Chapter Text
It’s been two weeks since Angel became an official part of the Nelson and Murdock family, and just as Karen had wisely predicted, Angel was making leaps and bounds in terms of warming up to them. She rarely ever hisses at them anymore, and she now enjoys being held and petted by them (although it always has to be on her terms).
Matt hates to admit it, but he has barely been home during the past few weeks. Work keeps him at the office well into the evening, and then afterwards he usually dons his Daredevil outfit and fights crime for several more hours. It doesn’t leave him much quality time to spend with Angel or Foggy.
Most of the time, Matt only gets to spend time with Angel when he feeds her in the morning, or when she curls up next to him on his bed when he collapses there, trying to get a few hours of sleep in before work.
Thankfully, Foggy, being the caring human being that he is, oftentimes spends the night at Matt’s apartment, taking care of Angel when Matt can’t be there to do so.
When Matt comes in during nights like those, he feels an overwhelming surge of guilt and love when he sees Foggy and Angel curled up on his bed together, as if they’re trying to tell him that they will always be there to wait for his return.
Right now, it’s 11:30 on a Thursday night, and it’s storming outside like crazy. Matt has just climbed in through the window, soaking wet, after dealing with a new crime ring at the other end of Hell’s Kitchen.
After peeling off his drenched outfit and draping it over a chair, Matt listens to the various sounds in his apartment. It’s slightly more difficult than usual thanks to the rain pounding on the roof and the deep, rumbling thunder, but after a few moments of concentration, Matt picks up on Foggy’s slow and level breathing coming from the bedroom. His heartbeat is calm and steady, and Matt smiles when he realizes that Foggy is asleep.
It’s never ceased to amaze Matt at how Foggy could always sleep through almost anything. Even back in law school, when half of the residence hall was awake due to some crazy party going on upstairs, Foggy would without fail be completely unconscious in his bed, arm draped over his face and snoring loudly.
After assuring himself that Foggy is perfectly safe, Matt focuses on the other noises in the apartment; the refrigerator whirring softly in the kitchen, and the light bulb from the lamp that Foggy had forgotten to turn off is buzzing.
Then he hears a soft, rapid heartbeat coming from the living room, and Matt can tell from years of listening to heartbeats that this one sounds anxious and fearful. It’s Angel.
Matt tiles his head toward the source of the noise to pick up on it better. He senses little vibrations coming from her, which means that she must be shaking like a leaf.
Oh, of course. Angel is terrified of the storm outside. Matt wants to smack himself for not picking up on it quicker.
He slowly walks across the floor, being mindful not to step too fast or heavy; he doesn’t want Angel to become even more frightened. He’s in his boxers, and the apartment is chilly, but he wills himself not to shiver too much. He reaches her hiding spot under the sofa and hunkers down carefully. “Hey there, Angel. How’s it going?”
Angel mews pathetically, as if to say, “Not so great, asshole.”
He holds out his hand to her, hoping that it will draw her out a little bit. “You don’t have to be afraid,” he murmurs. “It’s just a thunderstorm. It can’t hurt you.”
Just then, a huge clap of thunder makes the entire room tremble, and Angel retreats even further underneath the sofa.
Matt sighs. His current squatting position has quickly become uncomfortable, so he sits down on the cold floor with his legs crossed and waits. He might as well make himself comfortable.
A minute or two passes without any progress, so Matt tries talking again, patiently placing his hand back under the sofa for Angel. “You know, I used to be afraid of thunderstorms, too,” he confesses quietly. “When I was little, I would see the lightning bolts outside my window and I was so scared that they would electrocute me somehow. The thunder was even scarier. I never liked thunder to begin with, but after the accident…it was so much worse.”
Matt pauses and briefly wonders if spilling your life story to a goddamn cat counts as a lapse in sanity. “My senses became so intense and heightened that I could barely handle it at first. Every clap of thunder…it completely filled my head, and it made me feel like everything was falling apart…that I was falling apart.”
After he says this, Angel pokes her head out and cautiously rubs her wet nose against the palm of Matt’s hand. “But when my dad found out about how scared I was, he came into my room and sat with me through the storm. He told me that just like everything else, storms pass. Good things can never last forever, but neither can bad things. He said that it’s important to focus on the positive aspects of life, and if you do that, then the bad things will pass more quickly.
“That’s what I always do when things get to be too much…I think about Foggy and Karen, and you, and how happy I am when I’m around you, and then being alive seems so much more bearable.”
Matt swallows around the lump in his throat. “I don’t know what makes you happy. Maybe you could think about catnip or chasing mice or something.” He roughly drags a hand down his face and laughs at how goddamn out of it he sounds right now.
