The ticklish misadventures of two guys played by the same actor*
DISCLAIMER: This is a tickle fic (sfw! And platonic in this case), but if you're uncomfortable with this, feel free to scroll :)
Lee! Johnny Storm
Ler! Steve Rogers
Words: 2537
Summary: First time in the Avengers tower has Johnny in a sour mood. Thankfully, good old Steve is here to help!
A/N: AHHHH I have NO idea where I was going with this and WHY it turned out SO LONG!! I've been working on this forever now. We're not gonna question why Johnny and Steve never address they look exactly the same. More fluff than tickles kinda, hope you enjoy anyways!! 😭 Also, do you like my meta title because I didn't have any idea on what to call it.
Fic under the cut :)
Johnny Storm is a... firey young man, pun may or may not be intended, which he showcases spectacularly in this particular tale
Teaming up with your fellow superheros is always a bit of a wild card, but Reed said it'll be good for the team, as if Reed would know anything about what Johnny needs.
This left the Fantastic 4 out of their usual comfort of the Baxter Building and down at the Avengers tower, where friendships arised, questions were asked, and team building thrived or whatever.
Johnny was, for the most part, uninterested. Apart from when Bruce made a small explosion in the lab, causing his hair to stand up on end for a ridiculously funny long time after.
Being around all these people who didn't seem to appreciate or care about his charm, wit, or having fun was pissing him off, honestly. "Mission reports" and "Drills" who needed that? Who cared? Johnny made fire come out of his body. He was set for life. That's what Johnny thought, just not in the third person, of course.
This made Johnny just keep to his room at the tower. Everything was annoying him, and according to Stark, he could be "potentially dangerous in a lab if he happened to throw a temper tantrum." Asshole.
Johnny pretended to read, pretended to care about what was going on on TV, and messed with his powers. But all and all, he ended up bored with dull pangs of annoyance in his chest every few minutes. Not his idea of fun.
That quickly changed when someone knocked on his door.
"Go away." Johnny answered to the knock dryly, busying himself lighting a small flame under the TV remote and seeing if the plastic would melt.
Johnny, at the knocker's next action, decided they didn't know English as they opened the door. It was Steve, fresh out of the shower after training, his hair standing up on end after being towel dried. Johnny had to hold back a small laugh at the look. It reminded him of Bruce's ordeal.
Steve also wore a shirt so tight, Johnny's just then self-proclaimed, cold dead heart, held concern for Steve's breathing.
"Just what I need, you." Johnny dramatically grumbled after he shoved the now damaged remote under his pillow. Steve chuckled weakly. "Well, hello to you too." He responded politely, inviting himself in and taking a seat on the edge of Johnny's bed.
"Out of all the people to bother me, it had to be the guy with the biggest stick up his ass." Johnny huffed as he laid down across the bed on his stomach, his back muscles flexing as he tried to relax.
"I do not have a stick up my butt." Steve tried to reason, a small smile on his face.
Johnny did not see Steve's reason and took some time to look him up and down like he's stupid. "Something, something, denial. Go away."
"I wanted to check on you..." Steve continued, and Johnny groaned as loud as he possible could to disrupt said continuation. Since Steve could speak English but clearly didn't understand it, he was having a hard time figuring out how to communicate to Steve to go the hell away.
"Yeah, more like my sister got you to check on me." Johnny accused. Steve sighed softly, knowing he was here on his own terms.
"Please, Jonathan. I'm only here to help. Tell me what's wrong, son. I'm listening." Steve sat patiently, waiting for Johnny to speak. Johnny gave him a mixed bag of a look. Annoyance and fondness at being called 'son,' annoyance in general, and a bit of relief that he could safely vent.
"Well, fine." Johnny grumbled, turning his head back to rest it on his pillow, not wanting to see Steve's reactions as he spilled his woes.
"It's just. I didn't even really wanna come here in the first place! But Reed, the stretchy guy, you know him, right?!"
"Mm-hmm," Steve hummed in understanding.
"Well, he made me go, and I missed two dates for this, two! So there's goes my social status. And some of your friends are assholes! That Tony Stark guy is a dick, talking about me throwing tantrums." Johnny grumbled, scrunching up, burying his face into his pillow.
"Tony didn't mean anything by it, son." Steve replied gently and patiently, reaching out and tentatively patting Johnny's back, cracking a small smile when he didn't flinch away or grumble. "I'll talk to him. Okay?"
"Okay." The younger man grumbled, taking a second to pout into his pillow as Cap raked his fingers over his back. Johnny's frame tensed slightly, but he wasn't uncomfortable. Steve noticed but chose to make no comment, biting the inside of his cheek a little.
