Wash My Sins Away (an MCU crackship soulmate!AU fanfic)
(So I wrote this because of @ozhawkauthor's post about her upcoming birthday and, as I feel she has given so much to her followers/readers and the fandom in general via her incredible fanfics, I felt it only right that I give a little bit back and write a fic for her birthday featuring two characters that, as she herself has said, don’t get enough love.
This fic is also cross-posted to this collection on AO3)
* * * * *
It happened when Rogers decided to break his team out of the RAFT.
Jack Rollins wasn't quite certain what the man had done but one minute the alarms had been blaring, the cell doors all still locked tight and then they'd sprung open with a clang. Problem was it hadn't just been the three cells holding the former Avengers. Jack hadn't wasted time leaving his cell, clocking a panicking guard in the jaw on his way, snatching up the man's stun baton before the body even hit the floor. He had taken all of three steps towards the nearest door, thinking only of finding someway off the floating super-max, when a voice, cocky and familiar, called out to him from behind.
"Going somewhere?"
Jack went rigid, freezing mid step, and he nearly dropped the stun baton.
No.
Not now.
Not after all this damn time.
It couldn't possibly be.
His left arm suddenly felt like it was on fire. The words hidden beneath the sleeve of his shirt itching in a way it only would when said words had been spoken by his soulmate.
Slowly, moving with all the quiet, lethal grace of a large cat, he turned to face the man who had spoken.
Clint Barton was glaring daggers at him, looking ready for a fight, and Jack knew he should have given the archer that fight. Should have shoved the stun baton against the smaller man's ribs and gotten the hell out of dodge. Instead he found his mouth opening and words coming out despite his brain screaming that he just needed to get the hell out of there before Rogers showed up to back up his friends.
"Anywhere that isn't here."
The stillness that fell over Clint was familiar. Jack had experienced it moments earlier. But there was more than that. Shock danced over Clint's face and the archer's hand flew up, seemingly unbidden, a reflex, covering his collarbone.
They didn't move or speak.
Just stared at one another until, finally, the shock seemed to leave Clint, who sputtered for a moment before, just as Rogers appeared in the doorway, let out a snarl.
"Son of a bitch!"
* * * * *
Hours later Jack wasn't certain if he should count himself lucky or not.
Rogers, after Clint had spit out that Jack was his soulmate, hadn't left him in the RAFT. He hadn't been surprised that the heroes had split up after getting away from the RAFT. It made sense. Together they were a bigger target. Scattered to the winds they would be much harder for Ross and any of his agents, including Tony Stark, to hunt.
He had honestly expected Clint to kick him loose at the first opportunity but, surprisingly, the archer had told Rogers that he'd take Jack with him and Wanda.
Now he was sitting at the kitchen table in a large, old farmhouse, the adrenaline of the escape fading from his veins, leaving him feeling like he was about to crash. He nearly jumped out of his skin when someone unexpectedly brushed their fingers through his hair. Jerking sideways, nearly toppling himself from the chair, he looked up to find the woman who'd met them all at the front door when they'd first arrived standing there. He could have kicked himself for not noticing her approach. He was getting rusty it seemed.
Staring up at her he remembered Clint had introduced her as Laura. His other soulmate. Turned out the archer had been one of those rare people born with two separate marks. And Jack wasn't quite sure how he felt about having to share his soulmate with someone else because he and Laura were not fated. They each bore only one mark, Clint's mark, and when Clint had explained things to Jack the ex-HYDRA agent had just seen it as another reason to leave.
Clint didn't need him.
He had Laura. He had someone good. Someone who wasn't broken. Someone who didn't have blood staining their hands. Someone who hadn't ended countless lives thinking they were going to be making a difference in the world.
"You look ready to drop," Laura said unexpectedly, her fingers still brushing through his hair, her touch gentle. Almost soothing.
Jack merely grunted and looked away from her. She didn't deserve to have her life tainted by him any more than Clint did.
"I've always known I was going to have to share him, you know," she said softly, surprising him by being so open, so honest with him. "I prepared myself for that. Knowing one day he'd come home with you in tow. I used to think about what that would mean. For him. For me. For our lives. Drove myself sick over it so many times before I realized it didn't matter. That when Clint finally found you and brought you home it would just mean he was finally whole, that our family would finally be whole."
Jack grunted again and shook his head, pulling away from Laura's touch, slowly standing, legs shaking slightly as exhaustion threatened to drive him to the floor.
"You don't know who I am, what I was, or the things I've done in the name of...of saving the world." Jack shook his head and took a step away from Laura. "You..."
"Doesn't matter," Laura interjected quickly. "Clint brought you here. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't think you were more than your past."
"He..."
"Christ, Rollins, just listen to the lady," Clint's voice cut in and Jack jerked, surprising them all when he moved, putting his larger frame between Laura and the doorway Clint was standing in. "She's not wrong, you know? I wouldn't have brought you here if I thought, for a second, that you were beyond redemption."
Jack blinked, swaying slightly. "You..."
Clint was suddenly right there and, despite being shorter, smaller, looped an arm around him, letting Jack lean against him.
"Right now we're tucking you into a bed," the archer said, guiding Jack towards the door. "In the morning, after breakfast, you, Laura and I are going to sit down and have a proper conversation about all of this and then, if you stop acting like you've got your head shoved up your ass, you'll get to meet the kids."
