archie andrews (gingerlake) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2018-01-16 11:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !completed gdoc, ~2018 january, ~25 points, ~~archie andrews (gingerlake), ~~sue storm (susanstorm) |
Who: Archie Andrews and Sue Storm
When: Shortly after the beginning of the New Year
Where: The Storm-Andrews Residence
What: Archie finds out his Mom is a super hero and it's super cool.
Warnings: Nope!
Status: Completed GDoc
Sue had taken Fred’s advice to heart, but she’d also put it off for a little while because of a litany of excuses she made for herself. Archie had been hungover after New Year’s. He was getting back into the swing of things with school and she didn’t want to distract him. She had a new project that was taking up a lot of her spare time. Finally though, there was a quiet evening just the two of them. Fred had to work late so Sue made dinner for her and Archie, with enough left over for Fred when he got home.
“Archie, dinner!” she called as she finished plating up their bowls of soup. Sue filled up both of their glasses as well, knowing they were both pretty much creatures of habit in that regard. She was just sitting down at her seat when he came into the kitchen. “Chicken noodle soup, made from scratch." Although he could probably figure that out easily enough.
"How was school today?"
***
New Year’s was good, but he definitely had had way too much to drink. He had promised himself he was going to be cautious and careful. He didn’t want to ruin the night for Emily, but then things happened after midnight. At least he had given Emily her gift before he had consumed more alcohol and had made stupid decisions about doing just that.
He had still done his chores, did whatever Sue and Fred had asked him, and suffered through it. It was a proper punishment no matter how much he was not liking them at that moment in time.
School was back in swing, though. He was jumping head first into it and had promised himself to keep things going. Archie was also going to be helping Ian get back into shape. He had a lot going on and Archie was definitely okay with that.
He came downstairs when Sue called and grinned. “The best kind of chicken noodle soup.” Especially when it was frigidly cold like it had been. “It was good. I mean, nothing too heavy, but they definitely like to load us up after the holiday break. This is definitely what I needed,” he said, gesturing to the soup before taking a huge bite.
***
She smiled when she saw that it had been a good idea to make soup. Hopefully it would warm Fred up when he got home, too. Sue really enjoyed cooking for both of them but she was also surprised by how easily and nicely they'd all settled into a kind of rhythm. Before she got too comfortable though, she knew she needed to make sure she came clean to Archie.
"Well, I'm glad you like it," she replied with a soft grin. "I was hoping I could talk to you about something, actually." Sue paused. "About me, and what my life was like in my world." She didn't want to, but she heard Fred's voice in her ear, encouraging her onward. "Has my brother told you about the world we come from?"
***
He was in mid-bite when Sue asked her question. Quickly slurping it down and wiping away the dripping broth, Archie had to take a minute to consider his answer.
“He just kind of said you were a nerd and boring? I mean, in the best way, but you were the geeky sister. I don’t think that, but I guess that would be a typical brother answer.” Archie grinned, ducking his head a bit. He was being honest, but he knew that Johnny had had admiration and love for his sister regardless of what he had said. Archie could understand that. He had been that way with Jughead when they were younger. It was a relationship that Archie had been glad to see being repaired when he had the surge of new memories months ago.
“Why? What’s up?”
***
She huffed a laugh. “Yes, I will forever be the boring, geeky one in our family,” she replied, totally comfortable with that being said about her. She was the one who wanted a family and a quiet life, not some big spectacle like Johnny had wanted in their world.
“What Johnny didn’t tell you,” and privately she appreciated that he hadn’t because it was better this way if it came from her, “is that in our world, he and I and some of our friends were in an accident. We were in space, working on an experiment, when the phenomenon we were there to study arrived early. We all got exposed to cosmic radiation, and I’m absolutely 100% fine so don’t worry about that. But it did have some side effects.”
Sue did the same thing she’d done with Fred and held up her hand, focusing so that it faded slowly until it disappeared, completely invisible.
***
Archie already had a bunch of questions regarding a large amount of what Sue was saying, but they were lost the second that her hand disappeared.
Her hand had, literally, disappeared in front of his eyes.
Archie’s spoon dropped into his bowl sending some broth onto the table which pulled Archie out of the shocked and surprise daze he had fallen into. “Crap! Crap, sorry.” Juggling the spoon a bit, he was finally able to set it on the table.
What could he say? There were a lot of things he could say. “That’s...so damn cool.” Because it was. It was completely out of Archie’s comfort zone as were most things in this town, but it was equally cool. “You’re like a superhero, then?”
***
She winced when he dropped his spoon. She probably should have timed that a little better, but what was done was done. Sue braced herself for him to get mad, to accuse her of spying on him or sneaking around behind his back or just straight up lying to him. Except he said it was cool. She almost didn't believe him at first but then he asked if she was a superhero and Sue's hand came back so fast it was just in the blink of an eye.
