Anything recognizable is the property of the appropriate owners. I do not make any claim to ownership, nor do I make any money from this.
Note: I have not seen past Season 2, Episode 5: Kinbaku.
Matt wished he had his glasses to hide the tears burning his sightless eyes. He knew he deserved for Foggy to just walk away. He wanted it even, because then Fog might be safe from Fisk's men. But as the first hot tears burned a trail down his cheek, Matt realized he hadn't heard the door slam. Then he listened closer and realized his partner was still there, just silent. Murdock knew he was going to be in for serious questions, questions he didn't want to answer but knew he had to, for his friend's sake at least.
Foggy sighed to break the silence and Matt could hear him run his hand through his hair. "I know everything, Matt." He finally admitted.
It took a little too long to fully understand what his friend was saying, that he knew about the Devil, knew about his sight, knew about everything. But how did he find out, when did he learn that everything was a lie? And why didn't Matt know he knew? It all came out in a weak grunt, painful on his ribs but the only way he knew how to convey his confusion.
Foggy disturbed the air around him but didn't really move and when Matt took a closer listen, he realized his partner had extended his hand, probably palm up, an obvious sign of invitation that he couldn't ignore. So he took his hand and couldn't help noticing how quickly the sighted man's heart was pounding. Nervous. But why? If anyone should be nervous, it should be Murdock as he had kept a secret that wasn't even a secret.
"You aren't the only one that kept some secrets." Nelson stated flatly.
It wasn't an apology, and it wasn't an accusation, just a fact, but it was a fact that Matt couldn't immediately accept. He knew everything about his partner, right? They spent most of their time together for years, had lived out of each other's pockets, hell, Matt knew just about everything there was to know about Foggy's whole extended family.
Franklin Nelson sniffled into his sleeve as his cousins laughed behind him. They jeered that he was a blubbery crybaby but he couldn't help it, the movie had been so sad. He couldn't understand why they weren't similarly affected by Old Yeller dieing.
As he got older, the gentle blond realized he was very sensitive to others, more so than most people were, which made him stand out even more than his chubby cheeks already did. So he fought not to react to strong emotions, examining them until he could feel the ghosts of them across his body and was practically overrun by them when he accidentally touched someone's skin. High school taught him to use his strange insights to understand people, what made them tick, what drove their actions. Foggy applied what he felt towards making people feel better, to distract them from their despairs and became popular, the guy that brightened every room. Then college gave him a new roommate and distance from his family and a whole new future opened up.
Foggy automatically fell into the habit of narrating the world around them to Matt. He knew how much the simple gestures meant to the blind man, how much he looked forward to spending time with him, no matter what they were doing, be it roaming campus or attending class. And best of all, those feelings of friendship and family and trust were all genuine. Matt considered Foggy to be everything he had. It was a heady sensation, to be so totally wanted by someone for something deeper than looks or possessions. But it was also a recipe for a wedge between them because Murdock would do anything for his partner, including lie about the inordinate number of bruises and abrasions that started to crop up in the night when Foggy was asleep. Unfortunately, his empathy didn't tell him what the truth was, but it set him on the path to find out what Matt did when he was alone and unsupervised.
It was a shock, to say the least to learn that his supposedly blind college roommate was sneaking out into the night in a black bodysuit in order to stop purse thieves and petty crooks. Foggy had to separate the two revelations in his mind in order to even attempt to reconcile this new information with the mild mannered man who practically carried him through law school. First there was the revelation that Matt could apparently see without assistance which Nelson couldn't help testing. He stopped offering his arm and announcing potential hazards and watched in awe the skill at which Matt emulated the struggles of a blind man. But when he was distracted, or thought no one was looking, he slipped up and responded as if he could see and he could snatch a fly out of the air as a bar truck. It just didn't make sense.
Why would anyone pretend to be blind in the real world just so they could beat up bad guys without raising suspicion? The only thing that made any sense was if Matt had some kind of extra sense, like Foggy did. It wasn't too hard to imagine that if he could sense emotions and feelings, why couldn't someone else perceive something different, like ultra violet rays or something. So Foggy forgave Matt for not sharing that he could make sense of the world in his own way, because he hadn't told anyone that he could either. And just like Matt, he felt guilty right down to his core for not coming forward.
Then there was the apparent fact that Matt wanted to singlehandedly save everyone in the city. Doing so in a courtroom had made sense to Foggy, otherwise he never would have made it through pre-law, but to actually become a vigilante was too much. It hurt his soft heart to not be trusted with his partner's secret identity and Nelson dropped hints about the injuries constantly, making so many openings to just come clean, but Matt pretended to be just a normal guy from Hell's Kitchen that just happened to be blind. The sighted man was certain that some day Matt would dig himself a hole too deep to get out of alone, and there wouldn't be anyone around to save him.
