When Matt decided that he would live on campus housing for law school, he had expected to be able to tolerate his roommate; he hadn’t expected to like him so much. Still, nobody could blame Matt for being charmed by Foggy Nelson’s ever cheerful attitude and direct manner. Foggy, Matt quickly realized, was also very good at reading him.
Like any roommate Matt had ever lived with, Foggy had a few quirks. He was a surprisingly light sleeper but never really complained about a lack of sleep. Matt could only tell because he was also a light sleeper and could hear the change in Foggy’s breath at night. Foggy liked to pace the room when studying and working on papers. He knew the lyrics to almost every 80s hit by heart, and many more obscure songs.
There were other quirks, too.
Within the first week of law school, Matt and Foggy fell into a routine where they would often walk to class together. Matt would let Foggy lead him as they complained about school and laughed at private jokes. It only took a few days to notice that Foggy liked to pick a new route to their classes and back to their dorm each time. Foggy did the same thing with the bars they regularly frequented, or any place really.
It took him about three weeks to actually comment on this particular quirk.
“Hey, why do you walk a different way every time?” Matt asked. They were taking a longer route back from the cafe, and Matt had to admit that he was annoyed. He wanted to return to studying and didn’t really feel they had the time for a “scenic” route. Taking different routes was also something Stick had taught him to do in order to prevent any enemies from potentially stalking him. The memory of Stick made Matt particularly acerbic. That, and this route wasn’t so much scenic as it was disgusting. They were walking through a particularly run down part of Hell’s Kitchen and it was an assault om all of Matt’s senses.
“Oh,” Foggy started. Matt could hear Foggy’s heartbeat increase rapidly. “Sorry, I didn’t even- It must be confusing for you-I didn’t even realize.” Matt took the flustered reaction to be one of embarrassment at not having considered an aspect of Matt’s blindness. Their friendship was new, and though Foggy was pretty direct about asking about Matt’s needs, he was still learning.
“It’s fine,” Matt said. “I mean, it’s not like I haven’t walked the city alone before. I just noticed it was something you do.”
“It’s a force of habit,” Foggy said.
“Funny habit to have,” Matt said.
“What can I say? I like to explore the city. See the sights.” Foggy’s tone sounded light, noncommittal, but his heartbeat remained abnormally fast.
“Sights? My nose tells me we're surrounded by trash. If it smells this terrible, I can’t imagine it looks much better,” Matt replied with a more playful tone.
Foggy laughed out loud. “Hey, what if I find the beauty in everything? Or maybe I’m feeling particularly misanthropic today, Murdock. It happens.”
“You didn’t seem misanthropic with the coffee girl from earlier.”
“Eh, she didn’t even laugh at my John Hughes joke. It’ll never work out. What’s humanity come to?”
This time they both laughed. Matt felt gratified that Foggy’s heart rate had returned to normal speed once more.
Matt never brought it up again and Foggy became a one-route kind of guy.
*****************
It was midterm time and both Matt and Foggy woke up after a meager four hours of sleep. Between the papers due and the exams, it didn’t seem like there was enough time during the day to finish everything.
Matt scrubbed a hand over his face and reached for his glasses as he sat up.
He could hear Foggy groaning as he turned his alarm off.
“You ready for the gauntlet, buddy?” Foggy asked, his voice still groggy with sleep.
“I’m ready to go back to sleep,” Matt said unhappily.
“Me too. I’m so looking forward to a post-exam nap. Or maybe I’ll just sleep forever.” Foggy got up and began to gather whatever clothes he had laying around to wear to class.
“You know, you shouted something in Russian in your sleep last night,” Matt said.
“What? Really?” Foggy snorted.
“I didn’t know you spoke Russian,” Matt said.
“I don’t,” Foggy said. “I listened to some language tapes as a kid. I can’t believe I even remember anything. Must be the stress, dude.”
Matt burst out into laughter. “That’s great,” He said with a grin. “You should have taken Russian instead of Punjabi. Apparently, you’re really good at it.”
“No way,” Foggy was laughing as well. “It was so worth it to be able sit to next to Arianna. She always smelled like strawberries.”
They laughed about the Russian thing for years after.
Years later, Matt wondered if he had listened to Foggy’s heartbeat in that moment, and if he had been lying about the language tapes.
*************** In another incident, Foggy frowned as Matt sat with his back to the large restaurant window. “The sun’s in my eye,” he said, “Is it alright if I get the waiter to move us?”
**************** Nine-year-old Matt scowled as Stick gave him a quick whack with the cane. “Hey!”
“Don’t stand with your back to the window, Matty. It makes you vulnerable to being attacked from behind.”
*****************
Matt dragged himself through the hallways back to his dorm room. It was fairly early in the night, but he was already exhausted from the amount of studying he had done. He opened the door only for it to be stopped from swinging all the way open by some wayward object on the floor.
Frowning, he pushed the door open. Through his vision, he could see that the room was a wreck. Their beds had been moved. So had their desks. Foggy’s laptop was currently in pieces on one of said desks.
He carefully schooled his expression.
