Flame On!

"That's a shame," Johnny said as she talked about not being able to find time to come here anymore. It seemed like a good place, one that made her relaxed and happy. Those places will always be the best. "But if its something you really like, I'm sure you'll find the time. Like right now." He said as an example. They didn't have to come here, or even hang out at all, if she was really as busy as she claimed. But she had made the time, so this must be worth it to her.

She sat down at a booth in the corner, ordering a couple of slices of cheese pizza for herself as the waitress came to their table. “And whatever he wants,” she said, gesturing towards Johnny. “You can just give me the check,” She said to the waitress. She wasn’t about to let him pay for their food. He’d been chivalrous enough already. ”I’ll take care of it.”

“Right there,” She yelled, pointing at a small building far below them. Honestly, she didn’t really want to stop flying, but he had to be getting tired. She laughed in exhilaration as they flew downwards, her hair flying behind her. Still giggling as he put her down, she handed him his suit. “That was incredible,” She breathed.

She pointed out the building to him and he swooped down, coming to a clean landing in the alley right next to it. The flames went out and he was left, once again, simply Johnny Storm. But that was good enough for now. He took his suit from her and gladly started to put it back on, though not as neatly as it had been. A bit rumpled was fine though, maybe even kinda hot. "You're alright then?" He asked her as he combed his fingers through his wind tossed hair. "I didn't burn you or anything did I?" He was concerned that he might've, because this was a bit of an experiment. If she was fine, then he might consider doing it again sometime.

Maria gasped as he picked her up, clutching tightly to his clothes and squeezing her eyes shut. Her screams as they took off faded away as she finally opened her eyes and looked out over the city,  her eyes widening in awe. The view from up there was incredible. She snapped her jaw shut as she realized it had fallen open, taking a deep breath. She was at a complete loss for words.

She then looked down to see the complete lower half of Johnny’s body on fire, and she held tighter to his clothes. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen him like this before, just never this close. It was extraordinary. “This is…amazing,” she gasped, looking up at him, a bright smile spreading across her lips.

Johnny couldn't help but laugh at her initial scream, that was exactly how he had first felt. It was like the first drop of a roller coaster, only up. Thrilling and exciting and scary in a way that made him giddy half the time. It was a sheer rush. He zig zagged around buildings raced the city busses, making his way downtown. He would've done some fancy loops, but he was a little paranoid of dropping her. He had promised he wouldn't, so he would make sure he wouldn't.

She nodded as he explained, getting more and more excited by the second. A few burns could hardly hurt her now, and, despite every bit of training she’d ever had, she trusted him. Still, she hesitated for a moment. Accidents happened all the time, and maybe she shouldn’t trust him. She’d only just met him, after all.

No, Johnny was trustworthy. She’d kept up with him at SHIELD long enough to know that. She had to stop being so skeptical.

“I want to do it,” She said lightly, smiling up at him. “I mean, what could happen?” Alot of things, actually, but she didn’t dare say it out loud. She wasn’t about to ruin her chance to fly with Johnny Storm. Taking a deep breath, she said, “It’ll be fun.”

"Well, alright then," he said with a grin. This would be interesting, maybe even fun if he managed to pull it off. He almost wished she wasn't so adventurous. Then he wouldn't have to take risks like this. But no, she was SHIELD. And he was positive that one flight with him would be better than all the gadgets they had put together. He was out to impress.

Johnny dragged her into an abandoned alley and started taking his shirt off, revealing his super suit underneath. "You're gonna hold my clothes while we fly because this suit was expensive, okay? I really don't want to ruin it," he said as he dumped the pile of clothes in her arms. He paused a moment, then picked her up bridal style, the easiest way he figured, and said his poorly thought out catch phrase, "Flame on!"

Her head shot up at the mention of flying. “Would that be safe?” She asked, her smile stretching into a full grin. She imagined that she probably looked like a 6 year old on Christmas morning. “I mean…I wouldn’t get burnt? And you wouldn’t drop me or anything, right?” The thought of flying with him was exciting. She’d watched heroes fly for years and years and had always wanted to as well, but the opportunity had never come up.

