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daredevilkink2015-08-14 07:00 pm
ddk_mod) wrote in daredevilkink2015-08-14 07:00 pm
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Prompt Post #6
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[fill] Matched Your Own Beat (2/?)
(Anonymous) 2015-09-13 01:18 am (UTC)(link)“Yes. Hello, Foggy.” Matt hitches his backpack up on his shoulders and leaves his free hand on the straps. Sometimes people who don't know him well try to take his elbow and lead him through the crowds in the hallways, but they aren't good at it. Claire and Karen are the only ones at the school that he trusts to do it, and he'd rather keep Foggy from offering. He has his cane and he uses it even if he doesn't need it.
“Well then, let's go see them. Break in the traffic big enough for us to get in coming in three … two …” Foggy starts walking, and Matt goes as well. People get out of his way, but it tends to block up traffic, so he prefers to just join when there's space. It's thoughtful of Foggy. “How was Spanish?”
Matt shrugs and dodges someone's elbow. “Fine. Nothing special. I'm sorry, I don't know what class you just had.”
“Pre-calc, for my sins. Abstract math is not my thing. You can't appeal having the actual wrong answer the way you can an unpopular thesis. At least geometry has proofs. And you really don't care about my math skills or lack thereof.”
“I didn't have an alternate topic of conversation.”
“Man, you are always in debate mode. Huge gym bag coming by.” Matt automatically dodges right, surprised by the easy narration. “Also, I'm great at conversation, so don't feel like you need to come up with anything.”
“You would get bored,” Matt points out, and wants to curse himself. That would be one easy way to convince Foggy he isn't interested after all, and he can let Matt down easy, and no one will be heartbroken or humiliated at all, only a little disappointed.
“Nah, you should just ask Brett Mahoney sometime, he will complain that I can talk with zero outside influence for a really long time.”
Brett. He's taken Spanish with Matt in the past, though he has a scheduling conflict this year, and they've shared a few other classes too. Matt didn't know he knows Foggy, but then again, he doesn't pay much attention to either Brett's social life or Foggy's. “I can't decide if that means he likes you or not.”
“He's obligated to put up with me, we've lived in the same building pretty much my whole life. Liking or not liking really doesn't come into it.” They're almost to the cafeteria, hall traffic hurrying them along, and Foggy makes a little humming noise, thoughtful. “So, how much hostility should I be expecting from Karen and Claire? Like, ballpark. Friendly shovel talk, or actual threats to throw my eyeballs in the Hudson if I'm an asshole?”
Matt frowns, startled, and slows down enough that someone behind him swears quietly. “Neither, I hope. Karen knows you better than I do, I think, and Claire is fine.” Though she doesn't know they're expecting company, unless Karen warned her. He hasn't made the time to call her or have a word in private, and she might be less than pleased. “I'm amazed you agreed to eat lunch with us, if you were expecting that.”
“Yeah, well, you're there,” says Foggy, and he's standing just close enough that Matt can hear the way he mouths something to himself after that, and sense his face heating. Matt doesn't know how to answer that, but it turns out he doesn't have to, because it's only a few seconds before Foggy says, louder and much more sure of himself, “Oh, hey, there's Karen, she's waving and smiling, that's nice of her!”
Things move fast from there—Matt's lunch is packed in a paper bag in his backpack, and since Foggy doesn't make a move to get in the lunch line he must have something of his own too, so they go to Matt's usual table, one of the smaller ones pressed up against the wall, just far enough away from other tables that Matt can concentrate on conversing with Karen and Claire.
“Foggy, hi!” says Karen as soon as they're close, and there's a shuffle that might be something close to a hug, Foggy stepping away just enough that Matt realizes how close they were walking. “It's good to see you. I was happy when Matt said you two are … that you'd be with us for lunch.”
“Uh, thanks.” Matt finds his usual seat, across from Claire, who's silent, probably sizing things up, and Karen and Foggy shuffle around, whispering a little, until Foggy takes Karen's usual seat and she sits down next to Claire. “Hi, I'm Foggy. We had bio together last year, right?”
“Right. I'm Claire.” She sounds thoughtful more than unhappy, so Karen has probably been talking to her, but he'll have to explain everything to her later. Karen might be upset on Matt's behalf or on Foggy's, if he explains, but Claire will understand. The truth is always best with her. “Welcome to the table.”
