#priest au matty for reference

[grocerystorelist]

me praying my brain will work enough to write this week

[danyka-fendyr]

As the Raven Flies: Part 1

Did I edit? No. Is this probably terrible? Yes. Did I at least crank out approximately 2500 words of my brainchild in like, 3 hours? Yes. So we’re calling it a day. Please forgive me. (And yes, the series title is a reference to one of Frank’s many, many different alias’s/codenames/nicknames. Full disclaimer, I have yet to actually see the Punisher since I’m still working my way through Daredevil S2, so some of this might be a little (or a lot) OOC. Just think of it like an AU.) Big thanks to @dreamwritesimagines for letting me ramble out the entire concept of this to her through a series of anonymous asks because unfortunately this is just my side blog and my main blog is completely unrelated to any of this. Also thanks to @rhabakoli for laughing at my preview and appreciating my lame sense of humor.

“Matthew Murdock, if you drink milk straight out of the jug one more time, I’m telling your priest.”

Matt slammed the jug down on the counter, barely avoiding milk sloshing over the top. 

“I’m blind. How am I supposed to know where the glass is to pour it in?”

“You and I both know that excuse won’t work on me, Mr. World-On-Fire.”

Matt raised an eyebrow. “I let you live in my house. Shouldn’t you be...I don’t know, grateful?”

“You’ve got me there.”  There was a pause, and Vivien leaned up against Matt’s counter, perched on the edge of her seat while Matt put the milk back in the fridge.

“So...how have you been doing?”

She didn’t answer.

“Vivien...please? Talk to me,” he said, turning and setting his palms firmly on the counter across from her.

“I’m fine. School is good. Spanish class is interesting.”

“Well, that’s good. Maybe you can teach Foggy something.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

He asked that question every day. How was she? How was someone supposed to answer that? Vivene didn’t know. So, she deflected, and Matt let her. She guessed he must have some idea how it felt. After all, the man didn’t have any family of his own either.

She leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. Matt’s apartment had character, she’d give it that. If you ignored the bloodstains Matt smeared all over the place, and the ironically blindingly bright lights just outside his fricking huge windows, it was almost nice. In a grungy, trash sort of way. And it had been very poorly lit before Matt found her on the streets and took her in. Bleeding heart never could resist a pretty face, even if he couldn’t see them.

“Bought more cereal.”

“Aw, for me Matty?”

“For us,” he corrected.

“Mmhhmm,” she said, reaching over his arm to grab at the newspaper and scan the front page. “Hey look! It’s you again. Awww, and all your little friends. I love to see you playing nice Matt.”

“Ha, yeah. I guess you could call it that.”

“When are you having them over for dinner?” she asked sarcastically.

“I think Jessica would come to a formal dinner-or, any kind of dinner with all of us-over her dead body, Luke would eat me out of house and home, and I’m afraid Danny would try to do some kind of Feng Shui on my house but like...Tibetan monk style.”

“K’un Lun.”

“Isn’t that the same place?”

“Geography is important to me Murdock.”

“Uh huh.”

“You didn’t mention The Punisher.” 

Vivien had never actually met the guy. Her stay with the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen was...a recent development in a long series of twists that had turned her life into something she was no longer sure she could recognize.

“I think Frank would come to anything Karen asked him to, and be grouchy the whole time.”

“So it’s true then? He really does have a thing for her?” Vivien leaned forward, slipping her lower lip between her teeth.

“Not that he would ever admit it, but yeah. I’m blind and even I can see it.”

She laughed. “Well, now she has to invite him. I have to see this with my own eyes since I can’t trust yours.”

“Good luck getting Karen to invite him just so you can prove he likes her.” Matt came around the counter, flopping onto the couch in that perpetually exhausted way of his.

“Well, I won’t say it like that, moron.”

“I’ll have you know I graduated from Columbia.”

“All on looks, I’m telling you. It’s a good thing you’re pretty, Murdock.” Very pretty.

Vivien hopped down from her stool, picking up the leftover takeout containers from last night that they may or may not have been too lazy to throw away then.

“So, are you going to let me patrol with you tonight?” she asked, throwing the takeout containers in the garbage and picking back up her newspaper before joining him on the couch.

Matt frowned. She knew he didn’t like the idea of her patrolling at all. Had fought her on it for the first few months of their...whatever this thing was. Arrangement would be the legal term, she guessed. It sounded legal, anyway. Eventually, though, she started sneaking out while he was out patrolling, and then he had to give in. And thus, she had started patrolling with Matt since he figured it was better she go out with someone than alone.

“I don’t think so. Frank is in town right now and I think it’s better if you don’t cross paths with him in uniform just yet. He can be a little...intense.”

“I can handle it. It’s not like I haven’t had worse. Remember, my-Oh my gosh Matt look at page six!”

“What? What? I’m still blind, Vivien!”

“They gave me a name!” she squealed, slamming the newspaper down on the counter.

“Oh, is that all? I thought something terrible happened.” Matt relaxed back into the couch, the cushions practically swallowing him whole in the spot he had sat in so many times there was a Matt-shaped indent.

“Matt you don’t understand, they gave me a name.”

