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It’s the fourth session of Peter’s after school science club when things go horribly, horribly wrong.
He’d been desperate for a way to get his students more interested in the subject. Only a handful of students ever came to meetings, and most just came because of the extra credit he offered. They didn’t actually care, and spent most of the hour texting under their desks, as if Peter couldn’t see them. So recruiting the help of Dr. Reed Richards had seemed like a great idea. At first.
Peter’s almost all set up, his students talking and laughing amongst themselves as they wait for the meeting to begin.
“Greetings, class,” Dr. Richards calls out brightly as he enters the classroom. The room goes silent, and it takes Peter a second to realize why. When he looks up, Reed’s standing in the doorway, but he isn’t alone.
Johnny Storm stands next to the older man, smiling at the group of adoring high school students sitting in front of him. A girl in the front row looks like she may cry.
Peter, on the other hand, is far less amused.
He grabs Johnny by the arm, pulling him toward his desk. “Johnny,” he hisses. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Relax, Pete. I just came to watch. You won’t even know I’m here.” Johnny shoots him a wink.
He’s pretty sure Johnny is trying to kill him.
“Yeah, like that’s possible,” Peter mutters under his breath after Johnny walks away. He looks up at the clock. Another hour. That’s it. He can make it an hour without Johnny driving him completely crazy.
Reed starts with the demonstration, guiding Peter’s students through the steps as they set up their own experiments. He tries to go back to helping Reed, but it’s hard to focus with Johnny sitting in the back of the room with his feet propped up on an empty lab table, staring at him with an unreadable expression. He’s not the only one distracted, by the looks of his students. Most of the girls (and several guys) are watching Johnny out of the corner of their eyes. A few are blatantly turned around in their seats.
“Eyes up front,” Peter snaps with a little more force than necessary. Reed gives him a confused look.
“Johnny,” he calls suddenly and Peter winces. “Why don’t you come up here and give Mr. Parker a hand?”
“Sure thing, Mr. Parker,” Johnny says, in a tone that’s somehow both mocking and alluring.
It does weird, confusing things to Peter.
Johnny standing next to him, warm and beautiful, brushing against him any time either one of them moves, makes it even harder to focus.
By the end of the hour, he’s broken two beakers and nearly mixed a set of chemicals that could have easily blown up the school. Reed is looking at him with concern in his eyes, but Johnny just looks amused.
Peter sinks into his chair as the meeting comes to an end and his students start to pack up and go home. He’s never been so relieved for the school day to be over in his life, and he’s suffered some pretty miserable days, both as a teacher and a student.
“You seemed a little distracted up there, Pete,” Johnny says once everyone else has filed out of the room. He takes a seat on the edge of Peter’s desk, leaning in close.
“I hate you,” Peter deadpans.
“Ouch.” Johnny puts a hand to his chest in mock offense.
“You were doing that on purpose.”
“Doing what?” he asks, feigning innocence.
“Distracting me.”
“Let me make it up to you, then,” Johnny says, pulling him close by his tie. “Why don’t we go back to your place?”
Peter swallows thickly. Yep, Johnny is definitely trying to kill him.
But, Peter thinks, as they stumble into his apartment, mouths connected, he just might be okay with that.