58. surprising

🕸️

"Matt, stop snoring so loud." I kicked gently. The snoring stopped and I opened my eyes. Rush was in his spot. "Matt?" Matt was gone. I looked at the time, 10:45 am. Strange how he didn't wake me up, or make a sound. I was alone with Rush, cooked breakfast, go for a walk. When i came back, no calls from River, also strange because he didn't need to forget about the day. It didn't sit right with me.

I sat down on the couch, checking on my phone every 5 minutes. What was going on? Am I just paranoid or just annoying? To keep my mind off of it, i packed a bag, shoving ballet shoes and change clothes to more comfortable ones. I stepped out of the apartment, sunglasses on as i made my way to the studio.

I got a studio for myself, slipping on the ballet shoes, crunching them, bending them, the silk ribbon wrapped around my ankles. I did my stretches, bending my upper body around and my arms above my head. The music played, my mind was in another place as I danced. The spins, the sound of the shoes clinking against the floor, arms swaying so angelic in the air. The one and only thing that i liked about the red room.

Everything was set in motion, now it was time to get Devon to the shop and surprise her. Matt makes his way to the apartment, only to be greeted by Rush. He pets the dog, scratches his ears.

"Hello Matt." Yelena peaks around the corner and looks at him. He knew that she was here, he smelled the sriracha on her.

"Yelena, welcome back." She shrugs as she walks by him. "What brings you here? Devon said you were off saving the widows."

"Yes, but its my sister's birthday, thought I should stop by and drop off her gift." She pats the box on the table.

"You knew where she is?"

"Lets go for a walk, brother in law."  She sticks her arm out to the man, making their way to the spot she always goes to. Yelena and Matt had a quiet time as they went to the the studio. Yelena smiles as she watched her older sister sway around the room.

"Whats she doing?"

"Ballet." She pats his arm. "I have to leave, ill be late, you tell her I said happy birthday." She swiftly turns around and makes her way out, leaving Matt. He walks into the room, he can feel the vibrations. Devon smirks as she feels his hands on her body. She lets him feel her, hands down her hips, her legs. He always wanted to see how beautiful she danced.

"What brings you here Matthew?" She whispers.

"I have a surprise for you." She lowers her leg down.

"You had me at surprise." She packs her things, switching her ballet shoes to her old raggedy, dirty, worn down converse, that to this day would make Matt beg her to get new ones, which she will never do. Matt takes her bag, holding her hand as they make their way to the Nelsons butcher shop. Devon frowns and they walk in the dark room.

"Surprise!" Foggy, Marci, River and even Karen were there. For this day, Devon didn't care about Karen, it was nice to have a birthday, one that she didn't get for a long time.

"Happy birthday Dev." River walks up, pushing her arm.

"Happy birthday River." Marci steps out, her heels clicked away into the back room. Devon smiles awkwardly at the few friends she had. Then here she comes, singing happy birthday. Everyone joined, off tune but happy. Devon claps her hands together and laughs. "You know i hate these." She whispers to Matt who was behind her.

"You hate them because you never had one. Enjoy." He kisses her cheek. She saw the smiles on their faces as they talked and ate the cake. It was nice to be in a room with almost everyone she loves.

"Oh! I forgot about this." Foggy stands up and pulls a gift bag and hands it to Devon. She looks up at him, smiling. "Well go on! I want to see your face." She pulls out the tissue paper and looks down at the present and then at Foggy.

"Nico!" She pulls out a stuff bunny, jumping with joy and holds the stuff animal close her heart. "Foggy! Where did you-"

"I might have talked to someone who might've bought you the same one." She holds it tighter. "You didn't have a great childhood but Nico helped you get through it all, and when you said that you lost him and was sad about it, i thought it would be nice." She hugs him, surprising everyone as she cried.

"Thank you Foggy, you are too kind." Everyone started to drink, laughing and sharing stories about her. She joined the conversation, laughing as she saw a hooded figure outside the shop window. Devon gets up, heads out. "Frankie." She leans against the window, looking at the tall man. "What brings you by?"

"Happy birthday." He scuffs, handing her a small box. She starts to grin.

"You remembered." She gently pushes him.

"Only because you wouldn't stop talking bout it." He laughs. "Open it."

"Alright alright." She tears the paper off. Some Nirvana CDs. She laughs again. "You do care about me, aw Frankie."

"Yeah yeah, say what you want to say." He looks at the group of friends, staring. "I leave you be. I'll see you again."

"Thank you Frank."

—

Devon decided to go on a night patrol. Matt did his side and she did hers. She sat at the edge of the ledge looking down at docks. Something about those kids that night did not set with her. She waited and waited, feet dangling, her humming to herself a song, checking her nails.

"There we go." She gets up as she sees men in suits pulling up and a shipment container coming in. She quietly gets down, eyeing them. 5 guys, not bad, only two with guns and the other three without. Easy.

"The beast is here." One called it in.

"We better be careful with this one, boss will have us killed the moment we leave." They nodded. Just as they opened it, Devon comes in, tasing them and kicking them. She uses one of the men as a shield as the other shot at him, tossing him to them.

Her batons came out, hitting them in the face and legs, making them fall and thats when she knocks them out cold with her widow bites. Devon claps her hands together with her good job, then kicking one of them in the face as he tried to get up.

"Lets see what we got." Devon opens the container and a boy, a teenage boy, crawled up looking back at her.

"Please dont hurt me." He said. Devon kneels down and looks at the boy, getting closer, letting him know that she isn't going to. "They will find me and kill me." Devon goes back, she knew what he was going through and she didn't want him to die or let them take him away and do whatever to him.

"Not on my watch. Come on, let me take you away from here." She reaches her arm out and he hesitates for a bit, takes it and they both ran off back to the apartment for him to get washed up and questioned.