Ficlet: I’d Give Up Forever
Title: I’d Give Up Forever
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack would sacrifice anything for love of Ianto.
Word Count: 300
Written For: juliet316’s prompt ‘Author's choice, author's choice "And I'd give up Forever to hold you, because I know that you feel me somehow." (The Goo Goo Dolls, "Iris"),’ at
fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
Immortality has always been a curse to Jack. Right from the start, when he realised that no matter how he died he would always come back to life, he’d been smart enough to recognise the downsides to his unwanted situation.
Most people think eternity would be wonderful; enough time to go anywhere they want, try everything at least once, see the world and even the universe. What could be better? They don’t realise how lonely it would get watching first your family, friends, and lovers die, knowing you can never follow them, then continuing to exist as whole civilisations, planets, and everything on them turned to dust. Forever is an awfully long time, and it feels longer still when you know you’ll have to face it alone.
Despite being from far in the future, Jack is still human and he still wants what most people want; to love and be loved in return, to have a home and a family, to have a reason and purpose for living. A life without love would be no life at all, and while he tries not to grow too attached to the people he shares his life with, knowing he’ll inevitably lose them, sometimes he can’t help himself. After all the times his heart’s been broken, you’d think he would have learned, but it’s never that simple.
Ianto is different, special, and Jack already dreads what the future holds for them. Torchwood is such a dangerous place; agents seldom live long and his lover is unlikely to prove the exception, but already Jack can’t imagine his life without his precious Welshman in it. Jack knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d gladly give up forever for a normal lifespan, just as long as he got to spend it with Ianto Jones.
The End