Chapter Text
A deep inhale of musty yet comforting New York City air filled Stacey’s lungs. Her right hand cradled a cup of black tea with honey and she held her eyes closed, bathing herself in the warm morning sunlight through the clouded window of her apartment.
Her pale honey-blonde hair ran down softly down her back like silk bedsheets. A record turned slowly, drifting classical music around her bedroom. The Sleeping Beauty ballet was the soundtrack to today’s slow morning. Her skin soaked in her city’s autumn sunrise like snake scales. She almost always felt cold. Bundled up in her thick blanket, she felt protected from the city’s chill. The blanket felt like a warm hug, something she craved perpetually. Stacey hated being alone. She almost always had company over, but this was one of the rare occasions she didn’t. Good thing she lived next door to her Uncle Matt. So long as he didn’t have a girl over, he was almost always up to the random visits. Which honestly were pretty much daily.
Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson weren’t Stacey’s biological uncles, but were more like the guys in your life you call uncle because they’ve been friends with your dad since college and they’re basically like brothers. She was, however, the unofficial intern/errand runner for Nelson & Murdock: Attorneys at Law. The extra money allowed her to pay for art supplies and pointe shoes, so she was happy with that prospect. It also meant she got to spend time with her favourite uncles whilst she worked on assignments, meaning she didn’t have to sit home alone in the choking silence while she studied or sketched, so that was a solid bonus.
Stacey took a sip of her tea and sat herself at her vanity, pulling up the chair to face herself toward the window. Her bed, king sized of course, sat with the head against the centre of the wall, her nightstand on the left side. A bamboo paper divider stood folded out against a corner, providing her with modesty to get changed. A perfectly clean glass window took up the entire wall on the right side of the room, flooding grey or gold light (depending on the time of day it was) into her bedroom with the rest of the building being constructed of sturdy red brick and concrete. The walls were strong, reliable, simple, and unchanging. Just like her life.
And she quite liked the lack of change, thank you very much.
Reaching for the moisturiser and concealer, she began her favourite part of her morning. Makeup was something she could control. An anchor in the chaos of College. She was one of the many people who preferred to live off campus. She quite enjoyed the hustle and bustle of College life, but couldn’t bear the noise of living there. Plus, the subway trip gave her a chance to sketch.
She patted on her setting power, dusting the residue off with a big fluffy brush and reached for her favourite item of makeup. Her gold eyeliner. She found it at a gas station years ago and became oddly obsessed with the way it shimmered against her skin, complimenting her chocolate brown eyes perfectly. Pulling back the skin near her temple very slightly, she painted on her eyeliner with perfect precision. The sharp wing it left could’ve cut glass.
Perfect.
Stacey wound up and pinned her hair into two loose buns before stepping behind the paper screen, pulling off her oversized t-shirt and slipping on a white long-sleeved shirt and dark blue wool vest. She pulled up her denim cargo pants, straightened them out on her thighs with her palms and reached down to a little stool holding a handmade ceramic jewellery bowl and clipped on a necklace. It was a golden chain with a tiny golden swan pendant, a gift from Foggy for her 9th birthday. She wore it every day since she got it.
She grabbed her burgundy lipstick, spritzed herself with vanilla perfume, and popped them both into her satchel, slipping it over her shoulder. She grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on her dining table, slipped on a pair of black Dr Martins, and headed next door to Matt’s apartment.
Unbeknownst to Stacey, however, her life was about to get really, really strange.