Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Ianto, Jack

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 2,180 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 338 - Horizon 

Summary: Jack is keen to show Ianto there's more to life than just what happens on Earth. 

Ianto dropped the stack of files on his desk with a loud whump before checking his watch. It was even later than he'd thought, which only made the tired feeling at the back of his mind settle in just that little bit deeper than before.

'Still here?' Jack asked, appearing seemingly from nowhere, but obviously having come downstairs to check if Ianto was in fact still here.

'Yup,' Ianto replied, turning and leaning back against the edge of the desk as he stared back at his lover. Even after a long day, Jack always looked completely fresh, like he'd just gotten up for the day, fueled by a hearty breakfast and lots of Ianto's coffee. Ianto didn't think he could find the energy to drink another coffee let alone make it from scratch. 'Definitely time for bed,' he said.

'A fine suggestion,' Jack replied, beaming, 'but I was thinking about something a little bit longer than that.'

Ianto raised a curious eyebrow at him. He was tired, but never tired enough to not be alert to Jack's sometimes coy and devious leading statements. 'Longer?' A day off would be nice come to think of it. At least he hoped that was what Jack might be intimating.

'When was the last time we had a vacation?'

'I dunno.' Had they ever had a vacation? The odd weekend here and there but it wasn't quite the same as three weeks on a beach with a well thumbed paperback. The few weeks they'd spent posing as an undercover couple probably didn't count either. It wasn't much of a vacation if you were still doing all the cooking, cleaning and laundry, not to mention washing the car and making sure the front yard was pristine for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses as it were. It had ended up being, from Ianto's perspective at least, more of a nightmare than a break from their normal lives. Oh God, Jack wasn't proposing something like that again was he? Ianto didn't think he could take any more Stepford wife, happy couples nonsense. If he did, he'd be putting his foot down and insisting that this time Jack was going to be the one to stay at home all day long and play doting husband.

'Please no more undercover work,' Ianto begged. 'I don't think our relationship can take it.'

Jack laughed at him and he felt silly for suggesting it. 'No Desperate Housewives, I promise,' Jack said. 'I meant a real vacation.'

'Oh.' That made Ianto stand up a little straighter. 'Well, I hear Australia is very nice this time of year.' He usually preferred to plan these sorts of things ahead of time, but he supposed spur of the moment was okay, too.

'Maybe a little further than Australia?'

Ianto's brow furrowed. 'What's further than Australia?'

Jack smirked at him. 'Ianto Jones, what happened to wanting to broaden your horizons?' Jack chuckled again and stepped closer, closing through gap between them so that he could rest his hands on Ianto's hips. 'A whole universe to see and you can't imagine leaving this planet? I thought you were more open-minded than that. You're always saying you've never gotten to see the wonders of space.'

'I've been in space,' Ianto argued, squirming a little at being called out for his lack of imagination. To be fair though, he hadn't seen how they could leave without some kind of vessel to take them, and the closest inhabited world had to be at least a week's travel from here.

Jack rolled his eyes. 'Leaving the atmosphere in a sabotaged ship that came crashing back down to earth twenty minutes later hardly counts.'

'And there was that time I stepped through an alien portal to save you from being trapped there as a slave for eternity,' Ianto added, trying desperately to think of any other situations that would make him seem like less of a simple Earthling.

'Which you wouldn't have needed to do if you hadn't let him shove me through it in the first place,' Jack reminded him.

Ianto blushed slightly. 'Well, I suppose that is true. But still, I was on another planet.'

'For five whole minutes. I'm talking about space, Ianto. Real space. Getting out there and seeing the stars and visiting strange new worlds.' Jack let go and gesticulated around them at the endless miles of archive shelving. 'All this junk down in the archives it's nothing compared to what's out there. This is just the everyday bits and pieces, like finding a toaster and thinking that's the same as having traveled the globe.'

'But…' Ianto paused to consider the practicalities of what Jack was suggesting. 'What about work, Torchwood…'

Jack's hands found his hips and kept him close. 'Who knows how long we have, Ianto. Maybe we have five years, or fifty, or maybe only five minutes. What's the point in all of this, working all hours to keep this world safe from everything else that's out there, might you never actually get to see everything else? We see so much of the bad stuff, but there's so much that's brilliant too. I want you to experience that. I've got a million lives to live. You've got just this one life. Make it count. Let me make it count.'

Ianto couldn't deny that he'd often voiced his wonder at what the rest of the universe must be like, and that was just based on what he saw that came into his life through Torchwood's doors, and the stories that Jack shared about his adventures before he'd become tethered to this tiny little corner of the universe. Just how much more was out there, far beyond the horizon and out of sight, he had no idea. He had only his imagination, and even that was vastly limited by his experiences living here on this one little backward planet. Actually getting to see any of it for himself was nothing more than a pipe dream.

'We can't just take off and leave everyone here to just carry on without us.'

