Rent

"Dude, Karen's worried about you. Hell, I am too! Every day, you're coming in looking like you got the shit beat out of you the night before. Which I bet is true with the whole vigilante thing, but still, you should be more careful."

"I am careful Foggy," Matt said pathetically.

"No, you're not Matt! You look worse than you did when you were taking down Fisk." Matt opened his mouth to protest again but Foggy beat him to the words. "Okay, maybe not as bad as you did with that ninja guy, but still, it's pretty bad Matt. Karen freaking thinks you're an alcoholic or in a fight club or something! You need to be more careful. I can't keep lying to her, she's getting suspicious."

Foggy opened the door slightly, but closed it again, apparently not finished. "And maybe you could also try to actually show up for work once in a while. Karen and I are a little over whelmed with all these cases by ourselves." With that, Foggy left his office and Matt sat at his desk, head in his hands.

Fogg had been on him like this for days, and Matt understood he and Karen were worried, but he couldn't help if he looked like shit, not . It was an aspect of his job, well his other job. Well, actually it was like his other, other job. The job that didn't require him to jump rooftops in his 'red pyjamas Foggy called them. No, Matt had a third job, one to help the firm out of its financial issues and to help pay all of the bills. Matt had become a rentboy.

He had gotten the idea a couple days ago when he was stopped on his way home from Josie's by a man in a limo, asking him if he would like to make some quick cash. Matt had thought at the time it was odd for a limo to be in this side of Hell's Kitchen, and even odder for the man to try to hire an obviously blind man to be a prostitute. But he then thought of how Karen had been so stressed out about the firm not having much money, and accepted the offer.

He had felt ashamed that he was doing this, and even more when he thought of what he would tell Father Lantom, but he then thought of Karen and Foggy and how they were so stressed out about their money situation. So he did whatever the man wanted for a thousand dollars. Matt had the money transferred directly into the firm's account as to not raise suspicions if he came to the office with large bills of cash.

Matt claimed that the money came from a new 'client', which was technically true, although it was now more than one 'client' since the man had talked about Matt to some of his rich friends. So now Matt would disappear for a couple hours at any time a client requested him, even if it was inconvenient for him at the time.

And so what if Matt came home some nights with a couple bruised ribs or a cut on his forehead. He had faced worse injuries as Daredevil, he could push through, even if he had no armour protecting him when he was with the clients. Even if the bruises were on more obvious parts of his body, where Foggy or Karen could see them. So what if he had barely got any real sleep more than a couple hours that week. He had faced worse. After all, he was getting a thousand dollars for doing whatever the clients wanted.

And the money was helping. The firm's air conditioning got fixed, Foggy and Karen's rents were paid, and everything was going fine. That is, if you didn't count Matt being exhausted all the time, his guilt eating him alive, and him barely showing up for work. Matt was overbooked with clients, patrolling as Daredevil, working at the firm (when he wasn't passed out from exhaustion), and trying to actually spend some time with his friends outside of work.