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Jim couldn’t say he necessarily missed being hated by the masses, chased after like the creature he found so fascinating in that Shelley novel. He much preferred being seen as an agent for good and as a hero who would protect the people. He liked being seen as almost human.
However, the…fame of it all was a lot to handle sometimes.
It wasn’t so much the signing autographs and being interviewed part, but more so the expectations that came with the spotlight. While his defense of New York was now government sanctioned and publicly supported, he wasn’t naïve enough to think that one small slip up wouldn’t make him Frankenstein’s rampaging creature again in the eyes of the people. Jim’s commitment to protecting others was selfless in nature, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t care at all about his image, being nonhuman as he was. And so, the role of New York’s superhero and flaming superstar was one that held much responsibility.
One of those responsibilities was making sure a certain god damned Water Rat didn’t try to drown the city again.
“Remind me again why you can’t go after him?” Jim asked Betty, hands scrubbing over his face with a weariness that did not reflect his age.
“Because I already have an assignment scoping out alleged German spies. I don’t have time to babysit.” She was already securing her gun holster and getting ready to leave. The deputy had notified them about the Namor sighting and promptly delegated responsibility to either of them. The officers knew better than to try to deal with Namor on their own these days.
“Ms. Dean, you know he listens to you better than anybody.” He knew the two were in a relationship of sorts, as much as one could have a relationship with the alleged prince of an undersea kingdom. It made sense he supposed: Betty was pretty and tough as nails, she never feared either Namor or himself for a second. And Namor was obviously tough and…not bad to look at. In any case—they seemed to be a good match.
“Don’t be so sure,” she said with a huff. She grabbed her hat and turned to him. “You have as much experience dealing with him as I do, you’ll be fine. Just try to keep the property damage to a minimum, Torch.” With that vote of confidence and a flash of a smile, she was out the door.
Jim sighed to the empty meeting room. “Right.”
***
Jim hadn’t been given much information about what exactly Namor was up to in New York this time. Maybe assuming Namor’s mere presence a danger was a bit unfair, but given the man’s track record it was well deserved.
The two of them had a peace treaty of sorts, thanks to Betty. It mostly boiled down to: Namor wouldn’t attack people unless they were confirmed enemies, and Jim wouldn’t try to fry him unless Namor was failing to do the former. Even Jim had to admit that Namor was useful in a fight, especially against other superpowered people. But he was still an arrogant ass.
Said arrogant ass was somewhere in the harbor judging by the crowd that had formed along the coast. There were several cheers as people spotted the Torch in the sky. Jim gave them a wave and smiled even though they probably couldn’t make out his face from his flames and the distance.
He was trying to decide the best way to scope out the scene without having to actually dive into the water when the civilians’ hollers drew him lower.
“He’s got a sea monster!”
“You gonna kick his ass this time or what, Torch?”
“Mr. Torch, would you be willing to talk to a reporter with the Daily—”
“I’m tellin’ you, it’s like the friggin’ Kraken—”
“Hold on, hold on,” Jim put his hands up to quiet them and was mildly surprised when it worked. “What’s this about a sea monster?”
One of the men perked up. “It was bigger than a boat! He’s probably gonna use it to take down the Statue of Liberty or somethin’!”
The others were starting up again about how Jim needed to “beat that fish bastard” but he was already flying up the harbor. He was just in time to see a mass of vibrant scales rise up dangerously close to the coast. It went back under before Jim could do anything, but then a familiar speedo-clad figure flew up out of the water.
Jim ignored the weird flip his stomach did at the sight of him. “You taking your pet for a walk, Water Rat?”
Namor’s face settled into that how-dare-you-speak-to-me expression. “Do you have nothing better to do than meddle in everything? And she is not a pet, Kala Teer is a sacred protector of Atlantis.”
“What’s she doing so far from home, then?” Jim asked, crossing his arms. Namor actually looked pretty frustrated, but Jim wasn’t going to let him off the hook so easily.
“This is none of your concern, Fire Bug. You can go right back to your superiors and tell them—” He broke off and tilted his head toward the water, then hissed out what Jim assumed was an Atlantean curse before diving back under at an inhuman speed.
This time, as the creature’s head rose into the air, Jim got a much better look at this supposed sea monster. Less so a Kraken, and more so a dragon, Jim thought distantly. The scales were a bright purple-pink and the creature’s eyes seemed to squint at its surroundings—probably not used to the brightness of the sun.
“Holy shit,” Jim muttered as he stared at the gargantuan creature, he was starting to miss the good old days of taking down crime bosses.
Either the dragon had very good hearing or a flaming man in the sky was easy to spot, because it turned to him and bared teeth that were probably as big as Jim was tall.
Jim summoned his flames to gather into a ball in his hands. He was thinking of trying to get the creature to chase him and get it out of the harbor at least, when it went back under for a second time, lurching as if it had been tugged.
