"That doesn't help, Liv," he called from the bedroom. Hmm, blue checkered shirt or striped rugby shirt' Eeney meeney miney mo... He pointed to each as he tried to decide. He really needed to get home and pester Reed to make him some clothing that was a little more flame retardent. "How about pizza" I could really go for some pizza." He decided on the checks, pulling the shirt from the hanger and tossing it onto the bed.

Relieved he hadn't caught her slip, Liv smiled as she dried her hands, glancing toward the door as the buzzer sounded. "That sounds like a good idea," she called back to him, moving from the kitchen to the door. "We could go out or order in for that." Lifting the intercom phone to her ear, she laughed at Lucy's impatient greeting, pressing the button to let her sister into the building. "Incoming."

"And beer!" he called again, even though he had heard the buzzer sound, announcing her sister's arrival. He tugged on a pair of blue jeans, followed by a plain white t-shirt beneath a blue checkered button-up shirt, socks and sneakers. He shoved his fingers through his hair, short enough that it didn't really need combing, as he turned toward the mirror to assess the damage.

"Are you planning to get me drunk again?" Liv accused him lightly, smiling as she moved to open the door in preparation for Lucy's arrival. Her sister was already audible in the hallway outside, apparently unusually animated in conversation for this time of day.

"Would I do that?" he asked, tucking both his shirts into his jeans. He wasn't quite sure what Liv was all worked up about, but despite his teasing, he was just vain enough that if they were going out, he wanted to look good. The thought of Liv tipsy made him smile. She was too adorable for words, and it was no secret that he was head over heels in love with her.

"Yes," was the short answer, complete with giggle. "Yes, you would." Liv stepped back as the door opened, and a loud squeal erupted from what could only be Lucy.

The older Broderick threw herself in through the doorway, flung her arms around her little sister's waist, and lifted Liv off her feet, twirling her around in an effusive display of over-excited joy. "Livvie! So much to tell you!" Putting her sister down, she grinned, turning to reach a hand toward her companion, inviting him inside with a warm smile. "Liv, I'd like you to meet Steve," she said, a little more quietly. "Steve, this is my sister, Olivia."

If Steve was nervous, it didn't really show. He offered the younger Broderick a warm, polite smile, along with a hand in greeting. "Nice to meet you, ma'am. I've heard a lot about you," he told her politely, only a little surprised at the resemblance. Thankfully, he'd been warned. Intelligent blue eyes noticed subtle differences that might normally go easily unnoticed. The most important thing he noticed, however, was the easy affection and obvious loved shared by the two sisters.

"Livvie?" A voice was heard coming from the bedroom. "Is that Luce?" he asked, thinking he heard an unfamiliar voice and wondering if he'd left the TV on. He thought he'd shut it off, but maybe Liv had turned it on again. Footsteps were heard in approach from the direction of the bedroom.

It was just as well Lucy had also warned her sister about the resemblence Steve bore to Johnny. Despite the warning, though, Liv was a little wide-eyed and open-mouthed for a moment, staring up at the impressiv bulk of a man standing in her doorway. Only a nudge from Lucy got her to shut her mouth and remember her manners, stammering a shy, "Hello," before getting a grip on herself. "Um, please, um, call me Liv," she told Steve, gesturing for him to come inside. "Everyone does."

Grinning to herself, Lucy glanced between her sister and her lover, turning toward the sound of Johnny's voice. She took off at a run - it might only have been a few days, but those days had been long and felt a little like a year. "Oh, Johnny, oh, Johnny, heavens above!" If the Human Torch wasn't braced, he was going to end up on his own bedroom floor with the wrong twin on top of him.

To his credit, Steve only blushed a little in response to Liv's jawdropping greeting. He'd only been out of the deep freeze a few months and still wasn't quite used to the reaction he got from most people upon first meeting them. It wasn't easy to wake up and find out you had become a living legend. But before he was able to mutter a word, Lucy was taking off to greet Johnny, leaving Steve with the shyer twin. "Is she always like that?" he asked, perhaps seeing a side of Lucy he hadn't seen before. Thankfully, she had already warned him what to expect so he wouldn't be too shocked when he came face to face with his own twin.

Meanwhile, unsuspecting Johnny was bowled over by an overexcited Lucy and knocked flat on his back with a grunt. "The hell, Luce" You wanna give me a warning or something next time?" Thankfully, he had not set anything on fire. Yet.

"I gave you plenty of warning, Everlast." Lucy was completely unrepentant as she sat back, deliberately bouncing on Johnny's stomach with a grin that was only slightly evil. "What, am I not allowed to be happy to see my very nearly almost brother in law?" She reached down to tweak at his nose teasingly as she spoke, revelling in the freedom to treat Johnny Storm as though he was about fourteen and easy to embarrass, when they both knew he was anything but. Besides, she wanted him completely off-guard when he clapped eyes on Steve; she was looking forward to an unadulterated reaction.

"Um ..." Liv glanced over her shoulder to where a thump had declared the greeting between Johnny and Lucy had gone from vertical to horizontal, edging nervously around Steve to close the door behind him. "Well, she is with Johnny," was the answer she eventually came up with. There was a pause as she fought with her shyness and won. "Would, would you like a drink, Captain Rogers" And, and please do make yourself comfortable. We're practically family, aren't we?"

Lucy bit her lip, wincing apologetically as Liv moved away. "He'll be fine," she told Steve confidently, hoping she was right. "I did mention that he sort of worships you, didn't I?" She looked up at Steve with a faint wince. "I think I underestimated how much you mean to him."

Steve twisted his head to get a better look at the fallen Torch, noting the obvious similarities. The young man bore an uncanny resemblance to himself, despite a few minor differences. Johnny was shorter than Steve and not as bulky, with shorter hair, but other than that, they could almost pass for twins. "He looks just like me," Steve remarked, clearly in awe, as he took a closer look at the unconscious man. "He could be my twin."

