Takes place somewhere in the Daredevil/Punisher Netflix series.
Summary: Um, so Karen discovers Frank is ticklish. Yup. Just a little fluff thrown out into the sea of angst fics. Kastle? Sure, if you want it to be. I think there's potential. XD
F/M Tickle Fic
WARNING for a lot of swearing from the lovable Frank. ^_^
...
"Karen….Hang on a minute, I'ma grown fuckin' man. This is ridiculous."
She didn't say a word as her advance matched his retreat, enjoying this brief power trip she was having over him. What was on her mind had Frank immediately regretting his impromptu visit to his good friend's apartment.
"Yo Red, put a handle on your girl, would ya?" He turned his head slightly to call behind him to the figure leaning up against the sofa's armrest.
"Mmm, no I'm good. Besides, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't listen to me anyways," The Devil of Hell's Kitchen shrugged as he stood back and continued to sip on his freshly-opened beer bottle.
"You know me so well," Karen grinned over at the spectacled man, having partaken in a few beers herself that had loosened her inhibitions a bit more than normal. It had helped give her the sudden audacity to attempt what she was about to.
It wasn't unusual for Frank to check in on Karen every once in awhile so she had stopped being surprised at randomly finding him inside her apartment. Seeing that Matt was with her had Frank already heading back out the fire escape, but Karen convinced him to stick around.
Apparently it wasn't the best decision for now he was about to suffer an embarrassing episode that his overbearing rival would be witness to.
"C'mon Karen, you're…you're not really gonna do this, are ya? Not in front of this asshole," he quickly gestured a thumb over his shoulder towards Matt.
The look of worry on his face as he backed up with his hands defensively in front of him may have made her take pause had it not been for the lopsided smile he was trying to hold back. She was pretty sure that if Matt wasn't there then Frank wouldn't be as resistant.
"Actually yeah, this asshole would love to see this," Matt boasted a presumptuous smirk at the thought of The Punisher being taken down a peg, but as usual Frank was ready with a quip.
"Ya won't see nothin', ya dumbass. You're blind as fuck."
If it weren't for the dark glasses he would've been able to see Matt's eye twitch in annoyance, though the tight-lipped frown on his face was enough to show his displeasure.
"….Need some help holding him down, Karen?"
"Thanks, but I think I got this. He's not that tough," she wiggled her fingers in the air for effect, sending a shiver down Frank's spine as he imagined their impending assault on his body.
"How 'bout I take a rain check, huh? I was gonna leave anyways, ya know. So I'll just, uh, show myself out now."
He licked his lips as his eyes darted over to the open window that he'd entered through, only he'd have to get past Karen first and he knew that wasn't happening. She was dressed in a skirt and heels, but he sincerely doubted that would slow her down.
She smirked as she observed his uneasy body language.
Normally Frank's stature was quite menacing, and just the mention of his name could strike fear into the hearts of some of the most dangerous men in the city. But that wasn't the case here.
He was hunched over in defense, making him look smaller than usual, and his eyes were wide with nervous, but curious anticipation. It amazed her how vulnerable he could act around her, and a warm feeling spread inside, knowing that he trusted her in that way.
With that in mind she was pretty sure that once she caught him that he wasn't really going to do much to stop her.
"Sorry, but no can do. You can't expect me to just let this go so easily," her grin widened, eyeing him up and down as if selecting where on his body she would target first. She was closing in on him faster than he was aware.
"Karen…Don't you dare….," he started, but then she lunged towards him and he quickly turned around to try to keep the space between them.
"What da….FUCK!"
In his haste he was not entirely paying attention and was thrown violently to the floor as his cumbersome boots tripped over Matt's cane that had been stuck out at the last moment.
"Whoops. How careless of me," Matt smirked, tipping back his beer as he sat down on the couch to stay close to the action.
Frank rolled over in a daze, briefly forgetting about his pursuer, but it all came back once Karen was on top of him and playfully mauling at his stomach. She was elated to get a reaction as he immediately tried to curl in on himself and began hollering through gruff laughter.
"Bahahahaha! No no, wahaahaait! Karen, plee-heease! Nohohoho!"
He squirmed around, frantically grabbing for her hands as they slipped underneath his hooded sweatshirt for better access to squeeze the sides of his muscled belly.
"Would you look at that…..Frank Castle…The Punisher….is ticklish," she mused out-loud to herself, giggling at how silly that sounded.
The discovery had been unintentional, though that was due to her ability to make him let his guard down.
