“If you stop by with food, I will do my best to take a break now and then,” Tony partially corrects because he knows himself. “I might lock in with my work but I have been told I am persuadable with the right distraction.” Food won’t do it. The man bringing the food? That’s a different matter all together.
He’s shouldn’t be so open, or seem so eager, but he is. For right now, the stars are aligning and Matt is interesting in all of the right ways. Tony never wants to get to know people anymore, or so he’d thought, until Murdock came into his life. And now? Now he has trouble thinking about not seeing him again.
He’s about to say something else when the lights partially dim and the host of the evening comes out on stage.
“He’s wearing a gold bow tie,” Tony says, leaning towards Matt. “And the podium is gold with I think ivy or something carved into it.” It’s not much more then ‘this is a photo of a sunset,’ but it’s better than nothing.
"I'm going to hold you to that. I will call before I stop by just so I know you aren't on some superhero mission somewhere. I know a really good Korean place. Sparkling clean kitchen," he answers. He knows that seemed to be a thought that Tony had about the last place and now knowing what he does about Matt's senses, he can trust that he's well aware of the good places to eat in the city.
He does grin at the mention of distractions. "So if I deliver food and leave my clothes in the elevator, what kind of distraction is that, on your scale?" he teases, keeping his voice low and between the two of them. They're already attracting attention from the way they're whispering to one another anyway.
Matt is a little disappointed that the conversation is interrupted by the event starting. He realizes right about now that he probably should have prepared a speech--except he had no idea he'd actually be here until they were in the limo. He'll probably have to wing it.
As much as Tony would have liked to answer the question, he decides a show and tell would be much better in the long run. So, “Korean sounds good,” is all Tony will say for now. Perhaps it’s an incentive to see if Matt actually will just stop over.
He’ll have to write some protocols for that so FRIDAY knows to expect him. And maybe he’ll tell Banner—
No. That would defeat the whole purpose of Matt being someone just for him. For however long it lasts. He doesn’t really want questions. People can speculate but Bruce cares about him. And Tony doesn’t want to deal with the emotions he might have surrounding someone he connects with.
Someone who will eventually leave. Probably with his heart.
He’s tired of building new ones.
After the droning of the host goes on for awhile, dinner is brought out. The people at their table seem delighted. Tony isn’t so sure. More scotch? Fine. Prime rib with a bunch of fancy small plates?
“On a scale of one to McDonald’s after this is over, how safe am I to try some of this?” Should be interact with the other people around them? Sure. Is he? Nope.
There are a few ideas bouncing around his head about what he can do to get Tony's attention the next time he comes to the tower with food and maybe not much else, but he'll have to decide on that later. He does assume that he's giving enough warning now that there won't be questions from FRIDAY or any other robots about who he is and what he's doing there if he shows up.
What matters right now is that they're having fun. Maybe the gala itself isn't a laugh riot but it's immeasurably more tolerable for Matt than it would have been if he'd come alone or with a different plus one. He knows he's shitty at relationships, not made any better or easier by the fact that he is constantly lying throughout one, but it's good for now and that's what he's hanging his hat on.
Since Matt had no initial intention of coming to this dinner, he ultimately decides that he doesn't have to do much more socializing with anyone else. Who would really expect him to, when he's Tony Stark's date? So at least he has a reasonable excuse.
The question about the prime rib makes him smile. "Avoid the salad. They didn't wash it enough so I don't trust it. You'll be safe with the meat and potato...whatever that's called." Probably some fancy name.
“No salad. Got it,” Tony says, shifting his body to ignore the woman who is hitting him every so often with her elbow and apologizing. He knows that ploy. He’s not taking her up on the conversation tactic.
The food is fine for what it is. Tony picks through the potatoes and cuts out the very center of the prime rib to eat. He’s particular, as Matt has likely noted from multiple other interactions, but sometimes he’s more particular than others. His little bottle of hand sanitizer makes its way to the open several times during the meal.
“Your turn. How was your week outside of the, uh. Fight. With the car door?”
