Nothing Special
Disclaimer: I don't own Fantastic Four, boohoo
A/N: Dear readers, I am so sorry for not updating in such a long time, please forgive me! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, I really hope you guys enjoy Chapter 2!
Chapter 2: Dinner Makes You Wonder
Robyn sat on her small bed in the guest room, she patted her wet hair absent-mindedly with her towel as she paged through all of Reed's old photo albums stopping here and there.
Her eyes drifted to a photo of her and Sue sitting in McDonald's waving fries around in one hand and toasting to nothing in particular with the other.
Robyn could remember it so well, it had been prom night, and she, of course, didn't have a date. So the three had decided to head down to McDonald's for a fun night out.
She could remember feeling vaguely guilty for having so many chocolate shakes and all the fries, her plump cheeks glowed and her dark eyes twinkled in the picture.Sue looked a bit worn out, her hair sticking out of her ponytail but she was grinning too, her glasses perched on her head.
She chuckled as she closed the album, the morning after prom Sue had told her that Johnny had gone home with both his dates, apparently he'd fallen into the spiked punch bowl, and was drunk beyond belief when he stumbled into their house.The two girls had fled the house and Sue was the one who patted his back as he drifted in and out of sleep by the toilet after throwing up nearly every hour until dawn.
"Hey guys, so where is the poor girl?" asked a very familiar voice from down the hall, Robyn woke up from her reverie and jumped up from the bed.
Quickly Robyn pulled on comfortable loose fitting clothes and hurriedly flung the rest into the wardrobe. She tied the towel around her head and ran outside, almost crashing into none other than Mr Fantastic.
"Reed!" she cried happily, flinging her arms around him.
He was too surprised to hug her back and stood still trying to keep his balance as Robyn gave him a bear hug. Robyn, who had last seen Reed three years ago, almost cried with joy as she held onto her big brother tightly.
"Egg!" Reed managed to say and patted her on the back.
After a while she let go, and looked him up and down, he had changed quite a bit from when she had last seen him with his skinny frame hunched over some experiment, well, someone's certainly been working out, she thought, but then again, I guess that comes with the superhero package.
"I trust the flight wasn't too bad?" he asked, and memories of what happened a few hours earlier flooded into Robyn's mind.
"Of course not!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "You know how I adore flying, especially when the pilot seems totally unable to bring the plane down safely," she scowled, but Reed only gave a chuckle, he knew how Robyn could be about pilots and planes.
"Oh, I'm sure it couldn't be that bad," he grinned, but she folded her arms and looked at him squarely in the eyes.
"It wasn't bad, it was awful, dreadful, terrible…horrific if you will!" she said raising her voice and waving her arms in the air like a lunatic.
Reed laughed again, but when he met his sister's eyes he saw a glint in them.
"So…I saw you guys on the news, heard you on the radio, I even cut out some of your pictures from a magazine, seems science-fare winners are being made into celebrities nowadays," she said giggling.
He rolled his eyes as she continued, "The Fantastic Four! Reed, you're superheroes! Actual superheroes with little pixie outfits and catch phrases! You actually have real powers! You-you fight crime, you save the day, you rescue kittens stuck in trees!" she rambled, stopping only to get her breath back.
Reed looked at her sideways with a curious look on his face.
"Quickly touch the guestroom's door!" she commanded, but Reed shook his head with an exasperated sigh and continued walking. Robyn grabbed his shoulder, shaking him slightly.
"Just quickly!" she pleaded, looking up at him. Reed gave another sigh and rolled his eyes, then slowly reached out to grab her door's handle. Robyn gawped at his arm, his sleeves were already above what she suspected might be his elbows.
The evil surgeon in her would've liked nothing more than to slice him open and inspect what was really going on beneath his skin, she raised her eyebrows as he let go of the handle and his arms went back to their normal length.
She looked at him, her mouth hung open, was this alien freak really her brother?
"That's…interesting," she said after a while, as they came into the lounge, and she was swept up into a hug.
Sue clutched her arms, and the two joyfully bounced up and down like a pair of teenagers. Robyn was grinning from ear to ear, and her turban was already sitting lopsidedly on her head, a strand of damp hair sticking out. Sue was getting messier and messier with each bounce.
Johnny stood in the doorway, gazing at the two with an expression of bewilderment on his face, he eyed them inquisitively, he never knew before then that two women who usually behaved so grown-up and serious could jump about the lounge like he would've expected from someone like Shelby.
