((Takes place roughly a week after the events of Don't Sit Under The Appletree, and a few days after the events of The Ghoul of My Dream and related threads.)) ___________________________

Between gorgeous men dropping in from another world and stealing hearts, and actors being kidnapped and having their wives threatened with conscious caesarian section, the Broderick twins hadn't really had a chance to catch up with one another for a while. Thus, Johnny had been talked into a family dinner at the apartment he shared with Liv, with the promise that the twins would cook. He just had to show up, that was all. And with that promise in mind, Liv had managed to organise things so that she had a whole afternoon free to spend with her sister and boyfriend, a rarity in itself.

Lucy had been on her own for a week. And she'd never felt quite so on her own, either. In the wake of one amazing night, she was at sea without a rudder, without any kind of anchor to pull her safely from the storm that was living in Rhy'Din. All she really had was one more week of notice to work off, and a vague plan to crash New York City in search of a man she knew next to nothing about, in the hope that he hadn't forgotten all about her. Seven nights of thinking about Steve like this had severely eroded her confidence, and it was unfortunate that she still had another seven to go.

When Liv opened the door, it was to see her twin sister offering up the kind of smile that hides a deep well of pain. "Bloody hell, what happened to you?" she greeted Lucy with honest concern, only to suddenly be given a silent, squeezing armful of her big sister as the door clunked shut. "Uh ....Johnny' A little help?"

Banished from the kitchen, Johnny had settled in to watch a football game or two somehow piped in from Earth. He wasn't quite sure how it all worked, and he didn't really care, so long as he got to see his beloved Giants kick their opponents' collective asses, whatever team it might be. He was even wearing a Giants sweatshirt over his uniform, along with a pair of slouchy jeans and sneakers. Hey, no one had said he was required to get dressed up, so he wasn't. He heard the buzzer at the door most likely signaling Lucy's arrival, but he was too busy shouting at his team on the TV to pay it much heed.

It was probably just as well that Johnny hadn't really heard Lucy's arrival - the twins stood by the door, wrapped up in each other's arms, for a good five minutes. Liv thought she could feel Lucy breathing in and out with slow, shuddering intent, recognising it for what it was - an attempt not to cry - and just held on, stroking her sister's back as soothingly as she could, wondering what on Earth could have happened to have upset the happy-go-lucky Broderick so much.

It took a long while for Lucy to calm down, swallowing back against actually crying on her sister, but infinitely grateful that Liv didn't let go until she was ready for her to do so. Drawing back, she shook a hand free of her sleeve to tuck her hair back behind her ear. "Sorry," she half-shrugged, one shoulder rising and falling in a brief attempt to be her usual self. "So what?s for grub?"

Liv eyed her twin thoughtfully, one corner of her mouth quirked in a faint smile despite the concern flooding through her. "Come into the kitchen and spill it," she suggested, taking hold of Lucy by the hem of her slub cardigan and pulling her past the couch, touching her fingertips to the back of Johnny's neck as they passed. Trust him to have found something completely Earth-native he could watch and still have to explain to his girlfriend.

He heard Liv's call for help at the door, but he was so absorbed in the game, he barely made a move to acknowledge it. He was leaning forward on the couch, pensively watching the game, a no longer cold beer in one hand while he shouted and cheered his team on, distracted momentarily by Liv's fingers at the twins brushed past. He glanced up at his girlfriend and former girlfriend with a passing grin. "Oh, hi, Luce," before turning back to the TV set. "Oh, come on, Manning! You can do better than that!"

"Hey, Everlast." Like Liv, Lucy reached out to Johnny as they passed, but she ruffled his hair and tweaked an ear, decidedly rougher and far more big sister-ish with Johnny than she ever was with her actual sister. She paused where Liv moved on, bending down to lean on the back of the couch and frown curiously at the action on the screen. After a moment, she realised what she was looking at. "Ah ....rugby for wimps."

"Wimps!" Johnny exclaimed. "Are you kidding" Do you know how much these guys get paid for playing a game?" Johnny's voice lifted nearly an octave as it had a habit of doing when he was excited or upset. He groaned. "Oh, would you look at that," he said in disgust. "Way to go, Cruz," he grumbled as his favorite receiver dropped the ball. "Butterfingers. My girlfriend could catch better than that!" he shouted at the TV set. If he wasn't careful, he was going to set something on fire.

