Title: Thinking Of You
Author: IndigoNight
Summary: They hardly knew each other, but in that short time a bond was formed that was unexplainable, and would last even at separate ends of the universe.
Feedback: Yes please, yay reviews!
Pairing: Semi-Silver SurferxSusan Storm
Disclaimer: I do not own Fantastic Four or the characters I'm just borrowing them for fun.
Spoilers: Yes, for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Rating: PG
Warnings: None that I can think of.
Author's Note #1: OK, so I just saw Rise of the Silver Surfer tonight, and it is AMAZING! Oh my god! Sooo much better than the first one, which was just whatever. And, tonight, I also fell in love, with our dear, lonely, Silver Surfer. So, on the way home from the theater, I was just kinda staring out the window, and I got inspired, so as soon as I got home I wrote this. Now yes, I have done a little research and according to the comics the Norrin was stuck on Earth for a while, well, I'm carefully ignoring that for the purpose of this story. So read, enjoy, and please review.
Enjoy!
If there is one true, solid beauty in this world, it is the night sky. The bright stars twinkling down at us from way up there.
And that was why I found myself up on the roof of our home, the home of the Fantastic Four, leaning against the low wall surrounding the flat balcony there, gazing absently up at the stars.
In my life, it's rather hard to get a moment of peace and quiet. Between the press, constantly getting called out to save the world, Johnny and Ben constantly bickering like little children, and Reed's crazy schemes, well, things can get pretty hectic. But once in a while, I manage to steal moment of quiet to myself, like this one.
It'd been several days now, since Galactus had almost destroyed Earth, and Norrin sacrificed himself to save us. I cried when Reed told me what he'd said right before he went. I wished that I'd gotten to say goodbye to him myself; I still wish that. But at least I know he died for a good cause. In a way, I suppose he was better off, no long bound to that thing. But it was still sad.
I was so caught up in my thoughts, that at first I didn't notice the odd star twinkling at me. When I did, I frowned; most stars don't twinkle like that. Most stars don't suddenly move and start flying toward you either.
As he approached me, I almost fell over with surprise. "Norrin," I whispered, staring at him, hovering just in front of me. Living, breathing, right there. "I-I thought you had… I thought you were…I thought that had…" I fumbled.
"As did I," he said, in that strange, metallic, yet oddly warm and soothing voice.
"But you aren't," Yes Susan, thank you for stating the obvious.
"No."
"I'll go get…" I started, but he shook his head, stopping me. "They'll be so glad to see you," I protested.
"I cannot stay long," he said, and suddenly, I didn't want to go get the others, somehow I knew that this was not a moment for them. This was a moment between just the two of us.
"Would you like to fly with me, before I go?" he asked. It was so strange, how his voice could sound so many things at once. In a way, metallic, stiff, and completely alien, but at the same time, so soothing and gentle that you could loose yourself in it for an eternity. He extended an inviting hand to me and I instantly reached out to take it, but hesitated.
"You won't… scramble my powers or anything, like with Johnny, will you?" I asked cautiously.
His metallic lips curved into something of a smile, and amusement seemed to pass though his eyes, but it was hard to tell, him being all shiny like he was. "No," he promised solemnly, "I will not."
"Good," I smiled, taking the offered hand. I really did want to go for a ride with him. I gasped in slight surprise when he pulled me up onto his board; it felt to strange, like molten metal under my feet. For a moment I was afraid I would slide right through it and fall the many stories to the ground below, but he wrapped his arms gently around my waist and held me up until the board felt somewhat solid.
And with that we were off. It was amazing. Flying through the clear, cool night air, the stars all around us. My hair, still slightly damp from my shower whipping back in his face, but he didn't seem to mind.
For a long while we flew in silence, simply enjoying the night and each other's company. Somehow, there just wasn't much we needed to say to each other.
"Where are you going?" I asked at last, as we coasted over the city in large circles.
"Back to my home," he answered softly, "Back to her. I have been gone for a very long time."
"What's she like?" I heard myself asking.
"She is beautiful," his whisper was reverent; I could just hear it over the wind whistling through my ears, "And powerful. She loves the night sky, as much as you do, if not more." I was slightly surprised at this; I hadn't said anything about loving the night. I felt, more than saw, as my back was to him, that he smiled, as though he could read my thoughts. I decided to let it go. Somehow, there we things I just didn't have to tell him.
