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Matthew was a very independent person despite his blindness. He was perfectly capable of doing things on his own even without the enhanced senses. Sure he was able to take advantages of those senses to pretend to be a sighted person but concentrating too much for too long gave him a mind numbing headache. That was why he rarely relied on his senses when he was out and about as Matthew Murdock, a regular blind lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen.
It was nice…most of the time.
People would leave him alone or upright ignore him when they saw he was blind, they would even avoid him if possible. People were weird like that when they faced someone to be considered abnormal. He didn’t blame them, he’d like to avoid all those awkward moments himself as well.
Matthew was fine with people ignoring him, he was used to it. He was pretty sure he started getting used to it the first year he moved to live at St. Agnes. It was easier that way, if you stayed quiet, nobody would ever noticed you were there.
It was simple. Keep your head down and stay out of the way.
That wasn’t hard, it worked most of the time so Matthew adhered to it.
Then along came Jennifer Walters.
It was kind of weird to be hanging out with Jennifer and having her treat him like a normal human being instead of some incapable blind person.
She was probably the first person beside Foggy who didn’t worry if he was going to trip over all the time.
It was a nice. He liked it.
Or maybe because she knew about his “echo location” — as she put it — he didn’t mind, at least she let him do things without offering to help him all the time if she believed he could always tell where everything was. Matthew was slowly getting used to Jennifer treating him like a regular person and it’s been five months since that night on the rooftop.
Before he knew it, they were in line at a Starbucks on their way to Jennifer’s office.
“I’ll go grab us a table, can you get me a vanilla latte with caramel drizzle on top please?” Jennifer asked so Matthew hummed an acknowledgement when she walked away from his side.
It took another few minutes before he could put his order in. He paid with a credit card and went to find Jennifer, slowly tapping his way around with his white cane.
“This way Matt!” He heard her voice coming from his right and was pretty sure Jennifer bounced up from her seat to wave at him without using his powers. His lips tucked up in a small smile. He liked the positive and happy energy she exuded which could always make his sour mood go away at any given moments.
Matthew sat down and pulled out his files on the table so they could discuss about a court case that he was helping Jennifer with. The conversation flowed easily between them while they waited for their drinks. They talked about her family, the case, a Mexican place they should order in for dinner before hearing his name being called for.
It didn’t take long for Matthew to get their drinks and placed them swiftly on the table, he let Jennifer pick out her cup before he took his and took a sip. They continued talking where they left off but got interrupted by a couple of girls sitting at the next table.
“Don’t you think it’s kind of selfish to let a blind man get your drink for you?” A nasally voice with thick valley girl accent cut Jennifer of mid sentences. Matthew cocked his head with a frown in a general direction of an unpleasant voice without saying anything. He paid that girl no attention and turned back to Jennifer to continue their conversation.
“I’m sorry, it must be so hard for you to have to do such a hard work like that,” the other girl turned to addressed Matthew directly when they couldn’t get a reaction out of Jennifer. Her voice was a little different but it had the same kind of nasty tone that he didn’t particularly like. It took more effort this time for Matthew to ignore them. He took a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, just like when he meditated to calm his nerve.
This wasn’t new, it wasn’t something he’d never experienced before. People always assumed he couldn’t do things on his own just because he was blind. The best way to deal with this kind of situation is to just ignore them. Maybe they’ll think he’s deaf too and leave him alone.
“Excuse me? Did you just called my boyfriend incompetent in front of me?” Jennifer’s snap cut through his wandering thought.
“First of all, he’s blind. That doesn’t mean he’s incapable of doing anything by himself. It’s very rude of you to assume that he needs help all the time. Blind people can do things perfectly find in their own ways. If he wants to get coffee for us then it’s his choice in doing so,” Jennifer explained with an anger in voice. “Now apologize to him.”
The two girls flushed with shame, stared at Jennifer and drop their mouths open in a shocking manner. The first one gaped but nothing came out of her mouth so Jennifer repeated her request and the girls jerked their heads with widen eyes when she mentioned something about turning green and smashing their tables into tiny pieces.
“I-I’m sorry. We’re sorry,” the second girl sputtered looking expectantly at Jennifer and averted her gaze while the first girl was still in shock.
“I said apologize to him, not me,” Jennifer pointed at Matthew with stern eyes.
“I-I’m sorry sir,” both of them said in unison directly at Matthew. They stood up, fumbled with their purses, and hurried out the front door before Jennifer could change her mind and crush their bones into tiny pieces instead of the table.
Matthew didn’t know what to do. He honestly didn’t know what to do in situations like this because nobody has ever defended him before besides Foggy. So it took him a while for his brain to catch up with what just happened.
“Oh god Matt, I’m so sorry. Please don’t be mad at me,” Jennifer broke the silence when Matthew just sat there with a cup of coffee in hand. “They were being very rude to you and I couldn’t just let that go. I’m really sorry if that was out of line.”
But apparently Jennifer took his stillness as him being offended.
Matthew cracked a smile making the wrinkles around his eyes prominent and chuckled softly.
“No, no, Jen. I’m not mad,” he said still smiling, “it’s just….not a lot of people see it that way.” Matthew shrugged a shoulder.
“Oh…well they’re stupid people then,” Jennifer replied with a smirk.
Matthew continued laughing even louder with a few tears this time.