Work Text:
2:47 A.M
Matt squints at the brightness of his computer screen, trying to comprehend the mass lines of code crowding his vision all while nursing an already distracting headache. He brings his mug to his lips again. His actual drink of choice is just hot chocolate-- he's never been fond of coffee, though he finds it's long passed going cold anyways. He sighs, and downs the last of it before setting the empty cup back on the table, not even cringing at the bland taste.
It was not so uncommon for the penthouse to be deathly quiet at this time of night, and Matt was possibly the only one in the actual building still awake. Though for some reason he just couldn't bring himself to pull away from his work, even as his eyes began to hurt, and the pulsing in his temples steadily increased; he needed to get this done.
The stupid part was that it wasn't even that important of a project; it was just a simple training simulation, designed for none other than Asha of course.
She liked keeping her skills in check, sure. But it was late and Matt was tired, and besides; it was just a prototype to begin with. The story behind it was practically more substantial than the actual physical amount he had done at this point.
Yet he kept going, writing and promising himself to do ‘just one more’ portion of code after another until his eyes were finally directed back down to the little clock in the corner of his screen, the hands steadily moving forward when he opened the maximized version of it.
3:56 A.M
He feels a stirring sensation in the pit of his stomach, and Matt looks up at the mass row of windows in front of him instead.
A small huff escapes his lips, and he stubbornly looks down at himself, running a hand through his hair before cupping a hand over the back of his neck. His hands are colder than usual.
“Happy birthday to me, I suppose..” he sighs, and lets out a small, humorless chuckle.
There's no response to his words, and he doesn't expect one; there's nothing to hear but the sound of faded party music, and the creaking of the floorboards giving back and echo of the same sentiment.
It's another hour or so before Matt can bring himself to go to sleep.
----------
It’s a quiet morning in the penthouse. Light streams in through the various windows lining the walls, and Matt can hear the various ambient sounds of the daytime from his place on the couch.
“Hey, pass me that,” came Kinzie's nonchalant request as she leaned forward in her computer chair, pointing towards the mug Matt held between his knees with a familiar sort of overdrawn urgency to it.
“It's-- It's not coffee,” he shrugs a little, and she pauses in her gesture to frown at him, scrunching her nose up adorably despite her scornful stare.
“Well duh. I have my own cup over here.” she holds her hand out in the direction of the computer desk, motioning towards her own steaming canister.
“What-- then why do you want mine?” he asks irritably, a frown on his lips as he furrows his eyebrows. Kinzie scoffs at him, turning back to her computer as her fingers resume their clattering over the keys.
” Because I wanted some hot chocolate, obviously.” she says, rolling her eyes at the way Matt huffs before he's standing up, and making his way over to her. When he holds out his mug she grabs hold of it without looking away from the screen, and takes a swig. Matt lets out an exasperated sigh when she swishes it around her mouth, and takes it upon himself to sit across from her.
“So, what are you doing?” He asks, having to lean across the table to take his mug back before Kinzie got the chance to drink all of it. She continues typing even as she glances up over the top of her computer, eyes narrowed.
“Working on encoding the internet here. Y’know, so people can't just randomly connect when they pass by.” She shrugs, not even looking up again when she hears Matt sputter.
“Wait-- you’re only doing this just now? ” He asks incredulously, his mouth hanging open when Kinzie gives an equally nonchalant shrug.
“There hasn't been a reason to until now,” she shrugs, not looking away from the screen. “It’s not like all of our stuff isn’t personally encrypted to begin with, it's just a nuisance when random people keep popping up on the display.” She gestures to her screen, and Matt feels stupid for even thinking Kinzie would be that careless. He nods a little, taking a small sip from his mug. “--And what are you doing, anyways?” Kinzie pipes up, as if she’s just remembered she isn't the only person that actually does things around here. Matt huffs loudly, and leans all the way back in his chair to grab his laptop off the couch, pulling it into his lap.
“Well, I should be working on another training simulation for Asha...” He trails off, catching his lip between his teeth as he flips open the lid, and signs in. As soon as the screen turns on to show the clustered lines of code he’d left open, he immediately remembers the headache he’d had just before heading to bed. Generally, it wasn't like him to leave things like that open, but he knows it's reasonable to assume he was just too tired to remember. He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs audibly, hearing Kinzie shift in her chair as she peered over at him again.
