Arabella Oublié.
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"Where I am now? Well right now I'm in Tony Stark's home.." Arabella looked at Tony, smiling wide as Raoul could be heard squealing on the other end of the phone. "–No I can't just stay with him. He's a busy man Raoul... -No, yea I get that.. –Yes I know, but.. –Raoul he is a married man!"
"Not married." Tony said earning a certain look from Arabella telling him to shut his mouth. "–Are you being serious right now? Raoul I just need a place to crash for a couple of days.. –when are you home then?" Tony watched Arabella's defeated face amused as he listened to just her side of the conversation.
"Alright I'll see you then. Do you have any idea who I can go to in the meantime?.. –Roul I am not crashing at one of our office neighbours' places, we don't even know them that well.. –Well no shit I'm a bit cautious Raoul, I got attacked twice in less than a month!" Tony looked at her with a lifted eyebrow as he heard the voice in the phone begin to yell at Arabella.
"Fine I'll call him.. Bye, enjoy your stupid vacation. Say hi to Chris from me. Yea-yea, love you too."
Arabella turned to Tony and sighed. "He's on a vacation with his fiancé, but comes home the day after tomorrow. So I'll have to go with my plan B." She explained him as she looked through her phone's list of contacts. "And who's plan B?" Tony questioned curiously.
Arabella held up a finger to shush him as she put her phone to her ear. "Hallo?"
"Foggy! Hey.. so listen, something happened and I need a place to stay while my apartment gets fixed. Can you help me out?" It was silent for a while before Foggy spoke up. "What happened? You alright?"
"I'm fine. Just a break in, so I've hired some people to up the security and fix what's broken before I return to the apartment." Stark was about to protest when Arabella said she'd 'hired some people' but she shut him up quickly with a glare. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Well, why don't you come to the office and we can talk about it. Matt and Karen are here too."
"Thank you so much Foggy, I'll see you in a bit then, goodbye." Arabella smiled fondly as she said her farewells. "Bye, see you."
"So, your plan B was your flirt?"
"Nope. That was Foggy, he owns the office next to mine. He's the absolute sweetest man I have ever met, but he's not really my type." Arabella said.
Tony smirked mischievously, "So what is your type?" He asked as he moved closer to the model.
"I'm more into a gentle, dark haired, mysterious, brave and avenging kind of guy."
Tony immediately noted the hint of humour and sarcasm in her voice and rolled his eyes. "I'm flattered. But really though, don't you have a type?" Arabella sighed before shrugging. "I'm a career woman. I don't want to bring a man into my life as it is right now. I'm always either travelling for photoshoots, doing paperwork at the office or being stalked by paparazzis. It's just not an ideal time in my life to fit a relationship into."
Tony couldn't help but think of Pepper and all of the crap she put up with daily, just because she was in a relationship with him. "If someone truly loves you, they're willing to stay, no matter what hell you put them through. You just have to wait for the right person to come along."
"I guess."
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Tony had been kind enough to drive Arabella by her apartment to get Mozart and pack a quick travelling bag before driving her to her office.
Tony really wanted to go inside and meet Arabella's 'office neighbours', but he had to do some official top secret Avenger business and left as soon as Arabella had gone inside the building.
She was beyond grateful for everything he'd done for her, and now he was even going to fix her apartment over the next few days in between his work with the Avengers and Stark industries.
He really was a busy man, Arabella thought. She would have to get him some sort of present or repayment for all of the things he'd done for her at some point.
Arabella knocked on the door with the familiar paper sign on it that read, 'Nelson and Murdock attorneys at law'.
As usual it was quite for a moment before she heard Foggy swearing as he fumbled with the lock on the other side of the door. "Hi Arabella, come on in. Matt and Karen are waiting in the office. We were all a bit concerned after your phone call."
"Oh, yea. Well, I'm fine I guess. Just a bit shaken still maybe." Foggy nodded as he showed Arabella into the office were Karen and Matt were waiting as he'd said. Karen immediately got up and hugged Arabella before pulling her to a chair.
"Here, sit down, I made you some tea. You want to tell us what happened? Foggy said someone broke into your apartment?" Arabella smiled at the woman's concern for her. "It was just another batch of bad luck really. On top of everything that's happened lately it's honestly not even that bad." Arabella played guiltily with the rings on her right hand as she lied her ass off. She just didn't want her 'friends' to be any more concerned than they already were. "–but I do need a place for me and Mozart to stay while my apartment gets a much needed security update and a couple of lock changes and stuff. It's just for two days until Raoul comes back though, then I'll stay with him." The cat reacted on Raoul's name being mentioned by emitting a complaining sound. The man had always fat-shamed Mozart and the cat hated his every attempt at making 'healthy' cat treats..
"Oh, yea.. We talked about it after you called. Both Karen and I have our hands full with a client at the moment, but you can stay with Matt if it's alright with you? He's been needing some help avoiding cars and lampposts anyway." Arabella looked at Matt who just smiled awkwardly. She did take note of all of the purple bruises and small cuts on his face though. "If Matt is alright with it, I have no problem staying at his place and play guide dog. No offense, but it does look like you need one."
"None taken." Matt chuckled sweetly. Arabella noticed Foggy and Karen giving each other a look. "Alright, well, I guess I'm staying with you then. Thanks Matt."
"No problem, it'll be a nice change to be able to avoid lamp posts." Arabella snorted quite unattractively at Matt's dry comment making him smile widely.
"Cute."
