Chapter Text
Francis “Frank” G. Castle is a lot of things. He’s the Punisher, delivering justice with violence, reveling in the sureness of each shot he delivers. He’s also a highly wanted criminal in the city, so no one interacted with him as much, just as he liked it. He’s also ‘the weird red-pilled guy’ people who aren’t really familiar with him refer to as, but that one isn’t true. Everyone, man, woman, and other, is equal in his eyes, and especially in the eyes of his sniper scope.
What he isn’t, is a host.
Which is precisely what he’s doing right now.
It’s been a couple hours since Spiderman’s hospital release, although no one else knew that but Frank. He walked out of the hospital with the mask and the gloves safely stored inside his vest. He thought of driving to the kid to return them but he realized that he did not know where spiderman is, only looking haplessly at the Spidey Tracker as it remained inside the hospital. He decided that Spiderman would probably swing by his place to take it back again, so he returns home, expecting him to come at a later time.
As he expected, Spiderman does come, but not in the way he had expected him to. He’s still wearing the clothes he left the hospital with.
“Are those… bags?”
“Yeah um”, the kid looked shy all of a sudden, “I got kicked out from my place and I sorta don’t have anywhere to stay in right now so.”
Frank raises an eyebrow. The spider kid winced.
“Can I.. you know.”
“Can you what?”
“You know”
“No, I don’t”, by this point Frank reminded himself to widen his patience. He’d just shot the kid for fuck’s sake. “Just say it.”
“Can I sleep here? Just for tonight.”
Frank paused, turned to look at his house, then back at the Spider. His first reaction was “Are you sure?”
The kid—and really he should stop calling him that but he just looked so young and—looked taken aback for some reason. “I- yeah?”
“Why not rent a hotel, or something? My place ain’t exactly accomodating”
“Oh”, ‘Damn it’ thought Frank, the kid looked so fucking sad when he suggested that, “Nevermind, come in.”
The way the kid lit up made something in Frank’s stomach churn, he will not acknowledge this.
Spiderman was already hauling his ass and his stuff through the door, “Man thank you, really, I didn’t know where else to go and- well you really owe me because of Staten I-“ If Frank could roll his eyeballs past their sockets, it would reach Andromeda.
“Man, shut the fuck up.” Frank said fondly, watching as he placed his bag on his couch. Spider kid looked at him and grinned, “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“No, not for this—but thank you by the way—thank you for saving me.”
“Fuck you talking about?”Frank closed the door, “I shot you kid.”
“Then carried me to the hospital, that cancels it out.”
Frank lets out an exasperated sigh, “Look, I-“, he wets his lips, “I’m sorry, about that. I don’t remember apologizing for it yet, you deserve a proper apology. I almost- I did kill you, if it weren’t for that witch kid you’d be-“
“Hey”, the kid raised his hands up, almost placatingly, “Hey it’s alright”, Frank was acutely aware the kid was moving towards him, “We talked about this, it isn’t- well it is but- you didn’t mean to shoot me.”
Didn’t mean to, but did anyway.
“Spiderman, don’t-“
Of course, he didn’t listen and touched him, his arms, “You’re bleeding.”
Frank looked down, he had gripped so hard onto nothing that his nails dug deep enough to draw little blood crescents on his palm. He looked back up at the kid, and shook his hands off.
“There’s left overs in the microwave”, the older man began walking away, “I’ll set up where you’ll sleep tonight. Help yourself.”