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souliebird · 1 year

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sugar skulls & altars

Frank Castle x OFC || 4,233 words

xxxxx

She makes him feel like Frank Castle

xxxxx

A love letter to my Punisher oc bc I'm a big fucking Sap.

Frank wants nothing more than to take off his fucking boots.

They are sopping wet and the left one is torn to shreds. It's barely holding together. Which only furthers his anger because he Liked these boots. He actually shelled out the money to Red's suit maker to get them custom made. Now he'll have to track the guy down again.

After he tracks down the rest of this fucking gang he's after.

But that's for another night. He's done tonight. He needs to restock and think and cool down. Going in angry won't do him any favors. These fuckers are clever, way more than he gave them credit for.

And maybe a beer or two won't hurt. Take Max out.

Check on his girl across the hall. He hasn't seen his little angel in a few days - hell, he hasn't been to his apartment in a few days. He feels like a fucking asshole over it, relying on her to take care of Max. He knows she doesn't mind it, Max practically belongs to her now, the little traitor, but Frank doesn't want to give her more to worry about.

She's got the weight of the world on her shoulders, his Sadie. If he could admit it to himself, he'd say he loves her for it. Her absolute genuine concern for everyone else.

"Whatever I can do to help," she always tells him with the brightest smile.

Yeah, if she's up, he'll knock on her door.

Frank slumps his way from where he's parked his van to the building that holds his apartment. No one else is on the street, but he knows better than to let his guard down. His dwindling anger keeps him vigilant and he keeps his hand on his gun until he's through the front door and in the lobby. He doesn't bother with the elevator, heading right to the stairs for the short trek up three flights. The building's quiet for the most part. The walls are pretty thin, so there's always some noise, but the people here are just trying to get by. He doesn't need to worry much about finding a junkie in the stairs or kicking down a door to stop some asshole from beating on his wife.

It's one of the better shitholes he's lived in.

The bulb in the hallway is burnt out, but it only serves to help him see the little sliver of light shining out from under Sadie's door. He pretends to not notice the pleased feeling that settles in his chest and forces himself to go to his own door instead of straight to knocking on hers.

Max is waiting for him when he opens the door. His tail is wagging and he's doing his little tip-tap dance as Frank pulls what's left of his boots off. The second he tosses them aside, Max is on him, pushing his big square head into Frank's hands.

Frank instantly starts scratching at his jowls, "I missed you, too, bud. You bein' a good guard?"

His answer is more tip-taps and some face licks. He indulges in another minute of pets before pulling away. His gear joins his boots on the floor then he makes his way to the bathroom.

The second he turns on the light, he's grimacing at his reflection. He looks like fucking shit. Bruising and cuts cover his face. Drying blood is caked all over him. He's lucky the worst he got tonight was a deep swipe in his side with a knife. He already wrapped that in the van, keeping himself from bleeding over everything.

He can't go see his girl looking like this, so he starts the shower and peels out of his clothes. He's just as covered in blood and grime naked. He buzzed his hair earlier that week, so at least he's not going to need to scrub his scalp to death to get clean.

But he still spends a good twenty minutes in the shower, making sure there isn't a speck of dirt on him.

Max is sitting in the doorway when he steps out of the shower and gives Frank an excited wiggle when he's looked at, coupled with some grumbly whines. His 'pitbull talk' as Sadie calls it. He's been doing it more and more and she encourages it, pretending to have conversations with the dog. Frank may or may not have picked up on the habit.

He raises his brow at Max, "You givin' me attitude now?"

He can't help but snort when he just gets a big dog smile in return.

"That's what I thought."

He gives Max another scratch as he passes from the bathroom back into the main room, going to grab some sweats and a shirt to throw on. He thinks for a to moment, then digs his sneakers out from under the bed. He's so used to wearing his boots to do everything, he can't even remember the last time he wore them. He doesn't even go jogging or shit like that. He's got some older boots, but he's not going to break those out just to take Max out.

And that's not just because he's got no idea if they are in his apartment or one of his safe houses.

He's gonna fucking bulk order from Red's suit guy.

Max seems to know the plan. Frank's not even fully dressed before the leash is being pushed against his hand. He takes it with a huff and a smile, and clips it to Max's collar. He can't even be annoyed about the dog being pushy - he's been a crap owner. He'd be eager too, if he'd been locked up in the apartment.

He finishes putting his shoes on then lets Max lead him out. The air is a lot crisper now that his adrenaline is down. Halloween is right around the corner - he's been roped into joining Red's little group to make sure no one tries to burn the fucking city down.

He starts to think up a plan for the rest of the night as he walks Max around the block. He knows Sadie will want to clean him up a bit and feed him and he'll let her. He's become spoiled on her cooking - he's bulked up a bit since she came into his life and he won't complain one bit. And she gets the good beer.

