Work Text:
It wasn’t the first time he came home this way and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. You had to call Claire, it was bad. Really bad. You were lucky that he woke you when he fell to the floor, collapsed from blood loss and pain. You had run over, shaking his shoulder, but Matt was incoherent.
He faded in and out of consciousness; you tried to hold back tears while you waited for Claire, keeping pressure on the side of his head. Occasionally Matt would groan and you kept your hand on his, squeezing tight.
When Claire got there she immediately took over and you went to wash Matt’s blood off your hands. You focused on keeping your breathing even, watching Claire work from your safe spot in the kitchen. When she was done, Claire threw her latex gloves in the trash. “I don’t see how you do this. He’s gonna get himself killed, you know that, right?”
“I know,” you breathed in reply. There was a moment of silence as Claire idled before walking over to you, making eye contact.
“Listen, it’s not really my place to judge. When he wakes up, he might have some temporary hearing loss. He definitely has a concussion, but he should be fine as long as he gets some rest.” Her tone became more serious on the last part and you nodded in return.
“I’ll make sure he stays home today. I’ll tie him down if I have to.”
Claire snorted, a bitter smile playing across her face. “You probably will, he’s stubborn enough. Tell him if he wants to keep being Daredevil, then he needs to rest. If he hurts himself like that again too soon, he’ll end up in the morgue.” She shifted her weight before sighing. “I’ll be back tomorrow after my shift to check on his wounds.”
“Okay. Thank you so much, Claire. We should really start paying you.”
“Ha. I’ll remind you next time.”
—
You took a shower and made some breakfast. It was almost 9 am. You kept expecting Matt to wake up and the longer he slept the more you worried. You were sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch he was sprawled against, your hands gripping tightly to the mug in your hand. The wound on his head had been stitched and bandaged, a few other cuts had been patched up as well. You were bouncing your leg, not able to do anything but watch him.
You must’ve started to doze off because the next thing you knew the mug was slipping from your hand and falling on the floor. “Shit.” You grabbed the mug, thankful it didn’t break and ran to the kitchen to grab a towel. You were on your knees cleaning when Matt opened his eyes.
“Y/N?” His voice was soft, a whisper. You sprung up, spilled coffee forgotten. You grabbed his hand to let him know you were there.
“Matt? How are you feeling?”
He didn’t answer, rather he reached up with his free hand to touch the bandage against his head. His eyebrows were pulled together, worry set deep in his expression. “I—” His hand moved to his ear. “I can’t hear.”
You expected him to be freaking out more but you remembered him telling you it had happened before. You cupped his face, pressing your lips soft to his, trying to convey that you were here and you weren’t leaving. You nuzzled your forehead to his, closing your eyes as you felt tears threaten to break free once more.
“It’s— It’s temporary, right?” You could hear the fear edging into Matt’s voice and you nodded, your head still pressed to his, hoping he would understand. He did. “Okay, good. One squeeze for yes, two for no, alright?” He shifted his hand against yours so you understood better what he meant.
You squeezed once, pulling back from him, sitting on the edge of the couch. “Did you make coffee?”
You squeezed once and chuckled, grabbing his free hand and pulling it down to brush his fingers against the wet towel. He smirked. “You spilled coffee, didn’t you?”
You squeezed again and he chuckled despite how much pain he must’ve been in. You pressed your lips together, overjoyed to see him happy, even if it was fleeting. You let go of his hands only for him to reach out quickly, grabbing onto you as you tried to stand. “Don’t go. Please.”
That fear was there again and you realized how much he must be holding back. He was probably freaking out on the inside but he didn’t want to scare you. That was very on-brand for Matt.
You sat back down, keeping hold of one hand, using the other to examine his chest. None of his wounds besides the one on his head seemed too bad. He had pretty dark bruising near his hips, on the same side his head was hurt. Christ, Matt, did you fall off a building? You wouldn’t be surprised. It wouldn’t have been the first time.
You decided he was okay enough that you could crawl on top of him, keeping most of your weight off him, settling between his legs and resting your head on his chest. Immediately his arms wrapped around you, his eyes fluttering closed. You also closed your eyes, focusing on his heartbeat. Soft and steady. Alive. Okay. Matt was going to be okay.
—
“Y/N? Sweetheart?” You looked up to see a small smile on Matt’s lips. “My hearing’s back.”
“Oh, thank God.” You pushed yourself forward, wrapping your arms around him. He grunted at the sudden shift of weight, his body extremely sore. He didn’t really care, though, as long as he got to hold you.
“Sorry,” you whispered, pulling away from him when you realized he was hurting. He shook his head, his grip tightening on you.
“No, I’m sorry, sweetheart. I could feel your heartbeat, you were scared. I hate doing that to you.”
