“hey—josie’s is too good for jeff bezos,” matt counters, and if he leans into the touch for a little too long, goes slack under foggy’s firm hand working his shoulder a little too obviously, he’s pretty sure no one could blame him when most of the physical contact he gets on a day to day basis is still from people trying to kill him, when he’s tried and failed to kill too much about himself, from the spiritual to the literal, to not let what’s still intact take some pleasure from the moments where someone touches him kindly.
it’s selfish of him and he knows it. he knows it like he knows that the first thought in his head when foggy told him marci was packing her bags (but keeping the ring) was oh, thank god, we can finally get back to normal.
“she won’t know you drank it, she’ll think i drank it. —even if she thought you drank it, i’m still the one she’d punch for it.” matt picks up his cane from the doorway and takes foggy’s elbow without hesitation like he has a thousand times before, but he’s not sure there’s been a time since the first that he was as aware of it as he is now. so many things about foggy are new, now—merino wool suits and tapered hair at the back of his neck and aftershave that isn’t from a bargain bin—but so many things are the same, and he wonders if this is a step toward knowing each other again.
“yeah, i could eat,” matt agrees, because it’s—he brushes his fingers over his watch—nearly ten and he knows he needs to do better than frying an egg at three in the morning when he finally remembers he hasn’t eaten since half a turkey hero at lunch, especially if he’s going to dip into jessica’s booze in the meanwhile. “does brave new foggy want to try a new takeout place, too?”
‘ you’re right, and you know what? i don’t want you to be under the impression that my tenure as a yuppie made me soft for him, ’ unfortunately, foggy might be joking but he half means it, in a weird sort of way. he still cares too much about what matt thinks which is troubling in itself. it’s hard to be sharp with the smell of matt’s cologne and aftershave, the same one he’s used for years, so close. a smile forms when the hand comes to his elbow, kind of like it used to be, and he wonders if matt can tell that he’s smiling, too. probably, right?
he’d never been angry or violated about matt’s abilities. a lot of introspection had made him come to that begrudging realization, and the subsequent realization that it’d been because matt hadn’t trusted him enough with it that he was so angry for so long. all he wants to do is talk about it, too, and he feels like he’s a pot bubbling over with all the things he wants to say but hasn’t had a chance to in the hecticness of their lives the past two months.
luckily, his motor mouth runs on an impressive kind of autopilot from all the stuff that’s on his mind today.
‘ in that case - sure, you know i’m always down to be a mooch. some things never change, and one of those things is the fact that i’ll drink anything, once i’m at a certain point, ’ he arms the security system - a worthy investment, all things considered, and leads matt outside so he can lock the back door. the crisp fall air feels like a slap.
that’s when his elbow returns to matt’s hand so they can traverse down the steps, an unflattering laugh escaping.
‘ i’m already kind of bugging about all these changes, honestly, but - maybe we should. that thai place you worship isn’t any good besides when you’re drunk and would eat anything, i hate to say it. ’ he moves in closer, blames the cold for it. tonight’s going to be - some sort of adventure. so much has changed, and yet matt still feels the same against him and he still stupidly laughs and smiles at everything he says and does. ‘ - all of that being said, i could go for almost anything greasy and fried right now. ’
