Chapter Nine: Calm My Restlessness
So
raise your hands to heaven and pray,
That we'll be back together
someday.
Tonight, I need your sweet caress,
Hold me in the
darkness.
Tonight, you calm my restlessness,
You relieve my
sadness.
Breathe - Hands To Heaven
It had been a while...too long a while...since they'd done this, and their muscles instantly reacted to the familiar aches. Sue, particularly, was starting to feel the strain of reminder in her arms and legs as she stretched them out before her, beside her and behind her. Reed, of course, had the added elasticity in his limbs and never felt the aches until afterwards, but Sue didn't mind that she felt the strain more that her husband did. She sometimes amused herself with the fact that her body knew what was coming. Of course, it wasn't that she was in bad shape - she was certainly in excellent shape, as her husband was all too eager to remind her - but being a full time superhero was sometimes exhausting, and it required you to be on your toes and agile...something that took more effort than they'd all first thought it would be.
Catching her husband watching her out of the corner of her eye, Sue grinned to herself, bending down to touch her toes. Reed focused hard on not starting as he did a similar stretch to her, their eyes meeting mid-stretch as he lowered down and she regained her upright position. "Ready?" she asked him, after a few stolen glances.
He returned to his standing position, nodding as he took a deep, even breath. "Ready," he confirmed.
They stepped closer to each other, squaring one another up as they fell into their well-practiced fighting stances. Immediately, their eyes felw back to meet each other's. Rule one: never take your eye off your opponent, they remembered.
"Don't hold back, okay?" she told him, her voice softening for a moment. "We've both got a lot of frustration to take out."
He nodded slightly. Their sparring together had been a regular activity since they'd gained their powers. The four of them wanted to keep on their toes in regards to combat skills, and in the case of Reed and Sue, actually learn some. Johnny had been doing various forms of martial arts since he was seven years old, and Ben had had self defence training as well. Sue and Reed, on the other hand, had never even considered it. Sue knew that she could defend herself, given the fact that Johnny had, several times in their youth, taught her some basic defence skills when she started doing bar work to put her through college and was walking home alone. Reed, on the other hand, was terrible, and knew that he couldn't defend himself simply by stretching out of the way. So, the four of them were trained in advanced combat skills by an old trainer of Johnny's.
Of course, when it came to practicing together, it was clear that Sue and Reed would be fighting each other. Not only were they the same trained level, but it was also to do with the more obvious points. None of them could physically fight Ben, as one simple hit would break their bones and severely damage their internal organs. Sue and Johnny's sparring always turned into sibling rivalry and their powers came into use, which was something they were trying not to incorporate, and likewise, Johnny had an 'accidental' habit of melting various parts of Reed's torso whenever they sparred together. He insisted that none of it was intentional and it was just the texture of Reed's skin reacting to his abnormally high body temperature, but Sue was still sure it had something to do with the brother-in-law bickering they had sometimes.
That, of course, left just the married couple as sparring partners; something that usually turned into something more intimate than fighting. "You're going down this time," Reed told her confidently.
She grinned at him, determined to get the last word in as if they were arguing over what milk to buy or whether or not they should buy a new dishwasher. "You wish, Richards."
Simultaeneously, they both dove into the fight; and as usual it was Sue that moved in for the first hit; a low sweeping kick that, had Reed had been prepared for what had become her trademark starting move, would have knocked him off his feet. He jumped, avoiding her foot and as he landed again he went in for a stomach hit, finding that his fist was blocked straight away. Pucnhes flew through the air, both open and closed hand, with both of them trying, and at the same time not trying to hit each other.
"Your dodging is getting faster," Sue complimented breathlessly at one point.
"I'm flexible," he reminded her, bending out of the way of another hit as if to prove his point.
"Still, it's gotten better," she mused, remembering how she used to be able to land hits whether he was stretching away or not.
"Thanks, the strength of your hit is a good motivation to move out of the way," he told her.
She smirked. "Yeah, well, you obviously haven't taken one of your fists to the lower back," she teased him.
