Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Torch!” Penny screeched angrily, pulling the civilian out of the way as a wall crashed down where the man had been standing seconds before. “Be more careful!” The Human Torch didn’t respond, but Penny could just barely make out his hand, flipping her off, as he flew up in a fiery inferno. She grit her teeth, cursing the so-called “Fantastic” Four as she made sure the civilian wasn’t injured.

After Tony had recovered from the Avengers’ Civil War, he had recruited various vigilantes and heros to join or work with the Avengers Initiative. This had unfortunately included Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm. The Fantastic Four, the perfect superhero family. And their Golden Boy, Johnny, being the picture-perfect hero. And he was only seventeen! Penny would be fine with it, if he didn’t turn out to be a stuck-up asshole when she finally got to meet him. They had hardly had a civil conversation since they met, and that was almost six months ago.

Unfortunately, with Bruce gone, Tony was spending a lot of time with Reed Richards, and by extension Penny had to spend a lot of time with the other Fantastic Four. Sue was nice, Reed was focused on his work, and Ben was quiet, but it was Johnny , the hero who was almost her age , who she couldn’t get along with.

“Spidey, go help Reed with border patrol. Keep the bots in this block,” Tony said through the comms, and Penny sighed. Even though Tony had let her start joining Avengers’ smaller battles, he didn’t usually let her get into the big fights. And even when she was, she was usually limited to evacuating civilians, or just picking off the last few baddies. Not to say that civilians weren’t important; protecting them was the whole point of the “superhero” gig, but she wanted to be in the thick of the action. Like Johnny! He was only two years older than her, and she was pretty sure that she had more experience anyway. But he always got to go to the big fights, while she was left behind.

Penny had been arguing with Tony about this for months, but she knew that in the middle of  fighting Doombots was not the time to bring it up. She would never disobey orders in the field (usually) anyway, so she bit in her sigh and went to help Reed cut off the Doombots trying to spread to the rest of the city.

Later that night, midway through Penny’s patrol, a fiery figure touched down on the roof beside her. She held back a sigh, crossing her arms to glare at the newcomer.

“What do you want?” She demanded. Johnny looked offended for a split second before slapping on a flirtatious smile.

“I can’t just check in on my favorite little Spider-Girl?” He asked with a wink, nudging her arm. She pulled away, glaring at him, even though he couldn’t see her expression through the mask. It still felt good. The flirting was another one of the things about Johnny that annoyed Penny to no end. Sure, he had a flirty personality, but she felt like he turned it up just for her, if only because he knew how much it annoyed her.

“I’m not your anything! And it’s ‘Spider-Woman’,” Penny argued. “What are you doing here?” She had a patrol to do, and didn’t want to get caught up in an argument with Johnny. His smile fell, and he bit his lip nervously. Penny squinted at him. Johnny Storm, nervous?

“I wanted to apologize for earlier today,” He started quietly, and Penny froze. 

“I didn’t mean to let that wall fall next to you, I’m really sorry.” He continued earnestly. Penny considered him. He seemed genuine, for the first time in the six months that she had known him.

“Apology accepted,” Penny eventually said, and he seemed to let out a sigh of relief. Just as Penny was about to swing away, he asked if he could patrol with her. The no, and the scoff that would come after it, were right on the tip of her tongue, but suddenly, inexplicably, Penny found herself saying yes.

---- 6 Months Later ----

“Johnny!” Penny yelled, a happy screech falling out of her mouth as said superhero grabbed her around the middle, lifting her up over his shoulder and off the couch. Her Mario Kart controller fell to the floor of the Stark Tower common room, but she hardly noticed. Johnny hadn’t been scheduled to get back from France for another three days, and had already been gone for almost two weeks. It was the longest he had been gone since they had become friends, and even though they texted every day, Penny still found herself missing him. Missing him a lot.

“Miss me, princess?” He asked her as she dangled upside down in his grip and he carried her across the room, depositing her on a different sofa before plopping down next to her.

“What the hell, you aren’t supposed to be back yet!” She hit him in the arm weakly, but he just grinned back at her, knowing that she was holding back her super strength and wasn’t really trying to hurt him.

“That’s the first thing you say to me?” He asked, smirking as he poked her in the side.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?” She demanded, even as she shoved him off the couch. 

“It was a surprise!” He held up his hands in supplication. “I thought you’d be happy to see me!” She threw a pillow at him, just for good measure, before sliding onto the floor next to him. She was about to shoot something back when she heard a throat clearing from the couch across the room, where she had originally been sitting. She noticed her game controller on the floor, and remembered that she had been mid Mario Kart race with Ned when Johnny had come in.

