Daredevil Prompt Post #9

[ddk_mod]

THIS POST IS CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS.
HEAD OVER TO PROMPT POST #11.

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NO SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 OF DAREDEVIL ON THIS POST. If you want to prompt things related to S2 please head over to Post #10, which is running concurrently with this one.


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Comments

Zombie AU

[(Anonymous)]

We need one!!!

Fun ideas:

- some people get turned and there's some kind of treatment/diet to control the zombie urges

- people getting trapped together for hours, maybe days - maybe in unlikely groups - and having to get along/survive

- matt gets turned and becomes a zombie vigilante. in addition to his already super senses he's now scary good at smelling blood

- nelson and murdock defending zombified hells kitcheners against anti zombie laws

- claire being a bamf

- KAREN being a bamf - maybe she kills an out of control zombie!wesley

- foggy and matt and karen taking in zombie kids that lost their parents/are no longer accepted

- a zombie pet cat that is simultaneously adorable and kind of disturbing

SO MANY POSSIBILITIES

Re: Zombie AU

[(Anonymous)]

omg please

Matt/Foggy, Soulmark AU- Matt's mark is gone

[(Anonymous)]

(I have no idea if anything like this has been posted before, sorry if if has)
Between the ages of 10 and 13, you get your soulmark. It depends on all sorts of largely unknown factors, from puberty to your soulmate's age to god knows what else, but almost always within that range.
Foggy gets his when he turns 11, and instantly commits it to memory, just in case.
Matt gets his when he turns 11, and doesn't have the chance to even get someone to describe it to him before Stick is burning it off. ("Soulmates are a weakness, one you can't have when war comes") He never knew what it was, all he knows is the scar tissue where it used to be.
Fast forward, and Foggy wishes desperately that his mark matched up with his best friend's, but there's something off about it that doesn't fit (devil imagery, fire, etc). Matt has resigned himself to never knowing his soulmate, even though he wishes desperately that it could be Foggy. Fast forward again, and suddenly Foggy's soulmark makes all the sense in the world.
Cue the angst of having to explain that no, he doesn't have his soulmark any more, and yes, he loves him but Foggy deserves someone who isn't broken, while Foggy is still dealing with hey, my best friend is a vigilante and apparently was my match all along.
Ideally a happy ending post angst; maybe through some handwavy events Matt's mark reappears, or they both just decide that they know they love each other and they have one of two marks to prove it, and that's more than enough.

Re: Matt/Foggy, Soulmark AU- Matt's mark is gone

[(Anonymous)]

THIS!

Always A Girl!Matt/Foggy or Always a Girl!Foggy/Matt, Slavery AU

[(Anonymous)]

Oh look, another one... I don't think this one has been suggested yet.

But yeah, pretty much what it says on the can...flip the gender of Matt OR Foggy (What can I say? I'm a sucker for genderbenders).

Maybe Rosalind thinks her son/daughter SERIOUSLY needs to get laid, or needs the prestige that comes with having a pretty little house pet/study aid like Mattie/Matt...

Maybe Columbia's way of accommodating Matt/Mattie's blindness is assigning a guide slave. Maybe Matt/Mattie is flying solo at his/her fledgling law firm after getting out of L&Z, and is desperate for help, but he/she can't afford to hire a secretary, or nobody is willing to work for a blind lawyer. He/She doesn't agree with slavery, but desperate times...

If Matt/Mattie's the owner, how do they manage to keep the whole "Daredevil" thing hidden from this new person in the apartment? How does Foggy find out, and how do they react to their owner secretly being this kick-ass blind ninja vigilante?

If Foggy's the owner, what kind of slave are they getting with Matt/Mattie? Snuff bait? Opposite of snuff bait? Somewhere in between? Either way, Foggy's getting a sad little duck for a slave (Oh no! They're hot!). Does Daredevil still show up once Matt/Mattie realizes how lax of an owner Foggy is, and that Foggy could sleep through a drum corp marching through their apartment? And what kind of shit storm does THAT cause?

And what kind of angst gets stirred up once one realizes they are falling for the other...(Oh, god, this is totally wrong! I shouldn't be having these feeling for my owner/slave!!)