Maybe he can talk her into watching some horror movie. She doesn't like the R-rated shit, she's too sweet for that, but he's sure they can find something tame enough. Something they can enjoy and he can just take a moment to fucking Relax.

It's something he's forgotten how to do. He's always head down in his work, going after some shit bag or another. Grinding down anything left of Frank Castle and encompassing The Punisher has been his balance for the past year or so. Not losing himself like Red did, he's not letting a building collapse on him, it just didn't feel like the world needed Frank Castle anymore.

'Til he stumbled upon her, literally, and she took one look at the Punisher and only saw Frank Castle.

Maybe he'll pamper her instead, coax her into a bath and massage. Taking care of her gives him a sense of calm he hasn't had since Lisa was in diapers. Nothing else matters except what's in his hands.

He licks his bottom lip at the thought of digging his thumbs into her shoulders, making his angel sigh in delight. Having her completely melt under him, trusting him so completely to take care of her. Soft conversation about whatever project she's wrapped up in, feeling like an actual person instead of a ghost of a man.

So yeah, he'll do that, make up being away with doting on her. Solid plan, room for improvising.

He tugs on Max's leash, dragging the dog's attention away from whatever he was sniffing, and starts heading back to the apartment building. It only takes a few minutes, Max trotting by him, throwing up those happy dog smiles to him. He lets himself smile too.

The building is still just as quiet when he returns, the only sound as he starts up the stairs being the jingle of Max's tags. He stops in front of Sadie's door and tells Max to sit before knocking.

Frank knows she knows it's him, but he can't help but smile as he hears her push against the door so she can look through the peep hole. She's soft, but far from stupid.

His world brightens as the door swings open and he's met with a blinding smile.

"Frank! I wasn't expecting to see you tonight," she says, stepping back so he can come in. After Max, who pushes his way in to his favorite human. Sadie bends to scratch his ears, eyes never leaving Frank.

She looks so sweet, he has to tell himself he can just throw her over his shoulder and take her to bed. Her mane of curls are thrown up in a bun and even though it's the end of October, she's wearing a tank top and little sleeping shorts. It doesn't leave much to the imagination.

"Saw you were still up, wanted to check in," is his reply to her. "How you doin', sweetheart?"

Sadie unclips Max's leash and he barrels his way to the couch, probably going to right where she had just been sitting. She doesn't seem to mind, turning her attention to Frank, putting her hands on his chest and leaning up on her tip toes to press a feather light kiss to his lips. He instantly reaches around to run his hands over her ass before squeezing her cheeks, pulling her closer to him. She gives a pleased hum against his lips.

"Better with you here." She pulls back and taps her fingers against him, lips turning into the slightest frown, "There's glass in your arm."

He gives her another squeeze before letting her go, and looking at the back of his forearm. It's like his boot, shredded to fuck. He went through a window at some point, so he's not surprised glass got in there. Everything kinda hurts, so he didn't even realize.

Sadie traces her finger up to his neck, dancing over his skin before cupping his jaw. Frank leans into it eagerly, "Let me grab my tweezers."

He's reluctant to let her go now he has his hands on her, but he behaves. He kicks off his shoes and follows her into the main room.

Max has made his home on the couch and the table in the front of him is covered in what looks like disassembled picture frames. His sweet girl is always working on some type of project and he can't wait to hear about whatever she's doing now.

After she patches him up.

He plops himself down at the kitchen table and rests his arm there, turning it so Sadie can easily get to the cuts and waits. A moment later, she's coming out of the bathroom with bright pink tweezers. He smiles at the sight - he bought her a whole grooming kit in obnoxious colors and it pleases him she uses it.

She playfully snaps them at him as she sits, "I only felt a few, so it will just take a minute."

Frank hums, "Baby girl, you know there's no rush."

She just smiles at him then turns her attention to his wounds.

He doesn't take his eyes off her.

With such gentleness and care Frank has never deserved in his life, Sadie picks up his arm and the slightest tingle goes down his spine as all the pain in his body is dulled into nothingness. In the blink of an eye, the scrapes on his knuckles are gone, like they were never there to begin with. Every wound, every injury he's gotten over the last week or so disappear, save the cuts on his arm she is pulling glass out of. He can't even feel it - she's numbed the area around it.

He swears she just really be an angel. She can heal anything with just a touch. She's saved his ass too many times to count at this point, Red and Finn's too, and that doesn't compare to the weird underground clinic she works with. She does it all without asking for anything in return and hardly ever questions where injuries came from. And she does it all anonymously - only a handful of people know what she can do. She covers her face and hair when she works.

