"Blond"

"Wow, it's much closer now that you've cut your hair."

Steve Rogers whirled around, and stared at the man in front of him. Jesus Christ, it was almost like looking in a mirror. Then his reflection smiled the kind of smile Steve had never smiled in his life, and he knew that this situation had descended into 'This can't be happening' territory.

"Seemed necessary to fit in," he said hoarsely. This guy wasn't his long-lost twin – Steve had been an only child – but this would be horrifying if the other man turned out to be an unexpected descendant.

"Wait, really?" the stranger said. "Captain America is my soulmate?"

"Apparently," Steve said, holding out his hand. "But I'd prefer it if you called me Steve."

"Aw, even in bed?"

"Crap. Are we related?"

"Nope. Not as far as I know. Just an incredible coincidence." He moved a step closer, and Steve nearly backed off.

"What's your name?" he asked. The man cocked his head, frowning, and then his expression cleared.

"You've only been around a couple of years, so you're forgiven for not recognising me," he said with a touch of arrogance. "Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch. The youngest quarter of the Fantastic Four."

"I've heard of you," Steve said. "I only read the newspapers, though, and most of the time it's not for the news."

Johnny shrugged. "S'okay. I don't know which of us is getting the better end of the deal. Pretty close call."

"You don't lack confidence in any way, do you?" Steve remarked, smiling as he looked over his soulmate. If he looked long enough, maybe the prospect of being with Johnny would seem less narcissistic.

Johnny tugged him close with the hand Steve was still holding. "Wanna get out of here? Or go get coffee, at least?"

Steve looked around the park. He and Sam had already met up, and Steve had been planning to wander around and take in the fresh air. He had no idea he'd meet the soulmate he didn't know he had until he woke up from the ice.

"Coffee sounds great," he said.

"Sweet! Lemme just grab my bike. How'd you get here? I hear you ride as well." He looked Steve over with a smirk. "I hope you ride well."

Steve didn't think he was all that capable of blushing, but apparently he was. "Uh, I walked. Well, ran."

"Wanna ride behind me? Innocently, of course. Otherwise we could be arrested."

"Shit." Steve covered his pink cheeks. "Yeah, okay. If you think your bike can handle my muscle mass."

"Oh, I'm lookin' forward to handling all of you myself later," Johnny said, leading Steve out of the park and along the sidewalk.

"Don't you think it's awkward? We look so alike."

"Well, I'd say we could grow our hair out, but I'm a natural blond. My hair's only dark when it's short like this."

"You sure we're not related?"

"Considering the kinda things I wanna do to you?" Johnny raised an eyebrow as he threw a helmet to Steve. "I really hope not."

Steve felt ashamed of having to sneak his soulmate back into the tower, but Johnny had assured him that his bed wasn't strong enough for a super soldier, so they'd have to use Steve's. Even the walls might not be strong enough.

"Usually the walk of shame happens the morning after, not the night before," he said. They'd spent all day together, having coffee, riding around the city, eating lunch, going to a movie, walking around a park, then having dinner. Every one of Johnny's light touches had slowly driven Steve mad, until he was the one to suggest that they find somewhere more private. All right, JARVIS would be monitoring, but that's what he did, and he'd turn off the video and audio feed to Steve's bedroom if he asked nicely.

"It's just awkward, that's all," Steve said.

"But you're definitely thinking with the brain between your legs and not in your head."

"Can you blame me?" Johnny smirked, and Steve swore. "It feels vain to want to get you into my bed."

"I still haven't seen your soulmark," Johnny reminded him. "You said it's in a private place."

"The kinda place where, if we bond, the position will be…" Steve felt his cheeks grow redder. His soulmark was high on his inner right thigh.

"Hey, bonding doesn't have to take place tonight. I really just wanna burn up the sheets with you. Not literally; I can control myself, I swear. But we can create a fire all of our own."

"At least if you scorch me, I'll heal quickly," Steve muttered as he pulled Johnny into his bedroom.

"Nice bed," Johnny said, eyeing it then Steve. "Wanna shower first?"