Matt is decidedly less picky, though he does avoid the salad as he noted. He's hungry and that tends to come from long days where he forgets to eat while he's in the office or during court. He's pretty sure the last meal he had was a less than good breakfast in the morning so he eats far more than Tony does.
He's aware of the attempt to get Tony's attention but he similarly ignores it, except for a passing smile to him when it happens again.
"Less interesting than yours," he answers, and that's true even if it writes off the work that he did in and out of the suit. "Picked up a new 'one for them' case and had the requisite boring meetings around it. Did a couple of really minor pro-bono cases. Trespassing, petty theft, a guy who got busted for pissing on a dumpster behind a store because they didn't have a public bathroom. A very glamorous life, as you can imagine." He ignores the part about the bruise on his hand, or the one on his side that the suit is hiding.
So many mysteries. Tony is patient, for the most part. He’d already done a lot of digging into his date and he has learned many lessons about throwing his tech-specific weight and political influence around. It’s hard to hide things from Tony if he really wants to know them, but he’s grown a little bit as a person since Pepper left him.
He learned a lot from loving her. He’s tried to become less invasive and manipulative, less willing to ignore what’s right in front of his face. It’s not an easy way to be.
Maybe Matt can benefit from that. Tony doesn’t once pry or demand answers about the swelling. Matt will tell him. Or he won’t. And Tony just had to be okay with that.
“Are those vigilantes really taking all of the good crime these days? You’re left with public indecency and trespassing?”
It's strange but there is almost some part of him that wants to be truly honest with Tony. Maybe it's that ever-present need to be understood by someone that he hasn't really felt since Elektra and knowing that, as much as they try, no one in his life really knows what it's like to do the things he does. It wouldn't be a one-to-one for Tony either, of course. He lives his identity out in the light while Matt never can. Still, it's odd to even think about what it might be like, especially after so few dates.
He doesn't, though. He'll keep lying. It's better for everyone.
"Sounds like it. There was some gangland violence this week that wasn't stopped by the cops, according to the papers. I'm not interested in defending those kinds of clients so I'll stick with the indecency and trespassing." Arguing the defense for the men that he is responsible for putting behind bars tends to defeat the purpose of what he's doing. "Besides, I assume that crime lords can pay for their own attorneys."
The more Matt brings up Daredevil, even when he doesn’t bring him up, the more clued in Tony will become. The lying is a problem, it is for anyone in a relationship (not that this is a relationship), but Tony gets it. Sometimes you just need to do it to protect people.
Maybe not people that live in ninety story towers and fly around in red and gold metal suits of armor, though.
Tony shakes his head. “I’m not really clued in to what goes on at that level,” he says. “But it’s something I think about sometimes. I could be doing more. Then again, that’s why we have police, right?”
He’s just talking out loud about something he doesn’t have much of a clue about. Lots of men in masks are playing Avengers in the small scale. And he doesn’t have too much of an opinion on it either way.
“I was thinking that—“
There is movement on the stage and someone in a suit comes over to touch his shoulder. “Woah. Hands off the tailoring,” he says.
“Excuse me, Mister Stark. But we’re ready for you.”
Matt has a lot of opinions and Tony is opening the door to all of them. He references the need for the police and Matt has some thoughts and feelings about that too but he doesn't get the chance to voice them because they're interrupted before he can say something.
"We'll stick a fork in that," he tells Tony because ultimately he does want to return back to it. He's curious about what Stark thinks about it, even if he hasn't really paid it much attention. He imagines that with everything that is really going on in Tony's life and his interest in protecting the whole world instead of just a few square blocks of the city like Matt is.
He gets it. And he also gets that Tony wouldn't take kindly to learning that he's lying but it's not just for the protection of others that Matt keeps his life secret.
"Knock 'em dead," he says, giving Tony a pat on the arm.
