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amulyTitle: Gwil's Guide to Growing Up Torchwood: Year 4, Chapter 1
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 2,973
Rating: R
Summary: When a seven-year-old boy falls through the Rift, Ianto and Jack decide to adopt him. This is the story of his life at Torchwood.
Chapter Summary: The night before Jack and Ianto's wedding day, both men decide to get some questions answered.
Warnings: none
A/N: BACK FROM BRITAIN! Wooo!! AWESOMENESS, YOU GUYS. Awesomeness! Will be uploading piccys soon. Got a bit of a buffer done for this year, too, so hopefully that'll help me out ^.^ Now please excuse me while I sleep for 12 hours.
Previous Chapter: Year 3, Chapter 11
Gwil Masterlist
With Gwil successfully tucked in for the night and all the pre-wedding chores taken care of, Ianto finally slid into bed at the end of the day. He sighed, lying back against the pillows and drawing the blankets up around him. Even a small, private wedding ceremony was a lot to organize. There were the meals and seating charts and registrars and music and drinks to sort out, not to mention wrangling Jack and Gwil into tailor-made suits. Gwil was the easier of the two to get through the process, though Ianto had to admit, Jack hadn't been a chore – he would never call getting blown in the dressing room a chore. But he had certainly managed to elongate the experience more than it might have been.
But now everything was set, the Rift monitor was showing little to no activity for tomorrow – touch wood – and Ianto was done until he got up and showered tomorrow morning.
Just as he started to let his eyes drift closed, the bedroom door opened and shut, a flash of brightness from the kitchen stovetop light nearly blinding him. Jack padded in on bare feet, shucking his clothes as he went and slipping into bed with Ianto once he was fully starkers.
“Hello, husband-to-be.”
Ianto smiled, turning into Jack with a sleepy sigh. “'lo,” he mumbled back. Jack leaned in and Ianto pursed his lips on instinct, accepting the kiss even as he let his eyes drift shut again. “And good night.”
Next to him, Ianto felt Jack shift in position. The next moment Jack's heavy, warm thigh was being thrown over Ianto's own, and Jack was reeling them closer together. “Hey, hey now.” Jack's big hand rubbed up and down Ianto's backside, kneading and squeezing the flesh there. Ianto sighed happily and canted into the touch, though his body was more interested in the soothing relaxation of the massage rather than any eroticism in it.
Just as he started to drift off again, Ianto felt Jack's mouth at his throat, hip rutting gently against his thigh. Jack's voice was muffled as he spoke, lips pressing the words into Ianto's skin. “I thought we could fly in the face of tradition. Have a little pre-marital relation.”
Ianto smiled, eyes still firmly shut. “What do you call the mutual handjob in the shower this morning? Or the sex last night? Or every other night we've known each other?”
“But it wasn't the night before the wedding.” Jack exaggerating the whine in his voice had Ianto smiling, much against his own better instincts. Sure enough, Jack pounced on that smile, squeezing Ianto's flesh even more firmly in his hand. “You know you want to.” His voice had taken on a lustier tone: more growly and seductive. Ianto felt his body stir, much against his own will and exhausted mind. Jack obviously noticed Ianto's interest, pressing his hips more firmly against Ianto's and grinding them slowly together. “See? Come on: you know they say the sex is terrible after you get married. That makes this our last chance for really fantastic shagging.”
Ianto snorted, finally giving in and opening his eyes. “Really?” he deadpanned. “And who exactly are 'they'?”
Jack's answer was immediate. “Obviously not us.”
“Obviously.” To prove his point, Ianto grabbed the back of Jack's head and pulled him in for a scorching kiss, nipping and tonguing away any concerns over waning marital passions. Jack responded back just as eagerly, sucking air in through his nose as he melted into Ianto's kiss.
“Do you want to top?”
Ianto thought about it for a moment, stroking a hand down Jack's smooth chest. It occurred to him that he had no idea if Jack was naturally that way, or had some sort of laser removal before his immortality, or even if he shaved it and had never told Ianto. He voiced his question to Jack, who laughed.
“Natural. Less hair on the fifty-first century humans. Engineered that way, I think: not naturally evolved. Why are you asking now?”
