A/N: we get to see from which point Mark 7 came from
Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian
Mark 7 had an itch he had to scratch. It was uncomfortable really, how aroused he got just by watching Jack's back, but that's how it all began, with his back. He hurried his cabin hoping his erection would drop down on its own but it only got worse as his mind evoked pictures of a naked laughing Jack. He had many of those in his head and it was hard to believe they weren't his own, but from a stranger, his original.
Maybe that thought made them new and forbidden. To think that his body was never actually touched by Jack, that he never did any of those things. It was somehow easy to believe that when he thought about it. He felt himself as a shy, withdrawn person, how could he ever be so bold. But his original was bold, he could remember the boldness Jack provoked in him. He was never bold before he met Jack. But with Jack he was in charge, like he knew what's best, what is needed, what Jack needs.
He was focused there. His original was focused there, beside Jack in the middle of Torchwood. Jack needed him and he had his purpose. But here, stranded on this ship beside an older Jack that moved on, that didn't need him anymore, that was annoyed by him, he felt stranded. What should he do? Where should he go? How to get away from Jack and all the stimulation that he brought with him. Because for his body it wasn't important that he was fake, his body yearned for Jack. His heart too. He stopped confronting his feelings. That was the problem. His heart.
Jack was hurt, he was troubled, he was alone, he was conflicted, and he was sad. All that was too clear to Mark 7. He couldn't understand how Mark 2 could be so self-absorbed to miss that, to deepen his pain. It must have been hell for him to watch all the Iantos suffer. He hated suffering. It was one thing about Jack Ianto could always understand. No matter how harsh and closed up his face would become Ianto knew that behind that he suffered with those around him, that he doubted and cried.
Mark 7 knew that too. In the first shock of re-encountering Jack, older than he could think of him as, harsh and cold, but that was quickly washed away leaving the same old Jack. Lonely and sad. Mark 7 shuddered and his erection jumped.
That was his problem. Comforting Jack always came entangled with sex. Sex was the only way Jack could take consolation effortlessly, without a word. That's why for Ianto, and therefore Mark 7 too, comforting Jack became a sexual thing.
That was the problem for other the Mark's too. That kind of consolation was taken from them, they couldn't even touch him. Mark 7 couldn't even touch him, he couldn't just invite him to press him against the wall.
Thinking of Jack pressing him against a wall made his knees weaken. Why was he so weak? Maybe because it was a Flesh thing, was he a virgin now? Or it was because for him the Hub blew up moments before. It was still fresh in his mind, leaving Jack behind to be torn to pieces. Jack in a body bag. Jack in a concrete block. Himself pausing before throwing Jack of the cliff. It was the only way to save him. The anxiety of sitting beside him in the back of the car, not touching him, giving him room to recover, to remember his own name. Standing beside him while he looked hollowly in the distance.
And that day started by fishing about two of them being a couple, and Jack's face breaking before he left Ianto standing, watching at his back. Always his back as he moves away from conversations, from confessions. Ianto standing there silently taking it all in because it was the price of being with Jack.
Mark 7 knew now that it wasn't him standing there, but it was so close he could smell Jack's coat, he could hear the crack in his voice that broke Ianto's heart a bit. A crack that told him they were a couple, but that it didn't bring joy to Jack, but pain and fear.
He could feel the trepidation of the aliens they couldn't beat. The anticipation of Jack's sudden solution. But he never made it to that. He was here before that happened. But it did happen, they did win. Jack was there, wasn't he?
Maybe he could ask Jack what happened, how it ended, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know. It was so desperate, the aliens were so strong. Maybe he didn't want to know what the price of wining was. Because there always was a price, he knew that well. Owen and Toshiko were still missed. Mark 7 wondered if Jack missed them still and how old was he now, how much time passed for him since he… since Ianto died.
Mark 7 stopped in his tracks. Ianto died. He had to. Jack would say if he was here around somewhere.
Mark 7 closed his eyes feeling the pain in that revelation. Ianto died. Jack lived. As they knew he would. He felt dizziness thinking about it so he sat down on the bed. Or he tried to. That damn bed was so high he had to climb up not sit down. When he settled on it he felt like a child. His feet didn't reach the ground. What kind of silly beds were these? Or did they gave him a cabin with a fault. It wouldn't be surprising if they did. Trianca seemed to have that kind of humor.
Looking down at his feet he felt better. He wasn't the real Ianto, the real Ianto dealt with that crisis and those after it, he dealt with Jack and his attitude towards couples. All that wasn't Mark 7's concern, and it seemed like a distant memory to Jack. Who knew how much of it he remembered. He once said to Ianto that he tried to remember them all, but Ianto even then knew that he failed most of the time. His time was too vast to remember it all. Maybe he forgot those little things that were so fresh for Mark 7.
He wondered if the other Mark's came from the same spot he did, or did they have different memories, some more, some less. It would explain different reactions towards Jack.
Mark 7 smirked to himself. It was just his luck to get stuck with the horny part of Ianto. Mark 2 had gotten anger as if he was from the time during Lisa. But he was too like Mark 7, when he thought of it, he was exactly like Mark 7. Down to the scar, suit and all, he couldn't be from Lisa's time. Why would they extract them from the same point in time, and how it was done?
Thinking about it Mark 7 took off his shoes and laid down. But when he was in that position unwanted thoughts came to mind, like Jack putting on clothes just before they came in to the Hub that day before everything exploded. Before he exploded.
Mark 7 closed his eyes trying to get that image from his head. He did that only way he knew how, by some more pictures of naked Jack.
That led to a more uncomfortable level of arousal and he had to remove his pants. He stroked his penis but masturbation seemed like such waste of time. Especially because he knew it would lead nowhere. Sexy thoughts were too quickly replaced by anxious ones so his erection fluctuated.
He submitted to the state of perpetual arousal, thinking of things trying to get some conclusion, hoping he'd fall asleep when Jack barged in. He managed to cover himself and follow conversation but his mind was more preoccupied by the line of his jaw, stretching of his sleeves, it seemed they didn't have a uniform that could hold him in.
Jack didn't help his case by picturing orgies of all kinds. Ianto tried to get rid of him but of course Jack's instincts kicked in and he stripped Ianto of his cover.
"Oh" was all he said and Mark 7 sighed. His member didn't get discouraged by an audience, on the contrary.
"Couldn't you just knock and I would send you on your way" Mark 7 closed his eyes hoping he'd exit now and pretend it didn't happen. But of course this was Jack, maybe older, but still Jack confronted with a penis in an erection. There would probably be room for worry if he did leave without some banter.
"I thought I remembered it wrong" said Jack gently. "That I've embellished it with years" Mark 7 looked at him and Jack moved, he crouched beside his bed and examined Mark's 7 penis. "But it truly is perfect in every way."
"What are you doing?" Mark 7 frowned.
"Admiring the view" Jack lifted half of a smile up.
"You act like other Mark's" Mark 7 didn't like to say Ianto's, Ianto was dead, they weren't him "didn't flash you."
"No, I was surprised by that too" Jack lifted other half of that smile up "I already started to think you lot didn't come fully equipped."
"What's it to you? You can't touch it either way" Mark 7 said darkly.
"It's nice to know it's there" Jack put his chin on the edge of Mark's 7 bed. "And to be reminded how beautiful it is."
"So that's what's left of me… my original, my penis? I guess that's something" Mark 7 thought about it. He would never guess that's the thing Jack remembered, but it made sense for him to remember a penis. He wondered what his inner collection of genitals looked like. It's surely diverse.
Well...
