blackfic

Signals Into Space

2010-01-03T17:06:37Z

Title: Signals Into Space
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Alice, Steven
Word Count: 5000
Rating: PG
Summary: Ianto doesn't have plans for Christmas. Jack helps.
Notes: Written lovingly for misswinterhill for twsecretsanta. And it was long enough to where I didn't feel like crying! ;)
Beta(s): Super sexy sentence structure nazi, allfireburns
Spoilers: Characters from COE, but no other relation to it.
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money. It's just good fun.

Ianto walked into the Hub just after noon on Christmas. He walked to his workstation and began making the coffee for just himself and Jack, with Gwen off in Swansea with Rhys, having Christmas with her parents.

Christmas in Cardiff was quiet. All year long they were on edge, waiting for the next disaster, but Christmas was calm. Jack said it has something to do with the alien energy in London on Christmas. It hadn't been quiet there in years, each one bringing some alien-related disaster with it. There was something about that day and those energies that converged on London, so strong, in fact, that it did something to the energy from the rift, like it sucked the rift dry for Christmas and a day or two after.

"What are you doing here?"

Ianto spun around. "I work here."

"Other than that." Jack slid his hands around the back of Ianto's neck and pulled him in for a kiss, slow but heated. Now Ianto felt fully awake and completely focused. This worked way better than coffee.

"Mmm, what was that for?" Ianto asked, nuzzling against Jack's cheek.

"Christmas gift."

"I see." Ianto pressed his mouth to Jack's, resuming the kiss like it had never stopped.

"Now don't be greedy, Ianto," Jack mumbled.

"I can share." Ianto nipped at Jack's lower lip.

Jack grinned. "Yeah, I know." He draped his arms lazily over Ianto's shoulders. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I'm just here. What did you think I was going to do with my day off?" Ianto asked with raised eyebrows. Then again, it wasn't as if they had discussed it. In fact, he and Jack rarely discussed anything that involved plans for the future - even the very near future.

"I don't know. I thought you'd be doing something," Jack said. "Gwen is, I am... I didn't realize you didn't have plans."

"Plans?" Ianto repeated. Where would Jack go on Christmas? Gwen wasn't here, and it wasn't as if Jack had anyone else. Or, at least, no one else that Ianto knew of. His mind raced through the possibilities, but they were all a bit depressing.

"Yeah, don't you have any?" Jack asked. "With you sister?"

"They're on holiday with her husband's family," Ianto replied. He didn't mention that 'holiday' was going to Pontypool to visit Johnny's brother. "I sent their packages two weeks ago. They have a big New Year's party. I was thinking of going. It was fun last time."

The New Year's party was an outdoor affair with the entire estate. They drank in the cold and set of fireworks while the kids ran around together in a pack, shouting almost as loud as the adults.

The last time Ianto went was with Lisa. He had been nervous. He felt like he was outing himself to her, showing her where he came from and what kind of people he was related to, and therefore also was. It was everything he was ashamed of being ashamed of.

Lisa had loved them, not batting an eye at the shitty estate or the cheap beer. On the way home, she had smacked Ianto upside the head and told him he had nothing to be embarrassed of and to stop being such a snob.

Obviously, he hadn't listened.

"Oh," Jack said, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets.

"I didn't mean that I thought I'd be spending it with you," Ianto blurted. He swallowed, recomposing himself quickly before Jack could speak again. "It's Torchwood. Even if isn't rift activity, who knows what could happen. Weevils." He pictured weevils wrapped in garland and fairy lights and had to hold down a laugh. "Someone needs to be here. There's always work to be done."

"You're going to work in the archives on Christmas?" Jack asked.

"Or clean."

"Ianto?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to come with me?"

Ianto lifted his chin. "Where are you going?"

Jack hesitated, considering his words carefully. He didn't quite meet Ianto's eyes as he replied, "My, uh, my daughter invited me over for dinner."

Ianto tried not to let his jaw drop, lest Jack see. He had read all of Jack's files and nothing, nothing was ever mentioned about a daughter. Though, Ianto reasoned, it made sense. Jack had been around for a long time. Of course he had left a trail. No one was perfect.

"Your daughter."

Jack nodded. "Alice. And her son, Steven."

"Her son."

"Yes."

"I had no idea," Ianto said.

Jack shrugged. "Do you want to come?"

"Yes." Ianto didn't think about it. The idea of spending Christmas alone for the second year in a row was devastating, especially when so much had changed since then. Truth was, he had sort of been depending on Jack not having plans. Jack hadn't said anything about Christmas plans every time Gwen brought it up. Ianto had imagined ordering Chinese and shagging on the sofa in his flat.

Jack smiled. "Were you waiting for me to ask?"

"Only once I realized I was an idiot who didn't have plans for Christmas," Ianto replied. "I don't mind the pity date."

"It's not," Jack said, reaching around Ianto and squeezing his shoulder. "I would have asked earlier if I'd known you didn't have anywhere to go."

Ianto frowned. "We're rubbish at this, aren't we?"

Jack didn't say anything, but he smiled at Ianto, giving him another squeeze before pulling away. "I was thinking of leaving around four."

"Well, it's twelve-thirty now. What should we do in the meantime?" Ianto asked, eyebrows raised in mock curiosity.

Jack grinned.

* * *

"Is it just the two of them?" Ianto asked, helping Jack pile gifts into the boot. It looked like enough presents for four children and their mother.

"He's the only one I have at that age," Jack said. "I can't help but spoil him a little. When they're young, it's what Christmas is all about."

"How many, uh, children, grandchildren, do you have?" Ianto asked, looking to Jack, then away, to close the lid of the boot.

Jack didn't answer. He turned away and slid into the driver's seat of the car.

Ianto did everything but drop his head down onto the car and bash his head against it. He pulled his coat around him and got into passenger's seat.

They had been on the road for a while, riding in awkward silence, when Jack finally spoke.

"Six children. Four are still alive. Ten grandchildren. Steven's the youngest of them. Two great-grandchildren. Neither of them know of my existence except in old pictures. As a war hero. That I died in the war." He sounded like Jack, but the regret in his voice was painful. More painful than other times and other subjects.

"I'm sorry," Ianto mumbled. He supposed it could be a comfort to Jack to be with him, or men in general, that they couldn't have children together. No accidents, no mistakes.

Jack reached over the gearshift to pat Ianto's leg. His hand remained there until he had to shift.

"I was surprised when Alice invited me," Jack said softly. "Or maybe she didn't think I'd accept. But... it's her first Christmas since the divorce."

Ianto watched Jack's face as he spoke. Jack's openness might have made him uncomfortable in the past, but now Ianto only wanted to hold him. He wanted to, as impossible as it sounded, make everything wrong in Jack's life go away. At the very least, let Jack forget them in nothing more than in an embrace.

He had to resist the urge to reach out and touch Jack at the hairline, letting his fingers stroke behind Jack's ear and kissing him at the temple. The idea of such intimacies bothered Ianto less and less as time wore on. As on edge as he was when Jack avoided questions, he felt at ease when Jack answered them, no matter how difficult the response.

He had no idea how Jack felt about it, but he suspected Jack might appreciate the comfort.

Relaxing back against the seat, Ianto turned his head to watch Jack in the silence. Occasionally, Jack looked over at him and they shared a smile.

After the fourth time, Jack asked, "What?"

"You're nice to look at, Jack. You know that as well as anyone," Ianto replied.

Jack shrugged and chuckled. "It's a curse."

"That's why I try to keep you away from mirrors. We'd never get anything done."

"I'm not that bad."

Ianto raised his eyebrows in a very loud silent disbelief that made Jack laugh.

It was quite annoying how he was in love with Jack and couldn't quite bring up saying it. He didn't need a response or validation, but just to put it out there, like signals into space.

"We're here," Jack said, the car suddenly crawling up the road as he sought out spot on the street to park. "That house there, with the stained glass."

"It's lovely," Ianto said as they passed it.

"It should be," Jack replied, the silent I paid for it hanging in the air, but it wasn't in resentment, but more as a statement of fact.

They found an open spot a few yards from the house, and as Ianto helped Jack unpack the gifts from the boot, he wondered if Jack had called Alice, to let her know he was bringing a guest.

"It is all right if I'm here, yeah?" Ianto asked, two boxes stacked on top of each other in one hand and the other held a bottle of wine with green and gold ribbons tied around the neck.

Jack plopped another box onto Ianto's pile. "It's a family Christmas," he said, as though that explained everything, but all it did was make Ianto more confused.

They walked together slowly up the pavement, trying to keep their balances as they carried all of the gifts in one trip. Ianto had no idea what was in any of the packages he was carrying and feared all of them might be incredibly fragile and ready to smash at the slightest ill-timed tumble.

Jack shuffled the boxes around in his hands, but settled on giving the door a couple of kicks.

"Classy," Ianto said.

"Gets the job done."

The door opened and Ianto had his first look at Alice. She was beautiful, which was to be expected, being Jack's daughter. She looked quite a bit like him, even. She dressed well, too, Ianto noted. These things were important.

She didn't see Ianto at first, her eyes drawn to the stacks of gifts. "Oh, god, did you bring enough?" she asked, sounding annoyed, but a bit like she was trying to sound more put out than she was.

"No, but I couldn't fit anymore in the boot," Jack replied. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Alice said, a smile breaking through as she took some of the packages from him. "Come on in. And who's this?"

"Ianto Jones. We work together," Jack said. With one hand free of boxes, he placed a hand on Ianto's shoulder, just close enough to the back of his neck to give Alice the realization that Ianto was not simply an employee.

"Nice to meet you," she said, extending a hand, but saw that Ianto's hands were full. "I'll take that, and you put the gifts under the tree." She took the wine from Ianto and motioned toward a comfortable looking living room with a white plastic tree in front of the window.

"She warms," Jack mumbled to Ianto as they stacked the gifts beneath the tree. It sounded like he was going to say something else, but they were interrupted.

"Uncle Jack!" A young blond boy jumped on Jack's back. Jack grinned, his face lighting up brighter than the tree.

"Hey, soldier!" Jack twisted himself around to give the boy - Steven, Ianto reminded himself - a hug. "How was Christmas?"

"Brilliant! I got a load of sweets and Mum got me real walkie-talkies, and Dad sent me a game for my Playstation." Steven paused, then added, "And I got a bunch of clothes."

Jack grinned. "You can open up these after dinner, how does that sound?"

Steve nodded, enthused. He looked at Ianto, then back to Jack. "Who's this?"

"This is my friend Ianto. Ianto, this is Steven."

"Hello," Ianto said. He wasn't really used to kids. He was occasionally around his sister's children, but they were easily subdued with a tenner each. He wasn't typically required to make conversation.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Steven asked.

"Is that all right?"

Steven studied him for a moment. "Yeah, it's good. Do you have children?"

Ianto shook his head. "No. I do have a niece and a nephew. You're about right between their ages." He thought about how David would obliterate Steven in a second, probably without even meaning to.

Over Steven's head, Jack gave Ianto a wink. He must be doing something right.

* * *

"It only shows your lack of respect. You should have called ahead and told me. You're always so full of surprises, but they only serve your own purposes."

Ianto had his back pressed to the wall separating the dining room and kitchen, listening to Jack and Alice pointedly not-argue. It reminded him a bit of his Dad and his Aunt Millie.

"Does it bother you that much?" Jack asked.

"Your inconsideration, that's what bothers me," Alice replied.

"I think you're just trying to find something to argue with me about. You don't care that I brought my boyfriend, it's just not a visit without a fight."

There was silence from Alice for a long moment. "He's quite young."

Jack chuckled softly. "Yeah, but he's good for me."

Ianto missed Alice's reply, because Steven walked into the dining room. Ianto placed a finger to his lips, then mouthed, Fighting as he nodded toward the kitchen.

Steven rolled his eyes in such a way that gave Ianto the impression Jack wasn't exaggerating much when he said there couldn't be a visit without a fight. He stood next to Ianto, back against the wall, and they both listened in.

"I think it's obvious how much respect I have for you, for him, all of you," Jack said. "Remember when you were a teenager and you said that I wasn't real?"

"I said you were an illusion," Alice corrected. "When you live forever, nothing's real. You're not even human."

"This one's real," Jack said in a low voice. "I wouldn't have wanted to introduce you to each other otherwise."

There was silence, then Alice said, "We should open that wine."

It was exactly how Jack changed the subject when he was done with the conversation, with a mundane task.

"I think it's safe for us to go in," Ianto said to Steven in barely in a whisper, so Jack and Alice wouldn't know they were listening in.

"Uncle Jack can live forever?" Steven asked in a similar whisper, his eyes on Ianto.

Ianto froze. "I think it's some kind of saying."

To his relief, Steven accepted that. Ianto had the sense to know it was a secret and it was most definitely not his place to tell.

The dinner was casual, but not relaxed. At every lull in the conversation, Jack set his hand on Ianto's leg, just above the knee. Ianto helped himself to three glasses of wine and that made it easier to laugh when he was self-conscious.

"Everything's delicious," Ianto said to Alice. He placed a hand to his stomach. "I think I ate too much."

"I hope not," Alice replied. "There's still dessert. Steven and I made cookies yesterday."

"I decorated them," Steven said, grinning.

After dinner they took the cookies and the wine into the living room. Alice sat in an arm chair while Jack and Ianto sat together on the sofa. Jack kept his arm around Ianto, as if they always sat that way when they never did. Between sips of his wine, Ianto titled his head so his head dropped onto Jack's shoulder and they watched while Steven opened the gifts Jack had brought. Steven held each gift up like a prize and thanked Jack excitedly after each one without being prompted.

"This one's for you, Mum," Steven said, handing a small box up to Alice.

"Thank you," she said to him, then looked at Jack suspiciously as she tugged at the ribbon. She opened the box and looked inside. Ianto couldn't see what it was, but she smiled at Jack. "Thank you. Really."

"You're welcome," Jack said. He shifted, reached into his pocket, and retrieved a box. He set it on Ianto's lap. "I got something for you, too."

"Oh." Ianto gazed down at the box as he leaned forward to set his glass down on the coffee table. "I left your gift at my flat." He thought about the box of expensive French caramels Jack liked so much, though rarely had (he had to order them, and Jack was horrible at ordering things). It was pointless, Ianto figured, to buy Jack some kind of keepsake.

"I'll get it later," Jack said. He nudged the box and it slid into the dip where Ianto's legs met. "Open it."

Ianto picked at the tape and when he realized his short nails were going to do nothing for it, he ripped the paper. He opened the box and a bracelet fell into his hand. It was heavy with chunky red and silver beads.

Ianto gazed at it for a moment, thinking how someone would have to know him so well to buy him something like this. To know, underneath the suits and every wall he put up, that this precisely the sort of thing he loved. He had no idea he had been giving that much of himself to Jack for him to know.

"Thanks," Ianto said, leaning over to kiss Jack briefly, not caring who was watching. He fumbled to put it on, but the awkwardness of doing it one-handed while incredibly tipsy proved to be too much, and in the end Jack put it on for him, even if it looked strange with the suit.

Ianto picked his up his wine glass again and relaxed in Jack's embrace, descending into a full-on cuddle as they watched Steven open his last gift. Ianto leaned away when Steven threw himself at Jack.

"Thanks, Uncle Jack! The presents are great. You're the best. Will you help me with the model airplanes?"

"Yeah! Of course!" Jack grinned, giving Steven a hug.

Ianto suspected Jack bought the model airplanes in the hopes that Steven would ask him that very question. In so many ways, Jack was like a big kid. Maybe it was some sort of counteraction to all the death and loss.

"Upstairs," Alice said. "I'm not having those little pieces all over the floor in here. Everything, in your room. Or it'll be in here for weeks."

"I'll give you a hand," Jack said. He helped Steven gather up the boxes and they ran upstairs together.

Ianto smiled to himself as he started picking up wrapping paper and ribbons off the floor.

"Oh, don't," Alice said. "You're a guest."

"Doesn't bother me," Ianto said. "It's what I do. I'm used to cleaning up."

She looked at him skeptically. "You don't look like a janitor."

"A bit more like a butler," Ianto replied, sensing a barrage of questions. "Jack doesn't have much in the way of organizational skills, so I take care of a the paperwork end of things, as well."

"How old are you? Twenty-five?"

"Twenty-six."

"Did he tell you who I am?"

Ianto nodded.

"So you know he doesn't age? Or die?" Alice asked. She brushed her thumb over her knee, like she was pushing away lint or cookie crumbs, but there was nothing there except well made cotton blend.

"Yeah, I know," Ianto said, thinking it was a good thing, too. If he didn't, that would have been a very shocking revelation.

She was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, I've... the only person I ever had to talk to about this with was my mother, and she never wanted to talk about it. So I never wanted to talk about it either."

"If it makes you feel better, Jack doesn't like to talk about it. It doesn't bother me as much as it bothers him, I think." Ianto could feel the honesty of drinking coming out in him. Besides, someone needed to be honest with Alice. It didn't seem anyone else had. "We aren't the ones who have to watch him die." Except Ianto did watch Jack die, over and over again. He hated it. Even when he knew Jack would wake up, he also knew it was painful and it took Jack somewhere he didn't want to go. All Ianto could do was be there for him, and it never felt like enough.

"I suppose," Alice said. "It's hard to grow old as he stays the same."

Ianto nodded, fiddling with his bracelet. He wouldn't have that problem. Torchwood. He'd be lucky if he made it to thirty.

She stood up suddenly. "We should open another bottle of wine."

"Good idea," Ianto replied, smiling. Exactly how Jack would have changed the subject.

* * *

"Maybe I shouldn't have left the two of you alone," Jack said, walking into the kitchen. Ianto and Alice were sitting across from each other at the table, both of them laughing as Ianto refilled both of their glasses. He looked up, grinning at Jack.

"Hey, welcome back."

"Where's Steven?" Alice asked, setting her glass down on the table.

"Asleep. Too much sugar and excitement. He fell asleep right on the floor. I tucked him in bed." Jack sat down next to Ianto and stretched his arm across the back of Ianto's chair. Ianto dropped his hand on Jack's thigh and winked at him.

"How much wine have you have?" Jack asked, chuckling.

"A lot," Ianto replied happily. "We opened another bottle."

Jack smiled and looked to Alice. "I count on you to be the responsible one. In fact, I count on him to be the responsible one, too."

Alice made a face, an everyone's got to be responsible but you face.

Jack looked away. "It's getting late," he said to the wall. "And we still have to drive back to Cardiff."

"It's not that far of a drive," Ianto said, bringing the glass to his lips. He took a sip and offered the glass to Jack. Jack shook his head.

"Someone needs to be able to drive us home."

Ianto laughed. "Not like you'd let me drive your car, even if I were sober."

"You don't have to go," Alice said, motioning at the two of them with her glass. "Ianto was just telling me stories about his family."

"Oh?" Jack turned to Ianto, looking rather expectant, like Ianto should keep telling these stories now that he was there.

"And Alice was telling me about her mother," Ianto replied, shooting Jack an equally pointed expression. Two could play that game and he wasn't drunk enough to pass up the opportunity to say so.

"Oh." Jack's tone completely deflated, and that made Ianto all the more curious. Alice had conveniently left Jack out of most of her stories and definitely never mentioned him in the context of Lucia. Ianto didn't ask. They were her stories and she could tell them however she wanted, removing any details she wished. The last thing Ianto wanted to do was act like all he wanted was information on his boyfriend, even if he sort of did. He never got any from Jack.

So he asked normal questions. Her name, what she looked like, and Alice went into beautiful detail (a side effect of the wine, Ianto guessed), talking about Lucia's hair in sunlight and the sound of her laugh, and how she smelled when Alice crawled into bed with her after a nightmare. She made Ianto increasingly sad that he never had the chance to meet the woman, and a little jealous because he'd never really had a mother.

But then again, Alice never really had a father.

Continuing his internal self-pity, Ianto wondered, if Alice didn't exist, would Jack ever give Lucia a passing thought? Maybe the comfort in having a relationship that couldn't result in children was in that you wouldn't have to give them another thought. There was no lasting proof that they existed and no reason to remember them. As long as Jack had children, grandchildren, and so on, there would always be something left of those lovers. A trace of them, and himself, Jack could follow, but for someone like Ianto, there would be nothing remaining and Jack could simply go on without another thought of him.

Ugh. Ianto took a long drink of his wine, trying to wash out the morose thoughts. His glass wasn't even completely empty and he was reaching for the bottle.

"Your turn to tell a story," Ianto said, looking to Jack as he set the bottle down on the table. "Were you there when Alice was born?"

Jack smiled, his gaze falling on Alice. She smiled a bit, tracing her finger around the rim of her glass.

"Yup. Lucia was in labor for thirteen hours. She didn't want me there. It still wasn't common practice to have the father in the room during the delivery, so I sat in the waiting room. I paced, I walked around the hospital. I probably smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes." He paused and added, "Everyone smoked then. And when it was all over, the doctor came out and told me it was a girl."

"You totally cried," Ianto said.

Jack looked a little misty-eyed from telling the story. "I did."

"So did I," Alice said, "but being a newborn, I think that's expected."

Laughing, Jack took Ianto's glass and helped himself to a small sip. "I went to that window, like you see in the movies, and there she was. Not just another scrunchy, purple, wailing baby."

Ianto took his glass back. "Did you have that movie moment where she looked at you and the music swelled?"

"No, there was only crying. Alice had colic. She cried for three months."

"Were you even there for any of the three months?" Alice asked.

Jack shook his head. "Not a lot, no. A few days here and there, but... not really."

"That's what I thought."

He stared at her for a long moment, then looked away, shaking his head. He shifted his hand from the back of Ianto's chair to his shoulder. "You ready to go home, Ianto?"

Ianto didn't want to go, but he was still coherent enough to realize that Jack needed out, so he nodded. Slowly, the three of them got up from the table and started for the door.

With their coats on, Ianto and Jack stood with Alice by the staircase. There was a tension that drunken Ianto seemed to have forgotten about on the trip from the table to the door, and he now remained blissfully unaware. He gave Alice a hug and kissed her on the cheek.

"It was wonderful meeting you. Thank you for everything."

Alice smiled and held one of Ianto's hands between hers for a moment. "You're welcome. Come by anytime you'd like." She stepped back from Ianto and looked at Jack before shaking her head slowly and reaching up to hug him. He embraced her tightly and they held each other for a moment. Ianto didn't hear what Jack said, but Alice replied, "I love you too, Dad."

Ianto might have felt the stinging threat of tears. Damn the wine.

Once outside, Jack wrapped an arm around Ianto's waist.

"Oh, look at the stars," Ianto said, pointing the sky. "Beautiful."

Jack smiled. "Yeah."

Ianto snuggled his head onto Jack, though holding his head at an angle as he walked made his whole body feel wobbly. "Jack?"

"Hm?"

"Why don't you ever mention Lucia? I know it's hard for you talk about a lot of that stuff, but is it Alice and Steven? Is it... you talk about all the flings and aliens you've shagged like it's a big joke, but it's the ones you don't talk about I wonder..."

Jack didn't say anything until they reached the car. He unwound himself from Ianto, pushed him gently against the side of the car, and slid his hands inside Ianto's coat to hold him in place. "I don't talk about her out of respect for raising Alice and being everything I couldn't for her. And, really, there isn't anything to say. Lucia and I weren't in love. We didn't even like each other that much. I can blame her for why Alice acts like she does to me, but I let that happen. That's my fault."

Ianto nodded. "I love you, Jack."

There it was, the signal out into space. The cry into the void, letting someone know you're alive and you exist, hoping for a reply and knowing it may never come, or when it does, it will be too late for you.

Jack grinned and kissed Ianto, leaning into him, holding Ianto with his whole body, kissing him with fervor. Ianto didn't know if that was a response or a distraction, but it didn't really matter. It was exactly what Ianto wanted for Christmas.

"Back to yours?" Jack asked in a low voice, not quite pulling away.

Ianto nodded slowly this time, not letting his brain rattle around in his skull.

Jack helped Ianto into the car, even buckling his seat belt for him, despite Ianto's protests and batting him away. Jack sated him with a brief kiss before walking around to the driver's side and sliding in. He started the car and glanced over to Ianto.

"This New Year's party at your sister's? I'm invited too, right?"

Ianto considered the neighborhood, his past, and where he came from. He thought about Lisa telling him not to be such a snob, and he thought about Jack revealing more of himself today in letting him meet Alice and Steven than he had in the last two years. It was really only fair, Ianto reasoned, toying with the heavy beads on his bracelet. Then he realized he didn't need to reason. He wanted to share it with Jack. He trusted Jack with everything else.

"I wouldn't want to go without you."

The Past is Like the Weather (it will come and it will go)

2009-12-27T07:12:57Z

Title: The Past is Like the Weather (it will come and it will go)
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen, Mickey, OC's.
Word Count: 10,300
Rating: PG13
Summary: Jack and Ianto couldn't imagine a different life.
Notes: Happy birthday, kel_reiley!! I think we've had a hell of a time drunk with Doctor Who writers! (of both the professional and fanfic sort) I'd have never come back to this fic without your nagging. ♥
Beta(s): The ever patient lefaym who has beta'd two drafts of this story and kept me sane while I wrote it both times.
Spoilers: Some for S1 and S2.
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money. It's just good fun.

Ianto opened the door to the sounds of Glenn Miller and the smell of dinner cooking. Coming home to this made going to work worth it.

"Ianto?" Jack called from the kitchen.

Ianto followed the sound of his voice. "No, it's your other husband," he said, setting the shopping bag on the counter. He slid his arm around Jack's waist and pulled him in for a kiss. He loved Jack like this, in his jeans and soft blue button-up shirts with the top two buttons undone, humming along with the music and dancing with himself as he tasted the risotto with a wooden spoon.

"I'd have another one if you'd let me," Jack said.

"Maybe you could take on a third shift husband while I sleep," Ianto replied. He gave Jack a gentle slap on the rear. "Where's Tyler?"

"In his room. He's been there since I turned on the stereo. If it's not on his iPod, he doesn't want to have anything to do with it." Jack shook his head. "We shouldn't have bought him that thing. He's six years old. What does he need an iPod for?"

"At least we know what he's listening to."

"Spoiling him and disguising it as good parenting. I like it." Jack pulled away from Ianto and dug into the bag. "Tomatoes, thank you, eggs, honey, bread – ooh, expensive cheese. Grapes! Are we celebrating something?" He looked up, his expression suddenly alarmed. "Did I forget something?"

"No, you didn't forget anything. We aren't even celebrating. I saw them and I couldn't resist. We could open a bottle of wine. For after bedtime." Ianto winked.

Jack grinned. "Assuming he ever goes to bed. Supper's almost ready. I'll chop up these tomatoes, and you get Tyler."

Ianto went to step out of the room, but paused. He turned back to Jack and cupped his cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too, gorgeous." Jack flashed him that movie star smile, the one that charmed checkout girls and eight years ago, charmed Ianto.

He met Jack the summer he turned eighteen and that was it. It was never a question for Ianto. It didn't matter that Jack was twelve years older than him, Ianto knew that Jack was going to be the rest of his life.

That was why he said yes without thinking when Jack asked him to move to London at the end of the sticky, passionate summer. He said yes again three years later when Jack asked him to marry him.

Upstairs, Ianto changed out of his suit and into some more comfortable clothes. He walked across the hall and knocked on the open door. "Hey, kiddo."

Tyler was lying belly-flat on the floor, crayons spilled out in front of a piece of paper, with a green a crayon currently in hand. At the sound of Ianto's voice, he was up like a spring, his mop of golden-brown curls bouncing.

"You're home, you're home, you're home!"

Ianto squatted down and accepted the bear hug, lifting Tyler up off the floor for a moment. "I'm home," he said. He put Tyler down. "Supper's almost ready. You want to come help me set the table?"

"Plates or forks?" Tyler asked with a suspicious eye. He was always suspicious. Concerned he was getting the more difficult job, or that no one would pick him up from school, and he never quite seemed to buy that better tasting food was less healthy.

"If you do the forks, I'll do plates and the glasses," Ianto replied, placing a hand on Tyler's shoulder.

Tyler grinned. "It's a deal."

The first time Ianto hesitated at one of Jack's requests was when Jack started talking about children. He'd only been twenty-one, and thought it was far too early in his life for kids. However, Ianto had realized that even if he didn't want them then, he wanted to have children with Jack.

Once Ianto got a job with HSBC they started the adoption process, and two years later, Tyler became a part of their family. Looking back on it, Ianto could hardly understand why he had been so unsure. He couldn't imagine a life without his family.

After supper, Jack and Tyler cleared the table while Ianto fixed a pot of coffee.

"Is there ice cream?" Tyler asked.

Jack looked to Ianto. Ianto had to smile, because Jack at least knew he was a pushover when it came to things like ice cream.

"I think there might be some," Ianto said, smiling. "You want to eat it in front of the telly?"

Tyler's eyes opened wide. "Yes!"

"Go switch it on, then. We'll be in after you."

Tyler ran out of the room, causing Jack to call "Slow down!" after him. Jack turned to Ianto and brushed a hand against the back of his neck.

"You take in the ice cream. I'll wash up in here," Ianto said, already reaching for the dishes in the sink.

"You worked all day. I'll be the wife," Jack mumbled. He pulled down the back of Ianto's tee shirt and kissed the exposed skin.

Ianto closed his eyes for a moment. "Mmm, but you fixed supper. And you worked, too."

"Four hours at the antique shop hardly counts as working. It's more like a hobby."

Rolling his head back onto Jack's shoulder, Ianto said, "You do your part. I want to do mine. I like taking care of you."

"You're too good for me," Jack said.

"Don't I know it."

Jack chuckled. "I better get that ice cream before someone starts whining."

"It's not a wonder he's so demanding. He knows you're a sucker," Ianto said, reaching up into the cabinet for the bowls.

"One of us has to be the sucker. In this household, it happens to be me," Jack replied. He moved toward the freezer and pulled out a carton of chocolate ice cream.

Ianto shook his head, smiling. "You're lucky I love you."

Jack put a hand on Ianto's shoulder and squeezed it. "Yes, I am."

God, Jack was irresistible when he said stuff like that. It made Ianto fall in love with him all over again. Jack probably knew that, completely aware of how charming he can be. He played it up all the time.

Giving into it, Ianto turned to Jack and kissed him, long and slow. Jack's arm wrapped around Ianto's waist and pulled him closer.

Jack moaned appreciatively. "How is it, after all this time, you still make me feel this way?"

"Because I'm your hot, young stud," Ianto replied with a smirk.

Jack shook his head slowly. "No, that's not it at all."

"Arse," Ianto said, laughing as he pulled away from Jack and turned back to the sink.

"Da! Daddy! Are you coming?" Tyler called from the next room.

"In a minute, baby," Jack replied. In a lower voice he said to Ianto, "His whininess awaits."

Ianto smiled. "And it's your fault."

Jack spooned the ice cream into bowls. "Yeah, I'll survive. I was just like that when I was little, and look how great I turned out." He picked up the two bowls and went into the other room.

Still smiling, Ianto finished up the dishes, thinking about what Jack must have been like as a child. He had never met Jack's parents, but he got the impression they were sort of new-age. He imagined them in a big house like this one.

Moving to Castle Bromwich was Ianto's idea. Their house in London had been expensive and small. Here, they could live in a larger house with a real yard. He hated the commute into Birmingham, but the coming home made it worth it.

Ianto knew the larger house put ideas of more children in Jack's head. Jack wanted a houseful of children and envisioned himself someday the matriarch of a huge family. Maybe someday.

"Da! You're missing it!" Tyler shouted.

Ianto grinned. "I'm coming!" He reached for the ice cream, but then placed a hand to his stomach. Was he too young to be worrying about his waistline? Jack never said anything, and he certainly didn't worry about his own. Instead of ice cream, Ianto poured himself a mug of coffee and walked into the living room.

Jack looked over his shoulder when the floorboards creaked under Ianto's feet. He grinned and gave Ianto a wink before turning back to the television.

A long time ago, Ianto had dreams about being someone rich and important, doing something he was passionate about. Now he worked a job he didn't especially like for pretty good, but not great wages. It was all worth it, though, to sit on the couch with his son and the man he loved watching television and eating ice cream.

This, Ianto thought, sitting down on Tyler's other side, must be the definition of happiness.

---

"Mmm, so good," Jack mumbled, his mouth full of cheese and grapes. "You always have the best ideas."

"Well, we need to keep the romance alive somehow. Even if it's just eating sexy food." Ianto picked up his wine glass and took a sip. "But then you go and talk with your mouth full."

Jack chuckled. "You find it charming and you know it. And I can think of a few things you don't mind me talking with my mouth full of." His hand slid under the elastic waistband of Ianto's cotton pajama bottoms and took a hold of him.

Ianto moaned softly, and put his glass back on the night stand. "That's... a fair point."

"That's what I thought." Jack pulled out his hand and sat up. He swung a leg over Ianto's lap, and sat up on his knees.

"Careful, mind the food," Ianto said, but he was already pressing his hands against Jack's bare chest. He loved how smooth Jack's chest was, how and he constantly denied having the hair permanently removed, insisting that he was naturally hairless from the neck down. Ianto was skeptical, but Jack was allowed a few secrets.

It was another part of his life Ianto loved, being alone with Jack in the sanctuary of their bedroom. Jack didn't sleep much, an hour or two a night at best. Some nights, he didn't sleep at all. Jack had been to several doctors about and they gave him sleeping pills, but all the pills did was make him groggy all day, when he was fine not sleeping at all. Finally, they just accepted it, and it made Ianto appreciate the time they spent together in bed talking, making love, or just holding each other all that much more.

"I am careful," Jack said, grinning. He leaned back and stuck a finger into the soft cheese, scooping out a small portion. He slid his finger into Ianto's mouth. "And you're sexy as hell."

Ianto sucked the cheese from Jack's finger. He slid his arms around Jack's neck and pulled him close. "Together for eight years you still want to fuck me?"

Jack kissed him, mumbling, "God, yes," against his lips.

"Go lock the door," Ianto said.

"Already did. Saw this coming." Jack grinned and kissed along Ianto's jaw. "I've been planning on sucking you off since the second you brought home sexy food."

"All part of my evil plan," Ianto replied, followed by a gasp as Jack nipped at his neck.

"I love you," Jack said, lifting Ianto's tee shirt up over his head. He kissed Ianto as he tossed the shirt aside. He kissed down Ianto's chest, still talking. "You were made for me, weren't you? You're beautiful, so fucking-"

Ianto leaned forward and rolled Jack over onto his back, to get at him better, but as he did, Jack sat up, laughing.

"Mind the food, you said?" He turned at the waist, showing off the foil from the cheese sticking to his shoulder.

"Did it get on the duvet?" Ianto asked, not waiting for a response and checking it himself.

"Oh, the duvet." Jack rolled his eyes.

