He sees Matt. Matt’s lucky he can’t see himself, or maybe Foggy wishes that he could, because then he’d see the obvious. He knows Matt doesn’t want to admit anything wrong, but you only need two working eyes and two minutes with Matt Murdock to see that something is a little wrong with the guy.
A few more minutes, and maybe you realize that there’s something a bit fucked up about the way Matt acts and speaks.
Now Foggy isn’t new to this. His comes from a poor family, and he’s witnessed his fair share of hardship. He knows what it looks like. It’s not like he was expecting his blinded-as-a-child-in-a-terrible-accident roommate to be the stellar picture of mental health, a charming little blueberry of fun filled excitement. He knew that Matt would probably have some issues that were holding on, and some that would never go away.
But... Well, Matt had certainly exceeded what he had been “expecting” in just about every category. He hadn’t expected someone so handsome, so stubborn, so smart, and he certainly wasn’t expecting a bestfriend. So it made sense that Matt blindsided him in this category as well.
He cared about Matt, a lot. It didn’t seem like Matt could tell, but it was true whether his new friend wanted to acknowledge it or not. And caring, well, that meant that he also worried, a lot.
It would be totally cool if Matt could stop saying and doing such worrying things too. Maybe go see the school counselor, or even unload some worries onto his old pal Foggy, like, literally anything other than how he currently operates and handles his day to day life. They’d only been roommates for four months and Foggy was already sure he was going to have an aneuyrism.
As far as friends go, Foggy thinks that... well, they don’t really go. It basically seems to stop and start at Franklin Nelson, and sort of seems to begin and end in their bedroom. Matt spends 75% of his time studying in their room, and when Foggy forces him out the room for some socialization, anyone would be hardpressed to get more than polite acknowledgement out of Matt. He just doesn’t seem interested in making any friends, at all, period.
It worries Foggy.
(Secretly, it also makes Foggy feel kind of special. Like he won some sweepstakes without even trying. Who gave him special permission to be the single member of the Matthew Murdock Friend Club? He’s probably never felt this lucky in his life.)
The other 25% of Matt’s life is a goddamn mystery. Oftentimes he just wanders away, mumbling some random excuse as to where he’s off to. Foggy has to work really hard to stave off his rampant protective instincts and let the man have some space, but he can’t help but to worry he’s going to get lost or walk face first into some wall the entire time he’s gone.
Ask Matt a question about his personal life, about how he’s feeling, chances are you’re gonna get some unintelligent gibberish, or an answer that haunts your soul for a week or two. Foggy knows he shouldn’t prefer the former, but sometimes the latter stresses him out just a bit too much.
“Your dad was awesome,” Foggy ventures one day, after watching youtube videos of Battlin’ Jack Murdock rather guiltily with his headphones in. He’s curious, and it’s true, and he thinks that maybe he can get Matt to share a little bit. Even a little is better than nothing.
Matt goes still, which is a bad start, but then a small smile pulls over his face. “Yeah, he was,” he starts, actually sounding excited.
To Foggy’s surprise, Matt launches into a chain of stories about his dad. The pride in his voice overflowing, and Foggy has to contain his own smile, even though he knows Matt can’t see it. There’s some worrying stuff in there too, mixed with the good stuff, but it all seems to be good to Matt so Foggy tries not to dwell. The idea of his father coming home and having him take a swig of his drink so he’ll have steady hands while he stitches his face is... something he’s having trouble not dwelling on but...
Matt suddenly becomes quiet, so quickly that Foggy is shocked. He’d been talking about his dad taking him to the gym while he trained, how he always wanted him to study - and maybe that explains the obsessive drive he has with his schoolwork, this studying thing came up in pretty much every story he had told. Foggy hadn’t thought he had said anything that sounded bad at all, but Matt suddenly looked really distressed in that way he looked when he was trying very hard not to look distressed.