"Okay, Arabella maybe you should just stay with Karen, now that I think about it-" Matt laughed at his friend's jealous protest. "Foggy, it was just a compliment." He defended himself lazily. Arabella couldn't help but laugh too as Foggy's mouth dropped wide open. "–Oh it was just a compliment? You wanna touch her face too? Huh Matt? It's so typical of you, you know that?"
At this point everyone but Foggy were laughing at his little outburst. "Are you regretting choosing work over having a sleepover with a supermodel Foggy?" Karen asked jokingly making Foggy frown. "Shut up."
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"I want to apologise in advance if it's messy, I don't always think about that before I invite people over." Matt smoothly put the keys in the lock and opened the door. "It's alright I–.."
Matt turned around to face Arabella as she stopped mid sentence in the hallway. "It's that bad huh?"
"No, no no not at all, it's completely spotless.." Arabella couldn't help but look around kind of shocked at the living room and kitchen. It was not at all what she'd expected. "–You could almost use some mess actually." Arabella chuckled at her own words before she did a quick analysis of the apartment.
The whole thing was one big room, except for the bedroom that was separated from the rest by an elegant sliding door. The living room and kitchen were divided by a kitchen island bar counter-ish thing with a sink in it. A support beam helped separating the room too by creating the illusion that there had at least been a wall at some point. Arabella also took note of the stairs in the corner that no doubt lead up onto the roof.
This place couldn't have been cheap, she thought.
"What do you mean?" Matt asked confused as he rested his cane against the kitchen counter and walked over to sit down in his sofa. "It's just, I now realise that all the things that makes my apartment my home are things like photos, clutter things and plants. But you can't see that.. it's just funny." Arabella pondered.
"Funny?"
"Yea, to you all of those things are unnecessary and would probably just be in your way. But normally, I would use them to learn about the person living here." Matt laughed and shook his head. "I guess you just have to ask me if you want to know something then."
Arabella shrugged instinctively. "Well, the missing pieces tells me almost just as much."
"How so?" Matt listened to her steps as she walked further into his living room, dropped her bag against the kitchen counter and then leaned against it herself.
"There's a lack of heirlooms and photos, I could just blame it on the fact that you're blind, but I'm guessing that isn't the reason. Maybe you're just not a sentimental person? Or you're not close with your family? It could also be a Bat Man kind of tragic back-story?" Matt chuckled at that. She was completely right, but he wasn't going to tell her that. "–Hm.. Everything here is very organised, probably because you're blind and it's easier to find your way around then. No tv or radio? You find excessive noise annoying, and probably have better than average hearing because of your blindness. I'm surprised you don't have a huge collection of Braille books actually? Also, the first aid kit is out on the kitchen table, you're either clumsy, a troublemaker, or both. There's food bits in the stove and sink that tells me that you probably enjoy making food. You also have a hole the size of a fist in the wall.. I'm guessing you had a temper tantrum or decided to practice karate even though you're blind and probably shouldn't?" Matt smiled at her accurate deductions. He found it kind of intriguing how she got that much from so little. She was clearly smarter than she initially lead on.
"Anything else Sherlock?" He smirked as he heard her shift subconsciously under his blind, sunglass covered gaze. "Hm.. nope. I'm good. Your turn?" She suggested.
Matt breathed in a single breath of air through his nose, "You're wearing the signature Chloé perfume. You use apple scented shampoo, you're part French and probably lived there for some time judging by the light accent. You have a cat named Mozart, so I'm guessing you like classical music. You're incredibly light on your feet considering you're wearing heels, I'd say you've had dancing lessons as a kid, probably ballet." Matt could have said a bunch of other things he noticed, but ended up deciding against it.
Some things were better left alone, and other things would definitely expose him as not just being an average blind person.
"That's actually pretty well deducted dear Watson." Matt chuckled at her bad impression of the very British Sherlock before he turned serious.
"So, now that we've learned that we're both incredible detectives, you want to tell me what really happened at your apartment? I know you were lying at the office, because you kept nervously playing with your rings.. -like you're doing right now." Arabella looked shocked at the blind man before coughing awkwardly as she realised he'd caught her red handed.
"Oh.. Uhm, as long as you promise not to tell Foggy and Karen I lied. I just didn't want them to worry.." Matt nodded, silently agreeing to her terms. "– Alright, the short version of the truth is that there was a shooting at my apartment building.. -and the vigilante the mask guy of Hell's Kitchen was there. And he was sort of cornered by the bad guy with a gun.. so I call the police, then I distracted the bad guy, the mask got the bad guy, but then the police came and he freaked out and got mad or scared, and hid in my apartment and he had me trapped against my door.. it's just, the way he was keeping me there, so close, it just reminded me of that night when I was.. ehm, you know mugged. A-and I just had a panic attack. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt me, I just, don't like the idea of him knowing where I live, so I had a friend secure the apartment so the mask guy can't come in even if he does return to kill me." Arabella confessed.
"Why are you scared he's going to come back and kill you?" Matt was clearly confused that Arabella thought the mask to be a cold blooded killer, and not a neighbourhood vigilante who beats up only bad guys.
"Considering recent events, I just don't really trust- or believe in the best in people anymore." Arabella sighed. Matt smiled, somehow having been amused by her statement. "Yet you trust me enough to stay at my apartment?"
"I was fresh out of options and I'm pretty sure I would have a huge advantage in kicking your blind ass if you attacked me, no offense but you did lose to a lighting-post yesterday." Matt couldn't keep himself from laughing at her confidence.
"I bet you could."
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Merry Christmas❤️