15. heart

☆ ゜・ 。。・ ゜゜・ 。。・ ゜★

Present day
2023
New York

My alarm rang. My hand crept out of the blanket to shut it down. I groaned as I realized it was really early. I had to go to work. The sunlight from my studio apartment shines through the windows, making me actually get out bed.

I made two cups of coffee and got dressed, my long skirt,  top and twisted my hair and clipped it in, pulling strands of hair in the front of my face to frame it. I raced to get my bag and the cups of coffee and head out the door.

"Morning neighbor." Matt shows up behind me as I locked my door. "I could smell it from upstairs."

"Two creams and two sugars, just as you like it." I blushed and handed it to him. He takes a sip and smiles. "Shall we Mr. Murdock?"

"Of course Ms. Von." He holds onto my arm and we headed down. We walked past the busy streets of Hell's Kitchen and into the subway. "Whats your plan for today?" He leans in to talk to me.

"Well, I was thinking I should teach about Pompeii. You know a lot of schools don't teach it." It was a easy topic, I was there. I scanned through my papers to see I got everything. I pushed up my glasses as they fell down as I hunched down.

"I like that idea." We found seats and sat down. "Celeste?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you want to have dinner with me tonight? My place? 9?" I blushed and pushed up my glasses again.

"Sounds great." I nodded repeatedly. The train stop at our stop and helped Matt up to the street and waited for Foggy.

"Sorry im late, come on Matt, this is huge for us." Foggy runs in and helps carrying Matts briefcase. "Thanks Celeste."

"Thanks, I'll see you tonight then?" Matt turns around.

"At 9." Just as they were going, Matt turns back again.

"Good luck today in class." He smirks and left. I waited until I couldn't see them and went to a alley and teleported to the school History teacher, ironic right? I ran into the school, boy was I was late. I ran in the halls, hearing my heels clicked in the hallways filled with loud students. Wade, another teacher, follows me.

"I got the test ready for tomorrow, like you texted me for." He hands me the stack of papers and I looked through as we stepped into my classroom.

"Thank you, I owe you one." I praised him as I set everything on my desk.

"Maybe some dinner?" I looked back at him. "I gave it a shot." The bell rang. shit. Wade saluted and walked away as kids came inside and took their seats. I cleared my throat and started class. The students had told me I was a female version of Dr. Bruce Banner, I don't understand why they got that. Was it because I fumbled my words and how I gentle, innocent and sweet I am?

"Good morning class, I hope you had a wonderful weekend." I sat on my desk, watching everyone looking back at me. "So today we are going to learn about Pompeii, can someone tell me what happened?" Nobody raised their hands. I sighed and looked around the room, I hated to call on them but I had to. "Mr. Parker." he sits up and shrugs.

"A volcano erupted?" I hopped down my desk and walked around the room.

"Yes, great job Peter." My heels clicked, students listened. "What else happened?" I saw a hand raised. "Yes, Ned?"

"Didn't they die because of the ash?"

"Some did."

"Why didn't they run?" MJ speaks up.

"Because they didn't know what was happening. They stared at the sky, everyone watched." Everyone means us, the eternals. We couldn't get involved, we couldn't save them. Ajak said not to get attached. It hurt every event we went to. We couldn't save them, it was our duty. "It was already too late before they realized what was happening." The classroom started to shake. everyone was screaming and hiding under their desks. "Get under the desks now! Everyone!" I helped them get them to safety and looked out the window to see what was happening. It was a earthquake, it did stop within a few seconds. It was a natural thing, I hope.

★

Later in the day, after that scary moment, I headed to Matt's place for dinner. I got some wine and let myself in. we were comfortable with each other to do that, for 5 years we known each other.

"I got the wine." I said as I placed it on the table. Matt smoothly waltz up to me and holds something behind his back. "What is that?" He pulls out flowers, or what was left. They were flopped down, some lost petals, some lost almost everything. I chuckled, not letting Matt know they were destroyed. "They're beautiful." He noticed the tone in my voice.

"No." He touches them. He groans. "The lady said they were nice and beautiful." I took them from him.

