Bitz and Pieces
1: A Person's Mark Is The First Touch Between Soulmates
Bobbi comes back from HYDRA with Jemma and a hard drive full of HYDRA research. Her first stop is Coulson for debriefing. Then she finds Hunter brooding in the rec room - she leaves him there because she's tried and she doesn't want to fight with him and she wants to wash HYDRA off of her skin.
Fitz is in the bathroom - well, the one that Skye said had the best water pressure and hot water system - when she gets there. She thinks about leaving.
"Hey, you okay?" The words tumble from her lips and the Scotsman freezes at the sound of her voice. His face is pale, his eyes are red, his curly blonde hair is a mess - probably his own doing. It didn't look like his reunion with Simmons had gone well. "I'm Bobbi, I guess I'm new around here." She continued when he didnt' say anything, just kept his back to her, his shoulders hunched - though she could see his face reflected in the mirror, the image of pinched pain. "You know what? I should let you get back to... I'm gonna go."
"Wait!" She's halfway out the door when he speaks. "Don't go?" He finally turns to face her and it's sadder than his reflection had been. "Hi."
"Hey." She smiles at him, trying to put him at ease.
"I'm, uh, m-my, uh, my um... Fitz!" He scrunched his face in concentration before becoming frustrated. "I'm Fitz."
"Bobbi." She holds her hand out and he starts forward, but something goes wrong along the way and he trips. He would have landed in a mess on the floor, but a hand caught him around his torso, and another on his arm and his skin tingles.
Fitz doesn't move for a moment, matching each point of the beautiful - gorgeous, stunning, really - blonde's touch to the marks on his skin. He'd been born with his Soulmarks - large shapes on his body from where his Soulmate would touch him for the first time - and he'd always wondered how he'd meet her from the large blue marks all over him.
Blue marks, yes, but very faint, more like a glow on his pale skin in the right light. It was fortunate really, if his Soulmate had had brown eyes his skin would have been covered in the color. As it was it was easy enough to his marks with sweaters.
But, now his sweater felt itchy, his skin felt too hot, his marks were burning... Bobbi Morse - stunning woman that she was - was staring at him with wide blue eyes.
"Hi." She murmured, helping to steady him on his feet. She was taller than - especially with the high-healed boots she was wearing - but the way she was looking at him didn't feel like she was looking down at him. Didn't feel like she was tip-toeing around him because of he was different now - she hadn't known him before to tell that he was different.
She was looking at him like he'd always hoped Jemma would.
But, she was Bobbi Morse, not Jemma Simmons. Bobbi Morse, his Soulmate, he hadn't felt tingling when he first shook hands with Jemma - as much as he'd wanted her to be his Soulmate she wasn't.
"Hi." His blue eyes blinked, his cheeks felt hot.
"I think we have some talking to do." Bobbi decided, she could have her shower later. Right now she was faced the man whose blue touch covered her hands and right arm.
Her Soulmate!
2: Timers
Leo had been born with his timer, he knew that meant that his Soulmate - the person with the timer counting down to him - was older than him. He didn't know how much older, but he did know their timer held the same digits as his own. Years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds... Until he would meet his Soulmate.
By the time he met Jemma he was 17, fresh out of university and his timer was down to 10 years.
When he and Jemma joined Agent Coulson's mobile command unit he was convinced that even though his time read little more than a year that Jemma was his Soulmate. Even though her timer was set for three years after his, even though he was sure she only saw him as a friend.
He met Skye on their first day on the Bus and his heart skipped a beat when Jemma mentioned that her timer was a little more than a year away.
It doesn't even cross his mind that if Skye were his Soulmate that their timers would both be at 0 now, all he can can think is that their marks for roughly the same time.
It's not until he gets a good look at her timer - he should probably be less focussed on her arm and more focussed on the mortal peril of a giant hole in the side of the plane - and sees that her date... She's at least a month and a half ahead of him. Her timer racing down with a month a half less time to wait.