“See you in a few minutes,” Tony whispers before he scrapes back on his chair. Someone else is talking on stage now in a silver dress that completely clashes with all of the gold. Tony wants to tell Matt about it— Maybe later, on the way home. “Someone is going to come and escort him, right?” Tony can be heard saying as he’s led away backstage. Matt doesn’t need the escort but Tony is still focused on it.
He focuses on Matt a little too much, considering the conversation that Matt can now focus in on with Tony’s blathering about vigilante justice over. There is a lot of speculation going on. Mostly about where the tall strawberry blonde Tony usually has on his arm has gotten to.
A few minutes later and Tony is announced. He makes a striking figure in his tuxedo striding across the stage like he owns it. He half leans on the podium, not because he’s trying to hide his pain, but because that is his personality. He lounges and leans because he can. Because this is his space. Because everyone needs to recognize that.
“I’ve given out a lot of awards before. Gotten a few myself,” Tony says, holding the statuette. “Usually I don’t think a lot about them. The sentiment is fine but we all know it’s about stroking ego.”
There are some grumbling in the audience.
“This time, though, I can really get behind this particular honor. I’ve gotten to know the recipient a little over the last few weeks. He’s got a good nose for restaurants. He still uses a fax machine. And he genuinely wants to give back to the community. The guy’s smart. He doesn’t have to do what he does for free, but he does it because he believes that everyone deserves a defense. That’s a kind of faith I don’t think many of us have. So it’s my genuine pleasure to give this award to someone that actually deserves the recognition. Matthew Murdock. Come on up here.”
Matt does listen intently to the crowd around them while Tony gets up on the stage. There have been whispers about them all night, maybe because they too have been whispering to each other at Stark's table and maybe because when they're smiling at each other, it does seem to be something a little more than the kind that would be offered. The idea that Matt Murdock knows Tony Stark at all has seemingly prompted some speculation because they should run in very different circles.
And they do. Except he thought he was texting James.
He can tell that Tony is good at the attention part of this and the speech that he makes is sweet and sincere. The fact that it is gets more whispers going.
Matt allows the organizer to lead him to the podium where he smiles and shakes Tony's hand like he would with any presenter while he's given the glass trophy. He honestly has no idea what he's going to do with it.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark, for outing to everyone--including my potential courtroom opponents, that I still use an old fashioned fax machine." It gets a laugh.
He gives a quick speech with the kind of practiced, easy way he has with juries where he tells the anecdote about how Thurgood Marshall's writings were some of the first things he read after learning Braille and how as a child, all he wanted to do was to help people who didn't have the ways and means to help themselves. There are a couple of funny lines that get chuckles, but it's sincere, even if off the cuff since he didn't intend to come at all. He wraps it up without going long and is glad to be led back to his table and to Tony's company.
Matt speaks so naturally that Tony wonders if he’d been multitasking speech writing as they spoke or if he had a speech just waiting to go at all times in his back pocket. Tony is impressed, the same way Matt constantly impresses him. The moment the other man returns, Tony lets his leg touch the other’s under the table. “Great speech. Ten minutes and we leave?”
They’ve both done their duty. And Tony wants to get Matt somewhere horizontal and naked.
“Happy’s got the getaway car waiting. You coming back with me tonight?”
"It probably would have been better if I knew that I was actually coming here tonight. I was winging it," he deflects. Part of being a good lawyer is being able to speak off the cuff like that and to do so with sincerity in moments when it's necessary. He thinks he did a solid enough job with that. There are other awards but considering he wasn't going to come at all, a quick exit is acceptable.
He smirks at the question.
"Unless you want to spend the night at my place. I'm flexible. As you well know." He's open to either location as long as they're spending the rest of the evening together. He does eventually want to continue that conversation that was interrupted earlier but he's also a bit more interested in getting into bed with Tony first. Maybe it'll make odd pillow talk later.
These things go on all night. Everyone needs a pat on the back. Tony has already left a large donation, he’ll send in another, ear marked for underrepresented defense. The rest of these people don’t need it as much.
With their table situated as it is, leaving through the back is relatively easy and notice free. Tony doesn’t mess around, not even bothering to stop for one last drink before they’re in the elevator.
