JOHNNY WAS OUT OF HIS FUNK AND IN A NICE SUIT. That was what he told himself when he woke up that morning, remembering that he was about to go on to talk to Stephen Colbert. He loved that guy, he and Sue used to watch him all the time, though she tended to watch with Reed now, though she normally had to force him out of the lab.

So Johnny would watch by himself, which was fine, because at least he could make all the commentary he wanted without being shushed by his sister who actually wanted to hear.

He stepped out of his room, adjusting his tie, and looked towards Reed who gave him a small smile, motioning out with his hand, since the two were going to be the ones heading to the interview, Sue didn't want to have to put on a dress and a pretty smile, at least not that night, and Ben never did like the press.

Johnny lived for the attention, though, because it wasn't like he had gotten much of it when he was younger. Of course, the attention tended to be negative, but he did have a little girl running up to him asking for his autograph, so it wasn't all that bad.

He hummed when he caught sight of the Mustang, and Reed shushed him, telling him that they couldn't take one of his cars, not if he wanted to risk it getting vandalized by someone, so he climbed into the black car with the tinted windows and settled into the seats, trying to catch sight of the driver who didn't look at him.

"You excited?" Reed asked, and it was an awkward question, because Reed really didn't know how to talk to people who weren't at least ten years his senior; that was why Johnny didn't know if he and Sue were together because of how much his sister deserved better.

That wasn't fair, Reed was alright, he was just a huge dweeb.

The drive over was short, but tense, and Johnny tried to remind himself to be cool, because he was cool. Well, no, he could turn into a literal flame, so he wasn't cool, but that didn't mean he wasn't cool.

Great, he was panicking.

"Reed," he said, hating how breathless he sounded, and the man turned to look at him instantly, wide eyed and afraid.

"Hey, you don't have to do this if you don't want," Reed said quickly, but Johnny shook his head, now upset.

"Why are you guys always like this, I can handle myself," he cried, feeling his entire body growing warmer, and he forced himself to cool down, not wanting to Flame On and have the car explode.

J. Jonah Jameson would've had a field day with that. Then again, he and Johnny were pretty good friends, so maybe he would talk all about how it was a travesty and would find some way to blame it on the Avengers and Spider-Man.

Johnny should call him, see if he could be interviewed for an article in his paper, really spread the word on how much he wanted Senator Ross to choke on his ugly moustache.

"Johnny, you're making that face you do when you're thinking about something that makes you angry," Reed pointed out, tapping him on the shoulder, "And while I'm all for you thinking about things and being your own person, I know you'll throw a fit if the paparazzi put out pictures of you looking like that."

Johnny sat up straighter, raising his eyebrows multiple times to get rid of the furrow, raising his hands and rubbing his cheeks and face, stretching his mouth various ways to make sure he was completely relaxed, sighing softly as he finally relented and pulled out his phone to watch Vine compliations to make himself smile.

Reed watched all of this with concern. "Johnny, I worry about you."

"Thanks, I worry about me too," the boy said, not looking up from his phone, "But at the end of the day, I'm fine, and you're sad and maybe dating my sister, so who's really losing?"

Reed shrugged, turning to look out his window. "Probably the boy who cries in his room and doesn't talk to anyone despite claiming that he's well rounded and social."

Johnny stiffened, his shoulders pulling forward and his eyebrows furrowing once more. He scoffed, putting away his phone, no longer interested in watching Vines. "Screw you, Reed."

When they finally pulled out, Johnny had to take a few steadying breaths before he could, with good conscience, open the door and step out, putting on his sunglasses despite it being night and walking into the building, smiling at the photographers wating for him, as well as the people behind the barricades wanting pictures and autographs.

So before he could get caught by the security to escort him inside, he took a few pictures and signed a few papers, and Reed smiled from the sidelines, because Johnny shouted for everyone to wait so he could make sure each person had an autograph and/or signature before rushing inside, because he was ten minutes late.

But it all worked out in the end, though there was an immense fuss to make sure his hair was presentable, and some of the makeup artists demanded to know how he kept his face so clear, but when it was two minutes until he was about to go on, he was perfectly presentable and ready to go.

"If I cry, do you think people'll be moved or make fun of me?" he asked Reed, because he was too old for the silent treatment, though he was going to go into the lab and move everything one inch to the left once they made it back home.

"Depends on why you're crying," the man said, because somehow he had answers to that, "Though I have to ask...why would you be crying?"

Johnny sighed, glancing down at his shoes. "Because I'm sad, Reed."

Then he was told to go out onto the stage, leaving Reed to think over everything Johnny said and did from the time they left the building to currently to see if there was anything to report to Sue that she should be worried about.

Then he remembered that, if it had anything to do with Johnny, Sue always worried, so he decided to just keep this to himself and keep her on a need-to-know basis.

While he panicked, Johnny flourished under the bright lights and heavy stares.

