 

“That would be nice. It’ll give me something more soothing to concentrate on until this storm passes,” Matt said, a quick smile ghosting across his lips as he placed his glasses on the kitchen counter. 

While Crystal baked and sang softly to music playing from her phone Matt came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms, lazily kissing her neck which brought a smile to her lips as she sighed contentedly and relaxed into his embrace for a few moments. “You know, I’ve always meant to ask where you learned to bake,” Matt mumbled into her skin between kisses. 

“Oh, cooking and baking were always how Mum and I spent quality time together. My father and brother avoided the kitchen like the plague, so it was like our special place,” she told him, her eyes closing momentarily as she tried to stop the tears from falling. “Now it’s how I honour her memory.”

“That’s beautiful,” Matt told her. “I think Foggy and I will forever be indebted to her for making you such an amazing cook,” he added with a chuckle.

“You flatter me, Matty,” Crystal told him with a bashful laugh before finally putting the brownies into the oven to bake. 

Hours later, after both Matt and Crystal had finally managed to fall asleep as the storm raged on, Crystal felt Matt’s strong arms tighten their hold around her waist as he slept. The firm hold made her slowly open her eyes and once she was beginning to become more awake, she heard Matt quietly mumbling what sounded like, “Please don’t leave.” 

Crinkling her eyebrows in confusion and concern, Crystal managed to wiggle around to face Matt and saw a tear escape his eye. Her heart broke for him as she gently wiped away the tears and whispered, “Matty, wake up, love. You’re having a nightmare…”

Slowly, Matt began to stir awake. When he finally woke, he mumbled, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you…”

“Hey, don’t apologize, I was just worried,” she whispered, gently running a hand through his messy hair. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Matt was quiet for a moment before finally nodding. “Remember how I told you about the whole situation with Stick and Elektra? How they were part of a secret organization made to take down the Hand?” Crystal nodded, so Matt continued, “Well what I haven’t told you is that when we were fighting the Hand originally she uh…she got killed. Died in my arms.”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Matt…” Crystal whispered, her heart aching for him. She wanted to say more and tell him that she knows exactly what he went through and tell him that she still has nightmares about the same situation too. She held her tongue instead though, because he still didn’t know how Kit died and she didn’t intend on letting any one of her friends here know that nasty truth…

“It’s okay, they brought her back. She definitely wasn’t the same after, but…” He sighed and shook his head. “Point is, in the nightmare, at first it was Elektra in my arms dying but then as she took her last breath I heard your voice. It ended up being you who died in my arms instead of her and…” Matt’s eyebrows creased in the middle before he shook his head and added, “But then you got up and left. Said you never wanted to see me again and that you were better off without me.”

“Oh Matt…” Crystal whispered before taking his hand in hers and kissing his scarred knuckles gently. “Matt, you’re the best thing about my life and I don’t intend on leaving any time soon as long as you’ll have me. Just know that no matter what has happened in the past or what you may do in the future, I’m here for you and it’s going to take a hell of a lot to get rid of me. Got it?”

Matt’s unseeing eyes concentrated on the left side of her chest for a few moments, a habit she started to pick up on that meant he was listening to her heart to know if she was being sincere or not. After a few seconds of silence, a smile ghosted its way onto Matt’s lips as he said, “Thank you, Crys. I guess some days I just need the reassurance…”

“And I’ll be happy to provide whenever you need it, because I have no intention of leaving any time soon, Murdock,” she told him before gently placing a kiss on his lips. While getting to know Matt more as they grew closer as a couple, Crystal figured out that the man has severe abandonment issues because of his past, and ever since figuring that out, she’s made sure to put a conscious effort into assuring him he knows how much she cares for him and that he knows she isn’t going anywhere. 

“I’m glad to hear that,” he replied before pulling her close as they both attempted to drift off into slumber once more.

[waywardxrhea]

[waywardxrhea]

fran down the hall! that’s her name!! (i wrote it down for my fic i knew that would come in handy one day😂)

I picked up some of that Marvel Coke from the store earlier today solely because of the Daredevil artwork on the packaging (because we don't often drink soda). Then this afternoon we let my 3 year old son try soda for the first time ever and he's now taken to calling it Daredevil water and honestly I couldn't be prouder.

[waywardxrhea]

Chapter 7 - Walls

What happens when you lie to the Devil? How long can one woman keep a lifetime of secrets from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen? The answer may surprise you...

installment list

pairing: Matt Murdock x enhanced!fem!OC

series content: coffee shop AU, fluff, humor, friends to lovers, pining, language, canon typical violence, angst, drinking, implied smut, medical emergencies, mental health disorders (PTSD, panic disorder), implied smut.

"i'm gonna break down these walls i built around myself. i wanna fall so in love with you and no one else could ever mean half as much to me as you do now. together we'll move on, just don't turn around. let the walls break down." - walls, all time low

word count: 4.7k

Some walls between Crystal and Matt come crashing down.

The next night couldn’t have been more different from karaoke at Stardust. That’s because that evening, Crystal found herself with Daredevil crouched in what remained of the same tunnel system that collapsed weeks before. “So you think that he’s actually here? The man in charge?” she whispered as Daredevil listened into what was happening up above them in the building that seemed to be where all of the tunnels originated from. 

“Yes, I know it,” he told her. “I’ve heard three men address him by name. So unless my intel is wrong about who he is, then I’m sure.”

“So then what’s the plan? Surely they’re armed to the teeth in there, you can’t just go in and get their boss without taking some fire, and no offense, but that shirt isn’t exactly bulletproof…” Crystal told him.

Daredevil scoffed humorously before saying, “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were concerned about me.”

“And if I am?” she asked. “I will admit that I’ve…enjoyed these last few weeks working together.” 

“Surprisingly I have too,” he admitted. His tone turned serious again as he said, “The plan is to have you put up stone walls between Ranklin and his men. Then you’ll open up a spot where I can get in to take him out. From there we’ll use the tunnels to get him out of here and to the precinct. Detective Mahoney knows the plan and will be waiting for me.”

“He knows-?” Crystal started to ask, her heart rate and fear spiking at the words. 

“Not about you, about me bringing him in,” Daredevil clarified quickly. 

His ear turned upward toward the building and he whispered, “It’s time. He’s in the hall directly above us.” He listened for a few more seconds before telling her, “He’s got men on either side of him. Put up a wall here and…here, that should separate them.”

“Got it,” she told him, creating steps on the stone so she could reach her arms to either place at the same time. 

“Now!” 

On queue, Crystal slammed her fists up into the stone causing walls to build up into the hallway above and chaos to ensue as the man in charge was boxed in. Working quickly, she also created a hole in the space that Daredevil pulled Ranklin down through before dealing a blow to his temple. The man crumbled to the ground and Crystal resealed the hole above them. 

“I’m impressed,” she told him with a brief slow clap at how efficiently he got the job done. “You should get moving though before his men figure out what’s going on. I’ll meet you after you take him in.”

“You sure you still don’t want to be involved in this? It may be better to get ahead of the press before they run a story you don’t want them telling,” Daredevil told her as he hiked the man onto his shoulders. 

“I’m sure,” she told him before creating an opening for him down the way and going in the opposite direction to throw off any reporters that may have been lurking in the area.

Crystal waited for a few minutes after Daredevil turned over custody of the man to Mahoney before using her powers to scale up to the top of the building she saw him on top of. As she landed a little roughly on her feet, she staggered when her heart gave an irregular stutter before going into overdrive once again. 

She tried to get to her feet, but when she did, she got light-headed and began falling backwards toward the edge of the building. Before she could tumble off though, Daredevil was quickly by her side, pulling her into his strong arms before helping her to a nearby AC unit to lean against.

“Your heart…” he mumbled, placing his fingers on her carotid to assess her pulse. Crystal tried to control her breathing in order to slow down her heart, but was unsuccessful and she began to lose focus of her surroundings. “I need to get you to a hospital…” he mumbled, lifting her into his arms carefully. 

With black threatening to engulf her vision any second and panic beginning to set in at the severity of the episode, Crystal dropped her American accent without thinking and told him in her usual one, “No, no hospital, please…” After she said this, Crystal could have sworn she saw Daredevil’s lips part open in shock and heard him whisper her name under his breath, but wasn’t sure as black engulfed her vision and she lost consciousness. 

For what felt like mere moments, Crystal blacked out, only to come to in a living space she had never seen before. As her eyes fluttered open she was met with the bright light of a billboard shining through the large windows of the living space. “Where the-?” she whispered to herself, her heart kicking up in anxiety once more. As she whispered that she also realized that she was no longer wearing her balaclava or hat and began frantically reaching around the couch she found herself on to find them. 

“You’re safe,” came the voice of Daredevil from behind her, interrupting her search for the two pieces of clothing that hid her identity. What gave her a bigger shock than waking up in a stranger’s flat though was when she turned to look at Daredevil and saw him pull off his mask before saying again, “You’re safe Crystal.” It was Matt. 

“You, you’re, I-” Crystal stuttered out as shock continued to fill her body at the revelation. Matt Murdock was Daredevil? 

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay, breathe,” he whispered as he skillfully navigated his way to sit beside her on the leather couch, running a hand up and down her back to try and calm her down. Once her breathing and heart rate were back to normal, Matt asked, “Are you okay?”

Crystal scoffed before saying, “I mean okay is a relative term… I’d say shock is the best way to describe what I’m feeling right now.”

“And that’s completely understandable,” he told her. “Can I grab you some water? Let you think for a minute before we…address everything?”

“Oh, sure…” she whispered, feeling like she was having an out of body experience. After he returned and she drank nearly half the cup of water, she finally found her words, asking, “Okay, I mean absolutely no offense by this, but how…?” She trailed off at the end, unsure of how to finish her thought.

“How can I do what I do as Daredevil if I’m blind?” Matt asked with a quiet laugh. 

“Yeah, that…” Crystal mumbled. She hesitated for a moment before asking quietly, “Are…are you actually…?”

“Blind? Yeah,” Matt replied, a huff of air leaving his nose. He leaned back onto the couch as he told her, “When I was nine I was involved in an accident that resulted in losing my sight. From that moment on though, all my other senses were heightened. I was trained how to use them to my advantage and now…”

“Now you’re essentially a crime fighting ninja…” Crystal said with a quiet laugh. 

“If that’s how you see what I do, then yes,” Matt replied, a smile tugging on his lips at the joke. “When it first happened I was like you in thinking that because I was given such a gift, God chose to punish me by taking away my sense of sight.”

Crystal nodded and was quiet for a moment before saying, “Right before I…I passed out, I heard you say my name. How did you know it was me?”

“I suspected for a while, but when your heart started acting up that’s when I knew,” he admitted. “The accent always threw me off when I started thinking about it too much though,” he added with a shrug. 

She laughed before admitting, “The accent was something I did in an absolute panic when you cornered me for the first time.” 

Matt laughed and told her, “See, I thought I could tell that when you spoke it wasn’t your normal, but I just thought maybe you were pitching up or down, not using a whole different accent…”

Crystal shrugged a bit before asking, “So when we first worked together, you said you could hear the police officers’ hearts and that’s how you knew they were there. So when I have an episode…?”

“I can hear it, yeah. And it’s terrifying to me. I can't imagine how it is for you…” he said. “When it happened at Stardust I had to pretend that I couldn’t hear the decreasing amount of blood getting to your brain and the rest of your heart and I… I just froze because I was terrified of what could have happened if it didn’t get under control.”

“I’m sorry for putting you through that, I-” she tried to say but was stopped by Matt putting his hand up to stop her. 

“Don’t apologize for something that’s completely out of your control,” he told her, taking her hand in his and rubbing circles over the back of it. “Why don’t you get it fixed? Once you told me what it was I… I kinda looked into it and it’s treatable, so why don’t you?”

“Oh, uh… I mean health insurance at Stardust isn’t the best and all…” she mumbled quietly. 

Matt’s gaze landed on her heart for a few moments before saying, “That isn’t the whole truth.”

“H-how…?” 

“I’m a really good lawyer,” Matt said, a wide smile making its way onto his face at his own joke. “But really, I can tell when people lie by listening to their heart. Well…most of the time. You seem to be the one person I have a hard time reading sometimes.”

“Because of the stutters in my heart,” Crystal said, nodding her head in realization. 

“Exactly. It’s like a puzzle trying to solve you some days and I have to admit it’s my favorite pastime,” Matt said, subtly moving closer to her on the leather couch. 

Crystal’s heart began to pound inside her chest as Matt’s fingers ghosted their way from her jaw to right above her heart. She finally dared to glance up at Matt's face, framed by his tousled hair and then at his hazel eyes that she had never seen without his red lenses. He was a sight to be seen, that's for sure... She glanced down to where Matt’s hand rested then looked up to admire his handsome face again, before whispering, “Is it now?” breathlessly, the words barely audible to her own ears as she said them. She felt as though her breath was coming in even shallower now the closer he got to her. 

Matt nodded and told her, “The sounds your body makes are…unique. Your heartbeat is one of the most distinct ones I’ve ever heard. And your accent, God your accent is so beautiful.” His fingers began making their way back up to her jaw, then stopped right beside her lips and he added, “And that damn lip gloss you wear. You always match it to your perfume and some days it’s so intoxicating that I just want to…” His words trailed off as he moved to rest his forehead on hers, asking, “Can I kiss you?”

“Please,” she whispered, the word almost sounding desperate as she said it. 

And just like that, Matt gently pressed his lips to Crystal's, his hand drifting to the back of her neck to hold her in place, seemingly not wanting the kiss to end. After only a few moments though Crystal pulled away gently yet abruptly. This swift motion seemed to shock Matt, the emotion audible in his voice as he said, “I-I’m sorry, did I do something wrong?” 

Crystal sighed quietly, digging her nails into her thighs as she whispered, "No, I just...” She let out a rough breath before finishing, “Bad things tend to happen to people I care about. I… I don't want something to happen to you."

In response, Matt coaxed her hand into his and squeezed gently before telling her, "I've had the same outlook for years, but... You can't give into the fear. If you do then you'll always regret what could have been."

After thinking over his words for a few moments, Crystal nodded and said, “I’m tired of being afraid…” before leaning back in for a proper kiss. 

With her panicked thoughts pushed aside now, Crystal sank into the kiss, a feeling of complete bliss filling her body as her lips danced with his, never wanting the moment to end. The kiss ended all too quickly though as Matt pulled away a few moments later, resting his forehead against hers once again as he let out a satisfied sigh, whispering, “I’ve wanted to do that for so long…”

“Me too…” she said with a quiet laugh, leaning in once more for a quick kiss. “God, I could kiss you all night…”

“How about Friday night after I take you on a date?” Matt asked, placing a kiss to her cheek this time. 

“That was smooth, Murdock,” Crystal told him with a laugh. “But yes, I think I would quite enjoy that.”

“Then a date it is. Friday evening at the Thai place down the road from Stardust?” Matt asked. 

An excited gasp left Crystal’s lips as she gushed, “That’s my favorite restaurant! How did you-?” She stopped in the middle of her sentence, a realization dawning on her as she asked, “Wait you knew didn’t you? You’ve heard me talk about it before haven’t you?”

“Guilty as charged,” he confessed, scratching the back of his neck. 

“Wait…so if you’ve heard me talking about that with Raeyes then…” She groaned as she put her face in her hands, heat rising into her cheeks at the many thoughts racing around her head. 

“You’re blushing,” Matt said, the smirk evident in his voice. 

“And you know that too… God how many embarrassing things have you heard me say or do?” She gasped as she said, “You totally knew when I was blushing when you flirted with me!”

“Yes, and I think it’s adorable,” he told her, that charming smile once again gracing his lips. 

“Embarrassing more like…” she mumbled into her hands as she shook her head. 

“I think the way your body reacts to me is very attractive. Don’t let that mind of yours think otherwise,” he told her.

Crystal laughed before saying, “This is going to take some getting used to…”

Friday night rolled around and Crystal was just finishing up getting ready for her date with Matt with Raeyes’s help. As Raeyes curled Crystal’s hair, she said excitedly, “I can’t believe you’re finally going on this date! How excited are you? Because I know that I’m excited for you!”

Crystal laughed nervously before replying, “I’m actually quite nervous…”

“No, no, no, no nerves, turn that energy into excitement! It’s your first first date in like…four years! These are exciting times!” Raeyes told her as she fluffed out the curls in Crystal’s hair. Raeyes rested her hands on Crystal’s shoulders and said with a devious smile, “Et voila! Your hair is perfect, but by the end of the night I expect it to be absolutely ruined!”

“Rae!” Crystal gasped in shock at the lewd comment. 

“I’m just saying! A man that fine has got to be great in bed and I expect that my work of art is going to be destroyed!” Raeyes teased once again as Crystal stood up from the dining chair to lightly punch her roommate in the shoulder. 

Heat instantly flooded Crystal’s face as she heard a knock at the door to their flat indicating that Matt was in the hall, presumably listening to the entire exchange. Raeyes let out a squeal of excitement and shoved Crystal’s purse into her hands before hugging her and saying, “Have a good night, make good choices, I don’t want to see you again ‘til tomorrow!”

Crystal couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her lips at the words before she took a deep breath and headed toward the door to greet Matt. When she opened it, Crystal was immediately met with Matt’s charming smile as he greeted her, taking her hand and placing a kiss atop it. 

“So she doesn’t want to see you til tomorrow huh?” Matt asked in a sly tone as they walked together toward the lift, his hand wrapped around her bicep rather than using his cane, even though at this point Crystal now guessed that it was just for show anyway.

“How much of that did you hear?” Crystal asked, her eyes scrunching closed in embarrassment at the question. 

“For transparency’s sake, the whole thing,” he replied with a laugh as they stepped into the lift. 

“I am so sorry about her, she’s just…excited for me,” Crystal said with a playful roll of her eyes.

“And what about you? I can’t help but pick up on some nerves and making you uncomfortable is the last thing I want to do right now.” He ran his hand over the soft fabric of her dress as it made its way to her hip before telling her, “I may have bought some of that rosé you like so much with the intent of bringing you back to my place tonight so…”

“It shouldn’t be legal to be this suave…” Crystal told him, a smile breaking out onto her face at the prospect. 