“I might actually be forced to sleep at yours,” Tony muses. And he does need to sleep. “Will you make me breakfast in the morning?”
Tony doesn’t seem to find telling Happy the plan, though the large former boxer looks confused when he’s told to leave him there and to go home after. “You…sure, Tone?”
“Yeah, Happy, I can get home on my own. I promise.”
"Either I'll make breakfast or get something at the bodega for you," he answers with a smile back. He didn't actually expect Tony to agree to stay at his place and even his driver seems to be confused by it. Still, it's nice and he just hopes that the apartment is up to whatever standards Stark might have for a place to spend the night.
When they arrive, Matt leads the way into the building and up to the top floor. Everything is put away from his nighttime activities into a trunk in the closet so there will be no hint of anything for Tony to find.
Matt lets them in and closes the door behind them. Tony will probably notice that it's large for a New York apartment for someone in Matt's tax bracket and the reason will immediately become clear. The neon of the sign outside of the living room window shines in, casting everything in different color lights. He has blackout curtains in the bedroom for the comfort of guests but he's been told that the colors the light casts across the floor are oddly beautiful so at least in the living room, he hopes Tony doesn't mind.
"Do you want a beer or something stronger?" he asks.
Tony is passing on the bodega. He’d rather just have the coffee. As much as he trusts Matt’s nose, he does not trust the conditions inside those little corner stores. He doesn’t say anything though. No need to make a fuss about something that isn’t necessarily going to happen.
He pays more attention to the space the man lives in once he shakes Happy off. He appreciates, immensely, what the man does for him, but he doesn’t need a mother. He hasn’t had one in a long time. And as much as he loved her, she wasn’t exactly present for him. Happy can be stifling.
Tony is careful inside of Matt’s space. He normally would be judging it up a storm but this is the first time he’s been inside of a blind person’s apartment. Things are likely laid out in a way that suits Matt’s lifestyle more than anything— But he can not keep his mouth shut about the neon billboard.
“That is— Now that is bright,” Tony says, loosening the bow tie at his throat. “I’m going to need a beer, yeah.” He’s had four and a half glasses of scotch, but this particular functioning alcoholic has done worse to his liver.
The apartment is large for the price point and clean, which is about what anyone can really ask for in New York. He knows it's not the kind of high end that Stark is used to but it's comfortable and has a kind of homey feel to it, he thinks. Whether that will translate and if they'll ever actually spend another night here, he has no idea. Likely it will be considered a little too low brow and any future nights would be spent in the tower.
"I'm told it's bright but it makes it impossible to rent to anyone so I get a really good deal on the place as a result. The curtains here and in the bedroom are blackout so they'll block all of it for you if you want me to pull them now," Matt replies as he crosses to the kitchen to get a couple of beers. He also turns on a couple more lights just so Tony can see everything and where he's going.
He tosses the caps in the trash and approaches to put the beer in Tony's hand.
“It’s actually not terrible,” Tony says. If he lived here, the shifting lights might bother him but he spends most of his time in a more or less blank white box. This would be no different with the curtains drawn. Taking the liberty to sit on the couch rather than wander around the apartment or follow Matt to the kitchen, Tony looks up when the beer is offered. He takes it without complaint.
Tony will drink just about anything. Beer is pretty weak no matter what and the taste doesn’t really matter in the long run.
“I’m surprised there isn’t paperwork everywhere,” he comments. The man has too much money to understand how unusual the size of this apartment is. He also has been in a few shitty situations where he’d been lucky to have room enough to walk around in. It gives him no basis for judging how much money Matt does or doesn’t make. If things are clean, he’s usually pretty content.
"Some people have told me it's kind of pretty, how the lights reflect off of the glass and everything," Matt replies. Sure, it might be a lot over time or when someone is trying to sleep but that's why he has the curtains in the bedroom that are successful, according to his many guests, in blocking out the extra light from the sign.
Matt takes a seat next to Tony after taking off his jacket and loosening his tie. The jacket gets set on the back of a chair and out of the way.
