Spoilers for Day Two of "Children of Earth"
Notes: Written because I saw Ianto in the tractor and my heart gave a pathetic jump and I made myself cry.
Saving Jack fills you with an indescribable warmth that radiates from your toes and makes you blush and trip over your tongue, makes you feel like you've saved the whole world.
But you know what saving the world feels like, and that feeling has nothing on the pleasure from saving Jack.
(You think this knowledge should make you roll your eyes and say something cutting about yourself. You don't care.).
Because, for once, you were the one to save him from pain (an atonement for everything you've done), you're the one who watched and waited and strategised, you're the one who realized what had to be done and was able to do it (though the action settled like lead in your stomach and an involuntary cry was ripped from your throat as the cement cell fell). For a few minutes, you're the hero.
When you reach the bottom of the gorge (heart hammer-hard as it thumps beneath your ribs) you see him rise like a naked, unabashed, exhibitionist of a fallen angel through a haze of pride and relief and love.
You only let the first two emotions show in your eyes (the blush speaks for the third, but you refuse to be the one to mention it), though. You've learned that much.
His kiss tastes of dust and blood and you bask in it, pathetic and needy and trapped in the fog of relief and power. His hands cup your face and his thumbs slide across your cheekbones and it is almost, almost enough.