Straight Up Typhoon – 9

Blah! The real world is bringing me distractions! Don't they know I've got stories to write? Lousy bastards. Thanks so much for reviewing! But aww, I seem to have lost my little flamer. It's so much colder without her. :(

Please enjoy! Now if I could just get someone to teach me the robot…

"I can't believe this." Johnny growled, still sitting in his spot and staring at the T.V. Sue had stormed off to her room two hours earlier and Ben had left about an hour ago to go meet Alicia, only after Reed had assured him nothing would be worsened by his absence. Mostly that left Reed and Johnny to duke out this incident on their own. "How can they…I-I mean they can't…"

"I know, I know, relax…" Reed tried to calm him, pacing idly in front of the coffee table and trying to settle his own nerves.

"Relax? That stuff isn't even true! Well…I-I mean it is true, but not the way they say it!" Johnny clenched his fists and looked away, growling out a breath.

"Famous people get rumors spread about them all the time." Reed reasoned, both for Johnny's sake and his own. "Even if we weren't…er…involved, they would've made that rumor up anyway. It has nothing to do with reality."

"What are we supposed to do now, Reed?" Johnny immediately set to biting his thumbnail. "What do they want us to do? Do you not get how much this sucks?"

"Yeah, I get it, Johnny." Reed held up a hand in frustration. "But there's nothing we can do about it. The public is going to see us how they want to see us."

"But it's a lie!"

"No, it's not." Reed gave him a look.

"Well okay, so it's not…but they don't have to know that!" he groaned and rubbed his cheek. "I seriously don't need this image."

"Just…think of it as widening your popularity range…" Reed murmured as he sat down on the couch once more.

"What?"

"You know…now you'll have an even bigger gay fan club." Reed shrugged.

"That's not funny." Johnny grunted back. "I'm serious, I don't wanna be known as 'that gay super hero'!"

"Johnny, since when are you so comfortable with the title 'super hero' anyway?" Reed straightened up in his slouch, running a hand tiredly through his hair. "Alright, so we stopped Victor from tearing up the city. But that was just cleaning up the mess we already made."

Johnny glared at him.

"…Okay, the mess I already made. In any case, we're not heroes. We're just people, average people."

"With super powers."

"You've never had a problem with the public deciding your image for you before." Reed pointed out.

"That's because they were only telling the truth about me!"

"Oh, and the truth entails your one night stand with Tyra Banks?"

Johnny paused. "Well…okay, so one little white lie couldn't hurt that bad."

"Look Johnny, the world's not always going to call you what you are." Reed sighed roughly. "Yesterday they loved you. Today they make up lies about you. Tomorrow they hate you, and by the next day, they've forgotten about you. Isn't this common sense?"

"So what, you think I'm an idiot now?" Johnny folded his arms. "Maybe you don't wanna be a hero Reed, maybe you don't want to save people and look cool while doing it, but I do. …And we're different from celebrities."

"No we're not." Reed argued. "Not to them, anyway. Don't you understand that? Johnny…those people might want your autograph and think you're cute and love the fact that you can set yourself on fire, but they're strangers. They don't care about you."

"Hey, just because they don't like you doesn't mean they don't like me!" Johnny said with an offended scoff.

"I don't even know what to say to you." Reed gave and expression that did nothing to hide his irritation. Johnny never listened, and there was nothing anyone could do to make him. On one hand, Reed could just strangle him. On the other hand…well—he'd need both hands to strangle him. "How can you be so naïve?"

"Oh, excuse me!" Johnny stood up, pacing around. "I forgot; you're the smart one, you're the rocket scientist, you're the one with the Pedigree."

"I'm just trying to look out for you." Reed insisted. "I'm sorry that all of this happened, but the fact is, you didn't have any issue with the lies people told about you before. It's the truth you seem to have some big damn problem with."

"I'm not gay!" Johnny thrust a finger at him.

"I know that." Reed huffed. "But the fact is that you're in a relationship with a man, so what do you expect people to think?"

"It's none of their business!" Johnny returned dangerously.

"Try telling that to them."

"Yeah?" Johnny snapped at last, turning to face Reed fully. "Well then maybe I don't want to be in a 'relationship' with a man!"

Reed scowled, clenching a fist at his side. "If your image is so damn important to you, fine. Go to Hell."

Johnny hesitated for a few moments before tightening his jaw. "Great! See ya!" with that, he marched his way out of the room in a hurry towards the front door.

Reed stood as well, watching Johnny go. It was only then that he managed a slight twinge of remorse. "...Johnny…wait—"

But the door had already slammed shut behind him.