I felt like writing, but not quite ready to post the next chapter of WtEMs yet, so here's another Torchwood oneshot for ya. Decided to try a little one-sided thing for the first time. Might do Jack's perspective on this whole thing too, if you'd like. Just let me know. Well. I hope you enjoy.
Ianto Jones just stood there like a deer caught in the bloody headlights as he watched one Captain Jack Harkness snog one married Gwen Cooper. His heart fell into his stomach as soon as he opened the door to Jack's office and saw the two of them. They didn't even have the decency to pull apart, even though Ianto was more than sure he made a pretty loud entrance. They just kept going at it and Gwen kept making those sickening sounds. Ianto Jones felt like crying.
Not even a manly type of crying. More like a little girl whose doll's head got flattened as her drunken father ran over it with the family pick up truck.
It took a good couple of seconds and one loud grunt on Jack's part to knock Ianto from his stupor. And it took only 3.4 seconds after he regained his senses to slam the door behind him and swiftly exit the Torchwood base and hit the road. Ianto felt stupid. Oh god, did he feel stupid. He had actually thought that he and Jack—Had thought that they might—Fuck, what did it matter what he had thought? It was obviously wrong. He was just the easy screw.
God damn it! What did Jack even see in her anyways? She was whiney and didn't listen. And frankly, the gap between her two front teeth was way beyond subtle. So why would he do that? Dry hump a married woman in the very same office that he had made love to him? Well, I guess Jack just thought of it as fucking, sense you had to have some sort of feelings for it to be making love.
Maybe Jack Harkness didn't have feelings. Maybe all he had was this big, gapping, sucking black hole in his chest that just sucked people dry and left them to be soulless husks after he was done with them. Maybe that's what Jack considered fun.
Ianto Jones couldn't drive anymore. The tears in his eyes were blurring his vision so badly that he didn't even know where he was anymore. Oh god, why did he have to be so stupid? What did he do to deserve this? He went to church, he paid his god damn taxes. He even saved the world nearly every bloody day! So why? Why did he hurt so much? Why did he let stupid Jack Harkness suck his heart dry and leave him for dead?
Because Ianto Jones knew people. It was his talent. He could take one look at someone and determine in that exact moment the type of person they were.
The moment he laid eyes on Owen Harper, he knew that guy was a complete arse hole. It was that smug smile and gleam in his eye. He knew Toshiko Sato was absolutely brilliant, but didn't realize it herself. It was the way she could hardly hold your eye contact, and would mumble strings of information under her breath when you needed it. He knew that Gwen Cooper was a caring whore, she'd care about everyone, and because of that could never be grateful for what she had. And Jack Harkness…
One look into Jack Harkness's eyes, and Ianto Jones knew the universe. As strange as that sounds, it was they only way that he could descrive it. Jack knew almost all the answers, knew what to do. He knew what the future held, how people acted. But he didn't seem to know the important answers. And that haunted him.
Jack Harkness was a one man for every one type of guy, and Ianto figured that he was because he had to be. For a man to know so much, to live for so long, it was impossible to settle down. Because as soon as you became settled, it got ripped up from beneath you. People betray you or die, they leave you in the end and you're left to pick up the pieces until you yourself leave this earth. Except if you're Jack. Jack can't die. And he's left to pick up the pieces for all eternity.
That doesn't take away Ianto's tears, though. It never will. Because Ianto Jone's isn't immortal, he hasn't seen the universe. He's seen maybe a 6th of the world, been loved once in the 8th grade by the creepy girl that sat in the back of the classroom eating her hair, and went his Prom by himself. He hasn't seen worlds burn, but he has seen hundreds of people die. And he has loved. Just once. Now. To that stupid heroic Captain Jack Harkness. And he will continue to love him because Ianto Jones knows his part in the Torchwood base.
He makes coffee, drives the van, cleans up, and lets Jack Harkness forget the horribleness of the universe for at least a couple of hours.
And as he sat there, sniffling like a baby in his little car, Ianto Jones realized something. He realized that he was okay with that. Because that made him important to Jack. Ianto knew Jack would always sleep or kiss someone else, move on once Ianto passed away, and maybe they'd love him too. But they could never love the Dear Captain like Ianto did. Because his love didn't come from how long that stopwatch kept running in the middle of the night, or how long he was kept moaning. It came from Jack himself.
His handsomeness. His humor. His smile, his laugh, his eyes, his everything. Every little thing that made up Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones loved with all his heart. Would always love for as long as his Torchwood shortened life would allow him to live.
So as Ianto Jones started his car and headed back towards base, he decided that Jack could kiss Gwen all he wanted. Because Gwen with her gapped teeth could never be as perfect as he himself could be. With his perfect teeth and strong yet comfortable body and neatly pressed suits. Because Gwen was just a conquest. Jack may never kiss her again. But Ianto was muck more than that, and he knew it. Because Jack kept coming back to him.
Ianto Jones strolled into the Torchwood hub like he didn't see what he had last time he was in here. Didn't let the nervous glances that Gwen shot him bug him as he made his way to Jack's office. Ignored the surprised look on Jack's face as he stood in the door way, and just smiled.
"Would you like some coffee, Sir?"