OP is having fun still. I wasn't really sure how the situation could work out favorably, but this is a solution that both works and that leaves lots of room for future angst. I'm all for it!
Mmm, I really like the idea of Frank eventually learning to tolerate certain low-intensity scenes, but still feeling intensely guilty about it at his low moments. Like, the first time Matt talks him into letting them try something, Frank safewords out and doesn't stop trembling for nearly half an hour afterwards, Matt standing by the whole time, just being there for him until he's recovered enough to talk. And Frank explains, insofar as he's able, that yes he kills people, yes he hurts people, but never the people he loves, never the ones who trust him. He's not a good man, by any stretch of the imagination, but he's better than this, better than the people who would hurt a partner like this. And Matt tries to explain that doing a scene requires such a deep level of trust, on both sides, that it's not the same situation as abuse at all...but he knows that Frank isn't in any state to hear it, so he doesn't press the issue.
Slowly, they work on it, going through some lighter scening that lets Frank get used to trusting Matt to tell him when he needs him to stop and, more importantly, trusting himself to stop. And then Frank starts to go up against a villain who is also a wife-beater, and suddenly it's like he's back at square one.
Re: Matt/Frank Castle, BDSM Fail
Mmm, I really like the idea of Frank eventually learning to tolerate certain low-intensity scenes, but still feeling intensely guilty about it at his low moments. Like, the first time Matt talks him into letting them try something, Frank safewords out and doesn't stop trembling for nearly half an hour afterwards, Matt standing by the whole time, just being there for him until he's recovered enough to talk. And Frank explains, insofar as he's able, that yes he kills people, yes he hurts people, but never the people he loves, never the ones who trust him. He's not a good man, by any stretch of the imagination, but he's better than this, better than the people who would hurt a partner like this. And Matt tries to explain that doing a scene requires such a deep level of trust, on both sides, that it's not the same situation as abuse at all...but he knows that Frank isn't in any state to hear it, so he doesn't press the issue.
Slowly, they work on it, going through some lighter scening that lets Frank get used to trusting Matt to tell him when he needs him to stop and, more importantly, trusting himself to stop. And then Frank starts to go up against a villain who is also a wife-beater, and suddenly it's like he's back at square one.