Work Text:
1.
Joan Jett's pouring whiskey into a travel mug.
Also, Foggy's 98% sure he locked the door last night.
"Uh," he says, "Can I help you?"
"Helped myself. Mine's busted," Joan Jett replies.
"...I was kinda thinking on the legal side. Considering this is a law firm."
Joan snorts, as if it's totally normal to have a leather jacket-wearing stranger making a very Irish cup at 8 am. "Yeah, definitely not."
Foggy glances at the door. "Um. Do you normally break into businesses to steal coffee?"
He gets an unimpressed eyebrow. "I don't see a price tag anywhere." Joan takes a sip, grimaces, and adds the rest of her bottle. "Where's Murdock?"
"You know Matt?"
"Jessica." Speak of the Murdock. "Good morning."
Jessica grunts and chugs. Foggy would consider a one night stand situation, but Matt's partners don't usually know how to pick locks. Or show up randomly in the office.
Matt looks in Foggy's general direction and gestures to her. "Foggy, this is Jessica Jones. Jessica, this is my friend and business partner, Foggy Nelson."
"Your name is Foggy?" Jessica asks flatly.
Okay, rude. "It's either that or Franklin."
Jessica's nose twitches. "Foggy it is." She finishes her cup and goes for a refill.
While he goes to his office, Matt asks, "I take it your machine's still broken?"
"Yep," Jessica mutters. "I'd use Trish's, but this is closer. Her stuff's too fancy anyway."
Matt re-emerges with a little smirk on his face. "I'm sure she'd love for you to get coffee at her place."
Jessica glares at him. "Don't start."
It hits Foggy: they're friends. Matt has a friend.
Kinda sad how long it took for Foggy to reach that conclusion, but. Matt just―the gentle way of saying it is he doesn't make friends easy. Now Foggy's burning with questions, like when Matt had the time to meet and befriend Joan Jett. How did they even become friends? Sure, she seems like Matt's type of asshole, but? Friend?
While Foggy's having a silent breakdown, Matt and Jessica keep talking.
"Brought the stuff," Jessica's saying, taking a flask from her pocket, "The guy's definitely embezzling. I managed to get the records in Braille. Second folder."
She hands Matt two manila folders from the counter.
Matt's smiling. "Thank you, Jess. This is a tremendous help."
Jessica shrugs, like the sentiment offends her. "Yeah, well, I owed you. Thanks for the free coffee."
Matt looks like he knows exactly how she got in and he too seems to think it's totally normal. "Anytime."
"See you around." With a nod to Foggy, Jessica leaves.
Foggy blinks. "So...who was that?"
Matt heads back to his desk. "I told you I'd call in a favor for 's financial records. Jessica's a PI."
"Since when do you know a PI? No, wait, rephrase: since when are you friends with a PI?"
Matt gives him his I'm-secretly-a-vigilante smile. Foggy hates that smile. "We met a few months ago. Had a few drinks."
"She looks like she lives on a few drinks."
"She's a little rough around the edges, but she's good."
"So why didn't you tell me about her?"
Matt shrugs. "Never came up."
"You made a new friend for the first time in a year and you didn't mention it because it never came up?"
Matt dips his head. "Well...yeah."
Foggy pinches the bridge of his nose. Only Matt, seriously. "I'm not saying you need to tell me every single thing about your life, but the big things would be nice. Like your red costume."
"I hardly think this compares."
"It's the principle, Matt."
Matt opens the Braille folder. "Okay. Then, Foggy, I made a new friend."
"And that's awesome, Matt, seriously. You really need to expand your social circle beyond your coworkers and the nurse who keeps you from bleeding to death."
"I also made two other friends."
"...come again?"
Karen pops in. "Guys, I just saw Joan Jett."
"Yeah," Foggy says, "apparently she's one of Matt's three new friends."
Karen gapes. "Matt has new friends?"
Matt glowers. "Thank you, Karen."
Turns out Matt knows Luke Cage and Danny Rand. As in, Hero of Harlem and Actual Billionaire. He's irritatingly tight-lipped on how.
All Foggy's managed to gather is they like Matt enough to mess with him. Specifically, his ringtones. When Danny calls, his phone chirps the name once before breaking into Eye of the Tiger. Luke has a hip hop song Foggy doesn't know. Jessica doesn't call, at least as far as Foggy knows.
They also make Matt laugh. Which is great, obviously. Except it's the laugh Foggy hasn't heard in a long time: that free, genuine one, a little high-pitched and accompanied by a big, beautiful grin.
Sometimes when Foggy hears their ringtones, all he can think about is the twisting in his gut. And it sucks.
2.
"Luke," Matt's phone intones, before breaking out into Hercules' Zero to Hero, starting at "Folks line up, just to watch 'im flex!"
Matt sighs under Karen's snickering and answers it. "Did you change my ringtone...? Maybe, but you didn't bother to guard it, did you?..." Foggy watches him blink behind his glasses and tilt his head, the way he's learned to translate as somebody pinging on Matt's radar. "Oh. Yeah, sure. Okay."
