Tales Of A Time Agency - 20/?
Title: Tales of A Time Agency - 20/?
Rating: 15 - NC-17
Pairings: Jack/Ianto but it’s the Time Agency so expect Jack/John, Tosh/Owen, Ianto/John, Tosh/Mary, John/ OFC, John/the consenting population of the universe……
Spoilers: Anything Torchwood could be hinted at.
Summary: Ianto Jones is thrown into the world of excess of the Time Agency Academy, but will he sink or swim? Especially when the enigmatic Jack Harkness starts looking his way…. In this chapter, Ianto and Jack are finally aboard the freighter to put right the wrongs of Ianto’s past. But will they ever be able to accept their feelings towards each other?
Disclaimer: Regrettably I own nothing, none of the characters, zip. Wish I did though. I will take the credit for Telmaya though; I’m quite fond of her.
Author’s Notes: So here we go, with the quickest chapter of TOATA I have ever written. Basically I was due an update (I take ages I know) and I’m off to Edinburgh tomorrow until Friday, so I thought I better come up with something quick and spontaneous. So I came up with this, and I apologies if it is not up to scratch. That being said I really must severely huggle my two betas, naddypants andthehubsitter for as always giving me faith in my writing. They are both amazing. :)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five A
Chapter Five B
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight A
Chapter Eight B
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven A
Chapter Eleven B
Janto Interlude
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen A
Chapter Eighteen B
Chapter Nineteen
Dedicated to three people who read TOATA and keep me writing in general! To naddypants for well being awesome, random drunk phone calls and always putting a smile on my face. To thehubsitter for random amusing/serious arguments about fields and jungles and for just generally being the amazingly lovable person she won’t believe she is! And to morgia , because her love of Scotland and highland cows amuses me greatly. :)
The four walls around him were both his cage and his salvation.
There was a constant hum of machinery that resonated through the heavy steel around him. It was deep, steady, a distant thunder to remind him of where he was, never ceasing, never fading. For the engines that powered the hefty metal carcass of the ship could never take the time to stop and so they worked on, drumming out through both night and day. Not that there was any distinction between the two once you entered the timeless whirls of space. Ianto had already found himself beginning to lose track of time. From his estimations they had been aboard The Haven Star freighter for two and a half days now although that was more by what his wrist strap was telling him rather than his own judgement.
Their time aboard the ship had come all too soon. He had not expected the weeks to pass so quickly, but they soon hurtled by, engulfed by planning and preparations. First it had been the arrangements to get onboard the freighter itself, and Ianto could still remember the bitter feeling in the pit of his stomach when he recollected Jack’s ‘negotiations’ with Cozen, their ship’s Captain. Next was all the extra arms practice Ianto found himself doing, the countless nights where he and Jack would practice constantly at the firing range, only stopping when their eyes he became too tired to no longer stare at the targets, their arms weakened and shaking from the strain of holding their assorted arsenal. It was amazing to him that although he had been preparing for this day ever since he had first thought of revenge, in the month leading up to their departure he no longer felt ready. He was scared, it was true. But not for himself. He was scared of failing, whatever failing meant to him. He was haunted by the terrifying weight of what he was about to undertake. After all, he could not betray his father’s memory, couldn’t let him down in the sole remaining act that he could do for him, for them all. He had to succeed, and that thought alone made it sometimes unbearable to even breathe underneath his self induced magnitude of pressure.
Ianto had known that their journey to Darko on Bryce - 7 would not be a pleasant one and Jack had already warned him to take particular care onboard the freighter. He had urged him to remember that although organised, the men aboard the ship were still criminals, smugglers, and that they had no scruples about destroying anyone that they felt threatened by. For the most part the crew above the ship were almost non-existent as they spent most of their time on the upper decks, whilst Ianto and Jack’s lodgings were further down in the deep underbelly of the ship. That being said every night there would be the usual loud cheers and jeers, the clashing of excited drunken voices upon each other as the men descended down to their own quarters. It was raucous yes, but nothing neither of them couldn’t put up with. After all, soon they would be gone, and at least for now Cozen and his smugglers were staying true to their word, providing food and lodgings as promised in exchange for their hard earned credits.
