Foggy’s mom keeps the baby at their apartment for the first couple of weeks while Foggy tries to sort out how to manage this insane thing he’s attempting—raising a kid at the age of twenty while doing a full courseload at an Ivy League. They only drink once, a few days before Foggy’s set to move into new housing.
“Nobody’s going to judge you if you find him another home,” Matt says.
“I can’t do that,” Foggy says, immediately. “Not—I mean, you came out great, Matty, but the shit you had to go through. I can keep him safe from that.”
Matt smiles at him, feeling a little bit like crying but that’s probably the alcohol, and says, “I wish I could move with you. It would help to have two people, wouldn’t it?”
“You’d have to marry me, I think,” Foggy says, laughing then stopping abruptly when he sees the apparently very obvious look on Matt’s face. “Oh, no, Murdock. No. You’re not gonna propose out of pure Christian selflessness right now, buddy, that would be crazy.”
“It’s just paperwork,” Matt says, grinning.
“Life altering paperwork,” Foggy says, firmly, rambling, “and only one bed in the apartment and—do not get on one knee, Matt, I swear to—I can’t let you upend your life to raise a kid with me! We’re still kids, basically! Oh, Christ, you look earnest.”
“Marry me,” Matt says, very much on one knee, feeling a little bit giddy but not out of his head or anything. He’s wanted to offer this since the moment he found out Foggy would be moving out.
“You’re drunk,” Foggy says, accusingly.
“I’m tipsy at worst,” Matt says. “Marry me.”
“One bed,” Foggy says.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Matt says, dismissively.
“You can’t bring home hot girls,” Foggy says.
“I don’t do that now,” Matt says. “Marry me. We’ll figure all of it out.”
Foggy sighs loudly.
“Okay,” he says, throwing his hands up. “I’ll marry you.”
Matt grins and climbs back onto the bed to pull him into a hug.
“I promise I want this,” he says, softly, nervous when Foggy’s heart beats even faster than it has been.
“Thanks, buddy,” Foggy murmurs, holding him back tightly.
—
They get married at the courthouse and Matt kisses Foggy because it feels like the right thing to do for more reasons than one. Foggy just laughs and kisses him back, cupping Matt’s face in his hands, and neither of them say anything about it. They just go get lunch and break the news to Foggy’s mother who looks extremely tired but doesn’t object much and spend the day there with the baby.
Sam is, according to Foggy, the cutest baby to ever exist—blonde and giant brown eyes and chubby cheeks—and, also according to Foggy, fascinated by Matt.
“Seriously,” Foggy says, laughing. “He hasn’t stopped looking at you since we got here.”
“That’s a good sign, right?” Matt asks, grinning when Sam grabs for his glasses, sliding them up higher on his head. “I mean, I’m pretty fascinated with him, too.”
“Yeah,” Foggy says, softer and a little shaky, “it’s a really good sign.”
“You okay?” Matt asks, adjusting Sam in his arms when he starts grasping at his shirt, holding him close.
“God, yeah, I’m fine,” Foggy says, laughing. “You’re just. . .you’re a really good friend, Matt. That’s all.”
“Hey, I’m just in it for the tax write-offs,” Matt says, flatly, pressing a kiss to Sam’s extremely soft head and grinning happily when Foggy laughs. He knows this is weird but he can’t imagine a world where he just let Foggy go off and struggle on his own. Not when they could be together.
Foggy’s mom teaches him how to change a diaper that night. That part’s rough. But he can deal with it.
—
The first day in the apartment is a mess of Nelsons helping them move in and finally just the three of them, equally exhausted, collapsed on the uncomfortable school supplied couch. Foggy puts Sam down and then they go to bed together for the first time. There’s a confusing period of about one minute before Foggy says, “I know you’re a little spoon,” and Matt says, “. . .yeah, okay,” and then it’s the most comfortable sleep that Matt’s had. . .ever. Even with the baby waking up four times and them taking turns checking on him.
“I think this is going to work,” he says, over breakfast a few weeks in.
“Yeah?” Foggy asks.
