Opposites ➤ Johnny Storm

Chapter Twenty One

Warning: small and fluffy

Johnny was definitely right about getting a drink. Or several as I was planning.

Seeing Doom again brought back memories of that night when he electrocuted me. That was more pain than I ever thought was possible to endure. And despite being the good guy, I wanted nothing more than to cause him at least a fraction of that pain.

But instead, I sat with my brother and my best friend in a slightly cheap bar as we tried to forget the impossible fact that not only was he alive, but he was now our 'ally'.

"How can we be working on the same side as Victor?" I watched Johnny miss the bulls-eye as he asked the question we all had on our minds. Considering it wasn't too long ago the man tried to kill us, and basically the rest of New York, this was very confusing.

"You got me. Things were simpler when I could just whale on the guy."

"It's like everyone is forgetting that he almost blew up Johnny and he tried to barbecue me! Do have any idea what it's like to be shot by lightning when you are almost 100% water? It hurts. A lot! We're lucky it didn't kill me."

Johnny's next dart was swallowed in flames at it hit the middle of the board. I quickly put it out as he apologized to the man behind the bar before dropping himself in a chair. "I'm starting to feel like a complete screw-up."

I frowned as I looked for words to offer him, but Ben beat me to it with a fairly simple sentiment. "Hey, you're not a complete screw-up."

"Thank you." He didn't sound fully convinced as his gaze met mine. I knew he was trying to say something to me, but couldn't in front of Ben. How had I let get so messed up that I couldn't understand what was trying to tell me? We never used to need to say things out loud to talk.

I felt the guilt of kissing him and making things worse fill me, but then I remembered what he said. He told me he didn't regret it. Between his words and the warm feeling they caused in my stomach, I became even more confused than before. So I decided to ignore it and focus on the more pressing issues.

"Look, kid, it's out of our hands. It's up to the eggheads now." Normally I would have been one of those eggheads, but not with Von Doom in the lab. We had enough problems on our hands without me ticking off the Army for harming their precious little sociopath.

"You think Reed's right about the whole end-of-the-world thing?"

Now that wasn't really what I wanted to think about, but the end of the world was still preferable to the confusing dramatics of me and Johnny. Firstly if there was a me and Johnny or if was just me and Johnny. Now even I'm confusing me! So until I get some answers on that front, definitely prefer the thoughts of Armageddon.

"He's never been wrong about this kind of thing before." Of course I didn't say that was the reason I was terrified of what was to come. Nothing like impending doom to make you wish for your friends to be losing their minds instead of being right.

"You know, I'm not exactly a deep kind of guy."

"Really?"

"But if Reed's right, and this is it how do you want to spend your last few minutes?"

That was a good question. One I haven't really thought about before. I'll admit I've thought about dying a lot more after I gained my powers, but not about how I want to spend the time before. I once again thought about when Doom hit me with his powers. A bit higher voltage on his shot and I might not have made it. I hadn't thought I was dying at the time, my mind was somewhere else.

Johnny.

I thought the missile had killed him and that was all I was able to think about. The pain in my body was nothing compared to the pain of losing him. It was so overwhelming I didn't think about what could happen to me.

"Part of me would like to go out fighting. But the truth is I'd like to spend my last couple of minutes holding Alicia." A sweet smile graced my face, seeing how much he loves her always made me happy. As his sister, I liked to know he had something real. And it was something I envied with all of my heart.

Since he was the one to ask the question, we both turned to Johnny to hear his response. "That sounds pretty good. I mean, not the 'holding Alicia' thing. She's your girlfriend, not mine. Want nothing to do with her. Not to say she's not attractive. She's very attractive. She's so attractive. Even with the-I can't think of a guy that wouldn't want to-What I meant...was that it's nice to have somebody." His gaze had moved from Ben to me as he'd rambled on.

Even as Ben put his hand on Johnny's shoulder and spoke to him, his eyes never left mine. And it actually sent shivers down my spine. "Well you got me, pal. How about you, Rory?"

"Having someone sounds nice."