Since they opened Nelson & Murdock, Foggy got used to the steady stream of pain he picked up from Matt, even at a distance. The beatings had been getting worse, and the blind man refused to ask for help until Foggy couldn't take it any longer. He came up with some innocuous but believable reason to stop over at Matt's house due to the flare up in the pain he could feel from his partner. Nelson used his spare key to enter the apartment and nearly stepped right back out again at the thick coppery scent of blood.
"Matt?" Foggy called, reaching out for his friend's emotions to try to locate him faster and to evaluate his state.
The blond lawyer found a bloody, red-clad body on the couch and immediately took over the situation, peeling back layers and bandaging knife wounds and what looked like at least two broken ribs. Once the bleeding had slowed, Matt began to stir, awakening surprisingly quickly, but telegraphing his moves so Foggy caught the wild swing. He knew the blind man was confused and groggy from pain, so he spoke soft and slow, describing where Matt was and what had happened and soon the Devil settled enough to realize he had been found out. Matt didn't want to cry over losing his best friend, his partner, but Foggy stayed put, describing how he had learned the secret almost as soon as the vigilantism started.
"Do you understand now?" Foggy asked, unsure what answer Matt would give until he spoke.
"How can you feel things?"
"How can you see without eyes?" The blond man replied automatically, suspecting it had something to do with his hearing, but wanting confirmation.
Matt shrugged. "It's like all my senses were magnified a thousandfold. I smell, taste, feel, and hear well enough to track things around me."
"It's like I can pick up a person's emotional radio signals, some are fuzzy, muted, unless I touch them. Yours are stronger, and I can feel your pain half way across the city." Foggy whispered, afraid that being too loud could break whatever spell was allowing them to come clean.
Matt stared blindly in confusion at his bed friend's confession. He never suspected that Foggy had a secret on par with his own.
"I can feel the broken toe I missed when patching you up. I know you've got layers of bruises on your ribs, and enough scars for the both of us." Nelson's eyes had slipped closed as he inventoried Matt's injuries, wishing with all the fiber of his being that he could take some of the pain away.
Matt sighed and squeezed his partner's hand, it was warm and reassuring and home and he never should have thought Foggy would walk away. They were two peas in a pod, partners, Nelson and Murdock. The blind man had even been thinking about suggesting they get an apartment together when their leases were up, except hiding his nocturnal proclivities would have been impossible. Now it turns out that it had been a moot point.
"I wanted to tell you." Matt apologized to his feet.
"I know." Foggy smiled, still clasping his hand. "I could feel your worry and indecision. I just couldn't bring it up first because I was hiding my own thing, which I should have told you."
The partners shifted where they perched on the blood stained furniture and Matt startled. He pressed a hand to his broken ribs and they hardly felt sore any more. At the same time, Foggy hissed in surprise, raising his fingers to dab at his suddenly split lip. Murdock flashed blind eyes at his friend.
"What did you do?"
Foggy stuttered for a moment. "I did it."
"Did what Fog?" Matt insisted a little more forcefully, while letting his hand slip free.
"True empathy." Nelson breathed in disbelief. "I took some of your wounds."
"You can do that?" The blind man asked incredulously. While it was convenient to be mostly healed, he was afraid of what damage his partner may have done to himself.
Foggy huffed a tender breath. "Don't worry about me."
Matt didn't move for a long moment but he eventually broke into a brilliant smile that actually reached his sightless eyes for once. "So does this mean we're even?"
"Yeah, but only if you agree to let me be your conscience."
"The Angel on the shoulder of the Devil." Murdock chuckled darkly and reached out for Foggy's hands.
If Karen thought anything of the announcement that Foggy was moving back in with Matt to save on rent, neither of the lawyers noticed. She did, however, observe the upswing in their attitudes, which had a positive effect on their paying client closure rate. It was as if they had finally connected on another level, syncing their orbits so it almost appeared as if they were mirroring each other. Part of her wanted to be jealous, but then she saw how genuinely Matt smiled at Foggy even though he couldn't see his friend. And the blond lawyer always kept his visually impaired partner in sight, as if he was afraid he would disappear. She couldn't begrudge their happiness, Karen decided.
Author's Commentary: I do love getting to play with some new tropes! What if Foggy had powers too? I wrote this before I read a lot of what is already out there, so if it seems similar to any other works, it is merely because great minds think alike. I'm kicking around some ideas for a sequel anyways, but no promises.