“I mean, I think Sam might like me better, which could be awkward,” Matt says, lips twitching, “since you’re his dad and all.”
“You’re kinda going to be his dad, too,” Foggy says. “Depending on how long we do this. But that’s a conversation I don’t like to think about which we probably should have already had—the how long part, at least.”
“As long as you want me,” Matt says, immediately.
“Well, a kid is. . .forever,” Foggy says.
“I have forever,” Matt says, blushing suddenly and turning away to try to hide it. Because he means it—really, really means it. “If you—if you want forever.”
“Matt, you’ll probably want to meet someone and get married eventually,” Foggy says, cautiously. “Someone you actually want, I mean.”
They already got married, moved in together and are raising a child. It’s not a leap. Matt has to remind himself of this several times, before he says, “I already did that, Foggy.”
Foggy’s heartbeat is crazy and Sam decides to start screaming at the same time.
“I’ll get him,” Matt says, quickly.
Sam is happy and cooing in his arms when Foggy comes in and asks, softly, “You were being serious, right? You have feelings for me? . . .forever feelings?”
“I don’t think I knew it until we kissed at the courthouse,” Matt says, thinking back to the feeling he had after Foggy kissed him back. How everything made sense even though they were being insane. How it felt like they should have been doing it all along. “But I do, I want you. And I want to be. . .I want to be Sam’s dad.”
It smells a little bit like tears but Foggy just carefully leans up, with Sam between them, to kiss Matt softly.
“Let’s do this,” he says.
—
“We’re going to lose him in a snowdrift,” Matt says.
Several months have passed and they’ve been exhausting and difficult and perfect ones and now there’s snow on the ground and a puffy baby snowsuit purchased by Marci who refused to hold Sam because she finds babies to be haunting cautionary tales but does like buying him clothes. He feels like a pillow when Matt picks him up.
“It’s bright green!” Foggy says. “We’d spot him eventually. C’mon.”
When they tramp outside onto the lawn, Matt says, grumpily, “His cheeks are getting cold.”
“Just because you hate snow and joy doesn’t mean our son has to,” Foggy says, laughing then pausing at the look on Matt’s face. “What did I say?”
“Our son,” Matt says, smiling. “I don’t think you’ve ever said it like that before.”
“This is a good weird and misty face, then?” Foggy asks.
“Yeah,” Matt says, nodding.
“Well, I bet our son will love snow,” Foggy says, warmly. “Let’s sit him down.”
As soon as Sam’s tiny hand brushes against the snow, he starts screaming and Matt looks smug.
“How does he take after you?” Foggy asks, huffing. “You’re not even blood related.”
“He’s just a very smart baby,” Matt says, hefting him back up onto his hip.
Unposted section from Bless the Telephone under the cut 🥺🥺🥺 THIS CAME OUT SO GOOD IM CRYING
:readmore:
He patts Foggy's arm, spreading a thick glob of mayo onto bread stationed on the counter with one hand. He squeezes the cold flesh of his forearm before going back to making his late night dinner.
Foggy sighed, looking to his side. A pistol and some kind of ammunition thigh strap sit leaning on the counter against the side of his small fridge.
He doesn’t miss the dried up splotches of crimson.
“Busy day?” Foggy breathes, nuzzling his face until it’s facing away from the weapons.
Frank hadn’t been gone that long, just three days. Which was also why he had felt up to visiting his family over 50 minutes out by transit. If he had stayed home, he would have just driven himself insane.
The man grunts in confirmation, tossing the butter knife into the sink and closing his sandwich with only salami and pickles.
After a few bites, Frank turns around, wrapping an arm over Foggy's shoulders to pull him closer as he shares his body heat. “What were you up to, kid?”
It was Foggy's turn to hum, eyes closed and only moving to scratch and itch on his nose. Frank scarfed down the rest of his food, noticing the containers Foggy had dropped onto the table.
The growl in his stomach tells Foggy that the sandwich wasn’t enough for Frank's hunger.
“It’s- Um, some casseroles and stuff from my parents. There might be flan in there too but I have a feeling my niece ate some of it while I wasn’t looking.”
