Nick V: Fury and Murdock

Over time, his and Matt's friendship only grew stronger. As Nick's independence increased, he relied less and less on his brother and mother to help him navigate the city and he was allowed to go out with just Matt. His mental map was constantly expanding, his other senses sharpening. He could recognize each member of his family by their walk and read Braille as fluently as he could read normal letters before. Every routine MRI they did to check for another relapse came back clean, much to his and his mother's relief. One relapse often dramatically increased the odds for a second, but so far he remained in the clear.

Clint's passing was a major blow to the entire group, but especially Natasha. Nick couldn't imagine how horrible it would be to be in her shoes right now, missing her best friend yet so far away from all the other friends who also knew him. She and her mother sat next to Nick at the funeral, and they shed plenty of tears together. In the weeks following, they spent almost every evening on the phone sharing memories and supporting each other. Well, it was evening for Nick. He didn't like to dwell on how late at night it was in Russia when they talked, because it meant Nat probably wasn't sleeping. A few times he mentioned that it was late and she should be in bed, but she insisted she wouldn't fall asleep anyway and this was a more productive use of her time than tossing and turning.

During that time, Matt encouraged him to come to church with him and his dad. Nick appreciated the sentiment, but he'd never really believed in all that and he didn't think reevaluating his view of life would help him through his grief. Matt respectfully accepted his rejection of the offer, but he continued to bring it up every so often.

The transition to high school wasn't as bad as Nick anticipated, and the special ed department was just as good. Not everyone from Matt's friend group was districted to the same high school as them, but luckily the two of them got to stick together. Once again, they were in most of the same classes, and oftentimes they typed out rude comments about their teacher or classmates in Braille to each other. It was great fun. So was the activity other than church that Matt invited him too: his dad's boxing gym.

"Why do you want me to come to the boxing gym with you?" Nick asked.

"So you can try it out. It's fun."

"We can box?"

"Anyone with functioning fists can box," Matt said.

"How do you know what to hit?" Nick failed to understand how he could box without being able to see what he was hitting.

"Well, I've never fought a real person before, but I think that would be even easier than hitting a bag. A person boxing is really noisy; you can hear where they're standing."

"I guess it's worth a shot."

The next weekend, Matt's dad brought both of them to Fogwell's Gym. Nick could've known it was a gym without being told; the place reeked so strongly that even a sighted person could've identified it by smell alone. Mr. Murdock led them each to their own bag and Nick spent a few moments walking around it with his hand on the leather. It was smoother than he expected. Matt helped him tape up his hands and reminded him to keep his thumb outside of his fist to avoid breaking it.

"I have thrown a punch before," he said.

"Just covering my bases."

He heard Matt start working his bag, so Nick turned to his own and just started punching. It was oddly relaxing despite its violent nature. Natasha had taken up boxing back in Russia, and Nick wondered if she felt similarly about the sport. With a chuckle, he wondered who would win in a boxing match. Then he immediately stopped laughing because it would undoubtedly be Natasha. Even if he could see, Nick knew he'd never beat her hand-to-hand in anything. She could probably rip his throat out without even trying.

At first it was difficult to gauge how far and fast the bag swung with each punch, but Nick soon got the hand of it after a few embarrassing misses. Since he couldn't play many other sports, Nick loved knowing that this option existed as a form of both exercise and fun that was accessible to him. Plus, maybe it would give him an edge next time Jake pissed him off and things got physical. That happened more often nowadays than it had in the first year after Nick's blindness. His siblings grew to recognize that they were still allowed to treat him like they would treat any brother even though he couldn't see. While they took full advantage of that fact, they never exploited his blindness to get back at him. Jake attempted that only once.

Nick had a bad habit of leaving his prosthetic eyes out either on the bathroom counter after he cleaned them or on his bedside table if he took them out for any other reason. Jake hated it, and was constantly reminding him to put them in the box where they belonged. Because he knew it frightened him every time he saw them sitting out, Nick chose not to listen, and Jake retaliated by hiding them. Mom grounded him for two weeks and took away all screen time for the first week of that, and only then did Jake relent and return Nick's eyes from where he stashed them.

Now, instead of passive aggressively leaving his eyes out, maybe Nick could just deck him whenever he was being particularly annoying. Although he suspected Mom wouldn't be too happy about that as a form of retaliation either. By the time he heard Matt quit beside him, Nick was exhausted and sweaty but happy.

The next time they talked on the phone, he and Natasha talked about boxing. "I am surprised it took you this long to try it," Nat said.

"Why is that?"

"You seem like you enjoy punching."

"I mean you're not wrong, but what gives you that impression?"

"A swear is like a punch with words. And you like swears."

"I only swore so much at Gravesen because my mom wasn't there to hear me and get me in trouble for it."

"Hmm. Okay."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"Not really."

"Fine. Why do you like punching?"

"Is like dancing but more…grounded. Practical."

