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fire alarms and waves of sleep
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People seemed to have liked my first Daredevil fanfic enough that I decided to do sort of a sequel? Really has nothing to do with the first one, just bringing in Foggy's mom again and setting the time period of when the two were roommates.
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(I'm totally jacking off the wall on fire scenario from my own experience in dorms.)
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Matt Murdock had very sensitive hearing.
Foggy never realized the true extent of just how sensitive it really was until exactly one month into the school year some idiot starts a fire at one in the morning. The fire alarms are shrill and invasive and suddenly Matt is shouting in his bed, hands pressed tight against his ears. Students are lurching from their rooms and shouting complaints back and forth.
He struggles to untangle himself from the cotton sheets that have somehow knotted themselves around his legs. "Oh my god," Foggy mumbled to himself as his roommate tried to brain himself with his pillow. "Is that fucking smoke?"
Matt shouts something that doesn't really make sense. There is a look of absolute pain across his face that's making Foggy's chest tighten as he struggles to gather his wallet, shoes and keys.
Come on, Matt. Put on these headphones." He had purchased a pair of noise canceling headphones because studying in a dorm was nearly impossible. He had no idea how Matt was able to study, there roommates were loud little bastards who enjoyed playing shooting games with the volume all the way up at all odd hours.
"Foggy?" Matt croaked. He had to wrestle both the pillow and his roommate's hands away in order to slip on the headphones. The headphones seemed to calm him down enough for Foggy to direct his feet into shoes and force a jacket on his roommate before dragging him out the door and into the flood of students. It's only when they're in the courtyard surrounded by the residents of the dorm whom are all in a lovely combination of sleep deprived, drunk and angry that he remembered that he forgot Matt's damn cane.
Looking up at the smoke pouring out of one of the open windows he makes the executive decision because as far as he's concerned, Matt's useless at the moment. Together they fumble through the crowd and slowly move out of the campus itself, hailing a taxi and huddling together in sleepy exhaustion in the backseat as they (read: Foggy) watches the city drift by.
"Where are we going?" Matt asked very quietly. The headphones are still on and really, he didn't expect Matt to be very socialable for next few hours.
"We're going to my mom's place." Foggy said before blinking. "Can you hear me?"
He shrugged. "Sort of."
"Those are soundproof."
Matt gave a weak smile. "I got good ears."
They sit silently together until the cab pulls up to the apartment complex and get out, Foggy giving a couple of crumpled bills to pay the driver before directing his roommate into the building and up the stairs.
He's surprised that his mother is still wide awake, knitting what looks like the world's most hideously orange scarf. "What happened? She demanded as she pushed her glasses further up her nose.
"Someone started a fire," he shrugged. "It would have taken forever to get into the smoke cleared out, and everyone was getting pretty frustrated."
She gave them both a tired smile. "Are you fancy students lighting things on fire. I told you that you should have been a butcher."
"Free cold cuts," he grinned. "Is the cot still in my room?"
"Everything is just the way you left it. Just cleaner."
Foggy led Matt into his bedroom and practically shoved him onto his bed despite his exhausted protests that he was fine on the cot, you prick, I can sleep on the floor.
He nearly is asleep at three in the morning when Matt mumbles something about thanks.
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Matt is perfectly capable of navigating around with his cane.
It's common enough to see him jogging the track alone, relying on the feel of pavement beneath his feet and counting each footstep. Sometimes Foggy will catch him wandering around the residence without his cane, and it just cements the fact that Matt is perfectly able to navigate by himself.
However, Matt doesn't quite notice when he's walking on ice.
"Hey," Foggy answered his phone almost instantly. He was sick of bending over thick textbooks, wanting to get out of their tiny little cramped room. "What's up?"
"I need a little help," Matt replied in a voice that sounds incredibly tense. "Could you meet me outside the dorm? In the courtyard?"
He vaguely recalled the upper years hurling snowballs at other students earlier there. "We going Justice League on their asses?"
"Justice League?"
"Well, I figured you're Batman and I'm Aquaman."
"Why are you Aquaman?"
"Well, he's like the underdog of the nerd world. But he's a freaking boss, you know. He gets to swim with freaking dolphins!" Foggy blinked. "So, what happened? You okay?"
There is a long pause before Matt replied. "I think I busted my leg."
Foggy snatches his keys before sprinting out of his room, nearly knocking over three girls chatting in a group a little outside his door. "You're in the courtyard?"
"Yeah-be careful. Apparently there is black ice lying around or something." The courtyard is covered in ice and snow. Maintenance was meant to have salted the area earlier due to the massive freezing that had happened overnight. Matt's sitting up in the middle of the yard by himself, phone pressed to his ear tightly. "I'm assuming that you're out here because I can hear the wind?"
Foggy hung up and carefully hurried over to his friend. "You're the only person to call this ice black ice."
"Isn't that what they call ice when they can't see it?"
"You're funny." He helped Matt stand, eying the swollen ankle. "Fuck, I'm calling my mom to drive us to the hospital."
"I'm fine-"
"I'm going to love watching you struggle with a cane."
"You're actually a jerk."
"You loveeee me!"
Eventually he manages to harass Matt into letting him call his mom to show in the battered rust bucket of a car and drive them down to the small clinic his aunt worked out of. It's a nasty sprain, and yes, he does get plenty of amusement watching Matt struggle with crutches and a cane but he gets so much more joy from ripping into the maintenance workers.
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Matt's dad was a boxer.
It's perfectly logical that the guy knows how to throw a punch, but no one really sees it coming until he actually hauls off and hit the guy down.
They spent the entire day studying for the end of the fall semester and they're both feeling a little burned out. "Seriously, man, we're gonna kill those tests."
Matt laughed loudly. "If we hadn't spent the entire day at the library, I would swear you're drunk."
"Speaking of drunken displays in public, we should totally go out for drinks."
"Your mom would kill us if we got arrested again."
"You know, you'd think we'd learn how to be better at smooth talking considering that is what we study."
Danny O'Brian, or as Foggy preferred to call him, Dickwad, was walking down the pathway across from them. "Look who the fuck it is-fucking blind-as-a-bat and his walking stick."
Matt rolled his eyes. "You know, I think you get even wittier when you don't breath."
"You look even stupider with your idiot friend."
"God, I'm blessed that I can't see. You're blinding in your moronic ways."
"I'm squinting, actually." Foggy added. "How did you get into this school anyways? Isn't it for people with actual brains?"
"Actually, you'd be surprised with what someone can do with a little bit of money." Danny informed him briskly. "Is your mother still accepting handouts from the church?"
Foggy glowered at him and wanted to grab Danny by the collar and bash his face in.
Fortunately, he didn't have to.
Matt did. He did it violently and brilliantly with a single move.
"Whoops." He said with a slight smile, a little nervous and unsteady. "I didn't realize his face would be there."
"You are the greatest."
"And he's a douche. Let's go for drinks."
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