FIC: Dancing on the Valentine, Part 1/3
Title: Dancing on the Valentine
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~11,000 all parts together
Summary: "Can I escort you to the dance, Mr. Jones?"
Written for: tw_calender's Countdown too Valentine's Day. This is day #14. Actual, you know, Valentine's Day.
Author's Notes: As this is the V-Day story it's pure unabashed fluff. Yeah, a little over 11,000 words of it. This story comes directly after my story Come Undone. I don't think it's completely necessary to read this one first, but it might help set the scene. Both stories have spoilers for "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" but nothing further. Invaluable beta advice from kyrdwyn and ladykoori.
Ianto was amazed to find out that Jack was still asleep when he woke up. Jack never slept much and though they often fell asleep together, Ianto couldn’t ever remember waking up to find Jack still curled against him. It had never bothered him. Jack’s weird metabolism simply required less sleep. And Jack had tried to be the dutiful boyfriend and be there with Ianto when he’d woken a few times, but they’d ultimately given it up for a bad idea when Jack’s restlessness would wake Ianto who did need six or eight hours to be functional the next day.
Ianto kissed his lips softly and slid out from under Jack’s arm wondering if this was some kind of change his Doctor had made in him. Or maybe it was just a function of having that many more demons to face in his dreams. Ianto sighed, gently pushing Jack’s hair back and wondering if Jack would truly be okay now that he was back. He decided to put on coffee and come back down to be there when Jack woke.
He climbed the ladder in his boxers and froze when he heard what sounded like someone humming in the main hub. He grabbed a gun from the vault near Jack’s desk and waited until the sound moved closer. Until he could see the back of someone in a suit a few sizes to big and trainers. He snuck up, the gun aimed at the invader’s head.
“Don’t move.”
The man’s hands came up. “Wouldn’t dream of it. But I’m not a threat. I’m looking for Jack.”
Ianto spun him around, keeping the gun leveled. He flushed as he was reminded that he was wearing nothing but his boxers and white undershirt when the man’s eyes flicked up and down and he snickered behind his hand.
That was when Ianto recognized him.
“Jack!” he hollered, hating himself for waking Jack from what seemed to be his first nearly-full night’s sleep in… well, probably years, possibly a century. “Jack, you need to come up here!”
“You can put the gun down, Ianto,” the Doctor said softly. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. I just wanted to see how Jack’s doing.”
“Jack!” Ianto’s arm was getting a tad stiff, but he wasn’t ready to relax his guard. He looked back at the Doctor “Why? So you can take him away again?”
“No,” the Doctor shook his head sadly. “He made his decision. I asked him if he wanted to stay with me; he asked me to bring him back here.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Jack told me about you. Told me he had someone to come back to.” The Doctor sounded so wistful and forlorn that Ianto couldn’t help but feel badly for him. He lowered the gun. He didn’t want to think about what he’d feel like if Jack had chosen his Doctor over him. He couldn’t be making this easier on the Doctor. He scowled as he debated whether or not he wanted to.
“How’d you get in here? There are four alarms and several very large, very heavy doors that don’t open without passcodes.” Ianto gripped his gun a little tighter, still not ready to give this guy the benefit of the doubt when it came to his threat level.
“And I’m sure those precautions are very handy when trying to keep someone from coming in from the outside. I was coming in from another century. Alarms aren’t so useful for that. At least not the ones here at this time.” The Doctor nodded across the hub to a normally, large empty space that now held a blue police call box.
Ianto glanced around noticing that all the papers that weren’t somehow secured had been blown all over the floor. He had a pretty good guess who’d be picking those up.
“Ianto? Ianto what’s wr- What the hell are you doing here?” Jack didn’t sound angry, but very surprised. He’d managed to pull on a pair of pants and his braces were up over his t-shirt. He had his pistol in one hand.
“Apparently rearranging the paperwork,” Ianto said, not realizing how bitter he sounded.