“There is in fact no law against it,” Matt said as the lift door opened and they exited. 

“Oh right, Mr. Top Honors in law school,” Crystal joked. 

Her tone turned serious though as she took a deep breath and said, “Well if we’re being transparent here, then we might as well get the awkward part out of the way yeah?”

“If you’re okay with sharing,” Matt told her. 

“Well, better to say it now while we’re still in the building in case you…change your mind about this date…” Crystal said, slowing down their pace as they approached the doors. Deciding it would be best to just rip the band-aid off, she found herself rambling, telling Matt, “Well considering that you said you heard everything Raeyes said in the flat, you heard that it’s been a long time since I’ve been on a first date and I certainly haven’t even thought about it since I moved here. That’s because my…my last partner passed away and until now I haven’t been able to convince myself that I’m ready to date again… I mean don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely enamored with you and I want to be here, I just wanted you to know in case that’s kinda, I dunno… a-”

“Crystal, Crystal,” Matt said, running his hand down her arm and grabbing her hand, signalling her to stop. 

“Sorry, I, uh… God I keep mucking this up, don’t I?” she asked, pinching the bridge of her nose as she sighed in defeat. When she opened her eyes she saw a broad smile on Matt’s face, something he tended to do when she used a particularly British term around him. She laughed incredulously before asking, “This isn’t completely awkward and a turn off for you?”

“No, it’s not. Your rambling is actually endearing and you’re sharing things that need to be known going forward. I appreciate that,” he told her, taking her hands in his. “Now, I would still love for this date to happen, but if you’re not ready we don’t have to. Having someone you love die is one of the worst feelings and I understand if you aren’t ready.”

“How do you always know the bloody right thing to say Murdock?” Crystal asked, her gaze finally returning to his face which was filled with sincerity. 

“I do persuade people to do the right thing for a living,” Matt said with a shrug. “So, would you like to try again another time or would you like to continue?”

“I would love to see where this goes…” she told him, feeling a light blush on her cheeks as she smiled at him.

“Me too,” he said as they turned and continued making their way to the Thai restaurant. 

Once they made it to the restaurant and began chatting, Crystal began to feel her nerves drifting away the more Matt made her laugh and the more he continued to flirt with her. 

When they got their food, Crystal asked, “So do you have any family here in Hell’s Kitchen?”

Matt briefly raised his eyebrows and let out a quiet laugh before saying, “Believe it or not, I just found out who my mother is last year.”

“Oh?” Crystal asked curiously.

“Yeah. My dad was a boxer and he raised me by himself until he got killed because he won a match he wasn’t supposed to. After that I went to St. Agnes, the orphanage run by Clinton Church, and was raised by the nuns there. Turns out one of those nuns is my mother. Found that out rather unceremoniously, but…we’ve been working on our relationship.”

“Oh wow, that’s… I’m sorry about your dad, Matt…” Crystal whispered, a hand covering her mouth in slight shock. 

“Thank you. It’s been a lifetime of trying, but I’m trying to accept that maybe everything does happen for a reason,” he told her with a small smile on his lips. After a bite of food, he asked, “What about you? Any family back in London?”

“Blood relatives, yes. Would I consider us family, no,” she told him with a shrug. “Mum died just a couple months before I left and I’m dead to my father and brother.”

“I’m so sorry to hear about your mom,” he said with a nod, taking her hand across the table and squeezing it comfortingly. Using a brighter tone, he asked, “You have a brother? I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned him.”

“Twin brother actually, he uh…he sorta hates me. I mean, I get it, when you have a twin sister who can do what I do and you can’t you tend to get jealous.” She scoffed and added, “Mum was really the only person who kept us from killing each other, and once she was gone he and father turned hateful. That’s one of the reasons I’m here.”

“Well whatever the circumstances, I’m glad you’re here,” Matt told her. “For me, Foggy’s the closest thing I have to a brother. Since we met at Columbia his family’s treated me like their own. We only tend to nearly kill each other occasionally.”

“With you, I have no doubt you mean that literally,” Crystal said with a laugh. 

“Guilty as charged,” he said. 

When there was a lull in the conversation a few minutes later, Crystal asked, “What’s your favorite candy?”

After a few moments of silence, Matt finally replied, “Well, because of…certain aspects of my senses, I tend to like organic dark chocolates. The less processing something has the better. What about you?”

“Well this is something that has changed since I came here, but… I’ve got the biggest sweet tooth for strawberry mentos. Raeyes says I have an obsession, which I think is an overstatement, but…”

“But you also had several when you were getting ready for tonight,” Matt said, a playful smirk on his lips. 

“How did you-” she started to say but then laughed, saying, “Right. Nevermind. Still gotta get used to that.”

“It took Foggy and Karen a while to get used to it as well.”

Crystal raised an eyebrow before asking, “Oh so Foggy and Karen know about…?”

He nodded, saying, “Foggy found out himself and I ended up telling Karen.” 

“Does Marci?” 

“No. And we intend on keeping it that way. The more people who know, the harder it is to keep them and myself safe,” he said. He took a sip from his drink before asking, “Does Raeyes know about you?”

Crystal nodded, telling him, “I told her that first night we worked together.” She laughed before admitting, “At first she thought I was going out to hook up with you actually. I thought about telling her I was but then I felt like she would start prying when you visited the shop. Turns out I was with you just…not in that way.”

“So you have thought about shagging me?” he asked, a shit-eating grin on his face as a furious blush made its way onto Crystal’s cheeks. 

Crystal fumbled over her words for a few seconds before finally settling on, “I plead the fifth."

“Fair enough,” Matt said, seemingly unable to stop grinning at her reaction to his comment. 

Before he could offer anything more up in the conversation, the server came over to their table and asked, “Anything else I can get for you two tonight? Dessert maybe?”

“Just the check, thank you,” Matt told her with a warm smile. As she walked away, he told Crystal, “I forgot to mention I bought ingredients to make brownies to go with the wine when we get back to my place.”

“You really know the way to a girl’s heart, don’t you?” Crystal asked, feeling a warmth rise in her chest at all of the gestures Matt had made throughout the night already. 

“I’m honestly grasping for straws here,” he told her with a laugh. 

“Well you’re doing a bang up job,” she replied. 

“And I intend on continuing that back at my place,” he said, sending her a wink behind his red lenses. 

The next morning, Crystal’s eyes fluttered open as light began filtering through the curtains in Matt’s bedroom. “Good morning, beautiful,” Matt’s groggy voice said as he tightened his hold around her. 

“Good morning, handsome,” she mumbled back, lazily running her fingers over his toned abdominal muscles. As she snuggled her body closer to Matt, she asked, “Want me to make breakfast? I’ve got a brilliant quiche recipe.”

“You know, most women I’ve ever had over don’t offer to cook the next morning,” Matt told her with a chuckle, running his hand over her bare skin, a chill following in its wake. 

“Yes, well, I thought we established that I’m not like most other women you’ve dated,” she told him with a quiet laugh. She turned her face toward his, kissing his jaw before telling him, “Now I’m going to go make breakfast before we get distracted with part two of last night.”

“I wouldn’t mind skipping breakfast for that,” Matt told her before kissing the top of her head and pulling her body on top of his. 

“You’re making this really hard, Murdock,” Crystal said with a giggle. “But you thoroughly wore me out last night and now I’m starving, so food is a must.”

“I’ll just wear you out again after,” Matt told her playfully as he let her get up from the bed, offering her a shirt from his dresser. Crystal pulled on the shirt and her knickers before quietly padding into the kitchen to begin cooking breakfast. 

As they ate breakfast together soon after, Matt placed his fork on the table before saying, “Okay, I can’t try to ignore it anymore. Is everything okay? You’ve been acting almost…cautious this morning and you didn’t sing while you cooked like you usually do. Did…did I do something wrong? Was I too-?”

“No, no, no, you were perfect! It’s nothing you did, I promise,” Crystal blurted out, stopping him before he could try and blame himself for her behavior. She scratched the back of her neck before admitting, “I just started overthinking is all… It’s just…knowing how your senses work I got to thinking and I just feel incredibly annoying. I feel like every noise I make is too loud and I-”

“You didn’t seem to be worried about that last night,” he said with a cocky smirk. Crystal opened and closed her mouth as she tried to come up with a witty response, but couldn’t, so Matt teased, “You’re blushing.”

“Sorry…” she said bashfully as she took a sip of her juice. 

“Don’t be, like I told you last night, the way your body reacts to me is incredibly attractive,” he told her warmly. “And don’t worry about being cautious or quiet around me. I know how to tune out what I don’t want to listen to, and you…you’re something I will never get tired of listening to.”

“I’ll try not to think about it too much,” she agreed. 

“Good. Now how about we head back to my room and you make good on your promise? You got me thinking about last night, and well…” he said, pulling her close and into a passionate kiss. 

“I think we can make that happen…” she said between kisses as she jumped into his strong arms before he carried her off to the bedroom once more.

next chapter

[waywardxrhea]

thank you so much for the mention!! it’s crazy to see my name among some of my favorite spencer fics!! i appreciate you!!

spencer reid recs - part 2

heartbeat | one shot, flangst | @theonewiththefanfics

red lipstick kisses | imagine, fluff | @ddejavvu

a real headscratcher | one shot, fluff | @bippot

fail an altercation | imagine, angsty flangst | @railingsofsorrow

11:34 pm | imagine, fluff | @morehotch

wingteam | imagine, fluff | @sailortongue

all you want to do is smooch | imagine, fluff | @tinyluvs

calls you a pet name | drabble, fluff | @moonstruckme

falling for you | imagine, fluff | @sofiareidings

we'll be alright | one shot, flangst (lots of angst) | @unseededtoast

you're on your own kid | imagine, flangst | @tsjeweled

buried alive | two shot, flangst | @pathologicalreid

wrapped around your finger | imagine, angry fluff | @dr-spencer-reids-queen

incessant insomnia | imagine, flangst | @reiding-writing

things we bury | series | @parkerslatte

love potion | imagine, fluff | @foxy-eva

girlfriend interrupted | imagine, comfort flangst | @actually-safer-to-kiss

dedicated to new lovers | series | @sweatervest-obsessed

a very strange night | series | @reidreaders

stick season | two shot, angst | @sweatervest-obsessed

different kinds of nerds | imagine, fluff | @moonstruckme

sleeping on the jet | drabble, fluff | @golden1u5t

through a withdrawal | imagine, flangst (comfort!) | @reiderwriter

a secret from morgan | imagine, fluff | @tweedlydumbtweedlydoo

flustered with nicknames | imagine, fluff | @tweedlydumbtweedlydoo

sparks fly | series | @avis-writeshq

bookworms | drabble, fluff | @little-miss-dilf-lover

carriage six | two shot, fluff | @avis-writeshq

secretly mine | imagine, fluff (some angst) | @actually-safer-to-kiss

the archer | one shot, angst | @pathologicalreid (tw)

that day in the café | imagine, flangst | @the-au-thor (tw)

coping mechanism | imagine, fluff | @veryberryjelly

secret's out | one shot, flangst | @the-bau-quinjet

broke my heart | one shot, flangst (more angst) | @darnittumbleweed

heart's desire | one shot, flangst | @waywardxrhea

[waywardxrhea]

Chapter 6 - Jet Black Heart

What happens when you lie to the Devil? How long can one woman keep a lifetime of secrets from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen? The answer may surprise you...

installment list

pairing: Matt Murdock x enhanced!fem!OC

series content: coffee shop AU, fluff, humor, friends to lovers, pining, language, canon typical violence, angst, drinking, implied smut, medical emergencies, mental health disorders (PTSD, panic disorder).

"i've got a jet black heart and there's a hurricane underneath it..." jet black heart, 5 seconds of summer

word count: 2.9k

Crystal has a WPW episode at the shop plus karaoke night and more flirting!

“Hello? Earth to Crys! Come on, let’s go, we have people needing to be caffeinated!” Raeyes called out as she snapped her fingers in front of Crystal’s tired eyes. “Is everything all right? You’re more out of it than usual…”

“Oh, yes, sorry, I just didn’t get much sleep last night, the coffee should kick in soon I hope,” she told her before getting started on the next ticket in line. 

“You know you shouldn’t be drinking caffeine,” Raeyes scolded with a light tap on Crystal’s wrist.

“I know, I know, but I got desperate when I could barely open my eyes this morning,” she replied, stifling a yawn as she grabbed the requested pastry out of the case. 

“Long night at the gym?” Raeyes asked as she began working on the customer’s drink. 

That phrase had turned into their code so they could talk freely about what Crystal did at night without anyone prying about what they were discussing. With this in mind, she replied, “Yeah, we made some good progress last night. I’m hoping we’ll be done soon because it’s wearing on me.”

“Yeah, I know, you need to take it easy, Crys, I’m worried about you…” Raeyes told her, her tone of voice soft. 

“I’ll be fine, just give it a few more weeks,” Crystal replied, stifling another yawn.

“Okay, you need to not be handling hot liquids right now, take over orders,” Raeyes told her sternly as she guided her to the register right as the bell over the door chimed. She looked over and smirked, telling Crystal, “And would you look at that, your favorite regular is here.”

“Oh piss off,” Crystal replied with a laugh before greeting Matt, Karen, and Foggy. “Court today?” she asked, noticing the multitude of papers in Karen’s arms. 

“Yes, so extra shots of espresso for all of us,” she replied before heading to a nearby table to relieve herself of the load in her arms. 

“Regular order otherwise?” she asked, finally taking a glance over to Matt, who looked nearly as exhausted as she was. 

“That would be great, thank you,” he told her with a small smile. 

“Everything all right? You seem exhausted,” she pointed out before she could stop herself. She covered her mouth in shock before blurting out, “I am so sorry that was an incredibly invasive question I- forget I said anything, and uh…coffee is on me today.”

The awkward moment seemed to perk Matt up, evidenced by his usual wide smile making its way onto his lips in response. He chuckled before telling her, “Don’t worry about that, thank you for asking though. I just had a long night preparing for this case.” 

“Well I’m sure you’ll do amazing, all of you,” she said, throwing a smile in Foggy’s direction. 

“In part thanks to the caffeine and pastries,” Foggy said brightly before he paid for the order and the two walked off to sit with Karen at their usual table. 

When there was a lull in customers a few minutes later, Crystal and Raeyes stepped back to examine the coffee bar and decide what needed restocking. Once determining that they were in desperate need of mocha chips, Crystal looked up at the high shelf the jar was sitting on and asked, “Remind me why we still don’t have a bloody step stool after the last one broke?”

“Because of shipping delays,” Raeyes replied with a roll of her eyes. She sighed before asking, “Why did Carlos have to call in today of all days when we only have short people working?”

“Because of Murphy’s Law…” Crystal replied before grabbing a rag to begin cleaning off tables. 

The rag was quickly snatched away from her hands before Raeyes said, “I’ll clean the tables, you jump up and get the chips. You’re the one who works out. I believe in you!”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence I guess.” She sighed before looking up at the chips with determination in her tired eyes. 

Forcing aside the temptation to use her abilities to knock down the jar somehow, Crystal jumped up and snatched the mocha chips off the shelf, a sense of victory filling her chest. As she landed though, she felt her heart give an irregular stutter and a feeling of breathlessness filled her chest in its stead. “Shit…” she whispered as she dropped the jar to the ground with a loud clatter, leaning onto the counter for balance. 

Heat felt like it was engulfing her entire body and black was threatening to encase her vision as she tried to make her way to a chair to sit down. Before she could make it there though, her knees buckled under her weight and she fell to the ground. Using what remained of her strength, she forced herself to lean her back against the counter. 

“Crys!” she heard Raeyes’s voice through what felt like cotton in her ears. Within seconds she felt her friend’s presence beside her and then felt her fingers gently tapping her cheek to rouse her. “Come on Crys, deep breaths…” Raeyes mumbled, her voice steady despite what was happening. Unfortunately, it had become all too routine lately for her roommate to get her out of these episodes…

Another voice joined Raeyes’s that Crystal recognized as Karen asking, “Is she okay? What’s going on?”

“Should we call 911?” Foggy asked, panic evident in his voice. 

“No hospital…” Crystal managed to whisper in response, slightly shaking her head in protest. 

“I know, I know, no hospital,” Raeyes told her gently. “Karen, get me a straw.”

“A straw?” 

“Yes, a straw! Hurry!” Raeyes pleaded as she held Crystal’s shaking hand. 

Crystal could hear rustling nearby before the straw was being presented to her mouth by Raeyes. On instinct, Crystal blew into the straw and within a few seconds she could feel her heart kick back into a normal rhythm. She took the straw out of her mouth and leaned her head against the counter as she took a few more deep breaths to calm herself. 

A few seconds of silence passed before Raeyes asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I…uh… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause a scene…” Crystal whispered, heat creeping up her neck knowing that Matt, Foggy, and Karen were right there beside her on the floor, Matt’s dark lenses trained oddly accurately at where her heart sat in her chest. 

“What happened? Why’d you collapse?” Foggy asked, concern laced in his voice. 

“It’s nothing, just a heart problem I have…” Crystal replied as she stood up on shaking legs, still keeping her hand on the counter for support. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Raeyes asked quietly. “These episodes have been happening a lot more lately, I’m worried about you…”

“I… I know it’s not my place, but maybe you should go see a doctor…” Karen offered tentatively, taking a glance over to Matt whose face had concern written all over it as his lenses continued to be trained on where Crystal’s heart sat in her chest. 

Crystal instantly shook her head and replied, “It’s just something I have to live with. I’ve been dealing with this since I was a kid, I can handle it. I appreciate the concern, but…” As she trailed off, the bell above the door rang and she told them, “Duty calls. Good luck on the court case today.”

She picked up the jar of mocha chips and placed them on the counter where they belonged before attending to the customer who just walked in, ignoring the conversation Raeyes was having with the group just outside of earshot. 