Fitz is there when Skye's timer hits zero. A lot of them are there - not Jemma though, Jemma is nowhere at Providence, her bunk cleared out and the only thing he has left of her are his hallucinations - but, it's not hard to figure out who it is.
"Shit!" From the English mercenary.
"Fuck!" Skye's tone is just as surprised when she realises her timer has hit zero. That tiny bit of hope inside Fitz fizzles out when his mark still has a month and a half to go.
The two who swore finally get to meet after ten tense, mostly silent minutes and when they introduce themselves to each other Skye is blushing and Hunter looks sheepish.
Jemma is back!
That's the one thing that Fitz is focussed on that day; after being gone for months when he was at the worst part of his recovery - during the days when he didn't think it was worth it, that he'd never recover. But, she's back now and that's at the front of his mind.
Not the fact that there's someone new on base too - the woman that rescued Jemma and brought her home to him. Not the fact that when Jemma and the new woman walk into his lab his timer hits zero.
He's laying in bed that night when he notices that the constant movement of his timer has stopped. His timer had reached 0 and he hadn't even noticed. The one moment in his life he had litterally been counting down to since he was born and he had missed it.
The thought made him sick.
Physically sick.
He stumbles through the base, his vision blury, his mind a mess. He doesn't know where he's going, but he has get out of his room, he feels like he's suffocating in there.
"Woah, you okay?" He looked up at the sound of the voice, his mind zeroing in on it and focussing. A very tall - very gorgeous - blonde woman is standing in the kitchen.
"Fine." He's not really, but when someone asks that it's just a pleasantry, no-one actually wants to know.
"You sure? You look kinda out of it." Her brow creases and he notices the way it makes the top of her nose crinkle slightly.
"I'm fine!" He doesn't mean to shout - he's been trying not to push people away - but he can't help it.
"Okay, just asking." The blonde holds her hands up in defence and it makes him feel guilty. She was just trying to be nice. "You want a drink?" He hesitates, "it's never fun to drink alone and I'm definitely in a drinking mood so company would be good." She holds a beer out and his shaky fingers take it.
His blue eyes stare at her forearm as she holds out the bottle; her timer is on zero too. He'd heard about the fight she'd had with Hunter just after she got back, but Hunter was Skye's so it can't have been him. He doesn't even know how long her timer has been at zero - he knows it can't be long because they start to fade after they've found each other.
"Have-have you-..." Fitz gets angry with himself when he can't find the right words. "Your timer!" The words finally come out. "Did you notice when it ran out?"
"I did." She gives him a sad little smile that eats at him. "He was a little preoccupied at the time, but I think he's noticed it now."
His eyes widen, she smiles at him, takes a sip of her beer. It couldn't be!
Could it?
"Bobbi Morse." The beautiful blonde holds her hand out to shake. "I think we're Soulmates."
3: First Words
Bobbi has always been confused by the words of her mark. Printed in a messy scribble on her right bicep, they'd appeared when she was five and she'd had to have her mother read them to her because even though she could read at five she wanted to be sure that she read the words correctly.
Fitz, um, I uh, I'm the-the en... I work with Mack!
Whoever her Soulmate is stutters a lot and is five years younger than her. And works with someone named Mack.
The words on her bicep are part of the reason Bobbi is friends with Mack the Mechanic. Well, at first that's why she wants to be friends with him. Because her Soulmate works with him, but the man has no idea who or what a Fitz is when she asks. He's a good guy though, so even though he might not be the right Mack - or he hasn't met her Soulmate yet (why does he get to meet them first?) - she's still friends with him. Because he makes her laugh, and she hates it when he calls her Barbara, and if he's going to be friends with her future Soulmate at least she knows he's going to be a good guy because Mack kinda reminds her of a friendly giant.
When she marries Hunter it's because she loves him. He may not have her mark and she may not have his, but she starts to love him anyway. He's infuriating, passionate, witty, the sex is great - boy is the sex great - he's like a drug that she just kick. She's addicted to him, she doesn't want to quit.
But, they're toxic together.
