Archive of Our Own

Aunt Marygay decided to take on a tenant the summer between Johnny’s sophomore and junior years. Johnny sat on the front step of Aunt Marygay’s house, tossing a hackey sack up in the air and watching it fall back to his hand, when a rickety van pulled into the driveway next to theirs. Johnny peered over the low hedge separating their houses. He liked cars, was good with them, and he couldn’t remember ever seeing such a piece of shit in this neighborhood. 

A handsome man with a wide nose and grin stepped out of the passenger side. 

“I’m not helping with unpacking,” the man called into the van. “All you own is some cheap science crap.”

“Expenses don’t matter, what matters is that it gets the job done,” came a voice from within the car. 

“Sure you’d be saying that if you were rich?” The man slammed the door shut and leaned back against it. He stretched his muscled arms over his head. Johnny dropped his eyes. “I can’t believe you dragged me out to fuckin’ California. Not even the beachy part. God, why’s it so fuckin’ hot? Why are there so many fuckin’ cows?”   

“Would you mind not shouting curse words in front of my new neighbors?” The other man came around the side of the car and Johnny felt his breath whoosh away. He wasn’t particularly handsome, though Johnny thought he wasn’t quite bad-looking either. He had flyaway hair and dark eyes and a long face that stretched into an easy smile. He must have been a few years older than Sue, yet his body seemed gangly like he’d never really grown into adulthood. But there was something about him. Something contained inside his ratty tweed blazer and his askew tie. Something a little – off. A little wild.

The man’s eyes fell on Johnny and goose bumps erupted on Johnny’s skin.

“You must be Jonathan,” the man said. 

Johnny straightened. “You know my name?”

The man beamed. “Absolutely. I’m your aunt’s new boarder!”

“Oh, um – okay. You’re moving in?”

He huffed a laugh. “Into this house, yes.” Johnny blinked. “Your aunt . . . owns the house, yes?” Johnny shrugged. “Oh. Well. I hope I have the right location.” 

“Toss me the sack, kid,” said the other man.

Johnny tossed it and – well, it went pretty wide, but the man snatched it out of the air anyway. He dropped the sack and began to kick it from foot to foot. 

Whoa, thought Johnny.

Just then, the door behind Johnny flew open and Aunt Marygay rushed out.

“Mr. Richards!” she said, bustling over to the neighbor. “And this is your friend, Mr. –,”

“Grimm, ma’am,” said the man, and Johnny could have sworn Aunt Marygay blushed. “Thank you for letting me stay the summer.” 

“Yes, well, as long as the rent gets paid, I don’t care by whom. And Mr. Richards said he’s not much of a partier.”

Grimm snorted. “Understatement of the decade.”

“Hush, Ben,” said Richards. “I prefer to focus on my career is all. Parties were for my undergrad.” 

“Oh yeah, Reed was a wild one back in college,” said Ben in a way that made it seem like Reed was not wild at all. “In between his triple major, he really knew howta rage.”

Johnny smiled a little even as he envied the easy way they were with each other. He’d never had many friends, and never any friends like them.

Reed rolled his eyes. “I was talking to Jonathan actually.”

Johnny almost laughed at the way Aunt Marygay’s whole body stiffened. “I apologize if he said anything . . . unseemly.” 

“Not at all!” said Reed and Johnny’s head snapped up to look at him. “He seems like a nice young man.”

“Even let me steal his hackey sack,” said Ben. He tossed it back to Johnny with a flicker of a wink. “Thanks, kid.”

“Oh,” said Aunt Marygay. She peered over at Johnny like he had forced them to say those things at gunpoint. “Very well. Susan should be getting home from work soon if you have the chance to meet her. I promise she’s much more – well. At any rate, I have some errands to run. I suppose the two of you can handle moving your things?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the men chorused.

Aunt Marygay shook their hands once more and then got into her little Toyota with a final suspicious glare toward Johnny. He rolled his eyes. 

“She always thinks I’m gonna burn the house down every time she leaves,” said Johnny, watching her zoom away. That lady could sure pick up speed at her age.

“Sometimes houses need to get burned down,” said Reed. “It’s the only way to get anything done.”

Johnny looked at him, expecting his blinding grin, but instead he seemed almost too serious. A shiver crept up Johnny’s spine.

There was really something not right with this guy. Johnny couldn’t decide if he liked it.

Ben and Reed started moving boxes into the house, and Johnny watched while trying to pretend he wasn’t watching. He probably should have helped them, but – he liked watching. Observing. For totally unweird purposes. 

God, he needed to get laid.

Sue pulled up in the driveway while Ben and Reed were inside.

“Hey,” she said, as she stepped out of her car. She was dressed in her waitress uniform and she wasn’t wearing any makeup and her hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail and Johnny thought no woman could be more beautiful than his sister. “Whose car?”

“Aunt Marygay’s new boarders. Did you know she owns the building next door?”

“Huh. Really? I guess that’s why I never see anyone there.” Sue sat on the step next to him. Up close, Johnny could see the dark circles under her eyes. “What are they like?”

“Two young guys, probably midtwenties. Reasonably attractive. You should hit that.”

“Gross. What’s their vibe?” 

“They seem cool. Defended me to Aunt Marygay.” 

“I like them already.” Sue ruffled his hair and Johnny grinned. Sometimes, after a long workday, it felt like Sue couldn’t stand to be around Johnny. He liked to be proven wrong.

“For God’s sake, Ben, if you hate California that much after being here a whole half a day, nothing’s stopping you from –,”

Reed froze as he turned away from Ben and looked up at Johnny and Sue. For a second, Johnny thought he had something gross on his face, but then he realized Reed wasn’t looking at him at all.

“Hi,” said Reed, not moving an inch.

Sue waved.

“You must be Suetiful. Beautiful. Sue! You must be Sue.”

Ben turned and walked back into the house. Johnny thought about doing the same.

“That’s me,” said Sue. “On both counts.” 

Reed laughed, and it lit up his face like all the houses he may or may not have burned down. He was something out of a black-and-white movie, if Cary Grant met Dr. Frankenstein. Next to Johnny, Sue sat straighter as if she hadn’t really been paying attention until this moment. Johnny understood. 

“You should come over for dinner tonight,” said Reed. His eyes flicked to Johnny. “Both of you, and your aunt, if she wants. We’ll order pizza. Talk about the world.”

Johnny expected Sue to be aloof like she was whenever boys came around. No matter what they offered her, she was always too good for them. No matter who they were, she made them understand that she was too good for them.

“Does 6:30 sound okay?” asked Sue.

Reed grinned. “That sounds fantastic.”

It happened like this.

Johnny cracked the door open, peering into the hallway. Aunt Marygay didn’t like him walking around at night – something about him stomping everywhere like an elephant, which was totally unfair – but he really needed to pee. He peeked left, then right to make sure there wasn’t any sign of her, and he slipped into the darkness.

He tiptoed down the stairs, trying his hardest to be quiet. Sue, like Aunt Marygay, always said that he couldn’t be quiet if he tried, but she was so wrong. He could be quiet when he tried. He just . . . never felt like trying. 

Johnny reached the first floor without any incident – ha, suck it, Sue – when he heard a strange, muffled huffing. He frowned and walked to the living room, his quietness nearly forgotten. It was dark – too dark to make out details – but he could see the hunched over silhouette of someone on the couch.

“Sue?” he whispered before he could stop himself.

There was a gasp and the silhouette sat straight. He heard the ruffle of something falling and then she bent over again to pick up whatever it was.

“Johnny!” Yeah, that was Sue, too kind to be particularly stern. “What are you doing up?”

“I had to pee.” 

“Well, don’t let Aunt Marygay catch you.”

“Were you crying?”

Sue sat silent and still, as if maybe she hoped he would lose interest and leave if she stopped moving. She’d been watching too much Jurassic Park. He wasn’t a T-Rex and he could still see her.

“Why were you crying?” he asked again.

“It’s nothing, it’s stupid.”

He crept closer until he could see the crumpled papers Sue clutched. “What’s that?”

She breathed out, so slow he thought she might not answer. But then she said, “They’re college brochures.”

Johnny’s heart dropped into his stomach. He guessed a part of him had always known this was coming – Sue was seventeen, after all. That’s the time when people start thinking about going to college. And knowing Sue, she had started thinking about it a long time ago. She was a straight A student, taking all AP classes, the star of the swim team, and she had even been in the school play this year (Johnny saw every performance, telling the people sitting either side of him that Laurie was his sister). She’d been working her entire life towards college and now . . . what? Johnny was gonna feel betrayed that she actually wanted to go? 

“I got a full ride scholarship, Johnny,” she whispered. It was as if Sue had been waiting to talk about this. And now she couldn’t stop. “To Empire State University. They want to pay me to go back to New York and swim for them and be in their premed program. They want me to become a doctor, Johnny. Me. Isn’t that something? I never thought – me, a doctor. Can you imagine it?”

Slowly, Johnny sat on the couch beside her.

“You’d . . . you’d leave me alone here?” He hated himself for asking it, but he had to know.

Sue took his hand. “If I went to school, became a doctor, do you know what that would mean for us? Do you know how much money doctors make?”

“I’d have to stay here for the rest of school,” Johnny said. “And after that. No one’s gonna pay for me to go to New York. Or anywhere.”

“Don’t say that, you’re only a freshman –,”

“And I’m crap at school, Sue!” Johnny’s eyes stung and he tried to blink away the tears. “I’m gonna be stuck in Glenville forever while you go to New York –,”

“Shh, shh.” Sue grabbed his head and leaned it on her shoulder. He let the tears fall.

“You can’t leave me,” he whispered, even as his insides churned with self-hate. He just kept seeing it all in his head. Mom’s death. Dad’s abandonment. He couldn’t take that from Sue. He couldn’t take it. “Please don’t leave me.” 

“Hey, little bro, no one’s leaving anyone. Not yet.” 

It happened like this.

Sue held him and he held her back, and it felt like he was grasping at thin air.

Aunt Marygay left after an hour, but she was thoroughly charmed by Reed and Ben, and let Sue and Johnny stay later.

Reed gave them a tour of the house. It looked remarkably the same as Aunt Marygay’s house, but Reed had a way of putting a spin on everything that made it come alive. Every room was empty, devoid of anything but boxes, and yet Reed painted a picture of what it could be. The library. The dungeon. The laboratory. Johnny’s head swirled with the possibilities.

“And this is mine and Ben’s room,” Reed said, gesturing at a closed door. “Which concludes our tour.”

“You and Ben share a room?” asked Johnny, the words falling out before he noticed Sue’s warning nudge. 

Reed laughed. “Waste not, want not, my friend.”

Ben smirked. Sue looked . . . hungry.

As they moved back into the living room, Johnny noticed a photograph thrown haphazardly onto the mantle of Reed and Ben with their arms around a young man with angular cheekbones.

“Who’s this?” Johnny asked. 

“Reed’s ex,” said Ben.

“In every sense of the word,” said Reed.

“He got all obsessed with him.”

“In every sense of the word.”

“Vic pretty much hates us now.”

“In how many senses of the word can he do that?” asked Sue, and Reed and Ben laughed.

“Are you gay?” asked Johnny.

“Johnny,” Sue scolded, and Johnny dropped his eyes.

“I don’t mind,” said Reed. “I’m certainly not gay.” His eyes flicked to Sue. “But I also don’t believe in . . . limitations.”

Ben grinned. “In every sense of the word.”

Johnny wasn’t sure how it happened. One day, he and Sue were over eating pizza with the new guys, and the next day, those guys were picking him up every Saturday morning to take him out to the racetrack. Johnny wondered if this was what it was like to have friends. 

He thought it was probably a little weird that two twenty-four-year-old guys liked spending time with a sixteen-year-old. But even though they were pretty strange, they never did anything weird with him. Reed only had eyes for Sue and sometimes Ben. Johnny still hadn’t figured out that situation. But Ben would ruffle his hair and Reed would explain the science of Nascar and Johnny would pretend to listen and they always bought him lunch.

When Sue wasn’t working, she would come along. On the days they didn’t go to the track, she was over at Reed and Ben’s. Sometimes, she didn’t invite him no matter how many hints he dropped that he wanted to come along. Most times, she did.

The summer passed that way. For the first time since his mom died and he moved out here, he felt alive again. Like the future meant something. Like he meant something.

Reed was . . . not from central California. Johnny wasn’t even sure he was from LA, like he said. When he talked, you listened. There was something – inhuman about it. That need to listen.

Johnny could see Sue transform before his eyes. He hadn’t seen her so engaged in the world around her since she decided to take a gap year, and then another. It was like she’d been asleep and he hadn’t even noticed until Reed Richards drove into their lives in a crappy van. Which was ironic, given that half the time spent with Reed and Ben felt like a dream.

It probably moved too fast, the four of them. But they were young and the world was impossibly big.

One night, near the end of summer, Johnny woke to Sue leaning over him, her hair tickling his face.

“Are you awake?” she whispered.

“I am now,” he said. “Sue, what time is it? What’s going on?”

“We’re sneaking out.” She sounded almost giddy.

“What?” Johnny asked, sleep-addled brain having a helluva time putting this one together. “What are you talking about? Am I dreaming right now?” 

Sue moved away and started rifling through his drawers. A pair of jeans hit him in the face.

“Ow! Sue, what are you –,” 

“Put those on and meet me outside in five.”

Johnny did what Sue said because – when didn’t he do what Sue said? She was his sister. She always knew.

He dressed as quick as he could and then tiptoed down the stairs. He cracked the front door open and slipped outside.

Ben and Reed’s crappy van sat in the driveway, headlights off or maybe broken. As Johnny walked closer, he could see Ben in the driver’s seat. Ben pointed at the empty seat beside him and Johnny almost ran to clamber into the van. The door shut and Ben was pulling out of the driveway and speeding into the night. 

Johnny glanced in the rearview mirror to see Sue staring out the window. Reed was laying down, his feet propped against a door, his head in Sue’s lap. His eyes were closed as she absentmindedly raked a hand through his hair, making it even messier.

Johnny waited as long as he could, until he was nearly bursting.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

Reed’s eyes flickered open and searched for Johnny in the mirror, but Johnny focused on the way Sue’s hand tightened in Reed’s hair. She was scared, Johnny realized. Or excited. Either way she needed something to hold onto.

“We’re going to break into NASA,” said Reed.

It happened like this.

They drove for hours. They found the Ames Research Center. They broke in through a backdoor, something Reed and his ex-whatever Victor had apparently scoped out a long time ago. They found a test rocket, all alone, ready for launch.

It happened like this.

“These sure are convenient,” Reed said, finding abandoned space suits that smelled like cleaning products. “One could call it destiny. If one believed in such a thing.”

What a dick, Johnny thought fondly as he watched Reed change. He’s like a god.

Sue wore her suit as if it were the highest of fashions.

“Susan,” Reed said. “You look incredible.”

He kissed her, hard and soft at the same time. When he pulled away, he asked, “Ben, doesn’t she look incredible?” 

Ben moved forward, pulled by Reed’s gravity, and he kissed Sue, too. 

Johnny looked away.

“Johnny –,” Reed began.

“I’m not kissing her.” Johnny looked back to see Ben pulling away with wet lips. His broad shoulders filled out the space suit wonderfully. “Ben though –,”

Reed laughed, too loud and free for a clandestine mission. “That’s the spirit. Into the rocket, let’s go.”

It happened like this. 

They were flying, and it felt like racing. They were flying and it felt like destiny.

Johnny could see everything. The whole universe. He was certain this must be the whole universe. With Sue and Reed and Ben beside him, everything behind him could combust and Johnny might not have looked back.

It happened like this. 

The explosion was in front of them, in plain view of the galaxy. And then –

Fire.  

They moved to New York not long after. And they were heroes. 

The four of them did what they could to help in the fast-paced world of New York City. They stopped muggings and beatings and car collisions and there was the one really creepy guy who called himself the Mole Man that they probably stopped from taking over the world. They were heroes, the kings and queen of a new age.