Johnny groaned, eyelids fluttering. The shock didn't keep him down long. "Did anybody get the number of that bus?" he asked as he blinked up at the face that was swimming in his field of vision. "Liv?"

"Yes, it's me," Liv assured the slowly rousing superhero on the floor, wondering if he was quite up to looking over her shoulder and finding the other superhero in the room looking down at him in awed amazement. "Maybe you should stay down for a little bit."

Beside Steve, Lucy couldn't help smiling a little, relieved that Johnny was coming around so quickly. "I said you looked just like him, didn't I?" she reminded Steve gently. "I thought I'd run him down the night we met." She peered over Liv's shoulder at Johnny. "I know, I'm evil," she informed the Human Torch, "but I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy seeing you tip over like that."

There was that other face, just beyond Liv, standing practically arm in arm with Lucy, staring down at him with the same look of shock on his face that was mirrored on Johnny's. Twin sons of different mothers....or something. Lucy wasn't kidding when she'd said they look alike. "Wait..." Johnny stammered, as he propped himself up on an elbow to look up at his idol. "I look like Steve Rogers?" he asked, trying to wrap his head around it. "That's....that's awesome!" he exclaimed excitedly, reaching for Liv's arm to pull himself to his feet.

Steve frowned down at the man who was practically his twin, not quite believing it until he was faced with the proof. He turned a confused look to Lucy, trying to sort out what was going on between the three other people in the room, who apparently were very well acquainted, feeling a little like the outsider.

"Are you really Captain America?" Johnny asked, looking Steve over, awestruck. He didn't look exactly like the comic books, but then he didn't really expect the guy to look like a pen and ink drawing.

Lucy met Steve's confusion with a gentle smile, wrapping her arms about his waist. It had to be strange, to walk into a situation where he wasn't yet as comfortable with them all as they were with each other. "I don't know how," she said quietly, forestalling the question that had to be on his lips. "I doubt you're related, except potentially by marriage." She squeezed him warmly. "I would say that it's just one of Rhy'Din's quirks, but you're both from Earth."

Liv, on the other hand, was just as bemused as Steve, half dragged up onto her feet as Johnny used her to stand up. So much for being concerned about her boyfriend's overwhelmed reaction. Awesome usually meant everything was back to normal.

Steve winced just a little at the moniker that had been given him when he was doing his promotional tour trying to sell bonds in WWII. The name had stuck, it seemed, though it had changed over the years to mean something else. As far as he was concerned, deep down, he was still the same old Steve Rogers from Brooklyn, New York. He wasn't even sure if the military rank of Captain still stood for anything anymore. The S.S.R. had eventually evolved and become S.H.I.E.L.D., but whether he was technically still a ranking member or not, he wasn't quite sure. "I was once," he replied, frowning uncertainly, and feeling that awkwardness setting in again. "I'm not really sure who I am anymore."

As excited as Johnny was to finally meet his idol, even he couldn't miss the uncertainty in the other man, and he mirrored that frown almost identically. "Are you kidding me" You're a hero! You're always gonna be a hero, whatever you call yourself."

As Steve found himself faced with Johnny's slightly over-excited enthusiasm, Lucy met Liv's eyes, warm understanding passing between the twins. In that look, Liv learned that everything her sister had gone to New York hoping for had come true, and there was perhaps something more to share. Indeed, there was more than something to share, but Lucy was careful to keep the darkness that shrouded their shared origins intact for now, gently smiling at her little sister as Liv came to Steve's rescue.

Shy she might be, but Liv knew a thing or two about titles and how very little they meant in the long run. "Then maybe, sweetheart," the smaller, quieter Broderick suggested to Johnny, "you should stop calling him Captain America, unless you want him to call you the Human Torch." She offered Johnny her sweetest smile, softening the implied scolding behind her words as Lucy muffled a snicker in Steve's arm.

Johnny looked puzzled a moment, before smiling in relief at Liv's very practical solution to the problem. "Well..." he shrugged his shoulders with a small smirk. "It's usually just Torch for short, but you can call me Johnny." He offered Steve a very warm hand in a gesture of welcome and friendship, his excitement simmering just a little. "Welcome to Rhy'Din. It's a huge honor to meet you."

Steve seemed to relax a little as Liv smoothed things over and he offered a grateful smile her way, before turning back to "His Biggest Fan" and returning the handshake. "Nice to meet you, Johnny. I'm Steve." There was a slight arch of one eyebrow when he took the other man's hand, noting the unnatural warmth that was radiating from the hand of the man known as "The Human Torch". "How did you....you know....attain your abilities?" he asked curiously, only knowing what Lucy had told him.

The brief flare of self-doubt disappeared utterly beneath Lucy's teasing. There might have been a time when Johnny would have felt hurt by her teasing, but that time had long since passed. He had Liv now and she had Steve, and he was genuinely happy for them both. It was strange how things had worked out, but he'd realized long before now that he and Lucy would have never worked. They were far too much alike for comfort - like two explosions just waiting to go off. Liv tempered and calmed him, just as Steve seemed to do for Lucy.

They were both matches made in heaven, the only irony being the fact that it was almost like they were two sets of twins. The hug Johnny gave Lucy was more brotherly than anything else, and Liv would more than likely recognize that fact if she looked hard enough. He chuckled as she pinched his cheek. "I sincerely doubt that, Luce. You're engaged to Captain America, for God's sake!" He smiled as Liv reclaimed him, looking almost relieved, and he returned Liv's embrace, rewarding her with a very warm kiss.

Steve watched the trio again from the sidelines, no longer really feeling left out, just trying to sort out the nuances of the relationship between the three other people in the room. He didn't have to think about it long as Lucy returned to claim him, and he relaxed further beneath her reassuring kiss. "I love you," he whispered to her as their lips parted, just loud enough for her ears alone.

