JOHNNY CRIED FOR DAYS AFTER HEARING THE AVENGERS BROKE UP. He was an inconsolable mess, locked up in his room and throwing darts at a picture of Senator Ross he had forced Reed to get for him after the scientist had dealt with the fiery pillows thrown his way when it was explained that there was no changing the mind of the former general.

"Johnny," Sue sighed, trying to open his door, the door handle jiggling uselessly, "Johnny, come on, I know it's summer, but you can't just hide out here. It's been two weeks."

"Not until Reed gets Ross to fix this! Captain America did an entire PSA on communication in relationships, he and Iron Man didn't just fight and separate, okay? It's like my parents just broke up!" he sobbed, wiping at his eyes, more frustrated at why he was upset than anything else.

He had met Steve and Tony at one of Stark Industries' galas, and had been wholly won over by the pair, Sue needing to drag Johnny away before he asked to be adopted by the millionaire or the super soldier; preferably both, but he would've been fine with either.

Johnny sighed, rubbing his eyes raw as he looked down at his lap, still wearing the same sweatpants and sweatshirt he had been for the past five days; it would've been longer, but Sue had convinced Ben to knock down his door to force him into the bathtub. He had fallen into a complete rut, he had even turned down a photoshoot for TeenVogue, he was so unmotivated.

"Talk to him," he heard Sue hiss, and he sighed, moving to throw himself under his covers.

"Sue, I'm not so good with kids—" Reed tried, only for his—Johnny didn't actually know what Sue was to the scientist, but it was something alright—to interrupt, shoving him forward, accidentally slamming him into the door.

"He's not just a kid. He's my brother. A member of our team. And, if you play your cards right, your future brother-in-law, so I suggest you get to bonding," Sue said sharply, and Reed sighed, knocking on the door.

"Go away, Reed! And put the soundproofing back on," he called, shaking his head. The building was set to have soundproofed walls, but ever since he had fallen into his rut, Sue had convinced Reed to take them off to make sure he was okay; she called it precautionary, he called it a breach of privacy.

"Johnny," Reed sighed, "Listen, Sue won't let me leave until I talk to you. If you let me in and listen for two minutes, I'll put the soundproofing back on. Okay?"

Johnny pursed his lips, curling in on himself; he was pretty good with negotiating, but the prospect of getting his soundproofed walls back were too good to pass up; besides, two minutes was nothing. "Fine."

He listened as Reed used his universal key to unlock the door, stepping inside, pausing right in the doorway. "Sue, if you want me to talk to him, you need to leave the room."

Johnny heard his sister sigh somewhere near where his TV was hanging on the wall, and he figured she must have left, because it took some time before Reed finally closed the door, locking it behind him. Then it was silence. Johnny wasn't used to silence, because he was always so good at filling it, just like stagnant rooms, but that wasn't the Johnny he was today.

This Johnny just wanted to eat the special ice cream he could eat and be left alone.

"I'm sorry, Johnny, but you know we couldn't have done anything, even if they asked," Reid said, looking at him helplessly, and that was precisely why Johnny was so upset.

When they had gone up on the impromptu space flight, no one was expecting to come down with new abilities, but they had, and seventh-grade Johnny Storm was deathly excited, ready to be a superhero like the Avengers or the X-Men; with all of Reed's patents and royalties, they were able to fund themselves just as he had been able to fund the rocket ship.

But then came the problems. After an incident at Johnny's third school dance, the Four were approached by men in suits, demanding that they sign agree to a joint agreement where the Four were never to fight the way the Avengers or the X-Men did, instead sticking to Reed's original program of exploration and discovery.

They were glorified scientists, hiding up in their tower while others were forced to deal with the crime in New York that they could have helped with; lives could have been saved if he and the others hadn't signed all those papers.

"Spider-Man got to be there," Johnny pointed out, thinking to the boy he had bumped into during his unsanctioned patrols; he was nice enough, and all Johnny knew was that his name started with a 'P,' because he started to introduce himself before he remembered who he was.

Now, Johnny's blood boiled as he thought of the videos he had seen of the newer hero, decked out in a suit and fighting against Captain America, alongside Iron Man. If he had been there, he would have set a ring of fire and forced them to talk out their problems.

Of course, he didn't talk to Ben for three weeks after the man ate the last of the cookies, but that was his problem that he would deal with on his own.

"Sue's worried," Reed said, and Johnny shrugged, burrowing deeper under his covers. Reed sighed and continued, "She doesn't want you holing yourself up in your room on some kind of a strike over something none of us can control. You're like Michael on that rabies episode of The Office."

"Don't you dare make references to that show while I'm mourning!" the blond cried, grabbing his pillow and throwing it at Reed who moved his head, letting it fly past him.

The older man reached out with his hand, his arm elongating as he went to pick it up, moving it back next to Johnny who ripped it out of his hold, hugging it tightly to his chest. The hand paused before reaching out to run a hand through the boy's hair, the way he often saw Sue do it.

Johnny leaned into the touch instinctively, reveling in the contact for a brief moment, before pulling away like he had been burned—he couldn't even laugh at the irony of that—remembering why he was upset in the first place. He shifted, hugging the pillow tighter, and he heard Reed sigh.