“Then he died, you know, it was in the papers,” Matt summarizes quickly, and Foggy thinks he’s probably lost him. Expects the next response to be nothing more than a mumble before his friend hides away. He’s happy though, it’s the most he’s gotten out of Matt yet.
“What about your mom? Did you go live with her after?” Foggy wonders. He’s never heard Matt talk about his mom yet, he might have mentioned her once. He thought maybe his parents had divorced when he was very young.
A strange smile worked its way over his friend’s features, and Foggy felt those weird little warning bells go off in his head. He had never had these bells before, they had appeared when Matt did, and more and more of them kept popping up all the time, “Maggie” he sighs,”I’ve never met her, she’s gone.”
He says it wistfully, strangely, as if he’s happy about it.
Foggy is a little uneasy, “I’m sorry,” he genuinely is, although he can’t tell if Matt would want him to be. Probably not. “Is she dead?”
“Nah,” Matt’s smile gets a little more... real? “Just smart.”
Abruptly, Foggy wishes he had never asked. He’s torn between asking what the hell Matt means by that, and never touching on that response ever.
“Matt...” he’s out of his depth, he usually is with Matt, “I really love that you’ve shared all this with me man, like hell yes I’m glad you’ve told me all these awesome stories but... What the heck does that mean?”
“Nothing,” Matt’s smile vanishes even quicker than it appeared, and he turns in his bed so that his face is pressed into his pillow, “she’s just... Just smart. I just gotta...” The rest is muffled by the pillow.
Foggy wishes those stupid bells would shut up.
“Thanks,” Matt says, a little louder, “for listening.”
Baby steps, Foggy thinks, right?
...
In their second year, Matt comes in their room with a bruise on his face and a strange expression. Foggy had left him earlier when Matt had sheepishly found him at the bar and informed him that he’d found someone he was gonna go home with. Honestly, Foggy was - totally not jealous at all, absolutely not jealous why would he be? - really excited for Matt. Apparently he had made some sort of genuine connection, something that Foggy was beginning to worry he wasn’t ever going to make. It might change their dynamic, but Foggy was totally willing to slip someone else into their life easy as pie, if it meant Matt would have someone else he could talk to.
Apparently... not?
“Dude, what happened?” Foggy asked, rising from his his bed and almost dropping his laptop on the floor in his haste, “are you alright? You look...”
Matt’s eyes are hidden behind his glasses, but Foggy can he his eyebrows scrunch up in confusion, knows his best friend well enough to perfectly imagine what those eyes must look like.
“What do you mean?” Matt asks, “I’m fine, great actually,”
He doesn’t look great, he doesn’t even look fine. “Okay. Good, I’m glad you’re great.” Foggy’s not sure what to do with himself now, halfway between worried fawning and retreating to his bed, “so... Details then! What happened? Who is this allusive stranger who wooed Matty Murdock, the Ice King of Columbia?”
His friend shucks off his jacket and sits on his bed, “Oh,” he pauses for a second, before shrugging at Foggy, “I don’t know. It was fine, I mean, I don’t really remember their name. I can’t tell you what they looked like obviously and details... I don’t know I just sorta... You know.” He waved his hand through the air, in the general direction of his face.
Foggy was quiet for a whole minute. He knew the archetype of the “hot guy”, the one who had anonymous one night stands and objectified women, and Matt certainly fit that physically. Mentally, though, that didn’t really seem to be Matt’s thing, mostly it seemed like he didn’t really have time for that kind of stuff, and Foggy had seen Matt let anyone flirt with him, regardless of gender. This type of nameless sex wasn’t really something that he thought Matt would partake in, then again, it wasn’t like Matt really got anybody’s name. Still...
I don’t know I just sorta... You know.
Foggy frowns, does he know? He thinks he might, the way Matt gestured like that. The last time Matt talked about something like that, they were in a really loud shop trying to buy some bread, and he just sort of checked out, left for a little bit until they were done and Foggy led them back to campus. If that’s what Matt means though...