Either the best thing or the worst thing to happen to each other. And they're quickly fullfilling the worst.
As much as she loves him it's not enough to tell him about her classified missions - even when he starts crashing them as a mercenary.
As much as he loves her, he can't trust her; too many secrets, too many lies, too many times she didn't tell him important information and it nearly got someone killed.
They're married and divorced within a year.
She gets drunk the night it's finalised - so does Hunter - and he turns up at her apartment and they have sex to mourn the loss of their marriage.
After the divorce, after HYDRA, after Real S.H.I.E.L.D is founded and Bobbi, Izzy, Idaho and Mack go undercover at the Other S.H.I.E.L.D, Bobbi gets word through an encrypted information drop.
It's her old phone with her old number sitting in the box and she doesn't even bother to wonder where they got the phone from when she listened to the voice message Hunter had left. Izzy and Idaho were dead.
Bobbi couldn't help but smile when Simmons called her amazing - like a child idolising her - but it wasn't long before the young English biochemist is staring wistfully into the lab. That must be the engineer she'd been raving about on the flight back from HYDRA, a Scottish kid who had been hurt by some HYDRA asshole they were now keeping in the basement.
Her mark tingled at the sight of him; curly blonde hair, blue eyes, baby face set into a shocked expression. Staring at Simmons, not her.
Bobbi's never been insecure; she's hot and she knows it. She can kick ass and she knows it. She's smart and she knows it.
But Fitz barely spares her a glance in favour of Simmons.
It's not until later that he speaks directly to her for the first time. It's hours after getting back to the Playground, everyone's drinking, her and Hunter aren't even fighting right now - and they both have their clothes on which is usually the alternative to fighting. She's getting to meet all of the team officially - each new introduction making the pit of guilt in her stomach grow a little more.
She knows Trip, they've been friends for years, he was in the accademy a few years after her. Skye is a bubbly hacker that she can't help but smile at. May was a legend through S.H.I.E.L.D - original version, Real version, and this little group - but she'd never actually met the woman before, but it's clear that she's adopted the younger Agents as her little ducklings. Simmons still flushes and thanks her profusely every chance she gets.
"Fitz, um, I uh, I'm the-the en... I work with Mack!" The little Scottish boy stumbles over his words when her gaze turns to him and her whole world seems to stop. She vaguely registers Hunter's sharp intake of breath - he'd memorised the words on her skin - Mack coughs on his beer and everyone seems to sense something has happened.
"I hear you're the one that designed my battle staves; they've helped a lot in the field so I guess I owe you a thank-you." Is the first thing her mind can think.
Fitz is frozen in place, his blue eyes wide and staring at her.
"Oh, how exciting!" Simmons is in the background of her perception, clapping her hands and letting out a little squeel. "I've never seen a bond form before!"
Bobbi tugs the sleeve of her t-shirt up, the blue words a stark contrast against her buttermilk skin.
Fitz struggles for a minute before eventually tugging his arm out and her words are blue against his pale skin, impossible to miss.
Her Soulmate!
4: Matching Picture Marks
Lance wasn't born with any marks, but that wasn't unusual; it just meant that if he had a Soulmate they were younger than him so his parents didn't worry. They really had no reason to worry.
His first mark appeared on his soft baby skin before he was even a year old, the sensation had woken him in the middle of the night. A little bird on the right side of his belly button. It had taken them three days and a book on birds to identify the mark as a mockingbird.
Little Lance Hunter is told while he's growing up that his Soulmate is going to be intelligent, playful and protective. At 5 years of age he doesn't really care about that, he just likes the cool bird on his stomach.
When he's nearly six his neck itches and he's aware enough to know that when he looks in the mirror he's got a second Soulmate who has just been born.
It's a monkey on his neck. A cute little thing that tingles when he touches it, just like the bird on his stomach.
Barbara Morse was born with her first mark; straight out of the womb, still bloody from birth and screaming her little lungs out as the nurse makes a note of the bird on her heaving stomach.
