Can You Feel The Vibrations?

crestfallenmurdock:

“Hi,” He repeated back, glad she seemed mostly normal, at least. It wasn’t really surprising, she had been trying her hardest to be normal for him for months. But then Asher had to ruin it by claiming they’d been talking about him, and while that had been what he was subtly trying to figure out, Asher didn’t have to say it like that. “Okay, haha, I get it. None of my business. I just…You two don’t–y’know–really seem like you’d have anything to talk about, I guess.”

@the-star-fairy

stella looked from matt to asher to find the other boy doing the same thing. he looked about as nervous as she did even though she could tell he was trying not to. she knew he liked matt. her smile was small as matt greeted her. she was still so unsure. her cheeks flared red when asher admitted they had been talking about matt. “oh, uh well. we were just….i just saw him sitting here so i thought….i thought i’d say hello,” she stuttered.

@steele-yourself​

“Ease up, Matty,” Asher started, using the nickname he knew Matt hated so much. It was easier for all of them if he kept to his usual, older patterns. Easier if he came off as the annoying prick, instead of the guy that had actual feelings for Matt. “Stella and I are friends. You don’t need all that much in common to be friends, right?” The only thing they had in common was Matt, but it was as she said- any friend of Matt is a friend of mine. 

crestfallenmurdock:

Matt had been sitting on his own, eyes fixed to the comic in his hands, but mind elsewhere. Things in town weren’t getting easier (even saying they were getting harder might be an understatement), and he was stressed. A default mode for him, yes, but the level kicked up nearly 200% when he looked up and saw Stella talking to Asher. That couldn’t be a good thing, right? He knew Asher wouldn’t be mean to Stella, and Stella was hard not to like, so there was no danger of anyone getting hurt. But for some reason, he was still worried about them talking to each other….His feet started moving without asking his brain for permission, stopping him right in front of them with an awkward wave. “Uh, hey guys. What are you–I mean, what are you guys talking about?”

@the-star-fairy

stella tilted her head and gave him a small smile. she was still confused about how much asher liked matt or if the feelings were mutual but it gave her a headache to think about it too much. “i like his nerdyness,” she commented with a nod. she heard someone walking towards them and turned her head. she bit her lip. she wasn’t sure if she was really ready to be around them at the same time but she would try not to let either of them know that. she gave matt a small smile, though her usual sunshine was dimmer than normal. “hi,” she said awkwardly, blushing a little. 

@steele-yourself

‘Of course you do,’ he wanted to say, but instead he found himself following her gaze as Matt walked over to them. It was inevitable, he should have figured. Not only had he been staring completely unsubtly, but if Matt saw these two talking, of course he’d come over. His eyes moved from Matt to Stella and god, if that didn’t hit him in a spot he didn’t think it would. Was he jealous over this girl? “You,” he said, before he could stop himself. “Mostly about how big of a nerd you are, but,” He shrugged, painfully aware that he was mostly filling the silence. “Hey.” He offered Matt a half-hearted wave, letting the rest of his fake insults die before they could even leave his lips.

“well, anyway here’s my apology for bumping into you and taking up your time.”

“No offense-- actually, yeah, a little bit of offense-- but your apology was kind of shitty. You didn’t even actually say sorry.”

“Then it must be a fact, right?” Alexandria said with a laugh. He seemed like a nice kid, despite his pessimistic leanings, and she was positive she could get him to see the light easily. “I think it’s because this way you know they’ll do it right. If you have a food truck that does pizza and sandwiches and smoothies, you know everything they make will be pretty good. But if the truck has a specialty, you know the food will be great.” She shrugged. “I think that’s called moody, then. Probably because you didn’t eat breakfast. You should get a grilled cheese.”

“Pretty sure that’s not how that works,” But Asher wasn’t going to argue with the girl, if she continued to insist. There wasn’t really much of a point in it, she would probably never back down. “Yeah, sure, but grilled cheese? Who wants to specialize in that? There’s one way to do it- butter, bread, cheese. The only way to do it wrong is in the microwave.” He shook his head, laughing an amused little laugh. “I won’t even deny that, but I’m not eating that grilled cheese. You couldn’t pay me to eat that grilled cheese.”

