Work Text:
More Than I Should
Frank was not a light man. It always amazed Matt just how heavy he actually was whenever he was forced to carry or support the vigilante. This time, Frank was at least cognizant enough to be somewhat helpful as they made their way back to Matt’s apartment. He groaned every so often as they were forced to climb up the fire escape stairs, but didn’t actually complain about the fact that he had multiple broken ribs and a gunshot wound to his shoulder on top of numerous cuts, scrapes and bruises.
“We’re almost there,” Matt murmured softly.
“You gettin’ tired, Red? I could go dancing after this shit,” Frank snorted. “I told you I’d be fine on my own.”
Resisting the urge to simply drop the former Marine from his shoulder and walk away, Matt sighed. He wondered what Frank would say when he realized that Claire was waiting at his apartment to patch him up. As it was, it had taken a hell of an argument to get him to agree to come back to Matt’s apartment in the first place. There was going to be quite the shitstorm when he realized that there was someone waiting to stitch his ass back together. The man known as the Punisher was not exactly welcoming to those offering help. Deciding that maybe he’d better at least warn Frank, Matt slowed his pace just a bit.
“Look, Frank, a friend of mine is back at the apartment. She’s a nurse—a damn good one—and she’s good at keeping secrets,” he added hastily.
“Fuck!” Frank tried to pull away but Matt’s grip was too strong. “You’d better let go of me, Red. I never agreed to let your skank play doctor on me.”
“Go fuck yourself, Frank,” Matt said suddenly, letting the other man go. “You want to go this alone… go right ahead. Don’t you ever insult one of my friends again.”
Flopping against the railing with a sharp cry of pain, Frank managed to hold himself upright.. He let out a dark laugh. “Guess I hit a nerve.”
“What’s it gonna be, Frank? Do you want to go this alone or do you want help?” Matt clenched his fists and blocked the stairwell with his form.
Frank was silent for a long time. “I guess it’d be stupid to turn back now.”
“And?”
“And what? You want me to say I’m sorry, Red? Fine. Sorry I called your friend a skank,” he grumbled.
Without another word, Matt tucked himself back under Frank’s arm.
Much to Matt’s surprise, Frank was far more courteous to Claire than he ever had been to him. He called Claire “ma’am”, which earned him a chuckle from the nurse and a bit of grudging respect from Matt.
“Are you going to be a pain in the ass like our friend here and refuse pain meds?” she asked as she inspected the hole in his shoulder. “You’re lucky this went through without hitting anything major, but it’s still going to hurt like hell while I close it up.”
Frank’s heart rate jumped just a bit. “I’ll be here to keep an eye out,” Matt assured him.
“That supposed to make me feel better, Mr. Magoo?” Frank joked even as his pulse settled back to its usual steady thrum. “Yeah, give me what you’ve got.”
Whatever Claire gave him seemed to do the trick. He was barely awake as she cleaned, stitched and dressed the wound. Under normal circumstances, he probably would have balked at even bothering with the smaller injuries, but the nurse simply went about her work uninterrupted. Matt had to help her bind his ribs. By the time she was done, they had Frank stripped down to his boxers on the couch under a thick pile of blankets.
“Now I know why things didn’t work out with us,” she teased from the doorway.
“Claire, I’m...”
“You don’t need to say anything,” she interrupted him. “I’m actually almost glad it didn’t. Besides, I’m pretty sure that if you are willing to bring a mass murderer to your home and patch him back together that there has to be more to him. Just take care of yourself.”
Long after Claire had left, Matt sat in the chair across from Frank, listening to his steady breathing. Leave it to Claire to bring up the very thing that Matt had been pretending didn’t exist.He didn’t really want to delve too deeply into how he felt about Frank; there were just too many things to think about. But it felt right somehow to have Frank in his home.
Frank stirred a little in his sleep and mumbled something unintelligible even to Matt’s ears. The blanket slipped off of him, and Matt dropped to his knees to wrap it back around his Frank’s shoulders, but before he could pull away, an iron grip wrapped around his wrist.
“Shouldn’t help me, Red,” Frank muttered in a heavily slurred voice. “Gonna do somethin’ stupid if you keep helpin’ me.”
Matt chuckled. “Like what?”
“Kiss you.”
It wasn’t the answer he’d been expecting, and Matt’s mouth went dry. “Why would you do that?”
“Because you look damn good even in that stupid fucking suit.” Frank’s laugh was lighter than his usual dark grunts. “I like you way more than I should.”
Matt’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he was able to figure out just what the hell to say to something like that. Frank was drugged out of his mind, but he wasn’t lying. Matt almost wished he was. Shaking his head, he leaned back on his heels. “I like you way more than I should, too.”