Chapter One: Ninjas and Chocolate

"Wow, look at that. No Eyes is back!"

"Of course he's back. Who the hell would want a kid that can't see? That's like buying a broken toy. Stupid."

"Look, he's still got his weirdo stick!"

Matt ignores them. He keeps walking. Keeps putting his cane in front of him as though nothing is wrong, that he needs the beat of the wood hitting the ground to not run into something.

But it's just not true.

Through sound, through his other senses, he can feel the butterfly just to the left landing on a leaf. He can feel the stray dog digging through trash for scraps two blocks over and one of the younger orphan girls peeking around the corner as she listens to the boys mocking Matt.

He can even feel his assailants. The biggest kid that's probably the oldest, maybe fourteen, he's doing most of the taunting. Matt knows him from before he left with Stick, people call him Bones. He has two followers. Younger, twelve of thirteen. Matt's never learned their names.

He knows he could kick these guys' teeth in. But Stick said not to show anyone what he could do.

Stick's not here anymore, though.

And that's also why he doesn't feel any urge to do it. Matt feels empty.

So he keeps walking. And ignoring. Though their voices are loud in his ears, it doesn't mean he has to listen, right?

But his cane is ripped away from him.

"Look what I got!" sings Bones.

"That's mine. Give it back!" Matt demands. He's probably not very threatening. To them, he's just some defect kid.

Bones gives it a flip. Matt is still determined to redeem himself from making Stick leave. He hides his true abilities and acts defenseless. So though Matt feels a deep rage, he waits. Like what meditation teaches, the last thing Stick told him to work on. Waiting.

Before he waits very long though he feels the pitter-patter of light shoes touching the ground, coming fast and swift.

"Give it back!" shouts the little girl as she runs towards them, putting herself between Matt and Bones. "Give him back his blind stick."

"Get out of here, Poots," Bones dismisses her.

"You're gonna make fun of a blind kid for being brought back? What's your excuse Bones? You barely lasted a week at your last place!"

Matt feels the kid get angry. He scrunches up his nose as his breathing becomes harsh. "You're one to talk Mary Sue! You've been to more foster homes than anyone and you're only nine years old!"

She's hurt. The words wound her in some way, but the girl stays wild. It fuels her voice. "Never said I was perfect. But I'm not the one picking on blind kids. Now give it back!"

Bones nods to Matt. "You gonna let a little girl fight your battles for you, huh Murdock?"

Matt doesn't say anything as Mary Sue crosses her arms. "It's fitting," she says. "Because you're about as smart as one."

Oh. That makes the kid really angry.

He grabs the front of Mary Sue's shirt and lifts her tiny form off the ground. Matt almost breaks his code, almost defends. Instead, he lets them think he heard the scuffle. But if they go too far… Matt's not going to let some kid get hurt for him.

"Let her go!" Matt shrieks. He hears Mary's heart and though it's fast, she's not as scared as he thinks she'd be.

"You want a Knuckle Sandwich Mary Sue?" asks Bones. "Knuckles would happy to make one for you."

One of his companions cracks his fingers in preparation.

Mary Sue scoffs. "Oh, you mean James?"

"My name's Knuckles now!" says James as he steps forward.

Mary shrugs, Bones' fingers still entwining with her shirt. "You're right. Everyone remembers you getting nicknamed. But do they remember back when Bones was Bertram?"

The kids in the back tilt their heads in what Matthew thinks must be confusion. Bones' heart goes twice as fast.

"What's she talking about Bones?" asks the smallest kid.

"She's… nothin'!" he says defensively and gets real close to Mary Sue's ear. "You shut up or I'll make you eat those words!"

"Or," she says pointedly, "you give this kid back his stick thing and I won't make sure everybody knows your real name. Bertram."

The words were spoken so quietly it was assumed only those two could hear.

He throws her down backwards.

"C'mon boys, lets go somewhere else." Bones throws Matt's cane right onto Mary Sue, whose arms are still beside herself from the shove so it lands across her belly. "No fun when the kid can't even see what we're doing anyhow…"

"But-" starts James, though Bones yells "let's go!" and the two smaller boys know better than to disagree with their leader. They walk back inside.

Mary Sue dusts herself off as she gets up with Matt's cane. "Here," she says, offering it to him. "Sorry about that. Those guys are jerks."

Matt blinks. "Why'd you help me?"

