Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she was eight. What happens if she came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so you apologize for truth." - Benjamin Disraeli

Noah scowled at the cup of coffee on the table in front of her – she'd wanted the beverage earlier when she first arrived at the little corner diner she now sat in, but now that she had it… she didn't like the way the heat felt against her fingers, even through the cardboard holder around it. She'd grown so used to the slight numbness in her finger tips that anything that warmed that feeling out of her was unwelcome. So, rather than drinking it, she just stared down into it and at her own refection mirrored up at her from it. There was a television on behind the counter, shelved up high on the wall, playing and replaying the captured images and dialogue between the city's resident 'superheros' at the XGames arena earlier that day.

She could hear her own voice shouting with the voice of Johnny Storm, heard the amused voice of the reporter as her image stomped off from a slapped and stunned looking blond.

"God…" she shook her head, scowl deepening over the coffee cup and head turning away in an attempt to tune out the news playing across the room. It all sounded so stupid once she heard it from an outsider's perspective, or at least that was how the reporters were making it look and sound.

Eventually, she'd have to face the blond again – apologize for the slap and outburst, but she didn't have it in her to go back to the Baxter just yet. She hadn't had it in her to return for the last four hours… she'd wasted the entire day in that diner, listening to the news and staring at cups of coffee she never intended to drink, but kept ordering.

"Can I get you something else, sweetheart?" The lady behind the counter asked her and Noah glanced up to see the woman frowning softly, as if she were genuinely concerned for the down beaten appearance the brunette had about her.

"M-mm… no." Noah shook her head, "Thanks."

The woman only nodded, shoulders heaving lightly with a sigh and continued to frown at her from the corner of Noah's eyes. Noah was both amazed and thankful the woman didn't seem to recognize her just yet – she wasn't paying much attention to the news, apparently.

The door chimed as someone entered the coffee house, but Noah didn't bother to look up and back behind her to see who it was. Doing so might have only brought more attention to her – there was no way to know if the entering costumers would recognize her or not and it just wasn't a chance she wanted to take right now. She was surprised into lifting her head, however, when the person entering came to her table and sat down across from her.

Noah frowned deeply, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she looked across at the man who had sat down with her. "Victor Von Doom?"

He was wearing black gloves over his hands and a high collared black coat as well; his familiar smug expression plastered over his face. He looked a bit out of it, though; like his face almost wanted to be twitchy. He nodded up towards the television with a slightly amused look on his face, "Rough day?"

"What do you care?" She asked him snippily.

"Enough to want to buy you something to eat," He picked up a menu from the little rack on the table and laid it out in front of her. "Go on, anything you'd like."

"No… no thanks." Her frown turned confused as she folded the menu back up and pushed it aside, "I'm not hungry."

"No? Very well…" He simply looked at her now, lips tweaked in a mildly friendly smirk.

She grew more and more uncomfortable under his gaze, trying to ignore it, but unable to. She sighed after a while, scowling at him again, "What are you even doing here? My uncle won't take well to hearing that you're stalking me…"

Victor chuckled, "No, I dare say he wouldn't… but, no. Not stalking, Miss Richards. I saw the reports on the news, heard the spat between you and young Mr. Storm. I saw you sitting in here from the window and thought I might come in and see how you're doing…"

"Why?" Her frown flipped again; confusion etched into her soft features.

"Would you believe me if I said I was worried about you?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes, "No."

"Well, I was." He chuckled again before continuing, "I realize how… frustrating this all must be for you." She was watching him closely as he spoke, uncertain of him, "Still so young and being forced to live with something you can't understand or explain. And then trapped in an environment where you're forced to… coexist with someone so vastly different from you. You and Johnny haven't been doing so well together, have you?"

Noah frowned at him again; she hadn't liked the way he used the word 'together'. He made it sound like she and the blond were a quarreling newlywed couple. "He and I were never much of a team. Ever. So it isn't much of a surprise, really, and nothing to be… worried about." She made a face at the concern he claimed to harbor for her.

"Still," Victor shrugged at her expression, "I understand how difficult it must be for you to have to interact with that buffoon."

"He… isn't always so terrible." She turned her scowl to the coffee cup again, shrugging, "Only when his ego gets in the way of things."

"Does it happen often?"

"Often enough to be irksome…" She sighed, nodding her head slowly. This certainly was odd – Victor Von Doom, the biggest asshole Noah knew, was sitting here playing counselor with her like he actually gave a damn.

"Well, in my professional opinion," Victor shifted in his seat, looking over her thoughtfully, "I don't think living in a constant state of chaos like you do in the Baxter is very healthy. The stress of this back and forth war and peace you have with Johnny Storm could cause you permanent emotional and psychological damage..."

Noah laughed at that, "Oh, believe me; Johnny Storm doesn't have that much effect over my life."

