Title: Hand in Hand
Author: datadoesntlie
Characters / Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Word count: 566
Rating: PG-13 for a few uses of the word sex?
Warnings / Notes: None? Takes place in series two I guess. Based off of a certain song.
Summary: Ianto gets distracted on a mission. Jack doesn't notice, but manages to do the right thing anyway.
"It's a nice night." Ianto looked up at the sky, just beginning to get dark. An early fall breeze blew through the trees lining the street around them.
"Yeah...nights like these." Jack didn't finish his thought, smiling up at the sky. Ianto knew he was probably thinking of some old memory. Maybe of someone else, someone he had once taken out on a night like this.
"A good night for a date, I suppose." Ianto ventured, looking at him.
"Could be, yeah." Jack's expression didn't change; he didn't look back at Ianto.
Ianto's heart sank at the implicit rejection. "If, you know, we weren't on the look out for an alien and all." He backtracked quickly, almost stumbling over the words, trying to hide his disappointment.
"Yeah."
Ianto sighed. It really was a perfect evening. There were couples everywhere. He couldn't help but watch some of them, hand in hand or arm in arm as they moved towards their destination, smiling and laughing. It was nice, and beautiful to watch, but a reminder of what he would never have. A real relationship, based on love and happiness and forever, not just sex and work and for now. He looked at Jack and sighed again. Jack didn't want any of that. Ianto had heard Jack's stories, about falling in love deeply only to have the other torn from him by death. There were so many; Ianto heard the sorrow in Jack's voice when talking about the past, and knew, he just knew, that Jack didn't want the same thing again. He didn't want to get so involved that he couldn't back out, so he just stuck with shameless flirting and amazing sex. And it wasn't like Ianto minded the flirting. (Or the sex.)
But it would be nice, sometimes, to just...be a couple. To go on a date. A real date, not Weevil hunting or searching for alien artifacts together. (No matter how much Jack insisted, doing it in the back of the SUV did not count as a date.)
He snapped out of his thoughts, suddenly realizing he had fallen behind. It seemed like Jack hadn't noticed either, continuing on a few paces ahead. Ianto hurried to catch up.
It wasn't Jack's fault. Really, it was Ianto's, if anything. He stuck with Jack, even after Jack left them for a year. Even when Jack put distance between them, kept secrets and hid things, Ianto still stayed by his side, because he didn't know what else he could do. He had nowhere else to go. It was a hopeless love. Rationally, he knew that, and it hurt, but part of him still hoped that maybe, just maybe...
They stopped at a crosswalk, and Jack craned his neck, trying to see through the crowd. Ianto looked at the other side, scanning for the familiar shape of the alien. Nothing.
And then something blew past them, knocking Ianto over. Jack turned around. "Got him!" He whipped his Webley out, taking a shot. But before he chased after the blowfish, he held a hand down to Ianto. Ianto took it, letting himself be pulled up. Jack didn't let go. "Come on!"
As they raced through the crowd, linked together, Ianto smiled. Okay, so it wasn't a proper date. But running hand-in-hand, chasing after an alien together on a beautiful fall evening? It was probably the closest Torchwood ever got. And he'd take it.