He stands up less than a minute later as Luke Cage, in all his muscley glory, walks in with a plastic bag. He shines his pearly whites at Karen and exchanges polite introductions. He does the same with Foggy.
For Matt, his smile turns more genuine, familiar. "Hey."
Matt gives him a version of the same smile. "Hey."
Luke shakes the bag between them. "You're lucky I didn't wash these with a red hoodie."
"Do you even have red hoodies? I'm told you mostly wear black with the yellow."
"Maybe I'm savin' it."
Matt takes the bag. "Thank you. I don't even remember leaving these."
Foggy realizes Luke's given Matt one of his suits, washed and folded. Which means Matt's spent the night there at least. But like Jessica, there's nothing in Matt's body language to indicate it went farther than a platonic costume change between super friends. Good friends.
Luke shoots him a significant look. "You were a bit preoccupied."
Or maybe...?
Before Foggy can so much as narrow his eyes, Luke claps Matt's shoulder, a tad slower than most people would. Probably watching his strength. "I'll see you around, man. Nice meeting you two."
Matt inclines his head, Karen and Foggy bidding Luke goodbye.
As soon as the door closes, Karen hisses, "Did the Hero of Harlem just hand you one of your suits?"
Matt shrugs a shoulder. "I apparently left it at his place by accident."
"By accident? Matthew Murdock, did you bang Luke Cage?"
Matt actually splutters. "Luke is as much a friend as Jessica."
"So did you bang both of them?" Foggy asks. He's almost sure he kept the sourness from his tone, but Matt looks adorably confused anyway.
"No. And I didn't do anything with Danny, either. I can make friends without banging them first."
"We know," Karen says gently, because Foggy's reply would probably sound petulant. "We're happy for you, Matt."
"...let's get back to work."
"Ah yes," Foggy says, gesturing ostentatiously to his office, "Let's work on the clients we don't have!"
3.
After the whole 'bleeding out on the floor' fiasco, Foggy sanctioned mandatory movie nights for both his and Matt's sanity. The sense of normalcy without the previously invisible cloud of secrets has been helping more than they expected.
Tonight, Foggy brings a container of caramel corn and Dracula: Dead and Loving It in honor of October. They put it into Matt's laptop and Foggy narrates between dialogue and swapping jokes. The air relaxes around them, and Matt's giving him that special smile he's saved for his super friends. Well, Rand's not super, but. Y'know.
But when Jonathan Harker asks, "She's Italian?" Matt's smile drops.
Foggy stiffens. "Hey, man, the joke's not that bad."
"Get the first aid kit," Matt orders, "Now."
"What? Are you bleeding and didn't tell me? Again?"
"Foggy!"
Foggy's never heard him raise his voice like that. Matt's. Matt's panicked, shoving the laptop out of the way and sprinting for the roof access. Worried out of his mind. Usually he just gets angry when he's worried, starts talking rapidly but calmly, fingers tightening on his cane like he's itching to split his knuckles punching somebody's face in. While he moves with his usual rage, there's an unmistakably frantic element.
Foggy scrambles for the first aid kit, grown substantially with Claire's influence. He rushes from the bathroom just in time to see Matt supporting a bleeding Daniel Rand down the steps.
"Don't mean to interrupt," Rand mumbles.
"What happened?" Matt demands, conveying him to the couch.
Rand says, "I'm pretty sure they were ninjas," and Foggy wants to groan himself hoarse.
Because of fucking course Rand is a superhero too.
"Hi," Rand says weakly, mustering a bloody smile, "Danny Rand."
"Foggy Nelson," Foggy says, trying not to let his Absolutely Done face show. "You a ninja too?"
Danny laughs, then clutches his ribs. "Something like that. I guess you're in on it?"
"Despite Matt's best efforts," Foggy says darkly.
"Danny," Matt snaps, helping Rand with his shirt, "was it the Hand?"
"No," Rand says, "but that new guy Brunty definitely knows where to get bodyguards."
Foggy pinches the bridge of his nose. "Brunty as in the philanthropist actually bothering to fix tenement buildings?"
"You went after him by yourself?" Matt growls.
"Not him personally," Rand says, grunting as he's forced to shift, "Just an important deal. Human trafficking."
Why is it always the rich guys?
"Nice tattoo," Foggy says.
"Thanks," Rand replies, "Had to punch a dragon to get it."
Yeah, no, Foggy's just gonna call Claire.
Once again, Claire Temple is the light of every dumbass superhero's life and the embodiment of Foggy's spirit, because the first thing she says when she sees Rand is a heartfelt, "For fuck's sake."
Rand smiles. "Hey, Claire."
"Three broken ribs, sprained wrist, gashes everywhere," Matt reports in quick succession, "Heart rate's fast."
"Yeah," Claire says, "that's likely because he's drowning in his own blood. What the hell did you do?"
"...saved a bunch of kids from very bad men?" Rand offers sheepishly.
Foggy whispers a curse. Rand had failed to mention the human trafficking involved kids. Would it kill these rich assholes to earn their money?