"Playing a game with les contact than rugby, wearing a lot more padding than rugby," Lucy informed him, purely for mischief's sake, knowing how it annoyed him when she deliberately argued out of the stupid corner. "And try not to set fire to the couch, dude, Liv's a bit sensitive about fires these days." She grinned down at her almost brother-in-law, and straightened up to turn toward the kitchen. "Oh, hang on," she stopped herself, looking down at the back of his head. "You're from New York, right' I don't suppose you know someone called Steve Rogers, do you?"

Johnny narrowed his eyes at Lucy as she dissed his favorite sport. Well, one of his favorite sports. He liked them all really; football just happened to be the one that was on TV at the moment. "Oh, ye, of little faith. I've got the temperature well under control." He snapped his fingers producing a small flame just to make a point, extinguishing it just as quickly, as if it was nothing more than a magic trick. He turned his attention back to the game as Lucy headed toward the kitchen. "Who?" he asked, only half listening. Yes, he was from New York. Why else would he be watching a Giants game" Duh.

"Steve Rogers!" was called back to him as Lucy slipped into the kitchen, rolling her eyes and laughing at that little encounter. One thing she could always count on Johnny for was to take her mind off whatever was upsetting her. She found Liv slicing leeks, took one look at the array of food set out for preparation, and opted to slice the mushrooms and peppers rather than be given any particular job.

"Who's Steve Rogers?" Liv asked her sister curiously, tipping her head to one side as she looked over at Lucy. She was pretty sure something was up, but it was close onto impossible to get a straight answer from Lucy unless she was in the right mood.

"Hmm?" Lucy glanced up at her sister from her sudden interest in fungal vegetables. "Oh. He's the man I'm going to marry. If I find him again."

Johnny fell silent in the other room, though the TV blared on as it went to commercial. Did she say Steve Rogers" Johnny stared at the TV, narrowing his eyes as he tried to wrap his head around that a minute. Why the hell would Lucy be asking about Steve Rogers, of all people" Johnny set what remained of his beer on the coffee table and got off the couch, too curious not to find out what was going on in that pretty little head of Lucy Broderick's. He arrived in the doorway, just in time to overhear Lucy say she was going to get married. Fortunately, Johnny had set the beer down or it might have exploded in his hand by now. "Married"!" he exclaimed. "To who?"

"What do you mean, if you find him again?" Liv added on the heels of Johnny's minor explosion, twisting to set her hip against the counter as she looked over at her sister. Her gaze flickered to Johnny in mild alarm - Lucy wasn't the type to do something like this. At least, not usually.

Lucy glanced up as Johnny came in. "To Steve Rogers," she told him, repeating the name engraved on her heart for the third time since walking in through the door. "Although to be fair, I don't really know much about him. Except ..." Her grin was positively wicked as she looked down at the green pepper in her hand. "He's a very quick learner." She looked over at Liv thoughtfully. "Well, he had to go back to New York, and well, I'm ....I'm going to go and join him at the end of the week. That's the plan, anyway. If I can't find him, I'll probably be back and sleeping on your couch."

It was the shield that caught her attention, even before Johnny indicated it, and the look on her face gave away her answer without the need for words. A very tiny smile touched the familiar features as she reached out toward the comic book, touching a single fingertip to the picture. "Yes, he did," she nodded finally, lowering her hand to her lap as she looked up at Johnny. "He used it like a weapon, too, like it was a part of him. Johnny, do you know him?"

Johnny's face turned a shade paler and he looked like he might faint from shock, which was a rare thing for Johnny. He handed the comic book to Lucy, letting her flip through the pages at will. Steve's story was all there. The origins of Captain America. "No, I don't know him, but I know of him. He's a legend, Lucy. He's a hero." Johnny's voice turned very quiet as he spoke as reverently as he could about his long-time hero.

As Lucy took the comic book, utterly nonplussed but prepared to at least look through it, Liv reached up to curl her fingers into Johnny's hand, her mind turned away from Lucy's mystery man and onto her own man, who didn't look at all well right at that moment. "Johnny?" She gave him a gentle tug to sit down with her, giving Lucy the time to flick through the rare comic book in quiet disbelief.

