Archive of Our Own

Sam had a lot of problems, he’d come to find out. 

Lately, he’s been convinced that his secret superpower is his awful streak of bad luck. It felt like punch after punch, honestly.

The most recent problem - when you look past the fact that he’s under qualified to be throwing himself at various goons and criminals with deadly weapons, relying on shoddily-put together tech to keep him kind of safe - is the fact that he fell behind on keeping up with his battery stock.

‘It’s fine,’ he’d thought, when he realized a few hours ago. ‘I’ll just grab some before I meet with Daredevil. No big deal.’

It’d become a very big deal when he got to the only store he knew to be open at this time of night, and their stock was cleaned out. The empty shelf stared back at him like it was taunting him .

If becoming a vigilante didn’t kill him first, he was sure that his mentor would. 

He’d been late to training twice this week already. The first time was for a justified reason - there was a mugging, and he saved a lady’s purse. The second time, he’d taken an ill-timed nap. Daredevil didn’t need to know that truth. He had come up with some bullshit excuse, but had the itching feeling that he probably wasn’t believed. 

In short, if he was late for a third time, he wasn’t going to have a great night, which would lead into a worse morning, which he didn’t want to do.

His next problem was that it was 1:45 in the morning. It was hard enough to find a store that sold the kind of batteries he needed, let alone one that was open this late.

His third, and final problem, was that he had about 15 minutes to find a store that sold what he needed.

Why’d he decide to put this off until later, again? He’d kill past-him if he could. 

–

The first store he got to was one that had usually been pretty reliable. He’d ducked in there every once in a while, but it wasn’t a frequent thing. His fingers had been crossed as he rounded the block to the storefront -

Only to be met with the disappointing shine of the security door. The note taped to the front read, ‘Family Emergency! Closed early.’

Great. What about his emergencies? This was bullshit. 

–

1:50. Maybe he’ll lay down the mantle. Quit vigilantism forever, focus on work full time. Then, maybe, he won’t have to look Daredevil in the eyes and tell him that he was unprepared and that’s why they’re having to do things differently today.

He scoffed to himself. It wasn’t like it’d make any difference. If they went out on patrol, it might suck , but he’s had enough training to where he thinks he’d be able to hold his own. And if they didn’t go out on patrol, it wasn’t like him going invisible would even matter. Why did he waste batteries on training when it didn’t even do anything?

He feels like he just had a master realization. What if he just didn’t go invisible? Pretends he activated his suit, and bluff until..

Yeah, that wasn’t going to work out in his favor. He was fucked, to put it in simpler terms. 

–

By the fourth store, he’d grown pretty used to the disappointment. Nothing was open. It was nearly 2 AM on a Wednesday, who would be buying groceries at this hour? He shouldn’t be surprised. He should be preparing his story. Coming up with an excuse that would get him the shortest lecture. Not running to the last place he could think of that might have some D-cells that he can pay too much money for again, knowing that they would be closed, and also knowing that this would definitely cause him to run late by at least five minutes. 

The fluorescent sign lacking any tell-tale glow was like a stab to his heart. The clock reading ‘2:03’ was like pulling the knife out of his already mortally wounded heart, and then plunging it back in and twisting it. 

He turned down the nearest alley, grabbing onto the fire escape ladder and hoisting himself up. At least he had more time to come up with an excuse. 

–

“You’re late.”

He cursed under his breath. He’d been trying to get onto the rooftop as silently as possible, but nothing slipped past this guy. Nothing. It was kind of scary.

“Yeah, I know. Sorry-”

“Don’t be sorry,” Daredevil began, which made Sam roll his eyes. As if he hadn’t heard this phrase a million times before. “Be better.”

He didn’t dignify it with a response. It was, frankly, the most annoying thing he’s heard since he started training with Daredevil. He might as well never apologize. What happens then? Jeeze.

“We’re doing strength training today. You won’t need the suit.”