(Untitled)

[suitedforcoffee]

CHARACTERS: Ianto Jones and Jack Harkness
LOCATION: Somewhere in the passenger quarters
WARNINGS: Angst, possible progression into NC-17 territory.
SUMMARY: Jack and Ianto run into each other in the passenger quarters just after everyone arrives.

Comments

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack had had his fill of socializing in the locker room, and so after a little while he excused himself out to do a bit of exploring on his own. There were enough people around that running into someone in the hallways wasn't much of a surprise. And he'd been living in such a haze for the last few months that mistaking someone in front of him for Ianto wasn't that strange of an occurrence either. What was strange was the fact that upon closer inspection of the man in question, the appearance didn't change at all. Against all possible explanations, there was Ianto Jones, a little ways down the hallway from him.

Jack stopped dead in his tracks, and when he spoke, his voice was oddly hesitant, and not at all the way he normally sounded. "...Ianto?"

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto had no idea just how stressful he was finding his current situation until he looked up, saw Jack, and felt a burst of joy and relief so profound it startled him. Jack was here. If Jack was here, then everything would be alright. Even if he never saw the Earth again, everything would be alright.

"Jack...!" Elated and feeling more vulnerable than he was accustomed to, Ianto didn't hesitate before moving toward Jack, closing the distance between them quickly.

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack, however, stayed right where he was. He tried hard not to stand there and stare like he was seeing a ghost, but... Well, he kind of was. Ianto was dead. He had been for a while. Hell, Jack'd even been to his funeral before he'd high-tailed it out of Wales to try and escape it all. Escape the ghosts and the memories and...here one was, quickly moving right up to him. It was almost too good to be true, and so yeah. Jack stood frozen in place as Ianto approached him.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto's movement slowed and then halted, standing close enough to touch but stopping short of doing so. He was still recovering from whatever stasis the ship had put them all in, and most of his memories had slowly filtered back to him. The only memories that were still blurred were his last ones before waking here, but he knew without having to be told that something had gone wrong. He remembered being frightened, he remembered needing to tell Jack...something.

The expression on Jack's face gave Ianto a horrible sense of foreboding.

"Jack...?" Hesitantly, he reached out and took Jack's hand in his own. "I know it's odd, me without the suit," he joked weakly, "but it's still me."

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack had to fight himself not to break down right then and there as Ianto's fingers curled around his, his hand solid and warm around his own. It was one thing to hallucinate Ianto's voice, his image, the way he smelled, but. This was a solid touch, and it was really real, and...

Jack stepped forward and without a word, without so much as even thinking about countering the other man's joke, just wrapped his arms around Ianto. Buried his face in his hair, squeezing his eyes shut as he struggled to remember how to breathe correctly. If this was a dream, then he wasn't sure that he wanted to wake up. In fact, he knew he didn't.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto was startled, but brought his arms up automatically to return the embrace, one hand going to Jack's head to squeeze the nape of Jack's neck in instinctive comfort. His heart sank. Ianto knew what this meant, and in fact had known all along he must have died at the hands of the 456. However hazy his memories, he'd only been denying what he'd known all along. He'd died, and it was plain enough Jack remembered clear as day.

But then how was Ianto here, alive?

It was a question that required answers (however much Ianto didn't look forward to discovering them), but not now. Right now, Jack needed him.

He made soft noises of reassurance, little meaningless things like "It's alright," and "I'm here," which didn't add up to a damn thing but always helped anyway, somehow. Fighting not to break into tears, he bit his lip, holding Jack tighter and rubbing circles on his back.

[capt_greatcoat]

He'd tried to tell him, when Ianto was dying... He wanted to tell the other man that he loved him too, but something held him back, some stupid notion that maybe if he didn't say it out loud, then Ianto would still stand a chance. Everyone he loved died on him, but maybe if he didn't say it then he'd be safe. It was the desperate logic of a man whose life and love was slipping through his fingers like grains of sand, and obviously it hadn't worked in the end. In fact, it just left him with more regret. He should have tried harder, he should have anticipated something like that happening. He should have insisted Ianto stay back with Gwen. He shouldn't have ever let himself get close like he had

[suitedforcoffee]

"I'm here," he repeated again, running his fingers through Jack's hair. They were rocking now, just a slight motion to and fro. "I'm not going anywhere, Jack." And he'd be damned if he didn't mean that with every ounce of his being.

He'd never seen Jack like this before. Not even when Tosh and Owen had died had Jack fallen apart so completely. They'd both cried together, embracing in the dark, showing a depth of vulnerability others wouldn't see. But not like this. In some corner of his heart, Ianto found himself touched deeply by the display, but more than that, he was horrified. Of course Ianto wished to be missed when he passed, but not like this. Not with this broken desperation. He never, ever wanted Jack to go through this, and he would do everything he could to fix it now.