"Yeah. I haven't got a change of clothes for you—"

"We're probably around the same size. Your clothes might be a little bigger on me, but that's okay. They probably won't stay on all that long." His eyes trailed down Steve's body. "And I sure as hell won't need pyjamas tonight."

Steve felt like something caught in his throat, and swallowed. "Do you wanna take the shower first?"

Johnny pouted. "You mean we're not showering together? Because I kinda like the idea of soaking wet bodies pressing against each other—"

Steve shut him up quickly, backing Johnny into the door and attacking his mouth with the kind of energy he usually used in sparring with Thor. Johnny could only hold on for the ride, grinding up against Steve as he wound his arms around the back of Steve's neck.

Despite his super soldier stamina, and his habit of rising early (in more ways than one), Steve slept in for the first time since… well, the occasional hard battle. He preferred to get up and get ready for the day ahead. When he awoke, he thought he'd had some Freudian dream about his soulmate being his doppelganger. What did that say about him?

"Sir," JARVIS said, startling Steve. "I believe you should head down to the common area. Your… guest went down ahead of you, and some confusion may soon arise."

"My guest? I didn't dream that?"

"That your soulmate is Johnny Storm, and that he appears similar in appearance to you? No, sir, you did not dream that."

"Great." Steve scrubbed his hands over his face. Johnny was downstairs. With… with the others. Shit, what if he decided to try to pretend to be Steve? What if they reacted with appropriate suspicion?

No thought to pyjamas, Steve vaulted out of bed in only the underwear he'd pulled on last night in a late concession to modesty. JARVIS took him straight downstairs, where he wasn't the least bit surprised to see the others glaring at Johnny as he tucked into pop tarts with a gusto Steve had never displayed towards them. When they saw Steve, Natasha's hands went to her knives.

"It's okay!" he shouted, hurrying to Johnny's side with his hands out in front of him.

"Life Model Decoys don't eat," Tony said, gauntlets already covering his hands.

"He's not an LMD," Steve said. "This is Johnny Storm. He's… he's my soulmate."

Johnny smiled smugly around a piece of pop tart he'd speared on his fork. Steve sighed, and leaned against the counter beside him. Clint snorted.

"You're seriously telling us that your soulmate looks exactly like you?" he said. "To be honest, I expect this kind of narcissism from Storm, but you, Steve?"

"We never see our true selves except in photographs," Steve said. "When we look in mirrors, we see ourselves in reverse."

"What about webcams?" Tony said.

"Not the point I'm trying to make, Stark!"

"We don't look exactly alike," Johnny said, and he pursed his lips in disappointment as he looked Steve over. "All my bite marks are gone. Yours are still on me, at least." He pointed to his neck and opened the button-up he was wearing to show the multitude of love bites Steve had left on him. "I hope they last for days, but I see I'm gonna have to try harder in marking you up."

"Super healing," Steve said. "I don't think it'll work."

"But I can have lots of fun trying. I can guarantee you'll enjoy it even more than you did last night. And early this morning. And all the times in between."

Steve flushed as the others looked at him with varying expressions of awe.

"Sorry," he said, even though he didn't have any idea why he was apologising. Johnny stood up, and pressed the last bite of pop tart against Steve's lips. He opened obediently, and swallowed what he was offered. (And didn't that take him back to this morning…)

"Want some breakfast?" Johnny said. "You ate a hell of a lot yesterday, and that's before you even got to me."

Bruce buried his face in his hands, laughing, while the rest looked at Steve with respect. He threw a balled-up napkin at the doctor in revenge.

Thor, being an Asgardian, could tell the difference between Johnny and Steve without even looking at them. Natasha and Clint were observant, especially Clint with his sharp eyesight, so they swiftly picked up on the differences. Bruce didn't care, treating them the same. When Bucky eventually left therapy with Sam and joined them, he knew Steve at once, and Steve clued Sam in to the differences between them.

The others who didn't know them all that well – or, in the scientists' case, found it hard to get their heads out of science-space – found it more difficult, and could easily be tricked. But the funniest part was when Johnny introduced Steve to his family by making him go up to the penthouse of the Baxter Building first, to see whether he could trick them into believing that he was Johnny.

