Chapter Text
It wasn’t like Frank was an upstanding citizen, okay? He knew that. He knew he was fucked up in the head more than anyone he knew-more than the average person. But, deep down, he knew he still had a heart. He knew he still had some form of affection left. And of course, of fucking course it had to be towards that annoying kid in the latex red and blue suit.
Spider-Man, he reminded Frank of his son, so much. How kind he was to everyone, how he truly was the people’s hero. Frank knew his son would’ve loved this kid, as annoying as Frank found him. Frank Castle Jr., his little man.
He shook his head a little, after Spider-Man retreated back into the room with the girl he brought to Frank’s home, demanding that Frank help him. He huffed a little into his bowl of chili, wondering how the hell he ended up with another annoying asshole (see; Matt Murdock) bugging him.
Deep down, Frank truly didn’t mind. He really didn’t, but Spider-Man didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know that there was ever an inkling that Frank had a heart. He had a reputation to maintain, alright?
He slurped up the last of his chili, starting quietly on washing the dishes they had all used, training his ear to overhear, just in case he needed to intervene. Just in case something went wrong. It wasn’t like he wanted to do it, but the habit was so deeply ingrained in him, he truly didn’t know how to stop. His head turned just slightly at the sound of soft laughter, from both Spider-Man, as well as the girl. Frank knew the anonymous hero was hiding the real reason he brought the girl here, he knew that Spider-Man knew her, on a deeper level than just some girl who was in danger, and sue Frank, he was curious. He wanted to know. But he would wait, until he was told. He had deep respect for this kid, not something he had for most.
One of the dishes slipped from his hands, the water splashing up on the backwash of the shitty kitchen he had inhabited, soaking into the corner of the photo he kept on the ledge, a photo of his little Lisa, with his darling Maria. His eyes roamed over the smile lines in his wife’s face, how beautiful she looked in the sunlight. How her eyes shone so beautifully, a strand of her hair falling over her face. Maria truly was the most beautiful woman Frank had ever seen, had ever known. Her smile, always so contagious, never failing to make him feel all warm inside. Her laugh, just as contagious as her smile, always the most beautiful sound to Frank. He cursed himself silently, realizing he was forgetting the sound of her voice, realizing her laugh had become nearly silent alongside it. His eyes trailed down to his little Lisa, her nose scrunched up from how big she was smiling at Frank behind the camera, her eyes just as bright as her mother’s. Lisa, his pride and joy alongside his little man. Frank felt the guilt, the sadness, the anger that tore through him every single day that they weren’t here, and he was.
He turned off the sink, wiping his hands on a ratty towel that was hanging on the tiny door, stealing one last glance at his girls, before he turned the opposite direction, heading off to bed for the evening. He knew he couldn’t sleep, but he also knew that he had another enhanced hero here, that he didn’t need to carry all of the burden of keeping watch on this dock. He was slightly thankful for that, the bags under his eyes weighing just a little heavier as the days went on.
He stretched his hearing just slightly again, hearing the end of the conversation filtering out between the two of them, hearing the door of the room open, then shut, then Spider-Man, or so he assumed, pulling the chair out at the dining table.
Huh, the kid couldn’t sleep either. Looks like he wasn’t alone in that.
–
It wasn’t like Frank didn’t sleep, cause he did-truly, he did. But, he wouldn’t consider three hours of sleep an eventful slumber.
He let his eyes scan across the water, the gun leaning up against his leg, hearing the wind blow through the air, hearing how the waves in the water moved with one another. He heard the distant honk of a car, then another honk, then silence again.
He took that as his cue to head back inside his makeshift home, his feet pounding down the steps leading to the small dining area, finding Spider-Man asleep at his table, a paper gripped in his hand, head tilted to the side. Why he never took that suit off, it stumped Frank.
It was just Frank, after all. No shame in hiding here.
Spider-Man’s head had perked up slightly, and Frank nodded over to him, his hand reaching over for a coffee cup. The kid straightened, cracking his bones, and Frank grimaced a little at the noise, but sympathized, as his made the same noise.
