There was a new kid in the orphanage.
Everybody was talking about him, even the nuns. The blind kid. The kids talked about how their chances to be adopted would be so much higher because no-one wanted a blind kid. And the nuns talked about the screams that he released are from the devil himself.
Said blind kid hasn't talked yet. He just isolated himself the moment he stepped into the orphanage called Saint-Agnes.
It's a familiar sound to Mary Sue Poots. Kids end up at orphanages, mostly traumatized. Some, like her, were dropped off as a child and constantly bounced around. Others had family problems, such as, someone's mother being deemed unfit as a parent due to their mental illness or addiction problem. Others were born into poverty, taken out of the hands of parents, for the kid's sake.
And some to most, their parents die.
That was the new kid's case. Mary, or what she likes to call herself, Skye, hears about his case. Blinded at a young age and orphaned at 13. Death of a single father. No immediate family to take him in.
It was him against the world.
Skye has been at St. Agnes for a surprisingly long time, three months. She still gets anxious about making friends. Afraid that she'll have to leave them, just like all the other times.
Sitting at the long dinner table, they all say grace and eat. Skye lifts her gaze up at Matthew Murdock. Noticing that he looks very uncomfortable, but he still eats. Chatter erupted along the table, orphaned kids being friends. Skye was a bit bitter about it, wishing that she wasn't bounced around as much as she was.
Later when it was getting dark, she wandered outside. Hoping to get something off of the people wandering outside. Maybe some sympathizing woman would show up, offering some food and drinks. Walking down the path, she saw the boy sitting against a tree.
"Hey." She said as she stopped right in front of him.
He winced, "Hello." He said quietly.
Skye copied his tone, it was something she did automatically. "You're the new kid, right?"
A frown, "Yes. I am."
"I'm Skye. But the other orphanage named me Mary."
"I am Matthew."
"Can I ask a question?"
"Sure."
"Do you have enhanced everything now? After turning blind?" She asked quietly and looked around them as if they were discussing it in secret.
"Yes." He replied, softly.
"Should I talk softer?" Skye asks, a bit excited about the revelation.
"If you want." Matt replied. "But, yes, please."
Skye felt right about making friends this time. She had a feeling about Matthew.
–
After another month of being friends. They discovered all the quirks about each other. Skye learned about his nightmares and what it would entail. Matt learns that Skye cries at night. They learn how to communicate, through small whispers that only Matt can hear and through body language that Skye could only decipher.
Some nights, when one of them would need comfort. Matthew could be having a nightmare, and Skye would soundlessly join him in his bed. Comforting him. When Skye would have her moment of crying, Matt would sit at the wall and knock once, indicating that he's listening. She then whispers all about her frustration and he'd knock a few times.
And on nights when they both needed comfort. They would sneak into the kitchens and make hot chocolate. Skye at the stove and Matthew at the door, listening if one of the nuns would patrol by.
When their schooling would continue. They'd pray. Skye didn't like to pray. Why pray to a God when no-one was with her in the beginning. That is all she hears, God is always there, from beginning till the end. The moments she was alone, sent to places no-one should be sent to. There was no God.
Matthew did pray. He felt comforted by the thought of a God looking over him. Just like his dad used to do. Whenever he had nightmares, the sisters would sometimes beat Skye. The nun's would arrange some Hail Mary's for him.
He felt comforted.
One day, a man showed up at his door. Matt was taken out for ice cream, for the first time after his dad died. The two blind people talk about the differences of being born blind or losing sight. Matt showed promise to the old man.
Stick. That was his name.
After Weeks of training. Skye followed them, oblivious to the fact that Stick and Matt heard her heartbeat from a mile away. Skye didn't like the man, Matt always returned with a few bruises on him. And she recognizes the small signs, she had seen it in other kids before. Following her guts, she followed them.
From a distance she watched as Matt got mocked. Feeling her head turn hot she rushed into the warehouse with a stick. Shouting insolent things at the man. Daring for him to say something like that to her best friend again.
The old man then smiled.
Not that Matt would ever know. Or, you know, see.
"You've got some fire in you." He scoffed. "Matty, tell her about your training."
And the blind kid did. The harsh training that would help him. After a few seconds Skye frowned and nodded, in understanding. Still a bit confused.
"You were training to defend yourself."
"Others, too." Matthew added.
Skye straightened her back, "Can you teach me as well?"
After a moment of silence, Stick agreed to do so. After the session, he held the boy back for a few seconds, asking, "Do you feel the tremors. This far into your training you should be feeling this."
Another silent moment, "Yes." He admitted, "I thought it was the machines around us. Until we went out to the meadow."
"I did not ask for an explanation, kid. Take her with you next time you come here. I'll talk with the nuns."
"Thank you."
And so they started training together. Skye was learning everything, blindfolded. Training her senses, just for it to be a lot better than most people. The harsh training got the two closer to each other. Skye turned more alert and Matt just started fighting everyone who picked on them.
They were grateful for a trainer such as Stick.