But Johnny should have known Reed would never be content with being a king. Reed Richards was no king. 

It started small. Johnny would walk into a room and Reed, Sue, and Ben would fall silent. He might have found it hilarious that three people who were so smart could be so bad at keeping secrets if it didn’t piss him off so much.

He tried to ignore it. He went to his new school. He got a girlfriend, a pretty girl named Dorrie who never missed a beat and who he was kinda amazed even talked to him in the first place. He practiced his powers like he had never practiced anything before. He was going to control them. He was going to show Reed, Sue, and Ben that he was a part of this team and he deserved to be in on their plans.

One day, Johnny came home from school still on a high from the kisses he’d shared with Dorrie in the hallway, in front of all their peers. God, if the kids from Glenville could see him now. He was a good-looking guy – he prided himself on it – but he had always been a bit of a loner, and he had trouble talking to girls – or, you know, anyone. But now he was popular with a hot girlfriend who liked to kiss him in front of all her friends and, damn it, he could fly. 

He passed by Reed, Sue, and Ben’s room (technically, it was just Reed and Sue’s room, but he’d never seen Ben actually use his own room) when he heard muffled voices and what he was pretty sure was his name. He froze.

“– can’t involve him.” That was Sue. He pressed his ear against the door.

“He’s our heaviest hitter. No offense, Ben.”

“None taken. I wish I could shoot fire outta my ass too.” 

Johnny scowled. Ben could be such a dick. It wasn’t Johnny’s fault that Johnny’s powers made him awesome and Ben’s just made him ugly.

Ben still had his eyes though, proving life wasn’t fair. He could get any girl in the world with those eyes alone. 

“He’s a kid,” said Sue. “I’m his guardian and if I say he’s not involved then he’s not. End of story.”

“Sue, you just don’t under –,”

“I sincerely suggest you consider how that sentence is going to end if you ever want to see me again.”

Silence. And then – 

“I’m sorry. I was out of line.” 

Johnny huffed a laugh – how sweet the sound of an apology from Reed – and slapped a hand over his mouth. But it was too late. He heard a series of thumps. He stumbled backwards as the door wrenched open and a hulking Ben loomed over him. Ben’s pretty eyes widened.

“How long’ve you been –?”

He guessed it was too late to salvage this so he might as well go out with a bang. He squeezed past Ben to see Sue and Reed both staring with equally wide eyes.

“Johnny –,” said Sue.

“I want in,” said Johnny. “Whatever it is you’re planning. I’m a part of this team, I broke into fucking NASA with you guys. We’re in this together.” 

“Watch your language,” said Sue half-heartedly. But she was staring at Reed who was staring back at her and then they were both staring at Ben, doing that weird thing where they somehow managed to communicate without words. Johnny and Sue could do that alone, but he couldn’t seem to understand the three of them. Probably because he wasn’t having sex with them. 

Which, you know, he was cool with. Because gross.

Finally, Sue looked back at him. Her eyes were hard as steel, and the same color too. 

“You’re in.” 

The way Reed put it, it was the government’s fault. The way Reed put it, it was all for the sake of science. The way Reed put it, the Fantastic Four were not merely heroes, but visionaries and it was their right – their duty – to take what was owed them. 

The way Reed put it, backing out would be the highest form of cowardice. And the Fantastic Four were no cowards.

The plan was not to hurt anyone. Get in, get the equipment they were looking for, get out.

Johnny tried not to be afraid. He tried not to feel guilty. Norman Osborn always seemed like an asshole anyway.

Johnny ran through the endless corridors. Alarms blared and lights flashed red. He could hear the distant cries from within the building and without, but for now he was alone. He ran faster. 

Johnny turned a corridor and skidded to a halt at the man clad in red and blue hanging upside down from the ceiling. 

“Now what’s a nice boy like you doing in a place like this?” the man asked. 

Johnny lit his arm on fire, ready to throw flames at the newcomer. But the man beat him to it, shooting something white and sticky from his hands right at Johnny. Johnny ducked and rolled beneath the man, taking off down the corridor.

“Hey!” he heard, and more thwips but Johnny bounded into the air, body alight. “Come on, man, I’m just trying to have a conversation here.”

Johnny opened a door at the end of the corridor and threw himself into it, but it was a dead end, leading to some kind of conference room. He turned back and the red-and-blue guy slipped through the door, crawling over the walls like an insect.

“Let’s talk,” he said.

“Like hell,” said Johnny. He turned and took off running for the window. 

“Seriously? Am I so hideous that guy would rather throw himself out of a building than spend one minute with me? Don’t answer that.” 

Johnny crashed through the window, his whole body shaking at the impact. For a moment he fell, and then he lit up.

But before he could really fly, something grafted onto his ankle and yanked him back towards the Oscorp building.

“Oh shit,” he heard before he slammed into glass and steel and the world went black.

Johnny bolted upright, gasping for breath.

Gentle but firm hands pushed him backwards. He was on a bed, he saw, with plan blue sheets that were a bit ratty.

“Whoa, man, chill,” said a voice and Johnny looked up to see the same masked guy from before. He tried to jerk away, but the guy held him by the shoulders so he couldn’t move. He was . . . freakin’ strong.

“Let go of me,” Johnny growled.

“Not until you calm down. I might have broken your ribs. I should have just taken you to the hospital, but do you know what everyone would say about me if I dragged the unconscious Human Torch to a hospital? It’d be career suicide. I’d never work in this town again. Even though you were the one robbing Oscorp –,”

“I wasn’t robbing anything!”

The man stared at him. Johnny got the distinct feeling his eyebrows were raised.

“Okay, maybe we were robbing Oscorp,” said Johnny. “But it was only because Norman Osborn has been harboring tech that he doesn’t have a right to!”

“And you do?”

Johnny blinked. “Well. I mean. Yeah.”

The guy shook his head and Johnny suddenly wanted to hit him. But if he did, this guy would definitely crush under his brightly-colored thumb. 

“Where am I?” he asked.

“Uh, a clandestine location. Don’t try to figure it out.” 

Johnny craned his neck to see around the man. Thick curtains were pulled over a window, barring him from the outside. The walls had been stripped clean and Johnny got the weird impression that a lot of stuff had been shoved into the closet that was barely peeking open. He saw a junky computer and a cool camera, the kind like photographers actually use, at the rickety desk, but that was the only hint of personalization.

“Dude . . . am I in your bedroom?”  

“No!” The guy ran a hand over his mask, fingers flexing atop his head as if he longed to knots his fingertips in the roots of his hair. It was Johnny’s turn to raise an eyebrow.  “Look, I panicked, okay? I totally knocked you out. I’m still kind of getting used to, you know.” He flexed. 

Johnny perked up. “You’re a new superhero?”

“Uh, yeah! I’m Spider-Man, man! You mean you’ve never heard of me?”

Johnny shrugged.

Spider-Man groaned. “This sucks. The Daily Bugle eviscerates me every week and for what? Johnny Storm doesn’t even know who I am.”

“You know who I am?” Johnny asked.

“Duh. You guys don’t wear masks. So everyone saw when you beat up the Mole Man and everyone saw when you broke into Oscorp.” 

Johnny flushed. “Oh.”

Spider-Man stared at him, weird unblinking eyes completely unsettling. Johnny tried not to see him, but there wasn’t anything else to see.

“What happened to you guys?” Spider-Man asked, voice softer than it had been.

“Huh?”

“The Fantastic Four. You guys were, like, heroes. I wanted to join your team. Everyone looks up to you. And now you’re supervillains?”

Something hot and shameful sunk in Johnny’s stomach. “We’re not villains,” he said. “We just . . .” Wanted to take what was rightfully ours. But without Reed standing in front of him, that mad light hypnotizing, it didn’t sound like something a hero would say. 

“Look,” said Spider-Man. “I get that you’ve lost your way or whatever. We’ve all been there. But you have the power and, you know, the responsibility to, like – not be a supervillain.”

“Are you seriously trying to give me a pep talk right now? After I just tried to rob Oscorp?”

Spider-Man shrugged. “My uncle used to give pep talks all the time. He was really good at them. I’d probably give more pep talks to supervillains if they ever seemed like they were willing to listen.” 

Despite himself, Johnny grinned. And then he laughed. God, this dude was weird and it made him feel like he was a little weird too, but like maybe that was a good thing.

“I don’t think my ribs are broken,” Johnny said.

“Huh?”

“You said you broke my ribs. They hurt, but, like, I think they’re fine. You can take me back now.”

“Oh. Uh, right. Back to . . .?”

“Manhattan, I guess? Or anywhere you feel comfortable letting me off. I can find my way back.”

“Oh, sure, yeah. I don’t usually let people go back to their lives of crime, but you know. Whatever. I’ll just –,”

Spider-Man raised his fist. Johnny shrunk into the headboard.

“What the fuck!” he yelled.

Spider-Man froze. “I’m gonna knock you out, so that I can take you back to Manhattan. No hard feelings, but I’ve kinda got a secret identity to maintain . . .”

“Or you could just, I dunno, blindfold me?”

“Huh. One sec.” He bounded to his closet, allowing Johnny to get a good look at his body.  He was long and lean, muscled, but not much taller than Johnny. And he was – well, he seemed – endowed. In certain areas.

Johnny dropped his head back to the pillow. “Dude. If you had broken my nose, I would never have forgiven you.” 

“Trust me,” came Spider-Man’s voice. “I don’t wanna wreck that face either.”

Johnny blinked up at the ceiling. He tried to breathe through whatever was happening in his lungs.

Spider-Man came back with a lame tie patterned with a DNA double helix. Johnny snorted.

“Is that yours? Are you a nerd?”

“Shut up,” Spider-Man grumbled and leaned over to tie it securely around Johnny’s head. He was so close Johnny could smell the spandex.

The next thing he knew, Spider-Man had his arms under Johnny and was lifting him into the air, bridal style.

“Hold on,” Spider-Man whispered, and Johnny slipped his arms around Spider-Man’s neck and oh god, if Dorrie could see him. 

Spider-Man presumably crawled out the window and then the wind was hitting his face and they were flying. It was a weird kind of flying, uneven, like they kept falling before they flew. Johnny loved it.

He held on tighter and pretended it was because he was scared.

Eventually, they began to slow down. And then the ground was beneath Johnny’s feet again. Johnny reached up to untie his blindfold, but Spider-Man stilled his hands.

“Hold on,” he said and disappeared for a minute. Johnny tried not to panic. He could hear the bustle of the crowd, feel the shove of pedestrians. He stood alone, in darkness, surrounded by them. Spider-Man could have left him anywhere. Spider-Man could kill him right now. 

Something pushed itself into Johnny’s hand. He could feel Spider-Man behind him, padded fingers brushing his neck as he untied the blindfold.

“See ya later, hot head,” Spider-Man whispered.

The blindfold whipped away and Johnny opened his eyes to find he was in the thick of Times Square. He spun around – Spider-Man was already gone. 

He looked down at his hand to see he was holding a hot dog. On the tinfoil in messy black sharpie was the scrawl: Remember – you’re someone’s hero.

Johnny looked back up at the tourists and hotels and blinding signs for Broadway shows and expensive stores. This was not the part of Manhattan he had meant when he asked Spidey to drop him off. What a dick.

He uncurled the foil from the hot dog and took a bite. Empty carbs never tasted so good.

“Johnny!” Sue cried, running to meet him as he crossed the threshold. He grabbed her and held her tight. She was so warm, and he didn’t know why that surprised him.

He had seen her when things started to go bad. He had seen the mad light in her eyes, the same light that had always been in Reed’s, the light that had never quite been in Ben’s. He wondered if Reed was contagious or if you could only catch what he had if you wanted to. 

“I was so worried,” she said. “Where were you? What happened? You look awful.” 

“Thanks, sis,” said Johnny, but privately, he rejoiced at her worry. “I got knocked out by Spider-Man, and then he nursed me back to health.” 

Sue pulled back. “Spider-Man? That new guy from Queens?”

“He’s from Queens?” Johnny asked, hating and thrilling at the way his heart raced. 

“That’s where all the sightings have been. Are you okay? I swear I looked for you –,”

“I know, I know you did.” He held her close, feeling her heart beat against his. “I know you did.” 

Johnny heard Ben before he saw him, and he was, of course, accompanied by Reed. If Sue’s reaction surprised him, the utter relief on Ben and Reed’s faces absolutely floored him. He didn’t know – he didn’t know they cared so much. 

Reed stretched across the room to engulf Johnny in a hug. He did that sometimes, not on purpose, but like he hadn’t realized his feet hadn’t followed the rest of him. It was weird. And sweet.

“John,” he said. “I was so worried.”

Ben clapped him on the back. “Good to see you in one piece, squirt.”

“You too,” said Johnny. He wanted to stay here, surrounded by the three of them, and forget everything else. This was all he needed. “I’m so glad you guys got out.”

Reed pulled back and Johnny knew shouldn’t look in his eyes, but he did.

“We didn’t just get out,” Reed said. “We got it.”

“Do you want to see?” asked Sue.

Johnny could never say no to Sue.

They led him to a back room that had been turned into Reed’s office. Much like the place back in California, it never seemed completely unpacked and cardboard boxes littered the room. Reed never settled, anywhere he went. He was always ready to run.

Reed went to his desk drawer, pulled out a key sewn into his suit and unlocked the drawer. Inside was a vial of glowing green liquid.

“I got slammed into a building for that?” Johnny asked.

It was Sue who spoke up, surprising Johnny. “This is a serum that can completely alter a person’s genetic makeup. Bestow upon them incredible powers or horrible deformities. It makes the owner – well, it makes the owner a god.”

Johnny stared at her. She stared back. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“You sound like him,” said Johnny, nodding at Reed. 

Sue smiled. It wasn’t quite right. “Thank you.” 

“What do you plan to do with it?”

“We can’t use it yet,” said Reed. “It’s not strong enough. Or perhaps it’s too strong. I believe it would have a mind of its own. I need it to work for me.” 

“And how do you do that?” Sue and Reed looked at each other. Johnny could feel the answer in the air around them, hanging like a mist. “Who has what you need?” 

“Dr. Henry Pym,” said Sue.

“You’re shitting me,” said Johnny.

“Watch your language.”

“Oh, sorry, you just want to rob the most famous scientist in the world and I have to watch my language! Why – what is even – are you gonna cure cancer with that or what –,”

But he looked at Reed, and he knew. 

“You want to use it on yourself,” he said. “You want to become more powerful.” 

“Johnny, I know what you’re thinking, but it’s kinder that way,” said Reed. “This serum is far too experimental and dangerous to test on another human. The only way to truly perfect it would be through self-experimentation.”

Johnny rounded on Ben, quiet Ben, strong Ben. 

“And you’re okay with this? With playing God, or whatever?”

“I don’t love it,” Ben said. But I love them. The words hung unspoken, and Johnny somehow understood. He loved them too. It was the reason he was here. 

Slowly, as if afraid he might run, Sue touched his arm. He turned to her, a sunflower to her light.

“I never wanted you involved,” she said. “You can stop now.”

Johnny downcast his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to let them down. All he ever wanted was to be a valuable member of the team. Of the family. 

You’re someone’s hero.

But not like this. 

“Yeah, I think – I think I’m gonna sit this one out. I don’t think – stealing things, breaking into places. That’s not what I want.” 

Reed sighed. “That’s your right, Johnny. We would never force you to partake in this. I simply hope – believe me, we’re doing this for the sake of the world. For the sake of knowledge.”

Johnny wanted to believe him. He wanted it more than anything.

Sue rubbed his shoulder. “Why don’t you get some rest? You’ve had quite a day.”

Johnny trudged off, trying not to hear the hushed whispers between Reed, Ben, and Sue that followed him all the way to his room. He slipped into bed and for the first time, he could feel every ache from his crash into the Oscorp building. He closed his eyes and thought of Sue’s hug and Reed’s grin and Ben’s hands and a man with a red and blue mask.

