The Lies Slip From My Tongue, Easier Than Breathing
Daredevil smelled the blood on the breeze. He could taste the rot of the creature that was harvesting his city. All of his senses were on high alert, screaming at him about the intruder preying on the citizens of his city.
He slipped down, more silent than any other shadow could hope to be.
He knew the creature was there, but he didn’t know where.
Those living in Hell’s Kitchen were blissfully unaware of the parasite that stalked them. They could not smell the blood, mingling with the horrid absence of decay in the awful, sterile and ancient scent. They did not know how it lingered over everything. They did not recognize the symptoms of an overly-drained victim, nor the marks left by the creature.
But Daredevil did.
It was his job to protect them. Hell’s Kitchen was his to defend from everything, and the whole world was his to defend from this particular threat.
He knew what this threat was. He knew it intimately. He understood it in a way none of the people he guarded could comprehend, even if he were to tell them.
Who in this day in age believed in vampires?
There were gods and aliens, regular mortals and inhumans, heroes and villains. They simply had not considered the rest of the supernatural- these were more than enough for their fragile minds. He could not blame them- he would never blame them.
But he would protect them. He would defeat the overgrown parasite.
If only he could find it.
“Matt, are you okay?” Karen’s voice was laced with concern. Matt started, his breath coming in sharp, lifting his head from his desk. He just knew he had an awful case of bed-hair. Once upon a time, that would have meant nothing.
Once upon a time they didn’t have clients.
“Busy last night?” Foggy prompted when Matt only rubbed at his face.
He huffed and nodded his head.
Karen sat down on his desk, ignoring his token protest. He didn’t really care at this point and she knew it, but he couldn’t just let her do that without ribbing her for it. “Well, what is it? Not… Like, another, Fisk situation, right?”
Foggy and Karen were tense, waiting with baited breath.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I… I can smell this, this entity. I know it’s here. I, I need to stop it, but I need to find it first. Except it almost seems to know I’m here, tracking it, so it’s left traces of itself over everything, so I can’t really figure out where it is.”
This was dangerously close to the truth.
But he had promised, ‘no more lies’, and he meant it. He had never liked keeping secrets from the two of them in the first place, and they had taken his superhero secret so well… Well, surely he could trust them with this?
But he was a coward, and couldn’t just out and say it.
Karen just made a sympathetic noise, hopping off his desk, and Foggy huffed his understanding. “That sucks buddy,” he said.
He could feel Karen nodding. “Were you searching for it all night?”
He kind of loved how they just accepted what he said, without asking questions. He also kind of hated it, because he really did want to tell them the truth.
“Yeah, I was,” he yawned anyway. Coward.
“If the bags under your eyes get any bigger, I’m going to start making you keep your own make-up in them,” Karen sighed. “You need sleep.”
Matt ignored this. He most certainly did not need sleep.
“I’m gonna initiate an intervention,” Foggy warned.
Matt spun around, spluttering. “I- no! Foggy! We need to do work, not- I’m fine, truly, and anyways I can sleep later! I, I need to-”
Foggy snorted. “Karen, let's lock up. It’s time to teach you how to wrangle one Matt Murdock.”
Karen seemed excited by the prospect, not bothering to complain- besides, that role was already taken by Matt, who was trying to back further into his office, shoving papers into Foggy’s face as if to ward him off.
After a brief scuffle, Foggy managed to get his hands on Matt’s shoulders. “Buddy. You know how this goes. And besides, you’ll feel better after,” he coaxed.
Matt scoffed. “I don’t need-”
Foggy continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “I’m not taking no for an answer. You don’t have a choice.”
Matt tried to duck under his arms, and Foggy tightened his grip, switching tactics. “It’s been so looong, Matty,” he stretched out the word like an actual child. “I’ve missed it so much, you wouldn’t deprive me of this, would you?”
Matt knew what he was doing. He was not going to fall for this. He wasn’t. He was not the Catholic-Guilt poster child. He wasn’t, and he was going to prove it here and now.
“I’m so tired- We’ve worked so hard lately, I haven’t had any chance to decompress. I need a break, please? And Karen’s never been a part of this before, look at her, she’s so excited!”
Matt refused to be swayed. “Actually, I can’t.”
Karen muffled a snicker as she organized her station.
Foggy didn’t even miss a beat. “You wouldn’t be so mean, I know you wouldn’t want to be a bad friend, right?”
Matt hesitated.
Foggy knew he had won, and started trying to drag Matt before he could try to recover from his fatal mistake.
“Cab or walk!” He asked, jostling his best friend.
Matt scowled at him, and raised his head proudly, refusing to turn his face in Foggy’s direction.
“Walking it is!” Foggy cried, as if he didn’t hate walking with a passion. He was choosing to walk for Matt, and Matt knew it.
He also knew it was another stupid ploy to guilt him into going along with Foggy’s plans. Look, I’m suffering for you, Matty! You wouldn’t deny me this eensie weenie, tiny, one little thing, would you? Not when I’m giving up so much?
Unfortunately, it was working.
Foggy pressed his cane and glasses into one hand, placed a hat on his head with the other.
Karen twirled him away from Foggy, laughing as she expertly tied a scarf around his neck, while Foggy tried to force him into his coat.
“Guys,” Matt tried to say, but it came out more of a laugh than anything else as they joyfully shoved him out of the door, giggling as he stumbled while they grabbed their own articles.
Matt prepared to walk, but Foggy instantly snatched his walking stick. “I changed my mind. We are going to link arms and walk in step and smile so brightly it makes all the passerby so uncomfortable. We’re gonna act like we’re in some old cheesy film of New York.”
