Summary: Reptil gets sick and can't go into space with the squad. Luckily for him, Torch is there to provide the soup. Sort of implied slash, but not really. Neither of the boys are actually openly gay in this one. Set during season one.
Pairings: Slight Reptil/Torch.
Fandom: The Super Hero Squad Show.
Bea read by: purplee uzumaki (Thanks!)
For lack of a better description, Reptil felt sort of like one of the Surfer's smoothies.
Disgusting.
This wasn't aided by the fact that his team-mates were off in space, fighting aliens, or robots. Or both, he couldn't really remember. The past few days were nothing but a feverish blur. He could vaguely remember Ms. Marvel putting her palm on his forehead and telling him to go home. And then he had turned up here, in his own bedroom, in his own house planted safely on the ground. Meanwhile, the Squad and the Fantastic Four had taken the Helicarrier into space to scout for fractals. Without their intern.
Well, it didn't matter. He wasn't complaining or anything. He was so congested and exhausted that he would have only slowed them down. And he was much too sick to be bored. A chest infection, the doctor had said, just a really severe chest infection. One which he had been carrying with him for a week now. It had started out as a common cold, but now he was pretty sure he was dying. And he was out of butter menthols. Just kill me now, he thought feverishly, burying his head into the pillow.
"What's up, sickie?" Reptil glanced blearily at the door, looking for the intruder on his self-pity fest. Ah, hell. He was delirious. Johnny Storm wasn't there. He was in space. Reptil blinked. The hallucination didn't go away. "Johnny?"
"In the flaming flesh, Dino-boy." Okay, he's real.
"What are you doing here?"
"I got lonely."
"I meant on Earth."
Johnny looked bitter. "I've been made redundant. Apparently my powers are useless in space." Johnny Storm's glare faded and he flashed his sick friend a dazzling grin. "I come bearing gifts." Johnny held a loaded tray in his hands, which Reptil now noticed for the first time. An unopened packet of butter menthols, vapor-rub, toast, and soup in a massive bowl. It was everything he'd dreamed of during the first few nights.
"Oh, Johnny. You shouldn't have." Reptil sat up in bed and immediately regretted it as his temples throbbed and his eyes swam; he repositioned his pillows and leaned back against the head-board. It dawned on him that this was the first time he'd seen Johnny out of uniform. He was dressed simply in a red hoodie, skinny jeans and well-worn black Chuck Taylors. He looked great. Reptil wondered if it was weird to think that about his best friend. Probably just the antibiotics speaking.
Reptil knew that he probably looked like a train wreck. A pale, sniffly train wreck in a band shirt that was several sizes too big for him, but if Johnny had noticed, he was keeping his mouth shut. He handed the soup over and sat down casually in the faux-leather swivel desk chair. He pulled one foot up onto the seat and folded his arms across his knee. Reptil felt the colour rise in his cheeks and he hastily turned his attention to the soup. Lifting the spoon to his mouth, he breathed in the warm aroma of steam and home-cooking; this was no soup from a can. He took a mouthful, then another. It was perfect; steaming hot and perfectly seasoned; it soothed his throat and cleared his sinuses. He could breathe again! "Johnny, where did you get this soup? It's amazing!"
"Meh, Sue made it. I found it left over in the freezer when I was looking for ice cream and I thought of you."
"That's so...wait, you were looking for ice cream? In the middle of winter?" Outside, icy rain lashed against the windows, solving the mystery behind Reptil's cold. Looking back, he wished he'd listened to his mother when she'd said, 'Take a sweater.' Some shoes might have been a good idea, too.
Johnny shrugged. "I felt like ice cream. Sue me."
"I will." This was not the reply Johnny had expected. He shook his head and laughed uncertainly before changing the subject. "Guess what I've got?"
Reptil groaned. "I can't. It hurts when I think too hard." Johnny took something from behind him. A digitally improved DVD of The Wizard of Oz.
"How did you know...?"
"…That this makes you feel better when you're sick? I asked your mom and she told me, and I was able to find this. Pretty cool, huh?"
"You shouldn't have."
"You would have done it for me."
The conversation hit a dead-end. The type of dead-end which could only be resolved by watching a classic fantasy-musical on Reptil's battered old Toshiba and avoiding all eye-contact. Johnny wasn't really sure how things had become so awkward. He had to break the silence. "So, like, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Yes, actually," said Reptil. "Take off your shoes and get into bed with me."
"Whu-what? I meant, like, fluffing your pillows or something."
"Look, I'm freezing. I would do it for you." His dark eyes sparkled innocently and Johnny decided to cut the sick boy some slack. He kicked off his shoes, lifted his hoodie over his head and lay down on top of the covers next to his friend. Reptil seemed a little too satisfied and fell asleep before the characters had reached Emerald City. He looked so peaceful, his rumpled blue hair strewn across his face, his chest rising and falling with each labored breath. Johnny laid and arm across his friend's abdomen and placed his head down on the mattress.
"Sweet dreams, amigo."