Chapter Text
Hawkeye Pierce was born with four names on his wrist. Some people had three soulmarks, some two, some had one, a few unlucky people who had no soulmate had no names on their wrist. Hawkeye had never met anyone else who had four marks besides himself though. He didn’t care, he was proud to have four soulmates. He had one red mark, two blue marks, and one in yellow. When it came to the names of your soulmates inked into your skin it was always first names only, red for a romantic soulmate, yellow for family, and blue for a friend.
Like most people Hawkeye wore a cloth cuff over his dominant wrist to cover the names on his wrist. He didn’t mind the yellow name Daniel, his father had the matching Benjamin on his own. He didn’t really need to hide the blue Margaret or the blue BJ either, but the name John in red at the very base of his hand was worth hiding. He didn’t regret it, nor did he care that his romantic soulmate was a man, but not many people were approving of same sex relationships, even though some soulmates just landed that way.
His father was the only one of his soulmates he had met before the war. When he came to Korea the last thing he expected was to come into camp and be introduced to a head nurse by the name of Margaret Houlihan. He had never felt a soulmate bond snap into place before but he knew it when he felt it. He could hardly believe that his Margaret was this woman though. She was regular army and she was… well she was a lot to deal with. She was in love with Frank Burns for god’s sake. Still, she was his soulmate.
“Margaret, why do you bother with Burns?” he asked her late one night when they were talking quietly in the mess tent. They were alone. They didn’t tell anyone they were soulmates, it would ruin both their reputations but sometimes when there was no one else around they found themselves talking.
“Because it’s the most I can ask for,” she told him.
“Don’t say that! You are an incredible person, army attitude aside any guy would be lucky to have you. You can do better than an affair with a married twerp like Frank,” Hawkeye protested.
“I appreciate that, Hawkeye, but well,” she pulled the cuff she wore on her right wrist aside to show him the singular name Benjamin in Blue there. No other names, no red name, no romantic soulmate for Margaret Houlihan.
“Frank is markless, so is his wife,” she murmured, “that and money are the only real reasons they got married. Love didn’t factor into it. Frank may be a bit of an ass sometimes but he is as in love with me as anyone will ever be. Anyway someday he’ll go home and I will stay in the army, the only husband I’ll ever have.”
“Look what you and needle nose get up to is your own business. You make your own choices. But, Margaret,” Hawkeye’s voice got low and serious and he took her hands in his, “I need you to know that you are loved. I love you. I know it’s not romantic, and it might not be exactly what you want, but it is real and strong and will never ever change. I am here for you, forever, no matter what. And if someday you decide you want to get married, because of the social, financial, or stability aspects of it, I’d be happy to oblige.”
“But you have a romantic soulmate out there don’t you?” she asked in an emotional sniff.
“Yeah, well, no one is gonna let me marry him,” Hawkeye said with a shrug, pulling his cuff aside for her to see John’s name on his arm.
“Oh I’m sorry,” Margaret murmured, “I didn’t know. What are you going to do?”
“I haven’t met him yet, but I figure we’ll probably be able to work something out. I guess it depends on his attitude. A lot of people, even ones with same sex romantic marks, believe that it is a mistake or is wrong in some way. If he thinks like that I am in for a long lonely haul. Personally I’m not fussed about it, don’t see the difference between loving a man and a woman, but I’m not in the majority,” Hawkeye told her.
“Well I think it’s absurd to pretend that any soulmark is a mistake. It doesn’t matter that you’re both men. You’re soulmates, that is special, important,” she said. He grinned at her.
“We’re soulmate too, Margaret, we’re soulmates too.” He hugged her briefly and then let go.
“Gotta go to post op, see you around Hotlips,” he said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes at him.
“Good Night, Captain Pierce,” she said, “And thank you.”
They slipped easily into pretending they were less to each other than they were. It was their norm.
Trapper John McIntyre was transferred to the 4077 from another mash not long after that. Hawkeye didn’t even have to be introduced to him. It was like a damn movie, seeing him across the camp with his curly blond hair, wide smile and perfect face. Hawkeye would have fallen for him without the soulmark. Still it helped. They shook hands, introduced themselves to each other, then laughed and hugged. They played it low key until later that evening. Hawkeye pulled Trapper, hr had already asked to be called Trapper, out for a walk and some privacy.
“So,” he said pointedly.
“So?” Trapper answered. “Are you going to ask or do I have to?”
“Are you okay with us? With our bond being romantic?” Hawkeye asked. Trapper nodded.
“Yeah, I wasn’t when I was younger. thought it was a mistake or something, like my marks got flipped. I’ve just got you and Louise, and her’s is blue. We met when we were kids, she’s my best friend and she only has the one mark so we decided we might as well get hitched. I love her and our family, I love the girls. I don’t regret marrying her, or deciding to have kids because we wanted them. Still somewhere along the line I realized I'll never love her like that, and that I notice as many handsome men as pretty women, and I figured Benjamin, you, and I… it was something I wanted.” Trapper explained.
“Thank god for that,” Hawkeye said with a grin. “I’ve got four marks, one’s my dad and the other two are platonic. I’ve been queer as a three dollar bill all my life but I was worried you might reject me.” He admitted it with a slight grimace.
“Nah, we’re good,” Trapper said with a grin. Hawkeye hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.
“I’m good. You are perfect,” he said enthusiastically. Trapper laughed.
“I will admit that I don’t really know what to do here,” Trapper said, “I mean like where we go from here. What we do now.” He was adorably awkward.
“Don’t worry about it,” Hawkeye reassured, “I’m not gonna push anything too fast, just relax and be yourself and we’ll work it all out,” he promised.