“Yeah except Matt’s over there. And since you guys are sorta friend’s now why do you keep calling him a stupid nerd?”

“Uh, because he is? Us being ‘sorta friends’ doesn’t stop him from being a stupid nerd.”

“Oh boy, you’ve got it bad for whoever that nerd is.”

“Or maybe I’m really craving food truck grilled cheese. I’ve never told anybody before, but it’s kind of my guilty pleasure. I’m pretty sure they use block cheese, instead of sliced, because it ends up kind of stringy instead of gooey, which-- just sells it.”

“Maybe you’re right, there are definitely better tasting…things out there,” she smirked, biting back a giggle as she kept the bottle in her hand, her grip tightening on it ever so slightly. Lilith could understand the appeal, he was cute in a teenage dirtbag kinda way. Maybe this is what Hell had really done for Matty- given him a taste for the bad boys over sunshine and rainbows. She wanted to figure out the appeal, the history but not here. Not…right now. He reached out for the bottle and for a split second she wasn’t sure she’d let it go…but she did, watching him take another drink. “Why the cheap whiskey then? If it’s not for the taste then maybe you’re trying to get another one out of your mouth, hm?”

Asher took another swig from the bottle, once again cringing from the bitter taste that washed down his throat. Seriously, how did anybody actually like this crap? He could account on more than one occasion how he’d overheard his father discuss the rich and smooth flavor. “Smooth my ass,” he muttered, wiping his lips carelessly with the back of his sleeve, offering the bottle back to the woman. What had she said her name was, again? “Oh, no, I’m not nearly that deep. Just your typical teenage boy with a reputation.” Should he have admitted that he was a teenager? That part was probably obvious, but he was being extremely careless. “My dad drinks this shit and since I can’t get a fake yet, it’s my only option. But-” He found himself letting out a small little laugh. “I’d like to get this taste out of my mouth.”

Lilith had been kind, hadn’t she? Instead of mascaraing everyone that Matt Murdock knew or had ever come into contact with because she hadn’t got what she wanted from his little trip downstairs, she’d let it go. To an extent of course. She’d only dressed up as an angel. Her whims, her fickle nature was practically legendary but on occasion, she saw the potential in the long game (apocalypse, anyone?). Letting Matt get back to what was left of his adorable little life and prodding loved ones was part of that long game. Admittedly she had become increasingly bored with waiting but that was when Asher Steele fell right into her lap. Shouting, kissing, broken bookshelves… It was perfect, really. And here he was now, drinking- practically on a silver platter. “Maybe you need to refine those tastes of yours,” she smiled, plucking the bottle from his hands and pressing it to her own lips, “Life’s too short.”

Asher allowed the woman to snatch the bottle from his hands, pleased to see her take a swig from it instead of dumping it all out on the ground. “I doubt you can refine any taste to genuinely like cheap whiskey, but to each their own, right?” Fortunately for him, he was a master at the mind-reading (which he normally didn’t try to do, but he was at least a little tipsy and could he really be blamed?), so he knew that she wasn’t thinking about getting him in trouble for this. Her mind said something about perfect opportunities and Matt-- No, that was probably just him. “I’ll drink to that one, though,” he said, reaching for the bottle once more. He wasn’t nearly drunk enough, not yet. 

she didn’t know why she was pushing this. the more she pushed, then the admittance of him liking and possibly being with matt was more likely. but maybe that was what she wanted in some strange way. if he admitted it, then maybe everything wouldn’t be so unknown. that was what she hated most. not knowing where everyone stood with everyone else. she followed his gaze back over to matt and swallowed thickly. she frowned at his response. she didn’t quite understand that. “oh,” she said simply, still a bit confused about everything. “but doesn’t that mean you like him?” 

“That means-” Well, there was no use denying it now. It seemed like he had at least deflected enough for her to only see it as a friendship kind of liking, not whatever stupid pining shit it really was, but could he really deny that he was at least friends with Matt? With how often they had actual civil conversations, it was actually pretty stupid for him to deny it. “Yeah, you got me there. He’s not as bad as he used to be. Still a raging nerd, but hey, we all have flaws.”