"I know you hate that we signed, but what were we gonna do, Johnny, they wanted to take you away, they said you were too dangerous," Reed pointed out, and the boy scoffed, waving his hand flippantly.

He knew Reed was right. He knew he was right about everything—most scientists had that about them—but that didn't mean he had to like it. He knew he shouldn't have to hurt himself just because everyone else was hurting, but that didn't mean he wanted to stop, he was too upset not to.

"Why did their fight upset you so much?" Reed asked, and Johnny shrugged.

"I don't know," he said, because he didn't, he didn't understand why he was so affected by the divulging of a team that he never interacted with, "I just don't like that they fought, Tony and Steve were really cool, and they said that I could meet the rest of the team sometime, but the team isn't there anymore, so I have no one to meet."

It was the most petty answer there was, which meant that it sounded about right to him; since when did Johnny Storm care about anyone else, right?

Reed shook his head, and Johnny shifted to look at him as the man spoke. "No. That's not it, Johnny, there's more to it. I know you."

"No, you don't," Johnny sniffed, wiping at his eyes as he began to cry for no reason at all, "You don't know me. You're not my dad."

Reed sighed, cursing softly, and Johnny recoiled as the man moved to rest next to him on the bed, stiff and completely out of place. He placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not your dad, Johnny, but I'm your friend. We are friends, right?"

Johnny shrugged; he wasn't going to be mean, he knew Reed didn't have many friends. "Sure, I guess so."

"So as your friend," the man continued, "I know that you're scared. You're scared that you won't get the family you want because not even the Avengers could stay together. You're scared that everyone's going to get hurt, because the X-Men don't deal with problems that aren't mutant related, and you know we can't do anything about it. We only get to fight if they say we're allowed to."

"I'm not scared, I'm the Human Torch, I don't get scared," Johnny shouted, but he was shaking and he was crying, and he just wanted his sister to be there, not Reed, he didn't even like Reed all that much, but he knew Sue would start crying, and he hated it when Sue cried.

"Listen," Reed said, still uncomfortable as ever, now letting go of the boy, because everyone was afraid he would Flame On when mad, "I set you up with an interview in two weeks. It's one of those late shows, I forget which one, but I checked, and you're allowed to say whatever you want on what happened in Germany. You can say your piece, even about us not being able to fight, you just—you just can't say certain names of who's keeping us on a leash, and you have to make it brief. But you can say what you want and people will listen."

"Is it Stephen Colbert?" he asked, and Reed nodded. He took a deep breath; he liked Stephen Colbert. "Okay. Two weeks?"

"Enough notice since they're changing their schedules, and enough for you to get your act together. It's as much time as Sue is giving you before she locks you out of the building and forces you to spend time outside," Reed explained, cracking a smile at the mention of his girlfriend, and Johnny wrinkled his nose at the man's expression.

Couples were gross. This was why he only dated aliens now, human people had weirder emotions.

"Can I leave now?" Reed asked, and Johnny allowed himself a short laugh, nodding as he shoved him off his bed, making shooing motions towards the door.

"Hey, Johnny," the man said, a hand already on the doorknob, even as he was making his way towards it, "I know how everyone treats you and thinks of you. And I know you think you're superficial and stupid. But you're not."

Johnny shrugged. "I kind of am. I mean, why would I have all these cars that I don't drive and always talk about myself on talk shows?"

Reed blinked. "Because they're asking you questions, and...it's okay to like things, Johnny."

"I liked the Avengers, look what that got me," he said bitterly, and Reed sighed.

"Get some rest, Johnny," he said, opening the door and leaving the boy alone.

Johnny Storm sighed as he sat on his bed, raising his palm and watching as a flame appeared, flickering aimlessly, waiting for him to throw it or extinguish it. He wasn't particularly afraid of fire growing up, he was fine with it being hot. He was fine with a lot of things.

He was fine if people called him shallow, because they wouldn't be wrong. He was fine when people called him 'Pretty Boy' as an insult, because jokes on them, he loved being called pretty, it was the truth. He was fine with a lot of things.

What he wasn't fine with, however, were rules. Because rules were made to be broken, and it was only a matter of time before he snapped and did what he was right, not what he was told.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 08.12.18 )

So, uh, here's MCU Johnny Storm! I have no idea why I started this in this way, and I have no idea if it was even a good start, but here it is nonetheless. I'm posting this on the one-year anniversary of the day I posted the deleted scene of Harry and Johnny's first date, so appreciate that, I feel clever.

I hope I wrote Johnny okay, I read a lot of Spideytorch to prepare for this (I love Spideytorch a lot, actually don't @ me) and I love seeing the recurring theme of Johnny actually being really insecure despite his ego which is also a very real thing, it's a nice thing to see, it makes me happy in a weird way.

You'll see more of why Johnny was so upset about the Avengers breaking up later on, it actually deals with some deep seated stuff inside of him, but Reed did touch on it. God, I really don't know how I wrote Reed, but if ya'll have read Almost Happy, then ya'll know who he called to make sure he didn't completely blow their really awkward heart to heart.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!