When Ianto woke up, he was alone. He looked around and rubbed his eyes, trying not to overthink or come to conclusions with the fact that he was alone. He eventually sighed and looked at the time – 8 am – then got up to shower and dress. When he climbed the ladder, he saw Jack working at his desk.

He stood behind him, flattened his suit when he was on his feet, then swallowed hard when he saw the artefact on the table.

"Morning," he barely articulated. "Coffee?"

"Sit," was the only answer Jack gave him, with the most neutral voice Ianto had ever heard.

So Jack seemed pissed off. Fair enough, Ianto could understand. That didn't mean he wanted to have the talk, however. What was he supposed to say? Explain why he had done this? Tell Jack how he loved him? It certainly wasn't how he had pictured saying it.

He didn't make Jack wait, however, and sat on the chair across the desk, putting a last wall of protection between the two of them.

Jack didn't even acknowledge his presence. He didn't move, didn't raise his head or even nodded. He just looked at the paperwork he was working on and kept writing.

It took Jack several minutes to look up, and Ianto thought he would die with how awkward the silence was getting every second.

"So," Jack said, without adding anything, as if waiting for Ianto to continue.

"I... I'm..." Ianto stuttered and that annoyed himself. He didn't stutter. He had done nothing wrong... well that wasn't exactly true.

"Tell me what happened," Jack said, almost softly, but it still sounded like an order.

"I didn't think," Ianto eventually sighed, playing with his hands and trying to hide them from Jack's sight. "It said it would work, and I just... I wanted to believe it. I didn't think about the consequences."

"No, you didn't," Jack said, and Ianto's head fell to his chest. Jack wasn't even angry – or didn't show it – but he condemned his decision, in the worst way possible – calmly. "What was supposed to happen?"

Ianto looked up, puzzled. Jack knew the answer, he was just asking Ianto to say it aloud. And now, Ianto was ashamed. Not of wanting to make Jack mortal, not of trying and succeeding in doing so, but of believing an alien. He had been working for Torchwood for years, and had been in daily contact with aliens for a while now, and credulously believing what an alien was telling was a big mistake he shouldn't have made. Not after all this time.

"It promised to make you mortal. In exchange of my own mortality, I thought it was possible..."

Jack looked sad and in awe for a split second, then he sighed and leaned against the back of his chair, the emotions already gone from his face.

"Do you know what this is?" Jack asked, taking the artefact and playing with it before tossing it to Ianto who caught it at the last second.

It was cold, so cold. Not warm and reacting to him any more. Just a piece of alien junk being cold. Ianto shook his head.

"This will become a myth," Jack explained. "It'll disappear before my time. I always thought this was rather stupid. Courtesy of the Nirangane. I honestly don't remember the name and it probably changed over the centuries. Call it the delusional thing if you want to name it – it's not an official name. Now, what does it do? What do you think?"

Ianto stared at him, waiting. Was he really asking him?

When Jack didn't talk, he sighed, "grants you one wish?"

Jack scoffed.

"Now, that'd be absurd. Nothing does that. What it does, however, is helping its owner. Especially when they're made prisoners. It does grant you a wish, in a way. Only it's for a few hours – that's approximately a day on Earth – and it also gives the owner a wish. The cell door is unlocked until it fades. You're immortal until it fades."

Ianto swallowed, too noisily for him, and looked down. He could hear Jack's disappointment in his voice.
"You made a mistake, Ianto," Jack continued. "You trusted an alien for selfish reasons. You didn't talk to a superior and you led an interrogation on your own."

"Are you firing me?" Ianto asked, his voice shaking.

"Don't be stupid, Torchwood needs you. I..." Jack started, but caught himself. "I expected more of you."

That's all he said and Ianto almost melted in his seat. Jack was deceived, disappointed. He wasn't angry, and that was the worst thing. Ianto could take anger, yelling, arguing, but the feeling of being ignored or of deceiving, especially someone like Jack, was something Ianto handled badly.

"Go back to work, you're on field duty today instead of me."

Ianto didn't move, even when Jack took his pen back and concentrated on his paperwork again.

"Wh-" Ianto started, about to ask what that meant for... them. He didn't finish his sentence when Jack looked at him. He couldn't ask this. "Why didn't it work with you?"

Jack put his pencil down and took a deep breath. "It means I've already used it once."

"The same?"

"A different one, I suppose. They're weird artefacts and I'm not sure how they work. I don't remember using one."

Ianto frowned, "then how do you know...?"

Jack sighed, and seemed to think, his mouth slightly opened and his eyes distant. Something he sometimes did when he wasn't sure he could or wanted to tell Ianto something.

"It's cold and doesn't react if you already used it once. Part of why they disappeared, I suppose. I instinctively knew what it would do when I saw the flame last night, as if I had already used one."

"Why don't you remember?" Ianto asked, not understanding.