Lucy smiled into the kiss, gently touching the tip of her nose to Steve's as she felt him relax again. "I love you back," she promised, just as soft, just as quiet. Her fingers stroked against his cheek for a moment before retreating, a split second of warning before she raised her voice again. "So ....are you two feeding us and putting us up for a couple of nights, or are we getting a room in some dodgy tavern?"

Hugged warm - very warm - in Johnny's arms, Liv giggled at her sister's declaration, squeezing her arms around her own boyfriend's waist as she made a play of considering this question quite seriously. "Mmm, I don't know," she teased, looking up at Johnny. "What do you think, can the bed in the spare room take it?"

Steve relaxed further at Lucy's reassuring kiss, his arms snaking around her waist, but loosening a little as she retreated to interrupt the other couple's smooching. Except for some slight differences, it was almost like watching a mirror image of himself and Lucy.

Johnny grinned down at Liv, not purposely trying to embarass his idol, but he just couldn't help himself. He didn't have much of a filter on his mouth and often spoke before thinking. "I don't know. Depends on how hard they go at it. We wouldn't want the neighbors banging on the ceiling again, would we?" The fact that the word "again? was slipped in there, implied that he and the quieter twin had their moments, as well.

"Again, huh?" Trust Lucy not to miss that slip, her lips parting in a wide, teasing grin as she met her little sister's gaze. "Well and truly deflowered, then." She snickered impishly, only now seeing the parallels between her relationship with Steve, and Liv's with Johnny. Not that she was going to share Steve's inexperience with anyone but him.

"Johnny!" For her part, Liv was absolutely floored by her boyfriend's slip, her face flushing bright read as she poked at his stomach. It wasn't helped by the fact that Lucy was grinning at her so knowingly, either. "Right, that's it," she declared, her lips curving into a faint smile. "You two are cooking."

Johnny broke into laughter, as much amused at Liv's embarrassed reaction as Lucy, though there was no malice in it. He found it utterly amusing that Liv thought she could fool her sister into thinking she was still a virgin. "Truly and entirely," he replied, with a playful twinkle in his eyes, only encouraged by Lucy's teasing, even if it was at the price of Liv's embarassment.

Thankfully, Steve was level-headed and mature enough to take pity on Liv. Besides, he was practically in the same shoes as she was. He cleared his throat to politely break into the conversation. "Have any of you ever had shawarma?" he asked, trying to change the subject, but Johnny was already pouting at Liv's comeback.

"I thought we were getting a pizza."

"As I recall, all you said was "pizza"," Liv smiled up at Johnny, laying her fingertips over his lips to smooth the pout away. Her eyes turned to Steve curiously, her head tipping to one side in vague confusion. "Shawarma?" she repeated. "What on Earth is that?"

Beside Steve, Lucy squeezed him gently, grateful he'd taken pity enough to change the subject. She and Johnny had been known to go on for hours at Liv's expense. They were just very lucky that she had never held it against them for too long.

"Um, it's uh....It's hard to explain," Steve replied, with a small wrinkle in his forehead. He really didn't care what they ate and was still getting used to twenty-first century cooking. He'd only had his first Egg McMuffin a few days ago, thanks to Agent Croft. He seemed to perk up a little at the word "pizza". "New York or Chicago style?" he asked, having a weakness for everything New York, including the food. He hadn't quite grown accustomed to all the fast food places that seemed to have popped up over the last seventy years, and didn't quite trust microwave ovens or anything that took less than at least half an hour to cook, but he was familiar with pizza, having lived in New York most of his life.

"Pfft," Johnny replied, scoffing. "Chicago's got nothing on New York." He grinned at the other New Yorker, at last finding common ground. "And Pizza Hut isn't pizza. There's a place not far from here that comes pretty close to Grimaldi's back home."

Liv's eyes turned to Lucy's, slightly relieved to find that her sister was having as much trouble following the evolution of the conversation as she was. As the virtues of New York were expounded over their heads, Liv mouthed, "What are they talking about?"

A moment later, Lucy shrugged, genuinely amused at the fact that the American brethren of the spandex suit were speaking in a language their very English, very normal girlfriends couldn't even begin to follow. "I have no idea," she mouthed back to Liv silently, and both women dissolved into very similar, very infectious giggles.

"You don't have to worry about that, Oliv..." He broke off a moment to correct himself. "Liv. I promise I'll take good care of her." He turned his glance then to the kitchen and the young man who looked so uncannily like himself, if not shorter. "He's a bit of a livewire, isn't he?" Steve asked, regarding Johnny, turning the conversation back around to focus on Liv.

She giggled in response to this, nodding in agreement. "A little bit," she conceded, her voice warm for the man who had her so utterly enthralled. "But he knows how to be calm, too. It's just not in his nature to be calm and quiet as much as it is in mine, that's all. We'd be very boring together if he was like me."

"You mean if he was like me," Steve replied with a soft smile, already catching the differences in them, and realizing that Liv was more like him and Johnny was more like Lucy. Maybe there was something to the saying that opposites attract. "Can I ask you something?" he queried, that shy look on his face again.

"Oh, I don't mean to say that you're boring!" Liv was mortified that he might have found something like that in what she was saying. "Or that I'm boring, or that we're boring each other here, or ..." She caught herself before the babble could get out of control, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment, not even noticing as Lucy snuck from the spare bedroom into the kitchen to spy on the couch conversation with Johnny. "Um ....of course, please do."

"Well, umm..." He started, completely unaware that they were being eavesdropped on. "I was wondering if maybe your boyfriend....That is....Johnny..." He sighed, deciding to just come out with it. "I don't have many friends," he began, "So, I was wondering if you think he'd mind standing up for me at the wedding."