Frank knows a great deal of it has to do with her fears of being taken to some lab - not that he'd ever let that happen - but he knows she wouldn't want the power that would come with being public. If she wanted it, she could be the richest person in the world. He's seen her cure fucking stage three cancer in a five minute session and save a man who had been stabbed in the heart. People would literally pay billions for a handshake from Sadie Harper.

She barely makes rent.

She thrifts all her clothes and buys her furniture from the flea market.

She lives in this shit hole apartment in Hell's Kitchen and the first time she's ever been outside New York or Jersey, it was him taking her to Connecticut for the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market.

She doesn't have health insurance or the ability to heal herself because Fate truly is a bitch.

She spends all her time cleaning guns with him, talking about her dreams of buying a run down apartment and remodeling it all herself. She's the unofficial doctor for a group of New York vigilantes because she can't afford to go to college. Her hobbies include acting like a nutritionist to all her friends because she can tell all of their blood work with a touch and she is extremely passionate about food and being the neighborhood safe person. Everyone knows Sadie knows the Punisher. He's made sure of that.

And that means kids come to her when someones hurting them. Sometimes it's a bully, and Sadie gives them advice. Sometimes it's a kid who can't go to the ER and knows the Woman at the Clinic won't ask questions. And sometimes those kids keep coming back and back and neither of them say a word over and over and over again until the kids just says a name. Then Sadie never sees that kid again.

And that's who she is and Frank…cares very deeply about her for it.

She makes him feel like Frank Castle again.

"That's the last one."

She drops his hand and bounces up to go clean the tweezers. His eyes go right to her ass. Like a true New Yorker she walks every where and it shows. Frank's a simple man.

"I went to the butcher's today and got more ham for stock. I haven't used it yet, I'll make you a sandwich. Would you like beer or coffee?"

"Beer, please," Frank replies. He finally looks away from her and over to the TV. There's a couple touring some run down looking house. "Where they at?"

"California."

"They're always in California."

"They're based in California, so they didn't spend the money to travel for the first few seasons," she says, starting to flutter around the kitchen, gathering things to cook with.

"Huh," he grunts, and turns on his chair to face the TV. His eyes drop to the frames on the coffee table. "What'cha working on?"

She doesn't respond right away. Frank waits a few moments, thinking she's busy with something or thinking over her answer, before he looks over.

Her back is turned to him and her shoulders hunched up. That makes him knit his brow. He waits. She'll tell him when she's ready, but he doesn't like it's something she's nervous about. She's got some of the worst anxiety he's ever seen, but she's gotten better at knowing he won't get angry at her.

It's not like she's doing anything dangerous - her projects are all crafts in one way or another.

It takes her a full minute before she turns around and comes back to him. He holds out his hands and she takes it, giving the smallest of tugs. He gets up and follows her easily, heading over towards the couch. Max looks up at them, tail starting to thunk hard against the seat. She leads him to the other end and he sits, raising the urge to pull her into his lap. He lets her sit between him and her dog.

Frank finally notices a yellow envelope on the table and he instantly knows it has photos in it. Real printed out photos. He lets go of her hand to reach for it.

Sadie is still as a statue beside him.

There's a fair amount of photos in the envelope and he slides the stack out into his hand.

And nearly fucking drops them.

Lisa and Maria are beaming back up at him, wearing swimsuits at the beach. He's never seen this picture before in his life.

He flips to the next photo.

It's Frank Jr's school photo.

The next is Lisa and her friends at a bowling alley. She's posing with a ball.

The next is he and Maria's wedding photo.

"Facebook," Sadie says so softly it almost spooks him. "And Instagram. A lot of their friends don't have private accounts. I…ummm.. Made enough to make into an album for you, too."

That pulls his eyes away from Maria's smile and he frowns up at Sadie.

She's looking down at her lap, wringing her hands. Her voice is still quiet when she speaks, "Dia de Los Muertos is coming up and I thought they would want to know how you were doing. I've never made one before, but my abuelita would make an altar for my abuelito every year to give him all the gossip, so I kind of have an idea."

Frank looks back to Maria. His chest is getting tight. There's something growing in his throat. "You made 'em an altar?"

She squirms beside him, "I'm still making it…" She sounds ashamed over the fact.

He doesn't know how to feel. There's so much going through him and God, seeing Maria's smile is destroying him but he wants to sear it into his memory. His hands shake as he flips to the next photo.

It's him and Lisa. He remembers taking it - they went to Coney Island without checking the weather and it rained on them. About ten minutes after Lisa demanded they take a selfie.

God, she'd laugh her ass off if she knew how many dumb selfies he's been in. The thought makes him tear up and he starts tracing over her smile. His baby girl. He misses her so much.

He misses them all so much.

He forces his eyes away from the photos and back to Sadie.

