#aflamc

If there was one thing she’d never been good at, it was quiet moments. Quiet had always belonged to someone else, someone more fortunate. America couldn’t afford it. She was loud, she was brash, she was angry. She wasn’t quiet. She was never, ever that.

Not even when she needed to be.

She was meant to be sneaking. She shouldn’t be out this late, certainly shouldn’t be throwing punches and kicking ass, not with the Accords hanging over everyone’s heads and the sentinels making their rounds. But America had never been good at sitting still, either, and so she was here. She was sneaking away from a sentinel’s post, waiting until she was far enough away to kick open a portal somewhere else. 

And her goddamn shoes squeaked. 

She felt the person behind her long before she saw him, all burning heat and cocky attitude. She didn’t know if he was registered, if he was an enforcer --- it was difficult to keep track. But he’d heard her, and he was looking at her now, and that was a dangerous position to be in. “You think they’re loud now,” she said with an exaggerated smile, “you shoulda heard them on the dance floor. I’m on my way home from the club. We got a problem?”

@aflamc

@aflamc 

She knew that Johnny wasn’t talking about her team --- he was talking about something else entirely but Kate was thinking too much about the Young Avengers and how she had just left. They could do an all-girls team --- after all, America was in town again too, but she had always been a flight risk (literally), and Cassie was alive again --- but that was only a fraction of the team. But that wasn’t what Johnny was talking about. Kate knew that but she couldn’t get it out of her head.

But she tried. Kate tried to bury that feeling, those thoughts, and quirked a brow at Johnny before shrugging. “I mean, they weren’t the worst to look at.” Not that Kate had really looked. Her mind was being pulled in twelve directions and nothing was keeping her focus. “But since they’re gone we can party how we want, right? Those losers don’t know what they’re missing. Get us a round of drinks and I’ll slip the DJ some money and get him to play something that’s actually good.” 

( @aflamc )

( @aflamc )

@aflamc

MJ had gotten a glimpse at the group chat (or rather, a snapshot reading from FRIDAY), and she had noticed how worried she had made everyone. It had never been her intention when leaving that chat to hurt any of her friends — but she needed breathing room. (It just happened to precede this siege, or whatever this was — mass hostage situation?) But he hadn’t been in the chat when MJ had come back. Or maybe he was just offline — but the radio silence was frightening. 

On her way to meet Peter, MJ dropped onto a roof, a little roughly. (Gliding in the armor was far more complicated than she had anticipated — Peter made swinging look easy and Tony made flying look simple too — and MJ was simply hoping not to roll an ankle while running out here.) “FRIDAY, can you dial Johnny Storm’s number?” MJ asked, being very specific because FRIDAY had been giving her hell since they had started this team up. It wasn’t like FRIDAY wanted her out of the suit (which was interesting, but MJ didn’t question it), but when it came to MJ communicating with her friends? There was a great snapshot of terrible messages that MJ had tried to send that FRIDAY had trolled her with. 

The ring inside the suit — if MJ’s adrenaline hadn’t already been pumping, she would have credited it to the volume of the call. “Bring the volume down like, fifty percent, FRIDAY.” The AI said something sassy in response but MJ squeezed her eyes shut and took a breath — patenting that she didn’t hear anything at all. 

Ring.

“C’mon, pick up.” MJ moved anxiously in her spot on the roof, looking over the city at all the damage she could see from this vantage point. 

Ring... Ring... You have reached the voicemail box of —

MJ cursed under her breath. Maybe he was busy, he had powers and flight and people to protect, but she had hoped for just a word with him. Crossing her arms, she rocked on her heels until the message ended, and the beep rang out. 

“Hey, Johnny!” MJ tried to sound as peppy as she did face to face, but it was hard, and she could hear the strain in her own voice even as she tried to fake a smile to force her voice to be a little brighter. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you the other day in the chat, I just... I wanted you to know that I was okay. I got trapped in Stark Tower but I had a friend, we got out together.” Miguel. She didn’t name him though, she wasn’t sure why... maybe she was afraid of change? That all of this change that was happening at once was going to bring her world down —

“I just... I wanted to apologize too. I didn’t mean to make you or anyone else worry. I just needed some space and then the world blew up and I was on the wrong side of disaster to tell anyone where I was... Anyway, I have a suit. I stole the only one that was accessible, I didn’t want them getting their hands on it and I... I wanted to do something, you know?” MJ opened her eyes again, taking in the chaos of the city. “You know, maybe for once I could do some saving.” 

okay. well then. that was...totally unexpected but the good kind of unexpected. but also why now of all times. not that cindy didn’t feel anything for johnny—because she did, she really did—but jesus. she was not going to let this be the last chance or whatever it was that johnny said. “this is not your last chance. damn it, johnny storm. we’re going to have so many chances because we’re going to survive this...whatever this is.” no way in hell was she going to let some acid and dinosaurs get in the way of happiness. “for the record, i have feelings for you too.”

Flying was new and unreal and — Rogue had no idea what she was doing. But thankfully, she had a few friends that had learned how to do this already, ones that could teach her and help her learn all the little tricks that came with flight. And Johnny? He was one of them. And one of the best at having fun why flying, from what Rogue had seen at least. And she wanted that, some of that safety, some of that happiness. That freedom.

They were at the top of the Baxter building — a place she was sure that neither of them were supposed to be — but they were there. Rogue, standing on the edge, feeling the breeze from the uninhibited air. It was strange, being this high up. Rogue looked at Johnny and arched a brow, “Are ya ready?” She asked, smirking slightly. “Haven’t been on any flights with company, ya have the honor of bein’ the first.”