Liv's slightly nervous expression suddenly blossomed into a bright smile as she imagined the reaction he would get when he asked Johnny for himself. Steve had just earned himself a permanent place in her heart, just for that one query. "I think he'd be honored, and thrilled, and I would have a fire extinguisher on hand when you ask him," she told Steve, with all the confidence of a woman who knew hundreds of ways to extinguish hundreds of types of fire.

"A fire extinguisher?" Steve echoed, not quite understanding why that would be necessary, having caught the reference once before. He knew the man had some abilities with fire, but what were the chances that he'd spontaneously combust'

In the kitchen, Johnny was just hanging up from the pizzeria when he overheard his own name being mentioned and opened his mouth to squeal like a girl in over-exuberant excitement.

The slap as Lucy's hand clamped over Johnny's mouth was almost audible to Liv, which must surely have meant Steve heard it clearly. Laying a finger to her own lips to warn Johnny to keep quiet, Lucy pointed toward the living room with a grin.

"Yes, a fire extinguisher," Liv was confirming to Steve with a faintly mischievous smile of her own, proving that there were some traits at least that the twins shared. "He might set something alight, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. He does it when he's overwhelmed."

And speaking of fire extinguishers, if Lucy didn't let do something to calm Johnny down, she was going to have a kitchen fire on her hands very soon. He was practically bursting at the seams with excitement, but Steve seemed mostly oblivious to it. "Isn't that....dangerous?" he asked curiously turning his head toward the kitchen.

"Not really," Liv assured him, oblivious to whatever was going on in the kitchen. "It was a little touch and go for a while at the start, but now I know how to deal with the little accidents, it's not a problem." She blinked, realising that he didn't seem to be in the conversation with her anymore. "Um ....is something wrong?"

In the kitchen, Lucy turned Johnny around to face her, her hand still clamped firmly around his mouth. She pointed at the sink. "Either you calm down," she whispered through her own laughter, "or I'm going to put your head under the cold tap."

Steve furrowed his brows, having thought he'd heard something in the kitchen, but now he wasn't so sure. He turned back around to face Liv, shaking his head and smiling reassuringly, though he still looked a little puzzled. "No, nothing's wrong. How long does it take to order a pizza?" he asked, wondering where Johnny and Lucy had disappeared to for so long.

In the kitchen, Johnny's eyes were wide and his temperature was rising, but he nodded his head to Lucy in silent agreement that he'd do his best to calm down, taking her threat seriously.

"Um ....How long does it take to put a pair of bags on a bed?" Liv countered with an almost innocent smile. "They're eavesdropping. Unless you can hear them arguing, you're pretty much guaranteed that they're doing something sneaky they don't want to be caught at." She flashed Steve a grin that was almost an exact duplicate of Lucy's. "Maybe you should ask me that question again," she suggested impishly. "We'd know for sure, then."

Steve smiled, the smile almost matching Johnny's in playfulness, hinting that the quiet, serious man did have a sense of humor hidden somewhere inside him. He leaned forward, lowering his voice so that the nosebags in the kitchen wouldn't overhear him. "Aren't you afraid he'll set the kitchen on fire?" he asked, curiously, brows arching upwards.

Johnny pursued Lucy, walking with arms outstretched like Frankenstein's monster toward the bathroom. If he really wanted to, he could have gotten there before she did, but he'd promised Liv never to fly in the house. Someone banged on the wall from somewhere down below, shouting at them to keep it down up there, but Johnny ignored it. He made an attempt to growl like a monster, but it came out all wrong.

Steve just sat there on the couch, gaping in obvious amazement. If someone didn't close his mouth, he might attract flies. He didn't think too much about the Torch. He'd gotten the impression that the guy had the maturity of a six year old at times, but Lucy surprised him. "I've never seen her this way," he muttered in confusion. It wasn't that it was a bad thing necessarily. He was just surprised by it all.

"If you mess up the bathroom, you'll be cleaning it, Lucy!" Liv called after her fleeing sister, necessitating a change of direction that brought Lucy straight in the path of the foamy Frankenstein with no escape. The giggles that erupted as she made a creditable attempt to become one with the wall were infectious enough that Liv ended up snickering a little more as she turned back to Steve once again.

"She likes to play," she warned him warmly. "Her job is so serious and she has to be so cool and calm all the time. Johnny always seems to bring out the little kid in her. And, to be honest, she does the same to him. They're a lot easier to manage separately, but a lot of fun when they're together, too." She grinned encouragingly. "You should learn how to tease her like that," she suggested. "She'll laugh a lot more than you're used to, if you can manage it."

"I'll, uh, I'll try," Steve said, watching the pair curiously. He wasn't sure he'd ever manage to make Lucy laugh like that without maybe tickling her, but he had to admit he liked the way it sounded. "They seem....happy," he continued, a little worried that maybe he was too serious, that she'd get tired of him and eventually find him boring, like Liv had said.

Johnny was laughing now, as much as Lucy, as he got her cornered against the wall and brushed a kiss against the end of her nose, leaving just the tiniest bit of foam behind on her nose. He was tempted to give her a bear hug, but resisted, mostly because Steve was there and he didn't want to make too much of a mess to have to clean up.

"They're silly," Liv corrected, watching Steve as he watched the others. She recognised the look on his face; she knew what it was like to wear that look, and feel the uncertainty underneath it. It had taken a while, but Johnny had finally taught her how to embrace the silly in her life. She was absolutely certain that Lucy was more than capable of doing the same for Steve. "Don't try too hard," she suggested quietly. "Trust me, you'll be able to make her laugh like that easily. And she won't threaten to hose you down afterwards."

As if on cue, Lucy spluttered through the thick smell of chemical foam that clung to Johnny, wiping her nose dry as she grinned at her almost-possibly-maybe-when-he-gets-up-the-courage-to-ask-brother-in-law. "So what happens now, sparky?" she asked him brightly. "Gonna go and stand in the hallway while I throw a bucket of water at you?"

