𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐒 | 𝟏𝟖+

𝐓𝐰𝐨

❝𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦,
𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.
𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.❞

Rubbing her temples tiredly, Natalia sighed as she leaned back in her desk chair, stretching in hopes of ridding herself of the kink that had formed in her lower back from sitting in the same chair for five hours straight. It was well past time to go home, but she'd only had a few case files left to sort through and she didn't want to leave them for tomorrow when she could just finish them tonight.

She could feel the stinging sensation behind her eyes from staring at papers for so long, all of the words she was reading were on the verge of blending together, but she was determined to impress with her perseverance skills. The coffee and pizza didn't seem to go over well, so she'd settled on actually wowing with her work dexterity rather than seeming like a suck-up.

That and because Mr. Murdock never came back earlier after he had stepped out — and Natalia didn't feel like wallowing in self pity all alone in her apartment over it. Staying late and staying busy kept her mind from wandering into places it shouldn't.

A knock on the door pulled Natalia from her thoughts, her head lifting to see Foggy standing in the doorway to Mr. Murdock's office with a friendly smile.

"I'm heading out," he announced quietly. "Are you coming?"

"I actually have a few more of these cases to sort," she said hesitantly, her eyebrows knitting as she peered up at him. "I was going to stay a little later. If that's okay?"

Foggy seemed surprised by her question, his eyebrows raising faintly before a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Yeah, yeah. I'll leave the key out here on the desk, just lock up when you're done. And be careful."

"I will. Take some of that pizza with you, I won't be able to eat it all by myself."

"Will do," he assured her softly before disappearing from the doorway.

The conversation had basically confirmed that Mr. Murdock had left at lunch, which only made her feel even more unsettled. Foggy didn't seem affected by it in the slightest — maybe this happened all of the time? Maybe, by some slim chance, this didn't actually have anything to do with her and she was just paranoid.

Yeah, that's it.

Sitting the case file that was in her fingers into the completed stack, she blew an exasperated breath from her full lips as she grabbed the next file, her blonde hair whooshing out in front of her face before dropping back down again. She heard Foggy heading out, the faint sound of the front entrance door opening and closing, leaving her alone to bask in the silence once more.