someone asked: how do wesley and/or fisk handle the knowledge that matt is blind?
pOoRLY
Wesley doesn't quite know what to do when Max and John tell Wesley that the guy with the soulmark is from Hell's Kitchen, the man in the mask, get this, he's pretending to be blind, smart fucker, right? No fuckin class, he's obviously not blind, but. Great way to hide in plain sight.
Wesley doesn't tell Fisk. Wesley sits down and thinks for a very, very long moment. And then Wesley looks Matt up on the internet. And then Wesley thinks some more. And then he has someone call and he gets Nelson and Page - of course, that's why the masked man has been dogging their organization in particular, that Page woman - out of the office and he goes to visit Mr. Murdock.
"Mr Murdock, glad I could catch you," Wesley says. (Matt still feels - jesus, every time he moves his whole side burns, it's exhausting.)
It's routine, questions that could've been asked over the phone or by email, just billing questions, honestly, and Matt feeling increasingly anxious but covering it up because there's no reason for it, nothing weird is going on, he's the only one who knows to be worried about Consolidated Global, until Wesley says: "It's interesting - Mr. Fisk knew to look for a boxer named Mike? Matthew Michael Murdock. You used your middle name, that's so sloppy it offends me, but you really are blind; I'll be damned."
Matt tries to laugh it off, but he already looks sick. "I...beg your pardon?" And he doesn't know which direction to go in - helpless or defensive - so he goes with "I don't know a Fisk, unfortunately, but. I am blind? I'm not sure if this is meant to be a joke, but I don't find it funny. I feel like I'm going to be able to sue you in a couple of minutes."
"Oh god, can we not, you've already wasted far too much of our time," Wesley says, briskly. "I've been holding a gun on you since I came through the door."
Matt doesn't have time to think about it before he's slammed himself to the left, sudden, and then kicked that asshole's chair over, knocks Wesley to the ground and pulls Wesley up in front of him, has a grip on his throat.
At which point he realizes that he didn't hear a gun, and he didn't smell a gun, but there are - shit - "You didn't have a gun," he says, numbly.
"Not on me, no," Wesley says, as three men who definitely are armed pile into the office. "You're very quick, for a blind man, Mr. Murdock."
Matt's got Wesley in front of him like a shield trying to figure out if he can go through the window when he's so banged up that standing is still not always guaranteed, this is public, this is the middle of the day, fuck, fuck, he is fucked, even if he exits this specific situation he's going to have to find Foggy and Karen before Wesley does, assuming that Wesley don't have them already.
Wesley's absolutely calm, saying "do not let him leave, absolutely do not let this fucker leave." Which is maddening, but not quite as humiliating as when the tallest man with the gun says,
"Boss, I'm not gonna shoot YOU but i'm also not super excited about shooting a blind guy plus is he - using you as a shield or using you to hold himself up, this is really public."
At which point, Fisk walks into the room and everything comes to a screeching halt. "I understand, Wesley," he says, soft, "But you should have told me."
"I wanted to -" Wesley's lip twists. "Spare you the unpleasantness guaranteed in this particular...interview."
"I will break his neck," Matt says, "if you don't clear a path to the door now." He can't catch his breath and he doesn't know why.
Wesley turns his head and shouts, suddenly, at the top of his lungs, straight in Matt's left ear, blazing pain like a hard open-handed hit to the ear in the ring - and there's nothing, he is getting nothing that makes sense for a second, two seconds, and somebody's grabbing for him, and he goes for a knee, misses, goes for a knee again, connects with something but someone catches his ankle and then he's on the ground, and someone kicks him in the broken rib and he can't help screaming.
If it didn't hurt so much, he'd be more worried about his dignity, but as it is, he's still trying to clear his head and get the ringing to stop while someone drags him up.
("Are you," Fisk is saying to Wesley, and Wesley says, irritated, "yes, of course.")
"You're - blind." Fisk says, uncertain. a-fraid? but why - and then - "Mr. Murdock," Fisk says, suddenly unbelievably formal for a guy who's crushed people's heads with his hands, and the sound of his name in this man's mouth makes Matt dizzy, "how long have you been. Afflicted."
