Why Am I Going To Shout At You?

"Okay…so…maybe…you're gonna shout at me."

Sue looked up from her coffee, slightly unsurprised by her brother's shifty appearance. The fact that he knew he was going be yelled at told her that it was something bad. Otherwise he wouldn't have told her in the first place.

"Why am I going to shout at you?" She asked him calmly, sipping peacefully from her coffee.

"For…a reason…" he said, clearly avoiding the subject for as long as humanly possible.

She eyed him suspiciously. "Johnny, who did you bring home last night?"

"No one!" He said defensively.

"Okay, so then, who did you kill?"

"No one!" He repeated, this time with a slightly higher pitch in his voice.

"Are you sure?" She checked, knowing that it would be exactly the action to make her brother slink into the kitchen with his head low, avoiding eye contact.

"Absolutely," he nodded, still avoiding her eyes despite the fact that she never took hers off of him.

He went over to the chair at the opposite end of the table, so that they were both sitting at the head ends. As he moved, Sue noticed that he moved awkwardly, and when he sat down there was a definite wince he was trying to cover up.

She eyed him sceptically. "Would this involve a medical profession by any chance?" She asked him warily.

"Hey, look," Johnny said brightly, reaching from his seat to a mug of steaming coffee that someone, no doubt Reed, had left in place on the empty seat beside him, again wincing. "Coffee."

"Johnny." Sue said firmly.

"Sue." He said, mimicking her tone.

"Put. The coffee. Down." She told him, in a low tone that would have frightened most people.

"No," he said simply. "You'll only going to shout at me."

"And you think that coffee will save you?"

"Well, it stops you being so miserable in the mornings so I guess it can pretty much do anything."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I promise not to shout." She tried to assure him.

"No, you will." He knew. "You'll be all you-like and put on the scary voice and say 'Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm, go to the doctor', and I'll be all me-like and stubborn and shout 'never!', it's how it works."

Right on cue, Sue rose to the challenge. "Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm, go the doctor." She told him forcefully, although her face was still relatively calm.

"Never." Johnny told her, just like he told her that he would. "I. Hate. The. Doctors." He told her slowly, as if years of this same argument hadn't taught her a single thing.

"Just go!" She told him, exasperatedly.

"No."

"Johnny."

"No! You can't make me!" He cried out across the table to her. "I'm not going to go. Not for my ribs, not for my wrist. Not for anything." His voice calmed a little, and he looked down at the table. "I haven't been near a doctors or a hospital since mom…you know…and I'm not going to start now."

He pouted, leaning back and folding his arms against his chest in a way that made Sue think back to the five-year-old who had picked the lock on her diary one too many times. "You're too stubborn for your own good." She reminded him. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop hounding you about this."

"Yeah, I know." Johnny nodded. "You're my big sister, it's what you should do."

She took another sip of her coffee. "And you're my little brother, you're supposed to listen to me."

He shook his head. "No, I'm your little brother, and I'm supposed to blow off most of your advice the way younger brothers do, and then you're supposed to be there to give me the sisterly hug and shout at me every time I complain. Much like how it works now, see?"

She shook her head much like he had done, sighing and resisting the temptation to roll her eyes. He knew exactly what he was doing, so why was he doing it to himself? "You'd still get the sisterly hug if you just went to the doctor, you know?" She told him.

"Yeah," he nodded, "But without the shouting in the middle, it's not so much fun."

She raised her eyebrow at him. "You find that part fun?"

He nodded.

"You are a strange person, Johnny." She told him.

He looked at her in mock surprise. "And you're only just realising this?" He scoffed. "And you call yourself my sister? For shame, Sue, for shame." He shook his head, pretending to be disappointed in her.

"You're a strange, doctor-hating person who should get past the hatred for a twenty-minute appointment and get yourself sorted out." She elaborated.

"No!"

"Why not?" She asked him tiredly.

"Because, Sue, I hate the doctors," he reminded her for the millionth time. "I hate having to sit there in the waiting room surrounded by all those sick people. I hate the smell of the doctors. And I really hate being manhandled."

"Yet, you have no problem with dating nurses." She smiled sweetly at him. He glared at her. "Use the anger creatively, then," she suggested. "After your appointment go to a costume shop, buy a doctors uniform and burn it. I'll even give you permission to do it in the house."

"And waste good money?" He asked her hypothetically. "You're joking, right?" He didn't give her space to argue before he shook his head stubbornly again. "No way. I'll protest in my own way. Even if I am in pain." For a moment, he looked rather thoughtful, and then he spoke aloud to himself, amazed as if he had an epiphany. "I should stop complaining."

Sue nodded over her coffee. "I would, unless you want me to drag you down to the doctor myself." She calmly sipped her coffee. "Because I will, you know."

"Yeah, I know you will." He half-smiled. "But you'll have to drag me kicking and screaming to do so."

Sue suddenly looked at him strangely. "Johnny, if you knew I was going yell at you and you have no intention of going to the doctor, why did you even tell me you were in pain?"

He went silent for a moment, and then looked up at her, meeting her gaze properly. "Because when we were kids, you were always better at this sort of thing than Dad was, and since Mom's not here, and Dad's out in Long Island, I just felt like telling you."

She smiled at him. "Would this be your way of getting the sisterly hug?" She asked him.

"Yeah, the emotional bit on my part is meant to be your cue." He told her.

She shook her head, grinning despite herself as she stood from the table. Going around to the opposite end, she embraced her brother, pulling back and ruffling his hair afterwards. "I still stand by what I said, Johnny." She told him. "You're a strange person."

"Yeah, I know," he nodded. "But it's cool that way."

"If you're not going to let a doctor take a look at your ribs, can you at least just let Reed have a look so that we know they're just bruised and not actually broken?" She asked him.

He looked up at her in horror. "Sue, you're my sister and I love you and all, but there is absolutely no chance in all that is holy in this world that I'm going to let your husband feel up my chest."

She went back to her coffee, choosing not to rise to the bait in that conversation, and wondering how her brother could be so strange, yet so normal.

Well, normal compared to a teenager.

FIN.

Believe it or not, this was completely based on a conversation that I had with my brilliant best mate. Emmz, you're a star, and clearly, I couldn't have written this without you. You'll always be my Johnny-Emmz!
Please review! Love and cookies xxxx