Why did they think he would be worried?
Wayne didn’t get it, but he also didn’t bother thinking about it for long.
He just listened quietly while Susan and Johnny planned tomorrow’s birthday party, tossing in the occasional comment.
Johnny was clearly hyped about the whole thing.
Susan was taking it seriously too.
Wayne, the birthday boy himself, seemed to care the least.
“Hey!
Wayne!
Give us something here.
It’s your birthday party.
Isn’t there anything you actually want?”
“Uh… how about inviting Gwen and the others over to the Baxter Building?”
“Of course.”
Maybe it was just his imagination, but Susan didn’t seem as against Gwen as she used to be.
“Guys, looks like we’ve got a problem.”
Janet pointed out the window.
The crowd had already surged forward.
The ones packed at the front were waving shiny black microphones like anyone who stepped off the ship was about to get buried under questions.
While she was still talking, Wayne’s Super Vision locked onto something.
“Sorry, Susan.
You guys head back to the Baxter Building first.”
He stood up and started for the exit.
What surprised him a little was that Susan only gave a short instruction.
“Don’t stay out too late.”
Tony, a veteran of the romance game, watched Wayne’s back and gave him a pure dead-fish stare.
Kid, you’re still green.
She’s already got you locked down.
She’s playing with a winning hand.
The second Wayne’s feet hit the ground the microphones lunged like hyenas on fresh meat.
He ignored every single one of them.
His eyes were fixed on a tall building in the distance where a white figure stood on the rooftop, looking this way.
The reporters kept trying to shove their mics into his face, firing questions one after another.
The gaps between them kept getting shorter, like they were trying to stop breathing so they could dump their entire list before anyone else.
What they feared most still happened.
Exactly like every other time, Wayne paid them zero attention, shot straight into the sky, and vanished.
He figured he wasn’t afraid of online hate, so what could this pack of reporters actually do to him?
Between the “still a kid” factor, his massive fanbase, and the fact that the press had already expected this exact outcome, they weren’t too crushed.
They simply pivoted to Steve and the others coming down behind him.
“Alright.
Looks like we have to deal with this circus first.”
…
Bright points of starlight dotted the dark sky.
After patrolling Manhattan with Gwen and then flying out to another galaxy to check on Galactus’s recovery, Wayne finally returned to the Baxter Building.
He climbed in through the window of his own room and immediately saw Susan lying on his bed, eyes half-closed and sleepy.
“Wayne?”
She woke up enough to check the time.
Almost one in the morning.
Her eyes brightened.
She patted the space beside her a little hurriedly.
“Come here.”
Wayne assumed she just wanted to sleep and didn’t overthink it.
The Bio-force field rewrote his clothes into pajamas.
He walked over, lifted the covers, and lay down.
The second his eyes closed they snapped open again.
Wait.
Something’s wrong.
Susan was leaning in.
This feeling… wasn’t right.
He could confirm it with X-ray vision if he wanted to, but she couldn’t just be without clothes…
right?
Because he almost never used X-ray vision on people without a reason, by the time the realization fully hit there was no time left to react.
The heavy, overflowing weight of her milky chest pressed in.
Soft fair hands cupped Wayne’s face.
Susan lifted her head and gently bit the corner of his mouth.
“Happy nineteenth birthday~ Little Wayne~”
“…”
Wayne’s Super Brain had briefly blue-screened.
He asked without thinking,
“Are you saying that to me or to it?”
“Maybe both?”
Susan’s smile turned wicked, like she’d just confirmed something.
A pretty flush spread across her slightly surprised face.
“You really can’t judge a book by its cover.
You turned out exactly the way I raised you~”
“What are you talking about?”
“Playing dumb~”
Her eyes curved into a sly, charming smile, and then her mouth found his…
soft..
warm..
One of her hands slid down the front of his pajamas, palm flat against the sudden, undeniable long tent that had already answered her.
“Hey!
Wait!
At least let me—”
She only hummed against his lips, shifting so that the soft, heavy weight of her chest settled fully over him.
Her thighs framed his hips with deliberate ease.
What is really happening right now?
Does she like me or something..?
Wayne’s blue eyes stayed wide, fixed on the ceiling for half a second before they dropped to her face…
flushed, smiling with a hazy expression, looking so..
So beautiful..
“Still so polite,” she whispered, rolling her hips once, slow and intentional.
“Even now.”
He made a sound that was half protest, half desire.
His free hand found the curve of her waist, fingers spreading over warm skin as if he still wasn’t sure he was allowed.
Susan answered by taking one of his hands from her waist and placing it on her naked chest as she moaned.
Looking at this, unbeknownst to him, his lower body had started moving on its own.
On the nightstand the phone screen lit up with unread birthday messages from Gwen, Peter, Harry, and others.
One of them had a cute chibi black-cat avatar.
…
Susan lay draped over him, completely spent.
She licked her lips lightly, cleaned a few traces, and kept a soft, satisfied smile.
“Wayne~ You did very well, and your Little Wayne did very well, too.”
Watery, silk-soft eyes stayed fixed on the handsome, expressionless face staring at the ceiling.
A slightly trembling fair hand stroked his cheek.
“How handsome my Wayne’s face is~”
“Do you want me to be a cowgirl?”
“???”
Wayne, who had barely used any stamina at all, nearly choked on his own spit.
“Right now?
If it’s right now… forget it.”
“You’ve grown up, haven’t you~ Starting to get tired of me already?”
“That’s not a question of being tired of you!”
“Then that means you’re willing~”
“…”
Wayne barely had time to open his mouth.
She pushed herself up, one hand flat on his chest for balance.
The other reached between them, wrapped around him, and guided him back in with a single slow, deliberate sink.
“Ahh~” She moaned with a delighted expression.
After a while..
Susan, finished teasing him, finally fell into a deep, content sleep with her head pillowed on his arm.
…
Early the next morning every major outlet was racing to publish whatever scraps they had pulled from yesterday’s interviews with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.
The actual information wasn’t much.
That didn’t stop them from inventing freely.
The “Superman is a threat” takes were mild.
The most ridiculous one Johnny saw claimed:
“Galactus is actually Superman’s alien girlfriend.
After he dumped her she decided to devour Earth for revenge, but once Superman did this and that to her she changed her mind and spared the planet.”
“What the hell is this garbage!”
Johnny sat on the sofa with his coffee, flipping channels in disgust, then shouted toward the kitchen.
“Reed!
I want to sue them!
Help me!”
Reed was in full experimental mode calculating the perfect breakfast and didn’t even seem to hear him.
Ben walked out carrying a plate of salad.
“Don’t bother with them, Johnny.
Look at Wayne.
He doesn’t even care.”
“Whether my little brother cares is his business.
As his big brother I can’t just let it slide!”
Johnny kept changing channels while he talked.
Then a large, angry-faced man appeared on screen, spitting fury at the camera.
[You despicable bastards, do you have no shame!]
[If you’ve got nothing better to do, go expose those masked cowards on the street who don’t even dare show their faces!]
[Instead of questioning whether saving the world is just a show!
Spreading rumors about a kid who acts with actual integrity!]
[You bunch of idiots who use your heads as asses!
Talking like you’re farting!
Go get checked and see if your brains are growing out of your butts!]
“Wow.
I might have to revise my opinion of this guy.”