Work Text:
It always started the same way.
Karen sitting at her desk, opening up her laptop and working on something – it was blurry, so she couldn’t exactly see what – with moonlight shining through the window behind her and only the dim light of the office above her head. Everyone had already called it a night…
… or so she thought.
The front door suddenly cracked open; and, as someone who knows the danger of being alone after hours, she immediately put herself together and asked with a trembling voice:
“Who’s there?”
The tip of a white cane showed up at the bottom of the door, making her sigh with relief just before Matt Murdock entered, still wearing his work clothes from earlier that day.
“Oh, thank God. Hi, Matt.”
She smiled and, before it was possible to add a “what are you doing here?” question, followed up by something related to his nightly activities as Daredevil, Karen noticed something was… off. Matt was smiling at her – beaming, to be exact – as he collapsed his cane and walked towards her seat, tapping the wooden desk with the tip of his fingers so he could see whenever she was close.
And, soon after that, he lowered his head to kiss her.
Karen tried to call him out but immediately gave in when she felt the warmth of his lips over hers. She couldn’t even stand up from her seat, like she was glued to the chair or, most likely, hypnotized by his touch, to the other hand entering the loose strands of her hair and caressing them with such passion it was impossible to do anything but to kiss him back…
… Until she wakes up.
Karen stared at the ceiling with the dried lips still warm from Matt’s dreamy touch, cheeks flustered in ruby red when she moved her hands to cover her face and let out a small moan in shame. Slowly, she rolled around the bed, grabbing the pillow just to bury her face and muffle a scream. It was the third consecutive night she’d had the same dream – probably there were a few differences here and there, like if she said something different when the door opened, but overall it was the same: Matt smiled, walked towards her and kissed her lips.
The first night was fine since the weekend had just begun, and also was an opportunity to drink some wine before going back to bed. The second one was excusable, because she wouldn’t have to work the following day anyways. The third one, however, was considerably damageable, since she would definitely get brown circles under her eyes from waking in the middle of the night for three days in a row, and, worst of all, in a matter of hours she would see Matt. For the whole day. There was absolutely no way she would survive this.
Sometimes, Karen looked through the window and hoped to see a glimpse of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen jumping over buildings, perhaps even coming by to visit her place for a change – and, amidst the imagination of Daredevil soaring over the dark sky, city lights glimmering over his body, she would often fall back asleep for just a few hours before the alarm clock went off as usual.
Karen rubbed her eyes with the warm water of her morning shower, suppressing a yawn and scolding herself for not getting enough sleep. She put on a beautiful black skirt with white, long socks and boots; as soon as she opened the door, and felt the cool autumn wind on the exposed arms, she also took a coat from the hanger beside her to finally leave the house.
A sigh of relief escaped her lips as soon as she entered the office and no one else had arrived yet. Putting Matt’s and Foggy’s coffees over their tables, and finally taking a sip of her own, she sat down and opened the laptop with case files she needed to work on – not creepily staring at the door every five seconds – taking notes on how far she had advanced on each one.
“Good morning, Karen.”
Matt’s voice cut the air like an arrow before he even had fully opened the door. Karen felt flustered, answering in a whisper:
“Good morning, Matt” and cleared her throat before adding “your coffee is over the desk.”
“Thank you.”
Instead of going to his workplace as usual, he walked towards her, which made Karen’s heart jump at an alarming rate, completely audible by both of them, on the déjà vu before her very own eyes.
“Foggy hasn’t arrived yet” the woman said in an attempt to make him not get so close, but he shrugged and went around the chair to lower his head over her shoulder.
“I’m sure he will be here soon enough” Matt placed his hands over the wood of the table and said “do you have any news regarding any of our cases?”
“Yes, of course”, Karen tried her best to control her breath while picking up a braille-printed paper to hand him. “I think Jones will be with his mother again pretty soon.”
She smiled, feeling proud of herself; it was a tough one, trying to get the little boy reunited with his family after false accusations of drug dealing. With the corner of her eyes, Karen could see Matt beaming in a very similar way of the dream – since he was so close, it was possible to see the edge of his eyes crinkle behind the red shades, even to feel his breath moving a few loose strands of her hair.
“Thank you, Karen”, he held her shoulders and squeezed them tightly, then quietly let go, taking the papers with him to his office, but not before turning his head and asking, “are you alright?”
She took a moment to pay attention to herself – heart beating fast, the thin, blonde arm hair bristling over her skin –, moistening her lips before saying:
“Of course I’m alright”, Karen stopped her leg from shaking “but thanks for asking”.