Karen let out a peal of giggles. “You guys should tip your hats at everyone! I’ll curtsey. And we have to have, you know, posh accents, and say weird and weirdly cheerful things,” she added, delighted.
Matt simply groaned, resigned to them all proving themselves to be idiots. “They’re just going to think we’re drunk,” he mumbled, but let them pull him along, pretending he wasn’t sporting a small smile.
Karen cackled as she shoved open his door. “I mean, come on, his face!”
“It's New York,” Foggy snickered. “I don’t know what he was expecting us to do- no one’s very nice here, and we are not the wackiest group on the streets,” he continued, shoving Matt into his apartment.
Matt huffed at his best friend’s antics, used to being roughly manhandled by this overgrown child by now.
“I just hope Ms. Patkins doesn’t cancel her appointment with us,” Matt said, much more calmly than his friends.
Karen giggled again. “Okay, okay, but it would be so worth it though.”
Foggy instantly agreed, even as he pushed Matt onto the couch. “Now. Karen, this is very important. No one else has ever been allowed to see this top-secret operation before- this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But,” he peered at her carefully, “you’ve proven yourself worthy so far.”
Matt could feel the way she glowed with excitement. He didn’t need his sight to know how delighted she was at the prospect, or how she was almost trembling as she waited impatiently to be let in on the secret.
He buried his face in his hands, sure it was bright red. “Foggy.”
“Matty,” Foggy instantly replied in the same tone, forgoing his narration.
“Please stop. Literally all we are going to do is just cuddle.”
Foggy gasped dramatically. “Just cuddle? Just cuddle?! Just cuddle, he says,” he turned to an amused Karen, aghast. “Our favored method of bonding, our secret destresser of choice, who we have never shared with anyone before because of how treasured it is, how dear it is to our hearts?” He thumped his with a fist to demonstrate.
“Or because we’re embarrassed,” Matt suggested cheekily.
“I’m going to sit on you,” Foggy decided. “Until you learn some manners.”
Matt merely raised an eyebrow- until Foggy actually began to sit on him. “No! No, no, no,” he yelped, trying to avoid the inevitable.
To the music of Karen’s cackling, the boys wrestled until Matt was snuggly smushed under a smug Foggy.
He ignored the fact that he totally would have won if he was trying. He was simply bested. He did not enjoy the grounding weight, nor the closeness with someone so dear to his heart. This was entirely unwilling.
“C’mon, Karen!” Foggy welcomed her. “Squish Matt with me!”
“I think not,” she informed him. “But I will snuggle with you guys, if you play nice,” she told them before either of them could wilt in disappointment.
Foggy repositioned himself and Matt, expertly folding her into the best-friend pile.
Karen somehow managed to worm her arms until she was holding her laptop.
“What legal drama should I put on?”
She was such a good friend.
“Legally Blonde!” Foggy immediately insisted, in time with Matt saying “Anything but Legally Blonde.”
Foggy slowly turned to him, clearly incredibly offended. “Excuse me, why don’t you want to watch the best movie ever?!”
Matt huffed, rolling his eyes. “First of all, it’s so not the best. Second, I lost count of how many times we watched that movie in year one of college. I refuse to listen to that movie yet again.”
Foggy gasped. “I have been betrayed! By my best. Friend.” He poked Matt obnoxiously with each word. “Why don’t you twist that knife a little deeper into my back?”
“Thanks for the suggestion, I will,” Matt said drily. “What do you suggest, Karen?”
The girl wasn’t bothering to hide her amusement. “Let’s watch an old one. We can watch Legally Blonde after he falls asleep,” she told Foggy, ignoring Matt’s yelp and protest. Foggy nodded, faux-serious. “I concede. Shouldn’t be long now.”
Matt refused to yawn. He had been about to, but now he couldn’t, just on principle. He Would Not.
He yawned.
This, naturally, sent his best friends into yet another round of laughter. “How high are you guys right now?” He sniffed haughty.
“Higher than Stark Tower,” Foggy said, sweeping one hand through the air dramatically.
“Higher than Asgard,” Karen agreed.
“Whatever you're on, either get off it or get me some so I can deal with you two,” he demanded.
“I’m high off of life,” Foggy cried. “I’m alive! Karen’s alive! Jury’s still out on you, though, buddy.”
You have no idea.
“Movie,” he reminded them, sighing long-sufferingly and letting his head thunk down on a leg- Foggy’s.
“How about My Cousin Vinny?” Karen suggested, doing something on her computer.
“Haven’t seen it,” Foggy said, interested.
“I haven’t either,” Matt said, just because.
Foggy elbowed him.
“Or heard it,” he conceded, rubbing his side exaggeratedly.
“I haven’t either,” Karen told them. “Queuing it up right now.”
She settled it on the new coffee table in front of her and snuggled back into the fold, content and ready to argue over Foggy’s narration.
Matt let his eyes slip closed. They didn’t do anything, and they were heavy, so… Why shouldn’t he? The sounds of his best friends arguments, breathing, heartbeat, stomach- and all the other normal human sounds- gently washed over his ears, and their familiar, comforting scent soothed his blood-clogged nose.
About halfway through the movie, he fell asleep, cocooned by the warmth and weight of those he loved. He was safe and warm and happy and couldn’t fight it any more.
Karen and Foggy, fond, simply adjusted him slightly so he wouldn’t roll off or get a crick in his neck, and kept watching.