"I said I was sorry about that, honey, you turned around--whoa!" he exhaled when one of his blocks failed and he took a side kick to the get. It didn't hurt him because of his ability but it still threw him off balance for a second as his skin rippled around her foot.
"Your accuracy is terrible today, Reed," she observed.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you giving me tips?" he asked her.
She smirked at him. "We both know I'm better."
"Oh, really?" he challenged. Of course, he begged to differ and was determined not to be beaten by a woman - even if that woman was his wife.
"Absolutely." Now she was just bruising his pride.
"Perhaps we should stop holding back then," he suggested, throwing himself into a kick as he spun around, however she managed to block it easily, jumping back to avoid his foot.
"I'll stop when you stop," she agreed.
"I just don't want to hurt you," he told her, knowing that he was always hesitant to stop holding back even though she'd told him not to in every single sparring match they had together. Of course, in any other match one of them would be on the floor by now.
"I've got a high pain threshold," she assured him. "And we both need this, Reed. Don't hold back, okay?"
She was right; they did need this. The stress levels brought on from the past few days had sent his tolerance flying through the roof. That morning he'd almost snapped at the dog just for wagging his tail when he was stressed, and thats when Sue realised that something needed to be done for all of them. Because of that, Ben was taking Alicia to lunch and Johnny was at a motocross tornament while the two of them could work out their frustration in their regular way. They needed this. Both of them. Their increasingly close involvement with Victor was creeping up on them. Sue had mailed her resume to Victor, and was waiting to hear back for an interview if he even considered her application. All of them had their fingers crossed for a rejection, even if they didn't say it.
"Okay," he finally agreed. "After three?"
"One,"
"Two,"
"Three," they said together, before throwing themselves fully into the match. They both had their share of hits and blocking, and after a few minutes of straight fighting, Sue somehow managed to bring Reed down to the ground.
He cried out as he hit the floor, and Sue panicked for a moment, thinking that she had really hurt him. She rushed to his side, not pinning him down as she usually did but rather crouching at his side, placing her hand on his chest. "Oh my God, sweetie, are you okay? I'm so sorry," she rushed out.
She couldn't remember how, exactly, it had happened, but a few seconds later she found herself pinned beneath Reed on the mat beneath them.
"Talk about fighting dirty," she pointed out, but still smiling with the adrenaline from the match.
Reed smiled at her, proud with winning, and even more proud at the fact he now had Sue at his mercy beneath him. "Accuracy, Sue," he told her playfully.
He leaned down and kissed her, however, just when the kiss started getting passionate, he pulled back from the kiss, almost sharply. Sue kept hold of him where her arms were round around his neck so that he couldn't move off her, but her eyes flooded with concern. "What's the matter?" she asked him.
"I...Sue, I'm just so sorry..."
And there it was. The same guilt that had been overtaking him for the past few days now. She ran her hands through his hair. "You'll come up with something," she said quietly.
"How do you know that?" he asked doubtfully.
"I have a feeling," she explained simply.
He sighed. "Well, that isn't exactly tangible evidence--"
"Close your eyes for a moment," she interrupted him, putting her hands on his cheeks gently and tracing comforting circles with her thumbs once his lids had closed. "What am I doing?" she asked him.
"You're touching me," he acknowledged.
"How do you know that?" she tested him.
"Because I..." he realised what she was doing. "Because I feel it."
"You should trust that," she told him. "You don't trust that enough." He kept his eyes closed, and before he could open them she leaned up to kiss him again. "Feelings that you trust in are more reliable than any statistical fact."
Reed sighed. "I hope you're right," he whispered as he opened his eyes.
She nodded. After all, what little arguments they did have were ended because she was always right. "You know, I wouldn't do this for anyone but you," she told him. "If any of the others were involved in a secret society, I would never have agreed to this."
"Then why me?" he asked her.
"Because it's you," she explained simply. "You're my husband, and I know that no matter how things turn out we can be together again when it's all over."
He placed his hand on the back of her neck to bring her in for a kiss. "That's forever," he assured her, whispering his words against her lips.