And she dropped on her chair as soon as Matt entered his workplace.
A week went by with awkward conversations between Karen and her boss, often ending abruptly when her heart started beating so loudly Matt just couldn’t focus on her voice. She was also the first one to arrive and the first one to leave their office, like she couldn’t be around them anymore, which led to Matt Murdock usually facing the door and hearing her footsteps walking away with a sad smile on his face.
The dreams had gradually stopped, not before being more explicit with wet kisses and his hand gripping her back tightly – however she still had trouble sleeping every night after spending the afternoons with Matt, feeling guilty for not talking to him as much as she should. They talked for hours before, how would she explain such absence? All these different feelings filled in her mind every day until the fatigue put her to sleep for a few hours before it was time to face another day and another opportunity to explain what was going on.
The first person to actually address the subject, however, was Foggy, who surprised Karen before she arrived at the office one day.
“Jesus Christ, Foggy” she said, holding the coffee cups near her chest. “Do you want to kill me or what?”
“Not me” Foggy grabbed his drink (the cup with his name written with a marker and a little star drawn on the side), muttering “thank you” before continuing: “I guess you, miss Page, want to kill poor Matt Murdock from breaking his heart after constantly leaving his sad ass looking at the door you just left.”
Karen bit her lip and let out a heavy breath as they walked down the street.
“Poor thing, he was so young. Rest in peace” Foggy bowed his head and the woman rolled her eyes.
“I am so sorry about that.” she said, trying to gather her thoughts.
He gave her a warm, however crooked, smile, using his free hand to hold her arm.
“Be honest with me, Karen” his eyes were deadly serious. “Are you seeing someone and scared to tell us about it?”
His friend and co-worker’s expression turned completely red for an instant; she stuttered and her mouth opened and closed a few times before finally saying:
“What? No!”
“You don’t need to hide anything from us, you know.”
“I am being a hundred percent honest here”, and, after a few seconds, added: “Is that what Matt thinks?”
“Beats me”, Foggy shrugged. “He didn’t say anything besides how you seemed distant, so this was my theory. What keeps you so secretive?”
Another deep breath came from deep inside Karen’s chest, a mist of embarrassment and anxiety growing in her voice as she said:
“I’ve been having some… dreams. With Matt.”
“What kind of dreams, Miss Page?” he sounded alarmed. “You mean...”, letting go of her arm, he made some movements with his hand that reminded her of lewd stuff, turning his friend’s face a different, brighter hue of pink he hardly ever saw.
“God, no!” Karen shook the right hand and caught her breath before sitting on a bench, so they could talk in peace.
“What is it, then?”
“For about three nights in a row, I dreamt of staying to work after hours at the office, and Matt came in, smiling, and kissed me…” she turned her tone a little down “… on the lips.”
“Oh, really? What he did next, held your hand?” Foggy mocked, eyes wide open and a giant grin on his face, to which Karen threatened throwing coffee on him. “Sorry, go on.”
“It wasn’t just a kiss, Foggy. It was a deep, passionate kiss. Like I could feel his warmth inside my chest, you know?” she sighed. “The dreams stopped after a few days, but I find it impossible to talk to him now, at least not without feeling that I’m going to implode.”
“So ignoring him is your best option?”
“Not the best, but an option until I think on what to do.”
Foggy Nelson took a sip of his coffee, being careful enough not to spill over the suit he bought at some very expensive store downtown. With nothing but the sound of wind howling and people walking, an uncomfortable silence befell the two friends, Karen’s heart pounding between her lungs in relief for finally saying out loud what was going on – and, not so deep inside her mind, she felt kind of stupid hearing her own words reverberating back to her.
“Look, I’m sorry-”
“You absolutely don't need to be sorry”, Foggy said with a smile while stretching his arm to hold her shoulder. “You do… sound a little fifteen-year-old-ish, to be honest.”
Karen giggled.
“To be fair I did not have any high school crushes to call mine…”
“Right.” Foggy laughed. “It is understandable, since our firm has recently started, and you both had a few rough moments in a not so distant past. If there is one thing I can tell you, Page,” he turned around in the bench to face her “is that every time you ignore Matt out of fear from his reaction, you are also postponing a possible outcome from this desire, that, in my opinion, is so strong you’ve been constantly dreaming of it.”
“But what if Matt doesn’t feel the same?”
“At least you would stop torturing yourself” the lawyer stood up, offering his hand to her. “Try not to put your own happiness and peace of mind behind your fears, alright?”
She placed her fingers just over his palm, balancing hers and Matt’s coffees on one hand at the same time she basically jumped on her friend’s chest so she could envelop him in a tight hug.