Ianto shrugged. “Never think to ask you these things. Most of the time I figure you wouldn't answer.”
Jack's hips slowed, then stilled against Ianto's. Afraid he had said something wrong, Ianto peered warily up at Jack. To his surprise, Jack was half-smiling down at him, curious look on his face. “Any other questions you want the answer to before we get married?” Jack's tone was teasing, but eyes serious. Ianto cocked his head as he considered. Before he could get a single question out, however, Jack continued. “But! I get to ask you questions, too. And you have to answer them.”
Ianto frowned. Well. That was an interesting, and potentially disastrous proposition. But Jack was promising an equal return, and Ianto would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about some things in Jack's past.
“Alright,” he agreed, two syllables drawn out slowly. “But only three questions apiece. I need my beauty sleep if I want the pictures to come out well tomorrow.”
Jack nodded, pressing a splayed hand to Ianto's chest and stroking his fingers slowly through his chest hair. “Not that you don't always look gorgeous, but deal.” Jack wriggled against Ianto, though this time was more childish excitement than the thrum of arousal. “I'm going first.” Ianto waited as Jack put on his very serious face and considered what he might ask. His face lit up, and he shifted his arm to squeeze lightly at Ianto's semi-hard penis. “What was your first gay experience?”
Ianto felt his face flush, glancing down as Jack's grin broadened at the sight. “I suppose I have to tell the truth?” he grumbled.
Jack's nod was quite serious. “Can't go lying to me the night before our wedding. I don't know a lot of your superstitions, but that's gotta be a bad way to start a marriage.”
“Figured as much,” Ianto groaned. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes as he recounted the tale. “Fourteen. Boy's name was Ryan. Murphy. Irish, but his family had just moved to Wales.” Ianto chanced opening one eye for a glance at Jack's expression. He was beaming.
“Red head? Freckles?”
Ianto shook his head. “Brunette. Green eyes. Pretty, and the accent was...” he flushed. “Not that I'm placing it above Welsh. But. Well.” He shrugged. “We were chatting about some girl after school one day at his house: can't even remember who. He had a dirty magazine and we were looking at it together on his bed. We both got hard, and, well...” he quirked an eyebrow at Jack, who was listening with avid interest. “We decided to lend each other a helping hand, as it were.”
Ianto found himself the recipient of a kiss as he finished his story. When they pulled apart, Ianto stroked a hand over Jack's chest, rubbing his thumb over Jack's nipple as he considered his question. He decided to start off easy. “Best shag you ever had.”
Jack's answer was immediate: “Besides you?”
“Of course. That's understood,” Ianto deadpanned. He was rewarded with Jack's hand kneading at his arse.
“Well...” Jack considered the question carefully, eyes drifting past Ianto to the wall behind him. “There was a girl in my Time Agency class. Brilliant, brave...” he paused, eyes going back to Ianto's as he winked. “Tentacles.” Ianto snorted, expecting that to be the end of it. But then Jack continued. “She was the first woman I ever loved.”
Ianto's inhalation was sharp and embarrassing. The second he breathed in he knew that he shouldn't have, that he shouldn't have acknowledged the shock of Jack's admission. But Jack was stroking his back slowly, reassuringly, and Ianto realized that he wasn't out of place to be surprised by it. Jack had told him this for a reason, after all. It was the night before their wedding.
He cleared his throat, not looking at Jack. “Your turn,” he suggested lightly.
Jack was quiet for long enough for Ianto's worries to begin afresh, but then he cleared his throat, whispering softly: “How'd you break your arm?”
Ianto winced. He should have known Jack had seen his complete medical records at some point or another in his years at Torchwood. Jack had probably seen him the day after their first meeting, when Jack had looked him up. But he had never asked about it until now. “Fell off a swing when I was a child.” Ianto tried to keep his tone casual, light. “Swung too high. Foolish.”
Jack's fingers twisted in Ianto's chest hair, tugging in gentle reproach. “If I talked to Rhiannon, would she say you thought differently?”
There was no getting around it. Jack must have already known: he just wanted Ianto to say it himself. “Tad pushed me too high. He wasn't very good at... nurturing.”
