"Lost and Found"

Logan lost his first soulmate. Thanks to his damn super-healing, James Barnes's mark on him stayed solid and strong, a reminder of what he couldn't have.

'What's with the sideburns?' appeared on the inside of his upper left arm during World War One; as soon as World War Two hit, he figured that his soulmate was male, and that they'd find each other on the battlefield. Or a woman who'd become a nurse.

Victor made fun of him, of course he did. He was probably jealous that Logan had a soulmate; considering how long they'd been alive, and that they'd stopped ageing, he didn't know why Victor would be worried. They were effectively immortal. Plenty of time to find a soulmate, maybe more than one.

Then he met Bucky Barnes while they fought alongside Captain America and the Howling Commandoes. And in Logan's case, tried to mediate the vicious arguments between Steve and Victor.

"Kinda reminds me of back home," Bucky said one night as they watched the stars together, side by side, lying on the grass. "Steve's always been one to pick fights. At least this time he's not gonna get beat up by someone stronger than him."

"You shouldn't underestimate Victor's strength," Logan said, discreetly tangling his fingers with Bucky's. Bucky looked at him, raising his eyebrows.

"You shouldn't underestimate Victor at all," he said.

Then he got a cable from Steve after Bucky fell. Logan wondered whether he was broken, that he couldn't feel his soulmate's death. Fucking alcohol didn't work for him, and he had to settle for sparring with Victor.

In the mid-eighties – he wasn't in any condition to remember the exact date – he discovered a new soulmark. No, not new; additional. Bucky's was still there, sometimes like an itch. This one was on the outside of his right thigh, thin, precise handwriting, a complete contrast to Bucky's thick scrawl. Whoever his second soulmate was, would he break her? He was pretty sure that it was a woman, judging by the writing. He'd had enough time to study the subject, come to see the signs of a man in Bucky's soulmark.

In his few encounters with Victor, the subject of soulmates never came up. Only the once, when he mentioned Bucky. They both died then, not that it stuck. It never did.

Logan didn't want to see Steve again – it was too damn painful – but Captain America kept bugging him into visiting New York so they could catch up on old times. 'See if you still have those sideburns Bucky teased you about', his letter said. Yeah, an actual letter. Scott nearly had hysterics (his version of hysterics) when he found out that Logan got something through the snail mail. If Logan wasn't so fond of Jean, he probably would've skewered Cyclops for that.

He'd heard of SHIELD, and the epic tantrum the Avengers had thrown when they found out who the new director was. Logan didn't see the problem; a guy they thought was dead turned out not to be dead. Lucky them. If it'd only happen to him.

Naturally, the second Logan stepped out of a cab in New York City, he found out he'd been followed by Victor. At least it felt like it, since he was there in his capacity as a mercenary working for some guy named Strucker. Sounded too damn close to Stryker for Logan's liking.

"Ah, hell," he muttered, and he leapt into the fray. Victor was up the other end of the street, getting too close to a group of civilians who were firing at him.

He could've told them it'd have no effect. Had to tell them when they made the mistake of spreading out. Easier for Victor to pick `em off one by one.

"James?"

"Hi, Steve," he said, running past.

"Hey, it's—"

But Logan ran, slicing through the mutants he didn't recognise; the ones who weren't smart enough to get out of the way first. He had no idea what any of the SHIELD agents looked like, which was why it was bad to go into a battle without knowing everything about the enemy and the allies. Not like he couldn't help out, though, or at least take down his brother. Again. For all the good it'd do.

He deflected some bullets – not as effectively as Wade, but there was no one like Wade Wilson… thank God – and then leapt behind a makeshift wall a young woman was hiding behind.

"Sorry `bout my brother, ma'am," he said, throwing a piece of rubble to distract Victor.

"No offence, but your brother seems a few watts short of a light bulb," she said. There was a shriek and an earth tremor from somewhere to their left. "Skye!"

Logan registered the words she'd spoken to him, and sprang up to follow her a second too late. One of Strucker's guys fired at her—

And someone bowled her over, bullet pinging off something metal, before the guy virtually threw her back to Logan. He crouched beside them, taking out a gun.

"You hurt your arm," he said, nodding. Both she and Logan looked at the gravel rash marring her skin.

"It's alright, it will get better," she said, looking up at him. He stared right back. She gasped, and then glanced back over her shoulder at Logan. "Then both of you are… oh my."

"Both what?" Logan said. He arched an eyebrow as he looked up at the other guy… and damn near stopped breathing. "Bucky?"

"James?"

