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“You sure you're alright, Red?” Frank asked as they both made their escape before the cops arrived, they had taken down a drug ring tonight that they had been tracking for weeks. They had it under control until one of those assholes decided to throw in a flash grenade. Frank was unscathed, well moderately unscathed, having recognised it in time and letting his marine training do the muscle memory work. Unfortunately, Red couldn’t say the same thing, having been closer to the blast he got the brunt of it, especially having those extremely sensible hearing of his.
“I’m fine.” Matt gritted out, tilting his head as he made his way through the rooftops, slower than usual but faster than Frank. After all, Frank preferred the method of killing his way out of situations, guns blazing and fight anyone dumb enough to arrest him while Matt preferred to leave the scene before anyone even knew he was there.
“If you say so.” Frank said unconvinced. “Just don't go deaf again.”
“That only happened twice and one of them was your fault.”
“That was an accident.”
“Shooting me in the head was an accident ?” Matt voiced in disbelief, halting his movements completely and turning around to face him for better emphasis on his words.
“Not that, just the deaf part.”
“Wow, that's much better.” Matt deadpanned before shutting up, tilting his head once again, hearing the police sirens in the background. “Police aren't coming this way; you should be fine going back to your safe house tonight.”
“Nah, I'm crashing at your place tonight, it's closer.”
“I don't remember inviting you.”
“You never do, but your couch is comfier than the shit bed I have back there.” Frank retorted with a chuckle but then frowned. “Since when do you get so cagey about it?” He frowned, pursing his lips as he thought for a moment until it hit him, he squinted his eyes at him. “What aren't you telling me?”
“Nothing.” Matt shrugged; it was too forced, too tense.
“Bullshit.”
Matt said nothing in return but began to walk a little faster than before.
“Red.” Frank caught up to him and grabbed his shoulder before Matt moved away. The fact he even managed to get a hold of him told him something was wrong.
“Leave it.”
“Yeah, no.” Frank grunted and grabbed both his shoulders with his hands to make him stand still, carefully looking over for any signs of injuries. He didn't have to look for long because even in the dim light, thanks to the moonlight and some faraway streetlights, he could see Matt’s black suit had a visible slash on his upper leg, blood staining the pants. “What the hell? Why didn't you say anything? We have been walking for almost an hour how are you even standing up?” Frank guessed between now and then the amount of blood he’d lost would be enough to make him wobbly on his feet.
“It's nothing, I’ve had worse and telling you would only have slowed us down.”
“You are bleeding!”
“So are you, and you don't see me complaining.”
“For fucks sake, I’m worried, not complaining.” Frank grunted and ripped a piece of his shirt to tie around the leg to stop the bleeding, ignoring the annoyed huffs from Matt. “This should hold up until we get home.”
“Who knew you were a mother hen?” Matt mumbled. “I'm telling Karen.”
Frank grunted. “ Not a mother hen, I'm simply surprised at the amount of self-preservation you're clearly lacking.” He helped Matt by wrapping an arm around him, so he didn't have to put too much weight on the leg.
“You really can't say anything, you have as bad at self-preservation as me.”
Frank chuckled. “Oh naw, I might be bad at it but at least I didn't willingly let a building fall on top of me.”
“No, but you did get blasted in an explosion, got shot in the head and continued on murdering people after.”
“Touché.” Frank sighed. “How did ya even know about that?”
“Karen told me.”
“Traitor.” Frank shook his head with a small chuckle. “You hurt anywhere else?”
“I’m fine.”
“Too bad I don't believe you.”
“Frank.” Matt groaned in annoyance.
“Red.” Frank huffed back.
“Nothing that will kill me.”
“You are hurt, noted.”
“I'm done partnering up with you.” Red let his head drop for a second as they made it to the rooftop entrance of his home.
“Fine by me, I’ll go back to killing all my targets.” Frank said, happier than he should have been.
“No .”
“Pfft, you know I only let them live because you're such a goody two shoes.”
“I hate you.”
“Yeah, I bet.” Frank helped him onto the couch and waited patiently until Matt took his suit off so he could stitch him up. He let out a puff of air when he saw Matt’s ribs were already bruised and they looked off, even more so than the slash on his leg. He pressed his fingers on the ribs, confirming his suspicions, he ignored Matt’s wince as he cursed. “Goddammit it, Matt. Broken ribs? You should have told me” He gritted out. “How the hell did you even manage to get so hurt?”
“Flash bomb.” He said. “My hearing was off, and they got a jump on me, it happens.”
“So, you also lied to me when I asked about it.” Frank ran a hand through his hair before taking off his punisher vest for better mobility and began to patch him up.
An hour later he had successfully stitched Matt’s leg and bandaged the ribs as well as a few cuts in his face, the black mask barely protected him from punches, but the idiot still wore that instead of his red suit. Making sure his work was done for the night, Frank laid back on the couch and sighed. “I am telling Karen about this.”
“Don't you dare, Frank.” He sat up straighter, ignoring the pain as he moved. “She won’t let me hear the end of it.”
“Should've thought ‘bout it before you were an idiot.”