"We can rinse you off, the duvet can be stained."

"With white cheese."

"Don't bother me with semantics. It's fine. Now you..." Ianto sat back and looked at Jack's shoulder. "Lay on your stomach."

Jack raised his eyebrows, but did as he was told, resting his head on his folded arms. "Now what?"

"Relax." Ianto peeled away the foil and tossed it in the bin. He picked up a grape and dragged it through remainder of the cheese. "Open up."

"Now I'm a serving platter?" Jack asked, but accepted the grape. He didn't sound especially annoyed, but possibly distracted by the delay in sex.

"A gorgeous serving platter," Ianto clarified, helping himself to a cheese-covered grape. He considered Jack for a moment and began tugging down his pajama pants.

Jack chuckled. "Now what are you doing?"

"Violating you," Ianto replied, pulling down his own pants and dropping them on the floor. He leaned down and licked away some of the cheese. "Is that a problem?"

"Not at all."

Ianto climbed onto Jack, sucking the cheese off his shoulder and rubbing himself against Jack's bottom.

"God, Ianto," Jack moaned. "This is torture."

"Want another grape?"

"No, I don't want a grape. I want you," Jack said. "You're not going to sleep until I get to suck you off."

Ianto hummed, and popped a grape into his mouth before licking away the last of the cheese. He set the bag of grapes on the night stand next to his wine glass and rolled off Jack.

"If that's what you really want, I can oblige."

Jack grinned and pushed himself up. He settled himself between Ianto's legs and kissed his stomach and hands roaming up Ianto's thighs. He teased closer and closer, and just as his mouth opened wide to take Ianto down, the door opened.

"Daddy?"

Ianto scrambled for the blanket, to pull it over himself. Jack's eyes flashed the word shit, but he didn't sound annoyed when he turned and said. "Hey, kiddo, what's up?"

"Had a bad dream. Can I sleep in here?" Tyler asked sleepily.

"'Course, baby." Jack got out of bed and scooped Tyler up in his arms.

Jack had never seemed to notice the difference between being naked and clothed. Something about how he was raised. Ianto was considerably more aware. He leaned over and grabbed his pants off up off the floor and brought them under the blankets to slip them on.

"I'm in the middle," Tyler said, sounding considerably less tired.

Jack settled him on the bed next to Ianto. "Now go to sleep. You can't come in here and be awake and run around."

Tyler's eyes were already closing as he rolled onto his side. One arm latched onto Ianto. He was asleep almost instantly.

Jack put on his pajama pants and slid into bed, still sitting up. He picked up his wine and drained the glass. He looked to Ianto and mouthed, Sorry.

"I thought you locked the door," Ianto said, barely in a whisper.

"I did. I could have sworn I did."

"Clearly, you didn't."

Jack sighed. "He needs to learn to knock before he enters a room, that's what needs to happen."

"Shhh," Ianto said. Jack's voice was slowly rising. "What's done is done. I'm going to sleep."

Jack reached over and ran a hand through Ianto's hair. "I can stay in here with you."

"Only if you want to. We'll be fine."

"I'll stay." Jack switched off the lamp and snuggled down into the bed. He stretched a protective arm over Tyler, his hand resting on Ianto's chest.

Despite the interruption, Ianto smiled to himself.

---

Every few weeks, Ianto took a half-day on Friday. He liked the couple of hours alone with Jack, then surprising Tyler by picking him up from school. It was a nice start to the weekend.

However, he was the one surprised when he pulled in the drive. Jack was cleaning the gutters, something Ianto had been on him to do since they moved in and the house came with full, dirty guttering.

"I told you I'd get to it!" Jack called cheerfully as Ianto walked up the sidewalk. "I also cleaned the oven and did the washing."

"Are you trying to turn me on?" Ianto asked, gazing up at Jack, but mostly concentrating on his denim-clad arse.

Jack shrugged. "I don't know, is it working?"

"A little bit," Ianto replied. He shoved his briefcase under his arm as he turned to the front door. "Would have been hotter two months ago." Jack's response was booming laughter as Ianto walked inside to change his clothes.

He weighed the options carefully and quickly. After that exchange and the house empty, there was definitely going to be sex. Shirt, jeans, no pants. It was even warm enough to go out barefoot. Perfect.

Ianto was about halfway down the stairs when he heard the clanging and Jack's shout, following by a horrifying crash.

He bolted down the remaining stairs and out the front door. He ran onto lawn where Jack lay. His neck was wrenched at an impossible angle, his head cracked against the sidewalk. Cold dread washed over him as he realized Jack was dead. There was no way he could be anything but.

"Jack!" Ianto's mind raced, but it was all gibberish. He knew he should get up and call 999, but it was like there were two versions of himself. The one that's smart and thinking on his feet watching the real version that was panicking.

Ianto took Jack's hand in his. "No, no, no, Jack, not like this." Ianto bowed his head, pressing his forehead against Jack's hand. His hands shook, clutching onto Jack like it might keep him there.

Somehow, it was only then that Ianto thought of Tyler, and his mind's eye saw telling Tyler and the reaction, and a flash of their life without Jack and it was devastating. Everything he wanted, he wanted because of Jack. How was he supposed to do it all on his own?

Ianto couldn't make himself move. Time passed around him, but he had no perception of it. It could have been hours or minutes. The only thing that brought Ianto back was Jack's hand seized his as he gasped back to life.

"Jack?" Ianto asked, bewildered.

"Ianto? Shit, I fell, didn't I?" Jack tried to sit up, but Ianto held him down.

"Don't. Stay still. You... you hurt your neck," Ianto said, but there was something not quite right. Jack's neck had been completely twisted the wrong way. Now it looked perfectly fine.

Jack tried to sit up again and this time succeeded. "I feel okay. I have a headache, did I hit my head?"

"Yeah, you..." Ianto pulled Jack into a fierce hug. "Jack, you were dead. You were - you, you-"

"Shhh, it's okay." Jack stroked Ianto's hair. "I'm here now. I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here."

"We should take you to the A&E. You need to be checked out. There could be internal damage or... something. Jack, I swear, you-"

Jack smiled. "You were scared and mistaken. You had to be. I'm fine. But I'll go the A&E if it'll make you feel better."

Ianto nodded. "It will."

However, the trip to the hospital was uneventful. Jack was given a perfect bill of health. Not even a comment about cholesterol or blood pressure.

On the way home, they picked up Tyler from school. They didn't talk about the accident in the car. In fact, Jack was acting as though the entire thing had never happened, chatting amicably with Tyler about school.

Ianto, on the other hand, sat in silence. He replayed the scene over and over in his head. He tried to ignore the memory of the devastation and tried to focus on the fact that Jack was fine, but he couldn't get the image of Jack's broken neck out of his mind. No one's neck is meant to look that way. The doctor said there was no sign that any damage had ever happened to Jack's neck or spine.

All of Ianto's fears boiled up inside of him, bubbling hot under his skin. By the time they got home, he was ready to explode or break down. He tried to send Tyler to his room, as not to witness it or become a part of it.

"But why?" Tyler asked in his best whiny voice. "I want to play in here!"

"Just do what I say, will you?" Ianto asked. He could hear the edge in his voice, and again there was that feeling of seeing two versions of himself. The annoyed and scared one who felt like things were spinning out of control, and the calm, rational one who knew how to deal with this sort of thing. It was disconcerting. He felt undone at the seams.

"Ianto," Jack murmured, placing a hand on Ianto's shoulder to calm him.

"I don't wanna," Tyler said, moving to Jack, who was obviously the good cop in this situation. "I won't."

Ianto knew that Tyler could sense in the car that things were off, and he hated being left out of anything. That stubborn streak was something Ianto found to be good in Tyler, but he didn't need to know that his father died today when Jack was fine. It was worrying Tyler didn't need, but Ianto couldn't seem to find a way to be reasonable about saying it.

"But-" Tyler tried again until Jack dropped a hand on the top of his head.

"Kiddo, why don't you go watch some telly? Give us a minute, huh?"

Tyler looked up at Jack, eyes wide, but still suspicious. "Okay," he said and walked into the next room, where he could surely hear everything that happened anyway.

"What was that?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," Ianto moaned, leaning against the counter. "Everything, this day, you, and... it's all..." He covered his face with his hands and rocked forward. "I don't know, I don't know..."

"Whoa," Jack said, wrapping his arms around Ianto and pulling him close. "What's going on? What is this? Is this because of what happened?"

Ianto shrugged as well as he could in the embrace. "I don't know what to think, Jack. You were dead, I swear you were."

"It's happened before, people's hearts stop beating and they're revived. If I was dead, then... I guess someone somewhere knew I was too pretty to die now." Jack grinned.

Ianto didn't smile at Jack's charming vanity. "I don't care what the doctor says, Jack, your neck was broken. You can't... pop that back into place."

Jack pulled away and tilted his head to the side, sizing up Ianto. "Are you not happy that I'm alive? That I'm unharmed?"

"No!" That seemed to snap Ianto out of it. "How can you say that?"

"I don't know! You don't seem okay with the fact that I'm fine!"

"I'm scared, Jack. Something not right happened today. Something unnatural."

"I'm scared too," Jack said, pulling Ianto into another hug.

Ianto pushed him away. "No, you're not! You're acting like this is normal. Like you've done this a hundred times before. You're acting like I'm crazy, that I saw things wrong. I'm happy you're fine, you don't know how scared I was when you were dead, and all these thoughts in my head, about being without you and raising Tyler alone, and it was terrifying. I'm so relieved you're alive, but I don't know what happened today. I don't know what happened with you and it's scaring me."

Jack hugged Ianto again, and this time Ianto buried his face in Jack's neck and cried. He was so wound up, frustrated, and confused, he didn't know what else to do. Jack held him, stroking his hair and whispering, "It's okay" softly in Ianto's ear.

"Can we just put this behind us?" Jack asked. "I'm fine. I won't clean the gutters again. We'll get a service. Let's just forget it ever happened. Can we do that?"

Ianto pulled away slightly to look Jack in the eye. "I don't know. I don't know if I'll be able to forget. I think this is going to be haunting my nightmares for a while. Your body..."

"Shhh, don't think about it." Jack cupped Ianto's cheek and wiped away the tears with his thumb. "I'll stay with you all night as long as you need me, I won't go wandering around the house. When you wake up, I'll be there. Alive and well."

Ianto pressed his forehead against Jack's. "I love you."

"I love you too." Jack kissed him softly.

"Da? Are you okay?"

Ianto spun around. Tyler was standing behind them, his eyes wide and worried. Ianto squatted down in front of him and hugged him.

"I'm fine, love. I'm so sorry I yelled at you."

"Why are you crying?" Tyler asked. He stepped back out of the hug and placed a hand on Ianto's cheek.

Jack crouched down as well, and ran a hand through Tyler's curls. "Daddy had a bit of an accident today. I'm fine, I'm not hurt at all, but it upset Da a little."

Tyler's mouth opened and he threw himself at Jack, his arms flinging around his neck. "What kind of accident? What happened?"

"I'm fine, baby," Jack said, rubbing Tyler's back. "It doesn't matter."

Tyler unwound his arms and stared up at Jack. "I want to know. Did you die?"

Ianto gasped, but Jack stayed cool, and he even laughed. "Would I be here if I died?"

"They bring people back to life on the telly. I'm a big boy, Daddy, you can tell me." He placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "I want to know."

Jack's smile faded and he looked to Ianto. Ianto shook his head no. However, Jack looked back to Tyler and said, "Just for a minute. Then I woke up and I was perfect."

Tyler stared at him. "You died. And you woke up." He turned his head toward Ianto. "Da, you were there?"

Ianto stopped glaring at Jack for telling him, and smiled weakly at Tyler. "Yes, Ty, I was. When I came home early from work."

Tyler looked down at the floor, like he was going to cry. He put his other hand on Ianto's shoulder and looked up at them both. "Nothing happened today. You went out for lunch and time got away from you. You almost picked me up late from school, remember?"

---

Gwen placed her head down on the desk, feeling the cool metal against her skin. There had been nothing but dead ends since she got to Birmingham. She thought after she found Jack and Ianto, she could just bring them home and everything would be fine again.

She thought it was an enemy who had taken them. She exhausted herself for three days going through thousands of reports looking for someone who had the desire and the availability to hurt, kidnap, or kill them (or at least kill Ianto).

Finally, Gwen called Martha. She needed help. If not going through all of the files, but with the everyday work in Cardiff. But not UNIT officers. Gwen knew Jack wouldn't want them in the Hub. She didn't really want them there, either.

That was how Mickey Smith ended up at Torchwood. He was a godsend. Gwen couldn't have done anything without him. He knew how to properly deal with the aliens in Cardiff and he figured out the complicated computer system in no time.

That was three and a half months ago.

Now Gwen was half asleep on a desk at the UNIT office in Birmingham. She had been there for three weeks trying to make a weapon against the alien, but they didn't really know what it was.

It was hard, knowing she was so close to Jack and Ianto, and whatever power had taken them over, she couldn't do anything about on her own. She had been so hopeful when she found them two weeks ago.

Gwen had tried to keep calm, tried to not get too hopeful. She had been to twenty different places trying to find them and every time she had been devastated that it wasn't them. That every lead was another dead end. Most people would get discouraged - it only made Gwen more determined.

Not far off the A452 was a cute residential area where all the houses looked mostly the same and had children in the yards playing on the gorgeous Saturday morning. She didn't question why Jack and Ianto would be here in Castle Bromwich, not when it was the best lead she'd had in weeks.

She drove to the last road and found the second-to-last house on the cul-de-sac. She pulled into the drive and shut off the car, peering up at the house. She downed the rest of her coffee and she hoped Ianto would be on the other side, ready to offer her a fresh cup.

Gwen got out of the car and walked up the drive to the front door. She rang the bell and wanted. She looked over at the small garden, unkempt and weedy with toy dinosaurs placed strategically around in it.

When the door opened, Gwen's jaw had dropped and without meaning to said, "Oh my god." As much as she believed this would happen, there was a part of her that might have thought it never would.

It was unmistakably Ianto. Sure, he was barefoot and wearing jeans and a tee shirt, slinging a towel over one shoulder, but it was him.

Gwen couldn't help herself. She grabbed him and pulled him into a tight embrace. "Oh, Ianto, it's so good to see you."

He didn't hug her in return. His whole body went rigid, like the contact was uncomfortable. "Can I... help you?"

"Ianto, it's-" she started, as she stepped back, but was cut off by another voice booming through the house.

"Who's at the door?"

"Jack?" Gwen called without thinking, leaning past Ianto, halfway into the door. Ianto placed a hand on her shoulder, but didn't push.

"Step back, if you wouldn't mind," he said.

Gwen moved back, taking a moment to collect herself. It was Ianto and it sounded like Jack was here, too, but something was clearly off. She had realized her relief would have to wait until she sussed out what was going on.

Jack walked up behind Ianto. He was also in jeans – Gwen was certain she had never seen Jack wear jeans – and a blue cotton vest. One hand snaked around Ianto's waist, and Gwen found her eyes drawn to the motion. She never saw that kind of open affection between them.

That was when she spotted it: the gold ring on Jack's finger. She leaned back a fraction and peered at Ianto's hand, and sure enough, he was wearing an identical ring.

They disappeared and got married?

"What can we do for you?" Jack asked.

Gwen's head snapped back up and looked at him. He was smiling at her. It was that disarming smile she had seen him use a million times, but not quite like this. Not on her. It was the smile for strangers, his meaningless, flirtatious smile for secretaries to get past them to talk to their bosses.

They had no idea who she was.

This was the one thing Gwen hadn't thought to prepare for. She straightened out her shoulders and put on her best friendly PC Cooper smile and said, "My name is Gwen Cooper. I work for an organization in Cardiff-"

"Oh, god," Ianto said, rolling his eyes, "did my mother send you? If you're from a church, we're not having it, Miss Cooper, was it?" He turned his head up to Jack and said, "After eight years, you would think she'd be past this – I thought she was past this-"

"I'm not from a church, I'm from Torchwood," Gwen said. She looked at them expectantly, as though the word 'Torchwood' would suddenly jog their memories, but she got nothing.

Eight years? What did he mean by eight years?

"Are you collecting money for something?" Jack asked. His hand dipped into Ianto's jeans pocket, and Ianto gently elbowed him in the stomach.

Gwen smiled, but it felt fake, and she wasn't that good of an actress. She wanted Jack who could lie with ease and still get what he wanted. She wasn't as quick on her feet. She wanted a monster holding them hostage. She wanted something she could shoot and kill and get them back.

She began to speak, when another voice came from inside the house, this one higher, and not quite as loud.

"Daddy, what's going on?" A child squirmed between Jack and the doorjamb. Jack's hand settled on the boy's shoulder, holding him place.

Gwen stared at the child. "Who's this?" she asked.

"Our son," Jack replied, sounding a little testy for the first time. He bowed his head. "Tyler, go back inside."

Tyler was busy staring up at Gwen, like he couldn't believe there was a woman at their door. He swallowed hard and then backed inside.

"Your son," Gwen said, lifting her head as Tyler was out of sight. "I... I'm sorry for bothering you. I'll let you get on with your morning."

"Nice meeting you, Miss Cooper," Jack said. He extended his hand for her to shake. He wasn't being polite, he was sizing her up. She was weird and he wanted to know, was she a threat? Even with his gorgeous smile, the one that made Gwen's stomach turn over, it was a show. She knew that show. She'd seen it a hundred times.

Gwen jerked awake at the sound of her mobile ringing. She didn't even realize she had dozed off. She reached out and picked it up, dreading a call from Mickey, but her dread washed away when she saw it was: Rhys.

"Oh, love, I'm so happy you rang," Gwen said as a way of hello.

"Long day?" Rhys asked, and she could hear that sweet smile in his voice. It was the smile that came with shoulder massages and a cup of tea.

"You have no idea. We're not any closer to a proper weapon and there's not even anything I can do about it. We have UNIT's best science types on this and... nothing. They're idiots."

Rhys laughed softly. "Careful now, you're starting to sound like me talking about other drivers. In the rain."

Gwen snorted. He was right. She leaned back in the chair and sighed. "You have no idea how much I want to be there with you right now."

"Oh, I think I might."

She smiled. Rhys had been so patient through all of this. She only had to remind him once that if she had gone missing Jack and Ianto would do everything to find her. It seemed to stick with him. Maybe as much as he could talk about 'bloody Torchwood', he knew she was right.

Gwen was just get ready to tell him about how when she got home she was going to shag him stupid, but the door opened without knocking. She jumped and said, "Rhys, I'm going to have to call you back," in the direction of her phone as she ended the call.

Usually, when there was news, she was greeted by some lower UNIT officer, but this time it was the lead scientist on the project, Dr Sajeev. He was tall and broad-shouldered with surprisingly small hands for a man of his size.

"Cooper, we have a development I think you need to see."

"Lead the way," she said, walking around the desk. She fell into step next to him as they walked down the hall. "What's the change?"

Dr Sajeev's face was characteristically stony. "We were working with the compound you supplied us with, B67--"

"Retcon's existence doesn't leave this office," Gwen reminded him.

"If I'm being honest, Cooper, knowing Torchwood's reputation and the existence of this drug, I don't expect to remember it at all."

Gwen didn't have a response to that so she got back to the subject. "What about the retcon?"

"We broke down the matter and separated the mind-altering properties from the inactive ingredients. It's unclear from the way the B67 processes in the mind if it would permanently damage the memories of Harkness and Jones if they were to take it in their current state. Wiping away the last three months might not reset them if the new memories they have are hardwired into them. B67 is crude. It only takes away time, it doesn't know how to pick and choose which memories to erase."

"What about Tyler?" Gwen asked.

Dr Sajeev nodded as he opened the lab door, letting Gwen inside before him. "That's what I wanted to show you. The DNA samples the team recovered yesterday confirmed that he's definitely alien, but nothing like we have on record."

"If this alien can alter someone's mind, their memories, no one would even know they'd been had by one," Gwen said. "He could have been around on Earth for a lot longer than the three months he's had Jack and Ianto... is there good news?"

There was almost a smile on Dr Sajeev's face. "We've discovered several things about the species, the most interesting being that it doesn't actually exist."

Gwen raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean? I saw him. Jack touched him."

"We can see the strands of hair, we can touch and feel them. They break like natural, human hair. However, we put them through any number of machines and it registers as nothing. The hypothesis is that memory has to do with what this alien needs to survive. We think there might be some way to use the B67 against it."

Gwen looked away from Dr Sajeev. Something about this felt familiar. It was just out of her reach, brushing against her fingertips, but she couldn't quite grasp it. She remembered this feeling from the night after her memory had been triggered from the retcon after she initially found out about Torchwood.

Retcon. They were retconned, all of them. When Tosh and Owen were still alive. Tosh got flowers. When was that? The day after she came home from Paris. It was like she fell asleep at home and woke up in the Hub.

Gwen reached into her pocket and retrieved her mobile. She pressed the number on her speed dial and held the phone to her ear while Dr Sajeev looked on skeptically.

"Yeah?" Mickey said into Gwen's ear.

"Hey, Mickey, I need you to try and retrieve some files off the Torchwood server. The week of the seventeenth February from last year, there were two days were deleted off the CCTV and everything we did was erased. We had retconned ourselves and Jack told us to leave it alone, but if I know Tosh and Ianto, they recovered everything they could about the missing days. It's probably hidden. Send me everything you can find."

"I'm on it," Mickey replied and hung up. He wasn't one to use a lot of words. She hadn't the time to try and figure him out, though it was definitely on her to-do list.

Gwen put her mobile back in her pocket and turned to Dr Sajeev. "I think I've dealt with this before."

"You took B67? I'm surprised you have any memory left. Taking this is mental equivalent of drinking bleach." Dr Sajeev shook his head. "We can only hope there's no permanent damage."

For someone who tried to act so humorless, he sure thought he was funny.

"You can be triggered out of it," Gwen said, ignoring him. "You get the right combination of effects and you can work your way out of it."

"They saw you and it didn't do anything," Dr Sajeev replied.

She shrugged. "I must not be the right trigger."

---

It was hours later when Mickey called her back. In fact, it was one in the morning and Gwen was sacked out on the bed in her hotel room.

She groaned, reaching for her blinking mobile. "Yeah?"

"I sent you the files I found," Mickey said, "and you need to look at them."

"Yeah, I, right now? It couldn't wait until morning?" Gwen asked. She had to wake up at six as it was. "My email doesn't self destruct."

"No, you need to see this now."

There was something in his voice that got Gwen out of bed and fumbling for her laptop. "This'd better be good," she mumbled.

"Just watch it," Mickey said.

Gwen went through the process of opening her email and downloading the files Mickey sent her. "Where did you find these?"

"It wasn't easy, but you were right. Your friend Toshiko kept a whole stash of files good old Captain Jack wouldn't like to have around. Most of them on him, but a few other things. This one, she went digging for."

"How do you mean?" Gwen asked. The file was going to take forever. Fucking hotel internet.

"You'll see when you open it. Someone really didn't want these to be found."

"Probably with good reason," Gwen said, stifling a yawn. She blinked a couple of times, stretching her eyelids open wide as she opened up the first video and found about sixty seconds of fuzzy CCTV footage of the Hub. It was nothing out of the ordinary, though her heart started pounding, seeing Toshiko at her computer, talking to Owen, who was – wearing glasses? When was this? Gwen had never seen him wearing glasses, though she had witnessed him putting in contacts several times.

She turned on the sound, but it was just static. She watched them interact. Toshiko looked annoyed, and Owen slinked away from her.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Files from those days. All three of them are like that. Short and corrupt," Mickey said. "Someone went to a lot of trouble removing these files and Toshiko went to even more trouble to find them."

"No wonder she spent so much time in front of that computer, even when we weren't working a job," Gwen muttered. She opened up the second file, but it was even shorter. It was thirty-eight seconds of herself sitting with Ianto on the sofa talking to a man she had never seen before. They were chatting and laughing, like old friends.

"Who's that man?"

"No clue," Mickey replied. "I didn't recognize him either, but when I scanned him into the facial recognition program I didn't find anything."

Gwen shrugged. "It's sort of a fuzzy image-"

"No, I mean, I didn't find anything. I didn't get too many results, I got none. This guy doesn't exist. Watch the last clip. It has sound."

The third file was only six seconds long. Gwen could see the back of her head and hear her own voice say, "What are you doing Jack?" Jack was holding a gun to the head of the strange man and replied, "He's not who you think he is. He's been feeding himself into our memories by touch."

The video was over.

Gwen watched it again. "I don't understand. We've dealt with this... species before?"

"Do you know what happened to it?" Mickey asked. "Did you kill it?"

"I don't know. We retconned ourselves. Whatever happened... wait. Feeding himself into our memories. Dr Sajeev said Tyler didn't exist when they put his DNA through certain tests and that he needs the memories to survive. He thinks they can use retcon against him. What if we only thought we killed him by retconning ourselves? What if this isn't just he same species, but the same creature. These files exist and someone must have seen him. What if there was just enough left for him to get by? To grow stronger, then reform himself? So how do you kill it for good?"

"Get a really big gun?" Mickey suggested.

Gwen shook her head, then realized that Mickey couldn't see her. "No... well... maybe if you had the right the ammunition."

"Shoot him full of retcon."

She considered it for a moment, then grinned. "Mickey, you're genius. I'll have to call you back. I have to wake up some scientists."

---

Gwen parked her car at the end of the cul-de-sac. She took a deep breath as she got out of the car, she patted her hands over her jacket, double checking the placement of her guns.

She walked up the concrete path, the cool air blowing her hair across her face, and she felt a bit like she was in an action movie, like she should be walking in slow motion with a hard rock beat behind her.

It would have been a hell of a lot cooler if she didn't have this awful pit in her stomach and voice in the back of her mind telling her it was a bad idea.

She felt her sympathetic side coming up like bile. Jack and Ianto were happy, and who was she to ruin that? Sure, it was ignorant bliss brought upon them by a memory-wiping alien, but it was bliss nonetheless. This was the sort of happiness they would never find at Torchwood. The kind of thing Rhys wanted for her and they couldn't have.

But it was wrong. Jack and Ianto weren't meant to be here. Taking a deep breath, Gwen pressed her finger to the doorbell.

She waited only a minute before the door opened. Jack looked at her like he knew her and Gwen felt a thrill go through her, just in case he remembered exactly who she was.

"I remember you," he said. "You're the weird lady."

Gee, thanks. Not only did he have a child, did he have the manners of one? Maybe he was always that rude and she never noticed.

"Gwen Cooper," she said. "I know I came off as strange the last time I was here, but I do need to speak with you. You and Ianto both."

Jack, naturally, looked suspicious. "I don't know how you know us. The fact that you do is weird. I'm sure you're very and so is the place where you work, but you don't have any business here. Please leave."

Gwen stuck her foot just inside the door jam, in case he tried to close it on her. Thankfully, this untrained version of Jack didn't notice. "Just give me five minutes of your time," she said.

"I asked nicely. If you don't leave, I'll call the cops." He went to shut the door, but Gwen leaned it, pushing it back open.

"Jack, listen to me. This isn't your life. You work with me in Cardiff. You're my boss. You don't have a son, you don't have a house and you're not married to Ianto, or anyone." She pressed on the door as Jack tried to close it again. "You fight aliens. You have for years. Jack, you're immortal. You can't die. You're from the future, for god's sake."

He stared at her. "That's impossible."

"It's not. It's true. It's all true. Ianto works with us, too. You've traveled in time with a man called the Doctor. You can't've forgotten the Doctor."

Jack was clearly bemused, staring past Gwen like the secret to it all was hiding right behind her, just beyond his grasp.

"Daddy?"

The voice echoed from inside the house. Gwen looked around Jack as best she could and saw Tyler standing at the end of the short hall.

Jack spun around and Gwen almost fell into the house at his sudden release on the door. She took the opportunity to at least almost halfway inside.

"Tyler, go to your room. I mean it."

"What's she doing here?" Tyler asked, walking forward. "Tell her to leave."

Jack smiled. "This is grown up stuff, Ty."

Tyler ignored him, so Gwen did, too.

"What are you, Tyler?" she asked. "Where are you from? I know you're an alien, so you might as well tell us."

"Stop it," Jack said, moving his body between Gwen and Tyler's. "Get out."

"Make the bad lady go away, Daddy," Tyler said.

"I'm not going anywhere. Your son is an alien and he's altered your memories. This isn't- don't you touch him!" Gwen snapped as Tyler reached for Jack's hand. Her hands itched for her gun. She couldn't do much while Jack was in the way. She wasn't sure what the retcon-infused bullets would do to him.

"Ianto, call the police!" Jack called. His eyes went from pleasantly patient to a bit wild. He looked back to Gwen. "Get out of my house."

Reluctantly, she reached inside her jacket pocket and retrieved the gun. "I'm sorry, Jack. I really am."

"Whoa! Look, please, take whatever you want, just... don't use that," Jack said, backing up a step, practically tripping over Tyler.

"Uh... what's going on?"

Gwen turned her head. Ianto stood in the kitchen, his hair wet, wearing pajama bottoms and a tee shirt.

"Call the police," Jack said. "Take Tyler with you."

"Tyler doesn't go anywhere," Gwen said. She nodded toward Ianto. "Neither do you. No one is calling the police. You boys just need to remember."

"It's easier to make them forget," Tyler said. "It's always easier to forget, isn't that right, Gwen?"

Jack gaped down at him and Gwen narrowed her eyes. "Tell me what you mean."

"You don't remember me. Of course, I looked a little different then. I always survive. You can take your pills and forget, but there's always someone who remembers enough for me to get by. Working for Torchwood was too obvious. You had the resources and the cameras. But this? It doesn't get much better than this." Tyler motioned around to Jack and Ianto. "I hardly had to do anything and they love me. All they want to do is think about me."

"Why them?"

Tyler reached up to stroke Jack's arm, but Gwen shook her head sharply. He smiled. "Your memories. Your minds. Even if they don't realize it, their memories are still there. Jack's mind alone is something I've wanted to be a part of. It's why I came to Torchwood in the first place. Everything I've built here came out of his mind. All those secrets, his past and his wants and hopes. Underneath all the complexity is really a simple man who never gets what he wants."

"Ty?" Jack asked, his voice quiet. His face was heartbreaking, the pitiful expression of a child as they realize their parents lied when they said the family dog went to a farm in the country.

"Don't worry, Daddy. This will all be a bad dream soon enough." Tyler looked back to Gwen. "And you. How could you deny them this? They're happy. Sickeningly happy. This isn't the Jack and Ianto you knew, the ones scared of commitments and obligations to each other. Look at what I've given them. A beautiful life together and no Torchwood to get in the way of their happiness. It's the kind of life you'd like, isn't it, Gwen?"

Gwen shook her head. "Not like this. This isn't real." She trained her gun on Tyler and squeezed the trigger.

At the close range, Tyler was flung backward. Gwen didn't stop to look. She dropped the gun and fell back against the door. As much as she knew that he was an alien, she felt like she just shot a child. Her mind replayed it like a skipping record. She kicked the gun away.

"Gwen. Gwen, it's okay."

She looked up. "Jack? I shot-"

"I know," he said, squatting down next to her. "It's okay. You did the right thing."

"Jack! You're you!" She flung her arms around his neck. "How did-"

"I think you broke some kind of connection," he said. He glanced over his shoulder. "Ianto?"

Ianto was staring wide-eyed at Tyler's body.

"Ianto!"

He looked to Jack and Gwen and nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." He swallowed and took a slow step toward them.

"Now that hurt," Tyler said, sitting up. He rotated his shoulder, his shirt stained with blood. "It tingles. It's going to take a lot more than gunshot to kill me, Gwen. You should know better."

"That's more than a bullet," she said.

"Then you need better aim."

A shot rang out through the foyer and Tyler's body fell over again, this time with a bullet hole in his head.

Gwen looked up to see Ianto holding her gun, his hands shaking. He gaped at Tyler's body, his jaw dropped halfway, and white as a ghost.

Jack abandoned Gwen on the floor and gently took the gun from Ianto, tossing it away. He cupped Ianto's face with his hands and spoke to him in soft tones Gwen couldn't hear, then Jack pulled him into an embrace.

"I killed him," Ianto said, sounding lost in shock. "I killed him."

"You did the right thing," Jack replied, clinging to Ianto. He started crying as he repeated, "You did the right thing."

"How could I?" Ianto mumbled.

That was when Gwen realized with horror: they remembered everything.

It didn't matter how alien Tyler had been. It didn't matter that he wiped their memories and used them to exist. In that moment he was their son. She could sit there as long as they needed.

---

"Is it that time?" Jack asked as Gwen walked into his office.

"What time?" she asked, like she had no idea what he was talking about.

"When you ask me how I'm doing." He knew, just from knowing Gwen, that she had been dying to ask for the last month, but refrained, giving them time to get back into the usual rhythm of Torchwood. He'd been spending most of his time going over the files and cases from the missing three months. Gwen didn't miss a report. Far more thorough than Jack expected.

"Am I that obvious?" she asked, perching herself on the corner of his desk.

Jack shook his head. "No, I just know you. I'm fine."

"Really?"

"I have this house in Castle Bromwich full of stuff I need to sell. Though the sofa is nice. Get rid of the old we have here? What do you think?"

Gwen smiled. "You're changing the subject. Talk to me, Jack."

He leaned backed in his chair and considered her for a moment. "It's all fading. Slowly, but... it's like my brain knows that the memories weren't all mine and isn't holding onto them. Now I'm left with the worst part."

"Holes in your memory? A big, black empty space?" Gwen asked.

"The emotions. It's harder to forget how everything felt. And it felt so real."

"But it wasn't."

"Wasn't it?" Jack asked. "Nothing can get you to go against your own personal nature. It's the same reason why you can't kill yourself while hypnotized. Your will is stronger than any outside influence. Everything we did, we had to be capable of doing."

Gwen frowned. "Would you rather still be there?"

"You did the right thing. It wasn't our life. Memory-addling alien aside..." Jack shrugged. "It was nice."

"Having a child?" Gwen asked. She hesitated before asking, "Being married to Ianto?"

Jack didn't say anything. He just smiled and shrugged again. "Where is Ianto? Did he leave early again?"

"Yeah, about an hour ago. He's not handling this as well, is he?"

Jack shook his head.

"You should talk to him," Gwen said gently. "It's been a month. I think he's had enough space. This has obviously affected him and he needs someone."

"You know Ianto. The only way to get him to open up is with a hatchet."

Gwen chuckled. "Almost as difficult as you."

"Hey, you're talking to me now. I'm sharing."

"Yeah, you are." Gwen took her hand in his and squeezed it. "Now I think you're sharing with the wrong person."