Later that evening after getting off from a double, Crystal immediately went into the shower to clean off the day’s sweat and coffee scent. When she emerged and changed into pyjamas, reassuring Raeyes once again that she was fine, she finally got comfortable on the couch before checking the notification center of her phone. What greeted her was a text from an unknown number that caused her to cock an eyebrow in confusion. 

Unknown at 6:26: Hey Crystal. This may be a little unprecedented, but I just wanted to check in on you after this morning at the shop. Make sure you’re okay. 

Unknown at 6:28: This is Matt by the way, I believe Raeyes wrote your number on a napkin with a winking face today when she made our drinks.

“Raeyes!” Crystal called into the relative silence of the flat, causing her roommate to come running from her room, half of her hair curled and wearing a look of concern on her face. “Did you give Matt my number?!”

Relief instantly flooded Raeyes's face as a mischievous smile made its way onto it instead. She sighed in her relief before saying, “Yes, yes I did. I was tired of watching the two of you pine after each other without anything happening so I gave him your number when I took them their order this morning! I think what you’re trying to say is, ‘Thank you Rae, you’re the best wingwoman ever!’” She gasped dramatically before throwing herself on the couch beside Crystal, asking, “Did he text you? Did he ask you out to celebrate their win in court?! Tell me!!”

“He texted me yeah, but not asking me out. He’s asking about the near heart attack I had this morning…” Crystal muttered, showing her the text. She groaned as she leaned her head back against the couch, saying, “That was so embarrassing, why did that have to happen in front of him…? He didn’t even say anything when it happened… If he was interested, I’m sure he isn’t now knowing how messed up I-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that just because your heart is messed up doesn’t mean you are messed up,” Raeyes said sternly. “I’m sure he just wasn’t sure how to react. And he’s texting you about it now, so you just need to text him back and see where this goes. I’ll be in my room finishing getting ready for my date tonight, but if you need your wingwoman, just call, okay? You got this.”

“Thanks Rae…” Crystal whispered, trying to push her doubt aside as she finally looked back at the messages from Matt. 

Me at 7:23: Hey Matt, thanks for checking in on me. It doesn’t usually get that bad, but I’m doing a lot better now that I can rest. Sorry if I delayed you guys getting to court on time this morning.

Matt Murdock at 7:36: Don’t apologize for a disability, you can’t help it. I’m glad to hear you’re doing better. May I ask what happened?

Me at 7:38: Oh, I have this condition called Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. Long story short it causes an arrhythmia in my heart and today that episode was triggered by a perfect storm of bad ideas haha. 

Me at 7:39: I had a long night and didn’t sleep much so I had a small cup of coffee before the shift started and I really shouldn’t have done that because caffeine is just about the worst thing I can have with this condition. 

Cringing at her oversharing, Crystal got up from the couch and threw the phone into the cushions as she made her way to the kitchen to find something to eat for dinner to distract herself from how much she was embarrassing herself. Within a few seconds, Raeyes emerged dressed for her date, asking, “So?”

“You look great, as usual,” Crystal replied off-handedly as she paced the kitchen. 

“No, not that! How’s texting Matt going?” she asked with a laugh. 

“I just started word-vomiting about my condition and I feel like I completely embarrassed myself…” Crystal muttered, running a hand through her hair. 

“Oh honey, no, I bet you didn’t,” Raeyes said, wrapping her in a quick hug. 

“Then why do I feel like I just don’t have a filter around him lately and that it’s messing up everything?” she asked, a sigh of frustration leaving her mouth. 

“If it was messing everything up then he wouldn’t be texting you,” Raeyes said while heading over to the couch to retrieve the device. As she handed it back to Crystal, she said, “Now when I come back tonight I want to know what happens in the rest of this conversation. And I expect there to be a date to come out of this!” 

“Don’t get your hopes too high,” Crystal said with a playful roll of her eyes as she closed the door behind Raeyes before looking back at her phone to see that Matt had responded. 

Matt Murdock at 7:43: Wow, working at a coffee shop and you can’t even drink the product? I’m even more impressed with you now.

Matt Murdock at 7:45: On a more serious note though, I am glad you’re okay. 

Me at 7:47: That means a lot, thank you Matt.

Matt Murdock at 7:54: Well we’re heading to Josie’s soon, how do you feel about meeting us to celebrate our win today? If I remember correctly, you said you’re looking forward to the next time when I walked you home after Josie’s before. 

A furious blush made its way onto her cheeks at the vague memory of the night as she debated on how to respond to the text. With shaking hands, she finally decided to reply after a few minutes.

Me at 8:00: Oh if I wouldn’t be intruding…

Matt Murdock at 8:01: Never. I look forward to it. 

With shaking hands, Crystal placed the phone on the counter as she let out a quiet squeal of delight at the text. It had been so long since she had felt the rush of texting someone she fancied and it was honestly exhilarating. After quickly eating the rest of her leftovers, Crystal got dressed into something decently nice to meet the group, knowing that it wasn’t a date, but still wanting to feel confident. 

A few nights later Crystal and Raeyes got dressed before heading out to Stardust for karaoke night – the first one they were planning on participating in rather than hosting. The previous morning, Crystal had boldly invited Matt and his friends to join them for the evening, but as the time got closer, her nerves started to settle in. 

“God, why did I invite him? I wasn’t thinking, I just-” Crystal rambled on as she adjusted her necklace for the fifth time. 

“Crys! Crystal! Take a breath!” Raeyes shouted with a laugh, steadying her friend by firmly grabbing her shoulders. Once she stopped talking, Raeyes said, “For real, what’s there to worry about? You had a great night at Josie’s with them the other night, you and Matt have been talking on the phone a lot more, what is worrying you?”

Not really having an answer, Crystal sighed and admitted, “I guess it’s just nerves…”

“Well that’s nothing a few glasses of rosé can’t fix!” Raeyes said excitedly as she grabbed Crystal’s hand to guide her out their flat door. “If we get there before them we can totally pregame a little bit and you’ll be fine by the time he gets there!”

“I hope you’re right…” Crystal mumbled as she followed her friend out into the night. 

As it turned out, Raeyes was right. After getting there before the group of Matt, Karen, Foggy, and Marci showed up, Crystal drank nearly two glasses of rosé and was starting to feel more confident in herself. Her confidence only grew when Karen and Marci joined her and Raeyes in matching each other glass for glass as people began taking the stage to poorly sing karaoke music. 

“Come on you three, I have a great song idea!” Crystal said with a giggle as she grabbed Karen and Raeyes’s hands and began dragging them away from their table and toward where Carlos was manning the computer for the evening. 

From there, Crystal took a mic and the four of them went into a high energy performance of Wannabe by the Spice Girls, all four laughing together as they made their way back to the table with Matt and Foggy. As they returned, they were met with slow clapping from Foggy, who told them, “What a performance ladies!”

“Why thank you, Foggy Bear,” Marci told him before pulling him in for a kiss. 

Karen laughed before saying to Crystal, “You know, I am impressed you were able to sing all of Mel B’s lines considering you’re, what? Over a bottle in?”

“Never question my love for the Spice Girls!” Crystal said with a giggle as she went to take her place standing next to Matt once again at the tall table. 

As she did though, she tripped over her boots and ended up stumbling into Matt. His arms quickly reached out and caught her, chuckling as he quietly told her, “We seem to end up like this a lot.”

“Sorry, I, uh-” she started to stutter out as she stood once more. 

“Don’t apologize,” Matt whispered as he snaked his arm around her waist discreetly, his hand landing on her hip. “I quite enjoyed your song choice,” he told her, his hand squeezing her hip. 

“I…I was hoping you would,” she whispered back breathlessly, her filter no longer functioning.

“I suppose then once you two sober up, there may be a conversation that needs to happen with Raeyes?” Matt asked with a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. 

“I, uh-” Crystal tried to respond, but was interrupted by Raeyes grabbing her hand and dragging her toward the counter to get more drinks with the girls, the conversation dropping there, but the tension in the air not leaving for the rest of the night.

next chapter

[waywardxrhea]

if there's one thing we can learn from this booping experience it's that we need to give people notes and interact with them for tumblr to be fun and thriving

[waywardxrhea]

i genuinely hope that boop day inspires everyone to interact more with other tumblr users. because it’s clearly way more fun this way!! even once the boop button is gone, there’s still asks, tag and ask games, comments, dms, fuck it let’s bring back blog rates i don’t care. part of the reason that tumblr is dying is that its way less social than it used to be. let’s fix that!!

[waywardxrhea]

I don’t care if I know you bc we’re mutuals or I follow you or you follow me or if you’re just randomly on my dash/notes but if I see your url and I see that boop button you’re getting fucking booped

[waywardxrhea]

You write Spencer soo beautifully, perfect in fact!

this is so sweet anon i teared up reading it, thank you so much!! i appreciate the feedback and we will see if i get any more spence fic inspiration in the future!!

[waywardxrhea]

Heart's Desire - a Spencer Reid one shot

pairing: Spencer Reid x BAU!fem!reader (no use of y/n)

word count: 9.58k

When working a serial killer case in Tennessee, you become the bait for a violent unsub whose victims all match your description. When going after the man you collapse and are rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.

a/n: so yes, this is a Reader one shot, but it is super niche so...whoops? this honestly was just a super self-indulgent fic for me to write because i can't say i have ever seen the heart condition i had presented in the media and i really wanted to explore how Spencer may interact with it, so here we are! this is my first time writing for the criminal minds fandom, so shout out to my bestie who helped me out with coming up with case details and smaller plot points that have been incorporated into this little one shot!

content: fluff (oh how i adore the fluff in this one!), multilingual Reader, secret relationship, implied smut (if you squint lol), insecure Reader, Reader fits the victimology, graphic description of canon level violence, Reader is bait for the unsub, protective Spencer, mentions of jealous and possessive Spencer, language, medical emergencies, small medical inaccuracies (no AED on the scene - i had to do it for the drama don't judge), crying Spencer.

(not my gif), CM dividers by @firefly-graphics , EKG dividers by me

“Good morning, beautiful,” you heard Spencer’s sleep ridden voice mumble from behind you as you began to stir awake with the sun that was filtering in through the curtains of Spencer’s bedroom. The two of you had just gotten back from a case the day before and you were utterly exhausted. All you wanted to do was sleep in, and although he had bought blackout curtains for this exact reason, the sun still somehow managed to slip through, which you cursed the manufacturer for every time…

You flipped around in his arms to face him and sent a sleepy smile at him before mumbling, “Bonjour mon amour.” 

“Oh so it’s a French morning?” Spencer asked with a quiet chuckle as he took your hand in his and kissed your knuckles.

“I was debating between that and Italian, but… French usually gets us to where I would love to spend this free day with you,” you replied with a smirk before leaning up to kiss him.

After a few slow and loving kisses, Spencer pulled away for a brief moment to rest his forehead on yours and say, “You know since we just got back from a case out of state that took so long to solve, the odds of the team getting called back out are significantly lower than if-”

And then your phones started ringing. 

“What were you saying about the odds being low?” you muttered with a sigh as you turned back over in the bed and grabbed your phone off of the nightstand. You heard the automated voice on the other side tell you that there was a case the BAU was requested to work and that your presence was requested as soon as possible. 

As you sighed and closed your eyes briefly while you tried to sink back into the pillow, Spencer noted, “Well I did say the odds were low, not zero…” You couldn’t help the smile that slipped onto your face at the comment as you laughed and lightly hit him in the bare chest with a throw pillow. 

“‘Never tell me the odds,’” you told him as you reluctantly began getting out of bed, sitting up on the edge and stretching to wake up your tired muscles. 

Spencer positioned himself to where his legs were on either side of you and wrapped his arms around your torso before kissing your neck and mumbling, “No matter how many times you quote Han Solo at me, it’s not gonna stop me from telling you the odds of things, you know that right?”

“I know, I know…” you told him with a giggle as you toyed with his hands that were clasped in front of your stomach. “So how far apart do we have to leave again so they aren’t suspicious?” 

“Well your apartment is about a thirty minute commute from the office while mine is twenty depending on traffic, so you'll leave ten minutes after me,” he reminded you as you both began to get up and untangle yourselves from each other. “I have an extra go-bag packed for you in the closet as well as a few outfits so you aren’t wearing the same clothes you came home in yesterday.”

“You’re the best, Spence,” you told him quietly as you both made your way into the bathroom to get ready for the day. 

As you jumped into the shower to take advantage of your extra ten minutes, you thought about your relationship with Spencer. You two had started dating about a year after you joined the BAU and out of fear of getting in trouble, like two teenagers you hid the relationship from your teammates. Your transfer from Homeland Security was prompted when your interrogation and hostage negotiation tactics landed you on the BAU’s radar and you very quickly became fast friends with the whole team. So with the guise of being your usual friendly self, it truthfully hadn’t been too hard to hide the relationship from your friends. And while Spencer was hesitant about hiding a relationship from a group of people like the BAU team, your fear of being let go as the “more inferior” member out of the two of you was what convinced him to keep it a secret. It also prompted him to lecture you on your clear inferiority complex, but that was neither here nor there. 

“I’ll see you there, drive safe,” Spencer told you before kissing your cheek as you wrapped yourself in your towel to dry off while finishing your routine. 

“You too,” you replied, giving him a peck on the lips before he began walking out of the restroom and apartment to head to headquarters. 

When you got to HQ, you yawned as you made a beeline for the break room for some much needed caffeine. When you got inside, you cordially told Spencer and Derek, “Good morning you two,” as you poured your coffee, creamer, and sugar into the mug you always had on your desk. It was your parting gift from your Homeland team that was in the shape of the sun and what prompted your nickname from Derek. 

He laughed as he watched you and Spencer prepare your coffees, telling you, “You know Sunshine, I think with how much creamer you put in that you may have Pretty Boy beat on sugar consumption.”

“Ha ha very funny,” you told him with a playful roll of your eyes as you turned to walk from the break room and into the bullpen. 

As the three of you ambled into the area, Hotch emerged from his office and announced, “Sorry to call you all in so soon after getting back from a case, but this one is something we aren’t taking lightly and needs to be stopped because the unsub is escalating quickly.” So after a quick briefing on what he knew of the case, Hotch told you all to be prepared for wheels up in thirty. 

When the plane landed in Tennessee later that afternoon and you stood up from your perch, you stumbled a bit when you felt your heart give an irregular stutter in your chest. “You okay, kid?” David asked you with concern in his eyes after seeing the brief moment of panic flit across your features. 

“Yeah, fine, just feeling a bit off after that flight I guess,” you replied, taking a deep breath and straightening up which seemed to do the trick as your heart began beating in a regular rhythm once more. 

“You know, I wouldn’t say I blame you if you were a bit anxious,” he told you as you both exited the jet and started making your way to the black SUVs awaiting your arrival. “It isn’t every day we get cases as violent as this one, especially when the victims…”

“All look like me?” you supplied quietly when he trailed off at the end of his sentence. It was true that when you began going over the pertinent files on the flight that all of the unsub’s victims shared many of your physical features, and while that did alarm you, you knew that your team would have your back during this case no matter what. You placed a small smile on your lips as you told him, “I’ll rest easier when this guy’s behind bars.”

“That’s the spirit,” he told you with a warm smile as you loaded into the SUV, your bag at your feet and your case file in your lap as you continued to read over what all the unsub had been up to in the last couple of months. 

After you all got to the local police precinct and got settled in and assigned tasks, you made your way to their break room for another cup of coffee, only to be followed in by Spencer a few moments later. As you both made your drinks, you casually turned so you were leaning on the counter and watching over the office as Spencer asked, “Are you okay?”

“You know, Dave asked me the same thing, I’m starting to think you guys are more worried about me than I am,” you told him, your lips covered by your cup in case anyone you couldn't see was watching. 

“I always worry about you,” Spencer told you softly as he stirred his sugary drink. 

“And I, you, but for now we need to work on getting this guy in cuffs and it won’t happen if either of us get distracted,” you said with a sort of finality in your tone, determined to make sure you conveyed a sense of confidence or else you too may fall victim to worrying about yourself instead of working the case. 

As you walked out to the desk where you were allowed to set up, Penelope ran past you, almost toppling you over as she shouted, “Hotch, I found out how he’s luring the victims!” 

“How?” your unit chief asked as she made his company. The team had barely been here a couple hours and the locals' work was already being combed through and missing clues were being found. 

“Dating apps! On every victim’s phone was a dating app and she had planned a date with a man from there. None of the men’s accounts were the same and none of them had common pictures, but the unsub always used the same lines when chatting the women up!” she told him in a rush as she showed him pages she had printed out while doing her dive into the womens' phones. 

Spencer emerged from the break room with his coffee in hand, saying, “Well based on that knowledge we can assume that dating apps have a significant meaning to him.” 

From her place nearby, JJ spoke up, saying, “Every victim had her left ring finger severed off, maybe his wife cheated on him using one?”

As Derek walked into the room with David hot on his heels, he added, “And turns out they also had their ovaries taken out by the unsub.”

“As well as their cervix glued shut with industrial sealant before their genitals were mutilated,” David supplied, his head shaking as he handed Hotch the ME reports. 

A scoff huffed out of your chest before you mused, “So he feels slighted by his ex wife and has decided that in order to pacify that anger he does what he wishes he could to her to the victims…” 

“Do we know if any of the victims was the ex wife?” Derek asked. 

“Nope, all the victims are single women who have been on dating apps for quite some time and none of them have an active or otherwise marriage license under their name,” Penelope replied. 

“Good work everyone, let’s get to work finding this guy,” Hotch said. “Find out all you can, I want to give this brief before nightfall.”

“Yes sir,” you all replied before once again splitting off into your assigned tasks. 

Right as the sun began to set that evening, Hotch called everyone together and the team began giving the locals the brief on the unsub. Hotch of course began the brief, informing the locals, “The unsub is a caucasian male in his mid thirties to early forties who we believe to have a medical background in surgery and likely just went through a rough divorce." 

