Afraid
Miscellaneous masterlist
The sound of plates dropping is what snaps the fantastic 4 back to reality.
The 4 of them were scattered around the room, Reed running some tests on Johnny and their new found still secret powers, when you walked in.
Johnny had yet to tell you about his…his gifts? He didn’t know what to call it, he had barely digested it himself.
He regrets it now. Not telling you.
You’re stood by the door, mouth agape, all the air expelled from your lungs as you hunch over, half in shock, half stuck in a sob. You shouldn’t have had to find out like this. You shouldn’t have had to see Johnny completely engulfed in flames.
“Oh my god,” you choke out, a hand raised to cover your mouth. All over the floor was some chicken noodle soup. Johnny had been acting weird the last few weeks, you thought he was getting sick.
You glance over at the others. You hadn’t seen Ben in a while, what the fuck was he wearing? And Sue, she’s looking between you and Johnny with a concerned look on her face. The fact she wasn’t freaking out meant she knew.
“Baby, I can explain,” Johnny starts. He’s holding his hands up in mock surrender as he takes a couple slow steps towards you, like he was trying to back an animal into a corner.
“What are you?” You ask as you take a few wobbly steps back.
“I’m still me-“
“Stay the hell away from me,” you hold your hands out to keep him at a distance. You trip over the couch, clattering on the floor. Johnny winces, wanting to rush over and help you up, but you’re crawling away from him.
You are crawling away from him. From him?
He’s never seen you look this scared before. You’ve never recoiled away from him like this.
He stops his advance toward you. God, you’ve never looked at him like that before. It hurts worst than the cosmic radiation that did this to him in the first place.
He can only watch dejectedly as you scramble to put your shoes on. You completely forget about your jacket, the door slams behind you as you run away like your life depended on it.
An entire week passes before there’s a knock on your door. You look through the peephole to find Sue.
She looks rather normal. She has a long trench coat on, with a light blue headband.
“I know you’re in there, I just want to talk,” you hear her call out.
“Johnnys heartbroken. He’s kicking himself for not telling you earlier. I’m sorry, y/n, you never should have found out like that,” she tells you. You take a shaky breath from the opposite side of the door.
“I told him not to tell you. I told him not to tell you until we knew more, until we could make sense of everything,” she continues.
“Johnnys gone, Sue. He’s gone,” you cry, your forehead leaning heavy on the door as your hand gripes at your heart.
“No, no, oh sweetheart. I promise, I know this doesn’t make sense, but I promise we’re still us. Johnny is Johnny. Won’t you please just talk to him? You’ll see, he’s still the same guy,” she winces. She feels horrible, of course you’d think that. You’ve been mourning Johnny all week.
You open the door a little, the safety chain clanging as you look at Sue.
“You promise he’s still Johnny?” You ask. You don’t even know if you can trust her, she might not even be Sue. But you hope, your heartbroken heart wills you to believe.
“I promise,” she nods.
“Send him over, will you?” You ask her.
“Sure, yeah, of course. I’ll go right now,” she practically jumps out of her skin to rush down the stairs and into the car.
The second she tells Johnny, he’s jumping out the window and flying off. He lands outside your building, careful not to frighten you more. He grabs a bouquet of flowers from the lobby as he runs up the stairs, skipping them 2 or 3 at a time.
He uses his key to unlock the door.
“Baby?” He calls out as he kicks off his shoes.
You tiptoe out of your room, standing across the room from him. He makes a move to come closer, but you stop him.
“No, stay there, don’t come closer,” you warn. You spare a glance down at the flowers before looking back at him. He looks like Johnny, half of you wants to run straight into him.
“Where did we first meet?” You question.
“At school. It was January. First period, history. You were the new girl, and I was the lucky guy who had an empty seat beside him,” he answers.
“Where was our first kiss?”
“After our third date. We went out for dinner, you got pasta. We got caught in the rain. You thought it was romantic and asked me to kiss you so you could live out the perfect fantasy.”
“When-“
“I first told you I loved you in April. We were sitting in a field doing our homework and you looked so pretty, I couldn’t help but say it. But I should have told you that sooner, I knew I loved you sooner but I was too scared to say it. I love you, y/n, more than anything,” he sighs deeply.
“Johnny,” a strangled sob escapes you as you run into him. You throw your arms around him and he’s quick to hold you back. The flowers are scattered somewhere on the floor as his arms wrap around you, so tight it’s hard to breathe.
“I thought you were dead. I thought you died and something took over you,” you sob, legs growing weak at your admission, Johnny being the only thing holding you up.
“I thought I lost you,” you cry as he gently cradles the back of your head.
“No baby, you haven’t lost me. You’ll never lose me,” he whispers, cooing gently as he presses a kiss to your temple.
“I’m sorry,” you whisper as Johnny gently guides you over to the couch, arms still tight around you.
“No, I should have told you. I should’ve told you gently, that was…it was never supposed to happen like that,” he shakes his head as you pull back slightly. Your hands still cup his face, his own hand comes up to gently rub your wrist.
“It’s less about the fact you didn’t tell me. It’s more so I thought you were gone. I hated believing that. I don’t want to-“ you frown, you struggle to breathe as you remember how it felt to think Johnny was dead and gone.
“I’m here, baby, I’m right here,” he promises, his eyes closed as he leans into your touch and presses a gently kiss to your palm.
He’s warmer than you remember him to be, from his lips to his hand over yours, you can feel that he runs hotter than he usually did.
You take a shaky breath as you run your hand along his cheek.
“I can explain everything-“
You cut him off with a kiss, a hard bruising kiss that you can barely breathe during. Johnnys pulling you closer to him as you pull back. You look into his eyes, and the eyes that have looked back at you for years now, stare back.
You press a kiss to his cheek, many kisses, all over his face. Johnny can’t help but smile as you do.
“I’ve waited this long, I can wait a little while longer for your explanation. I just still can’t believe you’re sitting in front of me, I was so…” you trail off as your hands drop to his shoulders.
“I know,” he says softly.
“Will you just…hold me?” You ask, already tucking yourself into the crook of his neck.
“Yeah baby,” he whispers contently.
“I love you,” he murmurs as he presses a kiss to your hairline.
“I love you too, Johnny, more than I ever thought I did.”