"Rock the World"

Johnny watched as the primary New SHIELD team arrived on the scene. One of the young women with long, dark hair crouched on the ground amid the fighting. He zoomed towards her, wondering why the hell Coulson's team seemed to be comprised of people with death wishes, when he noticed the nearby monsters stumble in place. A couple of cars squeaked, and Johnny felt the ground tremors before he even landed. Being close to her – it had to be the girl making the ground shake – he got it worse than the people who were far away.

Wisely, he flamed off elsewhere, burning up anyone who tried to aim a long-range weapon her way. With their help, battle was over pretty quickly. The real explosions happened when the Avengers showed up – half a minute too late to join in the fun – and saw Coulson. Did they seriously not know that he was alive?

"Not like he's been hiding it," the Thing said.

"We knew weeks before we officially met the team," Sue said.

"I wasn't there," Johnny said, holding up a hand.

"No, you were away," she said, frowning.

"Dirt bike competition!"

"Honestly, Johnny, you think you'd get enough kicks being a superhero!"

"Don't even," he said, pointing at her. He turned to Coulson. "Kid makin' the ground shake. What's her name? I think she's still there."

"Skye checked in a minute ago," an English girl told Coulson. "She's just making sure there are no aftershocks."

"I'll go keep her company," Johnny said. Before anyone could stop him, he was flying back the way he came.

She had stood up, and was walking back to join the others when Johnny dropped onto the ground a couple of feet in front of her. She jumped, and he gave her a winning grin.

"Wanna rock the world with me, sweetheart?" he said.

Her eyes narrowed, and Johnny braced himself to duck.

"That was the last thing I needed, ever," she said. And she side-stepped him. It took a minute for Johnny to get with the program. Then he was running after her.

"It's Skye, right?" he said. "Your name?"

"Who wants to know? Oh, right. Johnny Storm. The Human Torch, notorious playboy, part of the Fantastic Four, and apparently my soulmate."

"That I am," he said proudly. "Kind of relieved. A second soulmark only just showed up—"

"My powers were unlocked a few months ago," she said, interrupting him. "I had to be reborn for that to happen."

"So my soulmate isn't three months old! Sweet! It would've been a hell of a wait."

"By all accounts, you'd know how to occupy yourself in the meantime," she said, raising an eyebrow as he continued to walked beside her, easily matching her quick strides.

"I could occupy you all day, Skye," he said. "Want me to prove it to you?"

"About as much as I want you to 'rock the world with me, sweetheart'," she said.

Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Johnny changed tacks.

"Do you know who our third is?" he asked. "Or do we have different second soulmates?"

"You tell me!" she said. "Do you already have one?"

"Nope."

"Because I do, and it's not exactly platonic between us."

"Uh-huh?" He dogged her steps until they returned to the group. Sue's frown stopped him in place. But when the Brit and Skye embraced with undisguised passion, his jaw dropped and his brain turned inside out.

That was so freakin' hot.

"Johnny, stop staring," Ben grumbled. Johnny shook his head.

"Kind of physically impossible," he said. Then one of Reed's hands shot over to him, and yanked Johnny around. "Hey! I'm perfectly within my rights."

"You're really not," Reed said, pulling Johnny back over to them. He muttered something to himself as he went, trying to crane his neck to look back at the two girls.

"So, are they done being unreasonable?" Johnny said, indicating the Avengers. Coulson was red-faced, though his lips were white. He looked about ready to explode, and not in a good way. "`Cause we found out through that info dump – thanks, Romanov – so why didn't you pick up on it? Stupid to think you'd been lied to when the information was there."

"Moving on," Agent May said, looking at Coulson. He cleared his throat, but the Brit broke away from Skye and walked over to Johnny. She held out her hand, and he shook it, surprised but pleased.

"Thank you for accompanying her," she said.

"No problem," he said, and he grinned. "What's your name, cute stuff?"

She blushed. "Jemma Simmons."

"Jemma with a 'j'?"

"Yes."

"Sweet! We have the same initials."

"Indeed."

"So it's true," Skye said, and she sighed as she stood beside Jemma. Johnny finally let go of her hand, even though he liked how delicate and cool it was. Felt so small in his hand.

"What's true?" Coulson said, glaring at Johnny suspiciously.

