Who: Johnny Storm and Isabelle Lightwood What: No powers new skills all hilarity When: Thursday afternoon Where: Their place Warnings:none Status: Closed/Complete
Johnny had no idea at all what had possessed him to go out and buy a guitar. He couldn’t play the guitar. The closest thing he had to any musical talent was liking music. Dudes who could play guitar were pretty cool, but he’d never needed that to charm girls. Not to mention that it was a little too relaxed for his tastes. Johnny usually wanted a bit more excitement.
But he’d woken up suddenly without any powers, and a sudden urge to get his hands on the instrument. The former was what really stuck with him. It had been years since years since he’d been just...human. No heat inside him. It was weird. For the first time in a very long time he’d put on a hoodie to actually keep warm and hadn’t had to keep a part of his mind focused on containing his powers all the time. In a way, it was kind of freeing. Mostly it was just annoying.
The guitar wound up being a good distraction.
One he was apparently, obviously, completely awesome at. He was sitting on the couch with his new instrument when he heard someone come in. Izzy or Jill he didn’t care, someone needed to hear this.
“Hey! Come look at this!”
***
To say that the sight of her boyfriend sitting in a hoodie in their living room playing the guitar like a pro was a surprise was a bit of an understatement. Izzy stood in the doorway a little in shock, it certainly hadn’t been what she had expected to see when she got home.
Moving forward she placed a hand on Johnny’s forehead, he was much cooler to the touch than usual. Having seen Sue early that morning who had somehow inherited the runes Izzy used she had to guess that he’d lost his heat ability and gained...guitar playing? “Well this is different” she said raising her eyebrows.
***
“You mean awesome.” Not the losing his powers thing, that sucked, he wasn’t loving that but he’d lived most of his life without powers, it was just going back to that and being a tiny bit less awesome and special.
Without his powers, he was just a guy here.
Luckily he knew this place well enough that he wasn’t going to let it get him down. Not when he learned he had a killer new skill as a result of it.
“I’ve never played before today. Check it out.” He played a few notes expertly. “Cool, right?”
***
“Of course” Izzy said with a little smirk. Though in truth she was glad that he was taking it so well, she’d been worried that he might not. Nothing much would ever stop him from being awesome though.
“Okay yeah that was cool. So you think you can play anything?” she asked moving to sit down next to him and watch.
***
“Probably.” Unfounded confidence was never a problem for Johnny. His fingers danced across the frets, playing a complex series of notes while grinning at her. “Got any requests?”
This was cool. Guys who played guitar were just cooler than other guys, and maybe, if this was just weird stuff that had to do with him not having his own powers, and it wasn’t his natural talent, which seemed very likely, he’d learn properly.
He had gone and dropped a couple hundred dollars on a guitar, after all.
***
“Oh what about that one we heard the other day, by Queen” she said, recalling the song they’d heard on the radio. It had sounded like it had a lot of guitar at the time.
It was very cool and Izzy couldn’t help but wonder if Johnny would get to keep any skills once things went back to normal. Which she assumed they would.
****
Things always went back to normal. Which was usually great, because usually less than great stuff happened around Madison Valley. Even this, wasn’t great. If Johnny had been able to keep his own abilities and gain a new talent? Sure. Great. He’d have loved that. Not feeling quite like himself kind of took the fun out of it though.
With a grin, he played a bit of the song she meant, or the one he thought she meant anyway. It was a bit more complicated but he did just fine with it, finishing with a flourish and a grin that was playful and flirty. He still wanted to flirt with his girlfriend, even after being together this long.
“You find me irresistible right now, don’t you?”
***
Izzy had to admit she was glad to be left out of this round of weirdness, she did wonder whose runes Sue had gained though. She’d hate to be without hers so she knew despite appearances Johnny wasn’t as comfortable with things as he’d like people to think.
He got the song and she smiled, humming along in parts until he finished and she gave him a little applause.
“Struggling not to jump your bones” she told him leaning over to kiss him.
