This is a closed RP account for Dr Reed Richards. Active but limited to select accounts. Please send me an ask if you have any questions. Will contain NSFW material.
An insight into Reed Richards’ cell structure. For someone who has studied microbiology, this must be a fascinating insight - to me, it is even more fascinating from the physics point of view, taking into account the elasticity his cells show. (Marvel has done a really good job promoting the new Fantastic Four movie.)
So what we have here is a scenario where a man finds himself all alone on a space station with just his wife for company. Should we call the Inhumans … Tell them we’ll be a bit late?
OOC: I usually don't put any disclaimers or anything before a drabble but with this one and some of the more...well explicit ones I will. This is porn-y and very weird porn at that. The basic premise is in seeking a solution to Reed's injury he sustained roughly a year ago, Reed and Susan undergo a transformation into cosmic 'beasts' of a sort after exposing themselves to a high dose of radiation.. While the effect is temporary, it does leave some traits behind. Including Sue becoming Oviparous and Reed basically becoming somewhat Piscine in nature. The thread for this story is not yet written.
I am aware I'm placing the the cart roughly 26.79km in front of the horse but my queen asked for it and I'm more than happy to oblige.
Usually Reed had an open door policy for his lab; even when Johnny had lived in the Baxter Building, the floor was open and access was granted to all Reed trusted. So it surprised him when Sue came in and closed the doors, looking somewhat pensive. Reed looked up from his desk.
“Is something wrong?”
Reed’s brow furrowed in confusion and concern. Both of them had undergone an extensive transmutation and reversion*. Sue must have seen the expression on his face and smiled.
“it’s nothing like that. Just something unusual and I wanted to er..ask you if you were aware of anything…that’s changed. Since the higher mutations.”
Reed raised an eyebrow.
“Well. Remained the same since we reverted back to a homo superior form.”
Sue crossed her legs as she perched on the edge of Reed’s desk, smiling sweetly. Reed’s eyes widened and he made a small ‘oh’ sound.
“Well yes. I have. The um. Vent. As well as the pouch I believe from the scans you took from a few weeks ago. Did you…also?”
Sue smiled and rolled her shoulders.
“I did. The ovipositor. And the eggs. I…we will certainly tell Clint about this, but I think getting a handle on our new bodies might be a good idea first. “ Sue stroked Reed’s face, joy at the sight of Reed feeling happy and no longer plagued by pain. While her feelings about changing once again were complex, she would always be by Reed’s side. As would Clint, even if he was not here with them.
Reed leaned into her hand, before kissing it, eyes closed. The two of them lent across the desk, hands stroking dan each other’s faces, entwined when -
CRASH
Hopefully that wasn’t anything too important.
Sue shrugged and Reed laughed before he untangled himself to go and clean up the glass and liquid; an inert formula. One of the little cleaning robots he kept zipped over and finished up.
“As much as a power fantasy it is to have sex in your laboratory, I think it’s best to move this to the bedroom, don’t you think?”
Reed looked up from where he was airing out some hand written notes and placed them back on the now clean desk. A wolfish grin on his face; the mishap hardly dampening his enthusiasm.
The pair playfully nipped at each others necks and tugged at clothes until they made it back to their jointly shared bedroom; the space now larger and more airy since it was now occupied by three people most of the time.
Reed was breathless when he was pushed back into the mattress, his hands wandering all over Susan’s body, committing it to memory almost feverish, relishing the sensation of his right hand re-mapping every curve and dip. Sue panted and rocked her hips against Reed’s thigh. While previously arousal made her feel hungry for contact and touch, now she felt full, itching to release. It was an alien sensation, one that excited her and filled her with unknown, hard to define emotions. Grief, perhaps, not entirely dissimilar from when she first got her powers. An old life ending and a new one beginning.
She sighed and pushed away any thoughts, only wanting to live in the moment. They were kissing, Reed skilfully unbuttoning and unclipping clothing while Sue’s curiosity regarding biology got the forefront of her attention, tugging down briefs and running a hand along an inner thigh, before tracing a finger over the unusual Y shaped slit between Reed’s legs, neatly following the line of the perineum. Eying the cute little paunch he had above his groin and smiling. It was strange, but it suited him. Maybe he just flowed better with the change. She was beginning to accept it more, the more aware she became.
