Work Text:
The office was empty today, not many people came in, maybe one or two at best. As the silence engulfed the office, Karen announced she’d be leaving for the night.
“Right, bye Matt, bye Foggy!” she exclaims, a smile on her face as she heads out the door.
Matt waves at Karen, approaching Foggy in a slow manner. Foggy hoped that maybe, just maybe his so-called wishes would come true this very moment, but swallowed that last shred of hope down.
“Foggy, we’re not– I know it’s a bit immature but you know, tomorrow's Valentine’s right?” Matt asks, making sure his voice doesn't give away anything.
He hears Foggy’s breathing pattern change, just so slightly, “Uh, yes?” his heartbeat started to stutter in his chest.
“Do you want to, um, go for dinner with me tomorrow?” he asks, a small but genuine smile on his face as he senses the warmth Foggy’s radiating.
Matt always felt cozy near Foggy. Foggy was warm and sweet and nice, like a weighted blanket and hot chocolate on a cold winter day.
Foggy looks at Matt, knowing he can already tell what Foggy’s going to say, “Matthew Murdock, are you asking me out?”
A slight chuckle escapes Matt’s mouth, “Maybe I am, counselor.”
“It’s a date.”
A rush of joy runs through Matt’s entire being right then and there, he smiles, “I’ll see you at work then,” he says, planting a gentle kiss on Foggy’s cheek. He gets his coat and puts it on, grabbing his cane after.
Foggy smiles at him, blushing a bit more by the second as he gets his things ready to leave as well.
— — — — —
As Matt walks back to his apartment, Foggy’s on his mind. He wants to make it romantic, he wants to give Foggy the best date ever.
There’s so much to consider. He has to make reservations for the restaurant, he has to probably get flowers and he has to look nice as well.
When he finally arrives back at his apartment, he goes through his closet and looks for his best suit, the one he usually wears on dates.
He puts the suit on his couch and walks to his bed. As he sits down on the edge of the bed, he makes a crystal clear plan in his head. It’s going to be fine, he’ll get Foggy some flowers, then he’ll make it to the restaurant and–
“Help! Oh God, oh God, I’m going to die, please! Someone help!”
“Screaming won’t help you, no one’s going to hear you, stupid bitch!”
“God, help me! He has a knife, please, Jesus!”
Matt turns his head to the screams. He rushes to get his black suit on and heads out through the window.
Crossing buildings, he moves from rooftop to rooftop until the voice gets louder and louder. The young lady is desperately screaming for help. Matt makes his way down, until he realizes the man saw him already.
He punches his way out, whispering for the lady to run while she can. The man used his knife against Matt, stabbing him. He lets out an unsatisfied noise and keeps beating him up. Eventually, he leaves the unconscious body in the alleyway.
Not hearing anything worth worrying about anymore, he finds his way back to the window of his apartment, crawling in. Matt hisses at the pain in his abdomen, and tries to ignore it as he grabs a roll of bandages from his kitchen cabinet.
Once he’s finally done with taking care of the wound, he goes back to his bed to continue with whatever he was going on about. Oh, right, the date.
Alright, so he’ll go to the restaurant, then after they’re done, well, they’ll both go their own ways.
Sighing, he gets in his bed, the silk sheets reassuring him that it’s all going to go fine. He shouldn’t need to worry.
He focuses on the sound of Foggy’s heartbeat among others in the crowded city. Finally, he falls asleep.
— — — — —
The next day, he gets ready for work first, he has to even though they’re all going to leave early anyway. Karen has a date planned as well…
Once he’s almost there, he overhears Foggy talking to Karen.
“ Are you going out tonight, Foggy?”
“Yeah, uh, Matt asked me.”
“Are you serious? He did? I’m so happy for you!”
And at last, he reaches the office and hangs his cane and coat.
“Speak of the devil,” Karen says, looking at Matt, before continuing to ask another question, “Anyway, you two are finally sorting things out?”
Matt’s cheek flush into a pale pink, “Uh, yeah, we are,” he smiles, facing Foggy.
“Right, Matt, what time?” Foggy asks, just for a bit of confirmation.
He tries to hide the level of enthusiasm in his voice as he says, “Well, around… 7’s fine, if you arrive earlier, which sure as hell won’t happen , tell them you have reservations, uh, under my name.”
— — — — —
Eventually, Karen leaves first which leaves the two of them alone in the office.
“I guess we should be leaving too, huh, Matt?” Foggy looks at him, a nice smile on his face.
There wasn't much awkwardness between them anymore, they closed up that gap a while ago, it felt nice, going back to what they used to be.
Matt nods, “I’ll see you then,” he nearly whispers in a low voice, finally leaning in to pull Foggy into a proper kiss, one hand on his cheek and the other wandering into Foggy’s hair.
Foggy tasted sweet, like he always imagined him to. He could taste the sugar from the pastries Foggy had this morning.
Deepening the kiss, Foggy wraps his arms around Matt’s shoulders before pulling away to catch his breath.
Matt smiles again and walks out of the office and back to his apartment once more to prepare. God, now he has to hope things go well.
He heads back and puts on the suit he got out yesterday, spraying some light cologne, not enough to give him a headache. He combs his hair, and shoves a small tin of mints in his pocket.