You were the next to speak, announcing, “We believe he was cheated on by his ex wife, which is what triggered the break and the murders. The victims all share common features which we assume are also shared by the ex wife.” As you said this, you clicked the remote in your hand and on the board behind you popped up the faces of the victims. 

With the slightest tremor in his voice, Spencer was the next to piggyback, saying, “The victims have all been found with mutilated genitals as well as their left ring finger cut off. The unsub also took the time to use industrial glue to seal the victim’s cervix shut and to cut out her ovaries.”

Derek was next to speak, adding to Spencer’s statement, “The cause of death in all the victims was prolonged blood loss. This tells us that he's performing these rituals while the victim is still alive.”

“He’s tech savvy, enough so that he is able to create difficult to trace profiles on dating apps on which he seduces victims before murdering them,” Penelope said sadly. 

JJ was next, telling the team, “The only evidence that he’s left behind are the bodies in secluded dump locations and as of right now we do not know where the victims are being killed.”

David was the last to speak, rounding out the brief with, “All of this combined leads us to believe that he is a very calculated and dangerous individual who needs to be found before he strikes again.” When he was done, Hotch dismissed everyone to begin their search with this new information. 

“Hey chief?” came a voice from the front of the office a few minutes later. Both the local police chief and Hotch looked up at the young man expectantly before he replied, “There’s been another victim…”

“He’s escalating again…” Hotch mumbled as he ran a hand over his chin. “There was a lot less time between victims. We need to work faster.”

“Yes sir,” everyone replied before attempting to double down on their work. 

As they all began working, the gears in your mind began to spin and when you finally formulated a plan, you approached Hotch and said, “Sir, I think I may have an idea on how to catch him.”

“How?”

“We do a sting. Penelope makes a dating profile for me on one of those apps and we use me as bait,” you told him, never breaking eye contact to convey that you were serious about the idea. “If we can get someone inside then we get our guy as well as possible evidence for half a dozen murders.”

Hotch sighed before saying your name warily. “You know how risky that is.”

“And that risk is something I am willing to take in order to stop this guy. If we don’t do this then there may be another victim tomorrow, maybe two,” you said. Squaring your shoulders, you added, “I agreed to take this job in order to help people. I fit the victimology. This is how I can help.”

A few moments of silence passed as Hotch seemed to weigh his options before he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he said, “Fine. I’ll think through the details. I want everyone well rested tonight before we start planning tomorrow. You and Garcia share a room at the hotel so she can start making that profile for you.”

“Yes sir,” you replied with a small smile and a nod before heading off to find Penelope so you two could head to the hotel and begin. 

“So are you on one of these apps normally?” Penelope asked as the two of you sat beside each other on the hotel bed, laptop and phones in hand to create this fake profile for yourself. 

“Me? No, I don’t trust them for this exact reason,” you replied, shuddering as you thought about the poor women who thought they were simply going to meet a new man but paid with their lives and dignity. 

“Oh I see,” Penelope said before instructing you to find a specific type of photo in your camera roll that the unsub may find attractive. “Are you dating at all?”

“Oh, uh, not really,” you said, trying to pace your words so they didn’t seem panicky. “This job takes up a lot of my time and all so it would be hard to find time for a relationship between cases.”

“You have an excellent point, but you can’t let something like that hold you back! You deserve all the happiness in the world!” she told you cheerfully as she continued typing away at the laptop. “What are your interests?”

Smiling inwardly at how the subject turned from your dating life you told her, “Reading, rom coms, coffee, patisseries, art, the occasional drink.” As you thought for a moment, you added, “Ooh, make sure you put ‘not looking for anything serious.’ I think that’s something that may trigger the unsub into choosing my profile.”

“Smart!” she replied before selecting that option on the profile. “We should do this more often! Maybe when this is all said and done we can make you a real one and I can just do a background check of the person before you go on a date!”

You laughed lightly as you told her, “Let’s make sure I survive this case first then we’ll go from there.”

The next morning came and went as the team tried to track the guy to no avail, so right before lunch, Hotch gathered everyone around and announced, “Okay, this unsub is proving hard to find by other methods, so we’ve decided to pull a sting. We can’t just sit around waiting for our surprisingly extensive list of divorced surgeons to make a move.” He motioned to you and Penelope and said, “These two worked on creating a fake dating profile that the unsub may fall for. The plan is to get him alone and our resident interrogator will pull a confession out of him.”

“Wait what?” Spencer asked immediately, his eyes wide. “Is it a good idea to send her in when we know the unsub is escalating?”

“It’s the only lead we can get right now,” Hotch told him. “If we don’t do this tonight then we may risk another woman dying at his hands.”

“Yeah, and it may be her,” Derek said a bit sharply, the idea of sending you into the belly of the beast not sitting right with him either. 

“Not if we’re all on our A-games when it goes down,” David said in an attempt to calm the younger men down. “If you’re so concerned, we can send you into wherever he asks to meet her so we can have eyes on her the entire time." He chuckled before adding, "Derek, not you Spencer, no offense but you do tend to stick out like a sore thumb in certain environments."

“But-” Spencer tried, but was cut off by Hotch. 

“No buts, we’re doing this. Tonight. Garcia, activate the profile.”

“Yes sir,” she replied quietly before opening up her phone and clicking a few buttons. “It’s done.”

“Good.” He turned to you and said your name to get your attention. “Just make sure you reply to any account that may fit the profile. Garcia will run a trace on it to see when it was created since we knew he makes a new account for every victim.”

“Yes sir,” you replied, nodding your head as you pulled out your phone and got to work. While you scrolled through the app and took a seat in one of the secluded offices to eat your lunch, you were startled by another presence entering the room without knocking. “Geez Spence, you scared me!” you scolded him, clutching your chest in a vain attempt to slow your racing heart. 

“And you’re scaring me,” he told you as he shuttered the blinds to prevent any passersby from seeing the two of you in there together. As you sat your phone down on the table, he covered your hand with his and asked sincerely, “Are you okay with this plan?”

You nodded. “It was my idea. We need to get this guy before another innocent woman dies.”

Echoing Derek, he asked, “And what if that turns out to be you?”

You scoffed humorously before deadpanning, “And you really think you’d let that happen?” After he floundered with his words for a few seconds, you kissed him gently before saying, “I trust that if anything goes sideways you’ll be there to save me. You always are. I just need you to trust me and my judgment on this one. Do you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you, it’s just-” he tried, but you cut him off with another kiss. 

“Just trust me, love,” you told him once you pulled away again. 

After you said this, your phone pinged with a notification that caught your attention. You picked it up and saw that there was a new message in your dating app’s inbox. “Hey beautiful, you look like you are in need of some company. How about you meet me at Monroe’s tonight and we see where this goes,” Spencer read with disdain in his voice. He cringed before saying, “Please say that’s not what I sounded like flirting with you…”

You laughed, telling him, “No, the poetry you quoted at me was much more romantic than that line.” You placed one more quick kiss to his lips before telling him, “I’m gonna have Penny run this profile and we’ll see if it could be our guy.”

Turns out there was a high chance of it being your guy, seeing as the profile was created just hours before and yours was the only account that he interacted with. So after a chat with Hotch about the plan to get this guy to confess, you got dressed in a little black number and silver heels, finishing your look with the most effortful hair and makeup you had done in a while. When you emerged into the precinct you saw that Spencer was the only one in the immediate area. “Where is everyone?” you asked. 

“Getting the gear ready and briefing the police. I got the distinct honor of greeting you,” he told you with a warm smile as he drank in your appearance. His eyes darted around the room to ensure the two of you were alone before he wrapped you in his arms and kissed the top of your head, mumbling into your hair, “Tu es magnifique.”

“Merci beaucoup,” you replied, feeling a heat rush up your neck and into your cheeks at his words. No matter how long you and Spencer had been together, whenever he flirted with you, especially in any of the different languages you spoke, you still got flustered. 

When Spencer’s arms quickly untangled themselves from your embrace you rightly assumed that the team was emerging into the offices once more. Hotch called out your name before asking, “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” you replied with a nod, smoothing out your dress before joining the team near the door. 

On the way to the bar in the taxi you were assigned to take, Hotch went over the plan once more, detailing to you that Derek was already at the bar to keep an eye on you in case things went sideways, that you are to attempt to get any sort of confession out of the unsub, and if you can get information on where the killings were happening that would be even better. You had a plan in mind to attempt and get inside his head and get him to confess without even realizing it, so as you walked into the bar you feigned confidence as you walked up and sat on a barstool to wait for the unsub to approach you. 

Derek sat across the room behind you to your left, near the door, and his soothing voice came through the in-ear you had, saying, “All right Sunshine, if things go sideways you just say the word and I’m all over this guy.”

“Just trust me,” you told him quietly as you took your first drink from the water glass that the bartender handed you with your drink. 

“I believe I’m supposed to be meeting you here?” came a voice from beside you a few minutes later. 

You turned toward the voice and smiled in greeting. He did fit the profile, strikingly actually. You noticed a tan line on his left ring finger and how his hands were slightly cracked and dry, perhaps from surgical scrubbing at his job. You offered out your hand for him to kiss as well as your name before telling him, “I believe so. And you’re already nearly half a drink behind, so why don’t you catch up, handsome?”

“I think we can make that arrangement,” he said after kissing your knuckles.

"That was smooth, remind me why you're single again?" JJ asked with a quiet laugh through the in-ear.

You kept your facial expression in response to the comment neutral as the unsub ordered his drink from the bartender. When the two of you began talking, the team kept their ends of the coms silent as you worked to get what information you needed from the unsub. 

During the conversation, you almost dragged out what you wanted from him, but he always skirted around it. You knew he was your man though, that was plain as day when he spoke about his ex wife who he told you moved off to California to be with the man she cheated on him with. During the conversation, Penelope informed you quietly that she had found record of the woman as well as IDing the man sitting across from you as Doctor Samuel Costner, who specialized in abdominal surgery.

After another paced drink from you and a couple more for him, he stood behind you and wrapped his arms around you, his hands splaying out over the tops of your thighs as he asked, “How about I take you back to my place and show you a good time?”

Bingo. His place. One of the things the team couldn’t figure out was where the unsub lived, otherwise it would have been much easier to locate him and the possible murder site. With this information in mind, you leaned back into his embrace and told him, “I like the sound of that.”

The silence from the team was broken as Spencer’s voice asked, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“As long as we tail them it should be fine,” you heard JJ tell him. 

“We have his name now though, can’t we just have Garcia dig into where he lives and go from there?” Spencer countered.

“And go in with what suspicion? We need evidence that he’s killing there in order to step onto the property,” JJ replied.

“But this is a controlled scene, if she gets in the car with him we can’t control what happens in there. What if we lose the truck on the backroads? This is too risky, I’m-”

“Reid sit down and trust her,” you heard Hotch scold him, a finality in his voice. “What we need is a location and she’s getting us exactly that. Now sit back and let her work or else I’m pulling you from this case.”

“Yes sir…” Spencer eventually said. 

“Remember the signal,” Derek mumbled as you and the man made your way out of the bar and to his truck. 

A nearly thirty minute drive took you to a farm that had vast amounts of pastures and trails hidden within the woods as well as a large picturesque barn that looked just like they all did in the movies. “So this is where you live huh? It’s beautiful…” you breathed as you looked around, trying to take in any specific details you may need to relay to the team in case they weren’t able to tail you. 

He nodded as he pulled up in front of the barn, putting his hand on your thigh as he said, “Family owned and operated since the 1800s. And while I don’t do much of the labor around here because of work, I am still the proud owner. Maybe you could be too one day.”

“Oh yeah?” you asked in your most alluring voice as you slightly widened the space between your thighs, the gesture making you feel filthy, but if this was how you caught the unsub then so be it. 

The kisses that he gave you started off innocently enough, but soon turned aggressive and you cringed inwardly at the fact that you knew the team was listening to everything from their end of the coms. You didn't even want to think about what was going through Spencer's mind - the man had a reputation of being jealous and possessive sometimes when you two went out and guys flirted with you.

Before you knew it, the unsub was coming over to your side of the truck and opening the door. He pulled you into his arms and asked, “How about we go for a roll in the hay?” You giggled innocently before agreeing, subtly eyeing the black SUVs that had begun to creep onto the outskirts of the property line with their headlights out. They followed you. Good.

So as he took you deeper into the barn and to an area that was lined with tarps that had seen better days, your eyes began scrutinizing every little thing that could be evidence that he had killed those women here. And you found it as you eyed a corner of another tarp that seemed to have dried blood on it. 

Right as you were about to sneak in your code word to the team to signal you had what you needed, you heard Spencer’s distinct voice shouting, “FBI, hands where I can see them!”

“Shit!” the man shouted before jumping off of you and darting away, the large knife you had somehow not noticed before dropping to the ground as he sprinted off. 

“We’ve got a rabbit!” you shouted, tossing off your heels and beginning to run after him. “I’m taking the back exit, someone go around the side!”

“On it!” JJ called as she began running around the other side of the barn to cut him off. 

When you ran out of the door you saw him leave out of, you were met with a wooden fence that he had jammed in the few moments you were distracted. Not wanting to waste any time, you opted to climb the fence, jumping over and landing awkwardly on your feet. When you did, you felt your heart give an irregular stutter in your chest before starting to beat rapidly. As you stood up, you began to get light headed and it felt like cotton filled your ears as you faintly heard a commotion around the corner of the barn. Heat seemed to fill every part of your body and your vision started to tunnel as you gasped for air, stumbling around to try and steady yourself on the side of the barn before your body gave in and collapsed. 

“Stay down!” JJ sternly told the man as she pinned him to the ground and cuffed him. “Samuel Costner, you’re under arrest for the murder of six women.” 

As JJ recited his rights and escorted him to one of the police cruisers that had emerged on the scene, Spencer looked around and asked where you were. “Didn’t she say she was going out the back?” Derek asked. “I didn’t see her come back around…” 

Panic filled Spencer’s body immediately and he began quickly making his way around the barn with Derek hot on his heels. What if Costner got to you in desperation before JJ arrested him? What if you were bleeding out behind the barn? He had to get to you quickly. 

When he rounded the corner and saw you collapsed on the ground, he shouted your name before sprinting over and feeling for a pulse. After a few seconds and some quick math, he said, “Her heart rate is 238 and she feels clammy… She’s not bleeding that I can see, but she’s hardly breathing. Derek!”

“On it!” he shouted, pulling out his walkie to dispatch an ambulance to the location. “They said it’ll take about twenty minutes to get here.”

“She might not have twenty minutes!” Spencer snapped as he watched your now frail body and how you were losing color quickly. With a strength that Derek didn’t know he had, Spencer lifted you into his arms and began carrying you to one of the SUVs, telling him, “Get one of the officers to give us an escort, we’re taking her!”

“Oh, got it!” Derek stuttered out before barking orders at an officer and getting into the driver’s seat of the SUV. 

“What’s going on?” JJ asked as she quickly jumped into the passenger seat while Spencer got you and himself into the back seat. 

They took off at a rapid speed, Derek intending on cutting the ride to the hospital in half at least as he pushed the pedal into the floor as far as it would go. 

“I don’t know, her heart is racing though and we found her collapsed,” Spencer told her, his own breath beginning to come in rapidly as he began to panic. 

“Spence, look at me,” JJ told him gently which prompted him to look up at her. “We’re gonna figure it out. She’ll be okay. What do we know?”

As he ran his thumb over your jaw in a way of soothing himself, Spencer rattled off to JJ, “Well obviously she was in a state of stress during the sting, but even a panic attack wouldn’t cause her heart to beat this fast, panic attacks top out at about 200 beats per minute. She’s usually good at controlling her anxiety anyway, especially under pressure like this… He couldn’t have drugged her at the bar because she got all her drinks directly from the bartender and she was cognizant of what she was doing and saying the whole time. As far as I know, at her last doctor’s appointment she was given a clean bill of health…”

“Well not being drugged is good, we can work with that,” JJ reassured him. She checked the map on her phone and said, “We’re almost there, just hang in there.”

When you arrived at the hospital, Spencer carried you in and placed you on the stretcher that was waiting at the triage door. “What happened?” a nurse asked as a doctor walked up while the team began placing EKG leads all over your chest. 

“We’re FBI. We were working a case and she was chasing down a perp. I didn’t see her come back from where she said she was going and I found her like this,” Spencer replied as he began following them while they pushed you into a room, JJ and Derek hot on his heels. 

“Any significant medical history?” she asked as they began plugging the wires into machines which immediately began blaring with alarms. 

As Spencer began rattling off your medical history, two of the nurses escorted JJ and Derek into the hall to clear some space for the medical team. After two nurses got IVs started in your left arm, another came running in with some syringes and vials of medication. As they began preparing the medication, the doctor looked toward Spencer and told him, “We’re about to give her a medication that’s going to stop her heart.”

“What?!” he shouted, his eyes wide. 

Calmly the doctor continued, saying, “It’s got a super short half-life so it’ll only be for a few moments and then her heart should go back into a normal rhythm. It’s a very routine drug. She may feel sore afterward but that is to be expected.”

And so a pair of nurses worked together to quickly administer the medication and sure enough for a few moments he watched the monitor as your heart stopped and Spencer could practically feel his own stop too. The tension in his shoulders eased up slightly as your heart returned to a normal 88 beats per minute but then alarms started blaring again within seconds as the EKG suddenly looked like a toddler was scribbling on the monitor. Spencer knew that rhythm from a book he read one time and knew that it was deadly if not treated quickly. In a blind rage, he shouted at the doctor, “You said that medication would help! Look what happened! I want a different doctor on her case right now and-”

“Get him out of here and call a code blue!” the doctor called before shouting orders to the rest of the team, two of which began trying to escort Spencer from the room. 

“You can’t just-!” he shouted in frustration before he felt a hand on his shoulder that squeezed gently. 

“Let them work,” came Derek’s voice from behind him. 

When Spencer wrestled himself out of the nurses’ hold and watched them go back into the room and close the door that now had a blue light above it, both JJ and Derek saw the dangerous look in his eye, but JJ was the one brave enough to ask, “What the hell was that about Spence? You can’t just yell at the doctor like that! He was trying to help!”

