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fictionalTitle: I Imagine You Now In That Other City
Pairing/Characters: Jack/Ianto + [OFC]; cameos by the torchwood team
Authors:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rm & kalichan
Rating/Warning: NC-17, plot and porn. voyeurism. threesome [m/m/f]
Summary: For Ianto and Jack, two's company and three is an education. Takes place after 2x11: Adrift.
Wordcount: ~20, 200
Authors' Notes: Hi! We have finally found a name for this arc: I Had No Idea I Had Been Traveling. Since we are now officially calling it an arc with a plan and all, we should note that there are several more stories to come including a story post-Exit Wounds, another one post-Journey's End and two more sequels that we don't want to divulge any more about at this time. You will also be seeing prequel pieces for both Jack and Ianto individually that will wrap the whole thing together. We are, believe it or not, going somewhere very specific here. Finally, not precisely part of this arc, but definitely in the same 'verse, we're apparently writing a fic about life on the Valiant, solely because we found the best title ever for it. Hope you enjoy the calm, such as it is, before the storm in this particular installment. Jack & Ianto don't know what's ahead. But you do...
Previous installments:
A Strange Fashion of Forsaking
Dear Captain, Last Night I Slept in Mutiny
To Learn This Holding and the Holding Back
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
I Imagine You Now in That Other City [Part 1] & [Part 2]
Ianto looked down to where Jack had his head buried between Asha's legs and was conscious of a slight sense of surprise. He knew Jack liked women, of course, knew Jack had been married and probably been in love with loads of girls -- but somehow, watching him eagerly suck at Asha's cunt was different. Without ever really thinking about it, Ianto realized that he had assumed something very stupid -- that Jack's omnivorous sexuality was all about getting off and that he just wasn't all that particular about where he got his friction. But no, this was pure sensual delight, and Jack was glorying in it, the man’s own soft moans telling the tale. And Ianto realized too, that it was something he missed also.
But there wasn't room for him down there as well, so he sucked one of Asha's nipples into his mouth as he rolled the other between his fingers. He let his teeth close lightly on her nipple, stroking it with his tongue, and she was giving hoarse little cries, unable to struggle, because Jack's hands were still holding her down and in place.
"Oh god, I want you," Ianto mumbled against her skin.
She laughed and absently and ineffectually tried to push Jack away. Ianto knew that feeling precisely; it was so much and too much, and she only wanted him to stop so that she could have more.
"I think it's my turn," Ianto said, struggling to keep his breathing even as he tugged on Jack's hair.
Jack made no response but sat back onto his heels instead and grabbed Ianto's face and laughed as the other man kissed him sloppily, sucking at Asha's wetness smeared across his face.
Jack pushed Ianto back from him and then down. "Go on," he said, gentle, encouraging and amused.
While Ianto didn't need to be told twice, he did pause for a moment before he touched his tongue to her, and Jack couldn't help but recognize the look of a man steeling himself for grief and memory and also relief. Jack had been that man too often himself, and, in a way, always would be.
Ianto was gentler with her, more about soothing than making her come again, and Jack thought she was probably glad for it, glad to find her breath and her voice and her sanity just a little thanks to this boy between her legs.
Jack stretched out on the bed next to her and watched her with a lazy smile.
She ran her fingers through his hair again, clearly looking like she wanted to say something but not knowing the words. Jack just held her gaze and kept smiling. Eventually she'd realize that whatever it was, she didn't actually need to say it.
She reached down to pet Ianto's head with her other hand and crooned his name a few times.
"Nice vowels, huh?" Jack said to her with a chuckle.
She grinned. "You're smitten," she said, looking down at Ianto.
"I am tonight," Jack replied and kissed her artfully.
She laughed and sat up just enough to pull at Ianto's shoulder. Jack almost laughed when Ianto finally pulled his mouth away from her and looked up, startled and eyes wide.
Jack raked his nails over the other man's back. "You could have done that forever," he teased.
"So could you have, sir," Ianto replied, even as he knew this was maybe not that time for that odd endearment.
Jack stretched his arm back to find the strip of condoms again.
"I think it's your turn," he said, ripping the packet open, and sitting up to roll it onto Ianto's prick. "Don't you dare come," Jack leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "I have a plan."
"But --"
"It'll all be clear soon. Trust me. Help her trust me. Yeah?"
Ianto swallowed and nodded. "Yeah."
Asha was lying on the bed, legs bent and together, her eyes closed, the line of her body one long, loose curve; Ianto pulled her knees apart and bent to press a kiss against the inside of her thigh before sinking down on top of her, so he could feel her all along the length of his body. She felt soft and welcoming, and she put her arms around him as he buried his face in her neck.
She stroked his back, petting him and he groaned at the sheer pleasure of it, feeling her breasts against his chest, and her long, smooth legs wrapped around him now. She reached a hand down between them to grab his cock and then guided it slowly into her, and Ianto bit his lip as he slid inside.
When he was buried in her as deep as he could go he stayed still there a moment, getting used to the feel of it, knowing if he started to fuck her hard, it'd be over for him very quickly, and Jack had told him not to come. When he did begin to move, it was just a slight rocking motion; enough to make her start to grind up against him, begging him wordlessly to go faster, harder -- but he didn't. Then he shifted so he was on his knees, holding her hips with his hands so he could draw her along with him.
He let himself fuck her harder; the angle was better, and he watched as she moaned and thrust back against him. She'd closed her eyes and was breathing hard, and Ianto thought she looked utterly beautiful.
He looked over and caught Jack's eye, and Jack smiled and nodded. He was doing it right then, whatever Jack wanted, and he felt for a moment as if he were part of a sculpture Jack was carving out of stone; the image locked inside, waiting for Jack to chisel it out into whatever it was meant to be.
Ianto slowed down his tempo again, pushing in and out of her in long, languorous strokes that were driving her crazy and yet not letting her crest over into orgasm. Finally her eyes flew open, and she growled at him, before sitting up abruptly, placing her hands on his chest and pushing him backwards onto the bed.
He laughed happily as she climbed on top of him and then in one smooth motion sank down again on his cock.
"You're such a tease," she breathed into his ear, clamping down on his cock with her cunt so that he hissed with pleasure.
"Learned from the best," Ianto replied, before capturing her mouth into a kiss and raking his nails down her back.
From somewhere that felt very far away he felt the mattress move as Jack changed position and then the heard the sound of drawers opening and closing, but Ianto was too lost in her -- the feel of that cunt sucking his cock into it like a hungry mouth, her belly and breasts against his body, rubbing his hands all over her softness -- to really even wonder what Jack was doing.
Ianto opened his eyes when he felt Asha press against him hard. Jack had half draped himself over her back and was kissing her ear and murmuring nonsense at her in an effort to get her attention, which really, when Ianto thought about it, seemed like maybe not the way to improve anyone's lucidity in this thing.
Asha rolled her eyes and turned her head to kiss Jack, and Ianto started laughing. He saw her smile against Jack's mouth and was utterly, utterly charmed.
"Come back here," he said, reaching for her.
"Wait," Jack said, running a finger down the side of her throat.
She stopped moving, but thankfully kept clenching around Ianto as she tried to give Jack her attention.
Jack straddled Ianto's legs behind her and pressed his hard cock against the cleft of her arse.
"I want to be inside you too," he whispered to her.
"I --"
"Trust me?" he asked. "Trust me that I will make it very, very, very good for you?"
"But --"
"It'll be nice and slow, and you'll be setting the pace, and I swear to you -- you won't even remember your own name."
"You are so--" she gasped, as Jack reached around her to press her clit with his thumb. He saw Ianto shudder at whatever that made the muscles inside her do.
"Very good at what I do," Jack said, finishing the sentence for her.
"Is this what you do?" she gasped.
"Right now," he said, kissing her neck, "I've never done anything else."
She laughed and tilted her head back to rest it on his shoulder.
"Just a finger to start," Jack said. "You'll want the rest of me. I promise."
"You're a dangerous man, Jack," she panted.
Jack smiled. "No, I'm not. Not tonight. Tonight, I'm a very good man. And believe me, Ianto and I both thank you for the privilege."
Asha closed her eyes and nodded. She didn't know what had happened to her tonight; how she'd agreed to do so many mad things, but she was caught in the current now, and it was overwhelming, and hot, and she knew that she'd remember it in crystalline, perfect detail for the rest of her life. She tried to relax, give herself up to it, and she felt Jack caress her cheek and kiss her neck approvingly, and she felt a thrill go up and down her spine.
"Stay still, Ianto," she heard Jack say. "Don't move 'til I tell you."
She felt Ianto's cock twitch within her at Jack's tone -- you and me both, my lad, she thought -- but aside from that involuntary motion, he obeyed, keeping his cock inside her and his hips still.
Then she felt Ianto's hand reach up to cup her breast, rubbing the pad of his thumb over a nipple, and she keened.
Jack's finger was at her arse now, rubbing slippery wetness into her; it felt filthy and gorgeous, and she moaned.
"See?" Jack said. "Doesn't that feel good?"
She caught her breath as he slowly, slowly worked his finger deeper into her, stretching her open. It was like nothing on earth, especially with Ianto's cock still hard inside her cunt. She felt speared open and she arched her back in an effort to accommodate them both.
"Perfect," Jack said encouragingly, and she thought distantly how odd it was that at this moment she felt she'd do anything to earn that approval from this man she didn't even know.
He was adding a second finger now, and it burned as he forced it slowly into her, but the pain spiraled together with the pleasure as Ianto slowly pulled at her nipples. She was panting hard now, gasping for breath.
"Such a lovely girl," Jack said in her ear. "You're doing so well."
She could only moan in answer, and Jack laughed softly.
"Ianto," Jack said.
"Yeah?" he said, his voice strained with the effort of holding himself in check.
"Rub her clit now," he said.
"With pleasure," Ianto managed, and she felt his thumb begin stroking at her clit with light feathery touches, and she cried out as she felt all the muscles in her body convulse. Ianto hissed as her cunt clamped down on him.
"Perfect," Jack said again. "Are you ready for my cock, Asha?"
"Yes, god, yes. Do it," she cried, and he eased his fingers out of her. Then she felt his cock nudge at her entrance, and he slowly began to push it into her body.
It will never fit she thought, as he forced his way into the tight ring of flesh. He slid the tip in, pulled back and then pressed forward again.
"Relax," he said, rubbing her hips and back. "Relax. Let me in."
He pushed in a little deeper; she felt herself stretching around him, and there was nothing else in the world besides the cock swelling in her cunt and the one invading her arse.
"Open for me. Open for us," Jack muttered hoarsely, and she felt his fingers reach around and stroke the place where she and Ianto were joined. Then she felt more pressure on her clit, and she looked down to see both their fingers flicking at her, and it felt so good, she screamed helplessly, and felt Jack slide into her that extra couple of inches.
She was dangling on the edge of some deep abyss, filled so full, feeling pierced to the core, as if their cocks speared all the way through her; she could hear a voice saying god, and yes, and no, and it was her, and they were drawing her up still higher with fingers at her nipples and clit, still working away, making the pleasure buzz through her, the agonizing exquisite pressure burning through her body.
