Chapter Text
Hey! Do you do any soulmate au? Cause one for Frank would be bomb!! If you still need some slots to fill up!!! 😊✨✨✨
“If I start bleeding out, don’t save me”
That’s what he told you as you craned over him, attempting to put pressure on a serious torso wound. He’d just saved you, it only made sense that you save him. But it had been a long night, and it was obvious that after a lifetime of long nights Frank was seriously hoping this one would end them all, and soon.
Still, it annoyed you that your savior wouldn’t let you return the favor, and you could be stubborn, too. “You won’t bleed out as long as the bullet is still in you, but we’ll have to get you to a hospital.”
He huffed. “No fuckin’ way.”
“My sister is a nurse at Mt Sinai, it won’t take long to get there.”
With a string of short grunts, Frank attempted to seize control of his emergency medical care to no avail. He couldn’t get you off of him and he certainly couldn’t get away. Resigned, he just blew smoke through his flaring nostrils and glared in your direction. “Won’t she wonder what the hell you were doing out here with me?”
“She knows I’m not exactly someone who attracts normal company. I handed Black Widow a water bottle during The Battle of New York.” You giggled. “She didn’t thank me though, so fuck her.”
Maybe if he weren’t in severe pain, he would’ve laughed at that.
“I’m not Black Widow.”
“That’s true.”
Frank grabbed your wrist. “So it shouldn’t surprise you that I wouldn’t be missed if I finally croaked.”
You ignored his tight grip and continued administering aid. You really could be stubborn, too. Stupidly so. “I don’t think you really want that. A man on a mission has to finish his mission, doesn’t he?”
Your eyes met with equal intensity, him trying to tell you that he was already dead and you trying to convince him that now was the moment to fight for his life. It was a struggle that would ultimately end with an ambulance arriving, having been called in by a nervous passerby who heard ruckus on the block where it’d all gone down.
You looked up and you were surprised to see new lights flashing alongside the red ones. “What the hell?”
“What?”
You were stunned. These new lights were so vibrant, so overwhelming. Your heart raced as you took in the sight of them. “Ambulance lights are one color, why are there two colors?”
Frank just blinked at you. “Ambulance lights are red and blue…”
“That’s blue? I’ve never seen blue before…”
And in almost the blink of an eye, he realized that the shirt you were wearing was purple and not black. His mind moved fast to catch up with his eyes. He remembered all the stories of people meeting their soulmates and the world becoming a kaleidoscope of new sounds, new colors, new smells. He’d never seen purple before, and now he saw it everywhere. He saw it in the reflection of the ambulance’s lights. He saw it in the bruise on your cheek. There was purple all over you, in your hair and in your lipstick. There was purple in the awning of the restaurant across the street.
“Shit…”
You could hardly stand the bright blue neon in the grocery store window. “Shit…”
Medical personnel took you away from Frank, ripping you apart even when he held tight to you. He didn’t want you to go. Purple was all he could think about now, he’d abandoned the thought of dying for the thought of you.
“I want her at the same hospital,” he slurred. You became a violet blur as you were pulled away from him.
Days passed and you spent nearly every morning up waiting for the sky to turn bright blue. You bought a closet of blue clothes and added blue dye to your hair. But blue wasn’t a comfort. The reason you could even see blue was locked in a hospital room, handcuffed to a bed. Reporters shoved mics in his face and demanded he give an explanation for the violence that occurred that night.
Frank was distant anytime he was on screen. After all, he’d seen something too. You were on his mind, you could tell. But there was so much keeping you from him, keeping him from answers. You wanted to see him, but it was virtually impossible without clearance from the NYPD, and something in your gut told you they wouldn’t grant permission for a civilian to see The Punisher no matter how sweetly you asked.
All there was to do was wait and watch. The news coverage was repetitive and draining at times. You spent so much of your day researching him, and you felt for him. He’d lost so much in such a young life. His rage, his bitterness, they’d crusted over and left him permanently scarred.
This was your soulmate. Your soulmate was in near constant pain and not even you could fix that. But you still wanted to be with him.
You went on TV and advocated for him. It was the least you could do. You made sure to wear purple. He had to know that you wanted him, that you needed him.
You wore purple everyday just in case. When he escaped capture once again, you made sure to be out and about in purple so that he could find you.
The neighborhood dubbed you ‘The Crazy Purple Bitch’, a name you gladly accepted. All you were doing was waiting for your soulmate, you didn’t care what anyone else thought. The only person whose opinion on your business matter was Frank.
One day, you’d made it home from work and you went to unlock your door. The rug was scuffed up at the corner where you’d kept your spare key. Cautious, you pushed the unlocked door open and stepped into the house. The lights were on, but nothing had been touched. Big boot-prints led from the vestibule down the hall to the kitchen.
You shut the door behind you and stood at the door looking down into the lit kitchen. “Frank? Is that you?”
Frank, nervous that you wanted nothing to do with him even after you’d advocated for his right to live, stepped into the hallway slowly. His eyes were low, not once meeting yours. You stayed at a distance, not sure what to do.
You cleared your throat. “Did you come to see me?”
“You have to ask?”
“Are we--”
“Yes, we are.” He says. “I’m so damn sorry. It’s probably best if you have nothing to do with me, soulmates or not, it don’t end well for the people I care about and I’m hard to love.
“I know.”
“Then why aren’t you kicking me out?”
You bit your lip and ran right up to him, wrapping your arms around his neck and kissing him. Behind your eyes you saw the brightest, boldest blues and he saw the most vibrant purples he could ever conceive of. He put one hand on the small of your back and pressed you against the wall, kissing you deeper, chasing the purple high as far as it could take him.
When he pulled away, you both breathed heavy. Frank looked into your eyes and shook his head. “I don’t want to destroy you.”
“Don’t worry, Frank,” you said. “You could only do that by not trying.”
With that, he lifted you up and carried you to the nearest soft surface, laying you down and blending blues and purples all night.