Sue let go and both of them laughed hysterically, nearly falling over. Robyn tried to push her turban back onto her head, but only caused it to fell off completely, and her damp hair fell onto her back.
"Oh, I really missed you, Suzie!" she said, gasping for air.
Sue beamed and the two plonked down onto the couch, immediately female chatter filled the room and Johnny rolled his eyes and turned to leave the room.
"Johnny! We'll need coffee!" cried Sue as the settled in to share all the things that had passed. Johnny knew from experience they would probably drop the name Victor Von Doom a few times, maybe talk a bit about Alicia, gossip over Debbie, and then finally would come the story of how she and Reed got back together.
Johnny slouched into the kitchen; Reed had made his escape much earlier and was probably holed up in his lab busy with a new experiment. Johnny sighed and put the kettle on, he would need a night out, he was sure of that.
He flipped through the numbers on his phone, Cecilia…Celia… Gabriella…Gabrielle… Gabby… Mary… Michelle… Mischa...
Mischa! He called her up and in no more than ten seconds later he had managed to get a date with the skinny Victoria's Secret model.
He grinned as he took the coffee to the two women sitting casually on the couch, engrossed in the little bits of news that the other was telling. He handed them both their steaming drinks and as quickly as possible made his way out of the room to the shower, his second one for the day, as much as he hated to admit it he did perhaps smell like a lawnmower, and that wasn't a good scent for a superhero playboy.
"Yes! Then he proposed! I felt like such an idiot for turning invisible!" said Sue, and Robyn pulled her legs up under her chin in glee at what exactly had happened the night when her brother proposed.
"A space casket? Are you serious?" she asked and giggled at what must've been the look on Sue's face.
"Yes! I was so annoyed that he dragged me away from the party for all for a space casket, and then he kneeled down," she said, and Robyn grinned in response.
Sue seemed happier than ever but Robyn could see something else in her eyes too, she had known her long enough to know when something was wrong, but she didn't want to spoil her good mood and resolved to ask her about it later.
Suddenly Robyn's stomach gave a loud rumble, Sue raised her eyebrows in surprise, Robyn was suddenly aware of the fact that the last meal she had eaten was the one on the plane, the one she had puked up at the descent.
"Oh yeah!" Sue exclaimed remembering, "We're all going out for dinner, we'll meet Ben and Alicia at the restaurant so you better go get your hair dry!" she said, and Robyn jumped up from the couch ad hurried back to the guestroom, leaving Sue alone in front of the television.
She couldn't help but feel a slight apprehension at the thought of meeting Alicia, Ben was her friend and she wanted the best for him, well, she's got to be something if she can see past Ben's looks, she thought.
She had always gotten on alright with Debbie, she wasn't a particular friend of Robyn's, but the two treated each other politely, chatting about little things, the weather, the previous night's soaps that neither of them watched and other almost meaningless things.
Quickly she dried her damp hair and tied it into a loose ponytail in the nape of her neck as she usually did. Robyn hurriedly slipped into something more suitable for meeting an old friend's new girlfriend.
She ogled herself in the mirror, I'm not going to lie, I've seen better on a hippo but at least my hair isn't greasy anymore! Robyn thought, she hastily put on some mascara and lipstick before pulling on her comfortable flat shoes, she gave herself one final look in the mirror and rushed out of the door.
Suddenly everything was so quiet, and she couldn't help but wonder if they had already left. She slowly made her way to the lounge where she could hear the television on.
Robyn peeked into the room; Sue was sitting with her face in her hands perched on the edge of her seat, she was breathing slowly and deeply to keep her emotions under control.
"Sue?" Robyn asked cautiously, sitting down beside her and putting a hand on the older woman's back.
Sue looked up, she hadn't cried but it was obvious that she had wanted to; her nose and eyes had a touch of pink to it. She gave a reassuring smile, quickly pressing the off button on the remote, but not before Robyn could catch the words "Storm Siblings".
By the look on Sue's face Robyn decided it would be best to ask her about it on another day and instead of pestering she returned Sue's smile with one of her own.
"Right, look at the time!" she exclaimed looking at her watch, "I'll get Reed, you go wait in front," she said and Robyn nodded leaving the room and making her way to the penthouse's exit.
She stood humming along to Mika's Big Girl, she nearly screamed in surprise when she noticed a woman with a calm demeanour standing behind the desk.
"Who are you?" she asked trying to keep her voice steady, maybe it's one of Johnny's fan girls, or maybe even one of Reed's, she wrinkled her nose at the thought, that's just wrong, big brothers who used to win science fares aren't supposed to have fan girls chasing after them.
