Molly and Matt: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

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Molly meets the new Matt.



Getting off the bus that went by Xavier's, Matt slung his duffel across his chest before heading to the gate and swiping his ID to get in. The commute from the city to Xavier's was long no matter how he cut it and tonight he hadn't been able to get a ride with Warren and he was glad it was over for the moment. Thankfully, he kept clothes and toiletries at the school so the duffel only held a few odds and ends he needed for the weekend along with his laptop and other tech accessories he brought to and from home each week.

Once the gate opened, he headed up the long drive, stowing his cane as he did so since no one here thought it odd that he didn't need it.

Molly hadn't been back long, for the others anyway. It'd only been a few months, but it'd been years for her. When she got back she discovered all her stuff had been packed up and given to her parents. She'd kinda expected that. So she was borrowing people's clothes since running around in armor was freaking some people out. She was outside, since she still liked being outside, when she spotted a head of red hair coming up the driveway. She recognized who it was.

And she forgot.

"Oh my gosh!" she said, taking off into a run as she tackled Matt, throwing her arms around him with a huge hug.

Matt had heard the unfamiliar heartbeat, but hadn't thought much of it, there were plenty of people here he hadn't yet met and there hadn't been any reason to suspect anything. Except then he was half tackled in a hug. Wrapping his arm around the squirming young woman instinctively, Matt took a step back. "Whoa, hey!"

He didn't know her. Not at all. Not even a little. Must have been one of the alternate guys. Why wouldn't it be? Molly blinked up at Matt, pulling her arms away. Her face fell, and she quickly traded it for wide, eyes and a broad grin, quickly backing up.

"So um...Hi! I'm Molly. Molly Hayes. I'm a hugger. Sorry, thought you were someone else. My friend...he had red hair too. And so I thought you were him for a minute. Oops."

It was totally cool. She was going to be totally cool.

"Aw, and here I was hoping I'd won a prize or something," Matt let her go gently so she didn't fall, "Must be a good friend."

Molly grinned. "You totally won the prize for first hugs of the day," she said, then glanced down and nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah, he was cool. He passed away a long time ago. I guess...sometimes I forget, y'know?" It'd been a long time for her. And this was still Matty. Just not Matty. Tall Matty. He felt taller. She shook her head,

"Anyway, what's your name?" She knew but she remembered he didn't say. And there was something about breaking the world and that would suck after coming back to Midgard for like a week.

"I'm sorry about your friend," Matt replied, that was the sort of thing you said in these situations, he'd heard it often enough about his father. "I'm Matt. Matt Murdock. Good to meet you Molly."

"Thanks," Molly said with a nod. She had had time to mourn, and to accept it, that she wasn't gonna see anyone ever again and live in Asgard until she like...became really old or died heroically fighting a fire troll or something.

But coming back, and staying, and seeing Matty made her remember all over again what it was like to be sad. Still, he was there, not dead. And he was older. He was just....like a different him, like in the comics. Crisis of Infinite Earths. All the different people smushed together to make one universe. She could figure it out. She totally did it before. And was cool. And total.

"Nice to meet you too, Matty. Matt...." She wasn't sure how he felt about calling him Matty when he'd only met her five minutes ago.

The nickname made Matt smile, he hadn't been called that in a long time, "It's fine. My uh...my dad used to call me Matty, actually. He passed away too, like your friend."

"Oh...I'm sorry," Molly said. Same as the other Matt. "I can call you just Matt if it brings back bad memories." She didn't know how long ago it'd been for him.

"Oh, it was a long time ago," he assured her. "It's fine. So anyways Molly, you're part of Xavier's too? Student, teacher or other?"

"Teacher?" Molly repeated, a giggle of surprise at first that someone would think that before she caught herself. "Oh...nope. I...was a student. And I guess I'm still a student? Or...I dunno. I was away for awhile. Just got back. Everyone's all different." Including you.

She didn't know if she could say much about Asgard to the newbies yet.

"I dunno what I'm gonna do. Become an X-Person, I guess? Or go to college....MIT sounds nice."

She made it sound like she could go to MIT as easily as the mall. Maybe she could. That would be....ridiculously unfair in an already unfair world. Matt was the first person to point out that no one said life was fair and to stop clinging to childhood fantasies, but that was just insult on top of injury. "It's a good school," he agreed, "though, it's in Massachusetts. Bit of a commute if you're looking to stay here."

"Oh," Molly said thoughtfully. "Yeah, that would probably not work, then. I still need to do some leveling classes for the two years of high school I missed while I was away. I hope that might go fast. I learned Math and science where I was but not like...history and literature and stuff." Unless you counted Asgardian history, which they didn't.

"I'm sure it'll go quickly," Matt assured her as they headed into the building. It was too cold to linger outside. "Then you can go wherever you want."

Molly still never really felt the cold: a fact Sif had to remind her to keep track of. She could get hypothermia if she wasn't paying attention. She trudged back in with Matt.

"Yep. Shiny new life," she said with a grin.

She knew what she was gonna do while she was in Asgard. Now she wasn't with them anymore. So she was back, but not the youngest anymore. It felt...strange. So there were all sorts of possibilities.