"Not here for this," Matt says, gasping around his words, because yeah, that was a good hit to the ribs and the muscle has him in a hold that he keeps trying to break, "you wanna know you go look it up online like a good criminal," and is that pity he's smelling? Matt is crazy furious right now.
"Mr. Murdock, you - " and Fisk seems to be having genuine difficulty getting the words out. Wesley is pissed off and deeply embarrassed that he has to watch this. "You have. A soulmark, on your - your right hip."
"That's what you noticed?" and suddenly he's laughing, really laughing, "what is wrong with you people, that man died, his burning corpse was in the corner, and you were - leering at - at my mark?"
Wesley is now officially Done. He says, short and clipped, "It's the match to the soulmark on my employer's throat, Mr. Murdock."
"Oh," Matt says, and everyone gets really confused because for the first time Matt actually relaxes. He's not even mad anymore, just - irritated, and a little grossed out by the childishness of the ploy, and playing for time - he needs to get all of these people out of the office. "Yes, of course, I'm blind, what a clever thing to say, you must be proud of yourselves, this is absolutely the first time this has happened." Wesley didn't realize how expressive this man's face was, under that mask, but it's strange to see his face twisted with disgust and watch the unfocused, blurred eyes. It's unsettling.
"Other people have - identified you as their partner?"
Matt literally cannot believe that he's finally been found out, this is most probably his last five minutes on this earth (barring miraculous intervention, which he is not psyched about; the last time God touched his life it left him blind and unable to sleep on cotton sheets) and it amounts to him giving a disability seminar in their shitty office to the mob. "Jesus," he says.
AT WHICH POINT foggy and Karen march their asses on in there, and. uh.
"WHOAH great job threatening a blind guy, cowards," Foggy has already started, while Karen's phone is on silent and she's calling 911 by feel from inside her purse.
Matt hates that he has to be the one to say "Karen. No. Not the cops, he owns half of them, don't -
But Foggy has never seen Fisk up close before, and Matt doesn't have to try to know exactly what's going on with Foggy, which he hates, hates hates.
<<<
"Matt," Foggy says. He's hit panicked and is tipping into horrified. "Matt."
"You need to not hurt them," Matt is saying, rapidly, when did Matt get so good at controlling a room, because his voice is the voice that everyone tunes in to. Foggy knows; it's a trick Matt picked up in law school. He's a damn fine attorney, but right now he's tilting his head for a better idea of the angles in the room, "this is it, I know when I'm beat, you don't need to hurt them, Fisk."
And Foggy is horrified and disgusted and - and - there is the tiniest piece of him that literally doesn't know if Matt has been lying about this, too. "Matt," he says, can't help it, honestly can't help it, because he's never seen Fisk up close but he's heard the way Matt talks about him. Furious. Obsessed. Not quite - rational; it's never been rational. And Foggy has seen Matt naked a hundred times. They're brothers.
Foggy always thought they were brothers.
"Matt, did you know about this? Did you - jesus, you said you wanted to touch his neck, did you know about this then?"
(People are dicks to blind people. People are dicks to orphans. Even in college, there was one girl who got her friend to say - to say that her soulmark matched Matt's. Matt doesn't believe anyone who talks about soulmarks unless it's Foggy, and right now Foggy is angry.)
"I didn't know what he looked like, how would I have known -"
(Foggy thinks about lying. All they can do is shoot him, and once Foggy tells Matt that Fisk is lying to him, Foggy knows that Matt will never, ever believe Fisk or anyone else who tries to tell him otherwise. Matt is his brother; Matt should've found his soulmate and loved them. It is terrifying Foggy that this makes sense, that Matt's been lying about going out attacking people at night, yeah, Foggy looked up medical records and police records and he can make some educated guesses, he knows that Matt might say self defense and cleaning up the city, but Matty had put more than one guy in a coma.