“I’m guessing it’s not the most fun thing you could be doing?” She asks, and Matt could almost laugh at the expression of sympathy on her face-- it absolutely didn't belong there, not with the way Kinzie was.. Well, all the time.
“Yeah. You could say that.” He huffs, a small smile on his lips as he turns back to the screen, feeling his eye actually twitch from all the straining.
Before Kinzie can actually say anything in response, the sound of the front door slamming open, followed by a loud laugh and the smell of ash signals the boss’s arrival. Matt scrambles to get back to typing, and after a few minutes the Boss enters the room with Johnny Gat in tow. Matt tries not to look up from his screen when they trail around the desk to put a hand on Kinzie’s shoulder. She doesn’t even flinch.
“So I take it you took out those transmitters?” She asks, her tone not lacking in nonchalance. The boss nods, a smug grin on their face as they give her a slap on the back.
“You know it, and holy shit were the cops pissed. ” they snort, shaking their head a little. “And all over a few satellites? Goddamn,” At this point Johnny steps in closer, leaning against the table.
“There had to be ten different cop cars, at least.” he interjects, smirking a little at the way the Boss laughs.
“They all just clumped up together! You'd figure theyd fucking learn, right? Oh my god, and when you threw that molotov? The look on their faces was fucking priceless!” They laugh then, leaning away. Johnny shakes his head a little.
“Serves ‘em right for piling all their cars together, what’d they think it’d do? Protect them?” he scoffs, folding his arms over his chest.
The boss turns back to Kinzie, tilting their head to the side.
“So what are you two doing? More nerd stuff?” they raise an eyebrow in question, and Kinzie lets out a small breath.
“More nerd stuff.” she affirms, nodding her head once as she continues tapping away at the keys.
For the most part, Matt has felt entirely ignored for the whole interaction; which is a thing he's grateful for, it takes minimal effort for him to drown out the other people talking in favor of focusing on typing things out the way he's actually thinking them-- sometimes his mind is too fast for his hands.
Unfortunately, the silence it doesn't last.
“I figured, and what about Matt?” The Boss asks, glancing at him from over Kinzie's monitor. His eyes flicker up from the screen to their eyes, and he immediately looks back down. That slightly nervous feeling he got whenever they talked to him hadn't really left since the old days of Steelport.
“I’m uh, I’m coding a training simulation for Asha.” He tells them, keeping his voice mostly neutral. He knows better than to expect them to think anything of it, really. But they at least give a thoughtful hum before they amble over to him, and pat his shoulder. He flinches a little the first time, but it’s not outlandishly obvious-- so he takes that as a good sign; The Boss doesn't seem bothered by it either.
“Sounds boring as hell.” And there it is.
Matt rolls his eyes, and looks up to see Kinzie’s equally amused expression before going back to her computer screen.
In the amount of time it takes for the Boss to make it into the kitchen, the sound of heavy footsteps catches Matt’s attention, and he looks up to see Shaundi heading down the stairs with a small scowl on her face. She glances up at him through dark eyelashes, and he hurriedly turns back to look at his computer screen as she draws in closer.
“Can one of you guys help me out here?” She sighs, letting her shoulders slump a little. Kinzie looks up at her and raises an eyebrow wordlessly, and Matt is still trying to recover from making direct eye-contact with her for more than two seconds, so he keeps his eyes focused on his typing.
“What’s wrong?” Kinzie prompts, sitting forward in her little rolly-chair as she pulls her legs up to sit criss-cross. Shaundi holds up her phone to let both of the tech geeks get a good look before continuing.
“Something’s wrong with the audio, It won't notify me when people message me, either.” Kinzie Wordlessly holds her hand out, and Shaundi passes the device over wordlessly.
Matt isn’t really paying attention to their interaction from that point on, though he does hear Shaundi let out an aggravated sigh before heading over to the couch. He shifts a little, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end when he begins to feel like someone’s looking at him. He throws a half-hearted glance over his shoulder, and sure enough, he see’s Johnny Gat, of all people, throwing him a curious look, their eyebrows furrowed.
Turning back to his computer screen, he musters up all the self-control he can in attempt to keep himself from screaming. Why is he looking at him like that? It’s not like he’s said anything-- or even done anything in the past few minutes to warrant any attention. Shit, maybe Johnny was just bored or something?
He tries to shake the feeling away, going back to typing as well as he could with the knowledge that he was being stared at.