"That's why you're hiding away in a second class diner…?" He asked with brows arched high over his eyes. When she remained silent to his accusation he nodded and pursed his lips. He sighed, gesturing to himself, "I know the thought of leaving your uncle after being with him for so long is a difficult thought to consider, but… I'd like to extend an offer to you. I've several condos that you might find appealing…"

Noah shook her head, frowning tenfold at the man. She opened her mouth to decline the offer, but Victor lifted a hand to her for silence.

"Do not trouble yourself with answering now. Just… take a few days to mull it over and let me know as soon as you're ready." He gave her a smile, moving to stand from the table, "I just hate to leave you stranded in that place when I can so easily save you."

Noah watched him leave the diner, still taken aback by what he had said to her. Save her? Things weren't nearly so bad that she'd want to leave the Baxter and her uncle in favor of one of Victor Von Doom's condos. Not that it hadn't been nice, unusually nice, of the business man to make an offer like that… But Noah had no reason to even consider it. It was ridiculous to think that a few blowouts with Johnny Storm could really cause enough lasting damage to truly affect her life in the long run.

Noah trudged her way back home a rough hour after Victor left her at the diner, still mind boggled by the man's words and showing up like he had. She'd come in from the elevator with a weary look to her, hearing the television in the living room and glimpsing Ben on the sofa as she climbed the stairs and turned down the hall to her bedroom. She didn't have to go and look to know Reed was in his lab, working away like usual; Sue was probably in the lab with Reed or perhaps even in her own room. And frankly, she wasn't sure she cared to know where Johnny was… maybe a little, but not enough to ask anyone. She didn't want to see him right now anyway – and it wasn't even because she was angry, because she really wasn't all that mad at him anymore. Mostly, she was just embarrassed by her own behavior.

So when she pushed the door to her room open and then closed behind her and then looked up from her study of the floor to find Johnny Storm standing by her closet with his back to her, it nearly scared her to death. She gasped, jumping in fright to see the blond standing there, and watched him turn to face her with a cautious gaze.

"Sorry," Johnny held up his palms to her as he apologized, "didn't mean to scare you."

"What… what are you doing in here?" She looked around suspiciously, almost expecting to see some terrible thing waiting for her in the corner. Seeing nothing, she simple turned a tense face around to stare at him once more.

"Ah… waiting for you." He chuckled nervously, hands falling and slipping into his pockets.

"You could have done that out in another room."

"Yeah, I could have," He shrugged, "but if I did that, there'd be no guarantee that you wouldn't just run up here and lock me out."

She nodded, head tilted – he had a point. But, point or not, it was rather awkward having the other in her room like this. She moved away from the door and hesitantly removed the sweater she had on, toeing off her shoes as well in the process. "For the record… I wouldn't have locked you out."

"Good to know." Johnny nodded watching her move around the room – she was awkward in his presence like this, he realized, but making an effort to have it seem as though she wasn't bothered by having him in her room. He nodded to the alarm clock on her bedside table, "So… where've you been? You were gone so long we almost thought you might not be coming back tonight…"

"I… stopped at a diner for some coffee."

"For five hours?"

She frowned, looking at the clock herself and then down at the watch at her wrist. She shrugged, "Yeah… guess so."

"Must have been some damn good coffee…"

"Don't really know. I never actually got around to drinking any."

"Oh…" Johnny frowned this time and Noah couldn't blame him – it sounded odd even to her to say you stopped for coffee, hung around for hours, but never drank any. He lifted a hand, rubbing at the back of his head, "So… um…" He sighed noisily, taking two long strides forward towards her and took up both of her hands in each of his own – he held them close together, lifted high up at level with the center of his own chest between them, "Noah, I'm sorry. Alright? I'm sorry."

She stared at him with wide hazel eyes, obviously alarmed by the hold he had on her and the near desperate look he used on her in his blue eyes. The honesty there was unnerving. She shook her head slowly, watching him cautiously again, "…for what?"

"For…earlier." His gaze wavered from Noah to just over her shoulder, his brow tweaked over blue eyes.

She sighed at the look, "You have no idea what you're even apologizing for, do you?"

"What? Yes! Of course I do!" That same wavering look and Noah shifted her weight from one hip to the other, arching a brow at him. Her expression alone was enough to tell Johnny she didn't believe him in the least. So he gave in, fingers flexing around her hands, "Ok, no, not really."

"Johnny…" she shook her head at him.

"Hey, look," he tugged at her hands insistently, like he was fighting for her attention despite already having it. "I am sorry, alright? I don't really know what I did, but I know whatever it was royally pissed you off… and I'm sorry."

She watched him lift her hands up and press each one in turn to his lips, kissing them softly in apology.

