unsent texts

[santanachamp]

ｕｎｓｅｎｔ ｔｅｘｔｓ

① comment with your character. ② repliers queue up a text (or two or three to choose from) that they typed up, but never sent. ③ only they fat-fingered and set them flying out of the outbox into infamy. ④ it's two in the morning jfc why are you asking me if i'd love you if you were a worm? no, i don't think my little pony is a metaphor for communism. go to sleep. check out theunsentproject if you'd like more serious ideas.

Comments

[hawk_shot]

I remember I listened through the air vent...
I got caught a million times.
Or mom and dad could tell if they found me crying.

Good, because it is.
Seriously, Matt. In your regular clothes you're basically the safest, comfiest guy I've ever hung with.
You and Foggy. I knew it straight away.

You better not have your own code and leave me out.

[streetlevel]

I never had that, obviously. Just had thin walls so I heard our neighbors arguing sometimes. Among other things.

Glad to hear it. I try and avoid scratchy clothing. Helps with the comfort.

Lucky couldn't keep a secret from you.

[hawk_shot]

But you had an amazing dad that always reminded you that he loved you and who'd take you out for midnight meals.
Your dad really sounded like an amazing dude. Hard working, really strong at making things work.

For other people's comfort or you own sensitive skin? XD

Are you saying that you would???? 👀👀👀

Anyway, I've got lunch! I gotta make a quick stop and then I'm heading over. If I stop texting its because my hands are full.

[streetlevel]

He wasn't perfect, but he was a good man. Just like your dad sounds.

Both?

Who can say?

All right, get here safe.

[hawk_shot]

It's about twenty minutes later by the time Kate makes her way to Murdock & McDuffie. This time Kate is on her own, carrying a couple of plastic backs with Matt's, Kirsten's and Cherry's lunch along with her own.

Of course, never forgetting about the rest of the staff, she's brought along a couple of boxes of donuts for everyone to have a snack.

"Let me give you a hand."

Cherry, who had claimed a chair around some empty cublicle and was waiting for Matt to finish a meeting, was the first to come to greet her. He was quick to help Kate with the bags. "How are you doing, sweetheart? You really didn't have to, I'll Venmo you in a minute."

Kate, dressing sharply in a suit of her own and a 'David Meowie' shirt undernearth, waved a hand dismissively.

"Don't sweat it. How's it going? Is your leg better?"

[streetlevel]

Inside Matt's office, he was discussing the case of a twitchy young man who did some special bookkeeping for one of the large accounting firms in the city, whose boss had mysteriously disappeared the night of the blackout. Since then he was getting jittery about the activity, but feared going to the police. His brother-in-law was a police officer, he said, and there had been something off about him too since that night.

It was only a sliver of a backbone largely drawn out by self-preservation. Matt wasn't impressed with this man, nor did he particularly like him, but turning over a new leaf had to start somewhere, didn't it? Matt assured him that he'd be in touch, and that Cherry would ensure he had a safe place to stay until then.

He escorted the man to the door, seeing him out before turning around and rubbing his forehead a little. A large cup of coffee was in his hand despite it being mid-day and he drained it in one go as he made his way to the conference room where he heard Kate, Cherry, and Kirsten setting up.

"Look who decided to join us," Kirsten said with a smile. "I was about to eat yours if you didn't come by soon. Leave it to Kate to unbury you from work." Looking over at the younger woman she added, "This was really thoughtful, thank you. And I love your shirt." Back at Matt she added, "You had a visitor earlier. Young girl. Hector's niece, I think? She decided not to wait. I told her I'd tell you that she stopped by."

"Angela." Matt pulled out a chair and sat in it slowly. "I'll check in with her later." To Kate he added, "It does smell good. Thank you." Head tilted back at Kirsten he added, "Did you get the-"

"Yeah, I'm having Jasmine draft up the letter. We'll want that included in the discovery. Do you think-"

"Yeah, they'll try and appeal but that'll buy us time, too."

Cherry gave Kate a rueful look as he dug into his meal. "Welcome to my world."

[hawk_shot]

With her jacket drapped over the back of her chair, Kate took the spot next to Cherry and started pulling food containers out of the bags, pulling on lids to peek at their contents and figure what dish belonged to whom.

Kate was well aware of how ruthless Kirsten could be, she often bragged about how she had completely owned the court or how she'd cracked some case, figuring exactly which route they ought to go with to protect their clients.

But she was also so incredible sweet and always so welcoming. Inadvertently, she was thrown Kate two big compliments. First by bringing up her t-shirt and then, her abilities to get Matt out of the office for a breather.

