Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jack was both brave and stupid, he knew that, but he trusted Torbjorn after all. The dwarf has been one of his best friends for years since the end of the omnic crisis, although you don’t hide your life status from them, even less when you are alive and not dead as they may think. But this is Torbjorn, he surely would understand why he hid his status.

“Alright, I’ll listen to your request, what will it be this time? your rifle? the visor? you know I’m not good with that specific kind of technology, but I’ll-” Jack rolled his eyes behind his visor, Torbjorn could be seen as an angry and grumpy dwarf that didn’t enjoy conversations, but you only need to start talking about repairing or forging, and the little swedish man would become a talking machine. So before that would happen, Jack decide to interrupt him.

“Actually, I want to request something different, it’s something eh... special.” He paused to unzip his jacket, Torbjorn eyed him curiously, with determination he yanked the dog tags from his neck and held them them in front of the dwarf, the faint tingle of the metal filling the silence that formed. Torbjorn was wary, not two but four tags were hanging from Jack’s grip on the chain. “It’s a forge request, I want you to melt them” Torbjorn came closer and picked them, tracing his thumb over the letters, “why would-?” Jack opened his left hand to reveal a pocket watch in poor condition.

“Use them to make a new case for the watch and if possible, fix it too.” Torbjorn was about to retrieve the watch from his hand, but the grip tightened “Jack…” Torbjorn’s tone was wary, Jack hesitated for a few seconds and let out a hollow sigh, loosening his grip so the dwarf could get the watch. Torbjorn inspected them for a moment, “this is from…”

“Yes, he gave it to me before dying at the Head Quarters, that’s why I want it fixed,”

Torbjorn looked at him, worry in his eyes, Jack thanked his visor for hiding the tears that escaped from his eyes. With a rough grunt Torbjorn he set off to his workplace, Jack appreciated the absence of any more questions and before exiting the home forge, a yell from Torbjorn informed him that the watch would be ready by tomorrow evening. Jack grunted back, merely to acknowledge the information himself, he decided to go with Mrs. Lindholm, maybe she would have some work for him to do meanwhile.

It have been years since Jack had to take care or entertain kids, he briefly remembered when Gabe and him were tasked to take care of little Fareeha. To be honest, it was good being surrounded with kids again, he might have grown a bit grumpy, only might, but he could let some walls fall for this little moment and rest his mind a bit. Torb’s kids were a really good distraction, he felt felt young again even if for a few minutes, that way the day passed in the blink of an eye. Torbjorn called him back to pick the watch, Jack was suddenly unsure, it brought back so many memories, all of them unpleasant. Why bother to carry it? it only reminded him of the day he wasn’t strong enough, the day he failed Gabe. Torbjorn snapped his fingers to bring him back to reality. Torbjorn placed the watch on his gloveless hand, the cold metal made him shiver for a moment. If Torbjorn noticed the trembling of his lower lip, he didn’t say a thing and Jack appreciated it.

Jack allowed a single tear drop from his eye, after opening the watch’s case and brushing his thumb faintly over the names engraved in the inner side. Memories of that day flooded him, and with a hollow breath he found himself kneeled over Gabe’s dying body. “Keep it safe ok? Sé que puedo confiar en tí mi Sol.”

“I repaired it the best I could, It was an interesting challenge but I’d say I made a beautiful work.” Torbjorn’s words brought him back to the present, the proud smirk on the dwarf’s face made him smile faintly, avoiding the cry that threatened to escape from his mouth.

“Thank you Torbjorn, truly.” The dwarf curled his thick fingers around Jack’s hand, closing the watch’s case and both fell in silence, the muffled ticking of the watch filling it. “You know how to change the hour and how to take care of it?” Jack nodded, refusing to avert his gaze from the watch’s case under their fingers. Torbjorn sighed tiredly, “I’d ask you to stay for dinner, you know my wife loves to make food for everyone and even more, but I know you and you are ready to depart again, right?” Jack showed a faint smile, although weak it wasn’t feigned, something of which he felt proud. Lately his feelings have been even messier than in the past years, and he was glad that Torbjorn didn’t dive more on the subject.

“I’ll let you be Jack, go and end this affair of yours, just…” Torbjorn narrowed his eyes and looked with sorrow at the watch. “Just be careful please, I only had Rein and knowing that you are alive… I don’t want to let you go to be honest.” Jack Allowed himself a quick hug and true smile, with that he left Torbjorn’s house. A humble old lady let him travel in her truck till the next city. There he took a moment to look at the watch, it was from gabe’s father but after dying his mother mailed it, apparently his father wanted him to have it. He was surprised that Gabe didn’t break it since he hated him, not a day passed without Gabe polishing his father’s watch, even when said watch stopped working.

Now looking at it newly repaired after being completely wrecked during HQ’s explosion, it was amazing what Torbjorn could do, the case was decorated with a perfectly engraved sun and moon, it brought back memories of how Gabe would call him.

“Mi Sol,” the last day he heard it was after the explosion, Gabe gave him the watch so he would watch him from now on. Jack was speechless, trying to assimilate the cruel fact that Gabe died, and after a few minutes of silence he took his beanie and dog tags too. Speaking of beanies, he opened the pocket on his right leg and extracted said woolly hat. Even after all the years it looked the same, it suffered certain accidents every now and then, but Jack learnt the very art of knitting only to repair his most treasured belonging of his lover.

With now beanie on his head, he proceed to open the watch, the ticking of the hands and cogs filling the silence. But to his surprise a note was inside, he opened and read the note decorated with Torbjorn’s writing. ‘Touch the middle where the hands are together, I kept that photograph and I remembered that you both loved that song, hope you like the surprise’.

Curiosity and the warm feeling of Gabe’s beanie on his head drove him to touch said part of the watch, the hands, numbers and the cogs decorating it were buried by the hologram of a photograph. The one taken when he and Gabe married after a mission nearly took both his lives, Jack’s heart crumbled upon the view of Gabe and him smiling to the camera with tears falling from their eyes, their hands folded and the rings shining. Jack was ready to close the watch, when the soft sound of a song started to make his heart finally break in pieces. He instantly recognized the song, Dearly Beloved started to play and his mind jumped back to the easy days, when he and Gabe decided to play all Kingdom Hearts games.

It wasn’t an easy task, finding the different platforms where the different titles were released took a lot of time and money, soon Dearly Beloved became their song and as the total nerds they were, they used it for everything. Now Jack found himself in the back of a van, the starry sky of Sweden as his only light, the moon hid tonight, but in its absence a beautiful aurora showered the land with its light.

Jack didn’t know when he fell asleep, but he dreamt of a simple time, beanie’s warmth and the soft music touch.

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He had failed, grunting and panting he leaned back on the tree next to one of the graves of the graveyard. Ambushed by Talon’s operatives while visiting Gabe’s tomb during Valentine’s day, he felt ashamed, he may have killed them but the hole on his chest made him see blurry. But actually he was more than ready to die, why make the wait any longer? he could just die and go back with Gabriel.

“Gabriel… you always called me your sun, but you always were my light. I won’t come empty handed though, I hope you like this gift and you may forgive me.” With the last bit of his strength he crawled to rest next to Gabriel’s grave, he took the watch out and pressing the middle, the soft music replaced the silence.

“Te amo Gabriel, tu siempre has sido mi Sol.” Jack’s eyes shut, his breath stopped, the faint breeze caressing his silver hair. That night, the Moon died while his shadow watched him, unable to avoid it.