“I think I’m gonna go now,” Ned announced, trying (and failing) to hide his smile as he watched Johnny and Penny’s interaction. “I have… Um… Something to do.” Before Penny could object, Ned had grabbed his backpack and raced out the door to the elevator. Registering his words,  she blushed, avoiding looking at Johnny. If she had, she would have noticed that there was a light dusting of pink covering his cheeks as well.

“Ned thinks we’re secretly dating,” She blurted out, trying to ease the tension. She finally snuck a glance at Johnny, seated next to her, but all she could see was his signature carefree smile. It used to piss her off, but now she found it a little endearing. Sometimes.

“You wish we were secretly dating,” Johnny smirked, poking her again. And the tension broke and it was back to their normal teasing and banter.

---- 4 Months Later ----

“They’re like our children,” Tony said, gesturing to Penny and Johnny as the Avengers gathered at the table together, having a team dinner. “And we’re all their parents slash weird aunts and uncles!”

“You’d be more like the grandpa,” Rohdey said to him. “You're the one who spoils them!”

“What--,” Tony spluttered indignantly. “I’m not the grandpa here! I’m younger than you, platypus!” Penny and Johnny glanced at each other, sharing a grin before looking away, trying to hide it. Tony really did spoil them, although he was more like Penny’s cool uncle and mentor than her grandpa.

“Well Johnny and I have basically adopted Penny already, so you'd be more like their uncle,” Sue voiced thoughts similar to Penny’s. Penny pasted a smile on her face and laughed, pushing down the twinge of wrongness in her gut at the indication that she and Johnny were family. She didn’t want to be his sister, she wanted to be his… She shoved that thought away before it could get any farther, just as she had every time it popped up over the last two months. After Ned, Johnny was her best friend. And in some ways, maybe he did know her better than Ned. She loved Ned, but he didn’t understand the superhero side of her life like Johnny did. After they had gotten over their arguing, something between them had just clicked and they had become inseparable. Now, Penny didn’t want to do anything that could potentially ruin that. She was happy with their relationship as it was. Or at least that’s what she told herself. Constantly.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Penny tuned back into the conversation and enjoyed the rest of dinner with her team, with the people who she could essentially call her family.

That night, when there was a knock on her bedroom door, Penny expected it to be Tony. She frequently slept over at the tower, and she was staying there that night since May was on a work trip. The person she didn’t expect to see when she opened the door was Johnny, fidgeting nervously with the hem of his shirt while he ran his other hand through his hair.

Penny tried (and failed) to not track the progress of his fingers pushing through his blonde locks. She wondered how it would feel if she did that to him.

“Sorry, I missed that?” She asked nervously, a blush lighting up her cheeks and spreading to her neck when she realized Johnny had said something. She hoped he didn’t notice her staring. Johnny bit his lip, drawing her attention to it, but she quickly realized what she was doing and brought her gaze back up to his eyes as he spoke again.

“I said, can I come in? We need to talk.” Penny’s heart sped up as she stepped back, pulling the door wider so that he could step into the room. Johnny never asked to come in. He usually just pushed the door open and flopped over onto her bed without asking. 

Her pulse gave another flutter as the door clicked shut behind him and he sat down on the edge of her bed. Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, she took in a calming breathe and willed herself to stop overreacting. It was just Johnny. They were best friends. They had been in each other’s rooms plenty of times before.

But not with that look in his eyes, a traitorous voice in the back of her head pointed out. And not with that feeling in your heart. Penny forced herself to smile and flopped down on the bed next to the Human Torch.

“ So what’s up?” She asked casually. She noticed that Johnny sat as stiff as a board, staring straight ahead as if he couldn’t stand to look at her.

“Johnny? Are you okay?” He exhaled in a puff, and Penny saw the faintest flicker of fire disappear from his fingertips as he clenched his hands. That set off alarm bells. Johnny had a really good grasp on his powers, and she had only seen him lose control a couple of times in all the time she had known him, had fought with him. Something had to be really wrong.

“Torchie, did something happen? Are you okay? Is everyone else okay?” She asked urgently, putting a hand on his arm, and his eyes snapped to meet hers.

“No one’s hurt, or anything,” He reassured her. “Sorry. But, I have something I need to tell you.” Penny’s eyes widened. What could he have to tell her that could make him this nervous?

“I…” He started before trailing off. “Shit, I don’t know how to say this. I… I like you.” She stared at him, the words not registering. Seeing her blank expression, Johnny hurried to continue.