And she was ever so slightly disbelieving. Heroes were a common enough thing on their Earth; she was aware of Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, and others like them. But Lucy had never heard of Captain America. It was a shock, to say the least, to discover that she'd fallen in love with him. She'd fallen in love with a hero of WWII, a man who had been born sixty or so years before she had been but who looked to be roughly the same age as her. It didn't make any sense, and yet ....in a way, it did.

Johnny followed the tug of Liv's fingers and dropped heavily into a chair, his color slowly returning now that he was seated. "The story goes that Steve Rogers disappeared at sea nearly seventy years ago. He was a legend in his own time, and the greatest hero that ever lived." Johnny wasn't just saying that because he was a fan; he was saying it because he believed it to be true, wishing he could be half the man that Steve Rogers had been. "I don't know what happened, but if what you say is true and he's still alive, then I'd like to meet him."

Liv listened, vaguely aware that the two people she loved most in the worlds seemed to have dropped out of the usual time frame for the moment. "If he disappeared at sea so long ago, is it even possible that he's still alive?" she asked very carefully, not wanting to air the possibility that the Steve Lucy had met was from his own era and not theirs. "What could he do that made him a hero?"

Beside her, Lucy was staring at an image on the first page - a beautifully drawn picture of a skinny man who wanted to be more than he was, who wanted to do what his friends were doing across the sea. A good man, who hadn't really changed, despite the alteration in his appearance and circumstances. "And what does Tony Stark have to do with it?" she murmured on the end of Liv's questions, finally raising her eyes to Johnny's. "This is real, isn't it' It isn't just a comic?"

Johnny's lips parted to speak but nothing came out. He had no answers to Liv's questions. He hadn't been home in months and had no idea what was going on there, except for what his sister had told him, and that wasn't much. "I was a comic book hero before you met me, Luce. Besides, this is Rhy'Din, remember?" Johnny had learned that it didn't matter here what was real or not real back home - it all converged on Rhy'Din at one time or another, every world, every reality, every time - past and present and future. "I can't explain it, but if he knows Tony Stark, then he's from our world, Lucy. Our time. Maybe you should tell us what happened."

There was a long pause as Lucy assembled all the facts in her mind and weighed them against the unassailable truth of her heart. Then she sighed, rolling her eyes. "I can't meet someone normal, can I?" she complained mildly, gently amused, and just like that, any sense that she might have been misled or lied to was abruptly forgotten. Steve would tell her the whole truth when she saw him again, she was sure of it. She closed the comic, resting it carefully on Johnny's knee, and looked back and forth between her sister and the Human Torch. "What, you want all the details?"

Though he wasn't the one that was dating her anymore, that word "normal" stung a little, and it showed in Johnny's expression. Unlike Steve Rogers, he hadn't asked to become what he was, but he revelled in it and like Steve, was trying to use his abilities for the benefit of those who needed his help. He set his jaw a moment before, debating whether or not to respond to Lucy's comment. "You were lucky enough to meet the greatest hero that's ever lived, and you want to meet someone normal?" Johnny asked, scoffingly. "He's not like me, you know. He doesn't have any superpowers. Not really. He's just a guy who wanted to do the right thing." Johnny got up abruptly, feeling suddenly antsy and needing to get himself a fresh beer. Or something. Her words, however innocent they'd been meant, stung a little. He knew he was a freak, but she didn't have to rub it in.

Lucy blinked, utterly unaware that she'd said anything wrong. But then, Johnny had never been able to tell when she meant something as a compliment - normal, to Lucy, was the worst thing in the world. As Johnny left the room, Liv winced, torn between her heartsick sister and her offended boyfriend, and to Lucy's surprise, the boyfriend won. "I'll ....be right back," she assured Lucy, rising to her feet to slip into the kitchen on Johnny's heels.

Johnny went to the fridge and got himself a fresh beer, hoping to maybe drink this one before it got warm on him. Most people only saw the benefit of being the Human Torch, not the down side. There was a down side to everything, probably even to being Captain America. He wasn't sure what he was feeling so moody about. Lucy was in love with his childhood hero, for God's sake. He should be ecstatic. So, why wasn't he" He cracked open the beer and tossed the cap in the trash, unaware that he'd been followed.