“Foggy?”
Foggy’s head popped out from the bathroom. “Oh, hey Matt! Sorry about the mess. Really sorry.”
When Matt went to the bathroom, Foggy was getting up from under the sink.
“Sorry, Matt, I’ll uh-I’ll clean up.”
“What happened?” Matt asked.
“I thought I saw some bugs. They were, uh, really gross. I went a little crazy looking. Matt, I’m really sorry I touched your stuff.”
Foggy sounded miserable. Matt could vaguely see him run a hand through his hair. He could practically hear the tension in his muscles. Foggy clenched his jaw and fidgeted a little. Well, it was that time of the semester. It was their third year and classes were somehow even harder. In that moment he could tell Foggy was lying about something, but he didn’t want to push it. He knew severe stress tended to make people act a little out of the ordinary and he was pretty sure that his best friend was on the verge of a mental breakdown, so Matt let out a careful sigh and counted to ten to temper his severe annoyance.
He hated when Foggy was unhappy.
“It’s alright Foggy. Why don’t we go to the bar? It’s karaoke night at Blue Parrot,” Matt said.
“What? Uh, I should probably clean up. I’m-”
Matt shrugged. “Foggy. It’s going to be okay. We can clean up tomorrow. We can also buy some bug bombs.”
“Yeah,” Foggy let out a little huff of air. “Yeah, okay. I could use a drink.” They walked out of the dorm and Foggy shut the door behind him.
“Karaoke, huh?” Foggy commented. “You never want to do karaoke with me.”
“I didn’t say I would sing,” Matt said.
“We’ll see if you’re saying that after a few rounds of shots, Matthew Murdock. I know there’s a beautiful rendition of Time After Time in there somewhere.”
After they got settled at the bar and were well into their first drink, Matt looked up at Foggy and was relieved to find him his usual, jubilant, not-on-the-verge-of-a-mental-breakdown self.
“So, I’m guessing you were really stressed earlier?”
“You have no idea, man,” Foggy said into his drink. “God, talking to you has made me feel so much better. It always does.”
Matt could feel a warmth rising in his chest at Foggy’s earnest praise and he was practically beaming at Foggy for the rest of the night. He forgot about his exhaustion, about the lie. He forgot about their mess of a dorm room. He forgot about the bug bombs, about Foggy’s laptop. After a few drinks, he even forgot about his passionate hate for karaoke.
He also forgot the lyrics to "I Will Survive" , but the crowd was too drunk and too engrossed in singing along that they would have drowned out his voice anyway.
Fill: Franklin Nelson, former spy Pt 1
When Matt decided that he would live on campus housing for law school, he had expected to be able to tolerate his roommate; he hadn’t expected to like him so much. Still, nobody could blame Matt for being charmed by Foggy Nelson’s ever cheerful attitude and direct manner. Foggy, Matt quickly realized, was also very good at reading him.
Like any roommate Matt had ever lived with, Foggy had a few quirks. He was a surprisingly light sleeper but never really complained about a lack of sleep. Matt could only tell because he was also a light sleeper and could hear the change in Foggy’s breath at night. Foggy liked to pace the room when studying and working on papers. He knew the lyrics to almost every 80s hit by heart, and many more obscure songs.
There were other quirks, too.
Within the first week of law school, Matt and Foggy fell into a routine where they would often walk to class together. Matt would let Foggy lead him as they complained about school and laughed at private jokes. It only took a few days to notice that Foggy liked to pick a new route to their classes and back to their dorm each time. Foggy did the same thing with the bars they regularly frequented, or any place really.
It took him about three weeks to actually comment on this particular quirk.
“Hey, why do you walk a different way every time?” Matt asked. They were taking a longer route back from the cafe, and Matt had to admit that he was annoyed. He wanted to return to studying and didn’t really feel they had the time for a “scenic” route. Taking different routes was also something Stick had taught him to do in order to prevent any enemies from potentially stalking him. The memory of Stick made Matt particularly acerbic. That, and this route wasn’t so much scenic as it was disgusting. They were walking through a particularly run down part of Hell’s Kitchen and it was an assault om all of Matt’s senses.
“Oh,” Foggy started. Matt could hear Foggy’s heartbeat increase rapidly. “Sorry, I didn’t even- It must be confusing for you-I didn’t even realize.” Matt took the flustered reaction to be one of embarrassment at not having considered an aspect of Matt’s blindness. Their friendship was new, and though Foggy was pretty direct about asking about Matt’s needs, he was still learning.
“It’s fine,” Matt said. “I mean, it’s not like I haven’t walked the city alone before. I just noticed it was something you do.”
“It’s a force of habit,” Foggy said.
“Funny habit to have,” Matt said.
“What can I say? I like to explore the city. See the sights.” Foggy’s tone sounded light, noncommittal, but his heartbeat remained abnormally fast.
“Sights? My nose tells me we're surrounded by trash. If it smells this terrible, I can’t imagine it looks much better,” Matt replied with a more playful tone.
Foggy laughed out loud. “Hey, what if I find the beauty in everything? Or maybe I’m feeling particularly misanthropic today, Murdock. It happens.”
