“Not for about a year,” she says, and keeps her gaze steady.  There had never been any actual blood to wipe away, except her own.  

The gunpowder had been the hard thing to get rid of.  She’d thrown the towels into the trash compactor, smeared black and stinking of burnt sawdust and nitroglycerin.  Nobody had come looking.

“I still dream about having a hot gun I have to get rid of.  And – still, every time I close my eyes.  I see it, you know?  It’s there.  What I did.  What I survived.”

He figures he’s supposed to have a hard time imagining her shooting someone; he’s supposed to think, shit, how could someone like you do that? But it’s not hard to imagine her defending herself. It’s not hard to imagine her fighting tooth and nail to protect something, including her own life.

Frank exhales, his hands clasped together, one finger rubbing restlessly at his knuckles. “Yeah,” he says, voice quiet, like gravel. “Yeah. I’m supposed to tell you that that- that it goes away one day, you won’t think about it anymore, but...”

He reaches for his coffee, wrapping a hand around the hot cup and taking a long sip. 

“This sort of thing terrifies everyone. Let’s escalate this Thomas, put your best people on it. Close it down quickly.” 

She pauses, cradling the phone between cheek and shoulder. He sounds – different. “No, I didn’t,” she says at last.

Karen almost asks what’s going on. Almost asks him what changed. But he won’t tell her like this.

Weird that he tried small talk. She files it away, another piece of Frank Castle she didn’t expect, and hops and shoves her way into a pair of jeans.

“There’s a bodega two doors down from my old apartment. The one that – the one that Schoonover shot up. Meet there?”

Something nearly breaks free in his chest, a dam that’s been standing too long, but it’s shoved back in place before it ever starts and Frank swallows, his hand too tight around the phone, feels like he’s gonna break it into pieces.

He'd expected her to hang up on him. No, worse- he’d expected her to tell him he was dead to her, first. But Frank remembers what she’d said to him in that diner: I don’t like what you do. How she’d helped him anyway: I believe you.

“Yeah. Yeah, I can be there.” There’s a silence, like he wants to say something else. Instead, he says, “One hour tops,” and the line goes dead.

It’s something of an effort to find clean clothes in the mess of an apartment he’s been hiding out in, but Frank manages, more or less. Takes a good look in the mirror before he heads out, stares at his bearded, relatively wound-free face, wonders if she’ll even recognise him. Eventually adds a cap for good measure. 

It’s dark when he gets there, sees she’s already there. He nearly turns around, nearly leaves before she can clock him, but Frank’s never really been one to back out on a plan.

Still. It takes eighteen seconds longer than it should for him to make himself walk into her range of vision, hands in his pockets.

His face might be different, but the voice is the same; rough, quiet. Maybe soft.

@seven-times // Sad Ship Meme :C

who gets overwhelmed by small acts of kindness?

Probably Frank more then Karen but both of them are pretty deeply moved.

who flinches at sudden movements?

Both of them.

who is most confused as to why their S.O. is still with them? 

Frank, always Frank.

who has to constantly check their S.O. still loves them?

Potentially Karen? Though it would be a complicated sort of thing since Frank is... it’s hard. It’s hard but they understand and see each other.

who says the other/s would be better off with someone else?

Frank.

who gets surprised when they are given gifts?

Both of them!

who is most likely to break down on the other and how does their S.O. attempt to calm them down?

Karen. Frank is... He’d talk quiet, try and get her to focus on him. Maybe hold her steady, get her calm.

who is most self conscious in public?

Frank, that paranoid sonovagun.

who is more likely to apologize a million time for a tiny mistake?

 Neither-- though maybe Karen if either of them would.

who admits they’re scared only when they think their S.O. is asleep and how does the other react?

Karen. Frank will maybe talk to her about it. Always gives her the option to walk away.

who never thinks they’re good enough for the other?

Frank.

who takes a bullet for the other