"It… you died! Steve sent me a cable saying you died!"

"I didn't," he said. "Brainwashed by HYDRA."

"Bucky Barnes," the young woman said, pointing at him. She turned her head to Logan again. "And…"

He held up a hand and his claws shot out. "They call me Wolverine," he said. "Or Logan. I go by Logan nowadays." His lips twisted up at the corners as he looked Bucky over. "That'll make it less confusin', though you always preferred 'Bucky', didn't you?"

"Oh my," she repeated.

"You're from SHIELD, aren't you?" Logan asked.

"Yes," she said dazedly. "New SHIELD, run by Coulson. We're…" Then she squirmed around. "Skye!"

"I'm okay!" another girl called back. "Stay there, Jemma!"

"Your name is Jemma?" Bucky said. She nodded.

"Jemma Simmons," she said. "I'm… oh dear. This is terribly awkward. You see, I'm a doctor. A scientist, really, but I gather you've both had horrific experiences with—"

"Well," Logan said, nuzzling behind her ear. She whimpered softly. "You could always give us some nicer memories to counteract that, sweetheart."

"I'd… I'd like that," she squeaked. "Um, but later, perhaps?"

"Let's go tear the shit outta the people shootin' at our gal," Bucky said. "With me… Logan?"

"Always," he said. "Stay here." He kissed Jemma on the lips, and Bucky followed suit. She still looked partly out of it. The next roar from the Hulk startled her, and her game face was back on.

"Right," she said.

"Good luck, pal," Logan said, and he yanked Bucky into a rough kiss. It was full of tongue and teeth and waited-too-long feelings. When they pulled apart, he noticed Jemma staring at them. He snapped his fingers in front of her face to bring her out of her trance.

That was useful to know. Just kissing each other was enough to render their soulmate insensible? Logan knew that Bucky was gonna join him in exploiting that.

Jemma stared at the tabletop with a blush on her face, nursing the dressing on her injured arm. She kept replaying that kiss, and… those muscles…

"This is going to be a problem, isn't it?" Coulson said.

"No, sir," she said faintly. "Far from a problem."

"I can't blame her," Skye said. "If I had two hot, muscly guys like that for soulmates, I think seeing them kiss at close quarters like that would be in-cre-di-bly hot, with a capital O-M-G."

With frequent pokes from Skye, Jemma managed to get through the rest of the meeting, internally scolding herself for getting distracted. May reminded Coulson that it was natural to feel some pull after meeting your soulmate for the first time, and that the separation was bound to be affecting Logan and Bucky as well. Even though they were together, and clearly had some relationship in the past, they were going to feel equally listless. It was biology; Jemma's head cleared enough for her to start reciting everything she had learnt in class, until Coulson kicked her off the bus to go and find her soulmates.

Well, talking science to a field agent had its positives.

Iron Man was waiting there, his face plate lowered.

"I hope you're wearing something under that skirt," he said.

"Semper ubi sub ubi," she replied.

"…Should you be saying that to me? `Cause I could've sworn I heard 'booby' in there."

"It's a Latin joke," she said. "It means 'always wear underwear'."

"Ah." He held out an arm. "They would've come, but this is quicker, so they're preparing instead."

"Preparing?"

"You're all gonna be restless away from each other. Best way to settle it is through bonding."

"Yes, I tried to explain that to Director Coulson."

"Pfft. He doesn't speak our English. C'mon, Dr. Simmons. Sooner you get the bonding over with, the sooner you can talk to Bruce Banner. He wants to run some theories by you. Seems impressed with what he's read of your work."

Jemma put a foot on the platform which extended out of one of the armour's feet. The mask came up and one metal arm clamped itself around her waist. She linked her hands behind his neck, and closed her eyes as they hurtled off.

"You should totally look. It's a great view from up here."

"I've seen the world from up high!" she called over the rush of the wind. "Although it was really only ocean, and I mostly fell backwards."

He paused. "One, my speakers pick up your voice just fine, so there's no need to shout. Two, unless you want two really overprotective soulmates, never tell them that you fell into the ocean."

"I was caught. It's… a long story. The other time I fell into the ocean was when—"

"Do I really want to know all this? Because I don't want to keep secrets from Bucky Barnes. He'd know, and he could probably take me in the armour. At the very least he wouldn't let me work on his arm, and I definitely want to get my hands on that baby."

Jemma laughed, keeping her eyes closed nonetheless, and continued to hang on for dear life until they touched down somewhere. She looked around and realised that they were on the balcony of a skyscraper, most likely Avengers Headquarters. She patted her hair down and thanked Mr. Stark.