This feeling of nervous confusion shouldn’t feel so normal to him, but at this point, it does.
He purposefully walks over and beside Matt where he is lying on his bed, absently running his hands over the Braille of his textbook. Matt doesn’t look up or question him, maybe it’s because he knows what’s coming.
“Matt? Hey, man, be honest okay,” he nudges at the book with his hand, and Matt reluctantly moves his head in Foggy’s general direction, “cool, now that I’ve got your attention. What do you mean? You gotta tell me if anybody... Made you do anything you didn’t want to... Or...”
“No! Foggy! No, it wasn’t like that! Nobody fucking raped me,” Matt hissed, “I met them and I went home with them and it was consensual, what the hell?”
“Hey! Sorry, you just... Talked like you do when you like, are out of it for a while, and you’ve got this,” he pokes Matt’s face, and his friend winces, “which is new and incredibly suspicious.”
“It was as good as it ever is Foggy,” Matt hisses, he might be blushing, Foggy isn’t sure, “which is to say it was fine. Why are you asking me so many questions?”
“You know sex is supposed to be fun, right?”
Matt doesn’t answer, moving his head pointedly back in the direction of his book, and sealing his mouth shut. He looked like he might be grinding his teeth, so Foggy tried to suppress the worry in his heart and get up from his friend’s bed. Maybe this is just another one of Matt’s weird social things, hopefully it isn’t something more.
Hopefully.
Foggy makes sure to ask for their names every time Matt comes back. Eventually, he has to start communicating with people, at least if it means he doesn’t have to deal with Foggy’s questions, right?
...
Their last year Matt is pensive and quiet for an entire month. Foggy doesn’t ask, knows his friend needs space - a lot of space, but when Matt has been brooding for more than three weeks he knows something has to happen. Intervention? The thought makes him laugh.
Sometimes, he knows, the best way to solve sadness is to pretend it isn’t there. This is something he has always excelled at: deflecting! His ceaselessly cheery disposition and charming attitude helps too of course, Matt’s lucky he got stuck with a happy-go-lucky dude like him.
They’re eating lunch when he makes his move. They had only spoken of the future with idyllic awe and vague, sweeping statements. Matt didn’t seem too keen to even discuss graduation, so Foggy kept it broad. Helping people, lawyering things, lawyering at things, ya know, being the best damn avocados in general (at law). So he had no idea how Matt would take this.
“So I was thinking...” he starts, waving his straw through the air and probably getting Sprite all over Matt’s face, “about what we’re doing after we graduate.”
Well, he certainly didn’t expect Matt to immediately do that go-still-and-shut-down-my-entire-expression thing he does. Foggy thought he should probably at least have the decency to listen to what he was going to propose before deciding he didn’t want to hear it.
“That’s a while away Foggy I think-“
“Nah, it’s really not dude. I know you’re all wrapped up in your studies all the time and forget what day or month it is but it’s happening really soon, and we need to figure out what we’re gonna do.”
Matt is silent. He looks like he might break the plastic glass that his hand is wrapped around. Foggy takes it from him and moves it to the other side of the table, just in case. He also doesn’t ask, pick your battles, he thinks, one thing at a time.
“So let’s talk about it!” He tries to sound excited, because he is, but Matt’s attitude is kinda messing with his mojo, “What do you think about-“
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Matt frowns, and yeah, it’d be really cool if he could stop interrupting Foggy and let him get to the point. But, whatever, “school ends and we leave right? You go do whatever you wanna do, I go off and do my thing, I get a Christmas card from your mom once in a while. That’s how this works, right?”
Oh... Okay. Foggy tried not to be super offended and upset by Matt wanting to ditch him right after school - he thought they were friend, best friends - because it sounds kind of like Matt’s pretending to sound angry. Foggy has heard Matt angry, and this isn’t quite that.
