Wedding Blues, a Torchwood Fic.
“So…” Ianto said as he tied the pink tie around his neck. “Gwen’s getting married tomorrow.”
“Yep,” Jack said as he was pulling on his braces. Ianto couldn’t help but notice the sad tone to the other man’s voice, but did his best to try and ignore it.
“Are you going to the wedding?”
Jack laughed. “No, I don’t think so. I think Gwen would rather have a nice, normal wedding,” he said.
Ianto nodded. “I can understand that. She has been trying very hard lately to commit herself to her relationship with Rhys.” Though, Jack still was an easy distraction for the Welshwoman, perhaps too much of the time. “I think we’re a reminder of what takes her from him.”
“Especially me. He still doesn’t care for me.”
“He’s always had a grudge and when you met face to face, you called it homoerotic,” Ianto said, turning at Jack with an eyebrow raised. “What did you expect?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m surprised you’re not planning on going, though. You could probably sit on the groom’s side without any problems, since he’s the one you call when you get thrown in the slammer, and you watch all those rugby matches together.” The captain gave Ianto a look of feigned jealousy and it made the younger man try not to roll his eyes.
“Well, I would,” Ianto said, his tone sounding bored, “but I don’t like showing up without a date, and then we’re back to the same problem of having you there.” He smirked and walked over to the older man. “Are you going to be okay today?”
Jack looked at Ianto strangely, as though he didn’t know exactly what the young man meant, and Ianto most certainly wasn't dense enough to pretend that Jack didn't.
“Oh, come off it, Jack,” Ianto said. “You two, you’re sort of… well, the tension between you can be almost stifling. It isn’t hard to figure out that you’re both interested. More than interested. I know you love her as more than just a team member, not the way you feel about Tosh and Owen. Different even from me, I think.”
Jack’s fingers found Ianto’s belt loops, and he let his hands hang loosely there. “You know that given the choice I’d choose you, don’t you?”
“Given the choice you’d say ‘Both please, and can they be served together somehow?’” He imitated a patron in a restaurant, hand raised in the air to an invisible waitress.
“With whipped cream and a cherry.” Jack chuckled. “Well, that would be nice, I have to admit. You have no idea the positions that you can add when you allow one more person into the fun.” Though Gwen didn’t “do” for Ianto what she “did” for Jack, he thought Jack was probably right that the positions available could be entertaining. “See… and that right there is why I’d choose you.”
“What?” Ianto asked, looking somewhat wide-eyed that he’d been caught thinking such naughty thoughts, well, naughty thoughts that inadvertently involved Gwen. Naughty thoughts about Jack weren't entirely uncommon, nor was getting caught with them.
“I am capable of being faithful. For at least one person’s lifetime.” Jack still hadn’t released the loops on Ianto’s pants. “But if I’m going to stick with someone, I’d rather it be someone who understands me, not someone who will work herself to death trying to change me.”
“So you’d be monogamous because you think of the two of us I’d be more understanding if you weren’t? That logic doesn’t quite make sense.”
Jack shrugged. “I didn’t say it was perfect logic. It’s Harkness logic.” He grinned. “I’m not saying I’m planning on cheating on you, Ianto, but you know how I am. I really don’t like to deny love in any form. But if it’s really special…” He tugged on the loops and pulled Ianto flush against him. “I won’t do anything to risk it either.”
“You’re a hopeless sap, you do realize this, don’t you?”
“I have my moments.”
And throughout the dance, after the nostrovite, after the wedding, Ianto reminded himself of that. He understood Jack, and he knew the older man had meant his words, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating that as they danced, Jack had spent a good portion of time looking at Gwen.
The young man did his best to pretend that he didn’t notice and had to say he felt pleased that it seemed Gwen was focused more on Rhys at the moment.
As it should be. He’d have to remind himself to berate Jack later. You just didn’t ask to dance with the bride during the bride and groom’s dance together. It simply wasn’t done. But this was Captain Jack Harkness, and rules just didn’t apply to him. At least, not the ones about society or decorum.
As the song was drawing to a close, he felt Jack’s lips at his temple. A quick peck was all it was, but… it felt nice.
Ianto had his reassurances from Jack, and he really didn’t doubt his lover, but the way that Jack looked at Gwen and vice versa were what made it so difficult sometimes. Of course, he knew that dating Jack Harkness was not an easy task, and he’d known that from the very start.