Matt takes his bag out of his backpack and starts unpacking his lunch. He isn't very hungry, but it's something to do. “How was the hospital yesterday, Claire?”
“Nothing special.” She presses something into his hand—a pretzel, feels like, probably one of the last few in her bag. He eats it with a smile. “I volunteer,” she says, probably to Foggy. “Delivering meals, talking to patients sometimes, that kind of thing.”
“That's great,” he says, warm and sincere. “Are you planning on being a doctor? Or do you just like it?”
“Nurse. I don't want to do all the school. You want to be a lawyer, right? Karen was saying.”
Matt can hear Foggy nod—he wears his hair long, Matt can hear it move and he thinks he's heard people mention it too, not in a kind way, though from what Matt can tell he takes care of it. “If I can manage it. Everyone in the family's got some idea about whose business I should take over, but I don't know. I think I'd like getting up there in a courtroom. Oh! I brought cookies for everyone.” His bag rustles, and then there's a tap on Matt's wrist. When he puts his hand out automatically, Foggy presses a cookie into it, and then moves on to distributing them to the other two even though none of them has finished eating the main part of their lunch yet.
“This is delicious, thank you,” Karen says around a mouthful, and Claire makes an agreeable noise.
Matt takes a bite. It's good, better than he was expecting—a little undercooked, maybe, like Foggy was impatient to get them out of the oven, a little too much vanilla in the batter, but he smiles anyway, and turns in Foggy's direction since people like that even when they know Matt can't see them so it doesn't matter. “Karen is right. Thank you very much. I feel like I should bring you something next time.”
“Next time?” Foggy asks, a little strangled, and Matt wants to shove the words back in his mouth. This is one lunch, and he can tell Foggy he's not interested after all and they'll forget about all of it.
“Don't take him up on it,” Claire says, saving him. “Matt's taste in sweets sucks.”
It's easier after that. Matt lets Claire and Karen talk to Foggy, mostly, and only speaks up when Foggy asks him a question, but that's more often than he expects, and he has more fun than he expects, too. Foggy is clearly nervous, his heartbeat and hesitance giving that away, but he's funny, and he uses big gestures and apologizes and explains them to Matt without being asked, and he even makes Claire laugh.
Matt thinks he hears someone whispering, a familiar cadence to the words even if he can't quite place the voice when there's no sound behind it, but it's hard to concentrate on the words even if the thought that he's being observed makes his skin prickle.
“I've got math next,” Matt says when lunch is nearly over, drawing Foggy out of an argument with Karen over the best place in school to hide when avoiding teachers.
“Damn, I'm across the school for English, otherwise I'd walk you. But, um. Are we doing this again? You mentioned a next time but I don't want to assume.”
Across the table, Karen actually starts humming. Claire doesn't, but Matt trusts her to be pretending disinterest.
Matt should say no. He's done what he needs to do, but there's still the whispering too close for his comfort, and Foggy wasn't a bad lunch companion. He hasn't tried forcing anything else, either. Maybe he'll be willing to be friends. Karen will be happy about it, anyway. “I've got a meeting about college tours in guidance during lunch tomorrow, but maybe later this week,” he says, and he regrets it a little, but not as much as he was expecting.
“Want to walk me home?”
Matt has been expecting Claire to take him aside ever since lunch, so he relaxes even though he doesn't expect the conversation to be easy or pleasant. “Sure. Karen is at the school paper meeting until five, so I don't have to wait for her.”
“You can text her you'll be at mine till dinner, then,” says Claire, and takes his arm. She does it sometimes, not to lead so much as to make sure he's not a flight risk—Ben and Doris and Karen know he's more sensitive than most people, but Claire knows more than anybody, after catching him climbing through his window when he'd snuck out to Fogwell's.
She talks about class and the hospitals intermittently while they walk at least a block from the school, and then she sighs, like they're past an invisible barrier, or maybe just past all the loitering students.
“I'm sorry I didn't warn you,” Matt says. He's not going to pretend he doesn't know what she wants to talk to him about.
“Karen warned me. She texted me last night to ask if I knew you're dating Foggy Nelson. Which I thought was weird, because I don't think I've heard you talk about Foggy except that time you two were doing the death penalty debate and he beat you.”