“You... Don’t wanna be friends after school?” Foggy asks gently, attempting not to let any actual emotion flavor that question.
Matt looks like he doesn’t know what to say, he moves back in his seat and pushes and hand underneath his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose, “What?” He mumbles, mostly to himself.
Foggy tries a new angle, “You don’t think I wanna be your friend after school ends?”
Matt stills and looks away, hiding his face. Foggy thinks he looks a little bit like he’s being tortured. He’s had a lot of weird conversations with Matt, he thinks this might be the strangest. He’s definitely hit the nail on the head, not that the idea makes much sense. Why would he think...?
“Matt, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to-- Look, I’m applying for an internship at Landman and Zack, and wanted to know if you wanted to apply too. I hadn’t even thought about splitting up. I kind of always figured we were gonna work together,” Foggy sighed, tapping the back of his friend’s hand with his pointer finger, “if you’ll have me. You’re my best friend Matt, I don’t want to stop being your friend. Why would you eve-- no, just, okay? What do you say?”
There’s another moment of silence between them, Matt doesn’t move or say a word, and Foggy wonders if maybe he misinterpreted this entire thing. Maybe Matt had never really connected with him the way he thought they had... Maybe he really didn’t want Foggy around, dragging him down. Not when he had so much potential and-
Matt turns his face back to Foggy, his smile so huge and real that it completely hotwired Foggy’s brain. He grabs his hand, and Foggy’s train of thought crumbles into dust. Matt looked... happy, in a way that he hadn’t before. Foggy wondered why in the world something so small could make him feel like he kind of wanted to cry.
“You’re my best friend,” Matt face becomes serious, and he says it with so much conviction that it sounds like a prayer, “Foggy. You’re my best friend too.”
Foggy thinks he chokes a little, but he gets the words out eventually, “does that mean you’re gonna apply too.”
“Yeah,” Matt sighs, and goes back to eating.
He smiles through their entire meal and all the way through their next class.
FILL: For a Brief Moment (4/6)
Ha.
He sees Matt. Matt’s lucky he can’t see himself, or maybe Foggy wishes that he could, because then he’d see the obvious. He knows Matt doesn’t want to admit anything wrong, but you only need two working eyes and two minutes with Matt Murdock to see that something is a little wrong with the guy.
A few more minutes, and maybe you realize that there’s something a bit fucked up about the way Matt acts and speaks.
Now Foggy isn’t new to this. His comes from a poor family, and he’s witnessed his fair share of hardship. He knows what it looks like. It’s not like he was expecting his blinded-as-a-child-in-a-terrible-accident roommate to be the stellar picture of mental health, a charming little blueberry of fun filled excitement. He knew that Matt would probably have some issues that were holding on, and some that would never go away.
But... Well, Matt had certainly exceeded what he had been “expecting” in just about every category. He hadn’t expected someone so handsome, so stubborn, so smart, and he certainly wasn’t expecting a bestfriend. So it made sense that Matt blindsided him in this category as well.
He cared about Matt, a lot. It didn’t seem like Matt could tell, but it was true whether his new friend wanted to acknowledge it or not. And caring, well, that meant that he also worried, a lot.
It would be totally cool if Matt could stop saying and doing such worrying things too. Maybe go see the school counselor, or even unload some worries onto his old pal Foggy, like, literally anything other than how he currently operates and handles his day to day life. They’d only been roommates for four months and Foggy was already sure he was going to have an aneuyrism.
As far as friends go, Foggy thinks that... well, they don’t really go. It basically seems to stop and start at Franklin Nelson, and sort of seems to begin and end in their bedroom. Matt spends 75% of his time studying in their room, and when Foggy forces him out the room for some socialization, anyone would be hardpressed to get more than polite acknowledgement out of Matt. He just doesn’t seem interested in making any friends, at all, period.
It worries Foggy.