"I am so sorry, Noah." He stared down over her hands at her, "Believe me."

The startled look she stared at him with slowly edged off her face and she dropped her gaze from his face to his shoulder and back up again. She nodded slowly, eyes focused once more on his shoulder as he breathed a sigh of relief and grinned down at her; a small frown twisted her face, "But don't think you're off the hook so easily. Just because you've said sorry doesn't mean I've forgiven you…You have to understand why I was mad to begin with and then be sorry, not just apologize because I was upset."

"Fine, alight," he nodded, pulling her by her hands to her bed and guiding her to sit down with him on the edge of the mattress. He still held onto her hands, "Explain it to me."

She scoffed at him, "That would sort of defeat the purpose, Johnny."

"No, come on," he made a face, "I'm tryin' here. But it doesn't work if I don't even know what I'm doing." He gave her a nudge, "Now… explain this to me: you got mad, slapped me and screamed you hated me, all because of a look?"

"Not a look, the look." She scowled at him, "Johnny… when you're here and out of the media's lime light you're a great guy and I like you, but when you get out there in front of other people and cameras… it's like you become a completely different person. Everything about you changes; you hold yourself differently, your smile changes, and the way you look at people is so completely not you that it's scary!"

Johnny just stared at her, squinting like she'd just told him he was actually a five year old girl and not a twenty-four year old man. He shook his head at her, face tilted forward close to her's, "Noah… it was just a look."

"Are you my friend?"

"Huh?"

"Are you my friend, Johnny?" She repeated, an intensely serious look on her face, "A simple yes or no will suffice."

"Yeah. Yes, of course." He nodded forcefully, "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything." She told him sternly. She sighed again, twisting her hand to wrap her fingers around his as well, "If you have two faces in this world, then so be it, but you don't ever use the one you reserve for strangers on a friend."

"Well, yeah… that makes sense." He nodded, hyper aware of his hold on her hands being returned onto his. He leaned his forehead against her's, "One problem though… I don't even know what this fake face of mine looks like, let alone that I even have a second face or whatever."

"Yes, well… then you'll just have to refrain from being the egotistical, incompetent dumbass you so frequently tend to become in a crowd." She smirked up at him through the short distance between their two faces, seeing the same expression lift the blond's expression as well. Their fingers flexed carefully around each other's, foreheads together and eyes locked as they grinned.

Noah's smile slowly fell as she realized just how close and comfortable they had suddenly become with each other. She cleared her throat, sitting back and standing from her bed – stepping away from him with a shying expression and her arms crossing over her own stomach as she looked out the window of her room to the city and setting sunlight outside.

"Anyway," she kept her eyes out the window, feeling awkward all over again and very aware of the blond's eyes on her back. "I should apologize to you as well." She turned around, leaning 

back on the window pane, and hesitantly looked up at him, "I didn't handle the situation back then very well. I was upset and let my feelings get the better of me… I shouldn't have said what I said and I shouldn't have hit you. I'm sorry."

"Hey, no worries," Johnny grinned that Johnny Storm grin of his, waving her apology aside. "I deserved it, right?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point." She chuckled despite herself, "I shouldn't have done it, least of all with all those people and reporters around. They've done nothing but show it over and over again on the news since it happened."

"It might not be the best publicity, but it's publicity nonetheless." Johnny winked at her, "You'll learn to love it."

"I highly doubt that."

"You've said the same thing about me, but you've learned to love me…"

"I've learned to tolerate you." She arched a menacing brow.

"Yeah, I bet." Johnny just kept grinning that grin at her and Noah had to look away with a scowl; an irritatingly forced scowl at that.

"You're far too overconfident." She told him, "It's very unbecoming."

"And you're far too argumentative." He countered.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you how rude it is for a man to invade a woman's room unbidden?"

"Sure," He smirked as he stood from the bed, approaching her with slow, confident movements. "But I'm not exactly unbidden, now am I?"

Noah stared at him as he approached her, pressing herself back against the window pane and attempting a look that betrayed nothing of how intimidated she felt at this moment. She swallowed thickly as he closed in on her, lifting a finger and pointing to the door, stopping him in his tracks.

He stared at her finger blankly for a moment and then turned an arched brow at her, "You're serious?"

"Quite." She made a shooing gesture at him, "It's been a long day. I'm tired and your room is across the flat."

"Aw, come on…" He smirked again, "Girl's love sleepovers, right?"

"Actually, I never cared much for them." She confessed with a smirk of her own. She walked him to her door, held it open for him and leaned in the doorway to watch him make his way down the hallway. "Good night, Johnny."

He made an about face, smiling at her as he walked backwards down the hall. He gave her a mock salute, wishing her a good night as well.

Please Review and let me know what you think! Pardon any spelling/grammatical errors you might find.