Reed’s hand wavered against her hip, before she took his hand and guided it towards her clitoris, one finger gently stroking it before trailing down towards where her ovipositor rested, partially unsheathed from where her vulva and vagina had been. A breath she hadn’t known she had been holding was let out when Reed excitedly and reverently touched the tip of it, whispering in amazement and adoration.
It was like a bubble had been popped and doubt that these changes would push them apart faded.
“I’m sure Clint would share my enthusiasm as well. I love you. Mae gen i chi Beautiful woman, feathers, no feathers, no matter how you are. I love you. My manon. Queen.”
A rush of heat and the fullness intensified. Her tongue stumbled on the tongue of his birthplace but the feeling was there, so radiant and bright.
“..Rwyf wrth…. fy modd i chi.”
Both embraced tightly, stroking each others hair, taking a moment to worship the other’s presence. Sue lent in and whispered into Reed’s ear.
“Perhaps I could lay inside you. Would you like that? Me taking you, filling you. Making you…brood. I’m beginning to think that little pouch of yours was no whim of biology.”
Reed gasped; his penis twitching, the suggestion arousing him. What would it feel like? To have something pushed into him, left behind, different from anything he had, they had experienced while human. The unknown had always excited Reed, kept him mind open both professionally and personally.
Just didn’t foresee anything like this. But in the end, it didn’t really change anything. He was himself as was Sue herself, no matter what changed they would be true to themselves; a lesson learnt through upheaval, change and love.
“I ..I would like that very much.”
Sue smiled and traced his nose before her hands wandered down his chest, playing with the thin, sparse layer of hair before teasing his erection. His hands were questing as well, deft fingers curling around nipples, before tracing the curve of her spine and squeezing her rump, kneading it.
Sue slapped his thigh in retaliation, gently pushing his legs apart so she could stroke and play with his vent, thumbing along the Y shape and teasing it to relax so one finger could slide in. Sue had to stop for a moment as one of Reed’s hands had stretched around and was curled around her ovipositor, stroking it and exploring it’s shape. Gently squeezing and probing, tracing around one egg that had slid down to the base of it. It had fully extended, it’s shape almost phallus like, except for a pronged tip, and a large vent to lay the eggs her body now produced; soft membrane covered ones. While both of them certainly had their theories regarding the compatibility of their new sexual organs, it was still a mystery how they served from a reproductive standpoint. While they had investigated from a medical standpoint, there was still a great deal of exploration to be done. Perhaps afterwards they could compare notes.
It wouldn’t be the first time they talked science, post-coitus.
As much as Reed didn’t really require foreplay given his pliable body, he did enjoy it, Sue smiling as he grew more flustered with each finger she slid into him, feeling around the smooth walls, enjoying the texture of pre-come sliding past her fingers. It was even more enjoyable to listen to him try and shutter out his observations.
“Do..Ah….you think..”
Whatever Reed had intended to say trailed off as Susan found a partially sensitive spot. Reed ached his back, panting and curling his toes, spreading his hips wider. Gods, the sight of him undone drove her wild. Sue pushed his hand away from her ovipositor, cooing him to relax.
Sue momentarily found herself to be at a loss for what to do; she had pegged Reed and Clint many times with a kinetic forcefield but not with a part of her physical body.
“Let me know if this is uncomfortable, we are both in..unknown territory.”
Reed reached up with one hand to rub her shoulder in assurance and comfort. Then gasped, mostly in surprise from the sensation of Sue sliding into him; into a orifice that hadn’t existed until recently. It didn’t hurt, it was just so sensitive, new, brimming with sensation. A fullness that felt primal, it reminded him of his time as a great serpent, the form he’d changed into when he and Susan had experimented with regenerating his arm. He felt hesitation and grabbed Sue’s hand, pressed into the bed and held it, assuring her it was fine, it right, it felt amazing.