(Secretly, it also makes Foggy feel kind of special. Like he won some sweepstakes without even trying. Who gave him special permission to be the single member of the Matthew Murdock Friend Club? He’s probably never felt this lucky in his life.)
The other 25% of Matt’s life is a goddamn mystery. Oftentimes he just wanders away, mumbling some random excuse as to where he’s off to. Foggy has to work really hard to stave off his rampant protective instincts and let the man have some space, but he can’t help but to worry he’s going to get lost or walk face first into some wall the entire time he’s gone.
Ask Matt a question about his personal life, about how he’s feeling, chances are you’re gonna get some unintelligent gibberish, or an answer that haunts your soul for a week or two. Foggy knows he shouldn’t prefer the former, but sometimes the latter stresses him out just a bit too much.
“Your dad was awesome,” Foggy ventures one day, after watching youtube videos of Battlin’ Jack Murdock rather guiltily with his headphones in. He’s curious, and it’s true, and he thinks that maybe he can get Matt to share a little bit. Even a little is better than nothing.
Matt goes still, which is a bad start, but then a small smile pulls over his face. “Yeah, he was,” he starts, actually sounding excited.
To Foggy’s surprise, Matt launches into a chain of stories about his dad. The pride in his voice overflowing, and Foggy has to contain his own smile, even though he knows Matt can’t see it. There’s some worrying stuff in there too, mixed with the good stuff, but it all seems to be good to Matt so Foggy tries not to dwell. The idea of his father coming home and having him take a swig of his drink so he’ll have steady hands while he stitches his face is... something he’s having trouble not dwelling on but...
Matt suddenly becomes quiet, so quickly that Foggy is shocked. He’d been talking about his dad taking him to the gym while he trained, how he always wanted him to study - and maybe that explains the obsessive drive he has with his schoolwork, this studying thing came up in pretty much every story he had told. Foggy hadn’t thought he had said anything that sounded bad at all, but Matt suddenly looked really distressed in that way he looked when he was trying very hard not to look distressed.
“Then he died, you know, it was in the papers,” Matt summarizes quickly, and Foggy thinks he’s probably lost him. Expects the next response to be nothing more than a mumble before his friend hides away. He’s happy though, it’s the most he’s gotten out of Matt yet.
“What about your mom? Did you go live with her after?” Foggy wonders. He’s never heard Matt talk about his mom yet, he might have mentioned her once. He thought maybe his parents had divorced when he was very young.
A strange smile worked its way over his friend’s features, and Foggy felt those weird little warning bells go off in his head. He had never had these bells before, they had appeared when Matt did, and more and more of them kept popping up all the time, “Maggie” he sighs,”I’ve never met her, she’s gone.”
He says it wistfully, strangely, as if he’s happy about it.
Foggy is a little uneasy, “I’m sorry,” he genuinely is, although he can’t tell if Matt would want him to be. Probably not. “Is she dead?”
“Nah,” Matt’s smile gets a little more... real? “Just smart.”
Abruptly, Foggy wishes he had never asked. He’s torn between asking what the hell Matt means by that, and never touching on that response ever.
“Matt...” he’s out of his depth, he usually is with Matt, “I really love that you’ve shared all this with me man, like hell yes I’m glad you’ve told me all these awesome stories but... What the heck does that mean?”
“Nothing,” Matt’s smile vanishes even quicker than it appeared, and he turns in his bed so that his face is pressed into his pillow, “she’s just... Just smart. I just gotta...” The rest is muffled by the pillow.
Foggy wishes those stupid bells would shut up.
“Thanks,” Matt says, a little louder, “for listening.”
Baby steps, Foggy thinks, right?
...
In their second year, Matt comes in their room with a bruise on his face and a strange expression. Foggy had left him earlier when Matt had sheepishly found him at the bar and informed him that he’d found someone he was gonna go home with. Honestly, Foggy was - totally not jealous at all, absolutely not jealous why would he be? - really excited for Matt. Apparently he had made some sort of genuine connection, something that Foggy was beginning to worry he wasn’t ever going to make. It might change their dynamic, but Foggy was totally willing to slip someone else into their life easy as pie, if it meant Matt would have someone else he could talk to.