"I am Roberta," said the woman, and Robyn eyed her suspiciously, maybe she's not right in the head, fear rose in her, oh crap! What if she's a psychopathic stalker or something?
"What're you doing here, Roberta?" she asked slowly.
Suddenly Sue and Reed appeared in the doorway, and with a "Thank you Roberta" the holograph disappeared. Robyn gawped at them, only fair that superhero celebrities get to have holographic assistants.
"So, let's go!" said Reed cheerfully and the three quickly stepped into the lift, Sue and Robyn exchanging glances of which one was clearly laughing and the other a bit embarrassed.
Dinner was a disaster, period.
Johnny had brought a date with him and while Robyn and Alicia got on quite well, Johnny's date, Mischa with her bottle blonde hair about as natural as her real plastic diamond earrings and her sky blue eyes that were as big as the Power Puff Girls', had gotten awkward with Alicia's blindness and promptly begun to say things like: "How do blind people know colours?" and "I think a blind person should be able to apply for a job as a traffic constable!" and "Can people eat acorns?"
Not to mention the fact that she was seated across Johnny, Robyn and Alicia, she tried to play footsie with him all through dinner and ended up giving Robyn a kick on the shin more often than not.
She batted her eyelashes, pouted and twirled her hair around a bony finger with a shocking pink nail. Johnny would give her a charming grin and then she would give a high-pitched little giggle, so it went on.
Luckily by the time dessert came she noticed that Johnny wasn't going to respond to her "advances" under the table and she grew tired of just batting her eyelashes receiving a grin and giving a giggle.
Robyn was about to jump on the table and start singing the Hallelujah chorus she was so grateful that the kicks coming from Mischa's spiky Prada shoe had stopped.
Robyn sat with an almost scary grin on her face as she stabbed her huge piece of Death By Chocolate cake with her fork. No doubt she would not be able to wear a dress the following day since her legs would probably be an interesting mix of purple, blue and black.
"Thought she'd never stop," muttered Alicia under her breath, Robyn, sipping her coffee, just caught it and began to giggle hysterically.
She choked and spilled the hot liquid all over the tablecloth and the outfit she had on. She coughed and coughed, hugging her stomach and hunching forward. Tears started to stream down her cheeks and she struggled to breathe.
Johnny grimaced, and hesitantly began to slap her back. He wanted to roll his eyes but didn't dare to do so while Sue was sitting opposite him. Finally Robyn stopped coughing and sat upright, "Pardon me," she rasped.
Mischa looked at her as though she was the shell of the rotten egg that she had tossed in her neighbour's rubbish bin the previous morning. Robyn couldn't say that she hadn't ever been subject to exactly the same stare of disgust before, in fact it was one she had lived with most of her high school career, so it didn't really bother her in the least and she smiled sweetly as a reply to the Barbie.
After the bill was paid and goodbyes handed out Johnny, Reed, Robyn and Sue were all squeezed into a taxi. Ben and Alicia had decided to go to the cinema determined to have at least one or two hours to themselves.
Mischa had immediately after the bill was paid rushed out of the restaurant, she loved the glamour of going out with the Human Torch when just the two of them were being chased by the paparazzi or walking up and down the red carpet, but his family were just so…not.
"The RubyCachino, please" said Johnny to the driver; Robyn raised an eyebrow, what the hell is a RubyCachino? she thought puzzled.
"The Baxter Building, please," said Sue, rolling her eyes at her brother, "we're just going to drop Johnny off at his…friend's event, then we're heading home, you must be so tired after the flight, Egg," she said.
Robyn shrugged, her eyelids were getting heavier by the minute but she was sure that falling asleep squeezed into a taxi wasn't likely to happen to her when she was used to sleeping alone in her double bed in her quiet apartment.
Yet she couldn't help it as she gazed out the window at the lively streets to be hypnotized; she slowly closed her eyes and let her body relax.
Suddenly she bumped her head against the window, hard. She was thrust back into the real world; she rubbed her head, who knew New York could be so dangerous? If it isn't a kamikaze pilot on my plane, it's a holographic psychopathic secretary in the Building, or a possessed taxi just waiting for me to let my guard down.
"You're going to live up to your name, Egg! Tomorrow I'll bet you'll have a bump on your head the size of one!" laughed Johnny and Robyn's cheeks glowed red with embarrassment.
"Why did Kick-start Barbie, I mean Mischa disappear so quickly?" she asked coyly, though she knew the real answer, "Is the Torch losing his touch?"