"Makes sense. I certainly hope you'll never have to use your boxing skills in real life, though."

"Me too."

"How school going?"

"Okay. I am now learning French. And also Latin."

"Why would you learn Latin? Nobody speaks that."

"I will," she avowed.

"Okay." Nick knew better than to argue with Natasha. "Is your goal just to speak as many languages as possible?"

"Maybe. Is useful to communicate with different people."

"I can't argue with that. Want to learn to read Braille while you're at it?" He was mostly joking, though he knew she had learned ASL for Clint. But that was an entirely different situation because it aided in their communication. There was never a situation when Natasha would need Braille to communicate with Nick, at least not one he could think of off the top of his head.

"Why not?"

"I suppose that's as good an argument as any." Nick had no doubt she could learn any language or alphabet she wanted to.

~0~

That summer after their first year of high school, Nick finally caved and joined Matt for Sunday Mass at his church. Matt stopped asking so often after so many rejections from Nick, but even without hearing about it from his friend all the time Nick still thought about it and how much it meant to him. He owed it to Matt to at least try, didn't he? The other boy had quite literally been the "blind leading the blind" for him, and Nick was immensely grateful for his friendship.

He hadn't dressed up in ages, and now he remembered why. Nice clothes were just plain uncomfortable. Nick made Mom cut the tag out of his shirt because he was hyperaware of it against his skin. Matt and his dad picked Nick up from his apartment and together the three of them made their way to the church. Nick couldn't see the space, but he could tell by the way voices echoes that it was vast. Matt offered his elbow, and Nick let him lead the way to a pew maybe halfway back.

Nick tried his best to follow along, but he'd never done this before so he didn't have any of the prayers memorized. It certainly didn't help that none of the books were in Braille. Hopefully, the rest of the congregation didn't notice his lack of participation and judge him for it. At one point, everyone stood up and waited in line to take communion, but Matt told him that since they had a disability they were exempt from processing.

The service ended, and the room began to bustle with the noise of conversation and the shuffling feet of people leaving. Matt and Nick remained seated, neither willing to brave a bustling crowd. "It usually takes a few minutes for people to leave," Matt whispered to him.

"Okay." Nick couldn't wait to get out of here. He'd accepted the invitation out of respect for Matt, but that was definitely in contention for most boring hour of his life. They waited until the noise of people leaving died down significantly, then started towards the doors. Nick let Matt lead since he was more familiar with the space, listening for the sound of his footsteps and following that.

They stopped outside the church to wait for Matt's dad to finish chatting with Father Lantom. He promised to be less than five minutes, but Matt told Nick that he usually took longer, so he folded up his cane and enjoyed the breeze doing its best to combat the summer heat. Matt didn't ask Nick what he thought of Mass, which was fortunate, because Nick didn't really know what to say without stumbling into sacrilegious territory. He appreciated that his friend offered to share this part of his life with him, but it just wasn't for him. Instead, they just stood there in silence. Nick didn't mean to eavesdrop, but he found it so much easier to accidentally listen in without any visual distractions. Two female voices off to his left drifted into his focus.

"How did the clinic visit go?" one of the women asked, voice full of concern.

The other woman sighed heavily. "They want to list him for transplant."

"Oh Sarah, that must be so hard to come to terms with. I'm so sorry."

"Thank you. I just…I don't know what to do." With every word, her distress audibly increased. "They—they told us two years, without a transplant, so I have to pray for new lungs, but…but every time I do, I'm wishing death on somebody, aren't I? And that's a sin."

"It's not a sin to pray for your son to be healed."

"But someone has to die for him to live, and I know that's out of my control, but I can't stop thinking that it's selfish of me to ask God to take someone else's life instead of his."

"These are all valid thoughts, but you have to remember that whoever ends up donating chose to. You're just accepting a gift that someone willingly gave, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Nick was enthralled with the conversation taking place beside him, not just because of its profound nature but because of its connection to his friend. There was no doubt in his mind who they were talking about, even though he didn't recognize either of the voices and they had yet to mention him by name.

"I guess you're right. I just hope He sees it that way too."

Nick heard Mr. Murdock's footsteps approaching and started following him and Matt away, thoughts still lingering on the conversation he'd just overheard. Why hadn't Steve told the group yet? The odds that Nick had just listened to two people talk about another person who just got added to the lung transplant list were slim to none, so it had to be him. Nick didn't know how recently they'd heard this news, but he guessed it had to be since last Sunday otherwise she would've talked to this other woman about it then. Less than a week, Steve had known he had two years to live unless someone died and donated. Nick felt guilty, sitting on this information that Steve clearly wasn't ready to divulge. He didn't know what to do, whether he should reach out to the older boy and ask if he could help in any way or just wait for him to come forward in his own time. If Nick heard news like that, he'd want to share it on his own terms, so he decided to hold off and let Steve take the lead.