Jack sighed and turned to put his gun on his desk. He came out and took Ianto’s gun from him and tucked it into his own belt. “You won’t need this. I promise.” He kissed Ianto on the cheek before turning back to the Doctor. “You ever hear of ringing a doorbell?”
“You have a doorbell on a secret organization?”
“You know what I mean,” Jack said sternly.
Ianto relaxed for the first time and scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “I’m going to go put on some coffee.” He caught both Jack and the Doctor checking out his attire. “And some trousers. Possibly not in that order.”
Jack let him go with a smile and a wink. “Coffee sounds great, but don’t get dressed on my account.”
Ianto turned back and gave the Doctor a pointed look. “I’m not.”
The Doctor studied the floor and waited until Ianto had disappeared back into Jack’s office. “I get the impression he really doesn’t like me.”
“He doesn’t know you,” Jack defended.
“He doesn’t seem to want to.” The Doctor moved over to sit on the davenport and stretched his legs out in front of him.
“Well, I can’t really blame him for that. For one, he was at the Tower during Canary Wharf. The Cybermen half-converted his girlfriend and he spent two years trying to fix her.”
“How is she now?” the Doctor interrupted.
“Dead. Two, you show up, I take off -“
“That’s hardly my fault,” he interjected with a finger in Jack’s face.
“I don’t think he cares right now. Because three, just after I get back and get him to not be pissed at me you not only show up again, you all but show up in our bedroom. Nobody likes having to take on an invader first thing in the morning.”
“Especially not in one’s underwear.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s not helping. Why are you here?”
“Martha decided to stay home. She says it’s just for a while, but…” the Doctor shrugged.
Jack looked around furtively. He knew he had no intentions of going back with the Doctor, but right then he really didn’t need to have Ianto even overhear an invitation. “I can’t go with you.”
The Doctor nodded. “Well, I had to ask. I mean, I was in the neighborhood and I needed to refuel the TARDIS over the rift anyway, so…”
Jack studied him through narrowed eyes for a minute, tapping his finger on his lips.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “I’m almost afraid to ask what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“If… If I agree to go with you for just a bit, could we bring Ianto with us?” Jack nodded to where Ianto was emerging from the office in his black suit from the day before, one of Jack’s dark blue shirts under it.
“Where would you like to take him?” the Doctor answered with a grin.
“Ianto, come here,” Jack hollered as Ianto made his way to the kitchenette.
Ianto froze and then turned on his heel to come back to where Jack and the Doctor were sitting. “I hope you don’t mind, I borrowed a shirt.”
“Not at all. It looks good on you.” Jack fussed with the collar.
“I was just going to put on the coffee. The others should be in soon.”
“Do that in a second. I have a question for you.” Jack slid his hand down to take Ianto’s hand in his.
“When you preface your questions, I get nervous,” Ianto told him, glancing back and forth between the Doctor and Jack.
“Remember that date I asked you on?”
Ianto nodded, looking nervous. “If-if you don’t want to-“
Jack hushed him with a finger over his lips. “What if I could do better than dinner and a movie?”
Ianto’s eyes shot back over to the Doctor who was watching the two of them with interest and amusement. “Like what?” he asked, his lips moving over Jack’s finger.
“Want to go away for a few days?” Jack cast his eyes over to the call box in the corner.
“Really?” Ianto asked. He’d seen strange and unusual things in his tenure with Torchwood - things most people only saw in movies and on the telly. But he’d never thought he’d actually travel through time and/or space with Jack and his Doctor.
Jack looked over at the Doctor to be sure he was listening. “About five hundred years before I was born one of the big social to-do’s were these huge dances. It started with a race called the Shaftexalians but pretty soon everyone was doing it. It was like a sport, trying to get tickets to the biggest and fanciest ones you could find. One of the great things about being a Time Agent was knowing ahead of time when and where to be. I went to a number of really spectacular Shaftexalian Courtship Dances. Let me take you to one.”
