Title: How Not To Date a Superhero
Genre: Fantastic Four (Angst/Romance)
Characters/Pairings: Johnny Storm, Frankie Raye, Susan Richards, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Alicia ?? and OC (Movie Canon pairings)
Rating: PG for language
Warnings: Language.
Summery: Who knew a bad date could be a good thing?
Special thanks to Ana, who beta'd this story at 2 in the morning.
Fanfic100 Claim: 14 (Green)
Frankie was bored. She had never been this bored on a first date. They were at an art show, one with brilliant photography and paintings, but Francis Marks had made it seem so….boring. He was there to critique the works for a small paper, but clearly thought big words made up for understanding basic concepts of art.
Francis was currently trying to find deep psychological meaning to a photograph of a bowl of pomegranates. It was a large blow up of a black and white photograph where one of the pieces of fruit had been hand colored. She had thought it pretty, but after five minutes on it representing loneliness she'd prefer to move onto the next picture.
"I think I'll focus on this in the review," Francis said, pulling her to the next work, this one a painting of star fruit in the sky.
She sighed. She should have just come alone.
~*~
Johnny had spotted her when she had first walked into the gallery, but had decided against calling out to her. Their last meeting had been angry and awkward and he had no intention of repeating that, no matter how much he'd like to see her again. Plus she had a date.
But as always since he met her, he couldn't help but be drawn to watching her more than the art being displayed. If she was in the room, unless the world was ending, she had his attention.
She looked different, but still wonderful. Her hair was shorter, half pulled back from her face, and ending in soft waves that barely landed on her shoulders. She had let the blonde grow out, now showcasing her natural hair color; a strawberry blonde heavy on the red. He knew it was long enough to be pulled up at work, but liked that she preferred it down when she was off duty.
Tonight she was wearing a green halter dress that ended slightly below the knees and was accented at the waist with a sparkly clip. She wore a pair of high heeled sandals that matched the dress. She looked good, and it was wasted on that idiot pulling her around the gallery.
"You should save her," a voice came from behind him. He turned slightly to see Keisha Smith, a good friend of his and the artist who was currently being featured. They had met through Alicia and had even dated for awhile, though it was painfully obvious from an early point that they would never be anything more than good friends. He ended up introducing her to her current fiancée, a member of Reed's science team. She had decided to return the favor by trying to set him up with girls she approved of. He had resisted so far by dating various girls on his own. But tonight he was between dates, and had arrived alone. Therefore she no doubt had a list of girls to introduce to him.
"She doesn't like me very much right now," he responded knowing it was useless to pretend he didn't know who she was referring to. "And she has a date."
"No, she has a tour guide," Keisha responded, her tone letting him know more than her words what she thought of him. "And she did agree to be your date at Sue's wedding so she can't hate you entirely." She would have had a point, except Keisha didn't realize that Johnny and Frankie had dated for about two months after that wedding. Going up to Frankie after how they had ended things was a bad idea.
"Is that Captain Raye?" Ben asked joining the group with Alicia shortly behind him. He gave Johnny a look over Keisha's head. Ben had been trying to get Johnny to make a move for months, not quite understanding why the twenty-something wasn't his usual self-confident self when it came to this particular lady. But Frankie had seen him at his worst; there was little he could do to prove to her he was more than just charm. Or wanting more than just a causal romance with her.
"Yes," Keisha answered for him. "She's with Francis Marks, a little regarded art critic. He likes to ignore the obvious and find something between the lines that wasn't intentional."
Just then Frankie turned away from her date, and their eyes met. It was like time froze for a second. But then for a second she was moving towards him before her date shot out a hand and dragged her to the next piece of art.
She had looked surprised to see him, but not angry. He supposed that was a good sign.
~*~
Damn. She hadn't expected him to be there. Ben maybe, as his girlfriend was an artist herself. In fact, Frankie had a piece of her sculpture in her apartment. But Johnny had never seem the gallery lover to her. Hell, he had prints in his apartment he couldn't tell her the name of, let alone where he got them.
He made her feel like she had been supersensitive. When he was in the room it was like all she could feel was him. Her romantic of a mother would claim that perhaps that was a sign he was meant for her. Her scientific stepfather would point out that Johnny was hardly a stealthy person, and knew how to gain a person's attention. Frankie figured it was somewhere in the middle.
Plus there was the fact that they were the only two people who knew what it was like to burst into flames and not burn. Granted, his ability was cosmic intervention and hers was due to a lack of proper safety procedures in a chem. Leb. But in the end it didn't matter the how, just that was the way it was. They were both attractive people who knowingly were attracted to each other. But when they interacted they either froze or burnt each other up.
Which annoyed the hell out of her, both because it went against her style of personal neutrality, and because she was forced into metaphors to describe their relationship.
After the wedding, they had dated secretly for two months. And it had been a good two months. Up until Johnny had found out about her own abilities. He hadn't cared about what they were, just that she had felt the need to keep them from him. They had fought and broken up.
She missed him, and she hated that too.
~*~
He didn't need Ben to tell him to make a move; he just didn't know what to do. When they had fought the last time they had both said things that were painfully true. And some things that weren't, but was meant to cause pain anyway.
So he had spent the last four months being shown how quickly and how deep Frankie had been a part of his life. He didn't need Ben telling him she was perfect for him, he already knew. She shared his sense of adventure but had the ability to rein him in a bit when he got a little ahead of himself (which, he could admit, he did on occasion).
Of course watching his sister and brother-in-law going through their post wedding bliss hadn't helped matters. He supposed it just seemed worse than before because he was acutely aware now that he was alone. That had started before the big wedding that never happened. Living with two couples when you were the only single one tended to bring that out.
