Work Text:
Hearts and Flowers and Shit
Frank specifically didn’t come back for Valentine’s Day. It was a shitty holiday all around. He’d sucked at coming up with the obligatory “romantic” gestures back when Maria had still been alive, and he didn’t particularly have it in him to start the whole tradition over again. He vaguely remembered Red making a comment about the best part of the holiday being the half priced chocolate the day after, so he’d assumed that his absence wouldn’t mean a hell of a lot. The day came and went without so much as a phone call to contradict the thought. It was almost the end of February before Frank climbed through the roof access of Red’s apartment.
Matt was out—of course, he was—and Frank settled in on the couch with a beer while he waited. The horned vigilante appeared just after one looking tired but decidedly healthy as he walked down the steps. He stripped off the mask and ran his fingers through his sweat dampened hair in a way that had become all too familiar to Frank in the past few months. “I was wondering when I’d see you,” he murmured.
“I’ve been away longer,” Frank grumbled in reply. “Did I miss something good?”
Matt shrugged and began the tugging at his boots.
“What?” Frank demanded.
Again, the lawyer shrugged. “Nothing. You didn’t miss anything, Frank.”
“God damn, it doesn’t feel like ‘nothin’’, Red. Just spit it out, whatever the fuck it is, so we can move on.”
“Really, Frank, it’s nothing. It’s fine! It was my own stupid fault not yours, so if we can just get right to the part where you fuck me senseless and then leave in the morning.” To punctuate just how ‘fine’ things were, Red tossed one of his heavy boots against the wall roughly.
“As much as I loved fucking you senseless, that isn’t the only thing I came for,” Frank said with a heavy sigh. “I should have stopped by on Valentine’s Day, shouldn’t I have?”
Matt let out an incredulous laugh. “Valentine’s Day? You think that one particular day means more than the fact that I went almost a month without so much as a phone call? You were so busy trying to avoid being romantic that you decided it was a great idea just to drop off the fucking planet.”
At first, Frank wanted to argue that it had been a month, but the more he thought about it, the more it clicked in to his brain that it had been a month. He scratched at his jaw for a moment trying to come up with some excuse for being such a shithead. “I fucked up, didn’t I?”
“You did.” The second boot was set down much easier than its twin, and it seemed the majority of Red’s anger had faded. “I worry about you, you know?”
With the argument out of the way, the pair fell into their usual routine. Frank did indeed fuck Matt senseless, but he didn’t leave once the sun was up. He laid in bed with Matt’s head resting on his shoulder, watching the light bring out the bit of auburn in Matt’s dark hair. It boggled his mind how badly he’d fucked things up. How did Red not see how much Frank cared about him? To him, it was pretty fucking obvious since he kept coming back when all common sense told him to head for the hills. It was a moot point though, because the man in his arms seemed to have no clue. Pressing a kiss to Matt’s forehead, Frank decided that maybe it was time he did something about that.
“Leaving?” Red murmured sleepily.
“For a bit. I’ll be back tonight. You think you can manage a night in?” Frank wondered, knowing full well just how much he was asking.
That seemed to wake Red up. He sat up and frowned. “Things have been quiet lately. I suppose I can take a night off. Why?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Frank leaned in and kissed away Matt’s frown. “Trust me, Red.”
The funny thing about Frank’s life at the moment was the he had a fucking easier time getting military grade weapons than he did the things he needed to romance his boyfriend. Showing up at a grocery store on a random Sunday morning would probably get him arrested and sent back to cell block D. That said, he wasn’t completely up shit creek. With a wad of cash and his best “please help me grin” he showed up on Karen Page’s doorstep.
“What do you want?” the blonde demanded, opening the door just wide enough to let him in.
He let out a sigh of relief that he’d made it that far, but knew he wasn’t out of the woods just because she hadn’t shot him rather than let him in. “I need a favor.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t feel like getting shot at or hit by a truck today so...” she let the words trail off in annoyance as she poured him a cup of coffee.
