Woahhhh I like this idea. I can think of a really great dark fic. Like, Stick is still an abusive asshole but he actually does get softened up by Matt and Matt becomes his ward, a kid that he protects and who is...something to him, though not anything like his son, but they still kill people and Matt gets more and more brutal and mentally unstable because his morality keeps taking hits and twisting into something even more confused every day. (Matt with scrupulosity and something on the psychotic spectrum???) Not to mention the fact that Matt, without life after Stick, never learns any kind of social skills.
And eventually he meets Karen FIRST because Karen, idk, has decided to take up vigilantism/is a young criminal/something and he and Karen eventually save Foggy from something and that's how the friendship is formed and Foggy's friends with these completely broken people and he HATES Stick but Matt is incredibly protective of and attached to Stick.
And Stick dies at some point and it absolutely destroys Matt (who is...idk, twenty something?) because at this point in time he has nobody to help him with day to day life (because I can see this version of Matt not being able to function without some kind of aide, and Stick sort of acted as that to him, even if it was an asshole abusive version) and so Foggy, who's a young lawyer making a fair amount of money at Landman and Zack at this point, takes him in (along with Karen, who he's probably already taken in honestly) and tries to help, but it's DIFFERENT this time because Stick genuinely cared about Matt and yes, it obviously still doesn't take away the fact that Stick was so fucking abusive but it changes things, like Matt isn't ever really able to admit that he was a dick so quickly.
And the thing is that in this world Matt's fucking deadly and not afraid to kill people but he's so unstable that he can't really be Daredevil like our Matt is, so the closest thing he ever gets to Daredevil ends up being basically a serial killer who hits when Matt finally breaks down at the sound of all of the pain outside and brutally but efficiently murders a guy who's assaulting someone or something. Karen helps him clean up after, and hides the bodies.
DARK AS NIGHT AU THAT SOMEHOW STILL HAS HURT/COMFORT I'M GOING TO GET AROUND TO IT SOMEDAY I PROMISE
Re: AU If Stick Had Never Left
And eventually he meets Karen FIRST because Karen, idk, has decided to take up vigilantism/is a young criminal/something and he and Karen eventually save Foggy from something and that's how the friendship is formed and Foggy's friends with these completely broken people and he HATES Stick but Matt is incredibly protective of and attached to Stick.
And Stick dies at some point and it absolutely destroys Matt (who is...idk, twenty something?) because at this point in time he has nobody to help him with day to day life (because I can see this version of Matt not being able to function without some kind of aide, and Stick sort of acted as that to him, even if it was an asshole abusive version) and so Foggy, who's a young lawyer making a fair amount of money at Landman and Zack at this point, takes him in (along with Karen, who he's probably already taken in honestly) and tries to help, but it's DIFFERENT this time because Stick genuinely cared about Matt and yes, it obviously still doesn't take away the fact that Stick was so fucking abusive but it changes things, like Matt isn't ever really able to admit that he was a dick so quickly.
And the thing is that in this world Matt's fucking deadly and not afraid to kill people but he's so unstable that he can't really be Daredevil like our Matt is, so the closest thing he ever gets to Daredevil ends up being basically a serial killer who hits when Matt finally breaks down at the sound of all of the pain outside and brutally but efficiently murders a guy who's assaulting someone or something. Karen helps him clean up after, and hides the bodies.
DARK AS NIGHT AU THAT SOMEHOW STILL HAS HURT/COMFORT I'M GOING TO GET AROUND TO IT SOMEDAY I PROMISE