Trying to regain her composure, she shrugged and said, “I mean, I’m up for it if you are.” A smile still played at the corner of her lips.

Johnny laughed softly as she got closer to him and his warmth. "Who needs a coat when you can have a personal toaster?" he said sarcastically. It was kind of an old trick by now, using his heat to get people closer to him. But he always enjoyed being wanted for something, so he didn't mind her arms around him in the least.

“Are we walking?” She asked, her cheeks blushing light pink as a gust of cold wind hit her in the face. There didn’t seem to be any taxis around here, and, unless he’d brought a car-which seemed unlikely-that seemed to be their only option. Not like she really cared. Walking with Johnny would be fun. But  why did it have to be so damn cold?

They finally made it outside, and though it was cold, Johnny didn't feel it. He never felt the cold anymore. But other people weren't the same way, it seemed. So when he noticed Maria's shiver,he wrapped his arm around her shoulders to warm her up a little bit. She had to have been freezing without a coat, whereas he could be in shorts and still not feel it. "There you go, warmer now?" he asked her with a smile. He wasn't showing off exactly, just maybe flaunting his benefits. Stick with Johnny and you'll never be cold again!

“Thank you,” She said eventually, all joking aside. “It means alot for you to trust me like that.” His faith in her was encouraging, even though it did add some pressure to her situation. She hoped she didn’t act as weak as she felt. Sometimes, she felt like she could just collapse from exhaustion and stress; that was why she’d forced herself to even come to this party. If she didn’t go out, she would end up secluding herself in her office and feeling sorry for herself until she eventually passed out over a stack of paperwork.

“Pizza sounds great,” She said with a nod, grinning at him. “I haven’t had pizza in a long time. I actually know a great pizza place downtown, unless you had somewhere else in mind.”

"Oh really?" He said, playing along with the joke. "We might have to test that sometime." Then he shrugged, more comfortable with the gentle teasing than he was with the heart to heart. "Hey, you trusted me first. It's not hard to trust you when I could burn you to a crisp without any warning." She may not have realized hat she had in effect placed her life into his hands the second she got close to him, but he was very aware of it. Before, it was simply making sure he didn't set on fire, but now that he knew who she was, Johnny didn't know if he would be able to use any of his power at all. What would she do? How would she react? In that alley was one thing, there had been a mugging and events moved quickly, but now? It was like he had to earn her trust all over again.

She shook her head, forcing a smile. She’d seen the way he looked at her, like he was suspicious. Of course he was. SHIELD agents weren’t supposed to be trustworthy. And, although she had no ulterior motives, she could understand why he might think so. “You know what? We shouldn’t be worrying about this. We should be having fun and talking about things that aren’t related to our personal lives, right?”

Johnny felt a little bad then that he'd doubted her, all things considered, she was doing a pretty good job. Things could be much worse. "Well, from where I'm standing, I'd say you're doing a pretty good job of it on your own. None of us are dead yet, so that's always a good sign," he told her with a reassuring smile. "And I'm sure that even from prison, you would find some way to help out. Hey, maybe we'd even get to be cell mates if that happened!" Cause he knew they would arrest him for something, were the management to change hands. "And you've gotta admit, I look pretty good in orange."

She took a deep breath, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. This is probably boring you.” Ugh, she was such an idiot, telling him all those things. Like he actually cared about her problems. 

"Oh, quite the contrary Miss Hill," Johnny said, his grip on her tightening just a bit with the new revelation, "You just got at least two times more interesting than you were before." When he had seen her in that alley, he had thought there was something familiar about her, but had dismissed the feeling. Now he knew he shouldn't have. Johnny had encountered the Avengers among other heroes SHIELD monitored on several occasions, so he must have seen her at some point. The more he connected the two, her and SHIELD, with each other, the more it seemed to fit. It certainly explained why she could handle herself.

