Reed Really Doesn't Notice - Until Their Anniversary

In public, with the family, Sue and Reed smiled, sometimes hugged. Yet in private, the evening kisses became perfunctory, and then ceased. The Invisible Woman no longer sometimes tried to coax her Mister Fantastic to bed. Reed Richards, intelligent as he was, seemed oblivious to the decline in his wife's attentions. Content to spend long nights in the lab, to crawl into bed in the wee hours when she was already asleep.

Yet, without that occasional release, Reed Richards felt a growing insistence within him. Erections that happened unexpectedly, and remained for embarrasing lengths of time. He found himself staring at Sue's body in her almost skin-tight costume with greater appreciation. Remembering their past encounters with a mixture of fondness and yearning. In his dreams, the naked, full-figured body of his wife flowed through physics equations.

Their anniversary was approaching. Reed was uncharacteristically attentive. Sue Storm returned from an afternoon hair appointment to find the building empty. A line of candles led the way from the elevator to the dinner table. Her husband was dressed in a suit, fresh-shaven, clean, eager—and like a dutiful wife, she sat down to the dinner of oysters and champagne, caviar and fried mushrooms imported from her favorite restaurant.

Sue sighed. She knew where this was leading. And this was going to hurt Reed.

He had sprinkled rose petals on the bed. Fresh sheets. A discreet bottle of lube.

The blonde sighed and looked at her husband. He almost vibrated with pathetic eagerness. Like a horny teenager.

"Reed, I can't," she said. "Not anymore."

Confusion creased his face.

"Darling?" he said. "What do you mean?"

"Sex. With you. I'm not doing it," she said bluntly. "I'm done. If you need to get off that badly, go jerk off. But I'm not taking your dick anymore."

He blinked.

"But...why? Did I...have I not..." he began. She could almost see his boner tent his pants, and her lips curled in **** disgust and pity.

"You have never made me orgasm," Sue could see him wilt at the words. "And I'm not interested in you trying. I love you Reed, I do. This part of our relationship is over."

Reed Richards shook, in the grip of unprecedented revelations. His elastic body slumped.

"This...this is just so sudden," he said.

"No, this is the way it's been for quite some time," Sue said, and there was an edge of cruelty to her voice. "You just haven't seen it. Been too busy in your lab, with your work. I was always the one who had to initiate everything, and never got anything out of it after Valeria was born. But I'm through. I'm not attracted to you sexually."

Then he asked the question that would change everything.

"Then who are you attracted to?"