Liv lingered in the doorway for a moment, watching Johnny thoughtfully. "She didn't mean it like that, you know," she said very softly, for his ears only. "Well, I don't know quite how she meant it, but she doesn't mean you're anything but wonderful. She was just commenting on the fact that she's fallen in love with someone who can't make her his sole priority, the way she's always wanted to be for someone. It's a bit much for her to take in." Her arms wrapped about him from behind. "Besides, who wants normal" I happen to like your kind of special, thank you very much."

"How did she mean it?" Johnny asked, after taking a swig of his beer, not turning around, though he heard Liv's voice behind him, not really surprised that she'd followed him to the kitchen. He tensed a little as she put her arms around him, though he wasn't angry at her. He wasn't angry at Lucy either. He wasn't really sure what he was angry at. "You know, I never asked to become what I am. I'm not a hero, like he is. He sacrificed his life to save the world, Liv. That's what a real hero is made of."

"There are lots of different ways to be a hero," Liv told him quietly, resting her cheek between his shoulderblades as she held onto him. "You give up your seat on the train every day. Don't you think that's heroic to the person who sits in it' And you constantly face up to the bad things in this city, without ever asking for or expecting anyone to thank you. That's heroic. You are as much a hero as this Steve person is, sweetheart. And I will be very put out with you if you go and sacrifice yourself for a greater cause just because he did."

Johnny's gaze followed Liv a moment as she escaped to the kitchen, hoping she wasn't annoyed with him, but this was important, more important than dinner, anyway. "Yeah, he was in World War II," Johnny agreed, more than happy to talk about his hero and explain his history, but he could do no more than that. He knew no more than Lucy about Steve Rogers' emergence into the twenty-first century. "That makes sense. I mean, whatever's going on is probably top secret. You said he had no idea how he got here?"

"No, he really had no idea," Lucy assured him, curling up on the couch. She wasn't too worried about Liv's retreat, knowing that if her sister had a problem, she'd talk to one or both of them about it later on. "And you know what I'm like with explanations. I couldn't explain the Nexus if you put a gun to my head." She rolled her eyes at her own shortcomings. "Not to mention the fact that I pretty much ran him off the road as soon as he arrived. Thing is, though, I could have sworn he was you. Seriously, aside from a few differences, you two are as identical as me and Liv."

The look on Johnny's face was a mix of shock, confusion, and amazement at this small but interesting bit of information, and something clicked in Johnny's head, two pieces of a puzzle coming together. That explained the strange phone call a week or so ago that Lucy had made to Liv asking for Johnny's whereabouts. "Me"!" Johnny exclaimed, dumbfounded by this development and at a rare loss for words. "That's..." He furrowed his brows, the word impossible on the tip of his tongue for the second time that evening. "What differences?"

Lucy just about managed to swallow her smirk, refusing to indulge in the desire to offend her sister's boyfriend with any kind of disparaging remark about his intimate anatomy. Instead, she kept herself to a rather more clinical description. "Well, he's taller by at least a couple of inches," she told Johnny, gesticulating with her hands as though she could paint a picture of Steve in the air between them. "More heavily built. And he's not as hot as you, obviously." Now she grinned; she had a feeling she knew how Johnny was going to take that one.

"Well, of course, he's bigger than me. I mean, he's a super soldier!" Johnny eyed Lucy suspiciously, wondering if she was just trying to mess with his head. "Okay, so, if Steve Rogers looks like me, what?s he got that I don't?" he asked, curiously. It wasn't that he was jealous, but she said she'd fallen in love with a guy she'd only just met and had only known for the span of about twenty-four hours. What was it about Steve Rogers that she was willing to give up everything to go on a wild goose chase to find him' And perhaps more importantly, if he was Steve Rogers' twin, why hadn't Lucy fallen in love with him"

There was a pause before she spoke again, trying to work out the answer to that question. It was something that had been preying on her mind for several days. "I don't really know," she confessed quietly. "I mean, look, you know I don't just jump into bed with a guy the same day I meet him, even if I do fancy the pants off him. But with Steve ..." She sighed, and in that sigh was all the joy and regret and affection she felt for just a memory. "I didn't even think about it. I didn't even realise I fancied him until the choice was right there, kiss him or don't kiss him. And once I'd kissed him, there really was no going back." She shrugged. "That doesn't help, does it?"