But then the blind man left. Matt was a wreck and Skye was used to it. She was glad that she got to know him for as long as she did.
One night, a nun knocked on the door. Announcing that she was leaving again, she felt her heart racing and tears welled up in her eyes. But this time, there was a knock on her wall. Matt shared his conversation with the same nun.
"I'm leaving with you."
Skye's heart raced, she wasn't leaving alone. Matt was coming with her. Silent tears went down her cheeks.
She wasn't sad about packing her bags this time.
–
The two of them kept moving into different foster homes together. When they turned older, Skye got new interests such as hacking. Excited to show off, she hacked into the database and changed her name to Skye.
"You need a last name." Matt pointed out.
"What sounds best?"
"We're like siblings and you can take a punch. Be a Murdock."
"Skye Murdock." She tried and smiled when the name rolled off of her tongue. "Are you sure that you're fine with me being a Murdock?"
"Of course, I wouldn't suggest it otherwise." Matt smiled, "Now we'll always be paired in classes."
They shared a laugh after that. Skye felt the urge to find her birth parents dissipate into the air. She has a home already.
At the next foster home they entered, she had decided to do online school and work a job. They deserve to buy little things for themselves. With the money she earned, she fed her brother's recent obsession. The law.
She gave him braille books, tapes of people reading the law out loud and as a joke she framed a picture of John Cena.
"You know I can't see this, right?"
"I can't see it either." She snorted.
With constant help in her studies and pressure from Matt to meet her deadlines on time, she graduated early and soon after that, she turned 18. Matt wouldn't turn 18 until the end of the year.
So she just got guardianship over him, they lived off of small freelancing I.T. projects and part-time café barista. The moment Matthew Murdock turned 18. They opened his account that Jack Murdock left his son.
They celebrated aging out of the foster system. Shouting over the rooftops that they survived.
Their next plan was getting into university. While Skye broke a lot of laws already, Matt argued she might as well get a job out of it. She then retorted to him, saying that it would require her to have some certification.
That is how they both ended up applying for scholarships. To the same schools of course. They have to be taken as a package deal, or not at all.
That is how they ended up at Columbia university. Skye gets the opportunity after hacking into the system, basically forcing them to accept and enroll her. She now was in the doctorate program of computer sciences.
Matt was enrolled in the law program.
Coming over to Matt's co-shared dorm, Skye hops down on the bed. "We can do this Matty."
"We survived the system."
"I didn't survive the school system."
"You just switched over to online." He retorted.
"True that."
A door opened and the two snapped their heads towards the sound. "'m guessing you're his new roommate and that we're not getting robbed." Skye said dryly.
The bearded guy just laughed, "You're not getting robbed. I can only defend myself when I graduate. Then you're getting robbed."
Skye grinned, "I like him." She said and hopped off of the bed. "I'm going to go woo some ladies at the campus bar. I'm guessing that you two are going to do some manly bonding."
"Super manly." Matt called out. Hearing the door shut, he turned towards the sound of Foggy throwing his stuff on the empty bed. "I'm Matt Murdock. Excuse my sister for being so, her."
"Foggy Nelson. You're from Hell's right?"
"Born and raised, for a while."
"Yeah! I've heard about you." Foggy exclaimed, "I heard all about you, saving that old man who crossed the street."
Matt waved and sat down on the desk chair, "I just did what anyone else would." He said, modestly.
"C'mon, you got your peepers knocked out by saving that old dude." Foggy pressed.
"They didn't get knocked out." Matt corrected.
Foggy held up his hands, "Good, 'cause that would be a little freaky." He huffed, and then quickly added, "No offense."
Matt felt a smile form on his face, "None taken, uh." A pause, "Most people dance around me like I'm made of glass, I hate that."
"Your sister didn't dance around you like glass. I'm pretty sure I heard her punch you."
"She isn't like most people." Matt said fondly.
"Yeah, but you're just, a guy, right. A really, really good looking guy." Foggy said.
Matt raised his eyebrows and gave Foggy the chance to defend himself, "I mean, girls must love that, the whole, wounded handsome thing. Right?"
He laughed, "It's been known to happen."
"This is going to be awesome." Foggy stated.
"This?" Matt asked.
"Me, as your wingman. You're going to open a whole new caliber of woman I've only dreamed of. A lot."
Matt laughed and replied as Foggy turned into a rambling mess about a woman in his new punjabi class. "I'm sure Skye already knows off of enough bars where we can get some booze."
"Does she know a good place to get some coffee though?"
"I'm sure that isn't her priority at the moment." Matt nearly sighed. Once Skye started online school she started working. Which led to her meeting new people everyday.
It was also a way for her to save on money. Being supposedly pretty and always asked out. She would just charm her way into a date and get some drinks or food.
Not like Matt was any better. Like he said, people like taking care of someone wounded. Devilishly handsome, not supposedly, he knows.
"So is your sister into men?" Foggy asks after a while.
"Foggy, no."
"Fine. Only because you used that tone." The sighted man said, "That was a hot tone! Is that how you get your woman?"