She fell forward onto Ianto, Jack moving with her as much as he had to so as to use the change in angle to finally push all the way in. She cried out and very distantly heard Jack say to Ianto, "Give her a minute."
Ianto nodded and wrapped his arms around her. "Got you," he said softly against her ear, and she nodded frantically, pretty sure that if she wasn't crying yet, she would be soon. Because this was amazing and terrifying, and her body needed to do something to relieve all the pressure of them inside her and that really seemed to be the only idea it could come up with.
Jack watched Ianto smooth his hands over Asha's back as he crooned nonsense syllables to her softly. His eyes were closed, and he looked utterly serene. Jack had to stop himself from laughing. This was the same man who once claimed to him that he wasn't really all about taking care of people in extremis. But Jack had been right. Of course. If Ianto had a singular kink, this was it, and when it wasn't, it was being placed in those conditions himself. No wonder he liked working at Torchwood so much.
Jack gave a few short short, easy, experimental thrusts and watched Asha shudder. Ianto's face echoed it, and Jack knew he could feel them both.
"All right," Jack said, pulling her back up out of Ianto's arms. He folded his right arm diagonally across her, up between her breasts and grabbed her left shoulder so he could pull her down onto them when he wanted to. "It's all up to you now," Jack said fondly. "Move for us, yeah?"
Ianto threw a hand over his face. It really was all too much to bear. He could feel Jack's cock against his own, separated only by the thinnest bit of flesh, and when he shifted ever so slightly he could feel everything touching him all at once. The sensation was so overwhelming, he thought he might explode just from that alone.
Asha took a deep breath and moved slightly, and Ianto bit his lip, trying not to thrust upward hard, not wanting to hurt her.
But it was all obviously too much, and her hips kept stilling, and it was impossible for her to shift Jack's weight enough to really get them going. Her mouth was open, and she was making little sobbing noises.
"Please," she begged finally, her voice sounding cracked with want, and Ianto knew that she wanted to be swept away.
He looked past her, up at Jack who nodded at him and then said, "Okay, sweetheart. Don't worry. I'll take care of you. Both of you.”
Jack seized her hips, thrusting forward into her and used them to work her down on Ianto's cock as he shoved into her.
Ianto could feel their cocks rubbing against each other inside her and through her, as Jack's balls slapped against her arse. It was almost like Jack was fucking him, being tangled up inside this woman together, and Ianto was drowning in the hot, dark, wet sweetness of it.
Ianto reached up again to cup Asha's breasts, and her head went back, and then it felt like Jack let go of something and was going into her now with the full weight of his body. She was screaming raw and animal like, and Ianto felt her cunt walls convulse around him, her face flushed dark, and as Jack continued to fuck them both, everything disappeared into darkness; Ianto closed his eyes tight, and there against the blackness in his head, nothing but the shaft of Jack's cock fucking against his and Asha's cunt holding him, holding them, like a vise.
Jack kept it going, stoking it, driving it further and further, and as he roared triumphantly, Ianto felt the orgasm overtake his whole body, from the top of his head down to his toes, as if everything inside him had been ripped out, emptying him completely. His throat felt scratched and hoarse, and he realized slowly that he'd shouted wildy as he came, and that Asha had collapsed on top of him in a sweaty, disheveled heap, as Jack let his cock slide out of her, rubbing past Ianto's one last time, which in his over stimulated state felt almost like pain.
"All right, you two?" Jack asked breathlessly as he peeled off the condom. God he hated these things.
Ianto waved vaguely at Jack to shut up while Asha made a weak noise in the affirmative.
Jack chuckled at them, and Ianto distantly thought he ought to say something, but he was nowhere near capable of it. Too out of breath, too overwhelmed, and also too aware of how he and Jack tended to be. Asha didn't need to hear them post-morteming the thing or Ianto being needy or Jack, god forbid, being confessional. That in particular involved ramifications Ianto didn't want to think about.
Jack was lying alongside them, stroking Asha's back idly, but Ianto could tell he was restless.
"Get her some water, would you?" Ianto suggested.
Jack nodded, ran a hand through Ianto's hair and kissed Asha's back before getting up and slipping out of the room.
"Thank you," she murmured into Ianto's neck.
"Still alive then?" he asked, shifting enough to slide out of her. It elicited a small whimper from her and then he was trying not to hiss as he pulled the condom off.
"Yeah," she said, curling up along his side and throwing a leg across him. “Barely.”
"Good?"
"Oh yeah."
Ianto chuckled. "Jack tends to be restless after sex. Don't take it personally."
"Is that why he's taking so long with my damn water?"
"He's probably looking for something read while we sleep. Or he’s giving us time to gossip."
"What would we gossip about?" she asked, full of curiosity about their perspective on these things.
"Him, probably," Ianto said, chuckling. "Lisa."
"The girl who died?"
"Yeah. Sorry that came up."
Asha shrugged. "Is that why...?"
"What? I'm with him?"
"Yeah."
"No. I mean, that's not why I'm with a man. Jack... Jack helped pick up the pieces," Ianto said wryly. "So yeah, maybe that's part of it. But I’m with him ‘cause he’s Jack."
Asha nodded seriously, wanting to have something wise to say, but she was so tired, and Ianto might have been younger than her, but she was starting to assume he'd seen a lot more of life than she had.
"What about you?" Ianto asked, feeling not only like it was polite to keep the conversation going, but that there was something really lovely about laying there naked with a woman and just chatting, like they'd known each other forever. "What have you got haunting you tonight?"
She laughed. "Seriously?" she asked.
"Yeah. Seriously. I can be grim. Sorry," Ianto said, amused with himself.
"I got picked up by two men in a bar. Who told me things that aren't important, but that I also shouldn't know. They had guns. And a story I'll never hear most of. And I don't even know if they told me their real names. And I feel like a better person for it. How's that? Plenty grim? Plenty strange?"
"It's my real name," Ianto said simply. "And it's the realest one I've got for Jack."
"Good enough for you, good enough for me?"
"Yeah, something like that," Ianto said. "I don't want this to make you sad.”
"Oh, it doesn't," Asha said, realizing that if their situations were reversed it would, somehow, make him sad. "It makes me feel like I should be full of foolish energy. But I need a nap first."
Ianto kissed the top of her hair. "You and me both," he said. "You and me both."
She nestled in towards him and made a little contented sound. It felt almost domestic, and she was both charmed and wary of it.
"It's weird. I feel like I've known you forever, and I won't ever really know you at all," she said sleepily.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"One night only offer, Jack said," she answered.
Ianto laughed. "You don't want to take everything Jack says seriously."
"But that was serious," she said. "I could tell."
"Yeah," Ianto said. "Probably. Safer that way."
"For whom?"
"Everyone."
"Well, something to tell the grandchildren about," Asha said, laughing. "Or maybe not. They probably don't want to hear about their Gran getting it on with two blokes at once."
Ianto chuckled and petted her hair. "You can write it up in your journal and let them find it in an attic or something."
"Good idea," she said, yawning a little.
"Listen, Asha," Ianto said, wondering as he spoke if he should do this, but knowing he was going to whether or not it was a good idea. "Jack was right. This was a one night only thing, for us -- and I think maybe even for you. But I'm going to give you my number. If you ever need anything, if anything... I don't know... strange, or fucked up ever happens to you. Just in case."
Asha lifted her head and blinked at him.
"You're serious," she said.
"I usually am," he replied.
"Strange things don't happen to me that often," she said, laughing a little nervously.
"You met us, didn't you?" Ianto said quietly.
"Yeah," she said. "Okay. I'd give you mine, but all I could ever do for you is get you a good deal on a painting."
He laughed as she sank back down into the crook of his arm. It felt natural and right, and Ianto was, once again, overwhelmed at how intimate a stranger could feel once you'd tasted them and been inside them and knew what all their secret places looked and smelled like.
"I'm falling asleep," she said.
"Okay," Ianto answered. "Me too, I think. I have to work tomorrow."
"It's Saturday," she protested sleepily.
"Where we work, weekends are things that happen to other people."
She gave a little laugh and then seemed to drift off and then wake up with a jerk.
"I'm losing time," she mumbled. "Where's Jack?"
"Giving us time to lose," he whispered.
"Huh?" she said, sounding confused.
"Never mind," he said. "Not important. Go to sleep."
When Jack returned into the room, he found the two of them, their breathing regular and even, tangled together, like children protecting each other from the dark. He set the glass of water on the bedside table and stood looking down at them for a long moment.
They hadn't fallen asleep right away and it had been a secret aching joy to stand in Ianto's living room and listen to their murmurs. It was one of the things Jack remembered from his first home, the sound of laughter from a bedroom. Home here, on this earth was a kitchen or a skyline or clean sheets, but there it had been laughter and limbs, the luxury of fruit in the middle of the afternoon and great companionable dinners served barely warm and always tasting of seawater. Jack had no memory of the Boeshane Penninsua that involved a bed alone: solitude was always disrupted by family; the biological nature of pairs always interrupted by friends.
He had learned not to miss it, learned to understand that it was something that had happened to another man. The future could not be recreated here; the boundaries of this place -- where home was a kitchen, a skyline, clean sheets -- could not usually be stretched. But god, it felt good not to have to fight missing it, to know as he rummaged in Ianto's fridge for some melon, for some berries, for anything, that he'd somehow secretly shown the man something from his light-bleached stars.
He wondered if Ianto was telling her about Lisa. Or about his feelings for Jack. Or about how he loved his coworkers but they broke his heart. He wondered how Ianto was changing their stories to make them safe. Myfanwy was a dog and Owen a wounded saint.
When he finally brought them their water, it was just a matter of form. He was fairly certain they were asleep, and that would make it easier for him to sit and read. He'd crawl into bed before dawn, let Asha have what she deserved by waking up between them, a different prize here than back on the beaches of his childhood.
Jack settled himself in the chair that had been Ianto's perch earlier and watched, constructed, in fact, an entire life for them. Where they fell in love, where Asha moved in, where Ianto put up pictures of them together around the flat, and they only moved on to a bigger one when she got pregnant. Ianto was kind to her, and she thought him funny. She would go out with friends, and often, he would prefer to read by a single lamp at home, falling asleep clutching a book for comfort. Jack wondered if his fantasy Ianto had been like that with Lisa and wondered, too, if as they had lain here murmuring, Ianto had also seen this imaginary map of a fictional world. Jack almost felt guilty for depriving him of it, but it was also easy to tell himself he didn't care.
Ianto's body jerked and he made a pained noise before seeming at first to settle back to sleep. But he hadn't, not really, and Jack watched him blink a few times groggily in the dark.
"Mmm, Jack," he said, clearly still trying to make his brain adequately express the desires of his body. "Come to bed?"
"Later," Jack said, his voice low, so as not to wake Asha.
"Okay," Ianto agreed, but his voice sounded sad and lost.
