Authors Note: A thank you gift for ET05
In The Still of the Night
Ianto Jones leans over the kitchen counter, slowly dragging the dishcloth across the surface.
He is tired with a bone-deep exhaustion caused by too many late nights chasing too many Weevils and other vicious aliens. Ianto knows he should go home, to make the most of this early night- only at Torchwood does 9pm classify as an early night- by crawling into his nice warm bed and trying to get more than five hours sleep for the first time in far too long.
Large, gentle hands landing on his shoulders and starting to rub away aches Ianto has only just noticed causes him to jump. It is another sign of just how exhausted he is that Jack's soft footsteps as he entered the kitchen went unheard. Ianto leans into Jack's touch, abandoning the dishcloth on the bench.
"Long day?" Jack whispers softly in his ear, moving one hand up to rub the back of Ianto's neck.
"Long week," Ianto sighs, resting his head on Jack's shoulder.
It had been a long week. A combination of Tosh gaining a nasty head cold, Gwen leaving for her honeymoon and Jack still being over-cautious with sending Owen out into the field meant that most of the work outside the Hub had fallen to Jack and Ianto. Not that Ianto will ever forgo the opportunity for time alone with Jack- even if that time is spent purely doing work- but just once this week he would have liked to sit back and finish his coffee in peace without something interrupting.
"We should get you home," Jack tells Ianto, dropping his arms so they wrap loosely around Ianto's waist and pressing a kiss to the side of his neck. Ianto mumbles a sound in agreement but neither of them makes a move to leave the kitchen.
"Come on," Jack says after a few minutes of companionable silence, worried that Ianto will literally fall asleep on his feet if they don't move soon.
Jack leads them both to Ianto's car, keeping a hand on Ianto's back as they walk and fishing Ianto's car keys out of his jacket pocket when they pass through the Tourist Information Centre.
They don't speak as Jack drives them to Ianto's flat. Ianto isn't sure when he closed his eyes, but the wind on his face from the slightly open window and Jack humming softly to the low music drifting from the radio combine to make the temptation too hard to resist.
It is Jack's hand on his knee, squeezing gently, that wakes Ianto from his doze. He hadn't been sleeping but resting in that small window where daydreams start to bleed into proper dreams if given the opportunity.
It was an advert on the radio that triggered the daydream- the one about all the new shops that are opening in the Capitol Shopping Centre now that they have finished all the redevelopment work. It was one of his more sedate daydreams- not that he doesn't have more erotic fantasies, he is dating Jack Harkness- but the memory of himself and Jack, curling up on his large, soft settee watching Sunday morning television never fails to warm him up inside, even on the longest of cold, dark nights.
Jack's small smile, not his big, flashy grin but the one he saves for Ianto alone, brakes through the last of Ianto's mental fog. No matter how vivid and detailed his memories and fantasies are they never do justice to the beauty that is Jack Harkness. They never quite capture that aura of mystery and power that lures Ianto to Jack, just as a moth is drawn to a flame, or the way his heart always stutters when Jack smiles at him or leans closer to press his lips to Ianto's for the gentlest of kisses.
Jack is leaning forward now, to gift Ianto with one of those kisses that he will never tire of, before jumping out of the car. Ianto has barely undone his seat belt before the passenger door is open and Jack is offering him a hand out. Ianto takes it and doesn't protest when Jack keeps hold of it, leading him through the front door of the building and into the lift, pressing the button to take them to Ianto's eighth-floor apartment.
Ianto leans against Jack gratefully as they wait for the lift to reach the correct floor, his head on Jack's shoulder and one of Jack's arms warm and heavy around his waist. The peak in energy he had received from the cool wind in his face when he had stepped from his car has vanished as suddenly as it had arrived.
Eventually, the lift pings and the doors slide open to reveal six almost identical doors. Jack leads them to the one furthest away from the lift, pulling his own keys from his pocket and letting them into the dark, silent flat. Jack stops only to pick up the post- one letter from the gas company and two flyers for a new Chinese take-away that has opened over the road- and places them onto the table, before steering Ianto into the bedroom, his hand once again on Ianto's back.
Ianto tries to protest when Jack starts undressing him, but Jack silences him by, once again, pressing his lips to Ianto's.
"Let me," Jack says against Ianto's lips, his fingers lightly dancing over Ianto's shirt buttons, having already removed Ianto's tie. Ianto has never been good at saying no to Jack and, if he's being honest, he doesn't want to. He spends all of his working hours taking care of the others and it's nice to have somebody take care of him for once.
It's nice to have somebody want to take care of him.
Ianto realises he has once again become distracted by his own thoughts when Jack kisses his forehead before encouraging him to lie down and to get under the covers. Ianto can't remember the last time he was so happy to be going to bed and doing nothing but sleep.
With a sigh of contentment, Ianto lowers himself onto the bed and under the thick quilt. For just a few seconds, Ianto thinks he may have found Utopia in the shape of soft pillows and a warm quilt.
Several minutes later, when Jack has swiftly removed his own clothes and crawled into bed himself, repositioning Ianto so that his head is resting on Jack's shoulder and he has one arm wrapped around Jack's stomach, Ianto rethinks his decision.
He knows he has found it.
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