Of course, she could have asked him the same thing. Why Liv and not Lucy' He wasn't sure he could explain it anymore than Lucy could explain why Steve and not Johnny. Johnny could have been offended or even hurt by Lucy's explanation, but instead he only smiled, smirked even, looking strangely amused. "You're in love," he declared, matter-of-factly, no doubt in his mind. Lucy may have already said as much, but it hadn't quite sunk into Johnny's head until that very moment. And who was she in love with but his lifelong hero. The more he thought about it, the more he found it amusing. "Lucy I'll-never-fall-in-love-and-settle-down Broderick is in love with Steve Freaking Rogers! Steve and Lucy sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"Shut up!" Laughing, embarrassed that she was being teased by Johnny Storm of all people, Lucy grabbed the nearest cushion and threw it at his head, her cheeks ablaze with a wildly bright blush. "Hot dude or no hot dude, I can still whip you, mate!"

From the kitchen there came the sound of slightly more merry laughter, accompanied finally by the scent of food beginning to cook, leeks and garlic browning in a pan. "Try not to hurt each other," Liv called, her voice gently mild in the face of what sounded like sibling bickering out in the main room.

Johnny couldn't help himself. He caught the cushion just before it hit his head, but was laughing so hard he fell off the couch onto the floor anyway. He wasn't laughing at her exactly, but with her. If anyone understood her plight, it was him. He'd sworn never to fall in love either, but had unexpectedly fallen madly in love and was on the cusp of proposing marriage. And this was precisely why Johnny and Lucy would never have made a good couple. They were too much alike and made far better friends than lovers. He tried to compose himself, to form words, to say something supportive, but he just couldn't stop snickering.

Lucy watched him from above her own grin, more amused by his laughter than offended by it. She was actually relieved; Johnny could easily have taken offense himself at the fact that she had fallen for Steve and not for him, despite the fact that he had fallen for Liv and not her. It was a strange situation, brought home by the sudden realisation of how alike she was to the superhero close to wetting himself laughing on his own floor in that moment. "Seriously, quit the laughing, Everlast, or I'm going to beat you up with a pillow," she threatened him with a grin, not even bothering to acknowledge Liv's gentle warning. She could see now why Liv and Johnny worked. She could only hope that she and Steve would work just as well.

He just couldn't help himself. As much as he tried to stop laughing, he just couldn't, though his loud guffaws were slowly fading to snickers. "Oh, big threat..." he started, grinning widely at his future sister-in-law. "I'll set your hair on fire." And he snapped his fingers, unintentionally producing a flame which very nearly set the pillow she'd thrown at him on fire, before he could quickly stamp out the flame, tossing a glance at the kitchen and hoping Liv hadn't noticed.

Choking on her giggles at the sight of the c*cky Human Torch hurriedly putting out a fire before his girlfriend could catch him, Lucy dropped onto her back on the couch comfortably. "Set my hair on fire, and I'll get my boyfriend to come and give you a stern talking to," she offered up next, imagining with glee the little boy lost look that would inevitably touch on that face if his boyhood hero took him to task for behaving like a child.

"Manfriend," Johnny corrected. "He's at least ninety years old, so he's not really a boy anymore," Johnny added with a teasing smirk, wondering if that had even sunk into Lucy's head yet. "Talk about robbing the cradle. You could be his great granddaughter!" He was only teasing and meant no harm, but more often than not, he put his foot in his mouth. "Come to think of it..." Johnny turned serious, tossing the singed couch pillow aside and snatching the comic book off the coffee table to flip through the pages once again. "I think he was eighteen when he was recruited."