"Sounds to me that you're feeling a bit out of place." Steve said.
"And annoyed." Johnny added, shifting softly under Steve's gentle touch. Steve chuckled. "Yeah, and that. I get that this isn't how your days tend to look, but this hero stuff is a complicated and still a relatively new thing. We need to communicate with people who share our same experiences."
"You say this is a new thing, but weren't you the first superhero, like, ever? You're like a billion years old." Johnny looked back, grinning his signature grin. We should have known he wouldn't have been able to keep his mouth shut for more than 10 minutes.
"And you're about a billion years off, son." Steve said pointedly, reiterating this by giving Johnny a soft poke to the side, causing him to squeak. Johnny sealed his lips tight for the first time in his life, hoping Steve didn't hear that. (He most definitely did.)
"I'm just saying." Johnny smiled, holding up his hands in mock surrender, sitting up on his bed properly to face Cap. "You were like there during fucking 18-something-or-other-"
"This was during World War II so try the 40s..." Steve corrected.
"Yeah, whatever, 1940s. I knew that, actually, I was making a joke, old timer, cuz you're old as dirt, anyways, you were there during all that time doing whatever you do, I thought you woulda known more by now." Johnny explained his reasoning, ending it off which a shrug.
"Trust me, Jonathan, everyone everywhere, ever thought he would know more by now. But this is complicated, and I can hardly keep up with all the science and changes. Like, until you, I didn't know any kids who lit on fire! This is why we collaborate. If the Avengers and The Fantastic Four combine our forces, we'd be pretty unstoppable and maybe have less incidents like... y'know, aliens in New York." Steve grimaced slightly, remembering the first time the Avengers assembled. God, how he wished he could get drunk after THAT day.
"Yeah, sure, that makes sense. Still doesn't change the fact that you're fucking old and don't know, like, anything. But what you're saying... makes sense." Johnny smirked, tapping the side of his head for emphasis. Steve pinched the bridge of his nose briefly, smiling fondly and shaking his head.
"Y'know, It'll do you good to watch your language, Jonathan. I had a friend like you that had a mouth like no other and all it got him was a whole lot of trouble." Steve gently chided.
"Was this friend of yours handsome?" Johnny asked curiously because there are only serious and important questions in this room.
"Is THAT what you take away from all of this?" Steve chuckled, a little bit exasperated but still mostly fond. This kid was cool.
"It is a genuine question!" Johnny laughed. "Compare me to someone? They gotta be hot. C'mon, gimme a few hints, I'll just decide for myself!" He scooted closer to Steve, hoping a close-up of his charming grin would sway Steve enough to get him what he wants. This attempt was rather unsuccessful and only earned Johnny a few well-aimed pokes to the shoulders. The giggle Johnny let out was unmistakable, and Steve bit his cheek again. Oh, hell yeah.
"Y'know, you have an awful lot of sass and an awful lot to say for a kid who's ticklish." Steve smirked, and Johnny's eyes widened a comical amount before he erupted into a frenzy of protests.
"What the hell?! Why would you even say something like that???? How would you even know that?! Like I'm not! Who told you- I'm not! But, like, who told you!? I'm not some little kid- I'm not, y'know, whatever!" Johnny sputtered, kicking up his sheets in his haste to scramble away, which was also unsuccessful as he quickly hit the headboard.
"What? Not ticklish? Those little squeaks say otherwise." Steve grinned, a grin that was way too cheeky. Too Johnny-like. No wonder everyone hated when Johnny did it. It screamed no good, and the boy was now throughly convinced he had awoken some kind of ancient demon in Steve.
"And what were you saying earlier about denial? I think you gotta bad case of it." Steve smirked, slowly reaching out a claw shaped hand over to Johnny, wiggling it in front of his stomach, the younger bracing for an impact that never came as Steve pulled away with a teasing smile.
"Asshole." Johnny huffed out, almost disappointed that Steve didn't go through with his obvious plan.
"You scared?" Cap raised an eyebrow, noticing how Johnny still tensed and everything. Trying to lean back more, uselessly.
"You wish!" Johnny scowled stubbornly, and Steve smirked, taking this as a challenge. An invitation.
"Then let's put that to the test." The Captian replied calmly before tackling Johnny. It was on.
Steve made quick work of straddling Johnny's hips, and Johnny made just as quick work trying to buck Steve off. With strong arms, Johnny pushed at Steve's chest, the latter falling flat on the large bed on his back. This did nothing to waver Steve as he stretched and reached down, grabbing Johnny by the sides (and giving him a few squeezes to them, just to be mean) hoisting him up till Johnny was straddling Steve's hips.