Johnny raised an eyebrow, "A nerd with attitude," he exclaimed, ignoring the annoyed glances of Sue, he leaned closer to Robyn so that she could feel his breath on her cheek, "I like it," he whispered.
A shiver crawled up her spine and she swallowed hard. He can do that just to prove he isn't losing his touch? Robyn thought dumbstruck by such a little thing.
The taxi came to a halt outside a very fancy nightclub, Robyn could hear the music playing from inside and saw a throng of mostly fabulous looking people waiting outside to be let in.
She saw most of the people standing there were rich, most of them wore designer labels, real jewellery, probably, and just the way they handled themselves was like a billboard shouting at other people.
She got out of the taxi to let Johnny get out too, she still watched them. Fascinated as if she had stumbled upon a completely different breed of human. A woman with a skimpy dress that covered her string-bean body came up to Johnny, teetering on skyscraper high heels. She greeted him with a kiss, took his arm laughing and without another word led him into the posh club.
Robyn slowly got back into the car, still watching all the people as the taxi drove away, and when she couldn't see them anymore she still thought about them, I wonder what it must be like to be so, she searched for a word and it came to her in an instant, fabulous.
She shook her head as the taxi stopped in front of the Baxter Building's entrance; Robyn was relieved to find that there wasn't a reporter or photographer in sight. She thanked the driver, and got out with Sue and Reed. The two were walking close to each other, holding hands talking and laughing, Robyn gave a small smile; it was great that they were back together again.
She slowly went up the steps and into the Building; she followed Sue and Reed to where Jimmy was standing, his grey hair frizzy and a nervous look on his face.
"Mr Richards, Miss Storm, Miss Richards, I am so glad I caught you tonight…" his voice trailed off as Robyn zoned out. She just couldn't make herself listen; she was exhausted and…thinking about other things.
When they had finished talking she followed her brother and Sue into the elevator. She was reminded of what happened earlier and blushed, what a way to start a visit with family. She stared at her feet, trying not to nod off.
"Robyn?" asked Reed and her head popped up.
"What?" she asked meeting his gaze.
"You've been really quiet, you okay?" he asked, with a concerned look on his face.
Robyn nodded with a yawn, "Yeah, I'm fine, just really, really tired. It's been a long day," she mumbled.
She came out of the elevator not as surprised as she had been earlier by Roberta who still stood behind the desk with her calm face, she nodded and greeted her before going straight to the guestroom, and she pulled on her nighties and fluffy baby blue robe.
She went to the bathroom and quickly washed her face only then noticing how her mascara had streamed down her face when she choked at dinner, she was a bit embarrassed but as she stood gazing into the mirror while brushing her teeth her thoughts drifted back to the fabulous people.
She spat into the sink and rinsed out her mouth, the zit she had was still only a small bit of what it was to become, she could tell, airplanes always gave her zits that could be mistaken for her Siamese twin, extremely visible and extremely painful.
No sound could be heard as she entered the hall, Reed and Sue had probably gone to sleep already; she padded to the guestroom and threw her robe over the armchair in the corner. She tried not to make a sound as she climbed into the creaky bed, for a while she just lied still staring up at the ceiling in the dark.
She tried to picture herself all dolled up and fabulously fab, prancing in, in a very little black dress, hanging on Johnny's arm and easily dancing with her sky high shoes, her bouncy hair waving in slow-motion and her soft hands and their painted fingernails on Johnny's shoulders as the perfect song played in the background.
Robyn pulled a face in the darkness.
Wait, why was she feeling a bit like she did in high school, not good enough and therefore excluded? Stop it! Why are you including the high school golden boy in your seriously idiotic fantasies, and why would you want such a boring predictable little story?
Robyn rolled her eyes and turned onto her side to get more comfortable, she yawned and closed her eyes.
Well that was Chapter 2, I didn't feel entirely satisfied with it and felt a bit like I was starting to preach here at the end, but then I haven't written anything in well, a really long time and I have recently discovered the awesome world of Anime, Animax only just started here in SA, hehe which means I had lots of fun experimenting with writing for it and spending hours "studying for the exams" in front of the TV. Hey, I actually did do quite well in the exams so anyone want to try studying History while watching TV, I say go for it!
I really hope you guys forgive me for the very late update, and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me if you liked it, tell me if you didn't, point out any horrid mistakes and all ideas for future chapters are welcome and appreciated.
Happy reading and happy writing!
The Goose D