PAIRING: frank castle x original character (matteo luna)
TAGS: show-level violence, cursing, angst, slight canon divergence, oc is transmasc nonbinary (they/them pronouns with use of masc terms)
A/N: welcome back to the retribution series! unfinished business has been renamed inabsolutus. the story is the same but the bigger picture is being taken in a different direction alas the rewrite. i started this series almost four years ago, and i'm coming back to give it the care i initially intended to give it back then. i hope you enjoy!
WORD COUNT: 3404
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“Come on, Uncle Teo,” the little girl whined, her shoulders sagging as she put on her best puppy-dog eyes. “You promised you’d ride the carousel with me.”
The mischievous grin on their face morphed into feigned pity at the girl’s insistence. “Don’t worry, lil’ Lis. I’ll be back in a jiffy, alright? Then we can ride that carousel as many times as you want, okay?”
“Okay…” At Lisa’s begrudging agreement, Matteo placed a kiss on her forehead and ruffled her hair before jogging off. Since having met Frank, Billy, and Curtis during their time in the Marines, they’ve been a part of their tight-knit family unit. Horrible break-ups. Close-calls that had them lying in a hospital bed for days on end. Their transition. Not one of them had left their side through it all. Matteo had been a part of the Castle’s homecoming tradition since it’s creation so navigating the tiny amusement area was almost second nature, the resonance of children yelping with joy being a welcomed sound.
Or was that… screaming? At the shift, Matteo stopped in his tracks. When did those bullet holes get there? Suddenly the scent of copper filled the air, a stench they thought they’d left behind when they’d packed away their uniform all those years ago. Even amongst the sudden desolation did the chimes from the carousel remain. As they walked through the destruction, Matteo’s eyes glossed over where they saw the Castles last, relieved but increasingly anxious that they weren’t there. Then he remembered. The last part of the tradition was always a picnic out on the grass. Running out to the pavement path, the sight nearly knocked the air out of his chest. Across the way in the middle of Sheep Meadow kneeled three people, their height differences giving away who was who. Frank was on the far left, Frank Jr. next to him and Lisa on the other end, their mother between each child. Behind them stood two people—one with a handgun, the other with a shotgun. Matteo’s legs started moving before they could even register what they were doing, their voice already grating with how hard they began to shout. But no matter how hard they ran, the distance between him and the Castles on seemed to grow longer, time practically slowing as the guns were drawn. “Matteo!”
“Matteo, wake up. Matteo!”
Their head shot up, a shout dying in their throat as they regained consciousness. Their breath was heavy as they regained their composure. “You’re safe, Teo. We’re at Nelson and Murdock. It’s just me—Karen.”
Realizing where they were, they quickly swept a hand through their now sweat slicked hair in an attempt to regain their composure. “Sorry, Karen. Didn’t mean to fall asleep on ya,” Matteo apologized.
“We’ve been at this all night, can’t fault you for dozing off.” Matteo just hummed, leaning back in their chair. “Wanna talk about it?”
They shook their head. “Have you found anything while I was slacking off?” Karen eyed Matteo for a second, before ruffling with a stack of papers across the table. Just as she started to explain what she found, Matteo’s phone vibrated. Without missing a beat, they grabbed it, chucked it in their bag, and immediately returned their attention back to Karen. They’ll deal with whoever it was later.
Before long, the sun had come back up. It wasn’t short after that Foggy and Matt came bustling through the front door complaining about how the office was left unlocked, their conversation coming to a halt at the sight of Karen fast asleep and Matteo with a file in their hands. “Please, dear God, tell me you two just got here early and didn’t stay here all night.
“I plead the fifth,” Matteo mumbled, hiding behind the manila folder. As Foggy scolded Matteo, Matt wandered over to Karen and gently woke her up. At the sight of him, she groaned causing Matt to chuckle.
“If it’s any consolation, I think we found something,” Karen tried to reason in her grogginess.
Getting up to grab a cup of coffee as Karen started to explain, Matteo absentmindedly glanced out the window. The sights were run-of-the-mill—people on their way to work, but one of them caught their eye. A man in all black, his hood over his cap. He was staring right up at the office. Frank?
“Teo,” Karen called. “Tell them about ignored complaints by the landlord.”
Taking a second to look back out the window, the place where the man was standing was now empty. “Yeah, um,” they started, reverting their focus back to the matters at hand.
