Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Jack, Ianto

Author: m_findlow

Rating: M

Length: 1,777 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 299 - Yesterday

Summary: Every day Ianto looks back and wonders how he got here.


Ianto yawned and rolled over in bed, resting his head half on Jack's pillow so that he could partake in one of his favourite pastimes - Jack watching. It was like bird watch but far more satisfying, and best done when this particular bird was fast asleep, dreaming God only knew what behind those heavy lids and contented smile.

It didn't last long though before Jack's breathing changed, as if he knew he was being watched before cracking open two blue eyes and finding Ianto's matching set only a few inches away.

'Like what you see?' Jack asked.

Ianto readjusted his head on the pillow so that he wouldn't go cross-eyed trying to meet Jack's gaze. 'What's not to like?' He continued to stare, barely blinking in they pale light that filled their bedroom from the automated atmospheric lighting controls abroad their spacecraft. If he didn't know better he'd have said that a perfect autumn morning was being to bloom outside, inside of just the pitch black of deep space.

Jack stretched an arm and tucked it underneath his head, studying his lover's face. 'There's some deep thinking going on there,' he murmured. 'What grand ideas are you contemplating?'

Ianto continued to stare at him. 'Do you know what today is?'

Jack raised his eyebrows. 'Day after yesterday?'

'Seriously,' Ianto replied, nudging him.

Lines creased Jack's forehead as he thought about the question. 'I'd say Thursday but in this part of the galaxy I can't be sure. We've crossed so many intergalactic date lines and most places wouldn't even know what Thursday was anyway.'

Ianto nestled his head down into the pillow right next to Jack's, even closer than before. 'Idiot,' he muttered in a jocular tone. 'Twelve clocks on board that are set permanently to standard Earth time and you still can't tell me?'

Jack rolled his eyes back at Ianto, tugging his other arm out from under the sheet so that he could flip open his vortex manipulator and confer with it. 'Oh,' he said, sounding only mildly surprised. 'Is it our anniversary?'

'Fancy that,' Ianto replied.

Jack yawned and flopped back down. 'What number are we up to?'

'You're not counting?'

Jack's shoulders gave a little shrug. 'Why do I need to count when I've got you?'

'It's one hundred and forty six.' Ianto's finger began tracing little circles in his bare shoulder.

'It still feels like only yesterday we were in that warehouse, trying to capture a pterodactyl.'

Ianto squirmed in the bed, abandoning his invisible drawing across Jack's skin. 'My back can attest to that. It was never the same after you came crashing down on it.'

Jack chuckled. 'I fell for you, what can I say?'

'Fell on me, more like.' Never mind that he had tried to catch Jack on his way down. It had been a pretty stupid thing to attempt. He hadn't imagined it hurting quite so much trying to break one's fall. He supposed that for Jack it might have hurt a lot more if he hadn't been there.

Jack's naughty smile crept across his face. 'Well, you're just so irresistible. Who wouldn't want to fall all over you? And I didn't hear you complaining too hard.'

'Speaking of too hard,' Ianto mused. 'I wasn't the one trying to dig myself into someone else's crotch. It seems you were the one who was showing all the interest.'

Jack laughed a little at the comment. 'You never said you knew about that.'

'Please. Just because I'd never swung both ways before doesn't mean I can't tell when a guy is about to burst out of his pants, especially when he's pressed up that close.' It had been a bit of a shock initially, feeling a man aroused that way again and his body, but then he'd remembered all the things that people had said around the Torchwood water cooler back in London. Rumours and truth collided as people who'd never even met the man espoused his flirtatious nature and ruthlessly overt sexuality. He hadn't seen it in their first two meetings, or their third, not up until that point, in any case.

Jack rolled over until he was on top of Ianto. 'Maybe we could rekindle a little of that magic on this auspicious day, hmm?'

Ianto's breath hitched in his throat. Just like then, he could feel Jack hardening against him, and then as much as now, that flutter of excitement never went away. Jack could use words to deny his feelings all he wanted, but his body would always betray him and show Ianto his true feelings. The truth was that Jack just couldn't get enough of him. Nearly a hundred and fifty years and Jack's eyes, though they wandered all the time, always drifted back to him. No one elicited the physical reaction in Jack the way he could, and without even trying. Jack's appetite had some very specific dietary requirements and top of that list was one unassuming Welshman. He couldn't even begin to explain why him when Jack could have anyone, but he didn't question it. Being there was enough he decided as Jack's hips ground more firmly against him, producing the requisite reaction from Ianto. He wasn't going to feel ashamed that Jack could get him that aroused that quickly. Theirs was a mutual desire that defied explanation.