It doesn’t seem like he took that long to get ready but… he has half an hour left. He rushes, grabbing his cane and heading out of his apartment.
First of all, he needs to buy flowers, so he heads to the nearby shop owned by the nice old lady down the street, Mrs. Colby.
He walks into the shop and the bell above the door rings, signaling his entrance. He heads to the counter, “I probably should’ve come here earlier, huh?” Matt asks, but there’s still a few flowers around. They should be daisies.
“Oh, honey, don’t worry, I have a nice bouquet of daisies if you want it,” she smiles, and Matt takes it, nodding then paying her.
“ If there is a God, please, send someone to help me,” Matt heard someone whisper across the street.
He tilts his head, muttering a small ‘thank you’ before running out and listening out for anything else.
Running, he hides himself from the public and finds the entrance to the warehouse where he hears 5 men, threatening to kill the old guy if he didn’t give them what they wanted. They have knives and one has a gun.
The flowers, shit. He places them outside somewhere he thinks no one will find them and shoves his glasses in his pocket, leaving his cane there as well. He sneaks in, making sure his footsteps can’t be heard as he listens closer.
They aren’t going to kill the old man, they aren’t planning to, Matt can tell. He sneaks up behind one of the guys and silently chokes him unconscious.
The rest are too close together, he can’t move without being noticed, he’ll just have to go… and risk his suit getting dirty. Fuck, why now?
It takes him a while to beat them up carefully, and he manages to dodge most of the attacks… But some still land and now he has a bruise on his face.
Eventually, he manages to finish them all and get the man out of there safely. As he goes back to where he left his flowers and cane, fuck, where are the flowers?
His cane’s there but… Shit, he’ll have to go on without the flowers. Fuck, fuck, fuck, none of this is going well.
Matt can feel his jaw tightening up as he holds back all his anger. He has a date, he should deal with this, he can’t show up to a date with Foggy like this. God.
As he fiddles with his glasses to get them back on, he checks the time on his watch, the automatic voice narrating for him, “7:37.”
The automatic voice reads out some notifications from Foggy. And God, he feels so bad. He calls Foggy.
“Foggy, I’m sorry, something came up, I’m… I’m on my way,” he says, almost breathless.
Oh shit. He can feel the blood from last night’s wound soaking into his dress shirt. He’ll have to cover it up with his coat as much as he can. Matt doesn’t want Foggy to get worried.
“ Matt! I got worried, it’s alright, I’m waiting,” Foggy says, sounding relieved.
Tears nearly start to form in his eyes but he ignores them. Foggy doesn’t deserve this. Foggy deserves better than Matt.
“I’ll be there in 5 minutes, Fogs,” he says, making his way to the restaurant as fast as possible, hanging up the phone. Honestly, he’s holding back from breaking down into tears, he can’t, not in front of Foggy.
Not today, please .
He’s already ruined it, he doesn’t want to mess it up any more.
Finally, he arrives at the restaurant and goes to sit opposite of Foggy, who Matt can tell is worried.
“ Shit, Matty, are you alright? Matt, you look horrible, are you– Did you get hurt?” he asks, looking at the bruise near Matt’s cheek.
Matt winces a bit, “Just a bruise, I’ll– I’ll be fine, Fogs,” he tries to hide the sadness in his voice, but fails.
Foggy looks at him and the way he’s breathing so heavily out of exhaustion, “Matt, I can tell you’re not— Seriously, what happened?” he asks.
Matt hides his face in his hands, Foggy sounds so… caring. He hasn’t heard that from Foggy in a while. Just from that, he can feel himself starting to cry.
“I’m– I’m sorry , Foggy. I wanted– I wanted it to be perfect for you. I got you flowers but– I heard someone in danger and I… I left the flowers somewhere and when I came back they weren’t. And… Then I was late and—” Matt can barely finish his sentence before he’s cut off.
“ Matt, it’s still perfect even without… even without everything else, alright? Being with you is already enough, ‘right, Matty?” Foggy asks and Matt faces him properly, removing his hands from his face.
He doesn’t believe what Foggy’s saying, but his heartbeat shows that he’s telling the truth, so he tries to smile, for Foggy.
And just as he thought things were going to be fine , he forgets the blood soaking through his shirt, and Foggy notices.
“Holy.. Shit, Matt! You’re bleeding,” Foggy exclaims, looking at the red-stained shirt.
Matt looks at him, scrunching his face a bit, “I… Ignore it, please, Fogs, just, something from last night. I took care of it, Foggy,” he says and Foggy trusts him.
Breathing in, Foggy has an idea, “How about we get out of here? Head to Josie’s or something, alright? It’s not… A romantic or ideal place for a date but.. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Matt smiles, “Genius idea,” he says, standing up with Foggy.
They cross the street together and it almost feels like they were young again, roommates in college, best friends, making their way around the campus.
Finally, they arrive at Josie’s and they go inside, get some drinks.
They talk and laugh and joke around, and Matt loves every second of it. It isn’t the perfect Valentine’s date that he’d expected, but it is the perfect Valentine’s date he wanted.
“Foggy?”
“Yeah, Matt?”
And Matt breathes in, saying it out loud for the first time in his life, “ I love you, Foggy.”
“ I love you, too, Matty.”