“How do we get tickets?” Ianto asked, immediately knowing that was probably one of the stupidest details he could have asked about.
The Doctor reached over and handed him a card, folded in half. “I’ll assume that if you worked for Torchwood One, you’re familiar with this?”
Ianto took the seemingly blank card. “Psychic paper, of course.”
“So? Can I escort you to the dance, Mr. Jones?”
Ianto felt himself blushing and cursed himself. He’d woken up to find himself holding a gun on someone Jack was rather close to - in his underwear no less - and this was what made his ears burn and his cheeks flame? “I’d like that,” he finally managed to whisper.
Jack pulled him in and kissed him hard. “Good. How about if you put the coffee on so I don’t have to hear about it from Owen when he gets here and then you can go home and pack a bag for a few days.”
Ianto nodded mutely. Jack was not only taking him out, he was going take him to another planet, thousands of years in the future. He started walking away, blinking slowly as he tried to assimilate it all. Half way to the coffee machine he turned back. “Jack? Exactly what does one wear to a She- Shetax- to one of these dances?”
“Bring jeans and a couple of jumpers. We’ll get clothes for the dance when we get there.”
Ianto nodded and headed off to make the coffee.
“Oh, and Ianto… we can still do dinner and a movie when we get back.”
Some kind of weight came off Ianto’s shoulders. As exciting as it was to think of where - of when - they’d be going, Ianto realized that he was suddenly having to share Jack with his Doctor. They were going far away and to a different time. The little thrill he’d gotten from Jack saying that he wanted to move their romance out of the office had been drowned with this newest form of their date and he hadn’t even realized that that had been the problem until Jack had said that he still wanted their time alone, their time in public here in Cardiff, a date done his way. Ianto shook his head wondering when and why that had become so important to him.
From the kitchenette he couldn’t hear Jack, but he saw him gesturing animatedly and saw him bounce over to Tosh’s station where he grabbed a pad of sticky notes and scribbled something down for the Doctor. The Doctor looked at the note and nodded. Ianto grew just a tad bit more nervous.
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~11,000 all parts together
Summary: "Can I escort you to the dance, Mr. Jones?"
Written for: tw_calender's Countdown too Valentine's Day. This is day #14. Actual, you know, Valentine's Day.
Author's Notes: As this is the V-Day story it's pure unabashed fluff. Yeah, a little over 11,000 words of it. This story comes directly after my story Come Undone. I don't think it's completely necessary to read this one first, but it might help set the scene. Both stories have spoilers for "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" but nothing further. Invaluable beta advice from kyrdwyn and ladykoori.
Ianto was amazed to find out that Jack was still asleep when he woke up. Jack never slept much and though they often fell asleep together, Ianto couldn’t ever remember waking up to find Jack still curled against him. It had never bothered him. Jack’s weird metabolism simply required less sleep. And Jack had tried to be the dutiful boyfriend and be there with Ianto when he’d woken a few times, but they’d ultimately given it up for a bad idea when Jack’s restlessness would wake Ianto who did need six or eight hours to be functional the next day.
Ianto kissed his lips softly and slid out from under Jack’s arm wondering if this was some kind of change his Doctor had made in him. Or maybe it was just a function of having that many more demons to face in his dreams. Ianto sighed, gently pushing Jack’s hair back and wondering if Jack would truly be okay now that he was back. He decided to put on coffee and come back down to be there when Jack woke.
He climbed the ladder in his boxers and froze when he heard what sounded like someone humming in the main hub. He grabbed a gun from the vault near Jack’s desk and waited until the sound moved closer. Until he could see the back of someone in a suit a few sizes to big and trainers. He snuck up, the gun aimed at the invader’s head.
“Don’t move.”
The man’s hands came up. “Wouldn’t dream of it. But I’m not a threat. I’m looking for Jack.”
Ianto spun him around, keeping the gun leveled. He flushed as he was reminded that he was wearing nothing but his boxers and white undershirt when the man’s eyes flicked up and down and he snickered behind his hand.