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Want me to strip down first and we'll see who's more well endowed?" Johnny smirked, forgetting that Steve was right in the other room, able to hear everything that was said about his own anatomy and then some. Johnny just couldn't help himself. He'd feel bad about it later, but for now, it was a matter of speak first, think later. But before he was able to make good on that threat, his pager went off, buzzing loudly, announcing that he was needed elsewhere and in a hurry. "Sh*t!" he exclaimed, snagging a towel and wiping as much of the foam from his face as he could. "I gotta go!"

Rolling her eyes, Lucy didn't even comment on his smirking suggestion. The pager was a new addition to Johnny's personal inventory, though, something she'd not seen before or expected to see. "What ...?" She frowned, edging around him as he hurriedly swiped the foam off his face. "Go where?"

"Fire," he explained, hurriedly. Able to streak across the sky like a fireball, he was often the first on the scene, but that didn't mean he could take his time. People's lives could be at stake, and he took that very seriously. He pulled away from Lucy and peeled off his foam-covered clothes, revealing the all too familiar blue suit he wore like a second skin. He leaned forward and brushed a hurried kiss against Lucy's cheek before starting toward the living room. "Livvie!" he called, assuming she'd heard the pager go off, well accustomed to the routine by now.

Steve watched from his spot on the couch, trying to sort out just what was going on now. They were a lively bunch, and there never seemed a dull moment.

"Fire?" One word answers generally didn't sit well with Lucy, but given that she'd been handed an armful of soggy clothes and a peck on the cheek, she didn't really have much option but to turn and watch as Johnny hurried away.

Liv rose from the couch as she heard Johnny call her name. "I got it," she called back, moving to the wide window to pull it open and step back. She smiled fondly at the sight of her boyfriend heading straight for them. "Be careful."

Steve moved to his feet, though he wasn't sure why. Why was Lucy's sister opening a window and why telling her boyfriend to be careful" There was something going on here that Lucy hadn't told him about.

Johnny halted briefly in front of Liv to give her a kiss. It had become something of a routine by now, at least when he got called on while she was with him. "I will, don't worry," he assured her. He tossed a quick wave at Steve and Lucy. "Save me some pizza! I'll be back later!" And then he was jumping out the window, with his by now familiar cry of "Flame on!" A streak of fire shooting upwards and across the sky that signaled The Human Torch was on fire brigade duty.

It was a shame that Steve had taken on some of the burden of blame, because it really wasn't his. The joke had been fun for all concerned, and as Liv had said, the clean up really wasn't as bad as it looked. No, things had gone awry in Lucy's head, and she was feeling ashamed of herself. That shame was made worse with the knowledge that all it had taken was one look for Liv to guess what was going on behind her eyes. The elder Broderick was leaning against the washer in the ultility room, talking to herself under her breath. "....are a complete idiot, that's what you are," she was muttering as she glared at the machine, willing it to work faster. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I don't know. What the hell is wrong with you?" Steve repeated, overhearing Lucy as he arrived at the utility room, taking a lean in the doorway, arms folded over his chest, watching her quietly. There was no accusation in his tone of voice, only concern. "What are you beating yourself up for?" he asked, studying her with those intelligent blue eyes of his.

She lifted her head, turning guilty eyes onto her fiance as he challenged her, twisting herself about until she mirror his stance, leaning back against the washer with her arms folded about herself. "It's going to sound ridiculous," she warned him, shrugging one shoulder as she spoke. "I ....well, my first thought when Liv told us what Johnny's doing now was to laugh it off and ask her what he was really doing. And I know that's incredibly unfair. Johnny's a bit of a firework, but he's got a good heart, and it was very wrong of me to even consider that he wouldn't go out of his way to help someone." She shook her head. "I'm ashamed of myself, Steve. And it's worse because Liv knows what I was thinking."

"So, you made a mistake. Liv knows you're sorry. Johnny's not here to offend. No harm, no foul." He pushed off the wall to close the distance between them, looking down at her as he tipped her chin up to meet his gaze. "Are you more ashamed of what you were thinking or that your sister knows what you were thinking?" he asked, meeting her eyes, knowing she wouldn't be able to lie to him, and hence, she wouldn't be able to lie to herself either.

He'd learned very quickly that she couldn't lie to him, and he wasn't above using it against her, either. Not that Lucy minded. It was a relief to have someone she could only be honest with. She looked into his eyes, and the answer was already there before she spoke. "I'm ashamed that she knows," she admitted. "Thinking badly of her choice means thinking badly of her, and she tries so hard to please everyone. It's not like I disapprove of Johnny, not at all. He makes her happy. But if she thought, even for a moment, that I thought he wasn't good enough, she'll make herself miserable trying to straighten out a kink that isn't there, and ..." She sighed, shaking her head again. "I'm overcomplicating things, aren't I?"

He rubbed his thumb against her chin, smiling reassuringly. Despite his confusion a little earlier and the fact that he hadn't known her or her sister very long, he knew Lucy well enough to have a little insight into what she might she might be thinking and feeling and where it might be coming from. "A little. It's hard to let her go, isn't it' You two have been together a long time."

His smile brought hers out, however small it might be. "Am I that transparent?" she asked, feeling more than a little bit foolish now. "It isn't as though we haven't been apart before, and this time I'm not leaving her on her own. She's not leaving me on my own, either. But it won't be just us anymore. I won't be responsible for her anymore." She snorted faintly, pushing off her lean to hug her arms about his waist, resting her cheek against his chest. "I suppose looking after Liv is a habit I'll have to break. I was never very good at it, to begin with."