Johnny flew around Queens until the sun began to set, and still he flew. It was by luck that he heard a police officer on her walkie talkie. There had been a robbery of a convenience store in Forrest Hills, and Johnny knew where to go.

When he got there, the culprit was already webbed up and Johnny could barely see the figure swinging from building to building. He zoomed after him.

“Spider-Man!” he called. “Spidey!”

Spider-Man twisted around midair to get a look at him. He swerved and swung right into a building. Johnny winced, but he appeared to have stuck the landing.

“Torch?” Spidey asked when he got closer. “What are you doing out here?" 

“I don’t know where else to go,” said Johnny. “I shouldn’t be here, but I just – I just want them to be safe.”

“Hey, calm down,” said Spidey. “Follow me.” 

Spidey crawled up the side of the building and Johnny flew after him. They settled across from each other on the roof. Johnny pulled his knees to his chest. He didn’t get cold anymore, but he felt something like cold, the memory of cold, deep within him.

“What’s going on?” asked Spidey. “Who do you need kept safe?”

“My team, they’re – they’re gonna do something bad. Again. And I’m not trying to be a rat or anything, but I’m – I’m so scared for them. I don’t want –,” I don’t want them to get hurt. I don’t want them to get caught. I don’t want them to change.

Johnny felt a strong hand on the back of his neck, anchoring him. 

“They’re not bad people,” he heard himself saying. “I know you think – I know everyone thinks they’ve gone bad, but they haven’t. They’re just –,” He couldn’t find the right words. He could never find the right words. He only wished he could see Spidey’s face. “I know them. And I know they’re good.” 

“What are they gonna do, Johnny? You gotta tell me.” 

Johnny stared up at the inky sky. The one thing he maybe missed about Glenville was that you could see the stars, lots of them, always, no matter where you were. And there were so many. You didn’t have to squint. You didn’t have to imagine. They were right there. 

“They’re gonna break into Pym labs. Tomorrow night.” He said it to the universe, to the fading stars with a hushed voice and craned neck. It was easier when it felt like a prayer. “Please don’t hurt them. They don’t want to hurt anyone, I promise.”

The hand on his neck tightened. “It was really brave of you to find me. I know it was hard.”

“We came to New York to be heroes,” Johnny said. “I still want that.”

“I know you do,” said Spidey. “I’ll do what I can to help them, okay? I promise I’ll do what I can.”

Johnny gave a weak smile. “You’re a good guy, Spider-Man.”

Spidey huffed a laugh. “Tell that to New York. As far as they’re concerned, I’m nothing but a vigilante. The Fantastic Four are the good guys. And I’m gonna make sure that’s still true after tomorrow.” 

Johnny shouldn’t have believed him. But he did.

Johnny sat on his bed, doing his homework and occasionally texting Dorrie, when Sue crept into the room.  

“Hey,” said Sue.

“Hey,” said Johnny without looking up.

“Are you good for the night?”

He stiffened. “You think you’ll be gone all night?”

“I don’t know.”

Johnny watched her. He memorized her. The eye-catching blue uniform that gripped her body, showing off muscles she hadn’t had since the high school swim team. Hair pulled back from her face. Nose soft and cheekbones sharp. Eyes kind.

“Don’t go,” he said.

“Johnny . . .”

“I don’t even know how we got here! But it doesn’t have to be like this. I’ve talked to some people and – the Fantastic Four are heroes! We can be heroes again.”

Sue sighed and stared out Johnny’s window.

“Is it because of Reed?” he asked in a whisper. “Is he forcing you –,”

“No one’s forcing me to do anything!” Sue said. Johnny blinked. She’d never snapped at him like that before. She took a deep breath. “Being with Reed – and Ben – it’s like I’m free for the first time. Like for once, I get to live life on my terms.”

Johnny’s eyes stung and a lump formed in his throat. She said life on her own terms, but what she meant was life without Johnny dragging her down. He was the reason she wasn’t free.

“Reed wants this for the betterment of the world,” Sue said. “But me? I only ever wanted it for myself.”

He dipped his head, squeezing his eyes shut against the tears, but they fell anyway. He felt a hand run its way through his hair, the way his mother’s used to when he was little.

“And for you,” she said. “Always for you.”

Soft lips touched his forehead. He wanted to grab her and hold her and make her stay here with him. But then he heard the soft rhythm of her footsteps. Johnny opened his eyes. She was gone. Or invisible. He couldn’t tell anymore.

It happened like this.

Johnny sat in front of the TV as the BREAKING NEWS headline splashed across the screen. There had been a break in at Pym Labs. The Fantastic Four – the heroes of the last year. They didn’t look like heroes anymore.

The camera zoomed in on a dot red and blue swinging into the building.

“Spider-Man is here!” yelled the reporter. “I repeat: the masked vigilante known as Spider-Man has arrived on the scene and appears to be facing the Fantastic Four alone! Police reinforcements have not yet arrived!”

“Maybe he is the reinforcements,” said the anchor.

It happened like this.

A lone figure, hulking and broken, walked out with his hands raised and his head bowed.

“I’m surrenderin’!” he yelled. “Don’t shoot!”

The police swarmed the Thing and his last words were cut off, but journalists would swear that he gave a final, earnest, “Just don’t hurt Reed and Suzie. Please don’t hurt ‘em.”

It happened like this.

There was an explosion from the inside. The glass of all the windows shattered in a fiery storm. No one knew what caused it, except Johnny Storm. He knew every part of his sister.

And then a woman came flying out of a high window, blonde and powerful on an invisible disc. In her arms she held a man, stretched in disproportionate ways like a wrung out towel.

She was like something out a movie, a storybook. Wind whipping her hair around her face, floating high above them. In this story, she was not the princess. She was so much more.

“This isn’t over,” she said, and a hush fell on the crowd. “Let the men in their towers, withholding their knowledge from the world know – we are coming for them.”

And she was gone.
It happened like this.

Tears and rage and ash and numbness and pain. And between the smoke and ruins, a boy on fire.  

“Hey.”

Johnny reclined on the couch in the lobby of Avengers Tower, a glass of something expensive and bubbly in his hand. A pretty girl in a sparkly dress sat next to him, hand rubbing his thigh, but his eyes were trained on the man at the bar talking to She-Hulk. He was tall, dark, and beautiful, with the most killer cheekbones Johnny had ever seen, and he was here with Johnny – but apparently he didn’t realize he was here with Johnny.

The girl at Johnny’s side kissed below his ear and Johnny watched Jen touch Wyatt’s shoulder.

A man ducked into Johnny’s vision, obscuring his view. “Um, hi, hello.”

Johnny sighed and started to give his neck a preemptive massage for all the irritation this conversation was about to cause him.

“Hey, Parker,” said Johnny. “What are you doing here, man?”

“Tony Stark invited me,” said Peter, looking around.

Of course he did. Tony Stark had a weird fondness for science prodigy Peter Parker, who reacted to anybody liking him with all the grace of a cat being dunked in water. Still, he didn’t mind showing up at Avengers parties like a leech, did he?

“That’s Tony Stark for ya,” said Johnny. “He’s the kind of person who kills all his plants, but also likes taking in strays. Especially ones that bite.”

Peter rolled his eyes, as unruffled as ever. Johnny didn’t understand how such a nerd could be so aloof.

“Ha ha,” he said. “Well, I’ve gotta talk to you real quick. If you’re not busy, that is.” His eyes flicked to the girl next to Johnny and his shoulders straightened like he was about to duel him for her honor.

“Don’t worry, she’s super wasted,” said Johnny. “She thinks I’m Captain America.”

Peter’s lips quirked. “I could see it.”

Johnny’s eyes flicked up to Peter’s but Peter was already turning around and heading for the balcony. He carefully extracted himself from the girl and rushed to follow.

Out on the balcony, the wind chill hit Johnny’s face. Peter scrunched up his nose against it.

“Do you want this?” Johnny asked, unwinding his Burberry scarf.

Peter looked at him. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Dude. Human Torch. Here, take it.”

Hesitantly, Peter grabbed the scarf. He held it in his hands like he wasn’t sure how scarves worked.

“Why are you wearing a scarf if you don’t get cold?”

“Uh, maybe because I look great in scarves?” Peter still wasn’t putting on the scarf, the stubborn idiot, so Johnny reached out and grabbed it back.

“Hey –,” Peter started, because of course he didn’t like it being taken from him, even if he wasn’t planning on wearing it, but Johnny wound it around Peter’s neck, and pulled it over his nose.

“There,” Johnny said. “Better right?”

Peter muttered something unintelligible, but knowing him, Johnny bet it started with Fuck and ended with You. He was a real charmer, that one.

“So what did you want to tell me?” Johnny asked.

For a moment, Peter’s shoulders stayed bunched up, unwilling to let the fight go. But then it all drained out of him at once.

“I work at the Bugle, right?” His voice was muffled behind Johnny’s scarf and Johnny almost smiled. “I mean, I’m not a reporter, but I hear stuff, you know? Stuff before it goes into print. And well – I heard today that your old buddy Ben Grimm is getting out on good behavior.”

Johnny could do nothing but stare for one long moment. And then he grabbed Peter’s shoulders, hard enough to bruise.

“Are you serious? Don’t fuck with me, Pete –,”

“I’m not fucking with you. I wouldn’t joke about this.”

Johnny’s grip loosened, but he kept his hands in place. He was grabbing at Peter’s coat, gazing at the buttons barely hanging on by a thread.

“When?” he croaked.

“I don’t know exactly. Within the next week or two, I’d guess. I think the government’s trying to keep it hush hush.” He dropped his voice, and Johnny had to lean in to hear. “I think they might force him to join the Avengers, that that’s why he’s getting out so early.”

Johnny blew a breath out of his mouth.

Ben was getting out. Ben was coming home.

If he still wanted to see Johnny at all, that is.

Before he knew what he was doing, Johnny threw his arms around Peter in a tight grip.

“Um,” said Peter, but then he lifted his arms and held Johnny. He smelled like smoke, Johnny thought, which was a strange smell, and an even stranger observation. Maybe he’d had barbecue.

“Thank you,” Johnny said.

“Hey,” said Peter, rubbing Johnny’s shoulder blades. “What are friends for?”

“Friends. Ha. Yeah.”  Johnny let go of Peter and stepped backward, suddenly unsure of what to do with his body. “I owe you one, man.”

“Nah,” said Peter. “I’ll like lording this over you for the rest of my life.”

They smiled at each other. Johnny couldn’t see Peter’s smile, but his warm brown eyes crinkled at the corners.

“Well,” said Peter. “I should, um. Get back to my friends. I only really came by to tell you, so.” He started to unwind the scarf.

“No, keep it. I don’t want you to freeze on your way home.”

“I couldn’t –,”

“Dude, seriously. I got it for free, it’s no big deal.”

“If you say so,” said Peter. He gave Johnny a final smile, and walked back into the party. Johnny watched him join a group by the bar that Johnny knew to be full of Peter’s friends. The classy blonde, the dazzling redhead, Norman Osborn’s kid. Johnny would never understand how Peter Parker ended up with a crew like that.

Johnny would probably never understand Peter Parker at all. He was Spidey’s personal photographer – and why didn’t Johnny have a personal photographer? Nothing made sense – and yet he always seemed to be wherever Johnny was, ever since high school. Johnny had given this speech at Peter’s school because it was easy money, and Johnny kind of liked motivating people, even if he wasn’t a very good speaker. And Peter wore these horrific glasses, but he had talked to Johnny, and he was actually pretty pleasant. But then he kept showing up. Johnny’s ex, Dorrie, always seemed to talk about how gentlemanly and down-to-earth he was. If Parker was a gentleman, then Johnny’s hairline was receding.

And, most importantly, he was Spidey’s friend and so now he kind of ran in Avengers circles, and Johnny was kind of an Avenger – sometimes, when he felt like he needed a team, or missed having a team. So they sort of kept . . . finding each other.

Peter Parker was a huge jerk. Except for all the times he wasn’t.

Johnny rolled his eyes at himself and went back inside.

He searched for Wyatt, who wasn’t at all difficult to find due to his proximity to the seven-foot-tall green woman. They were drinking and laughing and Johnny’s heart ached. How could he blame Wyatt? Jen was – amazing. If she ever gave the slightest inkling of interest, Johnny would be all over that.

He had hinted as much before, but Jen basically told him that he was a child and she could crush him with her thighs.

Which totally wasn’t fair. Wyatt was Johnny’s age. But, Johnny supposed, he did have about eight inches on him, and Johnny didn’t even want to know how many pounds. Plus those cheekbones.

God, Johnny was being ridiculous. Ben was going free. He might see him again. And here he was standing around thinking about Wyatt’s cheekbones.

Johnny ducked back onto the balcony. He made quick work of his clothes, folding them onto a patio chair. He wore his costume underneath of course (gold and black, he liked it, even if there were days he longed for baby blue), but stripping in semi-public was always a little bit thrilling. He noticed a man with dark hair swept up in a bun leaning against the window, eyebrows raised. Johnny winked at him and he barely noticed the pleased smirk before his whole body lit up and he was arcing through the air.

He scrawled a couple words in the sky – USUAL PLACE – and flew east.

There really were certain perks that came with his very specific set of powers. One of them was flying. When he was a little boy, he used to lie on his back in the grass of Aunt Marygay’s yard, staring up at the sky: the clouds, the telephone wire, the black birds, and gray birds, and blue birds. He wondered what it must be like to be among them, arms stretched out, completely free. He wanted to fly away and never return. But of course he could never leave Sue.

Another perk was that when his feet landed atop Lady Liberty’s torch, and his flame snuffed out, he didn’t feel a lick of cold. Three hundred feet above the river in late fall, and it was the same as if it were midsummer back in California. 

One time, he had been fighting with the X-Men and Iceman covered them in a dome of ice for protection and he looked around at the team huddling together for warmth, and for a moment, he wished that he could feel what they felt. But it was for the best really – his heat was needed. He was glad he was this way. It was for the best.

Johnny leaned his back against the torch’s wall and slipped down. He rested his head against his knees and waited.

“You called?”

Johnny lifted his head to see Spider-Man scaling the edge of the torch.

“That message was for Daredevil,” he said, even as he couldn’t fight his tired grin.

“Too bad,” said Spidey, jumping down. “That guy’s a dick.”

“And you’re not?”

“Uh, no. I’m an asshole, not a dick. Learn the difference.”

“I dunno, I’d say you’ve got a good handle on both.”

“Watch it.”  Spidey slugged Johnny in the arm. It didn’t hurt, even though Johnny knew he could stop a pickup truck going at ninety miles with the barest effort. It reminded him of Ben.

His smile slipped.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Have you talked to your pal Peter Parker recently?”

“We don’t really have a talking relationship. It’s more of a carnal, sexual –,”

“Spidey.”

“Okay, no. What’s going on?”

Johnny glanced at Spidey and looked away just as quick. Spider-Man was the only one who knew any semblance of the truth when it came to what happened to the Fantastic Four, who burned bright and fast and then disappeared altogether. All that was left of them was a pretty boy in pretty suits who helped out the Avengers when they needed it and spoke to schools who wanted him and might as well never have had a family to begin with.

“Ben’s getting out of jail,” said Johnny.

“Oh. Oh wow.”

“They might want him to join the Avengers. They might want us to work together, could you imagine?”

“Do you want to work with him?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Do you want to see him?”

Johnny rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. He wasn’t much of a crier these days. Usually, he could feel the tears coming and evaporate them before they ever fell. But sometimes they snuck up on him. Sometimes evaporation seemed like too much work.

“I don’t understand,” Johnny mumbled. “I don’t understand how people can come into your life and fuck up everything and then leave so that you’re left with all the pieces. How can I see him again?” He leaned his head back against the metal. The tears against his cheeks, catching in the night wind, were a brief respite from his heat. “How can I not?”