"Well, let's just say I know how rough it is when you're… 'not a good fit'," she says. She makes quotation symbols with her hands and he can tell the exact moment that she realizes he shouldn't be able to see them, her hands stunting to a stop in the air.

"Ok. I can take care of myself though."

Matt turns around. He doesn't want friends. He doesn't need friends, and he especially doesn't need some little nine-year-old hanging out around him.

The girl scoffs loud and grabs his shoulder.

"Excuse me? I just saved your butt and all you have to say is 'I can take care of myself.' How about a thank you Mary Sue, or, you're awesome Mary Sue." She grimaces. "Well you can like, leave the 'Sue' part out. And 'Mary' now that I think about it. Boy, I hate my name…"

"How did you know his name?" Matt asks curiously.

"The computer," Mary says. "The nuns got all our information on there. Sometimes I like to go digging… it's fun," she says. "You're Matt, right?"

He hesitates. "Yeah."

"Sorry you're blind," she says suddenly, and it stalls him for a second. People aren't usually so blunt.

"Um… actually, my mentor said I was born lucky," he tells her, followed by another wave of grief left by Stick leaving him.

She grins. "That's cool. I don't think I was. But I hear you got to make your own luck."

"Oh. That could be true too."

She sighs. "Well, I guess if you aren't gonna thank me for my awesome saving skills, I think I'll go to dinner before I'm late. Sister Barbara isn't mad at me right now and I think I'm gonna try seeing how long I can keep it that way. Nice meeting you?"

She extends a hand but quickly becomes flustered when she realizes why he doesn't take it. Though instead of just dropping it as most people would, she reaches forwards and grabs his free hand, shaking it hardily.

"See you around," she says, waving, and runs off into the building.

Mary watches Matt Murdock as he slips away again. She knows what it's like, just having to get away. She has a special hole near the back part of the building real close to the fence that she can wriggle under super easy. She likes just walking around the neighborhood sometimes by herself.

Matt doesn't do any of that though. He just walks out. Sure, he's a couple years older than her and the big kids do get more privileges (they're allowed to walk home from school, Mary's really excited for that) but he's blind. He shouldn't go off on his own, right? Why does no one care where he's going?

She knows he doesn't have many friends. She could tell he didn't want her to be his friend the first time they talked, but it lessened the blow once she realized he didn't want anyone around. It's not like she's that close to his age anyway, but still. She's mature for nine.

Anyway… curiosity gets the better of her and she goes to her super secret hole and follows him.

He goes pretty far. Out of their more suburban alleys and onto streets with businesses. He walks fast too, but he's got his stick.

It's when some stupid kid on a skateboard comes that she nearly shouts. He's going way too fast and not stopping and heading right for Matt!

And then it gets weird.

Matt just ducks away. Moves to the side. Really gracefully, like way more gracefully then she woulda been! As though he could not only see, but knew where it was going to end up before it even came close.

Mary realizes she's covering her mouth in shock, still pretty far back from him on the sidewalk, and has to get her feet moving again from their frozen state to keep up with him.

He ends up going to some ratty old building in the end. A place that used to be used for boxing.

Mary's not stupid. She's heard about Matt Murdock way before she got into the nuns' computers. Kids raised in Hell's Kitchen made a big deal about him coming to the orphanage. He was blinded saving a person, like a real hero!

His dad was a boxer. He died right after a match. And this looks like…

Well, it looks like the place his old man kicked the bucket.

So she figures it's a sentimental thing. Mary still doesn't feel good about leaving the blind kid on his own but…

Whack! Whack! Whack!

"What was that?" Mary whispers to herself when she hears the noises. She decides a peak inside won't hurt.

She curls around a wall and watches Matt from the corner.

He goes at the bag like a viper or something. Woosh, bang, wham! He moves super quick like the roadrunner on Saturday morning cartoons and seems to sense the bag as it goes back and forth.

It's crazy! It's amazing! It's –

Probably impossible for a blind dude.

Matt suddenly places a hand on the bag, stilling it. He stands still too.

"Who's there?" he calls out. Mary instinctively crouches back into the corner, troublesome nature reminding her to hide. He looks right at her. "I know you're there!"

She picks herself and stands tall. "Are you even blind?" she exclaims.

"Mary?" he asks.