Sue panted and held still, fully sheathed inside Reed. gasping at the heat, the tightness, all things she hadn’t really felt until this moment. It felt amazing, a strange sensation that send thrills down her spine and heated her core.
Move
Rocking her hips, she settled into a slow movement, shivering as she felt the utterly bizarre and amazing sensation of the eggs she held inside her body pushing down the length of her pseudo-phallus. Could her husband feel that as well?
“Yes, oh..it feels uh so good.”
Maybe that was a rhetorical question but Reed was so pleasure addled he thought to answer it anyway. His penis was taut and twitching, smearing pre-come along his belly while he felt his very insides heat and twist like a coil.
“Harder, please. More.”
Sue bent forward, bucking her hips harder, rubbing her clitoris along any part of Reed that was pressed to her, feeling as if a floodgate was ready to burst. A surge rushed through her climaxing with a mighty push, tipping her over the edge, arching her spine as she pinned Reed’s hips in place until she was completed. The overbearing fullness faded to a deep satisfaction, a primal urge sated.
Reed moaned, deep and loud at the rush of fluid, feeling the solid push of several eggs being laid within him, nestled beside each other. He was pinned in place, swamped by the feeling of a dual orgasm, vent twitching and tightening around Sue while his penis jerked and spilled over his lower torso. Then relaxed, going limp as he succumbed to over-stimulation.
Sue let out an amused huff, shaking and skin gleaming with sweat. Trembling with exertion, she lay down next to Reed and waited for him to come to.
Pain was one of those senses that no matter who the person was or their particular tolerances, it grated on them. Especially if it was prolonged and chronic.
How people dealt with it was also subjective. A mixture of personality, environment, duration and a thousand other tiny elements that came together to either make pain tolerable or a miserable slog to get through the day.
Clint was having one of the latter kind of days. If he wasn’t in so much pain, he’d be grateful today was a quiet day as far as disasters go and that he lived with people that weren’t the kind to enforce exercise or any sort of routine on him. Which meant he could wallow in misery and wiggle across his comfortable bed in an attempt to get some relief.
It was his damn leg. He’s had gnawed it off some time ago if he wasn’t so attached to it, in both a literal and figurative sense.
That didn’t stop him thinking about it.
For a while he kind of enjoyed being left alone; he didn’t deal well with people seeing him so openly in pain and miserable but as the hours passed and relief was not forthcoming, he felt kind of crappy. Shitty. Alone. Irrationally bitter. He would have gotten up and sulked and pouted in the laboratory if he could get that far. The thought making him more sour and turning to self despair; what good was he to anyone like this?
Clint wrinkled his nose in disgust as tears rolled down his face and into his ears.
It wasn’t until he rolled onto his side, that he noticed a glove clad hand waving at him. Or signing to be precise. Long fingers curled into a series of gestures.
I’ll be there in a minute. Sorry, I got caught up in work.
Either Reed had suddenly developed telepathy or his sense of timing had gone from terrible to uncanny. Clint cracked a watery smile. No doubt Reed had thought his head stretched out on his neck from the lab would be a bit off-putting. For someone supposedly with his head stuck up his ass [if you cited newspapers] he was very considerate. Clint could hardly be mad he hadn’t checked in on him earlier; he was busy, in his own way as well. He was with it enough he would have messaged if something was wrong. Well. Wrong Wrong at least.
Reed appeared in the doorway of his room, smiling softly before coming to sit on the edge of the bed, one hand reaching out in silent permission to comfort him, fingers gently brushing against Clint’s arm.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Clint’s voice was hoarse, but already the pain seemed to grip less on his attention.
“What can I do to help? I’m sorry I wasn’t around earlier.” Reed wanted to say more, but wouldn’t have helped, questioning the whys or should haves wouldn’t really help. It was would he could do, that mattered.
Clint shrugged non-committedly, he couldn’t really think or suggest anything.
“Pain Patch? We have a few? Heat?”