His arms went around her back to pull her close against him, as he rested his chin gently on the top of her head. "You just have to trust her, Luce. Trust them both. It's obvious she loves him, and she cares about you a lot. You're not losing a sister. Neither of you are. I'd never take that away from you, and I don't think Johnny would either." He smiled at the thought of the two of them teasing each other like old friends or even like siblings. "He seems pretty fond of you," he told her as he held her close.

Without realising it, he'd laid out her fears in one sentence. She loves him ....she cares about you. Second place was never going to be a happy spot for Lucy to inhabit, not in her sister's heart, and yet that was exactly the place she expected Liv to inhabit in her own. A double standard, for the double trouble that they undoubtedly were. But she smiled when Steve commented on her friendship with Johnny. "We had a rocky start," she told him, glad she'd told him everything about that rocky start ages before he'd ever set foot in the apartment and met Johnny. "We'd have killed each other by now if he hadn't fallen for Liv instead. We're just too alike."

"And I'm boring in comparison," he said frowning, almost wishing he hadn't, but the statement just slipped out of his mouth. It was something Liv had said. He had recognized a lot of himself in Liv and knew he was nothing like Johnny, and if privately wondered if Lucy would ever get tired of him. "Opposites attract, or so they say," he muttered quietly as he held her close, pressing his cheek against her hair and breathing her in.

Lucy frowned, lifting her head to meet his eyes with fierce insistence. "Don't you ever say that about yourself," she told him, her voice firm and honest as ever. "You are not boring." Her eyes narrowed as she considered him for a moment, memories of conversations with Liv during the days following the fire looming in her mind. "You promised me you weren't going to leave me," she reminded him, her voice still fierce, but lower now, for his ears only. "I promised you the same in return. I love you, Steve. Don't you ever think that is going to change. Because it won't."

His eyes met hers, unable to hide his own self-doubts from the intensity of her gaze. "I'm not leaving you, Lucy. I'm never gonna leave you. I just don't want you to get tired of me, I guess. I know I'm not very exciting. I'm about as exciting as watching paint peel, I guess," he admitted with a frown, knowing that wasn't exactly true. Oddly, it wasn't something he'd ever worried about until now, until he'd met Johnny and seen how much fun they had together. "I haven't had much time for fun in my life. I'm not sure I know how to have fun anymore." He tried to remember when the last time was that he'd done something fun, something silly, something outrageous and he couldn't think of a single thing.

Organising any meal in which Lucy was involved was a little like marshalling a small army, no doubt making Steve feel very much at home as Liv handed out orders, content to be in charge in her own home. In a matter of minutes, they had settled themselves on the couch and on the floor, sharing out slices of Johnny's perfect pizza. The twins were happy to keep the conversation flowing, though it was Lucy who kept it going most, as much for Liv's sake as for Steve. She knew that until Johnny came home, her little sister was going to worry quietly in the back of her mind. As the hours progressed, Steve found himself drawn into the tight knit that existed between the sisters, gathered as close as Johnny had been and given his own place in the dynamic - quieter, yes, but no less important. Even when it came to washing dishes and plates, leaving the remnants of the pizza in the oven for Johnny's return, the quiet captain was included, subjected to his fiancee's appallingly out of tune singing as the twins danced around him in the kitchen, filling the little apartment with lively, familial sound and joy.

It was hard for Steve to resist the jovial mood that was permeating the apartment, but he was smart enough to know that it was all Lucy's doing. He didn't have to have psychic powers to know that Liv was worried about Johnny, and the more time that passed since he'd been gone, the harder Lucy seemed to try to distract her sister from her worries. He felt a little awkward, but for Liv's sake, he did his best to try and blend and before long he was laughing as much if not more than the other two. It was a strange feeling, really. He couldn't remember when the last time was that he'd really and truly laughed or when he'd felt like part of a family. Liv and Lucy had done that for Johnny, and it seemed they were extending that familial invitation to include Steve, as well.

Another two hours passed with no Johnny, and while Liv was doing her best to act like nothing was wrong, Steve could tell it was starting to weigh on both twins, and he wondered what would happen the first time he had to go out on his own, leaving Lucy behind. There were never any guarantees, but if anyone seemed adept at handling fire, it was Johnny Storm. After a while, the trio had fallen into quiet, friendly conversation with Steve patiently answering any and all questions, which came mostly from Liv, happy to take her mind off her missing boyfriend. He was just about to explain what was going on back home in New York, when a heavy thump was heard coming from the balcony just outside the living room.

A heavy thump. As interested as she was in what Steve was telling her, Liv's attention was immediately turned toward the balcony door, to the shadow beyond in the evening dusk of the city. She offered Steve a quiet apology and a smile, rising up onto her feet to pad over and open the door, stepping outside to greet Johnny when she noted the expression on his face.

Left on the couch, Lucy followed that movement with her eyes, a faint frown on her brow as she noted the quietness of Johnny's return. One arm draped over Steve's shoulders, she touched a kiss to his cheek. "I think something's wrong."

Steve mirrored Lucy's frown, knowing as he did from his own experiences - especially those of the latest crisis back home - that things didn't always go as planned, whether you were considered a superhero or not. "At least, he's back, safe and sound," he replied quietly back at Lucy, his gaze following Liv as she made her way out onto the balcony. He remained where he was for now, allowing Liv and Johnny some privacy, until and unless Lucy thought they should investigate further. She was a doctor, after all, and Steve knew she'd only be able to sit still so long before she'd have to see if Johnny was all right with her own eyes.

Johnny only said one word when Liv joined him on the balcony. There was only one person he wanted to see at that moment and it was her. "Livvie," he said, his voice breaking on a sob, as he practically fell into her arms, needing her more than ever. He looked tired and was clearly distraught, but appeared uninjured, just as healthy as when he'd left a few hours earlier.