They returned to the table, and Ianto did his best to ignore the looks from Rhys, that sort of grin that most guys reserve for their mates who have just gotten-or are about to get-lucky. He returned with a doubtful expression that said that Rhys was either very proud of himself or crazy when he and Gwen rejected the retcon. While he could understand on one hand, he couldn’t help but think that recreating the whole day minus the nostrovite, Jack calling Rhys’s mother a bitch-a story he would never let either man forget-and the painful near-death of the bride might be the better option.
He wished the new couple the best for their honeymoon then got to play the “wedding fairy” once again as he and the rest of the team cleaned up afterwards.
Ianto was logging in the names of all of the guests as retcon recipients into the Torchwood database late that night. He was still brooding slightly, though he wouldn’t admit it, no matter how much Myfanwy squawked overhead. She really had become much too domesticated if she was now noticing when something was off with him.
He was putting the final name into the computer, noticing Jack was still in his office, looking at, well, whatever it was he was looking at. Ianto had gotten the impression he wanted the chance to be alone.
The Welshman didn’t like this feeling, this sense of jealousy because of one of his teammates. He knew he wouldn’t and couldn’t ask Jack to change who he was, but Ianto simply wasn’t a fifty-first century man. He was three millennia behind his lover, and nothing he did seemed to change the fact that a part of him wanted all of the normal things from someone so abnormal, at least for this century.
Myfanwy screeched again. “What is your problem?” he said, tilting his head upward. And then it struck him. He hadn’t given the dinosaur her usual midnight snack of dark chocolate. (He silently thanked whoever it was in Torchwood 1 that fed such dinosaurs chocolate for the first time. Though, they probably still got in trouble for doing it.)
“And here I just thought you were extra sensitive,” he told the dinosaur. He chucked the chocolate bar up at the flying reptile before heading toward Jack’s office. He had long since grown accustomed to watching her sweep down to catch it and felt no need to stand and watch in awe. He’d just tell Jack that he was going home. “Jack?” he asked as he approached. The other man hastily slid something beneath some paperwork.
“Hey Ianto, ready for bed?” the captain asked. He offered Ianto a tired smile but even through the exhaustion, his eyes looked sad.
“I was actually going to tell you I was going back to my flat.”
“Oh,” Jack said. He looked at his coat as though to go and put it on, but glanced back at Ianto and slumped slightly, barely noticeable if you weren’t Ianto. Jack realized, apparently that the young man had meant alone. “I don’t want anyone coming in tomorrow, so you can have the day off if the rift behaves.”
There was hurt in Jack’s eyes and Ianto could see that his lover wasn’t understanding why the young man was acting this way. Slowly, he approached Jack’s desk, disliking that Jack had reverted to “boss mode.”
“It’s no problem for you to go home tonight. It’s been a late night. Though I swear to you I’d have been good if you needed rest.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. Jack thought Ianto was worried he’d be kept up all night shagging?
“I am capable of telling you ‘No,’ Jack Harkness.” Ianto said, leaning against the desk. “I just needed to think some things through after that wedding. And some of them concerned you.”
“I hope you’re not proposing,” Jack weakly joked.
“Not in the least,” Ianto said. “You do realize you broke a few dozen social rules about being at a wedding, don’t you?” Jack started to open his mouth to defend himself, but Ianto cut him off. “I don’t mean anything to do with the nostrovite.”
Then, the captain looked confused.
“You broke up the dance between the bride and the groom.” At least Jack had the decency to look sheepish at that. “And your focus was on the bride the whole night. I know how you feel about Gwen, and I don’t begrudge you feeling remorseful for that-”
This time, Jack was the one cutting Ianto off before he finished that thought. “It wasn’t that… At least, it wasn’t all that.” He looked at the Welshman as though trying to discern whether to do something and apparently deciding to do it.
He slid the paperwork aside and showed Ianto a photograph. To be more specific a wedding photo with Jack as the groom.
“You were married?”
“A long time ago. Combine Gwen with old memories… you get my behavior today.”
Ianto looked at the photo, tracing a finger over Jack’s face in the image and looking at the woman beside the ageless man. “Will you tell me about her?” he asked as he made himself more comfortable on the desk.