Have fun...go nuts...

Re: Always A Girl!Matt/Foggy or Always a Girl!Foggy/Matt, Slavery AU

[(Anonymous)]

The 'getting Foggy as a guide/service slave' one intrigues me. Does Columbia gift this to Matt/ie and then for a reduced fee, s/he can buy Foggy off them forever after graduating/passing the bar? How does Matt/ie react to poor bb Foggy? How brainwashed/obedient/cheerful is Foggy? I imagine one could take Foggy's (what I see as) desire to make people s/he loves happy and twist it into a desire to make his/her owner happy. I could also see Foggy as a competent actor who could totally fool anyone who didn't have Matt/ie's senses. If Foggy is a service slave, what's the training for that? Is it similar to service dog/animal training, but obvs more advanced? Has Foggy had happy/successful placements with Matt before? SO MANY POSSIBILITIES.

Daredevil and de-aged Avengers

[(Anonymous)]

We've had a de-aged Matt and the Avengers, how about Daredevil getting stuck with looking after a group of de-aged Avengers?

Bonus points for including the phrase 'Dad-devil'. Because I love puns.

Team Avocado helps out a Pregnant Teen Runaway

[(Anonymous)]

Matt-as-Daredevil comes across a pregnant teen runaway - she refuses to get an abortion - and Matt, Foggy and Karen end up taking care of her and helping her out (maybe Matt-as-Daredevil told her about Nelson and Murdock and how they would help her) - she refuses to go back to her family for whatever reasons and they respect that, but she still needs help and a place to stay and doctor’s appointments and all that fun stuff.

Bonus Points for Matt/Foggy/Karen, and the three of them all claiming to be her parents.

Super-Duper Bonus points if said teen runaway is Peter Parker If He Was Actually A Cis!Girl (Penelope Parker) and was Spider-Man (masking her real sex with a binder and a stuffed sport cup in her costume) and the baby is one of her villains’ (NOT NORMAN OSBORN) who discovered what her real sex was and got Ideas because villains are scum.

noncon amnesia, angst

[(Anonymous)]

Inspired partly by a prompt discovered while backreading! Matt - in the mask - is beat up and raped to send him a message. He's hurt badly, but is able to get home. Everyone finds out when a video is posted online and goes viral.

Except Matt can't remember it.

Maybe they gave him a drug that ended up making him forget, maybe he repressed it. When he hears the video (censored, maybe only showing the beating part) on the news, it's as much a shock to him as everyone else.

And then he starts having flashbacks and dreams, and has to slowly piece together what he remembers and try to deal with it. And now he has to wonder, is there anything else people have done to me that I don't even know about?

Re: noncon amnesia, angst

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Matt is actually the great-grandson of one of the Howling Commandos

[(Anonymous)]

This is what I get for going on an Agent Carter binge and having a restless night...

Matt doesn't know anything about his mother's side of the family, and has never really tried to find anything about his family history, so he's got no clue that one of his great-grandfathers was a Howling Commando (most likely Dum-dum Duggan).
Steve's gotten into one of his nostalgic moods, wondering what happened to his old squad mates and if they had families. Imagine his surprise when he finds one of those descendants in Hell's Kitchen. Imagine Matt's surprise (and Foggy's fanboy freak out) when Captain America himself walks into the offices of Nelson & Murdock, with the line of "Sorry to just barge in, but I knew your great-granddad back in the War..." (Matt relaxes for a moment, since he'd had his 1st run in with Captain America last week and Daredevil wasn't exactly the most polite...then Steve's statement finally clicks into his brain: "Wait--what??")
Cue awkward bonding? Steve getting protective over the great-grandson of a man he more than likely viewed as another brother? Matt not having the best view of any of the Avengers, and trying to avoid Steve like the plague, all the while Foggy pushing Matt into keeping his meetings with Steve--"Come on man! He's CAPTAIN AMERICA and he's damn near family! At least get a free lunch or two out of him!"