"Because," Jack said, adding nothing for a moment, then sighed. "Okay, Ianto, I wasn't always a good man. I'm not sure I ever was. But after working for the Time Agency and before meeting the Doctor, I certainly wasn't. I was travelling through the Universe, being a conman and trying to..." he stopped again, and thought for a second. "I left the Time Agency because they stole two years of my life. Two years I can't remember. I wanted to know what had happened, and I was upset. I probably used one during that time. I don't know when I would have used one."

Ianto stared at him agape. He didn't know that. And he felt a wave of sympathy towards Jack. The man had loved and lost, suffered, been tortured, lost years of his life... and all of that before becoming immortal. If the situation had been different, Ianto would have kissed him, for his bravery, for the long life he had lived. To show him how much Ianto cared about him, how much he loved him. But he didn't move. He just was grateful and deeply relieved that Jack still confided in him.
"Why did you do it?" Jack asked, as if not willing to talk about his past any more. No that talking about this was a good change of subject.

Ianto thought for a moment, to give an answer that wouldn't say too much about things he wasn't ready to admit to Jack.

"I wanted you to have a normal life," he simply said.

"By sacrificing your own?"

"If that's the price, then yes," Ianto shrugged.

Jack blinked a few times, as if containing tears.

"Oh Ianto..." he whispered, then smiled warmly. "That's fucking dumb. I don't wish that to anyone and you'd be willing to have it after seeing what it does?"

"Can I ask you a question?" Ianto suddenly said, his hands shaking from his own emotions but also Jack's in his voice. Jack nodded. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

Jack seemed to think, then shrugged. "You didn't answer my question."

"I told you," Ianto smiled, for the first time since he had woken up. "If it means saving you from this, then yes. It's worth it."

Jack sent his chair on the floor by getting up suddenly, reaching over the table for Ianto's collar. He pulled, and Ianto came without any resistance, their lips crashing together in an awkward position for Ianto who was not sitting but not entirely standing either.

"Because I was exhausted, you just had died, and... and you're crazy for thinking this," Jack finally answered when they parted to breathe.

Ianto kissed him again, sweet and caring, trying to express everything he was pretty sure he would not voiced to Jack. Jack responded with force, in his own way, how he did it the best.

Then Jack pulled away and sat back in his chair, reluctantly letting go of Ianto's tie.

"As your boss, however, I still disapprove of what you did."

Ianto nodded absently, still lost in a kiss that should have been words, had they been that sort of persons. Jack didn't want to let anyone in and although he had probably already lost that fight, admitting it was another step he wasn't ready to take because of what it meant – probably more pain, not that not saying anything would make Ianto's death any more bearable. Ianto was just following the lead, he didn't need saying it, not to Jack – he didn't even call Jack his boyfriend, or what they were a couple – so he didn't say it.

"I won't do it again," Ianto eventually said.

"I know," Jack nodded and looked at his paperwork, dismissing Ianto that way. Ianto quickly stood, but stopped at the door. Jack stop writing, but he froze holding his pen, not looking but clearly listening. Ianto opened his mouth, then closed it and shook his head, going to the kitchen to make two strong coffees. That had gone well better than Ianto would have thought.

As Jack had said, immortality "passed" during the day. Ianto didn't know if knowing he couldn't die made him reckless or if he was just lost in his thoughts, but he died another time.

He felt rather literally the immortality leave his body. Not in a "oh it's leaving my body!" way. That would have been too simple. More like, an alien pushed him with non-human force and he rolled on a few metres and didn't stand before long because his muscles were tired and his knee hurt him, as well as his arm. And he didn't heal.

It was a relief on the moment. He had wanted Jack's immortality, but he hadn't imagined how painful it could get to feel his own body repairing itself. Let alone die. Jack clearly suffered, Ianto could see that when he held him, and he had always thought that Jack didn't hide any pain because he simply couldn't, just waking up from the dead. Apparently, he could, and it was far more painful than what Ianto had imagined. However, he felt proud of Jack for still standing, still fighting, still caring.

"Ianto, get the fuck out of here, it stopped!" Jack's voice yelled in his ear.

"Too late," Gwen answered for him.

"What do you mean too late?" Jack asked, and his tone broke Ianto's heart.

"I'm fine," he said quickly, hearing Jack sigh. "Just did a stunt job. You'd think it's easy, but it's not."

He heard Jack chuckle, and instantly smiled. He then took Tosh's hand to stand up, and looked around, pressing the palm of his hand against his head.

"You okay?" Tosh asked, concerned.

"Yup, I'll just have Owen check me maybe..."

Tosh nodded and helped him walk to the SUV, so Owen could check his vitals.

I have exams tomorrow, bye!

Anyway, I hope you guys still like this story, even though... Yeah, it wasn't permanent. Because I can't do that to Ianto, or Jack. :D