I Need You to See

[alldosillythngs]

For the last month and a half, Molly Hooper felt like she'd woken from a bizarre dream. Her brain still felt foggy sometimes, when she thought about where she'd been before. Had it even been real? Arkham, Massachusetts with its assortment of monsters and senseless violence. Death and fear were as integral to that hellish campus as oxygen was to

Comments

[suckmysparks]

He'd had the same effects coming back; the disorientation, the confusion as to whether it was all a crazy dream or not. Through it all, though, one thing had stayed with him. Her face. The smile that lit up the room and the way she always ducked her eyes down whenever something flattering was said about her. It was different from the feigned modesty he was used to in the girls he normally dated. Hers was real.

He'd tried looking for her, but since he'd never actually gotten her last name off her, he found it a bit more difficult than he'd thought it would be.

Eventually, he started wondering if she wasn't just part of that whole, crazy dream that he'd managed to pull himself out of. Maybe she was some kind of compensation his mind was giving him to make up for the massive shitpile that place had been.

He found the answer to that during a press conference called announcing his 'great comeback to the world' after a brief hiatus while he tried to wrap his head around his reality. This reality. As he was coming through the mob up to the podium, he hesitated briefly. Was that-- no. It couldn't be.

He pulled his sunglasses off, wanting a better look at a face he hadn't know was really real until this moment. There she was.

Holy shit.

Walking up to the podium on autopilot, he found he couldn't peel his eyes away from her, somehow convinced that if he looked away, if he blinked, she'd disappear in a wisp of smoke.

[alldosillythngs]

It wasn't hard to take note of when Johnny Storm arrived, flanked by a mob of eager fans and the event security guards assigned to him. What was harder to follow was what he was doing while staring out into the crowd. Molly shifted a bit in her seat, a strange pulse of nerves coursing through her.

It was almost like -- but no, could he really see her? Recognize her from all the way over there? Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe he was staring at the blonde behind her with the massive cleavage? Oh, but that certainly didn't help her feel any better...

Molly felt heat rising to her cheeks the more that Johnny stared in what appeared to be her direction. She didn't know how to react, if she ought to wave or say something or--

Instead, she tilted her head forward, eyebrows slightly raised as she hoped for some signal from him.

[suckmysparks]

The signal, if it could be called that, was a massively wide grin; one that almost split his face as he beamed over at her. Holy crap. She was real. And she knew him.

He stood there in a bit of a daze, beaming like a moron as cameras flashed in his face, adding to the daze by half-blinding him. There were a few comments being uttered, heads turning in the direction of his gaze, reporters and fans alike trying to figure out where his attention was being directed.

He, of course, was oblivious to them at the moment, merely basking in the fact that she was real and she was here.

FUCK YOU LJ I LOST MY REALLY NICE TAG. Here's a crappy one

[alldosillythngs]

Were it not for the growing murmurs around her, Molly would have been similarly lost in staring at his familiar, bright smile. Instead, the noise pulled her back to reality and made her turn her head. She briefly blended in with the other confused fans, looking like she was as curious as they were.

However, she couldn't keep her mind off the man on the stage for long. A hand digging into her purse, she unsteadily got to her feet and shuffled past the people in her row. She tried to, as inconspicuously as possible, wave her arm to get Johnny's attention. She intended to leave the piece of paper for him to find so he could track her down - but who knew if he was actually going to follow her plan. Johnny very rarely played the predictable fellow.

:(

[suckmysparks]

Considering she already had his attention, the wave only served to give him the impression that she wanted to talk to him. Right now.

Well, that was fine with him. Stepping around the podium, he moved through the crowd towards her, smiling distractedly at the fans and reporters around him as he did, blatantly ignoring any questions thrown his way because, hello, she clearly wanted to see him.

And this was not a dream.

He caught up to her at the end of her row, not having to step carefully around bodies to get there. Beaming at her, he stood there. "Heya, Sunshine."

[alldosillythngs]

The only thing on her mind (besides wondering if he had somehow gotten taller) was one word, which happened to slip out of her mouth the moment he spoke to her.

"Shit!"

She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. "I-I mean, hello! Sorry, I..." It wasn't that she was unhappy to see him - far from it. She had even missed hearing him say her nickname. But right now...

She was being stared at. A crowd of people, looking at Johnny Storm, were now, by association and curiosity, looking at her. And she felt her stomach churn with such dread that she was certain she didn't like the attention.