“Anyways. That night, my dad also promised that he’d never make me face the storms by myself ever again. That he’d always be there for me. Of course, he wasn’t able to keep that promise, since he’s gone…but the sentiment still meant a lot to me.”
Matt clears his throat roughly and continues. “I guess I just want you to know that Foggy and I will be there to take care of you. I can’t say for certain that we’ll always be here, but I can promise that we’ll never abandon you like your previous owners did.
“I know you’re a cat, and that you probably can’t comprehend human emotions, and you have no idea what I’m saying, but I’m kind of hoping that you’re smarter than I gave you credit for, and you’re somehow translating all of this into cat language.”
Finally, he has run out of things to say, so he sits in silence and prays that the scared cat will eventually come out from her hiding spot. It takes longer than he would like to say, but Angel slowly, gradually, emerges. At first it’s just her head poking out and sniffing the air around her. Then her torso and front paws, and finally the rest of her furry body come out into the open. She cautiously looks around the apartment, as if she thinks that the thunderstorm is a monster that can pop out and hurt her.
“There you go, sweetheart. You’re okay,” Matt assures her, carefully rubbing under her chin the way she likes it. Matt is extremely surprised when Angel gingerly climbs onto his lap and settles down after a few seconds of walking around in circles, kneading her paws rhythmically into his thighs.
She nuzzles her face gently against him and meows quietly, and holy shit, this cat trusts him. The thought almost makes him cry. And if he does end up tearing up just a little bit, nobody needs to know about it.
They sit there for a while; Matt is still worried that any sudden movements will spook Angel. When he becomes pretty sure that she’s somewhat calmed down, he carefully lifts her out of his lap, and braces himself against the sofa so he can stand up. Angel clearly doesn’t like being jostled, but she keeps the vocal complaints to a minimum at the adjustment. Thankfully he succeeds at standing up with Angel cradled in his arms without any scratches to show for it.
Matt turns around with Angel secured in his arms and jumps a little bit when he spots the blurry red shape of Foggy standing in the doorframe. He didn’t even hear Foggy wake up. “Sorry, Fog. I didn’t mean to wake you. I just got back. Have you been asleep for long?”
“Yeah, kind of,” Foggy replies softly, relaxed sleepiness tinged in his voice. Matt absolutely loves it when he sounds like this. “ ‘s okay, though. I woke up because I needed to use the bathroom. You know me and my bladder.”
He rubs the sleepiness from his eyes and smiles. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I kind of overheard what you were saying to Angel. That was…really sweet, how patient you were with her. You never told me about that conversation with your dad, though.”
Matt shrugs, slightly embarrassed. “I was willing to do almost anything to get her out from under there. And I wasn’t trying to keep that from you. I guess it never came up before. I can tell you anything you’d like to know, if you want.”
Foggy smiles again and runs a tired hand through his hair. “Thanks, Matt. I’ll probably take you up on that offer when we’re not both exhausted. Right now, let’s just go to bed, okay?”
That suddenly sounds like the best idea that Matt has ever heard, and he nods firmly. “Yeah, okay.” He meets Foggy in the bedroom and presses a lingering kiss against his lips. Foggy grins and lazily kisses back, and then leans down to peck a kiss on Angel’s head before climbing back into the bed. Matt places Angel onto the middle of the bed before joining them.
By this point, the storm had moved on so that all remains are a few flashes of lightning and a quiet rumbling of thunder in the distance. Thankfully, Angel’s heartbeat has returned to its normal speed.
After a few moments of comfortable silence, Matt and Foggy turn so they’re facing each other on the bed, and Matt can tell from Foggy’s heart that he’s quickly falling back asleep. Matt understands completely; he’s not far from sleep either.
Matt knows that he isn’t completely coherent right now, but he decides to just go with it. “You know…I'm pretty sure that one of these days, I’m going to turn into one of those old cat ladies. You’re going to come here sometime in the near future, and the apartment’s going to smell like litter and cat food, and instead of just one cat, there will be ten more cats running around the place.”
“What, so now you’re adding psychic powers to your already long list of ridiculous superhuman abilities?” Foggy snorts gently. “Whatever. As long as you never love them more than me, or kick me out because you need the extra space for your huge cat family, I don’t care. You can have one hundred cats if you want.”
Matt yawns violently. “Thanks, Fog,” he murmurs, smiling affectionately. “I love you. More than anyone."
“I love you too, Matty,” Foggy replies, running his hand through Matt’s dark hair a few times.
Not too long after, Foggy once again falls asleep while facing Matt, so close that he can feel Foggy’s breath fanning over his face. Angel’s warm body is tucked under Matt’s arm, and she is purring contentedly. As Matt drifts off to sleep, he realizes that this is the happiest that he has been in a very long time.