"Are you sure? Or did you take a quick stop?" I called him out. He looks down. "They're still beautiful, even though theres one covered in blood."

"What!" I laughed. "No, i just wack the guy."

"Im joking. Thank you."

"I got the food." He shakes his head. It was Chinese food, our favorite. We sat down on his couch and talked about work. "Did you hear about the earthquake?"

"What about it?"

"Foggy told me it was so strong that London felt it too." I dropped my container and hummed.

"Thats crazy." We stopped eating and chatted more and had more drinks. We've been up all night, laughing away and telling stories.

"And then he called it avocados at law." I threw my head back and laughed at the stupid but yet funny story Matt told. he moved closer to me. "Can I tell you something?" I hummed. "I want to show you something."

"What is it?" I got closer to him.

"I can tell either your lying or not."

"So like a superpower?"

"You can say that."

"How do you do that?"

"All from your heartbeat." I was intrigued. "Wanna give it a go?"

"Hit me." I sit up straight and played along.

"Whats your name."

"Celeste." He waited, and he nodded.

"Where do you work?"

"Midtown High, History teacher. Come on Matthew, give me some more, other than those questions, you already know these." I gently pushed his shoulder.

"Okay, that was warm up, just testing it out." He smiles. "Do you have a boyfriend?" My face fell.

"Had." He shifted a little, he knew that it was true but asked the wrong thing. He coughs.

"How long have you been here for?" My heart jumped. what the hell am I supposed to say? 7000 years?! "Celeste?"

"5 years." I did move to New York 5 years ago. That wasn't a lie. Matt tilted his head a bit. "What?"

"You guessed correctly." Im surprise that even was a true thing. I passed haha! I passed!

"I sure hope so."

"Sorry about asking about your ex." I looked at from him. Even though it was long, the wound was still fresh in a way.

"You didn't know."

"Is he still in the picture?"

"Are you still listening to my heart?" We both let out a chuckle. I moved in closer to him. "Enough about my ex."  I touched his jaw, slowly looking down at his lips. "Can I try the heart thing out?"

"Give it a shot."

"Do you want to kiss me right now?"

"Yes, yes i do." He placed his hand on my cheek.

"Good." I leaned in and kissed him. He grabbed my hips and pulled me down to his lap. A moan escape my mouth and I left a smile forming on my neck. Matt took off my shirt and tossed it across the room. with his tie, I dragged him to his bed and unbuttoned his shirt so he joined with me.

I laid on his bed naked, remembering what we did. I bit my lip, gathered my belongings and left. Matt wasn't bad but i knew i couldn't let him in, I would end up hurting him. We agreed, after the whole i know you're daredevil thing and Elektra was in the picture, and then he was 'dead' we could remain as friends, or hook up, which was the first time. But all that problems why we cant, was too much even for me who can date a human at all.

I ran along the beach, early run before I go to work. I heard the waves go from a pattern to a weird one. I took off my headphones and looked closer. Something came out, it had a tail and- oh shit. I ran away but it caught my legs and dragged me to the water. I teleported to the other side and realized what it was. It cant be. Deviants. They're back, how? We killed them all. It arose and it was bigger than the ones we fought before. My hands danced around but it didn't stop it. It just clawed me, scratched me on my side.

I screamed in pain. There was nobody around, nobody by my side. I managed to get up and try again. This one was strong, again, unlike the ones before. I let him chase me and I used my powers to push it down into the ground. It roar and jumped back from the hole and pushed me.

"You've been such a pain in my ass." I froze it, tear it apart like I always done. Its body fell down a few feet away from me. I plopped down on the sand and looked at it. This cant be. The others, do they know? How are they back? I moved its body into the water so nobody could see it. I then teleported back to my place and groan in pain, dragged myself to the bathroom and went to the kitchen to stitch myself up. I put the wooden spoon my mouth and started to pour alcohol on the wound and start stitching.

all I could think was do the rest know they are back? Why hasn't Ajak called? The job wasn't done, and if they did know, what hell of a reunion we're about to have. But again, maybe ill see him, again. So many thoughts went in my head. And all it was about with Druig. Fucking Druig.