Title: Til The Stars Grow Cold
By: Aearlor
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine. All the characters belong to the BBC and RTD.
Prompt: Cafe; gloves; 'til the stars grow cold'
Summary: Jack can't promise forever, Ianto never expects him to. "I could see myself falling in love with a man like you." "Promise me you will." Jack/Ianto, Romance, fluff but sort of angsty, wanting to be poetic fluff.

***

The whole of Wales was white. Ianto could see the unmarred, pristine powder through the Cafe's front window, illuminated by the gaudy lights of a city night.
Alone, he held a cup of cold coffee in his hands and forced himself to think in something of a linear way, reliving and remembering all the words he did and didn't say,

"I can't promise forever" Jack couldn't promise forever, he really couldn't because for him, it truly would be forever.
"I don't want forever," Ianto didn't want forever, he really didn't, "I never expected forever." Ianto didn't expect anything from Jack.
"What did you expect?"
"I didn't expect anything" Ianto didn't expect one thing from Jack.
"Of course, you never do." Of course Ianto never did, "You know Ianto Jones, I could see myself falling in love with a man like you."
"Promise me you will," Ianto needs him to promise he will.
"I promise. We've got 'til the stars grow cold Ianto Jones, I can't promise forever but I can promise that."
Jack can promise 'til the stars grow cold, and then suddenly, at that thought, Jack is too there, too much of a presence for Ianto to think straight.
"I'm going—" Ianto doesn't stay home, because his untouched, dark wood and leather flat is not home, Jack is. "I'm going out," and Ianto goes out before Jack can object.

Toying with the empty sugar packets in front of him, Ianto can finally begin to think about stars growing cold, and falling in love and growing old. Then, then he feels the presence of something that's there too much, or maybe it's a presence that makes Ianto realise that he, himself is just not there enough.

There's an awkward cough, Ianto does not need to turn around to know there's a snow plastered Air Force coat and an charmingly uncertain smile behind him, "It's freezing outside and you... and you forgot your gloves."

A Pause, a thick silence, it's not tension; it's the weight of words unspoken.

"Jack, do the stars ever grow cold?"
A sigh, a raised eyebrow.
"Yes," Jack sits, facing Ianto "I've seen it, or rather I will see it, the stars just burning out, it's so dark and so empty and it's the most beautiful thing that I've witnessed in a long, long, long time."
"You know, Captain Jack Harkness, I could see myself falling in love with a man like you."
"Promise me you will."
"I will, we've got 'till the stars grow cold, Jack Harkness, I never expected forever, but I expect nothing less than until then."
And Jack never promises anymore and Ianto never expects any less.

***