Chapter 2
“You said he´d be here,” Clint complained and rubbed his hands together in an attempt to warm them.
“I did, and he will,” Tony replied, equally annoyed. “But I also told you, that his patrols don´t have a clear pattern.” He yawned. “But he comes by this roof every night, so shut up and wait.”
Clint pouted. “Fine.” He hesitated before adding: “But do you think he could be Avenger-material?”
Tony turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “You´re asking me this now? Is this why you wanted to meet this guy so badly?!”
“Well no, the thought just kind of came to me. Just now.” He shrugged. “It would be fun though, right?”
“Shut up.”
They sat in silence for at least another hour – apart from Clint´s occasional huff, indicating his various stages of annoyance – before finally, Jarvis in Tony´s armour announced, that there was a person approaching one of the rooftops across from them.
Said person seemed pretty determined to reach his destination as fast and as puma-like as possible. Normally, Clint would never compare a human to an animal, but seeing as this … man made his flips across gaps, wider than the one between the Hulk´s two ears, the archer decided to make an exception.
Clint excitedly pointed at the parkouring man, completely missing Tony´s annoyed grimace. “That´s gotta be him!” he whisper-yelled.
Tony nodded slightly. “Looks like it.” He gestured at the archer to take his position.
Clint quickly took his bow and the prepared arrow and walked to the edge of the building. He took aim. For a moment he hesitated, thinking that maybe this wasn´t the best possible idea after all, but then his unbeatable curiosity set back in and he focussed. Deep inhale. Soft exhale. Release.
The arrow whizzed through the cool air; the vigilante seemed to hesitate for just a second, tilting his head ever so slightly, almost as if he had heard something. Then he froze in his tracks. Luckily, he hadn´t currently been in mid-air when the arrow had hit, otherwise he might have plummeted to his death.
Tony didn´t wait for Clint to prepare himself, picked him up and flew them to the building where Daredevil had gone down.
Clint had expected the vigilante to have passed out immediately, which was why he was thoroughly surprised when he found the other man holding himself on his knees, swaying gently back and forth. He looked like he was barely holding it together, yet he still managed to look pissed off.
The man in the mask took an audible breath. “So, what´s this then?” he asked with a raspy voice. He didn´t seem very concerned by his current situation. Clint figured that the reason for this might be the drugs in his system, but he couldn´t shake the feeling that a guy literally nick-named ´Man without Fear´, would be calm either way.
“Uh,” Clint intelligently said. “We´re the uh … we´re the Avengers.” He cleared his throat. Awkwardly.
Daredevil pulled his lips into a loose and pretty insane looking grin. “I didn´t know the Avengers drug people.”
Tony shrugged. “We do, if someone” He shot a look at Clint. “is too nosy for his own good.”
Clint pulled a grimace. “You were just as curious as me,” he retorted with a raise of an eyebrow. “I mean which one of us locked himself in his workshop for five hours, trying to find a name?”
Daredevil tilted his head in interest. Apparently, he was being kidnapped by two Avengers whose reason for doing so, was curiosity. What a day to be alive.
Tony was about to reply something to that, but was interrupted by the man in the mask passing out. He slowly tipped over, landing on his stomach with a soft grunt. His lips were slightly parted as he panted out deep breaths, his body suddenly looking a lot smaller than before.
The two Avengers shared a look. Then Tony called Happy.
Matt woke up in what he perceived to be a small room. He listened to his breath bouncing around and came to the conclusion, that he was sitting at a table and, going by the cold metal on his wrists, he was cuffed to it. He could also hear a door on one side of the room, and an overly smooth surface on the other side. His brain helpfully provided the word mirror.
He tilted his head in confusion. How had he gotten here again? He frowned. He slowly remembered the more than odd encounter on the rooftops. He couldn´t figure out for the life of him, why two Avengers would want to interact with him and, more importantly, why they would kidnap him.
At least he was still wearing his mask, he realized, and a wave of relief washed over him.
“Mornin´, sunshine,” a familiar voice suddenly spoke up and effectively made Matt try to jump backwards, but he hurt his wrists on his cuffs instead.
He let out a pained hiss, quickly followed by a confused “What?” He hadn´t even realized, that there was a living, breathing person sitting in front of him. How he had missed that, he didn´t know.
Whoever was sitting in front of him hesitated before carefully saying: “Uh … I´m Tony Stark. We … we met. On the rooftop?”
Matt had to suppress an ironic laugh. “We met?” he repeated. “We did not meet!” He scoffed at the other man; whose heartbeat spiked at the slight growl in the vigilante´s voice. “You … stole me.” He frowned. Something told him, that ´stealing´ was the wrong word, however, he couldn´t quite figure out why.
Stark hesitated again. “We … may or may not have kidnapped you, but we aren´t going to hurt you.” He shrugged. “We just wanted to talk to you. You know, because Clint said that he thinks that you might have some kind of special shit with your senses going on with that mask and all. We figured you wouldn´t want to stop and talk...”
“So … hold on.” Matt lifted his hand as high as he could, with the cuffs restraining him, and pointed an accusing finger at the mechanic. “So, you knew that I have heightened senses.” He squinted through his mask. “And you thought it would be a great idea to drug me?!”
Tony squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. He cleared his throat in an attempt to sound less like a guilty school-boy. “In my defence, it was Clint´s idea.” The vigilante in front of him looked less than impressed. “But uh … now that you´re here anyway, why don´t we talk for a bit?” He smiled hopefully.
Daredevil very visibly rolled his eyes, even though they were still covered by his mask. “Nothing I say has value.” He seemed to be looking for the right words, before saying: "With the drugs ... and all.
“Well we don´t want to interrogate you. We´re just curious.”
“Who´s we anyway?”
Tony pointed at the door. “Just Clint and me. He´s wating outside. He said he didn´t want to risk getting his ass kicked by you.” He got up and opened said door, sticking his head out. “Get in here.”
For a second nothing happened, then the slightly nervous looking archer entered the small room. “Uh …,” he intelligently started. “How´s it going?”
The vigilante smirked at him; a scary expression paired with his intimidating costume. “Your heartbeat is like a drum in my head, and you,” he pointed at Tony. “you smell like you took a bath in motor-oil.” He grimaced. “Whatever the hell you gave me is making everything so much stronger and I hate you for that.”
Clint gulped. “I did not anticipate that.” He also hadn´t anticipated, that it would be an entirely different thing to actually sit in front of an arguably violent vigilante, instead of only hearing stories about him and watching one single video.
“Obviously not.” Daredevil sighed. “So, what´s the plan here?”
The archer shot a look at Tony, then he quickly moved himself out of reach of the mechanic. “We - well I, was thinking, that, for one, I´d like to meet the man who´s been beating up half of Hell´s Kitchen for the past three years, you know, with Fisk and all-”
“Would you mind getting to the point?” Daredevil interrupted Clint´s rambling.
Again he glanced at the mechanic, who returned the look with suspicion on his face. “I was wondering if you might be Avengers-material.”