Strangers - 3
Pt 3: Truth Revealed
Summary: You and Pete run into each other again as you struggle with a certain task. He offers to take over for you and from there, pieces of information gets revealed…
WC: 1.5 k 
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A package you have been waiting weeks for finally arrived. A bookshelf. You realized you’ve been running out of space and your books are starting to take up the walls of your apartment like vines. The issue at the moment is that the delivery man left the package at the bottom of the steps by the entrance door, “Great, now I have to figure out how to get this up myself," you say as you groan in defeat.
You decide to make a quick coffee to give yourself a burst of energy to be able to carry the package on your own. Trying to haul it up felt as though you were in the middle of running a marathon. You decide to take a break only to realize you’ve only made it one step. A few minutes later, your break is over. As you exert all your force to bring the box up in a single step, you hear, “Need any help with that ?”
The voice startles you as you weren’t expecting to hear anything during this extraneous task. “ Oh hey, how’s it going?” as you try to pull the box up another step. Before you can even give him an answer, he climbs down the steps, takes the box from you and carries it up to your door with ease that makes you jealous you couldn’t do that yourself.
You knew he had muscles, it was physically obvious. “ I was uh, in the middle of that.”
“ Oh yea?” he says, “Didn’t notice."
“ Ha ha very funny, Thanks .” you snide as you climb back up the stairs.
“Need any help with building this?" As he taps the box with his pointer finger.
“It’s all good. I have already inconvenienced you enough by having you bring it up the stairs. You seem like you were on your way out anyway.”
“It’s really no trouble. I don’t mind. I was just heading out to grab a bite to eat anyway. It can wait” with a voice that comes off as he’s trying to convince you to let him do something for you. Who were you to say no to someone offering physical labor that you would gladly avoid? “I mean if it’s no trouble for you, sure I guess you can build it.”
“Let me actually open the door and let you in so you can get started.”
You frantically look for your keys, part of you was nervous that someone beside yourself was actually going to be inside your apartment.
Oh jeez is my place tidy, please pray I didn’t leave last night's clothes thrown on the floor, you say to yourself as you enter the keys into the lock.
“What’s in here anyway? “he asks inquisitively.
“Just a bookshelf, my books are becoming a staple of decor and covering my entire place, so I figured I’d get something just to contain them a little bit”, as you gesture him to come inside.
“So you like to read books, huh?”
“Maybe just a teeny little bit,” him not knowing, once he entered, he was going to see the piles and piles of all the books you had acquired.
“Sorry for any mess you see, you can place it and build it between those two big windows” as you point to the far side of the common area of your apartment. “ Nice little cozy place you set yourself up here.”
“I spend a lot of time here so I just wanted to make it as homey as possible,”, as he’s walking around assessing your home, your view from this side of the building, grabbing picture frames and viewing them, noticing the little glimpses of you and your personality scattered all around the apartment. Plants and books touching every corner of the room. Ceramics mugs by your espresso machine. A large comfy green couch instead of a plain beige one, signifying you’re not boring and afraid of color.
“I’m going to make us some dinner, and you can’t say no, since you’re doing me this favor,” you point at him. You walk over to your fridge to figure out what you can whip up with what little you have. “Well, I don't have much but.. How does spaghetti sound? “ You ask sheepishly.
“S’fine, good. I can eat anything, not picky.” As he's unpacking the box, “Gonna go over to my place real quick and grab my toolbox.”
You nod and the second he exits, you try to quickly tidy up the common area, not wanting to get out even the littlest bit messy.
You pause for a second and ask yourself why are you doing this? Are you doing this just as common curtesy, or are you trying to impress him ? The thought makes you second guess yourself. By the time he comes back, you collect yourself and start getting the ingredients ready to make dinner. He comes back from his apartment and immediately gets to work. You decided that you needed something to fill the silence, so you play some light jazz music, a generic, easy music choice.
While you’re chopping a handful of vegetables and garlic to add to the sauce, he’s efficiently building your bookshelf. While doing two completely different tasks, there’s a peaceful quiet hum in the space. You’re enjoying each other’s company without even having to speak to each other.
After mostly everything for dinner is complete, and you’re just waiting for some bread to be done toasting, you take a seat on your couch. Pete is about 75% done building the bookshelf.
As you plop yourself down you ask, “Do you read any books?”
“Uh no, not much” he says very clipped.
His tone to the question posed a beginning and end to that topic of conversation, so you just sit in silence. What feels like five minutes pass by.
“ I lied.” He looks at you for a second and his eyes dart away. “ I do read books. Well, actually used to. A decent bit actually, but not to myself. Used to read to my kids. “ He really says that more to himself than to you.
The statement stuns you. Even though you barely know him, hearing that he has kids was something you would’ve expected to come out when you guys were eating at the diner.
“ Used to? I didn’t know you had any kids”. Your obliviousness to his tone makes you say that ask lightheartedly.
“ Used to as in they are dead.” He stares at you waiting to react to that huge piece of information.
“ I’m so sorry you ever had to go through that.” You get off the couch and go to sit by where he’s working on the shelf. “ Happened a while ago but still hurts like it was yesterday. They were all taken from me at the same time. My wife, son, baby girl. “
He didn’t mention his wife before, but you try not to overreact at the fact that this man lost his entire family all at once. A part of you wants to ask what happens but also knows how invasive something like that can be.
You put a hand on his shoulder,“ What do you say we eat, and you can tell me all about them if you’d like?” He looks at you with appreciation, almost as if he’s starting you down. He can’t decide want to think of you. Not in a bad way, he just didn’t expect for you to say that. In almost every instance, people overact and ask 100 questions that he never answers. “ Sure, we can do that,” as he gets up from the floor.
After the two of you have most of your dinner and are talked out of conversation, he surprises you one last time for the night. “It’s not Pete”, he says while looking down at his plate, moving his food around.
You drop your fork,“ What’s not Pete? What do you mean?” You try to play it off like you’re asking in a joking manner, but really you’re trying not to come off as you’re nervous.
“ My name. Not Pete. It’s Frank. Figured if I could tell you about my family, I could tell you the truth, bout my real name. Go by Pete for the most part to protect myself and everything.”
The name immediately clicks. You don’t need to ask what he needs to protect himself from. You know he’s the Frank Castle that you’ve seen on the news from time to time. You take the news in and look at him, really look at him. You know you’re not in danger because he takes care of business right away and the business he usually takes care of ends up dead. You silently wonder to yourself what else this man is hiding from himself and the world. “ Well, nice to meet you, Frank” as you put out your hand to shake and smile at him.
A/N: And we’re back !! I know this is bit wordy but I felt the fact that multiple big things get revealed deserve its moment to have it a bit fleshed out. Any feedback/ideas would be appreciated! I kinda don’t like the way I ended it so maybe subject to change. 💕