Dumb move on Steve's part, it seems, he's allowed himself to be pinned, yes? Well, not actually because as soon as Steve got a hold of Johnny's ribs, the kid wasn't going to be doing much retaliating.
Johnny crumbled, erupting into loud belly laughter in an instant ("Not so tough now, huh?" Steve quipped), trying to wiggle off of Steve's hips and find sanctuary. He did not find sanctuary.
Steve did a quick position switch, sitting up and then scooping Johnny into his lap before wrestling for control of his arms. Johnny twisted and wiggled with vigor, screaming something along the lines of "NO! NO! SHIHIHIT- NO!!!" Steve just chuckled softly as if he wasn't messing with the kid famous for bursting into flames at any given moment. Steve wasn't scared of Johnny in the least bit.
Steve successfully pinned Johnny's arms above his head, but not without protest and fighting from the younger hero, which now included fruitless kicking and jerking.
With the hand not holding Johnny's wrists, Steve, and his blunt nails, scratched under Johnny's underarm. The light, feathery touch made the latter hold his breath, puff out his cheeks, and wiggle side to side uselessly. He was not going to give Steve the satisfaction of any more laughs. But Steve was determined to get them anyways, and based on Steve's track record, laughter he shall get.
"Told you that mouth of yours was gonna get you in trouble." Steve began to lecture, his voice calm and barely any different than the one he was using when he was comforting Johnny earlier. It now just had a new and improved insuffrable teasing edge.
"Mmmh!" Johnny gave this very intellectual response through puffed out cheeks and held back laughter.
"In the future, I think it will be greatly appreciated by yourself, especially these little tickle spots, if you minded yourself and your mouth. Making cocky and downright dishonest comments won't do much good-" Steve was really getting into this lecture. He made his clear by switching from scratching to digging, traveling down to Johnny's ribs, attacking that spot again.
Remember how I said Steve would make Johnny laugh if he was determined enough? Yeah, I wasn't kidding.
"SHUHUHUT UHUHUP CAHAPTIAN PSA!!! SHUHUT IHIHIHITTT!!!" Johnny roared with laughter, jerking every which was to try and avoid Steve's hands, but every time Steve's hand met its target.
"You see, this is what I'm talking about, son. That language is disrespectful and can be potentially harmful-"
"IHIHIHIH'M GONNA HAHARM YHOHOU!!!"
"Threats are also not appropriate."
This charade of Steve's calm lecturing and Johnny's laughter featuring the occasional threat of bodily harm went on for another minute or so. Steve made sure to take his sweet old time, running his fingers over everyone of Johnny's ribs and digging between the crevices as if they had to be accounted for.
"Now I'm happy to see you're getting the message." Steve said softly once he had slowed down a bit, just lightly running his fingers over Johnny's belly. The boy had been reduced to weak, squeaky giggles. Johnny tactfully decided not to respond. One, because he was busy giggling up a storm (pun intended) and two, as a caution in case he said something stupid, and Steve went back to the ribs.
"I feel this calmness is more appropriate. Don't you?" Steve asked, giving Johnny a few soft squishes to the stomach, just, so he'd be a bit more inclined to answer. "Hm?"
"Nyahaha! Yehehes..." Johnny giggled out the response, arching up a bit even though he knew it wouldn't do anything.
"I'm glad to see we're on the same page, Jonathan." Steve punctuated his reply with side and tummy scribbles. Johnny fruitlessly attempted to grab at Steve's long fingers, but they continued to teasingly dart away from Johnny at every try, so he gave up soon after.
Johnny, ever the fighter, despite how pointless it may be, it seems, hunched over in hopes it would protect his stomach. This only served as an invitation to Steve to play a good game of "Spiders crawling up your back." Which Johnny squirmed furiously from, dissolving into squeaks once more
"Ohohokay, okay! Okay! You've done your stupid lehehecture! You whihihinn! Whahahatever! Now quhuhuhuit it!"
At his word, immediately, Steve stopped administering 'it,' 'it' being tickling Johnny to high hell.
"Okay, okay, I'm done. Are you okay?" Steve smiled gently, releasing Johnny's wrists and allowing him to move more freely, with his new freedom, Johnny turned around and threw his arms around Steve in a surpise hug, which the latter promptly returned.
"Yeah. Thanks. That was fun..." Johnny took a few breaths as Steve pat his back, keeping him close to his chest, but he couldn't help but get a bit distracted because out of the corner of his eye...
"Hey, John, what's that?" Steve asked curiously, raising a thick blonde eyebrow, pointing to the previously mentioned melted remote that must have fallen in their playful wrestling.
Johnny's blue eyes snapped over to where the remote landed before they snapped back to Steve.
"Nunya business." Johnny smirked before burying his face into Steve's shoulder.