Had he been teasing Liv, she would have taken offense. Lucy, on the other hand, could cope with Johnny's less than tactful teasing in her own way. She rolled onto her side, propping her head up on her hand, and deliberately cultivated a dreamy look as she answered. "Oh, believe me, he's very spritely for his age," she smirked playfully, her eyes focusing on Johnny as he started to flip through his comic book again. "You know ....you'll be able to ask him yourself, when I catch up with him. Unless he comes back here first. But even then, you'll meet him. You're family now."

Liv watched him go, turning back to her cooking in thoughtful silence. She'd never seen Johnny like this, nor Lucy. Since when was Liv the steady, predictable one in this family' On the one hand, she had a sister who had always said she would never fall in love, never settle down, declaring that she had done just that and was dropping everything to go and find the man of her dreams within a few days. On the other hand, she had her happy-go-lucky lover torn between jealousy that said sister had met his hero before he had and over-protective concern that said sister was being taken for a ride. How, exactly, was Liv supposed to steer both of them to something approaching the same train of thought, when she didn't have the first clue what to believe or how to reconcile their differing views" It was not easy being the good twin.

The door to their bedroom closed quietly, and Johnny made the one and only phone call that might clarify what was going on. If there was one person he trusted more than any other, it was that of his sister, Sue. If anyone could fill him in on what was going on back home in New York, it was her. If Captain America really had returned from the dead, then maybe Sue knew about it, and if she didn't, Reed surely did.

As the apartment settled into the quiet of one reading, one cooking, and one in a separate room calling someone else, the silence seemed to settle with it. Lucy's silence was studious, wrapped up in what she was reading, in the sweet little man who had become the hero she'd met and fallen in love with. And to her surprise, she found she could see the qualities that had drawn her to Steve in that first incarnation of him. It hadn't been his looks, his size, that had caught her so firmly and reeled her in. It had been him. If she'd known him before he had taken part in this experiment - which she fully intended to find out the full details of, thank you very much - she might well have taken it upon herself to introduce him to the wonders of women anyway.

Liv's silence, on the other hand, was deliberately focused. She was carefully not thinking about anything but cooking, finally putting the lasagne into the oven and turning her attention to creating something at random to serve with the pasta dish. Johnny would probably have liked fries, but for once, she wasn't giving into the desire for junk food. She just didn't know what she could offer up as an alternative that wouldn't start an argu - a spirited discussion over the dinner table.

As for Johnny, he was busily catching up with his sister and with what had been going on in New York since the last time they'd chatted. A lot had apparently happened, not the least of which had been an attack on New York, the destruction of which was still being cleaned up, just in time for the storm of the century. Johnny felt torn between his responsibilities here and those back home, but he'd never been much good in a storm, especially where a lot of water was involved, and Sue had assured him they had things under control. Besides, the Avengers were assembling to help out, and he'd be happy to know that they'd found and revived his childhood hero and they were all rallying around the symbol of unity that Captain America stood for.

For the next half hour or so, the apartment was wrapped in silence, each of them in their own little world - one reading, one cooking, one on the phone. It was Johnny who eventually broke that silence, with a whoop that was loud enough to echo through the apartment, even though the bedroom door was closed. He threw open the bedroom window with a familiar shout of "Flame on!" and soared into the air, flying high above the condo and drawing a fiery A in the sky large enough for half the city to see it.

Of the twins, it was Lucy who jumped, startled by the sudden exit of the man of the house. She looked up from her reading, peering along the hallway toward the bedroom with a frown."Livvie" Do I want to know what?s going on?" she called.

The answer she got was a little slow in arriving - Liv had abandoned the food to watch through the window as Johnny sped through the sky. It was a habit by now, to see which direction he was going in, but this time, it seemed, he wasn't answering a call. She smiled to herself at the exuberance that radiated from her lover, even at this distance. "Oh, I think Johnny's letting off a little steam," she called back to her sister, reaching out to unlatch the window in case Johnny decided to come back via a different entryway. "Come and see."

A few moments later, Lucy was in the kitchen herself, leaning on Liv's shoulders as both twins watched the Human Torch playing in the wintry sky. "Hmm," the elder mused thoughtfully, "A for what, I wonder?"

Liv looked at her sideways. "You're not usually that dim," she commented with a faint smile, touching her temple to her sister's. "A for America, obviously. Captain America, I'd imagine."