"So what do you do?" He looked old, so he wasn't a student anymore. Maybe he became a trapeze artist!

"Me?" Matt laughed, "I'm a lawyer. I work for Worthington Industries," which wasn’t working out for him like he'd hoped, but he didn't say that. At this point he didn't know what he wanted to do about it, if anything.

"Oh!" Molly said, sounding far too excited than she should have for someone who didn't know the guy. "Oh," she quickly corrected, toning it down with a careful furrow of her brow and a serious nod. He was smart, even if Matt 1.0 didn't think it. So that was great to hear that he used his smarts to become all lawyery.

"I don't need one I just...Um...y'know..." She flashed an assuring grin. "Had a lot of sugar today."

Taking off his gloves and hat, Matt was glad he shoved his cane in his bag, "Sometimes, you need to indulge."

Molly smiled. "Oh totally," she said. And often. They had a lot of neat desserts in Asgard. No chocolate, though.

"It's a little after dinner time," thanks, commute, "but I could go with something warm to drink and leftovers if there are any. You interested?" He wasn't planning on working late tonight, so hot chocolate instead of coffee and some food sounded good to him. Molly had a cute personality and he suspected she was just as cute all around.

Molly nodded. "I eat food. I like this plan," she said with a grin.

"But there's a lot of people now, I think....so there might not be leftovers. But I know how to make grilled cheese?"

"Let's go find out," Matt suggested. He was hungry. "And if not, can you drive?"

Molly made a face. "Nope," she said. Not unless you counted hovercraft. Or horses. Or irritated bilgesnipe.

"Soon, maybe." She hoped. She'd gotten her temporary license but then she 'died' and now she kinda had to have things fixed. Artie was helping with that, though.

"Grilled cheese it is then!" Matt decided, setting his bag on the kitchen counter. "You get stuff out and I'll make it?" he suggested. He wasn't much of a cook but he could do this at least, especially if there was a toaster oven available. He wasn't about to brave the bus to town for food or call a cab and wait.

"Orr...maybe reverse cause I have a super special secret recipe?" Molly said with a hopeful grin. "Seriously...I am the best at grilled cheese. And pancakes. But not together, though...unless you like that sorta thing...I can tell you where the stuff is since you're new."

"Then I will sit back and let you do it," Matt replied. "I'm not very good at knowing where things are here yet and I finally brought my label maker to label things, but that can wait until after we eat. Teach me your grilled cheese ways, Obi Wan."

Slapping her hands together, Molly opened up the fridge. "I like to call myself Mol-zerella," she said, grabbing some cheese, butter and other important ingredients.

"The first step, old padi-wan...is to ask whether or not you like meat. Cause, Mol-zerella's super special secret recipe involves bacon. And if you don't like meat...then it doesn't involve bacon. Mol-zerella's super special secret recipe is flexible."

"I can do bacon," Matt agreed easily, "but not on donuts. I don't care how good maple bacon donuts are, it just sounds wrong," he had opinions on these things. "Is it crispy bacon?" that was better than soft bacon.

"Oh yeah," Molly said, nodding with sage assurance. "And like four---" She paused, checking the bin to only find.... "--three kinds of cheese. The fourth kind might make it too extreme and we want to make your experience does not blow your mind. Cause then we would lose you as a repeat customer."

Putting the ingredients on the counter next to the stove, Molly searched for a skillet, hoping they hadn't moved things around.

"I dunno. I haven't tried maple bacon donuts but I wanna. Just to see what people are talking about, y'know?"

"Oh yeah," Matt nodded, understanding, "I did. That's the whole thing. Underwhelming. But you are clearly a connoisseur of grilled cheese. You put me to shame. Hell, I think you put my brother to shame and that's saying a lot. He has no shame. Or cooking ability." Well, maybe some cooking ability. Maybe.

Molly blinked, then tried to act less surprised. "You have a brother?" she said. She didn't remember him having a brother before.

"And I need to make it first. Cause...you can just say it but then you gotta EAT it...and it's fun to watch people make the yum face." She grinned as she turned on the stove to make the gas burner turn on.

"Then don't let me stop you, I enjoy a good yum face," he couldn't see expressions, that was too small for his power to pick up, but he enjoyed making it. "And yeah, couple years older than me. It's kinda complicated. My uncles adopted him and then when my dad died, they took me in too, so we're like...cousins, but not? It's a weird adopted relationship, but we just call ourselves brothers and don't worry about it."

Grabbing a can of buttery flavored vegetable spray, Molly sprayed the skillet. "Huh," she said, then tried to mask her surprise by focusing on making the food. Maybe he'd think she was surprised about the cousin thing.

"I'm an only child...I never had a brother but I had a friend who was like one. I came to live here when I was twelve...My parents were not nice people so a lady tried to take me away to live with her and her son. She was also very crazy and was brainwashing people so....the X-People saved me."

That sounded incredibly complicated and traumatizing. "I'm glad you were able to find a better place," Matt said, what did you say to someone kidnapped and had shitty parents. "Seems like a lot of people have made this place home. Family by choice."