Re: Matt is actually the great-grandson of one of the Howling Commandos

[(Anonymous)]

ahahaha, yes, love it! And Daredevil KEEPS RUNNING into Cap and they have disagreements/spats and the next morning, Steve shows up again, smiling. What if he and Foggy actually get into a discussion about DD, all with Matt having to sit at the table going 'uh, yeah.' and 'I guess' and 'Well, Foggy sometimes describes me the video footage of him', all the while wanting nothing more than to bang his head against the table.

Matt loves Foggy’s hands

[(Anonymous)]

Matt just really loves Foggy’s hands. A grip on his shoulder, a hand clasping the back of his neck, a light guiding touch showing Matt where to sign… Honestly, Matt loves Foggy touching him in general.

Can I get some of Matt silently needing/yearning/craving for Foggy to touch him?


BONUS: Foggy figures it out and is revealed to be very obliging.

Re: Matt loves Foggy’s hands

[(Anonymous)]

I'm thinking of a scenario where Foggy has to pose Matt for Reasons. So he lightly moves Matt's arms into position, tells him to hold them there. Then with a light, skating touch he makes slight adjustments to Matt’s shoulders, posture, stance. And Matt lets him do it, lets Foggy's hands guide him where Foggy wants him.

(the situation could be really innocent, like Matt’s being used as Tree #4 in a kid's play or birthday party. But if Foggy keeps touching Matt like that, even innocently, then keeping his breathing under control is going to be the least of Matt's concerns.)

Slave!AU- study-aid Foggy and throwaway Matt owned by the same person

[(Anonymous)]

Never enough slaveAUs. I want a fic where Matt and Foggy are both slaves owned by the same person. I love the study-aid fics so I'd love to see Foggy as the well-trained and pricey study-aid to some rich asshole of a student and Matt as the cheap-as-dirt house slave bought by the owners' parents for him to fuck and lend to his friends at parties and use however he wants so he doesn't feel tempted to mess up the actual useful slave he has too badly.

Just, Matt and Foggy become friends in a horrible situation and trying to make things a little better for the other any way they can (and probably having to hide how much they care about each other unless it's used against them).

Foggy's Parents Find Out About Daredevil

[(Anonymous)]

Yup, that's it: one or both of Foggy's parents find out about Matt's nocturnal hobby...

"You have some serious explaining to do Matthew Michael Murdock!"

"Whoa, full name buddy! You are in serious trouble!"

"And don't think for a moment that you aren't as well Franklin Phillip Nelson!"

Both of the grown men hunker further down onto the couch, awaiting the verbal browbeating they're about to receive...

Matt's Stalker Turns On Foggy

[(Anonymous)]

Matt gets a creepy amorous stalker who takes a strong dislike to Foggy. Strong enough that they eventually decide it’d be best if Foggy Nelson wasn't in the picture at all.


+ For escalating inappropriateness and aggression.

++ For Matt's polite and then not-so-polite warnings being ignored each time.

+++ For eventual Matt/Foggy (an occurrence that optionally throws the stalker off the deep end)

Re: Matt's Stalker Turns On Foggy

[(Anonymous)]

An idea - the stalker could be a powered individual, like an Inhuman whose emerging abilities made them more unstable? And also a lot more dangerous.

Partial Animal Transformations

[(Anonymous)]

Through some sort of magic (Loki? Amora? Lorelei?), our DD cast/the people of Hell's Kitchen get cursed with animal features (physical and mental) to varying extremes and in various ways. They don't realize it at the time, but these are the animals that are most representative of who they are. If/How they're fixed is up to you, but I'd just like to see the critters they wind up being.

Maybe Karen is a pretty songbird who keeps fluffing her feathers and getting into everyone's business, to go along with her comic counterpart wanting to be an actress and her hunting down her former employers' activities? Or a raccoon because she can be deadly when backed into a corner?

Maybe Foggy is a friendly domestic dog, or surprises everyone by being a grizzly - willing to be violent if need be (baseball bat) but content to just go through life happy and comfortable with good food and good sleep?

Maybe Matt is a snake, all slick and deadly as he scents the air and takes his cues non-visually, or a goat, parkouring around and aggressively bashing into obstacles?

What's Claire? Jessica and Luke? Brett? Brett's mom?

Gen or Foggy/Matt preferred.