Matteo had visited Frank in the hospital everyday after the incident. Then one day he just disappeared. No one in the hospital could or would tell him anything about his supposed discharge. They’d checked the house, but it still remained as it was the day they left it. Billy and Curtis hadn’t heard anything, leaving the only other place Matteo would possibly find him at being the cemetery, but the probability of that ever happening was small. Matteo had stopped actively looking for Frank a couple weeks ago. To see him again after all this time… “Yo, Teo. You still with us?”
Unconsciously, Matteo hummed before snapping back to reality. “What?”
Matt sighed from his seat at the table. When did he sit down—and when did Karen leave? “I really think you should go home and get some rest, Teo.” Just as their mouth opened to protest, Foggy cut them off.
“Nuh uh, no buts,” he asserted, grabbing Matteo’s bag and jacket. “Karen went willingly, but I’m not above dragging you out of here.” His tone was humorous but firm, his gaze filled with concern.
Defeated, Matteo grabbed their things from his hand. “Fine, but you guys call me if you need help.”
“We won’t,” Foggy promised as he guided Matteo out the door. At the slight scuffling, Matt chuckled in amusement, shaking his head at his best friend’s dramatics. “Do you see what he’s doing to me, Matt?” Matteo exclaimed, trying to garner some support.
“I’m blind, Teo. Not been doing much seeing lately,” Matt joked without missing a beat earning a groan from Matteo has Foggy playfully shoved them out of the office. Checking the time, they sighed. If they hurried back, Matteo could catch him before the meeting started. As they arrived to the apartment complex’s basement, Curtis was just putting out chairs.
“Can’t say the shape you’re making is exactly a circle,” Matteo joked from the doorway, leaning against the frame with their arms crossed, a smug look across their face.
“Geometry’s never been my strong suit, you know that,” he bantered, his words punctuated by the creak of the metal chair in his hands as he placed it down. “Gonna sit in today?”
Matteo shook their head, taking a seat in one of the chairs set out in the middle of the room, Curtis following suit. They took a second to figure out what exactly they’d come to tell the man, their fingers fiddling with their phone. “I saw him today.”
“Billy?”
“Frank.” At the mention of his name, Curtis took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. He remembered the last conversation they had about Frank—it was hard to forget. “I caught him standing outside the office just staring up at me through the window. I know it’s out of my control—that if Frank wanted to be found, I’d find him, but…” Matteo bit their tongue, hesitant to continue their train of thought. After a beat, they continued. “Have you heard anything from him?”
Curtis shook his head. “You know I’d tell if you if I had.”
“Yeah,” Matteo sighed as they ran a hand across their face in exhaustion. “I just need to know he’s okay, Curt.”
“I know, kid. I know,” he whispered, hands clasped in his lap as he contemplated what else there was to say. They’ve had similar conversations to this one since Frank up and disappeared. To a point, there isn’t much else to hash out. “You talk to Bill lately?”
Matteo let out a scoff at the mention of his name again. “He put you up to this?”
“Just curious.”
“He texted me last night. I was at work, so I didn’t see it ’til this morning.” The lack of further elaboration told Curtis all he needed to know about the state of that relationship, and he wasn’t one to pry. Just then, people started to trickle in. “Yo Curt. Oh, hey, Teo. You joining us today?”
“Nah, I pulled an all nighter at work, so I’m gonna hit the hay,” Matteo responded, getting up from their chair and heading for the door. “Thanks for the talk, Curt.”
—
“At least she brought water,” Karen groaned, placing her pool cue against the table. Immediately, the three of them went to stop her.
“Wait, wait, wait.”
“Oh! No, you don’t wanna do that.”
“Yeah, you can’t drink the water here.”
She stared at them in disbelief with how adamant they all were. “Josie’s pipes are…” Matteo started.
“Disgusting,” Foggy finished. At their explanation, Karen giggled and grimaced, almost running away from the pitchers Josie had set down. Since getting to know Matt, Foggy, and Karen, life had been interesting to say the least. Taking down a mobster was definitely not on Matteo’s bucket list, that’s for sure. When they left the Marines, it was hard to find people they could do things with like going out to a bar after work considering the only people they’d want to do it with were halfway across the world doing God knows what. These three… they were good people. Just as Foggy excused himself to the restroom, Matteo’s phone vibrated. Unknown. “I’ll be right back. You guys keep playing without me.”