Spidey’s padded fingers on his face, wiping away the tears, surprised him. He didn’t look, though he wanted to. He was afraid looking might confirm he’d imagined it.

“Do what you gotta do, man,” said Spidey. “If you need answers, find them. If you need peace, find it. No matter what you choose, I’m in your corner.”

Johnny looked at Spidey then, at the shaded planes of red and blue and black stitching across his face. Spidey always said he was human underneath that suit, but sometimes Johnny wondered.

“Sorry for always dragging you into this,” Johnny said.

“You kidding? You’re doing me a favor.” His mask stretched in that way it did when he was grinning. “I’m so nosy, Torch. I get it from my aunt. It’s a curse.”

Johnny grinned too, and when he couldn’t help it any longer, he engulfed Spidey in a hug. He loved the strength of Spider-Man’s arms as he hugged him back, the leanness of his body. He had tried not to love it. Tonight, he was through trying.

“In my corner, huh?” Johnny asked.

“Yup,” said Spidey. “Sucks to be you.”

“Not always,” Johnny said and held him a little longer.

When he returned to Stark Tower, Wyatt and Jen were still at the bar, canoodling away, and Johnny wanted to cry all over again.

He slipped back into his light grey suit, patterned with roses. It had seemed so lovely when he bought it and now it felt like he was trying way too hard. As he walked back through the glass doors, a robot with a tray of beautifully colored drinks hovered over to him. “May I offer you a beverage, Mr. Storm?”

“Are they all alcoholic?” Johnny asked.

“Yes, sir. If you would prefer no alcohol, I can –,”

“This is fine.” Johnny grabbed two drinks in each hand, thanked the robot, and made his way to the couch where the girl he’d been talking to earlier had passed out. He nudged her feet out of the way and sat back down.

Getting drunk was no easy effort for Johnny. He could burn off any alcohol instantly, and even when he wasn’t trying, it went through his system quicker than it did for most people. But if he timed it right, he could get as drunk as the best of them and tonight felt like a good chance to prove it.

He downed all four of his drinks and gestured for the robot server to bring him another few, which he drank with as much vigor. His head was soon swimming and he felt very nearly proud of himself for getting there in no time at all.

“Wild night?”

Johnny looked up. It was the man from earlier, whose hair was shaved on the sides, the rest pulled back into a bun. Poking out from his white button down, with too few buttons done for comfort, was a winding black tattoo. He was handsome, but not in the way Wyatt was handsome, or how Ben had been handsome, not even the way Peter Parker was handsome (if that’s what you could call a crooked grin, strong jaw, and deep brown eyes), but a handsome in a way that made you want to turn and run before you did something entirely stupid.

Johnny suddenly thought of Reed and his throat closed.

“I noticed you earlier,” the man said. “Little strip tease out the window, that was cute.”

“I was getting into my costume. I had somewhere to be.” Johnny realized that wasn’t particularly clear, and he added, “I’m a superhero.”

“Would you believe me if I said I am too?”

Johnny squinted at him. He was kind of short and scary and he didn’t look like the superhero type. But people didn’t always look like what they were.

“Who are you?” Johnny asked.

“Daken,” he said, and the name felt more intoxicating than whatever was coursing through Johnny’s veins.

“Johnny Storm,” said Johnny.

“Pretty name. Pretty boy.”

Johnny looked up at Daken. He had thought that maybe . . . but he hadn’t been sure. This was so heart-achingly new.

And yet it wasn’t at all. Because between Dorrie, whom he liked, and Crystal, whom he loved, there was Wyatt, there was Ben, there was Spider-Man. There was Daken, standing over him and offering him something and Johnny thought he knew what.

Daken reached over and skimmed a thumb along Johnny’s jaw, his lower lip. He smiled. Johnny smiled back.

Johnny stared at himself in the mirror over the sink in a Stark Tower bathroom. Sticky white covered his face, dripped over his lips. He could still feel Daken’s hands in his hair, in his pants, all over his whole body. The weight of Daken in his mouth. The weight of a man in his mouth.

He didn’t ask before pulling out, rubbing on Johnny’s face, coming all over him. Johnny hadn’t understood, but he thought he had wanted it. Wanted Daken to mark him like he was something to be owned, to be treasured. But now he stared at his own face dripping with another man, he remembered Daken’s hot “Thanks, babe,” whispered in his ear, and he didn’t know. He didn’t know.

“John?”

Shit. He turned on the sink and grabbed a linen towel, wetting it hurriedly.

The door knob rattled – Johnny hadn’t bothered locking it when Daken left – and then Wyatt was standing there, meeting his eyes in the mirror. Johnny got one look of utter disappointment before he was rubbing his face raw.

“John . . .”

“Pretty trashy, huh?” Johnny asked, coming up for breath. His skin shone pink. “Me, drunk on drinks I don’t know the name of, on my knees for some C-list superhero in Tony Stark’s bathroom.” He waved his semen-soaked napkin, all linen and embroidered, a little hysterically. “I guess there are worse places to be.”

“I don’t think you’re trashy, John,” said Wyatt, his voice soft and sweet in a way Daken’s hadn’t been. “I think you’re hurting.”

Johnny met Wyatt’s eyes in the mirror, so deep Johnny thought he might drown. He turned – and Wyatt was closer than Johnny had been expecting, and so, so strong, and Johnny kissed him.

Wyatt’s hand cradled Johnny’s chin and, for one blissful moment, he held him in place. But then he was gently – because that was the only way Wyatt did anything – pushing him away.

“Johnny . . .” Wyatt said, and Johnny couldn’t bear Wyatt telling him that he just didn’t think of him that way.

“I’m dropping out of school,” Johnny said.

Wyatt frowned. “What?”

“My sister was supposed to go to school, become a doctor. She didn’t because of me. I never even wanted to go and now here I am, pretending I belong there? Who do I even think I am?”

“You’re doing the best you can,” Wyatt said. His fingers flexed like he wanted to reach out, touch Johnny. God, Johnny wanted him to touch him. “You’re hurting, Johnny. Don’t do this because you’re hurting.”

Johnny pulled his wallet out of his pocket and fumbled with some cash. He pushed it into Wyatt’s hand.

 “Here’s some money for a cab. Thanks for coming with me. You’re the best, really.”

Johnny pushed past him and walked down the hall, ignoring Wyatt’s final, “John!” He stripped out of his suit on the way, leaving the pieces scattered on the floor as he went. When he finally reached a door leading to a fire escape, he flamed on and flew into the night.

By the time he reached his dorm, the alcohol was long out of his system. He felt awful for how he’d treated Wyatt, but he knew that he’d been right when he said he had no business in college. He was leaving. Moving on to something else.

He hurriedly packed his clothes into bags and cleaned out his school supplies and toiletries. And then he paced around his tiny dorm room, unsure of what to do next. He hadn’t exactly finished high school, but Sue took care of everything. How did one go about dropping out of school on their own?

He collapsed on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, and suddenly remembered something he missed. He reached under the bed until his fingers grazed a lacy pink letter box he bought when he was eighteen on a whim. He pulled it out from under the bed and stared into its depths.

Filling the box to the brim were newspaper clippings, printouts from conspiracy sites, shaky photographs – all documenting possible sightings of Reed and Sue. TERRIBLE TWOSOME SPOTTED IN EUROPE. A HISTORY OF NEW YORK’S WORST. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR? Anything that could be said about his lost sister, Johnny knew. It used to be because he swore he would find them. Now, it was something of a habit he couldn’t quite quit.

He lit a single finger and hovered it over the papers. Light illuminated a grainy photo of the Fantastic Four in their heyday, grinning like they were heroes.

The door opened and Johnny extinguished his flame.

“I didn’t think you’d be here,” Wyatt said. He walked into the room, taking in the suitcases and Johnny’s open, empty closet. “You’re really leaving then?”

Johnny said nothing. Wyatt sat next to him on the bed.

“You haven’t pulled out that box in a while. I thought you’d given it up.”

“I give up on a lot of things,” said Johnny. “But I don’t know how to give up on them.”

“I know the feeling,” said Wyatt. Johnny turned and Wyatt was already watching him, the way he always was.

“You’re my best friend, Wy,” said Johnny. “My only friend. This isn’t because of you.”

“I know. I hope you find what you’re looking for, John. I really do.”

Wyatt leaned over and kissed Johnny on the cheek, the sweetest touch from the sweetest boy he knew. Johnny almost stayed. He really almost did.

The Daily Bugle crackled with fervor when Johnny walked into its doors. He tried to look like he belonged there, amongst these people who knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going and what they were searching for. Johnny wanted to know all those things.

He approached a girl sitting behind a desk. Her purple dress was pressed, there wasn’t a hair out of place in her dark bob, and her fingers flew across the keys of her computer. A placard on her desk read: Betty Brant, Secretary.

“Hi, there,” Johnny said.

The girl glanced up and her fingers froze.

“Johnny Storm,” she said. She sounded younger than she looked.

“Hi,” he repeated. “I’m looking for, uh, Peter Parker?”

The girl’s eyes widened. “You’re looking for Peter Parker?”

“Yes?”

Star struck awe fading, she rolled her eyes. “Of course. Any time someone beautiful and famous walks through those doors, they’re looking for Peter Parker. Just once, I’d like a hot rich celebrity to say, ‘Oh, Betty, you’re the one I’ve been looking for.’”

Johnny turned on the full force of his smile. “Oh, Betty, you’re the one I’ve been looking for.”

Betty half-smiled. A flush made its way up her neck. “I appreciate it. Peter’s in Jameson’s office now.”

She nodded towards an open door where Johnny now noticed a lot of the office’s noise seemed to be coming from. From his vantage point, he could only see the middle-aged black man tiredly smoking, caught up between some argument.

“Thanks, Betty,” Johnny said, making his way to the door.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”

But Johnny was already knocking on the open door and poking his head into the room. The three men – the mustached man behind the desk, the grey-haired man on the chair, and Peter Parker – froze.  

“What are you doing here?” Peter asked. 

“Good to see you, too, Pete. I have a favor to ask.”

“Okay . . .”

“Ben Grimm is getting out of jail today. I need you to come with me.”

Peter sighed. Mustache growled, “Parker . . .” Grey Hair looked like he wanted to extinguish his cigarette in his own eye socket.

“Robbie,” said Mustache. “What part of Daily Bugle Exclusive does the kid not understand?”

“You know our boy, Jonah,” said Robbie. “Anything for a pretty face.”

“Whoops,” said Johnny with an apologetic smile. “Was I not supposed to know Ben’s getting out of jail?”

“Exclusive,” Jonah huffed. “In my day, that meant something.”

Johnny bounced on his toes. “How about a new exclusive? Fantastic Four: Together Again. Or something like that.”

 Peter looked at Jonah, who looked at Robbie, who shrugged. Jonah threw his hands in the air.

“You better have photos on my desk tomorrow or I’ll make sure you never work in this city again.”

“What a man,” Peter said. He ruffled Robbie’s hair and practically skipped out the office door, yanking Johnny’s arm along the way. Johnny waved at Betty as he ran past her. She giggled.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the save,” said Peter as they ran down the stairs, too full of nervous energy to bother with elevators, “but why exactly do you want me along for this?”

“I needed someone,” Johnny admitted. “It was you or Spider-Man and who knows what the wall crawler gets up to when he’s not terrorizing children during the midnight hour?”

“Don’t you have any other friends?”

Johnny thought about it. “I have my roommate. But I just dropped out of school last night so things are kind of on shaky ground with us.”

Peter laughed, the sound echoing inside the stairwell.

They burst out onto the pavement and Peter immediately made his way to the street.

“We don’t need to get a cab,” said Johnny. “I can fly us –,”

“I got us covered.” Peter was swinging his leg over a motorcycle parked on the curb. He nodded for Johnny to sit behind him. “I swear it’s safe. My girlfriend does it all the time. She’s a scientist so she knows this kind of thing.”

“Anyone willing to date you has gotta be a little batty in the belfry.” Nonetheless, Johnny swung his leg over the seat, settling close behind Peter. He rested his hands on his waist, warming them just enough for Peter to give him a warning nudge with his elbow. “For real, I’m digging this midlife crisis look, Parker. I can’t wait for the ponytail to grow in.”

“You’d like it,” said Peter, and he pulled into traffic.

Johnny had an exclusive love for pretty cars, but he had to admit, he could get used to this. They wove through traffic with an ease Johnny wouldn’t have expected of uptight Peter Parker. He had a sudden image in his head of Peter behind the wheel of a baby blue beamer. In this image, he was shirtless.

They weaved through traffic, and Johnny held on as the city drifted farther away and they made their way upstate. The wind whipped through his hair, stinging his cheeks. It was like flying, except not at all. When he flew, he was on fire. He never felt the wind.

“I didn’t realize he was so far out of the city!” Johnny yelled.

“You never visit him?” Peter yelled back.

Johnny didn’t know how to tell him that he had visited Ben, back when he was first convicted. But after a couple years, he moved facilities and Johnny didn’t have the heart to go looking for him.

Not for the first time, Johnny felt guilty, like he had abandoned Ben. But Ben had abandoned him first, hadn’t he?

God, what did it even matter? They had both been alone.

Johnny buried his head in the nape where Peter’s shoulder met his neck and held on.

Peter started to slow down and Johnny looked up to see a block of concrete in the distance surrounded by fields and barbed wire.

“It’s pretty high security,” said Peter. “For criminals SHIELD rakes in, you know?”

“Ben’s not a high security threat,” said Johnny. “SHIELD didn’t even take him in. He gave himself up.”

“Buddy boy can break through concrete with a punch. How do you guard a guy like that?”

The prison had no parking lots, leading Johnny to believe there wasn’t a high visitor intake. Peter parked on the side of the road and Johnny swung off the bike. He stared at the prison, at its coldness, and tried to imagine warm, big Ben inside.

Johnny felt Peter’s hands on his shoulders, almost but not quite massaging him.

“What have you got to be scared of?” Peter asked. “Sure, Ben Grimm is the size of a truck and has beat up the Hulk before but you can set things on fire! That’s pretty cool, right?”

“Are you always this insensitive or is it just with me?”

“Depends who you ask. My aunt would say always. My girlfriend would say always. My friends, professors, and coworkers would say always. But don’t worry, I think you’re special.”

Johnny shook his head, grinning against his better judgment. Peter moved around to the front of him, keeping a hand on his shoulder.

“No matter what happens,” said Peter. “I’m in your corner, okay?”

Johnny blinked. “Um. Thanks.”

Peter tossed an arm over Johnny’s shoulder and steered him across the grass towards the barbed wire. They were immediately stopped by a guard with a gun that Johnny didn’t think was legal to have outside of active warzones. Johnny tensed, ready to get Peter out of there if it came down to it.

“Do you have court-granted visitation privileges?” the guard asked.

“Absolutely,” said Peter. “Would I even be here if the great state of New York didn’t tell me I was allowed? Johnny, have you ever known me not to go to the authorities before jumping headfirst into a situation?”

“I never have.” Johnny’s fingers warmed and he fought to keep the flames inside.

“He never has.” Peter tried to edge around the guard. “So, if you don’t mind, we’ll just –,”

“I’ll need to see your badge.” 

“My badge, my badge.” Peter felt in his pants and coat pockets. “Gosh dang it, I must have forgot my badge! I told you we were forgetting something.”

Sparks danced across Johnny’s palms. “You’re right, this is my fault.”

Peter rolled his eyes in a way that somehow involved his entire head. “I’m always telling him. But does he listen? No. So, we’ll just be going now, so sorry to take up your time, officer –,”

The officer put his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Son, I can’t let you go any farther without your badge.”

Peter looked at the guard’s hand. “You really don’t want to do that.”

Johnny’s fist burst into flame.

“Johnny? That you?”

Johnny looked up and there, just beyond the barbed wire fence, a duffel bag slung over his huge shoulders and two guards flanking him – was Ben Grimm.