Liv's heart went out to Johnny before his mouth opened, knowing even before his voice cracked on that sob that something horrible had happened while he was working. Only one thing hurt him like this, and even as she gathered him into her arms, stroking her hands against his back, combing her fingers through his hair, she offered up a silent prayer for whoever had been lost. Her lips turned gently against his neck, offering whatever comfort he needed to take from her as she held him. "It's okay," she whispered softly, the gentle sway of her body rocking him just enough as he clung to her. "Take your time, sweetheart."

Johnny clung to her, like a man clinging to a lifebuoy, desperately trying to contain the flood of emotions that were threatening to drown him. He didn't want her to see him this way, but he couldn't contain the grief and the guilt he was feeling inside, and he sure as hell didn't want Steve or Lucy to know what had happened. He'd stayed away as long as he could, grappling with trying to contain himself, but it was getting dark and he knew Liv would worry if he didn't return home. For now, he just clung close, too distraught to explain what had happened, not trusting his voice to break again if he dared speak.

Liv had only seen Johnny even close to this once, and though it worried her deeply that he didn't seem to be able to speak, she was just glad he had come home. It didn't matter that she'd left Lucy and Steve to their own devices in the apartment; all that mattered was being here, with Johnny, for as long as he needed her to be there. She murmured to him, soft comforting sounds that didn't really translate into words, the stroke of her hands a constant soothing motion against his back as he shuddered in the grip of the tumult that had gripped him.

He drew comfort from Liv's presence, from the murmured words of reassurance, and the quiet patience with which she waited for him to compose himself and explain, if he could find the words to explain. When he finally lifted his head from her shoulder, his face was suspiciously wet, blue eyes swimming with tears. "I'm sorry," he apologized for his own weakness, wiping a hand across his face in a useless effort to dry the tears that didn't seem to want to stop.

Her head tilted back to find his gaze with her own as he lifted himself from her shoulder, hands stilling against his back but still holding on, offering him the same comfort of her embrace without expectation. "Don't be sorry," she told him very softly, unwinding one hand to gently catch his, knowing he could hurt himself constantly wiping at eyes that still wept. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what had hurt him so deeply, but at the same time, she knew he wouldn't be able to set it aside until he had told someone. "Just take your time, love. There's no rush."

"Better," Liv promised him, pleased to hear the faint tease in his voice. "I'm going to bring you pizza and beer, and then I'll tuck you into bed." She drew him into the living room, closing the door behind them, and gently steered him to a chair. Lucy was momentarily nowhere to be seen, but she appeared barely a moment after they re-entered, beer in one hand, pizza in the other. The twins knew each other better than they liked to advertise, after all.

Steve, too, was nowhere to be seen, excusing himself for a moment to fetch something from the bedroom, something he'd brought back for Johnny, something that seemed more important than it had before. Johnny's smile flickered briefly when he saw Lucy, like a flame that couldn't stay lit, before it faded altogether. "Hey, Luce. Where's your other half?" he asked, noticing Steve seemed to have disappeared into thing air, unsure if he was relieved or disappointed by that fact.

"He's just getting something," she assured Johnny, bending to set the food and drink down on the coffee table near him. One hand gently rubbed through his hair with sisterly affection. "Eat up, Everlast."

Grateful to Lucy for getting there ahead of her, for making sure she wouldn't have to leave Johnny's side, Liv smiled fondly, drawing him down into a seat to settle beside him, refusing to relinquish his hand. She had nothing more she could really offer him in the wake of what he had told her, but she was hoping that the others would be able to help.

Johnny settled himself on the couch at the twins' behest, glancing at the slice of pizza that was waiting for him on the coffee table. "Did he like it?" he asked, hoping Steve had approved of Johnny's choice for dinner. He wasn't sure why, but Steve's approval meant a lot to him. Maybe it was because he'd never really had a big brother, and his father hadn't been much of a father. There was Reed and Ben, but he felt they merely tolerated him more than anything else. The only one he felt any real connection to back home was his sister Sue, and while she'd tried to be a mother figure to him, they both knew she could never really fill those shoes. He realized, not for the first time, that he and Sue were as much orphans as Liv and Lucy.

Lucy snickered softly, thumping down into a corner of the couch, opposite the Human Torch and her sister. "I think he did," she told Johnny, making an effort to be upbeat, not to sink into too much seriousness. He wouldn't appreciate it if he thought his mood had brought them all down. "We had enough of a battle saving those slices for you!"

Johnny actually smiled, though the smile was weak. It was good to be surrounded by people who cared about him, who cared enough to save him a few slices of pizza, even if they would have rather gobbled it all up themselves. "Next time we'll order him his own pizza with the works," Johnny promised, his mood lightening a little. He reached for the plate and took a bite, only realizing when he did how hungry he was. He groaned in delight at the taste of it, the harrowing experience of the fire forgotten for the moment. He followed that slice with a healthy swallow of beer, swigging down half a bottle before it got warm.

"We should get into the habit of ordering two when everyone's together," Liv mused, quietly relieved as Johnny seemed to relax into the lighter atmosphere Lucy and Steve seemed to have worked to keep up for him, even if Steve was nowhere in sight. "Keep this a regular thing."

Lucy nodded, nestling into the cushions at the corner of the couch comfortably. "Absolutely," she agreed. "Trust me, Johnny, you haven't seen anything yet. That girl there can put away a large pizza all by herself if no one stops her."

Johnny arched a brow as he looked between the set of twins, knowing they were doing their best to cheer him up, and it was working, at least a little. "Not gonna get fat on me before the wedding, are you, Liv?" he asked, with a completely straight face. Which wedding he was talking about was anyone's guess.

Steve cleared his throat gently to let them know he had returned as he stepped into the living room from the hallway that led to the master and guest bedroom. He was holding one arm behind his back, as if to hide something from view. "Am I intruding?" he asked, politely.