Matt frowned. “I’m mostly positive you’ve never been nearly killed by a vampire before.” He wasn’t sure why the idea bothered him so much, but he’d felt the same way when Asher joked about having a werewolf living in his apartment complex. “I might not be there next time, so try not to do it again, if you can help it.” He tugged at his sleeve a little, feeling uncomfortable. Again. “There’s a lot of, um, paperwork involved, you know? So just don’t get messed up in that.” Not that there weren’t other hunters who could deal with the clean up, and most of the town seemed to be in the know these days, so there wouldn’t be much of a cover-up. But maybe Matt was overthinking it, he was pretty good at that. Asher should just…not die. Yeah, they could agree on that. “What? No, I didn’t mean it like…” Except maybe he kind of did, because he’d already said he wasn’t going to go, and then he’d changed that when Asher asked. How else was the other boy supposed to take it? “Okay, I guess it did kinda sound like that. Would you stop it with the bad boy card? I’m not trying to be a rebel.” He’d found that he minded less and less, though, his complaint more out of a sense of obligation to argue it than anything else. “What would going all out even look like for us?” Aware of how that sounded, he pressed on hastily, cheeks tinged red. “I mean, you know, we started this with a surprise ask while walking through town, you can’t really go more underkill than that.” It took him a moment to move his feet again, lagging behind Asher for a moment. “Is that what you’re going to do this year?” It wasn’t real concern he was feeling, it wasn’t. He didn’t want to be ditched halfway through to spend the rest of the night on his own. That was understandable. “Right, but then you wouldn’t be a Wendigo. You’d be a google image version of some drawing someone did that’s mostly werewolf with a little of the monster from Stranger Things thrown in. What–I–no…I wasn’t–No. I-I didn’t mean it like that.” Somehow Asher always managed to get him stammering over one thing or another. “Well–yeah. But you don’t have to say anything. I know what you think about it.”

Asher shrugged, like whatever made up scene they were talking about was ultimately no big deal. “That’s because I’m too smart to get tied up with vampires.” Except Matt was getting a little sentimental and... It was getting increasingly harder and harder not to read his mind. How long had he gone? Sure, sometimes it just happened (he blamed his 10th grade self for spending far too much time in that headspace), but he hadn’t intentionally read Matt’s mind since he came back. He was trying to be respectful. “I’ll try, just so you can avoid that paperwork.” It was a little coy shot at the other, but it was playful. It was weird (but kind of nice) being playful with Matt. “Getting soft on me already, huh?” He wasn’t going to push any of Matt’s buttons, he wasn’t going to push any of Matt’s buttons- he had already said he’d give Matt some time to think- He wasn’t going to push any of Matt’s buttons. “Maybe this crush thing has been the other way around this entire time.” Okay, maybe he was. “You’re definitely rebelling. Fortunately for you I just think it’s that awkward teenage rebelling that every kid goes through.” That was a lie, but it was times like this that Asher was grateful nobody else could read his mind. “You’d probably know better than I do. But going all out would probably be a mixture of a couple things. Stupid matching tuxedos, a limousine, dancing at least more than once-- even if your dancing is sucky. And-” Ho, don’t do it. “It’ll end with us sneaking off to some one night motel where we’ll dot dot dot. Which is the only reason why I won’t ditch you halfway through, because I know you’ll eventually do the Running Man with Peter and ugh, no thank you.” There, that should cover that up pretty smoothly. “Then I’ll ask... The Winchester’s. I’m sure I could get an in with them, pretty easily. But since you’re insisting, maybe I’ll have to go this sexy cat route.” This was one of those times, when he didn’t even have to try to read Matt’s thoughts to catch little tidbits. He wasn’t planning on actually dressing up? “What, are you lame enough to do Spiderman? I bet you are, aren’t you.” Why didn’t Matt want to dress up?

