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A lot of people, Sue knows, assume that Reed must be a very vanilla, missionary-position sort of husband. After all, he hasn't exactly sampled the wild side of life. Not good with people, late to discover girls, married his first sweetheart... Probably got his instructions on what to do on the wedding night out of a biology textbook. She knows what people say.
What they all forget is that Reed Richards is an explorer at heart... and that a man who isn't good at picking up on social etiquette also isn't shy about blasting past it. You can't shock a man who redefines his concept of 'unnatural' every time someone supplies new data. Sue can tell Reed the darkest sexual secrets that she's never told anyone.
Like what happened between her and Johnny once when they were teenagers.
There are other people she knows, good loving supportive friends, who wouldn't judge her for what she did with her own brother. But Reed is the only one she trusts not to judge her for saying she doesn't regret it.
Because she doesn't, not really. She regrets going to the prom with the hot quarterback who turned out to have grabby fingers. She regrets letting Joey Gruber kiss her after math class when she wasn't really interested and it only screwed up their friendship. But she doesn't regret that night Johnny needed to be the one to make things better for her, and she let him do it the best way he knew how.
Reed shows no sign of finding the secrets she shares anything but interesting. He quite cheerfully shares the ins and outs of his own sexual history, not that they're anything very dramatic; his deeply futile teenage crush on Victor, the time that he kissed Ben in college that Ben later passed off as just too much to drink.
That fills in the outlines for her of the something that she's noticed between Ben and Johnny. Sue finds herself thinking about setting them up, just for the neatness of it, just so they'd all have someone of their own within the family.
She finds herself thinking that it's almost a shame to stop there.
She knows Johnny's still searching for what he sought from her on that night long ago, even if he'd never turn to her now that she's a married woman. She knows that Ben wants things he would have struggled to admit to himself even before the accident gave him an excuse to stop trying. She knows that it's hurting Reed every day to see Ben unhappy.
She knows that she wants all her boys to be happy, and she really thinks they could be. Although probably not, God love them, if she leaves them to work it out among themselves.
If this is going to have any chance of happening, it's going to require some emotional finesse. And that means that, much as she loves him, she should probably leave Reed out of the loop. She knows he'd see the logic of such an arrangement immediately. Unfortunately, he would then try to explain it to the others in exactly those terms. Possibly with diagrams and equations.
That direct an approach might actually work on Johnny, but it would make Ben bolt for sure - and bringing Johnny in with Ben left out would be the worst possible move. Especially since neither her husband nor her brother has the emotional sensitivity to understand why.
So. The indirect approach, perhaps.
*
"You should do something for Ben," Sue says one night as she and Reed are lying in bed together. "How much can he actually feel through all that rock? It must be awful."
It's not that Reed doesn't think about things like that for himself, because he does. It's just that he gets caught up in trying to fix everything at once in place of trying to treat the individual symptoms. It's just as well he never went into medicine.
Reed gives a vaguely affirmative hum, sounding half asleep, but Sue knows how his mind works. Give it a few days, and they'll be seeing the debut of some astonishing invention designed to restore Ben's lost touch sensitivity.
It actually takes more like a day and a half. Sue visits the lab to assess whether it's worth even bothering to try and organise a family dinner, and discovers Ben modelling what looks like an all-over bodysuit made out of silver mesh.
Johnny, of course, is looking on in amusement, and Ben seems fairly resigned by the time she arrives to complete the team. Not that it stops him grumbling. "Sheesh. I look like I oughta be selling my wares to sailors," he says as he looks down at the fishnet effect on his rocky legs.
Sue can tell Johnny's about to make a crack about Ben's looks. Routine or not, that's not going to help the mood she's hoping to create, so she silences him with a subtle forcefield. He gives her a wounded look.
Reed barely looks up from the computer controls he's fiddling with. "Hmm? Oh. The, er, intensity mesh needs to have a specific spacing in order to correctly amplify- ah." He adjusts something, and Ben jolts a little, like he just got a static shock.
Any shock that Ben could feel should fry everything in the room, so something's obviously working. Sue crosses the room to touch one rocky shoulder. "How does that feel?"
It feels different to her already; the mesh generates a soft tingling vibration under her fingers, like a cushion of warm air, so it's more like touching a plush surface than cold rock. Hot damn, but her husband is a genius. She strokes her hand along Ben's arm, and she could swear she sees a tension that she's never even noticed melt right out of his body. "Like a lady's hand," he says gruffly.