“Him trying to help sent her into v-fib and now her heart isn’t working!” he retaliated, running a hand through his messy hair. He watched in horror as another group of nurses came running up with the crash cart and darted into the room. He tried to hide the tears in his eyes as he turned away and stalked off down the hall, unsure of what to do with himself at the moment. 

“Spence!” JJ called after him, about to follow him, but was stopped when a gentle hand grabbed her forearm. 

“Let him go,” said David as he too watched Spencer’s retreating form. 

JJ sighed in frustration and said, “I just don’t know what’s gotten into him! Why would he yell at them? Yeah I’m worried too but that was a whole other level. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen him that mad.”

“Just think about it from his perspective,” David told her vaguely before encouraging the two of them to meet the rest of the team in the waiting room. 

Once the pair of them parted ways, David sighed and took off in the direction he saw Spencer going. When he found him a few hallways over staring out a window into nothingness, David cleared his throat and asked, “How long has this been going on?”

“From the time I found her with her heart beating that fast it’s been twenty-eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds give maybe three minutes from the moment she took off after Costner. It’s been two minutes and forty-eight seconds since that doctor sent her into v-fib and effectively made her heart useless as a pump,” Spencer mumbled.

“That’s not what I meant, kid,” David told him, a small smile playing on the corners of his lips. He leaned his back against the window and said, “I know love when I see it.”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Spencer said, his back straightening as it clicked in his mind what he was implying. 

Now David chuckled as he said, “Don’t lie to me, kid. I see the way you two look at each other. The way you joke around together. You’re relaxed around her.” He paused for a moment before adding, “And between you and me, I’ve seen you two sneak off together when you thought no one was looking.”

Spencer cringed at the last bit, but couldn’t help the small smile that graced his lips at the thought of you. “We’ve been together for just over a year,” he said softly, the smile growing wider as he remembered your anniversary a few weeks prior. That smile quickly faltered though when he remembered what was happening in that hospital room a few halls down. 

“She’s going to pull through,” David said gently, his hand landing on Spencer’s back, giving him a gentle pat. 

When he said that, Spencer’s phone started ringing with a call from Hotch, who told him, “She’s stable and resting, they gave her a sedative so she doesn’t overwork herself again. The rest of us need to finish up at the scene. I trust you can get your paperwork done on the jet later. Call with updates please.”

“Yes sir,” Spencer replied, a tinge of hope in his voice at the words. 

“Well?” David asked expectantly when Spencer hung up.

“She’s stable!” he told him, the tension in his shoulders leaving as he exhaled deeply. 

“Then go to her!” David said, a smile on his face. 

“I-I will!” Spencer said, turning to take off toward the room he left you in. Before he could leave the older gentleman’s presence though, he asked, “David?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t tell Hotch.”

“It’s not my secret to tell,” he replied with a nod before he answered his cell, presumably with his own call from their unit chief.

The wait for you to wake up took longer than Spencer would have liked, and by then they already had to move you out of the emergency department and to a cardiac monitoring floor to make room for more emergencies. When your eyes finally fluttered open in the early hours of the morning, you cringed at the bright light coming from the window before orienting yourself to your surroundings. You were in a hospital room that much was clear, and beside you was Spencer, with one hand in yours and the other holding up what looked like a map that you assumed was a medication insert. Only Spencer would be reading up on whatever medications they may have given you for whatever you ended up in here for…

“Spence?” you whispered to get his attention. When his hazel eyes flicked away from the pamphlet and met yours, you could see how they instantly flooded with tears as a smile made its way onto his face. As he gently threw his arms around you, you asked, “What happened?”

“When you ran after the unsub you collapsed and your heart was beating extremely fast. I got you into the SUV and Derek drove you here to get treated,” he replied, his voice muffled by your hair. You could hear this disdain in this voice as he added, “They gave you this medication that stopped your heart and was supposed to put you back into a normal rhythm but it ended up making things worse. You went into an even deadlier heart rhythm and they had to shock you. No CPR thankfully, but the nurses said that if that first shock didn’t get you back they would have had to…” He pulled you impossibly closer as he whispered, “I was so scared. I thought I lost you…”

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m right here,” you whispered, your voice thick with emotion as you attempted to comfort him by rubbing soothing circles into his back. That was a lot to take in, but you hated seeing Spencer so upset and that was your biggest concern at the moment. 

You cleared your throat, but before you could ask what was on your mind, there was a knock at the door and two people came in, a nurse and a doctor of cardiology. The doctor sent you a warm smile and said, “It’s good to see you awake Miss, you gave the ED team a real scare last night!” 

“It was the doctor down there that caused such a fuss…” Spencer muttered, which earned a squeeze of your hand that warned him to be cordial. 

“Yes, that’s actually what I came up here to talk to you two about, er, you Miss.” He glanced down to your hands and didn’t notice a ring, so he asked, “And what’s your relation may I ask? Are you okay with him being here for this?”

“He’s my boyfriend and yes he’s allowed to be here. If I don’t remember something that big brain in there will,” you said, a quiet laugh leaving your lips. 

“Okay, great!” the doctor said as he clapped his hands together. “So when you came in, you were in what we call SVT which they treated with a medication called adenosine since you were unresponsive. It’s a fairly routine drug for emergent SVT conversion. When they gave it to you however, it threw your heart into V-fib which essentially caused your heart muscles to quiver instead of contract. In my years of experience, I’ve only ever seen one condition that would cause that medication to make your heart react like that.” He motioned for the nurse to hand the two of you a piece of paper as he continued, “What I think may be going on is called Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. It’s a condition in which the conduction system in your heart misfires and sends you into SVT. Luckily enough it’s easily treated with a heart ablation surgery, but you will have to go through the steps of a formal diagnosis before going through with that as this is just a guess. Do you have any questions for me?”

You looked at the doctor for a moment, your eyes wide as you shook your head no, unsure why you did it, but in your state of shock you didn’t know what else to do. You were sure whatever research Spencer does on the condition would answer any of your later questions anyway. Through the ringing in your ears you of course heard Spencer’s muffled voice asking the doctor as many questions as he could think of after reading through the education packet, but you paid no attention as you thought of the implications this might have on your job and life as a whole…

What felt like only a few moments passed in the fog of noise and chaos in your brain before you were gently pulled back to reality by Spencer’s soothing voice as he called out your name to get your attention. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” he asked when your eyes finally met with his concerned ones. 

“Too much… I don’t wanna think about it right now…” you whispered, a tear slipping from your eye as an array of emotions blasted through your body. He pulled you into a hug and rubbed your back, not pushing the topic further for the moment. 

Wanting a change in subject, you cleared your throat and focused on work, asking, “Did we get him? The unsub?”

As Spencer pulled away and tried to discreetly wipe a tear from his cheek, he laughed incredulously before saying, “All thanks to you.”

“Good. At least he’s put away now,” you said, relaxing as much as you could into the stiff hospital bed. 

Spencer looked at you and shook his head in disbelief as he said, “Only you could be told your heart stopped practically twice and that you may need surgery to fix it and you’re still more concerned about if we caught the unsub or not.” 

“What can I say, I was passionate about putting that one away,” you said, forcing a small smile on your face. 

Spencer for the first time in a while was at a loss of words for what else to say on the subject, so instead he simply whispered, “I love you,” before leaning forward to place a chaste kiss to your lips. 

The two of you quickly broke away from each other when you heard a squeal and something hitting the floor behind Spencer. When you both looked over to identify the sound, you saw your team standing in the room holding various gifts as well as your go-bag and some palatable food for breakfast. “You two! I- We- You-!” Penelope stuttered out as her eyes darted from your face to Spencer’s and back. She quickly crouched down and picked up what turned out to be a pack of makeup removing wipes before asking, “When did this happen?!”

“My man!” Derek said with a sly smile on his face as he went over to clap Spencer on the back.

“I- We can explain!” Spencer said, a bit of desperation in his voice as he watched Hotch place his get well balloon down on the table before walking out of the room. 

Spencer took one look at the returning terrified look on your face before starting to stand up to go after Hotch, but stopped when David placed a hand on his shoulder to stop his movement. “I’ll deal with it in a minute, kid. You stay with her.”

After a few moments of tense silence, you managed to say, “Surprise?” as Spencer once again resumed holding your hand. 

JJ laughed quietly as she sat down on the couch in the room, asking, “Like Garcia said, when did this happen?”

“Just over a year ago,” Spencer replied, squeezing your hand as his smile once again appeared. 

“A year?!” Penelope and JJ asked at the same time, their eyes wide in shock. 

David laughed and shook his head before asking, “And how did anyone else not notice?”

“In my defense, I thought it was an unspoken rule not to profile each other,” JJ mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“It’s not profiling if it’s obvious,” David said with a chuckle. He leaned over and placed a kiss to the top of your head before telling you, “Rest up and get to feeling better, you scared us all.”

“Yes sir,” you replied, huffing out a laugh as you watched him exit the room followed soon after by the rest of the team who gave you their well wishes too. “Well I guess that cat’s out of the bag now…” you whispered, pulling your blanket closer to your body as your anxiety began to creep in. 

“Hey, we’ll figure it out,” Spencer reassured you, his eyes flicking up to the heart monitor and noticing that your rate was beginning to climb. He squeezed your hand as he said, “Right now we just need to focus on figuring out if you have that condition the cardiologist mentioned. Dave is talking with Hotch and I’ll talk with him soon too, okay?” 

He gently lifted your chin and mumbled, “Deep breaths, sweetheart…” You simply nodded in response as you closed your eyes and tried to breathe in time with him to calm your racing heart and mind. 

After a few moments, Spencer reached over you and grabbed the pack of makeup wipes and took one out, starting to bring it to your face, which prompted you to ask, “What’re you doing, Spence?”

“I’m helping you take your makeup off,” he replied simply as he began to gently run the wipe over your jawline. “I know you hate when you get acne from your makeup when we're busy with cases…”

“I can do it, love, I’m sure you’ve been up all night and you need rest too,” you told him, gently grabbing his wrist to stop his movement. 

“I don’t mind,” he told you with a small smile on his lips. “This gives me an excuse to admire your beautiful features…”

You could feel yourself blushing as you mumbled, “You’ve had my features memorized intimately since around two months into our relationship.”

“And I’ll never tire of your beauty,” he told you as he coaxed your hand off of his wrist and began gently working the makeup off your face. 

“Je t’aime, Doctor Reid. You always know how to make me feel better,” you whispered a few minutes later when the last makeup wipe was discarded. 

“I love you too, sweetheart,” he replied, placing a gentle kiss on your lips once more. 

When you were cleared to discharge the next morning, the rest of the BAU had already flown back home. Hotch offered to send the jet back to get the two of you, but knowing that they could be called out on a case, Spencer declined, also citing to him, “People with unstable heart disease and arrhythmias have the risk of deadly episodes while in the air due to the pressure changes within the cabin as well as the lower oxygen levels and higher risk of dehydration, not to mention the added stress both physically and emotionally.”

“Is that your way of telling me you’re just renting a car to get back?” Hotch asked and the pair of you could practically see him pinching the bridge of his nose as he asked this. 

“Yes sir,” Spencer replied shortly. “If anything comes up feel free to call. We’ll both get our paperwork done before coming back to the office.”

“Thank you,” he said simply before hanging up. 

Since he hadn’t wanted to leave your side, Spencer hadn’t gotten the chance to speak with Hotch about your relationship and over the phone it was hard to tell what the annoyance in his tone was over… As you began to think about those implications, Spencer glanced over at you before taking your hand in his and saying, “You’re working yourself up again…”

“I’m just scared is all…” you mumbled as the pair of you followed the rental car agent to the car you would be taking back to Virginia. 

Once you were both in the car after Spencer inspected it for cleanliness, he took your hand in his and kissed your knuckles, reiterating to you, “We’re going to figure it out. David said he thinks Hotch will come around, and if you’re worried about your heart, we’ve already got your appointment scheduled for when we get back home. Whatever happens we’ll take it on together like we always do.”

“Thank you, Spence,” you whispered, tears welling up in your eyes once more. You felt like you had done more than enough crying in the past few days, even though there had been more than one occasion when Spencer had rattled off some facts about crying being a great form of stress relief. 

Walking into headquarters a few days later, you tugged at your shirt uncomfortably as you and Spencer stepped into the elevator together. You had been to the doctor the day before and they had attached you to a 24-hour heart monitor that they would use to aid in your diagnosis, and you’d be lying if you said all the wires didn’t cause you to be filled with an overwhelming feeling of insecurity. 

Taking note of your shifting, Spencer asked quietly, “Would you like to wear my jacket?”

“And give Hotch another reason to let me go?” you rebutted, your voice breaking at the end. 

“That’s not going to happen,” Spencer reassured you as the doors to the elevator opened and you two walked out and toward the BAU offices. 

It definitely felt that way though when the first thing you heard when emerging into the bullpen was Hotch calling both of your last names and saying, “You two, my office.”

Feeling like two teenagers caught in the act, when Spencer closed the door behind him, he immediately started rambling. “Hotch, please I can explain, we-”

“I don’t need an explanation, I need you to sign these forms,” your unit chief said, handing the both of you a packet of papers that you began reading even though the papers shook with the tremors in your hands. 

“If you just give me a second to-” Spencer tried again as he took the packet but didn’t so much as glance at it. 

“Sign the papers,” Hotch said, ignoring Spencer’s pleas for him to listen. 

“But-”

“Spence, read it,” you said a few moments later after you had read the summary of the form on the front page of the packet. 

At your words, Spencer finally looked down at the packet in his hands and within moments had it read, his mouth opening a little in shock as he asked Hotch, “Wait…you’re not mad?”

“Oh I’m mad. I’m mad that you two would keep such a secret from us, not only because I thought we functioned as a family here, but also because of how much your relationship played a role in that Tennessee case," Hotch told him sternly. "Seeing as even I never noticed before now and up until that case, it has never interfered with your work, I asked around and came up with some forms that should appease the higher-ups if for some reason this relationship were to get out to other teams.”

“So if we sign these forms then we’re both allowed to stay on the team as long as it doesn’t interfere with our work?” Spencer asked, slightly breathlessly. 

“Correct,” Hotch replied, the corners of his mouth almost tugging up into a smile. “We can’t afford to lose either one of you from this team.”

“Well that’s a relief…” you mumbled as you grabbed a pen out of the cup sitting on his desk and signed the paper in the appropriate places. 

“No more secrets, okay?” Hotch asked sternly as he eyed the two of you, pointing his own pen at each of you in turn. 

“No more secrets,” you both agreed, giggles flying out of both of your mouths as you looked at each other after saying the same phrase. 

“So when’s the wedding?” Derek asked with a chuckle as the two of you emerged from the office once everything was filed away. 

“Once we get her heart situation figured out because I know she’ll want to go to Europe for the honeymoon,” Spencer replied as he pulled you close and placed a kiss on your forehead. The statement made your heart leap in your chest and you began to think of excuses to tell the cardiologist about what caused that reading on the monitor. 

So with your job at the BAU still secure, you took a seat at your desk across from Spencer’s and sipped at the decaf coffee JJ had bought for the break room, completely grateful for the team, but even more so for Spencer. You weren’t sure how you would navigate this crazy and unpredictable life without him.

[waywardxrhea]

Chapter 5 - Black Butterflies and Deja Vu

What happens when you lie to the Devil? How long can one woman keep a lifetime of secrets from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen? The answer may surprise you...

installment list

pairing: Matt Murdock x enhanced!fem!OC

series content: coffee shop AU, fluff, humor, friends to lovers, pining, language, canon typical violence, angst, drinking, implied smut, medical emergencies, mental health disorders (PTSD, panic disorder).

"i lose my voice when i look at you, can't make a noise though i'm trying to tell you all the right words, waiting on the right words. just another lovesick afternoon, black butterflies and deja vu. hoping for the right words, waiting for the right words." - black butterflies and deja vu, the maine

word count: 5.3k

Flirting. That's the chapter. With some angst thrown in but sweet Matty is there for our girl.

a/n: so obviously this story is written third person limited in Crystal's POV most of the time so we don't know what Matt is thinking or sensing, so I try throughout this series to write Matt's reaction to Crystal in a way that isn't almost table topping (for lack of a better word we are using D&D terms now whoops) and having Crystal almost "know" that he can tell more of what's going on. in this chapter we get our first glance of Matt's senses really coming in handy when it comes to being in tune sympathizing with Crystal, I hope y'all enjoy and look forward to the future of Matt's reactions to her because they are so fun to write!

A couple more weeks passed at the shop with business going as usual. One morning Crystal was hanging up the last of the Valentine’s day decorations around the pastry case and singing quietly to the music playing over the speakers. When the bell above the door rang signaling the door opening, she automatically greeted the person with, “Good morning, welcome to Stardust, I’ll be right with you!” As she rounded the counter to get behind the register, she saw Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson and said, “You chaps are earlier than usual, it’s nice to see you two!”

“Well we’ve got an early morning at the courthouse today,” Matt informed her with a shrug. 

“Awe, well, if you have time to wait, there’s about two minutes left on some strawberry mini tarts that are in the oven,” she said. 

“Are they shaped like hearts?” Foggy asked as he looked around at all of the decor hanging in the shop. He laughed as he added, “Just assuming because it is very pink in here.”

“Just comes with the holiday I guess,” she replied with a quiet laugh. “What can I get you two today?”

“Want your usual Fog? I can get it today, go find a table for us, yeah?” Matt asked his friend. 

“You got it, I’ll be at the third table on the right, buddy,” Foggy replied before relieving Matt of his briefcase and heading off to the table. 

Once he left, Matt turned his attention back to Crystal and said with a charming smile, “We’ll have our usuals and two of those tarts you mentioned.”

“Of course,” Crystal replied as she tapped away at the computer to get the order in. 

As she made change for the bill Matt gave her, she could hear the slight smirk in his voice as he told her, “You know, if you’re as beautiful as your singing voice is, that sign out on the sidewalk is wrong.”

