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Peter would never admit it out loud, but he enjoyed living with Johnny.
It had only been a month since they decided to move in together—an apartment bigger (and safer, cleaner, with actual functioning utilities) than Peter’s and a considerable scale down from the Baxter Building—and so far, it hadn’t been terrible. There were perks to living with his boyfriend, breakfast in bed on the weekends being Peter’s personal favorite. Johnny loved to cook, and Peter loved to be lazy. It worked well.
Johnny always made him a quick breakfast and coffee on the weekdays, too, when Peter was throwing on a tie and gathering up the papers he’d graded the previous night. Even as he scrambled to get ready for work, Peter never minded the sight of Johnny cooking in the mornings, wearing nothing but his underwear and an apron.
The rent was comfortably affordable now, too. Peter wasn’t quite paying half, which would normally have bothered him, but Johnny reasoned that as long as Peter was helping him complete his online college courses for free, he could repay him by covering a little more of the rent. It was a compromise Peter could live with.
The bed was always warm now, thanks to Johnny’s unique heat, soothing Peter’s constant aches and pains. When he needed to get a load off his chest, he wasn’t just complaining to an empty room anymore. He had someone who waited up for him at night, ready with a first-aid kit to do some patching up after particularly hard patrols.
So, yes. There were advantages to living with his boyfriend. Peter enjoyed living with his boyfriend.
But Johnny Storm had some terrible habits, too. He sang loudly in the shower—with hearing like Peter’s, it was guaranteed to wake him up each morning. He left his dirty laundry in random places across the apartment. Sometimes portals to alternate dimensions would make their home in the hall closet, and Johnny would forget to mention it to him.
The pen-tapping was the worst habit, and that was the one that was making Peter’s eye twitch as he tried to mark the papers in front of him.
He rested his pen on the arm of the chair and turned to face his boyfriend, raising his brows just a little. On the loveseat on the other side of the room, Johnny sat sprawled, laptop and papers spread over his lap. In his right hand he held a pen, identical to Peter’s, and was absently hitting it against the side of his laptop. With every tap , Peter’s eye twitched.
“Babe,” he called softly when the tapping didn’t cease, “babe. I love you, but you’re really fucking annoying.”
Johnny looked up then, blue eyes wide. His mind was clearly still on whatever he’d been focusing on, and it took him a moment to fully process Peter’s words. “Huh? I—oh.” The pen finally stilled. A grin curved Johnny’s lips upwards, and when he spoke, it sounded like he was holding back a laugh. “Enhanced senses. Sorry, Pete, I forgot.”
Peter huffed, his annoyance abating but unwilling to let Johnny know that. It was unbearable how easy it was for Peter to forgive Johnny. “It’s distracting,” he complained. “It’s hard enough to decipher some kids’ handwriting when there aren’t any distractions, but when you won’t stop hitting that damn pen against—mmph!”
He was interrupted by an armful of Johnny Storm, who’d decided that the best way to shut Peter up was to press their mouths together—sacrificing the test papers between them. Peter tried so hard to hold on to his irritation, but soon enough he was smiling into the kiss.
“Asshole,” he breathed when Johnny finally pulled away. “I’m trying to be mad at you.”
“Yeah, over a pen .” The Human Torch’s blue eyes were filled with exasperated fondness. “Why would I sit through that tirade?”
Peter shrugged one shoulder, but he could admit that Johnny had a point. There were better things to argue over—like whose turn it was to do the dishes. But instead of conceding the point, Peter gestured to the squashed papers on his lap. “I’m going to tell my students this was your fault.”
“Fine by me.” Johnny pressed a kiss to Peter’s forehead. “Tell your students that the Human Torch, the famous superhero, crumpled their test papers while kissing their science teacher senseless.”
“...You really are fucking annoying,” Peter grouched. Still, Johnny had a point—if his students actually believed that story, he didn’t want to be bombarded with questions about his boyfriend during class. Or after school. Or during his planning period.
He shuddered to think what sort of rumors would be flying around the school.
“Mmm.” Johnny carefully took the papers from Peter’s hands and placed them on a nearby table. Then he settled onto Peter’s lap, tucking his feet beneath him and cupping Peter’s jaw with warm hands. He peppered slow, soft kisses to Peter’s nose, neck, cheeks. “But you love me anyway.”
A contented sigh escaped Peter then, and he leaned his forehead against Johnny’s. “Yeah,” he murmured. “I do. Don’t know why, though.” He couldn’t help but add it, pleased when Johnny snorted in amusement. Making Johnny laugh was always worth the effort.
“Don’t know why I fell for you, either,” Johnny teased. His thumbs traced Peter’s cheekbones, and something in his eyes grew soft. “Guess I like your face or something.”
Peter wasn’t sure that his face was anything special, but Johnny had always seemed to like it. Still, even after nearly a year of dating, the compliment managed to make him blush. “Romantic,” Peter deadpanned, but he meant it. It was their own, weird dynamic, their own way of loving. Every half-assed compliment came with a thousand unspoken, yet understood, words.
Johnny just smiled at him. They stayed like that for a few minutes, content to just be together, before Johnny finally climbed off of Peter’s lap. Peter immediately missed the weight. “Right. You’ve got papers to finish, and I’ve got dinner to make.” He sauntered off towards the kitchen, but paused in the doorway and sent a shit-eating grin in Peter’s direction. “Don’t forget, it’s your turn to wash the dishes.”
“It is not ,” Peter squawked, but Johnny had already danced away. Peter shook his head at the spot where he’d been.
Living with Johnny Storm wasn’t always easy, but boy, did Peter enjoy it.