Re: Partial Animal Transformations

[(Anonymous)]

From the OP - thank you, mod.

Daredevil/D.Gray-Man Crossover

[(Anonymous)]

It's a long shot. It'd be total crack. Probably no one else currently on the meme has heard of DGM. I know, I know.

But if you have, just imagine Matt and Allen Walker bonding over their utterly fucking horrible teachers.

(Stick totally made Matt do the one-handed, on-a-tilted-chair handstand-pushups. If nothing else, I know this to be true.)

Re: Daredevil/D.Gray-Man Crossover

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh, it's been a long time since I read the manga but I quite liked it :D

I know the prompt says crossover, but how do you feel about fusions too? I'd be fascinated to see Matt (and maybe Karen!)'s version of the Innocence power things (??? yeah it's been a really long time lol).

Matt, Prostitution

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen several prompts with subverted or AU versions of prostitution (hugging, old lady escort work, slavery AUs) but I'd really like to see a good, old-fashioned, "Matt selling his body through college" story. Jack can't have left him that much money, quite apart from Stick taking some or all of it, and there's a 70% unemployment rate for blind people in the US, so it's going to be hard for him to get a job that's worth the money in terms of taking time away from studying.

But he's very pretty, and can defend himself...

Re: Matt, Prostitution

[(Anonymous)]

...Yes please.

Matt/Brett/Foggy

[(Anonymous)]

I need this three hooking up. pleaseeee.
It's all i don't have much needs.

Professor AU; Matt/Foggy

[(Anonymous)]

A blossoming friendship/relationship between Professor Murdock and a charming as hell Foggy Nelson as his student; or Professor Nelson and the quiet-but-will-slay-during-class-debates Matt Murdock.

I'm just a simple girl with simple needs (read: kink) ;)

Re: Professor AU; Matt/Foggy

[(Anonymous)]

+100

Girl!Foggy/Matt (any version is fine), Slowly falling in love.

[(Anonymous)]

Girl!Foggy is not pining over Matt. But neither is Matt. They fell in love slowly.

Re: Girl!Foggy/Matt (any version is fine), Slowly falling in love.

[(Anonymous)]

Yesssss. PLEASE.

Matt/Foggy; Karen is Foggy's soulmate

[(Anonymous)]

Soulmate AU of your choice. Matt and Foggy are together. Love each other and all that jazz. Then thru meet Karen. Karen and Foggy realize at once they're soul mates.

Cue awkwardness.

Insecurity and judgment.

Slave!Foggy has a hard time with Owner!Matt's violent streak

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not saying Matt is violent with Foggy; this isn't a dark!Matt request. But regular flavor Matt is still a pretty violent guy, with anger issues and a tendency to lash out. In most of the slave!fic in this fandom, it is Foggy's unfailing gentle, kind nature that wins slave!Matt over. Not exactly Matt's specially. So, if the roles were reversed, how would Matt convince Foggy to trust him, to relax? How would poor Foggy deal with his outburst? How awesome would that fic be?

I love slave!fic more than I should--really glad there is a lot in theis fandom--but I would love to see more role-reversed slave!fic. Matt/Foggy preferred, but I would certainly read gen if that felt right to an author.

Re: Slave!Foggy has a hard time with Owner!Matt's violent streak

[(Anonymous)]

Oooh, I like this. So does Matt scream and throw something or punch a wall and then Foggy jumps and flinches and drops to his knees on the carpet, biting back whimpers of fear? What if they're having a playful argument and Matt snaps 'fucking quit it' or something, and Foggy instantly shuts up and his heartbeat races? How does Foggy handle Matt getting up in someone's face when they're a dick to Foggy?

How does Matt comfort Foggy? Try to hug him, but Foggy flinches from the touch? Reassure him that he's not going to hit Foggy, even though he just threw a glass at the wall? Does Matt realize that it's still not cool to do that? Does he attribute all of Foggy's fear to his trauma/past?

Matt reunites with the Old Man he saved as a kid

[(Anonymous)]

*points to title*

We can either go the happy fluffy route with the Old Man having lived a long and happy fulfilled life, thanking Matt and his children/grandchildren always helping him out (his grandkids run a bakery and give the firm free donuts!).
Maybe the old man was in a really bad place at the time (suicidal?) and Matt saving him changed his life around.