Frank had been sitting beside her on the couch with his arms stretched out along the backrest when a smart-ass remark from him left Karen unable to come up with a proper retort. Not thinking much of it, she instead delivered a quick jab to his ribs as her final say.
She'd been pleasantly surprised when Frank's body flinched away from her hand as he looked down to try to conceal the brief snort that escaped him.
Once Matt's heckling commenced, the Marine had started to ramble on about still having a lot of unhealed bruises as he tried to re-divert the conversation, while at the same time deny all suspicions.
While he was distracted in his argument with Daredevil, Karen's hand shot out to wiggle her fingers underneath his arm and Frank was totally unprepared. He instantly pulled his arm down off the back of the sofa with a surprising giggle, snapping it in against his side.
As he quickly got to his feet, the reporter had naturally pursued him, being driven by her deep thirst for knowledge along with the alcohol in her system. After that there was nothing he could do or say to convince her not to go through with it.
"Geddoff geddoff! Dohohohoooon't!"
Back to the present, Karen was over the moon at seeing him in the state that he was. He carried a lot of guilt for his family's death with him so he didn't laugh like this very often.
Actually, she had never heard him laugh like this EVER! It was music to her ears! She was quite content to tickle him for as long as he would let her get away with it.
As her fingers dug higher up into his ribs he couldn't stop the pitch in his voice from rising as the giggles just poured out of him.
"Heheeheehee-stop! Sto-hahahahahaa!"
His arms were clung tightly by his sides, but she'd somehow always find a way to wiggle her fingers in past to force more laughter out of him.
"Someone help a blind man out, I thought Frank was here? Now all I can hear is a little girl laughing," Matt's brow tensed as he faked a confused expression and turned his head from side to side as if trying to determine the actual source of the noise.
"Fuhuhuck yoohoou, Murdo-hahahack!"
"Huh. I guess that is Frank. My mistake," he chuckled before rubbing at his chin and leaning forward towards the struggling pair on the floor to offer some advice, "You know, I'd try the knees if I were you…"
It wasn't two seconds before Karen quickly grabbed both of his jean-clad knees, pinching and squeezing wildly as Frank yowled and kicked out with his legs.
"Hey, it worked!" She giggled as he ineffectively swatted at her hands in an attempt to dislodge them from his knees, "That tickle?"
"Red! Gonna fuhuhuckin' kihihill ya!" Frank managed to shout through his laughter while Matt only smirked.
"Good luck with that. I know your secret weakness now."
"Oh, you're one to talk," Karen shot back at him, seeing the crimson flush over the Daredevil's cheeks as it wiped the grin off of his face, "You're like one of the most ticklish people I've ever met. Though I think Frank here may almost be just as bad."
"Okaa-haay! Thaahaat's eheehee-nough!" Frank was nearly blushing himself now, not just from the teasing he was receiving, but from how this experience was making him feel.
With his violent vigilante lifestyle he didn't normally have much physical contact with people that could be considered affectionate. Aside from a hug or fondly pressing his forehead against someone he considered a friend, he actually tried to avoid it.
It was hard for him to get so close to anyone since he had lost his wife and kids, though he had failed when it came to Karen.
He hadn't completely entrusted himself to her in the fear that it would put her in more danger than it already had, but she was the closest thing he had to family right now. And if anyone was going to succeed in breaking through his barriers it was going to be her.
In truth, deep down he ached to be touched more often, and he found that he didn't really mind enduring Karen's tickle attack. Though there was no way he was going to admit that, at least not with Matt Murdock anywhere within earshot.
"Hmmm, where else are you ticklish, Frank?" Karen's grin hadn't left her face this entire time as she used one hand to push him backwards against the floor while the other kept up the tickling on his knees and thighs.
Frank was willing to die before giving that information out voluntarily and just frantically shook his head.
"No-Nohoho whehehehere!"
It's too bad she wasn't willing to accept that answer. His arms were outstretched as he was half sitting up and trying to protect his knees, giving Karen an opening as she quickly pondered her next move.
"Oh really? What about…HERE!"
Abandoning his knees, she dove her hands straight into his armpits, and the literal shriek she received from the man as he slammed himself onto his back again had her laughing almost as hard.
"Ka-HAA-ren-ahahahahahahaha!"
"Holy crap!" Matt jumped back slightly in his seat, genuinely startled by the loud outburst.
Frank's body flopped around like crazy, crossing his arms over his chest and laughing his head off as her fingers wriggled around in one of his most ticklish areas.
"Uh oh, sounds like a weak spot," Karen dug in a little deeper, bringing Frank to tears from how badly it tickled him.
