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Jack Rollins has freckles. Brock’s entirely taken apart by this observation. He shouldn’t have noticed them in the first place, so early on and almost as subtle as the man himself but he noticed. It was curious to him, a man so seemingly mysterious and foreboding that also blended into the shadows rather easily despite his size having a feature he saw as..child-like across skin. It was..strange.
The first time Brock actually noticed them was when he accidentally stumbled upon Jack basking in the sunlight after a training session. Sun kissed skin glistening under golden rays as he leaned against a wall without his shirt on; Brock had gone searching for him to ask about a report that was missing and found him like that, staring off into the sky. He really had no intention of seeing them, encroaching on Rollins’ private moment of peace as the man’s back was turned away. He knew he had heard him, eyes picking up how suddenly alert he was, muscles shifting carefully under smooth skin the moment he did and it’s how Brock noticed the barely traceable dusting of freckles up above his shoulder blades. They almost didn’t exist, but it was in his nature to pick up new details about the operatives in his team, a detail he knew immediately didn’t matter and yet he was shelving it away carefully like some sort of decrypted message.
After that, he finds more excuses to approach Jack in the gym all in the name of work. Under the harsh lighting and even in a tank top, he can still see them and they only seem to be more interesting up close when Jack approaches him, skin glistening and scattered freckles at large shoulders inviting him in. Brock’s not entirely sure for what but he swallows thickly and repeatedly makes a point not to stare too closely.
It doesn’t take very long for him to becoming obsessed over it.
When Jack finally shows an interest in him, the freckles along his shoulders are the first thing Brock dares to kiss with his whole entire heart. The concept of falling for someone with such force is still a foreign one and so it’s the easiest place to start, Jack turned away from him as he sits and Brock takes his chance to indulge. Of course later Jack leads the rest of it his own way and eases Brock’s apprehension about starting something together.
The moment they start to share a bed together on a regular basis, Brock begins to notice the way Jack’s freckles stand out stark against his crisp white sheets. Always some shade of faded mottled brown, there are a smatter of bigger ones with a darker hue and a few moving a bit more to a golden color.
He always waits until Jack is in a deep sleep, breathing going a little heavy, his face half buried into the pillows as he slumbers away the heavy exhaustion of another night they spend together and the day prior. He stares under faded lamplight at the arrangement that is vibrant tonight against bare shoulders and his fingers twitch to trace every one of them until they are all connected. Instead he presses small kisses there, his hand stroking down Jack’s spine in sheer fondness to his entire being. It’s the only time he allows himself to be so gentle with him, aware that if did it while he was awake there would be playful quips and wily smiles about it. He also knows Jack doesn’t mind, actually likes it, but it’s more for his comfort. He’s still not used to having a perspective where he wanted to handle someone with tenderness despite the fact that Rollins can kill with his bare hands and not break a sweat.
The blanket falls away from off the curve of Jack’s ass and he’s careful not to awaken his lover from his sleep while he looks for anymore places his freckles could be hiding, eyes returning back to his upper back and cataloging the constellation scattered against the small expanse of skin. Fingers and lips roam over them while trying not to fruitlessly count every time he sees them but he can’t help himself, lips moving in silence as Jack occasionally twitches at his ghosting touch.
He continues to graze his fingertips over skin, old battle scars marred into it, fresh bruises licking along ribs. The contact is something Brock can’t get enough of, perhaps something he needs that he’s starved of that meets what he craves but only when around Jack, but again it’s not entirely all of him as he holds back and hesitates over how consumed he is by it.
Jack moves again, this time onto his back, and Brock freezes as one eye slowly opens squinting at the light invading his vision. He blinks a few times, lips pursed as he assesses the situation and rests his gaze on Brock laid out next to him.
“I ain’t a work of art, Brock.”
His voice is thick and laden with sleep, watching for a reaction and Brock is stoic a moment as he stares back, a smirk almost immediately breaking up their little game.
“Nah, maybe not.” His fingers reaching out, brushing into the hairs at the nape of Jack’s neck as much as he could. “But yer somethin’ special.”
Jack chuckles into the pillow, rolling onto his side to face his back to him again, “Think I like you better when you think I’m asleep and you try to count my freckles.”
Brock doesn’t say anything about that, watching his lean body stretch across the sheets and settle back in for sleep, he stares until a hand faces upwards in invitation and he rests his own against it, shifting to press his body close and focus on the stars dotting along above Rollins’ shoulder blades in no real pattern.
Settling against the pillow again, Jack laces their fingers together, “Go on, count them.”
Not sure he wants to with Jack knowing his silly little obsession, he chooses to keep quiet and Jack only tugs him closer. “Come on.”
“Why?”
“I sleep better when you do.”
Brock leans in, nuzzling prominent freckles because he can’t really help himself, “When did you figure it out?”
There’s a huff of a laugh, Jack tilting his head back, “You’re a highly skilled operative sure, but your eyes betray you when you start focusing on my body. The freckles are usually so hidden away that you wouldn’t know unless you looked for them and I guess you found ‘em.”
He doesn’t have a response to that either, instead slipping his hand away and out of Jack's grip, leaning in close so lips ghost over his skin to count lightly under his breath. He knows they’ll fade off and away soon but for now he can count the stars closer than he expected against the man who brought them to him in the first place.