Jack paused, then nodded. "Yeah, you're-"

He was interrupted as the rift alarm went off. Jack stood up, shaking his head, giving Gwen a rueful smile.

"After these messages. Where's Mickey? You two seemed like a pretty good team. What would you say we keep him on?"

Gwen nodded. "If he'll have us. He's a lifesaver."

It took several hours to track down the life source that came through the rift (a group of harmless single-cell organisms) and it was after nightfall when Jack finally got to Ianto's.

Even though it was only nine-thirty, Jack found the flat dark and after a few steps discovered Ianto asleep in bed. Jack switched on a lamp and Ianto slept, undisturbed.

Jack sat next to him on the bed and was about to wake him, when Jack realized that he had no idea what he was supposed to say. No matter how much they could tell themselves it wasn't real, Jack couldn't quite ignore the fact that lived as a married couple.

There was no possible way all of those memories had come from Tyler directly. The framework was built and the rest was up to them. It was how retcon worked, depending on the human brain to fill in the blanks with excuses and logical memories. Besides, the details were all too vivid. Nothing about that version of his and Ianto's past together was vague.

He thought back to the fabricated memories, the early ones from before they adopted Tyler, when they had nothing to do in their free time except make love, and that was exactly what they did. All those emotions, that kind of passion, it couldn't be completely faked, could it?

"Jack?"

Jack jumped a little and turned to Ianto. "Hey."

Ianto frowned, looking puzzled. "Were you... watching me sleep?"

For a second, Jack considered lying, but that would have been pointless. "Yeah."

"That's creepy."

"Yeah, I know."

"Did you want something?" Ianto asked.

"I wanted to talk to you. Not at work."

Ianto looked even more puzzled. "Yeah. Let me get dressed."

There was an uncomfortable moment as Ianto didn't move and Jack realized that Ianto wanted him to leave while he dressed.

"Right, yeah, sorry." Jack jumped up and headed toward the kitchen. He thought about putting on the kettle. Maybe the tea would make everything easier. Or at least it could be something to stare at awkwardly while they didn't speak.

Ianto walked into the kitchen wearing red sleep pants and a tee shirt. "What can I do for you, Jack?"

"Talk to me. Look at me, maybe. We can't keep going on like this. Are you going to ignore me forever?"

"Our versions of forever are a little bit different," Ianto said, trying for an unconvincing smile.

Jack mirrored the smile. "I guess so, but we have to do something here."

"You could retcon the last five years out of my head," Ianto suggested, sounding almost serious.

"Stop. I wouldn't do that, and you didn't go through this alone. It happened to both of us."

Ianto shook his head. "It didn't. You didn't... I killed him. I killed our son."

"But it wasn't-"

"I know. I know it wasn't real, he was an alien, and I wouldn't have done if I hadn't known that." Ianto dropped his face to his hands for a moment, then looked up, but still not quite at Jack. "But it felt real. I wanted it to be real. And I loved him. I loved him so much and... that's why. I look at you and remember it all. When we got our memories back, they came all at once and I forgot who he was, and who we were and I knew I had to do it. It was Torchwood business. Once he was dead, I remembered I again. I remembered he was our son."

Jack swallowed. He meant ask Ianto if he wanted to leave, whether it be a leave of absence or if he wanted to go for forever, but what came out was, "I loved him too, you know."

Ianto's face crumpled as he tried to hold back tears. "I know."

"Come here," Jack took Ianto by the arm and pulled him into an embrace. Ianto didn't cry as he threatened to, but he did allow himself be held as Jack rubbed his back through his tee shirt.

"I loved you too," Ianto mumbled, resting his cheek on Jack's shoulder. "All those memories... sometimes I think they really happened. I'll wake up and think I'm somewhere else. And I want to tell you all about it, because the idea of telling you everything feels natural. Not talking to you has made it a lot easier not to... talk to you."

Jack threaded his fingers through Ianto's hair. "You can talk to me. I'll listen."

Ianto sniffed loudly, probably louder than he intended, and pulled away. "I'll be all right, Jack. I'm me again. I always get through it. Things can go back to how they were. We can even pick up where we left off, if you'd like that."

Jack shook his head. "Problem is, Ianto, what happened, it might not have been our lives, but it was us. It was you. We could do that. Be that. But what we can't do is pick up where we left off. I want more now."

As Jack spoke, Ianto looked further and further down until he was looking at his shoes. "The problem is, Jack, I don't."

"I'll wait."

Ianto looked up. He examined Jack's resolute face, then nodded. "Do you want a drink? I could use a drink."

Jack smiled. It was a start. A new start. "Yeah. Thanks."

Ianto walked past him and paused, taking Jack's hand in his. "The hardest part, now, anyway, is that I'm still in love with you. I was before any of this started."

Maybe it was Ianto's uncharacteristic honesty, or possibly because they both had memories of being honest with each other for eight years and treating 'I love you' as words to say every day, rather than to be skirted around, but Jack nodded. "Me too."

Ianto dropped Jack's hand and laughed. "I always knew you were in love with yourself, Jack."

Jack laughed, too.

Things were going in the right direction.

Yours, Mine, and... Nevermind

2009-12-03T18:53:06Z

Title: Yours, Mine, and... Nevermind
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 1890
Rating: PG13
Summary: Ianto tries to figure out the exact nature of his and Jack's relationship as it developed when he wasn't looking.
Notes: Happy (belated) birthday to lawsontl! You're a seriously fabulous friend, and I shudder to think about all the alternately sober nights I could have this year and how hard it would have been to watch COE Day Four without knowing you.
Beta(s): Couldn't be done without lefaym
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money. It's just good fun.

There are things you notice suddenly, though it's clear they've been going on this way for some time now. A child seemingly growing eight inches overnight, developing a bad habit, or a pair of jeans that fit fine yesterday, falling off today.

Ianto noticed it on a Thursday.

He and Jack were the last two at the Hub, as usual, and Ianto had just finished preparing the coffee maker for the morning - his last task for the night.

He walked across the room and ducked his head into Jack's office. "I'm going home."

Jack looked up from the paper in his hand. Ianto had given him the stacks of papers to sign from the last month. Ianto usually examined everything ahead of time and Jack signed them without reading, but things had been especially hectic lately and Ianto hadn't had the time, so Jack was reading them all himself.

"I'll be there when I'm done. Are you going to the store?" Jack set the papers down on the desk, giving Ianto his full attention.

"I can. You need something?"

"We're out of milk."

Jack would know. He was the one who put milk in his coffee, and at the flat he fixed his own (always insisting that the coffee Ianto made was better, though Ianto assumed it was a professional courtesy since Jack's coffee tasted fine).

"Anything else? You want something just to have around?"

"Do we still have those cheesy crisps?"

"If you didn't eat the last of them, then yes."

Jack smiled. "Then I'm good."

Ianto smiled, too. "All right. I'll see you at the flat."

It really didn't register at the time. Ianto stopped at the store on his way home and got milk and another bag of cheesy crisps (just to be safe), and a few frozen meals he could pop into the microwave. As the young women rang up his items, she smiled up at him.

"Where's your boyfriend?"

Ianto, who had been looking for the twenty pound note he knew was in his wallet, looked up. "Hmm?"

"The tall bloke with the long coat?"

"Oh, he's working late." Ianto found the note behind a receipt, and wondered, as he handed it over, how many times she had rung them out and how much more observant she had been than he was, not even realizing she was the same cashier he had the last time, or the time before. He checked her name tag. Lauren.

She handed him his change, still smiling. "Have a good night."

"You too, Lauren," Ianto replied, picking up his sack and heading out the door.

Finally, something clicked. Did he just agree that Jack was his boyfriend? Was that okay? Was it true?

Sitting in his car, Ianto chewed on his lower lip for a few minutes, thinking. Best not to mention it. Even better not to dwell on it. He started the car and drove back to the flat.

And when did that happen? When did he stop calling it his flat? When it become the flat? Was this a slow progression to our flat? But it wasn't their flat. Jack didn't live there. Sure, he had a toothbrush and stayed there more than he slept at the Hub these days, but that was simply regular visits. Ianto always assumed it was nice for Jack to have a place to get away from the Hub for a while and not always be thinking about work.

Besides, if Jack did live there, he should at least do him the courtesy of paying a few of the bills.

When Ianto got home, he put away his groceries and got himself a beer. He had settled down on the sofa and flipped on the telly when he heard the door open.

"Jack?" he called, just to be certain. He was pretty sure he left the door unlocked.

"It's me," Jack replied.

Ianto heard the rustle of Jack removing his coat and dropping it onto the kitchen table. Ianto hated it when he did that, but he let it go. Not worth it.

Jack plopped down next to Ianto. They stared at each for a moment when Jack placed a hand against Ianto's cheek. "I haven't kissed you today."

Jack was quite possibly the only person in the world who could say those trite, cliché words to Ianto and not be rewarded with an eye-roll.

Instead, Ianto smiled. "I don't think so, no," he replied, followed by the natural pull of two heads coming together with lips meeting in the middle. Jack was like a magnet and Ianto could feel his south pole being pulled to Jack's north.

Well, that train of thought turned dirty faster than Ianto expected, but the reality didn't. They parted and Ianto picked up his beer and they watched the program. By the time Ianto had finished his beer, his head was in Jack's lap and Jack's hand placed casually on his rear, occasionally giving it an affectionate pat. Like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like he had been doing it for years.

Is this what they had become? Work hard all day saving the world and come home to watch the television? When was the last time they had sex? Oh, that's right, the day before last, the quickie in the weapons store. That wasn't very long ago, Ianto supposed. Especially since they had been busy with an outpour from the rift.

Then what was Jack doing there? He came over for the comfort of the bed that was considerably larger than his camp bed, and for the free cheesy crisps. And sex, right? That was the point of this; not cuddling on the sofa, watching telly, and having a beer.

Oh, fuck it. It was a long day and things we were weird.

Ianto sat up suddenly. "I'm going to bed."

"Okay." Jack ran a hand through Ianto's hair. "I'll be in later." He nodded to the telly. "When it's over."

Ianto felt his eyes narrow. What was Jack playing at, anyway? Was he really that involved in Mock the Week?

Annoyed, mostly with himself, but partially at Jack, for no real reason, Ianto went into the bedroom. He changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed. It wasn't terribly long before Jack joined him.

"You still awake?" Jack asked quietly as he pulled back the blankets and got into bed next to Ianto.

"Yeah," Ianto replied. He wanted to suggest they have sex. He wanted Jack to be rough with him. He wanted to be rough right back. He wanted it to be meaningless. He wanted this to make sense again. However, he found himself saying, "The girl at the store asked about you."

"Really?" Jack sounded surprised. Beneath the blanket, he wrapped his hand around Ianto's forearm. "Do we go in there a lot?"

"I do. You just have a tendency to stand out. People remember you." Ianto paused. "She called you my boyfriend."

"I've been called worse."

Ianto leaned his body closer to Jack. "So you don't mind?"

"Why would I mind? Does it bother you?" Jack asked. His hand slid down to Ianto's wrist where the cotton sleeve ended and his skin touched skin.

"Just that we're not like that." It seemed to be the most diplomatic answer. "All the labels and... ideas. I didn't correct her, though."

Jack exhaled loudly through his nose, the way he did when he was smiling, the sound of his almost-silent laughter. "It's only a word, Ianto."

"I'm tired," Ianto said, letting his head fall to the side in a non-response. The conversation was over.

"It's been a long week. Lots of work."

"And it's not over yet." Ianto closed his eyes and fell almost immediately to sleep. If Jack said something else, Ianto didn't hear what it was.

Jack wasn't in bed when Ianto woke up. He was standing naked a couple feet away, digging through Ianto's chest of drawers.

"Jack?"

He turned. "Oh, good. You're up. We need to do laundry."

We really meant you, but that didn't bother Ianto since he'd been sending out Jack's laundry since he started working at Torchwood Three.

"It's not happening today," Ianto said blearily, sitting up. "Not if it's going to be like the rest of the week."

"I'm out of pants here." Jack held up a pair of white briefs. "You mind if I borrow yours?"

"Go ahead," Ianto replied. He wondered if this is what all gay couples did, borrowing each other's pants. Did they each have their own sets of underwear or do they just have a big communal drawer?

Did he just think of himself and Jack as a couple? Did he think of himself as gay? God, why were there so many questions?

"Are you going to take a shower?" Jack asked. He was almost completely dressed now, pulling his braces up over his shoulders.

Ianto woke up a little. "Yeah. Yes."

"Okay." Jack swooped down on him and kissed Ianto's forehead. "You do that. I'll brew up some coffee."

Jack had brushed his teeth with cinnamon toothpaste. He smelled like Red Hots. He wondered if Jack knew that Red Hots were his favorite candy, or if it was all coincidental. Ianto couldn't recall if Jack used cinnamon toothpaste before.

Stupidly, Ianto realized that he was the one who had the cinnamon toothpaste and Jack was just using what was there. Yeah, it was definitely time for that shower and coffee.

Once he was clean, dressed, and more awake with an appropriate amount of gel in his hair (something Jack had yet to master), he went into the kitchen and Jack immediately shoved a mug into his hand.

"Do you want toast?" Jack asked. He motioned to the plate with a piece, soggy with marmalade. At the look on Ianto's face, he added, "I can make more."

"No, but thank you." Ianto rarely ate breakfast at home, but waited until he got to the Hub and ate the pastries he picked up with everyone else (who were only Gwen and Jack now). Jack, on the other hand, would eat three breakfasts if he had the chance.

"Why are you in a mood?" Jack asked almost suddenly, setting down his own mug. "Is it because some check-out girl said I was your boyfriend?"

There wasn't any sense denying it, really. "And because I've stopped calling this my flat. You've stopped calling it my flat. It's the general flat. Soon we're going to be calling it our flat. We won't even notice we start doing it. And it's our milk and our cheesy crisps. We didn't mean for that to happen, it just did."

Jack took Ianto's mug from his hands and placed it on the counter. Then he took wrapped his arms around Ianto and pulled him close. "That's what happens. And I thought I was supposed to be the commitment-phobe."

Ianto chuckled. "It's just - it was so much easier when I knew my place."

Jack pressed his forehead to Ianto's, and Ianto tried to look him in the eye, but it was giving him eyestrain, so he closed them.

"Your place is with me," Jack mumbled. "Now let me kiss you so I don't have to wait all day."

To that, Ianto couldn't say no.

Borrowed Time (or, That One Time Ianto and Jack Committed Grand Theft TARDIS) (3/3)

2009-11-12T17:39:50Z

Title: Borrowed Time (or, That One Time Ianto and Jack Committed Grand Theft TARDIS) (3/3)
Authors: lionessvalenti and amand_r
Beta(s): basingstoke and 51stcenturyfox in varying degrees. Thanks, ladies!
Artist: laurab1! Wooooo!
Character/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Jack/Ianto/TARDIS
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 24,090
Warnings: SEX. A LOT OF IT. A LOT. TONNES.
Disclaimer: We think that if we owned these guys, we'd already be on TW S6. AND IT WOULD BE ON THE DIRTY CHANNEL. They might fight aliens. You know, if they felt like it. Whatevs. But alas, they belong to the BBC.
Authors' Note: The working title for this was simply, "Operation: Get The TARDIS Laid." That's what we did. A lot.
Summary: The TARDIS shows up on the Plass. It couldn't hurt to look inside, right? Just for a second?

Gorgeous art by laurab1.

The hallways were dark, probably simulating nighttime in a place where there was no night. Ianto wondered if the TARDIS slept. She was so alive in other ways that the thought that she couldn't sleep bothered him. He let Jack lead him by the hand as they roamed the hallways, still unclothed, running their free hands along her smooth surfaces, whispering to each other and to her like children out of bed. Ianto wondered vaguely what it would be like to leave this place, because it had to happen sometime. She might want them for a few days, a week, but she had a Time Lord to whom she belonged, and two humans, no matter how unique or special one of them was, could never compete with the last Gallifreyan in existence.

Jack had told him that she was just theirs for "nows" not for "evers", and said it reverently as if it had meaning and wasn't just poor grammar.

The past three days had passed in a blur of sex and eating and swimming and in general just pretending that this was what they were going to do with their lives. Ianto hadn't thought about Gwen or Rhys or Torchwood much at all. Okay, he thought about Gwen, he admitted guiltily to himself, but never in a wholesome "I hope she's coping" way and more in a, 'Jesus fuck I'd like to shag her in the hothouse, sticky hair and breasts and softness around the cock' way. Oops.

Jack had always been open, really, a little too open sometimes, about alien worlds and the creatures that lived in them, and Ianto had always listened with the half-cocked ear of the disbeliever. Oh, that wasn't to say that he thought Jack was lying, per se, but rather he preferred to think that Jack was embellishing. And maybe he was. Even after three days on what was obviously another planet, Ianto had yet to see another alien. He'd seen loads of them on Earth, but never one in what he would call its natural habitat. Then again, on this planet, he was the alien, wasn't he?

The TARDIS was alive and responsive and catered to their needs, and whatever she got from it, Ianto couldn't begin to guess, unless she was indeed one of the perviest ships that ever perved the universe. He was pretty sure that if he were to suggest this to Jack, the man would just smile and talk about how virtuous she was before she met him.

Then he would proceed to show Ianto how much he could corrupt things. Of this, Ianto needed no further proof.

So here they were, roaming the TARDIS in the evening/nighttime dimness, running lights on the floor to guide their way. "I'm not sure there's a time and a place to say this," Ianto ventured, for the third time in the past two hours, "But you do know that eventually this has to end."

Jack pretended not to hear him, or rather, his body did. He used his fingertips to trace up and down sine wave patterns as he walked, all but humming to himself in satisfaction. To Ianto he said, "I know, just not right now. Not today."

Ianto wanted to ask, 'then when?' but instead he thought back to a lunch on the sand, a tussle in the water, a particularly excellent blow job in the cresting waves, and then an early evening rambling walk that had taken them up to the cliffs at the far end of the beach where they had discovered nests of bird-like creatures the size of puffins that warbled in atonal harmonics. Jack explained the rhythm and scale to Ianto, covering his ears the whole time. Then they had fled, as the creatures became agitated and they'd tripped down the cliffside, laughing and racing, and in general being stupid (Ianto shouldn't have been running downhill; Jack could afford to break his neck, but he couldn't) until they had stumbled into the TARDIS tired and damp and out of breath.

It had been silly and invigorating and they had eaten supper on the floor in the console room, talking to each other and the ship, including it in the conversation. That had been the first clue that it was time to go, really, in Ianto's mind. His head flitted through what he knew of poignant children's books about magical wardrobes or coming-of-age novels when one had to throw off the trappings of childhood and take on the mantle of responsibility. Then he thought about the DSMV-IV, and wondered what it might have said about talking to sentient spaceships. Probably nothing. Yet.

Jack stopped then, as he found a door he seemed to fancy. It wasn't like the normal doors in the TARDIS. The doors he'd found, when there had been any (bedrooms and loos had doors, but everything else was open access) were rather standard issue Earth doors: Brown wood, nondescript. This was something different, curved and shiny, almost mother of pearl or rose, gleaming, though it could just have been bioluminescent.

"Ohh," Jack breathed, his hand running along the edges of it fondly. He pressed his cheek to the polished pink surface. "Oh darling, yeah."

Ianto dropped Jack's hands and stepped back. Sometimes he thought Jack and the TARDIS needed actual private time, and if this was one of those times, he'd get over it. But Jack looked back at him, his face amused and dreamlike, lost in preoccupation. "The secret room," he whispered, even though they were alone. A lock of hair fell over his forehead and one cluster curled up at the temple like a horn. "I call it the need room."

"The need room."

Jack smiled and found the door handle, which looked rather like--Ianto raised his brows at it, but followed Jack when the door swung open noiselessly and the darkness inside began to recede as the internal lights went on. They weren't very bright. There was a strange smell that wafted out to greet him, earthy, like loam, but moist, not unlike walking through a hothouse or conservatory. Organic.

"Yeah," Jack breathed. "It just appears when you need it."

Ianto did a turn about the room. It was small, really, the size of Jack's office at the Hub, and it had no actual furniture that he could see, but rather walls in a variety of red to pink shades, patterned with swirls and marbling and occasional ribbons of gilt. All of the walls were punctuated with holes of varying sizes. Some of them were enough to fit a hand in, others only large enough to accommodate a finger, and even others that seemed the appropriate size to fit, well, hrm.

What was uncanny about the walls was that they seemed to be moving, just slightly. And in places they looked a little see through, as if he could see into the room next door, though right now he could see nothing of the sort.

"So, it's like a Room of Requirement?" Ianto asked, eyeing the walls with doubt. They looked squishy, but not altogether unpleasant. Inviting, even.

Jack snickered. "If you like, Headmaster. I never made it appear though. I think it only appears when she's randy." He waggled his eyebrows and dipped one of his hands into a smooth hole in the wall, and it closed on his wrist while he worked it.

Ianto watched, fascinated as Jack shuddered and shamelessly rolled his wrist inside the wall, which was translucent enough to see the opaque shape of his flesh. "Leave it to you to have found the..." he cast about for a term. "T-spot."

Jack laughed and yanked Ianto's arm towards him. "Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet."

Ianto moved towards the wall with a little bit of trepidation. All previous thoughts of the TARDIS eating Jack came back in a rush, and he thought about the creature in Skypoint that had eaten those people, walking through the walls, and left undigested bits in an air duct. He thought about the V7jks, and the way last year, they had had to dig people out of the great beast's mouth.

He thought about the Perfection's flesh wall. Oh dear, no.

Jack must have seen it all flash across his face, because he laughed then, pulling Ianto's arm a bit more towards him and pressing a kiss to his mouth. Jack's eyes were glossy with anticipation, not unlike children waiting to go outside and play at recess. "No. Hey...it's her," he said softly. "You know her. You were just talking to her earlier."

Ianto let Jack guide one of his hands to another opening, and he ran a fingertip across the lip of it. It was soft, malleable, like made of a gelpack or agar, but not damp. Well, a little damp. Ianto drew his hand away. Jack pushed his arm further into the hole he was working, his eyes fluttering. Ianto wondered if he was actually experiencing something, some sensation, or if Jack, like Ianto often noticed, was deriving pleasure simply from the knowledge that he was giving it.

And there was no doubt that whatever he was doing was working for the ship. If this was indeed some secret core of her, which Ianto was fairly convinced that it was, then she had welcomed them in, and now her reds and pinks rotated and faded in and out, the gold ribbon actually moving until Ianto could make out that it wasn't really completely attached, but was undulating, moving, pulling away from the walls.

Ianto jerked his hand for a second when the slim, waving, what was that? A tentacle? It was too uniform to be a tentacle, right? It wrapped around his wrist a few times and pulled. He dared a glance at Jack, who had been more welcoming than Ianto: Three of them were curled about him, on his wrist, on his thigh, on his--

Whoa.

Jack glanced down at the tendril wrapped about his cock and groaned. "That is what I'm talking about." He drew his gaze up to Ianto. "Do you know how long it's been since..." he drifted off when the strand tightened, and he leant against the wall, his arm buried in the TARDIS wall up to his shoulder. "How long it's been since I've had anything so...foreign?"

Ianto let the tendril lead him to the wall near Jack, and Ianto tested another aperture with his fingers, running them along the soft edges. They were faintly ridged, bumpy but not rough, slightly damp, and he thought a few filthy things for a second before he noticed that another slim thread of gold had wrapped itself about his waist, and another was sliding up his chest, the smoothness of it tickling his nipples, brushing the hair there. He was pulled forward again until he was inches from the wall, almost face to face with it.

And he was starting to feel something, something that felt like those first moments that Jack had spread him in the console room and slid the tube into him, but deeper, something that came from the coils looping about him, the scent wafting from the wall in front of him.

Jack's free hand snaked to Ianto and pressed the small of his back, so that he fell the last few inches towards the surface, almost mashing his face into it. Ianto turned to look at Jack, to argue with him, to say something about foreplay, a joke, but one of the tendrils had wended its way into Jack's mouth, filling it and sliding in and out minutely. Jack's eyes were closed and he didn't appear to be gagging. Other longer arms worked around his back in an embrace, pulling him closer, almost into the wall a bit, and one of them seemed to be, no, absolutely was, working itself into Jack's hole.

When Jack opened his eyes, they were bright yellow flashes of light, as if he was possessed, lit from within. Ianto almost jerked from the wall, but something yanked at his waist and something else guided his cock neatly into the wall, to a hole he would have sworn hadn't been there before, and as it sealed around him, he pressed his forehead into the surface in front of him even as his mouth opened to gasp. The wall pulsed around his cock in a rhythm he couldn't begin to interpret or count out.

Ianto's fingers scrabbled for purchase, something to hold on to, and in his grasping, he turned his head away from Jack, staring at his right hand as it found another hole at chest height and slipped its fingers inside, wiggling them when they came in contact with a warm slippery grooved surface that moved in a wave around his hand. Around him, the TARDIS vibrated around his cock, against his chest and legs, flush with the wall, and behind him, Jack hummed a little, he could hear it even from their short distance. His left hand, even though he couldn't see it, found Jack's right and grasped at the palm gently. Jack's fingers twined with his before turning their palms so that they were overlapping but flat on the surface of the wall. Ianto looked back to him, his right hand still exploring the inside of the TARDIS and his cock rigid and immobile but being worked thoroughly by what felt like tiny tongues, or a vacuum attachment, or the most masterful hand in the universe. Which of course, she could be.

Jack's eyes were still filled with light, but he seemed to see Ianto, because he smiled and, as the tentacle left his mouth and snaked along the wall, a ribbon of living gold and silver curling about Ianto's neck and up his cheek. The pulsing around Ianto's cock lightened, and Jack breathed a long sigh, his hips thrusting into the wall as the tendrils in his arse and about his thighs tightened and writhed.

"She fucks like time," Jack whispered, and Ianto opened his mouth to draw in a ragged breath, but the slow moving finger of TARDIS that had left Jack and made its way to him and slid into his mouth; he couldn't even flail when it made its way across his tongue, worming past his palate and down his throat. His mouth felt like it was on fire, and his head tingled, from the base of his skull and working its way upwards until his eyes watered and he knew, blinking and smiling around the tasteless flesh in his mouth, feeling the spit in the corners of his mouth and the smooth skin of the TARDIS on his tongue, he knew that his eyes matched Jack's, gold and filled with her, filled with her heart.

The hole tightened on Ianto's cock, and his head rang with what felt like slippery bells. His chest pressed into the wall, and the tendrils tightened around his waist, his thighs. His fingers danced along the textures of the hole that grasped it up to the elbow and something was moving in his hair. Next to him, Jack laughed and rubbed his face against the wall, hips grinding as he seemed to sink into it. His fingers pressed into Ianto's, digging them into the surface that yielded under the pressure.

Ianto had to close his eyes, but as the lids slid shut he could still see everything, still see the wall throbbing against his cheek, Jack grinning and laughing in front of him, figures and shadows moving through the air that he hadn't been able to see with his eyes open. His legs had rather ceased to exist, and even if he wanted to will them to move, he was sure that he couldn't.

Jack snorted and gasped and barked a laugh. "Oh no, baby, be gentle with him, no, oh—" and Ianto heard the unmistakable sound of the thunderous Harkness orgasm, Jack's fingers pulling away so that he could ram the knuckles of his fist into the wall, could pull his face from the wall.

The tendril in Ianto's mouth withdrew and he was about to crack his jaw for a moment when the wall, the TARDIS, squeezed his cock and pulled, and he went with her, almost into the wall, almost through it, as if she was fucking his molecules unstable. Her low humming danced through his chest, up his neck to his skull, and when he opened his eyes, the plainness of the things he saw almost made him close them again. But Jack was there, panting against the wall, covered in tendrils that wove themselves about him in a kind of living golden cloth. Jack smiled once, rubbed his temple against the wall and raised his hand again. "Go ahead. All systems go."

Ianto felt his heart speed up. His hips jerked as he tried to help the TARDIS, tried, he though, against all possibility; she didn't need help, and he wasn't remotely in control of—

Ianto felt the wall give a little and he sank into it a few inches, holding his face away. One of Jack's hands came up and stroked across his cheek. "Have fun," Jack said, and Ianto sank into the wall further, wondering if he was going to be eaten, and then realising that he didn't care. He simply turned his face to the wall and breathed deep.

She tasted and smelled like sunshine and oil and curry and Spain and thunder and Jack and Lisa and all things that he had ever wanted to see or hear or touch in joy or wonder. She bent herself about him, curving arcs and golden ribbons and promise and pressure. Ianto's hands felt free, his body wasn't pressed to the wall anymore, but was in it, and he bent back, arching the bones and bending his knees. The tendrils about his back threaded through his hair, into his arse, around his cock, in between his toes. When he opened his mouth to laugh, she filled him, time and loneliness and some spark of creation.

Somewhere behind him, he heard Jack laugh, and he understood then, that everything he was, everything that made him eternal, was tied up in this morass here, this living breathing thing that suffused him and permeated him, and when he came, he could feel Jack's hand coming through the TARDIS for him, gently pulling, fingers a hot brand on his shoulder, his chest hot when he molded himself to Ianto's back and embraced him, gravity meaning nothing, really, when Ianto fell into him and they didn't fall, instead suspended like children in amnion.

Jack's teeth grazed his shoulder, his nose brushed behind Ianto's ear, his fingers played with the tendrils and strands like errant wisps of hair. Ianto let her work in him, around him, and when he came, he could feel her swallowing him down, feel her thrumming to him like a happy lover. Jack's fingers wove through the tendrils and found Ianto's thigh, and his skin on the fine hairs there was almost too much, too rough. Ianto sighed, arched his feet and fell, knowing even as the orgasm that seemed to go on forever was drawing to an end, even then, he'd never ever hit the ground.

It was about thirty minutes later, maybe. Well, Ianto had decided to call it thirty minutes, since he had no way of telling time, not when he was naked and still somewhat trembling in the TARDIS's core room. The ground around him was soft and dry, conforming to his body shape. Every ten seconds or so one of his limbs twitched.

Jack sprawled on the floor within arm's reach, pretty much in the same condition. Or rather, what Ianto assumed was the same condition. Much like the time issue, Ianto hadn't access to a mirror either, so he could only guess at what he looked like. He assumed that 'mind-blowingly well-shagged' was an apt description. Jack raised one hand to look at his fingertips and then laughed to himself, a lazy, almost hysterical chuckle, as if he was high. Ianto couldn't blame him, he decided when he felt his left foot twitch, the way they did when he was on the verge of falling asleep.

His mind wasn't really tired, but his body wanted to rest, so he drifted in and out. Jack rolled on his stomach and pressed his cheek into the cushioning floor under him. Ianto drifted in and out of consciousness, waking every once in a while to hear Jack's whispers and murmurs, something in English, sometimes in languages that he didn't recognise.

Finally, Jack sat up, looked at Ianto, and ran a hand down the wall nearest him. "Baby, we have to go home now," he said dolefully to the walls.

Ianto blinked.

"All right," he said softly, his fingers dancing on the floor beneath him. "But let me get dressed first."

***

Ianto ran a hand down her frame, trying to imagine her warming under his touch, but that was ludicrous. The outside wasn't like that. He drummed his fingertips across the POLICE BOX notice and smiled. She was easy on the hands, if not on the eyes, and he'd never be able to think of her any other way. Jack leant against the closed door and watched him.

"This is the part where you say, 'I told you so'," Ianto chirped, trying to sound dry and not a little let down. They would go back to the Hub and pretend this never happened, really. They'd know, and they might talk about it, but they'd never tell another soul. He ran his fingertip around one of her windows in a rectangle, over and over again as Jack sighed.

"I would never--"

"Oi! Where have you been with my ship!"

Ianto froze, feeling distinctly like a teenager caught with his hands in his girlfriend's bra. Jack made an innocent face and pulled his hands from his pockets, pushing off from the ship with one foot.

He would not look. He would not turn around. If he turned around, the Doctor would know. Oh hell, Jack was about to tell him, and Ianto would be trapped here on the Plass, with them all. Maybe if he went in really fast, she'd lock the two of them out and take off.

Under his hand, the door rattled a bit and he drew in a deep breath, turning and schooling his face in a mask of complete innocence. No, nonchalance. Yeah, nonchalance was the way to go.

The Doctor was walking rapidly across the Plass straight towards the paving stone, his long brown coat flapping in the wind. One hand was shoved in a trouser pocket and the other clutched what looked to be a Starbucks cup. Figured. Ianto restrained a long-suffering sigh.

Jack clapped his hands once and opened his arms. "Where have you been?" he asked the same time the Doctor pulled his hand from his pocket and waved it about, asking "Where have you been?"

Jack waved his hands dismissively. "Looking for you! We poked our heads in and you were nowhere in sight"

The Doctor held up the hand with the Starbucks and replied distractedly, his eyes running over the TARDIS as if taking inventory. Maybe he was. Ianto wondered how long before he intuited that something had gone horribly awry whilst he'd been gone. "They make this banana thing with chai that I thought couldn't taste like banana, but..." The Doctor peered at the wood over Ianto's shoulder and then looked at Ianto, right in the face. It was disquieting. "What did you two do to my ship?" he asked suspiciously.

Ianto coughed.

"You didn't," the Doctor said, raising his brows at Ianto. Ianto tried to make a bland face, but something must have showed, to the Doctor's alien senses or mind reading (oh dear god please not mind reading) told him something, because he took a step backwards. "Oh no. No, really!" He turned to Jack accusingly. "What did you do?"

Jack flipped his hands up in a surrender gesture. "She started it! We just went in to look for you and she..." He waved his hands like bird wings. "Took off! And you know I can't fly her! And by the way, what the hell did you do with that power coupling in grouping five? It's all stripped!"

The Doctor stepped in front of the door, wagging a finger at Jack, before extending his admonishment to Ianto as well. "Oh, don't you distract me. You expect me to believe that she would just-- nah, well, maybe." He cocked his head, thinking, and the finger wavered. "She might have--no!" The hand snapped back up and stabbed Jack in the chest. "I remember you with that Chula ship. They're always nice girls until they meet you!"

Jack glanced at Ianto for help, but he didn't seem to be particularly upset at the accusation.

Ianto cleared his throat. "She did take off with us, and we were rather, uhm, trapped, inside." The Doctor looked at him, waiting. Ianto scrambled for the words. "It was completely consensual, sir," he deadpanned. Jack bit both of his lips and widened his eyes, probably trying not to laugh.

If ire could be written across a man's face, the Doctor's expression was a novel for about three seconds. His jaw ground and he glanced from Ianto to the TARDIS, his brain obviously whirring at alien and unnatural (for humans) speed. Then it softened. Ianto spent a split second wondering if the Doctor and his ship had ever been as...intimate. Looking at the man now, Ianto realised that he didn't want to know. "Oh," the Doctor mumbled, and it was hard to tell who he was talking to or even looking at, "you made your point."