Her hand flew to cover her face from the side as she tried to speak to Johnny. She felt overexposed here. "I, um...I was going to leave you a...note."

[suckmysparks]

He was more than a little surprised at the curse, not having pegged her for one to use swears often, if at all. Then there was that flustered stammer that he'd gotten used to, and his smile brightened.

He scoffed at the mention of a note, reaching for her hand and nodding his head back behind the way he'd come from the podium. There was a small twist in his stomach as he touched her, a flutter as he was finally assured that yes, she was real. "Screw the note. I'd much rather have the person who wrote it."

As oblivious as he could sometimes be to some things, he was not, however, ignorant of her discomfort. He nodded to one of his handlers. "Rick there will take you back to the green room, if you want. Or we can just go now."

Because that was totally fine with him.

[alldosillythngs]

Oh, Johnny, you still have oh-so-much to learn about Molly Hooper. Her own stomach fluttered at his touch, reaffirming memories of their time together. She kept her voice to a whisper, trying not to divert her gaze to those around them.

"B-But don't you have a...a thing to do? I mean, the conference?" Blimey, why was she acting like such a tongue-tied git in front of him? "I mean, a-all these people came to see you..." Then again, so had she.

"I-I can....wait a few minutes for you. In the..room." Good lord, this couldn't really be happening. It was all too surreal.

[suckmysparks]

"Yeah, well, considering they're only going to ask me about you now, I could stand to put it off for a little while." And that was likely true, ears around them visibly straining to catch their conversation.

"Besides, they're not important," he said with a shrug. "You are."

[alldosillythngs]

Her cheeks flushed more visibly and she tried not to squeak from the praise like she so often did when they were alone together.

"Oh, f-fine," she murmured, ducking her head down slightly and moving towards the indicated room. She would, in all actuality, feel much more comfortable with Johnny there anyway, rather than Rick the Stranger. But goodness, all this attention? How did anyone deal with it?

[suckmysparks]

He watched her go, feeling more than a little elated that she was here and real. Moving back over to the podium, he began to answer the questions being fired at him; with a clause that no, he would not be talking about his female friend.

There were groans of frustration, and a few attempts at sneaking in questions, but Johnny answered the ones he could with a smile, and gave a finger waggle and scolding grin to the sneaky ones.

He ended the interview sooner than he'd initially intended, begging off that he needed to do some catching up, then began to make his way back to Molly. He felt that jittery anxiety in his stomach before he opened the door, wondering if she'd really be there.

[alldosillythngs]

That jittery anxiety feeling? Molly had that the entire time he answered questions. Rick the Stranger was nice, albeit curious as to what her relationship with Johnny was. She shook her head and said that she wasn't at liberty to discuss that information. That sounded professional, didn't it?

Well, anyway, it got him to leave her alone for a little while, during which she fidgeted with her hands, tearing up the little piece of paper into strips to take her mind off everything that was happening. She sat off to the side, and when Johnny came in her lap would be covered in white torn strips of paper.

She looked up immediately, her stomach tensing as she saw him again. "..Johnny."

[suckmysparks]

There was a brief moment of hesitation at the door as he just took in the fact that she was there. "Molly."

Stepping in, he barely noticed the torn paper, giving a nod of his head for Rick to skedaddle and leave them alone. When the door closed, he made his way over, hands held out to help her up. "Goddamn, but it's good to see you, Sunshine."

[alldosillythngs]

"Y...You too," She said nervously, one hand brushing the bits of paper off her lap as she slid the other into one of his free hands. She got to her feet, eventually both of her hands finding his. "I...blimey, I never thought I'd miss hearing someone call me an nickname."

[suckmysparks]

He'd mentally told himself he wouldn't do it. Nope. Wouldn't do it. Apparently his body wasn't paying attention to his brain, because as soon as she stood, he took that second step in and let his lips drop down to place a soft, questioning kiss against hers.

Even if she gave him a slap for it, it'd totally be worth it.

[alldosillythngs]

Molly didn't have much of a chance to say no; she was surprised by the sudden tenderness his lips wrought, and she did, perhaps out of instinct, kiss back - albeit very briefly.

"Hey, now...I know you didn't bring me back here just for a snog." The tiny upward curve of her lips indicated she was teasing him. At least the kiss broke some of the unspoken tension.