Heat instantly ignited in her cheeks at the flirtatious comment and she was so grateful that he wasn’t able to see the flush on her cheeks and the shock on her face. Her hands began to tremble a bit as she handed him back his change, mumbling, “Oh, I, uh, I- You’re too kind, Matt…”

“I’m just telling it how it is,” Matt replied back, his warm touch lingering on hers for a few more seconds than usual before he felt around for the tip jar to place the change in. 

When he walked away, Crystal barely heard the timer for the tarts going off due to the roaring in her ears. She snapped out of her trance though and went to get them out of the oven just as Raeyes turned the corner coming from the office with her clipboard in hand. “You okay…?” she asked in concern, the panic was apparently clearly written all over Crystal’s face. 

“Yeah, just fine,” she replied faintly as she pulled on the oven mitts to get the pastries out. 

Even after Matt and Foggy left for the day, Crystal’s mind kept running through the scene in her head over and over again to the point where when got off she missed having her afternoon tea because of the preoccupation. When Raeyes pointed it out as they got back to the flat for the day was when she finally admitted what happened. 

“He said what?!” she shouted excitedly as they put their purses in their proper places near the door. 

“I guess Foggy read him the sign like he usually does and he told me, and I quote, ‘If you’re as beautiful as your singing voice is, that sign out on the sidewalk is wrong.’” Crystal told her, sitting down on the loveseat and throwing her head backward over the headrest exasperatedly. 

“And what did you say back?!” Raeyes asked as she joined her on the loveseat, practically bouncing with excitement. 

Crystal covered her face with her hands as she groaned in embarrassment, replying, “I said that was kind of him to say…”

“Crystal! The hottest lawyer in New York said one of the smoothest lines of all time and that’s what you said back?!”

“I didn’t know what to say! I haven’t exactly flirted with anyone in nearly four years!” Crystal retaliated, an unexpected laugh escaping her lips. 

Raeyes sat deep in thought for a few moments before saying, “Okay, well, all hope is not lost yet! This is good actually! This shows that he likes you! We can work with that!”

“Rae,” Crystal said wearily, unsure of how she wanted to navigate this developing situation. 

“Crystal! Please! Just give it a chance!” Raeyes pleaded.

“I want to, God I want to. There’s a part of me that is desperate for change but…” she trailed off for a few moments to gather her words. She took a breath before finishing with, “But there’s also a part of me that still loves Kit and it feels… almost wrong to have feelings for someone else…”

“Oh Crys…” Raeyes said quietly before leaning over to give her a brief hug. She sighed before saying, “I know part of you is always going to love him, that’s only natural. This isn’t like normal relationships where he hurt you and therefore you don’t love him anymore. He freakin’ died and that’s the worst way for something like what you had to end. But you can’t let that keep you from living your life. I know I didn’t know him, but from what you tell me about Kit, he would want you to be happy. Why deny yourself that?”

“The change is just scary is all…” Crystal admitted quietly. 

“Adulting is scary, but sometimes we just have to do things that scare us in order to know that we’re still alive. What’s life without a little risk?”

“You and your Potter references,” Crystal said, huffing out a quiet laugh as she wiped away a tear from her eye. 

“I’m full of ‘em!” Raeyes said as she got up and went to the cabinet to grab a couple glasses for water. As she filled them up, she told Crystal, “You don’t have to do it now, but just…think of ways you can do a little more than ‘that was nice’ next time Murdock flirts with you.”

“You got it,” Crystal replied, although she was still doing mental gymnastics to try and navigate the situation... 

The day of February 28th rolled around and Crystal, as she expected, was a mess. She was a mess because today was Kit’s birthday. His first one not here on Earth. She woke up that morning with a pit in her stomach and felt like a dark cloud was constantly hovering over her as she readied herself for work. As she walked through the door of the shop and greeted the other openers for the day though, she forced a smile onto her lips and tried to pretend she wasn’t breaking down inside. 

The cloud stuck around all day and a little voice in the back of her head kept nagging her to use the VPN she installed on her phone to check Kit’s social media page. Against her better judgment, she did when she sat down on one of the couches in the corner of the shop for her break. What she saw when she opened the page shook her to the core. It was a post from his mother that read:

Today we should be celebrating my son’s birthday with him, but instead we grieved at the grave where he shouldn’t be in the first place. As many of you know Kit was killed a few months ago and I will never forgive the person I believe to be responsible. You know who you are. He should be here with me eating his favorite meal but tonight my husband and I sit at the dining table alone while the food grows cold on our plates. Happy heavenly birthday son, until we meet again. 

A numbness filled Crystal’s body as she read the post and almost as if someone else was making her move, she felt herself get up off of the couch and head toward the restroom to be out of the public eye. She barely heard Karen compliment her on the lunch the shop served as she made her way there, offering back an off-handed acceptance of the comment before locking herself in the restroom.

Once she locked the door, Crystal turned her back to it and slid down to the floor, covering her mouth with her hands as a choked sob escaped her mouth. Before she could even try to ground herself, Crystal found herself in the midst of a panic attack, giving the only bit of concentration she had to keeping her sobs quiet as she cried. 

She cried because she knew that she was the reason his mother wasn’t able to celebrate with him today. She cried because of how much she missed him. But she panicked because of the implication of one line of the message: "you know who you are." To her panicking mind, this meant that it wasn’t made public that she had died at the hands of the O’Hares. That to London at large she was still alive and well, stuck at home with her father and brother presumably still grieving over the loss of her mother and boyfriend. That perhaps they knew she wasn’t actually dead. 

After a few minutes of just trying to slow down her breathing and heart rate before she went into a WPW episode, Crystal finally got herself out of the panic attack. She stood up on shaking legs and steadied herself on the sink before washing the tears from her cheeks and redoing the messy bun atop her head. 

She shook her head as she looked in the mirror once more, telling herself that her thoughts had to be wrong. There was no way her father knew she was still alive. If it wasn’t made public it was probably because it would implicate both the O’Hares and Porters in illegal activity which would be bad for both of their operations. Or maybe it was simply a lapse in judgment on Kit’s mother’s part… Whatever the reason for it, there was no way it was because they thought she was still alive… They just couldn’t.

When she finally emerged from the restroom well after her allotted break time, Crystal quickly got to work clearing off tables that needed it. When she neared the table where Karen, Matt, and Foggy sat, she flashed a quick smile before asking, “Anything else I can get you lot today?”

Karen gave her a soft smile before telling her, “We’re just about to head out, thank you though.”

“Everything was perfect today, as usual,” Matt complimented as they all began gathering their belongings. Karen and Foggy began to walk toward the door slightly ahead of Matt while he unfolded his cane at the table that Crystal began to clear off in their departure. As Matt reached for the handle of his briefcase, his fingers brushed across Crystal’s hand and he told her softly, “Take it easy and have a great rest of your shift, Crystal. Thank you again.”

The first genuine smile of the day made its way onto Crystal’s lips at his words and she couldn’t help the butterflies that erupted in her stomach in reaction. Before he could walk away, Crystal told him, “Thank you Matt. You just made my day loads better, you have no idea…”

He gave her a smile and small wave before beginning to navigate toward the door where his friends stood waiting for him. As Crystal finished out her shift, the thoughts of panic associated with Kit’s mother’s post started to fade into the background. Her mind instead flirted with the possibilities of what Matt’s actions could imply, and while guilt occasionally seeped into those thoughts, she kept what Raeyes told her in mind to try and feel better about the situation as a whole. 

One evening a few days later after an extremely long shift at Stardust, Crystal trudged into her flat with one thing on her mind: curling up in her bed and not getting up until mid-morning. She was so determined to get there that she missed the bright pink post-it note stuck to the outside of the door to her flat. She took two steps into the apartment before silently making her way out, cringing at her mistake of not seeing the post-it. 

Wishing to forget what she heard within the walls of her and Raeyes’s shared flat, she wandered into the first bar she came across, one with a sign out front saying, Josie’s. The bar was small and poorly lit with classic rock playing from the speakers and was filled with patrons from all walks of life. 

Sitting down at the far end of the bar, Crystal ordered a double shot of the house special before pulling out her phone to browse social media while she waited out her time away from the flat. She was lost in thought for a little while, sipping on her drink, when she heard a familiar voice asking, “Hey, isn’t that the barista from the coffee shop?” 

“She’s got a name you know,” Crystal heard a female voice reply before calling out for some beers from the bartender. 

Not wanting to intrude, Crystal pretended she didn’t hear the conversation while taking a drag from her glass. As she placed her near empty glass on the bar, she jumped a little when she realized that the ever-handsome Matt Murdock was standing nearby with a charming smile on his face. She couldn’t help the flutter her heart gave upon seeing that smile and his sleeves rolled up, showing off his surprisingly buff forearms. “Fancy seeing you here,” she told him once the shock wore off. 

“You know, I would say the same, but,” he said, his smile growing at the comment. Crystal bit the inside of her cheek, but stopped when Matt added, “You can laugh at that.”

And so she did, asking him with a laugh, “You think you’ve got a wicked sense of humor, don’t you?”

“Yes, yes I do,” he said, a light chuckle rumbling out of his chest. “Judging by the lack of any other comments, I’m assuming you’re here alone?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, uh, yeah, actually. I’m not really needed nor welcome in my flat right now,” she replied. 

“Problems with your roommate?” Matt asked. 

“I mean if you count an active dating life and getting shagged as a problem, then yes.”

A loud laugh escaped Matt’s lips at the statement and Crystal couldn’t help but laugh along. “You Brits and your slang for sex,” he said, this time with a quieter chuckle. There was a moment of silence before Matt offered, “Why don’t you come and hang out with me and the others? Help get your mind off of all…that.”

“Oh I wouldn’t want to intrude,” she said reluctantly. 

“I insist. If it helps I’ll even buy your next drink,” he told her before calling out to the bartender to get her another drink. 

“I appreciate that because I really don’t want to remember tonight,” she said before she drank the rest of her first cocktail down. Her eyes went wide upon realizing what she said and heat crept onto her cheeks as she instantly began stuttering out, “I didn’t mean- I meant- Not wanting to forget hanging out with you lot, I’m sure that part is going to be lovely, it’s just…”

“Walking in on your roommate having sex wasn’t on your agenda tonight?” Matt asked, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Not exactly,” she replied before taking a sip from the new drink Josie sat in front of her. 

“You guys better watch out for her, those are doubles, Murdock,” the bartender warned. 

“Will do, Josie, thank you,” Matt replied. He turned back to where Crystal sat on the barstool and asked, “Do you mind leading me to where Fog and the others are?”

“I don’t mind at all,” she replied as she gingerly hopped off the chair and held out her arm for Matt to grab. When his large hand grabbed hold of her bicep, Crystal couldn’t help but feel heat rising to her cheeks again, but tried to blame it on the liquor starting to take effect. 

As they walked over, Matt began telling her, “So you know Karen and Foggy, but we’ve also got Marci here with us tonight. She and Foggy are dating.”

“Got it,” she said as they approached the table. 

She placed her drink on the table before helping Matt to his chair as Foggy said cheerfully, “Well if it isn’t our favorite baker and barista! Crystal, this is my girlfriend, Marci! Marci, this is the barista we’ve told you about!” 

“Pleasure to meet you,” Crystal said with a cordial smile. 

“You too! Foggy Bear never shuts up about your scones when you make them at the shop. If you end up being around more often you’ll have to share your recipe,” Marci told her. 

“So what brings you to Josie’s? I don’t think we’ve seen you around here before,” Karen said. 

Matt, seemingly unable to help the teasing tone in his voice, told her, “Her roommate is...how’d you say it? Shagging someone?”

Crystal laughed quietly before saying, “Yep, and I’ve still got about…” she checked the time on her phone before finishing with, “An hour and a half before I can go back to the flat.”

Foggy choked on his beer before asking, “Who has sex for that long?”

“Some people like foreplay, Foggy Bear,” Marci told him with a nudge of her elbow. 

Crystal laughed at the comment before telling them, “It’s just this rule she has in place for us living together. When the other has someone over like that, you put a post-it on the door with the time written on it. The other isn’t allowed back inside for two hours after the designated time. I made the mistake of being too exhausted from my shift at the shop to notice the note…”

“Are you saying you just got off of work?” Matt asked with concern in his voice. “Haven’t you been there since this morning?”

“Oh calm down counselor, I didn’t mind it,” she told him. “We had someone call in and when there’s only a handful of people on staff and no one else can come in, we do what we have to do. As I said, I don’t mind it, it’s not like I have much of a social life anyway. It’s…hard to meet people here if I’m honest,” she told him. 

“You’re telling me,” Karen said, raising her beer bottle to Crystal. “Luckily for me Matt and Foggy came into my life when they did. They ended up taking me under their wing when I was in some trouble.” Upon prompting from Crystal, Karen recounted the story of how the three of them met and how their friendship had flourished since then. She smiled at Crystal before telling her, “So if you’re looking for a group to take you under their wing, I’m sure we can be that for you.”

The sentiment had tears pooling in the backs of her eyes, and Crystal was about to respond when Marci asked, “So what brings you to Hell’s Kitchen anyway? How does one go from London to here of all places?”

“Hey, don’t drag Hell’s Kitchen like that,” Matt defended. “Some people actually like it here.”

“Fine, fine, but even you have to admit, London’s got to be loads better than around here, Matt!” Marci said with a playful roll of her eyes. She rested her chin on her hand as she turned back to Crystal and prompted, “So…?”

“Oh, I, uh… I just needed a change. Life back home wasn’t always the best for me, so I seized the opportunity to get out of there the first chance I got,” Crystal told her vaguely. 

“Well you know what they say, that America is the land of opportunity!” Foggy told her. 

The group discussed the differences between life in the UK versus the US before Karen slyly asked, “What about the difference between the men here and there?”

Crystal canted her head to the side, furrowing her eyebrows as she said, “I don’t follow.”

“Well you know what they say, English girls like sex,” Marci said with a wiggle of her eyebrows. She smirked before prompting, “So Miss London girl…?”

“I am certainly not drunk enough to be answering those questions right now,” Crystal replied with a laugh. She not so gracefully exited her chair and turned toward the bar, but not before adding, “And by the way I don’t have a comparison.”

Karen’s jaw dropped before she asked, “You’re telling me you’ve been in America for months and you haven’t been laid?”

“I plead the fifth! That’s how that saying goes right?” she asked before laughing as she headed toward the bar for another drink and something to snack on. 

While she waited at the bar with her drink, getting lost in her thoughts, a figure approached her, standing rather close. She looked over and saw a young man standing there with a smile on his face, saying, “I couldn’t help but overhear your beautiful accent earlier, where are you from?” 

“Oh, uh, London,” she replied, subtly stepping away. 

“Sweet, I bet it’s almost as beautiful there as you are,” he said with a wink. 

She cringed at the flirting, wishing it would stop as she replied awkwardly, “Oh...uh...thanks.”

He stepped closer, ignoring the growing space between them and placing his hand over hers on the bar, saying, “Why don’t you and me get out of here and-”

“Is everything all right, sweetheart?” came Matt’s voice from behind her. 

He leaned his cane up against the bar and snaked his hand around Crystal’s waist, running it down her side before resting it on her hip. At the touch, Crystal felt her heart speed up and a jolt of pleasure went south, causing her to shiver slightly under his hold. Matt’s hand subtly squeezed her hip, causing her to come back to the moment, telling him, “Everything’s fine, love, thank you. Just waiting on my order.” She removed her hand from the young man’s and added, “I was just about to tell this gentleman that I was here with someone already.”

The young man’s eyes went wide seeing Matt holding onto Crystal, so he stuttered out, “Sorry man, I didn’t realize, I’ll let her be. Have a good one.”

Once he was out of earshot and back with his friends across the room, Crystal let out a sigh of relief, telling Matt breathlessly, “Thanks for the save.”

“Any time,” he told her before letting his hold on her go seemingly reluctantly. “Foggy said you looked uncomfortable so I decided to step in. Karen and Marci are mad at me about it, but,” he said with a quiet chuckle. 

“They’re never going to let it go, huh?” Crystal asked as she took the basket of cheese sticks from Josie before guiding herself and Matt back to the table. 

“Probably not, they’re persistent,” Matt told her. “Even so, being four shots deep isn’t the best state to be in for your first time here in the states. They should know that.”

By the end of the night she ended up being six shots deep plus a couple beers that Marci pushed her way. While hanging out with the little group, Crystal had found herself babbling on and on about baking, telling them how it’s always been her dream to go to culinary school but hasn’t found the opportunity to do so. She shared a few recipes with Marci before Matt began helping her back to her flat. 

Once they got outside the door to her flat, Matt asked, “Post-it still there? Time hasn’t refreshed or anything has it?” 

Crystal scanned the door and saw that the post-it was no longer there, so she said, “Nope, all clear,” followed by a giggle as she fished around her purse for her keys. 

A smile was evident in Matt’s voice as he told her, “You know, you’re a really giggly drunk. It’s endearing.”

“And you’re extremely charming,” she told him, another giggle slipping out at her boldness. 

Crystal began trying to get the key into the doorknob, but dropped them in the process. She bent down to pick them up, but nearly fell over when she straightened. Almost as if instinctively, Crystal felt Matt reach out to steady her, his hand once again landing on her hip as her body pressed back onto his. “Woah there,” he said, an audible smirk on his lips. 

Matt put his hand over Crystal’s and helped her keep it steady as she slipped the key into the doorknob and turned it. The feeling of his hand over hers and their bodies so close together stirred something inside of Crystal, and images of what those hands were probably capable of began to flood her mind. Her breath hitched in her throat momentarily at the thoughts and she felt her blood begin to run south again. Matt’s grip on her hip once again tightened, but this time he shifted his body away from hers, saying, “I think it’s time for you to get inside. Thanks for letting me get you that drink tonight.”

With the alcohol dulling her brain to mouth filter, she once again giggled before telling him, “If there’s more nights like this in the future I wouldn’t mind. With or without alcohol.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he told her quietly before she opened the door and let herself in, a hand on the wall for support. 

