Blue eyes locked on the brown for a split second before they crushed their lips together, a soft moan escaping the woman's mouth as teeth poked out to grasp at her bottom lip. The group in the hub stared at them, blinking several times and then all three heads whip around to where the tall Welshman is standing with a tray of coffee cups. He smiles at them then turns back to the groping couple at the door, tilting his head slightly before setting the tray down near a work station.
An Asian woman places her hand on his shoulder where the vest meets his white shirt, "Ianto," she begins but he cuts her off with a hand over the top of hers, giving it a reassuring pat.
"It's fine." He whispers and the other occupants know it's more to himself than to them.
The dark headed woman clears her throat roughly, "Jack, if you're quite done," there's an edge to her voice that makes the others cringe, they've all been on the receiving end of that voice and it's not pretty.
The man that was sucking the air from the woman smiles and pulls away, ghosting a hand over her chest before letting it rest on her backside, "I'll see Miss Durham to her car now."
The man wearing a medics coat nearly growled, "don't you mean you'll shag her in her car now."
"I won't object to a little backseat sex." Jack's blue eyes sparkled at the woman, not even sparing a glance back at his team as the door rolled shut.
"That good for nothing jackass. That's what he is!" Gwen heaved as soon as he was gone, "that'll be his new nickname, Jackass, it fits if you ask me."
Ianto smirked and offered her a cup, "you'll most likely need this to make it through the night."
"Ianto," she gave him a sad look, "I'm sorry that he-"
"Doesn't matter," he shook his head, "he's Jack."
"But - aren't you two…" Tosh left her sentence unfinished but gestured with her hands and they all looked at her blinking.
He smiled brightly, his usual welcoming look, "I am an employee of torchwood. I make coffee. I've done my part," he pressed a cup to her palm, "now, I believe Jack would want you to do yours."
"The hell if I'm going to do what he wants." Owen piped up, crossing his arms and refusing the cup that the Welshman offered him, "I don't care if you're just his part time shag or not, that was just rude! I'm not normally the one to take the moral high ground here but -"
"Owen," Gwen's voice was low and her eyes clearly pleaded with him to shut up.
It was then that he glanced up at the man to see his normal smile sliding to a frown and his bright eyes dim and half closed as he looked down at the cup in his hands. "Hey, mate, I didn't mean to -"
Ianto took a deep breath and his mask was back in place, "your coffee." He offered and this time, the man took it into his hands with a sad nod. "Now, if you all will excuse me, I've had enough of being the topic of conversation and there's a vermin problem I must address."
Three hours later, Gwen found Ianto in the archives, storing away some paperwork and she patted him on the shoulder, "how you keeping up?"
"Well, the last week's been rather hectic and being out on more field missions limited the time I've had to document things. I'm a little behind but nothing a missed night of sleep won't fix." He smiled and she knew it was fake.
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
He smiled again and it made Gwen sick to see it, so many times he had given her that smile and yet only now was she seeing through it, "It doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. Jack must be rubbing off on me." He let out a low chuckle but it sounded bitter.
"It's ok to be hurt," she whispered softly, "and angry."
"It's not the first time, you know," he turned back to his filing, cursing at the sudden loss of concentration before going through a long list he kept in his mind, "it happens more often than any of you know. Days where he just gets an itch and then I get a rest." He smiled at her again and Gwen noted that she was becoming slightly irritated by it. "I told you all before," this time his blue eyes glared at a camera in the corner of the archives, "I'm fine."
But they all, Ianto included, knew he wasn't fine. He had felt the twinge of pain stab his heart, even though he knew Jack would say "it's just sex" but it wasn't just that to the Welshman, and often, it was exactly just that to Jack. And they both knew it. It was naïve for him to think that for a mere few seconds Jack even pondered the deep love that Ianto had for him. Jack had lived too many years to deny love from anyone; his partner didn't want to hear the word love fall from perfect lips, because then it lumped him in a category with everyone else. All the past loves, all the past hopes, all the future mates… but he didn't want to be a fleeting emotion.
He sighed, and pushed the box of papers back into its spot, "I'm going shopping for some mouse traps, would you like anything while I'm out?" She shook her head, watching as he smiled and retreated from the room.