It hadn't been smooth sailing for sure. He often wondered what might have happened if things had been different - if Lisa had died at Canary Wharf and he'd simply gone back to Cardiff to seek a spot with Torchwood Cardiff. Might he have taken things further that night when Jack was smothering his body on that cold warehouse floor, his erection digging into Ianto's crotch. He'd been just inches from leaning up to grab Jack's lips. They could gave been naked on that floor in a heartbeat, fucking for all they were worth, their quarry sedated sedated and totally forgotten. That somehow felt too easy. They could have shagged that night and made it a one time thing or just a casual sex arrangement in between life threatening danger and potential end of the world events. Instead they'd taken the scenic route, the path full of secrets and lies and pain. They'd come to see a side of one another than might never had made itself apparent if they'd just thrown themselves at each other. Jack was able to see that Ianto was complicated and multidimensional, capable of fierce anger and deep-seated revenge, but fragile and gentle, intelligent and brave, as well as capable of incredible love and devotion. Ianto too had finally broken past the captain facade to discover the broken soul hiding behind the mask of invincibility. Each of them found some thing in the other that they'd never known was missing.

'Down boy,' Ianto commanded, trying to fend off Jack's growing affection as he began to thrust his hips more forcefully up against Ianto, beginning to finger the edge of Ianto's t-shirt so that he could pull it up and over Ianto's head. 'I'm going to need some breakfast before I have enough energy to keep up with you.'

Jack's smirk was utterly impossible. 'I've never thought you had a problem with it before. Are you suggesting you're getting a little lethargic in your old age?'

Ianto scoffed a laugh. 'You've got a hundred and forty years on me, old man. I'm merely implying that I'm well versed in how much energy is required to sate your needs.'

'Oh, so now I'm needy?' Jack began wrapping his arms around Ianto so that he could tickle his waist.

'Very,' Ianto replied, trying to wriggle out of Jack's arms before he could start tickling in earnest. 'I like being needed. And not just for my coffee. Or clean laundry.' He quite liked the idea that someone found him sexy and could be that aroused by him.

'I bet you do,' Jack said, nestling his head in the space between Ianto's collarbone and neck. He lay there for a few minutes, seemingly enjoying the fact that Ianto didn't struggle or try and get up, just letting Jack snuggle. 'I meant what I said earlier. I don't need to keep count of the years because how many we have doesn't matter. That we're together is the only thing that matters to me.'

Ianto rested a hand in Jack's hair, idly carding his fingers through it. 'You know I still have no idea how I ended up here, he confessed. All these years later and I still can't figure out why you'd pick me.'

'Ianto, if I had a dollar for every time you've said that, I'd be a billionaire. And I'd still be the poorest billionaire in the universe if I didn't have you.'

Ianto pushed Jack off. 'Flatterer. You'd say anything just to get me to shag you.'

'It's true,' Jack declared shamelessly. 'But now that you mention it I could really go a four course breakfast.'

Ianto raised a questioning eyebrow at him. 'Only four courses?'

'Well, it's our anniversary. We could always make it five. Or six. Cereal, fruit, yogurt, pancakes, waffles, toast, eggs and bacon, lots and lots of coffee...'

'Do that and I'll be so fat I'd squash you if I tried to make love to you,' Ianto warned him.

Jack grinned mischievously, perhaps picturing a rotund Ianto attempting to do just that. 'You might need some vigorous kissing beforehand.'

'A lot of vigorous kissing,' Ianto agreed. Enough so that he wouldn't get indigestion if Jack tried to bend him into the kinds of shapes only a circus performer should try. He knew them all and was still amazed he could pull them off. Thank God he'd never physically aged beyond thirty!

'Well, we've got all day,' Jack said, forgetting thoughts of breakfast a moment and settling down back over Ianto to give him a taste of what was to come, ensnaring his lips for a full minute.

Ianto looked up at him when he finally broke off the kiss. 'I'm guessing planetary exploration is off the cards today?'

Jack kissed him again. 'It's out anniversary, Ianto. Don't you want to celebrate? Besides, we did exploring yesterday. Today is all about us. The only thing I want to explore is you.'

Ianto felt like reminding him that every day would eventually become yesterday, but so long as every day was lived to its fullest, there be no regrets. He couldn't begrudge Jack for wanting to spend all day in bed reenacting their first moments together. It was a hell of a lot more comfortable than doing it lying on a cold warehouse floor.