Karen Page takes (nobullshit) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-04-26 16:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, frank castle /the punisher (mcu), karen page (mcu) |
WHO: Frank Castle + Karen Page
WHERE: Frank's Apartment
WHEN: The morning of the return to Tumbleweed
WHAT: Waking up and adjusting to the new housing situation
WARNINGS: None, it's just fluff
STATUS: Closed, Complete
Frank didn’t really remember falling asleep, but that wasn’t unusual. He had fallen asleep next to Karen, after taking their Pokemon dogs out for one last early evening walk on Alola and then returning to the ship by curfew. He’d put Growlithe back in her ball for safekeeping, and put the ball on the bedside table. He would have liked to have the pokeball in his pocket, but it was too big to sleep comfortably with it there, especially with Karen curled up against him, and he knew which one was his higher priority. He woke to find her still there in his arms, but there was something different too. He knew it before he opened his eyes, before he’d consciously processed what his sense of smell and his ears were telling him. He opened his eyes and looked around, moving very little to avoid disturbing Karen. They were back in his apartment in Tumbleweed. The same bed, the same closet, his few belongings neatly in their places. And there was his Pokeball, hopefully with his dog still inside it, beside the bed. He looked down at Karen, to determine if she was awake yet. -- In the time since she had started sleeping in his bed, Karen had become very attuned to when Frank typically awoke, and she often began to stir around the same time, which is what happened this time. Shifting slowly, Karen stretched under the covers, and it took her a moment to realize how different they felt from what was on the ship. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the wall of Frank’s apartment bedroom, and her brow furrowed slightly in confusion, before she turned her head and met Frank’s eyes. “Good morning,” she said softly, even as she started to push herself up part way, glancing around. “Where are we?” Her brain and her eyes hadn’t quite connected yet, but before he could answer, another thought entered her mind. “Cassie. Where is she?” Pushing the sheet off of herself, she started to try to climb out of bed to find out for herself. -- “Tumbleweed-” Frank started to say, but she was already talking over him, rushing to get out of bed. He got to his feet, too, and followed her. He was fairly sure, but it was also possible that his Tumbleweed apartment had somehow appeared somewhere else. It was annoying how even things that should have been the most basic, the kind of things you could count on, that an apartment would remain in one place, seemed to go out the window here. Regardless, the rest of the apartment looked the same. He knocked on Cassie’s door. -- Karen paid little attention to how either of them were dressed as they headed for Cassie’s room, and waited beside him after he knocked on the door. When there was no immediate response, she glanced at him, then reached out to carefully open the door and peek inside. When she spotted Cassie’s head sticking out of her covers on the bed, Karen visibly relaxed, then shut the door softly and gave a quiet sigh of relief before turning her attention back to Frank. “Do you think we’re back in Tumbleweed?” She asked it softly, and headed back to his bedroom so she could peek out of the window for herself. -- Frank, too, was relieved to see that Cassie was still there. He didn’t try to move into the room to wake her; there didn’t seem to be any need for it. He followed Karen back into the bedroom and joined her at the window, looking out. “Looks about right,” he said, although there was something off about the landscape, and he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. He stared out the window until finally he realized, “But the mountains are different.” -- Karen relaxed a little when he confirmed what she saw, then tilted her head as she studied the mountains with a frown. “You’re right. This is...huh.” But to be honest, she didn’t really want to head out and solve these mysteries just yet. “Well, at least we’re back.” She looked over at him with a small smile, then glanced past him at one of the bedside tables. “And unless you’ve been grabbing my things, it looks like whoever put us here has decided to move my things over here, too.” Karen hesitated for a moment, then looked at Frank again, her eyes searching. “Is...that okay with you?” -- Frank stared out the window, trying to pick out other small details that had changed. But he drew his gaze back to look at Karen as she continued. He smiled slightly at the insinuation that he might have grabbed her things, which of course he hadn’t, but he had noticed the presence of them in their apartment. “Is it all here?” he asked, glancing around. “Or is there any left in your apartment?” He assumed that her apartment was still there, although it occurred to him as he said it that it might not be. Other people had reported their homes or apartments going missing, generally when the person who officially owned it had disappeared. But he also hadn’t answered her question. He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. “Yeah. That’s okay.” -- “I’ll have to check…” She spotted her purse hanging on the doorknob, which was where she usually kept it at her own apartment, and walked over to it. Reaching inside, she sought out her keys, then pulled them out and studied them. “My apartment key isn’t here. It had a blue fob attached to it,” she said as she turned to face him, then stopped when he answer the question. After a beat, she smiled at him, a little ruefully. “I’m glad.” Karen had grown used to spending time with Frank - and Cassie - and the thought of not sleeping next to him wasn’t something she wanted to consider right now. -- Frank watched her as she went to inspect her purse. He had grown used to her company, too - perhaps too used to it, the rational part of his mind warned. This all still felt too good to be true, and he could not help but feel that the other shoe was going to drop. At the very least, there was a distinct possibility that both Karen and Cassie could disappear from here, either to another world, or to somewhere at home. And even though Frank knew he could see Karen at home, he wasn’t sure that they would be the same. He had told her on the ship that his door was always open to her, a standing offer. It still held true. He was not going to turn down her company. He was aware that sharing too much space could be something that caused problems in relationships. But he felt better when she was here. He gave her a small smile. “Let’s go knock on the