When most people think of a lie-in, they think of staying in bed until midday, with Sunday papers sprawled around them, the radio playing in the background. They think of the night before being a party, and casually nursing a mild-hangover while they listen to the bodiless voices drifting from the radio, warning about traffic accidents they won't be on the road to be affected by. They think of someone bringing them breakfast in bed...not being disturbed for hours...quiet and peacefulness and calm...

Sue Storm found it quite depressing that she considered 9am a lie in. It was Friday morning, not a Sunday. She knew that if she got out of bed, and turned on the radio, then she wouldn't be met with calm and possibly mellow voices, but rather with the early-morning bustle of the rush hour rock that filled the radio stations. She wasn't even in her own bed. She was in Reed's spare room, in a bed she was suspected more and more to become permanent to her.

Last night, they defeated Victor. Their first battle as a united team. A family, rather. Until the early hours of the morning, they had been in the street, fighting a guy who had once been her boss, and then had the power to potentially kill any one of them.

Yes, she desperately deserved her lie-in.

They hadn't got into bed until the late-early hours of the morning, which meant that even though she had been awake for twenty minutes already, she'd only had about four hours sleep. However, Johnny had the television on in the other room, and her door was open...it was a case of being comfortable, or being in silence, and the comfort was winning.

Around this 9am mark, Johnny came into the room, standing in the doorway. He looked at his sister in disbelief. "You're still asleep?" He cried loudly, astounded.

Sue didn't even open her eyes. "Go away." She said simply.

"It's gone nine already, Susie!"

"Go away." She said, a little more forcefully this time.

But Johnny persisted. "Reed's making breakfast. He wants to know if you want anything." He said, leaning against the doorframe.

"Will I have to get out of bed?" Sue asked, her eyes still closed against the pillow.

Johnny frowned, unseen by her. "Well, yeah, it's breakfast."

"Then no." She said simply.

"But-"

Finally, she raised her head from the pillow, directing a steely gaze towards him. "Johnny, you're my brother and I love you, but I swear to God if you don't let me sleep I am going to hurt you, and brother or no brother I will enjoy it."

Silently, but with a grumpy glare, Johnny left, and Sue returned her head to the pillow with a loud groan. This groan was repeated, but louder, when Johnny retaliated to her comment by turning up the television even more.

----

Ten minutes later, she was disturbed again. However, this time, it wasn't her brother that hung in her doorway like a signal of the oncoming plague, but rather, Ben.

"You okay, Susie?" He asked her, staying in the doorway as if he were afraid to come in.

"I'm tired." She told him, from inside her ball of duvet covers. At the moment, she resembled a giant cocoon, with just her head poking out to rest on the pillow.

"Not like you to be up after all of us." Be commented.

"That's because I'm tired." She repeated.

Ben took a few steps into the room, and Sue remembered that this was Ben, not Johnny. So she'd be nice to him...maybe. "How are you holding up after last night?" He asked her, a gentleness in his voice.

"A few more hours in bed and I'll be fine."

"Okay then...Reed's making breakfast."

"I know." She replied, now able to smell frying eggs in the bedroom.

"You want anything?" Ben asked.

"No." She said simply, not awake enough to consider manners.

"Surely you must be hungry after last night." Ben pointed out.

"Yes, but the bed is more important right now." She pointed out.

Ben was silent for a moment, and then she heard his feet shuffling towards the door again. "Okay." He said simply. "Shout if you need anything."

"Will do." She called after him.

----

A few moments later, Reed passed her bedroom on the way to his own room. He saw her lying there, and had to smile at the sight. He wouldn't bother her like the others had done. He knew that she needed the lie in if she was willing to use physical pain to her brother as a threat. Smiling at the sight of her encased in the thick blanket, he leaned into the room a little.

"Morning, Sue." He spoke softly into the room.

"Goodnight, Reed." She said simply, her monotonous tone just one indicator of her tiredness.

He smiled harder, laughing to himself inwardly at the sleepy early-morning Sue he remembered from two years ago. He left the doorway, and carried on towards his room, leaving her to her sleep.

----

She managed to rest comfortably, well, comfortably enough considering she was stressed and unable to sleep, for another hour. Then, however, the vague element of comfort was ridden from her with the annoying return of her brother.

"You're still in bed?" He cried.

She propped herself up on her forearms, releasing herself from her cave of blankets, and looking at Johnny with the same threatening manner she had looked at Victor the night before. "Didn't I tell you to go away?" She pointed out.

"Come on, Sue, this is ridiculous." He told her. "It's half past ten!"

"I need to sleep, Johnny." She told him slowly.

"You need to get out of bed." He compromised.

"I beg to differ." She said bitterly, settling back down as Johnny crossed the room.

"Whatever, get up." He said, now standing at her side.

"No."

Johnny made a grab for the bedclothes, but she gripped them tightly, glaring up at him.

"Do it and die." She muttered to him.

"You're wasting the day." He pointed out.

