“Again?”
“Are you serious?”
“I could ask you the same thing. Another ‘break’?”
“Matt, I thought you were dead! And you let me believe it for weeks! I mourned you!”
“And a ‘break’ is going to fix this?”
“Will you stop making air quotes? I’m serious!”
“So am I.”
“Well, good! So let’s both take some time to sort our thoughts and…”
“Foggy, listen, sweetheart. You demand so many breaks, we might as well call it quits.”
“...”
“No, look, love, don’t leave! I didn’t mean… Foggy! Come back!”
Almost, but not quite, three months later
The evening was pleasant. Well, it was at least not unpleasant so far.
Emotionally, Matt had not moved on. That took time of course. But physically, he really needed to take the edge of and for that he needed an omega. One that met certain requirements in addition to being appealing to his sense of smell and being at least a decent person. He or she should not look for a long term commitment and not work and/or live too close to Matt’s usual territory to avoid awkward second meetings.
Of course, “Josie’s” was out of the question. Too high was the risk to run into potential hook-ups later. Plus, it seemed in bad taste to use the bar he and his ex called their second home as a hunting ground.
That was why he found himself here in the “Black Rose”. The place was known to be frequented by alphas and omegas who were looking for fun but not for love. It was on Hell’s Kitchen terrain, but visited mostly by people from other parts of the city.
So far everything went well. None of the other alphas were in a rut or close to one so the level of aggressiveness remained low. The omegas were neither encroaching nor shy and their mingling scents told Matt that they all were relaxed. Nobody was anxious, ready to flee or to fight. Music played, loud enough to entertain but subtle enough to still have a conversation.
Close to midnight, the bar became packed so the competition grew. But Matt had already zeroed his attention on a nice smelling male omega named Derek. Together they were sitting at the counter, laughing and flirting. Derek seemed funny and adventurous. Luckily, he also did not retreat when Matt made clear that he was not looking for anything permanent as he was pretty fresh out of a relationship.
By now, Matt was pretty certain to know how the rest of the evening would go. Derek had moved very close to him, his hand lying on Matt’s thigh, Matt’s on Derek’s shoulder. But then, a cold breeze indicated that the door opened once more and a wave of familiar sensations rushed over Matt. A sweet well known scent put all the other omegas to shame. A voice Matt held dear, spoke lowly.
“Okay, Marci wasn’t lying,” it mumbled. “This is a popular place.”
“Foggy?” Matt whispered.
Despite his blindness, he turned towards the door. When the familiar heartbeat lost its steady rhythm and picked up pace, Matt knew he had been seen. That was when he remembered that there was an omega almost sitting in his lap and he had a possessive arm around said omega.
At the door, Foggy’s breath hitched. He swallowed, hard, and murmured, “You gotta be kidding me…”. Matt heard how he turned on his heels and stormed out of the door.
“Shit,” Matt cursed under his breath.
“Something wrong?” Derek asked while his hands wandered up Matt’s leg. “You wanna go somewhere more… private?”
Matt hesitated. But only because he did not know how to end this politely. No other alpha picked up on this, but Matt caught the whiff of an omega’s distress that Foggy had left behind. His omega’s distress. So fuck politely.
“Sorry, Derek,” Matt said as he threw some money on the counter for their drinks. “I gotta go.”
While Matt made his way through the crowd towards the exit, he heard Derek’s confused questions. There was no time for this though. When he finally made it out, Foggy already had a head start. But Matt could soon make him out and his direction was clear. Foggy was heading home.
Quickly, Matt slipped into an alley. Making sure to be unobserved, he climbed up the next roof. Taking the thief’s road brought him to Foggy’s apartment building before Foggy was there. Sitting on the fire escape, Matt waited for Foggy to enter his home.
As soon as the door was closed behind Foggy, Matt knocked against the window. Foggy yelled in shock and then cursed Matt out.
“You done?” Matt asked through the glass when the litany of swear words ended. “Good. Let me in.”
“Fuck you, Murdock,” Foggy breathed out, but there was no fight in his voice. It was weak and trembling and Matt felt his heart break for Foggy.
Matt kept knocking. “Come on, let me in. Let me explain.”
“You owe me no explanation,” Foggy said, falling into his armchair. “We’re separating and you needed a fuck.”
“I…” It was a correct assertion, unfortunately. But Matt wanted to tell Foggy that it meant nothing, that Derek meant nothing and that Foggy still meant everything. Matt needed to get through that window. In that apartment was Foggy, hurt, lonely and filling the air with the salty taste of tears. Matt was ensouled with one thought only: to make it better.
“Just… go back to your new flame, Matty,” Foggy said, his tone defeated. “I’ll go to sleep.”
Drawing in a sharp breath, Matt felt his temper flaring. “Open the window, omega,” he growled. “Now!”
