giddygeek | The Stars From the Ground, Jack/Ianto

Title: The Stars From the Ground
Author:

giddygeek
Pairing: Torchwood, Jack/Ianto
Notes: This one is for

misspamela, who requested the Torchwood story I've been talking about writing since the new season started, because she's smart like that. When I said I'd try for 1000 words, what I meant was clearly that I'd write 2600 words. 2x1 spoilers--2x1 post-ep, really. Fluff fluff fluff.

"I hate to mention it," Ianto says, breaking the awkward silence that had settled so thickly inside the SUV after they'd buckled in. "But how are we going to avoid ourselves if we're all...in the Hub?"

For a second it's as if no one heard him. Then Jack wrenches the wheel and the SUV screeches, slides to a halt. Ianto, the only one who had thought to brace himself after the question, watches the others jolt forward, and he sighs.

"Jack!" Gwen shouts, hand on her chest where the nylon strap of her seatbelt had dug in as they slammed to a stop. "What are you trying to do, kill us all?"

"Out of the car," Jack says. "Ianto's right, what was I thinking? Go on. Go ahead. Well, you're already at work, aren't you? You might as well get a night off out of it."

No one moves.

Jack waits a long, silent moment, then sighs and pops the locks. "Last call," he says, more gently. "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Did you know barkeeps say something like that the whole universe over? It's true; I could translate it for you in 200 languages, give or take a few dozen."

No one moves. Ianto meets Jack's gaze in the rearview mirror and holds it, waiting. In the lights from their instrument panels, Jack's eyes flash, but they're not harsh. They're a little tired. A bit sad.

"I'll be there when you come in tomorrow," Jack says, not looking away. "I promise."

Owen is the first to give in. "Why won't we be stuck in an infinite time loop?" he asks. His seatbelt clicks open and he shrugs it away. "More and more copies of us appearing as each team gets to the end of the night?"

"John is gone," Jack says. Christ, that sadness. Ianto finally looks away, down at his lap; he unfastens his seat belt as Owen scoffs.

"Always so logical, aren't you, Jack? Knowing it all? I bet it doesn't work--I bet there are 50 copies of us all soon enough, trying to hide--"

"Trust me," Jack says, and Owen shuts up. Gwen and Tosh quietly undo their seatbelts. Ianto puts his hand on the door, thumbs the lock although he knows it's open.

Jack laughs a little. "This is why I had to come back for you," he says, and Ianto doesn't dare look up. "No other creatures in the universe would do as I asked, just because I asked."

Gwen chokes at that, then throws herself out of the SUV, dashing round the hood as Ianto climbs out the other side; he, Owen and Tosh move more slowly.

Gwen has her hands on Jack's cheeks through the open window of the SUV. She pulls him down and kisses the corners of his mouth. Jack closes his eyes. "You're a bastard," she says, wiping her lip gloss off his skin with her thumbs. "But I'm so glad you're back." She kisses him again, lets the gloss shine on his cheek, and then backs away. She holds his gaze for a few steps before she runs up the street, her phone already in her hand.

"I'll go after her," Tosh says, and Jack holds out his hand to her. Tosh takes it with a shy smile, ducks her head when Jack pulls her close and kisses her cheek, her forehead, breathing her in. Then she's gone too, her bag banging awkwardly against her side, her heels clacking, her voice breathless as she calls for Gwen.

Owen sniffs. "I won't be kissing you," he says. "I'm not even--well."

"We have a lot to discuss," Jack agrees, serious, but he's smiling a little when Owen shakes the hand he holds out. "And besides, Ianto will kiss me to make up for it. Won't you, Ianto?"

"I might not," Ianto murmurs, ducking his head a little. "Until you're here tomorrow morning, at least."

"Ah, then you'd better stay with me tonight to make sure," Jack says, smiling but not looking away from Owen, still holding his hand. "Get back in."

Owen twists free. "Do you have to talk about shagging the butler when I'm right here?" he asks, mock-disgusted, and he walks away shaking his head, grinning a little.

"Did we get a butler?" Jack asks Ianto. "Shouldn't there be a hiring freeze when the boss is away? Clearly we need to...discuss...the chain of command."

Ianto doesn't laugh or respond to the innuendo so clear in Jack's voice; he frowns down at the glossy exterior of the SUV instead. It's smudged, sporting a new scrape. It's always that way, from the moment Jack takes the wheel; he drives like a madman.

Jack is quiet, watching him. Ianto should just walk away, follow Owen, share a cab with Tosh and Gwen, but he doesn't. He just studies the faint misshape of his reflection in the curving black gleam of the car.

"Will you come with me?" Jack asks Ianto, who doesn't feel like he can go anywhere at the moment, who isn't quite certain he can go so far as to take his hands out of his pockets.

