Title: Jack's and Ianto's Private Archives – Season 2 - 21/28

Fandom: Torchwood

Part 4: About telepathy

POV: from Jack's point of view.

Characters/pairings: Jack/Ianto

Rating: PG-15

Summary: After the matter of trust evens, Jack and Ianto are having a little session.

Disclaimer: The usual, I don't own what you'll be able to recognize, the rest is all mine.

Beta: czarina_kitty

...

Jack admired the spectacle he was offered: his young lover still dressed in his three-piece suit, but frankly scruffy. Tie undone hanging apart from his neck. Jacket and vest unbuttoned and somewhat ruffled from their frolicking in the kitchen. The dark red shirt was revealing Ianto's slightly hairy chest. He didn't even bothered to loop his belt back, leaning against the doorway, hands in pockets, he was looking at Jack with mischievous eyes...

Tosh had left less than thirty minutes earlier. Jack had almost had to throw her out. It felt like not only Gwen was on honeymoon... since he and Ianto started to share a little of their respective secrets, they seemed impossible for them to go one minute without touching... It felt wonderful.

Jack didn't dare ask Ianto about his broken engagement. He wasn't supposed to know about it... and did it matter anymore? They were good together and that was the most important thing, right?

"What you'd say, we go home?" the young man said, deciding to restore order in his clothes.

"It'll be quicker to get down to my place," he offered in return.

"If this place wasn't haunted day and night by a zombie, I would agree, but that's not the case."

"He left."

"Yes, but for how long?"

"It didn't seem bother you back in the kitchenette?" Jack bantered.

"All the more reason not to tempt fate," Ianto replied.

As if to make his point, the cog door alarm announced the incoming doctor.

"All right, your place," Jack yelped grabbing his coat.

"Good night, Owen," they said in chorus passing the physician.

"Of course," he growled in response.

...

Jack really loved to contemplate how Ianto could let go during sex. Ianto always so composed, so measured... And of course, as he said, one of the rare advantages of empathy was to be able to feel your partner's pleasure on top of your own.

Jack was a little empathic, but so little that he needed to concentrate to feel something which he could not always define.

As for Ianto, it was the opposite: he needed a perpetual wealth of concentration to filter out what other people felt... and Jack didn't envy that fate ... but during sex, it must have been amazing.

They could have shared that using telepathy, but Ianto didn't seem to be very interested in learning to use that gift. Jack had tried to explain, but Ianto had dismissed it.

"My life is complicated enough. I don't need to play with that."

"Exactly, it could help..."

"I don't see how lowering my shields and allowing you to enter into my mind could help me. Especially when I can still see and feel the effects of the Master's interfering with your mind."

"That was mind rape, I'm not going to rape you."

"Still."

"During sex you lower your shields, right?"

"Yes, of course," Ianto agreed.

"I don't intend to rummage, or venture in to your mind," Jack pleaded. "Besides, I'm not crazy," he added. Especially given the way Ianto had received the Master when he had the bad idea to probe Ianto's mind about his feelings.

"He took revenge on you?" the young man asked concerned.

"I had just broken his brand new toy," Jack replied. He really needed to work on strengthen his defences back up. "Don't worry about me, Ianto. I regenerate, my mind is just a little slower than my body, but I will recover... I'm sorry; I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm okay, Jack. If everyone out there could control their emotions as much as you do right now, it would be great, believe me. And at least, this way, I know you're human."

"What ?"

"Well, at the beginning, I felt nothing from you... emotionally speaking. I confess I wondered a bit, because apart from Myfanwy..." Ianto explained with a small smile.

"What about Lisa?"

"She was hurting so much and so scared, it made it easier to bring myself believe it was obliterating any other feeling."

"You must have been through hell..."

"Drop it, and tell me about that telepathy of yours."

"Okay. Basically telepathy is a sensibility enabling people to communicate safely and silently. It can't convey words, but it's also an easier way to share a whole concept or feeling. Strong telepaths can also help their telepathic partners through a psychic fight."

"Yep, and how do you do that?"

"First we need to build a link. It means getting inside to connect our minds and opening a private line between us. Once that's done, you can choose to use it or not. As you don't know how it works, I will have to take the lead."

"And what about... privacy or piracy?" Ianto asked.

"No risk. That kind of line is of the most private, and I have never seen a psychic firewall such as yours," Jack replied.

"And how do we proceed?"

Jack sat on his heels, fired him one of his most encouraging smiles and explained.

"Come to sit in front of me," he said indicating the sheets between his thighs. "As close as possible."

Ianto positioned himself in front of Jack, sliding his knees between Jack's legs to be closer: that wasn't going to help with concentration... Even less so since they were both naked.

"What should I expect?" Ianto asked. He was really not feeling comfortable with this.

"Give me your hands, or rather take mine," Jack corrected. "Try to empty your mind, to relax, think of the beach, for example..."

"Yes, precisely. Wasn't that quite an intrusion?" Ianto said with a cringe.

"I beg your pardon?"

"The beach. Don't tell me you didn't place it in my head during the very early days, right after Lisa...?"

"I didn't force it on you, Ianto. You were exhausted, in a state of extreme stress. It was a mental caress, nothing more. I used the beach to calm myself and shared with you the plenitude of it. When you told me you could actually see the beach, I was really surprised. You appropriated it yourself, Ianto. I didn't put anything in your head."

"And right now, what do you intend to do?"

"I doubt you ever let me in," Jack replied with a sigh. "If you're not entirely cooperative I can't do anything."

"Why does it upset you so much?" Ianto asked.

Damn!

"I'm not upset. Well not like you make it sound. It's just... well, fixing a link is really intimate, more intimate than anything you can imagine, and you aren't ready... and that's a game, you cannot cheat at..."Jack replied.

He gently dragged the young man closer to take his lips... one kiss called another one. Their hands dropped to wander, each exploring the body of the other. Gradually Ianto dropped his defences while Jack was surrendering in his arms. They made love once again, like the two soul hungry for affection they were, although neither of them was really ready to admit it.

Jack let go of all mental barriers, leaving his mind floating, dancing, and radiating his blessedness. If Ianto had endorsed the beach, he should be able to join him there, on the edge of his consciousness...

They remained like this for a long time brushing timidly, secretly, mentally...

Then Ianto let go enough to allow Jack to wrap him with his affection as he coiled up against him. That's how, for the first time, they fell asleep together on a sandy beach at the other end of the universe...

It was just a first step, but it was so good...

End of that episode.

More to come.