You pressed a kiss to his lips. “You’re worth it, Matty. I love you.”
You could see the doubt on his face but instead of protesting, he kissed you again, deepening it quickly. He pulled away when his phone started to ring. Foggy. Foggy. Foggy.
“I’m late, aren’t I?” Matt asked as you got up, grabbing his cell to answer.
“Hey, Foggy. What’s up?”
“Hey, Y/N, is Matt alright?”
“Yeah, he’s resting—”
“Tell Foggy I’ll be in soon.”
“—he won’t be in today. He really needs to stay home.”
You heard Foggy chuckle. “And did he agree to that?”
Matt leaned up a bit and you glared even though he couldn’t see it.
“Matt, lay down. I told Claire I’d tie you down if I had to, don’t try me.”
Foggy laughed on the other end of the phone and Matt slowly leaned back, hearing your steady heart and knowing you weren’t lying. He was smiling, though. Enough to warm your heart.
“Seriously, Foggy. He’s not coming in. He was hurt pretty bad last night. If you really need me to, I can come pick up any paperwork. He’s not going anywhere anytime, soon, though.”
“Okay, that’s fine. It’s been a while since he’s taken a sick day anyways. Don’t worry about any paperwork. I’ll come by with Karen after work, check up on him.” You smiled at the kindness in Foggy’s voice.
“Thanks, Foggy, see you then.”
You hung up and put Matt’s phone on the coffee table.
“Tie me up, huh?” A sinful smirk played across Matt’s lips and you laughed darkly.
“Like I said, don’t try me.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you know me. Always the good little Catholic boy.” You narrowed your eyes at him and you leaned down to pick up the dirty towel from the floor. As you turned to go to the hamper Matt’s arm shot out and wrapped around you, pulling you back into his lap.
You gasped and dropped the towel. “Matthew!”
“Oh, no, I’m in trouble now. Better get the rope.” He chuckled as he pulled you in for another kiss, both of you smiling into the soft moment. “Come on, honey. If I’m bedridden we could at least have some fun.”
“Matt, you’re not even in bed.”
“We could fix that.” He broke into a grin and you scoffed, standing up again.
“You’re ridiculous,” you laughed, heading to the bathroom with the towel. When you returned he wasn’t there and before you could react you heard him groan from the bedroom. You walked over to see him sitting on his side of the bed, his arm wrapped around himself protectively.
“Matt, I could’ve helped you.” You got on the bed, crawling over to move the blankets and make sure he didn’t hurt himself anymore.
“You’ve already done enough, sweetheart.”
You sighed, feeling as though you’d done nothing, but knowing there was no use in protesting. Instead, you did what you knew he wanted, you curled up into his side, your head against his chest. You laced your fingers with his and his other hand found your hair, stroking gently. You felt yourself relaxing and you knew he’d probably drift off soon.
“Matt, you should try to drink some water.” You shifted to get up but his grip became impossibly tight around you.
“No.”
“Matt—”
“No.”
You sighed, resting back on him. “How’d it happen anyways?”
“Triads. More human trafficking. Smuggling undocumented immigrants into the city to sell them to the highest bidder. I tracked them back to this rich guy, don’t know who he is but he has damn good security. I was stupid, cocky, thought they’d be easy. They caught me off guard, shoved me down and bashed my head into the wall. I passed out, I guess they thought I was dead because they left me like that. I almost didn’t make it back before—” He cut himself off. He knew how much you worried about this exact scenario happening. He had promised to be upfront with you about what he did if you really wanted to know. Most of the time, you didn’t, but this wasn’t most of the time.
You let out a shaky breath but didn’t say anything, wanting to compose yourself. You felt Matt shift a bit, signaling how nervous he was. He knew you hated him getting hurt. For a while, you almost felt like he didn’t care. He would always brush you off. Then, when he promised to be more honest with you, he wasn’t able to hide how he felt as easily.
“Matt, I love you. And I trust you. But please, please be more careful.” Your voice shook at the last part, your lips quivering. You leaned up to look at him, seeing his tense jaw and lips pressed into a line.
“I know. It was my fault. I’ll stay in tonight, to make it up to you.” You were surprised by that. You knew you could get him to stay home from work if you really needed to but going out at night? You could never stop that. You didn’t even try, there was no use.
“Really?”
Matt could hear the disbelief in your voice and he nodded. “Really.”
He smiled slowly as he heard your heartbeat speed up. Not with anger or anxiety, but with hope. Love.
You pulled yourself closer to him, kissing his cheek before whispering, “Get some sleep, okay? I’ll stay right here.”
Matt didn’t need to listen to your heart to know you weren’t lying. Soon, you were both fast asleep.