“Thank you”, she whispered.
“I might quit law to become a psychologist, you know. This feels exceptionally nice.”
They both hushed to the office, where Matt already was waiting for them.
“Today is ‘not inviting your friend for a morning walk’ day and nobody warned me?” he asked, hanging his coat on the back of his chair.
“We just bumped into each other” said Foggy with a wink, going to his own workplace, while Karen caught up to her boss.
“Which means that Foggy already drank his coffee, but I saved mine so we could drink together, perhaps, if you’d like…?”
Matt kindly offered the seat in front of him while she placed the cup over his desk, a quiet thud being the only audible sound between them for a while.
“I am so sorry for leaving earlier these last few days”, babbled her.
“No problem. Do you mind if I ask what was going on…?”
“Oh”, she drank a bit of her coffee. “Let’s say I just wasn’t sleeping really well.”
From the other room, Foggy intonated dream a little dream of me…, which made Karen stare daggers at him through the mirror separating the rooms.
“He seems carefree today”, Matt whispered. “Feeling better now?”
“Yup!”, the woman smiled under the cup. “I’m going to take a look today if Mister Smith has any property in his name.”
Slowly, she reached out for his hand, caressing the knots of his fingers with a sweet smile coloring her blank expression with sunshine. Matt took a long sip of his own drink before putting it back on the table and holding her hand between his palms; would Karen guess that his heart was pounding inside his own chest? She looked down and, soon after, turned her gaze back at him.
“Anything else you want to say?” he asked.
“No”, Karen answered. There was no truth to her answer, and Matt knew about it, yet decided not to press any further. She reluctantly let go and walked toward her desk at the same time Foggy approached and asked, unbelievably upset:
“Are you for real?”
“There was no way in hell I would tell him about that.”
“Tell me about what?” asked Matt from the other room.
“Nothing!” they both said while Karen took her stuff. “Don’t wait for me today, I will be back late and probably go straight home.”
As soon as she left, she felt her heart a lot lighter.
The day went by with the young and newest member of Nelson, Murdock and Page not thinking about the dreams… at all. She drove all the way to New Jersey in her old car to try and discover something about a client having legal properties he could sell to pay his debt. For many hours she waited at real estate agencies, talked to people, and eventually found what she was looking for. The warmth of Matt’s hands, however, remained over hers for the whole day, and she often found herself hugging herself in the cold autumn so she could still feel his faint presence by her side.
When Karen got back to Hell’s Kitchen, it was late; street lights were on and everybody was already going home. She had so much energy, however, that went straight to the office to work to keep the case going. A strange sense of familiarity fell around her, but she paid no mind, that is, until she heard a light thud on the window behind her.
She slowly turned around to see none other than Daredevil, taking off the black cloth over his face while she said his real name out loud. Matt smiled, jumping inside the room and resting his back on the wall.
“What… What are you doing here?”
“I took a leap of faith that I would find you here before heading to my… nightly activities. You know, the usual stuff” he giggled. “How are you holding up? Do you need a lift back home? We can swing, if you’d like” Matt then proceeded to show his red club in one of his back pockets.
“What are you, Spiderman?”, they both laughed.
Suddenly, it hits Karen that she is still glued to her chair; that Matt is in front of her, beaming; and, before these thoughts could transform into words, he took a step forward, held her face, and lowered his head enough to kiss her.
Karen kissed him with urgency, her desire speaking louder than any common sense. She touched Matt’s face and shoulders, trying to make sense that the moment was, in fact, the real thing, and not another dream; a blow on her chest replaced her beating heart with a warm and fuzzy sensation for a few seconds, and fireworks brightened up her mind with bliss the whole time until he slowly let go. Smiling, she said:
“… It wasn’t a dream!”
However, as soon as she opened her eyes, Matt was nowhere to be seen, not even the black mask or the cane he constantly used; instead, there was a small recorder over the table with a sweet song coming out its tiny speakers:
Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper, “I love you”
Birds singin' in the sycamore trees
Dream a little dream of me…
She put her fingers over the warm lips, trying her best to keep the warmth – so different from the days she just woke up without him – forever over her skin. Karen’s blue eyes were filled with small tears of joy, the sensation which enveloped both her and Matt at that moment.
The ethereal feeling was only interrupted by a buzzing in her telephone.
“Did it work??”
Foggy’s message blinked on the screen.
“Oh, Foggy, don’t you know it is wrong to talk about other people’s secrets like that?”
With trembling fingers and shaky lips turning into a smile, she typed:
“But thanks for making a girl’s dream literally come true.”