Work Text:
"I've never broken a bottle over your head," Frank griped.
"No, you shot me in the head.”
The other three men's pulses raised slightly.
"It was one time," Frank muttered.
Matt scoffed, “You broke my ankle that ‘one time’ too, remember that?”.
“You’ve broken my nose at least five times”, Frank shot back.
Steve interrupts, “How often do you guys, hurt one another?”
“Not much”, at the same time, “Always”.
A pause, Matt could hear the three avengers pulses skyrocket, could tell they were exchanging looks by the way Franks stuttered.
“I mean, we have to keep up appearances, right Frank?”, looking to the Punishers general direction.
“Right, right”, his heartbeat was slowing.
“Still, you guys can’t pull your punches a little? I mean-that’s gotta put a strain on the relationship”, it was Sam, Matt could practically taste the concern oozing out of the man.
“Nah, Red can take it, he’s a stubborn sonovabitch’”.
“And Franks had worse, a few cracked ribs won’t kill him”, Matt punctuates it with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“ Wonder what they’re like in bed ”, a faint whisper, Matt’s face heats up at the thought.
“Couple a’ cracked ribs?”, Frank laughs, “you nearly punctured my lung Red”
Matt’s feeling defensive, doesn’t want to talk about how him and Frank brutalize one another in front of people who’re supposed to think of them as boyfriends. At the rate the two are going, the Avengers will find out they’re faking it any moment, Matt bites his tongue and tries to reply cooly, “I told you I would, can’t blame your idiocy on me when you’re the one who can’t listen”.
“Idiocy? I was gonna take that guy down whether or not you stepped in, you’re the moron who let himself get shot in the head”, and Matt can hear the blood starting to pump faster.
“You’re one to talk”, Matt’s stepping closer to Frank now, mouth drawn in almost a grimace, “I’m not the dumbass who went to jail three times”
“You put me there you dick!”, and Franks up too, chest now just a few inches from Matt’s.
Matt can feel the tension in the three present Avengers, he knows he needs to calm down, but him and Frank have never really discussed this before, whatever this was. His mouth feels dry, and before he can whisper-shout that Frank needs to settle, he starts up again.
“Next time you put me in there Red, you even try it, I’ll do more than break some bones”, it’s out of character, Franks no longer putting on a show, instead threatening Matt directly.
“ Whoa !”, Sam’s shouting, stepping up and in between the supposed ‘partners’.
“You guys seriously need to cool it, this is borderline-no, it is abusive, on both your ends”, his brow is scrunched in anger. Across the room, Matt can hear and now feel the thundering of Bucky and Steve’s heart ,both clearly shocked at Matt and Franks outburst.
“He started it, him and his big mouth”, Franks making a motion, most likely pointing to Matt.
“I thought you liked my ‘big mouth’”, Matt’s taunting now, being snarky just to get a rise out of Castle.
“Daredevil, stop”, Steve speaks up, the shock morphing into something akin to assertiveness.
“Maybe you two really do need a counselor, this cannot be healthy”
“Nothing no shrink says’ll get his stubborn ass to admit he’s wrong”, it’s a grumble.
“You’d shoot anyone who even suggested you were being an ass”, Matt sneers.
“Well at least I’d have the balls to pull the trigger in the first place”.
“ Guys ”, Sam’s hissing at them.
And suddenly Matt’s being dragged by the arm and forced to sit on a bench, Frank just beside him. He can feel the heat radiating off the other, clearly pissed at this turn of events. Matt wonders if they can save this charade, somehow convince the Avengers they don’t actively want to kill each other. His thought process is cut short as Sam pulls up a chair to sit in-front of the two, Bucky and Steve flanking either side.
“Alright, impromptu counseling session, who wants to go first?”
Absolute silence is all the Falcon gets in return, and Matt’s begrudgingly grateful that for all of Franks shouting, he knows when to be silent.
“Right- Daredevil, you first, how’d Frank end up shooting you in the head?”
Matt resigns himself to bending the truth, “We weren’t together yet, and I was gonna take him in to the police, he was lucky and got a chance to sho-“
“Lucky?”, Franks interrupting, “I knocked you flat on your ass Red, don’t go selling me short here”.
Matt’s momentarily forgotten how much of a prideful man Frank is, not that he himself isn’t either. Maybe that’s why this whole fake relationship had worked up until this point, both men were simply too prideful to be anything but good actors and fake boyfriends.
Sam hums, interested in hearing the two talk it out rather than shout and hurl insults- or worse.
“Ha ha Frank, you know I was barely holding on then, you said yourself you wouldn’t want to take me hands on”
“Never said I couldn’t, you give me a good enough reason and I’ll kick your ass again any time”
It’s Matt’s time to be snarky, “Yeah right, you fight me right now and I’ll put you in a cast Castle”
“Alright, show offs, all these quippy remarks still aren’t helping”, Sam’s clearly annoyed, “you two seriously don’t need to keep hurting each other, not when you obviously care for one another”, he’s referring to almost a week ago, when Frank had rushed to pick up Matt.
Matt can feel the skip of Franks heart, there’s something there, but it may just be him overthinking.
“Like I said, he can take it and so can I, just a little tough love is all”, and Matt can hear the shift in tone, the faux ‘considerate boyfriend’ voice is back.
“We wouldn’t be together if we couldn’t handle a little rough housing”, Matt’s playing along, all previous aggression left behind to save face.
“Neither of you have broken, fractured, or bruised each other recently?”, Matt can hear the slight fall of a previously hammering heart.
“Well”, Franks all coy voice and sultry toned, “I can’t make a promise of the bruising”
Matt’s face is hot, he feels it down to his chest. He finds his hands fumbling with each-other, cocking his head in a way that could he see, he’d be avoiding eye contact. Sam’s smiling, Matt doesn’t need his enhanced senses to be able to tell, Frank had successfully breached the previous tension.
“No broken bones or otherwise on either of us, we’ve been getting better”, it’s not all lie, the pair haven’t had the time to beat the other in a while.
“You two working it out? I don’t think we Avengers could approve of a relationship like that if it continued”, his voice is firm, and Matt knows it’s true.
“Yes, we pull our punches as much as we can, but you know how adrenaline can be”, Matt’s giving a sloppy grin, appeasing to the three mens emotions.
“Good, we’d hate to bar the Punisher from the tower”, Steve chirps in.
Matt notes that Bucky’s been silent the entire time, not fond of digging into Daredevil or the Punishers personal lives.
“Well, if you three want to get back into it with Red, I’d be happy to watch his tight ass fight again”, Franks seems to be a natural at diffusing tense and awkward situations.
From their turned heads and silence, Matt assumed there was some unspoken exchange going on between them, after which Steve stepped forward and climbed under the ropes. “Alright. Not boxing, though. What else are you up for?”
They continue without a hitch, though Matt suspects the full team will discuss this later in the evening.