He smiled, looking at her with those glassy eyes. “Well? What is it?”

“It’s just a temporary one for now. Since I’m seen with you so often, they’re calling me Hell’s Flames.” She frowned. “And then they talk about how small I am and call me Hell’s Sparks. I’m average height!”

“For an 18 year old girl? Maybe. For a vigilante? I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we tend to be a tall crowd. Especially the ones that aren’t superpowered.”

“That feels pretty heightist to me. You realize you’re average height, right Matt?”

“Superpowers. I’m an exception to the rule.”

“Well, maybe I have powers you just don’t know about.” Vivien flexed her fingers.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Take me out on patrol tonight. I want to give them a real name to call me.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, but nothing’s come to me.”

“Well, I can’t really help. I didn’t get to decide my name.”

“Yeah, I’m not letting that happen to me. We can’t all be pushovers, Murdock. And before you can argue with me, I have to meet Frank at some point. Why not now?”

Matt deliberated, picking up his cane from the coffee table to fiddle with it. After a long moment, he spoke.

“Fine. But stay by my side, and follow my orders.”

“Ay, ay, captain!” Vivien saluted cheerfully.

“And just so you know, I’m only allowing this because it’s a weekend!”

“Buzzkill.”

Speaking of buzzing, that was a good word for what Vivien was doing right now. She was going out to meet The Punisher. Potentially.

She knew Matt would try to steer her away from him, but honestly, Matt had never been that great at keeping her in check. She was a little too wild for him. She smirked, pulling her fingerless black gloves over her hands. She had been begging Matt for a real costume, not this, “I am the night” all black ensemble, but he insisted that all she was getting was a whole lot of matte bulletproof.

At least the gloves were leather. That was cool. And the boots. The boots were awesome. They were some weird cross between regular boots, combat boots, and hiking boots. Vivien wasn’t sure that there was really a word for them, but she liked them.

Finally, last but not least, there was the whole name issue. She didn’t really know what she wanted. She had thought about Beacon, like a beacon of hope, but that didn’t feel right. To close a connection to yellow. She was not ending up with a yellow costume. Firebrand had been an idea until Matt informed her it was taken. So in the end, it all circled back to one question.

Who was she? What was this city to her? Those felt like the kinds of mumbo jumbo questions Matt would ask her, but the problem was she wasn’t sure she knew. After everything that had happened lately, she had no idea what she stood for or what would make her fall.

Maybe it was time to figure it out.

“You ready kiddo?”

Vivien blinked. “Yeah, yeah, I’m good to go. Born ready.”

“Trust me, nobody is born ready for anything.”

“Well, I was. Now let’s get a move on Murdock, while the night is still younger than you. Not that that’s saying much.”

“Hey! I resent that,” Matt propped the window open, holding it so she could climb out onto the fire escape.

“Resent it all you want. You can’t change the truth.” Vivien felt the millionth lightbulb of the night ping in her head.

Truth. That was something she seemed to struggle with. Telling other people the truth. She had an uncanny ability to get it out of criminals though. Better even than Matt, who could hear their heartbeats, smell the sweat dripping off their skin. Maybe that was who she was. Someone who found the truth. But how did that translate into a superhero name? That, she would have to sleep on. Or fight on, tonight.

Matt hopped out the window behind her, and sooner rather than later, they were off, jumping across the rooftops. This had to be Vivien’s favorite part of her life right now. The carefree feeling of running, running as fast as she could from every last one of her problems and right into a set of brand new ones that would be much easier to solve. Feeling like no one could catch her. It was...exhilarating.

Plus she just really liked punching people in the face.

“Hey Daredevil?” she asked, slowing down to walk backward across the roof, hands clasped behind her back.

“Yeah?” It always took him a minute to respond to that name.

“What do you call people who find the truth?”

“I don’t know. Journalists?”

“In theory,” Vivien replied wryly. “But seriously. Like, someone without finding the truth as their profession.”

“I don’t know. There’s not really a title for people who just divine the truth like that.”

Divine. Divine…..”Diviner!”

“What? Gosh, could you please stop yelling all the time? Sensitive ears.”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. But Ma-Daredevil, I’ve got it!”

“You’ve got what exactly?” They had come to a complete standstill now, on a rooftop about a 5 minute run from Josie’s.

Someone’s car alarm went off in the not so distant distance, and Vivien waited for Matt to deem it a carjacking or not. Was someone fumbling for their keys, or was someone fumbling to hotwire the thing? Matt waved it off, and she continued.

“Diviner. That can be my hero name.”

“Huh...well….I don’t think it’s taken. And you are good at finding the truth.”

He didn’t mention the very prominent case in which she had failed to find the truth. Failed to foresee an outcome that was inevitable, if she was honest with herself for 5 minutes. Vivien started running again.

“So, where are we headed?” she asked.

“Honestly? Away from Frank Castle.”

She stopped dead. “What? Are you being serious with me right now?”

“Yes. He’s on the other side of town right now.”

“Aaaaannd we’re turning around.” She pivoted on her heel as she spoke, ready to go find some trouble.