Or if you want to go angst, it turn out the old man is a really shitty person. (Ensuing "I gave my sight for this man?")
Or his life went to absolute shit afterwards. Could be he's coming to Nelson and Murdock for lawyer help. Or he's drunk and goes just to get angry at Matt (if he was suicidal, blames Matt for saving him).

Bonus points if Matt also meets the driver of the truck.

Re: Matt reunites with the Old Man he saved as a kid

[(Anonymous)]

a really shitty person

What if it was Stick? (Taking a shortcut bc whatever, he's timed it. He would have cleared it by inches)

Matt gets Charlie's Accent

[(Anonymous)]

Through Fourth Wall Breaking, mischievous villainy magic (Loki?), Matt starts talking with Charlie's accent. And can't seem to stop.

Everybody think it's hilarious.

+100 for confused/distracted villains/thugs/police/civilians
+100000000000000000 for other vigilantes/superhero crossover (Avengers? Peter Parker? FRANK CASTLE?) "Daredevil, why are you talking like that?"

Re: Matt gets Charlie's Accent

[(Anonymous)]

I want you to know that this prompt is FANTASTIC and I have started writing a fic for it!! Bug me to finish it ASAP

Valentine’s Day in Hell’s Kitchen

[(Anonymous)]

What happens with the denizens of Hell's Kitchen on Valentine's Day?

Who gets a date? Who rolls their eyes at the candy hearts? Who gets flowers? Who climbs through a window after patrol to patch up a cut and gets surprised with a sweet 'totally for bros, no really' gift for his troubles?

Re: Valentine’s Day in Hell’s Kitchen

[(Anonymous)]

Brett is very grumpy about Valentine's Day. Foggy gets him tons of joke-y candy hearts that he doesn't even like, but grudgingly leaves in a bowl on his desk at the precinct.

In fact, Foggy is all about the friend gifts. (and has learned to keep the flowers to a minimum around Matt.) He and Matt have perfected a Lonely Bachelor routine for the times when neither of them is dating. If sometimes it feels like they are on a date, well, neither one is complaining.

Karen totally deserves a new guy to date for Valentine's Day, someone who brings a fresh start and optimism to her life. Tentatively happy and looking forward to the future should be Karen's default state.

You're lucky if Jessica remembers Valentine's Day if it's not pertinent to a job she's currently running. Trish totally does (because she gets flowers and chocolates by the dozen every year from fans) and gets Jessica the softest teddy bear she can find. Malcolm gives Jess a Valentine's Day card with an earnest note scribbled at the bottom. She keeps it.

Matt takes care of tiny!Foggy (hates every minute of it)

[(Anonymous)]

So Foggy can be an asshole but he is generally a pretty good guy to hang around with. Foggy was unfortunately the inverse of that as a child, mostly a dick and sometimes nice.

Foggy is deaged for reasons. Naturally people have Matt take care of him in the interim. Only Foggy is an adorable look child and takes every advantage of it in his schemes to trip Matt, move things only so slightly etc.

By the week(s) end Matt really wants to throw his best friend into the Hudson. Everyone think Matt is being a dick because Foggy acts quite sweet when around others. When he is finally turns back he hears from people about how Matt didn't want to take of him. Foggy is naturally understanding because "I was kind of an asshole as a kid."

trans Karen, gen

[(Anonymous)]

some time after season one, Karen maybe starts to feel weird about being seen as female. Karen is very confused and scared, understandably, and is struggling. is he really transgender since he has just realized it now??? should he even bother transitioning????? and will Foggy and Matt be okay with this

or has always known and has decided to do something about it. after coming out to Foggy and Matt (who are totally cool abt it), he officially changes his name and begins transitioning

or whatever else! just literally anything involving trans male Karen

Re: trans Karen, gen

[(Anonymous)]

Ohhh I want this. I've read plenty with one of them trans but they're all set after they've transitioned.