Johnny watched the man he used to know, his teammate, his friend, his brother, look at the bus the other former prisoners were waiting to load, shrug off the hand of a guard, and walk towards him. Johnny walked towards the fence and the guard shifted his gun in his hands, but allowed him to pass.

They stood there, thin wire between them, the high sun casting crisscross shadows across their faces.

“Hey, blue eyes,” said Johnny.

“You’re so big,” Ben said, his voice like rocks tumbling down a mountain. It made Johnny want to cry, the familiarity of it.

“Not that big,” said Johnny.

“Nah, you was a real shrimp last time I saw you. Now you’re all tall and broad. Been eatin’ your Wheaties, eh?”

Johnny beamed. “You’re looking kind of skinny. What sick, twisted prison diet do they have you on?”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you and the jokes.” And Johnny thought he might be smiling. “Look, kid. I’m – I’m glad you came. I didn’t think anyone would – but I’m glad it was you.”

Johnny nodded, his throat tight. “I’m glad too.”

“I gotta go on that bus. They’re gonna take me to my new place, but come see me, okay? I want that.”

Ben rattled off an address in Manhattan, and Johnny recognized it as being close to the Avenges headquarters. Maybe Peter was right, and Ben was going to join the team. Maybe Johnny would be working with Ben again. That was more than Johnny knew what to do with.

Johnny watched Ben walk back to the bus.  When it didn’t seem like Ben would look back, Johnny turned and Peter lowered his camera.

It was quiet for a moment, the guard retreating back to his station. And then Peter smiled.

“I think we just found our front page.”

FANTASTIC REUNION: “I EXPECTED TO HATE HIM”

Story by Joy Mercado

Photo by Peter Parker

It was a dark day in the state of New York when the beloved Fantastic Four revealed themselves to be criminals, breaking and entering into the largest science empires in the state and stealing scientific formulas to make their own powers stronger. The country tuned in live as Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm (Sue’s little brother, Johnny, was unaware of the invasion) led their attack against Pym Laboratories and, in the eyes of many, science as a whole. After all, who could forget the Invisible Woman’s stunning proclamation that “we are coming for you”?

As you might recall, the story didn’t end there. Ben Grimm AKA The Thing surrendered himself to the authorities, begging that no harm would come to what some have referred to as “New York’s First Family.” He was convicted on counts of breaking and entering, battery, theft, and endangerment and would spend the last five years in prison. Meanwhile, Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch would have a very different narrative: spending his days attending college and courting a celebrity lifestyle as a part-time Avenger.

Yesterday, Ben Grimm was released from prison and Johnny Storm was the first to see him walk as a free man.

“It’s weird,” Storm said when the Daily Bugle interviewed him. “I expected to hate him, but I can’t. I saw him and it was like I was I was sixteen again, with this cool jock paying attention to me. He’s like my brother and I don’t know how to stop seeing him that way.”

Story continued on page 10.

“Well if it isn’t our local celebrity,” Spider-Man said, swinging onto the ledge of the Empire State Building that Johnny had situated himself onto. Johnny had lost track of time but there were no tourists below him, reenacting Sleepless in Seattle or whatever it was tourists liked to do, so it must have been creeping towards dawn.

“I was already a celebrity,” said Johnny. “On a global level, thank you.”

Spidey webbed the paper out of Johnny’s hands. He examined it carefully.

“This is a good picture. Parker always catches me on my bad side, I think he likes you.”

“It’s because I have no bad side.”

“Agree to disagree.” 

Johnny tipped his head back and laughed. The sound was blown away by the wind.

“You been to see Ben yet?” asked Spidey.

“Obviously, you’re holding the proof.”

“I mean, after this.” He shook the paper. “I heard he’s in the city. Have you gone to see him at all?”

Johnny was silent.

“Johnny . . .”

“What would I even say to him?” Johnny asked. “All we ever had in common is gone.”

“That’s not true. You said here, he’s your brother, you can’t give up on that –,”

“I’m Sue’s brother and she gave up on me.”

Spidey made a noise like he wanted to speak, but didn’t. Johnny hadn’t ever known Spidey to exhibit much restraint on that end, and he was grateful.

“He’s gonna ask me about them,” said Johnny. “He’s gonna ask me if I’ve heard from them.”

“And you haven’t,” Spidey said, voice soft enough that Johnny could barely hear him.

“But I wish I did,” Johnny admitted. “God, how sick is that? I hate them for what they did. I hate them for leaving. But I’d give anything for them to come back.”

“That’s not sick,” said Spidey. “I think if you turned evil and moved to your villain headquarters in Milan and never spoke to me again, I’d feel the same way.”

They sat there, looking at the lights and the planes and the pigeons and anything that wasn’t each other. But then it was too much and Johnny had to look and he did. And Spidey sat there and he was somehow dark and light at once, and so was the city night.

“Me too,” said Johnny. “About you, I mean. Sometimes – this is gonna sound so stupid, okay, but sometimes when we’re not together, I think about you and I think that maybe that will be enough to find you, or for you to find me, like we’re linked or something. And sometimes it feels like it works.” Johnny’s head felt hot inside out, but not the way his flame made him feel hot. And yet, it wasn’t entirely new. “God, that was stupid, right? Make me stop talking please.”

“Well, Jonathan –,”

“No, I changed my mind, please, for once in your life, say nothing.”

“Nothing.”

“If you died right now, I wouldn’t cry.”

“Come on, don’t be so serious. You’re my friend, too, okay?” Johnny looked over at Spidey, who crossed his heart. “Swear.”

“You doof,” said Johnny, but he crossed his heart right back.

They sat on a ledge of the Empire State Building, until the sky turned pink, two boys with a promise and the sun between them.

Johnny had been staying at Stark Tower ever since moving out of the dorms, which really made it easier for Peter Parker to find him whenever he so pleased.

Sometimes Peter would drop by to rant about how some guy named Flash was hitting on his girlfriend and Peter could tell because Flash held the door open for her, and also for Peter, meaning he was clearly trying to establish dominance.

Sometimes Peter would say that he was buying Johnny dinner because Johnny didn’t leave this stupid freaking tower anymore, and how could you not go crazy cooped up with only Tony Stark, despite the fact that Johnny didn’t really see Tony at all, and then when it came time to pay, Peter would forget his wallet, making Johnny pay, but Peter would pay Johnny even more than the meal was worth later that night because he “never trusted waiters.”

And sometimes Johnny wouldn’t see Peter at all, but open his door to find some weird little trinket like a fire-shaped eraser or last month’s issue of Tiger Beat magazine that had a quiz called Fire and Ice: Should you date the Human Torch or Iceman?

Peter Parker was so weird. Johnny kind of liked it.

Especially because it distracted him from the fact that he was definitely not going to see Ben. The more time passed since they met at the prison, the more that whole thing seemed like a dream, just another fantasy Johnny created to distract from the fact that his whole family was gone.

So it was good. It was fine. He met with Peter during the day and Spidey at night and he ignored the one voicemail Ben left him asking if he still had the same number (as if he could ever change it, knowing Sue was out there) and it was fine.

Until Peter knocked on his door one day, no different than the rest.

“Look, Pete, are you sure this girlfriend even exists or is she just a ruse to fight the undeniable chemistry between us?”

Peter stormed in and locked the door behind him.

“Oh, wow,” Johnny said. “Forward. I’m not saying no, but –,”

“I know why they let Ben Grimm out of prison,” said Peter, his hands like clamps on Johnny’s shoulders.

“To become an Avenger right? Everyone knows that.”

“No, it’s more than that. They want to use him as – as bait, or something. To lure Reed and Sue out of hiding. They’re enemies of SHIELD and wanted criminals, and it’s gone on too long –,”

Johnny’s whole entire body seemed to slow so that all he could feel was his heartbeat and Peter’s hands and a heat in his stomach.

“What do you mean?” he forced his lips to ask. “Peter, how do you know this?”

“SHIELD asked Spider-Man to be a part of it and –,”

“Why didn’t he tell me?”

“He’s busy. But he asked me to tell you.”

“What did he say? What did he tell them?”

It was this, somehow, that was more important than anything. It was this Johnny needed to know.

Peter put his hand on Johnny’s chin, forcing his wild eyes straight ahead. “He told them to go to hell.”

Johnny’s hands shook. He pushed Peter away from him and stalked towards the window overlooking the city.

“They didn’t tell me any of this,” he said. “Were they going to tell me any of it?”

“I don’t know, Johnny. I don’t think so.”

“Did Ben know?”

“Johnny –,”

“Get away from me.”

“Johnny, I’m not leaving you –,”

“Get away from me!” he yelled and his entire body went up in flames.

In his mind’s eyes, he saw a house, a house he shared with Sue and Ben and Reed, but he was alone and he was watching them ruin their lives on television and the whole house was aflame. And now the fire stretched towards the ceiling and a smoke alarm sounded and through it all, he saw Peter’s wavy, orange face, something like fear or shock etched onto it. Johnny shot fire at the window – it was supposedly fireproof, but in Johnny’s experience he was the exception – and it turned hot and red until Johnny could fly threw it as if it were water.

He had a number and a street repeating in his head and he didn’t realize it until he was there. His flame snuffed out and he stumbled up to the doorway. He rang the doorbell five times.

“Hold yer horses,” he heard and the door cracked open and then swung open. Ben Grimm stood in the doorway, so big he practically was the doorway. No fence between them. Johnny couldn’t breathe.

“Johnny,” Ben said. “I didn’t think you’d –,”

“They’re using you to find them,” said Johnny.

Ben sighed, a whole earthquake overtaking his body.

“Ben?” came a soft voice. Johnny froze. “Is everything alright?”

A woman appeared, only visible over Ben’s broad shoulder when he shifted to face her. Her hair was messily twisted away from her face, she wore an overlarge button-up and ripped jeans stained with paint, and there was a gray smudge on her nose.

“Alicia,” said Ben. “This is my old buddy Johnny. Johnny, Alicia Masters. She’s my . . .”

“I’m his friend,” said Alicia, smiling so prettily that Johnny’s heart ached. “And his art teacher.”

Johnny sputtered a laugh. “Your art teacher?”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Part of my rehabilitation. We’re trying sculpting.” He held up his rocky hands. “I’m not much of a painter, y’see.”

“Paint is overrated,” Alicia said. “Clay is my specialty.”

“Oh,” said Johnny, voice shaking. “Are you two – I can come back –,”

“No need, we were just finishing up.” She slipped into her black flats, embroidered with emerald thread, and padded over to them. Up close, Johnny noticed a blankness to her eyes and he focused on the delicate hand she placed on Ben’s shoulder. “I’ll see you next week, okay?”

“’Kay,” Ben grunted. Alicia smiled like there was something charming in Ben’s gruffness. It reminded Johnny of Sue, but Sue’s hands had never been so soft.

“It was nice to meet you, Johnny,” Alicia said, and Johnny moved aside to let her pass.

He nodded, before realizing his mistake, and said, “You too.”

As Alicia walked down the sidewalk away from them, Johnny turned back to Ben, an awful fury crackling in his voice and shaking in his hands. “Is that why you’re doing this? You found something better than Reed and Sue so now you’re gonna throw ‘em in jail?”

“You don’t know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout, kid.”

“I know that you know what they’re doing and you’re letting them. You’re helping them!”

“I don’t got much of a choice, do I?”

“When were you gonna tell me?”

“Maybe when you visited. Oh, wait, you stopped doing that, huh?”

“That’s not fair,” Johnny said. He wanted to hit Ben, but he knew he’d break his hand.

“Come on in. I don’t wanna have this conversation out here.”

“Oh, sure, the guy who grew up on Yancy Street is –,”

Ben grabbed Johnny by the scruff of his uniform and pulled him inside.

The apartment was small and modest, but all the furniture and facilities were oversized, making Johnny feel like he’d stepped into a dollhouse with mismatched toys. He wondered why Ben had chosen such a weird venue and realized that, of course, he hadn’t – SHIELD had chosen for him.

“You wanna drink?” Ben asked, moving to the fridge. When Johnny shook his head, he pulled out a beer and a Sprite, which he tossed to Johnny.

“I’m legal now, you know,” said Johnny.

Ben raised a rocky eyebrow. “And you like beer?”

Johnny hesitated and shook his head again.

“Yeah, I knew ya hadn’t changed that much.”

“I’ve changed plenty,” Johnny snapped.

“Right. Sure.” Ben sat on an overlarge sofa, and popped open his beer. He took a swig and swallowed before speaking again. “They told me I could go free if I did a mission for them. I didn’t know what it would be. I thought it might be this.”

“Would you have told me? If I ever visited?”

“If you had asked, I wouldn’ta lied. I told those SHIELD cronies that. Heh, you shoulda seen their faces. You can sit, you know.”

Johnny sat on the chair farthest from Ben, holding the Sprite like his best card, close to his chest.

“Will you kill them?” he asked.

Ben looked at Johnny. Johnny knew he was about 500 pounds, but in that moment, he seemed to weigh three times as much. “I loved them, too, you know. You know that, don’t you?”

“That’s not an answer,” said Johnny.

 “I woulda followed to hell, if they asked. And they did.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I’m scared,” Ben said, so much more honest than Johnny had ever seen him before. Maybe it was prison or maybe it was Johnny, looking like a man for the first time since he’d known him, that allowed Ben to speak the truth. “Of what I might do.”

Johnny focused on his breathing as his eyes swept the house. There were no photos, no keepsakes. Other than the remnants of art supplies Alicia had left behind, there was nothing to show that a man might live here. It wasn’t even the home of a ghost who had lived here once. It was just . . . empty.

“I want in,” Johnny said.

“Huh?”

He met Ben’s eyes. “I want you to convince SHIELD that I’m valuable to this mission. I can keep you in check. I would never – I couldn’t kill them. Or, Sue, at least. I know that no matter what I couldn’t hurt her and she couldn’t hurt me.”

“Johnny,” Ben said. “Sue’s changed since we were all a team –,”

“You said it yourself, no one can change that much. Not even the Invisible Woman.”

“Christ.” Ben hung his head, staring at his own hands. “What the two of you had was special. Christ. Is it crazy that I believe ya?”

“Please, Ben. Tell them it’ll be worth it. I need to be on this mission. I need to see them again.”

“I know the feeling.” Huffing, Ben ran a hand over his tired face. “And how exactly do I convince SHIELD you won’t be a liability?”

Johnny knew the tips of his hair, his ears, his insides were flickering with flame. He felt it in his toes and saw it in the irises of his own eyes.

“Because I know where they are.” 

“This sucks,” Johnny said, clay oozing between his fingers. “I suck.”

“Stop it, you do not suck,” said Alicia, trying to mold Johnny’s hands into some sort of useful shape on the potter’s wheel. “You’re just thinking too much.”

“I don’t think I have ever been told that in my life,” he said. “This is really a landmark moment for me.”

“Hush, no talking.” But she was laughing and her laugh was like filtered sunlight in this tiny gray apartment. “Seriously, you can’t think when you’re doing this. It’s all about what you feel.”

“I feel . . . hungry. Has Ben gone grocery shopping?”

“You know he hasn’t.”

“Have you gone grocery shopping for him?”

“Have you?”

“Touché.” Johnny squeezed too hard on the vase he was sculpting and clay flew everywhere. Alicia shrieked and ducked out of the way, so Johnny received the full force of it on his face, his clothes, his hair.

“Oh, god,” Johnny moaned, staring down at his lovely blue satin top. “This is Gucci.”

“I told you not to think so hard,” said Alicia. She was clearly not taking this seriously, fighting giggles over on the couch. “That’s what happens when you think too hard!”

Johnny scooped up a handful of clay and flung it onto Alicia’s Rolling Stones shirt, which definitely wasn’t Gucci.

She looked down at the gray splotch, even though she couldn’t see it. “Seriously, Johnny? You are seriously going to throw clay at the blind woman?”