Jack hadn't drawn the curtains, and the light from the street and the moon was flooding the room, enough to read by even, though his book lay forgotten in his lap; he could see that Ianto was lying there rigid. Jack wondered if Ianto understood how his acquiescence gutted him, that it was so precious and so heavy, Jack felt sometimes like he'd buckle under the weight of it. Even in the moments of challenge that always somewhat surprised them -- like the one that had led to this little adventure -- if Jack gave him a direct order, Ianto would ultimately never say anything other than yes. Whatever his feelings were, whether it was a matter between them, or an issue at work -- and Jack was starting to have some trouble figuring out where defending the earth left off now and this thing between them began -- Ianto'd never give him anything but yes.
Jack shook his head. Be careful what you wish for, he thought. But he'd wanted it, wanted it almost more than anything, and now he had it, and it was up to him not to fuck it up, even though he knew he would, because these days, that was apparently what he did.
He hadn't always been a good man. He wasn't always sure he was one now. And he hadn't always given his best, even to the people he loved –- not his family, or lovers, or even friends. Not 'til Rose met him and introduced him to the Doctor and in one fell swoop, changed the whole course of his existence. Taken his innocence too, however laughable the term might seem when applied to him. But really, it was only then -- when they'd left him behind -- that he'd realized that even giving your best didn't mean that it would work out. That part of Jack had died that day, and nothing was ever going to bring it back. But that didn't actually matter either, Jack thought, because things working out wasn't the point. It'd taken him a little while to figure that out, but he had. And really, Jack felt he should be awarded some extra marks for cluing in at all, because hey, con-man. And what kind of con-man wasn't in it all just for what he could get?
"What the hell," Jack said softly to Ianto, who was feigning sleep, but not very well. "Move over a bit."
He crawled into bed next to Ianto so they were all lying in a row; Asha curled in on herself, Ianto curled around her and Jack on the outside.
Asha was sleeping deeply, and Ianto pulled away from her a bit to press back against Jack.
"Thanks," he whispered.
"Don't mention it," Jack said. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"Don't know."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Ianto said. "A little different to what I expected, but good."
"Why different?"
"Don't know."
Jack laughed softly. "Confused, aren't you?"
"No," Ianto said. "Just don't have words."
They fell silent a while, and Jack was starting to think that Ianto had dropped off again when he suddenly spoke. "You still angry?" he asked, almost under his breath.
"No," Jack said.
"Good. I wish... I wish it hadn't started that way...," Ianto said indistinctly.
"Yeah," Jack said. "It didn't though. Not really. I wasn't, by the time we were in the car."
"Oh." There was a long pause, and then Ianto added, "I'm sorry, you know."
"I know."
"I should have said that before."
"Yeah," Jack said. "It's okay. Doesn't matter."
"Everything matters, Jack," Ianto said, frustration creeping into his voice.
"I'm starting to get that," Jack said.
Ianto snorted softly.
"Really," Jack said.
"I'm glad you knew how to do this tonight. I hadn't... Lisa... I didn't expect...."
"I know," Jack said, running a hand through his hair. "She seemed to latch on to both of us a bit tonight, yeah?"
Ianto nodded. "You were right though."
"'Bout what?"
"She would have found this bloody hilarious."
"Good," Jack said. "I've never asked. Would I have liked her?" Jack was feeling nostalgic, but it seemed easier, somehow to ask about Ianto's past than to risk talking about his own.
"Yeah. I think so. You would have been a harder sell though."
"Really? Why?"
"Do I need to spell it out, other than the part where you're a bastard and have perfect teeth?"
Jack chuckled. "I'm sure we could have played nice. Shared you instead."
"Give that joke another year before you make it again, yeah?"
"Sure. Sorry."
Ianto shrugged.
"Here's the thing about experience. Doesn't obligate you not to screw up. Just obligates you to try. And I'm sort of working from a deficit here."
"So my patience is appreciated," Ianto said dryly.
"It is, yeah, a lot."
"Why the deficit?"
"Wasn't like this where I'm from. And then I went to war and never stopped. Often for really shabby reasons. Wasn't noble or wise. Just clever. And bored. Bad combination."
"Yeah. Think I know something about that."
"Yeah, I think you do too," Jack said, curling a little bit closer as Asha stirred in her sleep, and his breath caught in his chest for a moment.
"What?" Ianto asked.
"We never slept alone back there. Family beds as children; friends, partners later. There were these strange years where we weren't kids and we hadn't grown up yet and it was all first kisses and monster games and giggling and learning to fuck in the dark. Sometimes you remind me of it. Tonight reminds me of it," he said, reaching across Ianto to toy with Asha's hair.
"Is that a good thing?" Ianto asked, and Jack wasn't sure if the question was wise or selfish.
"It was a great thing, that life. I'm glad every day I don't forget it. And I'm sure some day I'll be glad every day I don't forget this one."
Jack heard Ianto's breath catch just as his own had a moment earlier. He put a hand on his shoulder, and Ianto reached up to place his own on top of it.
"I asked you once if you'd go back home if you could," Ianto said.
Jack thought -- what is home anyway? The beaches of his childhood, scarred and war torn? A flat somewhere on a far off base, that he never spent much time in too busy as he was flitting everywhere and everywhen he possibly could? A blue box, bigger on the inside? His dead wife's bed? This city on the edge of an ocean? This tiny planet that he'd decided to protect with everything he had? An underground bunker filled with machinery and running water? All of them, and none of them. There was no place that he really belonged, only places that he loved.
"And I told you, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Jack said finally.
"Me neither," Ianto said, and Jack felt a strange ache in his chest at everything Ianto had given up to be here.
"Thank you," Jack said simply, for once without the jokes, the easy charm, the affable mask.
"Good night, Jack," Ianto murmured sleepily.
"Good night," he answered, and listened as Ianto settled himself deeper into his pillow, and his breath deepened into evenness and then the occasional snore.
He stayed still there as long as he could stand it, listening to the two of them make noises in their sleep -- an hour, maybe two -- before he got out of bed and headed back to the seat by the window. He'd crawl back in next to Asha at dawn.
When an unfamiliar alarm woke Asha up, she'd forgotten where she was. But memory came quickly rushing back, as she realised Jack and Ianto were both lying on either side of her, and she felt her cheeks grow suddenly hot.
Jack looked at her and smiled. Unfairly, he even looked good first thing in the morning, and Asha, who knew her hair must be a tangled mess, and that she probably had bog breath, wondered why it was that mornings after always invariably had to be such a bitch.
Ianto had turned off the alarm and turned to smile at her also. He at least looked human, and she smiled back at him, obscurely comforted.
"Give me ten minutes, and I'll put on coffee," Ianto said.
"You're a god," she said, and snuggled close to him.
Ianto chuckled. It felt sweet and unexpected and awkward, but it was also utterly lovely. He and Jack might well do something like this another time, but it wouldn't be exactly the same. Certainly it wouldn't be as fraught. Which made this worth savoring.
Ianto kissed her temple. "Don't worry, I feel a bit shy too," he said.
"I, on the other hand, have no shame," Jack declared.
"Ignore him," Ianto said, giving Jack an amused look.
"Can he put on coffee?" Asha asked.
"No. Terrible things will happen," Ianto replied.
Jack kissed her back. "You okay?"
She made an affirmative noise, but it was somewhat dubious.
"Look at me," Jack said, and when she just turned her head, Ianto pushed her to roll over and curled up behind her with his arm around her waist.
"Everything that was true last night is still true. You're beautiful. Ianto and I have guns. The world is very strange. That's it."
"And this place gets fantastic water pressure," Ianto added.
Asha chuckled.
"That's better," Jack said, and gave her a chaste kiss. "I think I have to make Ianto go into work --"
"The world collapses without me," he said dryly.
"-- But would you join me for breakfast?" Jack asked.
She smiled. "Yeah. Definitely."
"Great," Jack said and winked at her.
"Think you can hold down the fort for a few hours?" Jack added to Ianto, who knew it was a rhetorical question anyway.
"Considering palace coups never happen before noon, should be fine," Ianto said and then groaned as he sat up. "Right. Coffee. Jack, can you show her where towels are and stuff?"
"You bet."
"God, how fucking domestic," Ianto murmured somewhat appalled as he dragged himself into the kitchen naked.
After showers for all -- Ianto was somewhat surprised to find that Jack didn't try to extend the evening by making it a shared experience, and he took the opportunity when Jack was in the bath to hand Asha a slip of paper with his number on it as he'd promised the night before -- and Asha and Jack had struggled into their somewhat crumpled clothes from the previous night (Ianto was thankful that he was spared that; benefit to being the host, he supposed), he handed out coffees to both of them. As expected, Asha was exactly as impressed as everyone else when faced with Ianto's one artform, and he basked a bit in her swooning approval.
As well, he was glad, because it meant when he reached into the desk-drawer to pull out the guns and hand Jack his while he holstered his own, she was a lot less edgy than she could have been. Soothed by his coffee, Ianto thought. Well, not the first and probably not the last. Not romantic, or even particularly dignified, but it got the job done.
When they finally made it out the door, climbed down the stairs, (fortunately not running into any of Ianto's neighbors, for which he was incredibly grateful) and got to the car, Ianto opened the passenger side door for her and then tossed the car keys to Jack, before getting in the back.
"Isn't this your car?" Asha asked.
"Jack likes to drive," Ianto said.
"Mmm... I'm getting that," she said, and smirked at Jack.
"Only because I do it so well," Jack said with a grin.
"Modest too," Asha said.
Jack started the car and pulled it out into the street before catching Ianto's eye in the mirror and smiling.
"I'll drop you near the Millenium Centre, okay? It's central, and you can catch a bus from there, can't you?"
"Sounds fine," Ianto said, keeping his face straight.
They drove through the early morning traffic until they got to the Roald Dahl Plass, and Ianto clambered out of the car. He paused by Asha's window, and she rolled it down so he could talk to her through it.
"Thanks for taking a chance on us," Ianto said, smiling.
"My pleasure. Literally," she said. "You're lovely. It was -- special."
"For me too," he said and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "Thank you, really."
He smiled at Jack, before turning towards the bus stop where he'd wait for a few minutes till they drove away.
Then he heard Jack yell, "Ianto!"
He turned back and saw Jack gesture with his head for him to come back.
He trotted round the car to Jack's side and bent towards his window. "What?"
Jack grabbed his tie and pulled him through the window to plant a kiss on his mouth. "That," he said firmly.
Ianto looked at him, a bit shocked. It was so... ordinary, and easy, and non-sexual. Not at all what he expected from Jack, ever.
"Have a good morning," Jack said, beaming at him. "I'll see you later."
"Later," Ianto agreed, still somewhat stunned, and stood there as Asha waved, and Jack gunned the motor and took off.
"Have a good night?" Gwen asked, as Ianto came down into the Hub. It was too early to open the tourist center and if Jack really did want him to keep an eye on things he needed to be down here and not up there anyway.
"Er... yeah?" he responded, feeling flustered and not being entirely sure why she was asking.
"You're glowing," Gwen murmured as she brushed past him.
"Only pregnant women glow, Gwen. Last I checked I was neither," Ianto said, managing to recover marginally.