“Like, I like you as more than friends, but you don’t have to like me back, it’s fine, I can stop, I just thought it was unfair to not tell you, because I don’t want to be this creepy older guy crushing on you, and---” Penny squeezed his arm, the one that was still enclosed in her grip, and he fell silent, staring at her. Penny took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts.

“First, you're not a creepy old guy. You're only, like, a year and a half older than me. Second,” Here Penny paused, not knowing how to say it either. Johnny’s eyes were wide, hopeful, so Penny just blurted it out just like he did.

“I like you too. Romantically, I mean.” And then then his hand was on her jaw, and hers were in his hair, and their lips smashed desperately together, and Penny just knew that this felt so right , so much better than just best friends.

Shifting to get a better angle, Penny pulled both legs up onto the bed so she was fully facing Johnny. One of her hands trailed down from his hair, fisting in his shirt, as one of his trailed over her side and fitted to her waist. After an eternal minute, they broke apart, resting their foreheads together and just breathing .

“I don’t think most people have their first kiss together in bed,” Penny whispered. Johnny’s eyes widened and he was silent for a split second, and they both broke into giggles. It was just like always, except this time it was better. Because this time there were no omissions, just the two of them with a kiss lingering between them.

Chapter Text

“I’m home!” Penny called to the empty penthouse, slinging her backpack off her shoulders and dumping it into her room before heading towards the kitchen. Digging through the cabinets, she glanced around furtively before grabbing a strawberry poptart out of a box with Thor’s name scrawled on the side in metallic sharpie. She knew that Clint stole them all the time, so Thor probably wouldn’t miss a single one taken. Plus Thor liked her, so even if he noticed he probably wouldn't mind. Traipsing over to the table where she had deposited her laptop, she opened it and pulled up some of her homework.

Almost an hour later, she was so absorbed in her essay she didn’t notice someone creeping up behind her.

“Pen!” A pair of strong arms wrapped around her from behind, and Penny jumped in her seat.

“Johnny!” She screeched, leaning back to look at him. “I can’t believe my spidey sense doesn’t work on you anymore,” She mumbled with a glare.

“Mmff,” Johnny mumbled, pushing his face into her neck. “I guess it just knows that I don’t pose a threat.” She could feel his breath ghosting across her cheek and neck and held back a shiver.

“I already know that you're not a threat,” Penny whispered before turning her face up so that their lips just barely brushed. Sliding a hand into his silky, styled hair, she pulled his head down so they could properly kiss.

“This is a really awkward neck angle,” Johnny murmured, and Penny giggled as he broke away. “Wanna go watch a movie?” There was a certain glint in his eye as he asked, and Penny knew from experience what he was really asking. 

“Star Wars?” She shot back, smirking. Johnny groaned, leaning back.

“Do we have to?”

“If you want to get me to the couch,” She stated smugly.

“Fine,” Johnny grumbled, doing a bad job at hiding his grin. Grabbing Johnny’s outstretched hand, Penny pulled them to the living room.

“FRIDAY, play the Empire Strikes Back, please.”

“Certainly, Mini Boss,” FRIDAY pulled up the movie, starting it for them.

“Since when are you ‘Mini Boss’?” Johnny questioned.

“Since two days ago,” Penny said with a grin. “I changed it as a joke, and Tony never changed it back.” Johnny chuckled, and they plopped down on the couch, snuggling into each other. Only a couple minutes into the movie, Penny felt Johnny shifting beside her.

“Are we really gonna watch the movie?” he drawled. “I had some other ideas.” Penny slid her gaze to him, looking up at him through her lashes. Even sitting down, he was several inches taller than her.

“What kinds of ideas?” It came out a little breathlessly, but before she even had time to blush Johnny’s lips were pressing into hers, and his hands were in her hair, and she was gripping his tee shirt in white-knuckled hands as they kissed to the sounds of Star Wars.

After a few minutes, Penny ended up with her back pressed into the couch, Johnny hovering over her as they kissed fervently. It was the farthest they had gotten so far on the physical side of their relationship in the month they had been dating. Penny was enjoying it immensely.

Too preoccupied with Johnny above her, Penny didn’t hear the ding of the elevator opening.

“Johnny Storm!” Yelled a shocked voice, and they froze mid kiss, Penny moving a half second later to shove Johnny off of her and sit up. “You can’t just bring random girls up here– Penny!” Hope van Dyne stood in dumbfounded silence, taking in her messy hair, swollen lips, and wrinkled shirt. Staring at the space above her left shoulder, Penny felt her cheeks light up as she waited for the older hero to say something.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Johnny yelped. He had finally climbed off the floor from where she had pushed him. Hope raised a doubtful eyebrow.