“Vivien, please?” Matt grabbed her wrist, gentle. “Please, for once, just listen to me when I tell you that you meeting Frank Castle right now would be a bad idea?”

She turned back to face him again, yanking her hand out of his grasp. “Why? Because he’s a big bad scary vigilante? Well, newsflash, so are you, Matt.”

Matt sighed. “I just...I don’t think it would be a good idea yet. And not because he’s a vigilante, or because you’re just a baby vigilante.”

“I am not a baby.”

“That sounds exactly like something a baby would say.”

“Babies can’t talk.”

Matt paused a moment.“Okay fine, but the point is that you’re not ready yet.”

“Please, Matt? Please? I’m ready for this. I promise. I’ve seen enough crap to handle this. And from what you’ve said, he’s just a big cranky teddy bear anyway.”

“Yeah, a teddy bear who murders people.”

“Which is exactly my kind of teddy bear. Would have come in handy.”

Matt sighed again. She seemed to have that effect on him. “Fine.”

“Thank you. You won’t regret this Matt. I promise.”

“The last time you promised me something, it was not something that bears repeating, and you did not follow through.”

“In my defense, it was 3 in the morning and I had recently been stabbed.”

“I told you to be more careful.”

“I know. I know. Enough small talk though. I’ve got a Punisher to meet.”

She ran faster now, Matt barely keeping up. She was laughing, excited. She had a name, and she was officially meeting other heroes. She was The Diviner. She felt more purpose-driven than she had in a long time.

She heard Frank Castle before she saw him. The gunfire was unmistakable. Unmistakable, and short-lived. She had heard the stories. It didn’t take Frank Castle long to kill someone. Or take them out Matt’s way.

“Wait here.”

“But-”

“Wait. Just a minute.”

Vivien rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as Matt jumped off the rooftop. She could faintly hear them fighting, itching to jump down and join them. Eventually, one of Matt’s batons landed on the rooftop next to her, and she took that as her signal. She picked it up, jumping down to the ground and right into the middle of a fight.

Immediately, she was ducking a punch. Looked like gang members. A whole crew of them. Frank Castle really knew how to piss a guy off. Or a few dozen guys, for that matter.

“Gosh I love this city,” Vivien mumbled under her breath.

Faster than you could say “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen”, Vivien was in the thick of it, using everything Matt had taught her and a few things she’d picked up for herself. Duck, block, swing, get sliced into like a turkey on Thanksgiving. Okay, so that last maneuver might not have been part of the plan.

She swore, dodging another blow and sweeping the guy's legs out from under him all in one only half-way clumsy move.

“Hey Red! Did now seem like the time for fresh meat to you?”

“Later. We can have this argument later.”

“That’s what he always says,” Vivien joked.

Frank didn’t laugh though, just kept blazing through these guys. He was so fast, and so efficient, that they were done in minutes. They probably would have been done faster if not for Matt’s insistence that no one died. It probably would have been funny to watch how worked up he got if Vivien didn’t agree with him. No more death. She had seen enough of that.

She took a deep breath, hands on her knees as she tried to calm down and slow her heart rate. Blood slicked the alley walls, mixing with dirt and the old, dried, crusty stuff that was so worked in it was impossible to tell it from the dirt. The only reason she knew there was an abnormal amount of blood on the alley walls of Hell’s Kitchen was because Matt had once told her he could smell it. Speaking of smells, this particular alleyway, like many others in this city, smelled like the inside of a urinal. Gross.

“How’s your arm?” Matt asked, immediately coming over to poke at it.

Vivien hissed, pulling away from him and narrowly sidestepping some unconscious thug’s arm. “Not in need of further manhandling, thanks.”

“It won’t scar,” Matt decided.

“Is that...who are you?” Frank demanded.

“The Diviner.” Vivien announced it with pride, the pain in her arm nearly forgotten.

“No, who are you? Red, did you bring a kid out here?” He turned on Matt, absolutely livid.

“I-”

“I’ll have you know I’m a legal adult. And technically, he said I couldn’t come. I have a problem with authority figures though.”

“How old are you?” Frank asked.

“18.”

“She’s still in high school, Red!”

Vivien had a bad feeling Matt was going to be next on Castle’s hit list. She should probably interfere with that.

“Listen, it was either going to be me going out with him, or me going out alone. Take your pick, Castle.”

Frank looked at her, almost seeming surprised as blood dripped down his mouth from a cut on his lip. He got over her defiance quickly though. “Or, not at all.”

“Are you going to be the one to babysit me then?”

He scowled, which couldn’t have been good for that cut. Then again, maybe he was used to it. She got the impression he did that a lot.

“How on God’s good green earth did you end up here?”

“I simply followed the sounds of angry gang members meeting their fate.” Vivien shrugged, refusing to take a step back when The Punisher glared.

“I mean, how did you get into this life. I swear Red, if you in any way encouraged this-”

“He didn’t. I just went through some crap, that’s all.”

“What kind of crap leads you to be a vigilante when you ain’t even out of school.”

“Frank-” Matt warned.

“It’s okay,” Vivien said.

She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and saying it for what felt like the millionth time and also the very, very first. “My entire family is dead.”