Matt/Foggy, Last Chance Kiss

[(Anonymous)]

Things are not looking so good for Matt. Either he’s about to jump headfirst into a suicidal mission, or he was hurt so badly that without immediate care everyone is certain he’s not gonna make it. Foggy’s with him, trying to hold it together.

Matt thinks he’s about to die, basically. And he’s weak and hurting and Foggy’s trying his damnedest not to cry, so Matt pulls Foggy down into a kiss. Just one kiss because if he’s going to die at least he’ll have had this once.

(then there’s a miraculous save and Matt gets better. afterwords they deal with the fallout. likely by kissing some more.)

Re: Matt/Foggy, Last Chance Kiss - FILL, 1/2

[(Anonymous)]

Foggy said to Matt, you’re going to get yourself killed. And he knew it to be true on some level. Mostly, though, it was a precision strike to get Matt to hurt the way Foggy was hurting. And it worked.

But he didn’t realize it would be like this. He couldn’t have imagined it if he tried.

*

They run, the three girls following behind them.

“In there,” Matt barks, gesturing toward a dismal warehouse that looks long abandoned. The door is swinging open already, the wood around the lock splintered. Once they’re inside, Foggy and the girls sit on the floor in one corner while Matt prowls around the room, listening or maybe just pacing.

“What’s he gonna do?” whispers one of the girls, the oldest, Foggy thinks. He’s pretty sure they’re sisters.

“We’ll be fine,” Foggy says, adopting the comforting tone he uses on his younger cousins when they’ve had a bad dream. “M – Daredevil there protects people. He won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Okay,” she says, very quietly, and stares at the floor.

“Hey,” Foggy says, concerned. “It really is gonna be okay. I know sometimes people just say that just because they don’t know what to say. But I know Daredevil, and he’s never let me down. He’ll get you guys out of here.”

The girl nods, and Foggy notices that she’s reached out both her hands so that her sisters can hold onto one each. He swallows. “I’m gonna go talk to him, okay? I’m gonna find out what’s going on. Is that alright, if I go over there for a minute?”

“Yeah,” says another sister, the middle one. “It’s fine. “ She gives him a small, fierce smile, and he smiles back.

“I’ll be right back,” he says, and walks over to where Matt is pacing.

“Are they okay?” Matt asks before Foggy has a chance to say anything.

Foggy shrugs. “They’re scared. But they’re okay for now. Matt, what’s going on?”

Matt sighs, humorously exasperated. “You know, it sort of defeats the purpose of wearing a mask if you say my name, Fog.”

Foggy rolls his eyes. “I just rolled my eyes at you, Matt. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s not good,” Matt says, and his voice is abruptly exhausted, all the joking gone. He pushes the mask up so that it sits on his forehead, above his eyes.

“When is it ever,” Foggy mutters.

Matt ignores that. “There’s cops out there, dirty cops. They got a tip that I’m here and they want to take the opportunity. Take me out.”

“Shit,” Foggy says. “You’d think they’d have had enough of that by now.”

“There’s too many of them,” Matt says, “I can’t – “

“You don’t have to fight them off, let’s just get out of here, man,” Foggy says.

“I can’t,” Matt says, frustrated. “There’s ten of them at least. Fighting on my own, maybe I take them all out. But there’s those three, and you –“

“So give us a head start, we’ll get the hell out.”

Matt shakes his head. “You don’t understand – the stakes are going up these days. They can’t risk anyone seeing them and knowing they’re dirty. If they even know there’s anyone but me here, they’ll find out who and they’ll eliminate the risk.” He pauses. “Eliminate you. And them.” He points at the three girls. "That's why we had to bring them with us. Those guys don't care who gets in their way."

"You don't know that," Foggy says. "These are little kids - those guys may be on a payroll, but they're not monsters."

"I can hear them, remember," Matt says. "Trust me when I say they're not gonna care who they have to mow down to get to me."

Foggy says nothing, then, "What're we gonna do?"

“I have a couple ideas,” Matt says, and then cocks his head a little, eyes drifting. "Hold on a second."

“Matt,” Foggy whispers after a couple of minutes of silence, trying to rein in the panic he can feel swelling up. “Matt!”