Jack looked past the Doctor at Ianto and shrugged his shoulders. "Sir?" he queried.

The Doctor waved with his coffee hand and it frothed through the sip hole in the lid. "She gets like this about...every fifty years or so. I thought we'd be able to skip it this time, since she's still recovering from the paradox..." The Doctor glanced at Ianto. "You know. But no, it seems that she was looking for a good time."

"She could have dialed an escort service," Ianto muttered, and regretted it immediately as the Doctor glared at him.

"But, ah!" He shrugged and there was more foam spillage. He rolled his shoulders and brushed his free hand on his coat, as if dusting off invisible dirt. "I'll be off." He reached out for the door handle, only to get it open an inch or so before his way was blocked.

Jack leant against the cracked door, his grin impossibly wide. Innocent, therefore completely lascivious. "Look, can we have just a few minutes? To say goodbye?"

Ianto smiled, and it felt foreign on his face. "Properly. We'll be very firm that she's not to go anywhere."

The Doctor sighed. "Telling my ship what to do, you lot are daft," he mumbled. "All right, but just five minutes."

"Twenty," Ianto countered, and Jack made the 'don't waken the dragon' face at him over the Doctor's shoulder. Ianto ignored it and reached out to touch the handle, his hand effectively cutting in front of the Doctor. He was fairly sure that spaceship sex for three days straight had made him insensible; he could see his mistakes in the back of his head, but couldn't stop himself from making them.

"Ten."

"Seventeen."

"Fifteen," the Doctor said with finality, his eyes wide in consternation and his lips set.

Ianto let go of the door handle. "Deal."

The handle seemed to vibrate under his fingers, and he glanced at it, rubbing his thumb on the bend at the top. The Doctor gave a long-suffering sigh and reached out with one finger to streak it down the blue wooden surface. There was no sound in it-- just the sentiment of regret or understanding or resignation exchanged between two beings. Ianto wondered if there had been a falling out of sorts, or if the TARDIS simply wasn't available for the Doctor the way she had been for them. Or perhaps it was the opposite.

Regardless, as the Doctor tapped three times on the wood with his finger and then walked away, tapping on his coffee-holding hand's wrist with an index finger, raising his eyebrows in Jack's direction, Ianto realised that that was none of his business.

Jack stepped in and turned back to Ianto, holding out one hand. "You coming?"

Ianto smiled. "Yeah, go ahead. I'll be right there."

Jack shrugged and disappeared into the ship. Ianto watched the Doctor disappear down the Plass, coat flapping merrily in the wind. A few gulls off the bay circled him, and he waved his hands.

Ianto regarded the door for a few seconds, and thought about what Jack was already doing in their precious fifteen minutes. The Doctor was probably timing it, down to the millisecond, in every time measurement ever created. Ianto reached out one hand to run over the door, and then tugged his tie loose, pulling the circle of it over his head. He threaded it through the metal, then the end though the noose, and yanked it taut until it hung off the handle.

There. Sorted.

The door opened, and he rapped his knuckles on the frame, stepped inside and called out Jack's name.

The door shut behind him with a satisfied click.

END

Borrowed Time (or, That One Time Ianto and Jack Committed Grand Theft TARDIS) (2/3)

2009-11-12T17:39:04Z

Title: Borrowed Time (or, That One Time Ianto and Jack Committed Grand Theft TARDIS) (2/3)
Authors: lionessvalenti and amand_r
Beta(s): basingstoke and 51stcenturyfox in varying degrees. Thanks, ladies!
Artist: laurab1! Wooooo!
Character/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Jack/Ianto/TARDIS
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 24,090
Warnings: SEX. A LOT OF IT. A LOT. TONNES.
Disclaimer: We think that if we owned these guys, we'd already be on TW S6. AND IT WOULD BE ON THE DIRTY CHANNEL. They might fight aliens. You know, if they felt like it. Whatevs. But alas, they belong to the BBC.
Authors' Note: The working title for this was simply, "Operation: Get The TARDIS Laid." That's what we did. A lot.
Summary: The TARDIS shows up on the Plass. It couldn't hurt to look inside, right? Just for a second?

Gorgeous art by laurab1.

Ianto felt his eyes closing as they lay there together on the floor. It wasn't the most comfortable floor, but it would do. Or at least it would have, if Jack hadn't slapped a hand across his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

"Fall asleep here and you'll get a stiff neck." Jack leered appreciatively. "And that's not where I'd like you stiff."

Ianto rolled his eyes and sat up. Jack stood first and helped Ianto to his feet. Jack's free hand ran lightly across the console as they walked out of the room and into the maze of hallways. Ianto didn't try to remember the way around; he simply clung to Jack's arm and let himself be sleepily led.

"My room," Jack said, pushing open a door.

Ianto woke up a bit at that, curious. Although he had expected something less, the room was gorgeous, all decorated in gold and blue. It didn't look like Jack picked out the decor, but it fit him. It sort of fit them both.

Ianto let go of Jack's arm and turned in a circle, his eyes came to rest on the fixture in the center. "This bed is bigger than your whole room back at the Hub, Jack."

Jack grinned. "I told you, it's always bigger--"

"I know." If he had realised it before that he wasn't wearing any clothes as they walked to the room, he might have felt self-conscious. Now, he was just ready to climb into the huge bed, larger than any kind of bed he'd ever seen, let his head fall against the pillow, and sleep.

He was dimly aware of Jack climbing into bed next to him, running a warm, damp flannel down his stomach, then wiping down his cock and the insides of his thighs. He was more aware of feeling content and being well taken care of. He leant against Jack, or possibly a very firm pillow, he couldn't be completely sure, and finally drifted off.

When he woke up, Ianto wasn't certain what time it was or how long he had been there. There were no windows. He didn't even know if the double suns even set.

Somewhere in the night, he and Jack had separated across the bed. Ianto rolled to where Jack was and the sheets were cold on his way. With a shiver, Ianto wrapped his arms around Jack, leaning against his warm back. Jack almost always felt warm. He pressed his cheek to Jack's shoulder, letting the heat spread into his skin.

"Mrrumphmr," Jack mumbled, rolling over onto his back. He opened his eyes and looked up at Ianto. "What are you doing?"

"Cuddling." Ianto rubbed his face on Jack's shoulder. "And this is nuzzling."

"Thanks for the definitions, Webster." Jack smirked. "Is it morning?"

Ianto shrugged. "Could be. Was it night when we went to bed? I wasn't trying to wake you."

"Just trying to cuddle?"

"Well, you're warm." He proved his point by pushing closer.

Jack chuckled. "So, do you know the definition of fellatio?"

Ianto grinned sleepily. "As a matter of fact, I do. Would you like a demonstration?"

Jack kissed Ianto's neck. "I don't know, you look pretty sleepy. You might fall asleep in the middle. End up with a cock in your eye."

"If you want to put your mouth on my prick, Jack, you don't need excuses. In most circumstances, I'll comply."

"What would be the circumstances where you don't comply?" Jack asked, rolling himself atop Ianto and began kissing him, starting at his collarbone and slowly working his way down.

"Oh, during autopsies? It probably—" Ianto swallowed as Jack licked his nipple. "—probably wouldn't be appropriate during conferences."

Jack looked up. "What makes you say that?"

"Your mouth would be full, for one."

Jack pouted his lips for a moment, then shrugged. He bent his head back down and continued kissing across Ianto's stomach.

"I suppose Gwen would like it if we starting blowing each other during a meeting," Ianto said as an afterthought, mostly to himself. "She might actually pay attention for once."

Jack guffawed under the blanket and didn't say anything discernable.

Ianto leant back, the pillows folding up on either side of his head. It was nothing but relaxing. The bed smelled good around him, like Jack, Christmas morning, and something Ianto couldn't quite place, but it was familiar and comfortable, like an old pair of jeans.

"You know you're barely even hard?" Jack asked, his head still buried beneath the duvet.

"Hmmm," Ianto hummed as Jack licked at his cock, lapping at it like an animal at a water dish. "I think I might be shagged out from earlier. It's all a bit more alien than I'm used to." Ianto bent his knee and stroked his foot against Jack's leg. "Not that I mind. It's nice."

Jack laughed. "I like your cock like this. It's fun to play with. It'll be like the toy surprise at the bottom of the cereal box when you do get hard."

"That's one way of looking at it."

Jack nipped at the inside of Ianto's thigh and pulled back the blanket, revealing Ianto's naked body and Jack's ruffled hair. He sat up on his knees between Ianto's spread legs. "You really don't mind everything being a little alien?"

Ianto considered the question and shook his head slowly. "No, not at all." It might have, a little bit, but who was he to disagree? Strange as everything was, it felt right in a way.

"You want to try something new?"

A smile spread slowly across Ianto's face. "Jack, let's be honest, ever since I started with you, everything's been new."

Jack grinned and leant forward to the small chest of drawers next to the bed. "Let's see what's still here. Who knows who's been in here, going through my things." He tipped his head up to flash the grin at Ianto. "Not that I mind."

Ianto's eyes lit up and lifted his head slightly to watch Jack rustle through the drawer. He wasn't sure what kind of four-pronged dildo or some kind of strangely shaped vibrator Jack was going to pull out of there, so there was a slight sense of disappointment when Jack's hand came out clutching what looked like a red plastic egg.

"You're going to titillate me with Silly Putty?"

Jack laughed and looked at the egg. "I guess that's what it looks like." He popped it open and let the flesh-coloured substance pour slowly like molasses, much smoother and more liquid than Silly Putty, out of the egg and into the palm of his hand. He rolled it between his hands, warming it up, before placing the slightly oblong ball onto Ianto's stomach.

It felt warm on his skin, but not nearly as nice as he would feel curled up against Jack beneath the blankets, so Ianto raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Jack.

"Give it a moment," Jack said, resting his hands on Ianto's thighs. "It's reading you."

"Reading me?"

He traced a line down Ianto's stomach, around the putty. "It doesn't take it too long to figure out what you like. It's a good masturbation toy, but it's also fun with a-- oh, there it goes."

Ianto sucked in a slow breath as the putty began to slide down his stomach, carefully avoiding his navel, and wrapping itself around the base of his cock, which reacted to the putty. It was different from Jack's tongue or his hand, and a different kind of foreign from the tube in the console. Less intense and sort of ticklish as it massaged his foreskin.

"Jesus Christ, Jack, you didn't say it was going to do that." Ianto said laughing, giggling even. "It's not going to get all tangled up in my hair? I don't want to spend an-- oh god that's-- any time picking sexy putty out of my pubes."

Jack's laughter boomed throughout the room. "It won't. At least it shouldn't, if it's kept."

"Kept?" Ianto's eyes went wide, but it wasn't worrying about sex putty blobs in his pubic hair. The putty had wound itself around the head of his cock, and if he wasn't completely mistaken, some of the putty was pushing itself inside the slit. Was it making itself wetter? Was the putty lubing itself? Was it lube? It didn't hurt. On the contrary, it felt fantastic. "Oh my fucking--"

"I got it on this little moon outside the Asar galaxy," Jack said, bending down to press his lips against Ianto's hip. "Nifty stuff. It knows all your secret little places, the kinks you didn't know you had. And if that's doing what I think it is, we're starting a new chapter of things to do with your cock."

Ianto laughed. It was all he could do. Laughing was the perfect response to everything. He grabbed Jack by the wrist and tugged. "Come up here."

Jack obeyed, crawling up the bed with a voracious grin, bending down every couple of inches to kiss or lick Ianto's skin. "Yes, sir?" he asked, nipping at Ianto's chin.

"I want to kiss you," Ianto said, grabbing for Jack's head and pulling him down into a kiss. It was sloppy and mostly on Jack's cheek rather than his mouth, but Ianto wasn't bothered. He just moved Jack's face to the side to make proper contact.

"I like you like this," Jack said with a smile. "You're kind of adorable."

Ianto wasn't entirely sure if Jack actually said that or he was just imagining it. Things were getting pleasantly fuzzy, like he had downed another mouthful of menginga.

He tilted his head back as the putty moved, never stopping around his cock, working in and around, and all Ianto could do was hold onto Jack's arms, a constant when he thought he might fall out of the bed or off the planet. Was he still drunk? Was it the putty making him so stupid?

Ianto pulled Jack closer, dragging him down like a human blanket. Jack laughed as Ianto rubbed against his leg. Ianto groaned, burning all over, the putty hot and tickling, sending fervent chills throughout his body as he came.

Ianto smiled. He tried to say something, whether it be a groan or a swear, but nothing came out. He just grinned dopily up at Jack.

Jack grinned back down at him as he got up to gather the putty and put back into the egg. "I think we should take that home with us."

This time, Ianto did moan. He nodded. "Yeah. Yes."

Jack set the egg on the night stand and leant forward to kiss Ianto. "Field trip."

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "To where?"

"Over there." Jack pointed to a door on the other side of the room. "Shower."

"Since when do you need a shower after sex?" Ianto woke up a little. A shower did sound pleasant, but not like Jack. When they showered together, it was always before they had sex. It was foreplay.

Jack shrugged. "I don't, but it's a nice shower. Do you need me to carry you?"

"No, thank you." Ianto looked down and eyed Jack's erection. "We'll take care of that, then?"

"We'll get to it." Jack's mouth spread into a wide grin. He pulled Ianto up into a sitting position. "How you feel?"

"Drunk. You know when you feel good and invincible?" Ianto licked his lower lip, still looking down at Jack's cock. He was waiting for Jack to ask him about that fellatio definition again. Hell, he might bring it up himself. It wouldn't be any less flimsy than any of his other excuses to get Jack's cock in his mouth.

Jack pushed back Ianto's hair (Ianto would never admit to anyone how much he liked Jack's hands in his hair) and smiled, looking almost nostalgic. "Yeah," he said. "Come on."

They walked across the room, fingers laced loosely together, Jack leading the way into the loo. He pushed open the door with his free hand.

Ianto stepped away, his eyes going wide. "You weren't kidding when you said it was a nice shower." Jack laughed.

The bathroom was done all in gold marble tiles with a huge shower in the corner with glass walls, and probably thirty different showerheads, from the ceiling and out of the walls, and several, inexplicably, out of the glass. Ianto wasn't sure how that was supposed to work.

As Ianto gaped, Jack turned on the shower (there were ten knobs and levers, but Jack seemed skilled in knowing which ones to use) and the water poured out all of the heads, including the ones sprouting from the glass walls, the water practically invisible in the steam. Jack took Ianto's hand and pulled him in.

"Fantastic," Ianto mumbled, leaning against the marble as water from above rained on his head and soaked his hair, making his head feel like it weighed a hundred pounds.

There was easily room for four people, five if you squeezed them in, but Jack invaded Ianto's space, pressing his body flush against Ianto's back and hummed against his neck. Ianto could feel Jack's erection against his leg, but it seemed so much less unimportant than it had even five minutes ago.

"Check this out," Jack said, reaching away from them to turn one of the levers and after a second the water from a few of the showerheads became mingled with soap. The smell reminded Ianto of the clove cigarettes he smoked when he was a teenager, but sweeter. Soapier.

Ianto smiled, rubbing the soapy water against his skin. It was silky, sort of like lotion.

"Allow me," Jack said, turning Ianto around and pressing his back against the glass wall. Ianto tried not to think of the way his rear end was flattened against the glass, even though no one was seeing it. He couldn't see it and Jack couldn't see it. The only option was the TARDIS, and Ianto didn't think he'd mind if she were looking.

Jack cupped Ianto's face in his hands, tilting his head slightly to the side and kissed along his jaw. Ianto's breath hitched in his throat as he pressed his palms against Jack's chest. He held his breath as Jack reached his ear, and Ianto wasn't sure why because Jack had done this many times before, but just not here. Not like this.

Jack laughed softly into his ear. "Breathe, Ianto."

Shit. He had hoped Jack wouldn't notice, though that was, of course, impossible. He let the air out of his lungs and smiled, almost embarrassed.

Jack smiled, kissing Ianto's temple, then his cheek, then back to his mouth, softly, almost teasing. Ianto tipped his head forward to get more contact with Jack's mouth. Jack laughed.

"Shut up," Ianto said, laughing too.

"Mmm," Jack purred, and ran his hands through Ianto's wet hair, nuzzling the side of his head. "You're cute."

Ianto felt his heart pounding in his chest. "You're full of shit."

Jack flashed him a grin. "Aren't we all?" He nodded down to his erection. "Are we going to take care of that?"

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Do you know the definition of masturbation?"

"Would you like a demonstration?"

"If you would."

Grinning, Jack lowered his right hand, keeping his left cupped around the back of Ianto's head. He didn't move back and locked his eyes to Ianto's as he started stroking himself. Ianto could feel Jack's hand moving rapidly against the inside of his own thigh.

Ianto leant his head forward and kissed Jack. Jack responded, gripping his fingers tighter in Ianto's hair. Ianto swallowed down a whimper and pressed harder against Jack's mouth, getting lost in the feel of it against his own, all teeth and tongues mashing together, and loving the way he could feel Jack masturbating against him.

Jack bit down momentarily on Ianto's lip, then sucked on it as he came. He clutched Ianto's head tighter, stroking over Ianto's ear with his thumb.

"Thank you for that example," Ianto said quietly, taking Jack's hand in his and bringing it to his mouth to lick the come off his fingers before the water washed it away. He peered up with a smirk. "I think I have a handle on it now."

Jack laughed and removed his hand from the back of Ianto's head to turn off the soap, letting the water run clear. He pushed both hands through Ianto's hair, washing out the soap. Ianto felt his eyes close against their will.

Fuck, Jack's hands felt good.

"The look on your face is priceless," Jack said. Ianto could hear the shit-eating grin in his voice.

Ianto opened his eyes and glared, but he couldn't even take himself seriously, so he smiled. "You're impossible."

"I hear that a lot."

Ianto snorted. "I know you do. I bet you bring all the boys and the girls, and the...aliens to your big, sexy shower."

Jack gazed at him for a moment, then shook his head. "You would be the first. Travelling here, it's...it's different." He reached up and took Ianto's head in his hands again, like it would make him understand better. "The rules are different. You don't just bring people in. It's personal space."

"So you and..." Ianto rolled his eyes up at the ceiling, "you know, the, the Doctor never--"

Jack laughed in the way that annoyed Ianto, like he had just said something incredibly stupid. He especially hated the laugh when he already felt like he had said something incredibly stupid. It wasn't the sort of validation he needed right then.

"Ianto," Jack said, amused and maybe a little exasperated, "it's not like that. If you knew him, even a little, you'd understand."

"Yeah, well, I-- I was just...asking."

Jack chuckled and kissed Ianto softly before pulling away completely to shut off the water. He placed a hand against the marble wall and looked to Ianto. "Until now, it's just been me and her in here."

Ianto leant his head to the side, as though the different perspective might help. He swallowed and asked, "You don't mind sharing?"

"As long as you don't," Jack said, but Ianto knew it never mattered if he minded or not; there were some things he would always just have to go along with, but right now sharing seemed all right.

Ianto gave Jack his best who, me? face, but he was sure it fell flat when it would have been charming on Jack's face, and pushed open the glass door next to him, walking out of shower. He noticed racks of white, fluffy towels and wasn't sure if they had been there the whole time and he hadn't noticed, or if they just appeared.

"Let me get that for you," Jack said, reaching around the nonplussed Ianto to get a towel. He unfolded it and wrapped it around Ianto's shoulders.

"Thank you," Ianto said, turning around to face Jack as he lifted the towel to ruffle it through his hair. When he was done, despite the dozens of towels behind him, he handed the one he was using to Jack, the way they did it without thinking back at Ianto's flat.

As Jack dried himself, he motioned to the shower with a corner of the towel, grinning. "Look at that."

Ianto looked and saw the print of his arse on the glass, outlined in condensation. That was almost as bad as if someone on the outside had been looking.

Jack dropped the towel on the floor (also like he did at Ianto's flat), and took Ianto by the hand and tugged on it, leading him out of the bathroom. "Let's go back to bed."

Ianto wrapped his arms around Jack, who was sprawled on top of him, damp hair tucked under his chin. There was something about crawling into that bed that made him sleepy, but as he drifted off, he thought that perhaps Jack had been trying to tell him something in the shower.

It was the way Jack asked if he minded sharing when Ianto was the one intruding. How he was the first to be in the shower with Jack. There was something, Ianto strove to remember, about not bringing other people in, and yet, here he was.

Though, the real possibility was that Jack was just talking and meant nothing of it. Still, Ianto gave Jack a gentle, thankful squeeze before letting himself fall asleep again.

***

It didn't take Ianto a minute to remember where he was when he awoke in the large bed. He knew exactly where he was (assuming they hadn't traveled in space while he was asleep, but he somehow guessed that would have woken him) and that made him smile. He rolled his head to the side and saw that Jack wasn't there. Not unusual.

Ianto climbed out of the bed and noticed a dressing gown draped over an armchair by the door. It wasn't the sort of gesture Jack would even think of making. He slipped it on and awkwardly placed his hand on the doorframe as he whispered, "Thank you."

He wandered, trying to make his way to the console room, because if Jack wasn't there, he would be there eventually, but Ianto found it difficult to navigate around the TARDIS. He became quickly disoriented, like the halls and rooms moved of their own accord, and as far as Ianto knew, they did. It took some time, but Ianto found the console room and Jack.

Jack was kneeling next to the console mumbling quietly, his cheek pressed against one of the panels. From far away, Ianto couldn't hear what Jack was saying, but the moment looked cozy and intimate.

"Good morning," Ianto said quietly, as not to startle them.

Jack stood up, smiling. He grabbed Ianto by the wrist and pulled him closer. "Morning."

"You think I could get a coffee?" Ianto asked.

Jack nodded. "You can have anything you want."

As they started back through the depths of the TARDIS, Ianto said, "I was thinking since we are on a beach and all, we could go swimming. I've never been in water quite like what's out there. Just pools and such."

"I didn't know you swam," Jack replied. "I'm having a hard time picturing it. I thought you Welsh mining stock just sank like lumps of co--" Ianto hit his shoulder forcefully and Jack slammed into the wall, but it was halfhearted.

"Find some swimming trunks around here, and I'll show you."

"Trunks? There's no one around except the three of us." Jack smirked impishly.

Ianto shook his head. "No. And don't push it before I've been caffeinated."

Jack laughed. "Yes, sir."

Ianto smiled. He liked it when Jack called him 'sir', even if it was in sarcasm.

After a sufficient amount of coffee, Jack led Ianto into what was quite possibly the universe's largest closet. It was several levels packed with clothing and a spiral staircase going up through the middle.

"Why does one man require so many clothes?" Ianto asked, gazing up, unsure if he could even see the top of the wardrobe.

"He has lots of guests and most of them just end up travelling with him without plans. Eventually, they're going to want a change of clothes, because not everyone packs a bag. Like us." Jack started for the stairs. "This might take some time. Last time I was in here for clothes, and that was longer ago than I'd like to admit, it was difficult to find...whatever you were looking for. Sizes aren't a problem though."

"Are all the clothes bigger on the inside?" Ianto asked.

Jack laughed, throwing his head back and closing his eyes. "How did you know?" He kicked a trunk and it rolled a few feet on protesting wheels. "Look around. Find whatever you want. It's all here: Togas, kimonos, latex bodysuits..." he wiggled his eyebrows. "Hengh?"

Ianto turned away. "Swimming trunks it is then," he tossed over his retreating shoulder, but something about latex bodysuits stirred the curious side of him. Oh hell, Jack could have said 'henley and khakis' and he'd be curious.

Fifteen minutes later and he was no closer to locating anything resembling swimwear. He had, of course, found everything but: Scuba gear, some metal bikinis that he held up and imagined on the women he knew (he was not immune to the magical stiffening powers of Princess Leia), fifteen different sets of chain mail. A box of dried out grass skirts. Three wardrobes full of coloured T-shirts, folded and stacked in the rainbow spectrum.

Ianto considered a selection of shoes. They appeared to be arranged in some sort of order, but the system was one he couldn't quite put together. Planet of origin? Time of year when they would be used on whatever the Doctor's home planet was? He turned to ask Jack, but Jack had disappeared from the shoe area of the wardrobe. Ianto walked up to the next level and found Jack with a black leather jacket draped over one arm, his forefinger stroking the collar.

"Not quite your style, is it?" Ianto asked.

Jack looked up and smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Just...old stuff."

"Something you used to wear?" Ianto asked. Of the things in Jack's files, his history on the TARDIS was the least touched upon (considering Jack hadn't worked for Torchwood then, it wasn't surprising), but he could take a guess. He had guesstimated a lot, and was sometimes right.

"No. A friend." Jack shrugged. "Like you said, not quite my style, though back in the old days..."

"Leather trousers?" Ianto asked, knowing he sounded a little bit too hopeful. The longer they spent on their impromptu holiday he found he cared less about how he sounded. Especially if it encouraged Jack into one of the sexy positions Jack liked to be in anyway.

This time, Jack grinned. "Oh, yeah. I bet we can find some of those around here."

"There really isn't any sort of discernible organization in here," Ianto said, stepped back toward the spiral staircase. "I'm going to assume leather trousers will probably be with the trunks I'm looking for anyway."

"That's because the Doctor doesn't have you to organise his closet." Jack paused, then added, "And he can't have you."

"Oi! You don't own me." Ianto tried to a put on a sour expression, but good god, all he'd been doing lately is smiling. It was hard not to, with the beautiful beach outside, the gorgeous spaceship inside, and fantastic company. And all without any sort of danger or threat. Who wouldn't smile at that?

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You think so? You should reread your contract."

Ianto laughed, but honestly, he wasn't sure if Jack was being serious or not. He shook his head and started down the stairs, but realised Jack wasn't behind him. He backtracked and watched Jack from a couple steps down.

Jack had the leather jacket pressed to his face and inhaled deeply. He leant back, and his face was every sad, lonely, regretful expression he'd ever made wrapped into one. After a few moments, he let his breath out slowly. He stroked the sleeve, put it on a hanger, and gently hung it back up on the rod.

"What's it smell like?" Ianto asked.

Jack smiled, apparently not bothered that Ianto had been watching. "The past. Now, come on, leather trousers. If I try them on, you have to, too."

"Unless I get distracted and fuck you before I get the chance to wear them," Ianto replied. He walked backwards down the stairs, so he could keep an eye on Jack.

"Barring that, of course." Jack rolled his eyes.

On the next level, Jack started digging through boxes underneath the rack of Victorian-era dresses, multicoloured fleece bodysuits, and one red pinstriped zoot suit, complete with black fedora, that Ianto was instantly attracted to. He wondered if maybe he could try that on next. Maybe leave with it.

"It's your lucky day," Jack said, looking mischievously over his shoulder at Ianto. He reached his hand deep into the closet and pulled out black leather trousers. He tossed them to Ianto. "On."

"I thought you were putting them on first," Ianto said, turning the smooth, almost oily leather over in his hands.

Jack grinned. "I told you, you're in luck." His hand disappeared into the closet again and he pulled out a second pair. These were dark brown and laced up in the front.

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Robin Hood?"

"If you want to be Maid Marion, there's a dress in here somewhere," Jack replied as he began unbuttoning his shirt.

Ianto paused, distracted by the newly exposed flesh of Jack's chest, though he had the coherent thought of wondering why Jack was taking off his shirt to put on a pair of trousers. It wasn't really worth asking. Ianto shook his head and held up the trousers in his hand. "I'll be putting these on, then."

"Good boy. As lovely as you'd look, all those layers?"

Ianto untied his dressing gown and slid it off his shoulders. He tossed it over other clothes on the rack and sorted out the front of the trousers from the back. He felt a little stupid when he found the zipper. "Would that involve wearing a bustle?"

Jack made a face. "Never. With your arse, no. There isn't any sense covering it up with more than necessary. Besides, Robin Hood was before the age of bustles."

"Was it?" Ianto asked distractedly as he twisted around to try and look at his own rear end. It seemed sort of average to him, but Jack always made a big deal about it. He shrugged and started to work himself into the trousers. Oh, Jesus, this was going to take forever without the assistance of a knob of butter or an entire tube of Astroglide. He supposed most people put leather trousers on alone without the added bonus of someone watching their cock and balls bounce awkwardly as they hopped around trying to work their way into the trousers. Jack could at least pretend not to be watching, but that would probably be outside the nature of Jack.

Even more irritating was that Jack could both watch the struggle and get into his own trousers with little effort.

"Could you lend a hand?" Ianto asked, the trousers halfway up his thighs.

Smiling fondly, Jack shook his head. "I could watch this all day."

Ianto's eyes narrowed as he attempted to scowl, but the look on Jack's face was annoyingly adorable and Ianto found it difficult to even pretend to be angry. "At this rate, you will be. Possibly all week. Is there something I should be sucking in?"

Jack laughed. "Don't fight it so much. Relax and let them take you."

"Now they're taking me? These are far sexier trousers than I ever anticipated," Ianto replied, but tried his hand at Jack's advice. It wasn't exactly easy, but he managed to get the trousers up and on. He zipped up and looked over to Jack. "Consensus?"

"We should implement them as part of the new Torchwood uniform," Jack said. "You look good, I obviously look good, and you know Gwen would work them."

"I like the creaking noises," Ianto said with a chuckle. "But good God, how do you move in these?" He reached behind to feel his arse. The leather was nice, he got it now, he really did, and he regretted that he hadn't a pair at home. Though who knew where he would wear them. Lisa had threatened to get him a pair once, and he hadn't let her, said they were trash wear for estate council rentboys and chavs and he hadn't been far off in some ways, but he had been young and stupid with Lisa. He was still stupid with Jack, just not as young as before.

Jack bit his lower lip and dug his own hands into his trousers, adjusting himself, obviously. "Well, you have to stret--" Ianto could see his fist punching the leather out a little, pushing. "Hah, stretch them out a little. Yeah."

"You should come over here and demonstrate that for me," Ianto said, motioning to his own crotch. "I don't think I completely understood."

"Subtle," Jack replied, grinning. He placed one hand on Ianto's back and the other eased out of his own trousers and went down the front of Ianto's. "It's easy. Kind of like you."

Ianto felt a quippy comeback on the tip of his tongue, but all that came out was a moan. He leant against Jack, wrapping his arm around Jack's waist, grabbing his arse as he mumbled, "Gonna need even more room in there."

Jack pressed his face into the crook of Ianto's neck, humming laughter. "I could take my hand out. That'd give you more room." He lifted his head and bit down on Ianto's earlobe.

"Mmm, don't you fucking--" Ianto leant forward, grinding himself against Jack's hand. He turned his head and caught Jack's mouth, moaning into him. Jack's mouth, his hands, and the smell of him, all of it distracting as they stumbled awkwardly together onto the staircase.

"My wrist," Jack mumbled, pulling his hand out the front of Ianto's trousers. "Twisted it."

"All right?" Ianto turned and took Jack's hand in his. He turned it over, inspecting it carefully, his fingers sliding up over Jack's palm and his wrist. "No bruising or swelling."

Jack lifted an eyebrow. "Not there, anyway."

Ianto smirked. He raised Jack's wrist to his lips and kissed it. "I think you're going to be fine."

"I think so, too." Jack grabbed Ianto's shoulder and spun him around, pushing him against the pole up the center of the spiral staircase. He pressed himself against Ianto, rubbing against him. "You like playing dress-up? The leather looks good on you. You're like a cowboy." He slapped the side of Ianto's arse.

"A Welsh cowboy?" Ianto asked, turning his head to look Jack in the face. He wished he'd opened up the zipper on his trousers before Jack had shoved him against the pole.

"If you like," Jack said, kissing the back of Ianto's neck. "You know all the cowboys did each other out on the range."

"I saw that movie too. It was depressing."

Jack snickered and pulled back a little. "Our movie will be better."

Ianto twisted around to see why Jack moved away, and was pleased see Jack unlacing the front of his trousers and tugging them down enough to free his cock. Ianto's mind's eye quickly flashed to Jack pushing him around some more, and forcing him to the ground, or maybe onto the next step down, and shoving that cock all the way into his mouth, pressing it against the back of his throat and gagging him on it.

"Idea?" Jack asked, running a finger down the outside of Ianto's ear. "I saw that look."

Ianto shook his head. "Passing fantasy. Mild. Happens all the time."

"Really. All the time?" Jack quirked an eyebrow.

"Who says they're always about you?" Ianto asked, putting on his best unimpressed face. He paused and rolling his eyes, admitted, "That one was."

Jack laughed and slid his hands around Ianto's hips, wrapping around to the front to toy with the zipper with one hand, and fondle Ianto's cock through the leather with the other. He kissed Ianto's shoulder, then sort of gnawed on it. "It wouldn't be any fun if they were all about me. I'd love it if you were thinking about nailing Gwen against the water tower. Jeans and knickers around her ankles, her shirt getting all see-through from the water and no bra, just soft, wet tits--"

"Actually, I think about her more over the desk at the tourist office, but whatever floats your boat. Now, back to the sex we're actually having?"

"That wasn't part of the sex we're having?" Jack squeezed Ianto's balls appreciatively, then slowly lowered the zip on Ianto's pants. "Is this more what you're looking for? Are we not naked enough for you? The fantasies not hot enough?"

Ianto licked his lower lip. "The fantasies are fine, but definitely not naked enough."

Jack let the zip lower the rest of the way. He brought both hands up to Ianto's hips and began rolling down the leather, letting his thumbs drag against his skin. "You could be nakeder. You look just as good with clothes off as you do with clothes on."

"I offer that kind of variety," Ianto mumbled. He lifted his head and pressed his mouth against the pole, feeling the vibration of his moan against his chin as Jack's hands slid against his bare bottom. He turned his head around to get a good look at Jack. "Again, no lube. You got some stashed in the back of the magic wardrobe for a rainy day?"

"Or another gorgeous day in paradise?" Jack asked. "Not around here. Time moves differently in the TARDIS, what with all the time travel. Days in linear time are years here, and the other way around. The lube could be dried up and useless by now. Always seemed like it was put to better use on my person."

Ianto shrugged. "So no panel with a lubricant cover tube hiding somewhere?" he joked. "Or is that just up front?"

"Not that I know of. I found the one in the console on accident. Besides, I don't think we could even get to a wall from here." He scraped his nails across Ianto's stomach, brushing the hairs back the wrong way. "And we don't need lube. We're creative guys." Jack slid his cock between Ianto's thighs and rocked slowly. "See?"

Ianto steadied himself, trying not to lose balance with his trousers halfway down his thighs, constricting his coordination. He wrapped his arms around the pole again and wanted to tell Jack that this was all well and good for him, since he was the one getting his dick massaged, but the whole thing was leaving Ianto more aroused. Wherever Jack put his cock, it always seemed to feel good, against the skin, pressed between the muscles of his inner thighs, the blunt tip of his prick bumping against Ianto's balls.

