Jack held Ianto's face in his hands, taking a steady breath before speaking. "I have a story." IAnto leaned into Jack's touch, encouraging him to continue.
"I have loved and lost, and swore never to love again. I have lived longer than any man should, and I will continue to live long after all men have gone. Yet no matter how hard I tried not to love again. It was futile. I met this gorgeous Welshman in the woods, who saved me from an evil monster. He brought me coffee, and I scorned him, afraid of the emotions that I felt rising in my heart. We met again, as fate would have it. He took my lashing tongue with strength and patience, helping me best yet another adversary. I fell, both physically and emotionally, into the arms of that man, that very moment. I couldn't let him slip away."
Ianto's eyes were shining with tears. A small smile on his lips.
"I invited him to work for me, hoping to sway his passions. The road was rough, and while I gave him my body, I held my heart close to me afraid to put it in his all too caring hands. He was everything I could ever need, and ever want, yet I still managed to make sure that he left me."
Jack took a breath, rubbing a tear from Ianto's eye.
"When he left, in a flurry of anguish and pain, my heart went with him. I realized that I had never owned my heart to begin with, it was all an illusion. I had handed him my heart that night in the forest."
Ianto leaned his head against Jack's, and still more words came forth.
"Another man, much like me, came into the Welshman's life. He stole him away, handed him everything he could ever want or need on a silver platter."
The tears on their faces mingled.
"Faced with such temptation, after breaking the tie with me, the Welshman could have gone with the stranger. He could have taken the life of luxury, and no one would have begrudged him that. Not even I, the man who loved him so."
The Welshman kissed his Captain lightly, picking up the story.
"Yet the Welshman felt a shattering in his own bosom when he left his Captain fair. The stranger wished to fix it, promising everything that the Welshman could possible need, but the only thing he desired was still out of reach. He loved the Captain with all of his being, even knowing that what love that they could have would be something that would be brief in the time of the Captain. He refused the Strangers gifts, his heart yearning the man he had spurned. A stroke of fate left a device for the Welshman, who, not trusting himself with the Captain, called a Doctor to relay his message. The Doctor knew of the Captains guilt, and pain, and of the pain of the Welshman. He sent the Welshman proof the Captains guilt. And of his shame, and love for the Welshman. Thusly the Welshman called his Captain."
Jack kissed Ianto's tears away, pulling the man to his chest.
"I heard the Welshman's message and came running. Hoping to make amends for my actions, atone for my sins and mend the shattered bond between us."
"But the bond had not been shattered, merely smudged. For the two men loved each other. And the Welshman forgave the Captain."
Ianto Kissed Jack passionately hand's tangling in hair and skin burning at the touch. Jack pulled away.
"So, Ianto Jones, would you accompany me to dinner tonight, at say 6:30?"
"Is dinner a euphemism for something?"
"Italian?" Jack said, and Ianto kissed him softly.
"It's a date." A soft rapping on the door stopped them from furthering their agreement. The door opened, and Miss Mayweather backed into the room, a tray of coffee in ornate cups set beside two plates of pancakes. Jack pulled his Welshman closer to his chest, causing him to blush fiercely.