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Matt’s twitchy about something.
Foggy can tell. He might be good at hiding things, but Foggy is expertly trained in Matt’s tells, and Matt is twitchy and anxious.
Finally, when they’re in their apartment, Foggy says “Dude. Get your shit together. Put it in a box, take it to the shit store.”
Matt frowns, but the heavy crease in his brow lightens slightly. “Did you just quote Rick & Morty at me.”
“Desperate times, Matthew.”
Matt takes a deep breath. “Well, now is as good a time as ever.” He fidgets. “Franklin Nelson-“
“Oh god, don’t say that, I hate my name.”
“Yeah, but it’s still your name.”
“Ugh.”
“Fine. Foggy Nelson, in this apartment that we share, just like-“
Matt’s phone starts blaring Karen. Karen. Karen. He frowns at it.
“You should answer it, dude, it could be important.”
Matt scowls and he does. “Hello?” he asks irritably.
“If anyone should be irritable,” Foggy hears. “It’s me. You’re an hour late. What the hell, Murdock?”
“We slept through our alarms.”
“Well, get your ass here. We have the Wilson case to work on.”
“Goddamn, you’re right,” Foggy mutters. “I forgot about the Wilson case.”
“Fine.”
“Don’t fine me,” Karen says. “Just come to work.”
Matt sulks the whole way there. At one point, Foggy says “can’t you just tell me what you want to tell me on the way?”
“No,” he glowers.
“Okay,” Foggy answers peaceably. He’s an expert at handling Cranky Matt. If you just roll with it, it passes.
“Good,” Karen says. “It’s about time.”
“Hmph,” Matt mumbles, heading into their office. Karen raises her eyebrows at Foggy. Foggy makes an “I dunno” noise while shrugging.
They work for about an hour until their lunch break. Foggy’s spinning in his brand new swivel chair while eating a PBJ. Matt’s still fidgeting.
“Can I ask you the thing I wanted to earlier?” he asks finally.
Foggy stops spinning. “Go for it.”
“Okay.” He stands. “Foggy Theodore Nelson. We built this firm together. I am so proud of it, and of you, and of us. I love you, so I wanted to ask you-“
And then something shifts. It feels like being on a roller coaster and one’s stomach flips. Foggy blinks, holding onto the edge of the table to make sure it’s still stable.
“Did you feel that? What was it?”
“I don’t know but I hate it,” Matt mutters.
“Guys?” Karen asks, a little high pitched. “Can you come in here?”
Foggy and Matt look at each other, then quickly head into the entrance room.
“Karen, are you-“ Foggy stops when he sees.
Two women are standing in the room. One of them has short brown hair and red tinted round glasses on, wearing a knee length skirt, a white shirt, and a blazer. She’s holding a white cane in one hand and the other woman’s hand in the other.The other woman has long blond hair in a perky ponytail, in a brown pantsuit with a white shirt and smart tan heels.
“Holy shit,” Foggy says, putting it together.
“What happened?” The woman in the glasses whisper. “Everything’s-“
“It’s okay, Mattie,” the curvy woman answers comfortingly. “We’re just not in Kansas anymore.”
“Oh,” Matt says faintly.
The blond woman releases the other’s hand and holds it out to Foggy.
“Hi,” she says cheerfully. “I’m Foggy Nelson. I’m guessing you are also Foggy Nelson?”
“I am.” Foggy shakes her hand. “Love the pantsuit.”
“Love the tie.”
“Thank you!” It’s a purple pattern. “What should I call you?”
“Anything but Frannie.”
“Fog?”
“Works for me.”
“I’m so confused,” Matt mutters. Mattie breathes in through her nose.
“I’m Matilda Maria Murdock. My friends call me Mattie.”
“Matthew Michael,” Matt says. “Do you happen to have any idea what’s going on?”
“It’s probably Richards’s fault,” Fog says. “Fucking Richards.”
Foggy hasn’t actually met Reed Richards, but all Tony seems to do is bitch about him, so he’s aware of his existence. “We should probably call Avengers Tower.”
“You have one of those too? Do you know them well?”
“You bet.”
Karen pokes Fog and Fog jumps.
“Ah what the hell female Kent.”
“Just making sure this isn’t some mass hallucination. My name is Kent where you come from?”
“Yup. Where we live you’re a tale blond dude who can do high kicks. I saw him kick a dude in the face. It was awesome.”
Karen’s obviously pleased. “Good.”
Matt’s on the phone. “Hey, it’s Matt. Yeah, it’s happening here, too. Okay, we’re on the way. Thanks, Tony.” He turns it off. “Time to go.”
Nobody looks twice at them despite the striking similarities. Foggy puts it down to people either assuming they’re siblings or New Yorkers not giving a fuck. Fog, Foggy, and Karen are swapping notes about what they’re both guessing are their parallel universes and what’s different. From what it looks like, everything’s simply gender swapped. Mattie and Matt are muttering to each other about “rotten timing” and “bad luck”.
“Has your Mattie been in a mood?” Fog asks. “My Mattie’s been in a mood.”
“Such a mood,” Foggy agrees. “I don’t know what’s up with him.”
“Honestly.”
They eventually get to the Tower, and are greeted to chaos. A woman in the Iron Man suit is bent over schematics with Tony as they talk a mile a minute. A woman in Steve’s uniform is standing with Steve, watching, the pair of them seeming unimpressed. Clint and a woman with short sandy blond hair are chattering. Bruce and a woman with her hair pinned up are crowded with Tony and his counterpart. Natasha and a man in a surprisingly similar uniform to hers are sitting on a table, legs crossed, surveying the madness.
“So cool, huh?”