The start contrast between the clamminess of the bar and nighttime chill slapped them in the face as they walked outside, their cheeks reddening as they picked up. “Hello…?”
“Heya, T.” The voice on the other end was unmistakeable.
“Frankie,” Matteo sighed, the nickname almost getting stuck in their throat.
“I don’t know why I’m calling you, to be honest,” he started. Matteo could practically see the look on Frank’s face as he let out a dry chuckle, trying to figure out what to say. “They seem like good people.” At his comment, Matteo glanced around in hopes of finding him lurking somewhere. “You take care of yourself, T. Love you.”
“Wait-“ Before Matteo could get anything else out, the call dropped. Goddamnit, Frank. What was that supposed to be some sort of goodbye? Just as they were contemplating leaving, the chime on the door behind them rang. Right. Matt. Foggy. Karen. They were waiting inside for them, playing eight ball. If he wanted to be found, I’d find him, Matteo reminded themself.
Through the window, Matteo caught sight of Matt talking to someone at the bar, his face contorting with confusion. Quickly, they made their way back inside.
Grotto was his name, apparently. The lone survivor of the massacre of the Irish Kitchen gang. “He wasn’t lying, they were massacred. Apparently, same thing happened to the Dogs of Hell last week.”
“Shit,” Matteo whispered, moving out the way for the nurses walking through the hallway.
“We’re gonna run some leads—see what else we can find.”
“Alright, be careful out there, Fog. Don’t do anything stupid”
“Yeah, yeah. How’s he doing?”
Matteo glanced back through the crack in the door. “He’s stable. Waiting for him to wake up so nothing much.” Just as Matteo said that, Grotto seemed to come to, Karen trying to explain the situation. “Speaking of the devil, gotta go.”
Now that he was conscious again, Karen and Matteo tried to get more out of him, but his story started to contradict itself. “I thought you said it was an army. Now you’re saying it was just one guy?”
Everything he was saying was eerily reminiscent of someone Matteo knew. It couldn’t be him, could it? Just then, screams rang out in the hallway. Karen had peeked through the door to see what the commotion was about and immediately she turned and yelled, “We need to go. Now.” Quickly ushering Grotto out of the room, Matteo followed closely behind them. The three of you had barely managed to take five steps out of the room before a loud bang rang out. A goddamn shotgun. When they glanced behind them to see the shooter, their heart dropped to the floor. Making it a few flights down the stairwell, it didn’t take them too long to realize he wasn’t following them. As Karen and Grotto ran down, Matteo turned back and started to run up the stairs for the rooftop.
Slamming the door open, Matteo immediately scanned the rooftop, following the sound of punches landing and men grunting. They weren’t sure who they were expecting to be immersed in hand-to-hand combat with Frank, but it definitely wasn’t the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. “Frank!”
At the shout of Frank’s name, the Devil paused, his head tilting towards Matteo like he was confused. Like he knew their voice. Like he knew who they were. Frank took the distraction as an opportunity to pull the handgun he had strapped to his ankle, quickly pointing it at the vigilante, but before he got a shot off, Matteo jumped between them. “He isn’t a part of this and you know it.”
“You have no idea who you’re protecting. I have to do this.”
“Why?”
He grunted in anger. “The Dogs. The Irish. The Cartel.” As he listed the New York gangs, Matteo was quick to piece it all together. Matteo’s face scrunched in realization. “They need to pay, T.”
“Why- why didn’t you come to me?”
“It’s my fight. I don’t need you getting hurt.”
“Bullshit, Castle. They were my family too.” His eyes tried to plead with them. Please stay out of it. But just as stubborn as he was, Matteo was ten times worse. Matteo stood their ground, refusing to give him a free shot at the vigilante behind them. All of a sudden, Frank shifted his aim and fired. Crack.
Matteo turned swiftly to catch the vigilante before he hit the ground, gently laying him out. When they turned back, Frank was already gone. “Fuck,” they cried. First thing Curtis taught them about gunshot wounds: figure out how bad the damage was. The crack across the top of his helmet was deep, but the bullet didn’t penetrate—still, blood seeped down the side of his face. “I know you wear a mask for a reason, but I gotta take it off to help you,” Matteo reasoned out loud as they went to remove the red helmet. “I’m sorry.”
Careful not to cause more damage, Matteo removed the mask slowly. In the low light, it was hard to see as it is but they were still able to see who it was. “Fuck, Matt?”