"S'not bad," Ianto replied.

"Oh," Jack murmured, his voice a version of 'oh, snap!' His fingers traipsed along the length of Ianto's cock and pattered, sort of, like a flute player or some other wind instrument. Just the mental comparison made Ianto want to roll his eyes at himself. "That is the voice of a man who isn't impressed." He withdrew his hands and used them to press Ianto's legs even closer together. "And now, I'm going to tell you what I would do to Gwen if she were right here, so that you know what you're not appreciating."

Ianto rolled his eyes then, though it was difficult to pretend to be put out. Jack's hands had returned to his cock and balls, but this time his whole body pressed Ianto's into the pole of the stairwell, his thrusting more like grinding, pressing, never really pulling back, but manipulating his foreskin over his cock using Ianto's thighs as friction. Ianto's cock was to the side of the pole, but Jack seemed to enjoy pressing the length of it to the cold metal, the flat of his palm cupping him so that on one side he was too hot and on the other too cool. It reminded of him of placing his hand on Lisa's thigh, half of his hand on cold metal, and the other half on warm flesh.

"Gwen would be bored," Ianto said when he was pretty sure he wouldn't gasp in the middle of it.

"She would not-- you're taunting me." Jack stopped everything, except his breathing on the back of Ianto's neck. He slid one of his hand slowly up Ianto's stomach and across his ribcage. "If you were Gwen, you'd be begging because my dick would be right up against your clit, just out of reach. Not touching, but right there, and I could keep my hands otherwise occupied, like this." He slid a finger slowly against the tip of Ianto's nipple. Ianto's back arched just slightly, and if Jack hadn't been so close he might not have noticed, but he did, and laughed in Ianto's ear. "That's what I thought."

Ianto looked over his shoulder as best he could. "You figured out my evil plan, very good. Are you going to get me off now?"

"You talk too much," Jack said, as he began grinding himself against Ianto again. His hand worked Ianto's cock against the pole, but with a completely different rhythm than his thrusting. Slower, longer strokes. "I'm gagging you next time, I think."

Ianto laughed. "Not like I haven't heard that one before."

Jack didn't say anything. He slid his hand up from where it had been resting on Ianto's chest, still gently teasing the nipple, now moving up his neck. Ianto tilted his chin up, the back of his head almost resting on Jack's shoulder as a finger slipped into his mouth. He went to close his lips around the finger, but another pressed in next to it, followed by a third and a fourth. Ianto opened his eyes, trying to get a look at Jack, but he couldn't turn his head with the way Jack's palm was cupping his chin and holding him there.

Anywhere else, with anyone else, Ianto might have panicked, but here, with Jack, he let the lack of control relax him. He moaned around the fingers in his mouth, biting on Jack's pinky and forefinger that were sandwiched between his molars, and that seemed to make Jack thrust harder. His hand left Ianto's cock and grabbed him at the hip. Better leverage or something as he plowed Ianto's thighs. Ianto tried to line his dick up with the pole to rub himself against it, but he just kept slapping it awkwardly against the metal.

"Relax, baby," Jack said, rubbing his thumb against the underside of Ianto's chin.

Ianto wondered for a moment if Jack was talking to him, because Jack never called him "baby". In fact, if he could talk, he might have protested the pet name. Even so, he relaxed his shoulders and his legs, leaning against Jack for a lot of his support, but still holding onto the pole. After letting his jaw slacken, Ianto found he could slide his tongue between Jack's middle and forefingers. He started tongue-fucking Jack's hand, humming around it the way Jack liked when Ianto would give him a blowjob.

Jack laughed. "I love it. Keep doing that." He bent his head down and bit Ianto's shoulder, groaning. He was mumbling something, but Ianto couldn't make out was it was, and he didn't really bother trying. Jack's movement went jerky and his grip on Ianto's hip and jaw tightened as he came. As the come rolled down the inside of his thighs, Ianto almost felt like he had been coming with Jack. Almost.

Jack removed his hand from Ianto's mouth, then leant forward, pushing him against the pole, draping his arms over Ianto's shoulders. "You do make a good fucktoy."

"Well, this fucktoy would like to get off now. Preferably in your mouth."

"I can do that." Jack bit Ianto's ear and slid bonelessly down against him, kissing his bottom and placing hands at Ianto's hips and turning him around. Ianto leant against the pole, holding onto Jack to keep his balance. The last thing he wanted to do was topple down the stairs, not when they had reached this point.

Jack kissed his way down Ianto's cock, starting at the head and moving slowly down one side, Jack's head tilting further with each kiss.

Ianto rolled on the balls of his feet. "Jack, hurry it up. Haven't you teased me enough? I'm not going to last and at this rate, I'll come on your face."

"I like it when you do that," Jack said, looking up at him seriously. He continued to look up as he licked the head of Ianto's cock through his foreskin while he jerked at the bottom with his fingertips.

True to his word, Ianto didn't last long. He dug his back into the pole, clinging to Jack to keep from falling as he banged his head on the metal behind him. "Fucker," he mumbled, when he meant to either say 'fuck' or 'bugger', and the words merged in his mouth. It wasn't likely that Jack would notice.

Jack wiped his chin with the back of his hand. "Most of it went in my mouth."

Laughing, Ianto let himself fall down next to Jack. He kicked out of the trousers and flung them over the railing. "So that's how the cowboys did it, huh?"

"Yee haw," Jack replied, chuckling and situating himself more comfortably on the stairs. He followed Ianto's lead and tossed his trousers onto the railing and they slid a few inches down the banister.

Ianto scooted closer to him, resting his head on Jack's shoulder. It was only when Jack ran his hand through Ianto's damp hair did Ianto realise how sweaty and hot all over he felt. He started thinking about the water outside. Now was an even better time to go swimming than it was however long ago they started going through the wardrobe.

"How do you feel about swimming now?"

"How important are swim trunks now?" Jack countered.

"Not very," Ianto admitted. "Maybe it was all a good excuse to get you in here. What do you think?" He lifted his head and peered at Jack, who looked almost sleepy in his satisfaction.

"It was an excuse and you didn't even know it."

"Nope."

"Then again, you've got a pretty good instinct about these things."

Ianto smiled. He ran his finger down the side of Jack's face, temple to chin, all shiny with sweat, and for a moment, Jack felt like his. It was stupid, Ianto knew, because Jack wasn't, and if Jack did belong to anyone, it was probably the ship they were in at that very moment. The only thing Ianto could do was envy them both and be content with what he did have: this opportunity. So Ianto kissed Jack on the mouth and pulled away with a loud smacking sound he most definitely did not intend to do.

Jack grinned.

Ianto grinned too, then forced himself into a standing position. He stretched, feeling his back popping as he did, and glanced at the two pairs of trousers slung lazily over the railing. He fingered the black pair and asked, "I suppose it would be bad form to nick these, wouldn't it?"

Jack shrugged. "Probably. When we're back in Cardiff, we'll get some," he said as he stood. He took Ianto's hand and they started slowly down the spiral staircase. "We'll get the whole get up. Hats, boots, spurs. We could have used spurs earlier. Do you know what kind of sensations you can get out of them when rolled over the skin?"

"Something sensational?" Ianto guessed.

Jack laughed and pushed Ianto against the railing and kissed him. As they parted, something fell from the ceiling and hit the next step down. Ianto bent down and picked it up. He started laughing as he held his palm open flat, revealing the pair of silver spurs in his hand. Jack stroked the metal pole, and muttered, "That's right."

***

Typically, Ianto wouldn't walk around mostly naked anywhere that wasn't his flat, or on some rare occasions, the Hub, but the TARDIS wasn't just anywhere. There was no one else around, and at this point the TARDIS had seen everything. Jack had seen everything ages ago, so there wasn't anything left to hide from him.

It was interesting, though, to take into account what a ship could see--could she see? He still hadn't quite figured it out. She could definitely feel, and could probably, at the very least, sense that he was naked. She kept things warm, just the right temperature for wandering around in the nude.

He wandered the halls - and there were many of them - guided by the occasional blinking light from the TARDIS until he found Jack making tea in the kitchen. Jack, on the other hand, was comfortable being naked anywhere he wouldn't get arrested for it, though he had donned his trousers for his kitchen excursion, probably so that he didn't accidentally burn something he didn't want burnt.

"Isn't that my job?" Ianto asked from the doorway.

"I thought I'd give you the daaaaaaaaay...off." Jack's sentence seemed to have been distracted as he glanced up at Ianto.

Ianto fingered the blue silk tie around his neck. It was the only thing he was wearing. "You like it?"

Jack nodded. "Very much."

"Your kinks can be so predictable sometimes."

"I know what I like. You want me to fuck you in the kitchen," Jack replied.

Ianto smirked. "I can be predictable, too."

Jack rifled through the drawers absently. "I'm sure we could find something unpredictable to spice it up with, if you like." His fingers fished in the drawer and came up with what looked to be a cross between a manual eggbeater and a torture device. He evaluated it for a few seconds before shaking his head and tossing it back in. Ianto rounded Jack's back and came from behind him, flipping the tail of the tie over the other man's shoulder and down his chest.

"Is there lubricant in there? Some amazing chemical compound that will turn your skin into insensate pleasure?"

Jack pushed three stainless steel eggcups and what looked to be a fish tank motor out of the way before shaking his head. "No." He shivered once when Ianto brought his arms around his shoulders, and the tie slid along one nipple.

"That's a shame," Ianto whispered in his ear, his chin resting on Jack's left shoulder. He snagged the end of the tie in his right hand and pulled it over Jack's right shoulder, garroting him gently. Jack sucked in a breath and rock backwards, brushing Ianto's cock with his barely clothed arse, and oh, yeah, Ianto liked the way the curve of his dick slotted right in between the two cheeks. He pushed with his hips and pulled with his right fist, even as the tugging of the tie still about his neck yanked on him. "I was looking forward to another round. The TARDIS has a lot of rooms." He paused. "Have we ever done it in a kitchen?" He paused. "The Butler's Pantry in the Hub doesn't count," he amended when Jack had been about top open his mouth. Instead, Ianto twisted one finger around and hooked Jack's lips before drawing it out and running it down the other side of Jack's neck.

"No." Jack glanced over his shoulder, but his eyes were shutters, they closed so quickly, his hands gripping the edge of the counter, his voice soft. He almost pressed his Adam's apple against the blue silk, but instead he groaned low in his throat and leant away from Ianto so that the tie pulled tighter across his throat, taking Ianto with him. Obviously, Ianto thought as he choked a little, he hadn't thought that through beyond the first three seconds of, 'This will be sexy'.

"Well then," Ianto mumbled. Sometimes he thought that he bit off more than he could chew with Jack. Like, what was he supposed to do now? He reached forward and undid the buttons of Jack's trousers, thankful that they were there, for once, because they gave him something to do as his brain whirred and clicked.

They'd had sex in the TARDIS, with the TARDIS, sort of, and in the shower and other rooms. They'd fucked hard and almost angrily out in the sand, in the water, so much sex, really, that Ianto was starting to wonder if his brain hadn't had a switch flipped. Or why his prick hadn't fallen off.

He wondered if this was what Jack's mind looked like all the time. It would explain so much, actually.

Jack rubbed his throat against the tie, back and forth, then leant into Ianto so that the skin of his back pressed warm against Ianto's chest. "You know, you don't have to be creative all the time," Jack murmured, turning then, so that he faced Ianto and the tie cut across the back of his neck. His trousers barely hung on at his hips and Ianto pressed his own hard cock into the woolen material. One of Jack's newly freed hands reached up and yanked the end of the tie, his fingers closing over Ianto's until Ianto's head was flush against Jack's neck, angled to bite at the side of his throat. Jack's other hand hooked into the neck of the tie and pulled, so that he could position Ianto's face right where he wanted, which was apparently, right in front of his turned face.

His lips ghosted over Ianto's. "I can do conventional."

Ianto snorted, a small huffing sound. "You say this in a spaceship, whilst I stand here starkers, strangling us both with neckwear."

Jack smiled, his lips pressed to Ianto's so minutely, all he would have to so would be to open his mouth and they could be kissing. "Tomato, tomahto." He stopped and frowned a little—Ianto could feel it more than see it. "I quote too much Gershwin."

Ianto leant in the last three millimeters and pressed his mouth to Jack's, not caring about Gershwin or creativity or spaceships (Though for some reason she was always on the back of his mind, like the smell of lavender in the summer when he opened his windows to the back garden.).

"And here I thought it was Penthouse letters," he whispered when he pulled back, just a little, just enough to speak. Jack's hands twisted the tie and rubbed against his skin, his hips thrusting when Ianto reached down to palm both their cocks. He ran a few fingers in the sparse pubic hair at the base of Jack's cock. "I don't care what you quote as long as—hurk!"

Jack had yanked the tie with his hands, tightening the knot up against Ianto's Adam's apple. His eyes glinted mischievously.

"Is it time for me to be creative? I've already gagged you," he murmured, turning them so that Ianto was shoved against the edge of the counter, all of Jack's weight pressed to him, his clothed knee prying Ianto's legs apart, his thigh brushing up against his balls. "I can't imagine what we might have left." Jack used his tongue as a stylus to draw a smiley face on Ianto's shoulder; he could feel it—the dots of the eyes and they long upcurve swipe of a smile.

"Emoticons, really," Ianto murmured, his hands trying to find their cocks again, but while he had a firm grip on his own, Jack's remained elusive. Or perhaps his fingers were just working poorly.

Jack smiled into his skin. "Yeah well, I'm stalling," he murmured.

Ianto thrust up into his own hand and grunted. His eyes caught the shimmering walls of the TARDIS and he vaguely wondered how even a kitchen could look foreign. It was nothing but a yellow walled kitchen, and yet, it was obviously not a normal kitchen. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, aside from his internal knowledge that he was on a spaceship.

"Are you out of ideas?" Ianto joked, finally locating Jack's cock (it was right where he had left it, fancy that) and stroking with a lazy fist.

Jack's face pulled back and he grinned. "I don't have to think of everything, you know. What do you think I am, a sex encyclopedia?" His smile widened when Ianto simply raised an eyebrow. "Well, yeah, okay." He released the tie and held up both hands. "You think of something."

Ianto glanced about the room. They could probably find all number of kinky things and tools. Spreads and lickable things and objects to shove in places. Ties and drinks and things to titillate.

Instead, he let go of their cocks and used his hands to lift himself up onto the edge of the counter, just in front of the recessed sink. "Okay," he said, wrapping his legs about Jack's waist and leaning forward to capture his mouth again. His teeth clicked against Jack's and there was a moment of awkward head turning and rearranging before they settled into a little bit of a rhythm. It was odd, Ianto mused, being naked and up on the edge of the sink, just like he'd had Jenny Hannigan years ago back when he'd been young and insistent and she'd been willing to do almost anything. Now he was the one without clothes, being slightly manhandled by Jack, whose hands had found his waist, his cock, his chest, pulling and teasing and skimming along his skin.

When Jack broke away, his eyes cast about. "There as to be some here," he murmured, and Ianto rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on."

Jack smirked. "I don't want to be offending your delicate sensi—oh." He stopped when Ianto waved the tail of the tie and dug a finger in the lining, coming up with a small flat packet of lubricant, the kind given out as party favours at a stag night. "You should have been a Boy Scout."

Ianto smiled as Jack ripped at the packet with his teeth. "I forgot it was in there. I put it there ages ago."

Jack sighed and squeezed the lubricant into his fingers, then pressed his forehead to Ianto's as he reached down and tickled Ianto's hole with the tips. "All this time, we could have been getting busy."

Ianto snorted and shoved down a little to help the process. His cock was hard and he could feel his heart beat a little; when he looked at their cocks, his curved along his belly, Jack's peeking up through the V of Ianto's legs about his waist, he realised that they were going to fuck here, face to face, and the concept of seeing Jack, of being just slightly above that face and thrusting, grabbing with his hands and fucking hard and fast was enough to jolt him minutely. He shivered.

"What have we been doing all this—ah, cold fingers!—time, then?"

Jack's fingers completed a cursory circle of Ianto's hole before slipping out so that he could coat his cock with the lube, which was the better deal anyway. Ianto tried to trace Jack's spine with one heel and wondered if women ever felt this moment of awkwardness while they waited to the men in their lives to slip on a condom or something. But it didn't take Jack long, and they dispensed with the seduction, the teasing, the set up. The balls had been racked as it were, and Jack made the break with one quick thrust, his fingers settling around Ianto's waist. Ianto leant into him, one arm braced behind himself for pushing, and the other pulled Jack's face in by the back of his neck so that he could kiss him, every muscle seeming to strain, tighten, this precarious position, wobbling on the counter so Jack could fuck him raw.

Jack's face knitted when Ianto broke the kiss, and his movements changed in rhythm, slower, less frantic. Jack was normally a talker during sex, and the fact that he hadn't said anything in the past minute bothered Ianto.

"What," he panted around a particularly long thrust, "do you say we go outside after this?"

Jack closed his eyes and breathed, then rolled his hips and Ianto forgot what he'd asked. "If you're talking, then something's wrong."

Ianto sucked in his breath when Jack hit a sensitive spot and he clenched a little, breaking his rhythm. Jack froze, bowing his head a little and shaking. Ianto ran his fingers through Jack's hair at the temple, then rolled his own hips. "I do like this afternoon fucking," he said mildly, his own nonchalant way of saying, 'You may continue.'

Jack glanced up at him them, the corner of his mouth turned up in a small smile. "You call this fucking?" He placed both of his hands on Ianto's hips and held him still, his cock halfway in, freezing utterly. It was a special form of torture this way, and it set Ianto's teeth on edge. He couldn't even move his hips to push against Jack's cock.

Ianto snorted and then used his free hand to pinch Jack's nipple before abandoning his brace against the back of the sink and using his other hand to scratch at Jack's chest. His legs tightened and he found that he could push Jack closer from the back, pull him in, as it were.

"Well, it's a far cry from making love," he joked as Jack made his best teasing face. Ianto was hard and frustrated and if Jack didn't resume the fucking in the very, very near future, he was going to wank off in front of him and come all over the both of them.

Jack leant back into Ianto's feet. Curses. "Oh, I didn't realise that you wanted to be made love to, Ianto," he whispered, his eyebrows wiggling, but not matching something in his eyes themselves. "I didn't think that would interest you."

Of course not, Ianto thought. They didn't do that. Making love was for women and romantic lovers and people you cared deeply for in a—

Oh. Well then.

He could feel the heat rushing to his face, more than it already was, and he looked away then, hands stilling and settling on Jack's shoulders. "It might," he admitted, suddenly very interested in the floor tiles. They were brown.

Jack pushed into Ianto then, all the way, once, to the hilt, the very end of him, and leant in, grabbing Ianto's jaw with one hand. "We can do that, you know." He kissed Ianto so lightly on the lips that it barely registered. "Some day, you just say the word." He pulled out slowly and then, still holding Ianto's face, pushed back in, and then out. Normal service had resumed.

Ianto felt his cock against his belly, impossibly hard, he knew that he was going to come. Jack's movements were methodical, his grip on Ianto's face firm, and his eyes riveted to Ianto's as they rocked a little.

"Say the word, and it's tablecloths and drippy candles and flowers—"

"I hate flowers."

"Chocolates then, and violins, and then I'll take you home and unwrap you, and we'll make love wherever you want," Jack breathed. "And the whole time, we'll look at each other, just—" Push in. "Like." Pull out. "This." Push in.

Ianto came all over his chest and Jack leant in to lick some of it away, what he could reach, tongue working on Ianto's skin even a the last of Ianto's orgasm pumped out of his cock. Ianto used both hands to lean against the back of the sink basin, and Jack brought himself in short order, as if he had been waiting for Ianto and he himself was an afterthought.

Ianto hadn't even realised that he was out of breath, that he had broken out in a sweat, that he had been panting like some corseted romance novel heroine until he felt his chest heaving and the chill of the air ghosting across his skin. Jack pulled out and lay against him, his smile crooked like a lopsided painting on an uneven wall.

"Missionary," Jack said, cocking his head. "I think it's been...how long has it been?"

Ianto shrugged. "I think this might be the kinkiest thing we've ever done," he replied, reclining so that his arms braced him and his arse wouldn't fall into the sink. "That should say something about us," he decided at the ceiling.

Jack leant forward and licked a line up the sweat on Ianto's sternum. "It says we're doing something right."

Part Three

Borrowed Time (or, That One Time Ianto and Jack Committed Grand Theft TARDIS) (1/3)

2009-11-12T17:37:54Z

Title: Borrowed Time (or, That One Time Ianto and Jack Committed Grand Theft TARDIS) (1/3)
Authors: lionessvalenti and amand_r
Beta(s): basingstoke and 51stcenturyfox in varying degrees. Thanks, ladies!
Artist: laurab1! Wooooo!
Character/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Jack/Ianto/TARDIS
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 24,090
Warnings: SEX. A LOT OF IT. A LOT. TONNES.
Disclaimer: We think that if we owned these guys, we'd already be on TW S6. AND IT WOULD BE ON THE DIRTY CHANNEL. They might fight aliens. You know, if they felt like it. Whatevs. But alas, they belong to the BBC.
Authors' Note: The working title for this was simply, "Operation: Get The TARDIS Laid." That's what we did. A lot.
Summary: The TARDIS shows up on the Plass. It couldn't hurt to look inside, right? Just for a second?

Gorgeous art by laurab1.

Ianto didn't normally take the invisible lift. A creature of habit, he went in through the tourist office. And well, there was a perception filter, so it wasn't as if he was looking at it when he passed it.

So he was surprised when, coming down into the Hub, he found Jack glued to the monitors of Tosh's old workstation. He handed Jack the take-away coffee and looked over the man's shoulder. "Are there strippers on the Plass again and I missed them?"

Jack made a face at the coffee. Ianto was sorry, but they'd broken the machine the night before (he would maintain that it was Jack's fault until the end of his days), and he hadn't the time to fix it. Gwen was away on holiday for the weekend, and they were on their own. Ianto glanced over at the flashing lights on the main phone and winced; there were probably fifty messages on there.

He regarded Jack again skeptically. He'd presumably been here all night and into the morning, and yet, the messages went unanswered or listened to. Ianto finally spared a look at the monitors.

There, on the perception filter, was the Doctor's blue box. The TARDIS.

Ianto blinked a few times and sipped his own coffee. Well, so much for getting anything done today.

He waited for Jack to say something, but it was clear Jack was content to stare at the monitor, waiting for something to happen. Surely, he wasn't going to stand there all day, but he had probably been standing there all night, waiting for the Doctor to exit or enter the box. Finally, Ianto asked, "How long has it been there?"

"I noticed her about three this morning," Jack replied, not looking away. He took a sip of the coffee, pulled another face, then set it down.

"You've been standing here since three this morning?"

"Just about three." His fingers tapped the desktop. Ianto recognised the rhythm as the opening to Queen's 'We Will Rock You'.

Ianto raised his eyebrows. "I hope you were coming from the loo, not going to."

Jack's eyes slid over to Ianto for a moment, then back to the monitor again. "The Doctor refuels here. I guess that's what he's doing now. I scanned the area for someone with two hearts, but nothing. He's either still inside or out of range."

"How far is out of range?"

Jack frowned. "It doesn't matter."

O-kay, Ianto mouthed to himself. "I'll start on those messages, then."

"You know," Jack said over his shoulder as Ianto walked away, "if she stays there all day, we should look into it. She is alien and sitting in our back yard. We should do something about it."

Ianto was simultaneously nervous and intrigued about what that 'something' might be. Jack was using the same not-quite-serious tone of voice he often used when he would suggest checking Ianto's pants for weevils with his mouth, or the time Jack requested Ianto give him a thorough strip search, complete with green rubber gloves, because he misplaced the key to sub-basement four. The key had been found later on Jack's key ring.

In the meantime, the morning crawled by, and Ianto busied himself doing what he normally did: being productive, filing, running interference, lightly cleaning, fielding phone calls. He figured that if he could wrangle a helmet from there and punt something, he might have a good description of a rugby player for his CV. He tinkered with the coffee machine and pronounced it only slightly dead, then ordered the part from a company he'd used before. He recycled a stack of paper files from Jack's desk that once were of the utmost importance, but now were so past the date in which they were requested that they were obsolete; UNIT had no need for backdating. Besides, Ianto was running an experiment to see how long it would be before they noticed that Torchwood Three hadn't sent them anything tangible for seven months.

Jack gravitated around the monitors as if he were a small moon. He set whichever one he was near to the Plass so that any time he could glance up and see the TARDIS on the paving stone. It hadn't done anything. Ianto tried to explain that they could set the sensors to detect any movement within a small radius of the box, but Jack seemed to need to see the box itself.

Ianto was actually grateful when the Rift Monitor went off, and he was able to pinpoint the location to Penarth. That would keep them busy for a while. He loaded up the SUV with a few more tranquiliser guns (ever handy, ever versatile), and waited for Jack inside the car, engine running, whilst Jack sauntered across the parking garage, his eyes glued to the BlackBerry in his hand. His hand fished for the handle of the door but misjudged the distance, and he ran face first into the door.

Ianto smiled into the rearview mirror. It was going to be a lovely afternoon.

***

The trip to Penarth had been a wash out. The vague alien threat that the monitor had picked up turned out to be the alien equivalent of frozen block of waste falling from an airplane toilet unit. Ianto and Jack had incinerated it on the spot and congratulated themselves on a job well done without ever having to fall or run or in general sully themselves by kneeling in the mud or hauling something snotty or sticky. Ianto counted this one a win.

Or he would have, if Jack would stop looking at the BlackBerry long enough to answer a question with more than three words. He had thought about doing that gag he'd seen on the telly, where the person suggests all manner of ludicrous things that the distracted person agrees to because they're not paying attention, but he had a feeling that he'd be offering to do things that Jack would expect him to make good on later, and he'd already done that before. So he followed Jack into the Hub through the parking garage entrance, eyeing the back of the man's head as it bent to glance at the BlackBerry, until he could two-step up to his office and key up his CCTV footage to his monitor.

He could at least get Jack to do some paperwork, signing things, since that didn't require the computer, which was obviously otherwise occupied. He dropped off a stack of files that merely required signatures and set an apple on them; he figured that if, in an hour, he returned and the apple were still there, then he would have to take drastic measures.

He didn't have to. In thirty minutes Jack appeared at his workstation, files in one hand, apple core almost completely bare in the other. He tossed the core in the bin and dropped the files on the desk. "What's next?" Jack asked, his eyes flitting to the screen, which Ianto had set to the Plass simply because, he had to admit, his curiosity was piqued as well. It was better than a screensaver of the oval T bouncing around.

"What's next, is we decide what to do about that," he replied, nodding his head at the box on the screen. "Are you worried about it?"

Jack shrugged. "Nope."

"Ah," Ianto offered.

"It's not a big deal," Jack said.

"Right."

"I mean, he has to refuel sometime, right?"

"Sure."

"And I passed on it the last time he offered, so it's not as if I want to go back."

"Uh huh."

"You're humouring me."

"Yup."

Jack scrubbed his face with his hand and stared at Ianto for a second. "I keep forgetting that you've never actually met him. Been inside--it's bigger on the inside, have I ever told you that it's bigger on the inside?"

Ianto bit back several sexually charged but hideous comebacks to that, and instead nodded gravely. "I think you may have mentioned it several times."

Jack grunted and rubbed his temples, staring at the screen.

Time ticked by slowly. Ianto considered supper, another cuppa, the three stacks of filing in his inbox, the new lube Jack had that smelled like 'winter', his own firearm, which was in serious need of cleaning, the three other calls he had to make, one to the butcher for another shipment of Myfanwy meat. All things that had promise. Instead, he decided to tackle another issue entirely.

"We could go up there," he suggested.

Jack smiled. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

Okay then. "What if," Ianto mused, arms crossed, "what if we just brought the lift down?" They both looked at the lift ramp in its raised position.

Jack snorted. "She'd never forgive me." He slapped his hands on his thighs. "That's it. I'm going up there."

Ianto followed him to the cogwheel. "Who would never forgive you?" He stood next to Jack as the wheel rolled back and Jack bounced down the hallway to the steps up into the Tourist Office.

"The TARDIS," Jack called over his shoulder. "What did they teach you in Doctor 101?"

"I worked in an office. Everything I learnt about the Doctor I learnt over a water cooler," Ianto replied. "Until I read all your files, that is."

Jack stopped on the stairs and looked down at Ianto. "You read all my files?"

"It was terribly interesting. Not unlike reading a novel."

Jack considered him for a moment, then shrugged. "Fair enough." He squatted, then sat down on the step and bent forward, his face almost level with Ianto. "What most people, water cooler people, don't know about the TARDIS is that she's sentient. She's a living ship, her own being, and she's..." Jack grinned and shrugged. "She's beautiful."

All of the pieces suddenly fit together. Ianto stared at him. "You fucked the ship. All this time I thought you'd been doing the Doctor, and it turns out you were shagging the spaceship."

Jack raised his hands and leant back against the edge of the stair. "You make it sound like I stuck my dick in her tailpipe," he groaned. "The TARDIS is a lady." He stood when Ianto started up the steps and turned, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'm not going to explain it to you. You'll see."

Ianto raised an eyebrow even though Jack couldn't see it; he'd be able to hear it in Ianto's next statement. "I'm not sticking my dick in the Doctor's ship's tailpipe." Jack barked a laugh and he continued. "What does the Doctor think of this, anyway?"

Jack turned at the head of the stairs and winked. "Oh, it doesn't matter. She makes her own choices." He threw the back of his hand up to his forehead. "Ours is a forbidden love." But there was something sad in the way he said it, the way that he used the hand to hide his eyes as well as his forehead.

Even so, Ianto snorted. "All right, then. Let's go meet the mystery woman. Is woman the right term? Mystery...box? That sounds like we're on a game show."

"Well, if it comes down to the new car or the mystery box, I'll take the box every time," Jack replied.

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

Ianto followed Jack outside, and as they walked along the pavement toward the water tower, now that he was paying attention to it, Ianto could easily see the TARDIS sitting there. "Looks bigger than in the photographs. Not that I expected it to be an inch and a half high."

"Bigger on the inside, too," Jack replied, almost automatically. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keyring. He flipped through the probably fifty keys, biting his lip and humming impatiently. He grinned suddenly. "Here it is!" Jack inserted his key in the door and turned it minutely before looking back at Ianto. "He hasn't changed the locks. Good sign!" The lock gave the rest of the way and Jack pushed the handle, swinging the door in. "Okay, now for the good part." He poked his head in and looked around before withdrawing it. "No one in there."

Ianto stuffed his hands into his pockets and wondered what he must look like, standing on the Plass by a paving stone that no one could quite bring themselves to actually look at, glaring at the fountain. He wasn't sold on the idea of wandering into the Doctor's blue box, even if it was empty. Especially if it was empty, actually. Gate crashing was just bad manners.

"Are you sure this is a good—" He was cut short when Jack opened the door fully and stepped inside, grabbing Ianto's arm and pulling him in with him. He stumbled on the threshold and Jack caught him somewhat before he could land, face first, on the floor.

"Gotcha," Jack said with a grin, helping Ianto to his feet. "Come say hello."

"I thought you said no one was here," Ianto replied, looking around. It didn't look like what he expected, but as he stood there, he realised he didn't know what he had expected, not really. The water cooler chatter hadn't given any specific details to the vague rumors.

Jack walked backwards up the ramp toward the middle of the room. "The Doctor isn't here—"

"Speaking of that, is it all right that we're here?"

"I have a key. And he did land on our doorstep. He should have known better if he didn't want visitors." Jack was becoming more distracted with each word as his fingers made contact with the TARDIS console. He leant forward, letting his hands wander freely as he closed his eyes.

Ianto stared, walking closer, but cautiously. "Jack?"

Jack opened his eyes and smiled contentedly. "Come 'ere."

Ianto took a couple more steps and stood next to Jack. He looked down at the array of buttons, switches, levers, monitors, wheels, and gauges in front of him. He supposed it took a lot of tech to travel through time and space. He'd never really thought about the effort it would take.

"Like this," Jack said, taking Ianto's hand and laying it on the console, palm down. Jack looked up at the green, glowing pole in the center of the room and said, "This is Ianto. Ianto, the TARDIS."

"Pleased to meet you," Ianto replied, feeling somewhat awkward until a warm, electric buzz ran up his arm. He gasped and almost fell over again, this time letting his shoulder bump into Jack to keep his balance.

Jack laughed. "She likes you."

Ianto nodded at the console and Jack and wondered if she could 'see' him. Did she have a camera eye tucked in a corner, or was she nothing but eyes? Could he conceivably hide in a corner and be out of sight, like when he and Jack played naked hide and seek? "What do we do now? Wait for the Doctor?" Ianto's hands tried to leave the console, but he found that he just liked the way she felt, the smoothness of her. She was cold in places and warm in others. Ianto wondered if this was some strange Jackobite trait he'd picked up, or if he really rather liked the ship a little too much of his own volition.

Jack seemed about to say something, but then the open door swung shut with a clanging noise that shouldn't be made by a wooden door, and the pillar in the center of the console began to glow brighter and the object in the clear tube of it started to pump up and down. Ianto heard a strangely familiar alarm noise, and it nagged at him where he had heard it before.

Jack's head whipped to the door, and he dashed for it, tugging at the handles, and then banging on the frame with his fists at full force. Ianto stood rigid at the console as Jack ran back to it and turned a few cranks, pushed a few buttons, and did something obscene with what looked like a music box thread-wheel.

"No no no no no," Jack mumbled, working a gearshift. "Oh no, baby, he'll kill me, no, honey, what are you doing?"

Ianto glanced about and then it hit him: They were taking off. Leaving, flying, dematerialising, whatever it was called, the TARDIS was leaving the Plass. Possibly Wales. Possibly Earth. Possibly the 21st century.

And he was in it.

He ran his hands along the rim of the console while Jack opened the grating in the floor and played with some wires, all the while babbling in almost some sort of baby-talk, and a more rapid-fire version of his low seduction voice. "Oh honey, please don't do this to me." He jumped into the compartment underneath the grating and clanged a few things around. Ianto poked his head over the hole--he wasn't about to get down on his knees, not yet--and blinked at Jack, who was surveying a panel of glowing wires, mumbling something reassuring like, "It wasn't this way the last time I was here."

Ianto tried his hand at speaking. "Let me get this straight. The Doctor isn't on board."

"Seems not."

"And we've taken off, and we can't fly this thing."

Jack looked up at Ianto and smiled. "I can fly her. I just choose to let her..." He trailed off at Ianto's glare and his grin got wider. "No, no I can't?"

Ianto felt his balance seem to wobble. It was silly, he knew, because it felt like being on solid ground, really, or maybe a huge cruise ship. But just knowing that he wasn't on the ground ground, no wait, not even in orbit most likely, not to mention this time, was enough to make him think of bending tesseracts and feel distinctly queasy.