"Should have Owen scan you then," Tosh said, wrinkling her nose.
Ianto frowned slightly. He always thought she was on his side.
"Where's Jack, anyway?" Owen asked.
"Er. Interview. Person of interest. Should be in by lunch," Ianto said and quickly headed for the coffee machine. It might not shut them up for long, but it would shut them up.
Tosh looked at Gwen and raised an eyebrow.
"Now that," Owen mused, "distinctly sounded like a lie."
Ianto stopped in his tracks and turned around, his hands on his hips. "I'm not his keeper. Now do any of you actually need him? If so, surely you can call his mobile without my involvement."
"Six condoms?" Owen asked incredulously, waving a post-it note about.
"Pardon?"
"Owen likes to update us on what Jack steals from his desk," Tosh said almost as if she were being helpful.
“You know, talking of that --” Gwen started.
"Right," Ianto said, cutting her off before he could find out what she was referring to. "Fuck your coffee," he added, and headed up to Jack's office instead. If he was stuck on babysitting duty and everyone else was going to be difficult, he was going to use the good chair. Secretly, he was almost amused.
Jack sauntered in just before lunch.
"Where's Ianto?" he asked, before just bellowing the man's name.
"Sir?" Ianto asked, emerging to lean in the doorway of Jack's office.
"I see the palace coup's already taken place," Jack quipped to no one in particular. "Who's staying late today?"
Owen raised his hand miserably.
"Okay. Who besides Owen is staying late today?"
"Since when --"
"Since Owen decided to have a toke with the pterodactyl, Gwen."
"It's not my fault she got the munchies," Owen said defensively.
"It is, however, your fault she tried to eat Tosh's workstation. So who's staying?"
"I will," Tosh said, raising her hand. "Again."
"Thank you," Jack said, giving her a little bow. He looked up towards his office. "Ianto. Dinner. Seven. After we'll relieve these two, take the overnight. Work for you?"
"Works for me, sir." Ianto said bright and efficient. "Oh, and those reports you asked me about day before yesterday? I've got the numbers ready for you now. They're on your desk if you want to take a look. If you approve them, Tosh can get started on putting them into her program."
Jack had to force himself to look away from Ianto so odd was it to see him playing -- and maybe it wasn't playing anymore -- at taking charge. "Okay kids. Boardroom. Ten minutes. Ianto, order us lunch --"
"Jack?" Gwen asked tentatively.
"What?"
"Where were you this morning?"
"Interview. Person of interest," Jack said with a shrug, before bounding up the stairs to his office.
At that, Gwen looked up at sharply at Ianto, who winked at her before stepping forward to take Jack's coat. Maybe Ianto wasn't a captain yet, Jack thought fondly. But he was shaping up to make one hell of a lieutenant.
They all were, he mused, looking around at his team. They were together, and Jack thought of all the things they'd survived to arrive here and how many more battles they'd live to fight. There was time to enjoy this. He just knew it.
end
Continue to Many Of My Favorite Things Are Broken
Pairing/Characters: Jack/Ianto + [OFC]; cameos by the torchwood team
Authors:
rm & kalichan Rating/Warning: NC-17, plot and porn. voyeurism. threesome [m/m/f]
Summary: For Ianto and Jack, two's company and three is an education. Takes place after 2x11: Adrift.
Wordcount: ~20, 200
Authors' Notes: Hi! We have finally found a name for this arc: I Had No Idea I Had Been Traveling. Since we are now officially calling it an arc with a plan and all, we should note that there are several more stories to come including a story post-Exit Wounds, another one post-Journey's End and two more sequels that we don't want to divulge any more about at this time. You will also be seeing prequel pieces for both Jack and Ianto individually that will wrap the whole thing together. We are, believe it or not, going somewhere very specific here. Finally, not precisely part of this arc, but definitely in the same 'verse, we're apparently writing a fic about life on the Valiant, solely because we found the best title ever for it. Hope you enjoy the calm, such as it is, before the storm in this particular installment. Jack & Ianto don't know what's ahead. But you do...
Previous installments:
A Strange Fashion of Forsaking
Dear Captain, Last Night I Slept in Mutiny
To Learn This Holding and the Holding Back
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
I Imagine You Now in That Other City [Part 1] & [Part 2]
Ianto looked down to where Jack had his head buried between Asha's legs and was conscious of a slight sense of surprise. He knew Jack liked women, of course, knew Jack had been married and probably been in love with loads of girls -- but somehow, watching him eagerly suck at Asha's cunt was different. Without ever really thinking about it, Ianto realized that he had assumed something very stupid -- that Jack's omnivorous sexuality was all about getting off and that he just wasn't all that particular about where he got his friction. But no, this was pure sensual delight, and Jack was glorying in it, the man’s own soft moans telling the tale. And Ianto realized too, that it was something he missed also.
But there wasn't room for him down there as well, so he sucked one of Asha's nipples into his mouth as he rolled the other between his fingers. He let his teeth close lightly on her nipple, stroking it with his tongue, and she was giving hoarse little cries, unable to struggle, because Jack's hands were still holding her down and in place.
"Oh god, I want you," Ianto mumbled against her skin.
She laughed and absently and ineffectually tried to push Jack away. Ianto knew that feeling precisely; it was so much and too much, and she only wanted him to stop so that she could have more.
"I think it's my turn," Ianto said, struggling to keep his breathing even as he tugged on Jack's hair.
Jack made no response but sat back onto his heels instead and grabbed Ianto's face and laughed as the other man kissed him sloppily, sucking at Asha's wetness smeared across his face.
Jack pushed Ianto back from him and then down. "Go on," he said, gentle, encouraging and amused.
While Ianto didn't need to be told twice, he did pause for a moment before he touched his tongue to her, and Jack couldn't help but recognize the look of a man steeling himself for grief and memory and also relief. Jack had been that man too often himself, and, in a way, always would be.
Ianto was gentler with her, more about soothing than making her come again, and Jack thought she was probably glad for it, glad to find her breath and her voice and her sanity just a little thanks to this boy between her legs.
Jack stretched out on the bed next to her and watched her with a lazy smile.
She ran her fingers through his hair again, clearly looking like she wanted to say something but not knowing the words. Jack just held her gaze and kept smiling. Eventually she'd realize that whatever it was, she didn't actually need to say it.
She reached down to pet Ianto's head with her other hand and crooned his name a few times.
"Nice vowels, huh?" Jack said to her with a chuckle.
She grinned. "You're smitten," she said, looking down at Ianto.
"I am tonight," Jack replied and kissed her artfully.
She laughed and sat up just enough to pull at Ianto's shoulder. Jack almost laughed when Ianto finally pulled his mouth away from her and looked up, startled and eyes wide.
Jack raked his nails over the other man's back. "You could have done that forever," he teased.
"So could you have, sir," Ianto replied, even as he knew this was maybe not that time for that odd endearment.
Jack stretched his arm back to find the strip of condoms again.
"I think it's your turn," he said, ripping the packet open, and sitting up to roll it onto Ianto's prick. "Don't you dare come," Jack leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "I have a plan."
"But --"
"It'll all be clear soon. Trust me. Help her trust me. Yeah?"
Ianto swallowed and nodded. "Yeah."
Asha was lying on the bed, legs bent and together, her eyes closed, the line of her body one long, loose curve; Ianto pulled her knees apart and bent to press a kiss against the inside of her thigh before sinking down on top of her, so he could feel her all along the length of his body. She felt soft and welcoming, and she put her arms around him as he buried his face in her neck.
She stroked his back, petting him and he groaned at the sheer pleasure of it, feeling her breasts against his chest, and her long, smooth legs wrapped around him now. She reached a hand down between them to grab his cock and then guided it slowly into her, and Ianto bit his lip as he slid inside.
When he was buried in her as deep as he could go he stayed still there a moment, getting used to the feel of it, knowing if he started to fuck her hard, it'd be over for him very quickly, and Jack had told him not to come. When he did begin to move, it was just a slight rocking motion; enough to make her start to grind up against him, begging him wordlessly to go faster, harder -- but he didn't. Then he shifted so he was on his knees, holding her hips with his hands so he could draw her along with him.
He let himself fuck her harder; the angle was better, and he watched as she moaned and thrust back against him. She'd closed her eyes and was breathing hard, and Ianto thought she looked utterly beautiful.
He looked over and caught Jack's eye, and Jack smiled and nodded. He was doing it right then, whatever Jack wanted, and he felt for a moment as if he were part of a sculpture Jack was carving out of stone; the image locked inside, waiting for Jack to chisel it out into whatever it was meant to be.
Ianto slowed down his tempo again, pushing in and out of her in long, languorous strokes that were driving her crazy and yet not letting her crest over into orgasm. Finally her eyes flew open, and she growled at him, before sitting up abruptly, placing her hands on his chest and pushing him backwards onto the bed.
He laughed happily as she climbed on top of him and then in one smooth motion sank down again on his cock.
"You're such a tease," she breathed into his ear, clamping down on his cock with her cunt so that he hissed with pleasure.
"Learned from the best," Ianto replied, before capturing her mouth into a kiss and raking his nails down her back.
From somewhere that felt very far away he felt the mattress move as Jack changed position and then the heard the sound of drawers opening and closing, but Ianto was too lost in her -- the feel of that cunt sucking his cock into it like a hungry mouth, her belly and breasts against his body, rubbing his hands all over her softness -- to really even wonder what Jack was doing.
Ianto opened his eyes when he felt Asha press against him hard. Jack had half draped himself over her back and was kissing her ear and murmuring nonsense at her in an effort to get her attention, which really, when Ianto thought about it, seemed like maybe not the way to improve anyone's lucidity in this thing.
Asha rolled her eyes and turned her head to kiss Jack, and Ianto started laughing. He saw her smile against Jack's mouth and was utterly, utterly charmed.
"Come back here," he said, reaching for her.
"Wait," Jack said, running a finger down the side of her throat.
She stopped moving, but thankfully kept clenching around Ianto as she tried to give Jack her attention.
Jack straddled Ianto's legs behind her and pressed his hard cock against the cleft of her arse.
"I want to be inside you too," he whispered to her.
"I --"
"Trust me?" he asked. "Trust me that I will make it very, very, very good for you?"
"But --"
"It'll be nice and slow, and you'll be setting the pace, and I swear to you -- you won't even remember your own name."
"You are so--" she gasped, as Jack reached around her to press her clit with his thumb. He saw Ianto shudder at whatever that made the muscles inside her do.
"Very good at what I do," Jack said, finishing the sentence for her.
"Is this what you do?" she gasped.
"Right now," he said, kissing her neck, "I've never done anything else."
She laughed and tilted her head back to rest it on his shoulder.
"Just a finger to start," Jack said. "You'll want the rest of me. I promise."
"You're a dangerous man, Jack," she panted.
Jack smiled. "No, I'm not. Not tonight. Tonight, I'm a very good man. And believe me, Ianto and I both thank you for the privilege."
