One Bright Moment (Is All I Ask) *Matt Murdock* Damned If I Do Coda

Two

The next present she got was significantly bigger. Vera wasted one useless surprised look on Matt, who – feeling her gaze – gave her an approximation of a smile. She felt her heart speed up, unfairly excited. She wasn't good at receiving present, always worried she would react wrong, unnaturally. She slowly unwrapped the present, breathing in and out before looking.

Dark blue smooth fabric. Many, many black decorative flowers. A different kind of fabric, light and airy, almost translucent. Vera blinked in surprise. A dress? Her gaze flickered back to Matt, whose expression was enigmatic – Vera thought he might be waiting for her reaction, any indication of her liking the gift – or disliking it. Yeah, the second option was not an option; she already adored the colour.

Vera carefully pulled the dress out, astonished. They were beautiful. The top was indeed covered in rich decoration, the airy skirt slightly widening; the two parts were divided with a simple ribbon. She felt her heart hammering in her chest. She had no words. Because they were... boat-neck. Vera loved boat-neck dress – after all, she wanted to take one to the benefit with Matt, but in the end choose another dress, which she thought would feel better under his fingers.

It was... she was speechless and she couldn't tear her eyes away.

"Oh, Matt, you should be seeing her face. It's priceless. She's like... awe-struck," Foggy informed him and Vera finally snapped from her trance. Well, awe-struck was actually quite precise. Matt smiled inconspicuously.

"So you like it?" he asked almost hesitantly and Vera shot him incredulous look.

"Are kidding me? Like it? Matt, it's... it's... beautiful," she let out in disbelief, watching his smile spread wider. Speaking of beautiful.... Dammit, she wanted to toss the glasses away. She looked at the dress again. "I wanted to... I actually wanted to take boat-neck dress to the benefit we went toget-"

She stopped in the middle of the sentence, realization striking her. There was something in his smile...

"-but you already knew that," she finished, feeling her heart speeding up even more. The dress she had almost picked... it had been boat-neck. It had had top with many, many flowers. Fluffy skirt. Her jaw fell to her lap. It was similar, wasn't it? Just the colour was different. How was that possible? He couldn't- right?

"Terri might have mentioned you had the benefit dress tailored," he hummed, his smile transforming into mischievous as he was well aware she was silently gaping at him. It was the dress.

"But- but-"

"And the tailor already had your measurements."

"Terri had no idea who made the dress!" she protested, finally choking out a whole sentence that made sense, astonished he even talked to Terri about this.

Matt shrugged. "Mrs.Larkin did."

Vera's head spun. She didn't know she could be more surprised. Matt had talked to Nina to get her a perfect gift. She almost had to blink away her tears. She wasn't tearing, yet, but she was close.

"Edna is pretty scary, by the way."

"You talked to Edna?" she blurted out, something growing in her chest – she wasn't sure if it was good or bad. She was a fucking mess.

"She sounded pretty offended when I asked her if she kept the drafts she made for you. She also said you were quite an inspiration," he exclaimed, beaming, apparently satisfied someone else than him lived in the illusion of her being amazing.

Someone cleared their throat. Vera jumped in her seat, realizing after relatively long time they weren't alone in the room.

"Thank you," she said simply, hoping her tone and her body told him how much she loved her gift.