"Look," Jack said, standing up, and, looking a bit shaky himself, trying his hand at a keyboard. "Sometimes this sort of thing just happens."

"This just happens."

"Well, no. Well, sometimes. Kinda. Maybe? It just did, so I guess so." Jack shrugged and reached up one hand to run his fingers down the wall. "Neat, huh?"

Ianto felt his frown grow exponentially. "Right."

Without warning, everything stopped. After the sounds of the engines working and time travel, and the buzzing panic in Ianto's ears, the TARDIS seemed silent, though there was still a humming under the console. The TARDIS was definitely still awake.

"We've landed," Ianto said, trying to regain his balance on jelly-legs. He turned to Jack and asked, "Where are we?"

Jack shrugged. "No idea, but you can let go now."

Ianto looked down and noticed he was still holding onto the console's edge. He pulled his hands away and flexed his fingers. "What next?"

"We go out and see where we've landed," Jack replied, grinning. "I love this part."

Ianto noticed that Jack seemed to love all the parts, but that was typical Jack, wasn't it? They could be on another planet, walk out that door and not be able to breathe, and Jack would walk into it smiling. At least Ianto would have something nice to look at before he suffocated somewhere out in the middle of the universe.

Instead of telling Jack everything on his mind, Ianto asked, "Is it safe?"

"Is anything safe?" Jack asked. Ianto didn't have time to point out how that didn't answer his question as Jack darted for the door. He flashed Ianto another grin, opened the flimsy-looking wooden door and poked his head outside for just a moment. When he glanced back into the TARDIS, he looked absolutely enthralled.

"You have to see this, Ianto." Jack beckoned him. "It's beautiful."

Ianto steadied himself again, straightened his tie, and followed Jack. He stepped out the door and onto new ground. In this case, white sand that sparkled in the light of two suns, leading out into a translucent blue ocean.

"Whoa."

Jack laughed and placed a hand on the side of the TARDIS. "I should have known my girl would bring us someplace good."

Ianto watched the way Jack stroked the exterior of the ship, smiling fondly at it--her? Oh fuck, he was not going to be jealous of the spaceship, but there was something about the look in Jack's eyes. Ianto cleared his throat. "So, uh, we're on another planet, right? Two suns and all."

"I'd say so." Jack turned away from the TARDIS and bumped against Ianto. "What do you think?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

"I'm impressed. Are we in the future?"

Jack hit a couple buttons on the strap. "No, actually. It's about tea time in Cardiff." He looked up. "Huh."

"Are we...supposed to be doing something? I don't know what the protocol for this sort of thing is."

"That's the beauty of it. There isn't a protocol." Jack grinned. "Don't be scared."

***

Ianto laid back against the tree trunk and wished he had a hat. A hat with a big brim to cover his face, like those siesta hats--sombreros. He wanted a sombrero. It felt like a sombrero planet, and no one would ever see him wearing it. And the double sun would be out of his eyes.

Jack stomped back from his perimeter walk. "Huh," he said, kicking a coconut-looking thing and sitting next to Ianto on the ground.

Ianto covered his eyes with his hand and looked at Jack. "What?"

Jack checked his wrist strap. "Well, usually, something bad has happened by now." He gestured with his fingers. "This is how it works--we go somewhere for a bit of fun, exploration, and then shit happens and you end up running for your life."

Ianto nodded solemnly, trying to look disappointed. "And yet." He nodded back at the TARDIS, sitting in the shade of another, larger tree. "Do you think she just...you know, did it on purpose? Nothing wrong, just," he waved a hand. "Beach?"

Jack stared at her for a long time, eyes narrowing. Ianto wasn't sure if he was communing with the TARDIS or just trying to death-glare her into submission. It was hard to tell. Also, Ianto suspected that they would both be equally ineffective. Instead, he stared out at the blue waves that smacked the pale sand of the beach, each cascade sounding almost musical, bit like the shores of Cardiff, or any beach he'd been to, actually.

"If it makes you feel better," he said lightly, much more relaxed than he had been the whole trip here. "I'm in critical danger of getting a sun burn."

At that exact moment, there was a rustle from overhead, and a coconut-fruit-thing fell from the tree, landing with a sharp thud in the sand next to them. They both looked at it.

"Well," Ianto proffered, "that could have been dangerous."

Jack's mouth quirked and he undid the first few buttons on his shirt. "True. One foot to the left and you would have been a goner."

Ianto raised his hands as if to say, 'what can you do?' and squinted in the sun. "I suppose we should run for our lives." He stopped. "What happens after you get back to the TARDIS?"

Jack smiled and stood.

Ianto cocked his head. "Really." It wasn't a question.

Jack held out a hand. "Come with me if you want to live."

Chuckling, Ianto took Jack's hand and allowed himself to be hoisted off the ground. They walked back to the TARDIS, still hand-in-hand. He pumped Jack's hand experimentally, as if to test that it was a real hand and not a dummy hand, but Jack pumped back. Strangely, it was not awkward.

"We could leave the door open," Ianto said. "It's a nice breeze off the ocean here. Unless there's an ocean in the TARDIS."

"There's a rainforest room," Jack said with a shrug, "but it has monkeys."

Ianto thought he might like to know the problem with the monkeys, but from the matter of fact way Jack spoke, it was probably best left unsaid.

***

They had just helped themselves to the Doctor's kitchen and made a cobbled meal of toast and jam, potted meat, and some very sad looking pears, when Jack had said that they should think about what they were doing there. Ianto had looked about the kitchen and thought about making a smart remark along the lines of, 'we're having supper,' but he knew what Jack was saying. They had stolen the TARDIS, and that might very well have put them, in Jack's words, 'in a heap of trouble.' On the other hand, they hadn't done anything, really, just gone in and said hullo, and then suddenly whoosh tropical paradise.

"I think she's playing with us," Jack said cheerfully. "But then again, that's an awful lot of playing."

Ianto agreed. Billions of miles away were an awful lot of 'playing'. His idea of playing largely consisted of flirting and rugby. He picked at the pear wedges Jack had cut and dumped on his plate. "So, you don't think there's any actual danger?"

Jack leant back in his chair, his fingers toying with his braces just below his shoulder. It was what Ianto secretly called 'Jack's thinky pose'. He shoved away from the table and picked up his plate, setting it in the sink before turning to lean against the counter and watch Ianto shove the rest of his pears in his mouth. "I think," he mused. "I think we're on holiday."

Ianto stopped chewing and thought about saying something. It said something that the Doctor hadn't been on the ship. He was probably standing on the Plass right now, scratching his head, and holding a Starbucks cup. Or cursing Jack's name. Did the Doctor curse? "So this is completely new to you?"

There was a long stretch of silence in which Ianto had thought he'd lost Jack to inner thought, some memory of some sort, the way-way back machine in his brain that allowed him to dredge through memories like a net fisherman. He'd resurface with either a shrug, or an answer.

It was the latter. "Rose and I tried to get her to take us to Barcelona once, the planet, not the city." He grinned and took the plate Ianto held out to him, depositing it in the sink with his own. "They make these banana mojito thingies that, well." He smiled when Ianto stood, pushed in his chair like the guest he was trying to be, and gestured for him to precede him from the room. "They put the banana essence in the bottom of the glass, and then they let this monkey shake it--"

Ianto raised a finger and stopped, turning at the waist. "That was where the lie started," he said.

Jack grinned. "Yeah, that was it. Too much?"

Ianto turned and regarded the smoothness of the walls as they continued back to the console room, or what he hoped was the console room. He was fairly sure he knew that route, and if he was wrong, he was going to be quite upset. "I'd say so. In fact," he called over his shoulder before realising that he'd lost Jack in just three seconds. He turned and looked back the way they had come, a hallways that featured several branches. He could have gone down any of them. He also would have known that Ianto wasn't following him. "Jack?" he queried.

Maybe the TARDIS ate him. Was the TARDIS evil? Could it be evil? If they were already inside it, didn't that mean it had already eaten them?

Ianto filed away the philosophy for later, but refrained from getting too close to any of the walls. That was rather useless, since the floor was just as alive as the walls, actually, but he squelched his running brain long enough to clench his fists and take a few tentative steps in the direction of one of the hallways. "Jack?" he called again.

"Go on ahead," Jack's voice answered, nebulous. Ianto had no idea which hallway it had come from. "I'll be there in a minute. Looking for something." He sounded increasingly far away, tinny.

Ianto stood there and glanced from hallway to hallway before shrugging and retracing his steps back into the console room, still faintly surprised that he was even capable of finding it. Jack had yet to give him the grand tour, so he hadn't had to memorise many routes (kitchen, check, loo, check); he suspected that if they really were 'on holiday', as Jack seemed to think they were, he would have a few days in which to map things out in is head. Already he was clearing space in a mental filing cabinet.

He was in the middle of considering mounting a search party when he heard footsteps. "Lookie what I found," Jack said, coming into the room from another door that led into, presumably, the rest of the TARDIS, holding a large green bottle in one hand and two flutes in the other.

Ianto turned back around on the seat to face the console as Jack crossed the room. "Champagne?"

"Better. Menginga! 3020, good year." Jack flopped down on the seat next to Ianto. "I don't think the Doctor's going to miss it, and if he does, he can go get another bottle. The dust on this one tells me it's been there for a while. Aged well."

"The humour in alcohol from the future being aged well is not lost on me," Ianto replied. He took the bottle from Jack and tried to read the label, but it was in a language made up of squares in varying colours. He looked up at Jack with a raised eyebrow. "You can read this?"

"Of course. It's the written language of Ursaga. It's the only planet you get decent menginga."

Ianto didn't point out that he wouldn't know the difference between good and bad on alien wine from the future, because he was far more skeptical that Jack could read the coloured squares, since Jack had lived in Cardiff for over a hundred years and still had trouble reading anything beyond basic Welsh.

Still, Ianto opened up the bottle. It had a cork, but it was easy to pull out with his fingers. There was a satisfying sffft! as the cork left the bottle. He sniffed it, and it was distinctly alcoholic and smelled sort of fruity, but not like any fruit Ianto could name. Just sweet and tangy. He looked at the label again, as though he would magically be able to read it, but the squares were still just squares. "What's in this?"

"Fermented manvangos, mostly," Jack replied, as though Ianto would then reply, "Ahhhh!" with understanding. He took the bottle from Ianto and handed him one of the flutes. "Sort of like a combination of a kiwi and a cucumber, but a fresh manvango doesn't taste anything like the drink."

"That's very specific," Ianto said.

Jack poured a glass; the red liquid was a bit thicker than regular wine, and foaming slightly, like a carbonated beverage, but the foam stayed at the top of the glass. He handed it to Ianto. "I'm not allowed to have drinks in here," Jack mock-whispered, covering his mouth with one raised finger before turning to the console and petting it. "Don't worry baby, I'll be careful."

Ianto snorted softly and sipped his drink. The bubbles were properly tingly on his tongue and the taste was well, strange, but not bad. He was going for a second sip when the kick of alcohol hit and he wheezed, reaching up to loosen his tie, but his fingers weren't working so well, suddenly. "Shit."

Jack laughed. "I should have warned you. It's got a bite. A couple glasses of this will knock you on your arse."

"It was the delayed reaction," Ianto said, still coughing. "I'm gonna want more."

Jack laughed again. "Finish that one and we'll see where you stand."

Ianto shook his head. "Jack, if there's anything of which I'm capable, it's holding my alcohol."

Three and a half glasses later, Ianto was sprawled on the floor. He giggled at nothing, though there might have been something funny about the way the light played across the ceiling. He jerked slightly when Jack seemed to fall down out of nowhere next to him. Ianto grinned. "You smell good."

"Did you have too much to drink?" Jack asked, his own face a little drunken-seeming. "I told you it was strong."

Ianto chuckled and looked at Jack seriously. "I like the ship. It's nice in here."

"Mmm, yeah," Jack agreed lazily. He reached up and began unknotting Ianto's tie. "I'm glad you're starting to see why I like it here so much." Once the tie was undone, Jack began unbuttoning Ianto's shirt, a slow but steady process with one hand.

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Captain Harkness, you're trying to seduce me." Jack laughed, but didn't pause his drunken but deft unbuttoning. "Aren't you?"

Jack lowered his face to Ianto's collarbone and licked along the clavicle. "Do you want me to seduce you?" he asked. "Or we could just quote movies at each other for a while instead of--mppprrrprpgh!" He flailed a bit when Ianto grabbed at his face and pulled him in to mash their mouths together. It took a second to arrange everything to Ianto's satisfaction, but in short order Jack's head bobbed with the pulse of it, tasting like fruit and candy and a lot of alcohol, more alcohol than Ianto had ever seen him drink before, actually, and why did he even care about that now when Jack was slowly sliding on top of him and oh Jesus just the weight of him, pressing Ianto into the grating, was cutting and hot and so Jack. From his tongue to his fingers, his chest, the hard cock rubbing against Ianto's hip, his legs tangling with Ianto's, everything was always so very Jack, in Ianto's mind, and all of that was accented by the hum of the ship, the fucking spaceship, for Christ's sake, a spaceship that was alive and had, for no reason, taken them to paradise.

Now that was worthy of a film plot.

Coming up for air, Jack pulled away minutely, hands resting on either side of his shoulders, his face pink under that tanned skin, his eyes glassy, pupils blown. Ianto reached up and yanked at the collar of his shirt. "You know, maybe you're right," Ianto said, "I know lots of movie quotes from quality films."

Jack smirked and dipped his face forward to capture Ianto's lips momentarily. "Oh, yeah?"

"Of course," Ianto said, holding onto his serious face while he ran his hands along Jack's sides, around to the fishtail of his trousers in the back, an archaic little thing that no one but Ianto noticed, that no one but Ianto would find sexy. "Like Casablanca, Queen Christina," he groaned when Jack shifted on top of him. "Behind The Green Door, Deep Throat," he capitulated, and the pressure increased as Jack rolled his hips in a little circle. Ianto twisted the fallen braces around his wrists and smirked into Jack's ear when the man leant into nuzzle his hair. "The Muppets Take Manhattan."

Jack snorted then, and his head fell forward even more to hit the grating under them. "You are twisted and fantastic," Jack murmured.

"Those are some of my many endearing qualities," Ianto replied, freeing his hands from Jack's braces. "It's also the word 'muppet'," he whispered into Jack's ear. "Obscene. Makes me think of a fuckdoll."

Jack lifted himself. "Lazy-limb sex," he groaned. "Mmm. Maybe later." He eyed Ianto mischievously. "Have you ever had sex using paralytics?"

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Is this a John Hart thing?" Jack shrugged. "No, no I haven't. Muppet-sex?"

Jack reached down and cupped Ianto's cock through his pants. "So much you don't know, Ianto. So much you don't know."

Ianto thrust up into Jack's hand, and the force of it ground his head into the grating. He might feel it tomorrow, but right now he felt loose and gangly, like his arms and legs were three times longer than they were, and as Jack finished unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it open in earnest study, he jump-started his fingers, reaching for Jack's too-many layered body, setting about the unwrapping process with the determination of the intoxicated. Jack, all the while, was making it increasingly more difficult as he sucked a spot on Ianto's neck, just behind his ear.

"Too many clothes," Ianto said, or at least he thought he said it. It might have been a moan, but he meant the words. Either way, Jack seemed to understand him and wriggled out of his trousers, belt still buckled and all. "That's talent," he mumbled.

Jack pressed his cock against Ianto's leg as he worked the buckle, his other hand steadying himself above Ianto so that not all of his weight was on him. "Oh, let me show you--ah!" His hand unzipped the flies and tugged Ianto's cock free. All it took then, was a little horizontal shimmy and some lifting, grinding against Jack's naked form (always welcome, really) to slide his trousers and shorts down, kick them off somewhere, somewhere he could hopefully find them later.

It was another bout of tricksy twisting to lose the waistcoats and slide arms from sleeves even without the tie (long long gone to the depths, probably), toeing off socks and laughing, and all through it, Ianto felt a distant sense of something, something like anticipation or itchiness. A hand that ran along his thigh registered a second before it possibly could have, a tongue down his chest wasn't nearly as wet as it seemed, the breath on his cock wasn't anywhere near as hot as he thought it was, he was sure. Jack sprawled next to him, his hands doing all the work, and Ianto might have felt bad about that. Two drinks ago.

It wasn't until Jack settled himself between Ianto's legs and laved his cock and balls before moving lower that it became blatantly obvious that something was missing from the sexual equation. "We are woefully unprepared for this," he murmured, then congratulated himself on critical thinking under duress.

Jack fingered his hole and rubbed his cheek against Ianto's raised knee like some jungle cat. "Hmmm?"

"Well." Ianto paused to verbally register the feeling of Jack's fingers pressing into him before he continued. "I'm not self lubricating. I mean, I guess you could use spit, and in this state I'd think it was stellar, but--"

"Hrng," Jack grunted, pulling his fingers from Ianto's arse and slapping the side of his thigh. "Wait." Ianto watched him roll towards the console with interest.

"Don't tell me the Doctor keeps lube in the glove box too," he mumbled.

"Not precisely. Well, sort of." Jack opened up one of the panels on the bottom of the console and started digging through the wires. His face was lit up with a green light, reflecting off his teeth as he smiled.

"Should you be doing that?" Ianto asked rolling onto his side and propping his head on one elbow.

"I know what I'm looking for," Jack replied, not turning away. He dug his arm in deeper and grinned. "Aha! Found you."

Ianto lifted his head slightly to get a better look at what Jack was pulling out of the console. It appeared to be a long piece of tubing connected somewhere deep inside the TARDIS, and as Ianto got a closer look, he noticed it was completely covered, inside and out, with some sort of clear gel-like substance.

"There's a lot of buildup on here," Jack murmured, fingering the tube. He petted the panels in mock horror. "Baby, when was the last time you got laid?" The panels throbbed in a sort of Morse code, and Jack shivered, grinning dreamily. "Oh yeah, that was great, wasn't it?"

In another time, Ianto might have asked if Jack was serious, but he'd known Jack long enough to know that he was. "What is that?"

Jack grinned. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, spreading the gel out between them. "This is the best lubricant you will ever use."

"Lube tube," Ianto said with a firm nod and let his head fall back against the grating.

Jack's head tipped back for a moment as he smiled up at the ceiling. He dropped his head and nodded. "Yes. Exactly."

Ianto paused. "You've had that tube up your arse, haven't you?"

"You've had your tongue up my arse. I don't think you're in a place to judge."

Ianto smiled lazily. "Mmm, tasty." He reached out with his foot to stroke Jack's leg and missed by about six inches, his heel dropping hard against the floor. "Ow."

Jack laughed as he placed the tube back into the console. He turned back to Ianto and rubbed his thumb against the inside of Ianto's thigh. It was slick and warm. It almost felt like natural lubrication, which was sort of odd, coming off a machine. "See how good that feels?" Jack asked.

"It's nice," Ianto agreed. "Feels nice."

"Oh, then you're going to love this." Jack's smile spread wider and he turned away, on his hands and knees, one knee placed between Ianto's legs. Ianto liked the sight of Jack's balls hanging so close to his leg, so he lifted his legs and brushed it against them. Jack chuckled and shoved his arse in Ianto's face, giving it a wiggle.

"Show off," Ianto said. "Show me something I haven't seen." He reached up and placed a hand on each one of those perfect cheeks, pressing them together, then spreading them, listening to Jack hum appreciatively. Ianto leant forward and rubbed his face against Jack's bottom.

"Getting cheeky?" Jack asked, looking over his shoulder.

"There's a bit of cheek-on-cheek action," Ianto replied, flopping back again. "Now what were you going to do that I was going to love?"

Jack crawled forward and reached back under the console and triumphantly pulled out the gel-covered tube again.

Ianto's eyes widened. "Where do you think you're sticking that?"

"I thought you might like to give it a try. New experiences and all of that." Jack kissed Ianto's kneecap, then rested his chin there. He gave Ianto his best puppy-dog face, which wasn't very good--begging and pleading didn't really work for Jack--but still remarkably effective. Either that, or Ianto was a sucker. It was, he guessed, the latter.

"What the hell," Ianto mumbled, and let his legs fall slack. "It's--she's not going to suck out my bowels or something?"

Jack furrowed his brow. "Why would you think that?"

"I dunno. Tube connected to the inside of the ship. It was a thought."

"Not even close. She's all lubed up, so all you have to do is relax."

"I know how to do that," Ianto mumbled. He took a deep breath and sort of wished for another drink, but he glanced up at Jack and nodded.

Jack grinned. He folded the tube over once and kept it pressed against his index finger, before slowly inserting them both. Ianto sucked in a breath, and Jack peered over Ianto's knee at him. "You okay?"

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "It's all normal things-in-my-arse right now."

Jack hummed an agreement and removed his finger. The tube popped open and Jack pushed it in a little bit further. "How's it feel?"

"Fine. It's firmer...than I thought it'd be. It's - oh! Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh!" Ianto reached up and grabbed Jack's hand as the tube began to flex. It expanded and contracted slowly, like it was breathing. The startling part was that it probably was breathing. There was the strangest sensation that he was connected to the ship, a part of time itself. The electric spark that had gone through him when he touched the console seemed like nothing compared to the sense of absolute life that was flowing through the TARDIS and right into his--

"Oh, fuck. Oh, oh, god." Ianto squeezed Jack's hand. "This is fucking amazing."

"See what a little tube in your arse can do?" Jack asked, looking far more smug than should be allowed.

Ianto didn't care. The buzz coursing through him, despite the nature and point of entry, wasn't exactly sexual, but, god, with the touch of the universe, or time, or whatever it was coursing through him, he felt like he could do anything. But all he wanted to be doing was Jack, which was sort of like doing time and the universe, except warmer. He yanked on Jack's hand. "Take it out, take it--take it out."

Jack's smugness disappeared. "What--does it--"

Ianto shook his head. "It doesn't hurt, but—we--we need to be fucking. Now."

"Oh! Yeah, yes." Jack placed a hand on the back of Ianto's thigh and slowly removed the tube. He leant back to carefully place the tube back into the console.

Ianto scrambled to his knees and grabbed for Jack, trying to hold onto the memory of that energy coursing through him. It occurred to him for a split second that that was the same energy that animated, no, reanimated Jack, that snapped him back into place time after time after time, and while it would never make Ianto immortal, it was the closest he was ever going to get to Jack in some ways. Jack let him scrabble against him, his teeth and fingers and tongue searching across his skin. Ianto bit the tender flesh of the neck, scratched behind his ears, pulled at his waist.

"It's okay," Jack said, grabbing for Ianto's scrambling hands and stilling them. "Hey, yeah, it's intense. Just let it go for a sec--"

"Oh for--" Ianto grunted, turning Jack forcefully so that his hands slammed into the raised metal trapdoor. He collapsed on his hands and knees then, fingers sticking into the grating, his arse brushing Ianto's cock, and Jesus, he wasn't going to be able to stop--"No lube," he said aloud to himself, then reached around and scraped some of the lubricant from around his own arse, gathering it on his fingertips before coming around and sticking two fingers into Jack's hole. The other man groaned and leant back, pushing Ianto's fingers deeper into him.

"You're a pro," Jack gasped when Ianto pushed and pulled and tugged on him, rotating his fingers hurriedly. It was too much, really, to have to wait while he lubed up Jack's arse. Ianto was lining up even as he wondered where they could get condoms, and then he suddenly didn't care. Around them, the TARDIS hummed and seemed to vibrate, but that could be the menginga, or the after effects of the tube, or any number of things that had happened to him in the past six hours. Ianto thrust into Jack suddenly, gripping his hips and pumping. The action of slotting into place, of fitting tab A into slot B and just getting there caused a tightening in his cock and balls, and he didn't have to work hard to make Jack moan, his arms tensing as he tried to push up from the floor. Finally, he gave up and fell forwards, arse in the air for Ianto to fuck, hands outstretched to the sides like he was hugging the TARDIS floor, face pressed into the grating.

He was going to fuck the life out of Jack, or fuck life into Jack, or connect his life to Jack's in a feedback circuit, and if the force of his cock moving in Jack's arse could be magic, he was going to be goddamned Merlin.

Every time Ianto dragged his cock out of Jack's arse it felt like electricity, every time he pushed his way back in, it felt like a riptide. He could feel the cool whisper from the TARDIS's air vents sliding along his back, the hear Jack's moans as his fingers yanked so hard on the grating under him that he pulled it up a few centimeters with the rhythm of Ianto's thrusting. Ianto ran his fingers down the small of Jack's back, wet with sweat, dimpling just above the arse, vertebrae hard under his skin. This couldn't go on forever, and when Jack raised himself up on his hands and knees and rocked, shoving back and pushing with his body weight as he milked his own cock, Ianto watched the bending of Jack's elbow with every pump, thinking of those long fingers running along his cock.

"Any...day...now," he panted out, waiting, buried in Jack's arse; the man's spine arched as he came, Ianto could see it splattering on the floor, down into the grating below, dripping into the machinery of the TARDIS. He might have spared a thought for the fact that if he had ejaculated on Tosh's motherboard it might not work anymore, but that was tiny, and the TARDIS was huge, and she didn't seem to care. In fact, as Jack grunted and all but screamed one last time before snapping upright so that Ianto could brace himself against the firm chest and screw himself into him, the walls seemed to change colours; the cool air became arid, and some sort of humming throbbed through the grating under his feet.

He had no way to determine what was clearly guesswork--the TARDIS was pleased.

He came inside Jack, biting his shoulder a little and kneading Jack's hips with his fingers. One of Jack's arms flew up and almost brained him in the face, but he avoided it as his hand hooked around the back of his neck and pulled a bit; Jack twisted, turning his head and their mouths met, heated, almost fervored. The heat and the light and the humming converged around them in that one last moment. Ianto could feel the last of the lubricant from the tube inside him, tingling. He could feel the last of that zinging energy leaving him as he pounded into Jack one last time, always one last time, one for the road, he might say, before breaking the kiss, biting Jack's earlobe and pushing them both forward, trying at the last minute not to fall on the man underneath him.

Ianto groaned as he lifted his weight just enough to let Jack turn over onto his back.

"Oh, shit," was all he said as he blinked at the ceiling. It seemed appropriate.

Jack giggled, he actually giggled. "Yeah."

Part Two

The Saga of John and Tony

2009-11-04T01:32:15Z

Title: The Saga of John and Tony
Author: lionessvalenti, count_to_seven, kel_reiley, and anonyMatt.
Characters/Pairings: John Hart/PC Andy, John Hart/Tony the hamster
Word Count: 730
Rating: NC17
Summary: Tony the hamster is just looking for a secure place in the difficult world of his habitrail.
Notes: I suppose we should apologize in advance to anyone who reads this.
Special Thanks: Pimm's and cheap wine.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: Hamster tubing. Yeah, it's what you thought when you saw the pairings. Once you read, you can't unsee. Unbeta'd.
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money. It's just good fun.

art by count_to_seven.

Tony was pressed up against the glass of his habitat. He was bored with his habitrail and mourned the loss of his hamster wheel.He perked up as he saw the approach of his master. He held a bag of fresh pellets, and Tony hoped that his master's best friend would be there soon - he may return the wheel, then he could really go somewhere.

As it happens, his master's friend walked in behind, opened the top of the habitat, and replaced the exercise wheel. "Thanks, Tony," he said with a smirk, rubbing his thumb over the downy soft top of Tony's head.

Tony excitedly remounted his wheel, and found it strangely slippery. Nonetheless, Tony lunged forward and undertook another infinite journey on his beloved wheel. A few steps in, however, the lack of traction left him sliding sideways.

Tony hurtled into the water bowl, left there by his negligent master. He questioned his master's responsibility. Thankfully, his master's friend reached in again and rescued him from the evil water bowl.

"Careful now." His master's friend stroked Tony's wet back. "Let's get you warmed up."

Tony liked the feel of his strong, warm hand. He nuzzled the firm fingers enclosed around him. He could feel his master's friend moving around, but he focused on the comforting warmth.

Tony wondered if his master's friend would reintroduce him to his favorite secure place.

His master's friend released him. "Go on, then."

Tony looked around and saw the great white tunnel ahead of him. The secure place! It was better than the journey he would have taken on his wheel. He ran forward happily into the tunnel. It was a squeeze, but Tony liked the feeling of pressure on his back. It was like he was being petted.

Soon, the texture changed. The firm, sticky feeling under his feet became warm and softer. His sensitive hamster nose sensed the changed of scent, but it was comforting. It was the scent of security.

*

"Why aren't you wearing trousers - oh Jesus, where's Tony?"

John looked up, smiling. "He likes it. He goes in on his own."

Andy sighed. "Do you come here for me or the hamster?"

John stood up and cupped Andy's cheek, stroking the skin with his thumb. "Oh, baby. Both of you."

"I can't leave you two alone for a minute! Get him out of there!"

John laughed. "He can come out any - oh son of - time he wants. I'm not holding him - " he paused, "- hostage."

"He's a bloody hamster! You put the tube in front of him! He probably thought it was part of his habitrail!"

"He knew what he was getting into. It's not like he hasn't -" John paused again as his eyes rolled up into his head for a moment, then focused back in on Andy, "-been up there before. Forget about Tony." He kissed Andy before he could protest again.

Andy had to admit, this was nice. All of the side effects of seeing John (as though occasional sex when John thought to show up, and Andy was pretty sure he was only there in the first place as he overheard Andy talking about his new hamster, could be considered "seeing") could be looked over when it came to the sex which was, frankly, fucking amazing. The man could do things with his cock that Andy hadn't even known was possible. On the other hand, he liked to put Tony the hamster up his arse, and Andy thought it was a more than peculiar habit, even when John tried to convince him that lots of people did it. He even downloaded an episode of South Park for Andy to watch, but Andy deleted it before he did. He wasn't into obtaining illegally downloaded television shows.

What he was into, however, was the way John's tongue felt in his mouth and how he could unbuckle Andy's belt with one hand. What was up John's ass, or who, as the case may be, became irrelevant.

It was sort of disconcerting the way John would mumble things like "Oh, right there, baby," as he was on his knees, sucking Andy's cock. Andy would have to pause to remember that John wasn't talking to him, but to Tony.

It would all be less complicated if Tony, at the very least, were not a hamster.

Looking In

2009-10-14T01:24:05Z

Title: Looking In
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Ianto/Alice
Word Count: 840
Rating: NC17
Summary: This wasn't what Jack expected when he opened the door.
Notes: I wrote this for touchyerwood anonymously. Obviously, I've de-anoned now.
Spoilers: Unbelievably mild for COE.
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money. It's just good fun.

Jack slipped into Ianto's flat late, after midnight. He made his way easily in the dark, knowing the layout well. He had his hand on the door knob to Ianto's bedroom when it registered that Ianto never kept his door closed when he was home alone.

Well, good for him. Jack wondered momentarily why Ianto didn't say anything. He'd gone out pulling before, but he always mentioned it. Curious, Jack turned the knob and opened the door only wide enough to see inside.

A soft "ohhh" slipped from deep within Jack's throat. His eyes were drawn first to Ianto's back, the curve of it as he bent over the woman – oh god. She was Alice. It was his Alice with her tit in Ianto's mouth and her hand in his hair.

Did he know? Of course he knew. That wasn't a coincidence. Did she know? Maybe. Probably not.

Jack jerked back to reality as Ianto thrust into Alice. She pulled her knees up, almost up next to Ianto's head, and she draped one leg around him, her heel resting just at the top of his asscrack.

"Oh, Jesus, Ianto," Alice mumbled. She grabbed his hair, pulling his face toward her, and kissing him messily.

Ianto ducked his head and nipped at Alice's neck. "So good," he muttered, the exact same way he muttered it when he was thrusting into Jack and biting his neck.

Ianto's fingers laced with Alice's as he shifted position, the wet sound of lubricant becoming louder and more insistent between them. He looked stunning, the sweat curling his hair and the back of his neck and the tips of his ears going red.

And Alice, no matter how old she got, even as she looked older than Jack himself, he always pictured her as the child who adored him and not the adult who resented him. That's how he wanted to see her. Seeing her like this, it was like he was seeing her for the first time, and she was gorgeous. The way the light from the bedside lamp played against the sheen of sweat across her chest and how her back arched when Ianto pushed into her.

Jack leaned against the door jam, transfixed. Jealousy burnt up his chest like acid, watching Ianto have her in a way Jack knew he never could, and how she was giving him something he clearly needed that Jack couldn't provide.

They were undeniably gorgeous together. The sounds they made, the way Alice's hand trailed down Ianto's back and how Ianto licked his lower lip before he leant down to kiss her again. How and why didn't matter, all Jack wanted to do was crawl between them and feel the perspiration. He wanted to be part of this beautiful thing happening between two people he loved.

"Oh, god, Iant- oh! Oh..." Alice grabbed at Ianto's arse as though trying to push him in deeper. Her neck craned back and Ianto licked her throat from collarbone to chin as her mouth stretched into an oval and her eyes closed. Her words slipped into moans and grunts as she tucked her knees up further and she squeezed Ianto's hand.

They slowed down together for a moment as Alice caught her breath, a quiet noise escaping her on each exhale.

She then took Ianto's face in her hands and brought his head down right in front of hers. "Go on. Please."

Ianto nodded slightly and resumed his short, hard thrusts, staring right into Alice's eyes, his jaw dropped and each moan becoming louder, his words melting in between "yes" and "Alice" and "fuck".

Jack studied Ianto's movement, the way his hips moved, how his fingers gripped the pillow on either side of Alice's head, and everything Jack couldn't see when Ianto came that he relished seeing now. Oh, god, he was gorgeous.

"Shit," Ianto said, laughing breathlessly, wiping at Alice's chin, "I drooled on you."

She laughed. "It's fine. All in the name of pleasure, yeah?"

"Yeah." Ianto grinned and pulled away from her just long enough to remove the condom, then settled back down on top of her. He kissed her on the mouth and mumbled, "You're beautiful."

Alice shook her head and smiled. "I'm old."

Ianto ran his fingers through her hair and looked at her with those intense eyes that Jack couldn't barely stand to look at with all their meaning. "No, believe me," he said, "you're beautiful."

"And you're wonderful."

He smiled and kissed her again before lying his head down against her breast. She stroked his hair and gazed contentedly up at the ceiling. Ianto closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, his line of sight falling directly on Jack. Ianto's face went pale and his mouth opened in silent protest.

Jack raised his hand only halfway, not wanting to attract Alice's attention. It's okay, he mouthed. He smiled and thought perhaps he was the one who owed apology to Ianto, but that awkward moment could come later.

Backing away, sadly, Jack shut the door.