"Why, because I still rely on a fax machine in the office?" he questions. He assumes that's why. "My laptop is over there. It has a text to Braille bar on it so I can read what's on the screen and don't need it printed out for me. The tech on that is a little more advanced than what used to be on my phone before you got a hold of it. Otherwise, what, do I strike you as a messy, paper everywhere kind of person?"
“Not messy. Analog,” Tony says, head tilting. “And busy. I expecting piles and maybe one of those boards with red string connecting all of the pieces together,” he teases, getting detective work and lawyering work a little confused thanks to TV shows. “In my mind, they’re neat piles, if that makes you feel better,” he promises.
He sets the beer down on the table and lifts a hand to touch Matt’s face. He has too suck in a grimace before he ends up laughing about it. Really. What is that going to do? He knows Matt can tell he’s in pain.
“I might need a rain check on some of the more athletic sexual activity,” he says.
"I think those boards are a little bit more visual," he points out.
But he does appreciate that Tony thinks they would have been neat piles instead of scattered in chaos.
"I didn't want to ask more about it in public," Matt replies, reaching his hand to Tony's hip and ghosting his fingers over it without pressing down. "I could tell you were struggling with it. I can give you a leisurely blow-job or something. No work, no pressure," he suggests, "I haven't had a gag reflex since freshman year of college."
Just dropping that little bit there. But honestly, he's a little beat up too and his hand wrapped around the bottle sort of indicates as much.
“All boys boarding school until 16,” Tony says as if that’s a badge of honor. What else are rich, gifted teenagers supposed to do when classes are too easy? Tony doesn’t justify it. He just grins. “Sounds like we have a competition?”
He’d graced Matt with some of his talent last week but there’s never a bad time to reintroduce the other man to them!
Tony bites his lip, amused and turned on and a little drunk and really, stupidly happy for once.
Of course, part of that happiness comes from Matt just being an all around decent guy. Offering him ice? That’s a class act. “Less a bruise and more a massive gash,” Tony says. “Wanna feel?”
Matt instinctively laughs, because how can he not? "I mean, I didn't want to say Catholic school, but you get it." He really was trying to be polite with his own answer. "I'm game. And also a highly competitive person. Just warning you there."
Sounds like a good way to spend the night.
Tony being so eager to show him the wound makes him feel a little guilty about his own. It's not a gash since nothing got through the suit but it's a pretty obvious bruise of his own and he's not forthcoming like this. "Sure," he replies, "They must have patched it up well. I didn't smell any blood."
Tony refrains from making the Catholic priest sex predator joke, but his eyebrow does pop up even as he stands to undress somewhat. Off comes the jacket, he’s less careful with his than Matt is, tossing it over the back of the couch. He pulls up his shirt to untuck it and then goes for his belt.
“A new polymer. Sort of like super glue but with nanotechnology. Just something I’m testing out,” Tony says, showing off the unbandaged wound that stretches from navel around to his lower ribs. It looks deep and red but not angry. It doesn’t smell of puss or blood. “It sort of packs and expands like foam, knitting everything together. Still hurts though.”
The pulling of his raw skin each time he breaths will do that.
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He’s shouldn’t be so open, or seem so eager, but he is. For right now, the stars are aligning and Matt is interesting in all of the right ways. Tony never wants to get to know people anymore, or so he’d thought, until Murdock came into his life. And now? Now he has trouble thinking about not seeing him again.
He’s about to say something else when the lights partially dim and the host of the evening comes out on stage.
“He’s wearing a gold bow tie,” Tony says, leaning towards Matt. “And the podium is gold with I think ivy or something carved into it.” It’s not much more then ‘this is a photo of a sunset,’ but it’s better than nothing.
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He does grin at the mention of distractions. "So if I deliver food and leave my clothes in the elevator, what kind of distraction is that, on your scale?" he teases, keeping his voice low and between the two of them. They're already attracting attention from the way they're whispering to one another anyway.