That was when Ianto recognized him.
“Jack!” he hollered, hating himself for waking Jack from what seemed to be his first nearly-full night’s sleep in… well, probably years, possibly a century. “Jack, you need to come up here!”
“You can put the gun down, Ianto,” the Doctor said softly. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. I just wanted to see how Jack’s doing.”
“Jack!” Ianto’s arm was getting a tad stiff, but he wasn’t ready to relax his guard. He looked back at the Doctor “Why? So you can take him away again?”
“No,” the Doctor shook his head sadly. “He made his decision. I asked him if he wanted to stay with me; he asked me to bring him back here.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Jack told me about you. Told me he had someone to come back to.” The Doctor sounded so wistful and forlorn that Ianto couldn’t help but feel badly for him. He lowered the gun. He didn’t want to think about what he’d feel like if Jack had chosen his Doctor over him. He couldn’t be making this easier on the Doctor. He scowled as he debated whether or not he wanted to.
“How’d you get in here? There are four alarms and several very large, very heavy doors that don’t open without passcodes.” Ianto gripped his gun a little tighter, still not ready to give this guy the benefit of the doubt when it came to his threat level.
“And I’m sure those precautions are very handy when trying to keep someone from coming in from the outside. I was coming in from another century. Alarms aren’t so useful for that. At least not the ones here at this time.” The Doctor nodded across the hub to a normally, large empty space that now held a blue police call box.
Ianto glanced around noticing that all the papers that weren’t somehow secured had been blown all over the floor. He had a pretty good guess who’d be picking those up.
“Ianto? Ianto what’s wr- What the hell are you doing here?” Jack didn’t sound angry, but very surprised. He’d managed to pull on a pair of pants and his braces were up over his t-shirt. He had his pistol in one hand.
“Apparently rearranging the paperwork,” Ianto said, not realizing how bitter he sounded.
Jack sighed and turned to put his gun on his desk. He came out and took Ianto’s gun from him and tucked it into his own belt. “You won’t need this. I promise.” He kissed Ianto on the cheek before turning back to the Doctor. “You ever hear of ringing a doorbell?”
“You have a doorbell on a secret organization?”
“You know what I mean,” Jack said sternly.
Ianto relaxed for the first time and scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “I’m going to go put on some coffee.” He caught both Jack and the Doctor checking out his attire. “And some trousers. Possibly not in that order.”
Jack let him go with a smile and a wink. “Coffee sounds great, but don’t get dressed on my account.”
Ianto turned back and gave the Doctor a pointed look. “I’m not.”
The Doctor studied the floor and waited until Ianto had disappeared back into Jack’s office. “I get the impression he really doesn’t like me.”
“He doesn’t know you,” Jack defended.
“He doesn’t seem to want to.” The Doctor moved over to sit on the davenport and stretched his legs out in front of him.
“Well, I can’t really blame him for that. For one, he was at the Tower during Canary Wharf. The Cybermen half-converted his girlfriend and he spent two years trying to fix her.”
“How is she now?” the Doctor interrupted.
“Dead. Two, you show up, I take off -“
“That’s hardly my fault,” he interjected with a finger in Jack’s face.
“I don’t think he cares right now. Because three, just after I get back and get him to not be pissed at me you not only show up again, you all but show up in our bedroom. Nobody likes having to take on an invader first thing in the morning.”
“Especially not in one’s underwear.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s not helping. Why are you here?”
“Martha decided to stay home. She says it’s just for a while, but…” the Doctor shrugged.
Jack looked around furtively. He knew he had no intentions of going back with the Doctor, but right then he really didn’t need to have Ianto even overhear an invitation. “I can’t go with you.”
The Doctor nodded. “Well, I had to ask. I mean, I was in the neighborhood and I needed to refuel the TARDIS over the rift anyway, so…”
Jack studied him through narrowed eyes for a minute, tapping his finger on his lips.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “I’m almost afraid to ask what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“If… If I agree to go with you for just a bit, could we bring Ianto with us?” Jack nodded to where Ianto was emerging from the office in his black suit from the day before, one of Jack’s dark blue shirts under it.
