"On Fire"

Heat exploded around Maria. She'd made the only call she could; to stop the HYDRA agents going after the children they'd been experimenting on, she'd shot barrels of gas as they passed by. As long as the rest of her team got the civilians to safety, she didn't care about anything else. If it meant she burned to death… well, obviously she wouldn't live with that, but her job would be done.

The Stark tech had worked as it should. She couldn't do anything more except wait…

Why was she thinking all this? Wasn't she supposed to be dead? They were right near her, and sparks had hit nearby cylinders as well. By rights, she should have been up in flames, on fire at the very least.

Come to think of it, there were some cinders in her hair. The last thing she'd seen after she shot was a ball of darkness covering her. Coulson had never told her what it was like to die, but she assumed that was part of the process.

"Are you all right now? Did you get hurt?"

"No, no, I'm good, thanks, just a little smoky." She looked up into a familiar-looking face. But this guy wasn't Captain America. In fact, he was blocking the flames from getting to her.

"I think the fire brigade is on its way," he said. "I'd shake your hand – hell, touch you in any way, cutie pie – but I might burn you up."

"I'd punch you for 'cutie pie', but you've just saved my life, so that would seem ungracious."

"Just a bit," the Human Torch said, and he grinned. "My name's Johnny. You're SHIELD, aren't you?"

"Not anymore, technically," she said. "Or maybe. It's hard to tell these days." She brushed the sparks out of her hair, and studied him. "I sure as hell can't tell whether the universe likes me or hates me."

"Go for liking you. I know I'm enjoying this. I'd crack some joke about you being hot, but I like my face. Even if I apparently look like Captain America."

"Only until you open your mouth and start talking."

"So what's your name… hmm, sweetness?"

"Is that a guess or a nickname?"

"You'll only get nicknames until you give me your real one."

Maria sighed, and then coughed. She was low down, but smoke inhalation was still a possibility. She grabbed her comm. unit.

"My name's Maria Hill," she said told him.

"You're Commander Hill?"

"Yep." She switched on the unit and held it to her mouth. "Can someone put out the fire in here? I can't get out until there's a clear path."

"You're still alive?" Clint said.

"Someone called in the Fantastic Four, apparently."

"What Fantastic Four?" Johnny muttered. "Ben got in the reversal machine and is back to his normal, grumpy self. Susan and Reed have their baby to look after. It's just me, so I figured I'd tail you guys, since you get all the cool stuff now."

"Can we have this discussion later?" Maria said.

"How long's it gonna take for the water to get here?"

"I don't know."

"Well, since I can't kiss you, we'd better talk. Not as fun, but a little safer at the moment."

Maria rolled her eyes. "How long have you been stalking us?"

"Since Sue's third trimester."

"How old is the baby now?"

"About ten months old."

"A year? You've been following us for a year?"

"Yeah, and I've got a high body core temperature. How did you not notice me?"

"Shit," she said. "We're gonna discuss that later, as well."

"Okay. Let's talk about what you like in bed. And where your soulmark is. Wanna know where mine's located? If you're lucky, you'll get to see it."

Commander Hill wondered whether the risk of burns was worth punching Johnny Storm in the shoulder. Pretty evenly weighted at the moment. If he kept talking, the scales would probably tip, and not in his favour.

Maria was checked over for burns. She was okay, actually. Johnny had taken the brunt of the flames – which didn't hurt him, of course – and he was chatting away to his sister over the phone.

"I found my soulmate! Yeah, she's gorgeous. You'll like her. Her name's Maria, and I don't think she'll put up with any of my sh— oh, you're on speaker. Hi, Franklin. Hi, little nephew. You're gonna have an auntie, yes you are."

"Oh my God," Maria muttered.

"How's it going?" Pepper asked. She'd followed the fire truck to the scene, knowing by now that sometimes Maria and Natasha just needed to get away from the male Avengers after a fight. Since Maria's team was mostly comprised of men, that meant double the reason to need to escape for some girl time before a debrief. The women on her team climbed into the limo after Natasha, while Maria pushed away the shock blanket.

"Johnny Storm is my soulmate," she said. "He's telling his nephew that I'm gonna be his auntie."

Johnny was smiling as he talked to Franklin Richards, and probably Susan and Reed. It was kind of… cute. Maria sighed as he gave a little wave to the phone, before hanging up.

"That was actually adorable," Pepper said. "You sighed, so you have to agree."

"What? That wasn't a sigh. Not a dreamy one, anyway. That was an exasperated sigh. I only do dreamy sighs over Thor's arms."

"I can't blame you there," Pepper said, walking back to the limo with Maria. Johnny ran over to them.

"Where are you going?" he said.

"Back to the tower," Maria said. "I need to debrief with the Avengers and the Stark security squad."