Jack's grip loosened in Ianto's chest hair, before he bent his head and pressed a kiss to where his had had just been. “Thank you,” Jack murmured into the skin and hair there. “And for the record, I'm pretty sure you sweat nurturing, you've got so much of it in you.”
Ianto flushed. Neither of them ever really talked about their families, and that was how Ianto preferred it. But it was no small wonder that Jack had picked up on his insecurities over his fatherly instincts over the past three years, and it was nice to hear the reassurance. “My turn, then,” Ianto rushed ahead. He paused, thinking for a moment. Jack's questioning had taken a turn for the more intimate, so Ianto thought it might be safe to follow suit. “What are your instructions on Grey's chryo?”
Jack's answer was almost instantaneous: “You could look it up yourself.”
Ianto's reply was even more so: “But I haven't.”
As Jack stayed silent, their intermingling breaths loud in the quiet of their bedroom, Ianto reached a hand up and stroked lightly down Jack's arm, feeling the firm skin and firmer muscles play beneath his finger pads. When Jack did eventually speak, his voice was no more than a whisper, and dull as a church bell. “In event of chryo failure, he is to be eliminated. Baring an event, he is to be kept for ten millenia, after which date he is to be eliminated. If I don't come and get him.” Jack's voice cracked on the last sentence.
Imitating Jack's earlier reassure to him, Ianto scooted forward and pressed a kiss to Jack's shoulder, lips lingering over the smooth skin there. “Thank you.”
Jack's final question was immediate, as if he were trying to get off the subject of himself and his sociopathic brother as quickly as possible. It was something else Ianto and Jack had in common: both never spoke about their pasts unless prompted. At least, never seriously. “When was the last time you visited your mom?”
Ianto's hand stopped cold over Jack's skin. For a moment he wasn't sure how to react. Did Jack know about his mam? About where she was? Maybe he was reading too much into Jack's question. Jack would know his mam was alive because there'd be no death certificate. He could assume Ianto was estranged from her the way he had been Rhiannon and the rest of the family. Maybe that was all Jack was asking about.
But Ianto knew. From Jack's tone of voice, he knew Jack knew where his mam was. What her state was.
Ianto tried to roll away from Jack, to pull away and shut his eyes against the question. This had been a stupid idea: asking each other questions about themselves. This was why they never talked about these kinds of maters; it could only lead to heartache and trouble.
But then Jack's arms were wrapping tight around him, tugging Ianto close to his chest and refusing to let him move. “Ianto. Ianto, come here. Come here.” Ianto let himself be pulled, closing his eyes as he pressed his face to Jack's neck. “You don't have to answer if you don't want to,” he continued. “Sorry. I shouldn't have asked.”
“No.” Ianto took a breath, steadying himself as he pulled away from Jack's neck so he could look him in the eyes. “No. I can...” Ianto stopped, pressing his lips tight together before he replied. “Four years ago. Just after the Night Travelers.”
Jack nodded. “I thought so. Tracked your car when you left that evening after we had closed the case. Figured you weren't going back to visit Christina.”
Ianto should probably be angry at the invasion of his privacy, but his lack of surprise made it hard to muster anger.
“Before that?”
Ianto frowned. That sounded suspiciously like two questions, but he let Jack get away with it. “Ten years. Before I left for London.”
“You never visited her when you came back?”
“I was busy.” It was a tense moment between the two of them when not even a mention of Lisa made the tension between them any thicker.
“You should-”
“No point,” Ianto interrupted Jack. “She's catatonic. I'd just be talking to myself for an hour. And with your listening skills, I get enough of that already.”
Jack sighed and stroked a hand through Ianto's hair, thumb drifting down to tease at his jawline. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, well,” Ianto shrugged. “My turn, then?” Ianto asked the question that had first risen to his mind when Jack had suggested this little game, but been too afraid to. But if Jack was going to ask about his mam and his broken arm, and didn't leave him in favor of a rooftop the moment Grey's name was mentioned, then Ianto thought that just maybe Jack would be able to answer it. “Will you go back to the Doctor?”