Molly smiled. "Yeah. They're pretty awesome. I guess...I was raised by them more than my parents ever did. I love them but....they did a lot of bad things. And here....I learned a lot. Weird things happened and...bad things sometimes....but we got through it. Cause you're right...we're family cause we wanna be. And that's the best kind sometimes."

Glancing back down to the skillet, she put a couple of pieces of bread on to toast. "How many do you want?"

They smelled delicious, "Two?" Matt asked. "Or are there chips or something?" He knew there were somewhere, but he had no idea what kinds or where. He really needed to learn this kitchen and get it functional. Not that he cooked much.

"Uhh..." Molly glanced around. "There can be? I think there's a bajillion flavors in the cabinet. Do you like cheddar sour cream chips? Those would go best with the best grilled cheese ever. Oh! I also add chives to the grilled cheese....there's one of my super secret ingredients so please don't tell, kay? If you don't want 'em I can leave 'em out."

She added some cheese to the bread, then opened up a bag of pre cooked bacon someone'd made earlier, knowing it was always on hand cause people at the mansion looooved their bacon.

"Sounds good," Matt wasn't that picky so long as it wasn’t too spicy. He did not do well with spicy food. "I will not tell your secret, either. Scouts honor." He held up three fingers.

Molly nodded. "Excellent. Cause then I'd have to kill you," she said with a cheerful grin. A few minutes later she had grilled up three grilled cheese sandwiches, two for Matt and one for herself. She grabbed a bag of chips from the cupboard, then put it on both plates and put it in front of Matt along with a bottle of water.

"And....viola!"

"Washable played and everything, so fancy!" He exclaimed. It did smell amazing and he tugged his sleeves up just a little so he would be less messy, "Thank you for cooking. And for not killing me. My brother works in Alaska and he'd have to come avenge me, then things would get really bad for everyone. And I'm not interested in dying over a grilled cheese."

"Yeah, that'd be a crappy thing to die for," Molly said as she put the skillet in the sink to soak and then sat down with her sandwich.

"But I'd totally fight him.," she said with a sage nod.

"The secret recipe is important."

"Oh, see, now I'm curious," Matt made appreciative noises as he took a bite of the sandwich. Oh that was good! The chives he could taste and the bacon, but what was that little extra? He couldn't quite place it. "Who would win between you and Clint? What're your powers?"

"Cl--?!" the sudden rush of air and surprise caused a bit of sandwich to lodge in Molly's throat and she began to cough, trying to get it out, but was having little luck.

Standing up, Matt leaned over the table to knock Molly on her back to help get her some air so she wouldn't chooke. "You alright?" he asked.

Molly greedily gulped down a few breaths, putting her hand to her throat. "Yep," she croaked.

"I'm good." She was glad he didn't see her turn red with embarrassment, or that she didn't get to finish saying Clint's name.

"Wrong windpipe. What'd you say before?"

"I was asking about your powers. See if they'd help you against Clint or if his would win out," two adopted brothers, both mutants. They knew the odds of that were pretty slim, but there it was.

"Oh," Molly said. Her face flickered briefly with sadness as she realized. He said he was older than him. If this was the "same" Clint it meant his other self died too since it hadn't been years here, just months. She didn't think about that. And now there was another version of him.

She peered down at her sandwich, realizing she'd stopped talking too long. "Uh...well, I'm invulnerable. And I'm super strong. So...I'm totally like Supergirl but better," she said, flashing a smile. She still liked unsquishable but sometimes she switched it around a little.

"Hmmm..." Matt tapped his chin with a finger, "Next time he's around, this needs to happen just to see what happens. His powers are more long-range. Could be interesting," no 'could' about it. Definitely interesting.

Taking a bite of her sandwich, Molly nodded. "Oh totally," she said. She'd have to meet him some time. The other him was gone but this one was still sorta like him. That was something, right?

"What are his powers?"

A hint of her was hoping he'd say some different powers, like maybe it was really another Clint and there were two Clints Matty happened to know. It'd be a funny coincidence.

"His eyes, he sees better," Matt explained, "We're opposites, in a way. Sometimes, the world and fate is a funny, funny thing," there was more to Clint's powers than that, but Matt knew Clint preferred to keep things quieter because of his job. "Anyways. This is amazing."

Same Clint. Totally fine Molly.

"Oh...That...would make long range stuff good," she said, fumbling over the words as she shoved a chip in her mouth. She chewed for a few moments, letting out a soft sigh that she tried to mask by the crunching of her chips, since Matt could hear really well.

"You're welcome. Clint can try some too when I get to meet him. After I kick his butt."

Matt laughed, trying to picture that fight. It seemed lopsided, but he couldn’t quite decide how. "Thank you for dinner. I need to get back to work now. Sadly, I brought work with me for the weekend," hopefully it wouldn't take too long.

"Oh right, lawyer stuff," Molly said, tearing off a bit of her sandwich. "You're welcome! It was nice to meet you, Matty."

"You too, Molly," Matt liked how she said that. "I'll see you around."

"Yep! See ya," Molly said with a grin, which faded into a look of contemplation as she glanced down at what was left of her sandwich after Matt left. She picked it up, squinting at it, then let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding.

"I don't think we're in Asgard anymore, Toto."