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Frank knew what others thought of him, especially when the two adults stood at his sides. They were young and broken. He hadn't planned on having a relationship with either of them, much less a friendship, but things happened. A codependent bond developed, and his home grew cold whenever their presence wasn't included in it.
He welcomed the attention they gave him and the damage that lied beneath those exhausted looks of theirs. Of course, the Punisher running around with two vigilantes that he watched from the shadows drew comments. He ignored them as best as he could, not letting the curious remarks of Red and the rest of his sidekicks get to him.
But a man could only take so much, and the ass kissers always came uh knocking. He was smoking a cigarette on his usual evening stroll when he heard someone land behind him. Frank rolled his eyes, finished his puff, and turned to see fucking Bucky Barnes behind him. For heaven's sake, he resisted the urge to ask the man why he wasn't with his rejects as the man came closer.
"Castle." The former assassin greeted him casually, lifting his head to nod at him.
Frank dropped his cigarette and smashed it with the heel of his boot as he responded. "Didn't think you dealt with street-level threats, Barnes."
"I don't," The man grumbled. "I'm here to talk about your relationship with Spider-Man and that telepath you are hiding."
"I'm not hiding anyone, and Spider-Man is an adult. If you want to complain about me working with him instead of your boss, too bad." Frank heard murmurs of who was behind the New Avengers, and he didn't want Peter involved with her.
They had tried, of course, to recruit the twenty-two-year-old multiple times. Peter always rejected them and told Frank about the various attempts at blackmail they tried. The man could only guess that Barnes was going to try the same. No matter what a man said, once they aligned themselves with people like that, they were tainted. Barnes could play little orphan Annie with the cameras, but Frank saw the demon waiting to be let loose.
He got himself a new handler; what a good boy.
"We've all seen the photographs of you with a redhead. Young, maybe eighteen, always with a hoodie or face mask on. Attached to your hip along with some brunette." Barnes said with a raised eyebrow, as if daring him to lie again.
Frank laughed. "Fuck. You government mutts are trained to really sniff shit out. Your owner must be so proud of you. I bet you're getting a cookie after this."
Barnes glared, and that metal arm of his came lunging forward, snatching him up by the collar of his shirt. The man knew he should probably be scared shitless right now because if the dog really wanted to, he could snap his neck. Frank just was too stubborn to give a damn about his own life when this bastard was trying to steal what was his. He watched the super soldier twitch, his annoyance at the comments bleeding through his usual shield of dry sarcasm and pitiful whining.
"Castle, I'm the only friend you got here because if it was my teammates coming, they may not be as patient. The girl is dangerous, and neither you nor Spider-Man can handle her." Barnes argued with that self-serving hero complex of his.
It grossed the Punisher out, and he laughed some more at the idea of Jean being tamed by his team of leftovers. "I ain't offering either of them to you, Barnes. You're going to have to deal with that."
There was a possessive edge to the word "them" that made the former assassin's eyes darken. He huffed at that because he wasn't like the man's handlers or whatever the hell Sam Wilson was to him. The younger pair he viewed as his because they were his. He took care of them. Fed them. Sheltered them when they were trying to kill themselves with their stupid ass choices. He wasn't going to let some corrupt agency come snatch them up and parade them all over television as their newest avengers.
"Those kids are stubborn as hell and will go down fighting if you try to drag them into your mess of a team. You know how deadly she is and how beloved he is by the entire city. Even you will struggle against them Barnes and I'm not just talking about a one-on-one." Frank felt pride fill his chest as he reminisced on the strength the duo had.
He knew his kids weren't pushovers. They could take a punch and whatever Barnes' boss had in mind would be little more than a pinch to them. He could see that the man knew that too, as his face cracked and he scowled. The super soldier said something under his breath in Russian that he could only assume was an insult from the venom in it. Before Frank could comment on it the man dropped him hard. Pratically throwing him on the ground as he stared down at the man with his frustration bleeding through his poker face.
"Fine. Then you need to be prepared for the redhead to be wanted for her tantrum earlier this year." The man flexed his mental arm, and Frank could only imagine how easily he could crush a windpipe with it.
He rubbed his throat as he got up and glared. "If someone like you can have the red carpet rolled out for them, she'll be alright."
Barnes' eyes turned pratically under that long hair of his, and he hissed, with some spit leaving his mouth from how irritated he was. "Ты сволочь!"
"Yeah, don't know what that means and I don't care. Back off the kids, guard dog." Frank snapped right back.
"You goddamn–Ничтожество–oh, shut it with the childish insults, Castle. I don't take them lightly." Shit, Barnes really had a bone to pick with him, and the constant demeaning comments made it only worse. "I only came here to talk, and you turned it into a fight."
"Sneaking up on me is your idea of a friendly greeting? Jesus, Barnes." Frank threw his hands in the air and scoffed.
"Castle." Barnes kept going on, and it pissed him off.
"The answers no. She isn't turning herself in, he isn't joining your dysfunctional fuck fest of mutts, and that's final. Got it?" He tilted his head.
That drove the soldier over the edge as he gave one final response in Russian before walking off. The message was loud and clear, however. Whoever was behind the New Avengers wanted his kids, his property, and Frank wasn't going to let that happen. They were the ones he welcomed into his bed after so long and the only ones who saw the raw sides of him that would terrify the general population. He had opened himself up to them and they bared their souls in rage, tears and joyous laughter. He'd die before he lost them.