Splinters

2009-08-26T05:57:59Z

Title: Splinters
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Jack/TARDIS
Word Count: 1100
Rating: NC17
Summary: Jack has one problem with 1957 London: police boxes.
Notes: Written for Porn Battle V.
Special Thanks: amand_r and lefaym for beta-ing, and 51stcenturyfox for coming up with a title.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Jack avoided London as much as he could. It wasn't the pace of the city, or the time period. After years in Time Agency, you learned to acclimate to any time period. Taking the long path, adapting to the changes as the rest of the world did made adjusting even easier.

The problem was in the small things, really. In this case, walking down on a sidewalk in 1957 London had one hardship: police boxes. A statistic somewhere in the back of Jack's mind told him there were about seven hundred of them around the city, but each time he turned a corner and came face to face with one, his heart began to race.

If he kept going like this, Jack thought he might have a heart attack. A concern, if he could manage to die.

It only took Jack a second longer to recognize that the police box in front of him was not the TARDIS. He knew his girl. If he stepped closer, pressing his face against the wood, he could smell that it wasn't her. The wood was too new. It had no experience. It didn't smell like all the wonders of the universe.

He missed the smell of the universe.

Jack didn't mind the strange looks from passersby when he was sniffing a police box. He received strange looks just walking down the street in his greatcoat, buttoned and belted, on a hot August day.

He had never been one for blending into a crowd.

That made it all the more difficult when he reached into his pocket and retrieved his key ring, selecting one of his favorite alien-influenced toys: a blank metal key. He eased it in slowly, letting it form to the lock, then turned the key and opened the door, slipping in quickly.

Inside, the police box was small and stuffy with a table and stool shoved into it.

Jack's shoulders drooped. He had known going in it wasn't going to be what he wanted it to, but the reality was still disheartening. He leaned against the wall, pressing his face against the wood, risking a splinter in the cheek. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the smooth, cool walls of the TARDIS.

He thought about the room with the double-wide bed and silk sheets. He'd only found it the one time. It might have only existed for him that night. He remembered how he couldn't quite stay in one place on the bed, sliding over the too-slick material, cool against his naked skin. Jack had been unable to keep his hands off the walls, wanting her to know how good she made him feel.

Jack removed his coat, draping it over the small table, but it was little relief in the stifling box. He could feel the sweat spreading under his collar and cuffs, dripping at his temples, and wet under his arms, soaking through his shirt.

He settled himself onto the hard, wooden stool, leaning against the back wall of the police box. He looked up at the ceiling, and the walls felt closer together than ever. He wanted the expanses and he gave himself enclosure.

Swallowing, Jack placed a hand over the bulge he had been trying to conceal with his coat. This was the fourth police box he'd come across this afternoon. There were too many of them in London, and none of them the one he wanted.

Jack unbuckled his belt slowly, and easily undid the button on his trousers with one hand. He lowered the zipper and reached into his briefs, pulling out his cock, the sweaty pubic hair plastered against his skin.

He craved the hum of the engines, vibrating the console just slightly as he placed his fingers on the curved edge. He loved the way she wound taunt him, shaking the console more, waiting for him to lean against it. The feel of his fingers tugging at his foreskin would have to do, though it was dull in comparison.

Jack supposed he could go out and easily find himself a lover for the afternoon, but would it be any more satisfying? At least the wooden box wouldn't be put off by him thinking of someone else.

With his left hand, Jack withdrew his balls from his pants and the not entirely unpleasant smell of body odor drifted upward. He took them in one hand and pulled on them.

A moan escaped from his throat, startling even himself. The walls of the police box were not sound proof. If he could hear the people on the streets, they could hear him. At least he would know if they were calling the police.

Jack thought about how he had screamed with pleasure, never once worrying that he woke Rose in the next room. Possibly, he had even hoped he would. The Doctor, however, heard everything, and Jack only cared if could have turned into a three-way.

Maybe someday. There was still time.

He wrapped a firm hand around his cock, stroking slowly, moving the foreskin up over the head and back down the shaft. Sweat poured down his face, dripping into his eyes. Jack closed them and tried to imagine himself in a better place at a better time.

He remembered being splayed out on the floor in his room, legs spread, one hand around his cock, puffs air coming from the vent in the wall, teasing him. It wasn't anything serious or intense. They had only been playing, and she knew how he liked to play. Mumbling how much he loved her, he'd rubbed his face against the floor, the air blowing warm across his cheek.

Afterward, he had licked his come off the floor.

Jack replayed the memories in his mind's eye. He squeezed his balls tighter and groaned as quietly as possible through clenched teeth. His head thumped against the back of the box as he came all over his hands. Jack swore softly between breaths, letting his head loll against the scratchy wall.

He opened his eyes and looked down. His cock, diminishing slowly before his eyes, glistened in the dim light. After everything, the heat, the sneaking, and the silence, it hardly seemed worth it. Nothing had changed, and he certainly didn't feel any better. Now all he had was a soft prick and the lingering sensation of wasting his own time trying to regain something he knew he couldn't find in an ordinary police box.

Sighing, Jack wiped his hands off on his shirttails.

He tucked himself away and zipped up. He rubbed a hand over his face and reluctantly put on his coat. This morning, wearing the coat, despite the weather, had seemed fine. Now, it was heavy like everything else.

You Taste Like the Wind

2009-08-10T23:45:21Z

Title: You Taste Like the Wind
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/TARDIS
Word Count: zero (song lyrics only)
Rating: PG
Summary: The love story between Jack and the TARDIS through S1 of Torchwood.
Notes: Happy Birthday, amand_r! I hope it's not full of music you hate! And if it is, humor me. ;) Seriously, enjoy! And this turned out WAY less cracky than I had anticipated.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

--zip file--
--folder with all songs--

Ray of Light//Madonna
Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder
Do my tears of mourning sink beneath the sun
She's got herself a universe gone quickly
For the call of thunder threatens everyone
And I feel like I just got home

Don't Stop Me Now//Queen
I am a satellite
I'm out of control
I'm a sex machine ready to reload
Like an atom bomb about to oh oh oh oh oh explode!
I'm burning through the sky yeah
Two hundred degrees that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Feel It//Jakalope
I start to press my skin to you
I'm craving it
I'm feeling you
Will you relieve me fast
Feast your eyes on my display
Take control
Fall over me
Cover me in ecstasy

Language Barrier//Mike Doughty
To fight this
the language
barrier
Oh the lips they taste like freebase
and the joints of freebase too
meanwhile I'm inland with saint Russell
sniffing airplane glue
I hope somebody loves me
when all of this is through

Everything//Daniel Boys
You're a carousel, you're a wishing well
and you light me up, ooh, when you ring my bell
You're a mystery, you're from outer space,
You're every minute of my every day.
And I can't believe, oh, that I'm your man
and I get to kiss you just because I can
Whatever comes our way, we'll see it through
You know that's what our love can do

Crawling Towards the Sun//The Hush Sound
Night covers all our tracks
To break some fragile backs
So we tell some lies
And then we hide from light

I'm Not Dead//Pink
You can do the math a thousand ways but you can't erase the facts
That others come and others go but you always come back
I'm a winter flower underground always thirsty for summer rain
And just like the change of seasons
I know you'll be back again

Come On Home//Franz Ferdinand
Although my lover lives in a place that I can't live
I kind of find I like a life this lonely
It rips and pierces me, in places I can't see
I love the rip of nerves
The rip that wakes me
So I'm dissatisfied, I love dissatisfied

20th Century Trip//Feeder
Clouds in space,
The earth rotates,
Satellite Ship,
21st Century Trip.

Some Bruise More Easily

2009-07-28T12:44:36Z

Title: Some Bruise More Easily
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Tosh/Ianto
Word Count: 2600
Rating: PG13
Summary: Toshiko stays with Ianto after the events at Brecon Beacons.
Notes: Written for kink_bingo prompt "bruises" [/bitemarks, but I didn't use that one].
Special Thanks: lefaym for some very super fast beta-ing!
Spoilers: Countrycide
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Toshiko watched Ianto's hands shake as he tried to fit the key into the lock. She was just about to gently take the key from him when it slid into place and he turned the lock.

"I'll put the kettle on," he said as they walked into the flat. She followed him into the small galley kitchen. It had the whitewashed look of a new flat before the tenants decorated it to their liking.

For a moment, Toshiko wondered if Ianto should be doing anything that will deal with hot water after the incident with the keys, but if there was anything he could do, even in a concussed haze, it was make a pot of tea.

She was still glad, though, Jack suggested she drive Ianto home.

"See him to the door," Jack had said to her. Ianto had looked at Jack with an expression Toshiko couldn't quite place while Jack seemed to be making a point to not look at him at all.

It was in the car, about halfway between Ianto's building and the Hub that Ianto turned to her and said, "You can stay, if you want."

"I'd like that," she had replied, sensing he wanted to be alone about as much as she did.

Toshiko looked at Ianto now, as he filled the kettle with water. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, he said, "Bath's down the hall, and the towels are on the shelf. There's a dressing gown on the back of the door you can wear. I'll put your clothes in the wash."

Clearly, a head injury couldn't keep Ianto from knowing what anyone needed before they could voice it. Still in her dirty clothes from the night before, she hadn't even thought of what she was going to put on after taking a shower.

"Thanks," Toshiko replied quietly before slipping out of the kitchen. She looked around as she walked through the flat. It all had that bare look about it. No wonder Ianto was the first in and the last to leave (except for Jack), his flat was simply depressing.

Deciding not to nose around any further, Toshiko went for the bathroom and turned on the water. She stripped out of her grimy clothes and piled them up on the floor, kicking them into a corner.

She stepped under the hot spray and moaned out loud. She rolled her neck, letting her muscles finally unwind and relax for the first time since the trek from the campsite to the village. As the water rolled down her face, she could taste the dirt against her lips and she spat onto the floor of the shower. She looked down at the brown water around her feet.

Is that all coming off of me? she wondered, and realized it was a stupid thought.

Toshiko inspected the bath products in Ianto's shower. He didn't have much of a selection, though she was pleased to find a bottle of body wash, rather that a bar of soap. There was something far too personal about using someone else's bar of soap.

After washing herself three times, making sure all the dirt was out from under her nails and every crevice of skin at her elbows, she shut off the water and reached for a towel on the shelf above the toilet.

"Oh god," she mumbled, looking in the mirror at herself, unable to avoid the sight of the dark bruises around her neck. She took a deep, steadying breath in an attempt to slow her heart that had suddenly started to pound. She hadn't noticed them when Owen looked her over. Were they hiding beneath all the dirt? She could feel those hands around her neck, pressing down, and the way his hand gripped her breast and his hot breath against her face.

She slipped on the white tile as she fell to her knees to retch into the toilet, though with her empty stomach it was mostly dry heaving. Cannibalism and the dead bodies in the forest and in the fridge she could cope with, but not the hands on her.

Toshiko refused to let her mind wander to the what-ifs and how much worse it could have been. She flushed the toilet and got up to rinsed out her mouth with clean, cold water.

She turned to the door and found two dressing gowns hanging off the hook. One was a red terrycloth and the other was blue cotton with a print of large white flowers. Toshiko reached for the flowered gown when she realized that it must have belonged to Lisa. Putting it on seemed disrespectful. Did he mean for her to wear his dressing gown? Toshiko felt a moment of pain, or possibly pity, for Ianto as she realized Lisa never even lived in this flat.

After a few more moments of internal debate, Toshiko put on the blue dressing gown; its hem falling almost to her ankles as she tied it tightly around her waist.

"Ianto?" Toshiko called as she walked the hall back to the kitchen. "I'm done."

Ianto looked over his shoulder at her. He smiled for an instant, then turned to face her. "Tea's steeping. I don't know if you're still hungry, but there's-"

"Ianto," she said as gently as possible, "we're not at work. We're in your home. You don't need to take care of anything. I feel a lot better after showering – you might want to do the same."

His shoulders dropped. "I suppose, yeah, that's..." He started down the hall, and turned for a moment to motion back to the kitchen. "Help yourself," he said, before disappearing into the loo.

Toshiko poured herself a cup of tea, added sugar, and took a tentative sip. The tea felt good and hot down her throat. As it reached her stomach, she was suddenly ravenous. Of course she was, she hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before, and a buttered croissant wasn't meant to keep anyone going for over twenty-four hours.

She reached for the handle of the fridge and wondered if it was all right to go through Ianto's food. He said to help herself, but she still couldn't help feeling intrusive.

She smiled, relieved, when she spotted the takeaway menus sitting next to the toaster. Her eyes lit up; the sound of chicken and vegetables with fried rice was mouth-watering. She drummed her fingers against the laminate countertop, waiting for Ianto to be done in the shower. She figured it would be rude to order food without asking if he wanted any first.

Finally, she heard the door to the bathroom open.

"Ianto?" she said, letting her voice raise. "I found a takeaway menu, do you – oh!"

She had been expecting either Ianto to not appear at all, or at least be wearing the red dressing gown, but he stood in the doorway to the kitchen wearing nothing but a white towel around his waist.

"Jesus," Toshiko mumbled. She stepped forward, not thinking, and reached her hand out to Ianto's chest. It was mottled with bruises, some were small, but there were several that were large and quite nasty-looking. Her hand stopped inches from his skin, but she didn't quite lower it.

"Where he kicked me," he said, running a hand across his bruised ribs. He raised his hand to the cut on his forehead, surrounded by purple bruising. "Then she knocked me out, and I don't remember much after that. I'm not sure where the rest of them came from, but I'm used to that. I bruise easily."

"It looks horrible."

Ianto shrugged. "Owen said I was fine, except for the concussion. Bruises fade."

"Do they hurt?"

"Like hell."

She smiled at his matter-of-fact tone. She finally lowered her hand, realizing it was strange to let it hang there. "I, uh, found takeaway menus. How does Chinese sound? My treat."

"Sounds fine," Ianto said. "Vegetables in garlic sauce and prawn curry, if you don't mind placing the order."

"Not at all," Toshiko replied.

"Just give them my name. I'm in their database."

"Order a lot?"

He nodded. "More than I'd like to admit. I'm not a cook."

"Me either," she said. She wavered for a moment, not really wanting to move and find her phone to make the call. This was possibly the longest conversation she'd ever had with Ianto that didn't involve the Rift manipulator or alien computer viruses.

"I should put on some pants," he said, slowly backing up.

For an instant, Toshiko wanted to tell him that he didn't have to, but she felt herself blush just thinking about it, and the retort died on her tongue. "I'll... I'll make that call."

In spite of the size of the small flat, Toshiko was able to successfully avoid Ianto until the food arrived. He seemed to have holed up in his bedroom, perhaps looking for some extra space himself.

She spread things out across the coffee table, one of the few pieces of furniture in Ianto's living room. She heard a floorboard creak, and she looked up to see Ianto walk into the room. He was wearing pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. Better than a towel, but still so far away from the suits so was accustomed to seeing him wear.

"Smells delicious," he said, sitting down on the sofa.

"I also ordered spring rolls and a couple bottles of pop," Toshiko said, opening up the carton and holding it out to him.

"Fantastic. Thank you, Tosh."

She sat down and they ate in near-silence, their mouths almost always full. Conversation was limited to "do you want my onions?" and "pass the soy sauce".

Finally, Toshiko set down her mostly-empty carton. "No more. I'm full. Do you want the rest of this?"

"No, thanks, I've plenty," Ianto replied. "I actually think I got too much."

"Then you'll have some for later," Toshiko said. She leaned forward to fold together the lid of the carton, and Ianto reached over, carefully taking her arm. He ran his fingers lightly across the rope burns around her wrist.

She smiled. "Like you said, it will fade. Feels nice, though."

"Rope burn?" Ianto asked with a smirk.

"No, your – your-" Toshiko motioned to Ianto's hand on hers. "It's something else to think about when I see them."

He smiled at her, then lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss against the back of her wrist.

She pulled her hand away. "You have a head injury. You – you're not thinking straight."

"Maybe," Ianto replied. He reached up, turning slightly in his seat, and ran his fingers along her neck. "What about these?"

"What about them?"

"What are you thinking about them?" His fingers curled around the back of her neck and he stroked his thumb across her throat. His hands seemed steady now.

Toshiko swallowed. "Nothing. You."

Ianto leaned forward and kissed her neck, his lips pressing against the bruise. "And now?"

Her heart started pounding again. She was sure Ianto could hear it. "You," she whispered. She lifted her hand and carefully touched the wound on his forehead.

He looked up. "I'd like to kiss you."

"Yes. Please," Toshiko replied, and he did, softly at first, then slowly becoming more heated.

She tried not to think about how he had a head injury, how much younger he was, how a knife had been at his neck, and how they were co-workers. There were so many reasons he was doing this and so many more reasons why it was bad idea. She tried not to think about it. She tried to concentrate on how good it felt to kiss someone when she hadn't had a snog since Christmas.

Toshiko slid her hand down Ianto's arm until she found his hand and brought it to her breast. If he could imprint new memories on her wrist and neck, maybe he could do the same there.

Ianto pulled back. He considered her for a moment, this thumb playing with the edge of the fabric. He swallowed and asked, "May I?"

"Yes."

He slowly opened the dressing gown, exposing her breast. He placed his cheek against it for a moment, and Toshiko gasped. The stubble was rough, but it felt good. As she threaded her fingers through Ianto's hair, Toshiko realized she was going to sleep with him.

"Oh god," she mumbled. "Oh god."

Ianto closed his lips around her nipple and tugged on it, his tongue running around the tip.

Toshiko laid her head back and moaned. "Ianto?"

"Mmm, yes, Lisa?"

They both froze, and Ianto sat up and turned away, sitting down properly on the sofa, his hands resting on his knees. Toshiko pulled the dressing gown over her breast, making sure she was fully covered again.

"I'm sorry," Ianto said, looking at the floor.

"It's all right," Toshiko replied.

"I am – I'm – between the dressing gown and... I haven't... with..." Ianto let his voice trail off. He didn't need to say anything else. She got the picture. He swallowed and added, "That's no excuse."

She shrugged. "It's fine," she mumbled, pulling the gown closed even more, holding her hand against her chest.

"It's not," Ianto insisted. When she didn't reply, he seemed to give up on waiting for her to yell at him, or whatever it was he seemed to expect. "I lied, you know. Yesterday."

Toshiko turned her head to look at him. "When?"

"The game. About the snogging."

"Why?"

Ianto shrugged. "I didn't want anyone to know the last person I snogged was - was Jack."

Toshiko's eyes widened with surprise, though news wasn't exactly shocking. It explained a lot, really. The way Ianto watched Jack while Jack pointedly turned away, along with the flirtation that seemed to extend to Ianto more than the others. She tilted her head to the side and asked, "When was that, then?"

"Six weeks ago? Before. It happened... several times. It wasn't anything, just... just sex." Ianto looked down at his hands. "It doesn't really matter, I suppose."

"Why are you telling me this?"

He glanced up at her. "I don't know. Maybe if I tell you enough embarrassing things about myself you'll forget the one that just happened?"

"Sleeping with Jack is embarrassing?" Toshiko asked.

"Admitting to it is."

She hesitated, and tried for a bit of a joke, just to lighten the suddenly heavy mood. "I guess that settles the debate on Jack's sexuality."

Ianto laughed. "Not really, no."

They fell into silence, and Ianto rested a foot on the coffee table, pushing an empty food carton forward with his toe.

"I'm exhausted," Toshiko said. She hadn't slept, except for a maybe an hour on the ride home from the Beacons.

"I'll take the couch," Ianto said quickly. "I need to be up every few hours anyway, to make sure I can remember who the Prime Minister is."

She reached over and put her hand on his arm, feeling surprisingly confident. "You can still come to bed with me. I can even hold up some fingers so you can count them."

He smiled. "Are you sure?"

"I insist."

Ianto leaned toward her, but only made it halfway before he hissed with pain, and backed off, clutching his ribs.

"You all right?" Toshiko asked.

He nodded and forced a grin. "I told you, hurts like hell."

She lifted his t-shirt to expose the bruises and swiped her fingers over them. With trepidation, Toshiko leaned forward and placed a kiss next to the especially dark bruise on his ribs. She peered up at a surprised Ianto and smiled. "Let's try this again, shall we?"

"Are you... sure?" Ianto asked for a second time.

Toshiko touched his cheek. "Yours might be more obvious, but we all have bruises, Ianto."

Wandered

2009-07-26T10:02:14Z

Title: Wandered
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack (with cameos by the Eleventh Doctor and Amy)
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Summary: Jack tries to move on the only way he knows how.
Notes: Written for tw100, prompt: Moving On
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Jack wandered. He strayed across the universe, going from ship to ship, finding work. It kept him busy when there was no joy left in traveling.

He stopped counting the days and weeks. After a while he couldn't even guess how long he'd been gone. Fifty years? Five hundred?

Then he saw a man. A familiar man with a new face and a young redhead by his side.

Jack thought they could wander together, but when asked the question, all he said was, "Take me home."

He couldn't outrun his pain. Going back was the only way to move on.

It's Always Abrupt, When We --

2009-07-21T06:26:57Z

Title: It's Always Abrupt, When We --
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 1400
Rating: NC17
Summary: Intimacy poorly disguised as, well, anything else.
Special Thanks: amand_r for super beta action ~~and coming up with the title~~.
Spoilers: Minor for COE Day One
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money. It's just good fun.

Ianto was strangely comfortable, though his knees were sore from the hard floor beneath them. He had about four inches of Jack's cock in his mouth, and one hand wrapped around the remaining length. His other hand rested at Jack's side, gently thumbing his stomach.

"Mmm, god, Ianto," Jack mumbled, his hands working through Ianto's hair. "So goo- good."

Ianto smiled as well as he could, drool running down the shaft and onto his hand. His tongue darted around Jack's prick and licked away the offending expectoration. He brought his tongue back up and rubbed it against Jack's foreskin.

"Oh, fuck," Jack breathed.

Barely an hour ago, Ianto woke up in Jack's bed, like he had many times before, to the sound of Jack's phone beeping. He pulled the blanket down from over his head, where it had somehow ended up in the course of sleep, and shot Jack a sleepy glare.

"Could you possibly keep it down?"

Jack was sitting up in bed, looking intently at whatever it was coming through, but his face softened as his vision shifted to Ianto. "Sorry. Text message."

Ianto groaned. "What time is it?"

"Just after six," Jack replied, glancing back to his phone.

Ianto paused, weighing his options of sleeping for another twenty minutes or sucking it up and getting up now. With a throaty growl, he forced back the blankets. "I'm going to shower," he announced and tried to crawl across Jack with as much dignity as possible. Completely naked and in a bed as small as Jack's, this was no easy feat. Ianto felt he did well, as Jack's laughter was reduced to only an amused chuckle.

The steaming shower was welcome against the chill of Jack's bunker. Ianto felt himself slowly waking as his muscles loosened under the hot water. He stifled a yawn as he soaped his chest and under his arms, letting the scent of Imperial Leather drift around him.

He was leaning his head forward into the spray for one last rinse-through of his hair when the shower door opened and Jack slipped in behind him.

"Took your time," Ianto said, not turning to look. His breath hitched just slightly as Jack placed dry hands against wet hips.

"Business, then pleasure. I had a few things to tie up," Jack said, pressing his lips to the back of Ianto's neck. His hand slipped around and he placed the flat of his palm against Ianto's stomach. "I could tie you up next."

Ianto smiled, then tipped his head back and kissed Jack's cheek. "I'm done," he said. "Shower's yours."

Jack stared at him, then called out, "That's just cruel!" as Ianto slipped out.

Ianto brushed his teeth, listening to Jack's slightly off-key humming, and left the bathroom to dig through the closet. He had a few combinations of suits, shirts, and ties in with Jack's clothes. He had initially been reluctant to leave a great amount of his things there, but after a while it was simply impractical not to.

He was draping the tie around his neck when Jack walked out of the bathroom, naked, dripping, and as Ianto couldn't help but notice, hard.

"You're mean."

Ianto didn't look up, but raised an eyebrow as he slowly knotted the tie. "I'm mean? You're the one text messaging at six in the morning without the decency to put your phone on silent."

Jack closed in on him. "Watching you tie that is pornography at its best. It's cruel to tease me like this." He dipped his head and kissed Ianto's hand as Ianto pulled the fat end of the tie around the back of the knot.

"Is that so?" Ianto asked, keeping at his task and doing his best to ignore Jack. He was amused to notice that Jack hadn't bothered to use a towel, but had fixed his hair.

"Precision," Jack said. "You're not even thinking about it and your hands – I could fuck your hands right now - do the work so perfectly. Automatically."

He didn't break eye contact as he reached around Ianto and pulled a pair of trousers out of the closet. He kissed Ianto gently on the lips, and Ianto couldn't help but kiss him back.

"I'll be upstairs," Jack said, slinging his armload of clothes over his shoulder. He flashed Ianto a positively filthy grin and climbed up the ladder.

Ianto slid the knot up to his throat and pulled on his waistcoat before fixing his collar. He didn't rush buttoning up or slipping into his jacket before putting on his shoes and following Jack upstairs.

"How dressed were you going to let me get?" Jack asked, sitting in his chair wearing his boots and trousers, his shirts piled on the desk.

Ianto couldn't help it, he laughed and kissed Jack soundly on the mouth.

Though his knees were sore from the hard floor, Ianto liked – fuck it, loved - kneeling between Jack's legs with half of Jack's cock between his lips. He loved the way it tasted and how it felt, heavy and hot in his mouth, but mostly he loved how it made Jack moan, powerless and begging.

"Ianto – ohhh." Jack dipped his fingers beneath the back of Ianto's collar. His head dropped back against his chair. "Fuck. Ianto, you – damn it."

Ianto could hear Jack's mobile beeping. Of course. Jack couldn't put the damn thing on silent for ten minutes. If he was going to answer the phone – and of course he was – the least Ianto could do was make it pleasurable, if not awkward.

He dropped his head another inch, swallowing down more of Jack's cock. His thumb rubbed against Jack's balls, stroking the soft skin and scratchy stray hairs.

Ianto tried to ignore Jack's stilted words into the phone as he lifted his head slowly, dragging his tongue up the bottom of Jack's prick until he'd raised his mouth off completely with a satisfying slurp. He considered the cock before him for a moment. He admired the head, shiny with saliva and warm as he traced the slit lightly with a finger, causing Jack's hips to jerk.

Chuckling, Ianto took Jack's cock in his mouth again, letting his lips wrap around the head and his tongue wander over the soft circumference of Jack's foreskin. He slid the tip of his tongue between the foreskin and shaft and traced a slow circle. He felt Jack's hand grip his hair tighter, tugging on it.

Clearly, this was a sign to slow down and tease Jack more, so Ianto lowered his head further, taking as much of Jack's cock as he comfortably could.

Jack dropped the phone onto his desk. "You're the mean one."

Ianto hummed a cheerful agreement, smirking to himself.

"That was the hospital. Mr. Williams – hitchhiker Mr. Williams – went in with a heart att - ahhh – attack. We should-"

Ianto interrupted him by raising a finger, signaling for one more minute. Jack grabbed Ianto's hand and pulled it to his chest, holding it there.

"Oh, that's all right," Jack mumbled, stroking Ianto's hair with his free hand.

Ianto wasted no time, sucking and stroking to make Jack come, rather than tormenting him any further. After two years, he could easily shift from one to the other, and sure enough, Jack's grip on his hair tightened and with a growl, Jack came, squeezing Ianto between his legs before every tensed muscle relaxed.

Ianto swallowed and lifted his head. He wiped at the corners of his mouth with his thumb and forefinger, just in case.

"As I was saying," Jack said, still catching his breath, "we should get to the hospital before someone finds it and figures out it's an alien."

"We're assuming that Mr. Williams is going to die for sure?" Ianto asked, putting a hand on the desk as he stood up. He stretched his legs and handed Jack his undershirt.

"Seems like it," Jack replied, pulling the shirt down over his head and reaching for the blue button-down.

"Fantastic," Ianto said, going to the coat rack. He picked up Jack's coat and sighed. "You get a blowjob, Mr. Williams gets a happy hitchhiker death, and I get to spend the morning with a hard-on out to Swansea."

Jack finished buttoning up his shirt and took the greatcoat out of Ianto's hands. "I can take care of that for you." He tossed Ianto the keys to SUV and grinned. "You drive."

What It Looks Like

2009-07-16T04:03:40Z

Title: What it Looks Like
Author: lionessvalenti and lawsontl
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto/Gwen
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG
Summary: It's never what it looks like...
Notes: This was written back in February of 2009. I have no sense of time (or fashion).
Special Thanks: Panera Bread for not kicking us out.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

"Jack, this isn't what it looks like," Gwen protested, waving her hands frantically.
Jack raised his eyebrows, looking very pleased, and started peeling off his braces. "We can make it what it looks like."
"It's really not-"
"Gwen, it's already too late," Ianto said calmly, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Nothing we can say will convince him of an innocent reason for why we're both without pants. Just... lay back and think of England."
"I'm Welsh. That's not going to help."
"Oh, please," Jack said with a grin. "Once I get my pants off you won't be thinking about anything else."

Harder

2009-06-25T03:55:28Z

Title: Harder
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Ianto/John
Word Count: 100
Rating: R
Summary: Keep your friends close...
Notes: Written for tw100 under the prompt "Know Your Enemy".
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: Sex. (Well, that looks funny by itself)
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Ianto tipped his head back, groaning. John's mouth was hot against his neck, and his cock pushed deep in Ianto.
"Fucking mother of escabalikin roscanin weslini!" John cried, slipping into some alien language.
Ianto almost laughed. He reached up and pulled John's face to his, kissing him hard and biting his lower lip. "Harder," he mumbled. "Right there."
John shifted and thrust faster, the sound of skin against skin louder than ever.
"It's good," Ianto said between gasps, turning his head away. John would think it was shame, but Ianto wanted to cover up his lies. It was only a mission.
Keep your enemies closer.

How Hard It Is

2009-06-17T02:15:18Z

Title: How Hard It Is
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack, OC(?)
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Summary: Jack comes to say goodbye to an old friend.
Notes: Written for tw100 with "The Big Goodbye" as a prompt.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

He walks into the room and takes over the space with his presence. It's a familiar sensation.
"I know you," you say.
"You did, once," he replies, sitting down on the bed and taking your hand, weathered and wrinkled with age. His head bows and he presses his lips against your knuckles. "I'm sorry," he mumbles. "I'm so sorry."
"Jack."
He looks up. "How did you remember? You were-"
"I've always known your face. Thank you. For coming. I know how hard it is for you to say goodbye."
"It's hard for me to say a lot of things," he replies.
You smile. "You never had to."

Suck

2009-06-06T00:27:46Z

Title: Suck
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto/John
Word Count: 750
Rating: NC17
Summary: Whoever said three's a crowd was wrong.
Notes: Written for kink_bingo. Prompt: facials.
Special Thanks: 51stcenturyfox for reading over it and offering suggestion.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: Lots of peen.
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Ianto's eyes rolled back into his head as he forced his cock deeper into John's mouth. He tucked a hand around the back of John's head, sliding his fingers through the curls.

"Save some room for me in there," Jack mumbled.

"He can take it," Ianto replied. He grabbed onto John's hair, tugging on it. "Can't you?"

"Mrrhrmph," John replied, sucking Ianto's prick into his cheek and taking in more of Jack's, as though to prove the point. He squeezed the base of Jack's prick, rubbing his fingers against the underside of his balls.

Ianto pulled his cock back out most of the way as it grazed against teeth. His breath sucked sharply between his teeth as John grabbed him by the bottom, easing a slippery finger inside.

Jack moaned softly and grabbed Ianto by the back of the head, kissing him hard. He ran a hand down Ianto's chest, catching a nipple as he went. Ianto jerked his hips feeling the friction of the head of his prick alongside Jack's, and John's tongue wet and warm against his skin.

"Suck more," Jack growled, digging his fingers into Ianto's skin.

John pulled his mouth away from both of them. "For that, you get punished." He wrapped a hand around Jack and began pumping his cock. He cocked his head to one side and swallowed down Ianto's prick with ease, bobbing his head, his tongue pressed firmly against the bottom of the shaft.

"This is the best punishment ever," Jack said. His face skewed as John stopped fondling him long enough to grab his balls and clutch them tightly in his fist for a moment, before he resumed stroking.

"Better," Jack added with a tight grin.

John pressed their cocks together and began sucking on the heads at the same time, his lips wrapped around them, and tongue teasing each one individually, back and forth.

Ianto pulled out of John's mouth and began stroking himself, his cock warm and slick, but his hand was pushed away by John's. Ianto's breath caught in his throat as John locked eyes with him, his fingers pulling the foreskin up over the head, then back again. With both of John's hands on him and the view of Jack's cock pushed further into his mouth, Ianto bit down on his lower lip.

"Shit," Ianto mumbled, turning his head to the side, his mouth pressed against Jack's ear. "I'm gonna come."

Jack suddenly pressed a finger against Ianto's asshole next to John's. "Go ahead."

Ianto gasped, and for a moment he was aware of everything. The smell of the sweat, sex, and the similar, yet completely unique scents of Jack and John lingering in the room, hanging heavy in the air like smoke. The sound of Jack's balls slapping against John's chin, Jack's moaning, the croaking in the back of his throat at the sight of Ianto in the moment, the way Jack always looked and sounded when Ianto came undone. The sound of John greedily gulping down Jack's cock was deafening. The sensory overload was too much and Ianto came.

His come spurted hot on John's face, clinging to his eyebrow and dripping off his cheekbone and down toward his lips. John's eyes opened and he looked up at Ianto, still working Jack's cock with his mouth, and he winked.

Ianto paused, staring open-mouthed down at John, still catching his breath, then looked away.

He wrapped his arms around Jack, stroking his chest and teasing a nipple with his thumb. He kissed Jack's neck, and Ianto could tell by the flexing in Jack's throat and the bobbing of his Adam's apple, he was close.

Ianto pressed his cheek against Jack's, the position incredibly intimate. Jack leaned into Ianto, glancing at him from the corner of his eye.

"Ianto–"

"Pull out," Ianto whispered.

Jack did, coming immediately, shooting his load on John's face, across on one side of his nose, down across his lip and sliding slowly lower. John's tongue darted out and licked the come around from around his mouth. He grinned up at them like it was the best thing he'd ever tasted.

"God, that was good," Jack mumbled. He gathered Ianto's face up in his hands and kissed him, wet and slow.

"Hey, now," John said, standing up. He hadn't bothered to wipe the come off his face, the spots shining in the dim light. He looked proud of his wet, sticky badges of sexual honor. "It's my turn now, isn't it?"

Ianto raised an eyebrow to Jack and they shared a smile. Wordlessly, they sank to their knees.

