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Johnny had many things hanging on the walls of his humble ( not ) abode. Band posters littered the far wall, a T-shirt signed by Captain America was next to his door, and so on. The thing he was most proud of? A small 5 X 7 frame over the head of his bed that housed a slightly fuzzy image of him smiling next to a partially masked Spider-Man, his arm draped over the smaller teens shoulders pulling them closer together, as they sat atop the Statue of Liberty.
He couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride when he took a glance toward the photo or the bubbles in his stomach at the bright smile permanently plastered across Spidey’s lips. Every now and then, if he was feeling down or alone, he would take the item off the wall and simply hug it to his chest as he slept. To some it might seem strange but now, it was as close as he could get to the real thing.
After Spider-Man’s disappearance 2 months ago, following the death of Gwen Stacy, Johnny has been holding onto the small photo like his life depended on it. Reed would give him a smile if he saw him with the object. Sue would hug him and tell him ‘He’ll come back one day’. Ben would chuckle and pat him on the shoulder. Val and Franklin might spare him a glance but mostly left the subject alone.
It’s not that he didn’t appreciate the support, he really did, but none of them understood what he was going through. They didn’t know Spidey like he had. If you asked, Johnny would say that Spider-Man was his only real friend and now he was just gone without a word.
Johnny let out a light sigh as he deposited the photo back in its rightful place. He was preparing himself to go out on a short fly just to let off some steam but Reed poked his head into the room before he could make it to the window.
“You might wanna see this,” he said with a light smile to which Johnny returned only confused stare.
“What is it?”
“Just come look.”
“...I ask you to put your mechanized paws in the air,” was the first thing Johnny heard when he entered the common room, his eyes lit up immediately.
“He’s back?”
“Two minutes ago was the first sighting in almost 8 months,” Johnny only smiled before running off in the direction of a window.
“Oh my god I missed you so much never leave me again you idiot. Please, please, please never leave me alone like that again,” Torch spewed as he held onto his companion with a strength he didn’t know he had.
Spidey stood for a moment, shocked, as he processed the words coming out of Johnny’s mouth. After a moment he slowly returned the gesture by lightly wrapping his arms just below the other hero’s ribs and spoke:
“I won’t.”