"Uh huh," she says, walking out from her hiding place. She becomes very bold at his stupor, coming forward and grabbing the glasses right off his face. "You're not blind, are you? You can see!"

"No I can't," he defends quickly. She's never seen his actual eyes before. They are a little off focus… but in her general direction. And he could be faking.

"You can't be a ninja if you can't see! And dude, you are a ninja."

"I'm not!"

"Yes you are, you have all this super secret know how! I just watched you. And I saw you get out of the way of that skateboard."

He just grimaces.

Oh yeah, she's got him.

"So where'd you learn to be a ninja?" She gasps in excitement. "Was your boxer dad really a ninja? Was he just pretending to be a boxer? Were you like the karate kid? That's so cool!"

"I'm not a ninja," Matt protests. "And you shouldn't be here. You're too young to be walking around the city!"

"Says the kid who was my age when he saved a guy's life! Plus the nuns never notice anything…"

"Well it's still not safe. Go home, Mary."

"So why don't you tell anyone what you can do?" she asks, completely ignoring his order. It was silly of him to think he could order her around anyway. "You could have kicked those bullies' butts!"

"I'm not supposed to," he says.

"Why not?"

"I'm just not."

Well that's stupid.

"That's stupid."

He smiles. A little. Sorta. "Yeah, it kinda is."

"Can you teach me how to be a ninja?"

He sighs. "No."

"That's lame. So was your dad not a very good ninja? Is that why he died?"

Matt looks like he's been hit and Mary could have whacked herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I never even knew my parents! Sometimes I forget how much you guys loved them."

It's not that, exactly. It's just… she used to daydream that she had the perfect family. A funny dad and a loving mom, and they'd sit down at dinner and laugh and talk and eat.

Mary realized it's easier to think they were mean. Cruel people who left her there. She's sorta numb to bad things said about parents after all that imagining.

Even though he nods at her explanation Mary thinks he might be crying.

"Here," she says, handing him back the glasses she'd snatched. He puts them on. "So… I found a dollar on the way here. Wanna split a Milky Way?"

About twenty minutes later they are outside of a Convenient Food Mart, sitting on a stoop with half of a Milky Way bar in each of their hands.

Matt can't believe he was so stupid. He's never let anyone in on his secret. He can feel stuff and it's never an issue. But he cared about Stick more than he can admit and it let his guard down. Enough for a girl, a nine-year-old girl, to follow him to his dad's place.

That was supposed to be his place.

And he doesn't even like Milky Ways.

She takes a bite into the chocolate bar and then starts talking, which seems like poor planning. "So I'm guessing you don't want me telling nobody about this?" she mumbles.

He fingers the candy nervously. He shakes his head.

"I won't," she says with a smile and a gulp of her food. "I'm great at keeping secrets. Chrissy Elkridge told me something two years ago and I haven't squealed yet! And trust me, it's a doozy."

He laughs. "I'll take your word for it, Mary Sue."

"Ugh," she groans. "Just Mary please. Or nothing. You know what? Nothing is good. Call me Nothing."

"You should probably have a name."

"But my name is horrible."

Well. She's not wrong.

He shrugs. "So change it."

"What? You can't just change your name!"

"Says who?"

"Says… I dunno, the person who made up giving people names… maybe Jesus!"

Matt laughs. "Jesus never said that."

"Well I dunno. I have a hard time listening to what Jesus says, most of the nuns make God sound really mean."

Mathew doesn't like that. God's what gets him through some days. He knows that she probably looks down on Him because the nuns are so abrasive about it though. He can't really blame her.

"If you could change your name, what would you change it to?" he asks.

Mary scrunches up her face. "I dunno. Something cool. I like 'S' names, I think."

"Like Sue?" he asks wryly.

"No!"

"Sara?" he suggests.

"Oh gosh no. Sara Wilkens? She's a ten year old and such a bitch."

"Whoa, Mary!"

"What? She is!"

"That's not a nice word." He's no stranger to swearing, but it sounds wrong coming from her.

Mary crosses her arms. "Perfect for her though…" she grumbles and he finds himself smiling. "So, you're definitely blind, right?"

This girl has a knack for bluntness.

"Yeah, definitely."

"But you can sorta see?" she asks.

"I can… well, my other senses work really well. So I can 'see' but not with my eyes."

"Is that what your mentor meant about you being born lucky? Because… no offense, but a blind kid with no parents doesn't really seem lucky to me."