Clint nodded at that, biting down on the knuckle of his left hand to distract himself while Reed headed towards the ‘stash’ Susan kept around to treat both of them; Reed despite healing well still had problems with his amputated arm and Clint was a walking pain sponge. Reed came back with a bottle of water, setting it down on the nightstand while rubbing Clint’s hip, gesturing him to pull him his shirt so he could apply the pain patch to his lower back.
“I can’t get this thing out of the packet and hold it up, sorry.”
Reed grunted as he said that, fiddling with the seal until he morphed his pinkie finger into a scythe and tore it open. Then stuck the patch one, finger running over it to ensure it was smooth and flush.
Reed reached up to Clint’s shoulder and gently squeezed it, both in comfort and also so he could use his tactile abilities to see where most of the muscular pain was situated. Bad day. An uneasy feeling settled in his gut that he hadn’t noticed it easier.
“You up for some relaxation? Cuddle? I’m running fairly hot and you look exhausted.” Reed mused while stroking down Clint’s face, wiping away the still wet tear tracks.
The archer nodded, not really feeling up to talking or moving, but the idea of getting some sleep, being warm and chasing away the gnawing pain was welcome. That bitter ache in his chest had faded, filled with gratitude and thankfulness he was with people he loved, not alone in his former apartment, which felt too big and empty for him.
Reed squeezed in next to him, flush against his back, curling him into a tight, liquid embrace, the one arm coiling around and spreading warmth and heat everywhere. It was like being wrapped in a warm blanket or the feeling of drinking hot, fresh coffee. The fact that Reed was taller than him by default only helped with the cocoon-like sensation, Reed resting his chin just above his hair, the nest of pillows Clint usually slept with nestled around both their heads, supporting Clint’s arm and too sore hip.
It didn’t take long for both of them to fall asleep.
It was hours when Clint blearily woke up, going by the slightly blurred numbers on his nightstand clock. He was still exhausted but the hours of being wrapped up in warmth had knocked the pain down from unbearable to tolerable. More than tolerable, given that the crotch of his lounge pants had gotten a bit tighter. He couldn’t really complain, he was still coasting the euphoria of his pain easing. Rocking back his hips experimentally, he found out he wasn’t the only one sporting an erection.
Damn. If only he had more energy he’d be all over Reed like a rash right now.
Speaking of the scientist, Reed shifted beside him, and yawned before quipping tiredly:
“I assume you are feeling better then?”
“Much.”
Clint kissed the underside of Reed’s jaw, before wiggling back into the still warm safe space Reed had created, lazily shifting his hips against Reed’s, letting out a huff of pleasure when Reed’s hand uncoiled itself from his shoulders and stroked down his chest, fingers slowly working their way south.
Reed laughed and shifted away from Clint’s back and side.
“You look more like a puddle than I usually do.” Clint grunted at that and Reed was sure he’d have gotten a pillow to the face for that if the archer wasn’t so completely liquified from arousal and relaxation. Both of them looked at each other for a moment, Reed more in question and Clint more in affirmation.
“I’m really fucking spoiled.” he drawled. Reed rolled his eyes. “But you do deserve it. You should know that, right?”
Clint was silent.
“I love you. We both do.”
Clint bit his lip. Voice just above a whisper.
“I know. I love both of you too. Just..I don’t…I don’t know where I’d be.”
If Clint wasn’t so relaxed he might have hit himself. Mood killer. Couldn’t have killed it faster if he’d used an arrow.
Reed patted his side and reached up to kiss him, balancing on his knees so he couldn’t topple over on the bed.
“Doesn’t matter where you might have been. You are here. And safe. And I can’t think where else I would like to be. Except maybe a few feet lower down if you still feel like it.”
Clint sniffed and couldn’t help but smile, raising one hand to cup Reed’s face.
“What a marvel you are. Or should I just say Fantastic?”
Reed made a face at that, before pulling up Clint’s shirt and kissing his navel, Clint letting out a squeal of indignation at the ticklish feeling.