Apparently... not?
“Dude, what happened?” Foggy asked, rising from his his bed and almost dropping his laptop on the floor in his haste, “are you alright? You look...”
Matt’s eyes are hidden behind his glasses, but Foggy can he his eyebrows scrunch up in confusion, knows his best friend well enough to perfectly imagine what those eyes must look like.
“What do you mean?” Matt asks, “I’m fine, great actually,”
He doesn’t look great, he doesn’t even look fine. “Okay. Good, I’m glad you’re great.” Foggy’s not sure what to do with himself now, halfway between worried fawning and retreating to his bed, “so... Details then! What happened? Who is this allusive stranger who wooed Matty Murdock, the Ice King of Columbia?”
His friend shucks off his jacket and sits on his bed, “Oh,” he pauses for a second, before shrugging at Foggy, “I don’t know. It was fine, I mean, I don’t really remember their name. I can’t tell you what they looked like obviously and details... I don’t know I just sorta... You know.” He waved his hand through the air, in the general direction of his face.
Foggy was quiet for a whole minute. He knew the archetype of the “hot guy”, the one who had anonymous one night stands and objectified women, and Matt certainly fit that physically. Mentally, though, that didn’t really seem to be Matt’s thing, mostly it seemed like he didn’t really have time for that kind of stuff, and Foggy had seen Matt let anyone flirt with him, regardless of gender. This type of nameless sex wasn’t really something that he thought Matt would partake in, then again, it wasn’t like Matt really got anybody’s name. Still...
I don’t know I just sorta... You know.
Foggy frowns, does he know? He thinks he might, the way Matt gestured like that. The last time Matt talked about something like that, they were in a really loud shop trying to buy some bread, and he just sort of checked out, left for a little bit until they were done and Foggy led them back to campus. If that’s what Matt means though...
This feeling of nervous confusion shouldn’t feel so normal to him, but at this point, it does.
He purposefully walks over and beside Matt where he is lying on his bed, absently running his hands over the Braille of his textbook. Matt doesn’t look up or question him, maybe it’s because he knows what’s coming.
“Matt? Hey, man, be honest okay,” he nudges at the book with his hand, and Matt reluctantly moves his head in Foggy’s general direction, “cool, now that I’ve got your attention. What do you mean? You gotta tell me if anybody... Made you do anything you didn’t want to... Or...”
“No! Foggy! No, it wasn’t like that! Nobody fucking raped me,” Matt hissed, “I met them and I went home with them and it was consensual, what the hell?”
“Hey! Sorry, you just... Talked like you do when you like, are out of it for a while, and you’ve got this,” he pokes Matt’s face, and his friend winces, “which is new and incredibly suspicious.”
“It was as good as it ever is Foggy,” Matt hisses, he might be blushing, Foggy isn’t sure, “which is to say it was fine. Why are you asking me so many questions?”
“You know sex is supposed to be fun, right?”
Matt doesn’t answer, moving his head pointedly back in the direction of his book, and sealing his mouth shut. He looked like he might be grinding his teeth, so Foggy tried to suppress the worry in his heart and get up from his friend’s bed. Maybe this is just another one of Matt’s weird social things, hopefully it isn’t something more.
Hopefully.
Foggy makes sure to ask for their names every time Matt comes back. Eventually, he has to start communicating with people, at least if it means he doesn’t have to deal with Foggy’s questions, right?
...
Their last year Matt is pensive and quiet for an entire month. Foggy doesn’t ask, knows his friend needs space - a lot of space, but when Matt has been brooding for more than three weeks he knows something has to happen. Intervention? The thought makes him laugh.