Asha closed her eyes and nodded. She didn't know what had happened to her tonight; how she'd agreed to do so many mad things, but she was caught in the current now, and it was overwhelming, and hot, and she knew that she'd remember it in crystalline, perfect detail for the rest of her life. She tried to relax, give herself up to it, and she felt Jack caress her cheek and kiss her neck approvingly, and she felt a thrill go up and down her spine.
"Stay still, Ianto," she heard Jack say. "Don't move 'til I tell you."
She felt Ianto's cock twitch within her at Jack's tone -- you and me both, my lad, she thought -- but aside from that involuntary motion, he obeyed, keeping his cock inside her and his hips still.
Then she felt Ianto's hand reach up to cup her breast, rubbing the pad of his thumb over a nipple, and she keened.
Jack's finger was at her arse now, rubbing slippery wetness into her; it felt filthy and gorgeous, and she moaned.
"See?" Jack said. "Doesn't that feel good?"
She caught her breath as he slowly, slowly worked his finger deeper into her, stretching her open. It was like nothing on earth, especially with Ianto's cock still hard inside her cunt. She felt speared open and she arched her back in an effort to accommodate them both.
"Perfect," Jack said encouragingly, and she thought distantly how odd it was that at this moment she felt she'd do anything to earn that approval from this man she didn't even know.
He was adding a second finger now, and it burned as he forced it slowly into her, but the pain spiraled together with the pleasure as Ianto slowly pulled at her nipples. She was panting hard now, gasping for breath.
"Such a lovely girl," Jack said in her ear. "You're doing so well."
She could only moan in answer, and Jack laughed softly.
"Ianto," Jack said.
"Yeah?" he said, his voice strained with the effort of holding himself in check.
"Rub her clit now," he said.
"With pleasure," Ianto managed, and she felt his thumb begin stroking at her clit with light feathery touches, and she cried out as she felt all the muscles in her body convulse. Ianto hissed as her cunt clamped down on him.
"Perfect," Jack said again. "Are you ready for my cock, Asha?"
"Yes, god, yes. Do it," she cried, and he eased his fingers out of her. Then she felt his cock nudge at her entrance, and he slowly began to push it into her body.
It will never fit she thought, as he forced his way into the tight ring of flesh. He slid the tip in, pulled back and then pressed forward again.
"Relax," he said, rubbing her hips and back. "Relax. Let me in."
He pushed in a little deeper; she felt herself stretching around him, and there was nothing else in the world besides the cock swelling in her cunt and the one invading her arse.
"Open for me. Open for us," Jack muttered hoarsely, and she felt his fingers reach around and stroke the place where she and Ianto were joined. Then she felt more pressure on her clit, and she looked down to see both their fingers flicking at her, and it felt so good, she screamed helplessly, and felt Jack slide into her that extra couple of inches.
She was dangling on the edge of some deep abyss, filled so full, feeling pierced to the core, as if their cocks speared all the way through her; she could hear a voice saying god, and yes, and no, and it was her, and they were drawing her up still higher with fingers at her nipples and clit, still working away, making the pleasure buzz through her, the agonizing exquisite pressure burning through her body.
She fell forward onto Ianto, Jack moving with her as much as he had to so as to use the change in angle to finally push all the way in. She cried out and very distantly heard Jack say to Ianto, "Give her a minute."
Ianto nodded and wrapped his arms around her. "Got you," he said softly against her ear, and she nodded frantically, pretty sure that if she wasn't crying yet, she would be soon. Because this was amazing and terrifying, and her body needed to do something to relieve all the pressure of them inside her and that really seemed to be the only idea it could come up with.
Jack watched Ianto smooth his hands over Asha's back as he crooned nonsense syllables to her softly. His eyes were closed, and he looked utterly serene. Jack had to stop himself from laughing. This was the same man who once claimed to him that he wasn't really all about taking care of people in extremis. But Jack had been right. Of course. If Ianto had a singular kink, this was it, and when it wasn't, it was being placed in those conditions himself. No wonder he liked working at Torchwood so much.
Jack gave a few short short, easy, experimental thrusts and watched Asha shudder. Ianto's face echoed it, and Jack knew he could feel them both.
"All right," Jack said, pulling her back up out of Ianto's arms. He folded his right arm diagonally across her, up between her breasts and grabbed her left shoulder so he could pull her down onto them when he wanted to. "It's all up to you now," Jack said fondly. "Move for us, yeah?"
Ianto threw a hand over his face. It really was all too much to bear. He could feel Jack's cock against his own, separated only by the thinnest bit of flesh, and when he shifted ever so slightly he could feel everything touching him all at once. The sensation was so overwhelming, he thought he might explode just from that alone.
Asha took a deep breath and moved slightly, and Ianto bit his lip, trying not to thrust upward hard, not wanting to hurt her.
But it was all obviously too much, and her hips kept stilling, and it was impossible for her to shift Jack's weight enough to really get them going. Her mouth was open, and she was making little sobbing noises.
"Please," she begged finally, her voice sounding cracked with want, and Ianto knew that she wanted to be swept away.
He looked past her, up at Jack who nodded at him and then said, "Okay, sweetheart. Don't worry. I'll take care of you. Both of you.”
Jack seized her hips, thrusting forward into her and used them to work her down on Ianto's cock as he shoved into her.
Ianto could feel their cocks rubbing against each other inside her and through her, as Jack's balls slapped against her arse. It was almost like Jack was fucking him, being tangled up inside this woman together, and Ianto was drowning in the hot, dark, wet sweetness of it.
Ianto reached up again to cup Asha's breasts, and her head went back, and then it felt like Jack let go of something and was going into her now with the full weight of his body. She was screaming raw and animal like, and Ianto felt her cunt walls convulse around him, her face flushed dark, and as Jack continued to fuck them both, everything disappeared into darkness; Ianto closed his eyes tight, and there against the blackness in his head, nothing but the shaft of Jack's cock fucking against his and Asha's cunt holding him, holding them, like a vise.
Jack kept it going, stoking it, driving it further and further, and as he roared triumphantly, Ianto felt the orgasm overtake his whole body, from the top of his head down to his toes, as if everything inside him had been ripped out, emptying him completely. His throat felt scratched and hoarse, and he realized slowly that he'd shouted wildy as he came, and that Asha had collapsed on top of him in a sweaty, disheveled heap, as Jack let his cock slide out of her, rubbing past Ianto's one last time, which in his over stimulated state felt almost like pain.
"All right, you two?" Jack asked breathlessly as he peeled off the condom. God he hated these things.
Ianto waved vaguely at Jack to shut up while Asha made a weak noise in the affirmative.
Jack chuckled at them, and Ianto distantly thought he ought to say something, but he was nowhere near capable of it. Too out of breath, too overwhelmed, and also too aware of how he and Jack tended to be. Asha didn't need to hear them post-morteming the thing or Ianto being needy or Jack, god forbid, being confessional. That in particular involved ramifications Ianto didn't want to think about.
Jack was lying alongside them, stroking Asha's back idly, but Ianto could tell he was restless.
"Get her some water, would you?" Ianto suggested.
Jack nodded, ran a hand through Ianto's hair and kissed Asha's back before getting up and slipping out of the room.
"Thank you," she murmured into Ianto's neck.
"Still alive then?" he asked, shifting enough to slide out of her. It elicited a small whimper from her and then he was trying not to hiss as he pulled the condom off.
"Yeah," she said, curling up along his side and throwing a leg across him. “Barely.”
"Good?"
"Oh yeah."
Ianto chuckled. "Jack tends to be restless after sex. Don't take it personally."
"Is that why he's taking so long with my damn water?"
"He's probably looking for something read while we sleep. Or he’s giving us time to gossip."
"What would we gossip about?" she asked, full of curiosity about their perspective on these things.
"Him, probably," Ianto said, chuckling. "Lisa."
"The girl who died?"
"Yeah. Sorry that came up."
Asha shrugged. "Is that why...?"
"What? I'm with him?"
"Yeah."
"No. I mean, that's not why I'm with a man. Jack... Jack helped pick up the pieces," Ianto said wryly. "So yeah, maybe that's part of it. But I’m with him ‘cause he’s Jack."
Asha nodded seriously, wanting to have something wise to say, but she was so tired, and Ianto might have been younger than her, but she was starting to assume he'd seen a lot more of life than she had.
"What about you?" Ianto asked, feeling not only like it was polite to keep the conversation going, but that there was something really lovely about laying there naked with a woman and just chatting, like they'd known each other forever. "What have you got haunting you tonight?"
She laughed. "Seriously?" she asked.
"Yeah. Seriously. I can be grim. Sorry," Ianto said, amused with himself.
"I got picked up by two men in a bar. Who told me things that aren't important, but that I also shouldn't know. They had guns. And a story I'll never hear most of. And I don't even know if they told me their real names. And I feel like a better person for it. How's that? Plenty grim? Plenty strange?"
"It's my real name," Ianto said simply. "And it's the realest one I've got for Jack."
"Good enough for you, good enough for me?"
"Yeah, something like that," Ianto said. "I don't want this to make you sad.”
"Oh, it doesn't," Asha said, realizing that if their situations were reversed it would, somehow, make him sad. "It makes me feel like I should be full of foolish energy. But I need a nap first."
Ianto kissed the top of her hair. "You and me both," he said. "You and me both."
She nestled in towards him and made a little contented sound. It felt almost domestic, and she was both charmed and wary of it.
"It's weird. I feel like I've known you forever, and I won't ever really know you at all," she said sleepily.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"One night only offer, Jack said," she answered.
Ianto laughed. "You don't want to take everything Jack says seriously."
"But that was serious," she said. "I could tell."
"Yeah," Ianto said. "Probably. Safer that way."
"For whom?"
"Everyone."
"Well, something to tell the grandchildren about," Asha said, laughing. "Or maybe not. They probably don't want to hear about their Gran getting it on with two blokes at once."
Ianto chuckled and petted her hair. "You can write it up in your journal and let them find it in an attic or something."
"Good idea," she said, yawning a little.
"Listen, Asha," Ianto said, wondering as he spoke if he should do this, but knowing he was going to whether or not it was a good idea. "Jack was right. This was a one night only thing, for us -- and I think maybe even for you. But I'm going to give you my number. If you ever need anything, if anything... I don't know... strange, or fucked up ever happens to you. Just in case."
Asha lifted her head and blinked at him.
"You're serious," she said.
"I usually am," he replied.
"Strange things don't happen to me that often," she said, laughing a little nervously.
"You met us, didn't you?" Ianto said quietly.
"Yeah," she said. "Okay. I'd give you mine, but all I could ever do for you is get you a good deal on a painting."
He laughed as she sank back down into the crook of his arm. It felt natural and right, and Ianto was, once again, overwhelmed at how intimate a stranger could feel once you'd tasted them and been inside them and knew what all their secret places looked and smelled like.
"I'm falling asleep," she said.
"Okay," Ianto answered. "Me too, I think. I have to work tomorrow."
"It's Saturday," she protested sleepily.
"Where we work, weekends are things that happen to other people."
She gave a little laugh and then seemed to drift off and then wake up with a jerk.