Foggy's best friend is the sweetest, kindest lawyer in the world, and he is a violent fucking nutjob on the street, and - and it makes sense and it makes Foggy furious, that his soulmate would be someone like Fisk. Matt deserves so much more than this; Matt was supposed to find his soulmate and be happy.)
But Foggy catches Wesley's eye as he's planning to lie, so what, they'll shoot him, Matt will never ever believe them and at least then Wilson Fisk can be miserable too, fuck him, and Wesley nods to Karen, the one who's shaking and looks like she's going to throw up, and.
And Foggy didn't sign up for this, Foggy was never, ever supposed to be the guy who had to make these calls. Foggy rubs his face with both hands, which is when Matt starts shaking, because Matt knows Foggy better than anybody, Marci included. "No," Matt says.
"Matt, your life is fucked up, you get that, right? All the weird fucked-up shit in your life and this is the weirdest and most fucked up thing, I don't." And then, because Foggy cannot shut up for his life right now, this is his brother, and this is the worst thing that's happened yet, because even the guy who tried to kill Karen wasn't. Wasn't connected to her, fuck. "You were supposed to be happy," he says. It sounds like an accusation. Foggy can't really help it. He sees Matt's eyes wandering, the way they do when he's - having trouble focusing on what's in front of him. "You were supposed to meet your match and settle down and love them, dude, maybe if you hadn't started running around beating people up you wouldn't -"
Ah, look at that. Foggy's almost glad that he's crying, fuck these thugs with guns, because at least it keeps him from saying anything else. Matt doesn't look like he's holding himself up anymore, but his mouth is twisted and shaking, which is how Foggy knows that Matt believes him. Shit. Well.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO THROW UP, nobody is happy right now, wesley is really mad he didn't figure out how to put a bullet in matt's head a month ago, this is choppy and unedited but i got stuck for a long minute and i wanted to PUSH FORWARDS
sorry OP, I am a) REALLY DRAMATIC, soap-opera $5.99-budget dramatic, and b) STILL REALLY INTO the whole "unfortunately bonded" part of this prompt, like. uh.
Re: Matt/Fisk Soulmate AU More Update
pOoRLY
Wesley doesn't quite know what to do when Max and John tell Wesley that the guy with the soulmark is from Hell's Kitchen, the man in the mask, get this, he's pretending to be blind, smart fucker, right? No fuckin class, he's obviously not blind, but. Great way to hide in plain sight.
Wesley doesn't tell Fisk. Wesley sits down and thinks for a very, very long moment. And then Wesley looks Matt up on the internet. And then Wesley thinks some more. And then he has someone call and he gets Nelson and Page - of course, that's why the masked man has been dogging their organization in particular, that Page woman - out of the office and he goes to visit Mr. Murdock.
"Mr Murdock, glad I could catch you," Wesley says. (Matt still feels - jesus, every time he moves his whole side burns, it's exhausting.)
It's routine, questions that could've been asked over the phone or by email, just billing questions, honestly, and Matt feeling increasingly anxious but covering it up because there's no reason for it, nothing weird is going on, he's the only one who knows to be worried about Consolidated Global, until Wesley says: "It's interesting - Mr. Fisk knew to look for a boxer named Mike? Matthew Michael Murdock. You used your middle name, that's so sloppy it offends me, but you really are blind; I'll be damned."
Matt tries to laugh it off, but he already looks sick. "I...beg your pardon?" And he doesn't know which direction to go in - helpless or defensive - so he goes with "I don't know a Fisk, unfortunately, but. I am blind? I'm not sure if this is meant to be a joke, but I don't find it funny. I feel like I'm going to be able to sue you in a couple of minutes."
"Oh god, can we not, you've already wasted far too much of our time," Wesley says, briskly. "I've been holding a gun on you since I came through the door."
Matt doesn't have time to think about it before he's slammed himself to the left, sudden, and then kicked that asshole's chair over, knocks Wesley to the ground and pulls Wesley up in front of him, has a grip on his throat.
At which point he realizes that he didn't hear a gun, and he didn't smell a gun, but there are - shit - "You didn't have a gun," he says, numbly.