Matt is a little disappointed that the conversation is interrupted by the event starting. He realizes right about now that he probably should have prepared a speech--except he had no idea he'd actually be here until they were in the limo. He'll probably have to wing it.
"Sounds gauche," he whispers back.
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He’ll have to write some protocols for that so FRIDAY knows to expect him. And maybe he’ll tell Banner—
No. That would defeat the whole purpose of Matt being someone just for him. For however long it lasts. He doesn’t really want questions. People can speculate but Bruce cares about him. And Tony doesn’t want to deal with the emotions he might have surrounding someone he connects with.
Someone who will eventually leave. Probably with his heart.
He’s tired of building new ones.
After the droning of the host goes on for awhile, dinner is brought out. The people at their table seem delighted. Tony isn’t so sure. More scotch? Fine. Prime rib with a bunch of fancy small plates?
“On a scale of one to McDonald’s after this is over, how safe am I to try some of this?” Should be interact with the other people around them? Sure. Is he? Nope.
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What matters right now is that they're having fun. Maybe the gala itself isn't a laugh riot but it's immeasurably more tolerable for Matt than it would have been if he'd come alone or with a different plus one. He knows he's shitty at relationships, not made any better or easier by the fact that he is constantly lying throughout one, but it's good for now and that's what he's hanging his hat on.
Since Matt had no initial intention of coming to this dinner, he ultimately decides that he doesn't have to do much more socializing with anyone else. Who would really expect him to, when he's Tony Stark's date? So at least he has a reasonable excuse.
The question about the prime rib makes him smile. "Avoid the salad. They didn't wash it enough so I don't trust it. You'll be safe with the meat and potato...whatever that's called." Probably some fancy name.
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The food is fine for what it is. Tony picks through the potatoes and cuts out the very center of the prime rib to eat. He’s particular, as Matt has likely noted from multiple other interactions, but sometimes he’s more particular than others. His little bottle of hand sanitizer makes its way to the open several times during the meal.
“Your turn. How was your week outside of the, uh. Fight. With the car door?”
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He's aware of the attempt to get Tony's attention but he similarly ignores it, except for a passing smile to him when it happens again.
"Less interesting than yours," he answers, and that's true even if it writes off the work that he did in and out of the suit. "Picked up a new 'one for them' case and had the requisite boring meetings around it. Did a couple of really minor pro-bono cases. Trespassing, petty theft, a guy who got busted for pissing on a dumpster behind a store because they didn't have a public bathroom. A very glamorous life, as you can imagine." He ignores the part about the bruise on his hand, or the one on his side that the suit is hiding.
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He learned a lot from loving her. He’s tried to become less invasive and manipulative, less willing to ignore what’s right in front of his face. It’s not an easy way to be.
Maybe Matt can benefit from that. Tony doesn’t once pry or demand answers about the swelling. Matt will tell him. Or he won’t. And Tony just had to be okay with that.
“Are those vigilantes really taking all of the good crime these days? You’re left with public indecency and trespassing?”
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He doesn't, though. He'll keep lying. It's better for everyone.
"Sounds like it. There was some gangland violence this week that wasn't stopped by the cops, according to the papers. I'm not interested in defending those kinds of clients so I'll stick with the indecency and trespassing." Arguing the defense for the men that he is responsible for putting behind bars tends to defeat the purpose of what he's doing. "Besides, I assume that crime lords can pay for their own attorneys."
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Maybe not people that live in ninety story towers and fly around in red and gold metal suits of armor, though.
Tony shakes his head. “I’m not really clued in to what goes on at that level,” he says. “But it’s something I think about sometimes. I could be doing more. Then again, that’s why we have police, right?”
He’s just talking out loud about something he doesn’t have much of a clue about. Lots of men in masks are playing Avengers in the small scale. And he doesn’t have too much of an opinion on it either way.
“I was thinking that—“
There is movement on the stage and someone in a suit comes over to touch his shoulder. “Woah. Hands off the tailoring,” he says.
“Excuse me, Mister Stark. But we’re ready for you.”