"I felt it was best to study in America," Jemma said, which seemed an obscure way to continue the conversation. Until, "I was more likely to find someone who'd say 'I'll go keep her company'. Back in England, we would say 'I'll go and keep her company'."

"Huh. Yeah, I guess I did say those words to you, didn't I?"

"Wait, are you soulmates?" Sue said. Johnny beamed at her, and nodded.

"All three of us," he declared.

"God help me," Coulson muttered.

They were given leave to go to a diner. Skye and Jemma sat beside each other, hands clasped on the tabletop, while Johnny sat opposite. The Human Torch, who Jemma would have loved to study, and could definitely swoon over. She and Skye were fairly certain their third would be a man, and that they would share him. In the meantime, they'd built their non-platonic relationship since their connection emerged.

Jemma rubbed her thumb along the skin of Skye's hand while they waited for their drinks.

"How long have you guys been together?" Johnny asked.

"We've been friends since soon after we met," Jemma said when Skye didn't reply. "It wasn't until our words finally appeared that we became more than just good friends. Life's too short not to at least try, we decided, and the feelings were already there."

"It was when I heard that you were undercover at HYDRA," Skye said, not looking at Jemma. "I wanted to be holding you, making sure you were okay, but I couldn't. When Coulson looked like he was willing to let you get hurt to stop me from meeting my father, I could've killed him myself. I decided that if you got back to us safely, I wasn't going to waste any more time."

"I was safe," Jemma said when Johnny stared at her with horror. "Of course, I didn't know quite how safe I was, but it turns out that the head of security was working for Coulson, and she saved my life."

"When I asked him, DC said that if he didn't have someone watching out for you, he would've accepted Raina's terms, then dealt with her," Skye said. "I think… he was glad to get you out from undercover. I think he wanted you back as soon as possible."

"He did bring me food."

"I think you both have a lot to tell me," Johnny said, frowning at them. "You being in trouble? I don't like that."

"You don't even know us," Skye said.

"I don't have to. You're my soulmates. And, hell, it sounds like you've gone through so much that… I wanna take you away from the danger. Even just for a little while. Give you a well-deserved holiday."

"Would there be two bedrooms on this holiday?" Skye asked dryly. Jemma's smile turned wicked as Johnny gulped.

"It could," he said. "Entirely up to you. I'll even let you do the bookings."

"We're not really going to do it, are we?" Jemma said, looking from one to the other.

"Yes," Johnny said.

"No," Skye said at the same time.

"Well, that was definite," Jemma remarked.

"We can't take the time away," Skye said.

"I'm sure Coulson will spare you for a weekend," Johnny said. "Let me take you somewhere, anywhere. We could go to England and meet your parents, Jemma. You… you do still have—"

"Yes, yes," she said. "Both alive."

"My dad's alive, but he's a psycho and a monster," Skye said. "And my mom was… special. Dead now."

"Who killed her?"

"A man who's also dead now."

"Pity. I would've liked to—"

"So would I, and I can take care of myself," Skye said. "As you've seen."

"I've seen you make the earth move, sweetheart."

"And you want to make the earth move with her," Jemma said, smirking at Johnny's expression.

"You… you've seen her words," he said, his eyes flicking towards Skye. "Yeah, because I'm not gonna be thinking about that all night long."

"Pervert," Skye said.

"I'm a man, and you two are extremely pretty. And beautiful. And sexy. And—"

"We get the picture," Jemma said, blushing.

"I'd be happy to paint a prettier one with you."

"That's… the weirdest analogy I've ever heard," Skye said.

"Hey, at least I steered clear of fire for once. I could've said you were hot, or smoking, or—"

"Never scorching," Jemma said. "We had to fight someone with fire powers once—"

"Sort of my fault," Skye said.

"Skye, no. It was your boyfriend's fault, not yours. You helped us find him."

"So… no scorch," Johnny said.

"That's right," Jemma said.

"I'll try to remember that."

"Let's be honest here," Skye said, "because I'm sick of lies and secrets. You want to sleep with us, don't you?"

Johnny arched an eyebrow. "You're my soulmates, and I'm attracted to both of you. I'll keep it platonic if you want me to, but it's gonna be damn hard when I'm thinking all kinds of inappropriate things about what we could be doing together."