“You didn’t seem misanthropic with the coffee girl from earlier.”
“Eh, she didn’t even laugh at my John Hughes joke. It’ll never work out. What’s humanity come to?”
This time they both laughed. Matt felt gratified that Foggy’s heart rate had returned to normal speed once more.
Matt never brought it up again and Foggy became a one-route kind of guy.
*****************
It was midterm time and both Matt and Foggy woke up after a meager four hours of sleep. Between the papers due and the exams, it didn’t seem like there was enough time during the day to finish everything.
Matt scrubbed a hand over his face and reached for his glasses as he sat up.
He could hear Foggy groaning as he turned his alarm off.
“You ready for the gauntlet, buddy?” Foggy asked, his voice still groggy with sleep.
“I’m ready to go back to sleep,” Matt said unhappily.
“Me too. I’m so looking forward to a post-exam nap. Or maybe I’ll just sleep forever.” Foggy got up and began to gather whatever clothes he had laying around to wear to class.
“You know, you shouted something in Russian in your sleep last night,” Matt said.
“What? Really?” Foggy snorted.
“I didn’t know you spoke Russian,” Matt said.
“I don’t,” Foggy said. “I listened to some language tapes as a kid. I can’t believe I even remember anything. Must be the stress, dude.”
Matt burst out into laughter. “That’s great,” He said with a grin. “You should have taken Russian instead of Punjabi. Apparently, you’re really good at it.”
“No way,” Foggy was laughing as well. “It was so worth it to be able sit to next to Arianna. She always smelled like strawberries.”
They laughed about the Russian thing for years after.
Years later, Matt wondered if he had listened to Foggy’s heartbeat in that moment, and if he had been lying about the language tapes.
***************
In another incident, Foggy frowned as Matt sat with his back to the large restaurant window. “The sun’s in my eye,” he said, “Is it alright if I get the waiter to move us?”
****************
Nine-year-old Matt scowled as Stick gave him a quick whack with the cane. “Hey!”
“Don’t stand with your back to the window, Matty. It makes you vulnerable to being attacked from behind.”
*****************
Matt dragged himself through the hallways back to his dorm room. It was fairly early in the night, but he was already exhausted from the amount of studying he had done. He opened the door only for it to be stopped from swinging all the way open by some wayward object on the floor.
Frowning, he pushed the door open. Through his vision, he could see that the room was a wreck. Their beds had been moved. So had their desks. Foggy’s laptop was currently in pieces on one of said desks.
He carefully schooled his expression.
“Foggy?”
Foggy’s head popped out from the bathroom. “Oh, hey Matt! Sorry about the mess. Really sorry.”
When Matt went to the bathroom, Foggy was getting up from under the sink.
“Sorry, Matt, I’ll uh-I’ll clean up.”
“What happened?” Matt asked.
“I thought I saw some bugs. They were, uh, really gross. I went a little crazy looking. Matt, I’m really sorry I touched your stuff.”
Foggy sounded miserable. Matt could vaguely see him run a hand through his hair. He could practically hear the tension in his muscles. Foggy clenched his jaw and fidgeted a little. Well, it was that time of the semester. It was their third year and classes were somehow even harder. In that moment he could tell Foggy was lying about something, but he didn’t want to push it. He knew severe stress tended to make people act a little out of the ordinary and he was pretty sure that his best friend was on the verge of a mental breakdown, so Matt let out a careful sigh and counted to ten to temper his severe annoyance.
He hated when Foggy was unhappy.
“It’s alright Foggy. Why don’t we go to the bar? It’s karaoke night at Blue Parrot,” Matt said.
“What? Uh, I should probably clean up. I’m-”
Matt shrugged. “Foggy. It’s going to be okay. We can clean up tomorrow. We can also buy some bug bombs.”
“Yeah,” Foggy let out a little huff of air. “Yeah, okay. I could use a drink.” They walked out of the dorm and Foggy shut the door behind him.
“Karaoke, huh?” Foggy commented. “You never want to do karaoke with me.”
“I didn’t say I would sing,” Matt said.
“We’ll see if you’re saying that after a few rounds of shots, Matthew Murdock. I know there’s a beautiful rendition of Time After Time in there somewhere.”
After they got settled at the bar and were well into their first drink, Matt looked up at Foggy and was relieved to find him his usual, jubilant, not-on-the-verge-of-a-mental-breakdown self.
“So, I’m guessing you were really stressed earlier?”
“You have no idea, man,” Foggy said into his drink. “God, talking to you has made me feel so much better. It always does.”
Matt could feel a warmth rising in his chest at Foggy’s earnest praise and he was practically beaming at Foggy for the rest of the night. He forgot about his exhaustion, about the lie. He forgot about their mess of a dorm room. He forgot about the bug bombs, about Foggy’s laptop. After a few drinks, he even forgot about his passionate hate for karaoke.
He also forgot the lyrics to "I Will Survive" , but the crowd was too drunk and too engrossed in singing along that they would have drowned out his voice anyway.