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"We'll stick a fork in that," he tells Tony because ultimately he does want to return back to it. He's curious about what Stark thinks about it, even if he hasn't really paid it much attention. He imagines that with everything that is really going on in Tony's life and his interest in protecting the whole world instead of just a few square blocks of the city like Matt is.
He gets it. And he also gets that Tony wouldn't take kindly to learning that he's lying but it's not just for the protection of others that Matt keeps his life secret.
"Knock 'em dead," he says, giving Tony a pat on the arm.
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He focuses on Matt a little too much, considering the conversation that Matt can now focus in on with Tony’s blathering about vigilante justice over. There is a lot of speculation going on. Mostly about where the tall strawberry blonde Tony usually has on his arm has gotten to.
A few minutes later and Tony is announced. He makes a striking figure in his tuxedo striding across the stage like he owns it. He half leans on the podium, not because he’s trying to hide his pain, but because that is his personality. He lounges and leans because he can. Because this is his space. Because everyone needs to recognize that.
“I’ve given out a lot of awards before. Gotten a few myself,” Tony says, holding the statuette. “Usually I don’t think a lot about them. The sentiment is fine but we all know it’s about stroking ego.”
There are some grumbling in the audience.
“This time, though, I can really get behind this particular honor. I’ve gotten to know the recipient a little over the last few weeks. He’s got a good nose for restaurants. He still uses a fax machine. And he genuinely wants to give back to the community. The guy’s smart. He doesn’t have to do what he does for free, but he does it because he believes that everyone deserves a defense. That’s a kind of faith I don’t think many of us have. So it’s my genuine pleasure to give this award to someone that actually deserves the recognition. Matthew Murdock. Come on up here.”
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And they do. Except he thought he was texting James.
He can tell that Tony is good at the attention part of this and the speech that he makes is sweet and sincere. The fact that it is gets more whispers going.
Matt allows the organizer to lead him to the podium where he smiles and shakes Tony's hand like he would with any presenter while he's given the glass trophy. He honestly has no idea what he's going to do with it.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark, for outing to everyone--including my potential courtroom opponents, that I still use an old fashioned fax machine." It gets a laugh.
He gives a quick speech with the kind of practiced, easy way he has with juries where he tells the anecdote about how Thurgood Marshall's writings were some of the first things he read after learning Braille and how as a child, all he wanted to do was to help people who didn't have the ways and means to help themselves. There are a couple of funny lines that get chuckles, but it's sincere, even if off the cuff since he didn't intend to come at all. He wraps it up without going long and is glad to be led back to his table and to Tony's company.
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They’ve both done their duty. And Tony wants to get Matt somewhere horizontal and naked.
“Happy’s got the getaway car waiting. You coming back with me tonight?”
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He smirks at the question.
"Unless you want to spend the night at my place. I'm flexible. As you well know." He's open to either location as long as they're spending the rest of the evening together. He does eventually want to continue that conversation that was interrupted earlier but he's also a bit more interested in getting into bed with Tony first. Maybe it'll make odd pillow talk later.
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With their table situated as it is, leaving through the back is relatively easy and notice free. Tony doesn’t mess around, not even bothering to stop for one last drink before they’re in the elevator.
“I might actually be forced to sleep at yours,” Tony muses. And he does need to sleep. “Will you make me breakfast in the morning?”
Tony doesn’t seem to find telling Happy the plan, though the large former boxer looks confused when he’s told to leave him there and to go home after. “You…sure, Tone?”
“Yeah, Happy, I can get home on my own. I promise.”
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When they arrive, Matt leads the way into the building and up to the top floor. Everything is put away from his nighttime activities into a trunk in the closet so there will be no hint of anything for Tony to find.
Matt lets them in and closes the door behind them. Tony will probably notice that it's large for a New York apartment for someone in Matt's tax bracket and the reason will immediately become clear. The neon of the sign outside of the living room window shines in, casting everything in different color lights. He has blackout curtains in the bedroom for the comfort of guests but he's been told that the colors the light casts across the floor are oddly beautiful so at least in the living room, he hopes Tony doesn't mind.