"I'm losing time," she mumbled. "Where's Jack?"
"Giving us time to lose," he whispered.
"Huh?" she said, sounding confused.
"Never mind," he said. "Not important. Go to sleep."
When Jack returned into the room, he found the two of them, their breathing regular and even, tangled together, like children protecting each other from the dark. He set the glass of water on the bedside table and stood looking down at them for a long moment.
They hadn't fallen asleep right away and it had been a secret aching joy to stand in Ianto's living room and listen to their murmurs. It was one of the things Jack remembered from his first home, the sound of laughter from a bedroom. Home here, on this earth was a kitchen or a skyline or clean sheets, but there it had been laughter and limbs, the luxury of fruit in the middle of the afternoon and great companionable dinners served barely warm and always tasting of seawater. Jack had no memory of the Boeshane Penninsua that involved a bed alone: solitude was always disrupted by family; the biological nature of pairs always interrupted by friends.
He had learned not to miss it, learned to understand that it was something that had happened to another man. The future could not be recreated here; the boundaries of this place -- where home was a kitchen, a skyline, clean sheets -- could not usually be stretched. But god, it felt good not to have to fight missing it, to know as he rummaged in Ianto's fridge for some melon, for some berries, for anything, that he'd somehow secretly shown the man something from his light-bleached stars.
He wondered if Ianto was telling her about Lisa. Or about his feelings for Jack. Or about how he loved his coworkers but they broke his heart. He wondered how Ianto was changing their stories to make them safe. Myfanwy was a dog and Owen a wounded saint.
When he finally brought them their water, it was just a matter of form. He was fairly certain they were asleep, and that would make it easier for him to sit and read. He'd crawl into bed before dawn, let Asha have what she deserved by waking up between them, a different prize here than back on the beaches of his childhood.
Jack settled himself in the chair that had been Ianto's perch earlier and watched, constructed, in fact, an entire life for them. Where they fell in love, where Asha moved in, where Ianto put up pictures of them together around the flat, and they only moved on to a bigger one when she got pregnant. Ianto was kind to her, and she thought him funny. She would go out with friends, and often, he would prefer to read by a single lamp at home, falling asleep clutching a book for comfort. Jack wondered if his fantasy Ianto had been like that with Lisa and wondered, too, if as they had lain here murmuring, Ianto had also seen this imaginary map of a fictional world. Jack almost felt guilty for depriving him of it, but it was also easy to tell himself he didn't care.
Ianto's body jerked and he made a pained noise before seeming at first to settle back to sleep. But he hadn't, not really, and Jack watched him blink a few times groggily in the dark.
"Mmm, Jack," he said, clearly still trying to make his brain adequately express the desires of his body. "Come to bed?"
"Later," Jack said, his voice low, so as not to wake Asha.
"Okay," Ianto agreed, but his voice sounded sad and lost.
Jack hadn't drawn the curtains, and the light from the street and the moon was flooding the room, enough to read by even, though his book lay forgotten in his lap; he could see that Ianto was lying there rigid. Jack wondered if Ianto understood how his acquiescence gutted him, that it was so precious and so heavy, Jack felt sometimes like he'd buckle under the weight of it. Even in the moments of challenge that always somewhat surprised them -- like the one that had led to this little adventure -- if Jack gave him a direct order, Ianto would ultimately never say anything other than yes. Whatever his feelings were, whether it was a matter between them, or an issue at work -- and Jack was starting to have some trouble figuring out where defending the earth left off now and this thing between them began -- Ianto'd never give him anything but yes.
Jack shook his head. Be careful what you wish for, he thought. But he'd wanted it, wanted it almost more than anything, and now he had it, and it was up to him not to fuck it up, even though he knew he would, because these days, that was apparently what he did.
He hadn't always been a good man. He wasn't always sure he was one now. And he hadn't always given his best, even to the people he loved –- not his family, or lovers, or even friends. Not 'til Rose met him and introduced him to the Doctor and in one fell swoop, changed the whole course of his existence. Taken his innocence too, however laughable the term might seem when applied to him. But really, it was only then -- when they'd left him behind -- that he'd realized that even giving your best didn't mean that it would work out. That part of Jack had died that day, and nothing was ever going to bring it back. But that didn't actually matter either, Jack thought, because things working out wasn't the point. It'd taken him a little while to figure that out, but he had. And really, Jack felt he should be awarded some extra marks for cluing in at all, because hey, con-man. And what kind of con-man wasn't in it all just for what he could get?
"What the hell," Jack said softly to Ianto, who was feigning sleep, but not very well. "Move over a bit."
He crawled into bed next to Ianto so they were all lying in a row; Asha curled in on herself, Ianto curled around her and Jack on the outside.
Asha was sleeping deeply, and Ianto pulled away from her a bit to press back against Jack.
"Thanks," he whispered.
"Don't mention it," Jack said. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"Don't know."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Ianto said. "A little different to what I expected, but good."
"Why different?"
"Don't know."
Jack laughed softly. "Confused, aren't you?"
"No," Ianto said. "Just don't have words."
They fell silent a while, and Jack was starting to think that Ianto had dropped off again when he suddenly spoke. "You still angry?" he asked, almost under his breath.
"No," Jack said.
"Good. I wish... I wish it hadn't started that way...," Ianto said indistinctly.
"Yeah," Jack said. "It didn't though. Not really. I wasn't, by the time we were in the car."
"Oh." There was a long pause, and then Ianto added, "I'm sorry, you know."
"I know."
"I should have said that before."
"Yeah," Jack said. "It's okay. Doesn't matter."
"Everything matters, Jack," Ianto said, frustration creeping into his voice.
"I'm starting to get that," Jack said.
Ianto snorted softly.
"Really," Jack said.
"I'm glad you knew how to do this tonight. I hadn't... Lisa... I didn't expect...."
"I know," Jack said, running a hand through his hair. "She seemed to latch on to both of us a bit tonight, yeah?"
Ianto nodded. "You were right though."
"'Bout what?"
"She would have found this bloody hilarious."
"Good," Jack said. "I've never asked. Would I have liked her?" Jack was feeling nostalgic, but it seemed easier, somehow to ask about Ianto's past than to risk talking about his own.
"Yeah. I think so. You would have been a harder sell though."
"Really? Why?"
"Do I need to spell it out, other than the part where you're a bastard and have perfect teeth?"
Jack chuckled. "I'm sure we could have played nice. Shared you instead."
"Give that joke another year before you make it again, yeah?"
"Sure. Sorry."
Ianto shrugged.
"Here's the thing about experience. Doesn't obligate you not to screw up. Just obligates you to try. And I'm sort of working from a deficit here."
"So my patience is appreciated," Ianto said dryly.
"It is, yeah, a lot."
"Why the deficit?"
"Wasn't like this where I'm from. And then I went to war and never stopped. Often for really shabby reasons. Wasn't noble or wise. Just clever. And bored. Bad combination."
"Yeah. Think I know something about that."
"Yeah, I think you do too," Jack said, curling a little bit closer as Asha stirred in her sleep, and his breath caught in his chest for a moment.
"What?" Ianto asked.
"We never slept alone back there. Family beds as children; friends, partners later. There were these strange years where we weren't kids and we hadn't grown up yet and it was all first kisses and monster games and giggling and learning to fuck in the dark. Sometimes you remind me of it. Tonight reminds me of it," he said, reaching across Ianto to toy with Asha's hair.
"Is that a good thing?" Ianto asked, and Jack wasn't sure if the question was wise or selfish.
"It was a great thing, that life. I'm glad every day I don't forget it. And I'm sure some day I'll be glad every day I don't forget this one."
Jack heard Ianto's breath catch just as his own had a moment earlier. He put a hand on his shoulder, and Ianto reached up to place his own on top of it.
"I asked you once if you'd go back home if you could," Ianto said.
Jack thought -- what is home anyway? The beaches of his childhood, scarred and war torn? A flat somewhere on a far off base, that he never spent much time in too busy as he was flitting everywhere and everywhen he possibly could? A blue box, bigger on the inside? His dead wife's bed? This city on the edge of an ocean? This tiny planet that he'd decided to protect with everything he had? An underground bunker filled with machinery and running water? All of them, and none of them. There was no place that he really belonged, only places that he loved.
"And I told you, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Jack said finally.
"Me neither," Ianto said, and Jack felt a strange ache in his chest at everything Ianto had given up to be here.
"Thank you," Jack said simply, for once without the jokes, the easy charm, the affable mask.
"Good night, Jack," Ianto murmured sleepily.
"Good night," he answered, and listened as Ianto settled himself deeper into his pillow, and his breath deepened into evenness and then the occasional snore.
He stayed still there as long as he could stand it, listening to the two of them make noises in their sleep -- an hour, maybe two -- before he got out of bed and headed back to the seat by the window. He'd crawl back in next to Asha at dawn.
When an unfamiliar alarm woke Asha up, she'd forgotten where she was. But memory came quickly rushing back, as she realised Jack and Ianto were both lying on either side of her, and she felt her cheeks grow suddenly hot.
Jack looked at her and smiled. Unfairly, he even looked good first thing in the morning, and Asha, who knew her hair must be a tangled mess, and that she probably had bog breath, wondered why it was that mornings after always invariably had to be such a bitch.
Ianto had turned off the alarm and turned to smile at her also. He at least looked human, and she smiled back at him, obscurely comforted.
"Give me ten minutes, and I'll put on coffee," Ianto said.
"You're a god," she said, and snuggled close to him.
Ianto chuckled. It felt sweet and unexpected and awkward, but it was also utterly lovely. He and Jack might well do something like this another time, but it wouldn't be exactly the same. Certainly it wouldn't be as fraught. Which made this worth savoring.
Ianto kissed her temple. "Don't worry, I feel a bit shy too," he said.
"I, on the other hand, have no shame," Jack declared.
"Ignore him," Ianto said, giving Jack an amused look.
"Can he put on coffee?" Asha asked.
"No. Terrible things will happen," Ianto replied.
Jack kissed her back. "You okay?"
She made an affirmative noise, but it was somewhat dubious.
"Look at me," Jack said, and when she just turned her head, Ianto pushed her to roll over and curled up behind her with his arm around her waist.
"Everything that was true last night is still true. You're beautiful. Ianto and I have guns. The world is very strange. That's it."
"And this place gets fantastic water pressure," Ianto added.
Asha chuckled.
"That's better," Jack said, and gave her a chaste kiss. "I think I have to make Ianto go into work --"
"The world collapses without me," he said dryly.
"-- But would you join me for breakfast?" Jack asked.
She smiled. "Yeah. Definitely."
"Great," Jack said and winked at her.
"Think you can hold down the fort for a few hours?" Jack added to Ianto, who knew it was a rhetorical question anyway.
"Considering palace coups never happen before noon, should be fine," Ianto said and then groaned as he sat up. "Right. Coffee. Jack, can you show her where towels are and stuff?"
"You bet."
"God, how fucking domestic," Ianto murmured somewhat appalled as he dragged himself into the kitchen naked.