She's still not looking at him and he can feel the nerves rolling off her in waves. She's scared how he's gonna react and it makes his heart hurt. He knows whatever she is doing is with pure intentions - she's not snooping around or anything. He's not sure what she's doing, if he's being honest, but he's got a rough idea. He's seen the sugar skulls and knows what an altar is.

Frank swallows the lump in his throat and locks his lips. "Can I help?" He asks and his voice is cracked to shit.

Her head turns to him slowly, her lips turning up into that beautiful bright smile. She starts to nod eagerly, and Frank's heart is pounding in his chest for so many reasons.

"We need to find photos. I was looking for really happy things. Good memories for them to come back to? And…um…" She leans down and Frank watches her pull out a shopping bag out from under the table and up onto her lap. Max pushes his head into her lap, sniffing loudly. She opens the bag towards him and he sticks his head right in. Finding nothing for him, he pulls back and flops back down with a huff.

Sadie then shows him what's in the bag - two little Lego sets, both dinosaur themed. The lump in his throat comes back full force and his hand is shaking again as he pulls out one of the boxes.

They'd go feral for these - Lisa and Frankie. These are the toys aimed at older kids. Hell, he used to always get a kick out of putting them together, no matter his age. It's always been fun to see what little blocks can build. He can hear them in his head, screeching and laughing about stealing each other's blocks. He can picture being roped into building some big thing so they can have their dinosaurs tear it down just in time for dinner.

"I didn't know," Sadie starts, her voice back to being so soft, "if I should build them or not. My abuelito only ever got tequila, cigarettes, and the paper. But they are meant to be played with, so leaving them in the box seems…sad?" She looks from the box in his hands up to Frank's face, "What do you think?"

He licks his lips before putting the box and stack of photographs down on the coffee table. He turns back to Sadie, takes in her large, love filled brown eyes, and part of him just melts.

How can she be so good? So good to him?

There ain't no way in hell he deserves her goodness. And not at this level.

Finding pictures of his family, getting toys for his kids, doing all this because she knows how important they are to him. How important they will always be.

He is supposed to be pampering her and here she is, making him cry.

Frank takes her face in his hands and kisses her, soft but firm, running his thumb over her cheek as he does. She sighs into him, turning towards him so she can rest her palms on his chest. He doesn't miss a beat, dropping his hands to her hips and tugging her into his lap so she's straddling him. She moves so easily for him, making soft little pleased noises the whole time, settling against him.

He slides one hand up her back, pushing up her tank top until he reaches her shoulders, then let's the fabric drop back down, before going up her neck and burying his hand into her hair. He bites her bottom lip lightly before pulling back just enough to talk. She tries to follow him and he ends up mumbling into her mouth between more kisses.

"I think buildin' 'em would be perfect. Think you're perfect, sweetheart, for doin' this. Thinking of them. You got no idea," he gets out as he starts kissing down her jaw to her neck, "Thank you." He might start actually crying if he keeps going, so he buries his face into the crook of her neck. She wraps her arms around his shoulders and holds him close, cradling his head against her and lightly scratching the nape of his neck with her nails. Comforting him so he doesn't turn into a mess.

She kisses his temple and she gives a little hum against him before she starts talking, "You said you don't get to visit them as much as you'd like, so I thought they'd like to know how you're doing. And…" She nuzzles against where she kissed, like she's shy about what she's got to say, "I wanted to meet them…let them know you.. Aren't alone."

And God, that just fucking gets him. Frank hugs her tighter to him, trying to absorb her into him because part of him never wants to let her go.

He takes a shaky breath and looks up at her, and he can't help but smile because she's smiling down at him. She really is his angel.

"Nah…not alone. I got you to take care of me." He gives her another sweet kiss, "Don't know how I got so lucky."

"Fate," she replies with a hint of mischief. It's her go to answer for everything and it's not something he believes in, but he's not going to argue with her.

She slides off his lap, turning to grab the stack of photos on the table as she does, then curls against his side, tucking her feet up under her. Frank wraps his arm around her to hold her close and looks down at the image of Lisa clasped in Sadie's hands. Lisa would have loved Sadie. Maria and Frankie, too.

"Will you tell me about this one?" Sadie asks, flipping the photo of him and Lisa to the back to reveal one of Maria dressed up like a pirate for Halloween. Lisa, still a baby, is wearing a parrot onesie and has clearly just poured her bottle all over Maria's top.

Frank can't help the bark of laughter that escapes him, "Oh Lordy, I remember this. Lisa had just started really eaten solid food…"

And just like that, another part of Frank Castle blooms back to life from the ashes of the Punisher's past.

#soulie writes #the Punisher #Frank castle x ofc #Frank Castle x oc #let me be cringe

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