The other man tugged at Clint’s pants, gently pulling on the lazy bow tie until it came undone and gently pulling them down and removing them. Clint more than impressed how quickly Reed could undress someone with one hand. That idle thought disappeared as Reed traced his hip bones and inner thighs with his tongue, balancing himself with his arm. There was no rush or urgency, both of them content to just take things as they came, Reed more interested in giving pleasure, bit by bit in a slow ascent. Clint lay back, sighing in pleasure, drained of energy but also slowly filling with a buzzing crescendo. Reed’s tongue swiped he underside of his penis, trailing from base to tip, before Reed took his length in, in one smooth motion.
Gods, he never really got used to how hot Reed was. Both him and Sue burned like stars and in his present state of relaxation and exhaustion, it was both wonderful and overwhelming.
At least Clint had gotten used to the ‘everything’ stretches aspect of Reed, because that was his tongue, coiling around his dick, squeezing and glossing over, from glans to veins. Clint moaned and thrust his hips, one hand fluttering by his side, wanting to grab and squeeze and stoke Reed’s hair before deciding that was exactly what he was going to do. Clint’s fingers carded through the scientists’s hair, ruffling the silver side tips until they stuck out, resisting the urge to pull when that strange, bizarre, fantastically elastic tongue did something to the tip of his penis, and his pleasure began to peak.
He’d take all the strange things Reed could do, because they felt amazing. Especially when Reed started to rumble deep within his throat, almost like a purr. The rush of feelings, emotions, pain and pleasure, stress and torpor all came to a head with a final jerk of his hips, Clint shouting out his release because he damn well could.
Then it was over and he felt like jell-o in a satisfied way. His eyes fluttered and the last thing he saw before drifting off to sleep was Reed drawing the sheets up and stroking his cheeks in a loving gesture before heading to the bedroom’s en-suite.
Prompt: "It was a strange time, a time of wisdom, a time of madness."
It had been months since the Avengers Mansion had been destroyed. In time the rubble had cleared, the land repurposed and with time, it was as if the attack had never happened.
During that time; the rubble had been without power. And during that time, everyone had forgotten about..it, assumed it had been lost or stolen or destroyed in the explosion.
It hadn’t.
The fire that had all but destroyed the estate had damaged the sub-ground laboratory, and power was lost to all the appliances, including a sample refrigerator containing the remnants of Reed Richard’s severed arm. As the temperature soared, it defrosted and then was ravaged by flame, damaged but still alive in a detached way.
It took weeks, but eventually it began to move.
The fire that burnt it also revitalised the regenerative properties of the mutated cells in the limb. Spurning it to repair damaged tissue, but unable to fix the damage to the original stem cells. As if the limb had both flawed blueprints and too much energy to rebuild tissue, it began to grow.
Exponentially.
Extra hands formed from the wrist, fingers twisting into claws, nerves from the elbow down forming into rudimentary neuro-clusters, climbing and writhing over the fractured concrete and marble before slithering past the wrecked husks of machines. It’s base instincts driving it towards the water, towards isolation. Coolness. Prey. Energy.
It had no eyes but it could feel the earth, it could feel the air, hear through pads of fingers and vibrating skin. Days passed but time had no meaning to the arm, to whatever base creature it had grown into when it reached the Hudson river. The polluted waters hardly bothered it, it had no lungs to be irritated by the tainted water, it only had it’s basic drive to consume and grow. Fish became it’s prey, along with anything else unfortunate to attempt to make it a meal.
And yet, it still hungered.
It craved tissue, it craved primal knowledge. It could not describe what it needed but it knew where it needed to go. It no longer resembled it’s former body a twisted length of scales, fangs and claws that rippled and shifted like liquid rubber as it sliced through the water, heading towards a storm water pipe, towards the sewer system of Manhattan.
Rats scurried away from it in fright, it’s smell and shape and makeup all wrong and un-natural. Some where too slow, finding themselves devoured by fingers that sank into fur and flesh like fangs, shredding until bones were paste and soup.
By the time it made it’s way to the surface, seasons had passed and it had grown again, a hulking mass of whatever it had devoured. It sought out the quiet place, the one that smelled old and ancient. Filled with the shells of once living things. The name of the building didn’t mean a thing to it, Museum of Natural History merely being a string of shapes and sounds. What interested it was the prey, the food, the life it held. Life that was gone but it could still devour it, become stronger and consume more.