Jemma and Skye looked at each other.

"We… had hoped our third would be a man," Jemma confessed.

"But men have failed me in the past," Skye said.

"Coulson hasn't, and Fitz hasn't," Johnny said.

"Yeah, but I don't want to sleep with either of them."

"Fitz had feelings for me," Jemma said. "But then he met his soulmate, and they faded because he found something real and mutual."

"Which you two have, with each other," Johnny said slowly.

"You're… you're part of a team, and we're part of a different team."

"Hold on a second." He held up his hands. "It's not a case of 'never the twain will meet'. We're all on the same side. You're just covert, and I'm definitely… not the covert type, to be honest. But hey, if you wanna join my team—"

"Not possible," Skye said. "We're needed with SHIELD."

"Then I'll join you. I can fly. A plane as well." He winked. "Sure you don't want a super on your team?"

"Won't your family miss you?" Jemma said.

Johnny sighed. "If you don't want me, just say so. I'm a big boy. I can take it. Like you said, I know how to find someone else." He shrugged. "Could only be second best, but I'll survive."

Skye paused. "Look, we don't know you. It's hard to trust someone new after…"

"I understand."

"Not really," Jemma said. "Someone close to us turned out to work for HYDRA. He saved my life once…"

"And I kissed him," Skye whispered. Johnny covered their entwined hands with his own.

"I would never betray either of you like that," he said. "I'm your soulmate. We can just be friends if you want, but I'll always have your back, and you'll always come first to me. You need me at your side, I'll be there. I protect the things, the people I care about."

"You don't want anything from us, at all?" Skye said. He arched an eyebrow.

"Of course I do," he said. "I'm a man, and I would've hit on both of you anyway. Did hit on you, technically. But I'm not asking for anything except to be there for you when you need me."

"And what about when you need us?" Jemma asked. Johnny smiled ruefully.

"I haven't so far," he said. "I'm usually able to get what I need. You're the ones with targets drawn on your backs and scraping by on whatever Coulson can get together. I'm the one living in a swanky, secure building, and I don't have HYDRA gunning for me."

Neither Jemma nor Skye spoke for a minute. Eventually, Johnny grabbed a pencil stub and a serviette, and scribbled something down.

"Look, just… if you need anything, here's my number. It's a secure line." He pushed it across the table to them. "Anything at all. Especially if there's a fight and you need a bit of my brand of firepower." He half-smiled. "Try to stay out of trouble."

Johnny was walking down the street, disappointed that he hadn't even wrangled a date out of his soulmates, when he felt his phone ring. Figuring it was Sue asking if he was ready yet, he fished it out of his pocket, hit the answer button, and held the cell phone to his ear.

"I'm on my way back to the Baxter," he said.

"Oh good," an English voice said. He stopped in his tracks.

"Jemma? Shit, don't tell me you're in trouble already."

"We were thinking," Skye said, joining the conversation.

"About what you look like," Jemma said.

"Without any clothes on," Skye added. Johnny sucked in a breath.

"Uh-huh?" he said. Really, like he could be any more eloquent than that at this moment.

"And especially with one of us on each side of you."

"You… really shouldn't be talking like that when I'm on a public sidewalk in broad daylight," he muttered, trying to keep his lips pretty still. Good thing he'd put clothes on over the top of his blue suit.

"Why not?" He heard the beep of the call disconnecting, and scowled down at his phone. Skye continued talking… right behind him. "We're on a public sidewalk in broad daylight, too."

He turned gradually, and looked at them. Skye was smirking, and Jemma was half-hiding behind her, pink blossoming on her cheeks.

"Yeah, but any reactions you have will be less… noticeable," he said.

"Wouldn't be so sure of that," Jemma said, fiddling with her hair.

"How far is it to your place?" Skye asked, cocking her head as she approached him. Jemma trailed her, and they each linked an elbow with him.

"Not… not far. We can take a cab."

"Lead on, then, if you think we'll all fit in your bed," Jemma said. Skye continued to smile smugly, and Johnny wondered how the hell he'd wound up this lucky.

You must've done something good in a previous life, Johnny. Or done enough good in this one. (And how often will I get the chance to use the phrase 'undisguised passion'?)

Please review, all! My first F-F-M triad, if I remember rightly, which is debatable.