“Hold on a second,” Matt says, low. “I’m trying – “ He breaks off at some sound unheard to Foggy, draws a sharp breath in.

“Matt, please.” Foggy knows he’s not helping, but he needs something, some small form of reassurance, or maybe he just needs to hear Matt’s voice. “Matt.”

“Foggy,” Matt says, pleading and a little sharp, and Foggy gives in and goes to sit down on some ancient chair in the corner of the warehouse. He can feel dust and cobwebs in the air, brushing his face. He can’t find it in him to care.

He slouches forward, elbows on his knees. After a moment he rests his head in his hands. He can hear his own heart beating in his ears.

It feels like he sits there for an age, and then Matt is in front of him, pulling him to his feet. He looks –

Foggy wants to say his name again, beg for comfort, but – no. They’ve got bigger things to worry about than Foggy having a freakout. “What’s going on?” he asks, and thinks he sounds fairly level.

“I’m, Foggy,” Matt sighs, and it sounds shaky. “There’s more of them out there, but I have a plan. Foggy, I’m sorry – “

“Is now really the time,” Foggy says, “apologies later, for right now let’s skedaddle.”

“We can’t.”

“As homey as it is here, I’d really like to go somewhere else, man. Maybe somewhere less super gross.”

“Foggy, we – I – “ Matt takes a breath and seems to collect himself, draw himself back from the brink of something. Foggy doesn’t know what.

“You’re gonna go out that door, lead them with you. Take them somewhere safe. The police station would be best, probably.”

“And you’ll be right behind me,” Foggy says. “Right? Matt – “

“They’re waiting out there,” Matt says, sounding low and hard. A memory stirs: We don’t live in a world that’s fair. “They will kill those kids so they can get me without any witnesses. You get that, right? They’ll kill the kids, and they’ll kill you.”

“No,” Foggy says. “No, you can’t, you can’t – those guys have guns! There’s god knows how many of them and one of you. You’ll never make it!”

The words fall heavy between them.

“…I know,” Matt says, and the words are barely a whisper. He’s dropped his head now so Foggy can’t see his face.

“Matt,” Foggy says, raw, at a loss for words.

Matt looks up and Foggy can see that his eyes are very bright.

Insanely, he smiles, a weak flash of teeth. “What did I tell you about saying my name, c’mon, Foggy.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Foggy says, and he can feel his own breath hitching now. “You pick now to be a smartass? Jesus fuck.”

“I wish – “ Matt says, and then stops, which is. Good. For certain values of good. Because Foggy thinks that if he has to think more about what is happening in this moment, what is about to happen, that he’ll actually lose his mind. After a moment, Matt shakes his head and steps very close to Foggy. He brings a hand up, glove lost at some point earlier, and runs a thumb over Foggy’s mouth. Foggy makes a tiny squeak of a sob and Matt kisses him, the hand sliding around to press into the back of Foggy’s head with strong fingers. It’s slow, and good, and unbearably tender, and Foggy has his arms around Matt now, is holding him as close as he physically can.

Gently, so gently, Matt pushes Foggy away. He pulls the mask down over his face, and he says, “You need to go now. I – I’ll buy you the time.” His voice is like gravel.

Foggy doesn’t say a single word. He turns away and he walks over to the girls.

“We need to go now,” he tells them, and doesn’t bother to wipe the tears off his face. He herds them out the door. He can’t help looking back, but Matt is already gone.

The three girls hold hands, and the oldest puts her hand in Foggy’s after a block or so.

Down the street, around the corner, Matt is fighting for his life. Matt is going to lose, because losing will give them time to get away.

“Are you friends with Daredevil?” asks the youngest girl after a few minutes of silence. They’re only half a block away from the station now.

Foggy nods. Then, because she seems to want an answer and she’s a scared little girl, he makes himself say, “Best friends.”

The middle girl says, dismissive, “No you’re not. You don’t kiss your best friend.” The other two giggle at the word kiss. She turns to him as they slow to a stop in front of the station, scowling, and says, “You’re only supposed to kiss someone if you love them.”

Foggy doesn’t say anything, because he hears it: a gunshot in the distance.


i'm so sorry there will be good things in the next part i promise