The thought of Liv getting fat in less than a week was silly enough to set both women laughing, but it was Lucy who laughed hardest, guessing pretty accurately that it wasn't her wedding Johnny was referring to. That was a happy development she was more than content with, after all. "What, don't you want a cuddly woman with ample boobs to snuggle with at night, Everlast?" the elder twin asked impishly.

For her part, Liv took this teasing with a pinch of salt, sticking her tongue out at Johnny fondly through a resigned smile over the cover of Lucy's cackles. She was the one who noticed Steve's entrance first, curiosity lighting up her gaze as she noted his stance. "Of course not, Steve," she assured him. "Come and sit on your fiancee before I do something dreadful, like tickle her until she widdles."

"Liv's got ample boobs as far as I'm concerned," Johnny remarked with a small, tired smirk. He finished off his beer and set the empty on the table, his gaze darting to Steve, even as he drew an arm around Liv. The next thing on his list was a shower and a good night's sleep, but he wasn't yet ready to leave the warm companionship of the trio who surrounded him and be left alone with his thoughts.

Steve glanced between the three of them, looking only slightly uncomfortable with the twins' teasing. It would take time, but he was slowly getting used to their verbal repartee. It was the talk of boobs and widdling that made him cringe. "I'm not changing her diaper if she widdles," he remarked, in a meager attempt to make a joke. He lowered himself onto the arm of the couch, leaning toward Johnny to hand him the comic book he'd given to Lucy and asked to have autographed. "This belongs to you," he told the other man, noting the look on his face, the weariness, the anguish, as much as he was trying to hide it.

Liv giggled softly as Lucy walked away, fairly certain that the finer points of women's underwear wasn't going to be the only topic of conversation in the spare room tonight. She twisted, curling her arms around Johnny as she looked up at him, her smile gentling. "We'll have to get you a suit," she murmured, not really paying any attention to what she was saying. "Maybe you should take Steve shopping tomorrow, have a little male bonding while Lucy drags me all over the city looking for the perfect pair of shoes."

Johnny chuckled a little at Lucy's leavetaking, and leaned into Liv's embrace. Despite his affection for Lucy and his obvious admiration for Steve, it had been a long day, and he was just as happy the other couple had decided to retire early, leaving him and Liv alone to do the same. "You don't think he really needs a lesson in women's underwear, do you?" Johnny asked quietly, wondering if he needed to bring Steve up to date on the finer points of women's lingerie. They were way past knickers, that was for sure. "I can't believe he asked me to be his best man!" Johnny exclaimed as the reality of it set in. "I thought you two were just trying to screw with my head." He made a face at the idea of shopping, wondering what it would be like to drag Steve around the marketplace in search of a suit. "Are they getting married here or back home?" he asked, somehow having missed that detail.

She laughed softly, resting easily against him as they talked. "I think, if he does need a lesson, Lucy will make sure he knows every last detail intimately," she suggested through her somewhat impish smile, nestling comfortably into the wrap of Johnny's arm about her. "No, he really did ask me if I thought you'd be interested," she assured him as he accused her, however lightly of screwing with him. "But I did get him to ask me twice, just so you two would over hear." She smiled her soft, sweet smile, tipping her head back to look up at him as he queried her on the details of the wedding. "Back home," she told him. "In a church in Brooklyn, I think they said. Someone called Fury is sorting out all the details at that end. Apparently there's even going to be a hotel suite for us to stay in overnight."

"Fury?" Johnny echoed, that name not sounding familiar to him at all, despite his being from New York and being part of another group of superheroes that was fairly well known there. "So, why shop here when we can do that back home?" he asked, wondering what the delay was and why they weren't going back through the portal sooner. "Think I'll have time to drop in on Sue while we're there?" he asked, hopefully, a little of the light returning to Johnny's eyes, now that he was no longer thinking about the one he couldn't save.

"I think Lucy has something she wants to get here," Liv told him, carefully not giving away what that something was. Lucy had intimated it to her under the cover of all the taps in the kitchen gushing while Steve was tidying the living room earlier. It was supposed to be a surprise, and as much as she loved Johnny, Liv knew he'd fold and tell Steve everything at the first little hint of pressure. She smiled at the light rising in his eyes, wondering - not for the first time - just exactly what he thought she was going to do. "Well, obviously we will," she told her lover laughingly. "You don't think you're getting away with taking me to New York without going to see your sister, do you?"

Fortunately for both Steve and Johnny, Steve had no idea Lucy was planning any kind of surprise. As far as he knew, they'd come to Rhy'Din for one reason and one reason only, and that was to meet her sister and bring Liv and Johnny back to New York with them for the wedding. Even that little bit Liv had just told Johnny had his eyes lighting up with curiosity. "What does she wanna get him?" he asked, but before she could reply, he was sidetracked with more talk of his sister, and the familiar look of excitement lit up his face. "Wait til you meet her, Livvie. You're gonna love her. She's gonna love you. I mean, what?s not to love about you both' And you both love me, so..." He was rambling on again, in his usual hyperactive fashion, as if everything that had happened earlier in the day was forgotten, at least for now.

Liv smiled as Johnny rambled on, warmed and calmed by this return to his usual spirits as he wittered on about his sister and her husband and their soon-to-be-born baby. It seemed as though he'd found his even keel again, thanks to Steve's gentle interjection into his misery. Although she knew that the pain and upset of the evening wouldn't entirely leave him, it was good to know that Johnny hadn't lost himself to that terrifying sense of failure. And who knew" Maybe after visiting his sister in New York and making sure that Lucy was well and truly married, he'd pull something out of that shock and grief to spur him on to bigger and better things. She knew he could do it; now all he needed to do was believe in himself, to make those unknown dreams come true.

((Captain America and The Human Torch in the same room! The girls have got their work cut out for them, haven't they' :grin: Magniflorious thankidoodles to the genius mastermind behind the boys!))