Her second mark came when she was five. The little monkey on the back of her left hand making her giggle every time she looked at it. Once she insisted that her older Soulmate was going to be able to fly - that's why their mark was a bird - and the younger Soulmate would be able to climb like a monkey.
The teachers at school had to call her parents to make her stop climbing the trees in search of flying or climbing kids who would be her Soulmates three times before she was forced to promise not to do it again.
It took her three days to break that promise and break her arm when she fell out of the tree.
After that she keeps the promise, but she still looks into every tree she can find in search of her Soulmates.
Leo Fitz was born with two marks; the mockingbird on his right shoulder and the capuchin monkey on left forearm.
Maybe that's what draws him to his love of monkeys.
S.H.I. is in pieces, Jemma is gone, everyone is treating him like a child ever since he woke up from his are the last thing on his mind when he meets Hartley, Idaho, Mack and Hunter.
He's got his sleeves pushed up and he's pacing around his lab when Skye and Trip are giving them the grand tour of the Playground. He's frustrated and angry and he feels useless and he can't find the rights words for things anymore, and his hands won't do what his brain tells them to.
It's a surprise to him when one of the new people - he think he might be a mercenary - lets out a yelp when he see him.
"You've got to be kidding me!" The man says and his accent is English. Not the same dialect as Jemma's, but close enough that it makes him frustrated again. because Jemma left him. She left him all alone and she was supposed to be the one who could understand him. "I just can't get away from all you SHIELD people, can I?"
Fitz tries to say something - he doesn't know what, but he feels like he should say something to the angry Englishman - but no words come. He's having trouble with his words. Has been ever since he woke up.
"Do you have the bird too, Mate?" The Englishman continues. That catches Fitz's attention and he tries to focus better on what the other man is saying. Again he tries to say something, but his words are frustrating today and it's starting to make him angry. "Got the bird first... Met Bob first too, but it didn't work out. I know she's got both as well, the monkey and the bird. Same monkey you've got."
Fitz finally catches on and looks to his arm where his little capuchin sits, then back to the Englishman who was speaking.
"Y-you-you have my marks?" He's glad when he can finally get some words out instead of just standing there in silence.
"Got the bird when I was a baby-" he tugs his shirt up to show off the mockingbird before dropping it and reaching for his collar. "-monkey came when I was five... Bet you were born with both of yours, huh?" There's a monkey just like the one on Fitz's forearm on this mans neck.
"Yeah." The Scotsman noticed that everyone else had cleared out of the lab leaving him with this man... His Soulmate apparently. He knew there were variables - thousands of people could have capuchin monkey marks, and it could just be a coincidence that he knew about the bird and had one himself. But, his hope was spiked and his marks were tingling as he got closer to the man.
"I figure I'm the oldest, I got marks to match you two; Bob's the mockingbird - kind of fitting I guess - and I guess you're the monkey."
"Bob?" It was the second time he'd mentioned Bob. Was Bob their third? He had kind of hoped that at least on of his Soulmates would be female.
"Bob. Bobbi Morse." The man nodded - he should try better to remember his name if they're Soulmates. "You're Scottish right?" He didn't even wait for Fitz to answer. "Good thing she's got a thing for accents."
"She?" Fitz was only monosyllabic, but at least he was speaking without stuttering. "You know her?" Finally more the one word.
"'Course I know her, I was married to the Hell-Beast!"
Bobbi didn't have the best luck with Soulmates.
Well, she hadn't with Hunter at least. Their romance had been a whirlwind of bonds and sex and gunfights before it ended with yelling and fights using words that more than any bullet could, and a divorce after less than six months of marriage.
She'd heard the stories before; people with matching marks who had other they hadn't met yet not being able to be together without their third. She had hoped they would be the exception, that they could be happy together until they found their third.
They couldn't.
So she kept Hunter's number, but stayed away from him, hoping that one day they'd have their third and the fights would stop. The trust would start again. Maybe they could actually co-exist if they had their monkey.