----
Johnny's distraction for the day had begun with his sister forcing him out of the apartment and him wandering off to a motocross tornament that he'd been told three days before was too dangerous to compete in. He wasn't sure what had made Sue change her mind about it, but he was thankful for it, and was pretty sure it had something to do with her and Reed alone in the apartment together. His mind stayed away from those sorts of thoughts on principle - after all, it was his sister - but every time he realised that Sue had been very insistant that he and Ben were out of the building for the afternoon he started to regret leaving poor, innocent, impressionable puppy Blaze behind in the apartment.
His distraction had turned into clubbing, and it was nearing midnight when he found himself sitting at the bar. Most people were up dancing, but his glass was empty and he had priorities - getting completely smashed (he might as well, while his sister had given him 'permission'. It would be like blaming her for a hangover). But whilst the dancefloor was much more crowded than any other area of the club, there was one solitary person sitting at the bar.
He was instantly struck by her beauty - after all, it was what he noticed first in every girl that passed him in the street - but this was a sad beauty that caught his eye. Her auburn hair was hanging loosely over her shoulders, barely brushed and he knew that it wasn't because she'd been shaking her head around on the dancefloor - he'd have grabbed her for a dance had she been on the dancefloor near him. Her fingers traced the empty glass before her, which she stared into with her green eyes. Simply beautiful.
And drunk.
Grinning as if he'd hit a jackpot, he approached the other end of the bar and crawled into the seat beside her. "Can I get you a drink?" he asked her over the blaring music.
She looked up sharply from her glass, completely unaware that she'd been joined. "Excuse me?"
"I asked if I could get you a drink..." he repeated, noticing that the mascara she was wearing had run quite a bit and was pooling on the skin beneath her eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked hesitantly - he was never one to play the crying shoulder but he figured it couldn't hurt to try.
The girl sighed. "You don't even want to hear about the day I've had," she told him, throwing a cocktail stick into her glass with a supressed rage that attracted him even more.
"Ouch," he sympathised. "That bad?"
"My boyfriend and I broke up today."
Victory bells started ringing in Johnny's head, but he put his arm around her shoulder instead. "Well, he's a fool for letting a beautiful girl like you get away from him."
She half-smiled. "I broke up with him," she corrected.
Those victory bells rang louder. "Even better," Johnny announced. "No reason for you to be sad."
She looked at him strangely, which with her drunkenness was a strange sight. "I'd been with him for a long time," she revealed. "It's hard to let something like that go so easily."
"I suppose so," he nodded, remembering how much, and how long, his sister had moped around his apartment when she'd first broken up with Reed. "Hey, I've got something to cheer you up," he told her brightly.
"Really?" she asked, clearly doubting him.
"Yeah," he grinned. "I bet I can guess your phone number!"
She frowned at him, shaking her head. "No, you couldn't."
He snapped his fingers dramatically. "Okay, you got me!" he sighed. "You'd better write it down."
She regained her strange look. "Are you hitting on me?" she asked him.
His eyes widened. "I hadn't thought of that, but it's a great idea," he lied. "Do you want me to hit on you?"
She shrugged lazily. "I don't know. I'm drunk."
"I like that in a girl," he smirked."
"Ha. Very funny."
"We could have sex," Johnny suggested.
"We could?" the girl asked.
He nodded. "I know that you've just broken up with your boyfriend and I'm sure that you're feeling lonely, so I'd like to help you feel not so lonely."
She took this in for a moment, screwing up her face in drunken concentration. "That would be strangely kind of you."
"It would be, yes," he smiled.
She cocked her head to one side. "I don't even know your name," she realised.
"Johnny," he offered.
"Cute," she smiled.
"Thank you," he said smugly.
"I meant your name." Ouch. Hit one.
"Thank you twice," he said, recovering from his hit before she realised she'd struck his ego.
"I'm Crystal," she told him.
"Crystal," he nodded, testing the name out on his tongue. "You wanna get out of here, Crystal?"
She nodded. "Sure, why not."