“He won on a technicality,” says Matt automatically. He hadn't even remembered that. Claire makes an impatient noise. “I'll explain, but you have to promise not to tell Karen, or especially Foggy. She doesn't need to be keeping secrets when she likes him, and he can't know.”
“Do I usually tell your secrets, Murdock?” Matt shakes his head. “So tell me.”
Matt takes a moment to think, but Claire doesn't prod him more. She knows he's going to answer now. “I'm not completely sure of what happened. But someone printed a note supposedly from me for Foggy, saying I have a crush on him and want to date him. And he was happy about it.”
“So you didn't want to explain someone was playing a prank on you two?”
Matt shakes his head. “Not on me, I don't think. I always say no. They probably knew that, whoever they are, but they were whispering about it when Foggy approached me. It's about him more than it's about me. I thought one lunch wouldn't hurt.”
“You asked him to eat with us again,” Claire says, like he doesn't know it. “That's beyond the call of pity.”
“It's not—”
“Bullshit.” Matt winces. “You don't like it when people feel sorry for you. How do you think he'll feel when he finds out? And believe me, if you keep up with this, he will.”
“It isn't the same.” Claire scoffs, but Matt is sure on this. Matt is protecting Foggy, but it's not because there's anything tempting about his need for protection. It's because he shouldn't need it in the first place. “It's not.”
“Sure. So, what, he joins us for lunch again and you tell him you don't like him after all, sorry, you'll see him in debate?”
It's a better plan than it sounds when Claire says it like that. “People change their minds about who they're dating all the time. It's high school.”
“You think it won't upset him?”
“I think it will upset him less than knowing that people were setting him up for humiliation.”
Claire lets that pass in silence, just long enough for him to feel unsure of it before she says “You've got a point. He's not going to be happier either way. You're not a hero here, you know that? Just the lesser of two evils.”
“I don't want to be a hero.” Claire hums, but she doesn't disagree. “And I know he won't be happy, but it's not my job to make him happy. I just didn't want him to have to deal with being the victim of people like that.”
“Don't expect him to thank you.”
“I don't.”
“Okay.” She nods, a decisive movement that he can sense even though she must have her hair up. “In the meantime, he's a good guy. I don't mind having lunch with him.”
Matt lets his shoulders relax. She's finished with telling him it's a bad idea, and she doesn't usually tell him more than once. “He's funny,” he offers. “I'm glad you don't mind. Karen likes him too. He might be around more.”
“Right.” She might as well be shouting that there's more to say than that, but she doesn't bring it up. “What are you thinking about for the history project?”
It's a safe conversation, and it lasts the rest of the way to Claire's apartment, both of them tossing ideas back and forth. Claire prefers science, but she's good to brainstorm with anyway, and by the time they're up the stairs and in her kitchen, they both have ideas to submit and get started with.
“Do you know who sent him the note?” she asks while she looks through her fridge for a snack for them.
“No. It's hard to recognize voices with whispers. They're still paying attention, though, they were at lunch today.”
“That's why you invited him again?”
“Yes.” He's not sure of that, but it's the answer that makes the most sense.
Claire pulls something off a shelf and shuts the fridge door. “Of course,” she says, but she doesn't sound convinced. “Well, figure it out. If they've got a grudge, they're probably not going to leave it. In the mean time, I like him. Don't be an asshole when you let him down.”
“Of course not,” says Matt, and goes back to talking about history.
Re: [fill] Matched Your Own Beat (2/?)
(Anonymous) 2015-09-13 04:27 am (UTC)(link)Re: [fill] Matched Your Own Beat (2/?)
(Anonymous) 2015-09-13 04:33 am (UTC)(link)“Yeah, well, you're there,” says Foggy, and he's standing just close enough that Matt can hear the way he mouths something to himself after that, and sense his face heating.
Oh my god, this is so cute. I think this is my favorite line so far, and it's just so Foggy. So effortlessly sincere and adorably awkward.
Karen was great, I loved the mentions of Brett, and I love how Matt keeps accidentally letting Foggy past his defenses without even noticing. xD Claire really stole the show though, I loved her conversation with Matt so much.
I'm really intrigued about who these people are who are trying to screw with Foggy. Wonder what they'll try next, assuming Claire's prediction was correct.
Re: [fill] Matched Your Own Beat (2/?)
(Anonymous) 2015-09-13 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)