Jack's eyes went wide, then soft and sad. His hand gripped more tightly at Ianto's cheek. “Never. Ianto, I'm here with you and Gwil. I'd never leave you-”
“I don't mean now.” Ianto hadn't considered that Jack might take the question as a reflection of Ianto's leftover insecurities from the Year That Never Was (The Year That Ianto Couldn't Remember). He knew Jack wouldn't leave them again – at least, not permanently. He had already proven that when they were battling the daleks: Jack might run off to save the world with the Doctor, but he'd always come back. And sooner rather than later, so far as he could help it. “After I die. After Gwil dies. Some time in the future, after us humans have acclimated to aliens and Torchwood becomes just another part of British bureaucracy. Will you go with him again? Travel on the TARDIS and fight the good fight? Be a 'Companion' once more?”
To Ianto's surprise, Jack started shaking his head halfway through the question and didn't stop until the end. “No. I thought...” Jack paused, then shook his head again. “No. We're not right for each other anymore. The Doctor needs someone fresh and awestruck, someone to be amazed by the universe, and to call him out when his methods are too extreme, to put things in perspective for him. He and I...” Jack grinned weakly at Ianto in the dim light of their bedroom. “We're too much alike. We both need someone to balance us, and we can't be that for each other.”
Ianto let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He didn't know why the idea of Jack flying around with the Doctor after his and Gwil's deaths bothered him so much, but it did. Like Jack said: the Doctor wasn't right for Jack. Not anymore. And Ianto didn't want Jack getting hurt again – especially when he wasn't around to pick up the pieces.
“I'm sure we'll run into each other,” Jack continued, musing to himself as his fingers traced lines over Ianto's neck. “Maybe save the universe the odd time or two. But no: I'll never be one of his live-in companions again.”
Jack's fingers on Ianto's neck grew less absent and more teasing, slow smile spreading across his face as his eyes darted back and forth over Ianto's face. “That's three.” He grinned even more. “So: ready to shove two fingers in tradition's face and have some pre-marital sex?”
Ianto groaned, rolling away from Jack and onto his back. When Jack pouted and whined, nudging his face against Ianto's neck like a sad puppy, Ianto laughed and shucked the duvet off him. “Alright, Jack. Alright.” Yanking his pants off, Ianto spread his arms and legs out wide and nodded at his flaccid penis. “Get on.”
They both laughed as Jack pounced, grabbing for the lube and working Ianto up into full arousal with hands and mouth and tongue. Afterwards, when they were both sweaty and sated, wrapped up in each other's arms, Jack pressed a kiss to Ianto's hairline. Ianto kept his eyes closed as Jack whispered against his forehead, focusing on the feel of Jack's lips moving against his skin. “You know you can ask me anything. Anytime. Don't be afraid to.”
Curled up where he was in Jack's tight embrace, warm and fuzzy in the afterglow of his orgasm, Ianto could almost believe Jack's promise. “I'll keep it in mind.” With that, Ianto let himself drift to sleep, anxieties over tomorrow's ceremony temporarily put out of his mind.
Continue on to Chapter 2.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 11:30 pm (UTC)Indeed...
*shifty eyes*
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Date: 2011-05-16 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 08:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 11:08 am (UTC)Where did you go to in Britain? (I Live in Scotland just roughly 20 miles west of Glasgow)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 11:31 pm (UTC)Re Britain: EVERYWHERE. See my UK trip post to see everywhere I went ^.^
Yay
Date: 2011-05-16 11:44 am (UTC)Re: Yay
Date: 2011-05-16 11:32 pm (UTC)Glad you liked!
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 03:41 pm (UTC)I'm glad your travels went well and that you had a safe trip back.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 10:50 pm (UTC)Loved the new Gwil Update...the two needed some serious talk about themselves.
*hugs you for being back*:D
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 11:33 pm (UTC)The two boys are quite good with each other right now. It's the rest of the world/universe they've got to worry about... ~.^
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Date: 2011-05-17 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-17 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-17 08:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-17 12:30 pm (UTC)Glad you liked ^.^
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Date: 2011-05-18 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 05:51 pm (UTC)Edit: fucking LJ posting before I was done.
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Date: 2011-05-18 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 02:32 pm (UTC)and agree with the Doctor / Jack relationship assessment :D
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Date: 2011-06-05 05:24 pm (UTC)*coouugh*