Ben looked at Steve with deep suspicion, muttered 'I prefer this one', and kept on walking. Alicia was working on a sculpture, and raised her head.

"I'm sure you do," she said. Steve raised an eyebrow; wasn't she supposed to be blind? But if that enhanced her other senses…

"Is Johnny back yet?" Susan said, walking into the room with the mail. She glanced at him. "Finally. Where were you?"

"Met my soulmate," he said, which was true. Alicia dropped a handful of clay and Ben's head jerked up.

"What?" he said. Susan beamed.

"That's wonderful, Johnny!" she said. Wow, it was true; she saw what she expected to see.

It was when Reed walked in a second later that Steve didn't know how to feel. Reed passed him by, pausing only to look at his face. He did a double-take, and then examined Steve's features.

"Huh," he said. "Funny." Then he shook his head and continued on his way. Susan frowned, approached Steve, and halfway there she stopped.

"What?" she said. "Who the hell are you?"

"Steve Rogers," he said. "Johnny's downstairs. Gotta ask how you knew."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I was expecting my brother. You look so much like him."

"I'm sure you'll work out the differences soon enough, being his sister an' all. We'll be seeing more of each other."

"Why?"

"Weren't you listening?" Alicia said, working with the clay again. "He found his soulmate."

"Wait, you're saying…" Ben's eyes widened. Then he threw back his head, chortling loudly, and Reed whipped around.

"What's happening?" he said. It was a familiar action; Steve could've told anyone that Reed was a scientist without knowing it before, based purely on that.

Ben couldn't stop laughing long enough to explain, and Alicia was smiling to herself, so it was left to Sue.

"This is Captain America," she said, indicating Steve. "He's… Johnny's soulmate."

"Johnny's soulmate?" Reed said, looking Steve up and down. "Why am I not surprised?"

So began the Great Swap Around, as Johnny called it, and the Confusing Prank as Steve called it.

Anytime there was a press conference Steve was nervous about, Johnny would handle it instead. Anytime Johnny had to attend a charity event, Steve would go in his place. If anyone noticed the differences, they didn't comment on it, which was just as well. If it was over-analysed, they wouldn't be able to pull it off anymore, not if their tells and slight physical differences were identified and documented.

Unfortunately, to maintain the secret they couldn't be seen in public together.

"I want everyone to know that I have a soulmate," Steve said, propped against his headboard beside Johnny, who was stretched out with his arms crossed behind his head.

"Why? Not saying I'd be in any danger, but—"

"Most of the world seems to be convinced that my soulmate died a long time ago, which means that I'm available to anyone with a shoulder to cry on; or worse, someone without a soulmark who thinks that they just have to kiss and they'll turn out to be my second chance."

Johnny snorted. "Not gonna happen. You like this ass too much to give it up. Not to mention the rest of me." He leered at Steve, who rolled his eyes.

"I know it's been fun and games pretending to be each other, tricking the world like that," he said. "But I feel like we have to come clean at some point. I don't want to take it too far. We've gotten lucky so far, but if an emergency arose, or someone asked to see you set something on fire while I'm pretending to be you, or—"

"Or asked me to lift something you could, but I can't," Johnny said. "Or throw your Frisbee."

Steve frowned mildly. "It's a shield."

"I know." Johnny patted his shoulder, then lounged back again. "Just yankin' your chain."

"Prefer you to yank something else. I mean…" He covered his burning face while Johnny laughed. "The point is, I wanna be formerly and publicly tied to you in a ceremonial bond."

Johnny's laughter trailed off. "You proposing to me?"

"…Yes."

"Huh." He paused. "Okay."

You're a bad influence, zandperl. A bad, bad influence, and I hope you're happy with yourself. I was going to try and toss Loki into the mix, but it just didn't seem to work with this story. Better lucky next time, I suppose. Still. Here's the requested Johnny/Steve.

Uh, sorry there was more implied smut than actual plot in this. My bad?

Please review! I've had several requests for various ships; add to that my previous ideas, and I've got plenty to be going on with. Keep prompting if you like, but don't expect a miraculous five chapters a day or whatever. Not unless I have a bit too much sugar than is good for me.