“What do you think this,” She waved a hand towards them, “Looks like?” Johnny gulped.

“I… I promise I’m not taking advantage of her or something! We’ve been dating for a while!” There was a note of guilt in his voice, and Penny could see that Hope picked up on it. Penny furrowed her brow. Why was Johnny guilty? Was it just about them getting caught together?

Hope folded her arms across her chest, considering them. Penny shifted uncomfortably, feeling like Hope could see every thought she had.

“We’ve been dating for a month!” Penny blurted out. “I haven’t told anyone other than my friends, because I know that basically all of you will disapprove, but I think May would be happy because she knows that I’ve been dating someone but she doesnt know it’s Johnny and I really don’t want all of you to hate him or something or not let one of us fight together or something like that and I really don’t want to make it a big deal, but I know Tony would freak out if I told him so please don't tell Tony! Or anyone else!” Johnny’s lips were twitching upwards at her word vomit, and Hope was looking at her with something like sympathy.

“I won’t tell anyone, if that's what you’re worried about,” she told them, and Penny relaxed incrementally. “But, coming from an adult, you shouldn’t be keeping this from people like Tony and May, especially. Does Sue know?” Johnny shook his head.

“I was going to tell her soon…” he trailed off. Penny could see the warring emotions crossing his face, and resolved herself to talk to him about it as soon as they were done talking to Hope. If he didn’t want to keep their relationship a secret anymore… Well, she didn’t want to be responsible for the guilt hidden behind his eyes.

Giving the watch on her wrist a quick glance, Hope looked back to them.

“The rest of the team will be back up here soon, so you might want to do something,” She announced before heading to the kitchen. Glancing at each other, they made the unanimous decision to go to Penny’s room. At the sound of the elevator, they both jumped up and ran to her room, shutting and locking the door behind them.

“God, that was embarrassing!” Penny groaned, flopping face-down on her bed. Johnny jumped up next to her, grabbing her hand.

“Yup,” He agreed. Propping her head up with her chin in her hand, Penny surveyed him.

“Do you feel guilty for not telling Sue?” she straight up asked him, deciding it was better than beating around the bush. Johnny sighed.

“Kinda. I mean, it’s not any of her business, but I feel like I’m hiding something from her. Which obviously I am, we’re hiding it from everyone, but it feels different with her.” he idly traced the lines of her palm with his pinky, and flopped forward, brushing a kiss across the tip of his nose.

“You should tell her. And I’ll tell May.” Johnny’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“It’s as good a place to start as any,”  Penny shrugged. “I kinda feel the same about May, even though she already half knows.” A few minutes passed in silence before Penny voiced the other thing that was bothering her after their conversation with Hope.

“Do you feel like you're taking advantage of me? Because I’m a little younger?” Johnny squeezed his eyes shut before letting out his breath in a whoosh.

“I mean… Yeah. Sometimes.” Gently pulling on his arm, Penny pulled him to a sitting position so they were sitting face to face.

“I’m only a year and a half younger than you,” She reminded him. “This was my choice as much as it was yours.”

“That’s not what Tony will think.” Johnny stated despondently. Leaning forward to wrap her arms around him, Penny leaned her head into his shoulder.

“I know,” she murmured. “That’s why I haven’t told him yet. But I can convince him.”

Chapter Text

Penny was working in the lab with Tony when it happened. It had been about two weeks since she and Johnny told May and Sue about their relationship, and they had taken it so well that Penny was seriously considering how to tell Tony.

“Hey Pen, pass me that wrench, will you?” Tony asked from below an iron man suit.

“Got it,” she replied, reaching over the table she was working at and handing it to him. She leaned back over her project, intent on her work, and hardly noticed her hair swinging back over her shoulder.

After one final adjustment to the suit, Tony stood up and walked over to her.

“Wanna go eat some…” he trailed off, and Penny looked up from her work. He was staring at her. More specifically, at her bare neck.

Quickly smoothing her hair forward, even though there was no way Tony could have missed the giant bruise on her neck, Penny propped an elbow up on the worktable nonchalantly.

“Lunch? Lunch sounds like a good idea! Let’s go eat--” But Tony cut her off.

“Is that a hickey?” He asked incredulously.

“What?” Penny forced out a nervous chuckle, and her face flamed bright red as she spoke. “What hickey? I don’t know what you're talking about!” Tony leveled her with an amused glare.

