My Impractical Hurricane – 7

Uh…Okay, I'm sorry, I have no idea what you mean by warning you when I'm going to put "stuff" in my chapters. This story's full of stuff. And junk. And shit. Sooo, you're gonna have to be a little more specific than thatthankyou! And yeah, yeah, I'm sorry the last chapter was so short. Don't shun me! This one's longer! I swear! I SWEAR!

Reed had supposed that finding Johnny couldn't be that difficult. Usually all he had to do was follow the trail of destruction and mass chaos. Or the mob of screaming fan girls. Tonight, however, it had been proven to him that it wasn't going to be that easy. It was a Friday night, and the streets were littered with partiers and clubbers. This was clearly Johnny's crowd, but no sign of Johnny. Reed kept his scarf up high around his neck as he walked, head low and hoping to avoid recognition if he could. The last thing he needed right now was a nerdy fan trying to get him to do a trick like he was some sideshow freak—which would, in turn, attract a surrounding crowd that trapped him in the middle of the street for hours. He had learned that the hard way.

Stopping by a street lamp to try and avoid pedestrian traffic, Reed shivered and rubbed his hands together. It was freezing out, or at least it seemed that way when you've been out searching for someone this late at night. Reed was beginning to become frantic. Where was he? Not that he was worried much about The Human Torch being cold, per say, but as sick as he was, it was potentially dangerous for him to be out here. Someone had to have at least seen him. The last person to have even mentioned him was the doorman Reed questioned on the way out, who had said he'd seen Johnny leave about an hour prior. That was three hours ago. Since then, Reed had been to almost every club in the city.

"Hey!" called out an unfamiliar voice behind him. He didn't want to turn around, mostly because if the person wasn't calling him, he didn't want to expend the effort. "Hey you!" the voice called again, and this time Reed slowly turned. He found himself looking at a young man and a woman.

"Yes?"

The man seemed very excited. "Y-you're you, huh?" he blurted out.

"…Yeah…" Reed went to turn away, but the man was suddenly in front of him again.

"Dude, you're totally Mr. Fantastic! This is so cool! Hailey, look—" he grabbed his companion's arm and jerked her into the scene, pointing at Reed as though he were very far off in the distance. "It's Mr. Fantastic!"

Reed wanted to beg the man to keep his voice down. "Right, uh, I'm really just on my way to—"

"So can you stretch any part of your body?" the woman interjected.

Reed narrowed his eyes. If he had to hear one more penis joke… "As far as I know, look—"

"You're my favorite." The girl continued. "A lot of people go for the fire guy, but I think you're the hottest."

Reed opened his mouth, trying to get a word in.

"No offense or nothin', but like, The Thing is awesome! Is he around here, could we meet him?" the young man countered.

"Actually I'm looking for one of us." Reed said as quickly as he could before they started up again. "Have you seen Johnny?"

The two stared blankly at him.

"…Johnny Storm?"

Nothing.

Reed rolled his eyes. "…The Torch?"

"Oh! Him!" the two suddenly broke out into a session of mindless chatter and Reed slapped a hand over his forehead.

"Please, if you've seen him, tell m—"

"No way, because Pete was just down this way like five minutes ago and he totally said he saw this guy that looked just like the Torch walking down that way." The man gestured down the sidewalk a ways.

"Pete's full of shit." Noted the girl.

"No he's not, he really sees stuff."

"Yeah huh, just like he saw Jennifer Aniston at Taco Bell."

"Hey, he really did see her there! I swear, Kyle was with him and they were at the Coke machine when—"

"Would you two please—!" Reed suddenly cried out, and they were both shocked into silence. "—tell me where he went?"

The man paused and flipped a hand behind them towards the next row of buildings. "Uh…I think he went down that way. To the bar, maybe?"

"Thank you." Reed nearly snapped as he brushed past them and headed briskly towards said location, ignoring the capricious banter that went on behind his back.

"Wow, that was rude."

"Yeah, I mean celebrities being stuck up I can see, but super heroes?"

Reed quickly made it to the front door of the bar and pushed his way inside through a throng of people. With a few suffered 'excuse me's, 'watch it, retard's, and 'that's my foot, dickhead's, Reed managed to battle through them relatively unscathed to the bar. "Uh, excuse me!" he called out as soon as the bartender was near enough.

A woman, looking about in her late twenties, greeted him with a nod and moved over to meet him. "What's your poison, babe?"

"I'm looking for someone." Reed explained. "Uh, he's got really short blond hair, muscular build, probably on the arms of about five super-model looking…"

"Him?" the bartender pointed a finger down to the more deserted end of the bar, where a figure sat hunched over with his head in his arms.

Reed breathed a sigh of extreme relief. "Johnny…"

"I'm glad someone came to get him out of here, he doesn't look so good." The bartender offered.