He knew enough to know he had a thing for Frances Raye, and he was started to believe that perhaps it was love. He needed a second chance to prove that though, because if she never spoke to him again, he wouldn't know anything.
What he could say at the moment is that watching that idiot she was with drag her around was making his blood pressure rise. Part of him recognized the jealously, but the more vocal part of his brain decided it was just concern for a friend.
"Frankie!" He looked away from Ben who was regaling Keisha with tales from his and Alicia's recent trip to Maine to see his sister rushing towards Frankie who looked relieved and happy to see her. The Idiot however did not.
~*~
"Frankie!" Frankie got taken out of her thoughts by the sound of Sue Richard's voice. Looking towards where the voice came from, she saw Sue pulling Reed through the crowd. The two looked good together, always had. Tonight Sue looked like some spring goddess, her hair up with a flower pin, wearing a yellow sundress that was just fancy enough to pass as an evening dress as well. Reed wore all black and a yellow tie. She smiled as she wondered who had made that decision.
"Hi, Sue," She said as the woman reached her and the two hugged. Reed refrained from hugging her, giving her a bright smile instead. Despite first impressions (and a bias brought on from what the General had told her before they got there) she really did like this group of people.
Francis stood behind her and sneered. She rolled her eyes before introducing him.
"Sue, Reed, this is my date Francis Marks. Francis, this is my friends Sue and Reed Richards."
"I know who they are," he responded in a tone that surprised her and Sue. Reed looked oblivious, which she knew was half act. Reed caught a lot more then he showed. "No world saving tonight?"
"We decided to support our friend tonight," Sue answered diplomatically. "Plus it was nice to enjoy a night off for a chance."
"You know Keisha Smith?" Frankie asked.
"Yes, she's a friend of Alicia and Johnny's. She's also engaged to Eric Foreman." Frankie nodded, remembering the shy physicist that worked for Reed that reminded her slightly of James McAvoy in looks. "She's standing over there with Johnny, Ben and Alicia."
Francis made a sound not unlike he was being strangled. He pulled on her arm.
"It was nice to meet you, but I really need to finish my tour of the gallery and get the article done before press time." Francis' smile was fake, and Frankie didn't like it when he didn't let her say her goodbyes before pulling her towards the last piece of art.
"What the hell was that about?"
"I can't believe you hang out with them!" Francis said when they were far enough not to be overheard. "I would have thought you would have known better having worked with them. But apparently not."
"What exactly are you saying?" She said angrily. She had a good idea, and she was starting to regret coming with him tonight. How could she have missed this element of his personality?
"They are freaks, Frances."
"Its Frankie and they are not."
"They certainly aren't normal!! And Frankie is a boy's name, you are a lady." His eyes narrowed. "But then again, perhaps I was mistaken. After all you associate with those cosmic freaks, and I have heard rumors about you and Johnny Storm."
"What rumors?"
"That you and he were pretty snug."
"And what if we were. Its none of your business." When she saw his opinion of her drop in his eyes, she was not at all concerned. Her opinion of him had already decanted enough to make her regret ordering at that coffee house.
"So they are true. You really are in love with Johnny Storm. Figures. I saw the way you two looked at each other earlier. What am I then, some kind of closet door?" Her jaw clenched. She counted to ten before speaking.
"Now you have just insulted me not to mention several other people. Get out. I'll find my own way home."
Francis did just that. And Frankie went and sat down on one of the provided padded benches, leaned against the wall, and closed her eyes. So much for getting back into the dating scene.
A few minutes later she felt someone sit down next to her, and she didn't need him to make a sound to know who he was.
"Let me guess, everyone heard that?" She said without opening her eyes.
"Yep. Probably be in the paper tomorrow when the press decides to write how us superheroes spend our free time." His tone was neutral so without looking at him, she couldn't tell if he was angry with her, or with Francis. "I notice you didn't deny you were in love with me." That time there was a teasing note in his voice.
"Well, considering everything he was saying, I think denying that was about the bottom of the list of things I needed to say to him."
"Would you?" She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. Most of the guests of the gallery were back to their previous conversations, ignoring them in the back corner.
"Would I what?"
"Deny it." He looked straight into her eyes then and she decided the best course of action was to take this question seriously. And she was surprised as much as he was by the answer.
"No." she paused for a second. "I don't know what I feel for you."
"Good, I'm not alone then. I have no idea if what I feel for you is love either, but its got to be something, right? I missed you." She smiled softly. Who knew it would take an art gallery for Jonathan Storm to open up about his emotions.
"So what do we do about it?" She asked.
"Try again? This time without the words we don't really mean."
"I can do that," she stated taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. "But we still have to face what happened that night."
"I know. Wish we didn't, but I know we do." They smiled at each other for a second.
"Oh, for god's sake! Just kiss the girl." Johnny's face took on a look of good humored annoyance and he sent a glare back and Ben who was standing with Alicia, Keisha and the Richards watching them with smiles.
"Might as well, Johnny," she said with a laugh. "They won't leave us alone unless we do."
"Well, if the lady insists," he leaned in to kiss her, keeping it light at first, but moving over to deepen it after a second. It was different from previous kisses. It took her a second to realize that for the first time, Johnny wasn't keeping his temperature down in his kiss. Not that his overall temperature had changed, but Johnny had a higher internal temperature then most people, and since he now knew she could handle it, he was letting go. So she returned the favor, and when the two separated, their lips glowed blue for a second.
"What the hell?" came Ben's voice again, and both Johnny and Frankie grimaced. They had forgotten that the other three of the Fantastic Four weren't aware that Frankie had almost the same abilities Johnny had.
"Well, yet another conversation that should have been had," she said under her breath as they stood up to walk to the group, which wanted to hear explanations. But her smile remained on her face as Johnny didn't let go of her hand.
Things weren't perfect, but there was a possibility and that would do for now.