It was unfair. Matt knew that and he almost felt guilty. It took three months for the bond to dissolve and the tug was stronger for omegas than for alphas. And that was only the physical bond, the emotional one was a whole different thing. So using his alpha voice on Foggy whose instincts must be screaming at him to get to Matt, was a really dirty trick.
And it worked. Foggy, on his way to exit the living room, halted. From outside, Matt could hear his fingertips brushing against each other. Apparently, Foggy was fidgeting with his hands as he did when he was uncertain. Then Foggy’s feet began to shuffle. Slowly, he approached the window and the familiar clicking sound reached Matt’s ear.
Foggy stepped away and shortly after, Matt slipped through the window. Ever the lawyer, Matt had a speech prepared. While he’d been waiting for Foggy to let him in, he had put together the words he wanted to say to comfort Foggy.
All those words were gone now. Matt stood in front of Foggy, his partner, his best friend, his omega whose proximity and touch he had been craving for weeks. Foggy’s scent filled Matt’s nose and his body was drawn to Foggy’s.
Accompanied by a deep rumble, Matt closed the gap between them. He pulled Foggy flush against his chest and kissed him. Had Foggy fought him, Matt would have let go. Instead, Foggy pressed himself closer against Matt, rolled his hips so that their crotches met and immediately parted his lips for Matt.
Wantonly, Foggy moaned into the filthy kiss. His hands entwined at the nape of Matt’s neck and he pliantly sank into the alpha’s arms.
“Foggy,” Matt whispered against Foggy’s mouth as he picked him up and carried him to the bedroom.
Reverently, Matt lay Foggy down on the mattress and joined him on the bed. Ever so often, they had to pause undressing each other so they could touch and kiss again. Murmuring each other’s names, Foggy sobbing, Matt soothing, they sank into the passionate dance they both missed.
When Matt spread Foggy open, Foggy was not only willing but already wet. Slowly, but determined, Matt entered him and reclaimed what was his. Wrists pinned and throat bared, Foggy encouraged the alpha with moans and pleas and Matt was all too happy to comply. Together they reached their peak and Matt sank his teeth into the fading bond mark. They spent the weekend in bed, more often than not with their bodies joined.
On Monday, Foggy told an incredulous Marci that this was really not his fault and no big deal after all.
“So what?” he said. “Minor setback. So the three months start again. It happens. This time it will work.”
“U-hu,” Marci said. “Sure.”
Here tone suggested that she was not sure at all, but what did she know?
Almost, but not quite, three months later
In hindsight, Foggy should have stayed at Marci’s overnight. And maybe he should not have taken the shortcut just to save a few minutes and several steps. Ah well, everyone’s wiser afterwards, right?
The three grinning alpha’s that surrounded him in the narrow side street, reeked of booze. To no surprise their offer to show Foggy a good time was not really optional and his no did not faze them at all. Foggy’s fearful expression only egged them on and they laughed when he was backed against the cold stonewall.
Panic rose. Desperately, Foggy tried to run, but they easily caught him. One of them grabbed his arm and pushed him to the ground. Breathing heavily, Foggy attempted to keep the tears in check. The last thing he wanted was to give the three sadists more food.
There was movement behind the men. Foggy saw the shadow descending from an emergency ladder. Silently, the figure’s feet hit the ground and without any sound it approached Foggy’s attackers from behind.
Foggy forced himself not to look in the man’s direction. Instead, he kept up his begging and scrambled backwards.
When the figure reached the alphas, it took not even half a minute. Soon they all lay on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. Daredevil peeled out of the shadows and offered a hand to Foggy.
Relieved, Foggy accepted it and let himself be pulled up. Daredevil waited with him until the police arrived and arrested the three rapists. After giving his statement, Foggy accepted a ride home, offered by a friendly policeman. In his apartment, Foggy opened a window and climbed onto the emergency escape.
“Matt?” he said quietly. “Are you there?” There was no reaction and more urgently, Foggy asked, “Matty?” He looked around, but saw nobody. “Please? I…”
Foggy stopped himself. What was he doing? Even if Matt had watched after the police arrived, he had seen Foggy getting home safely and had probably done the same. Sighing, Foggy turned to go back in when he heard someone on the ladder above him.
“I’m here,” Daredevil said, climbing down to Foggy. “What do you need, Foggy?”
Before Foggy could stop himself, he lay in Matt’s arms, crying. And a few minutes later, they both lay on his couch, limbs entangled, lips locked. Making comforting sounds, Matt stroked Foggy’s hair and kissed the trails of tears from Foggy’s face. Leisurely, he removed Foggy’s clothes before divesting himself of his suit.
“I’m here,” he promised. “I got you.”
Very sweet, slow and tender, Matt took Foggy that night. He caressed and kissed the bruises the fall had caused, making sure not to hurt Foggy. Only a small amount of pain he applied that night, caused by his teeth, breaking the skin around the almost vanished bond mark.