He clears his throat, hesitates. "Where would you like to go, Jack?"

"You promised me a date," Jack says teasingly, a serious look in his eyes when Ianto finally meets his gaze again. "Did you mean it?"

"Yes," Ianto says. He has always meant it; he has never said yes to Jack without meaning it wholeheartedly.

Jack's smile warms, brightens, his face going young and sweet for a moment. "Then there's no time like the present," he says, and laughs. "Especially considering that right now it's the future, and also the past."

Ianto smiles back at him without being able to help it, finally feeling warmed by that infectious good cheer he has. Truly warmed; his ears go hot and he flushes as he rounds the hood to climb into the passenger seat.

As he's buckling himself back in, Jack leans toward him, catches his chin in the palm of his hand, turns his head. "I missed you," he says, quietly, searching Ianto's eyes for something, some hint to what Ianto is thinking; he's always done that, as if he'd known all along that there were thoughts Ianto hardly understood himself. "I missed you more often than you could know."

Ianto curls his fingers around Jack's wrist, pulls his hand back gently, holds it in his own. He ducks his head and kisses Jack's knuckles, feels the twitch that is Jack restraining himself, smiling against the warm, slightly rough skin as Jack exhales shakily.

"I barely noticed you were gone," he says, shaky himself; it's a blatant lie, and Jack laughs the way Ianto meant for him to do. He lets go of Jack's hand, sits back, looks out the window and doesn't see a thing as Jack pulls back out into the road, and they speed off into the night.

~

"Stay here," Jack says, refusing to let Ianto go into the pub with him.

Moments later, he pops back out, empty-handed and frowning. "Do you have money?" he asks, leaning against the door of the SUV, smiling into Ianto's eyes. "I have four million dollars in Astolerian crystals, but they kind of look like cat litter; I don't think they'd exchange very well. Thanks," and he disappears again with all of Ianto's cash.

~

Ianto eats a piece of roll, warm and yeasty and dripping with gravy. "I don't believe it's a date if we eat in the car," he says, switching the top and bottom boxes of take-away, pleased to find lasagna steaming in the second carton. He breaks off a piece of the garlic bread tucked in snugly with the pasta, hums a little, licks his fingers. No napkins. There are probably some in the back; he'll grab them when they get where they're going.

"We're not eating--hey, don't you start without me," Jack says, reaching out to smack his hand. "We're not going far, you want to wait a little while longer, maybe?"

Ianto considers this, breaks off another piece of garlic bread. "If I must, I suppose."

"You won't regret it," Jack says, and his hand comes to rest on Ianto's knee, hot and heavy, achingly familiar and missed all at once.

Ianto closes the take-away carton and folds his hand on top of Jack's, and he thinks that yes, this is already worth the wait.

~

"This is also not a date," Ianto says as he climbs out of the SUV, balancing the take-away boxes and shutting the door with a bump from his hip. He looks up at the tall, forbidding expanse of his building, and sighs. "I believe this is more along the lines of what we used to do on a fairly regular basis."

Jack is grinning, bounding up the steps to courteously hold the door open. "I like it here," he says. "But we're not going to bed. We're going a little bit higher than that, I promise. Hey, do you have beer?"

~

"I am good on roofs," Jack says, propping the door open with a rock, two bottles clinking in his hand. "You said so yourself."

Ianto puts the food down, then carefully wipes clear a spot on top of the vast platform where the television satellites are perched.

"Perhaps you are," he says. "But I prefer to be a bit closer to the ground myself. And warmer. And cleaner."

"Well, I can promise to keep you warm, at least," Jack says, and he sits down, his coat billowing around him. He smooths it and pats the fabric invitingly. Ianto sits; they're too close like this, sharing too much of their body heat, although there's really not enough coat to go around both of them and hold it in.

"How will we eat?" he asks, and Jack smiles at him, tugs him closer.

"We'll live on stardust for a while," he says. He's so close that his mouth brushes Ianto's, a light kiss. "Stardust and this, perhaps," and it's so good, the feel of his mouth, his heat, his hands on Ianto's cold cheek and the nape of his neck--it's so good that Ianto thinks he could live on this.

He closes his eyes, fists his hands against Jack's back, and takes Jack's mouth with his until the sharp edge of his hunger for this is dulled just a little, sated, the way he'd imagined it might never be again.

~

They watch the stars and Jack tells him how they end. It's almost all fanciful and glorious, but Ianto listens to the stories Jack doesn't tell, and kisses him during the long, strangely touching silences between lies.

~

"Tell me something about yourself," Jack says against Ianto's temple, breath washing warm against his cheek.

"You know all there is to know."