Of course, Johnny can't resist that line. "Hey, that's no lady, that's my-" he starts to say, but Reed, with unusual foresight, has extended a hand across the room to cover his mouth.
"The mesh creates an intensity barrier that translates force in both directions," he explains. "It amplifies external force to a level that resonates with the substance of Ben's body, while modulating internal force with haptic feedback to allow finer sensitivity of contact." He frowns. "Unfortunately, it's impossible to make it truly portable, as the size of the energy buffer required precludes transport."
"Great," Ben mutters, thought Sue can tell he's not really unhappy. "So not I only do I gotta look like a dummy, I gotta confine my social life to this lab."
"Hey," she says, reaching up to slip her arms around his neck and smile up at him. "There are a lot of people right here in this lab that love you." She lays her head on his shoulder, and he wraps his rocky arms around her in return - very carefully at first, then with increasing tightness. It's kind of wonderful; he's so solid and substantial against her, and she can feel his strength in the squeeze, not like the fragile handling he's so careful to give her usually.
Reed smiles broadly at the two of them, probably completely in the dark as to why anyone might think he should be jealous. He comes over to give Ben a congratulatory pat on the shoulder of his own.
Naturally, Johnny can't be left out. "Group hug!" he declares, and dives across the room to wrap himself around her and as much of Ben's solid bulk as he can manage. Which isn't much, but Reed's stretching powers are more than up to the task of encircling all three of them.
"Jeez, a guy could start to get embarrassed," Ben says.
Sue laughs and kisses Ben's cheek. It feels a little weird, but pleasant, a static tingle against her lips. She finds herself thinking that tingle would probably feel pretty pleasant in other places too, and her skin warms a little. She tilts her chin up towards Reed, and he takes the hint and stretches his neck past Ben's shoulder so she can give him a peck on the lips.
"Hey, I don't get a kiss?" Johnny says indignantly, with a half-serious pout. Sue twists around and kisses him too: direct on the lips, and just a little bit more lingering than it should be. As he pulls back, she can see from the sudden heat in his eyes that he's realised what she's doing.
His gaze stays on her face for a moment, a trace of the more mature Johnny who so rarely surfaces visible in his subtle smile. Then he lunges past her towards Ben. "Come on, big guy! Gimme a kiss!" he demands.
"Whoa! Easy there, Matchstick." Ben attempts to jerk away, but Reed's supporting arms don't leave him anywhere to go. Johnny succeeds in planting one on him, and it's clear from the effort he puts into it that it's not an entirely playful gesture.
Ben's face is an absolute picture, but Sue's looking past him Reed. The soft little smile her husband gives her in return is equal parts realisation, thanks and permission. As he releases the three of them from his grip, Sue stretches up to kiss Ben again - on the mouth this time, and for real.
It's not quite like kissing normal lips, but it's nice - and Ben can obviously feel it, because she can feel... well, 'big guy' is definitely the term. To the point where normal activities are going to be all but impossible, but she's pretty sure that with Reed's genius, Johnny's wide experience, and their combined superpowers, they'll be able to work something out.
Ben doesn't seem quite willing or able to break the first real kiss he must have had in a very long time, but by the time she pulls back herself he's looking positively panicked. "Uh, Suzie-" he says, stepping back and looking round warily for Reed.
Which is when Reed steps in with a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and kisses him too. Just on the cheek, but with a tenderness to it that makes her heart ache. Reed has always loved Ben, but he's not good with words, and Ben is not a man who can sit still and let him fumble through an emotional confession. If this gives him a way to demonstrate it, then Sue would be happy to go along with it even if there was nothing in for her.
And there's quite a lot in it for her.
Ben stands very still for a moment, Reed's arm still across his shoulders. "Okay, this is getting weird," he says eventually. It's not a rejection.
Behind her, Johnny lets out a laugh. "Oh, please. This isn't even the weirdest thing we've done this week," he says. He's probably right. As Sue turns to look at him, he's already tugging his shirt off. He pauses with the collar up above his head and points round at the three of them. "Okay, so, if this is not a team orgy, somebody needs to tell me now."
Sue laughs too, and grabs him around the bare midriff to pull him closer. Reed's arm stretches out to encircle them, the other still wrapped around Ben. As he draws the four of them together she reaches up to kiss him, a fresh new excitement and anticipation buzzing through the familiar embrace.
This is unexplored territory for all four of them.
But that's always been what they do best.