FANMIX: Dance Me Across the Sky

2009-05-24T01:58:02Z

Title: Dance Me Across the Sky
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Donna, the Doctor
Word Count: zero (lyrics and quotes only)
Rating: PG
Summary: Donna's travels and friendship with the Doctor, leading up to her ultimate fate.
Notes: Happy birthday, starletfallen! It was supposed to just be Donna, but the Doctor snuck in. He does that. Sneaker-inner. I hope you like it!
Special Thanks: bookofsorrow, as usual, for listening to me rant and helping me find songs.
Spoilers: S4 of Doctor Who
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

-zip file-
-folder with single files-

Medicine Man
Medicine man, you danced me across the country
Medicine man, you danced me across the sky
Medicine man, clearing my mind
Medicine man oh
Medicine man hear my cry
Medicine man oh
Medicine man you are here in my mind

No. I mean it. If you ever see a little blue box, flying up there in the sky, you shout for me, Gramps. Oh you just shout.

Infinity
We are all like astronauts
The little prints are going to please
Nevermind your habits absolutely
You encourage me
Forgive me endless longing
So it's crazy you and crazy me

You're not saying much.
No, it's just— It's a funny old life. In the TARDIS.
You don't want me.
I'm not saying that.
But you asked me. Would you rather be on your own?
No. actually no.

This is My Now
There was a time when I was so afraid.
I thought I'd reached the end,
But baby that was then
I am made of more than my yesterdays.

Oh! All right then, you and me both! This is barmy! I was born in Chiswick. I've only ever done package holidays. And now I’m here. This is so… I mean it’s…. I don’t know, it’s all sort of, I don’t know what the word is!

I'll Always Be Right There
And I'll be there through the good times,
and the bad,
and we'll be there for each other,
cause you're the best friend I've ever had.

I was lucky, I found the Doctor, it’s changed my life.

Everything
You see everything, you see every part
You see all my light and you love my dark
You dig everything of which I'm ashamed
There's not anything to which you can't relate
And you're still here

But why me?
'Cause you're special.
I keep telling you, I'm not.
No but you are. Oh.... you really don't believe that, do you? I can see, Donna, what you're thinking. All that attitude, all that lip— 'Cause all this time, you think you're not worth it.
Stop it.
Shouting at the world 'cause no one's listening. Well, why should they.
Doctor. Stop it.

Don't Let Me Down
And if time stood still
If you won't be your witness
No one ever will
I hear a voice that's in my head
Don't let me down
'Cause I can't hold the future in my head
So many things I should have said
Don't let me down
'Cause I would be a lucky girl if time stood on it's head
Don't let me down

I don't need anyone.
Yes you do. Because sometimes you need someone to stop you.

Life Among the Distant Stars

All we can do is hope for the best. Maybe that's what kept her writing. Same thing that keeps me travelling. Onwards?
Onwards.

More
We all want to have some faith
At least that's true in my case
To just believe
I've seen the great height
Reminding me... that I'm alive
I don't wanna die
I don't wanna waste another day or night
I know there's something more
Than what we're living for
I see it in the stars

'Cause I understand now. You said I was gonna die, but you mean this whole world, is gonna blink out of existence. But that's not dying! 'Cause a better world takes its place. The Doctor's world! And I'm still alive! That's right, isn't it? I don't die. If I change things, I don't die. That's... that's right, isn't it?
I'm sorry.
But I can't die! I've got a future! With The Doctor! You told me!

Winners
If I could, if I could wear all your clothes I'd still be different
And if I had your speaking voice I'd never whisper
I'd talk and talk and talk
We will be winners
Our heads glued together
And all is indefinite in you

I thought we'd try the planet Feldspoon. Just cause. What a good name, Feldspoon. Apparently it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move, can you imagine?
And how do you know that?
Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine.
And how does that feel?
Brilliant, Fantastic, Molto Bene, Great big universe, packed into my brain. You know you can fix that chameleon circuit if you just try hotwiring the fragment links and superseding the binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary ...I'm fine!

Save Us
Don’t say goodbye
I know you can save us
Don’t wave goodbye
But nothing can break us
Don’t say goodbye
I know you can save us
You can bring us back again

I just want you to know, there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble. A thousand, million light years away. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. But for one moment... one shining moment... she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe.

In a Day's Work

2009-05-08T04:18:56Z

Title: In a Day's Work
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen
Word Count: 1750
Rating: NC17
Summary: Jack and Ianto engage in outdoor fun after capturing a weevil.
Notes: Originally written for the public display of affection comment porn battle. Edited and cleaned up a bit.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: Outdoor sex. Unbeta'd.
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Work.

For the last three and a half weeks there had been nothing but work. The Rift had been spewing out more alien shit, once even in a literal sense, than you could shake a stick at. What the hell did that even mean? Shake a stick at?

Jack dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. When he was exhausted (along with moody, snappish, and insufferable as Gwen and Ianto were quick to remind him) it was a sign something was terribly wrong.

"Gwen. Ianto?" Jack said, walking downstairs from the hothouse. "Stop whatever you're doing and go home. Have either one of you seen your homes this week?"

"From the number of text messages Rhys has left me, I'd say no," Gwen replied. She hurried over to Jack and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

"If I'd known I would have gotten that response, I would have let you go earlier."

Gwen grinned as she tossed a few items from her desk into her handbag. "Let us go yesterday, and I would have kissed you on the mouth. With tongue."

"Damn!" Jack grinned and snapped his fingers. His grin faded quickly when another alarm went off. His head tipped back and groaned.

"Weevil in the park," Ianto said. Two days in the same suit, and most of that time spent chasing a surprisingly fast neon yellow gelatinous blob around Cardiff, and Ianto still looked unwrinkled. Fatigue, however, was starting to show around his eyes.

"I'll get it. You two get some rest," Jack said, and he could see the relief in Gwen's eyes and the dropping of her shoulders that had tensed at the sound of the alarm.

"I'll go with you," Ianto said as he stood up. "I don't mind."

Jack didn't argue.

An hour later, he and Ianto were packing the unconscious weevil into the back of the SUV, parked on a small park road, next to a heavily wooded area.

"You have weevil blood all down the front of your coat," Ianto said, sounding almost like Jack had spilled ice cream on it and would be due for a spanking.

Though he quite liked the sound of that, Jack slipped out of his coat and handed it to Ianto. He realized, watching Ianto carefully placing the coat into the back seat, away from the weevil, that the three and a half weeks of a solid work-and-occasional-sleep schedule left no time for recreational time together.

Jack reached out and touched Ianto's hair, the lust hitting him hard. Suddenly, he didn't want anything else in the world.

Ianto turned, his eyes wide and knowing what was going to happen next. "Jack?"

Jack grabbed Ianto and slammed him against the closed driver's door of the SUV, shoving his mouth hard and messy against Ianto's, not caring about the artistry of a kiss. His mind was fogged over with desire, the word sounding cheesy like a romance novel even in his thoughts. He grabbed Ianto's hair and pulled, moving his head to the side so Jack could get to his mouth with ease.

He dropped to his knees, the soft ground conforming under his weight. His hands were shaking as he worked open Ianto's trousers as fast as he could. He pulled them down, along with his underwear, and let them pool around Ianto's ankles, atop his leather shoes.

Jack pressed his face against Ianto's body, breathing in the heady scent of him, intense and musky. He took the hard cock in his mouth, sucking down the entire thing, burying his nose deep in Ianto's pubic hair. Jack's hands ran up Ianto's hairy thighs and back down again.

Ianto moaned, and Jack looked up to see his head lolling against the car window, his lips parted, and eyes fluttering shut.

Jack pulled his mouth off Ianto's cock with a loud slurp, and tugged on his shirt. "Down here."

Ianto only hesitated for a moment before falling to his knees, though there wasn't enough room, and he knocked Jack over, back flat onto the ground, falling on top of him.

"Ow!" Jack shifted up and pulled a stick out from under his shoulder. He looked back to Ianto and grinned, grabbing Ianto by the back of the neck and pulling him down for another kiss. He let his jaw fall slack, and allowed Ianto do whatever he wanted. Jack was too dizzy from lust to even lift his head. The kissing was less frantic now, like Ianto was reading Jack's mouth with his tongue, working slowly against his lips, tasting every bit of him.

"Mmm, Ianto, please," Jack moaned, the words barely forming. He was beginning to feel the cold wet of the ground through his waistcoat and shirts and against his hot skin, but he pushed it out of his mind. He concentrated on Ianto's hand against his neck, large and heavy, his fingers brushing against Jack's earlobe.

Ianto lifted his head and in the blue flashing lights from the SUV, Jack could see him grinning. He lowered himself slowly down Jack's body. His hands weren't shaking, Jack noticed, as he unbuckled Jack's belt and unzipped his trousers. Ianto bent down and kissed the inside of Jack's thigh, moving upward and licking a thick stripe across his balls.

Jack's hips rose completely of their own accord, his cock pressing against Ianto's lips, begging him for more.

Ianto, quite thankfully, obliged, opening his mouth and taking in Jack's cock. One hand wrapped around the base, and the other was pressing into the squishy ground, holding himself up.

Jack rocked his whole body trying to get deeper into Ianto, and he felt himself sinking slowly into the earth, the cold mud and grass rubbing into his clothes. He looked down at Ianto, outlined in the blue light, but still dark in hair and pinstriped suit jacket, until Jack's eyes reached Ianto's pert bottom, raised in the air, white and glowing against the darkness like the moon (Jack chuckled at his own pun, but was cut off by a gasp when Ianto pressed the head of Jack's cock into the inside of his cheek). Jack wished he could be in two places at once, lying there on the ground, his cock immersed in Ianto's mouth, and again behind Ianto, hands on that perfect ass, almost feeling the cool skin under his hands, balls deep and taking him in the short, slow thrusts Ianto liked so much.

Jack's head rolled back, caught somewhere between the reality of Ianto's hot, wet mouth, and the fantasy of having Ianto from both sides. He reached forward blindly, groping for Ianto's hair, and pushing his fingers hard through the locks he knew so well. Jack hooked his boot around the back of Ianto's knee, trying to pull him closer.

"Fuck, Ianto," he gasped, panting hard, and forcing himself deeper into Ianto's mouth before coming. Jack's shoulders jerked and his body spasmed without elegance in his orgasm.

Ianto pulled his head away suddenly and coughed, wiping slobber and come away from around his mouth with the back of his hand. He spat on the ground and coughed again from deep within his chest.

Still half-dazed, Jack stroked Ianto's hair. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Don't be," Ianto said, his voice husky. He wiped tears away with the tips of his index finger and thumb. He leaned his head down again and licked the head of Jack's slowly softening cock, squeezing it from the based, and pulling his hand forward, sucking out the last of the come, and swallowing it this time.

"C'mere, you," Jack said, his hand sliding along Ianto's jaw and guiding him up. When Ianto's face was near, he kissed him, tasting the salty come still warm on his lips. One hand snaked around Ianto's waist and settled on his arse, fingers slipping tantalizingly near the crack. He rubbed gently, his fingers pressing into the skin.

"Jack," Ianto moaned, rubbing himself against Jack's leg. "Don't make me wait anymore."

It was a request Jack couldn't argue or refuse. He brought his hand around to Ianto's front, and gently tipped his hips back, so he could access Ianto's dick with room to spare. He pushed down Ianto's foreskin and rubbed his thumb over the head of his cock, the tip sticky with pre-come.

Ianto jerked, but not because of the contact. "Shit, a car's coming - cops."

Jack sat up about halfway and sure enough, a Cardiff police car was pulling up behind the SUV.

Jack and Ianto scrambled to their feet, pulling up their pants and trousers as fast as they could, and pulling their shirttails over the unbuckled belts they knew they couldn't close in time. The police were happy to toss around Torchwood when they could, and public indecency would certainly have them calling Gwen to bail them out.

"Park's closed after dark, fellas," said the PC, shining a torch in Jack's eyes.

"We're Torchwood," Jack said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Keeping an eye on an incident out here."

The PC looked skeptically at Jack's dirty shirt, and Ianto's less than casual slouch, but he brought his torch down. He didn't look happy as he said, "Fine." He scowled and climbed back in his car before pulling away.

Jack turned to Ianto and leaned against him, pressing him hard against the SUV. His hand wandered down against Ianto's still-hard cock and squeezed the bulge affectionately. "You poor thing," he mumbled in Ianto's ear.

"Just do it," Ianto said, his hips straining forward into Jack's touch.

Jack laughed and squatted in front of Ianto, unzipping his trousers and pulling out his cock, jerking it fast and without fanfare. He leaned his face closer as the first spurt of come hit him on the cheek. Jack stroked thoroughly, slowly working out the come out of Ianto's dick and onto his face and dripping from his lower lip.

He pressed his tongue into the slit, and licked away the last remnants of come before tucking Ianto back into his pants and zipping him up. He stood and Ianto pressed a hand to his cheek, smearing the come with his thumb.

"That was – that was good," Ianto said, smiling. "But without the waiting next time. And possibly without the mud." He held out his dirty hands.

Jack leaned forward and kissed Ianto just behind the ear. "What do you say we drop off this weevil, go back to your place and take a hot bath? Then to bed."

"I'll fall asleep," Ianto replied, sounding almost asleep already, his head drooping against Jack's shoulder.

He chuckled softly. "Me too. That's the idea."

Firing Range

2009-05-05T09:19:17Z

Title: Firing Range
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Gwen (some Jack/Gwen)
Word Count: 500
Rating: PG
Summary: Gwen's perspective on that first gun-training session.
Notes: Prompted by bookofsorrow to write a drabble series based on this picture.
Spoilers: Ghost Machine
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

"Now go home," Jack barks at Owen. "Gwen, with me."
Thanks a lot, Owen, she thinks, sympathy for his sudden compassion, or obsession, aside, pissing him off like that before he has some project he wants me to work on. But he's the boss, and he was right, she'll never get tired of following him, so she gets up before he's too far out of sight.
"Jack?" she says uncertainly, stepping into the room. "Whoa." The firing range is huge. Everything in Torchwood is huge. She looks to Jack's face and he's not upstairs, angry with Owen anymore. He's there. With her.

She looks over the array of guns and she knows the uncertainty is showing clear as day on her face. She laughs to cover up her nerves when that's just as obvious.
"I'm sorry," she says, chuckling, "it's just - I don't even kill spiders in the bath."
"Nor do I," Jack replies. "Not with a gun."
She laughs for real now. More at ease.
"It's all yours," he says, and she's anxious again. She looks down at the table, almost hoping for an instruction manual. Of course not. This is Torchwood. It's never that easy.
She looks up and silently asks how.

A shiver runs down her spine, and she hopes Jack can't feel it. He's so close, his body pressed flush against hers, and he smells amazing. How does he expect her to concentrate? He has to know the effect he has on people. No one is that gorgeous without knowing.
Of course, she thinks while should be listening to Jack and working harder not to tremble under his hand on her waist, this is the test. If you can handle a gun under these circumstances, you can handle one under any.
She breathes deep, taking in Jack's scent again, and fires.

The first shot is something similar to an orgasm. It's a rush, with all that power right at her fingertips, and Jack's hand cupping hers, how could she not be overwhelmed?
She senses that Jack can feel her inner-analogy by the way he wraps his arm around her shoulder and hugs her close for a moment, as they laugh together.
"That was a joint effort," he says.
No kidding.
She turns her head and her face is so close his she can see the faint freckles on his nose and she could kiss him if she wanted to.
"Try it again," he says.
God, yes, please.

She likes the feeling of a gun in her hand. That surprises her, since she was so nervous at first. She likes learning how to load and shoot each new weapon. It's not like the movies at all. She likes the knowledge, and the feeling of empowerment. She likes the concentration, focusing in on one task at a time.
She likes Jack's hand on her shoulder, at her waist, and against her wrist. She likes his approval when she does well, his laugh, and the way her laughs sounds with him.
She hasn't has this much fun in a long time.

Grieving Process C

2009-05-04T12:22:17Z

Title: Grieving Process C
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 1250
Rating: PG13
Summary: Jack and Ianto share and try to forget their grief.
Notes: Sequel to Grieving Process A and Grieving Process B. You don't have to have read either one for this fic though I might recommend at least reading B.
Special Thanks: lefaym for being super~~temp~~beta.
Spoilers: Takes place during the end of Exit Wounds
Warnings: Canon character death.
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Jack stands at the door of his office and looks the Hub over once again, making sure everything is secure. He knows it is, but after tonight he'll check everything as often as he wants to, not caring if it's necessary. Everything is quiet except for the hum of machines and the water trickling down the base of the water tower.

He checks his watch and sighs. It's nearly eight in the morning. It's been a long night. Longer for some than others.

Jack turns toward his quarters where he can hear a shower running. Ianto. He hadn't heard him cleaning or doing mindless busywork in about an hour. He wonders how long Ianto's been in the shower, and if maybe he wants company.

No. Not that sex wasn't a great comfort, and one they'll surely take soon enough, but not yet.

He lowers himself down the ladder, pulling the lid over him as he does. He sinks down onto the bed, then takes off his boots. He glances up at the bathroom, the door open and the light on, and listens for anything other than the sound of running water. Sobbing or shouting, or fists beating against the walls. Those reactions aren't like Ianto, but he has been pushed to them before.

Satisfied with the quiet, Jack settles back against his pillow, exactly how he left it such a long time ago, and flips open the cover on his wrist strap. He checks the stats on Gray's cryogenic chamber. He knows it's going to be the same as he left it, but he doesn't berate himself for it. He'll be checking the status constantly for the next few days, making sure Gray is safe, and they're safe from him. Then something will happen, the world will be in danger, and he'll be distracted, and he won't check that day. But Gray will never slip completely from his mind.

The water stops, and Jack looks up. There's a long pause, and Ianto comes into view, naked with a towel around his shoulders. He stops in front of the sink, back to Jack, and brushes his teeth.

"Hey," Jack says softly, not wanting to startle him.

Ianto spits in the sink and turns his head to look over his shoulder. The glow surrounding Ianto from behind makes it hard to see the details of his face. "Hey."

Jack leans forward and pats his legs. "Come here."

Ianto stares at him for a moment, then wordlessly tosses the towel into the sink and switches off the light. Jack blinks as his eyes adjust. Ianto crosses the room and there's a bit of a tussle as they figure out how to sit, finally settling on Ianto straddling Jack's lap.

It's still difficult to see Ianto's face, this time from the dim light, but his eyes are clear and searching Jack's face.

Jack strokes Ianto's cheek. He's in need of a shave, but Jack likes the way the stubble feels under his fingers. His skin is cool and damp, and his hair is still wet and dripping slightly. Slowly, Jack leans forward and takes Ianto's mouth with his. There's hesitation from Ianto for just a moment, but then he responds hungrily, wrapping a hand around the back of Jack's neck and pulling his body closer.

Jack moans into the easy familiarity of Ianto's mouth. He had little concept of time while he was buried, and no matter if he had been sleeping or dead for hundreds of years at a time, it still feels like it's been forever.

Ianto pulls back the slightest bit, his lips barely brushing against Jack's. "This isn't talking," he says in a low rumble.

"No, it's not," Jack agrees, pressing his lips to Ianto's once again. "You're a welcome distraction." He runs a hand up Ianto's side and across his chest, his thumb catching a nipple.

Ianto shivers. "Perhaps I should get dressed and be less distracting."

"Don't," Jack says, holding Ianto in place. He can't put into words how much he wants to feel Ianto's skin, all of it, everywhere. It must have been obvious in his eyes, because Ianto sits back a little, but clearly not going anywhere.

"I'm assuming you finished everything you needed to do tonight."

Jack nods. "Everything's done. I sent John on his way." He raises an eyebrow. "Or did you want him to stay?"

"Gone is good," Ianto replies quickly. "What happened was a mistake."

"It felt like a punch in the gut from here."

A small smirk appears on Ianto's lips for an instant, gone as soon as it came. "You were jealous."

"Surprised," Jack clarifies. One of his hands drops down to Ianto's leg and he strokes the inside of his thigh with his thumb. "It didn't make me happy, but I wasn't going to stop you. You're allowed to kiss anyone you want. I know I do."

Ianto tips his head back, his eyes closing. Jack can see the moment of normal banter and teasing slipping away as Ianto recalls why he was kissing John in the first place. He's remembering the ache of why he was in the morgue at all. Jack rests his hand against Ianto's neck, wanting to pull him close and kiss him again.

"What happened tonight?" Ianto asks after a few more moments of silence. "We were doing everything we could to hold it together, but we didn't know what was going on, and you were..."

Jack nods slowly. "Yeah. It's... it's complicated when my past comes back to haunt me. Everyone else is – they pay the price for my mistakes."

Ianto strokes Jack cheek and waits until Jack looks up at him before he speaks. "How are you? What happened? How long were you... buried?" He says the last word softly, like he's being careful if Jack might not want to hear it.

Jack thinks for a moment and then says, "Around eighteen hundred years? Give or take."

"Wow," Ianto breathes, turning his head away and looking at the floor. "I..."

"What?"

"It's – it isn't important."

"Talk to me, Ianto."

Ianto continues staring at the floor. "You - you really can't die. I knew it - I knew that. I've seen you a hundred times, die and - but... eighteen hundred years. I can't even - that's such a long time."

Jack suddenly feels cold all over. "So you can't even look at me."

There's a long pause and slowly Ianto lifts his head. He opens his mouth to speak, but he closes it without saying anything at all.

"You should get a few hours rest before Gwen comes back in," Jack says, breaking the silence. "It's been a long night and you haven't stopped."

Ianto doesn't protest. They sink down together, getting into a comfortable position on the small bed. Jack draws the blanket over Ianto's bare shoulders.

"If you're not going to undress with me," Ianto says humorlessly, "could you at least remove your belt? And your watch? The chain is cold."

Jack nods and begins pulling off his belt, nearly knocking Ianto out of bed in the process. Neither one of them laugh as they normally would. He pulls off his waistcoat completely and drops them both on the floor.

The last thing Jack wants to do is sleep, but he doesn't want to leave, so he wraps his arms around Ianto and pulls him close, resting his chin on top of Ianto's damp hair.

"It's not fair I get all this life and then I can't save anyone with it."

Jack waits for Ianto's reply, but there's only silence.

FANMIX: Words Cannot Convey

2009-05-03T00:03:12Z

Title: Words Cannot Convey
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Gwen
Word Count: zero (only song lyrics)
Rating: PG
Summary: To be in love... and never truly have. (From Jack's perspective)
Notes: This all happened very quickly. All of a sudden, I was making a Jack/Gwen fanmix, really without any control of my own. I'm pretty pleased with it, though unlike a lot of my mixes, it doesn't tell a story, it's just a collection of songs for the love between Jack and Gwen.
Special Thanks: bookofsorrow for helping me find just the right songs.
Spoilers: N/A
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

-zip file-
-folder with single songs-
-comments are great if you're downloading, thank you!-

Sometime Around Midnight
She's laughing, she's turning
She's holding her tonic like a crux
The room suddenly spinning
She walks up and asks how you are
So you can smell her perfume
You can see her lying naked in your arms

Tender
Turn over everything
Time can heal us again
I'm tender in your arms
Reaching inside of me
Bringing the love I need
The loneliness has gone

Quiet Times
I'm gonna to have to run away
I'm sure that I belong some other place
I've seen another side of all I've seen
It keeps me wondering where my family is
It's hard enough to see the world as it is
And hold on anything
Without these quiet times
Coming round here

I Descend
Rest here a while she said,
don't go away just yet
if you leave me all alone you won't know
what I really meant to say
just before you hit the road that day
Though, I tried to find a way, but words cannot convey
I'd say, baby, baby, don't you leave me here tonight alone
I don't want you to go home, I don't want to be alone

Us
ask for my hand you know I'll give it
and if you're cold I give you warmth
and I don't care if it's unfair
'cause I would sacrifice myself
now that I know
the only thing that matters
us

Heroes
As the sun goes down in front of me
It reminds of me of where I want to be
With you and you alone
Hold me in like you were made for me
I'm losing faith in gravity
I just need to let you know
And I just need to let you know

Believe
Close your eyes
Until the sunlight dies
In your head a thousand stars
Through the darkness you can see a light
And if they steal your life
Your heart is still mine

Keep Holding On
Keep holding on
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through
Just stay strong
'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you
There's nothing you could say
Nothing you could do
There's no other way when it comes to the truth
So keep holding on

Single Drop of You
You fill my eyes and I burn for you
And I cannot rest, until I'm drowned in your love
Today I live for a single drop of you.

Have a Little Faith in Me
Well, I've been loving you for such a long time girl
Expecting nothing in return
Just for you to have a little faith in me
You see time, time is our friend
cause for us there is no end
And all you gotta do is have a little faith in me

Grieving Process B

2009-04-30T22:19:11Z

Title: Grieving Process B
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: John/Ianto, Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 1000
Rating: PG
Summary: The beginning of grief for Ianto.
Notes: The companion piece to, quite predictably, Grieving Process A.
Special Thanks: 51stcenturyfox for her fantastic beta-work!
Spoilers: Set during the end of Exit Wounds.
Warnings: Canon character death.
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Ianto gazes at the body and tries to process it as the body, a body, any body. Anything except Tosh's body. He could close the drawer, but it's hard to look away. If he closes the drawer now, it will be for the last time. No one will ever look at her again. There's a rock in his stomach at the thought of being the last person to lay eyes on Tosh's face.

He feels like he should say something, but he doesn't know what. Instead, he gently drags his fingers across Tosh's cheek, though he had been touching her plenty, in the process of getting her from the medical bay to the morgue. That was work. This is... something else.

Her skin is cold, and paler than Ianto had ever seen it; it barely even looks like her. Like a beautiful painting of her. An impression. If he were naïve, he could imagine it was some other body, pretending to be Tosh. One of her demented ideas to fake her own death, though he couldn't come up with a reason why she would.

The corner of Ianto's mouth twitches somewhere between a smile and a frown, and he can feel the burn of tears around his eyes. He swallows hard, takes one last look at Tosh's face, quiet and empty, and pushes the drawer shut.

Ianto presses a hand against the front of the drawer, the other clutching his clipboard, and he tries to regain his composure before he loses it. It's not working.

Hands out of nowhere rest on his shoulders, and Ianto leans back into them, feeling the warmth spreading through his shirt into his skin. Closing his eyes, he lets out a quiet moan.

"We need to stop losing people," he mumbles, though he knows it's a stupid thing to say, especially to Jack, but it's exactly how he feels.

"Tell me about it, Eye Candy."

Ianto jumps and spins around all in one motion, the clipboard clattering to the floor. He stares for a moment at John, whose hands are still in the air from where they had been on Ianto's shoulders, and then punches him.

"What do you think you're doing?"

John turns his body to face Ianto again. He runs his thumb along his lower lip. "I thought I was comforting you. You didn't seem to mind-"

"I thought you were – it doesn't - what – what are you doing here?" Ianto asks. His cheeks are blazing hot and he can feel his pulse beating hard in his throat.

"There's still some unfinished business," John replies. He turns his head to one side, and reaches out to touch Ianto's face.

Ianto slaps his hand away. "You brought this on us, you could have-"

"Died for nothing? Gray'd gone mad years ago. He would have found a way without me. I helped you."

"Tosh and Owen are still dead," Ianto snaps, his voice rising and cracking on the last word. He feels a rush of a dizzy spell from saying the words out loud, making them real.

John steps forward, and Ianto feels a hand on his ribcage. He reacts without thinking, flailing his arms out, and suddenly he's on the ground, on top of John, unsure of how he got there. His fists pound against John's chest, and John doesn't try to stop him, but only wraps his arms around Ianto and rubs his back.

Ianto rests his head on John's shoulder and cries. All he can think is how relieved he is Jack and Gwen aren't seeing this. He's not sure if he's more embarrassed about breaking down or relying on John for comfort.

There's a hand is in his hair, but Ianto doesn't move. John smells good, like sweat, dirt, and Jack. Slowly, Ianto lifts his head and stares at John. This hasn't made him start liking him. Ianto might hate him more.

"I..." he tries, but falters.

John grins, but it's not that cocky smirk. It's a smile. "Do you want to hit me some more?"

Considering it for a moment, Ianto shakes his head.

"We could have sex," John says with a lift of an eyebrow.

For that, Ianto reconsiders hitting him, but instead he laughs. It sounds more like a cough, louder than he meant, echoing off the tiles. "No," he says, shaking his head again.

John reaches up, takes Ianto's face with one hand, and slowly guides him down. Ianto's breath catches as John raises his head off the floor and kisses him.

While Ianto is pretty sure he said no to this sort of thing, he kisses John anyway, parting his lips and letting in John's tongue. He doesn't have to think about Tosh or Owen, or what this means. It doesn't mean anything.

Ianto isn't sure how long it's been when he hears the sounds of someone walking around and coming to a stop. He pulls his mouth away from John and looks up. Jack is stark naked, standing just beyond the archway leading into the morgue, staring at them.

Ianto opens his mouth to speak, but Jack raises his hands, palms out, and then continues walking.

"Shit," Ianto mumbles, scrambling off John without giving him another thought. He walks quickly after Jack to his office, trying to keep some level of composure. He sees the light coming from Jack's quarters and lingers at the door, waiting for him to appear. Ianto wipes away the remains of any tears.

Finally, Jack is climbing up the ladder, fully dressed. His eyes are rimmed in red, but he looks otherwise calm.

"Jack," Ianto says, "about-"

Jack places a finger over Ianto's lips, then cups his face with both hands. His hands are warm, and he's absolutely gorgeous. He smiles softly and says, "Do you mind staying? I have a few things to do, then we can talk."

Unfinished business, Ianto thinks as he nods.

"Good." Jack gently kisses Ianto on the forehead and lets him go. He walks past, and Ianto turns to follow Jack with his eyes until he's out of sight.

Grieving Process A

2009-04-28T01:33:21Z

Title: Grieving Process A
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Gwen
Word Count: 845
Rating: PG
Summary: The beginning of grief for Jack and Gwen.
Notes: Written for un_love_you prompt #15, "this is my desperation in action".
Special Thanks: allfireburns for beta-ing and lefaym for being generally excited for this story.
Spoilers: Takes place during the end of Exit Wounds
Warnings: Canon character death
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

Jack walks through the Hub. He doesn't see where he's going, walking the well-worn paths by instinct and habit. He knows the Hub and Torchwood better than anyone and better than he knows anything else. He's blind and he doesn't even graze a wall.

There's guilt, leaving Ianto to put up Toshiko's body alone. Jack tells himself he knows Ianto well enough to know he needs to do this himself, he needs to be alone to grieve because that's how Ianto is, but the truth is, simply, after this day and the last two thousand years, Jack can't do it. He physically cannot bring himself to do it.

Jack looks up and realizes he's made his way downstairs to the shower locker room. It seems wise enough, stripping out of his dirty coat and blood-stained clothes. Even if he can't think, his legs know what he needs. He leaves his clothes on a pile on the floor. Ianto can pick through what needs cleaning and what should be tossed out and never thought of again.

Jack turns the hot water on full blast. It feels good, pounding hard against his stiff shoulders. Showers. He didn't realize he had forgotten how good a shower felt. He wonders, briefly, if sex will live up to its distant memories.

Dirt washes out of his hair in clumps as brown water swirls down the drain. He scrubs the blood from his hands until he can finally see the natural pink of skin. He meticulously checks every nail bed for any flecks of blood or dirt before he finally washes his face and hair.

He presses his hands against the wall and bows his head, letting the water pour down his back. It never gets easier, losing everyone around him, and he wouldn't know what to think of himself if it suddenly did.

Jack finishes his shower, and walks into the locker room, realizing he doesn't have clothes to change into. He thinks in passing how the bottoms of his feet are going to get dirty walking upstairs for clean clothes.

That's when he spots Gwen sitting on the floor. There's a towel in her lap and she's leaning over it sobbing quietly, her entire body convulsing with each ragged breath.

"I thought I sent you home," Jack says, still dripping.

She looks up and her cheeks color to match the redness around her eyes. She heaves a shuddering breath and says, "I just thought I'd – I wanted to clean up and... I heard you-"

"You should have joined me." The flirtation slips out of his mouth easily, before he can even think about it. He sits down next to her. The floor is cold, but he doesn't mind it.

"You're naked," Gwen says, her voice quiet and stuffy.

Jack nods and wraps his arm around her shoulders.

She leans against him, but not as comfortably as she normally would. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," he says, but he does know. They'll grieve. They'll cope. They'll move on. It's too soon to think about, and it's certainly too soon to tell her that, but he knows.

"It hurts... so much."

Jack can hear a fresh round of sobs in her voice and he pulls her closer to him. "I know. I know."

Gwen looks up at him. "I can't do this, Jack. I knew all the risk, but the... the losing, it actually happening, I can't. I don't know how."

"Yes, you do. You're strong." He presses a kiss against her forehead. He's not going to let her go. He's not going to let her lose it.

"I'm not – I can't-"

Jack lifts her chin and kisses her on the mouth. It was meant to be short, to snap her out of it, but he can't stop. Her mouth opens easily under his and it's soft and perfect. Everything else fades away into the kiss. His hand slides up her jaw and settles at the base of her neck. Gwen is sliding her hand across his stomach and gripping his side, pulling him closer to her.

Gwen pulls away, but her hand rests against Jack's stomach. "I can't, Jack. Not this."

He nods, and his eyes are transfixed on her lips, but he says, "I understand." He smiles and it's breaking. They could forget their grief for a moment, but the moment is over. He stands, extending a hand to her, and he helps Gwen to her feet.

"Go home, Gwen."

She nods and looks up at Jack with her puffy eyes and tear-streaked face. "I'm still going to shower first. I really need to clean up. I just-"

Jack reaches out and strokes her hair. "You look beautiful," he says.

Gwen laughs, and as she does, she starts to cry again. She falls forward into his arms, resting her head against his chest. She's clutching her towel.

Jack wraps his arms around her and pulls her close as she cries. He knows he needs to let go, but it's so much easier to hold her.

Returning the Favor

2009-04-15T05:29:06Z

Title: Returning the Favor
Author: lionessvalenti
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Ianto, Gwen
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Summary: Jack has always owed Gwen one...
Notes: My first drabble for tw100! For the "resurrection" challenge.
Spoilers: Slight for End of Days (and possibly Cyberwoman?)
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: None of the following belongs to me and I am not making any money, it's just good fun.

"Jack! Over here!" Ianto shouted, running toward Gwen's body. Oh, god. "She's not breathing."
Jack fell to his knees and pulled Gwen's body into his arms, carefully supporting her head. He felt for a pulse and then he kissed her, pulling her closer to him.
Ianto watched wide-eyed, his mouth going dry and his heart racing. He jumped when Gwen sprang back to life, gasping for air and clinging to Jack.
"How?" Ianto asked.
Jack grinned up at him as he smoothed the hair from Gwen's face. "Just returning the favor."
Ianto was too relieved to point out how that didn't answer his question.