And of course, Johnny's clothes were now burned to ash, and he was only in his uniform. He went through more clothes that way. He soared through the sky, laughing aloud, loud enough so that the sound echoed through the streets beneath him. Soaring higher and higher and then swooping low, flames forming not just the letter A. That was only the start of it. He let that letter fade, flames forming the shape of a heart and within that heart initals, drawn in flame, one at a time. S then R for Steve Rogers, followed by an L and B for Lucy Broderick. Lastly, he shot himself forward, leaving behind the fiery form of an arrow through the center of the heart.

By the time the B had been formed, Liv was laughing at her sister. Lucy was pressed to the window, gesticulating at the tiny figure soaring through the air and splashing her love life up there for all to see, shouting at the top of her lungs. "You get back in here, you overgrown matchstick! I'm going to take great pleasure in shoving your head down the toilet!" She turned to look at her little sister, who was laughing so hard she was crying into a tea cloth. "Will you stop sniggering" This isn't funny!"

Liv snorted with laughter, making a real effort to calm herself down before she answered. "It's a little bit funny."

Well, first of all, he wasn't splashing her whole love life up there. Whoever read it would have to figure out who those initials belonged to before they could embarrass Lucy. And if she shoved his head down the toilet, she would most likely drown him, as water was his nemesis, but he figured Liv wouldn't let her get that far, and Johnny wouldn't be sky writing if he wasn't happy, so there was that to consider. He circled the sky a few more times, just burning off excess adrenalin, before allowing the letters to fade and shooting back toward the condo, choosing the window Lucy and Liv were standing at as his point of entry. If they didn't get out of his way, it was likely he'd bowl them both over.

Luckily for Lucy, Liv knew the speed Johnny was coming in at, dragging her sister out of the way at the same moment as giving the window a shove to open it fully. Lucy bounced off a counter as Liv hit the deck, both girls highly entertained. Lucy was actually blushing, but she was smiling, pleased that Johnny apparently approved of her liaison. And Liv" Well, Liv was still snickering at her sister's reaction to the sky-writing.

Johnny literally shot through the window, almost as fast as a bullet, but with enough control that he stopped himself short of crashing into the wall opposite the window and extinguishing the flames as he turned to scoop both girls up into his arms and give them each a smooch against the cheek with lips that were abnormally warm, residual heat radiating off him in waves. "I love you!" he exclaimed as he kissed one and then the other. "And you!" His mood had obviously lifted substantially since he'd retreated to the bedroom.

The reactions were, predictably enough, as different as they could get. While Liv wrapped her arms around Johnny's waist, returning his kiss with one of her own and a warmly murmured echo of his exuberant declaration, Lucy snorted with laughter, giving him a shove. "Get off me, you embarassing lump of overgrown charcoal," she informed her sister's boyfriend with a grin, pinching his backside just because she could. "I should punish you badly for that." Her hand pointed to the residual flames in the sky. "If it wasn't for the fact that apparently you now believe it is Steve I'm with."

Liv knew Johnny's heart better than anyone and knew exactly what he was thinking. He knew he wouldn't be much good when faced with a hurricane. Fire and water didn't mix, but New York was his home and his heart was heavy with guilt and regret that he wasn't needed this time around. If he was, Sue would have called before this and summoned him. "I should be there, Liv. I'm useless here." That wasn't exactly true. People in Rhy'Din needed Johnny just as much as those back home, maybe even more so, but he hadn't realized that yet.

"You are not useless," she argued, fierce but quiet. Liv never raised her voice; if she ever did, it was quite likely that everyone in the vicinity would cease what they were doing out of sheer amazement. "If you weren't here, I wouldn't be. Mr and Mrs Campbell wouldn't be. Countless other people wouldn't be here, if you weren't. And that's useless, is it' Joining the Fire Department and helping them become more effective, that's useless, is it' Because if it is, I think you need to have another look in a dictionary."

Johnny pouted, Liv's argument getting through to him, but only just. All he'd ever wanted was to be like his childhood hero, a hero who was apparently still alive and still as much a hero as ever. "You know, when I first became....what I am....I was just a kid. A stupid kid who thought it would be cool to have these abilities that no one else had. I thought it would win me girls and....I don't know....give me fame and fortune. But none of that was important, Liv. What I became....I always thought it was a gift, but it's a curse, too, in the wrong hands. I hurt someone once because of it, because I wasn't in control. I never asked for this, to become what I am, but I swore from that moment on that I'd learn to control it and I'd use it to help people. What good is it to be what I am if I can't help people?"