After showers for all -- Ianto was somewhat surprised to find that Jack didn't try to extend the evening by making it a shared experience, and he took the opportunity when Jack was in the bath to hand Asha a slip of paper with his number on it as he'd promised the night before -- and Asha and Jack had struggled into their somewhat crumpled clothes from the previous night (Ianto was thankful that he was spared that; benefit to being the host, he supposed), he handed out coffees to both of them. As expected, Asha was exactly as impressed as everyone else when faced with Ianto's one artform, and he basked a bit in her swooning approval.
As well, he was glad, because it meant when he reached into the desk-drawer to pull out the guns and hand Jack his while he holstered his own, she was a lot less edgy than she could have been. Soothed by his coffee, Ianto thought. Well, not the first and probably not the last. Not romantic, or even particularly dignified, but it got the job done.
When they finally made it out the door, climbed down the stairs, (fortunately not running into any of Ianto's neighbors, for which he was incredibly grateful) and got to the car, Ianto opened the passenger side door for her and then tossed the car keys to Jack, before getting in the back.
"Isn't this your car?" Asha asked.
"Jack likes to drive," Ianto said.
"Mmm... I'm getting that," she said, and smirked at Jack.
"Only because I do it so well," Jack said with a grin.
"Modest too," Asha said.
Jack started the car and pulled it out into the street before catching Ianto's eye in the mirror and smiling.
"I'll drop you near the Millenium Centre, okay? It's central, and you can catch a bus from there, can't you?"
"Sounds fine," Ianto said, keeping his face straight.
They drove through the early morning traffic until they got to the Roald Dahl Plass, and Ianto clambered out of the car. He paused by Asha's window, and she rolled it down so he could talk to her through it.
"Thanks for taking a chance on us," Ianto said, smiling.
"My pleasure. Literally," she said. "You're lovely. It was -- special."
"For me too," he said and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "Thank you, really."
He smiled at Jack, before turning towards the bus stop where he'd wait for a few minutes till they drove away.
Then he heard Jack yell, "Ianto!"
He turned back and saw Jack gesture with his head for him to come back.
He trotted round the car to Jack's side and bent towards his window. "What?"
Jack grabbed his tie and pulled him through the window to plant a kiss on his mouth. "That," he said firmly.
Ianto looked at him, a bit shocked. It was so... ordinary, and easy, and non-sexual. Not at all what he expected from Jack, ever.
"Have a good morning," Jack said, beaming at him. "I'll see you later."
"Later," Ianto agreed, still somewhat stunned, and stood there as Asha waved, and Jack gunned the motor and took off.
"Have a good night?" Gwen asked, as Ianto came down into the Hub. It was too early to open the tourist center and if Jack really did want him to keep an eye on things he needed to be down here and not up there anyway.
"Er... yeah?" he responded, feeling flustered and not being entirely sure why she was asking.
"You're glowing," Gwen murmured as she brushed past him.
"Only pregnant women glow, Gwen. Last I checked I was neither," Ianto said, managing to recover marginally.
"Should have Owen scan you then," Tosh said, wrinkling her nose.
Ianto frowned slightly. He always thought she was on his side.
"Where's Jack, anyway?" Owen asked.
"Er. Interview. Person of interest. Should be in by lunch," Ianto said and quickly headed for the coffee machine. It might not shut them up for long, but it would shut them up.
Tosh looked at Gwen and raised an eyebrow.
"Now that," Owen mused, "distinctly sounded like a lie."
Ianto stopped in his tracks and turned around, his hands on his hips. "I'm not his keeper. Now do any of you actually need him? If so, surely you can call his mobile without my involvement."
"Six condoms?" Owen asked incredulously, waving a post-it note about.
"Pardon?"
"Owen likes to update us on what Jack steals from his desk," Tosh said almost as if she were being helpful.
“You know, talking of that --” Gwen started.
"Right," Ianto said, cutting her off before he could find out what she was referring to. "Fuck your coffee," he added, and headed up to Jack's office instead. If he was stuck on babysitting duty and everyone else was going to be difficult, he was going to use the good chair. Secretly, he was almost amused.
Jack sauntered in just before lunch.
"Where's Ianto?" he asked, before just bellowing the man's name.
"Sir?" Ianto asked, emerging to lean in the doorway of Jack's office.
"I see the palace coup's already taken place," Jack quipped to no one in particular. "Who's staying late today?"
Owen raised his hand miserably.
"Okay. Who besides Owen is staying late today?"
"Since when --"
"Since Owen decided to have a toke with the pterodactyl, Gwen."
"It's not my fault she got the munchies," Owen said defensively.
"It is, however, your fault she tried to eat Tosh's workstation. So who's staying?"
"I will," Tosh said, raising her hand. "Again."
"Thank you," Jack said, giving her a little bow. He looked up towards his office. "Ianto. Dinner. Seven. After we'll relieve these two, take the overnight. Work for you?"
"Works for me, sir." Ianto said bright and efficient. "Oh, and those reports you asked me about day before yesterday? I've got the numbers ready for you now. They're on your desk if you want to take a look. If you approve them, Tosh can get started on putting them into her program."
Jack had to force himself to look away from Ianto so odd was it to see him playing -- and maybe it wasn't playing anymore -- at taking charge. "Okay kids. Boardroom. Ten minutes. Ianto, order us lunch --"
"Jack?" Gwen asked tentatively.
"What?"
"Where were you this morning?"
"Interview. Person of interest," Jack said with a shrug, before bounding up the stairs to his office.
At that, Gwen looked up at sharply at Ianto, who winked at her before stepping forward to take Jack's coat. Maybe Ianto wasn't a captain yet, Jack thought fondly. But he was shaping up to make one hell of a lieutenant.
They all were, he mused, looking around at his team. They were together, and Jack thought of all the things they'd survived to arrive here and how many more battles they'd live to fight. There was time to enjoy this. He just knew it.
Continue to Many Of My Favorite Things Are Broken
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 07:27 am (UTC)Poor Jack. He really has no option other than dirty old man. Or stop being human.
Cross posted to
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Date: 2008-08-07 04:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 08:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 04:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 08:55 am (UTC)First, brava for creating your own 'Martina'(my version of the female highlighting tool for Jack and Ianto) and I want to know what the hell Jack and Asha talked about over breakfast! Not fair keeping that a secret!
Was writing the DP as daunting for you as it was for me the first time?
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Date: 2008-08-07 04:53 am (UTC)Re: jack/asha breakfast - Hahaha. When Rach gets back from Chicago, maybe we can discuss doing a deleted scene.
Re: dp -- Well, after Rach & I decided that's where this was going to go, I realized that I, personally (very sadly!) have no real life experience with this particular kink. So, um, I got home, asked my boyfriend about it, and then went to pornhub dot com and watched, erm, some video from different angles. For research! Really! (Actually, that's true - I don't find visual porn hot at all, but I wanted to understand the mechanics.) *laughs*
Why did you find it daunting?
I never cease to be amazed by the internet, I just have to say.
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Date: 2008-08-06 09:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 04:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 11:46 am (UTC)I love Ianto's development as well. He makes a great apprentice Lieutenant.
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Date: 2008-08-07 04:57 am (UTC)Apprentice lieutenant! I love it. =) Thank you.
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From:(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 11:59 am (UTC)Except now I need to go to work. Will come back and leave real fb this evening. As if I could avoid rereading this.
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Date: 2008-08-07 04:54 am (UTC)I mentioned loving that you set this after Adrift. First, it means you skipped over the obvious post-ep of Something Borrowed for something infinitely more complex and less addressed, and second, because I've never read a post-Adrift fic that didn't have one or the other of them totally giving in off the bat to make way for gratuitous cuddling. (Possible the result of the Captain's Blog, but I digress). The tension between them, right from the get-go, and how it mellowed into something infinitely more complex and heartbreaking by the end, is really what made this piece. Like Jack so accurately said, Asha made all the nuances between them so infinitely clear. It really was a stellar choice.
The argument between them, and everything that followed - god, their emotions are real in a way I never, ever get from reading anything, fic or original or what have you. I feel like a voyeur in a way that has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with their emotions and how much they're struggling with and for them. I have no idea how you accomplish it - bloody good writing combined with a real understanding and respect for the characters, I suppose - but it works, oh god does it ever work.
I also have to reread these several times. I have a habit of skimming prose and focusing on dialogue, but oooh, you put so much good stuff in the prose I have to stop and make sure I catch it all. Like near the end, where Jack is thinking on how Ianto will, in the end, always obey him, that whole paragraph is fabulous.
Whatever his feelings were, whether it was a matter between them, or an issue at work -- and Jack was starting to have some trouble figuring out where defending the earth left off now and this thing between them began -- Ianto'd never give him anything but yes.
That sentence - both the main statement and the ancillary one - is such a perfect encapsulation of their working-together related issues.
I especially love how they don't communicate perfectly. Some people think writing good dialogue means the characters connect all the time - when in fact the best dialogue highlights where they don't. Like this:
"Give that joke another year before you make it again, yeah?"
Ouch, and funny, and really highlights the little misses that make up the bigger ones. Makes everything so three-dimensional.
I love the little bits of Jack's background with respect to sleeping arrangements. *thinks wistfully of a world like that* Some of my best memories are in those little bits of society that function like that - really intense youth experience type things, for me - where half a dozen people curled up in a tent, or on a couch, or in a bed is a function of closeness and togetherness first, and sex second, if at all. His thoughts brought me right back to those memories in the best of ways.
I loved the balance of the three - Jack and Asha having the initial physical connection, whereas Ianto and Asha connecting more "normally", in a way Jack routinely fails at. Lovely way to set up the balance without excluding anyone. Asha was delightful without being too perfect, sexy and unique without drawing your eyes away from the real show.
Other favourite moments: Jack kissing Ianto, the first time while he's watching him and Asha, the last time when she's also watching, but for an entirely different reason, and Ianto's shock at the simplicity of it. Ianto babysitting the team, and more hints of his potential leadership skills. Owen's note to Jack, and counting of the condoms. Jack and Ianto independently giving Gwen the same answer. That Jack took Asha out for lunch afterwards - god, I really want to know what they talked about.
Anyway, I could go on. But it's one in the morning. Ah. Oh yes - the sex? Ridiculously hot, as usual, and so illuminating.
Voila! One rave for two of my favourite authors. ;)
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Date: 2008-08-06 02:09 pm (UTC)I loved Ianto with Asha, there was something really sweet about the two of them without ever being sappy. If circumstances were different I could really see them together. The moments where Jack noticed the way Ianto is beginning to emulate him, whether Ianto was unaware or not, were my favorite moments.
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Date: 2008-08-07 05:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 05:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 05:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-08-06 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 05:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 06:59 pm (UTC)And I'm sure some day I'll be glad every day I don't forget this one.
That was just perfect and very much Jack.
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Date: 2008-08-07 05:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-06 11:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 05:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 12:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 05:44 am (UTC)p.s. LOVE your icon.