It was stopped in its tracks by a flash of light, the beam focusing on the twisted mash of teeth and gnarled appendages that surrounded its form.
“Holy Shit-“
The arm hissed, a rattling inhuman sound of air being forced through skin and chitin before it lunged at the night guard, tearing into limbs, organs and bone, absorbing everything from matter to the strands of DNA nestled in cells. Even absorbing muffled memories and intelligence. Wisdom from experience. Symbols and shapes became words. But despite it's sudden redux of humanity, it still hungered for base needs, in a wild sort of madness that drove it to devour.
It twisted its main part of its body towards the display a few metres behind the splattered remains of the security guard.
Tyrannosaurus Rex. Tyrant King.
It was brittle, stone hard bone, not the flesh the arm- the creature was used to devouring. But it hardly mattered; it sought the mass, the shape. It’s codex had long since turned to dust but it’s shape, its primal hunger, it called to it, made it crave that shape and power so it might further consume and grow.
The chime of the elevator was followed by voices, her husband’s own lilt animatedly discussing the building architecture to his companion, who’s sonorous drawl was unmistakably Clint Barton’s own. Looked like Reed’s conversation with their archer had gone down well, given he was there visiting them, and that unwound a small knot of worry that’d been resting deep in Susan’s belly.
She knew how important Clint was to Reed, and by extension to her as well. That they possibly would be seeing him into their lives more permanently excited her.
Sue neatly closed the cover of her tablet that she’d been using to read a book on and set it on her desk, rising out of her chair with a grand stretch that got rid of all the kinks in her spine. Soft paws padding across the floor alerted her to the third arrival of the building, and Lucky excitedly skittered toward her, only holding back the bark that almost surfaced when she shushed him softly. Lucky obediently sat before her, tail twitching as he tried to keep it still and not betray his eagerness.
Bless.
"Hey there handsome fellow," Sue whispered, crouching to rub his soft jowls and kiss his nose, her voice growing soppier the longer she talked to the precious labrador. "I’ve missed you too. You shepherded those silly flustered men here for me did you?"
Lucky burbled and rumbled a reply that was muffled against her hands, rubbing his soft fur all over her and giving her fingers little kisses. Sue laughed quietly and smooched the crown of his head. “Good boy. Good boy. I’ll make sure you get treats later.”
The voices of Reed and Clint had drifted a little further away, which meant that Reed likely was getting consumed in talking about all the work he’d put into the restoration of the Baxter Building. There was no point in denying how proud he was because he practically glowed with it any time someone brought up the restoration, and Susan was glad for it because it’d helped get him better rehabilitated after his injury — as had her return from negotiations beneath the waves with societies yet unknown to the rest of the world outside of her discoveries. It’d been horrifying to see first-hand what Clint had described over the phone to her when he’d called out of desperation, his own upset at the botched mission more than apparent, but she’d taken his disability in stride and catered the world around them to his needs.
The horror of Doom resurfacing and blowing up the place they’d been temporarily calling home had put a bit of a spanner in the works there. Finding out that their best friend, and Reed’s trusted confidant while she’d been away on business, had almost been killed, jammed an even larger one into it all.
It’d meant though that the Baxter Building project got pushed ahead full steam. Reed took charge and drove himself into it head-first to drown out the stress, and Sue let him because the catharsis helped, and it’d been fortified ten-fold so that nothing bad could ever happen to the people who inhabited it so long as they were protected by it’s walls.
Lucky pawed at her knee, breaking her out of her thoughts.
"Mn, I probably should make sure Clint doesn’t get his ear talked off, huh?"
Ruffling his ears for good measure, Susan rose up and slunk out toward the atrium of the ‘penthouse’ ground floor, a warm smile curling her lips as she spotted them through toward the large kitchen and dining area, Reed animatedly gesticulating his words. Clint noticed her first, though he didn’t say anything — the slight inclination of his head to either see her in the reflection of the stainless steel fridge or hear her footfalls wasn’t missed by her, but Reed was ‘in the zone’.
