(Notes: I wrote this at 2am and I've decided to publish it, hopefully there's not too many errors!)
Karen Page imagined that she would end up in numerous different places when she was younger. Maybe, she would become a writer in Switzerland, or a teacher in Prague. She could be a chef in Japan or an English teacher in France. There were so many places she could end up, she had so much potential, yet she stood in the doorway of her crappy new apartment in Hell's Kitchen, New York. Her hair was held back in a bun with chopsticks and her cat, Peko, nuzzled against her leg. This place was crappier that she had remembered, with cracks in the walls and a dirty mattress on the floor. She clutched her box full of belongings and entered with Peko following close behind.
"Hello, paradise" she muttered sarcastically, dropping her box on the kitchen counter.
It didn't take long before Karen had settled in; she was eerily good at that, settling in that is. When she was younger she used to move around a lot, her dad was a business man and her mom would pick up random jobs. Cleaning lady, cashier, that sort of thing…You see, Karen never got attached anywhere because she always knew she wouldn't be staying for long. For some reason Hell's Kitchen felt different. Yes, it was noisy and crowded and the crime rate was higher than the Empire State building. Maybe, the people were unfriendly, the air crappy and the price of living sure as hell not low by her standards. But there was something, some kind of anchor…that had pulled Karen in. In her heart she knew that she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.
Dinner was ramen noodles, an unopened juice box she found in the fridge and a small carton of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. She had managed to hook the TV up and was watching an episode of dateline, (since of course that was a good idea, at night and alone), when she heard the wind fly open her window.
"Shit! Shitshitshitshit, I didn't lock the window! I'm watching Dateline for god sake how could I have forgotten to lock the window?" yelled Karen, whipping Peko off her lap and quickly rising from her mattress before stopping dead in her tracks. There was a man; someone was breaking into her house. It was only her first night!
She grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer, as the man tumbled onto the floor. Her adrenaline was racing, her teeth gritted.
"Listen buddy you're either going to turn around and get the hell out of my apartment, or I'm going to call the cops and gut you like a fish."
She tried to appear threatening, straightening her back and narrowing her eyes on him.
The man looked up at Karen from the floor squinting.
"Danny's got a girlfriend?"
Karen's hand rose to her hip.
"Excuse me?" she replied.
"She's pretty too" the man chuckled to himself.
Karen shook her head in confusion.
"I don't know who Danny is and I'm not his girlfriend" she replied, her grip still firm on the knife.
Puzzled, the man looked up at her.
"Then why are you in his apartment?"
Frazzled, Karen opened her mouth to speak before spotting the bottle in his hand. Ah, this made sense now.
"You're pissed drunk, aren't you?" she asked.
"Is that a rhetorical question, or did you want me to answer that?" the man asked in response.
"Great, that's just great. My first day moved and there's already a drunken man in my living room" Karen cried, throwing her hands up and laughing to herself.
The man backed up.
"Sorry lady, honest mistake. I'll just be on my way-"
Karen ripped the bottle from his hands and took a swig.
"Why did I think I could handle this? Living alone in New York, am I crazy? I don't even own a gun, not that I would even know how to use one in the first place." She paced the room taking another swig.
The man looked her up and down, taking in her striped pyjama pants and white spaghetti strapped tank top. Her blonde hair held up with chopsticks and her long, slim frame.
"I don't even have a job yet, what if I can't find a job? How will I pay for this shitty apartment? Why is there only one lock on my door?" Karen continued.
She looked down to where the man was sitting, but he was gone. Swinging around she nearly dropped the bottle when her eye's met his. They were a dark shade of brown and he had a deep cut under his right eye. Bar fight? She wondered to herself.
"Listen lady, you're going to be just fine" he told her. His thumb was on her lip stopping her before she muttered another strand of tangled words. Then he took the bottle from her grasp, his hand brushing hers for just a moment and turned his back to face her.
He crouched down just before shutting the window,
"I'm Frank. Frank Castle, in 6B."
(Final note: I'm not entirely sure if I would like to continue this AU or posts one shots instead. Leave me a review and let me know what you would prefer!)