"that scene" meme: Forever Hold Your Peace
Once again, itâs the angst thatâs at the heart of everything, I guess, lmao â this scene from chapter 23 is the very first scene I wrote for FHYP, and itâs the core of the misunderstanding I built the whole fic around.
âYou said you were in love, Foggy, you saidâ You werenât lying when you said it, so whyâŚâ
And Matt sounds so gutted that another truth spills from Foggyâs lips, no matter how ill-advised it is.
âI said I was in love, Matt,â he explains with a shrug. âI didnât say I was in love with Jo.â
âYou didnât say you were in love withâ!â Matt repeats bitterly, cutting off with an inarticulate noise of anger. âAll the, all the things you got mad at me for hiding, and then you turn around andâ and lie right to my face?â
âBecause I knew youâd react like this, Matt! I know what Iâm getting into, ok, I know what Iâm agreeing to!â
âAnd youâreâyouâre fine with that? With justâ She wonât make you happy, Foggy!â
And, god, even now, Mattâs just⌠So beautiful. The way he stands, how he holds himself, the expressiveness of his mouth, the color of his eyes. All of it aches to see because all of it feels like home. Even when Foggyâs sure that if he were the one with supersenses, all Mattâs heartbeat would tell him is not-yours, not-yours, not-yours.
Foggy laughs, but the sound is acidic, sharp. He canât feel his own anger, but it seeps into his voice anyway, every terrible part of himself thatâs tired of knowing he canât have what he really wants.
âOh, suddenly my happiness is so important!â he retorts, can see the words hitting their mark in the way Matt flinches. âIâm not like you, Matt. Iââ
âWhat the hell is that supposed to mean?â demands Matt, throwing out an arm in frustration. âWhat, what does that even mean?â
âIt means I canât just go after whatever I want and damn the consequences, Matt! Sometimes, things just arenât that simple! This is the best that I can do, with the situation Iâm in. Jo is the same way.â
âNo,â Matt insists sullenly. âNo. Foggy, youâreâyouâre wrong. Youâre so good and you deserve someone you love, whoâll love you too. It doesnât, I never asked you to make that deal for Daredevil, for me. I never would have asked you to do that!â
It says a lot about Matt, Foggy thinks, that heâs still so insistent on this. That Foggyâs a good person even when Matt was always their North Star, their moral compass. But Foggy knows the things about himself that Mattâs metaphorical rose-tinted glasses wonât let him see. And anywayâŚ
âThereâs only one person I could ever love like that,â Foggy says, wryly, the punchline to a ten-year joke they both know by heart. âAnd theyâd never love me back. If I canât have what I really want, I might as well get something out of it. Thatâs just how it is, Matt.â
There it is. All of Foggyâs carefully cultivated plausible deniability, out the window. Out a thirty-story window into heavy traffic, basically, because not only has Foggy admitted that yeah Mattâs super-secret supersenses are right on the money and Foggy is in love with him, heâs also admitted that he could never see himself loving anyone else like that. Thereâs no chance Foggy will ever totally move on, no chance for Matt to have the simple platonic relationship between them that he wants â one that isnât constantly characterized by them both trying to ignore Foggyâs stupid lovelorn heartbeat.
Matt recoils at those words. The wounded expression in his sightless eyes tells Foggy heâs being cruel again, too cruel to this man he thought heâd never be able to live without. Who heâs currently failing to live without, if theyâre all honest. Blaming Matt for not being in love with him is stupid. Itâs⌠Best to just let it lie.
Because in the end⌠Mattâs his best friend. What Foggy wants more than anything, even more than for Matt to love him back, is for Matt to just be happy.
âNevermind. I shouldnât have⌠Weâre still⌠I still wantâŚâ Foggy sighs, lets his shoulders sag. âJust. This isnât me leaving you, ok, this isnâtâIâm going to walk out that door and Iâm not going to hold you to anything, but Iâm not leaving you. You donât have to come to the wedding if you donât want to, Matt,â Foggy tells him gently. âItâs ok. Iâll get someone else to fill in for you. But after itâs over, if⌠Youâre still my best friend, man, you can always⌠I mean, Iâm⌠I just⌠I need you to know that.â
Some small, weak, hopeful part of Foggy stalls him in the entryway, convinces him to wait. To see what Matt will say. But after a minute of silence, of looking at Mattâs painfully conflicted expression, Foggy canât take anymore. If there is going to be an answer, he thinks, he probably doesnât want to hear it. Whatever could possibly follow the look on Mattâs face, it isnât good.
He strides for the apartment door, closes it softly behind him, and walks away from Matt Murdock one last time.