Matt's breath hitches in his throat.

It doesn't seem that lucky to him either.

"They told me I shouldn't feel sad because of my disability… everyone did. But I… I do. Seeing was beautiful. I'd give anything to see the sky again."

Mary's head goes downward and he can tell he's made her sad.

He feels bad only for a moment before her head perks up with a gasp.

"The sky! Sky!" she exclaims. He thinks she may be losing it.

"Yeah… It's not something you can really hear, and anyway, I can't see colors or anything the way I see."

"Exactly! So my name should be Sky."

He just blinks at first, because he's not entirely sure how she connected the two. "Yeah, that'd be pretty."

Her heart's beating fast with what seems to be excitement. She turns to him. "Ok so give me your hands."

"What?"

"Just give me your hands!"

He looks down at them. One has the uneaten half of the Milky Way. It's started melting onto his fingers.

"What the heck?" asks Mary. Or, Sky now. Maybe. "Why aren't you eating it? It's candy!"

He grimaces. "I don't actually like this kind."

She slaps her hand to her face, pretty over-dramatically. "Oh for Pete's sake. Well don't waste it!" She grabs the chocolate bar and stuffs the whole half into her mouth. It's almost impressive.

"Eow ginnee wore hans," she says.

"What?"

She chomps quickly and swallows down the candy in a massive gulp. Her lips are coated in chocolate she quickly licks at.

"Now gimme your hands!" she exclaims.

Hesitantly he offers them up and she takes them greedily. Then, she slaps them onto her cheeks.

"There!" she exclaims. "You're seeing the sky!"

"Huh?"

"Well, you said you see with your other senses. You're feeling me, hearing me, and now I'm Sky. So you're seeing the Sky!"

"Hm," is all he manages at first. It's ridiculous, because the sky is the thing he's dreamt of seeing most since he became blinded. And this little girl thinks she can just cheat her way through on getting him to see it?

But it was meant with such good intentions. He can feel her excitement, the enthusiasm dancing on her skin as she wants so badly to do something for him. That paints an even better picture in his mind than… seeing the Sky.

It reminds him of when he tried to give the ice-cream wrapper bracelet to Stick, and the way Matt felt when his mentor crushed it. He doesn't want her to feel that way.

"I guess you're right," he finally concedes, making sure to smile as he lowers his hands.

She's utterly pleased and he can't help feeling pleased himself. "You know, you should add an 'e' to Sky," he tells her. "Makes it more of a name."

"Yeah? Ok! Skye…" she says, moving it around on her tongue. "I really like it Matt. I feel like it's me."

"Me too." And he really does, though he's not sure how he can tell. He hasn't known her very long.

"I'm leaving tomorrow," she says sadly. "Another foster home, the Brodys."

"I'm sure it'll go great," he says, because her tone tells him she doesn't feel the same way. But who wouldn't like her? Sure she is pretty… charismatic, but parents like spunky kids. As long as they aren't too mischievous…

Ok he could see that being a problem. But she's got a big heart and he thinks that should make up for it.

She shrugs. "I try not to get my hopes too high anymore. It's easier when I come back that way."

"Don't worry, you're gonna find a family," he tells her.

"You think so?"

"I- I promise."

He doesn't know why he did that. But it seemed like it had to be true. He just has a gut feeling. Though he's hesitant, as Stick's sudden leave makes him wary of any form of sentimentality. Such as a gut promise.

She nudges him playfully, but the beat beforehand makes him think she'd put a smile on her face first.

They go back to the orphanage together. And Skye's right, the nuns don't notice that she'd been gone.

Skye leaves the next day. And though she does come back not too much later, they don't really talk anymore. They are always missing each other somehow or separated by being a few years apart. So they're not really friends, even though they're both very aware she knows his secret. And she'll always be out there, somewhere. But as much as she knows what Matt's hiding he knows she won't tell anyone, either.

After all, she did keep Chrissy Elkridge's secret for two whole years.

A/n: First time writing little Skye, Daredevil, and a crossover! Yay.

I'm not fond of the first part really and would have liked to work on it, but I wanted to get this posted as I was starting to see quite a few Matt and Skye at the orphanage together posts on other sites. Didn't want people to think I copied.

The genre may change... And updates are going to be pretty slow because I want to see where the show goes before I write the end. But I have the next two chapters written. Pleeeease let me know what you think!