"Do you want a beer or something stronger?" he asks.
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He pays more attention to the space the man lives in once he shakes Happy off. He appreciates, immensely, what the man does for him, but he doesn’t need a mother. He hasn’t had one in a long time. And as much as he loved her, she wasn’t exactly present for him. Happy can be stifling.
Tony is careful inside of Matt’s space. He normally would be judging it up a storm but this is the first time he’s been inside of a blind person’s apartment. Things are likely laid out in a way that suits Matt’s lifestyle more than anything— But he can not keep his mouth shut about the neon billboard.
“That is— Now that is bright,” Tony says, loosening the bow tie at his throat. “I’m going to need a beer, yeah.” He’s had four and a half glasses of scotch, but this particular functioning alcoholic has done worse to his liver.
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"I'm told it's bright but it makes it impossible to rent to anyone so I get a really good deal on the place as a result. The curtains here and in the bedroom are blackout so they'll block all of it for you if you want me to pull them now," Matt replies as he crosses to the kitchen to get a couple of beers. He also turns on a couple more lights just so Tony can see everything and where he's going.
He tosses the caps in the trash and approaches to put the beer in Tony's hand.
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Tony will drink just about anything. Beer is pretty weak no matter what and the taste doesn’t really matter in the long run.
“I’m surprised there isn’t paperwork everywhere,” he comments. The man has too much money to understand how unusual the size of this apartment is. He also has been in a few shitty situations where he’d been lucky to have room enough to walk around in. It gives him no basis for judging how much money Matt does or doesn’t make. If things are clean, he’s usually pretty content.
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Matt takes a seat next to Tony after taking off his jacket and loosening his tie. The jacket gets set on the back of a chair and out of the way.
"Why, because I still rely on a fax machine in the office?" he questions. He assumes that's why. "My laptop is over there. It has a text to Braille bar on it so I can read what's on the screen and don't need it printed out for me. The tech on that is a little more advanced than what used to be on my phone before you got a hold of it. Otherwise, what, do I strike you as a messy, paper everywhere kind of person?"
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He sets the beer down on the table and lifts a hand to touch Matt’s face. He has too suck in a grimace before he ends up laughing about it. Really. What is that going to do? He knows Matt can tell he’s in pain.
“I might need a rain check on some of the more athletic sexual activity,” he says.
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But he does appreciate that Tony thinks they would have been neat piles instead of scattered in chaos.
"I didn't want to ask more about it in public," Matt replies, reaching his hand to Tony's hip and ghosting his fingers over it without pressing down. "I could tell you were struggling with it. I can give you a leisurely blow-job or something. No work, no pressure," he suggests, "I haven't had a gag reflex since freshman year of college."
Just dropping that little bit there. But honestly, he's a little beat up too and his hand wrapped around the bottle sort of indicates as much.
"Did you want ice or something for it?"
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He’d graced Matt with some of his talent last week but there’s never a bad time to reintroduce the other man to them!
Tony bites his lip, amused and turned on and a little drunk and really, stupidly happy for once.
Of course, part of that happiness comes from Matt just being an all around decent guy. Offering him ice? That’s a class act. “Less a bruise and more a massive gash,” Tony says. “Wanna feel?”
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Sounds like a good way to spend the night.
Tony being so eager to show him the wound makes him feel a little guilty about his own. It's not a gash since nothing got through the suit but it's a pretty obvious bruise of his own and he's not forthcoming like this. "Sure," he replies, "They must have patched it up well. I didn't smell any blood."
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“A new polymer. Sort of like super glue but with nanotechnology. Just something I’m testing out,” Tony says, showing off the unbandaged wound that stretches from navel around to his lower ribs. It looks deep and red but not angry. It doesn’t smell of puss or blood. “It sort of packs and expands like foam, knitting everything together. Still hurts though.”
The pulling of his raw skin each time he breaths will do that.
“Shouldn’t scar either.”
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