***
Johnny did keep a lot of appearances up. He only liked attention of a certain sort. He wanted to be fawned over, not fussed over. Izzy was an exception to the rules, in pretty much everything, but even then. He’d rather there was no fussing.
The guitar stayed across his lap, though he leaned over it to return the kiss.
“Well sorry to say that my one true love is this guitar.” He completely failed at being serious. “I guess we could fool around but my heart belongs to the music.”
***
Izzy wasn’t one to fuss over most people and with Johnny when she did want to fuss she did it a little sneakily. It was just the easiest way for everybody.
“Oh really? You know I’m not sure the guitar looks quite as good as I do in lingerie” Izzy told him with a little smirk, “Or could order your favourite take away and it definitely couldn’t kick your ass like I can”
***
“All very good points,” Johnny agreed thoughtfully. “And I mean. It is made of wood, so it’s not like it’s going to keep me warm until I get my powers back. Which you should be doing right now. It’s freezing. Don’t we have heat?”
He’d never noticed or cared before. But right now, boy did he ever notice.
***
Izzy smiled, “Usually you are the heat” she pointed out, “but I can turn on the actually heating if you’re cold” she added because she was most likely going to feel the chill soon too. Especially when they went to bed.
***
Johnny put on a pout. “So cold, Iz.”
It wasn’t really that cold, Johnny had definitely been colder in his life, but it was colder than he was used to, everything was today.
***
“Sorry babe” Izzy said, pressing a kiss to his lips before moving to turn the heating on low. It wasn’t that cold but it would take the temperature up throughout the house a little bit.
“There we go, it should warm up a bit soon”
***
It wasn’t really that cold, it would be sooner or later though and it was better to make sure they were comfortable forever.
“You’re an awesome girlfriend, you know that? I should write you a love song.”
Being able to play the guitar didn’t mean that Johnny could write songs. But that wasn’t ever going to stop him from saying it.
***
“I know. But feel free to keep telling me” she grinned, “Oh now that I want to see” she teased, because she was fairly sure this new ability didn’t include song writing but she was willing to let him try.
***
One could never tell! Except Johnny didn’t feel at all inspired to produce lyrics or anything.
With a grin in return, he settled the guitar and strummed out a melody. “Let’s see…” He cocked his head thoughtfully, playing the whole time. “I’ve got nothing. Apparently I’m not a songwriter. Huh.” He was going to do it anyway. Johnny was stubborn. He just sang whatever came to mind. “Izzy. You’re hot. I’m hot. Thanks for not dying when we’re having really awesome sexy time. That’s really where I draw the line? On what makes a good girlfriend? But it helps when you put on lingerie.”
He stopped the strings, and tried not to bust up laughing. His songwriting skills were terrible.
***
Johnny may be trying not to laugh but Izzy was in tears with laughter, “Amazing” she managed to gasp, “You get an A for effort” she informed him, because the idea of it had been sweet but obviously the musical talent stopped at the guitar, “And I appreciate the compliments” she winked.
***
“I think I’ll stick to covers,” he said, and did just bust up laughing. “But I’ve got to know. Is writing that great song for you going to get me laid?”
Johnny had priorities. And, well, if it was just the two of them at home….
***
“Might be a good idea” Izzy agreed before smirking as she too realised they were home alone, “You know it just might...” she told him moving closer and taking the guitar off him in order to place herself in his lap instead.
***
Being a musician really did have its benefits. Why had he never realized this before? He’d never needed it, had obviously managed to get Izzy without any musical talents, but in his less committed days, it would’ve made things even easier.
Grinning, Johnny put his arms around her waist. “Just might, huh? Any way I can seal the deal?”
As if he didn’t know that it was already sealed.
***
“Let’s see if you still have your persuasive skills” Izzy teased him before pressing her lips to his. It wasn’t like Johnny or Izzy were that hard to persuade when it came to each other but it was still fun to make it a little bit more interesting sometimes and try to hold out.