Chapter 3
The man in the mask let out a low chuckle, that transformed into a rough burst of laughter. He grinned at the other two men. “Are you serious?” He shook his head. “The almighty Avengers have decided to take a low-level vigilante into their midst?”
Tony cleared his throat. “What do you think Clint is doing here?”
Said Clint gave the genius an offended look. “Because I´m a valuable member of the team whomst you all love very much?”
“How about,” Matt interrupted “We take this opportunity of these devilish drugs wearing off, and I go home?”
Tony nodded. “Sounds like a good idea, however we would like to stay in contact with you.”
“Why, so you can give me a heads up before you send the police after me?”
“No! What the hell, dude!” Clint frowned. “To just … stay in contact.”
Daredevil sighed. “I hope you know that this entire encounter is a train wreck from hell and there is absolutely nothing you could say that would save it.
Clint nodded unhappily. “Yeah, I know.”
The vigilante reciprocated the motion and lifted his hand with the cuff. “If you would be so kind...” When he was free again, he hesitated before getting up, and after a few seconds of what looked like contemplating his life choices, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a burner phone. He handed it to Tony. “Put in your number and I just might call you.”
Needless to say, the vigilante left behind two highly confused and vaguely disappointed Avengers.
Matt barely waited for Mrs. Bloom to open the door completely, before he waltzed inside and started talking: “You will not believe, what happened to me this Friday!”
The psychologist closed the door. “Why don´t you come in,” she sarcastically said, an interested smile playing around her lips. She walked over to her chair and sat down, opposite of where Matt had already gotten comfortable on the couch. “Tell me about it, then.”
“I was patrolling on my usual route, you know, minding my own business” He sensed her rising an eyebrow in doubt, so he added: “and possibly that of a few thugs, when I got shot! By an arrow!” He gestured at himself in annoyance. “And that arrow had some sort of sedative in it, so I got kind of drowsy and wouldn´t you know, just as I´m about to pass out, Tony Stark and that archer guy show up and kidnapped me! Can you believe that?”
Mrs. Bloom frowned. “Are you sure that really happened, or is it possible that those drugs let you create your own story?”
Matt looked a little offended at that and firmly said: “I´m sure it really happened. I have Stark´s number in my phone.”
The psychiatrist nodded slightly. “Alright then. Why did they kidnap you? Did they find out who you are?”
“No.” He shook his head slightly. “They … they said they just wanted to talk.” He squinted. “Because they were curious. I let them give me their number to ´stay in contact´. What does that even mean??” He looked at Mrs. Bloom, as if hoping she had an answer to that, but instead he was met with an equal amount of confusion. “I mean they don´t need me to fight some weird Aliens. I´m just worried that they might eventually find out who I am if we do stay in contact. And I´m not sure if I want Tony Stark to know my identity.”
A few weeks went by, without anything too exciting happening. Matt got stabbed once, but he took care of it and didn´t even have to call Claire. He also nearly got caught by the police the same night, because he´d passed out for a bit.
Now he was fine though. In fact, he was feeling good enough to agree to a night out with Foggy and Karen. That´s how he found himself sitting on a table at Josie´s, his friends sitting in front of him, gaping at him, presumably with shock in their eyes, while he told them the story about his encounter with the Avengers in all its glory.
“You´re telling me they kidnapped you … for fun?” Foggy asked and scoffed. “Is that even legal?”
“You tell me,” Matt replied with a faint grin. “Technically no, but then again, they´re the Avengers, so they can probably do whatever they want.” He shrugged at the audible gasp from Karen. “And I mean they didn´t hurt me or anything. They only drugged me and that wasn't even that bad.”
Foggy cleared his throat and took a sip of his beer. “Still. Doesn´t sit right with me.”
Suddenly Matt broke into a short laughter. At the bewildered looks his friends gave him, he quickly brought himself back under control and said with a grin playing around his lips: “You wanna hear the best part of all this?” Karen nodded. “Stark gave me his number. As in his personal phone number. Just … typed it into my phone and I saved it. I haven´t actually called him yet, but I´d like to mess with him a bit.”
Karen´s breath hitched. “He gave you his number?!”
“Yeah. Didn´t even see my face, but apparently he decided I was pretty enough to be honoured with his number.” He thought about it for a second, then he added: “I should call him.”
“What, now??” Foggy raised his eyebrows in vague concern. “Do you think that´s a good idea?”
Matt grinned at his friend. “I think it´s a great idea.”
Tony was sitting in the kitchen, eating Steve´s cereal, minding his own business for once, when his phone rang. Not expecting anything out of the ordinary, he picked up. “Yeah, who´s this?”
There was silence on the other end. Then, the person inhaled deeply and said with a deep and raspy voice: “The guy you kidnapped.”
Tony nearly flung his bowl off the counter, with how hard he flinched at the familiar voice, making shivers run down his spine. “Uh,” he intelligently said. “Hi. To what do I owe the honour?”
“Well, I thought I´d check in to see if there´s any more people that need to be released from your holding.”
“Haha,” Tony huffed and rolled his eyes. True to his usual timing-skills, Clint decided to pop out of the elevator. He shot Tony a questioning look, but only got a raised finger in return, telling him to wait, so he quietly joined the other man at the counter. “You can knock it off now, I get it. Goddammit.”
“Oh wow, blasphemy too, huh?” On his end of the phone, Matt nearly broke into a smile, but he managed to keep it out of his voice before continuing: “I think I would like to talk to your partner in crime too, since he´s now joined you.”
The mechanic didn´t even question how the vigilante knew about that, so he simply handed over his phone and returned to his cereal.
Clint turned up his hearing aids a little bit and did his best not to sound too confused, as he cheerily spoke into the device: “Who´s this?”
“The guy you kidnapped,” Matt repeated. “Just wanted to say hello.”
“You know,” Clint said with a frown, “you´re a lot different than what I´d´ve guessed from the state you leave criminals in. You´re not so scary over the phone.”
Matt let out a short laugh. He let his voice drop lower, darker, and replied: “You should have heard the fear in the voice of the man I last called as Daredevil.” He smirked at the memory. “The way his heart sped up and the adrenaline rushed through his veins … he gave up the information I needed, very easily.”
Clint raised his eyebrows. “Well then I don´t know how the you did that, because right now you sound more like you have a sore throat.”
There was a short pause. Then the phone lit up and informed Clint, that the call had been ended. He let out a frustrated groan and proceeded to let his head fall on the counter with a bang. Tony squinted suspiciously and asked: “Did he hang up on you?”
The archer nodded sadly. “I don´t think he liked it that I insulted his Daredevil voice.”
“Why would you even do that!!” The genius threw his hands into the air in annoyance and then pointed an accusing finger at the other man. “You are an idiot and from now on I´m not letting you talk to him any more!”
“So what, you´re gonna tell him ´no´ the next time he wants to speak to me?” Clint shook his head with a smile. “I don´t think he´d like that very much, either. And besides, how should I have known that he gets offended that easily?”
“I don´t know.” Tony frowned, as a thought occurred to him. “Do you think he just pretended to be? That he´s just toying with us?”
Clint considered this for a minute, until finally he nodded. “I think he might be. I mean … why else would have given us his number? He´s clearly not a team-player.” Suddenly an idea popped up in his head. He turned towards the genius and asked with an innocent smile on his lips: “Do you think you could track his phone?”
Tony broke into a wide grin and quickly went to put his empty bowl away. “I thought you´d never ask!”