“How did you survive here?” Ianto sighed quickly; taking a hesitant sip of the water they had been provided with and glancing around their dismal room quickly. It was their first night aboard the freighter, and by the yelling from outside their room door the smugglers were gambling and drinking their night away heartily.
“How do you mean?” Jack gave him a quizzically look, biting into his lump of freeze dried bread without any sign of a grimace.
“You said you worked with these men…but you’re so different to them.”
“Am I?” The other cadet laughed weakly.
“I think you are.”
“But you didn’t know me three years ago.” Jack shook his head, avoiding Ianto’s gaze and watching the far wall intently. “I was a different man then Ianto.”
“How different?”
“Very.”
“Is that all I get?” Ianto was surprised himself by the trace of annoyance that seemed to ring out in his voice.
“How much do you want?”
“You know all about my life, Jack. My past - I’ve ended up telling you it all. But yours…well you barely tell me anything.”
“You never ask.”
“I’m asking now.” Ianto sighed softly, subconsciously shifting closer to the man on the small single bed where they were both sat. “Tell me…please?”
“Why does knowing who I was matter though?” Jack bit his lip, looking at the floor this time. “I’m not proud of it Yan, its not who I am now.”
“But it helped make you who you are today.”
“No…that was you.” Jack laughed gently in reply, finally looking up at Ianto. “You came into my life and made me see things differently. Remember things my parents taught me but I’d forgotten.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I owe you for it too.”
“And that’s why you’re here? To ‘repay’ me?” Ianto quickly assumed.
“We talked about this.” The senior cadet rolled his eyes quickly. “It has nothing to do with that Yan, and you know it.”
“It’s what you tell me...”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What I said.” Ianto wasn’t sure if it was the stale air of the box-like room they shared on the deep pang on guilt in his chest for involving Jack in all this, but something had suddenly given his voice a more confrontational edge. “You tell me that you care but I don’t find it so easy to believe.”
“Why?”
“I just don’t.”
“ If I didn’t care would I be doing this?”
“If you cared about me as much as you say then you would have stayed at TARA. Like I told you to.”
“And if I had then you wouldn’t even be here!” Jack’s fists were clenched as he stood up quickly, his voice twisted into a form of frustrated anger. “Why are you doing this Yan? Pushing me away when we’ve gone this far?!”
“I have to! Don’t you see it Jack?”
“Why? Just fucking making me see why everything I do is wrong!”
“Because without you…” Ianto’s voice tailed off, images of Jack falling already too strong in his mind, the guilt already beginning to mount. “I can’t lose you Jack.”
“You’re not going to.” Jack could sense the change in Ianto’s eyes and he knelt down in front of him, a hand resting upon his knee. “I’m not going anywhere in a hurry.”
“But what about Darko? If he’s still dangerous…if he hurts you…we don’t know what’s going to happen And it could be all my fault...”
“You really think he’ll get the best of someone like me?” Jack scoffed, giving Ianto a warm smile and stroking his knee gently. “Come on Ianto, with a dashing hero like me how can we fail?” He didn’t wait for an answer as he leant forward, kissing Ianto softly on the lips. Both his hands rested on Ianto’s knees, his lips lingering on Ianto’s for as long as possible before he felt the need to breathe too greatly. But even when they parted he kept his face close to Ianto’s, their foreheads pressed together gently.
“I need you Jack.” Ianto murmured softly, blinking hard before looking him in the eye. “I do.”
