Chapter Text
This story will not be completley comic-accuarate, it's just made up, for fun! 🫶🤗
Part 1 - Sue and Reeds first meeting.
Sue saw him for the fist time in a lecture hall at the university. She had been late to class, juggling textbooks, a laptop, and a notebook filled with sketches for an engineering project. The students around her whispered excitedly as the guest lecturer began.
Reed Richards.
He seemed young. Twenty-nine, he told the class later, thats young for the kind of reputation he carried, with his glasses perched low on his nose and a presence of somehow who made the room fall quiet without raising his voice.
He spoke about propulsion systems, orbital trajectories, the subtle elegance of microgravity, and the nuances of materials under stress in ways that were almost poetic.
Sue sat at the back, fascinated not just by the science, but by the way he connected equations to reality. Why had she never heard of this intresting man before.
After class, as the room emptied, she lingered, gathering courage.
“Excuse me,” she said, approaching him, heart thudding. “I… wanted to ask about the material strength in low orbit you mentioned. I’m not sure I fully understood the stress tolerance model you used.”
Reed looked at her, adjusting his glasses. “Ah, yes. It’s a common question. The model assumes uniform load distribution across the struts, but in microgravity, vibration and torsion forces dominate. You’re thinking along the right lines, though.”
Sue nodded, impressed. “It’s just… I never thought about stress that way. You make it sound almost alive.”
Reed’s eyes softened slightly. “It is. You just have to know how to read it.”
They talked for nearly an hour, discussing propulsion, materials, the intricacies of spacecraft design. Sue didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want the conversation to end. When they finally parted that afternoon, he gave her a small smile.
“I’ll be giving another seminar next week. If you want, we can go over some calculations in more detail.”
Sue’s heart skipped. “I’d like that."
"What was your name, again?" Reed asked.
"Susan. My friends call me Sue, Storm."
"Pleasure to meet you, Sue Strom."
A few weeks later the young professor Reed asked the even younger student Sue, out on a date.
The first date was quiet, deliberately unhurried. They went to a small café near campus. Reed arrived on time, with his usual composed, slightly distracted demeanor, carrying his notebook tucked under one arm.
Sue stirred her coffee, trying to calm the nervous swirl in her stomach. Finally, she said,
“There’s something I should tell you..”
Reed tilted his head. “I’m listening.”
Sue took a deep breath. “It’s… complicated. I’m not just a student trying to figure out my life. I’m basically raising my little brother. Our parents.."
Sue stilled for a moment taking a breath.
"Our mother passed a long time ago and well.. things were hard." Sue sighed. "My dad… he couldn’t handle it. So I moved out when I was eighteen. Dad.. he completley lost it to alcohol and gambling and... Earlier this year I took my brother, Johnny, in with me.. He's just turned thirteen.” She paused, searching Reed’s face. “I understand if… this is too much. If you don’t want to see me because of it.”
Reed reached across the table, placing his hand lightly over hers. His gaze was calm, steady. “Sue… I don’t see complications. I see life. And you’ve been taking care of someone else with incredible courage. That doesn’t scare me. It… impresses me.”
Sue’s chest tightened. “You’re not just saying that?”
“No,” Reed said quietly. “I want to keep seeing you. If you’ll let me.”
Her lips curved into a small smile, relief flooding through her. “I… I think I’d like that.”
And so they did.
In that moment, Sue realized something she hadn’t allowed herself to even hope for in years: that she could have someone who understood, who didn’t shy away from her responsibilities, who could be steady when her world was chaotic.
Reed, for his part, realized that he didn’t just want to teach her about space and science, he wanted to be with her, to be part of her life, no matter how complicated it was.
And that was the start of something neither of them could have ever emagined.