Author's Note: I was working on this as a sort of side project that I intended to post after I was done with the 'Forgotten' fic. But then it came to my attention that Ianto has been killed off the show. So here it is, my sorta tribute to Janto. My friends are looking at me funny because I just started wailing after a friend from the UK emailed me and told me about what had transpired in the last episode of Children of Earth. You can say this was how I wished to see it end, but you can never have your cake and eat it too, right?

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. If I did, those horrible horrible events would've never happened. No. They belong to BBC and Russell T Davies who, albeit is a brilliant made of awesome-ness man, is going to be bombarded with tones of angry Janto fangirl mail.

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~"Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you."~

It was warm. It was very warm. Slowly opening his sleep crusted eyes, the first thing that came into his vision were the white curtains billowing in the warm breeze from the opened window. 'What time is it?' He wondered. Reaching over, he groped around till his hand came into contact with the cold metallic surface of his alarm clock.

It read 7.45.

7.45????!!!

God! If he didn't kill Jack Bloody Dashing Harkness, he was a saint. A sinless, holy standing-on-poofy-clouds, halo wearing, holier-than-thou saint. He, Ianto Jones, would've been a pope. It was his day off, but he was still going to kill the American. And smirking, he thought darkly, 'Probably more than once.'

Gathering whatever sheets he could, he slid off the bed whilst wincing at the suddenly burning sensation at his backside. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how that came about. The bout of love making last night had been amazing as usual. Nothing to complain about in the dabbling done there. At first he didn't notice it, but when he stepped outside of the room, he saw that his apartment was void of any other life forms save for himself. Jack was gone again. As usual. Ianto couldn't help the tinge of annoyance that crept into his features and furrowed his brow. As of late, Jack had been doing more and more of that-leaving without telling him, never staying the night anymore, and of course being the 'understanding' boyfriend that he was, Ianto uttered not a word.

"Just wish he'd say something though." He whispered glumly into the silence of the morning. Looking around, he saw that in their throes of passion, they'd managed to upturn the pot of lily Rhiannon had given to him in the corner, upsetted the magazine rack, crumpled the rug and thrown almost all the pillows formerly residing on the sofa onto the floor and beyond. It looked like a small tornado had just whirled through and left the mess in its wake. Sighing defeatedly, he muttered, "Might as well."

An hour later saw him standing in an almost immaculate apartment. Some of the stains (he seriously didn't want to know) on odd areas of the wall were like hell to remove. Ianto made a mental note for new wallpapers. The lily had been rescued, which probably was a good thing because Rhiannon would give him hell if it died. After slipping the last of the magazines into the pockets, he found that he was actually hungry. A search through his pantry confirmed him of his need to do some grocery shopping for himself, instead of the Hub which needed a constant stream of food. The scour through the refrigerator had yielded the ever dubious contents of a Tupperware container.

His stove still worked. That, at least was some small miracle. Plonking into the pan some of the almost-due spam, he whistled a tune he thought he'd heard once. Ianto was beginning to think that today won't be so bad after all when there came the sound of his doorknob being rattled. "Funny. I don't think I was expecting anyone." He turned off the stove and shouted, "Coming!"

And there he was in all his glory. The man he was so adamant about slaughtering earlier on, stood there with gloriously messed up hair and a megawatt smile moulded perfectly onto his slightly freckled features. Giving him an appraising once over, his smirk grew wider as he crossed the threshold to plant a smouldering kiss on the Welshmen's lips before he could even whimper. Pulling apart, he casually breezed past into the apartment.

"What's cooking?"

Pursing his lips so tightly, it was a miracle that he even got the word out, "Spam." 'And you're not having any!' He wanted to add.

"Ooo! Delish! Can I have some? Coffee too?" The Torchwood leader asked, full of childish enthusiasm. Ianto shrugged in reply and proceeded to prepare the things that he'd asked of him. "Yan?" He said after a little pause.

"Hrmm?" The cook was concentrating on flipping the slice of meat.

"Here." That simple statement caught his attention. Looking over, he saw that Jack had paced a red velvet box on the counter top. Placing the plate of meat in front of his boss/lover, he picked it up gingerly in his hand. Jack was practically beaming as he opened the box slowly. It was a ring. It sat snugly between dark red cushions. It was simply designed white gold band with two streaks of red paralleling each other on the surface. Turning it over, Ianto caught a glimpse of a diamond on the underbelly of the ring.

"It's what you mean to me. That diamond." He couldn't help but turn away in slight embarrassment at those words. He knows exactly what he means to Jack Harkness.

"What is it for anyways? You know perfectly well that I don't do accessories."

The head of Torchwood Three smiled and said in a low voice, "But you'll wear it if I asked you to, right?"

The younger man couldn't stop the smile that crept across his features when blue eyes met his and glinted as he picked it out of its bed and slipped it onto his left ring finger. "You could've just given me a Claddagh, you know? Then I can alternate the meaning of my ring on the whim of my moods." He caught a sight of Jack smirking. "What? It's true. You infuriate me."

"Really?"

"Really. Infuriating Jack. That's exactly what you are."

Suddenly, the immortal grabbed him in for a kiss. This was unlike the kiss they'd shared earlier on. While the first kiss had been driven by sight, this one was a slow dance that was all too familiar. "If I'm infuriating, then you're exciting." Ianto only smiled as they laid their foreheads together. It was moments like these, moments where Jack showed a side that the others will never get to see. In these moments when it was all about him and Jack and all that transpired between them.

'Say it! Say it! You can say it!'

'No... I can't.' The voice in him burst out as Jack took him in for another languishing kiss.

'You have to! You do feel the same right? Then say it!!'

"J-Jack, I..." He gasped when they broke apart for air. "I-I..."

A puzzled look dawned upon the Captain. "What? Is there something wrong?" Running his hand through Ianto's hair, he smiled softly. "Tell me."

'I'm sorry. I can't. I'm so sorry.'

Reciprocating the smile, he stroked his cheek, "No. It's nothing." Intertwining his hand in Jack's, the last thought Ianto had for a while was that whatever he wanted to say could wait for tomorrow.

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J: The quote was something I picked up off the net. If anyone knows whose is it, please let me know. The original one that I've written was my usual tragedy angst stuff. I'm veering in a different direction for this one with only a smatter of tragedy on this one. Was okay? Clicky the button below to let me know. Remember; Write a review, feed a plot bunny.