“It’s not like that,” he protested. The brew in the cup could strip the paint off a car, but he drank it anyway. “I need help with Matt.”
Karen’s eyes widened. “Matt? I thought that was a one-time thing.”
Frank shrugged. “Turned into a six month thing. Only I kind of suck at it.”
“Wow,” she said, pulling a chair over to the end of her breakfast bar. “So what kind of help do you need with Matt?”
“I kind of went AWOL for the last month. Didn’t want to get sucked into that whole fake romance shit around Valentine’s Day...”
“So you decided to completely avoid any chance of real romance while you were at it,” Karen finished with that clipped tone that only a woman who was right seemed to pull off. “And let me guess; he’s pissed because you just bailed in general and Valentine’s Day was just the cherry on the shit sundae?”
Nodding sheepishly, Frank downed more coffee and held the empty cup out for more. “I need to fix this.”
“Damn right, you do,” Karen agreed with a laugh. “So what exactly were you thinking?”
Frank laid out his plan over an entire pot of that god awful fucking coffee while Karen chimed in every now and then to offer he opinion. In the end, she was nearly gushing with excitement over the whole thing. Despite the hardened edges she would like the world to think she had, Karen Page was probably the biggest romantic Frank had ever known. He had no doubts that with her help she could pull it off. The first step was nothing more than going to the grocery store and picking up the long list of things that Frank needed. After that, he was counting on her getting Matt out of the apartment just long enough for him to do his part. He had no idea how she was going to keep Red occupied without something tipping him off, but he had faith in her.
Thankfully, the plan seemed to work. Frank slipped back into the empty apartment with the supplies in hand. After tossing the roses in a vase, he quickly laid out all of the ingredients to Nona Castle’s famous lasagna and got to work. Once the lasagna was set together and ready to go, he pulled out the boxed brownie mix and mini peanut butter cups that Karen insisted would make the perfect desert. By the time all was said and done, Frank was a bit surprised by the pride he felt in it. It had been a long time since he’d really cooked anything that required more than just a microwave, but it felt almost too good to be doing it now.
Karen texted Frank just a little after six to let him know that Matt was on his way back home. It was pure dumb luck that he happened to open the door just as Frank pulled the bubbling casserole out of the oven.
Pausing in the entry way, Matt took a deep breath in and smiled. “That smells amazing.”
“Yeah, well, I owe you a nice romantic dinner, Red. Even if you won’t fess up to it, I know it’s what you deserve,” Frank admitted.
“Roses and chocolate too. You’ve hit all your bases tonight, haven’t you?” Red murmured with a chuckle.
“Sit down, and let’s find out if it’s any good.” Frank poured them each a glass of cheap red wine.
“It’s not just good,” Matt proclaimed a minute later, “this is excellent.”
“Sorry going out to some fancy place isn’t exactly an option for us,” Frank apologized. It hadn’t occurred to him until that precise moment that he would miss something like that, but he suddenly did.
“I don’t need a fancy restaurant, Frank.” Red took another big bite of lasagna. “And as much as I love this, I don’t need all this either.”
“Need it, no, but I know it’s what you deserve. I’m shit at this whole romance thing, Red. Hell, I’m not even good at relationships, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know you deserve better than what you’re getting,” Frank said blandly. He poked his fork into his own meal a few times sullenly. “I guess I just didn’t want to start disappointing you already, and I did one worse than that. Think you can forgive me?”
Matt reached across the table and entwined his fingers with Frank’s. “I already did. And I know I was being a bit childish last night… Honestly, I don’t care about Valentine’s Day. I just… I just missed you. Valentine’s Day just made missing you worse.”
Kissing Red’s fingers lightly, Frank couldn’t help the swell of love he felt in his chest. He wasn’t quite ready to say the words yet, but god knew he felt it. Someday, he’d be able to say it. “Happy late Valentine’s Day, Red,” he said instead.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Frank.”