She frowned, not liking the way his mind was taking him. "Are the people here any less important than the people on Earth?" she asked, perhaps a little too sharply, before picking the perfect argument out of the air. "Would he approve of you abandoning a city where anything can happen and frequently does, just so you can be a hero with him and the others" New York has an abundance of heroes, Johnny, and they all know each other and how to work together. Rhy'Din has a lot of heroes, yes, but they don't know how to work together successfully. Rhy'Din needs you, a lot more than New York does."

Johnny listened, considering her words carefully, knowing she was right. He was needed here. That much had been proven. He had been summoned to Rhy'Din because they needed him. What would happen if he left and they needed him while he was away' He felt torn between the two cities, but he couldn't be in two places at once. He had to choose, and he knew his place was here, at least for now, with Liv and the people of Rhy'Din. He drew a slow breath as he met her gaze, lifting a hand to brush too warm fingers against her cheek with a soft smile. "Have I told you lately that I love you?" he asked, the storm cloud lifting from his eyes. It seemed he'd decided, and he'd decided in favor of staying on Rhy'Din with her.

"Mmhmm," she nodded, a softer smile on her face just for him as he looked down at her. "About ten minutes ago, when you finished embarrassing my sister." Her smile parted her lips in a warmer offering as she rose up onto her toes, touching a gentle kiss to his lips. "I need you, Johnny," she murmured, for his ears only, as though anyone could have heard them if she had spoken aloud. "And right now, so does Lucy. We can't let her just up and go without having some kind of plan; she gets lost more easily than I do."

He drew comfort from that kiss. Whatever Liv thought of herself, she was far stronger and far smarter than she gave herself credit for, even stronger than Lucy. "I'm not sure I should have told her about the storm," he admitted, frowning again. "It could be dangerous. Maybe she should wait until he comes for her." Johnny had no doubt that the man would be back; he was a man of his word, and if he said he'd be back, you could count on it, unless of course, something happened that he couldn't come back. He was, after all, only human, even if he was artificially enhanced. "Sometimes I just don't know when to keep my big mouth shut," he admonished himself mournfully.

"Lucy wouldn't be Lucy if she didn't act on what you said," his girlfriend informed him, seemingly unphased by the thought of her sister in a strange city in the middle of the storm of the century. "And wouldn't you rather see her go and get settled before the storm hits, rather than afterwards in the middle of all the confusion and chaos? I know I would." Her fingers gently curled to his cheek, caressing his skin affectionately. "But I want her going on a full stomach, and a full night's sleep, not half-c*cked and hysterical. So you need to catch up with her before she gets to the New York portal in the Marketplace."

Johnny smiled into Liv's caress, knowing that catching up with Lucy would be a piece of cake. He wasn't the Human Torch for nothing. "I'll have her back in time for dinner," he promised with a smile, smooching her lips one more time for good measure. "I'll even make up the guest room for her." Though he'd teased her about the couch, there was a second bedroom they never used that Liv had been using as a makeshift office. "Be back soon!" he promised and off he went, jumping out the window he'd only a few minutes before come in through. With a shout of, "Flame on!", more out of habit than necessity, he shot across the sky in the direction of Lucy's apartment.

With a soft smile, Liv turned back to the kitchen and her intended meal for the evening. Lucy wasn't going to thank her for siccing Johnny on her, but frankly, Liv didn't care. If her big sister was going to walk into the jaws of danger, she wasn't doing it unprepared. And besides ....she doubted Captain America would thank her for sending his lovesick doctor after him with only the clothes on her back. Liv snickered softly, bending to check on the lasagne in the oven. Lucy in love. She should mark today in her calendar.

((It's been a busy coupla weeks for the Brodericks, hasn't it' Twins dating twins, oh the confusion! :lol: Next stop, New York! All aboard for the continuation of the storyline. Please offer your thanks to our outstanding conductor, Johnny's player!))