door, then,” he said. “Or talk to the super.” As an afterthought, he reached for a t-shirt; he’d slept in sweatpants and an undershirt. -- Karen’s smile warmed when she saw his, and she nodded, but then glanced at the clock. “It’s pretty early - barely seven. From what I remember, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t get up before eight. How about we have breakfast before we go? We can check around here to see if everything came over.” Her eyes followed him as he reached for the shirt, then cut away. At the moment, Karen was in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, her usual sleeping attire which did nothing to hide her long legs - but on the ship, he’d usually been up and out of the room before her, so she hadn’t really thought about it. Drifting over to the dresser, she hesitated, then pulled open a drawer only to find her clothes inside it. “Well, that’s a start,” she said lightly, as she pulled out a pair of yoga pants she usually reserved for exercising in. -- She had a point. Frank had only needed to talk to the super once or twice before, but it had not been in the early morning. He had kept track of the man’s patterns, less to do with the time he woke but where he got coffee and who he talked to; it was just something he was accustomed to doing. It was unsurprising to him that Karen had been doing something similar, even paying attention to details that Frank had not found particularly significant. His smile grew a little wider and warmer, but he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he watched her as she opened the dresser, and found her clothes inside it. “Portal really moved you in, didn’t it,” he observed. -- “I guess it did,” she replied, glancing over at him. The smile he still had on his face distracted her for just a moment, before she pulled on the yoga pants over her shorts. One hand went to her hair to comb it a little, and Karen shot him a return smile. “At least that saves me the hassle of having to unpack, right?” While it was a little unnerving that all of her things were over there, she was confidant they’d settle into some kind of routine. “I think we should just count ourselves lucky that we’re together.” She mostly meant that they were in Tumbleweed instead of New York, but if he took that to mean the apartment, she’d be okay with that as well. After a moment, she walked over to Frank and slid her arms around him in a hug, just glad he was there. -- “Yeah, the packing and the unpacking,” Frank agreed. “I would’ve helped, but this is much easier. Portal should open up a moving company.” He was about to turn away to let her change, but she pulled the pants on over her shorts, and he stopped, having only taken a partial step to the side with one foot. He still averted his gaze, just to give her a little bit of privacy. That part was probably going to take some getting used to. At least for a little while. But he was also not sorry that they were together. In spite of his emotional concerns, it comforted him to have her under his roof, where he could make sure she was okay. And if that made her happy, too, he wasn’t going to complain. He glanced back up at her with another small smile when she said it, and opened his arms to her. He wrapped them around her tightly, and kissed the top of her head, with a soft noise of agreement somewhere between a hum and a grunt. -- “As long as it sticks to in-town moves, I don’t think there would be a lot of argument,” she said dryly. When his arms moved around her, Karen shut her eyes and rested her cheek against his head for a moment. There was a lot she wanted to say, but Karen still wasn’t sure it was the right time. Instead, she turned her head to kiss his cheek, then pulled back slowly as she opened her eyes to smile at him, and went with the easier topic. “Think there’s anything still good in the kitchen?” -- “It might wanna ask first,” Frank said, equally dryly. He hesitated, then lifted a hand and stroked her hair. His skin warmed when her lips brushed his cheek. He slowly released his grip as she pulled away, and smiled back at her. “Pancake mix should still be fine. Don’t know about the eggs and milk, though.” -- “Good point - but so far it’s never really been all that polite,” Karen pointed out, grinning a little. Though she had pulled away, it took her arms a moment longer than him to let go of him completely. “I’m a little afraid to check it.” And she definitely didn’t want to go to the store that time of day, but she would if needed. Letting her arms fall away completely, Karen caught one of his hands in hers and gave it a soft squeeze before she started to lead him out of the room and to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen, she let go of his hand as she glanced back at him with a grin. “Prepare your nose,” Karen quipped, before pulling open the fridge. She reached in and picked up the milk, and after only a brief hesitation she opened it and took a quick whiff, then checked the date. “Huh. Smells fine.” -- Frank followed her into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter and checked the cabinet for the pancake mix. The box was still there, still about half full. Even that was fairly lucky, since he liked to make pancakes for Cassie at least once a week, as a treat. She was good about eating her vegetables; it seemed like she deserved it. Besides, pancakes were an easy thing for him to make. He set it down on the counter, and then glanced over at Karen in surprise. “Really? It should be way past bad.” -- “Yeah,” she replied, pulling out the eggs and shutting the fridge so she could step over next to Frank. Karen held out the milk for him to check for himself, and while he did that, she opened the egg carton to check them as well. They seemed okay, but the real test would be when they cracked one, and she scooted the carton a little closer to Frank. “I’m not a coward, but even I’m not going to give these eggs a try myself. That can be your job,” she said, giving Frank a cheeky grin. -- “It’ll be pretty damn obvious if they’ve gone bad when we crack ‘em open,” Frank pointed out. “No one has to take any risks with eating them.” He pulled out a bowl, and cracked one of the eggs on the side of it before letting the contents slide into the bowl. He raised it to his face and sniffed it - it smelled fine, like a normal egg. He shrugged. “Looks like we’re good to go.” -- Karen smiled when the egg came out okay, and shook her head as she watched him cook, leaning against the counter casually. “This place never really ceases to surprise me. Once Cassie’s up, we can check in with everyone else and see what all is happening, and if they’re here, too.” But for now, it seemed like they were safe - probably safer than on a ship at sea, at any rate. |