[capt_greatcoat]

If Jack were aware of his reactions right then, he probably would have stopped himself from being quite so violently reactive about it, but. God, he'd missed Ianto. He'd ached for him. There were nights when he could almost forget everything with the 456, except for the guilt of the fact that he'd been responsible for the one person in the world that he'd trade it all to be with, and he'd let that person die. So no, he wasn't going anywhere. Not if Jack could help it. Not for a very, very long time

[suitedforcoffee]

"Oh, Jack..." That little kiss was Ianto's undoing, and he buried his face in the crook of Jack's neck, tears leaking from his eyes despite his best efforts to contain them. He wanted to say he was sorry for leaving, for doing this to Jack, but he'd never meant to in the first place. His apologies would likely be met with denials from Jack, and with good reason. But he didn't know what else to say, how better to express his regret, so he just held Jack fiercely until it felt like atoms couldn't fit between them.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said again, with conviction. If Ianto Jones had anything to say about it, he wouldn't be leaving Jack Harkness again until his youth was spent and his body was too frail to support life. If this is what his death did to Jack, he would do everything he could to avoid it.

[capt_greatcoat]

It was Jack's turn to bring his hand up and thread it through the hair on the back of Ianto's head, rocking gently as he did. He wasn't going to murmur soft reassurances, because he wasn't sure he could, but he would hold Ianto tight and he would help him in any way that he could. He kept his lips pressed to Ianto's head, now at his temple, his cheek resting against his hair. "No, you're not," he reaffirmed, softly but firmly. Not since he'd gotten him back. He wasn't about to let go so soon. Not when it was now painfully obvious to him just how much the other man meant to him.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto took a shuddering breath, regaining some level of control over his emotions. He was alive, and Jack was here, and neither of them were about to let go. Everything would be okay. Slowly, so as not to jar them both, he lifted his head so he could look Jack in the eyes. His hand slid around to cup Jack's cheek, absently caressing his skin with his thumb. What he was looking for in Jack's eyes, he couldn't say. But he saw the lingering pain plainly enough, and on impulse leaned forward to meet Jack's lips softly with his own.

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack returned the kiss softly enough at first, but there was a growing passion behind it that soon had him deepening it. Ianto was alive, and he was kissing him, and if Jack had had any doubt in his mind just how important the other man was to him, he didn't anymore. Not now that he had him back, and he was suddenly not the hollow shell of a man that he'd been walking around as for the last few months. He stroked the side of Ianto's cheek himself, kissing him, on the lips, the corner of the mouth, his cheek, the corner of his jaw, down his neck, nuzzling him there before he finally pulled back enough to look at him.

He ran his hand through Ianto's hair, moving to cup his cheek once more when he had. "Look at you," he said, a soft smile spreading itself across his face. It was a sight that he didn't think he'd even get to see again, and there he was. Standing in front of him in a jumpsuit that looked...well, pretty hot on him, if Jack let his mind go there.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto leaned into every kiss and caress, drinking them in as Jack touched him like he was the most precious thing in the world. He didn't want to stop. The urge came over him to find a quiet place they could seclude themselves away for a while and just kiss and touch and forget all else. Maybe they could.

"Hey," he replied quietly when Jack pulled back, smiling as if to say, yes, look at me, I'm here and I'm alive and it's all okay now. He brushed his hands over the jumpsuit Jack was wearing, absently fiddling with the collar. There was no denying it was an attractive fit -- though Jack would look attractive in a potato sack -- but he was a little perturbed at the lack of greatcoat and braces. And after he'd gone through so much trouble to find a new one. But that was a small matter, miniscule in comparison to his sudden need to find somewhere private he and Jack could hole up in.

"You think they have rooms in this place? I'm still a little groggy." Ianto had quickly discovered he was not a fan of medical stasis.

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack nodded. "Yeah," he said. "The comms device from our lockers. You turn it on, it tells you to take the lift up to the passenger's quarters. I'm assuming that means that there'll be rooms up there. We could go find one..." Jack wasn't groggy himself, although whether that was because of his condition and therefore a quick healing and recovery time, or whether it was because he'd been through medical stasis several times before. It wasn't as bad as making a jump with a finicky vortex manipulator, and he'd had enough experience with one of those to last a lifetime.

"Let's go check it out, alright? I'm sure we'll find somewhere." Jack wouldn't mind lying down with Ianto. He wasn't sure that he'd be sleeping if he did, but he definitely wouldn't mind lying down with him and just enjoying his presence there with him. Something he'd taken for granted before then.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto nodded agreeably. "I think I passed the lifts. Back that way," he indicated with a title of his head. But he was reluctant to move away from Jack. He settled for taking Jack's hand in his own again and tugging lightly to suggest they could walk together.

The lifts weren't far, just a hundred feet or so in the direction Ianto had come from, and inside were different buttons, one of which was blue. According to the 'cell phone,' the passenger quarters were the blue one, so he pressed it and spent the elevator ride much as he spent the walk -- quietly staying close to Jack, never losing physical contact. He needed it as much as Jack did, and he knew sooner or later, he'd have to deal with his death and inexplicable resurrection. He could feel it creeping up on him, and only his continued disorientation kept it at bay.