Jack flashed a smile at him and held out his wrist, showing off his vortex manipulator as it poked out from the edge of his coat sleeve. 'Got the Doctor to do me one little favour. Got this baby working again. Sort of. He tapped it with his index finger. Pre-programmed to work for a single one way trip back to Cardiff, Wales, 2009, two days from now. Just say the word and we can be right back here as if we'd never been gone. No need to worry about the team being without us for more than forty eight hours. That leaves us all the time in the world to go exploring whatever it is you'd like to see, not to mention a few things I'm just dying to show you myself.'

Jack leaned his head closer to Ianto’s face.' So, Ianto Jones. What do you say? We can pack tonight, sleep in tomorrow, and then be off after a long, late brunch. There's a Class Four Star Cruiser passing through our neighbourhood just waiting for us to thumb her down for a lift. She's due to dock at a spaceport just the other side of Alpha Centauri, and after that, we can hitch a ride pretty much anywhere.'

Jack made it sound so simple. Like hopping off the train and switching flights at Heathrow. Like they were jet-setting to sunny Spain and not a few million light years to parts unknown. Did the location really matter? He had so many questions about what life was like out there beyond the stars. He wondered what it would be like to wander down a street where he was the odd one out and everyone else was alien. Would the skies be blue with white fluffy clouds like here on Earth? Would the air ever smell the same? How would he ever know if he didn't go out there and find out for himself. And here was Jack, offering to do just that.

And they'd only be gone for a couple of weeks. It was really just like taking a vacation then, wasn't it? But what if it ended up being a few months instead, or even a few years? How could they go back to their old lives and just pretend they had been gone only two days? Wouldn't people notice that he looked older? Instead of still being Rhiannon's little brother, he might end up coming back as her older brother. Would that be weird?

And what if something happened whilst they were away? What if he and Jack got separated, or maybe they'd have a falling out and Jack wouldn't want to go back. How then would Ianto ever be able to return without Jack and his vortex manipulator and its one free ticket back to reality? That thought made his stomach twisted in knots. He might never be able to get back home. He might never be able to see his family and friends ever again. They might think he was dead, or just didn't care enough about them to want to come back.

What if something changed within him that meant he really didn't want to go back? What if he was having such a good time with Jack that they decided not to return? Could that happen? Would he find a new life somewhere out there that was better and more important to him than his old life here? He didn't think so, but how could he ever be sure?

Then there was Jack. This was about him as much as it was about Ianto. Jack had spent years trying to get away from Earth and now he was being given a chance to go without feeling like he was really leaving. But Jack would probably find it a lot easier than Ianto to decide he didn't want to come back. Jack wasn't tied down to this planet by family and friends the same way Ianto was. What if that was his plan all along, but he just hadn't said so. He wanted to leave but didn't want to leave Ianto behind. Was Ianto really the only thing keeping him here? Was this his great escape plan to take with him - the only thing that mattered and leave all the rest behind? Jack wasn't that callus, was he?

'What's going on inside that head of yours, Ianto Jones?' Jack asked, reaching out to place a hand on his elbow as if he needed steadying before all his thoughts sought to overwhelm him. 'You don't look excited at all.'

'And that's our only way of getting back?' Ianto asked, staring pointedly down at Jack's wrist strap.

'I don't understand.This was meant to make the decision easier for you, not harder,' Jack said, his own face scrunching up with concern.

One chance to see what was out there behind his wildest imaginings, Ianto thought. When would he ever do it if not now? Torchwood was going to kill him one day. Maybe tomorrow, maybe years from now. Who knew. All he knew is that he'd never walk away from it, which meant that anything more than a few days off here and there was an impossible dream. He'd probably die, never having even lived life on this planet, let alone any other. Perhaps he was over-thinking things. Jack didn't have to have an ulterior motive.

'It's just a temporary thing right? We're not leaving permanently or anything, are we?'

Jack pulled a face and snorted his incredulity. 'What, and not come back here where everything important in our lives is? You're kidding, right? Of course we're coming back. I just wanted to do something nice for you. For us. Don't you think we deserve it just a little bit?' He grabbed both of Ianto's hands. 'Say you'll come with me, Ianto. It's all I've ever wanted for you. And when we come back it'll be just like old times, you with your coffee and pottering around your archives that you love so much, and me running around Cardiff looking all dashing and saving the world every other week.'

'I get to do some saving the world too, right?' Jack might have been their leader, but even dashing leaders had their off days and needed a little help.

Jack squeezed him close to his side. 'You and me. A team. Saving the world. With a little help from the others, of course. What could be better? But first, a break to get us all relaxed and refreshed for all that world saving we've gotta do.'

Ianto was unable to suppress the beginnings of the smile on his face. 'I have been wanting to see proof of some of these outrageous stories you keep telling me.'

'Oh, you haven't seen anything yet, Mister Jones. I'm about to broaden your horizons so much, my stories will seem boring. By the time we come back, you'll have a few outrageous stories of your own.'