"I- yes, I was in my world." Because that wasn't who she was here. "Johnny and I, we're part of a group called the Fantastic Four." Sue still thought that was a dumb name. "I'm the Invisible Woman and Johnny is the Human Torch. He can control and manipulate fire," she explained. "But I don't use my powers here." She wanted to be very clear about that. He didn't have anything to worry about in that regard.
***
“That is so awesome! I mean, do you know how amazing that is?” Archie was actually up on his feet, pacing just a bit in his excitement. He, himself, was a huge comic and superhero geek back home. Posters of caped crusaders and masked heroes were mixed in with his various music and band posters. He wasn’t ashamed of it. Not at all.
“Would you, though? I mean, if you had to?” Truthfully, Archie kind of wanted to see the superheroes in action. He couldn’t quite help himself.
“My Mom the superhero.” Moving over to Sue, Archie hugged her so tight. Perhaps tighter than he had in a while. How could he not be excited? He pulled back for a brief moment with a series expression on his face. “Is it a secret? Am I keeping your identity a secret now?”
***
She had to admit that she was a little surprised by his reaction. Maybe she was the only one who didn’t particularly identify so much with her powers. The reason why that wasn’t the case was something she didn’t want to think about, right now or ever again. “I’m glad you think it’s amazing,” Sue replied with a small smile.
That smile became more serious when he asked if she would use her powers here. “If you were in danger? Yes, in a heartbeat.” But if the rest of the town were in danger, there were others who would step up and help save the day. Sue would focus on keeping Archie and Fred safe first. She felt a little awkward at first when Archie hugged her, mostly because she was so adamant about not using her abilities here.
“You don’t have to,” she answered about her identity. “Johnny is pretty open about it, as are a number of the others.” But Sue didn’t want to be known as the Invisible Woman here. She just wanted to be Sue Storm. “But please don’t go shouting it from the rooftops or anything either. I’m just Sue here, okay?” She hoped he would respect that, but she also wasn’t trying to discourage him from thinking it was cool instead of terrible.
***
“Yeah, sure. I mean, I won’t do that. I wouldn’t.” Sue didn’t seem like the type and that was perfectly fine with Archie.
He was quiet for a moment, taking a step back after releasing her from the hug. “You weren’t afraid to tell me, were you?” He could understand why, but he didn’t want Sue to feel like she couldn’t tell him things like that. “I’m not afraid of it or anything. If that’s what you’re worried about.”
There were probably other things but Archie couldn’t quite put his finger on anything else.
***
"I didn't think you would," she assured him, but she had needed to say it for her own piece of mind. Of course, then he had to go and ask if she had been afraid to tell him. Sue didn't want to lie to him which resulted in a bit of a hesitation on her part.
"That was part of why I was worried about telling you," Sue replied. "But I also didn't want you to find out about it from someone other than me. I wouldn't ever lie to you, Archie. I hope you know that." She wasn't going to admit to him that she wasn't as proud of her superpowers as he was, that she'd felt so much like she wasn't seen in her world. That wasn't anything he needed to worry about.
***
“I know you wouldn’t. It’s cool! Really. I’m glad you told me, though. I mean, you’re awesome because you’re you. That doesn’t change.” Because Archie had met Sue and Sue had done a lot for him. Made him feel like a normal teenager in this strange place when he first arrived. She had set him on a path that he wanted to take and supported him the whole way. Now she had taken his Dad in and made sure they were both okay.
Arche gave her another hug. “I love you, Mom. You know that, right?” Because that was important. More than anything else. “I’m probably one of the luckier kids here right now. I’ve got you, my Dad, Emily. Even her uncle is really great. Johnny and Izzy? I mean, I’ve got it good.”
***
Sue had to smile at that. Archie was such a wonderful young man and she was lucky to have him in her life. There had been something about him when he'd first arrived that made her think he understood what it was like to not be seen and she had been there to see him, to support him. Adopting him had been one of the easiest decisions of her life and even though Fred was here now, she wouldn't have changed any of it.
"I do, I know," she promised as she returned his hug. "I love you too. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you, or to keep you safe. You and your dad, alright?" Sue remembered how devastated he'd been when he'd woken up with those new memories and again when he'd found Fred bleeding in the street. She would do everything in her power to make sure he never had to feel like he might lose his father ever again.
***
Archie would do the same even without superpowers. He could throw a mean right hook when he needed to. Moving back to his seat, Archie took another bite of the soup and it was still just as good. Of course, it would be.
“Dad better make it home soon or else he’s not going to have any of this left for him.”
***
"There's plenty left for him," she scolded lightly as she turned her attention back to her soup. Sue had made enough to last them for a few days, after all. Even in the face of an endlessly hungry teenage boy. She honestly wouldn't have it any other way though.
***