"Naahahahahahaho! I can't…I can't take it! I can't fuckin' take it! Pleeheeheeheease!" He begged as his wide open grin released wave after wave of hysterical laughter from deep within his chest.
"Woah woah woah, hold on!" Matt actually found this rather amusing, "You're telling me the big, bad Punisher can get hit with more bullets than I can count, and can nearly be pummeled to death, but he can't handle a little bit of tickling?"
Frank didn't really know how to respond to that.
"I…I just-Ahahahahahaha!" Though he didn't have to as the laughter overtook him once again.
"Sounds like it would be quite an effective torture technique for your enemies to use," Karen smirked, but mercifully pulled her hands free from under his arms, and instead used her nails to test lightly tickling all over his neck and behind his ears.
He was back to giggling like a lunatic now as he twisted his head from side to side, though it still allowed him to catch his breath and regain some of his strength. He finally grabbed a hold of Karen's wrists and held her hands back as she just grinned down at him.
"Ahh…Alright….Shit….I….give up…," he panted out, thoroughly exhausted from the ordeal as he released his friend and just let his arms collapse on top of himself. He barely registered when she stood and offered a hand down to help him up off the floor.
"Sorry Frank, but I think we both needed that," she grinned as he accepted the help and pulled him up.
Damn her. It's like she could read his mind, though again he wasn't going to outright admit that. So just to save face he put on his usual tough guy facade and shook his head.
"Yeah well, lets not make it a regular thing, yeah?"
Instead of the normal darkness clouding his eyes, Karen could see a light shining in them that was rarely seen. Despite the frown he tried to hold, his eyes were clearly smiling and that told her everything she needed to know.
"We'll see. I can't make any promises," Karen winked playfully as she snuck a gentle pinch on his side, succeeding in getting one last toothy smile out of him before her hand was brushed aside.
"She'll never leave you alone. Trust me on this," Matt piped in with a teasing roll of his eyes as Karen quickly turned and plopped down onto the couch beside him.
"Aww, stop it. You like it," still feeling handsy from the beers, she blithely tickled at his ribs as Matt yelped and grabbed for her hands. Soon enough there was a high squeal from Karen as Matt returned fire, making it an all out tickle war between the two of them.
Frank just stood there awkwardly as he waited for them to finish, also feeling a little jealous that Matt currently had Karen's attention. But after a minute they were still going at it and he decided maybe now was the time to make his exit.
"Ugh, I'm outta here," he groaned as he flipped the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and began walking towards the window that he had entered through.
His heavy boots thudded loudly as he walked across the wood floor and masked the footsteps running up behind him.
"Frank! Waaaaait!"
He turned around just in time for Karen to plow into him, throwing her arms around his back and squeezing tightly.
"It's good to see you again. Thanks for sticking around tonight," she smiled warmly as Frank reciprocated the hug and placed his arms around her. He leaned in closer as he took in her scent to remember for later.
"Don't mention it, Karen. Though maybe next time I'll just call instead, ya know? Or show up in a suit o' armor so ya can't-ahahahaa!" Frank's knees nearly buckled in his surprise as Karen's fingers seized his ribs and tickled furiously.
"Well I guess I'd better get it in while I can then," she giggled while fighting with the squirming man who was trying to back out of her reach. She was happy that he gave her another excuse to get him laughing again.
"Ok, truce! Truce! Ya wihihin!" He pleaded between laughs as she finally let up, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek while he was still stooped over.
"That's a good look for you. You really should smile more."
Frank straightened up, but looked down at the floor, trying not to blush.
"Eh, I don't think that'll go over so well in my line o' work. Real hard t' intimidate a guy lookin' like this."
"Yeah, but you're not trying to intimidate me, right?" She smiled innocently, getting Frank to shake his head.
"I guess not…..Depends on your intentions," he raised a teasing brow that made her laugh, then lifted her hand delicately between his rough, bruised-knuckle ones. He looked at her thoughtfully with a small smile while gently squeezing her hand in the process.
"Karen….Always a pleasure, ma'am," he said his goodbye as he placed a soft kiss on the back of her hand and released her. It was her turn to blush from the tender act as he turned around to start climbing out through the window onto the fire escape.
By then, Matt had made his way across the room to rejoin them as he stood beside Karen, giving The Punisher a farewell of his own.
"See you around, Frank, it's been fun. Now I know what to do the next time you piss me off."
Frank paused in his departure as he sighed and looked back towards the other man; the darkness returning to his eyes with an ominous glow.
"Red, I'm only gonna tell ya this once…Touch me, and I'll break your goddamn arms."