"How have you been, Johnny?" Stephen asked, and Johnny tried to keep his answer light, but to the point.

"I've been doing alright, Stephen, not super great, but better than I was a few weeks ago, how about you?" he asked, because he was nothing if not polite, despite what everyone claimed.

"Well, I've been alright myself, but what were you like a few weeks ago?" the man asked, and everyone in the room knew exactly what happened a few weeks ago, but he had to tell him himself.

"Well, as you, and I'm sure everyone in the room knows, the Avengers, um...broke up," Johnny said, and he hated that he was already struggling to fight back tears, because he had practiced this, "And honestly, I feel personally responsible for it."

Stephen frowned, looking genuinely surprised by the statement made by the fifteen-year-old boy. "But what could you have done, Johnny, you can't blame yourself."

Johnny shrugged, and this was where he was ready to, for lack of a better phrase despite all of Reed's attempts to get him to find another one, go off.

"I mean, when I went up to the space in the seventh grade, I didn't expect that I'd come back down with these abilities. None of us did, but it was super great, I was so ready to be like Iron Man and Captain America, working with my sister, and Reed, and Ben to help stop the people who wanna hurt us.

"But then we had to agree to only do research, and that was to make sure that no one hurt me, because I could hurt other people. So if you really go back around, because we weren't allowed to help people the way the Avengers did, a lot of people got hurt. And because of that, the Avengers had to take the fall for everything they couldn't done, but we could've helped with. And then the Accords and the fighting, and now there's no one to protect us, and I feel responsible for that. So, you know...it's my fault."

He let that sit with people, Stephen included, and wondered if, perhaps, he had laid it on too thick too soon. But it had all just come gushing out, he wanted to say everything, wanted to place the blame on the people who forced him into submission, ruined his chances of helping people, but he just wound up placing the blame on himself.

Buzzfeed was going to lose its mind.

"But, Johnny, you're only fifteen, and like you said, you wanted to help, you still do," Stephen said, after some time with his hands clasped in front of his mouth, wondering exactly how a young man known for his cars and pretty face could say something so self-depricating and profound, "So I don't think you're to blame. I think it's the people who told you to not help."

Johnny nodded eagerly. "You see, I flip back and forth between that too."

"However," Stephen said, raising a hand, "This isn't all black and white. As you know, the Accords were set in place in order to regulate superheroes so that their power didn't get too great. We all saw what happened in Sokovia."

"Yeah, well, they tried their best," Johnny said, crossing his arms, and he had to remind himself that he actually liked Stephen, he didn't want him as an enemy.

"Yes, of course, but the fact of the matter was that they have to take some consequence in the event they do something like that again, and the Accords were meant to give them someone to keep them in check, to make sure they didn't go too far, so what do you have to say to that?" Stephen asked, and Johnny was about to open his mouth to speak, but then he heard someone whisper in his ear.

"Don't answer right away, hothead, think for a minute."

Sue. Of course. She had turned invisible and snuck in with him. He would've gotten upset, but he did as he was told, pausing and taking a deep breath, hoping that she would give him some direction.

"Uh..." he began, because no one ever said he was eloquently spoken, "I mean, I can't argue that it's important people are responsible for their actions, but I don't think we know the whole story. I mean...Captain America didn't want to sign, which means there's something about the Accords that wasn't fair."

"But Tony Stark did. Are you saying that he doesn't believe in fairness?" Stephen asked, and Johnny felt himself heat up as he shook his head vehemently.

"No!" he cried, rubbing his face, "I just think maybe there were things outside of them just being heroes that made them sign and not sign. I mean, the only reason we agreed to only do research was because they were gonna take me away, so that's an outside force, and I nearly burned my school down, so there's that. I'm just saying that maybe someone said something to Tony Stark, something maybe happened to Steve Rogers, I don't know. All I know is that the Avengers are broken up and is sucks."

And, after a moment, he added, "And the people telling them what to do aren't perfect. I know the people who regulate what I can and can't do, they have their own plans, so it's not as if the Accords were gonna be unbiased or whatever, but I'm not saying Tony Stark was wrong or that Steve Rogers was right, I'm just saying that I wished they talked it out. You saw the footage, they didn't! If I was there, I would've made sure they did."

"But you weren't," Stephen said lightly, "There, I mean."

Johnny scoffed, not realizing he was now heavily slouched with his arms crossed. "Yeah. I know. That's what fucking sucks."

The headline was that Johnny cursed on live television.

Because of course it was, it wasn't like anything else he said was important. He was just a kid, after all.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 10.28.18 )

I apologize to Stephen Colbert, I don't really think I characterized him well, but I wanted Johnny to go on a talk show, and his was the one that seemed tailored to this kind of discussion.

As per usual, its the third chapter, so get ready, we're gonna be meeting Harry in that one. Unless something goes whack, but I'm pretty sure it won't, so yeah, we're gonna meet Harry in that one, so get ready, I love my son so much.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!