Ficlet: Love You Forever
Title: Love You Forever
Author: badly_knitted
Characters/Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Word Count: 728
Summary: For an immortal, ‘forever’ isn’t an idle promise.
Spoilers: That scene in CoE Day Four, but not.
Written For: samueljames’s comment_fic prompt ‘Torchwood, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Forever (Judy Blume).’
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or any of the characters. Which is sad.
It’s easy for humans, ordinary mortals, to say ‘I’ll love you forever’ and mean it. After all, for them, forever isn’t very long at all. They come into being, live their lives, then they’re gone again in the blink of an eye, and while most leave behind people who remember them, even their memories seldom last beyond a few short decades, maybe a century or two, unless they’ve done something exceptional enough to earn themselves a place in the history books.
But for an immortal, ‘forever’ isn’t an idle promise, it literally means exactly that: for all of time. Eternity is a daunting prospect to face at the best of times, so such a promise cannot be made lightly, but Jack makes it anyway, promises to remember, because Ianto Jones has made such an enduring impression on the immortal Captain that he deserves to never be forgotten, no matter how much Jack knows remembering him will hurt.
As Jack’s grip on life finally fails and he joins his lover in death, he’s already grieving, because it’s the end of a much too short life for Ianto and another heartbreaking loss for the man who has already lost far too much and far too many in the course of his life.
Or so he believes.
He wakes in a makeshift morgue, one among dozens of blanket-covered bodies laid out in rows on the floor, and turns to the one on his left, pulling away the cover to reveal the still form of the man he had come to love almost against his will, the man he still loves, even now. Ianto looks so calm and peaceful, as though he’s merely sleeping, and when Jack touches his face in a tender, sorrow-filled caress, his skin is cool from the temperature of the unheated room, but somehow doesn’t have the chill of death to it that he was expecting.
Time seems to slow to a crawl, each second that ticks by feels like an hour, and Jack forgets to breathe for so long that he almost passes out. Thinks he might have, or that he’s dreaming, when eyes the blue-grey of a stormy sea suddenly open and the man before him draws in a shuddering, convulsive breath, hands flailing, seeking something solid to hold onto, an anchor in a raging sea of confusion and panic.
One hand connects with Jack’s coat sleeve and latches on, clinging tightly, and Jack catches the other hand in his own, grounding the young Welshman in the present. Somehow, incredibly, inexplicably, Ianto is alive, and for the moment Jack doesn’t care how or why, just that it’s real, not some dream or fantasy.
“Ianto.” Jack whispers his name like a prayer, drawing those stormy eyes to his face.
“Jack. Did I die? I thought I died.”
Words won’t come, Jack can only nod in reply. There are so many questions, things he knows he should ask, but he finds he doesn’t have to voice them, because Ianto answers them as though he can somehow read Jack’s mind. Perhaps the questions are there in his eyes.
“There was a girl, pretty, blonde… She called herself the Bad Wolf.” Ianto’s voice is husky; death will do that. He blinks up at Jack. “She was there, in the dark; there was nothing else, just her. She said, ‘I bring life. Tell Jack where there was one, now there are two. No one should have to be alone’.” He frowns in confusion. “I didn’t understand her. What did she mean? Do you know her?”
Jack’s smiling so hard now his face hurts. “Rose. That was Rose Tyler, and I think she means you’re like me now, that I get to keep you. If that’s okay with you.”
“Like you? Does that mean I’m immortal?” Jack nods and Ianto’s gaze goes distant for a moment as he thinks though the implications. “Well, that’s a bit… unexpected. Still, I think I can learn to live with it, if it means I can stay with you.” He smiles then. “I meant what I said before, Jack; I love you.”
“And I love you, Jones Ianto Jones. I’ll love you forever.”
Jack doesn’t make idle promises, he means what he says, but this man is worth holding on to, whatever it takes, and if he has his way, he’ll never let Ianto go again.
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters/Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Word Count: 728
Summary: For an immortal, ‘forever’ isn’t an idle promise.
Spoilers: That scene in CoE Day Four, but not.
Written For: samueljames’s comment_fic prompt ‘Torchwood, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Forever (Judy Blume).’
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or any of the characters. Which is sad.
It’s easy for humans, ordinary mortals, to say ‘I’ll love you forever’ and mean it. After all, for them, forever isn’t very long at all. They come into being, live their lives, then they’re gone again in the blink of an eye, and while most leave behind people who remember them, even their memories seldom last beyond a few short decades, maybe a century or two, unless they’ve done something exceptional enough to earn themselves a place in the history books.
But for an immortal, ‘forever’ isn’t an idle promise, it literally means exactly that: for all of time. Eternity is a daunting prospect to face at the best of times, so such a promise cannot be made lightly, but Jack makes it anyway, promises to remember, because Ianto Jones has made such an enduring impression on the immortal Captain that he deserves to never be forgotten, no matter how much Jack knows remembering him will hurt.
As Jack’s grip on life finally fails and he joins his lover in death, he’s already grieving, because it’s the end of a much too short life for Ianto and another heartbreaking loss for the man who has already lost far too much and far too many in the course of his life.
Or so he believes.
He wakes in a makeshift morgue, one among dozens of blanket-covered bodies laid out in rows on the floor, and turns to the one on his left, pulling away the cover to reveal the still form of the man he had come to love almost against his will, the man he still loves, even now. Ianto looks so calm and peaceful, as though he’s merely sleeping, and when Jack touches his face in a tender, sorrow-filled caress, his skin is cool from the temperature of the unheated room, but somehow doesn’t have the chill of death to it that he was expecting.
Time seems to slow to a crawl, each second that ticks by feels like an hour, and Jack forgets to breathe for so long that he almost passes out. Thinks he might have, or that he’s dreaming, when eyes the blue-grey of a stormy sea suddenly open and the man before him draws in a shuddering, convulsive breath, hands flailing, seeking something solid to hold onto, an anchor in a raging sea of confusion and panic.
One hand connects with Jack’s coat sleeve and latches on, clinging tightly, and Jack catches the other hand in his own, grounding the young Welshman in the present. Somehow, incredibly, inexplicably, Ianto is alive, and for the moment Jack doesn’t care how or why, just that it’s real, not some dream or fantasy.
“Ianto.” Jack whispers his name like a prayer, drawing those stormy eyes to his face.
“Jack. Did I die? I thought I died.”
Words won’t come, Jack can only nod in reply. There are so many questions, things he knows he should ask, but he finds he doesn’t have to voice them, because Ianto answers them as though he can somehow read Jack’s mind. Perhaps the questions are there in his eyes.
“There was a girl, pretty, blonde… She called herself the Bad Wolf.” Ianto’s voice is husky; death will do that. He blinks up at Jack. “She was there, in the dark; there was nothing else, just her. She said, ‘I bring life. Tell Jack where there was one, now there are two. No one should have to be alone’.” He frowns in confusion. “I didn’t understand her. What did she mean? Do you know her?”
Jack’s smiling so hard now his face hurts. “Rose. That was Rose Tyler, and I think she means you’re like me now, that I get to keep you. If that’s okay with you.”
“Like you? Does that mean I’m immortal?” Jack nods and Ianto’s gaze goes distant for a moment as he thinks though the implications. “Well, that’s a bit… unexpected. Still, I think I can learn to live with it, if it means I can stay with you.” He smiles then. “I meant what I said before, Jack; I love you.”
“And I love you, Jones Ianto Jones. I’ll love you forever.”
Jack doesn’t make idle promises, he means what he says, but this man is worth holding on to, whatever it takes, and if he has his way, he’ll never let Ianto go again.
The End