"How much has he had to drink?"

"Drink? Hasn't ordered a thing." She replied before returning to another group of customers.

Surprisingly enough, Johnny was alone. He could easily pass for an unconscious drunk, so it was plausible that he had been left here without much fuss. Creeping up gently next to him, Reed eyed him over and rested his arms on the bar. "Johnny—"

Johnny's head shot up and his eyes met Reed's with shock. "Reed?"

"What are you doing out here?" Reed took a step towards him and Johnny suddenly leapt from his seat, accidentally knocking it to the floor and very nearly falling with it.

"Stay away from me!" he ordered, moving back.

"Jeez, Johnny, cool it!" Reed held up his hands and looked around as spectators began to turn.

Johnny took one horrified look around and rushed away into the bathroom.

"Johnny!" Reed called after him and hesitated, lowering his head a little in embarrassment as onlookers all focused upon him. "He's…uh…" Reed attempted at an explanation for a second before growling in self-exasperation and marching into the bathroom after his teammate.

Johnny was at the farthest end he could be, which wasn't that far, leaning against the wall next to the sink and rubbing his head painfully. He looked up as Reed entered with a mixture of anger and despair.

"Johnny, what is going on with you?" Reed demanded.

"Go home, get out of here, I-I'm taking a bathroom break!" Johnny looked down at the sink for a moment and shuddered.

"Johnny, look at you…" Reed shook his head and came closer, despite when Johnny pushed himself hard against the wall away from him.

"I'm fine!" Johnny protested, which would have been a lot more profound had his voice not cracked pre-pubescently in the process. He suddenly wavered and began to slide down.

"Whoah, whoah, hey—" Reed quickly came forward and caught him, pulling him back up and frowning at him in concern. Johnny was pale, he was shaking, and his frailty was suddenly very evident. "…It's Winter, and you're really sick, do you understand that? How can you not? It's your body. Why did you come out here?"

Johnny tried to pull away weakly, but his body was mostly leaning against Reed and moving much would likely land him on the floor. "Maybe I was trying to get away from you, okay?" he hissed.

"I'm serious." Reed returned firmly.

"So am I! God, it's like suddenly I can't get you off my damn back!"

Reed's grip around Johnny's middle relaxed a little, but as the younger began to fall back, his hold was tightened again awkwardly. "…Look…I'm sorry about the other day, alright? I-I shouldn't've done that, it wasn't fair. But your health is more important than some stupid fight." Reed leaned back a little and turned on the sink, snatching a paper towel from a conveniently located dispenser and wetting it with cool water.

"No…" Johnny tried to shake his head, but Reed shushed him and wiped his brow with the dampened towel.

Reed washed away the sweat on Johnny's face and felt a hand to his forehead. "You're really warm. But I don't know if it's a fever, or if it's just…you." He moved the hand down to the side of his temple to keep feeling a bit. "You need to come back home so I can get a better look."

"I like women, Reed…" one of Johnny's hands gripped at the shirt over Reed's chest.

Reed blinked, shrugging slightly in confusion. "I know you do."

Johnny was gazing up at him now with a wide-eyed, dizzy looking vulnerability. "…So why do I…? he trailed off.

Reed furrowed his brow, stroking his fingers lightly over the side of Johnny's head. "…Why do you what…?" he asked softly. He couldn't help it, he felt so compelled to stare…

Johnny opened his mouth to say something, just as the door suddenly crashed open from behind them and spilled in two loudly talking men. Instantly Johnny lunged for the sink, vomiting gruesomely.

"Sh—it man, he okay?" asked one of the intruders.

"He'll be fine." Reed nodded with a forced smile and put an arm over Johnny's shoulders. "Come on…let's get home…"

Johnny groaned in pain as Reed wrapped an arm carefully around his middle and took an arm to hoist him with, easing him up. It was no simple task to drag him out into the street and hail a cab, especially with so many people staring at them, but when at last the task was done, Reed felt a little safer. Tonight's incident was finally over. "Alright, watch your head." He muttered as he helped push Johnny into the back seat, notifying the driver of the desired location and getting in next to him.

Johnny began muttering aimlessly, covering his face with a hand.

"Is he gonna throw up in here?" the driver turned over a shoulder warily.

"Not if you drive slow…" Reed returned.

"Hey look, I just got this car cleaned, and I can't—"

"It's fine, he won't." Reed insisted. "Come here Johnny, close your eyes, take it easy…" he coaxed Johnny's head down onto his shoulder, who half-deliriously complied.

The cab driver fixed them with a funny look.

Reed looked back with a warning expression of his own. "Would you just take us home please?"

As the car continued on its path, Reed was quickly reminded why it was he didn't go out very often: People suck.