When she finally looked back up at him, her smile grew wider. She was definitely over-thinking the situation. Here she was, dancing with a ridiculously attractive superhero, for God’s sake, and she was being totally negative. Why not just enjoy herself for this one night?

Johnny grinned as she admitted to having fun, that was his purpose wasn't it? Fun for all? "Then you really need to hang out with me more," he said, looking down at her. She was shorter than he had initially thought. "So, you're more of the workaholic type then? The party don't start till the paperwork is all done?" he asked her with a small laugh as they swayed a bit to the music. This was good, the small chit chat. Helped to relieve any pressures.

She didn’t really know how long she’d been dancing, but it didn’t seem long before a slow song came on. She quickly stepped away from him, feeling awkward. She tried to say something, anything to make things less weird, but it came out instead as incoherent mumbles.For a moment she wished that she was drunk so she could at least use it as an excuse for her idiotic behavior.

Johnny danced with her for a while, and was pleasantly surprised at how well it was going. Sure, she might not be amazing at it, but they were both having fun, and that was more than he could say for a lot of his dates. Which this wasn't. Not exactly. Just...circumstantial. Whatever. He wasn't the best dancer either, so it was a relif for him to not have to really try to be.

She noticed  he slid the paper into his pocket and smiled a bit. In all honesty, she quite liked being with him. He was fun nice, and put up with her sarcasm nicely. He was definitely a keeper.

Maria thought about making smalltalk, but then remembered how terrible she was at that. She bit her lip for a moment, ordered another drink, and tried to work up the nerve to say something. When her drink finally came, she took a quick sip, blushed, turned to Johnny and said, “Do you want to dance or something?”

Johnny smiled a bit, he knew she was just messing with him, but her presumptions still stung a bit. He knew how he came off, and most nights, that would be true of him, unfortunately. "Oh, ye of little faith," he said sarcastically. He knew from experience, drunk girls were never that much fun. So Johnny really wasn't trying to score tonight, at least, not wih her. She'll get mad at him at some point, they always do, and then he might go off and find some rebound.

“Oh, stop it,” She said with a wave of her hand. “I’m nothing special.” Her eyes widened as he pulled out the piece of paper with her number on it. She honestly didn’t think he cared enough to call. She’d heard many things about Johnny Storm, and one of them was that he had women lining up to be with him. What significance was she to him?

She quickly collected herself, trying to seem calm and unaffected. “So you were going to call me, then? And what makes you think I’d wanna go out with you?” She teased, smirking at him.

“I’m not sure, either,” She admitted with a shrug, “I don’t even remember who invited me, to be honest. But I’m glad I came “

Johnny laughed and replied, "I have no doubt that you would." He only did the pet names thing with the girls he wasn't serious about. One night stands and the like. He did actual names with everybody else, he felt like it was a subtle nod in their favor, like they were deserving of the attention a real name implies. So that and the fact she'd turned his nickname around on him gurenteed there'd be no sweethearts or honeys or babes from him.

He rolled his eyes, not special...ha! Why did all the good girls think they weren't special? "Look, another person might try to tell you some crap like "everyone's special", but I think we both know that's not true," he started, finishing off his wine and gesturing for another. "Because if everyone is special, then no one is. So special people do exist in this world, and you, Miss Hill, are one of them." He couldn't say why, and he hoped she wouldn't ask him that. Why was a matter of opinion, perspective. But he could peg special people, he had a knack for it. He didn't miss the small look of surprise on her face, even as his new drink arrived. It made him grin. There's always more to someone than the tabloids.

"Of course I was going to call you," he rushed to say, in case she hadn't gotten it earlier. And the next part would've made him pause, had he not been so confident in the situation. "Well, I'm a superhero, obviously, handsome, charming...humble?" he listed off with one of those smiles that belong in a toothpaste commercial. What woman wouldn't want to go out with him? He was sure one existed, somewhere, but he had yet to meet someone with such poor taste. "Besides, you wouldn't have given it to me if you weren't at least curious on some level," he lightly teased as he leaned against the bar, casually sliding the paper back into his pocket. He was keeping this one.