“Again, you mean.” Matt pointed out, trying not to think about how far they’d come to get to a point where he felt comfortable almost teasing Asher back. It wasn’t a feeling that lasted long, however, as Asher fell back into his typical defensive behaviors, and Matt was left to try sorting through the words looking for the real meanings. For a guy who knew what everybody else was thinking all the time, Asher seemed ridiculously out of touch with his own thoughts. “I wasn’t–I’m not…” He stopped and started over. “I don’t care if anyone else asks me, because I wasn’t planning on going.” And maybe there was something a little flattering about Asher asking him, even if he wasn’t sure how he felt about the guy yet. Matt would never admit that, though, at risk of being teased until the day he died. He tried to sound flippant to hide the way he absolutely did not know how to react here. “Well, um, what if I’m giving you a pity yes? So you don’t have to do this again to someone else?” He didn’t pull the deflection off as well as Asher did, but he was pretty happy with the result. “That’s so not a valid reason. There were–what? Five hundred kids in the gym? You could have just stood near someone else.” It was still weird, them being able to talk about the old days (or just the fact that they were talking at all), but Matt didn’t totally hate it. He could look back on some of those interactions with a greater understanding now. “You still don’t even know what a Wendigo looks like, how are you going to make the costume?” But logic was useless, this was Asher. “Most people just go as superheroes or sexy cats.”

“Just because you come barging in like whatever superhero you’re currently obsessed with, doesn’t mean I couldn’t have handled it. You act like that was my first experience being nearly killed by a vampire.” He definitely couldn’t have handled it, especially with Peter running and screaming like an idiotic maniac, but again, admitting any kind of gratitude to Matt right now was entirely unlikely. He snorted, rolling his eyes. The one perk of being himself was that when he was embarrassed, Asher covered it up with carefully placed insults and nonchalance. When Matt was embarrassed, he could hardly get a sentence out. “So you’ll go for me, but not anyone else?” He hadn’t meant to ask that out loud, just like he hadn’t meant to sound so pleased about it. “It’s a good thing I did ask, then. I’d hate to see you break some poor girl’s heart just because you’re so close to getting all the stamps on your bad boy card.” There, that should cover it up. “A pity yes.” He repeated it like he couldn’t quite believe it, though he was a tad impressed at the attempt at deflection. “Does that mean you’re gonna go all out, because you pity me? Don’t worry, I’ll buy the corsage, since I did ask, but only out of pity.” They had stopped walking, mostly out of Matt’s shock, but Asher started up again. They were close enough to his place and even though the conversation had gotten a little out of hand, Matt had definitely promised him maybe poisoned tacos. “You should know me better than that. One way or another I was gonna insult your dancing and leave. You should be happier that it happened at the beginning of the night.” It hadn’t helped that Stacy Rotlen was staring at Matt like she wanted to join him and his dancing, but that didn’t need to be talked about. “I’m pretty sure I could google the thing and find something that it resembled. Though- If you wanted me to dress up as a sexy cat, all you had to do was ask.” He paused. “Let me guess, you’re going the superhero route?”

“yeah but it didn’t seem like a pity kiss when you talked about it. then why here? there’s a nice park around. but you’re sitting here,” she questioned. she knew she sometimes came off as kind of an airhead or stupid but she wasn’t. she just liked to look at things differently. a part of her wanted to not like him. she wanted to be with matt but there was obviously something going on with the two of them. but stella wanted matt to be happy. and she wasn’t sure that she was the one that made him happy anymore. which naturally hurt more than she had ever expected. but she was still determined to be asher’s friend. even if it hurt her to know that matt wasn’t hers.

She was way too perceptive and Asher wasn’t enjoying this at all. She was probably just making conversation but it felt like she was calling him out and if his brain was actually working right then, he’d send back some witty retort that probably would go over her head-- unlike his feelings for Matt. His eyes moved back to the nerd boy they were both into, and he had to fight back another roll of his eyes. This idiot was seriously ruining Asher’s street cred. “We’re friends. Me and Matt.” And why was even that so hard to admit? “Friends that occasionally kiss each other.” He offered her a shrug, like it wasn’t a huge deal. It wasn’t even a lie. 

“Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed! How can you not like grilled cheese? Especially when it comes from a food truck. It’s been scientifically proven that food from a truck is more fun. Okay, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it seems like it would be, doesn’t it? Okay, you’re too grumpy. Did you have breakfast today? Skipping breakfast makes a person grumpy, you know. ”

“You can’t scientifically prove an opinion, but- sure, okay. I just don’t get the point of a food truck dedicated purely to grilled cheese. Sure, it’s good, but it’s not that good.” He raised his eyebrows, watching her for a moment before sighing. “I’m not grumpy, I’m like this all the time.” God, she was peppy.