Which meant as she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and gave him a smooch on the back of the neck he made the most flustered little noise.
"Are you being a big nerd about your handiwork again?" Sue teased gently, squeezing his waist. "You’ll talk his ear off."
Clint chuckled deeply at that. Sue freed one arm and (gently) pulled it about his waist as well, nestling in between her men as steered them from the kitchen out toward the lounge room, eying off the nice comfy huge couch they had as a possible nest for them to all sit on. Lucky had already padded out by it, flopped contentedly on one side at the foot of it, like he’d sensed her destination.
Clint settled in first, Sue taking his cane to set on the coffee table where it couldn’t get knocked over by Lucky should the dog wander off. She smiled sweetly to him and sat down by him, lacing her fingers over his worn knuckles.
"I hope with all of Reed’s excited chatter he mentioned to you something that we’d discussed together, about you," Sue said, glancing at Reed warmly while offering him her other hand to come onto the couch as well.
He’d been so absorbed in describing what he had been working on, that he completely missed Lucky padding off to have a look around. And completely missed any signals that Susan had come out to greet them; something that only happened when he got focused on one thing, or discussing something that had consumed his time.
So he almost jumped ten feet in the air when Susan kissed him on the back of the neck, making a faint trilling noise of surprise, while blushing at the teasing; he certainly didn’t disagree with her, just he’d failed to realise he’d gotten carried away. Clint shrugged good naturedly. Reed’s hand wandered down to where Susan’s were clasped together around his waist, while the crimson drained from his face, admitting his habit of getting swept away by all the details had gotten the best of him; a small pang of guilt as he didn’t immediately go hunting for Susan. Lucky wuffed and wagged his tail. Small favours for loveable labradors then.
Susan gently parted his right shoulder, her own way of telling him it was fine.
"I wasn’t that bad..okay. Yes. I guess I was being a big nerd. But you both love it.”
Reed flashed a wide smile at both of them and leant over to give Sue a brief kiss before they all headed towards the couch, realising his faux-pas that he should have gotten Clint to sit down before he’d started explaining just what he’d been up to the past few months. Then his brain clicked into overdrive, catching Clint’s eye and signing with a tap to the palm of his hand and gesturing to his mouth; did you need painkillers?
After all, they had walked to the Baxter Building and Reed wasn’t sure the last time Clint had taken anything; no doubt there would be something appropriate in the first aid locker down the hall in the spare room/make shift infirmary should the archer need it. The last thing Reed wanted was for Clint to be in pain or discomfort, not while there was something to be done about it.
Reed sat down anyway; his arm could reach for anything the three of them might need. For now, his arm stretched over Susan’s shoulders and snaked down towards where Clint and Sue were holding hands. His own hand radiated warmth; and fingers gently traced both hands, committing to memory the different prints and whorls of their skin; Clint’s hands, especially his knuckles were rough and textured, while Susan’s fingers were taut and strong, but smooth to the touch.
He could have spent all day just running his sensitive fingertips down each nick, scar and fold of both of their hands. Never mind he’d committed Susan to his memory; both muscle and mind, it was just a part of who he was now.
If anything losing his right limb seemed to increase his..thirst for physical contact, even a fleeting brush of shoulders was welcome.
Despite the flutter of nerves he could feel from himself, he was happy; more so, content. Like a fresh wind blowing away a bank of clouds, his worry, his fear for Clint had faded. Of course he knew, logically things weren’t suddenly set right; that the problems and hardship Clint had faced, himself and Susan had faced were not gone. No relationship cured all ills, nor was it healthy to expect it to.
But it seemed like less of a pressing weight on his chest, being together. Both of the people he loved with every once of his being.
Susan smiled at him, the gesture like warm sunlight and Reed leaned his weight into her side slightly before kissing her cheek, then leaning back into the sofa and stretching his neck long enough so he could duplicate the gesture on Clint’s cheek as well. It was good that his new found partner was as used to him stretching all over the place as much as Susan was.
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