By the time the Boss comes back in wielding a plate of pizza like a threat, Pierce has made himself at home sitting next to Shaundi, idly talking about whatever bullshit news story was playing on the TV. The Boss give Matt a small side-glance as they pass, but other than that was more than happy to stuff their face in silence. Well, almost-silence if you count the unnecessarily loud chewing. Matt shudders just thinking about it.
There was a moment where Pierce talks to Johnny, but Matt doesn't really care enough to try and listen until he can feel someone's eyes on him again. He breathes out through his nose, almost in frustration as he narrows his eyes at his computer screen, forcing himself to focus all over again.
It actually works for a handful of minutes; or until the Boss finishes eating.
“Okay, now I’m bored all over again.”
Kinzie gives a frustrated sigh, and looks over her computer monitor.
“Well then why don’t you go kill something?” She says, her voice notably irritated, the Boss whistles quietly, and Matt glances back at them as they take a step away.
“Well, if you insist. ” They bat their eyelashes at her, and Matt looks away because he seriously does not care about their little play-fights; and he’d probably continue to feel that way unless it got the Boss to be quiet, or leave him alone.
“Whaddya say, wanna go murdering with me, Johnny?” The Boss turns back to Johnny, and holds their hand out for him. Johnny huffs loudly, but smiles, and takes their hand anyways.
“Sounds like a damn good time, Boss.” He nods, and after he stands up he pulls back, watching as the Boss turns back to start re-suiting up (i.e: reloading all their guns) and Matt feels eyes on him again.
He’s about this close to asking what the fuck is the deal, (except he would literally never do that because he doesn't have a death wish) before he hears footsteps get closer, and a hand settles on his shoulder. He tips his head back only to see Johnny fucking Gat standing over him, that usual half-smirk on his lips.
“Oh, and Happy birthday, Matt.”
It’s almost comical how fast the color drains from Matt’s face-- and not a second later almost everyone in the room is looking at him. Kinzie sits up in her chair and give Matt the most dumbstruck look he’s ever seen on her face before (which admittedly isn't that dumbstruck, actually) before she says what everyone else was probably thinking.
“Wait, it’s your birthday?”
A few years ago, Matt would have blanched right back at her, and said something along the lines of ‘wow, and it’s any of your business?’
Except he can’t do that right now. It’s been too long, Kinzie knows him a little too well for him to be able to get away with that sort of retort.
Matt meets her eyes, and immediately looks back up at Johnny, not sure whether he should be in awe, or about to vomit from all the sudden unwanted attention.
The Boss walks up beside Johnny, and grins down at Matt like a shark. An excited, bubbly shark.
“Holy shit! It’s your fucking birthday?? Why didn't you tell us!! Dude we fucking have to celebrate!” They exclaim, and they are really too excited about this. Matt swallows thickly, and by that point Pierce and Shaundi have gathered around him as well, both wearing smiles that… didn't exactly match, but we're close enough to genuine happiness.
“Um-- As much as I ah--appreciate that, I uh-- I really don’t...”
“-Don’t like parties? Because that's kinda how I am,” Kinzie interrupts, shrugging almost nonchalantly.
“--W-well no it's not-- I just..”
“-Don’t like being the center of attention?” the Boss prompts, and Matt sags in his chair a little.
“I don’t like the sentiment of it!” He blurts out, determined to finish his sentence before the boss was able to start one of their mini rants again. Everyone goes quiet at that, and Matt’s face burns.
“The… The sentiment?” Shaundi asks, ever respectful as she places her hands on her hips. Matt flushes a dark pink, and looks down at his lap with a glare.
“I just-- It’s so stupid but I… I don't want you to feel… obligated? Li-like-- the obligation to act different towards someone just because it’s their birthday? I don't know… I guess I just.. I don't want you to be nice to me out of an obligation to do so.” Matt trails off, his voice getting quieter as he rubs a hand up and down his arm subconsciously.
Everyone seems to go quiet around him, and Matt desperately wants to sink down into the floor and disappear.
Johnny squeezes his shoulder, and he has no idea why , but it makes him feel a little better.
“It’s…. It’s not an obligation of ours to be nice to you, Matt.” Shaundi starts, and for a full blown second Matt is sincerely grateful the Boss hasn’t jumped back into the conversation.
“I mean- Have you met us, man? We’re the Saints, you think we’re nice to you because we think we have to?” Pierce looks down at him with a small frown, and it was almost comical how fast that seemed to settle the tension in Matt’s shoulders. He looks down at his lap, suddenly feeling like an idiot for imagining the Saints would ever play nice if given the chance, destruction was their cause, if they didn't want to give a shit about him then they probably wouldn’t have batted an eye.