“Shit, Matt I know you’re blind but how the fuck do you manage to get bruised up this bad?”
Foggy chuckled. “He’s blind as a bat and the clumsiest person on the face of the Earth.”
The three of them chuckled. “Why don’t you go pray and thank God for making you the worst combination possible next Sunday, yeah Matt?”
Things were clicking into place in their head. All the bruises and cuts he would have on his face out of nowhere. The days he limped into the office. Matt wasn’t falling or bumping into things. Matteo contemplated what to do. If they took him down into the hospital below, his identity would be revealed not only to them, but everyone else. They only had a little bit of training in first-aid out in the field. Curtis taught them a few things just in case he wasn’t there to patch them or any of the other guys up. Matteo quickly did your best to patch up Matt enough to get him off the rooftop and back to his apartment. As they carefully laid him back on the couch, he started to gain some consciousness. “Claire,” he slurred out, “Call Claire.”
“Shh, it’s me Matt. It’s Matteo.””
“Call… Claire…”
They scrambled to find Matt’s phone and searched his contacts list for Claire. As it dialed, they did their best to lessen the bleeding from his head. “Matt? Hello?”
“Hey, you’re Claire right?”
“Yeah, who is this?”
“It’s Matteo, um Matt told me to call you. He’s beat up pretty bad. I did my best to stop the bleeding, but he insisted I call you.”
“Shit,” she cursed on the other end, “I’ll be there in a bit.”
Not long after, Claire and Foggy ran into the apartment. They quickly moved out of Claire’s way so she could get to work on patching Matt up correctly. Turning to Foggy, they questioned him. “Did you know?”
“Teo, he-”
“Did you know?”
He lowered his head and nodded. “Fuck, Foggy. You knew he was Daredevil, and you didn’t think that’d be important for me to know? I know we haven’t been friends for very long but I would’ve assumed to be trusted enough to know something like this?”
“The secret wasn’t mine to tell, okay?!”
“Does Karen know?”
He shook his head and they scoffed. “Do you two mind keeping it down,” Claire yelled quietly, “We can hash it all out when he’s awake.” As angry as they were, it really wasn’t Foggy’s fault,. How the fuck did they end up in the middle of it all. Matt, The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, and Frank. Grabbing one of the beers in Matt’s fridge, they took a seat at the counter.
“I had a similar reaction when I found out,” Foggy commented as he took a seat next to them. “It was after Elena Cardenas passed away. You went home early. Me and Karen stayed to drink some more. I came to check up on Matt and heard a sound in his apartment, so I used my key and when I came in, the place was trashed. I found the Man in the Mask lying on the floor and I thought the bastard did something to Matt, but when I was about to call 911, I lifted the maske and-“
“The Man in the Mask was Matt.”
“Yeah,” he hummed. “Even begged me to call Claire too.”
“Good to know he has a routine in how his friends find out about this.”
Claire was quick to finish patching him up, leaving the two of them to watch over him so she could go back to work. Eventually, they knocked out on the counter. When they woke back up, Foggy was gone, having left a note next to them. Headed to the office. Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.
With Matt still fast asleep on the couch, Matteo took the opportunity to make something to eat. As they cooked, Matt stirred, a pained grunt following his movement. Not long after he called out. “Teo?”
“Matt.”
“Shit.”
“You know for a blind man, you’re pretty light on your feet. It also takes a mean punch to send Frank to the ground like that.” Finishing up, they came to sit across from him as he tried to sit up.
“I didn’t want you to find out like this,” Matt started.
Matteo scoffed. “Tough.”
“I understand if you wanna quit and leave-“
“Woah, woah, woah. Who said anything about leaving?” His face scrunched, the emotions mixing too much to be able to tell specifically what he was feeling. “If this is about me getting hurt or some bullshit, I’m gonna stop you right there. You forget I used to be a Marine. Frank and I were the best of the best, and look at you right now.”
The mention of Frank sent a chilled silence through the room. The elephant in the room. “I’ve known Frank since I joined up. He became family—he is famliy. That was the first time I’d seen him in a couple months.”
“Did you know?”
“What?”
“When Grotto came to us. You were the one who convinced us to help him—did you know Frank was involved?”
“God no, Matt.”
He sat there for a second. “You’re telling the truth.”
“Of course I am. Why would I lie to you?”
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