“I thought you were going home?”
“I think I’m fine where I am.”
“Yep,” Jack said as he was pulling on his braces. Ianto couldn’t help but notice the sad tone to the other man’s voice, but did his best to try and ignore it.
“Are you going to the wedding?”
Jack laughed. “No, I don’t think so. I think Gwen would rather have a nice, normal wedding,” he said.
Ianto nodded. “I can understand that. She has been trying very hard lately to commit herself to her relationship with Rhys.” Though, Jack still was an easy distraction for the Welshwoman, perhaps too much of the time. “I think we’re a reminder of what takes her from him.”
“Especially me. He still doesn’t care for me.”
“He’s always had a grudge and when you met face to face, you called it homoerotic,” Ianto said, turning at Jack with an eyebrow raised. “What did you expect?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m surprised you’re not planning on going, though. You could probably sit on the groom’s side without any problems, since he’s the one you call when you get thrown in the slammer, and you watch all those rugby matches together.” The captain gave Ianto a look of feigned jealousy and it made the younger man try not to roll his eyes.
“Well, I would,” Ianto said, his tone sounding bored, “but I don’t like showing up without a date, and then we’re back to the same problem of having you there.” He smirked and walked over to the older man. “Are you going to be okay today?”
Jack looked at Ianto strangely, as though he didn’t know exactly what the young man meant, and Ianto most certainly wasn't dense enough to pretend that Jack didn't.
“Oh, come off it, Jack,” Ianto said. “You two, you’re sort of… well, the tension between you can be almost stifling. It isn’t hard to figure out that you’re both interested. More than interested. I know you love her as more than just a team member, not the way you feel about Tosh and Owen. Different even from me, I think.”
Jack’s fingers found Ianto’s belt loops, and he let his hands hang loosely there. “You know that given the choice I’d choose you, don’t you?”
“Given the choice you’d say ‘Both please, and can they be served together somehow?’” He imitated a patron in a restaurant, hand raised in the air to an invisible waitress.
“With whipped cream and a cherry.” Jack chuckled. “Well, that would be nice, I have to admit. You have no idea the positions that you can add when you allow one more person into the fun.” Though Gwen didn’t “do” for Ianto what she “did” for Jack, he thought Jack was probably right that the positions available could be entertaining. “See… and that right there is why I’d choose you.”
“What?” Ianto asked, looking somewhat wide-eyed that he’d been caught thinking such naughty thoughts, well, naughty thoughts that inadvertently involved Gwen. Naughty thoughts about Jack weren't entirely uncommon, nor was getting caught with them.
“I am capable of being faithful. For at least one person’s lifetime.” Jack still hadn’t released the loops on Ianto’s pants. “But if I’m going to stick with someone, I’d rather it be someone who understands me, not someone who will work herself to death trying to change me.”
“So you’d be monogamous because you think of the two of us I’d be more understanding if you weren’t? That logic doesn’t quite make sense.”
Jack shrugged. “I didn’t say it was perfect logic. It’s Harkness logic.” He grinned. “I’m not saying I’m planning on cheating on you, Ianto, but you know how I am. I really don’t like to deny love in any form. But if it’s really special…” He tugged on the loops and pulled Ianto flush against him. “I won’t do anything to risk it either.”
“You’re a hopeless sap, you do realize this, don’t you?”
“I have my moments.”
And throughout the dance, after the nostrovite, after the wedding, Ianto reminded himself of that. He understood Jack, and he knew the older man had meant his words, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating that as they danced, Jack had spent a good portion of time looking at Gwen.
The young man did his best to pretend that he didn’t notice and had to say he felt pleased that it seemed Gwen was focused more on Rhys at the moment.
As it should be. He’d have to remind himself to berate Jack later. You just didn’t ask to dance with the bride during the bride and groom’s dance together. It simply wasn’t done. But this was Captain Jack Harkness, and rules just didn’t apply to him. At least, not the ones about society or decorum.
As the song was drawing to a close, he felt Jack’s lips at his temple. A quick peck was all it was, but… it felt nice.
Ianto had his reassurances from Jack, and he really didn’t doubt his lover, but the way that Jack looked at Gwen and vice versa were what made it so difficult sometimes. Of course, he knew that dating Jack Harkness was not an easy task, and he’d known that from the very start.