The next day, Matt did not go to work. Too wrapped in a fresh bond, he spent the day in bed with Foggy.
“He needed me,” he told a chuckling Karen lamely the day after that. “It’s no big deal. It happens. The three months start again. So what?”
“If you say so,” Karen answered, but the grin would not leave her tone.
Almost, but not quite, three months later
The next time was not their fault either. Foggy thought Matt was at work when he entered Matt’s apartment to get some of his stuff. Of course, Matt did not expect Foggy to suddenly stand in the apartment they used to share.
Surprised and overwhelmed by familiar sensations, they really could not be blamed. Foggy ended up bent over the kitchen counter, Matt’s cock in his ass, Matt’s teeth in the bond mark that had been barely visible when Foggy had entered the apartment, but now bloomed in dark red and purple.
Almost, but not quite, three months later
They met again at a Rand Industries party. After polite smalltalk, they tried to keep away from each other. It was nothing more than a bad streak of luck that at the closure of the evening they ended up alone in one of the elevators or that exactly that one malfunctioned and got stuck for two hours.
The maintenance crew who freed them were polite enough not to comment on the smell or the fresh bite mark on Foggy’s neck.
Almost, but not quite, three months later
Matt and Foggy clashed in court. More precisely, their clients, former friends and business partners, clashed in court. They both felt betrayed by the other and both Matt and Foggy were convinced to be on the side of the wronged one.
Later, it would turn out that their clients were still friends and partners and the whole ordeal was a publicity stunt to get their firm back into the public eye.
But Matt and Foggy did not know about that when they yelled at each other in the courthouse’s bathroom. And they did not care about it when Matt took Foggy roughly against a stall door, his fingers leaving dark bruises on Foggy’s hips and ass. Or when Matt hissed obscenities into Foggy’s ear, pounding into him at a punishing pace. Neither when they came simultaneously with Matt’s teeth in Foggy’s throat.
Three months and one week later
Leaving Hell’s Kitchen finally did the trick. When Matt returned, his body was calm since the bond’s effects were gone. The urge to find Foggy and bend him over the next best flat surface was gone and Matt could return to his normal life.
But when he picked up Foggy’s heartbeat or scent, the bittersweet memories still bubbled to the surface. An alpha maybe needed three month to get over a broken bond, but Matt would never get over Foggy.
As he met Foggy in Josie’s bar one evening, Matt could not help thinking, “What have I done?”.
Nevertheless, Matt smiled and approached him.
“Mind if I join you?” he asked.
“Um, no, sit,” Foggy said. “Better than drinking alone. I was about to go home. Marci just cancelled on me.”
“I was about to have drinks with Karen, but she is fashionably late and…,” Matt interrupted to listen to a message on his phone, “... and she cancelled, too.”
Both men laughed. Matt’s face grew warm and he noticed that Foggy’s did as well.
“Would be a waste of a perfectly fine Friday night to go home, right?” Foggy said after a while.
“Absolutely,” Matt said. “I’ll get us drinks. Beer?”
“Yes, thanks.”
Smiling, Matt went to the counter and ordered. The bond had been broken, but aside from being the only omega Matt ever wanted, the only man he loved, Foggy was also Matt’s best friend. And no matter how much it would hurt to watch him flirt, date and someday find a new mate - and Foggy would; just now, Matt smelled three interested alphas - losing Foggy altogether was not an option.
Matt did not regret it. It was a nice evening with a lot of alcohol and laughter. Relieving memories and sharing future plans, they renewed their friendship, reminding each other what they had found in one another all those years ago.
Almost like in law school times, they went home with Matt’s hand on Foggy’s arm. Only now that all the cats about Matt’s skills were out of the bag, it was Matt who saw Foggy home safely.
“Thanks,” Foggy said at his door. “That was… nice.”
“It was,” Matt agreed. “We should do this again.”
“Yeah,” Foggy said. “Night.”
“Good night.”
Matt had gone only a few steps when Foggy called him back.
“Matt?”
“Hmm?”
Foggy swallowed nervously.
“May… maybe tomorrow?” he asked. “Maybe not drinks but movie theatre? And drinks afterwards? Just you and me?”
“Um, sure. Just…” Matt cleared his throat. “... the two of us? Like a…”
“... a date, yes,” Foggy said, cheeks hot. “If… if you want…”
“I really do.”
“Okay,” Foggy said, the smile audible. “Pick me up at seven?”
“I will.”
With a swing in his step, Matt went home. Grinning so broadly that his face hurt, he fell on his bed and felt victorious. Some might say it was stupid. Making the same mistake again. That was not true though.
The bond was broken. Their bodies no longer called to each other. But their hearts still did.
And Matt intended to listen.
The End