Jack tsks. "Liar. Tell me about your first pet."

Ianto smiles, tucks his head down a little more; his nose is cold. "A pterodactyl."

Jack laughs. "All right, all right--tell me about your first fuck."

"I don't like how you leapt from pets to sex so quickly."

Jack is shaking with repressed laughter. "Your first kiss, when you were young and it was only puppy love."

"A girl named Melis," Ianto says, remembering her fondly. "Short blonde hair, a big, sweet smile. Mature for our age."

"By which you mean she had a nice rack," Jack says, and Ianto turns his head, sinks his teeth into the muscle at the crook of Jack's neck and shoulder.

"She was beautiful," he says, warningly.

"Not as pretty as me," Jack says. "Not as beautiful as the first time you kissed me."

"Different," Ianto says, hiding his smile; that's the last thing Jack needs to see. He'll be insufferable if he knows the truth. Moreso than usual, anyway.

"I felt your world change," Jack says, not nearly as smug as he should be. "I knew."

Ianto hesitates, then nods. "It was your fault the ground shook," he says, teasing, sincere. "I suppose you should take the blame."

"The credit," Jack says, his hands smoothing down Ianto's back, slow and steady pressure. Ianto shivers, closes his eyes. He tucks his head against Jack's neck and doesn't say a word. Jack's hands are very warm.

~

The sky brightens slowly, Jack's stars vanishing one by one as daylight creeps over the horizon.

Ianto is cold and tired, a bit groggy from dozing off against Jack's shoulder periodically. He's not accustomed to napping, and he's not used to just relaxing against someone like this, being held. Another first Jack's claimed.

"We should go in," he says, shifting. He feels stiff, a little sore. "We'll be expected at the Hub soon."

Jack's thumb moves in a slow, steady pattern behind Ianto's ear. "We should call out."

"And have the others over here in a minute, wondering why?" Ianto snorts lightly, then sits back, stretches. So many months without Jack, and already it feels odd to not be touching him. Jack must think so too; Ianto stands and he follows, crowding close.

"Let them wonder," he says, and his kiss now is lazy, slow, but no less consuming than the first one.

Ianto eases away. "As they've been doing for so long now?" he asks, raising an eyebrow, and they stare at each other in silence for a while, the moment stretching on as the sun rises higher in the sky.

Then Jack takes a step back, cracks his neck, bends down to pick up their trash. "You're tough but fair, Ianto Jones," he says, and strides off toward the door as easily as if he hadn't just spent hours sitting on a cold, hard surface, as if he weren't hundreds of years old. He holds the door open and Ianto slips past him, brushing against him, feeling Jack's hand on his back for a moment. "Tough but fair. You know, I like that in a lover," he muses, and laughs as they take the stairs down to Ianto's flat.

~

"Sleep for a few hours, then come in," Jack says, standing with Ianto at his door. "We'll hold down the fort while you rest."

"A terrifying thought," Ianto says dryly, but he means it in a way. He's seen what happens when he's away for a day. He's seen what happens when he's away longer, and he never wants to see that ever again.

Jack smiles at him, then leans in to press a gentle, closed-mouth kiss on his lips. "What's terrifying is the idea that maybe you won't come out with me a second time, Ianto. Say you will?"

"Only if we go properly out next time," Ianto says, meaning yes, knowing Jack hears it.

"Maybe we'll go out improperly," Jack says, kissing him again before taking a step back, another, grinning. "I'm going to go before I very improperly ask if you're a first-date kind of guy."

"Wise," Ianto says, opening his door and hesitating on the threshold, watching Jack watch him. "Although hardly necessary."

"Very necessary," Jack corrects, then he beams, flings his arms out wide, coat billowing in the narrow hall. "We're trying something new and different this time, Ianto! I think we're going to like it, don't you?"

He winks, then turns at the door, disappears down the stairs. Ianto doesn't linger in the hall once he's gone. He goes inside, closes and locks his door, slips off his shoes, his clothes, turns up the heat. He touches his lips, feels them swollen, and smiles as he crawls into his neat bed; Jack is right. He's going to enjoy this, for as long as they can make it last.

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From:

misspamela.livejournal.com

"Maybe we'll go out improperly," Jack says, kissing him again before taking a step back, another, grinning. "I'm going to go before I very improperly ask if you're a first-date kind of guy."

"Wise," Ianto says, opening his door and hesitating on the threshold, watching Jack watch him. "Although hardly necessary."

Oh, oh, THEM. This is absolutely perfect -- unsure but adult Ianto, flirty-yet-kind-of-sad Jack, and that feeling of grabbing on to happiness while they can. I love this and I love them and I love YOU.

*clings*

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The Stars From the Ground, Jack/Ianto

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