"Bet you dream in lawyer talk now," Kate chuckled as she elbowed Cherry.

It was hard to ignore the name Kirsten dropped, though. Héctor Ayala's niece, the niece of White Tiger. As Matt had asked since that night when he saved her from Muse, Kate had been keeping an eye on social media for any stories of vigilantes wearing white outfits. Any new stories on White Tiger. There was none.

Clearly, they were worrying over nothing.

"Busy morning, I take it?" God, had Matt got any sleep? They'd both made it pretty late after patrol. Was he still sleeping in his office? She didn't want to push, put more pressure on how she had offered him to use her apartment. She knew Matt had taken the offer seriously.

The last thing he needs is more pressure.

Before Kate could ask about Angela and if she'd been visiting lately (she doubted it, Matt would habe probably mentioned it before), a tall and lanky guy with mousy brown hair knocked on the door. He couldn't be much older than Kate and he looked a little flustered about having stepped in.

"Sorry for interrupting your lunch. Huh, Matt, I've found the files you've asked for." Holding them high as if it was some holy grail in paper, he placed them at the corner of the table.

Only then did he dare to look in Kate's direction.

"Hum, Katie, right?" He waved awkwardly. Kate didn't correct him. "I just wanted to say --" He gestured in the direction of where Kate had left the boxes of donuts. "Thank -- I'm going to grab a donut in a minute. I wanted to thank you."

"No problem, dude. My pleasure."

He bowed his head a couple of times in apology before leaving the room.

[streetlevel]

The food was immediately forgotten when Gabriel entered with the file. Matt was out of his seat, fingers sliding along the table until he found the paperwork. Raising his voice, Matt called to the retreating man's back, "You're a gentleman and a scholar, Gabriel! Also one hell of an intern."

Thank you, sir," Gabriel called back as he went to get a donut. He tried to work as hard as his bosses, but they made it difficult as they were literally insane with their work hours. Still, if they were finally eating, he felt safe to eat, too.

"I told you, call me Matt."

"Yes, sir."

"I told you that NYU made the best lawyers," Kirsten smirked, as Gabriel was in his last year of law school there. It was her alma mater. She looked down at the file, which hadn't yet been uploaded into their system clearly and good luck getting documents converted to Braille in a timely manner. "Need some help with that?"

He didn't really, as his fingertips could feel the ink on the paper, but he slid the file over to Kirsten with a nod. "Yeah, would you mind?" For one thing it kept up appearances, and for another, reading like that required a lot of concentration and energy on his part. It was easier to let his partner do it. Thinking back to all the tears and long hours it had taken Matt to learn Braille, it made him smile a little at how it was now easier for him to read that way even though his fingertips could pick up printed ink if he focused enough.

"Not at all." Kirsten smiled at them, going back to her seat and reading the document as she ate. "I'll just bill you for my hours."

"Cute," Matt grunted, moving back to his seat. He finally took a bite of his meal. It then dawned on him that he'd missed out on Cherry and Kate conversing and waved his fork between then. "Wait, were you two making fun of us?"

[hawk_shot]

With the poorest attempt at looking innocent, Kate pointed her spork inwards, before remembering that Matt wasn't supposed to notice the gesture. "Us?" She exchanged a quick look with Cherry, who simply shrugged as he took another mouthful of those drunken noodles, silently slurping up their ends. "I would never make fun of a blind man, Matt. In fact, Cherry and I are a little hurt."

Pushing her curry a little before gathering another sporkful, she couldn't help herself as she spoke up. "Kirsten, you think we've got a shot here if we went for defamation?" Hey, she was awful at following all their layer talk, but some terms do stick.

Enough for Kate to have her little 'AHA!' moments while watching a legal drama.

[streetlevel]

"Quips about dreams in lawyer talk beg to differ," Matt teased her right back, interjecting that of course he'd heard the comment she and Cherry had shared earlier before Gabriel had interrupted.

"He hears everything," Cherry grumbled with a sigh, even if he now knew very well how and why Matt heard everything.

Kirsten was buried in the folder reading, saying absently, "Unfortunately, defamation isn't just having your feelings hurt. You have to prove damages, which are a pain in the ass for all involved." These days everyone liked to toss around defamation cases just because their feelings were hurt or they were called out for doing something, and it was largely a waste of everyone's time and money. "You'd have better luck just getting him onto a new topic to rant about if you want to change the subject."

"I don't get distracted by ranting," Matt protested.

Kirsten ignored him as she added, "Just let him think the new topic was his idea."