“...I.. I guess you have a point,” He says softly, his face still burning with embarrassment. At that point, Johnny places their other hand on Matt’s shoulder, glancing around their little gathering with a knowing look.
“Look man, we don't have to do anything for your birthday,” Pierce begins,
“--Though, I make a mean-ass cheesecake--”
“ Boss. ”
“Okay, okay! but for real, we don’t have to.”
“But if you want to--” Shaundi starts, looking almost sympathetic.
“-Okay!” Mat interjects loudly, his eyes slightly wide. “I-- I get it, it--its up to me,” he fidgets a little, panicking a little at the flurry of other voices beginning to pick up. They quiet back down at his admission, and its like their waiting for him to continue-- which yeah, okay, they are.
“Um..” He starts awkwardly, trying to think of what he actually wants to do-- he can’t even remember what day it is.
“Movie night?” Kinzie suggests, taking the lost look on his face into account. For all intents and purposes, Matt is more than a little thankful for the suggestion.
“That sounds good to me,” He shrugs, giving a lilted half-smile just before he’s brought back to the present when Johnny squeezes his shoulders.
He turns to look up at the taller man, but Johnny simply raises an eyebrow at him, and smiles.
“Who’s up for some pizza?” He asks, just before pulling Matt up out of his chair, and piling onto the couch.
----------
After a few hours of movie-marathoning, Pierce is at the point of falling asleep against a grousing Shaundi, and Kinzie is working on her laptop next to the both of them, having pulled it out after the first movie was over. The boss is taking up 3/4s of the couch, and Matt is curled up against the armrest, sandwiched next to Johnny, who obviously seems unbothered.
After the credits of the last film begin to roll, Johnny shifts to climb off the couch, rolling his shoulders until they popped. Matt watches them head into the next room over, and after a minute of feeling needlessly anxious, climbs over the back of the couch to follow after them.
The sound of his feet padding against the wooden floor of the hallway gives him a strange feeling of nostalgia that he doesn't acknowledge, and after a moment he finds Gat in the kitchen, standing with his back turned to him with the sink faucet running.
Matt shifts, and walks closer, placing his hands flat on the marble counter of the table. The noise gets Johnny to turn and look at him, and once he does, he gives the shorter of the two a small smile.
“Hey,” He says, giving a lazy wave.
“Hi,” Matt says right back, swallowing the lump beginning to form in his throat.
“Something you need?” Johnny asks, turning to fully face the other once he’s done filling his glass with water. Matt’s face flushes again, and he looks down at the floor, his hands coming up to fiddle with the hem of his shirt.
“No, w-well.. Yes, but..” He peeks up at the other, and meets Johnny’s patient expression, seemingly unfazed by all his stammering. That comforts him a little, and he rubs the back of his neck.
“I… I just… I wondered how you… How you knew it was my-- uh, my birthday..” He finally gets out, his voice coming out soft and timid, embarrassed, almost. Johnny gives him a lopsided smile, which-- which totally isn't charming at all.
“Really?” He asks, and it isn't even sarcastic. “Well, the uh, the other night I was headin’ downstairs to get some water,” He starts, and Matt hangs on his every word.
“--And I heard you say something like, ‘Happy Birthday to me,’ and, well, I really could have made an ass out of myself if I heard you wrong. Actually-- I think I kinda did anyways.” He huffs, taking a sip of water. Matt blinks up at him, almost burning with embarrassment at that point.
“U-uh..”
“I-- Shit, I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.” Johnny says, giving an apologetic half-smile. That’s probably the first time Matt has ever heard Johnny apologize without someone getting the shit kicked out of them, first.
Weirdly enough, he doesn’t like it. Sorry isnt a good look on someone like Gat, it was too out of character.
“It’s-- Um, You didn’t embarrass me, I-I uh, I kind of embarrassed myself more than anything.” He says, a little awkwardly as he looks down to the floor, still feeling flustered despite himself. God, what was he doing? He’s been a gang leader, for fuck’s sake!
“But-- Thank you, for-- for um, telling everyone? This was the best birthday I’ve had in awhile.” He tags on the end, offering a slightly embarrassed smile. Johnny nods a little, and gives him a lopsided grin.
“No problem.” Johnny says, and yeah, Matt could really get used to the sight of that grin.