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Date: 2008-08-07 12:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 05:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 01:14 am (UTC)I'm in love with how phenomenally complex the Jack/Ianto relationship is in your hands. Your stuff bears re-reading because there is always so much working, at every point, and I know I don't get it all the first time, or even the third and fourth. This one -- I look forward to the re-readings.
The overall idea that Jack is happier as an XO, a lieuntenant, is terribly interesting. And absolutely in keeping with the bungles we've seen him do in canon. The idea that he's anchoring himself in his leadership role by mentoring Ianto is awesome. By mentoring Ianto, Jack gets to revisit the role he is comfortable with without actually reverting to it. It's like he relieves himself of the pressure of leadership by living vicariously through Ianto's development. This was echoed in Ianto's many playful statements about how Jack is influencing him sexually, but the overarching development is happening in every aspect of Ianto's life, not just the naked one.
So, again, love. Love love. Wildly impressed. Would friend you again if I could.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 06:01 am (UTC)We've probably said this before, but the re-reading thing is so lovely to hear; that you care enough about it to read it more than once is just so cool!!
For us, the thing about Jack being happier as an XO is really related to his appearances on Who as opposed to the way he is on Torchwood. He seems so happy when he's got the Doctor around as the final authority; on TW, when he is the buck-stops-here-guy, he seems honestly kind of bummed out about it. When he said to the Doctor, in the end of Who Series 3 that he had remade TW in the Doctor's image, I really felt like that nailed it home. And TW pre-Jack's command is so terrible - to Jack himself, and to the world as well. So, for him it seems to be a matter of necessity not joy - and everyone on his team had to die first before he took charge!
You've put the thing about Jack revisiting his role as an adjunct through mentoring Ianto much more articulately than I could have, but yes, I totally agree. Thank you! And yes, also, on Ianto's sexual development being mirrored on all fronts - we are really trying to show character development through the erotica (besides the fact that we enjoy smut!), so it's so fabulous to hear that came through.
Thank you so much for this awesome, awesome comment. I am totally thrilled =)
Incidentally, I love how I'm meeting so many rockin' folk through this fandom! It's just really cool.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 03:19 am (UTC)The potential for the whole event being an utter mess for everyone involved is so there! Everything from Jack's pissy mood, to Asha being QUITE unhappy to discover they have guns - AS ANYONE WOULD BE - it could all go right off into a train wreck. I like that Ianto in particular is good at defusing some of these things.
Considering how "out" Torchwood is in Cardiff - everyone knows them, even if they aren't sure what they do - I think it was a great decision on Ianto's part to tell her that's who they are.
Lisa is very nearly a character in this story. She's going to be, for a long time, maybe always. Much easier not to think of her when you're with someone so different physically as Jack!
I like Jack's observation that she enjoys him, but likes Ianto. I enjoy that they both appreciate, and envy, things the other is good at.
And the sex? Is extremely hot, obviously.
Sigh. Brain getting drippy. More?
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Date: 2008-08-07 06:09 am (UTC)*laughs* Yeah, we got to the part where they were stripping off coats etc and were like, "wait! GUNS! and they're BRITISH. Surely, she would flip!" and then of course, we had to deal with it. And then we were like, "Well, little old ladies on the street have apparently heard of Torchwood by this time, so..." And yeah, Ianto seems like a diffuser, you know, when he hasn't got the cybergirlfriend stashed in the basement at work. See, Jack can't let go of that moment, and neither can I!!
Yeah, Lisa just kept coming up over and over no matter what we did. She was like the ghost that would not die. It was weird, but they were playing with so many issues (women! fidelity! betrayal of trust! memory!) that eventually she seemed to make sense as a theme.
Glad you enjoyed all the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side moments.
There will be more soon. Rach is out of town currently, but we're already plotting away on the next (several) pieces. We have a plan and everything! =)
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Date: 2008-08-07 07:34 am (UTC)Second, the alternating POV. I'm a bit of a stickler for POV. I recently wrote my own rotating POV fic but I did a straight overlap. For each scene from Jack's POV, I wrote the same scene from Ianto's POV and kept each one tight. What I found interesting is your...single line overlap if will. The way someone says a line and the reaction is from someone else's POV. It was creative and it was clearly demarcated and that was important. I think it might have become distracting, though. At some point I was more conscious of the POV switch than the content. That might just be me, though.
I admire the way you used both Asha and the context to illustrate how deeply Jack and Ianto feel for one another, but it's painful how they can't get out of their own ways. Painful in a good way. Again, I ache for broken Jack and Ianto.
I also admire your prose. Actually, I envy it. I would love to write in a musical, lyrical way with analogies and similes and metaphors but alas, I can not and I envy you guys your ability to do that kind of thing.
I don't know if you intended it this way but when each boy sat in the chair, their thoughts brought tears to my eyes. First, Ianto's pain and regret over Lisa and his conflict over moving on. He is also conflicted between the anger and desire going on between he and Jack. Then Jack sits in the chair and watches Ianto sleep and HE'S conflicted about his anger and his affection for Ianto! It killed me!
Oh, and Jack's demand that Ianto be present, in the room and in the moment! They may not always get each other right but no one understands either one of them like the other does.
Um...oh yeah, one more thing: Your 'universe' differs from mine in that I believe that Ianto got over Lisa quickly because 90% of what he did was a result of PTSD and survivor's guilt. She stops being a spectre between the boys quickly, in my 'universe'. I really like your opposing take on that, though. She's lingering between them after all this time. Talk about conflict! Whew!
Oh, thank you for making Jack family oriented and communal. I get sick of 51st Century equals zero monogamy. Humans are social/pack animals, thank you very much.
I will conclude by saying that this story has helped me forgive you guys for writing "Most Beautiful Girl", I have real issues with the feminization of Ianto. It's a personal belief that fandoms all too often unreasonably feminize the less dominant partner in an unequal relationship. HOWEVER, it's a philosophical thing on my part and not that it matters but this story has redeemed you in my eyes! LOL! And you didn't go off the deep end with the whole thing! Lip gloss and panties, not a dress and make up.
Okay, I've had my say.
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Date: 2008-08-07 07:52 am (UTC)ANYway. To address some of your points.
POV. Yeah. It's a hard choice, and I feel like there are pros & cons on both sides. 3rd person omniscient? 3rd person aligned? 3rd person aligned, but various? It's hard. And there are definitely flaws to going with this one, but we're so into showing what's going on in people's heads, that this is one we ultimately chose. It's our hope, that with the demarcation, it'll be obvious that it's a conscious choice at least, and not just, you know, random fuck up. It becomes even harder when there's more than two people in the scene, so that might be why it was a bit jarring at times.
re: Lisa & other issues. She is sort of the spectre at the feast here! I can see how it might go a different way, and your point about the PTSD & guilt makes sense to me - I think the show might agree with you too, as far as S2 is concerned. But for us, in a lot of ways, this series is about memory and forgetting and how all the parts of your history are still ongoing factors at any point in time. So, that's at least part of why the conflict continues.
And yes, they are broken and beautiful in their brokenness, and they break our hearts a little more every time. So, thanks for liking it ;-)
re: Most Beautiful Girl. We're glad to be redeemed. It is totally a trend in fandom, and I can see finding it pernicious. I'm afraid it's one of my kinks (boys in drag) though, and after Ianto & the wedding dress debacle in Something Borrowed - it just sort of wrote itself! Anyway, thanks for reading it anyway, despite philosophical issues. =)
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Date: 2008-08-07 12:17 pm (UTC)Also, I love the attention to detail about the guns and references to Jack's communalist childhood *controls urge to go on loving tirade re: bisexual, communalist, polyamorous utopias*
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Date: 2008-08-07 02:39 pm (UTC)Your point about them walking into the bar is very well taken and something I worried about. I have, however, been the girl who has done deeply ridiculous/stupid/inappropriate/risky things of the ilk Asha does in this and have had them work out well. But you're right, they got damn lucky. At least when they find the right person, Jack makes it an easy sell.
We are not, for the record, setting this up to be one big cruel explosion, but the sense of doom you feel is very real, in large part because the story can only end in tragedy -- no matter what we choose to have happen -- for Jack simply because he endures.
Your praise at the beginning is lovely, and very much something that's important to us as writers. It's the small moments, the almost need to look away that drives us in the story we are telling each other (and that's really where this comes from, Kali and I tell each other stories and that has always been the basis of our knowing each other), so I'm glad that those things haven't become too small for the reader to see, because they are what at least I think matters both in fact and fiction.
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Date: 2008-08-07 12:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 02:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 12:23 pm (UTC)I love it I love it I love it :)
Just... Lieutenant!Ianto is fantastic :)
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Date: 2008-08-07 02:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 01:27 pm (UTC)"Since Owen decided to have a toke with the pterodactyl, Gwen."
"It's not my fault she got the munchies," Owen said defensively.
"It is, however, your fault she tried to eat Tosh's workstation. So who's staying?"
That's just so Owen and priceless!
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Date: 2008-08-07 02:40 pm (UTC)Kali gets the nod for the guns, which is one of my favorite moments in the piece too.
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Date: 2008-08-07 03:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 03:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 03:46 pm (UTC)The reason is no doubt a trivial one, but it's one that gets to me everytime. I don't like couples turning in on themselves. Turning to each other is fine, but turning in on each other, I find that really scary. To try and make the world fit just the two of you, your needs and fantasies - I can never see how that mends damaged people. The world can't change just for two, it has so many other people to worry about. I have re-read all 5 episodes and know I'm misinterpreting it badly, but I can't get past the turning in on themselves bit. Sorry, I'm really sorry.
Please don't think me patronising, as I have read a lot of your other work, but the quality of the writing is excellent, the words, the setting, the pace, wonderful and it is what has kept me reading so far. I wish you well for the rest of the story.
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Date: 2008-08-07 03:50 pm (UTC)Hopefully I will get a chance at some point to come back and talk about the scary codependence we see in Jack/Ianto (and I think we do see this canonically in the way in which Jack tends to respond to some people), which we don't, actually, view as a good thing, although surely it's not something we've actively made a point about.
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Date: 2008-08-07 11:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-08 12:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-08 05:29 am (UTC)"I'd like to watch you fuck a real girl," Ianto blurted out, slightly appalled once it had escaped his lips.
"Reeeeeally?" Jack asked, surprised. "Wouldn't get jealous?"
Ianto shrugged. "Not if I chose the girl and had you after."
Look at that! He got to choose the girl, he watched Jack fuck her, he fucked her, and then they both fucked her.
HE DIDN'T HAVE JACK AFTER!
That's got to be meaningful...
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Date: 2008-08-08 01:02 pm (UTC)It's one of the reasons we ended it where we did -- maybe that happens after dinner that night, maybe it doesn't. Maybe, in the end, Ianto's become secure enough not to need to mark his territory after that set of experiences. Some of it, I think, are actually things that would be address in our eventual side piece on breakfast with Asha. Because you're not the only person to remember that statement. Jack certainly remembers it too. Certainly, I think he's got to have it in his mind that he needs to make sure Ianto gets that but soon.
But yes, it's definitely an important question mark.
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