“I know.” This time the senior cadet took Ianto’s lips into a harder more lustful kiss, the younger cadet’s hands taking hold of his face as if it might slip away any moment. Ianto merely pushed himself deeper in the kiss, tasting Jack with every lap of his tongue, his moistened lips moving frantically against Jack’s as if there was not enough time in the world for him, for them both. As they kissed on he was unsure as to whether or not Jack knew the truth in his words. The trail of nips and kisses that Jack was now creating down his jaw and neck told him that he understood the physical meaning, the senior cadet’s hands already working to undo his trousers, a firm palm pressing against the swell in his groin eagerly. But as Jack’s lips left his neck and landed heatedly around his cock, Ianto could not help but to wonder if Jack had thought about the other meaning of his words. The meaning that Ianto had only just become so aware of himself. The sole fact that he knew in his heart that he needed Jack with him, needed to be able to follow him, needed to be able to feel his skin on his. He felt this urge to share everything with him, felt the potential to spend years with this extraordinary man and at the same time never tire of him in the slightest. Love. Ianto had known that he loved Jack for quite some time, but even then he had naively never even imagined that it might be this strong…
Although as Jack’s cheeks hollowed and he began to bob his head in a teasingly tempting rhythm, Ianto felt all these worries and needs be washed away, swept out of sight by the huge surge of lust that began to cascade throughout his body. Right then, all that was left was to feel…
Ianto sighed, glancing around his dismal lodgings once again. Jack was asleep soundly beside him, the sparse blanket they had been provided with barely covering them both on the small camp bed they shared. He could feel Jack shiver slightly beside him and so Ianto pulled the blanket slightly off himself so that it lay across more of Jack’s body than his own. He felt a shudder of cold run through his body as he did so but he quickly pushed it aside, sitting up slowly and yawning. Time had no meaning in the dark room that surrounded him, and as a result his usually found himself awaking confused and disorientated. His new lodgings were barely a pleasant sight to wake up to either. They were dank and shadowed, a single dim light hanging limply from the centre of the ceiling, a softened pool of light spotlighting down onto the mesh floor beneath. The bed in which they lay sat along one side of the wall, whilst around them there were a mass of many heavy steel crates which he and Jack had begun to use as tables for their few possessions and food. Upon their arrival Cozen had proudly informed them that they were in what was his “cell”, an old storeroom, the crates filled with a variety of guns, gun parts and ammunition. To Ianto, it just added to the feeling of being more like a prisoner rather than a traveller. In some ways, maybe that was true. After all, no matter how hard he tried to forget it Ianto could not pretend that he was not confined by his past.
As Ianto tried to stand he felt Jack’s body stir beside him slightly. The senior cadet’s leg was thrown across his legs and as he continued to try and climb out of bed Jack groaned and merely shuffled closer. His face was nuzzling into what it could reach of Ianto’s side, and the warmth of his body felt comforting in the iced air around them. Ianto sighed to himself quickly, wishing that he could stay in bed with his lover, but the numb feeling in his limbs forced him to move, his muscles aching painfully from his extensive time spent within the bed. Slowly but surely he managed to disentangle himself from Jack’s body and stood up quickly, padding across the cold floor towards the door. In the dim light he could see two plates of food waiting for him on the nearest crate by the door, and the distant grumbling in his stomach reminded him of just how hungry he was. Eating was all he seemed to do inside those four metal walls, along side all the sleeping and fucking that he and Jack managed to do in between. They didn’t need a reason for it anymore, and most of the time their sex drives would be triggered by the smallest thing, even if it was just the need to feel warmth on their skin and to remember that for now at least, they were both still alive. But unlike they were accustomed, within their confinement neither could do the one thing that they craved. After the intensity and the heat of sex had passed they could not simply lie down and fall asleep beside each other contented and happy but instead the sheer cold of the room forced them to replace any clothing doubly as quick as it was removed. The icy chill of the room was always ready to sap any warmth from their bodies, and in much the same way as Ianto neared the two plates of grey porridge-like food stuff, he noticed sadly how even they were now stone cold, the half solid material beginning to congeal and clump unappealingly.
“What’s for breakfast?” Jack’s voice rang out in the air around him, causing Ianto to jump and spin round, almost knocking one of the plates onto the floor in the process. “Whoa…someone’s jumpy.”
“You were asleep.”
“Exactly…now I’m awake.” Jack grinned, giving Ianto a quizzical look. “What are you still doing over there? Come back to bed…you’ll freeze.”
“I need to stretch.” Ianto sighed quickly, glancing at the food. “Do you want it?”
“No, but we still have to eat it. Bring it here.”
“Don’t I get a please?” Ianto smirked. “I don’t do demands.”
“You did earlier.” Jack winked quickly.
“That was different, completely fair if you take into account what you were doing to me at the time.”