“For the love of—” He let the fireball dissipate and flew closer to where he guessed Namor was struggling with the dragon underwater. Namor was clearly not trying to attack the city (this time) with a giant sea creature, Jim decided. But why the hell the dragon was this close to the city and putting people in danger was a different matter.
“Namor!” he called down, trusting that those dumb pointed ears of his would hear him. “Get your waterlogged ass back up here!”
A beat, and Namor was back in the air. “I’ll show you waterlogged, Matchstick,” he growled, but half of his attention still seemed to be on the dragon. “She does not like your light.”
“Oh, my apologies. I’ll turn that down, flop right into the sea so she can eat me.” Jim bit back.
Namor huffed impatiently. “I am trying to get her to leave. Her keepers are making their way up the Atlantic, if I can get her into the open ocean she will hear their call.”
Jim allowed his brain a moment to catch on to Namor’s infuriating way of communicating. “You’re asking me for help.” Jim stated.
Namor lifted his chin, ever the regal ass. “A prince does not ask for help. You simply happen to be here, getting in the way as always.”
“I don’t need a sea dragon tearing up New Yor—fine, whatever! What do you need me to do?” Jim said hurriedly, sparing a glance toward where scales were breaking the surface again.
“Distract her with bright flashes. I doubt she can be burned, but the heat will likely bother her.”
“Got it.”
Jim was struck again by the strangeness of working alongside Namor, in having to place a degree of trust in what was formerly his enemy. The two of them alternated with Jim baiting the dragon in quick bursts of fire, and Namor making sure she stayed on course when her head dove under the water. There was one alarming moment where the dragon veered too close to where the crowd of civilians was still gathered at the coastline—but Namor, to Jim’s and likely the New Yorkers’ surprise, swooped in between them to push the creature back. She snapped at him and probably would’ve taken Namor’s arm clean off if the man’s skin wasn’t impenetrable. They got her back on course and she surfaced less frequently, until she and Namor stayed under as they finally left the harbor. Jim waited there, about a mile off the coast, as Namor assumedly sent the creature back home.
Jim didn’t necessarily get tired, but he felt the adrenaline bleed out of him as he hovered above the sea. As enormous and unruly as the literal dragon was, it was the civilians being in danger that had stressed him most. He understood their curiosity in seeing these clashes and their expectation that the Torch would protect them, yet he wished they’d at least try to stay out of danger. He didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if Namor hadn’t been there, as strange as the idea of being able to count on Namor was.
Jim was about to turn back when the man himself broke the surface and flew up to meet him.
“The keepers have her under control, she will be taken home safely,” Namor told him. He looked a little less tense now, his brow wasn’t furrowed in concentration the way it had been.
“Good. Wanna tell me why a dragon decided to go sightseeing in New York?”
Namor rolled his eyes. “I did not set her loose to attack your cesspool of a city. She is not a siege creature, she is meant to stay in Atlantis.” He was looking toward the open ocean, the sun painting him golden. Jim dimly wondered if bright light bothered Namor’s eyes too. “The fools responsible for this slip up are being dealt with. I tried to stop Kala Teer before she reached land, I can usually…communicate, in a way, with creatures like her. But she is stubborn. And I’ve no idea why she wanted to come here of all places.”
Namor seemed to be sincere, he certainly had no reason to lie. Still, Jim couldn’t help himself. “She’s like you then, thick-headed and obsessed with New York.”
Namor’s face scrunched up like he’d tasted something sour. Jim mentally kicked the part of his brain that found it stupidly endearing. “I could not care less about this concrete monstrosity. I’ve seen wonders of the ocean that make this speck of land look like a dead reef. Do you have any idea how many…”
Namor went on like that for a while as they flew back toward the harbor. Jim didn’t question why Namor didn’t go home yet, he probably had…business…with Betty. He barely realized where they were until voices from below caught his attention. The crowd of people had thinned considerably, but there was still a good dozen or so, most of them looking angry.
“Get him, Torch!”
“Get out of our city, freak!”
“Easy, easy! We’re under a truce,” Jim spoke over them. Frankly, he was surprised by the people’s reaction to Namor considering he had saved them, Namor’s reputation notwithstanding. One of them even tried throwing what looked like a bottle at the Atlantean.
“Truce my ass, why don’t you fuck off back to where you came from, fish f—”
Jim barely had enough time to extinguish one arm and grab Namor before he was advancing on the man. “You dare speak to a prince this way? You dirt-crawlers should be grateful for all I’ve done for this pathetic city. I should—Torch! Unhand me!”
Jim kept his flame low but didn’t loosen his grip on Namor’s arm. “Not until you calm down and leave them be. They’re just being—oof!” An annoyingly strong hit to his chest sent Jim flying. He supposed he should be grateful Namor sent him tumbling into the grass rather than into the sea, but he was losing sympathy for the water rat at an exponential rate.
