Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood, Ianto or Jack. Alas they all belong to the BBC. Only the words below are mine.
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"You've been seen."
Ianto had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he struggled to maintain his polite, expressionless face while he was listening to his sister's excited voice telling him where he had dined with Jack. "I remember", he wanted to say, "I was there". But he stayed silent, with his heart trembling.
He had been so happy that night when they dined in the French restaurant. Jack had leaned close to make a suggestive comment in his low, sensual voice, and their knees had briefly touched. Ianto had gripped his wine glass tighter than was strictly necessary in order to keep his hands from trembling. Still, a crimson drop escaped from the glass as he tilted it to his lips. It stained his linen napkin bright red and Ianto looked at it for a long moment just to stop himself from getting lost deep within Jack's familiar eyes.
Jack had referred to them as 'us'. That had to mean something, right? But then, he had also said that he hated the word couple. Ianto had said he agreed, but what was he supposed to say? That he had never loved anything in his life as much as he loved Jack and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life by the captain's side. It was no use, Jack was too wild to be tied down by anything as mundane as an ordinary relationship. But Ianto could not help the tiny hope trembling within him.
At night, when they lay in each other's arms and Jack ran his hands gently over Ianto's warm skin, the younger man trembled all over. All he could manage were strangled pleas for more, although what he really wanted was to ask Jack never to leave him.
And now he was standing on a roof a building, surveying the wreckage that had been the Hub, the wreckage in which his lover was buried. Ianto's knees trembled as he prayed for any sign that Jack had survived the terrible explosion. Having been caught up in the blast himself and having later escaped with difficulty from the sniper trying to kill him had suddenly lost all meaning. His voice was hoarse and trembled as he whispered out what he had said to his sister only hours earlier:
"It's just him. It's only him."