Frank continued to look at the containers, waiting for permission.
Foggy pulled away with a huff, picking up one of the heavier tupperware’s and walking back to pull out a plate to heat it up. “Go sit.”
use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.
use firefox or librewolf (open-source fork of firefox) instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).
use mega instead of google drive
get rid of bloatware
use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite
get free stuff with the help of r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH, r/piracy and r/roms
use trakt (for shows and movies), letterboxd (just movies), or TMB instead of IMDB (owned by amazon).
use storygraph instead of goodreads (owned by amazon).
use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions
use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp
make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge
use search for a cause, ecosia, or ocean hero to support the environment instead of google
use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)
use flashpoint to play archived online flash games
find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books
burn your music onto cds
use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe
use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, or tuta instead of gmail
remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X
remove bloatware on samsung X
use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta
use project gutenberg for free public domain books, and librivox for public domain books and audiobooks
use the seal app (android only) to download video and audio
use ellipsus instead of microsoft word or google docs
use mastodon instead of twitter
use peertube to create a network of small video hosting providers (disclaimer: not a 1:1 alternative to youtube)
use threema and signal for encrypted communication, on mobile and desktop
use qwant and startpage for secure internet browsers
use syncthing to securely transfer files between devices
learn how to jailbreak your kindle/ereader if you have one (wiki and video walkthrough)
use riseup’s email and VPN for secure communication (aimed towards activists)
use cryptpad and collabora instead of the microsoft office suite
use google takeout to export the data on your google account
use library extension to look for books on online stores and find them at your library
remove paywalls with removepaywalls
install the open-source adblocker ublock origin
install sponsorblock to skip sponsored segments on youtube videos
use bookfinder to look for the cheapest available listings of books, including textbooks
learn a language through mango (duolingo laid off some of its employees and now relies on AI translations) for free with a library card or through your school
edit photos with photopea
edit pdfs with foxit and sumatrapdf
download music with doubledouble
take notes offline and collaborate securely with obsidian
for android tv, use smarttube and cloudstream (ad-free, open-source)
change your OS to linux
changelog:
removed ground news (uses AI to summarize articles)
removed unroll.me (sells your data)
removed proton mail and drive (AI assistant feature, claims of CEO Andy Yen supporting Trump, please DM if you have proof I can add here)
removed NCH suite (only has very basic free features, puts watermark on anything saved)
notes:
this post blew up while I wasn’t looking (the end of my semester was hellish, and i recently came back from a 3-week family vacation). thanks so much for all the suggestions! <3
i included Ecosia because of their financial transparency. It’s physically impossible that they plant a tree for every search, but their profits still go towards projects including reforestation and solar energy. i view their actions as a net-positive
feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3
Who is more likely to hurt the other? - Melendez is more likely to hurt Shaun, most of the time. It’s not a secret that he tries to come off as more stoic than he really is. Shaun’s very sensitive and easily upset, so sometimes that edge can injure him and cause misunderstandings. Neil gets better and better about handling that, the longer they date, though.
Who is emotionally stronger? - Melendez is definitely the stronger of the two, he’s the rock in the relationship. He hardly ever lets his emotions get the better of him, and he’s very aware of Shaun’s emotional state at the same time. The very second it becomes apparent something is bothering Shaun, he’s rushing to be there for him.
«Heartbeat»
Soundtrack – No Surprises by Radiohead
Headcanon based on my interpretation of their relationship
Wilson's heartbeat brings peace to Logan's restless sleep, who is tormented night after night throughout his life by nightmares about all the horror he has experienced over the past 200 years of his life.
It is the rhythmic beating of someone else's heart under his ear that reminds Logan that everything he has experienced is in the past, helping him focus on the present and get out of the suffocation of panic(even if he can never truly let go of the past, he at least learns to live with it)
And they are not alone in this, so... expect a continuation with Wade
I love that Logan is confused at first then he starts trying to tell the weather??? baby boy is so used to Wade’s shenanigans (podcast | bachelorette) he just goes with it now
2087
janainaart
theartofmadeline
snowghoul