"Not on me, no," Wesley says, as three men who definitely are armed pile into the office. "You're very quick, for a blind man, Mr. Murdock."
Matt's got Wesley in front of him like a shield trying to figure out if he can go through the window when he's so banged up that standing is still not always guaranteed, this is public, this is the middle of the day, fuck, fuck, he is fucked, even if he exits this specific situation he's going to have to find Foggy and Karen before Wesley does, assuming that Wesley don't have them already.
Wesley's absolutely calm, saying "do not let him leave, absolutely do not let this fucker leave." Which is maddening, but not quite as humiliating as when the tallest man with the gun says,
"Boss, I'm not gonna shoot YOU but i'm also not super excited about shooting a blind guy plus is he - using you as a shield or using you to hold himself up, this is really public."
At which point, Fisk walks into the room and everything comes to a screeching halt. "I understand, Wesley," he says, soft, "But you should have told me."
"I wanted to -" Wesley's lip twists. "Spare you the unpleasantness guaranteed in this particular...interview."
"I will break his neck," Matt says, "if you don't clear a path to the door now." He can't catch his breath and he doesn't know why.
Wesley turns his head and shouts, suddenly, at the top of his lungs, straight in Matt's left ear, blazing pain like a hard open-handed hit to the ear in the ring - and there's nothing, he is getting nothing that makes sense for a second, two seconds, and somebody's grabbing for him, and he goes for a knee, misses, goes for a knee again, connects with something but someone catches his ankle and then he's on the ground, and someone kicks him in the broken rib and he can't help screaming.
If it didn't hurt so much, he'd be more worried about his dignity, but as it is, he's still trying to clear his head and get the ringing to stop while someone drags him up.
("Are you," Fisk is saying to Wesley, and Wesley says, irritated, "yes, of course.")
"You're - blind." Fisk says, uncertain. a-fraid? but why - and then - "Mr. Murdock," Fisk says, suddenly unbelievably formal for a guy who's crushed people's heads with his hands, and the sound of his name in this man's mouth makes Matt dizzy, "how long have you been. Afflicted."
"Not here for this," Matt says, gasping around his words, because yeah, that was a good hit to the ribs and the muscle has him in a hold that he keeps trying to break, "you wanna know you go look it up online like a good criminal," and is that pity he's smelling? Matt is crazy furious right now.
"Mr. Murdock, you - " and Fisk seems to be having genuine difficulty getting the words out. Wesley is pissed off and deeply embarrassed that he has to watch this. "You have. A soulmark, on your - your right hip."
"That's what you noticed?" and suddenly he's laughing, really laughing, "what is wrong with you people, that man died, his burning corpse was in the corner, and you were - leering at - at my mark?"
Wesley is now officially Done. He says, short and clipped, "It's the match to the soulmark on my employer's throat, Mr. Murdock."
"Oh," Matt says, and everyone gets really confused because for the first time Matt actually relaxes. He's not even mad anymore, just - irritated, and a little grossed out by the childishness of the ploy, and playing for time - he needs to get all of these people out of the office. "Yes, of course, I'm blind, what a clever thing to say, you must be proud of yourselves, this is absolutely the first time this has happened." Wesley didn't realize how expressive this man's face was, under that mask, but it's strange to see his face twisted with disgust and watch the unfocused, blurred eyes. It's unsettling.
"Other people have - identified you as their partner?"
Matt literally cannot believe that he's finally been found out, this is most probably his last five minutes on this earth (barring miraculous intervention, which he is not psyched about; the last time God touched his life it left him blind and unable to sleep on cotton sheets) and it amounts to him giving a disability seminar in their shitty office to the mob. "Jesus," he says.
AT WHICH POINT foggy and Karen march their asses on in there, and. uh.
"WHOAH great job threatening a blind guy, cowards," Foggy has already started, while Karen's phone is on silent and she's calling 911 by feel from inside her purse.