"How sibilant. In the meantime, can't we travel together? I don't wanna lose track now I've found you." He beamed, his face as sooty as hers. It was almost endearing. "Since we're soulmates, so we should be spending time together. I'll keep my hands to myself. Mostly."

"How have you been following us undetected?"

"A neat little costume Reed knocked together for me while Sue was in the hospital and he needed something to do."

He pulled up a cowl from behind, similar to Captain America's. When it was down, it covered his face, including his neck, so that only his eyes were visible, and those were hidden behind a dark mesh.

"Engage cloaking," he said clearly. Gradually, the material became invisible. Or, more to the point, Reed Richards had somehow created a fibrous cloaking technology.

What. The. Hell? Why hadn't he told anyone about this?

"Disengage cloaking," he continued, and he reappeared. Once he was totally visible again, he pulled the hood back, and grinned. "But how could I not show up on your radar? Huh. Must be something Reed did.

"How?" Maria said.

Johnny tilted his head. "You mean SHIELD is now suddenly interested in his work? Pity that wasn't the case ten or so years ago. You and I would've met long before now. But then what could HYDRA have done with this?" He gestured to the fireproof cloaking suit. "I hate to think. The tech's better not shared around."

"I guess," she said, blinking slowly. "So you flew here?"

"Yep."

"Then… I suppose you'd better come with us." She pointed at him. "But no flirting with anyone else."

"So I can flirt with you? Sweet! You're all I need, anyway." He slid an arm around her waist, touching her back. "C'mon. If there aren't enough seats—"

"There's a law against riding in someone's lap," she said, frowning as Pepper snorted in laughter. Johnny raised his eyebrows.

"I hate to think of the number of times someone's used my lap to break that law," he said. "Wait, do you mean in cars?"

She was tempted to smack him around the back of the head, but she refused to do that to her soulmate. She despised abusive relationships, and the double-standard that men hitting women was bad, but that women hitting men was fine. The only time she hit a man was when she was sparring with one or fighting one. There was no place for gender distinctions in war or the workplace. As much as Natasha threatened bodily harm to those who pissed her off, Maria knew she felt the same way.

"No inappropriate touching in front of other people," she said, leading him to the car. Pepper slid in first.

"So inappropriate touching is alright in private?"

"No!"

"No… at all?"

"No… not yet."

"Great!" he said, gallantly waving her in first. Or maybe it wasn't so gallant; maybe he just wanted to stare at her ass. She wouldn't put it past him. "So you're not completely dismissing the possibility of us having a non-platonic relationship?"

She looked him up and down. She had no qualms about ogling a willing man. "I'd be an idiot not to consider a non-platonic relationship with my soulmate," she said. "Especially one as good-looking as you."

The wicked grin he gave made her pause, and her heart-rate doubled. Okay, she could see how he managed to get so many women into bed. That was a panty-dropper if ever she saw one, and she'd been on the receiving end of a few.

"Careful there," Johnny said, catching the back of her head before she could knock it against the car. "Don't want you to get hurt."

"Thank you," she said, sinking into the car seat. She shifted over, and Johnny slipped in beside her. He closed the door and then buckled in, his fingers brushing against Maria's as they met.

"As soon as I'm allowed to kiss you, let me know," he said, looking up at her as they raised their heads.

"Is that all you can think about?"

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I'd say something like 'Of course I wanna tap that', but I'm trying not to be that guy. Oh." His eyes widened. "My sister had a message for you."

"Let's hear it."

"She said 'You sound like you can keep him in hand', and she wants to meet you as soon as possible." He waggled his eyebrows. "I hope you like to keep me in hand. I can be a hell of a handful, so you've got your work cut out for you."

Maria's jaw dropped. She could see Natasha's smirk in her peripheral vision, and some of the other women were giggling. Pepper better not have given them any champagne, or that could compromise the debrief.

"I-I'm sure I'll manage," she said.

"Don't worry. I can be quite handsy… I mean handy, too."

"Both, I'll bet," Natasha murmured. Maria gave her a look, but it wasn't enough to rattle the Black Widow.

"If you're at all interested in being with me, I need at least some kind of indication," Johnny said. Maria glanced at her watch.

"We can talk after debrief," she said.

"Don't you think we should talk about it before debrief… oh, not that kind of debriefing."

She poked his knee. He poked her back, which was fair, even though he was the one being annoying.

"Since you were there, I guess you should be in on the meeting as well," she said. "But no disruptive comments during the proceedings. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Commander Hill," he said, his eyes alight with an unnatural flame. She shivered, and looked away.

She was playing with fire if she played with Johnny Storm.

Okay, another rare pair, like most of these. (Aside from background pairs.) Hazelnut28 requested Maria with someone, and ozhawk suggested Wolverine or Johnny. As it's been awhile since I last watched an X-Men film, I wasn't sure how good I'd be at writing Logan, so I went with Johnny. And partly because I thought it'd be more believable, and much more entertaining.

Please review! Uh, written in an hour?