“I know what a hickey looks like, Penny.”

“It’s not a hickey! It’s… Um… Last night, a… uh… Bird! A bird flew into me while I was on patrol! And it left a bruise… And then the bird fell… But I caught it! So the bird was fine! And I’m fine! Except the bruise because it’s just a bruise and not a hickey!”

“Penny, you heal too fast. That bruise would have been long gone by now.” Thanks to the spider bite, Penny had advanced healing to rival Captain America’s. That healing also applied to bruises. And hickeys. If she had gotten it last night, like Tony thought, it would have healed by now. Instead, she had gotten it when she and Johnny had made out in an empty conference room on the Avengers floor a few hours before. She saw the realization crash through Tony’s eyes, and they widened.

“Penny… Your bruises usually heal within a few hours.” She nodded miserably, knowing it was a rhetorical question as Tony worked it out for himself.

“And that’s definitely a hickey…” She could see him mentally scrolling through all the Avengers, all the people at the tower remotely close to her age who she could have made out with that morning. His eyes widened even more.

“You and Harley?” Tony sounded flabbergasted. What? He thought that she and Harley… She had two options. Tell Tony she was dating Harley, somehow convince Harley to go along with it, and get herself into a shitload of trouble. Or she could just tell him about Johnny, possibly risk a whole different shitload of trouble.

“It’s not Harley,” she told him, and his brow furrowed.

“Then who…? Johnny ?” His shocked tone was not at all surprising, and she nodded.

“So, I’ve been meaning to tell you, and I didn’t really know how to do it, but Johnny and I have been dating for almost two months. And I knew you probably wouldn’t like it, because you don’t like him, but we’ve been friends for a long time and I really like him and he’s a really good person. And a really good boyfriend. So… That’s it.” Having said it out loud, to Tony, Penny found herself able to let out a breath of relief. But, she still hadn’t gotten his reaction.

To her surprise, Tony just collapsed down into a chair and ran a hand across his face.

“Kid, I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t hate Johnny,” he hurried to put in as she opened her mouth to say something. “I just… Sometimes, I feel like he acts like me. Like how I used to be. And that scares me, a bit.” he admitted. “I don’t know him well, and I know that you two were good friends, but… Is he really a good boyfriend?” In any other situation, Penny would have thought he was joking, but he was looking at her with such sincerity and worry that it sent a warm feeling though her chest. If someone had told her three years ago that Tony Stark, a billionaire and superhero, would care about her that much she would have laughed in their face.

“He’s an amazing boyfriend.” She smiled at him, and Tony seemed to relax incrementally. 

“Isn’t he like, three years older than you?” he challenged. That was the part penny had been expecting.

“NO! He’s only a year and a half older. He’s seventeen, I’m sixteen. So he’d be a year ahead of me in school. If he went to an actual school.” Penny still went to Midtown Tech, even while living part time with the Avengers, but Johnny was homeschooled by Sue and Reed. Tony gave her another appraising look, and Penny shifted nervously.

“So… Are you okay with it?” She asked.

“Are you happy with him?” Penny nodded energetically.

“Then I’m happy for you. Just please don’t act like gross horny teenagers in front of me.” Penny felt her face heat, even as a smile spread across her face.

“Do you mind if I go tell him?” Tony grinned.

“I’m pretty sure he’s off fighting robots right now,” he said “But you can tell him when he gets back.” Jumping forward, Penny wrapped her arms around her mentor in a hug as he awkwardly patted her on the back.

“I’m so glad you're okay with it! I can’t wait to tell him! And we can tell the rest of the Avengers about us now too!” Skipping gleefully out of the lab, Penny pulled out her phone, racing to text Johnny, and then Ned and MJ about the conversation she just had.

Looking fondly after her, Tony turned to the ceiling.

“FRIDAY, create a new video clip folder and name it ‘Spideytorch’. I think we’re going to be needing it.” Tony made several notes to record the other Avengers reactions to the teens’ relationship and save them in the folder, as well as to save cute moments between the young superheroes when he found them. Then, just to be safe, he pulled up another background check on Johnny Storm. He had double and triple checked everyone before they were invited to the Avengers, but now that Tony knew he was dating the kid (his kid, a little voice in the back of his mind said) he just wanted to double check.

He didn’t find anything concerning. In fact, he was reassured that Johnny would actually be a great boyfriend to Penny, if only from the sheer number of videos he could find on YouTube of Johnny pulling cats out of trees from all around New York. Tony already knew that they worked as friends, but maybe them dating could be even better.