Hungry Heart (Part 3)
Hungry Heart
Pairing: Johnny Storm/Peter Parker, Harry Osborn/Peter Parker
Characters: Peter Parker, Johnny Storm, Harry Osborn, Emma Frost
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own any character and make no money by writing this stuff.
Author's Note: The titel derives from a German song (Hungriges Herz by MIA). This is a sequel to "Learning a Life Science".
Peter sat next to his now-and-former best friend, on the bed which probably had the size of Peter's room back home. He had his arm on Harry's shoulder, but looked to the other side while Harry kept on shedding tear after tear. Somewhere down the Manor, Peter heard the mournful music played by Harry's father; the faint noises from the lower level of the house underlined the silence in Harry's room even more. Peter had already wrote Gwen who hadn't answered, yet.
Then, after hearing Harry crying for another two minutes, he gently touched his friend's thigh and said: “Harry?”
But, as a matter of fact, the only answer was a soft sneeze, nothing else. Harry laid his hand on Peter's and pressed it with a force Peter would never have considered the young Osborn capable of. He tried again, then: “Harry...should I get you something to drink?”
And maybe a few more tissues, but he didn't say that.
Harry nodded and buried his face in his own hands; weeping and crying again and again. Peter left the room within the moment and went downstairs after he finally was able to orientate in the corridor. He got closer to the living room and was able to take a quick glance through the open door; he thought that the music had come from the stereo station which was turned off. Mr. Osborn himself sat at the piano and moved his fingers with an incredible speed along the white buttons without looking at the notes in front of his face anytime. As he placed with such a shire force, his face wasn't moving anytime. His cold impression which he usually got when talking about the crying son upstairs was the only thing seemingly immanent.
We all have our own way to struggle with grief, but he didn't say that either anytime. The eyes of the Osborn's butler already carrying a tablet with water and tissues did anyway.
***
Johnny sat on top of Baxter Building, wearing his Fantastic Four suit and stared at his mobile phone. As usual, Peter's number was the first to arise when he wanted to call but he wasn't sure whether he should dial or wait for the next day. He would call, anyway.
“You should have dialed by now,” an familiar and also unfamiliar voice said. He felt a soft hand on his shoulder and looked right to see the familiar figure of Emma Frost whose blonde hair wasn't a match for his (she probably dyed it, but Johnny didn't even dare to have this thought). She carried a tablet with two glasses of whine which she positioned right next to her when she sat down and let her legs hang down the skyscraper just like him. “But I guess you didn't.”
“And I guess I'm the number one topic of the party down there, ain't I?”
Frost didn't give him an answer to that question but looked along New York's skyline. “Do you know what I found so interesting about you and Peter?”
“The fact that I fell in love with him without knowing that he's the friendly spider from the neighborhood?”
“Exactly,” Frost said laconically. “Whine? I hope you are old enough to drink alcohol.”
“I'm only three years younger than you, Frost.”
“Sorry.”
“No offense taken....but whine's not my type.”
“More for me, then,” Frost said and took a rather large sip which emptied the glass within the second. “What's on your mind?”
“I already had a mutant psychologist working on me - but read it if you want to know. I think that's your job!?”
“May I?” she asked very cautiously. She laid his hand on temple and made a telepathic gesture to ask for access. “It won't hurt. But I might help arranging a few things Ororo didn't dwell on...I think then you'll be ready to call.”
“Do it,” Johnny said. “Even though I think that Reed would be more than angry if he knew I'd switched off his telepathic defenses.”
“As if they've ever worked,” Frost murmured.
She pressed on his temple and - with a mere second - got access to his mind. Astral version of Johnny and Frost now sat in the bookstore where he and Peter had met for the first time. Johnny stood up and moved closer to his memory self. “I kinda like this.”
Now, Frost seemed to have added the sound to this ridiculous revisited situation.
“Well, I'm an astronaut, kid. There's more important stuff for me to know,” Johnny heard himself say; he smiled and looked at the unimpressed Peter. It almost felt like he could tear Peter's pullover apart and take a look at the Spider-Man suit underneath.
The setting changed. Frost linked arms with him and they took a walk in Central Park, a few moments after Johnny had intervened at a Bank robbery. There, he could see Harry and Peter and saw himself approaching the rather odd pair.
It wasn't until they were really close when he heard what they had said that time.
“Nice job, Mr. Storm,” Peter said and Johnny saw how his past self swelled the chest with pride.
“Call me Johnny. What were you doing there? I saw you running to the bank.”
At this moment, the urge to tear Peter's clothes apart and to let the Spider-Man suit reappear came back and Johnny would have made a step forward if it weren't Emma holding his hand. The scenery disappeared as she let him go and they now stood in the rain. Now, the sound did not have to come back; to see their first kiss was more than enough to let Johnny rejoice, be contempted again.
“That's what matters,” Frost said. “You see your problem, Johnny?”
“Not so sure...”
He imagined how the blonde telepath rolled her eyes. “Where are we?” she said.
“At the Parker's house.”
“Exactly. Say it again. At whose house?”
“The Parker's. Ah...I think I got it.”
Frost made an reassured sigh and said: “You do certainly like the fact that Peter is Spider-Man but you have to keep in mind that it's Peter you fell in love with. And if I have to tell you that ever again, I'm sure, I'll crush your body to hell with my diamond fist.”
“That is the problem, isn't it?”
“I told you so. You want to love Spider-Man too but forgot that you have to love Peter instead. Didn't take a telepath to figure that out - Ororo told me on my way to the restroom.”
“I think I go and find him.”
“Take care, Johnny.”
He gave her a short hug and said: “Thank you...Emma.”