“Want some coffee?” Frank held up a cup he pulled from the cabinet, shaking it a little at the kid, waiting.
“Sure, thank you.” Frank busied himself while the other pulled his computer closer to him, starting on whatever project he was working on.
“You finish your shit?” Frank knew it came off as crass, but he truly didn’t care. Not this early in the morning.
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did. Thank you again.” Spider-Man gently took the cup of coffee from Frank’s hands, lifting the bottom of his mask to only uncover his mask.
Frank couldn’t help himself from letting out a little chuckle at the sight, baffled again why this kid didn’t just take that stupid mask off. It wasn’t like Frank would even know the kid. He knew the circle he once knew was either dead, in hiding, or in jail. He saw the confusion on the kid’s face with his chuckle, so he just shook his head a little.
“That has got to be the goofiest shit I’ve ever seen. You seriously won’t take that off, even for a cup of coffee?” Sue him, curiosity was killing him.
The kid just merely shrugged, setting the cup down, then pulled the mask back down. “It stays on for everyone, Frank.” Now that had to be a lie.
“Even for her?” He hadn’t meant to let that question out, but it was out in the open now.
They went back and forth for a moment, before the kid made a comment about being just like him. Hiding away, isolating himself from everyone and everything. Something inside of Frank lit up at the comment, something simmering low in his stomach, the anger he had felt every single day almost making its way to the tip of his tongue. He can’t remember what he said before the last bit of his sentence came out, but what he ended with was;
“Not like some coward.”
He didn’t truly think the kid was a coward, not really, but to compare himself to Frank, that just wasn’t right. No one would, or should, ever be like Frank Castle. He didn’t want anyone to be like him.
Some alert came through on the kid’s computer, claiming that he had to go, he found that girl who had been playing with people’s minds. The kid skirted his way past Frank, but stopped right in the entryway below the stairs, hesitating with his words.
“She’ll be safe. I’ll see to it, alright?” Frank knew his voice was soft, but he meant every word. He’d never break a promise he couldn’t keep.
“Thank you, Frank.”
Then, just like that, he was gone. Like he was never there in the first place. He turned to start his way to the table, to grab the coffee cups, but the door opening stopped him in his tracks. The girl stared at him for a second, like she was trying to analyze him. He figured that’s probably what he looked like to her.
“You’re just going to let him go?” Frank let his brow furrow for a moment, blinking, then finding his words.
“He said I gotta babysit you.”
“I think he needs your help,” she smiled slightly, “just like you needed his help in Staten Island.”
Frank cursed her slightly, but his body was already in motion before his mind could tell him no, his hands reaching for the equipment he’d need like it was muscle memory-which he supposed it was-before he made his way out to his van.
He really didn’t know why he was so determined to help this kid, why he kept letting this kid into his life, but he knew he’d figure it out eventually. But for right now, it didn’t matter. The kid needed his help, and as much as he was telling himself he shouldn’t give it, he shouldn’t reach that hand out, he found himself doing so anyways.
–
Now, Frank knew that he had gone up against some pretty ugly people, some large capacity threats in his day, but he has never once, nor did he ever want to, go up against something like the Hulk. His way out of situations was shooting, and here the kid was, yelling at him that this was above Frank’s paygrade.
Frank wanted to call horseshit, tell the kid that he could shoot his way out of this one (“And do what, tickle him to death?”), when the Hulk suddenly stood, and Frank realized that this indeed was above his paygrade.
“Oh shit!” Frank yelled, as the Hulk slammed his foot down, the cement crumbling under Frank, causing him to fall, creating an unbalance that Frank hadn’t truly experienced in a long time.
Seeing the kid in action had always left him slightly in awe, wishing he had that sort of agility. Matt had always had the safe effect on him, how agile they were, how quick they both were. And Matt, a blind man, being able to do what this kid could do without the webs, it made Frank slightly envious.
But not fully.
He felt the webbing suction to his back, dragging him across the floor as the Hulk leaped in the air above him, Spider-Man making sure they never made contact with one another. Truly, the kid was something else.
Frank still wanted to shoot his way out of this.
