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“I gotta say, I didn’t actually think anybody could pull this off.”
Luke’s grinning when he says it, nudging against Claire’s side as they stand in the corner of her living room, watching the chaos play out. Chaos, in this instance, that is otherwise known as “the Defenders at a Christmas party”.
It’s been an eventful, often stressful year for everyone. Matt returned seemingly from the dead, Jessica was starting to be more known as a superhero and come to terms with that, Misty’s just recently gotten more-or-less adjusted to her new prosthetic, Danny and Colleen have been neck-deep in poorly explained supernatural shenanigans as per usual, and Luke had ended up with a lot of baggage from his past to work through alongside his usual work.
Luke’s trouble was Claire’s trouble, these days, and she’d been keeping plenty busy even aside from that, what with trying to get the new clinic started. But as the year wrapped up, she’d had the idea that they all needed to stop and relax for a night, and this had somehow morphed into her and Luke hosting an informal Christmas party for everyone.
She hadn’t been sure what to expect, but they’ve all ended up having a good time. A little bit crazy, but good nonetheless.
Most recently, an anecdote from Danny’s time standing in for Daredevil has led to him and Matt facing off to spar, in a much more friendly and lighthearted fashion than when they apparently did this before. Claire’s keeping a weather eye out for property damage, but Misty and Jessica pushed the furniture back beforehand to clear a space, and Matt’s senses seem to extend to avoiding more breakable objects. As long as Danny doesn’t break out the Fist, they should be all right.
Colleen is watching the combat with a professional eye, and seems to be trying to bet with Jessica as to who is going to win. Jessica just rolls her eyes, sips her drink, and says, “No bet. It’s obviously going to be Murdock, and I’m not into daylight robbery.”
Which gets Claire thinking about something else again. Namely, Matt and Jessica.
Normally, she’s not into trying to set up her exes (or in this case, more of a never-quite-started). But she’s reasonably observant, and so hadn’t missed the way Jessica had fallen into a funk deeper than her usual grumpiness during the time Matt was presumed dead, nor the way Matt had (if rumors were true) kept on arranging team-ups with Jessica after he was back in action.
Matt would always turn his head towards where Jessica had entered a room, even though he couldn’t see her. Jessica flinched more often than not when people touched her unexpectedly, but she was more comfortable with Matt than with anyone else.
It’s clear, to Claire at least, that there’s some kind of spark between them, but neither has moved to do anything about it as far as she knew. She’s half-wondering, idly, whether perhaps tonight would be a good night for her to nudge them along just a bit, when Matt finally pins Danny to the floor and the latter taps out, admitting defeat.
Matt gets up and dusts himself off, and the radio switches to something bright and jazzy, and - there’s just a brief moment where Jessica seems to come to some sort of decision. She sets her glass down with a firm little ‘click’, and calls out, “Hey Murdock, you dance as good as you fight?”
He tilts his head a bit to the side. “I probably could, but I haven’t had much opportunity to practice lately.”
There’s a tiny, charged pause, and then he adds, “I should manage all right if you lead at first.”
Jessica extends her hand and he takes it, and then lo and behold, they’re executing some form of swing dance right in the middle of Claire’s living room - nothing fancy, and a little clumsy at first, but it doesn’t take them long at all to figure out each other’s rhythm and movements.
Everyone else, like Claire, seems too caught up in the shock that this is actually happening to make the usually-requisite snarky comments. No, scratch that - Danny definitely opens his mouth to say something, and Colleen prods him with her elbow to get him to hush.
Somewhere during an instrumental break, Matt mutters, “Want to switch?” and Jessica nods shortly, and they turn in place and apparently switch roles. Not long afterwards, the song seems to be nearing its end, since Jessica feels the need to comment, “Don’t you dare dip me,” to which Matt promises, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
This leaves them shuffling to an awkward halt when the music ends, changing to something slow and choral. Danny finally gets his word in edgewise. “Where did you learn to dance like that, Jessica?”
“Took a couple classes with Trish as kids,” Jessica says, face tightening in the way that they’ve all learned means that they shouldn’t and don’t want to ask any further questions.
Whatever moment had been happening seems to have more or less passed, and Matt and Jessica drift apart again, reabsorbed into the rest of the party. Claire keeps an eye on them, though, curious despite herself to see if anything else will come of it.
Afterward, no one is quite sure how it happens, but the pair of them disappear sometime after dinner, and when Colleen goes looking for them to see if they want pie, she lets out a small, sharp yelp of surprise upon checking the balcony.
Hypervigilant as they all are at this point, everybody comes running, and therefore all bear witness to Jessica and Matt untangling from each other to come inside, having very definitely been kissing before they were discovered. Matt looks a tiny bit sheepish and Jessica stubbornly defiant, as if daring anyone to give them grief.
Nobody does.
(Unbeknownst to Claire, however, Foggy does express some lamentation privately to Trish when she collects on their bet the next day - he had been banking on Matt’s previous romantic disasters to put in for a solid few months into the new year.)