The capuchin on the back of her hand - covered up when she's undercover at HYDRA - tingles when she meets Jemma Simmons, but it's not until they're in the plane with Trip that she brings up the question.
No. Simmons isn't her second Soulmate, her mark is a perfect match for Trip in the pilots seat. But, her best friend Fitz has two marks of a monkey and a bird. The English woman looks sad to report that, but Bobbi's stomach is full of butterflies at the prospect of meeting her second.
Fitz is apparently at the Playground - where they're headed - and she knows that Hunter was working with Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D too. Did they already know each other? Was Hunter even still there? Simmons mentioned that Fitz was Scottish and she had to hold in a groan, she definitely had a weakness for men with accents.
When they finally get to the Playground her anticipation is almost boiling over, but she has mission debriefs, meetings with May and Coulson, she has to wash the feel of HYDRA off her skin. Simmons slips away early on and she catches a glimpse of a man in the lab with tousled, curly blonde hair, pale face and piercing blue eyes. Even without meeting him she knows it's him.
After debriefing, but before the much-needed shower Bobbi sees Hunter again - they argue, they always argue - and then it comes out. Leo Fitz, the man from the lab, he's their third. Hunter has been with him for the last two months - it makes her kind of jealous - and the younger man can't wait to meet her. She can't wait to him either, to meet her second Soulmate. To complete the bond between the three of them.
Her skin is almost buzzing as Hunter leads her to one of the bunks and she realises they've been sharing. The younger man is there, sitting at the desk and tinkering with a device until he glances over and spots them.
"Hi." Bobbi grins, the man licks his lips nervously.
"Hello." Fuck! She so has a weakness for men with accents (she can't wait until she's naked in between them, listening to their accents as they moan in her ears).
5: No Mark
Bobbi was injured. Normally that's not so bad, she's been injured before and had be on desk-duty until she was healed enough to go back to the field. But, now was not the time to be injured; Ward was out there and he'd tried to kill to Hunter - would have if she hadn't taken the shot in her shoulder. She had to find him, and she had to make him regret ever going after her ex-husband. Because she still loves him. And she knows he still loves her.
So Bobbi is injured and stuck at the Playground while Hunter and May go looking for Ward, Skye and Mack are looking for Inhumans, Coulson is running everything - and out in the field because they're down a field agent - and Simmons is missing. The security footage shows that the weird Kree rock had turned to liquid and seemingly swallowed her. So that's where she and Fitz started looking.
Tests, experiments; everything they could think of to get Simmons back.
Long days spent examing every part of the Kree rock, sending D.W.A.R.F.S and Golden Retrievers through the holes in the rock, trying to find any clue or hint of Simmons. Long nights spent with their heads together, trying to think of new ideas and commiserating to loss of Hunter - always on missions now, she hardly ever sees him - and Simmons - Fitz never even got to go to dinner with her.
A drink after a long day when all hope seemed lost.
A hug as a silent comfort to urge both of them to keep fighting.
A kiss when they were the only ones left on base and they both needed some comfort.
A night together.
Two nights together.
Movies and dinners and sweet nothings as sex turns into something more.
'I love you's and whispered adorations that continue even after her knee and shoulder are healed and Simmons is back.
Simmons' sad looks and Hunter leaving the room whenever they're in it.
He creates a ring, etches a tiny mockingbird and monkey into the diamond before asking the question.
She says yes!
I had a few different ideas for Bobbi/Fitz and I couldn't decide which one to go with so I went with all of them, giving you little snippets of different ways they could have come together.
My challenge, to all who read this, is I want each of these continued. The Forse so needs to be a thing so I want to see others writing it. Use your own idea or one of these five and write me a Forse fic! (I've decided Fitz and Bobbi's Ship name is going to be The Forse).
This features several different Soulmate markings since I couldn't decide what I wanted for these; the first touch between a pair appears on each others skin. A timer counting down to went Soulmates will meet. The first words spoken between two Soulmates. And a pictorial representation - an animal - on the skin that matches their Soulmate.
Plus, of course, no marks. Just two people falling in love.