“Goodnight, Matt,” she said with a wave.

“‘Night, Crys,” he told her, that charming smile once again making its appearance, along with the butterflies in Crystal’s stomach at the sight. She closed the door before thinking to herself, This man is going to be the death of me…

A few days passed and Matt couldn’t get the night with Crystal at Josie’s out of his head. One evening after a stressful case, he, Foggy, and Karen decided to go out and Matt offered up Stardust, citing, “We haven’t been there at night and you like wine Karen, why not try something different?” 

“He just wants to see Crystal again,” Foggy said under his breath to Karen.

“Let him be happy,” Karen chastised back with a light punch to his shoulder. 

“You guys know I can hear you, right?” Matt called from his office across the room as he packed away his things into his briefcase for the day. 

“We know!” they called back.

As they all walked out of the office, Foggy clapped Matt on the back and said, “You know, I think this is good for you, Matt. Getting out there again and all! Ever since Josie’s Marci’s been on and on about a double date. It’s actually kinda exhausting.”

“Make it a triple,” Karen said with a smile audible in her voice. “I met someone the other night on the way home from Josie’s. We hailed the same cab and figured out we were going to the same place. Turns out we actually have a lot in common and are planning a date for this weekend…”

“Karen Page, would you look at you!” Foggy said in light of the news.

“Good for you, Karen, I’m happy for you,” Matt told her as the three of them walked down the hallway to the exit of their building. 

“And I’ll be happy for you when you finally man up and ask Crystal on a date,” Karen told him, a fake sternness in her tone. 

“Okay, what’s with you two and the pushing for me and her to date all of a sudden?” Matt asked. 

Foggy scoffed before replying, “Matt, buddy, come on.” 

“What?”

“I guess love really is blind,” he joked before getting a playful punch on the shoulder from Matt in return. 

“You’re ridiculous,” Matt said with a chuckle, shaking his head in disbelief. 

While he and his friends ate their respective meals and drinks at Stardust, Matt couldn’t help but listen to Crystal quietly singing to the music playing over the shop’s speakers as she helped Raeyes put up decorations around the shop. She had been off today, but it was by incredible luck that she was there that evening. Foggy swore up and down that Matt had to have known, but he really didn’t. 

Matt was taken out of his slight trance when there were suddenly fingers snapping right beside his ear, startling him back into reality. He shook his head before saying, “Sorry, I got distracted, what were you saying?”

He could hear the disbelief in his voice as Foggy said, “You’ve got it bad man!”

Tilting his head to the side a bit, Matt asked, “What do you mean?”

The sly tone of Karen’s voice came next, saying, “I know what’s got him so distracted.”

“Enlighten me,” Foggy said, a hint of mischief in his voice. 

“He’s always listening to her sing when we’re here, so I assume that’s what he’s doing right now, and the song that’s playing, it’s…let’s say sexually charged.”

“Wait, wait I know this one, it’s Ready For It…? by Taylor Swift, Marci’s always listening to this album!” Foggy’s laugh filled Matt’s ears before he said incredulously, “Don’t tell me you’re picturing sex with the girl you’re too scared to even make a move on, Murdock!”

“He totally is,” Karen’s teasing voice said. 

Foggy nudged Matt in the ribs before asking, “What, are you wishing it was you making her make that noise instead of a song? Can’t get there if you don’t make a move, bud!”

Matt shook his head before asking, “Can we talk about something else? What about what we’re going to do with all the potatoes Mrs. Aledes gave us after we settled her case?”

“No, I think this is something we need to discuss,” Karen said, her tone shifting to something softer now. She laughed lightly before adding, “Not the sex thing, but the subject in general. You’ve clearly had her on your radar for a while, why don’t you make a move?” 

“Yeah, for real, since when has Matthew Murdock not pursued one of the many attractive women he somehow knows how to sniff out?” Foggy asked. “Probably literally.”

“Well I mean besides the obvious…other part of my life historically interfering with the safety of people I care about…” Matt started out with, ignoring the second comment. He sighed before admitting, “I guess I’m still trying to get a read on her. Her body gives me all the signs that she’s attracted to me, but…her heart tends to flutter when she’s talking to other men and women too.”

“People can be bisexual, Matt,” Foggy said matter-of-factly. 

“I know that, you didn’t let me finish, Fog,” Matt said. “I’m not even sure she’s ready for a relationship right now, I’ve heard her turn away other people who have tried to give her their number.”

“Who’s to say she doesn’t want one with you and is just waiting for you to make a move? I’m just saying, this is clearly something you want and sitting here listening to her sing that song isn’t doing anything to help,” Karen said. Laughter burst out of her as she added, “Now think about making a move before I start requesting sex songs every time we come in here!”

Matt chuckled and shook his head as he said, “Please don’t.” What he added in his head after though was, I don’t know if I could hold myself back from her again if you do…

next chapter

[waywardxrhea]

i would like to add the z-rail

[waywardxrhea]

🫶🏻

Can you please do some Criminal Minds divider’s? I can’t find any anywhere! I would greatly appreciate it, thank you!

Here’s some, hope you like them - they’re just basic ones with various characters / line ups. If you would like any specifc characters then send me a message  ❤

[waywardxrhea]

Chapter 4 - We Could Be

What happens when you lie to the Devil? How long can one woman keep a lifetime of secrets from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen? The answer may surprise you...

installment list

pairing: Matt Murdock x enhanced!fem!OC

series content: coffee shop AU, fluff, humor, friends to lovers, pining, language, canon typical violence, angst, drinking, implored smut, medical emergencies, mental health disorders (PTSD, panic disorder).

"we could hide away in daylight. we go undercover, wait out the sun. got a secret side in plain sight. where the streets are empty that's where we run." - heroes (we could be), alesso and tove lo

word count: 3.1k

Crystal and Daredevil team up for the first time.

A few nights later when the rain had finally cleared up, Crystal went out once again to patrol the streets and stop petty crime. Over the last few months she only had a couple more run-ins with Daredevil, and he seemed to not be as hostile with her, but that’s only because she told him that she won’t get in his way as long as he stuck to his side of things and she stuck to hers. Since then there hadn’t seemed to be much of a problem. Until tonight. 

Crystal had tripped up some thug walking away from a club with a gun in hand and the cops took him away for public intoxication, which was only prompted because of his haphazard fending off of the rocks that Crystal slung at him. Before she could make her way out from her hiding space, she was being grabbed from behind and pinned to the ground. 

She activated her powers and caused the slab of ground to lift up and slide herself and her attacker off before getting to her feet and assuming a fighting stance, only to see Daredevil standing in front of her. “What now?” she asked in her American accent.

“I thought you said you’d stay out of my business,” he told her. “I was tailing that man to wherever his boss is hiding, but now I can’t because he’s in police custody.”

“How was I supposed to know what your business is? All I knew is that he was armed and he was making a bee-line right toward that little old woman, grumbling about needing money. If I recall correctly, our agreement was that I deal with petty shit like that.” she told him haughtily. “If you so desperately need me to know when and where your business is, then give me your phone number or something,” she added sarcastically. 

“If it’ll make you stay out of my way then fine,” he said before giving her a number to memorize in order to reach him. “Get a burner to use for calling that number and only use that phone to contact me. It’s important that I take down this gang, so stay out of my way.” 

“You got it,” she mumbled as he silently climbed the fire escape and went off into the night. 

A few nights later though while she was actually at the gym, that burner phone began ringing from inside her bag. Quickly re-racking the weights, she wiped off the sweat from her hands and answered the phone, asking in her accent she used around him, “Where do I need to avoid tonight?”

She was met with a sigh on the other line before Daredevil said, “I actually may be able to use your help tonight.”

“Oh so you need me now, huh?” she asked with a smirk on her lips. 

“I don’t need you, things just may be easier with some help,” he replied. “Meet me in the abandoned warehouse on 43rd and 11th.” 

“I’ll be there,” she said before grabbing her things. As she exited the gym, she pulled on her hoodie and ensured the balaclava was in the pocket so she would be able to quickly get it on when she got closer. 

When she approached the warehouse, her eyes darted every which way searching for any signs that this may be a trap. She pulled on her mask before entering and continued her search once she got inside. Spotting the masked man standing perched in the rafters of the building, she gave a short and soft whistle to signal that she was there. 

“Did you see anyone outside following you?” he asked as he climbed down. 

“No, I’m alone,” she replied. “What’d you call me here for?” As she asked that, she froze in place, crouching down and placing her hand on the ground. She felt a rumble beneath her that was unlike the normal feeling of the subway trains traveling. Her eyebrows scrunched together before she said aloud, “Someone’s using a jackhammer nearby. Three streets up.” 

Daredevil nodded and informed her, “There’s no construction going on nearby, so I have reason to believe that the gang I’m trying to take down is building a tunnel system to run their product.” 

“So you want me to, what, block their path?” she asked. “They’ve already tunneled under this building and made damn good progress with it. What’s your plan here?”

“Like you said, they already tunneled underneath here. The entrances are heavily guarded at all hours, so if I want to keep the element of surprise on my side until I can take them down, I need to find another way in, so…”

“So you’re asking me to use my abilities to get you into the tunnel so you can find out where it leads and hopefully find the man in charge there?”

“Or at least beat a name out of his men,” he replied with a shrug. 

Crystal looked at him for a few moments, her eyes slightly narrowed as she thought through his proposition. Finally making a decision, she said cautiously, “On one condition: I officially have no involvement in this. There hasn’t been any media coverage of me and I intend on keeping it that way.”

“There hasn’t been any coverage because everyone who you’ve run into has been called crazy or accused of being under the influence of drugs. The Bulletin is getting suspicious though, so watch your back if you plan on staying hidden,” he told her. 

As she walked around trying to find the best place to get him into the tunnel, she asked, “Why are you telling me this? I sorta got the vibes that you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, I just needed to make sure I could trust you. Yes it annoyed me the other night when you got my lead taken in, but…you probably saved that woman’s life and I can’t fault you for acting on your instincts.” He paused and pointed to an area of the floor, saying, “There would be good, I can hear the wind blowing against the walls, it’s a wider part of the tunnel to get in through.”

Crystal placed her hand on the spot and shook her head, saying, “There’s flaws in the structure though, if you go in there, you risk the building collapsing on you.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he muttered. 

“Oh yeah, I read all about the Midland Circle thing, sorry about that…” she said quietly. After this sentiment, an almost awkward silence filled the room as they continued searching for a spot to enter from. The tension in the air bothered Crystal as she searched and she wanted to say something to ease it, but why? They barely knew each other, and up until this evening, she thought he hated her...

She walked around for another minute feeling the walls and floor before finally finding a stable spot. “Here,” she said, pointing to the area. “Do you need me to come with you in case things get bad down there?”

“I’ve taken down plenty of men with guns before, I can handle them,” he replied with a shake of his head. 

“No, I mean with the tunnel,” she said. “This area isn’t meant to be dug under like this, there’s a chance it collapses and from what I hear about you, this city doesn’t need you buried under the rubble if the next three blocks collapse.” 

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me so far,” Daredevil said with a small smirk on his lips. 

“Oh don’t get a big head about it,” Crystal replied with a roll of her eyes. She stood up and stomped the ground, upturning her palm to make the piece of rubble float up. She turned to him and started to ask, “Now do you want me to go or-”

“Get in now,” he said as his ear turned toward the front of the building. “There’s police patrolling outside, someone must know I’m onto them and tipped them off…”

“How do you-?” she tried to ask but stopped as he roughly gestured toward the hole she created. She saw flashlights shining into the front room where they just were and made her way into the tunnel quickly. Once they were both safely in and Crystal sealed the hole back up, she whispered, “How did you know the cops were there? They didn’t even announce themselves yet!”

“I could hear their footsteps and heartbeats,” he replied as he pointed in the direction of the hammering. 

“You what?” she asked, eyes widening. She froze in place at this new development, which in turn caused Daredevil to stop his walk toward the sound of the jackhammer.

As he turned back toward her, he explained, “My senses are heightened. I can hear what other people can’t, so when I say trust me on these things, just trust me. I trusted you with the integrity of the stone.”

“O-okay, wow. That’s a bombshell to drop on a girl,” she said wearily. 

“Your heart’s racing, are you nervous?” he asked with an obvious smirk on his lips as he turned to begin the walk toward the noise. 

“Shut up, I’m not nervous, I have a heart condition,” she defended herself quickly, a lightness in her tone to let him know she didn't truly take offense. “The downside of being gifted my powers is that God decided to give me a dysfunctional heart. Can’t have everything I guess…”

“You’re right there,” he said quietly before sticking his arm out to stop her in her tracks. He lifted his finger to his mouth, silently telling her to be quiet as he pushed both of their backs against the tunnel wall. 

A few seconds passed before he lowered his arm from in front of her, nodding and pointing forward again. “They have a crossroads up ahead, I assume it leads to other hideouts…” he whispered as they trekked forward. 

“Well which way do you want to go then?” Crystal asked. 

He listened for a few moments before saying, “This way, there are less voices this way and the hammering sounds like it’s coming from there. If I ambush them then they’re trapped and I can get the information I need…”

So they continued on straight ahead for a few minutes until Crystal began to have an uneasiness in her gut. “Something’s not right,” she said as she placed her hand on the tunnel wall. 

“They’re coming this way,” Daredevil warned as he pulled his weapons off of his legs and got into a fighting stance. 

“And this whole place is about to go down!” Crystal whisper-shouted at him. “I can feel the rocks starting to shift. They must’ve hit something they shouldn’t. We need to get out of here!"

“But I need to-”

“You can’t get information out of them if you’re dead! Let’s go!” she snapped. “When this all goes down the police will be on the scene anyway, they can question them!”

“But-” he tried, but stopped as rocks around them began crumbling off the ceiling. 

Before they could move any further, the ceiling had begun to come down in large chunks around them. Daredevil dove toward Crystal and protected her head from the rubble, but as they hit the ground, she made a motion with her arms, causing a dome of rock to act as a shield as the area around them collapsed. They sat there crouched together for a few minutes as they listened to the chaos around them wind down. 

Once the sound of crashing rubble stopped, Daredevil announced, “Police are on the scene. They’re calling for rescue dogs to search for victims since they found the men from earlier in the rubble.”

“We need to get out. I can’t be found here,” she mumbled as she began working the stone around her so they could get out safely. 

“The police won’t think you’re involved if you stick with me,” Daredevil said as he followed her path clearing the debris. 

“It isn’t about them, although that doesn’t help either,” she said as she found a way out into the cool night air. As she looked around at their surroundings she noticed that they were boxed in by a high barred metal fence. 

“Then why-?” Daredevil asked as she approached the fence and placed her hands on two of the bars. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting out of here,” she said with a grunt of effort as she closed her eyes and focused on the stone within the metal to bend it to her will. When she made an opening large enough to slip through, she gave the man a two finger salute before telling him, “It was nice working with you. Let’s do it again sometime. And thanks for the save back there.”

“No problem,” he said as she walked off into the night, dodging any police in the area and making her way back to the gym to get her bag from the locker she left it in. 

When she got back to the flat, Crystal hung her keys on the hook beside the door before she was suddenly engulfed in a hug by her roommate, who asked, “Where have you been? When I got home there was no note, you weren’t answering your phone! There was a road collapse, you could have been involved for all I know!” 

“Thank you for the concern, but I’m fine, Rae. I was just at the gym again,” Crystal told her, which wasn’t a total lie. 

“Which you’ve been doing a lot lately! You know we both have to pull a double tomorrow, so staying out this late is not good for you! And there’s no way you’re always at the gym. Nearly every night this week? Come on, tell me what’s really going on girl!” Raeyes said as she let go of the hug. 

Crystal tried to come up with a clever lie, but before she could, Raeye’s eyes went wide and a sly smirk began to form on her face as she said, “Wait! Don’t tell me you’re-!”

“I’m what?” she asked, her heart starting to speed up in her chest. 

“Are you sleeping with the hot lawyer from the shop?! Please tell me you’re sleeping with the hot lawyer from the shop! He’s been coming in every other day now, is that why? Girl!”

“No!” Crystal replied as heat began to creep its way up her neck at the prospect of sleeping with him. “And his name’s Matt…”

“Ooh so you’re on a first name basis with him?” Raeyes asked with a wink.

“No! I’m on a first name basis with his order,” Crystal retaliated with a sheepish laugh. 

“Well if not that, then what is it? And don’t you try to lie to me! Remember, the deal was if we’re to be living together we have to be honest with each other!”

Feeling backed into a corner, Crystal sighed and said, “Fine, but you can’t tell anyone, okay? Not your mum, not your brother, not even your mum’s cat!”

“Fine, fine, I get it, I’m being sworn to secrecy! What can be so secret that I can’t even tell Oreo?”

Crystal took a deep breath before asking, “You remember that night you said you saw someone break the ground with their feet?”

“Yeah, but I said that it may have been a coincidence that it happened, I didn’t think-” she said, but began to trail off at the end. “Wait, are you saying…?”

“That was me,” Crystal confirmed. “I have the ability to manipulate rocks around me and make them move how I want them to. Ever since I moved to New York, I’ve been going out at night and stopping petty crime like that. I just… I guess you can say I have a saving people complex since Kit died and if I can prevent someone from getting hurt I will.”

“Holy shit, I- Wow! This is a lot to take in at once,” Raeyes stuttered out. “Okay first off, how did Kit die if you have a saving people complex because of it?”

“Oh, he uh…was a bartender and got into it with the wrong guys. He took it back behind the pub and was killed for it…” she lied, in a slight panic at the information she let slip.  

“Oh wow, I can’t say sorry enough, holy shit…” Raeyes whispered. Once the initial shock seemed to wear off, she shook her head and crossed her arms before saying, “Okay, second, prove to me that it was you I saw that night.”

“Get slippers on then, we’re going outside,” she told her with a quiet laugh. 