"Shut up, Johnny, you sound like me." She grumped, as she rolled onto her side and tried to get comfortable again.

Johnny smirked. "I'm glad you finally see how annoying you are."

"I don't." She said, almost pleadingly. "I just want you to go away."

"Fine." He said stubbornly. "But if you're not out of bed in a half hour, I'm sending Reed in."

Sue's sarcasm was the last thing he heard before he left the bedroom. "Ohhh...I'm so scared."

---

Another hour passed, and still no sleep. It was almost like torture...behaviour like this could be classed as illegal punishment. Desperate for sleep, she was exhausted to the point of being emotional now, as she fought within the blankets to find a comfortable position that she wouldn't have to move from two minutes later. She just wanted to sleep, but it wasn't happening. She was so frustrated, she could easily have cried, but she didn't even have the energy for that, so occasionally, whilst trying to get comfortable, she just emitted weak, whining noises that probably sounded like an injured kitten.

However, after a while, she was suddenly aware of another presence in the room, and this presence was trying very much to be quiet as it kneeled at her side. A sweet, familiar aroma filled her sensed, and she blearily opened her eyes to see Reed at her eye level, with a cup of coffee on the bedside table.

She looked at the coffee, and then back to Reed. "This better not be a bribe to get me out of bed." She told him.

Reed gave her an amused smile. "No, it's not."

"Good, because I'm not going to." She said, stretching out underneath the covers.

"I know." He nodded. She settled back into her previous position with a sigh, and, feeling bold, he reached out and smoothed down her hair. "You have bed hair, you know." He pointed out to her.

"Be that as it may, I really don't care right now."

"Ben and Johnny hassling you to get up?" He questioned.

"More than you could ever imagine." She told him.

At that moment, where a silence settled over them, Sue realised what a normality was coming from the scene they were in. Reed was kneeling at her side, still stroking her hair whilst she lay curled in a ball beneath the blankets, facing towards him. It felt familiar, like the old days. It felt comfortable. He looked down at her with a concerned adoration in his eyes.

"As annoying as they may be, they're right." He told her. "You never sleep this late. What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She told him airily.

He tilted his head to the side slightly. "I know you better than that, Sue, you don't have to brush things over for me."

She sighed. He was right. "You really want to know?"

"I really want to know." He confirmed.

She sighed again, heavier this time. "Ever since we've got these powers, things have been so crazy. I mean it's been over a week now, and I feel like I've barely slept since the quarantine at Victor's facility, because whenever I get into bed all I can think about is what's going to happen next. But today...now that it's over with Victor, I just need to lie here and relax. I need to stay in bed and know that, for this morning at least, there's nothing to think about. But I can't, because everyone keeps trying to get me out of but just when I get close to relaxing." Her voice started breaking, but she was still to exhausted to cry, so she just sounded extremely emotional. "I just...I really need a Sleepy Sunday, Reed, and I can't have one."

Reed smiled at the memory. Sleepy Sundays were a concept they developed then they were dating. Every Sunday, no matter where they were, they would stay in bed until at least midday, and just relax, holding each other, and not thinking about anything important. They were the days when it didn't matter whether they had research to do, or people to consult with. They only had time for each other, no matter what the rest of the world wanted them to do. Grinning harder at those memorably calm mornings, he indicated for her to move over.

"Move over." He said simply.

She did as he instructed, leaving space where she had been lying before. "Why?" She asked him suspiciously.

He climbed onto the bed beside her. "We are having a Sleepy Sunday." He told her simply.

She looked at him, from her position of being propped up on one arm, as if he were insane. "It's Friday." She pointed out.

"Then we'll have a Sleepy Friday." He told her. "New tradition."

She smiled at his gesture. He returned her grin, and then lifted one arm, and, just like she used to, she crawled up beside him, lying her head down against his chest. He wrapped his arms multiple times around her, holding her close. She let out a comfortable sigh against him, and he started to play with her hair again, remembering how relaxed that made her.

"Better?" He asked, after they had been settled for a moment.

"Much better."

"Good."

There was a small silence, and then Reed bent his neck, kissing the top of her forehead. She smiled, the reaction he had been hoping for, and then burrowed her head closer against him.

"I can remember our last Sleepy Sunday." She told him.

Reed thought back with a laugh. "Wasn't that the day Johnny rang and asked for bail money?"

"Yeah."

Reed shook her head. "I can't believe you didn't get out of bed and go straight round there." He remembered.

"It was Sunday." She explained simply. "There were rules. No getting out of bed except for emergencies."

"And Johnny in jail wasn't an emergency?" He pointed out.

"I'd rather have stayed in bed with you."

He smiled sadly to himself at that, remembering that this particular Sunday had also been the day before she had walked out for good. "At least I did something right..." He said under his breath, but unfortunately, she picked it up.

"Reed..."

He sighed. "Last night, you said that you wanted me to be that man." He remembered.

She nodded against him. "Yeah, I did."