“OK…point taken.” The senior cadet moved over in the bed, pulling the blanket open invitingly. “Bring the food back to bed…please.”
Ianto complied and they sat in silence whilst they ate, shoveling down mouthful after mouthful of the food forcefully. Ianto could feel bile rising in his throat, his stomach churning as the thick, tasteless food lurched within his body. But still he continued to spoon it into his mouth and attempted to think of all his favourite foods in order to push his body into swallowing it all down.
Once they had eaten Jack began to move, crawling out of the bed and pausing to look at his wrist strap expectantly. Ianto watched the soft furrow of his brow, a small smile erupting across his features at the sight of Jack’s concentration.
“We’re almost there.” Jack’s voice was solemn as he looked at Ianto seriously. “From the speed the rear thrusters seem to be kicking out it should only be another hour, hour and a half before we dock on Bryce - 7.”
“And then what do we do?”
“Scout around.” Jack smiled quickly, taking the plates from him and placing them idly onto a crate nearby. “We have no idea what area they are going to leave us in…we’re going to need a base too.”
“I thought we weren’t staying?”
“We aren’t…we have two days. Cozen has another freighter currently on its way back to Adronax Minor, it’ll pick us both up then.”
“What if it doesn’t show?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that.” Jack laughed softly. “In honesty I don’t know…but we’ll think of something. We’re time agency cadets, resourcefulness is built into us.”
“Or so we hope.”
“I’m trying to be an optimist.” Jack smirked weakly, before heading over to one of the furthest crates and fishing out several smaller boxes, loading them quickly into the two backpacks they had brought with them. Next he reached into the crate further, pulling out two guns. Keeping hold of one he handed the second to Ianto. “Here’s your insurance.”
“I thought you were being an optimist?”
“Still am.” Jack laughed, watching as Ianto took the gun from him and examined it closely. “If I was being pessimistic I’d have given you two.”
“What was wrong with our guns from TARA?”
“Not powerful enough. These might be older, but there’s a reason why the smugglers choose these over the newer models. And it’s not just price.” He twirled his own gun around in his hands thoughtfully.
“Another thing you learnt when you worked here?”
“Could say that.” Jack nodded softly. “Put it this way, if I’m going to die I would at least like to have something I can trust to try and even up the score a little.”
“You’re not going to die.”
“I’m not planning on it.” Jack laughed quickly, aiming loosely down the sights of his gun before holstering it at his hip. “But you can’t say I’m not ready for any eventuality.” His face suddenly became much more serious, his eyes meeting Ianto’s, drinking them in for a pure moment before he spoke again. “And if it is going to happen, at least we do it together right?”
“What?”
“You and me. If we’re going to go down…it might as well be together right?”
“You sound like one of those ancient earth films…”
“Is that a bad thing?” Jack smiled softly, leaning down and pressing a gentle kiss to Ianto’s lips. “Sometimes a little corny is good for the soul.”
“Just don’t do it too often.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Jack laughed in return yet the subtle serious edge to his features remained. “Though to be clear Yan, I’m serious. You and me are going through this together, whatever happens. Understand?”
“Yeah.” Ianto nodded softly in return. “I understand.”
Jack set to cleaning his gun after that, and even though Ianto knew that his stomach should be swollen with nerves and his hands busy with readying his own gun, he simply didn’t. He just sat there, watched Jack and thought. After all, Jack’s words were still sounding throughout his skull. They rang true to him, no longer felt as corny as he thought they would. Because somewhere, deep down Ianto knew that Jack was right. They were in this together now, had come too far to turn back. But still…there was something more than that. He could never speak for Jack, but Ianto knew that there was no one he would rather go down fighting with than Jack. And strangely, that realisation in itself made him feel safer than he had done in months.
For the first time since the tragedy of Jeketter, Ianto Jones no longer felt completely alone…
So, once again I await your thoughts? Why, because I adore to know if people are sticking with me with this, even after 20 ridiculously long chapters. As always I have to thank you for reading thus far, and if you have the time/energy to leave a comment, well I shall snuggle thee forever more. :D
Just Being Me a.k.a Sisi
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Click here for chapter 21!!!