Johnny flushed and turned back to the ruins of his vase. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Just please try not to be so immature.” He heard Alicia walking towards him and then wet clay was smeared on the back of his neck. He gasped and turned to see Alicia grinning. “It takes all the surprise out of my own immaturity.”

“I leave you two alone for an hour and my house looks like Etsy exploded inside it.”

Ben lumbered into the living room, throwing his briefcase onto a chair and immediately going to get a beer from the kitchen.

“You know what Etsy is?” asked Johnny.

“I taught him,” said Alicia. “He likes to namedrop.”

“You should hear his Beyoncé story . . .”

“Glad you two get such a kick outta makin’ me miserable.”

Ben went into the kitchen for a beer. Laughing, Alicia leaned against Johnny, her arms draped over his shoulders. Johnny leaned back into her, her warmth, her softness. He tried not to think about Sue. He could never stop thinking about Sue.

“Look, Johnny, I got somethin’ to talk to you about.” Ben came out of the kitchen, holding a beer and two Cokes. He tossed one Coke to Johnny and pressed the other into Alicia’s hand. He was so gentle with her. Johnny tried tried tried tried not to think about Sue. “SHIELD, uh, SHIELD got back to me about using you on the mission.”

Johnny stood up, the suddenness making him lightheaded. He stared at Ben, silently willing him to continue, but Ben wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Alicia seemed to sense the change of mood. “Should I go?”

“Nah,” said Ben, as Johnny said, “Stay.”

“That was very convincing, but I think I’m going to go.” She kissed Johnny on the cheek, and then Ben. “I’ll see you both soon, okay?”

When she left, Johnny had the absurd thought that it meant she got out of clean up.

“What did they say?” he asked, resisting the urge to follow Ben as he moved back to the kitchen. Ben was the kind of person who communicated best if you gave him some space. “You can tell me, I won’t go all nova on your house. I swear.”

Ben was quiet in the kitchen, quieter than a man his size ever should be. He came back with a full back of chips, which he didn’t open. “They’ve said that the risks of involving you outweigh the risks of having your information.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” said Ben. “Look, they’ve been talking it over for a while, you know that. But your info – it’s not for certain, you said it yourself, it’s just a hunch. And they think you’re too close to the situation to keep a clear head.”

“That’s bullshit,” said Johnny. Even though he had just promised Ben to control himself, he felt the flame inside him grow. “You need me!”

“I also, ya know, I also think they don’t want us on the same team.”

Johnny gaped at him. “Like, what? Two Fantastic Four members put together means we’ll turn evil and join Reed and Sue? We were the good ones!”

“I know, I know, don’t shoot the messenger.”

Johnny collapsed on the sofa, his can of Coke falling to the floor and rolling away. He had bought Ben a pillow – sparkly pink with feathers, Ben had groaned a lot, but it was still here, probably because of Alicia – and he grabbed it now to have something to do with his hands.

“Look,” said Ben. “If you just tell me what you think you know –,”

“No deal. I’m involved or you don’t get anything.”

“They could arrest you for this. Obstruction of justice or whatever.”

“And then I’ll run to the Daily Bugle and tell them that the government is letting inmates out of jail so they can serve in their private military.”

Ben groaned. “Were you always so difficult?”

“Were you always SHIELD’s lapdog?”

“Watch yer mouth,” said Ben, but there was no heat in it. He just sounded tired. Johnny understood. He was tired too. He was tired of missing people he wasn’t sure missed him back, and he was tired of this version of Ben who was familiar and a stranger, and he was tired of being afraid all the time. But he had never compromised when it came to his family, and he wasn’t going to start now.

“I’m leaving,” Johnny said. “If anything changes, you know where to find me.”

A part of him wanted Ben to stop him, to tell him they could could work things out. But he didn’t, and Johnny left.

“Is this as weird for you as it for me?” Crystal asked.

“Probably weirder,” Johnny said, watching She-Hulk dunk a basketball.

Wyatt whooped and Jen laughed as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. They kissed sweetly and Johnny looked back at Crystal.

“How are things with Pietro?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s a bigger drama queen than you, honestly. But I love him, I guess.”

“I don’t know how you could. I met him a couple times and he is honestly the worst. Like I’ve never met someone as awful as him.”

Crystal swatted his shoulder but she didn’t argue, which Johnny knew meant she agreed, at least a little bit. Crystal always argued when she disagreed.

“Who wants to play Horse?” Jen asked.

“What does that mean?” Crystal whispered. “Where is the horse? Johnny, tell me what the scary green lady is saying.”

“I think it’s a sports game,” Johnny said. “Just follow along, we’ll be fine.”

Jen started off the game, and naturally she made her basket. Johnny thought having about two feet and a hundred pounds of muscle on all of them was an unfair advantage. Jen gestured for Crystal to take her own shot and Johnny and Wyatt stepped to the side.

“Well?” Wyatt said. “Is it fun hanging out with Crystal again? You two were always pretty close –,”

“You know she’s engaged, right?”

Wyatt blinked. “What?”

“Yeah. She actually, you know, left me for this guy, which is pretty weird. But honestly I forgot what a good friend she is, so I’m glad you arranged this.”

Wyatt stared at Jen teaching Crystal to shoot a free-throw. “Sorry.”

“Hey.” Johnny punched him in the shoulder, softly, because he would probably bruise his knuckles on Wyatt’s muscle. “You know you’re enough for me, right? Just you. Wyatt Wingfoot, my friend. I don’t need anything else. Promise.”

“I know,” said Wyatt, smiling beatifically.  “But I always want you to be happy, John.”

“It’s gonna take a better man than you to manage that.”

Crystal threw her ball. It bounced off the backboard and almost hit her in the face.

“That’s extremely dangerous!” she yelled.

“She is cute though,” said Wyatt.

“Very,” Johnny agreed. “Okay, my turn!”

Jen passed the ball to Johnny and Johnny threw it immediately, missing the hoop altogether.

“Walk it off, Storm,” said Crystal. “We’ll get ‘em next time.”

Laughing, Johnny turned and saw Jen’s head bent over her phone.

“Hey, no phones in B-ball!”

“It’s Matt Murdock – uh, he’s a lawyer.” Jen’s face was turned to her phone, but her tone sobered them all. “A woman died. Girl. She was in her early twenties. Spider-Man was involved, apparently. Matt’s asking if I can take the case, if it comes down to it.”

“What do you mean Spider-Man was involved?” asked Johnny. “Involved how?”

“I don’t know, it just happened this morning, information’s still coming in. Eyewitness accounts say he was fighting the Green Goblin and this girl got thrown from the bridge? And Spider-Man tried to save her but couldn’t. It’s pretty brutal.”

Johnny was already running to his bag, where he packed his uniform. “I have to go.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t get involved in this, John,” said Wyatt. “Everything that’s been happening with you, it’s the last thing you need.”

“I gotta go, Wy,” Johnny said. “Spider-Man’s been there for me since I came to New York, and he never asks for anything in return. I’d do it for you. Any of you.”

“Be safe,” Crystal said. She kissed him on the cheek. He hugged Jen and Wyatt and ran to the bathroom to change.

Johnny flew by the George Washington Bridge, even though he knew Spidey wouldn’t be there anymore, because it felt obvious. And then he flew to the Statue of Liberty because it felt right.

Spidey sat in the torch, his head in his hands. His costume was dirty and bloodied and ripped across the shoulder and Johnny felt something inside him shift.

Johnny’s feet touched down before Spidey. He didn’t look up.

“When the break in at Pym labs happened,” Johnny said, “no one died. At least that’s what I thought. But five days later, one of the cops did die. He had a bad heart, supposedly, and his doctor never caught it. But I couldn’t stop wondering if that was just the excuse SHIELD put out so no one knew how dangerous even the good guys were. And I couldn’t stop wondering – if I had convinced Sue and Reed not to go, if I tried harder, if I went to the police or Nick Fury or something – would that guy still be alive?”

“That wasn’t you,” Spidey whispered.

“You’re the one always going on about that great responsibility shtick. I had the power, and I did nothing with it.”

“You came to me.”

“Believe it or not, buddy, but you aren’t God. You’re just a guy in a mask who can climb walls. And you have such a good heart, but not even you can save everyone.”

Spidey turned his head towards the water.

“Has her family said anything?”

“Her dad’s dead.” Spidey’s voice was choked and Johnny wished he could see his face, if only to know what he was thinking. “She didn’t have anyone else.”

“Oh.” Johnny didn’t ask how he knew. “What about her friends?”

Spidey didn’t move, a statue against the clouded sky.

Sighing, Johnny sat in front of Spidey. He wanted to tell Spidey it was gonna be okay, but how could he? He hadn’t felt okay in so long. He couldn’t promise that Spidey might one day.

“Shit, man,” Johnny said. “This really sucks.”

Spidey barked out a hoarse laugh. “It really does.”

“You can come over to my place any time you want. I mean, Tony Stark’s place, but he probably won’t be around. We can fix cars and drink beer and be silent like men.”

“If I asked to kiss you, what would you say?”

Johnny’s lips parted.

“Forget it –,”

“You know what I’d say. It just depends on if you ask.”

Spidey lifted his finger to his mask and rolled it up to his nose. He leaned across the distance, hovering in front of Johnny. Johnny couldn’t breathe.

“You’re the best of them all, Johnny Storm.”

He grazed his lips across Johnny’s cheekbone. Johnny closed his eyes.

“Maybe I’ll take you up on your offer, yeah? Cars and beer and silence. See you around, Torch.”

Johnny knew that when he opened his eyes again, Spider-Man would be gone. So he kept his eyes closed and pretended.

Johnny was hanging out with Peter Parker and his friend Mary Jane at the Coffee Bean when Ben texted him.

“Who is it?” Mary Jane asked. “Secret lover?”

“It’s Wyatt, Jen, Crystal, or Alicia. Or Tony Stark trying to figure out how and why you lit your bathtub on fire.” Peter frowned. “Wow, I know you way too well.”

Johnny stared at his phone. “It’s Ben.”

“How does he even text with fingers that huge?”

Mary Jane punched him in the shoulder. “You’re such an insensitive asshole, god.”

“I’m the insensitive asshole?” asked Peter. “You’re friends with Flash Thompson. You dated Harry Osborn for months. They make me look like a poet.”

“You have a completely skewed version of yourself in your head, you know that?”

“I have a –,”

“I’m in,” Johnny said, looking up. “SHIELD wants me.”

“Whoa,” said Peter.

“Wait, what does SHIELD want you for?” asked Mary Jane. “Is this about human experimentation ‘cause I would totally dig shooting flames out of my eyes.”

“He asked how quick I can come in. I’ve gotta go.” He stood up and Peter grabbed his wrist. Johnny looked at him.

“Just . . . be careful, okay?” Peter said.

Johnny grinned. “You know me, right?”

It had been so long since Johnny had first brought up being a part of the mission that he had forgotten how long it had been. He stopped asking Ben about it, eventually, and he assumed Ben had stopped asking SHIELD as well.

But Ben had never stopped.

The thought propelled Johnny all the way to Stark Tower, down the elevator into the subbasement. He placed his hands on the wall and he was cleared to walk out of the elevator and into a chrome room abuzz with activity.

He spotted Ben, surrounded by SHIELD agents. He recognized Maria Hill, Sharon Carter, and Jimmy Woo, but otherwise didn’t know most of them.

“Storm,” said Maria Hill as he approached. “We’re so glad that you could join us after this long period of coercion.”

“Right back atcha, Agent,” Johnny said. “I’m really glad that I won’t have to go to the news about what the government does with its more problematic citizens.”

Hill’s nostrils flared.

“No point dwelling on the past,” said Sharon Carter. “We’re here now and ready to get shit done. Is there anything you need before we begin?”

“A plane to California,” Johnny said.

Carter looked to Woo, whose fingers flew across his tablet.

“Already done,” he said.

“We reconvene at noon,” said Hill. “Let’s smoke these bastards out.”

The SHIELD agents dispersed and Johnny looked to Ben. Ben was dressed in the black uniform of SHIELD, which was strange – there wasn’t much you could do to make a guy like Ben stealthy.

“You ready for this?” Johnny asked.

“Nah,” said Ben. “But it doesn’t matter much, anyway.”

At noon, Johnny landed on the roof where the plane was prepped for loading. He watched the black-clad men and women moving around him, all preparing for their secret missions, and he thought about how different being a part of this was than being a part of the X-Men or Avengers. Captain America and Iron Man and Wolverine weren’t exactly going for stealth in their primary color-schemed uniforms. Storm and Captain Marvel and the Scarlet Witch weren’t strapping guns to their backs when they were manipulating the very universe.

He thought that Sue might be a good agent of SHIELD, much better than him or Ben or even Reed. God, especially Reed. He’d totally give away a mission because he couldn’t keep some stupidly smart comment to himself.

But Sue was always so good at adapting. Maybe it was a girl thing, maybe it was just her. She could fit herself into any situation, become someone new.

Sometimes Johnny wondered if he ever knew her at all.

Johnny noticed the familiar shadow on the roof’s floor just as a voice said, “I think my invitation to this shindig got lost in the mail.”

Johnny spun around to see Spider-Man perched on the ledge. He couldn’t help breaking out in a smile.

“What are you doing here?”

“C’mon, man. You didn’t honestly think I was going to let you face your long lost evil family alone, right?”

Johnny didn’t even know what to say to that. Luckily, he didn’t have to say anything because Maria Hill was storming over like Spider-Man just personally murdered her cat.

“This is a closed premise, Spider-Man!”

“It doesn’t look very closed to me,” said Spidey, jumping down beside Johnny. “Anyone with the ability to swing from skyscraper to skyscraper could wind up here.”

“I respectfully order you to leave,” said Hill.

“And I respectfully decline,” said Spidey, mirroring her crossed arms. “You guys were so adamant about me going on this mission at first and I said no, and now I’m saying yes, and you’re saying no? Talk about mixed messages.”

“Things have changed. We decided to go in a different direction, as you can see by the lack of costumed lunatics running about.”

“I resent that,” said Johnny.

“Who, might I remind you, took down the Fantastic Four the first time?” asked Spidey.

“No one,” said Hill. “That’s why we’re doing this.”

“Okay, but who tried to take down the Fantastic Four? It was me, all alone, no backup whatsoever.”

“He’s got a point,” Johnny said. “Plus, we’re a package deal. If he doesn’t go, neither do I.”

“You’re a package deal? Since when?”

“Only since forever.” Spidey slung an arm around Johnny’s shoulders. “Or have you not been following my blog?”

Hill threw her hands in the air. “Fine. Whatever. Come along, for all I care. We board in five.” She walked away as angrily as she’d come, muttering to herself, “This is the last time I work with anyone under thirty . . .”

As soon as she was out of ear shot, Johnny turned and shoved Spidey away from him. Either he caught Spidey by surprise or Spidey let himself be shoved because he stumbled a little.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” Spidey asked, and the douchebag had the nerve to laugh. “Come on, that was awesome. We are so awesome.”

“I didn’t ask you to come,” Johnny said. “It’ll be dangerous, probably. I don’t think they’ll hurt me or Ben, but I can’t protect everyone else.”

“I don’t need protection!” Spidey said, starting to sound angry. Good. This wasn’t a joke. “No offense to your family, but I think I can take Mr. Spaghetti Man and Windex Lady.”

Johnny rolled his eyes and went to walk away, but Spidey grabbed onto his upper arms, forcing him to stay rooted to the spot.

“Johnny, maybe you forgot, but I was there when this whole mess started. You think that now is when I’m gonna let you deal with it alone?”

Johnny stared at Spidey, wondering when he became so good at reading the shifts of a mask. And then he launched himself forward, enveloping Spidey in a hug. Spidey’s arms immediately came up to hold Johnny to him, like they always did.

“Thank you for coming,” Johnny whispered. “But I’m still mad at you.”

“Okay,” said Spidey, his strong hand rubbing up and down Johnny’s back. “I can handle that.”

