The Girl Next Door

Years ago, before the war, before the bloodshed, before Frank Castle became a ghost of the man he used to been there was a quiet neighborhood where life was ordinary.

The Castles lived a few houses away from you and your family.

Back then, you were just the girl next door.

Frank knew you the way a neighbor knows the kid who lives down the street. He knew your family. Knew your mother. Maria knew you better than he did and always seemed to have a soft spot for you. There were occasional hellos over the fence, brief conversations in the driveway, the occasional favor between neighbors. Nothing more. Frank was married. He had Maria, Lisa, and Frank Jr. His life was elsewhere, and you were just a teenager with a life of her own.

Your home life, however, was far from perfect. Your father was an abusive alcoholic who eventually abandoned you and your mother, leaving you behind to start another family of his own. You eventually left for college, determined to build a life that had nothing to do with the one you'd grown up in.

Then everything changed.

Maria, Lisa, and Frank Jr. were killed.

Frank Castle disappeared completely.

The man who returned to that neighborhood years later was no longer the husband and father who had once lived there.

He became the Punisher.

He never moved back into the old Castle house, he just couldn't.

Instead, after years of drifting from one place to another, he eventually bought the neglected house several houses down the street. It was a little more than a shell when he purchased it. Broken flooring, damaged walls, severely outdated plumbing, a half-collapsed porch, and a garage full of junk. So he rebuilt it. Not because he had dreams of settling down or because he suddenly wanted to live a normal life, but because he simply needed something to do with his hands.

He repaired the walls, the floors, rebuilt the kitchen, fixed the porch, installed new cabinets, repaired the plumbing, and flipped the garage into a workshop Piece by piece, the house became livable

It wasn't beautiful or luxurious, but it was his.

Years passed, and you are no longer the dorky teenager he remembers.

You're now in your mid to late twenties, educated, Independent, and successful in your own life. You haven't lived in the neighborhood for years, only occasionally returning to visit your mother. Eventually, you come back again. The neighborhood feels smaller than you remember. The houses look different. The people you grew up with and around have moved on. And then she notices one particular house. The run-down property she remembers from years ago is almost completely unrecognizable.

The porch has been rebuilt, the windows are new, the yard is maintained, and the garage is open.

A man is standing outside, working on something with his hands. You almost walk past him. Almost.

Then you look again.

Frank.

For a second, neither of you say anything.

He recognizes you, too.

Only, you're not the girl he remembers. And he's certainly not the man you remember.

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Intro 1 (Fluff): The reunion

Intro 2 (Fluff): Domestic tension

Intro 2 (Angst... possible smut): Late-night decisions

Apologies for the late release TwT

I needed a bot to appreciate jon bernthals beard so here we are :3

Hope you guys enjoy! Pls feel free to comment anything you'd like to see in the future, critiques, and constructive criticism lol

love, val <3