When the pair got outside and walked to the alleyway between their building and the next, Crystal stomped her foot on the ground and caused a split in the stone beneath her feet. She then did her signature stomp and punch to launch some stone at the wall across from them before laying her hand on the ground to restore it all back to normal. “Believe me now?” she asked. 

“Holy shit, you’re just like Toph…” Raeyes whispered with wide eyes as a smile burst onto her face. 

“Pardon?” Crystal asked, an eyebrow raising up into her forehead.

“From Avatar: The Last Airbender! She’s what they call an earth bender and she does stuff just like that!” Raeyes gushed. “How did you get these powers?!” 

“I was born with them. The theory is that since Mum worked with space matter while pregnant, the radiation from them gave me these powers,” she replied as they began walking back into their building. 

Once they got into the flat, Raeyes asked with excitement in her voice, “Oh my gosh, have you worked with Daredevil?”

“Funny enough, tonight was my first time working with him, actually. Before now he didn’t trust me for the same reasons you didn’t when you first saw me on the street,” Crystal replied. She cleared her throat before adding, “And for transparency's sake, we were there tonight when the road collapsed… I won’t tell you why for your safety, but… I got us out of there.”

Raeyes’s jaw dropped and she whispered, “I’m living with a superhero…”

“Okay I wouldn’t go that far,” Crystal said with a laugh. 

“You have badass powers that could rival some of the Avengers, that qualifies!” she countered. 

Crystal shook her head and she laughed, saying, “Well we both have to pull a double tomorrow, so I’m going to get freshened up and then I’m going to sleep. It’s been a long night. Goodnight Raeyes.”

“Night, Rockie!” she replied with a laugh. 

“Oh we are not giving me a codename!” Crystal said back, laughing as she shut the bathroom door. 

next chapter

a/n: for those of you who did not get the chance to read my little story regarding where I got Crystal's powerset, go to the introductory chapter and read it or here's the shortened version - I accidentally ripped off ATLA when I created this powerset before I even watched the show and realized it when I finally watched it during the height of the pandemic, so yes I am in fact making fun of my "mistake" by having Raeyes compare Crystal to Toph lol

[waywardxrhea]

Chapter 3 - Good Grief

What happens when you lie to the Devil? How long can one woman keep a lifetime of secrets from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen? The answer may surprise you...

installment list

pairing: Matt Murdock x enhanced!fem!OC

series content: coffee shop AU, fluff, humor, friends to lovers, pining, language, canon typical violence, angst, drinking, implied smut, medical emergencies, mental health disorders (PTSD, panic disorder).

"my pain's a testament to how much you meant to me. i know it wouldn't be this hard if it wasn't good grief" - good grief, leanna firestone

word count: 3k

Crystal gets her first job and meets her future roommate. We also get our first interaction between Crystal and Matt!

After a few more days in the hotel and coming to the conclusion that no one from home was after her, Crystal decided to venture out to find a job to keep a low profile at. As she was walking down the crowded sidewalks, a “help wanted” sign hanging on a shop window caught her eye. Making her way closer to the shop she noticed that it was a cozy looking coffee shop called Stardust Brewing Company. 

Deciding to take a chance, Crystal pushed open the door and was immediately met with the smell of roasting coffee. She took in the scent with closed eyes for a moment before taking a look around the shop. It was a cozy space with all sorts of mismatched tables and chairs of all sizes littered about the room. There were a couple of loveseats and armchairs in one corner surrounding a low-set coffee table which housed a group of young adults seeming to be deep in thought with books surrounding them. 

As her eyes swept to her left she noticed racks of wine beside a handwritten chalkboard menu displaying the variety the shop had to offer. Near the cash register she saw some pastries in a display case that looked worse for wear, but were probably still delicious. Her survey of the place was interrupted as a friendly face behind the counter called out, “Hey, welcome to Stardust, how can I help you today?”

“Oh, hi, I uh, I saw the help wanted sign posted on the window, are you still hiring?” Crystal asked. 

“A Brit, huh? You sure you’d be okay working in a coffee joint?” the young woman asked with a bright laugh. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Do you have any experience slinging coffee?”

“Not exactly, but…” Crystal trailed off awkwardly before her eyes landed on the pastries again. “I’m a smashing pastry chef though and I’d like to say that I’m a fast learner. I also know a thing or two about wine if that helps.”

“You’re hired,” the woman said while sticking out her hand for Crystal to shake. 

“Just like that?” Crystal asked, taken aback by the informality of it. 

“Well considering I’m the hiring manager, yes, just like that,” she replied with a smile. “My name is Raeyes by the way. And you are…?”

“Crystal. Crystal Shaw,” she replied with a warm smile before shaking Raeyes’s hand. 

“Great! Very nice to meet you Crystal! I look forward to those pastries of yours because, between you and me, Lainey isn’t the best at making them. We were about to just switch to store bought and call it good, but it seems you answered our prayers!” she told her. “Now let's get you some paperwork to fill out and we’ll go from there!”

“Sounds great,” Crystal said, a giddiness starting to fill her chest at the prospect of such a normal job where she could use the skills she got from her mum rather than do what her father ordered. 

After filling out all the proper paperwork, Crystal sipped on a cup of tea while glancing at the noticeboard posted by the counter. Her eyes gravitated toward the untouched paper advertising that someone was looking for a roommate. Flashes of American movies and telly shows breezed through Crystal’s mind as she pictured herself having a roommate and doing all sorts of things together like they did in shows like FRIENDS. 

Doubt began to creep into her mind though as she thought about why she was in America in the first place. What if her father were to somehow figure out that the O’Hares faked her death and that she was actually hiding away in Hell’s Kitchen? Would they also go after her roommate? After what she pulled with the O’Hares, her father would be out for blood and with how determined of a man he is, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he would hurt anyone to get his hands on her. 

Her thoughts were interrupted though as Raeyes came to collect her paperwork and asked, “You have your eyes on that roommate wanted sign?”

Crystal found herself nodding before she could think and found her mouth saying, “Yeah. I’ve been living out of a hotel since I got here, but that isn’t the most sustainable option…”

“That is very true, especially on a barista’s salary,” Raeyes said. “And neither is living alone in a two bedroom apartment in this city. Which is exactly what I’ll be doing if no one answers that flyer.”

“Oh, so that’s…?” Crystal asked, trailing off toward the end. 

“My last ditch effort in finding a roommate to split rent with? Yep,” Raeyes replied. She sighed quite dramatically before adding, “If only there were someone else who needed a roommate quickly…”

“Are you asking me to be your roommate, Raeyes?” Crystal asked with a laugh.

“I mean…” she dragged out, a bright smile teasing her lips. 

Once again speaking before she could think, Crystal replied, “Then your roommate I’ll be!” She laughed before saying, “I have a feeling we’re about to become extremely close extremely fast.”

A month of living and working together passed and Crystal found herself closer to Raeyes than she ever was allowed to be with anyone else back in London. They built their friendship on sharing cultural traditions, complaining about customers at work, and different food and wine pairings they were both fond of. Crystal had spent Christmas and the New Year with Raeyes and her family, and was already being called a second daughter by her mother. 

Crystal knew practically everything about Raeyes after quite a few drunk nights together, and Raeyes knew everything that Crystal was willing to share. When talking about London, her family life, and her past relationship she always kept things vague so she didn’t have a guilty conscience about lying to her roommate, but trying to be vague about why her relationship with Kit ended was hard. 

So on nights like tonight when Raeyes went out with some guy that she met at the coffee shop, Crystal always opted out of a double date, citing, “It’s still too soon after my last relationship, I’m not ready to start dating again, Rae…” 

Thinking about Kit always broke Crystal’s heart and the only way she knew how to take away that sting was to go out and help people who needed saving. It was her way of honoring Kit, because she would be damned if she let anyone else end up like he did…

While out that night, Crystal kept an eye on the route she knew Raeyes would be taking home, just to make sure that she got there safe after the date. While watching the route, she heard a woman shouting, “Get your hands off my purse! Help! Someone!” 

Taking that as her queue, Crystal checked that the coast was clear otherwise and pulled the balaklava over her face, walking toward the situation. As she passed the confrontation, she activated her powers as she stepped near them, causing a large rift to form in the ground between the man and woman. “What the-?” the man yelped in surprise, loosening his grip on the purse. 

As she turned between the nearest two buildings, Crystal stomped the ground and punched the air, causing the debris to go whizzing right past the man’s face. The distraction this caused was enough for the woman to take off running in the opposite direction with her purse safely tucked under her arm. 

Before the man could come to investigate who was behind the rock attack, Crystal quickly laid her hand on the ground and returned it to its original state and used her powers to form a pillar that boosted her up onto the building. 

She stayed out for a little while longer that night, at one point having used her powers from up on a fire escape to blindside a man who had run from the police into an alleyway. After incapacitating the man so he could be taken into police custody, she jumped down from the fire escape, landing a bit rough on her feet. As she did, she felt her heart skip a beat before going into overdrive inside her chest. The adrenaline already pumping through her veins made everything tenfold worse than when she usually had an episode and she found herself stumbling toward the brick wall trying to hold herself up as her peripheral vision began to narrow. Crystal turned her back to the wall and sunk down it, taking deep breaths for a few minutes until her heart finally kicked back into a normal rhythm. 

After she recovered, she began the trek back to the flat, cursing her body for how often it’s been giving her episodes like that since she moved to New York. Sure, the stress had been a lot and she didn't sleep well most nights, but she thought she had it under control for a while back home…

When she returned to the flat, she saw Raeyes sitting on the loveseat watching TV with a bowl of ice cream. “Hey girl, where’ve you been? I didn’t want to head off to bed ‘til I knew you were safe,” she said as she paused her cooking show. 

“Oh I just went out to the gym, it helps clear my mind,” she replied casually as she hung her keys on the board by the door. “How was the date?”

Raeyes shrugged and replied, “It was okay I guess. He seemed more interested in talking about coffee than anything, there was literally no other common ground. Needless to say I don’t think I’m calling him back.” She took another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and finished it before adding, “Actually, the most interesting part of my night happened afterward.”

“Care to share? Or do I even want to know?” Crystal asked with a laugh as she made herself comfortable on the couch. 

“Not like that! Not this time,” Raeyes said, giving Crystal a playful punch on the shoulder for the comment. “Anyway, when I was walking home, I swear I saw someone break the sidewalk with their feet? Maybe it was just a coincidence, I don’t know. They were passing a man trying to rob this woman and as they did, the ground between them split and that’s how she got away.” She laughed lightly before adding, “It also looked like they threw a rock at him from in an alley. If it was really them that caused it, it was badass, but…”

“But what?” Crystal asked curiously when silence filled the room for a few moments.

Raeyes shook her head and said, “It just worries me that this person could be another wannabe vigilante who’ll just get people hurt. If they can cause rifts in the ground like that, who knows what else they’re capable of!”

“Another?” Crystal asked, trying to play dumb.

“Well yeah, like another copycat Daredevil. You know who Daredevil is right? The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen? Surely I’ve talked about him before, he’s only the hottest man in the Kitchen. I don’t even have to see the rest of his face to know that!”

Crystal feigned ignorance and said, “I can’t say I know who you’re talking about.” Raeyes’s jaw dropped for a moment before she began pouring into a whole spiel about this masked vigilante who has been involved in the takedown of multiple drug gangs in the Kitchen as well as of a man named Wilson Fisk who was the head of all the corruption. 

“Thing is though, there have been a couple of men who have tried to be what he is and take justice into their own hands, and… a lot of people died because of it. The first man killed a lot of gang members that he claimed deserved it, but the other one… He killed anyone who got in his way. My cousin was one of them…” Raeyes said sadly. “The man that killed him dressed up in the same suit Daredevil used to wear and anyone who tried to stop him ended up dead, including innocent hotel workers like my cousin.”

Crystal covered her mouth in shock at the revelation and whispered, “Oh my God I’m so sorry, Rae… That must have been really difficult for your family, I know how close you all are…”

“Thank you, it was,” she whispered, wiping a tear from her cheek with the sleeve of her hoodie. She took a deep breath before saying, “So that’s why I don’t really trust the vigilante type anymore. The only reason I trust the real Daredevil is because I know that he’s never killed anyone.”

“I understand yeah,” Crystal replied with a nod. “Well maybe this person you saw is a good one too.”

“Here’s to hoping,” Raeyes said with a toast of her ice cream spoon. 

One cold and rainy day in late January, Crystal and Raeyes were working the morning shift at Stardust. As Crystal emerged from the kitchen with a fresh batch of pastries, Raeyes motioned out the window with a laugh and told her, “Your sidewalk sign’s a hit today. It’s bringing in the crowds.”

“Yeah, I think that might actually be because of the weather,” Crystal countered with a laugh as the bell on the door jingled signaling an incoming customer. “Welcome to Stardust, we’ll be right with you!” she called to the group that consisted of three well dressed individuals.

After wiping off her hands from the pastry glaze, Crystal made her way to the register and smiled before asking, “Welcome in, what can I get started for you all?”

“I’ll take a caramel latte,” the tall blonde woman replied. She turned to her friends and asked, “Matt? Foggy?” 

“I think I’ll have an Americano and one of those pastries,” the man with the lighter hair said. “Are they strawberry?”

“Strawberry rhubarb. Just came out of the oven not too long ago,” she replied. 

“Even better! And can you make that Americano extra strong? We’ve got a long day ahead of us and our coffee pot just broke at the office…”

“Of course, no problem,” Crystal replied. “Shame about the coffee maker though. Glad to see you all here though, supporting local and all.”

When he was done ordering, the other man who was very attractive and wore red-tinted glasses stepped forward and said, “Just the house roast with organic creamer if you have any.” 

“We’ve got organic vanilla bean creamer, does that sound okay?” she asked.

“Sounds great,” he replied, flashing a charming smile her way. The sight unexpectedly made her slightly weak in the knees and hearing his laugh didn’t help when he said, “‘Unattended kids will be given a shot of espresso and taught to curse.’ My friends read me the sign you guys have out front, did you make it?”

Crystal laughed quietly before replying, “Yes actually. We’ve been having trouble with mums bringing in their super rambunctious little ones so I decided to have a bit of fun with the sign.”

“Well I think it’s very clever,” he said as he handed her some cash for their purchase. 

“Thank you,” she replied. “What’s the name for the order?”

“Matt,” he replied with another charming smile as he took the change and felt around for the tip jar to drop it into. He then unfolded his cane and began making his way over to where his friends called out his name. 

Raeyes turned her head toward Crystal once he was out of earshot and said, “Girl.” 

“Yes?” Crystal asked as she began making their order. 

“He was totally flirting with you!” she whispered while nudging her in the ribs. 

She scoffed lightly before replying, “No, you’re the one people flirt with around here.”

“And now you’ve got the hottest lawyer in the Kitchen flirting with you!” she countered.

“He was being nice,” Crystal replied with a roll of her eyes and a quiet laugh. 

“See that smile on your face though? You liked it! And one of these days I’m gonna get you to finally stop moping and go on a date!” Raeyes told her before walking a different customer’s order to them. Crystal ignored the comment and just continued making their drinks. 

After the group left, Raeyes gently punched Crystal in the shoulder and asked, “Why didn’t you give him your number?”

“Didn’t you see, two other women gave theirs to him! He’s clearly got the dating thing down,” Crystal replied as she cleaned off their table. 

“And don’t you see, those two napkins were crumbled up?” Raeyes asked with a sly tone of voice as she straightened out two napkins left at the table. When Crystal laughed and shook her head, Raeyes sighed exasperatedly and said, “Come on girl! I’ve been trying to get you on a date or at least get laid for months! And all you do is say no and that you’re not ready. What did the last guy do to you that made you not want to date anymore?”

The last question caused something inside her to snap, and a few tears fell from her eyes as she replied quietly, “He died all right? I said it didn’t end well because it didn’t, and…and I loved him with everything I had and I just feel…incredibly guilty even thinking about flirting with anyone because it feels like a betrayal to him.” She sat down to gather herself for a moment before adding, “Kit was the definition of good and giving and innocence and that was ripped away from him. It wasn’t fair and he didn’t deserve to be taken away so soon…”

“Oh my God I’m so, so sorry, Crys…” Raeyes said before dropping her cleaning towel and wrapping her arms around Crystal. “Now I feel like a huge bitch, why didn’t you tell me?”

“It just hurts too much to think about most days, I’m sorry…” Crystal replied quietly. 

“No, no, don’t be sorry. For now I’ll give you the space you need, but I encourage you to at least try with Murdock. Rumor has it he’s great in bed, so even if it doesn’t go past a first date…”

“Rae…” Crystal said with a teasing warning tone in her voice. 

“Fine, fine, boundaries. I get it. But for real, you better jump on that before I do,” she replied with a laugh before telling Crystal to get herself freshened up in the bathroom.

next chapter

[waywardxrhea]

the first three rascals i have here are my partner’s pets who i love like my own: Ripley (the pretty baby), Goose (the backpack boy - he put himself there lol), and Dexter (the smiliest little old man who turned 12 yesterday!). the comfiest boy in the world was my Batman who crossed the rainbow bridge last august but he was so well behaved and the most spoiled cat in the world but he was so loved 🥰

Feeling a little sick still today so I'm sharing some pet photos! It's almost been a year since I joined tumblr and one of my first posts was of my pets because I'm a proud fur mama as well as a mama!

Y'all might remember my cat Miso from last spring's Keyboard Chewing Incident of 2023 wherein my cat kept breaking into my office until he absolutely demolished my keyboard and I couldn't write for a few days until I got a new one (and finally thwarted him because it's wireless 🙌🏻). But I also have an Australian shepherd/husky? mix named Alphonse--the large, furry, stubborn one of the group. He honestly acts more like a cat than a dog (and my cat acts more like a dog than a cat, so it works?). And the last fur child we adopted is our special needs dog Jaina who is a double merle dog. She was born deaf and with malformed pupils and third eyelids but she's the happiest damn thing I've ever seen in my life and I wish I could borrow her energy today. Not surprisingly the three of them all get into trouble just as much as my toddler. And they sometimes even work together to cause mayhem...

Feel free to tell me about your pets! 🙃