Ianto stared at the calendar. It hung in the kitchen, where it was seldom consulted, but he couldn't help but stare at it that morning.
He felt as Jack walked up behind him and snaked his hands around Ianto's waist, leaning his chin on Ianto's shoulder. Ianto smiled softly at his presence, turning his head slightly to rest it against Jack's.
He still looked at the calendar as he sighed. He didn't need it to tell him the date; especially not this date. "I never thought I'd make it to forty."
"Neither did I," Jack murmured.
Ianto snorted slightly. "You're in your nineties. Hundred-nineties, to be precise."
"I stopped aging when I died."
"You stopped growing old." Ianto paused and looked at the calendar again. There it all was, really: their entire lives laid out on several sheets of paper, neatly marked and gridlined. Funny to think how much could happen in so little time.
He turned back to Jack' they were now face to face, and Jack's hands were still on Ianto's waist.
"I was thirty-nine when I died," Jack said. "I haven't aged since."
Until several months ago.
There was greying hair on Jack's temples now, matching the hair on Ianto's. Wrinkle lines—laugh lines, mostly—had begun to take up residence around his mouth and eyes.
It was one of the lines near his mouth that Ianto kissed now, lifting his hands to frame Jack's face.
They had been on the Plass several months ago, just about to descend into the Hub on the invisible lift, when Jack had torn his head away from checking Ianto out. That already was a rare occurrence, but rare still was the view of the TARDIS, clumsily landed in front of the water tower.
They hadn't needed words to decide to investigate.
They didn't need words now, either, and Ianto closed his eyes as he pressed closer to Jack.
"Happy birthday," Jack whispered against his lips. Ianto felt him grin into the kiss, too, and grinned himself.
He'd get many more kisses like this: that day, and the next, and the next, and a year later, on his forty-first birthday.
Ianto grinned again as he pinned Jack to the wall; the calendar was just to their right, now. He couldn't help but smile when he was in Jack's company, and now, when they were unashamedly all over each other, he couldn't help but smile even more, knowing that they had each other in nonromantic moments as well: when they were running errands, or working, or even—though they hardly ever did anymore—going out into the field searching for an artifact or preventing an alien invasion.
"No breakfast, then?" Jack murmured, breaking himself away from where he was kissing Ianto's neck.
They laughed breathlessly. Now was not the time for breakfast.
.oOo.
"Is it time to look?" Ianto asked as the smoke around the TARDIS dissipated.
Jack just nodded.
"What do you think happened?" Ianto asked as they approached, but Jack didn't answer with anything but a shrug.
The bottom of the front end of the TARDIS was buried in the Plass, rubble from the broken pavement all around it, and one of the doors was hanging open. From inside, they could hear a woman's frustrated mutters.
It was Jack who led the way into the TARDIS, and Jack whose first words were cut off by a cheerful "Hello!"
The Doctor looked no different than she usually did, albeit a bit frazzled, but there was no mistaking the defeat in her voice as she said, "I think I've burned her up."
"You can fix it, though, right? We might be able to give you some materials if you need—" Jack's words were cut off by a loud bang.
"That's the auxiliary systems." The Doctor sighed. "It's going. I don't know how much power there still is." She lovingly ran a hand along the floor. "We took a nasty hit from some Daleks as we flew through the Vortex. Knocked us clean out of it. I've done my best bringing her here—to fuel from the Rift, you know—but she simply doesn't have the power to take in the energy."
Ianto looked from her to Jack. He could see that Jack wanted to ask something, to offer help—he did, too, but he didn't know how to. He opened his mouth to say something anyway, not yet knowing what, but Jack was first.
"Use me."
Ianto had nothing to say to that—he was already taking in so much, seeing the Doctor preparing to say goodbye to the TARDIS; and Jack's offer rendered him speechless.
The Doctor, however, regained composure quickly, and let loose a tirade. Ianto missed most of it as the ramifications of what Jack was offering—to sacrifice the Vortex energy inside of him to save the TARDIS—hit him.
.oOo.
Ianto lazily kissed the grey hair above Jack's ear. Jack hummed at that, and Ianto felt him press a kiss to his chin. Domestic, cozy kisses—ones Ianto valued more than the wild and passionate ones they'd exchanged earlier. He kissed Jack's hair again, and Jack's temple; his forehead, then the angry scar on his hairline from when he'd fallen against the TARDIS console, having been overwhelmed by the small TARDIS engine taking his Vortex energy into the ship.
Ianto kissed the small laugh lines in the corner of Jack's eye, laugh lines that had started to appear after the Doctor had left, her TARDIS healed by taking in enough of Jack's energy to be able to independently access the Vortex itself.
Jack's recent aging, simultaneous to his own, was real. As real as Ianto's aging; he was now, physically, just months older.
Ianto held Jack closer. They were so close now, both physically and emotionally, and Ianto thought back to the calendar. So much had aligned to bring them here. So much had happened, and, in the larger scheme of things, it all meant nothing: just days and happenings, big for them, but all contributing to the larger flow of time, which they were part of.
He titled his head to kiss the soft skin on Jack's neck, right below his ear. Jack snaked an arm up Ianto's chest. Ianto leaned in to kiss his fingers. "Breakfast?"
"Something even better tasting than you?" Jack leaned up on his arms, positioning himself above Ianto. "I doubt that's possible." His face softened as he leaned down for a gentle kiss. "But I'd love to try."
Just something fluffy in honor of the ten-year anniversary of To the Last Man (and one of my favorite Janto moments - you know the one :P). Thanks for reading!