They returned to the table, and Ianto did his best to ignore the looks from Rhys, that sort of grin that most guys reserve for their mates who have just gotten-or are about to get-lucky. He returned with a doubtful expression that said that Rhys was either very proud of himself or crazy when he and Gwen rejected the retcon. While he could understand on one hand, he couldn’t help but think that recreating the whole day minus the nostrovite, Jack calling Rhys’s mother a bitch-a story he would never let either man forget-and the painful near-death of the bride might be the better option.
He wished the new couple the best for their honeymoon then got to play the “wedding fairy” once again as he and the rest of the team cleaned up afterwards.
Ianto was logging in the names of all of the guests as retcon recipients into the Torchwood database late that night. He was still brooding slightly, though he wouldn’t admit it, no matter how much Myfanwy squawked overhead. She really had become much too domesticated if she was now noticing when something was off with him.
He was putting the final name into the computer, noticing Jack was still in his office, looking at, well, whatever it was he was looking at. Ianto had gotten the impression he wanted the chance to be alone.
The Welshman didn’t like this feeling, this sense of jealousy because of one of his teammates. He knew he wouldn’t and couldn’t ask Jack to change who he was, but Ianto simply wasn’t a fifty-first century man. He was three millennia behind his lover, and nothing he did seemed to change the fact that a part of him wanted all of the normal things from someone so abnormal, at least for this century.
Myfanwy screeched again. “What is your problem?” he said, tilting his head upward. And then it struck him. He hadn’t given the dinosaur her usual midnight snack of dark chocolate. (He silently thanked whoever it was in Torchwood 1 that fed such dinosaurs chocolate for the first time. Though, they probably still got in trouble for doing it.)
“And here I just thought you were extra sensitive,” he told the dinosaur. He chucked the chocolate bar up at the flying reptile before heading toward Jack’s office. He had long since grown accustomed to watching her sweep down to catch it and felt no need to stand and watch in awe. He’d just tell Jack that he was going home. “Jack?” he asked as he approached. The other man hastily slid something beneath some paperwork.
“Hey Ianto, ready for bed?” the captain asked. He offered Ianto a tired smile but even through the exhaustion, his eyes looked sad.
“I was actually going to tell you I was going back to my flat.”
“Oh,” Jack said. He looked at his coat as though to go and put it on, but glanced back at Ianto and slumped slightly, barely noticeable if you weren’t Ianto. Jack realized, apparently that the young man had meant alone. “I don’t want anyone coming in tomorrow, so you can have the day off if the rift behaves.”
There was hurt in Jack’s eyes and Ianto could see that his lover wasn’t understanding why the young man was acting this way. Slowly, he approached Jack’s desk, disliking that Jack had reverted to “boss mode.”
“It’s no problem for you to go home tonight. It’s been a late night. Though I swear to you I’d have been good if you needed rest.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. Jack thought Ianto was worried he’d be kept up all night shagging?
“I am capable of telling you ‘No,’ Jack Harkness.” Ianto said, leaning against the desk. “I just needed to think some things through after that wedding. And some of them concerned you.”
“I hope you’re not proposing,” Jack weakly joked.
“Not in the least,” Ianto said. “You do realize you broke a few dozen social rules about being at a wedding, don’t you?” Jack started to open his mouth to defend himself, but Ianto cut him off. “I don’t mean anything to do with the nostrovite.”
Then, the captain looked confused.
“You broke up the dance between the bride and the groom.” At least Jack had the decency to look sheepish at that. “And your focus was on the bride the whole night. I know how you feel about Gwen, and I don’t begrudge you feeling remorseful for that-”
This time, Jack was the one cutting Ianto off before he finished that thought. “It wasn’t that… At least, it wasn’t all that.” He looked at the Welshman as though trying to discern whether to do something and apparently deciding to do it.
He slid the paperwork aside and showed Ianto a photograph. To be more specific a wedding photo with Jack as the groom.
“You were married?”
“A long time ago. Combine Gwen with old memories… you get my behavior today.”
Ianto looked at the photo, tracing a finger over Jack’s face in the image and looking at the woman beside the ageless man. “Will you tell me about her?” he asked as he made himself more comfortable on the desk.
“I thought you were going home?”
“I think I’m fine where I am.”