The plane was mostly quiet. Johnny, Spidey, and Ben had been debriefed on the plan and then the SHIELD agents retreated behind a closed door, leaving the three superheroes alone.

Johnny introduced Spider-Man to Ben, to which Ben just said, “I remember. Twerpy little brat, weren’t ya?”

“Uh,” said Spidey. “I don’t think –,”

“That wasn’t a question,” Ben said, and he delicately put cotton plugs in his ear holes before dozing off.

Johnny wondered, observing Ben, if it was difficult to sleep without Reed and Sue. Which was stupid obviously. It had been years. Ben probably got used to it in prison, and he had Alicia now. Whatever was going on between them.

He checked the time on his phone and Spidey asked, “Who’s that?”

His background was a picture of him and Wyatt that Jen had taken on Wyatt’s graduation day. It was a goofy photo with Wyatt wrapping his gown around Johnny’s body and trying to perch his cap on both their heads so it looked like Johnny was graduating too.

The question startled Johnny. It was easy to forget that Spider-Man and Wyatt, his two best friends, didn’t know each other at all.

“That’s Wyatt Wingfoot,” said Johnny. “We were roommates in college.”

“Oh, yeah, I think you’ve mentioned him. You two look very . . . close.”

Johnny laughed. “I did make a pass at him. He rejected me and so I dropped out of college.”

Spidey joined in his laughter. “I would expect absolutely nothing less from you.”

“He’s dating She-Hulk now,” said Johnny.

“No kidding? She’s gotta be like the only person in the world who is taller and buffer than him.”

“I know, right? It’s destiny.” Johnny glanced out the window, watching the clouds pass. “What about you?”

“Hm?”

“Got a girlfriend?” Johnny winced at the crack in his voice on the word girlfriend.

“Mmm no. There was this girl that I thought – well, I thought, but she wanted to focus on trivial, unimportant things, like her career. As if risking her life every day by being the girlfriend of a masked vigilante isn’t enough.”

“Sounds like enough to me.” Johnny groaned, letting his forehead thump against the window. “God, that was awful. I can’t believe I just said that.”

Beside him, he heard Spidey laughing. “No, no, it was – it was charming really. I am thoroughly charmed.”

“I’m just gonna go throw myself out of the emergency exit.”

“That would be a bigger threat if you couldn’t literally fly.”

Johnny rolled his neck around so that he was looking at Spider-Man. Spider-Man inclined his head and their faces nearly touched.

“Johnny Storm,” Spider-Man said.

“Yes?”

Spidey shrugged, and they fell silent, watching the clouds that were so close they could nearly feel their mist.

When they landed in California, Johnny felt the nervousness kick in. If Reed and Sue were really here, then he was so close to seeing them for the first time in so many years. He knew that it was his job to help bring them in, he knew that they were criminals, he knew they had abandoned him, but this close, all he could remember was how Sue could never get all her hair into a ponytail. There were always strands that would hang and Johnny would wrap his fingers in them and Sue would groan about how she didn’t even notice, but it was too late now.

That was what Johnny remembered.

They took two black cars with tinted windows, Johnny and Spidey in one and Ben in the other. Spidey placed his hand on Johnny’s thigh and Johnny felt a strange pang of sadness for Ben, all alone.

Johnny and the agents had discussed the plan of attack on the plane. He told them where they were going as if he were someone else, but now, driving through rural California, he could remember everything. He thought about freshman year and his first kiss, the girl who told him as they sat together on the bleachers that he was much cuter than the quarterback and Johnny wasn’t sure he agreed, but he kissed her anyway. He remembered sophomore year and fast cars and blinking traffic lights and his second kiss – a college guy with a grin like the devil and a purple Jaguar. He remembered laying out in the grass with Sue, watching the cows on the hill. He remembered days with Reed’s strange gizmos and the first time he saw Ben wrap his arms around Reed from behind when they didn’t think he was looking. He remembered sun and rain and Sue, Sue, Sue.

“What are you thinking about?” Spidey asked softly, nudging Johnny’s knee with his own.

They were quiet until Johnny found his voice.

“I’m from Long Island. I never expected this place to be home, you know? But I ended up staying way longer than I thought I would and it’s, like. It’s pretty weird being back.”

“This is weird,” Spidey agreed. “We’re in California and I don’t see the ocean anywhere.”

“You see the ocean all the time in New York.”

“But I don’t use it.”

Johnny rolled his eyes and nestled his head onto Spidey’s shoulder.

An hour or so later, they pulled into an empty parking lot of an old warehouse. The windows and doors were boarded up and a few bodies had probably been dumped here over the years. One time, Sue and Johnny snuck in with self-made ghost hunting guns and tried to capture Beatrice, an 80-year-old ghost they were certain was stealing Aunt Marygay’s oatmeal.

“Creepy,” said Spidey. “And I’m the guy who dresses up like a spider.”

Maria Hill and Sharon Carter approached the car as Johnny and Spidey got out.

 “This is it?” Hill asked.

“Yeah,” said Johnny. “There’s a passageway inside, on the third floor. We always used to say that if anything were to happen to our aunt, we could hide out here.”

“Sounds like as good a place as any,” said Carter. She barked orders into her headset.

“I need the two of you to stay in the car,” said Hill.

“What?” asked Spidey.

“That wasn’t part of the deal –,” Johnny said.

“It’s the new deal,” said Hill, taking her gun out of her holster. “You two are dangerous and unpredictable and I won’t have you compromise this for us. You’re last resort backup only.”

Johnny turned to see Ben, who was staring at the pavement a bit too steadfastly.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” said Hill, and she marched towards the mass of SHIELD agents.

On some unseen signal, the SHIELD agents and Ben swiftly stampeded towards the warehouse, knocking down the boarded doors.

“Wow,” Spidey said when the parking lot was empty. “Johnny, I’m . . .”

“Let’s go.”

Johnny sprinted to the car and threw open the door, hopping inside. The keys were still in the ignition, and Johnny shifted into drive.

He rolled down the passenger window.

“You coming?” he asked.

Spidey stood there gaping at him, or at least Johnny assumed he was gaping at him. But then he was running and jumping into the car and they were off.

“Are you insanse?” Spidey yelled.

“I’m still a better driver than you!” Johnny said, laughing.

“You’re insane,” Spidey said and he sounded completely thrilled by it.

It happened like this.

Johnny and Sue were playing hide and seek. Johnny didn’t want to play – he wanted to sit by the door, waiting for his dad to come back. They’d only been living in California with Aunt Marygay for a few days and every time he asked when Dad would be home, she said “soon.” He took that to mean it could be any time at all and he wanted to be ready.

“Let’s do something, Johnny,” Sue said, plopping down on the stairs next to him. This was generally his best vantage point to see the door and still stay out of Aunt Marygay’s way. “I’m bored.”

“I’m waiting,” said Johnny, matter-of-fact.

“Boring.” Sue tried to budge Johnny from his spot and he giggled, but stayed seated. Sue might be stronger than him but he had convictions! “Ugh, come on. You wanna play a game?”

Despite himself, Johnny perked up. “What kind of game?”

“Hmm.” Sue pretended to think, but Johnny could tell she already had something picked out. “Hide and Seek?”

Johnny scrunched up his face. “No, I’m waiting.”

But Sue was already covering her eyes. “One . . . two . . .”

Johnny shot to his feet and took off running. He raced through the rooms, trying to find the best hiding spot. He hadn’t been here long enough to discover all the nooks and crannies yet – but Sue was the best at hiding, and also at finding, and it was his goal to beat her at Hide and Seek just once.

Johnny slipped into the den where he technically wasn’t supposed to go. But Aunt Marygay was out running errands, and Sue would probably find him by the time she came back, right?

Johnny tip toed through the den. He was looking at the thick curtains in front of the windows when his foot caught on a snag in the carpet and he went tumbling to the floor.

Shaking himself, he crawled over to where he tripped. The carpet was loose and he pulled it back – and saw a hinge in the wooden floorboards. That was strange. He felt around on the floor and noticed a crack. He wedged his fingers under it and pulled. The piece of floor lifted up.

Johnny gasped. A trap door in his aunt’s own house, right under their noses?

He heard Sue yell, “Ready or not, here I come!”

Johnny dangled his feet over the edge. There was a ladder set up against the side and he hopped onto it. He tried to close the door above him, but realized that it would be completely dark if he did. He bit his lip and climbed down the rest of the ladder.

He ran around the room, which was big and cold with stone walls. He found dried foods and some emergency gear, but the only lamp didn’t turn on when he tried. He groaned and collapsed on a cot that had been set up. Of course he would be done in by electricity.

“No point trying to hide, little bro! What the –,”

He peered through his fingers to see Sue’s face in the doorway.

“I found the best hiding spot,” he said.

But Sue didn’t even seem to care. She climbed down the ladder into the room. She spun around, taking it all in.

“What do you think it is?” Johnny asked, sitting up.

“I dunno,” said Sue. “Probably a bomb shelter. Houses built during World War II and the Cold War had them sometimes.”

She walked over to the baskets of dried foods, sorting through them.

“Some of this stuff is still good. I could literally stay down here forever and no one would ever find me.”

“I would find you,” said Johnny.

Sue smiled at him. “Oh, you’re so certain, huh? You count and I hide.”

Johnny counted and Sue hid and it took him a while and she might have chosen an easy spot, but he found her.

“Stay here,” Johnny said, getting out of the car.

“What, I get designated driver twice in one day?” Spidey asked.

“I’m serious, Spider-Man!” Johnny yelled and he rung the doorbell of Aunt Marygay’s house.

In the moments he was standing alone on the porch, Johnny could hear nothing but his own heartbeat. The whole world was silent. It was him and only him.

And then the door cracked open and Aunt Marygay peered through. She gasped and the door swung wide.

“Hi, Aunt Marygay,” said Johnny. “I’m here to see my sister.”

“I don’t know what you’re –,”

“C’mon, it’s just you and me. You don’t have to lie.”

Aunt Marygay stared at him and in that moment she seemed so frail and old that it was difficult to imagine her as the imposing figure of his past. She seemed sad, too. Johnny had never noticed how sad she seemed.

She stepped aside.

Johnny breezed past, not allowing himself to look at this room and think about who he used to be. He went straight to the den. The lights were off and when he switched them on, he noticed there was new carpet, a dark blue instead of light pink. It took him a moment to find the flap and when he did, he pulled it back. It crackled like it had been a while since it had been pulled back at all.

He held his breath and yanked up the door in the floorboards, filtered light from below streaming into the room.

“Marygay?” came a voice.

Johnny couldn’t breathe. He might throw up if only he could get enough oxygen to manage it.

“Aunt Marygay, did you need something?”

Johnny couldn’t move.

And then a face materialized before him, down in the room. The most beautiful face Johnny had ever seen.

“Johnny,” Sue said and she smiled and it was like seeing the ocean for the time or stars or balloons or your sister.

“Sue,” Johnny said and he jumped into the room, not even bothering with a ladder. And then he was in her arms and it had been so long. It had been so long.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Sue whispered. “You’re really here, it’s you.”

“I told you I’d find you,” Johnny said. “I told you, I told you, I told you.”

“You did, you did, you did,” said Sue, laughing. “You told me and you found me and you’re here.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”

“God, what are you even saying? I’m sorry for everything, honey, I’ve missed you so much.”

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Johnny said. “I told you I’d find you.”

“John.”

Johnny lifted his head and in the corner stood Reed Richards. Johnny had pictured his reunion with Sue hundreds of times and never taken a moment to picture Reed there with them.  He supposed, deep down, he was afraid that Reed might hate him, after everything. That Reed would tell Sue he didn’t want her to see him and Sue would take his side. But now a hand slithered over to Johnny and landed on his shoulder.

“It’s good to see you,” said Reed, and his smile was still touched with a little of his strangeness, but more than anything, he seemed tired. Johnny felt sad for him.

“You too, Reed,” Johnny said. He wished he could get lost in the moment with them, but the situation was too dire. “Look, I’m so – I’m so glad you guys are here, but there’s something I have to tell you. SHIELD’s here.”

Sue and Reed met each other’s eyes.

“What do you mean?” asked Sue.

“I mean that –,”

But then a red and blue spandexed man was somersaulting into the room.

“We’ve got a problem,” said Spider-Man.

“You!” Reed shouted. His arms snaked out to wrap around Spidey and Spidey yelped.

“No, Reed, it’s okay –,”

Sue threw up a force field around her and Johnny as Spidey, normally so strong, struggled to get out of Reed’s endless grip.

“Stop it, he’s my friend!” Johnny yelled, clutching Sue’s arm.

“RELEASE THE CAPTIVES!” came a voice, and Johnny’s heart stopped. “YOU ARE SURROUNDED!”

Sue looked at him with wild eyes.

“I didn’t bring them here,” Johnny said. “I swear, I didn’t –,”

But he did. He brought them because he was too cowardly to face her on his own and he knew she could see it in his face.

Reed’s arms constricted around Spidey like skin-colored snakes. Johnny’s eyes stung, watching Reed cut off Spidey’s air supply.

“It was you,” said Reed. “It was you who led them to us the first time.”

“No,” Johnny said. “No, Reed, please.”

“You broke our family. A coward in a mask destroyed everything.”

And Reed’s fingers stretched towards Spidey’s mask and Johnny thought he was yelling but no sound was coming out. And Spidey thrashed, but Reed tugged on the mask and there was nothing to be done.

Peter Parker stared at Johnny with wide brown eyes and a crooked nose and a strong jaw and mussed hair. Peter Parker’s lips were slightly parted and his chest heaved beneath the constraints of Mr. Fantastic. Peter Parker was here, Peter Parker was Spider-Man, Peter Parker was in danger because of Johnny.

“Please,” Johnny whispered. “Please, just let him go.”

It happened like this.

“It’s over, Reed,” Sue said. She was looking at Johnny. “This has been going on too long.”

Reed stared at Sue and Johnny hadn’t thought that anything in the world could control Reed Richards, but maybe he was wrong, because his arms began to shrink and Peter fell out of his grasp. Peter lunged for his mask, pulling it over his face like he could stop the last five minutes from happening if only he made everything the same as it was.

It happened like this.

Johnny didn’t feel when Sue put up her force field, but he felt when it dropped – a sudden rush of wind and sound all around him.

The SHIELD agents stormed into the room and took Sue and Reed at gunpoint. They handcuffed Johnny and Spider-Man and they were too tired to fight. They were marched out, past a crying Aunt Marygay.

Johnny offered her a smile and it made her cry harder.

It happened like this.

A plane. A car. A cell. No Sue, no Reed, no Ben, no Peter. He was devastatingly alone.

Nothing happened at all.

Every morning, with his bland yogurt, he got a plastic spoon. He kept it tucked away when they came to take his tray. He liked to melt them together and make little shapes. A heart. A crown. A dinosaur. The more spoons he had, the cooler his shape got. Which was really quite pathetic.

He heard the doors open.

“This is highly illegal, you know,” Johnny said. “I have a lawyer friend. She’s also super buff and could definitely beat you up.”

“God, you two deserve each other.”

Johnny turned his head to see a SHIELD agent tossing Peter Parker into his sell. Johnny scrambled to his feet and the Plexiglas door slammed shut.

“What’s going on?” Johnny asked. “Why are you here?”

Peter slumped against the wall of the cell. “I actually annoyed the guards so much that they didn’t want to deal with me anymore. Apparently you’re annoying too, so they threw us together.” He grinned. “Would you believe it was all part of my master plan?”

Johnny smiled back. “Probably.” A thought struck him. “Your mask . . .”

Peter shrugged. “So SHIELD knows who I am. Fine. They probably already did. Nick Fury might know everything.” He glanced up at Johnny. “You, on the other hand . . .”

Johnny didn’t know what to say. He’d had so much time alone, so much time to come to terms with Peter’s secrets, so much time to plan what he might say to Peter when (if) he saw him again. But now Peter was here and he was completely speechless.