They were hidden behind a large slab of cement, or maybe a table, who knows. All Frank knew was that he didn’t want to fight the Hulk. He really didn’t, and it seems that the kid picked up on that feeling. He assumed it was written on his face.
“You just want to get out of fighting the hulk, don’t you?” Frank made a face, but he did agree. He felt bad, but also, Spider-Man was more equipped for this kind of threat.
His task was to go and find Jean, and to take her out, just non-leathly. Boring.
“And Frank,” Spider-Man hissed, “do not kill her.” A finger was pointed in his direction, and he started huffing, telling the kid to beat it, to get going on with his own threat. “And don’t get within thirty-three feet of her!”
He waved Spider-Man off, but there was a deep, daunting feeling of anxiety settling in his bones. He wasn’t used to this level of threat, how he couldn’t fight his way out with guns, how shooting something didn’t solve the problem then and there. Possession, is what he figured from the kid, is what this girl was doing. And that’s not something he wanted to mess with.
“Hi, there.”
The girl was right there, and then suddenly, everything was black.
–
Frank truly wasn’t over the feeling of the possession, how that little girl had gone into his mind, had seen the darkest moments of his reality, had forced her way through the walls he had so carefully built. The feeling of uneasiness had increased ten fold since then, especially towards the kid. There was something gnawing at the back of his mind, that something truly horrible was going to happen to this kid.
He was tracking the kid through the Spidey Tracker App, deciding that he wanted to let Spider-Man know that he knew where he was headed, and that he’d intervene if he had to.
“I know what you’re doing kid.” He looked down at his phone, jerking the wheel slightly to miss the car in front of him that had slowed down.
“What–how?” He looked back down at the phone, then back up at the street.
“I have eyes everywhere, kid. You can’t let her out. You don’t know what you’re doing, alright?” He knew he sounded like a dad, but he couldn’t help it. He just couldn’t.
“I have to do something, Frank.”
This kid and his heart of fricken gold. It made him sick sometimes.
–
The girl had taken control of almost everyone within a certain distance on the island, the people under her control stuck in a paralyzed state, their bodies shaking slightly from the force of her ability. It truly shook Frank to his core, to see how helpless almost everyone looked, to see that everyone was frozen in time.
He made his way back to his van, backing up in the middle of the road, despite the protests and honks he received. He needed to call the kid, to let him know what happened, to show him that Frank was right.
“I’m kind of busy Frank!” The sound of metal scraping against concrete, grunts from not only Spider-Man, but others was heard on the other end.
“She took control of everyone within one kilometer of the island kid. You cannot let her out, kid. You just can’t.” He knew he sounded like a petulant teenager at the end, but he truly just–he couldn’t.
“We got it all wrong, Frank. They took her sister, and I handed her right over to the people who did it. I have to go and make this right.” Frank scoffed, his emotions getting the best of him.
“Sentimental horseshit. You’ve seen what she can do, what she’s capable of.” He couldn’t let a threat like that out in the world again. “If you do this, I’m handling it my way.”
Spider-Man began to protest, but the grunting became louder, the sound of metal being broken to pieces, a body slamming on the floor. The call went cold.
“Kid!”
He knew Spider-Man’s heart was in the right place, but he couldn’t let someone like Jean back out onto the streets. He just couldn’t. Jean was too grave of a threat, and he’d take her out if he had to.
His head was on a swivel, looking for somewhere, anywhere, for him to go, before he found an abandoned building to his right. He swerved the wheel, hearing honks of protest, citizens yelling at him, but he didn’t care. His one thought was about getting to the top of the building, because he knew, he knew that he could make the shot from there.
He jumped out of the van, slamming the door shut behind him, making his way to the back. He yanked the doors open, finding the case he needed, the one with his sniper, his beloved weapon. He knew he could do damage with this-he knew he could make the shot.
A voice in the back of his head, one that sounded just like Spider-Man’s, was telling him not to do it, but all it took was one shake of his head to get the voice out, to hear nothing but silence in his skull.
He’d do this himself, he’d end it once and for all, and everyone could go home happy. He could go on and live his life.
Spider-Man could go on, and live his life.