"Don't call me that, Dr. Simmons. It's Tony."

"As long as it's Jemma."

"Cool. I can find you a brush—"

"No need for that," a gruff voice said. She whirled around, and gulped when she realised how close her soulmates were. It was Logan speaking. "We're just gonna mess it up again anyway, first chance we get."

"I'll leave that to Logan," Bucky said, holding up his metal arm. "Wouldn't wanna pull out any hairs `cause of this."

"You know, I could probably design some kind of flesh-like polymer to go over the—"

"Shut up, Stark," Logan said. Tony zipped his lips. "But… thanks for the floor."

"Just make use of it. Not just the bed, or I'll start to feel like the madam at a brothel."

"I think you'd need to be quite a bit more buxom for that," Jemma said. Tony grinned.

"I like you," he said. "I'm gonna poach you from Coulson."

"I don't see that happening. I have friends—"

"We'll work something out. Later!" He waved as he walked inside, the armour already flying off him. Jemma turned to her soulmates, hoping they'd mistake the pinkness of her cheeks for her mode of travel.

"We kept thinkin' about you," Bucky said, taking one of her hands in his flesh one. "It was real distracting."

"Really distracting, and yes. I felt the same way."

"You gonna be correcting our speech all the time?" Logan asked, holding onto her other hand as they led her inside. "Because he's from Brooklyn, and I'm from… a lotta places. You'll have your work cut out for you."

"Sorry, my family accuse me of being a grammar Na… ah."

"Grammar Nazi?" he said. She nodded, embarrassed.

"I shouldn't use that word," she said. "Not around either of you, and especially now that we're fighting HYDRA so often."

"Did you get in trouble for not paying attention during the debrief?" Bucky asked as they walked through the living area. Jemma couldn't wave to the others, but she nodded and smiled as they greeted her. It was all terribly overwhelming, and she half-expected to wake up and find it to be a dream. But none of her dreams were anything like this. "We sure did."

"I explained the mechanics of soulmateship to the director," she said.

"You haven't experienced the whole thing, though," Logan said, pulling her into the lift when it arrived.

"Well, no. I only just met you today. You'd know if I had; you'd have been there."

"Do you want the full experience?" Bucky asked, pressing against her from behind. She swallowed delicately, and nodded. "Verbal consent, if you don't mind."

"Yes. Yes, please. But can we get to know each other first? I only know what I've read about you. I'd like to learn about your relationship. You recognised each other, I know you did."

"We couldn't do much," Logan admitted. "War-time, same-sex relationships frowned upon, even between soulmates. Some idiots used to think that Fate got it wrong."

"Some idiots still think that," she said.

"So we're gonna be feelin' our way along, too," Bucky said, running one hand up her side to just beneath her breast. "Literally, I hope."

Jemma hoped so, too, and dragged a finger down the singlet Logan clearly considered appropriate upper body coverage, until she reached the top of his jeans. She paused there, taking in his darkening eyes, and dropped her hand.

"Consider this incentive to get talking," she said, moving Bucky's hand further up.

"You have arrived at the assigned guest suite," a British voice said. She startled, and looked around.

"What?"

"Didn't Stark tell you about the computer that runs this building?" Bucky said. "Asshole. Its – his – name is JARVIS. An electronic butler, or something."

"Oh," Jemma said, surprised, as they steered her through the suite to a couch. "Hello, Mr. JARVIS. I thought you were just a myth."

"I am as real as any Artificial Intelligence," he replied.

"Lovely to meet you… so to speak."

"You too, Dr. Simmons. Your body of work is impressive."

"But… Skye wiped our identities—"

"Mr. Stark had backups of all SHIELD employees' records, those of interest to him."

"Oh."

"Enough of that talk," Logan growled, tugging Jemma over to the three-seater lounge. "I think it's time we all got to know each other."

"Outside of the bedroom, you mean," she said, further overwhelmed by the imposing men either side of her. Logan's grin was almost feral.

"If you think we'd restrict those activities just to the bedroom, you're way off course, sweetheart," he said, the low timbre of his voice going right through her body.

She was in trouble. But it was the best kind.

Okay, so this ship was requested by Troodon, who was interested either in these three together or just Jemma/Wolverine. I hope this counts as both, otherwise I'd be compelled to write another one solely Jemma/Wolverine. And that's going into dangerous territory.

…And I'm already considering it. Dangerous territory reached. I'll send you a postcard.

Please review!