Sometimes, he knows, the best way to solve sadness is to pretend it isn’t there. This is something he has always excelled at: deflecting! His ceaselessly cheery disposition and charming attitude helps too of course, Matt’s lucky he got stuck with a happy-go-lucky dude like him.
They’re eating lunch when he makes his move. They had only spoken of the future with idyllic awe and vague, sweeping statements. Matt didn’t seem too keen to even discuss graduation, so Foggy kept it broad. Helping people, lawyering things, lawyering at things, ya know, being the best damn avocados in general (at law). So he had no idea how Matt would take this.
“So I was thinking...” he starts, waving his straw through the air and probably getting Sprite all over Matt’s face, “about what we’re doing after we graduate.”
Well, he certainly didn’t expect Matt to immediately do that go-still-and-shut-down-my-entire-expression thing he does. Foggy thought he should probably at least have the decency to listen to what he was going to propose before deciding he didn’t want to hear it.
“That’s a while away Foggy I think-“
“Nah, it’s really not dude. I know you’re all wrapped up in your studies all the time and forget what day or month it is but it’s happening really soon, and we need to figure out what we’re gonna do.”
Matt is silent. He looks like he might break the plastic glass that his hand is wrapped around. Foggy takes it from him and moves it to the other side of the table, just in case. He also doesn’t ask, pick your battles, he thinks, one thing at a time.
“So let’s talk about it!” He tries to sound excited, because he is, but Matt’s attitude is kinda messing with his mojo, “What do you think about-“
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Matt frowns, and yeah, it’d be really cool if he could stop interrupting Foggy and let him get to the point. But, whatever, “school ends and we leave right? You go do whatever you wanna do, I go off and do my thing, I get a Christmas card from your mom once in a while. That’s how this works, right?”
Oh... Okay. Foggy tried not to be super offended and upset by Matt wanting to ditch him right after school - he thought they were friend, best friends - because it sounds kind of like Matt’s pretending to sound angry. Foggy has heard Matt angry, and this isn’t quite that.
“You... Don’t wanna be friends after school?” Foggy asks gently, attempting not to let any actual emotion flavor that question.
Matt looks like he doesn’t know what to say, he moves back in his seat and pushes and hand underneath his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose, “What?” He mumbles, mostly to himself.
Foggy tries a new angle, “You don’t think I wanna be your friend after school ends?”
Matt stills and looks away, hiding his face. Foggy thinks he looks a little bit like he’s being tortured. He’s had a lot of weird conversations with Matt, he thinks this might be the strangest. He’s definitely hit the nail on the head, not that the idea makes much sense. Why would he think...?
“Matt, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to-- Look, I’m applying for an internship at Landman and Zack, and wanted to know if you wanted to apply too. I hadn’t even thought about splitting up. I kind of always figured we were gonna work together,” Foggy sighed, tapping the back of his friend’s hand with his pointer finger, “if you’ll have me. You’re my best friend Matt, I don’t want to stop being your friend. Why would you eve-- no, just, okay? What do you say?”
There’s another moment of silence between them, Matt doesn’t move or say a word, and Foggy wonders if maybe he misinterpreted this entire thing. Maybe Matt had never really connected with him the way he thought they had... Maybe he really didn’t want Foggy around, dragging him down. Not when he had so much potential and-
Matt turns his face back to Foggy, his smile so huge and real that it completely hotwired Foggy’s brain. He grabs his hand, and Foggy’s train of thought crumbles into dust. Matt looked... happy, in a way that he hadn’t before. Foggy wondered why in the world something so small could make him feel like he kind of wanted to cry.
“You’re my best friend,” Matt face becomes serious, and he says it with so much conviction that it sounds like a prayer, “Foggy. You’re my best friend too.”
Foggy thinks he chokes a little, but he gets the words out eventually, “does that mean you’re gonna apply too.”
“Yeah,” Matt sighs, and goes back to eating.
He smiles through their entire meal and all the way through their next class.
...