Foggy cranes his head to see Peter and Wade approaching, a slight woman with short and messy brown hair and a woman with a scarred face trailing behind them.
“Hi, Petra,” Mattie says. “Hi, Wanda.”
“Hey,” Petra says.
“Sup,” Wanda says agreeably.
“Seriously cool,” Wade says. “I’ve got a Wanda Wilson somewhere in another universe. This is so awesome. Hi, Lady Matt, hi, Lady Foggy.”
Foggy starts pointing. “Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner. Your lot?”
Mattie indicates with her cane. “Toni Stark, Claire Barton, Steph Rogers, Nikolai Romanoff, Bryce Banner.”
Tony looks up from his work. “Fucking Richards,” he says. “It’s totally his fault.”
“It is not.” A man that Foggy recognizes as Reed Richards from the papers walks into the room with the Thing, Johnny Storm, and Sue Storm. Genderswapped doppelgängers accompany them. “It was just a mistake.”
“Yeah,” the woman Foggy assumes is lady Reed pipes up. “These things happen.”
“Yeah, a mistake that is your fault. At the same time.”
“This is Renee, Shaw, Bella, and Jenna,” Sue says. Foggy gets the vibe that she’s the practical one.
They approach the table they’re bent over. “Can you fix it?” Mattie asks. “We have shit to do.”
“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses, Murdock,” Toni says. She smiles winningly at Matt and Foggy. “Your dude versions are extremely attractive.”
“Taken,” Foggy says. Toni groans in an exaggerated manner.
“Figures.”
“We can fix it,” Reed tells them. “It’s just going to take a few hours.”
Both Matt and Mattie groan. Wade and Wanda high five while Tony and Toni fistbump.
Matt and Foggy are sitting on the floor together, leaning against the wall while Karen and Jenna chat. Jenna appears to be hitting on Karen, to no effect except amusement from her.
Matt swivels his head to face Foggy. “Fog?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“Every time I try to do this with a speech properly, something interrupts me. So I’m just gonna say it.” He fishes around in his suit pocket and chucks Foggy something. “Marry me?”
Foggy stares at the jewelry box in his hand, then opens it. It’s a simple diamond ring, silver curving around the small stone.
“You didn’t have to get me a ring,” Foggy says.
“It’s tradition. I wanted to do it right.”
Foggy grins, feeling giddy. “Of course you did.”
“So is that a-“
“Yes, you idiot, I’ll marry you.”
Matt grins and kisses Foggy. “I’m taking your name.”
“We’ll have this fight later.”
“YEAH!”
They turn to see Wade punching the air.
“FOGGY AND MATTHEW NELSON ALL RIGHT!”
Fog looks at Mattie in surprise. “Were you going to propose to me?”
Mattie scowls at Matt. “You couldn’t wait until it didn’t spoil the surprise for me?”
“Every time I try and do it right the phone rings or me from a parallel universe shows up.”
“Hmph,” Mattie mutters grudgingly. “I guess you have a point.”
“I’m gonna say yes,” Fog says matter of factly. “Can I wear jeans?”
“I don’t really care what you wear, Fog.” Mattie beams. “You said yes. That’s enough. I’m wearing a dress, though.”
“Can I be a flower boy?” Peter asks. “I’ve always wanted to be a flower boy.”
Foggy looks at Matt, who shrugs. “Sure.”
“That,” Wade says, gaping at Peter. “Is the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard. Seriously. I’m so in love with you.”
“That’s a weird thing to find adorable,” Peter answers, blushing anyway.
“I call dibs on best man,” Karen says quickly, raising her hands. “Dibs. Called.”
Natasha and Clint both groaned. “We would have dueled to the death for that.”
Foggy just grins and slips his ring on. Matt kisses his knuckles, causing everyone to grumble and bitch about how sickening they are, except for Mattie and Fog, who are looking at each other and grinning like idiots.
They eventually figure out a way to get the doppelgängers back home. Fog and Foggy fist bump.
“I’d say it was nice to meet you,” Mattie says. “But you ruined my proposal.”
Matt looks offended. “I ruined your proposal?”
“All right, all right,” Fog and Foggy intercede quickly at the same time.
Toni and Tony press some button on a complicated looking device at the same time, and the doppelgängers disappear.
“Well,” Tony says. “This was fun. Nelson, Murdock, congratulations. Richards, get out of my Tower.”
Matt gets out of his shower, toweling off his hair. Foggy’s washing dishes. He wipes off his hands. “Hey, Matt?”
“Yeah?”
Foggy ambles in front of him and gets down on one knee. “I know you can’t see me getting on one knee, but trust me, I’m doing it and I look extremely handsome while I do so.”
Matt stills. “I believe you.”
Foggy clears his throat. “So. Matthew Michael Murdock. I have loved you since the day I met you. You are the kindest, bravest, most sarcastic asshole I have ever met. And it would be my honor and my privilege if you were to be my husband. So, will you marry me?”
“You’re an ass,” Matt says, looking a little weepy. “Yes, I will.”
“Awesome. I’ll get you a ring in the next couple weeks. We can pick it out together, you can feel the rings and see if you like them.”
“You don’t need to get me a-“
“Nope, don’t even. Now help me up, this is really uncomfortable.”
Matt grins, grasps Foggy’s arm, and helps him get up. When Foggy’s standing again, Matt kisses him. It’s a little sappy and absolutely perfect.
Whenever Matt and Foggy see each other’s rings for the next week at work, they grin dopily until Karen goes “oh my god, you two are so disgusting and if I don’t get a bonus when you two get married to make up for that, I’m gonna be so pissed.”
She says it with a smile, though, so Foggy’s pretty sure she’s bullshitting them.