Project Runaway, really? That’s where you’re at? Please, put it beside America’s Next Top model and no one gives a damn about who designed what, we all just wanna see them get bitched out by Tyra. Right. I made my mistakes but I am not down to live with the consequences. For all I know one or all of them could be burning in Hell right now and I’m not even around to get an autograph.

Better does not equal good. But clearly we’re on a completely different wavelength when it comes to quality t.v, though, if you want to rot your brain with petty drama and fake celebrities, that’s your prerogative. Whatever, I’m pretty sure the Kardashian’s is on Hulu. If you’re expecting any of them to have died by now, be prepared for the disappointment, though. Kylie would be the first to go and you’d know because girls across the nation would be sobbing over the end of her makeup line.

“well you’re the one staring at him. and you told me you kissed him. it seems like you like him to me,” she told him, feeling awkward about the whole thing. she wanted to be asher’s friend. but she also didn’t wanna think about him and matt. she didn’t even really know what she and matt were. if anything anymore. 

“I’m pretty sure I told you it was a pity kiss when I first mentioned it. Also, not staring. Which, you know, makes your entire argument invalid.” She was definitely more perceptive than he’d like her to be, especially since- in some ways of the word- he considered her to be his rival. It was clear that there were feelings from both her and Matt and he hated that it bothered him, just as much as she probably hated it from their end.

“Yeah, okay,” Matt said with a snort. They both knew that that was far from the truth, but Matt wasn’t gonna argue with it. His incredulous tone probably gave away what he really thought about it anyways. “Yeah. It’s just… yeah, if you ever find yourself in trouble. Vampires or whatever. You’ve got my number.” He shrugged, ready for that conversation to be done with. It was weird now, being more open to hunting. Weird mostly because it wasn’t ever something he thought he’d be actively doing, even before hell. “Uh, no, you can’t take it back, that’s not fair.” But it didn’t seem like Asher was going to, he just needed to wait. Though, not very long, apparently. It was spilling out of Asher’s mouth and Matt found himself gaping and speechless. “You, uh… You wanna go to prom with me?” There was shock in his voice and it took him a minute to realize how that might sound. “Sorry, I- It’s just… It’s still kinda hard to believe that you like me, yannow? It’s-” He cleared his throat, nodding a little awkwardly. “Sorry, yeah. I’ll go to prom with you. Even if that was the worst promposal in all of history.” And there was fondness, this time. Followed by another amused snort. “Really? Coming from the guy who left Junior Prom because- and, your words here- you didn’t want to see my stinky dancing.” He shook his head. “Wendigo is fine. Still pretty gross, but a badass gross, so that’s fine.”

Asher scoffed, shoving at Matt’s arm in a way that was absolutely not supposed to be flirty. “Shut up, Murdock.” He was almost definitely going to get an aneurism from how often he rolled his eyes, but if that was really how God wanted him to go, he wasn’t going to stop now. “I’ll keep that in mind if I ever find myself on the bad side of a psychotic monster.” But if he was being honest, he’d just rather that never happened. Not only would it be painfully inconvenient, but being saved by Matt again would ruin his cred. Or maybe it should happen, so he could die quickly. Watching Matt gape, seeing him stare at Asher like that-- he’d much rather something swallow him whole right there. “You don’t have to sound so pleased about it. We all know that you’re too cool for prom. Anyways, it’s not like I’m asking because I want to. This is definitely a pity ask, because who else is going to ask you?” There was probably some clever trick that Asher could use to stop putting his foot in his mouth, namely shutting up, but old habits die hard and Matt was being ridiculously innocent. “This is as good of a promposal that anyone is ever gonna get from me.” Which wasn’t even a lie. He never planned on doing anything like this, ever again. “Pretty sure my words were sucky, but hey, that’s a valid reason.” Not really. Matt was the one who took dance classes. “Wendigo it is, then.”