Claire sighs and doesn't reply, since that's a pretty viable excuse for getting roughed up.
"I managed to heal some of it before I got here," Rand says, because that's apparently something he can do, what is Foggy's life?
"If this is you post-healing, I don't wanna know how you were before," Claire says, testing the ribs Matt points out.
"You need a raise," Foggy says.
"Considering I don't get paid, a raise would be nice."
"I can give you money," Rand says.
Claire huffs and shakes her head. "I was joking, Danny."
"You do deserve to get paid, though."
Matt doesn't argue with that.
After a quick check-up, Claire announces that Rand's gonna need more stitches than Frankenstein's monster and gets to work. Rand wisely keeps his mouth shut about it.
Instead he smiles at Matt and murmurs, "Thanks for letting me stay."
"You say that as if I'd ever turn you away," Matt replies in that deadly earnest way that makes Foggy's heart do weird things. Luckily his friend seems too preoccupied to notice.
Rand's smile grows. He clasps Matt's elbow. "Still. Thanks."
"Be more thankful they didn't get your face."
Claire snorts.
Foggy claps his hands. "So! Who wants coffee?"
"I was having coffee until you idiots decided to bleed all over the place," Claire mutters.
4.
Either four superheroes just had an orgy, or Matt has four new best friends.
Foggy's not sure which is worse.
Basically, Matt opens the door without a shirt, which, very nice sight for the morning, until Foggy turns the corner to see a likewise shirtless Luke Cage making omelettes and a pants-less Danny Rand slumped on Matt's bed. Oh, and there's Jessica Jones shimmying into her own jeans.
They're all freshly bandaged. Matt's sheets are rumpled and imprinted with more than one body.
Jessica shoves Rand awake, the so-called Immortal Iron Fist making a noise between a pig's snort and a cat's hiss. Foggy never knew a human could produce whatever it is.
Matt's pulls on Luke's hoodie. "What's up, Foggy?"
Foggy has completely forgotten why he's here. "Uh. Hi, guys."
Luke waves his spatula. "Hey, Nelson. Want one?"
"Uh."
"You got any alcohol in this place?" Jessica says, sleep rough.
"Beer in the fridge," Matt says.
"I mean good alcohol."
"Says the bottom shelf girl," Luke says. Jessica punches his arm. "You stickin' around for omelettes?"
Jessica rolls her eyes. "Not that the cuddle fest wasn't fun and all, but I have work to do."
So they're just best friends.
Yeah, that's worse.
Matt's tilting his head at him. "Foggy?"
Rand stumbles out of the bedroom, still stitched like a horror movie. He's grabbed Matt's shirt by accident. If Matt notices―and odds are he does―he doesn't mind.
Foggy jerks his thumb at the door, where Jessica's already headed. "I'll―see you at the office."
He leaves Matt's pouty face behind with the two attractive men.
Once they're out of the building, Jessica gives him an unimpressed look. "You got it bad."
"You realize he can still hear you?" Foggy says.
"I know. He's a weirdo. Also, we all have girlfriends except for him."
They part ways at the curb.
Jessica walks backwards a few steps, calling, "When both of you stop your ridiculous pining, let me know."
"This is the second time we've met!"
"I'm a PI and I have eyes, Nelson. And even if I was like Matt, I'd still know."
She disappears into the crowd.
+1.
"Both of you," Jessica had said.
Matt's got a pinched look when he arrives at the office. Karen immediately senses tension and raises her eyebrow at him and Foggy.
Even if Matt didn't have super senses, he could hear Foggy's heart right now. When Matt goes into his office, Foggy whispers to Karen, "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid."
Matt pauses.
Karen's other eyebrow rises. "Go-after-muggers-with-a-baseball-bat stupid or put-salt-in-your-coffee-stupid?"
Matt was. Not supposed to know about the bat. But one problem at a time.
"Pretty sure there's no spectrum for this one," Foggy replies after a beat.
Karen's lips thin. "Foggy. What are you about to do?"
Foggy mouths, very clearly, "I love Matt."
Karen's mouth drops. "You're finally gonna say something?"
Wha―does everyone know but Matt?
Karen shoves him towards Matt's office and gives him two thumbs up.
Heart punching his throat, Foggy closes the door behind him.
"Nothing happened," Matt says quickly.
Foggy blinks. "Huh?"
"At my apartment. We were fighting together, got banged up. Everyone was exhausted, and my bed was almost big enough. We sort of just―fell asleep there. But nothing happened."
"Matt, you don't have to explain yourself to me." Foggy swallows. Here we go. "Unless...you feel like you have a reason to?"
Matt inhales sharply through his nose. Ohoho shit, this is difficult.
After a few long seconds, Matt tells him slowly, "I heard Jessica."
Foggy's hands are sweating.
"You―you didn't deny anything."
"...no."
Matt feels for his office blinds. Karen pumps her fist.
Jessica takes one look at Foggy after barging into Matt's apartment and says, "Fucking finally."
Behind her, Danny beams and Luke smirks.
Foggy, wearing Matt's shirt, sips his coffee.