Matt hates that he has to be the one to say "Karen. No. Not the cops, he owns half of them, don't -
But Foggy has never seen Fisk up close before, and Matt doesn't have to try to know exactly what's going on with Foggy, which he hates, hates hates.
<<<
"Matt," Foggy says. He's hit panicked and is tipping into horrified. "Matt."
"You need to not hurt them," Matt is saying, rapidly, when did Matt get so good at controlling a room, because his voice is the voice that everyone tunes in to. Foggy knows; it's a trick Matt picked up in law school. He's a damn fine attorney, but right now he's tilting his head for a better idea of the angles in the room, "this is it, I know when I'm beat, you don't need to hurt them, Fisk."
And Foggy is horrified and disgusted and - and - there is the tiniest piece of him that literally doesn't know if Matt has been lying about this, too. "Matt," he says, can't help it, honestly can't help it, because he's never seen Fisk up close but he's heard the way Matt talks about him. Furious. Obsessed. Not quite - rational; it's never been rational. And Foggy has seen Matt naked a hundred times. They're brothers.
Foggy always thought they were brothers.
"Matt, did you know about this? Did you - jesus, you said you wanted to touch his neck, did you know about this then?"
(People are dicks to blind people. People are dicks to orphans. Even in college, there was one girl who got her friend to say - to say that her soulmark matched Matt's. Matt doesn't believe anyone who talks about soulmarks unless it's Foggy, and right now Foggy is angry.)
"I didn't know what he looked like, how would I have known -"
(Foggy thinks about lying. All they can do is shoot him, and once Foggy tells Matt that Fisk is lying to him, Foggy knows that Matt will never, ever believe Fisk or anyone else who tries to tell him otherwise. Matt is his brother; Matt should've found his soulmate and loved them. It is terrifying Foggy that this makes sense, that Matt's been lying about going out attacking people at night, yeah, Foggy looked up medical records and police records and he can make some educated guesses, he knows that Matt might say self defense and cleaning up the city, but Matty had put more than one guy in a coma.
Foggy's best friend is the sweetest, kindest lawyer in the world, and he is a violent fucking nutjob on the street, and - and it makes sense and it makes Foggy furious, that his soulmate would be someone like Fisk. Matt deserves so much more than this; Matt was supposed to find his soulmate and be happy.)
But Foggy catches Wesley's eye as he's planning to lie, so what, they'll shoot him, Matt will never ever believe them and at least then Wilson Fisk can be miserable too, fuck him, and Wesley nods to Karen, the one who's shaking and looks like she's going to throw up, and.
And Foggy didn't sign up for this, Foggy was never, ever supposed to be the guy who had to make these calls. Foggy rubs his face with both hands, which is when Matt starts shaking, because Matt knows Foggy better than anybody, Marci included. "No," Matt says.
"Matt, your life is fucked up, you get that, right? All the weird fucked-up shit in your life and this is the weirdest and most fucked up thing, I don't." And then, because Foggy cannot shut up for his life right now, this is his brother, and this is the worst thing that's happened yet, because even the guy who tried to kill Karen wasn't. Wasn't connected to her, fuck. "You were supposed to be happy," he says. It sounds like an accusation. Foggy can't really help it. He sees Matt's eyes wandering, the way they do when he's - having trouble focusing on what's in front of him. "You were supposed to meet your match and settle down and love them, dude, maybe if you hadn't started running around beating people up you wouldn't -"
Ah, look at that. Foggy's almost glad that he's crying, fuck these thugs with guns, because at least it keeps him from saying anything else. Matt doesn't look like he's holding himself up anymore, but his mouth is twisted and shaking, which is how Foggy knows that Matt believes him. Shit. Well.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO THROW UP, nobody is happy right now, wesley is really mad he didn't figure out how to put a bullet in matt's head a month ago, this is choppy and unedited but i got stuck for a long minute and i wanted to PUSH FORWARDS
sorry OP, I am a) REALLY DRAMATIC, soap-opera $5.99-budget dramatic, and b) STILL REALLY INTO the whole "unfortunately bonded" part of this prompt, like. uh.