(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]

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.

After he got himself together a little bit, the tears were still rolling down his cheeks, but he turned his head and pressed a kiss against Ianto's hair. Nothing passionate or overly romantic like one might expect from a personality like Jack. Just a small, sweet kiss, his lips pressed against the side of Ianto's head as he held him tight, unaware of the rocking that Ianto was doing except that it was soothing to him. "...I missed you," he said, after a long, long moment, his voice still pretty raw with emotions but he was trying, and well. For Jack, even admitting that much was saying something.

[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.

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack's fingers curled around Ianto's, taking the hint. He didn't much want to pull away from Ianto either. He was almost afraid that if he let go, he might disappear. Which was silly, but there it was. He didn't think he'd let the other man out of his sight for a little while yet, just to make sure. Sure, they'd have to deal with this sometime. Ianto'd probably have questions, and he might even give them. In time, that is.

As the lift brought them up to the right floor, presumably to dump them out in some sort of hallway lined with passenger quarters - it seemed like the sort of place to have an area like that, considering how huge it was - Jack shifted to lean against Ianto, touching more just for the sake of contact. "You alright?" he asked, knowing that it was a loaded question, but figuring he should ask it nonetheless. Ianto had mentioned that he was groggy, after all, and the motion of the lift probably wasn't doing anything to help that.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto tried for a smile and only half-succeeded. It was indeed a loaded question, and one Ianto didn't yet have an answer for. He chose to stick to the surface layer of the matter and delve deeper only when he could no longer avoid the subject.

"Nothing to worry over," he assured. "But if it's all the same, I'd like to avoid any future adventures in stasis chambers." The grogginess, memory loss, sore throat, and lack of coordination were only topped off by having had to walk about in his shorts covered in goo. At least that part was over. The other symptoms were all fading slowly but surely, and the trip in the lift was made tolerable by Jack's solid weight against him, keeping him from any possible vertigo or motion sickness.

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack nodded, understanding. He didn't much enjoy the experience of waking up in a stasis chamber either. Unfortunately for him, though, he had other experiences to compare it to, like being buried alive in a block of cement, so comparatively speaking waking up out of a stasis chamber covered in goo wasn't too bad.

"Hey, you know what. If we find these passenger quarters they were talking about, there's a chance that we might be able to find some sort of a bath or shower as well. If you're interested, that is." Might make Ianto feel better, if nothing else. Granted, if it was public, he doubted that they'd be getting up to much other than washing off.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto moaned involuntarily, the thought of a shower akin to bliss. "God, yes. I still feel like I'm covered in...whatever that was." And he probably still was, technically, even if it was dry now.

The door to the lift slid open, and Ianto stepped out with Jack at his side, a long hallway going in either direction. Apparently this was floor "00" and all the doors appeared to be numbered. With a little start, the pieces slid into place for Ianto. Letting go of Jack's hand long enough to pull up his sleeve, he displayed the number on his arm. 007.

"Do you have one of these?" he asked, looking at Jack a little anxiously. He really didn't like the tattoo, or what it possibly implied.

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack frowned at the tattoo on Ianto's wrist, before he held out his wrist to show the other man his tattoo. 003, it read. The number of the vault that had held the John Doe in the Torchwood cryogenics storage facility. The number of the vault that had held him, ironically. He hoped that Ianto understood the significance of his number, and at the same time he didn't, because he'd really rather not be reminded of being buried alive for all that time if he could help it.

"Yeah," he said, answering Ianto. "Yeah, I... I do."

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto ran a thumb over Jack's tattoo, brow furrowed. The significance of the number was not lost on him, any more than the significance of his own number was. When he'd had only his own to go on, it seemed easy enough to pass the 007 off as a coincidence, or possibly a nod to James Bond, but now it seemed all too apparent these were their morgue drawer numbers.

He shivered and his thoughts shied away from the subject. It was no use thinking about tit now. He'd just lose his composure completely. Hoping to pass it off as a chill, he took Jack's hand again.

"They were our locker numbers, so it stands to reason they must be our room numbers too." Glancing around at the doors in their immediate area, it seems as if the lift had brought them up somewhere in the middle, so that the lowest numbers were on one end of the hallway, and the highest on the other. There was also a plaque on the wall that pointed the way to various communal areas, including a communal shower. Taking a moment to read all the options, Ianto had to count himself impressed.

"They have kitchens and gardens, even a media library," he pointed out. But it was the showers that currently held his interest.

[capt_greatcoat]

Jack was on exactly the same page as Ianto. Part of him was sad that they were communal showers, but the other part of him was just grateful that there were bathing facilities at all. It was never a guarantee, especially when you were being taken prisoner anywhere against your will, like they were in this situation.

"Well, let's hope that they've got towels too," he said, stepping forward in the direction that the plaque indicated they go to get to the bathrooms. "C'mon." Even if they were going to be going to a communal facility, Jack was still intent on really making sure that Ianto was alright, from the top of his head to the bottoms of his feet if he could. He'd have to behave himself until at least they found a room, and in all honesty his nerves were shot enough that sex wasn't the first thing on his mind. He just craved the intimacy, the intimacy that he'd been missing for months now, from a man that by all explanations should be dead. And yet he wasn't, he was right there, and Jack was going to latch himself on and never let go, if that's what it took to keep him there with him, safe and whole.

[suitedforcoffee]

Ianto felt much the same. He wanted nothing more than to wrap himself around Jack, breathe in his scent, and just be with him. If it lead to sex, he was sure they'd both find mutual satisfaction, but it wasn't the goal. It wasn't the point.

The showers were thankfully empty, despite their communal nature. It seemed most people were still milling about downstairs, or wandering, or kipping in their rooms. That was all fine by Ianto, who immediately began unzipping his jumpsuit, heading toward the row of lockers with the neatly folded stacks of towels on the benches in front of them. He undressed quickly, tossing the clothing almost carelessly in an empty locker.