"You must miss her a lot," I said, an odd twist in my stomach. I felt him nod. Then, moments later, I heard myself asking, as though my mouth had a mind of its own, "Will you miss me?" I could have slapped myself, what an idiotic thing to ask.
But he didn't laugh, he didn't seem uncomfortable, and he didn't even think about the answer to my question. A simply, quiet, "Yes," just slid off of his tongue, seeming to take no effort at all.
I found myself smiling, with no idea why. "I'll miss you too," I said. It felt like a lame thing to say, but I knew I should say something, and it was all I could think of.
Again, his only response was the smile I felt. I could feel him, how could I not, us being this close on the board. But it was almost as though all of my sense were on hyper alert. I was aware, perhaps painfully so, of his chest behind me, he felt oddly cool, yet warm at the same time. He was not hot, or cold, but a medium mixture of them both. I could feel his chest, rise and fall ever so gently against my back, I felt his hand, still wrapped protectively around my waist, although whether that was to keep me on the board, or close to him, I couldn't decided. They were one and the same I suppose, in a way.
We rode in silence for a while more, and I was almost sad to see that we were circling in ever smaller circles around my own roof again. No, I wasn't almost sad, I was very sad. But I tried not to show it as we glided down and I stepped off. But still he lingered, hovering just out of reach.
"Thank you," I said quietly, "For saving the world and everything."
"No," he said, floating a little closer, and suddenly I felt my chest constricting, but not uncomfortably. He was only a few inches away now; I could almost feel his cool breath on my face. "Thank you," he gentle whisper sent shivers down my back.
"For what?" I asked blandly, frowning slightly into his bottomless liquid eyes.
"For saving me," he answered. He was even closer now, and still coming. Gently he lifted one metallic hand and ran it though my hair, brushing it away from my face. Then our lips met.
For one, long, sweet eternity, he held me as we kissed. It was not a deep, passionate kiss, it was long and slow and tender. There was no need in it, just a simple, yet impossible to comprehend understanding.
Then he pulled away, he smiled at me. "Goodbye," he whispered. And he was gone. Gone before he even heard my own, "Goodbye," in return, which was hardly more than a breath. But I have a feeling that he heard it anyway, in the same way that I had seen his smiles even when my back was turned to him.
I watch him go, fading steadily until he was nothing more than a shining spot of silver in the distance, my own personal star. Then with a twinkling flash, his final farewell, he was gone.
I wasn't ready to go in just yet, so I returned to my former position of leaning against the low brick wall, gazing up at the stars.
My heart wasn't racing in the way hearts usually do after a first kiss with someone. No, it was slow and steady, slightly heavy with sadness at seeing him go, but more than that calm, peaceful with the joy of simply knowing that he was alive, that he was free, that he was returning to the one he loved, and that somewhere out there, he was thinking of me too.
Suddenly I was pulled out of my reverie by a pounding on the stairs that led up to the roof. The door burst open and Johnny was running across the roof, straight for the edge. I heard Alicia's laughing voice from inside calling, "Ben!" Then Ben was lumbering out after my brother.
Johnny was too fast for him, reaching the edge of the roof and leaping off, yelling, "Flame on," and streaking away into the night.
Ben managed to stop before colliding with the low brick wall I had been leaning on, and proceeded to angrily yell the things he planned on doing to Johnny when he returned.
"Hey there," Reed said, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. He'd followed them out, no doubt prepared to pull them off of each other if necessary. "You OK?" he asked, sounding slightly worried.
"Yeah," I told him, turning my head to smile up at him, "Just enjoying then night." He nodded and kissed me on the cheek.
I didn't tell him about my visit from Norrin, I never did. I never told any of them. It wasn't something for them to know. Our secret.
Oddly, I didn't feel bad about kissing him either. It somehow didn't feel like I'd been cheating on Reed at all. No, what had happened between Norrin and I was something entirely different. It wasn't romance. It was something that simply doesn't have a name. An unexplainable link that had formed between us in the short time we'd known each other. An understanding, that was the only word I ever found that could describe it. I understood him, and he understood me, on a level that nobody else ever could.
And true to my promise, I did miss him. And I never forgot him. For the rest of my life, whenever I stole a quiet moment to myself, I'd gaze up at the stars and smile, because I knew he was somewhere up there. And I knew that he was thinking of me too.