“Where would you like to take him?” the Doctor answered with a grin.
“Ianto, come here,” Jack hollered as Ianto made his way to the kitchenette.
Ianto froze and then turned on his heel to come back to where Jack and the Doctor were sitting. “I hope you don’t mind, I borrowed a shirt.”
“Not at all. It looks good on you.” Jack fussed with the collar.
“I was just going to put on the coffee. The others should be in soon.”
“Do that in a second. I have a question for you.” Jack slid his hand down to take Ianto’s hand in his.
“When you preface your questions, I get nervous,” Ianto told him, glancing back and forth between the Doctor and Jack.
“Remember that date I asked you on?”
Ianto nodded, looking nervous. “If-if you don’t want to-“
Jack hushed him with a finger over his lips. “What if I could do better than dinner and a movie?”
Ianto’s eyes shot back over to the Doctor who was watching the two of them with interest and amusement. “Like what?” he asked, his lips moving over Jack’s finger.
“Want to go away for a few days?” Jack cast his eyes over to the call box in the corner.
“Really?” Ianto asked. He’d seen strange and unusual things in his tenure with Torchwood - things most people only saw in movies and on the telly. But he’d never thought he’d actually travel through time and/or space with Jack and his Doctor.
Jack looked over at the Doctor to be sure he was listening. “About five hundred years before I was born one of the big social to-do’s were these huge dances. It started with a race called the Shaftexalians but pretty soon everyone was doing it. It was like a sport, trying to get tickets to the biggest and fanciest ones you could find. One of the great things about being a Time Agent was knowing ahead of time when and where to be. I went to a number of really spectacular Shaftexalian Courtship Dances. Let me take you to one.”
“How do we get tickets?” Ianto asked, immediately knowing that was probably one of the stupidest details he could have asked about.
The Doctor reached over and handed him a card, folded in half. “I’ll assume that if you worked for Torchwood One, you’re familiar with this?”
Ianto took the seemingly blank card. “Psychic paper, of course.”
“So? Can I escort you to the dance, Mr. Jones?”
Ianto felt himself blushing and cursed himself. He’d woken up to find himself holding a gun on someone Jack was rather close to - in his underwear no less - and this was what made his ears burn and his cheeks flame? “I’d like that,” he finally managed to whisper.
Jack pulled him in and kissed him hard. “Good. How about if you put the coffee on so I don’t have to hear about it from Owen when he gets here and then you can go home and pack a bag for a few days.”
Ianto nodded mutely. Jack was not only taking him out, he was going take him to another planet, thousands of years in the future. He started walking away, blinking slowly as he tried to assimilate it all. Half way to the coffee machine he turned back. “Jack? Exactly what does one wear to a She- Shetax- to one of these dances?”
“Bring jeans and a couple of jumpers. We’ll get clothes for the dance when we get there.”
Ianto nodded and headed off to make the coffee.
“Oh, and Ianto… we can still do dinner and a movie when we get back.”
Some kind of weight came off Ianto’s shoulders. As exciting as it was to think of where - of when - they’d be going, Ianto realized that he was suddenly having to share Jack with his Doctor. They were going far away and to a different time. The little thrill he’d gotten from Jack saying that he wanted to move their romance out of the office had been drowned with this newest form of their date and he hadn’t even realized that that had been the problem until Jack had said that he still wanted their time alone, their time in public here in Cardiff, a date done his way. Ianto shook his head wondering when and why that had become so important to him.
From the kitchenette he couldn’t hear Jack, but he saw him gesturing animatedly and saw him bounce over to Tosh’s station where he grabbed a pad of sticky notes and scribbled something down for the Doctor. The Doctor looked at the note and nodded. Ianto grew just a tad bit more nervous.