"I want to be that man, too." He admitted to her. "I want to go back to this. I miss the Sleepy Sundays, and Thursday's Pancakes, and every other day of the week...I miss us, Susan, I just miss you so much."

Sue brought her hand down from where it had been resting against his chest, beside her head, and trailed it up and down his side for a moment. "Reed...you always were that man." She told him quietly, as she felt his arms tightening around her. "I miss us, too."

"I know it's two years too late, but for what it's worth...I'm sorry." He whispered into her hair.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too." She told him. They fell into another silence again, only this time, she knew that there was something that she had to tell him. "You know, I tried to go out on dates after we broke up." She admitted.

She felt him tense up for a moment. "You did?" He asked.

"These guys would keep asking me out, and eventually, I'd crack and say yes to one of them." She confirmed. "But every time it came to actually going out for dinner, or to the movies...I just had to ring them and cancel." She sighed, moving her head against his chest, as if it would bring her closer to him. "Even though we weren't together, and I was trying my best to hate you, I couldn't go out with another man, knowing that I wanted to be going out with you. I couldn't hate you, even if I wanted to, because..." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "...because, I never stopped loving you."

There was a silence again, and this time Sue was intimidated by the lack of words between them. This wasn't a Sleepy Sunday silence. This was uncomfortable. Had she ruined the moment by telling him that she loved him?

Reed slid his hand along her cheek, and down to her chin, raising it so that she was facing him. Then, he caressed her cheek, before leaning down to kiss her. Slowly at first, they brushed their lips against each other, as if testing the boundaries they were both lowering, and then he claimed them fully, placing his lips against hers fully. Both of them had butterflies in their stomach, the first kiss in two years. After a few gentle kisses, he sought entry into her mouth, and her lips parted eagerly, allowing tongue to probe at her own. At this point, Reed wondered whether this was really happening or not, but the sensation of Sue responding to his kiss was enough to assure him that he was doing the right thing.

Her hands travelled to the back of his neck, one of them tangling in the soft hair that rested there. He kept one hand on her waist, holding her to him, and brought he other up to her hair, finally running his fingers through the golden locks he had missed for as long as he could remember, yet he couldn't focus on it. All he could focus on was that the lips against his were Sue's. Sue let out a tiny whimper against his lips, which in turn, let Reed's moan escape, sending vibrations through her mouth.

She was kissing her ex-boyfriend. Why didn't it feel weird? It doesn't feel weird because you love him...because you want this...God, she wanted it. She was enjoying this kiss more than any she had ever experienced, and it wasn't just because of the lack of them in the past two years.

With one of Reed's hands now on the small of her back, and the other now tracing small circles at the point where her neck met her shoulder, they allowed themselves to release each other from the kiss. Slowly, wanting to savour it as much as possible, neither wanted it to end, but both of them needed to breathe. Reed opened his eyes before Sue, and he waited to meet hers when s he finally followed his action. There was something in her eyes...not regret, but rather a rekindled passion that burned stronger than any flame he'd seen.

"I never stopped either." He admitted against her lips. "And I never will."

"Reed..." She begun, but he cut her off, needing to tell her.

"I love you, Sue." He whispered passionately. "I really, truly, love you."

She smiled, the corners of her lips turning against his own, and lifting them with hers. They kissed again, but were rudely interrupted by a loud exclamation.

"OH. MY. GOD."

They broke apart, and Sue looked towards the doorway, absolutely mortified. "Johnny!"

"You're kissing?" Johnny cried.

A thundering was heard in the hall, and Ben appeared at his side. "Who's kissing?"

"They're kissing!" Johnny said, pointing to the two lovebirds curled beneath the blankets together.

"Will you two leave us alone?" Sue pleaded.

"We're trying to have a Sunday here." Reed pointed out.

Ben looked at them, nodding in understanding, but Johnny simply frowned. "Are you on drugs?" He asked, at Reed's statement.

"Johnny!" Sue cried out again.

"Come on, kid, let's leave them to it." Ben said, putting his hand on Johnny's shoulder and leading him away from the room. "They're having a Sleepy Sunday."

Johnny looked at him suspiciously. "Are you all on drugs?"

Ben physically dragged the youngster from the doorway, leaning back to close the bedroom door to give Sue and Reed their privacy. As they got further down the hall, Ben stopped to explain. "Back when they were together, they had this rule about Sunday mornings." He told him. "They always stayed in bed, doing nothing but relaxing and ignoring the rest of the world. It was their thing. Tradition."

"Oh, I get it." Johnny nodded.

"There we go, now leave them alone." Ben said, starting down the hall.

"That doesn't change anything!" Johnny insisted, following Ben down the hall. "It's Friday. They can't have a Sunday on a Friday."

Ben stopped, turning to him once again. "Reed loves your sister. He'd give her the world if she asked him to."

"Your point being?"

"If Susie needs a Sunday to relax, then Reed will give her a Sunday." Ben said simply.

Johnny looked at Ben, and then shook his head. "You guys are all nuts." He said, turning on his heel, and going towards the front door. He needed a drink.