“God dammit.” Jim boosted his flame and flew back to where Namor was lifting the loud-mouthed man off the ground like a misbehaving kitten. Everyone else, minus a few photographers, was fleeing in terror.
Jim aimed a controlled burst of fire at Namor’s face so he’d be forced to raise his arms and drop the man. Jim caught and lowered him to the ground, telling the civilian, “I think it’s best if you just go now.” Jim had barely finished before the man was joining the others in a mad dash to get away from Namor’s rage.
Said rage tackled him midair not a second later, pushing them both toward the sea. Jim had no qualms about rapidly raising his temperature until the other man let go of him. He watched as Namor dove below the water’s surface only to surface and fly at him again, rejuvenated and unsurprisingly still pissed off.
They went back and forth like that for a while, Jim shooting fire and Namor getting as close as he could before needing to take a dip in the ocean. Jim wasn’t dumb enough to think he could beat Namor in his own element, and so led them both closer and closer to dry land, trusting in the knowledge that Namor was stubborn enough to keep trying to at least land a hit on him. While they pirouetted around each other in the air, Jim couldn’t help but notice that neither of them was being nearly as aggressive as they typically were in their skirmishes. It felt stranger than it had when they were working together not moments before.
As Namor charged at him once again, Jim lowered his flame enough to grab him by the shoulders and use Namor’s momentum to turn them both toward the ground. Namor’s back hit the grass with a hard thud, and Jim felt guilty for a split second before the feeling evaporated with Namor grabbing him by the front of his suit and flipping them over to return the favor.
Jim considered flaming back on to get Namor to remove the arm pinning him across the chest, but the other man was making no move to hit him, if anything he looked almost…agitated?
Jim let his head fall back against the grass. “Got something to say, Water Rat?”
Namor sneered, knees straddling Jim digging in harder. “I expect bigotry from the average surfacer, but for you to foolishly defend them again and again, you are just as bad as they are.”
“I know they’re bigots.”
“And then you go on to—” Namor blinked. “What?”
Jim took advantage of Namor’s pause to push his arm away and sit up on his elbows. He was surprised that the Water Rat let him, and was even more surprised at himself that he didn’t find this situation all that irritating.
“They’re bigots,” Jim repeated. “I’ve met my fair share of them. It’s not like they don’t have good reason to hate you, but they are idiots to berate you when you just helped to save them.” Namor’s eyes didn’t break away from his, they were close enough that Jim could count the droplets of water on the Atlantean’s face. “That doesn’t mean you can try to kill them just because they’re ignorant.”
Namor scoffed. “I wasn’t going to try to kill him.” He thankfully looked a lot less angry, now instead looking at Jim consideringly. “Some of them still fear you, you know.”
“Yeah, I know, only so much I can do about it.”
Namor’s expression was unreadable. “I’ve never feared you.”
“Yeah yeah, you still think I’m not a match for you even though I’ve literally stopped you on numerous occasions.” Jim finally sat himself all the way up. Namor didn’t move.
“No. Why do you think I offered an alliance the first time we met? I know we are a match. Yet it’s you who insists on protecting people who will always find flaws in you.” He was as intense as before, but it didn’t seem like he was still running on anger, and Namor was no longer just looking at his eyes. Jim was honestly at a loss, that odd creeping heat that he only felt a handful of times was coming back. Almost all of his emotions could trigger his flame, but the source of this one was by far the most confusing to deal with.
“Well…I couldn’t exactly help you tear up the city I live in…” Neither of them seemed all that invested in the conversation anymore, and with the way Namor was slightly leaning in, Jim’s supposedly advanced brain was finally catching on.
Jim put a hand on the other’s arm, the coolness of his skin still a shock. “Betty’s probably gonna want a full report about this,” Jim said.
That snapped him out of whatever space his mind had gone to. Namor’s mask of princely indifference returned as he stood up, but not before Jim caught his look of disappointment.
Right, okay.
Jim got to his feet and took hold of Namor’s arm again as his ankle wings started to stretch out. “You should come with me.”
Namor raised an impeccably arched eyebrow. “Because?”
“Because I don’t know if you’ve caught on, but Betty genuinely likes you when you’re not on a rampage. And I’m starting to get what she sees in you.” Before he could overthink himself to death, Jim leaned in to press his lips to Namor’s, just long enough to note their softness and Namor’s quick inhale. He pulled back just as quickly, forcing casualness and inwardly grinning at Namor’s expression. “Plus, I’d like to run some things by her, it’d help if you were there.”
To his credit, Namor composed himself promptly. “…Alright. But don’t mention the surfacer who I didn’t try to kill. Betty will give me a lecture.”
“Oh that is definitely going in the report.” Jim beamed.