“I like guys,” he said.

Peter raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Johnny flushed. “Shut up. I was trying to think of a secret I could tell you to, you know, even the odds a little.”

“But see, I don’t know if the odds are really evened.” Peter leaned forward and Johnny took a step towards him, a moth to a flame, which was highly ironic given both their hero identities. “You see, I like guys, too. Or well. One guy.”

“Are you really doing this now?” Johnny asked even as his entire body tingled.

Peter shrugged. “We’re together. We’re in jail. If not now, when?”

Johnny sat next to Peter. He kept his eyes on Peter’s hands, big and strong. They would be good for fixing cars if Peter was good with cars at all.

Johnny suddenly remembered Peter’s motorcycle. He was good with that. He wondered if Spidey’s inability to drive cars was real or an act.

He would have to go through each memory with Spider-Man and replace it with Peter. Think about Peter swinging with him through the air. Peter holding him while he cried. Or he could replace memories of Peter with Spider-Man. Spider-Man’s body that he wrapped around as they biked upstate. Spider-Man throwing his head back to laugh like he’d never done it before.

He raised his eyes to Peter’s face. God, he really was beautiful. He’d never let himself think it about Peter Parker before, too caught up in Spider-Man and Wyatt and how Peter had so many pretty girls hanging off him that he was the very definition of unattainable. But he was so . . . beautiful. Wide forehead that his hair fell forward onto. Crooked nose from genetics and breaking it too many times. Full lips and long eyelashes that probably drove his girlfriends crazy with how little he appreciated them. Eyes so brown Johnny didn’t know where they began and where they ended. Strong jaw and stronger arms and a smile that was always concealing something and now Johnny knew what.

“If I asked to kiss you,” Johnny said, “what would you say?”

But Peter beat him to the punch and his lips were soft and hard and chapped and Johnny was in jail, but he thought he’d never been freer than this moment.

Peter pulled away, just a breath’s width. The air Johnny breathed in was hot and belonged to Peter. He thought of his own air in Peter’s lungs.

And Peter smiled as he said, “Johnny Storm.” 

And Johnny never knew he could love he sound of his name so much.

Peter was asleep when the door to the cell clicked open. Johnny looked up from where he was melting his little sculpture of plastic spoons – an elephant – and stared at the cell door. He knew Peter would get mad for not waking him, but something compelled him to his feet anyway. He crept towards the door and slowly nudged it farther open. He stepped out.

Hands grabbed him and he tried to scream but a hand covered his mouth. A very rocky hand.

Johnny squirmed and Ben released him so that he could spin around.

“Ben?” Johnny whispered. “What’s going on? Did you open my door?”

Ben wrapped a hand around Johnny’s forearm and started dragging him through the hallways, which were mysteriously empty.

“Where is everyone?” Johnny asked. “Ben, what’s going on?”

“I caused a diversion,” said Ben. “Well, I didn’t, but your buddies She-Hulk and Crystal are quite the gals.”

“They are,” Johnny said automatically. “But, what? What did they do?”

“Sometimes, when people want a monster, you’ve gotta give ‘em a monster.”

Johnny shook his head. “Ben, my pal, my old buddy, you’ve gotta tell me what is happening right now.”

“No time to explain. Reed’s got a plan.”

“Reed’s got a plan?” Johnny felt like a broken record, echoing all of Ben’s own words. “How the hell does he have a plan?”

Ben cracked a smile. “Because he’s Reed friggin’ Richards.”

Johnny looked at Ben and saw, for the first time since he’d been released from prison, some of his old spirit. Sometimes Johnny thought he caught it when Alicia’s hands were wrapped around his, trying to help him make something, but it was only ever fleeting before the emptiness set in. Reed friggin’ Richards, indeed.

They ran to a glass cell not unlike Johnny’s, sealed shut from top to bottom. In it sat Reed Richards, eyes closed as if he were meditating.

“Reed,” Ben said, and Reed’s eyes snapped open. An inhumanly large smile stretched across his face.

“Yes. Yes, you’re here. Yes.”

“Are you gonna tell me what’s going on?” Johnny asked. “Because our guy Ben here is suspiciously quiet on the subject.”

“Oh, John,” said Reed, a mad twinkle in his eyes. “When have I ever done that?”

A little thrill shot through Johnny. The kind of thrill Johnny first felt when he laid eyes on Reed and Ben so long ago before everything got complicated. The kind of thrill you felt when you were racing or flying or breaking into NASA or kissing a beautiful boy.

“The kid’s gonna need something to go on,” said Ben with a roll of his eyes, but Johnny could tell he was thrilled too.

“Fine, fine, if you must be a bore. This glass is impenetrable,” said Reed. “I can’t slip through anywhere and I don’t think Ben is strong enough to break it. It’s apparently fire proof. But I subscribe to the theory that nothing is actually fireproof, in one way or another.”

Johnny thought about Tony Stark’s fire-proof windows, melting them off their hinges.

“You need me to get hot,” Johnny said, a smile playing at his lips. “I can do hot.”

He lit his hands on fire, concentrating all his pain and anger and confusion and loneliness of the last few weeks (months, years) into the flame. And he didn’t stop there. He thought of playing basketball with Wyatt and sucking off a boy who only wanted his mouth and making pottery with Alicia. He thought of kissing Peter and seeing Ben through a wire fence and hugging Sue. Everything that made him rage, laugh, cry flared his flame and fanned it over his entire body until he was only fire, pressing against impenetrable glass.

“It’s softening,” he heard Reed say, as if from a distance. “Ben, now!”

Ben pressed his arms through the soft glass with barely a wince. He closed a hand around Reed, whose body had gone limp and malleable, and pulled him back through the glass.

Johnny extinguished his flame. His chest heaved.

“That,” Reed said, his skin too pink to be natural, “was entirely unpleasant.”

The fire alarms went off.

“We need to find Susan,” said Reed.

“Got ya covered,” Ben said and took off running with Reed and Johnny on his heels.

They came to a new cell, this one with a clear door that had an electronic pad on it. The cell looked empty.

“Sue?” Johnny breathed and she materialized like steam.

“Took you guys long enough,” said Sue. “I was starting to get bored.”

Reed laughed, a tad maniacally, and stretched out his arm to place his hand on the pad. A light flashed green and the door clicked open.

“What’d you do?” asked Ben.

“I got one of the guard’s handprints off my cell and manipulated my own DNA structure to match his.”

Johnny and Ben stared at him.

“Don’t look too impressed,” he said. “I haven’t yet managed it for my whole body.”

Sue stepped out of her cell, stretching her arms over her head.

“If I never have to spend another day inside a cramped room, it will be too soon,” she said. “I need to go somewhere open. The beach. The mountains. Anywhere.”

“Anything for you darling,” said Reed, and Johnny thought he might stretch his eyes into heart-shapes.

“I always wanted to see Mount Fuji,” said Ben.

“Benjamin Grimm,” Sue said. “You always did know how to treat a girl right.”

If Ben could blush, Johnny thought he would

“Wait, hold up,” said Johnny. He turned to Ben. “So I sort of figured we were breaking Bonnie and Clyde out of jail by now, but you’re going with them? What about Alicia?” What about me?

“It’s complicated,” said Ben. “I’ve talked it over with her. I even, uh, asked her to come along. But her career’s here. So she’s staying. And she’s okay.” He cracked a smile. “She still wants to make an artist out of you, though.”

Sue blinked. “Wait. You’re not coming with us?”

Johnny stared at her. The alarms still rang and Johnny knew that someone would eventually have to leave Jen and Crys to whatever terror they were causing and come check it out. But he couldn’t seem to make the words flow any easier.

Even so, Sue understood. Because she was Sue and there wasn’t a thing on the planet she didn’t understand.

“The boy,” she said. “The spider boy. You don’t want to leave him.”

“It’s not just him,” Johnny said. “It’s – Wyatt and Crystal and Jen and – okay, Peter. It’s just . . .”

Johnny screwed up his face. He couldn’t believe he was saying this. For years, he had daydreamed of Sue and Reed coming back for him, taking him with them. He was so tired of being alone.

But he wasn’t alone anymore.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see Sue, her face gentle, not the face of a princess or a wicked witch. A criminal genius or a college dropout. Johnny’s guardian or Reed and Ben’s girlfriend. She was all of those things, and she was more. She was Sue.

“You told me that you’ll always find me,” she said. “It works both ways, you know that?”

Johnny smiled. “Even if you’re hiking Fuji?”

“Even then,” she said. “You could steal a rocket ship and get lost in outerspace and I wouldn’t rest until I’d torn the whole galaxy apart to bring you back home.”

“That’s what the Fantastic Four does,” grunted Ben.

“We find each other,” said Reed.

Johnny looked at the three of them, their strangeness and their darkness and their incredible light.

“I wouldn’t choose another family if I could,” he said, completely honest.

Sue hugged him so tight he couldn’t breathe, and he let her. Oxygen was overrated when it came to Sue Storm’s hugs.

“You better get going,” Reed said. “I thought you might make this decision and implemented a failsafe. But you’ll have to be back in your cell in, uh, T-minus five?”

Johnny didn’t want to let go of Sue, but she pushed him off her.

She smiled through tears.

“Go,” she said.

He went.

Johnny ran into Peter as he turned the corner towards their cell.

“What the hell is going on?” Peter asked. “I was asleep and I woke up to the fire alarms and you were missing and the door was open – Jeez, I thought Maria Hill herself had kidnapped you for target practice or something –,”

“No time, let’s go!” Johnny grabbed ahold of Peter and yanked him along behind him. Peter could have not let himself be yanked, but he did all the same, and Johnny appreciated it.

They made it back to their cell and Johnny slammed the door behind them.

“What the hell?” said Peter. “We could have gotten out of here! We could have –,”

Johnny shushed him.

A pair of footsteps echoed through the hallway. Two men appeared: a SHIELD guard and a man in a suit with dark red hair, tinted glasses, and a cane.

“Here they are,” said the SHIELD agent, looking a bit like he wasn’t sure how they even ended up here.

The man smiled too brightly. “Johnny Storm. Peter Parker. My name is Matthew Murdock, Attorney at Law. I’ll be representing you as your lawyer.” He winced. “Can someone please do something about that damn alarm?”

The jury ruled that Johnny Storm and Spider-Man were not guilty because there was no proof that either ever willfully helped the known criminals, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm to escape law enforcement. However, there would be some investigations into how SHIELD operated, since holding law-abiding citizens against their will without possibility of bail and forced military conscription of inmates were not exactly legal. Johnny was certain Nick Fury and Maria Hill would wiggle themselves out of it. They always did.

“It’s cool that SHIELD didn’t give up your secret identity,” said Johnny from under Peter’s arm.

Peter played with Johnny’s hair at the nape of his neck, sending a tingle through his whole body. “I sort of expected it. Secrets are basically currency to SHIELD. And my name is one hell of a paycheck.”

“Well, excuse me, Mr. My Parents Who I Barely Knew Were Spies So Now I Know Everything About Secret Government Organizations.”

“You know what’s a total turn off for me?”

“What?”

“My dead spy parents. Also secret government organizations.”

“Oh, really?” Johnny crawled up onto Peter’s body, the bed creaking beneath them. “Bet I can help with that.”

“Yeah?” Peter’s eyes were dark.

“Just call me Bond. James Bond.”

Peter rolled his head as he laughed. “Please stop. I really thought you were trying to be sexy.”

“I don’t have to try.” He lifted his fingers to the buttons on his shirt. Carefully and slowly, he undid a single button.

“I would appreciate a little effort, thank you.” There was a ripping sound, and the next thing Johnny knew, cold air was piquing his nipples and his shirt was across the room. Johnny glared at Peter, who grinned. “Sticky fingers?”

“You are so lucky that shirt was from two seasons ago,” Johnny said, and kissed him.

His phone buzzed on the bedside table. Johnny tried to ignore it, especially with one of Peter’s hands kneading his ass, but it kept buzzing and Johnny couldn’t let a call go unanswered. He sat up, even as Peter groaned.

“Five bucks it’s Alicia, telling you Galactus eating the earth is the only acceptable excuse for having missed your last pottery lesson. Or it’s Wyatt trying to set up another double date, I mean, we get it, Jen is awesome. Or it’s Crystal calling to say how much cuter Pietro is than I am, which is obviously false, he totally bleaches his hair. Or it’s MJ wondering why I haven’t called her back. Ooh, or it’s Dominoes Pizza! Very considerate of them to make the first move for a change.”

Peter watched as Johnny listened to his voicemail. It was short and Johnny’s stomach twisted in knots. He replayed it to understand.

“Whattsa matter?” Peter asked when Johnny hung up.

“I’m going to Central Park,” Johnny said, running to his closet to grab a new shirt.

“Right now?” asked Peter. “But I thought we were . . .”

Johnny raised an eyebrow at him as he did up the new buttons.

“Ugh, fine. Air. Grass. Horses. Not like you couldn’t find those things anywhere other than Central Park. Let me get dressed, I’ll swing us there.”

Peter kept his promise, swinging Johnny to the park. He then went to find “a telephone booth or something” so that he could throw on his civvies. Johnny wandered around the park, eyes catching every time he saw a blonde head or particularly tall man. But none of them stopped to notice him as well, so he kept walking.

Finally, he took a seat on a bench to watch a squirrel and pigeon duke it out over a fallen French Fry. Johnny didn’t know why people said nature was so majestic.

“This seat taken?”

Johnny’s head snapped up. In front of him was a woman with sunglasses on, all her hair tucked into a baseball cap, and a noticeably pregnant belly.

“Please,” Johnny said, scooting over, and she sat.

They were quiet for a moment, simply enjoying being near each other. And then Johnny asked, “So, whose is it? Reed’s or Ben’s?”

“Reed’s. Apparently Ben’s not ready to be a dad. Whatever, he’ll make a great uncle.”

“Not as great as me, of course.”

“Oh, of course.”

“I can’t wait to do fun uncle stuff with it. Zoos. Baseball games.”

“You like baseball?”

“I am certain I will like buying hot dogs and nachos for my niece and/or nephew at baseball games,” said Johnny. “God, I can’t believe you and Reed thought it would be a good idea to have a kid. It’s gonna either cure cancer or destroy the entire world.”

Sue grinned at him, dropping the act of being a stranger altogether. “Reed and I think it might be a good idea to have two kids.”

“You truly are a criminal genius.”

She laughed.

Johnny scanned the park. He noticed a burly man in a trench coat with a hat pulled low over his face on a bench, reading a newspaper. Holding his hand next to him sat a man with oddly distorted features, the kind you didn’t want to look at too long. He saw Johnny watching them and winked.

“Hey, I was looking for – oh my god.”

Johnny looked up to see Peter in front of him, gaping at Sue.

“C’mon, Pete,” said Johnny. “We’re kind of on the DL.”

“Oh, sure. Totally.” Peter paced in front of them for a moment before, completely casual, dropping to the grass beside them. Johnny rolled his eyes. “What? This is weird. Normally, when I see known criminals walking around, I punch them in the face. You’re too pretty though. And pregnant.”

“And I would destroy you,” said Sue.

“That too,” said Peter.

“Speaking of which, that’s exactly what I’d do if you step even a toe out of line in regards to my baby brother.”

“Got it.”

“Like I will actually explode a force field inside of your intestines.”

“Can you do that?”

“You want to find out?”

“For my intestines’ sake, not particularly. But if you’re ever planning on trying it out on someone else, let me know.”

Johnny laughed, so loud that a couple of joggers with baby strollers glanced at him. He shouldn’t have been attracting attention to himself at all, but he couldn’t contain his joy.

“When do you have to leave?” he asked Sue.

“Soon,” she said.

“But for now you’ll stay?”

She smiled, watching the two men on the bench across the way watch her. “For now, I’ll stay.”

And it was enough. It was more than enough. It was wonderful.