Chapter 5
Alana Bloom had had many clients over the years; some of them more complicated than others, some of them with more exciting lives than others. But she had never before encountered a more chaotic mess of a man, than Matt Murdock. Although from what he’d told her so far, she believed that his life used to be even worse than now.
Not that he’d ever described it as bad, no. He had just listed all those terrible things that had shaped him into the man he was today. Afterwards, he’d shrugged and said ‘It is what it is’, apparently seeing no bigger problem with it.
However, Alana could confidently say, that he had improved a lot. At least he didn’t take the blame for everything that ever went wrong anymore, even though it was clearly hard for him. And he trusted her with his secret identity and didn’t try to hide his emotions as much any more, so that was a plus, too.
Now though, since his first encounter with the Avengers, something had changed in him. Usually, when he encountered a potential threat, he’d tail and investigate them until he was satisfied with his friend’s - and as of lately his own – safety. But not with these two men.
The way he talked about them made clear, that they were no real threat to him. It was more like they could, maybe, one day become dangerous, but he didn’t seem to worry about that too much. Instead, it sounded like he was having fun toying with them. Playing hard to get, just to call again, forcing them to take more prominent action.
Alana had come to the realization, that Matt Murdock was a rascal at heart and only now he appeared to be embracing that. This didn’t mean that she approved of his dance with the Avengers, but at the same time she was just glad that he hadn’t beaten them up yet in an attempt to throw them off his scent.
So when he told her, that these two men knocked at his door after having tracked his phone, and his reaction was that he suddenly wanted to go on a mission with them? She came to yet another realization:
Ultimately, and very surprisingly, Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, wanted to have fun.
Clint was wandering around the streets in the middle of the night – once again – and tried to make sense of Daredevil. So far, they hadn’t found out anything usable about the vigilante’s private life and even though he’d called them once, he didn’t seem very intent on actually having a conversation.
Needless to say, that the archer nearly jumped out of his skin, when a certain red figure landed in front of him, staying halfway in the shadows, hiding his face in the dark. Clint pressed his hand to his heart in an exaggeration of his shock, letting out a long breath through his lips.
“You nearly gave me heart attack!” he added, after his little act was finished. Sure, he had genuinely been terrified for a second there, but in his time as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, he’d discovered, that it was usually a better tactic to just own everything he couldn’t completely hide. “Care to explain what that was all about?”
Daredevil tilted his head to the side a little and let out a quiet chuckle. “I figured it’d be more fun to annoy you in person,” he explained and took a step deeper into the shadows, now basically melting into the darkness. Only a few reflections from a clasp exposing him as an actual human being instead of a statue, when he moved.
“And how come you suddenly decided to come out of hiding and not be this distanced any more? I mean, no offence, I’m glad you did, but you seemed pretty determined on not showing yourself unless completely necessary.” Clint squinted suspiciously at the other man, but he couldn’t make out anything that resembled a hint towards his intentions. “Is it necessary? Did you get yourself into some kind of deep shit and now need some Avenger’s help with getting out?”
The vigilante let out a quiet laugh, which was bordering more on sounding like an amused scoff and shifted his weight onto his other leg. “It’s not that. I don’t need your help with anything.” He smirked at that implication. “Just thought I’d check on you to see, if you’ve been doing anything stupid lately. You know, like kidnapping highly innocent people.”
Clint shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. “For the last time, I’m sorry about that! We all are! The whole world is, for God’s sake!”
“Oh wow, back with the Blasphemy.” Daredevil’s lips pulled into a wide grin, followed by another low chuckle. “You’re very easy to annoy; did you know that?”
The archer rolled his eyes. “Well I do, now.” He frowned, as he came to the conclusion, that he had something to retaliate to that, even though it would probably be picked up as positive from the other man. “You know, I have realized something about you, too.”
The vigilante raised an eyebrow under his mask, pressing his lips into a thin line. “And what might that be?”
“You’re a whole lot scarier in person than over the phone.”
“Well, good for me then, that I don’t usually call the people I want to intimidate,” came back the answer, mixed with a hint of sarcasm.
Clint couldn’t remember any police reports describing Daredevil as a sarcastic person, or even as anything other than violently terrifying, so he figured, that this was more the man underneath the mask speaking. Although he couldn’t be very sure about that, either, since he’d never met the guy underneath that stupid thing.
Still, it was odd, to think that somebody, who could throw a person off a rooftop and mercilessly beat people into a coma on a daily basis, could be this normal to talk to. Apart from the fact, that they were standing in a dark alleyway and he was dressed like the devil.
Clint cleared his throat. “Now that I have you here for once, I’d like to repeat my proposal to join the Avengers.” He quickly raised a hand to stop the other man from interrupting him, but no use.
“I don’t see how I would be a very useful addition to your team.” He snorted softly. “Especially when you’re fighting weird Aliens with, and on spaceships. I’m just here, micromanaging the ever-living hell out of Hell’s Kitchen and I’m very much fine with that. No need for spaceships in my life.”
Clint rolled his eyes. “If you’d let me finish, I’d have told you, that we don’t expect you to come flying into the Exosphere with us. But it would be good to have somebody on the team, who’s focussing on helping the little people. The people that are usually overlooked in all this hero-business. I mean Spiderman is doing similar things as you are, just in a bigger area and with slightly less broken bones.”
“Spiderman is also swinging through the air and doing backflips mid-air.”
“Well technically, you do that, too.”
Daredevil smirked. “Touché.”
“And it’s not like you’d sign a contract and suddenly be required to do all sorts of stuff. To be honest, I don’t think Fury would want to officially add another streetfighter to this time. It’s chaotic enough as it is.”
“Are you saying that my identity would remain a secret?” The vigilante pressed his lips together as he let that situation run through his mind. Eventually he tilted his head to the side again. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
Clint wanted to add something more to that, but the other man had already vanished back into the night – and up a fire escape.