Title: Liar, Liar
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: R
Table: 2
Prompt: 11, Cranky
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Jack Harkness. Please do not sue.

***

Jack looked around the largest room of the Tardis, frowning slightly. The Doctor was usually up and about before he was; the Time Lord didn't seem to require as much sleep as humans did. But for some reason, the Doctor seemed to be staying away from him today. He hadn't seen the Gallifreyan since last night, when he'd mumbled something about being tired and gone off to the room that was designated as his.

The immortal sighed, leaning against the console and closing his eyes. It was hard enough to deal with his growing attraction to the Time Lord without the other man behaving in a way that Jack found it impossible to fathom -- or to deal with. He had no idea why the Doctor was acting as if a wall had suddenly sprung up between them -- but he was going to find out why.

He didn't think that he'd made any kind of moves on the Time Lord that could possibly make the other man uncomfortable; no, he'd tried to hold himself back, to behave in a more decorous fashion than he normally would. Of course, there'd been the usual off-color jokes, but that was something that was so much a part of Jack's personality that he hardly noticed them.

Other than that, he couldn't think of a single thing that would have the Doctor avoiding him like the plague. And the distance between them was getting annoying. Very annoying.

Jack looked towards the corridor that connected the Doctor's room to the main room of the Tardis, scowling. If he didn't see the Time Lord in here within the next ten minutes, he told himself, then he was going to go and pull the Gallifreyan out of bed. Kicking and screaming, if need be. Even if he was stark naked.

Now that idea held some possibilities, Jack thought, a small smile curving his lips in spite of his annoyance. He had no idea if the Doctor slept in the nude, but it was a pleasant thought to imagine. Bending over him, stripping back the covers and feasting his eyes on that perfect body .... and maybe even waking him up with a kiss ....

He shook himself mentally, coming out of the daydream he'd started to weave. If he so much as tried to get a look at the Doctor in the nude, he was sure that the Time Lord would scream himself hoarse -- and possibly even devise some weird kind of revenge. The last thing he wanted was to be on the Doctor's bad side.

Especially for something like getting pleasure out of just looking at him. Jack sighed again, shaking his head. He was sure that the Doctor wasn't some kind of Puritan; the other man had such a sense of humor about most things. But any time Jack had made even the slightest sexual advance towards him, the Time Lord had backed off, almost at the point of running away like a scared rabbit.

The immortal frowned, a thought striking his consciousness like a pebble sending ripples through a still, silent pond. Had all of those encounters with the Master in the past put the Doctor completely off men? It was a shame if it had, Jack thought regretfully, but he couldn't blame the Time Lord for that. Being repeatedly raped and tortured could probably do that to a person.

In that case .... then it was his responsibility to lead the Doctor away from those fears, he told himself firmly. He wasn't going to deny himself -- and the Doctor -- what could be a lot of pleasurable experiences just because some demented psycho had hurt the Time Lord both mentally and physically in the past. And he wasn't going to let the Doctor be harmed again. He was here to look after the fragile Gallifreyan, and he intended to do that to the best of his ability.

Just as he'd decided to go looking for the Doctor, a small sound from the corridor leading to the Time Lord's sleeping quarters caught Jack's attention. The Doctor emerged into the control room of the Tardis, looking sleepy and grumpy, not saying a word. He went to the console, leaning over it and studying it intently as though it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen, not looking in Jack's direction.

"Good morning," the immortal said mildly, raising an eyebrow. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you've got one hell of a hangover. You're acting like you just rolled out of bed after a hard night of drinking. But I know you didn't have anything to drink last night. That is, not unless you decided to hit the bottle after you went to bed."

The Doctor glanced up at him then, his mouth a straight line, a furrow between his brows. Jack didn't think he'd ever seen the Time Lord look more annoyed. But that annoyance was something he had to confront, if he wanted any kind of an answer as to why the Doctor was acting the way he was. He needed to get to the bottom of this.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you did have a little bout with the bottle last night," he continued, trying to goad the Doctor into speech. "In fact, probably for a lot of nights in the past week or so. Ever since you started acting like a prima donna, in fact. Do I need to take you to some kind of intergalactic AA meeting?"

"Liar, liar, arse on fire!" The Doctor finally raised his head and looked towards Jack, fairly spitting out the words. "I am not, as you so eloquently put it 'acting like a prima donna.' I've merely been in a bad mood, that's all."

"Believe me, if you keep acting like this, it'll be your ass that's on fire," Jack ground out, his temper starting to fray considerably. "Because I'll turn you over my knee and spank you like the little brat you're being. Maybe not being able to sit down for a few hours would get rid of the attitude."

The Doctor gasped, his dark eyes widening. For once, he was at a loss for words, standing there with his small hands clenched, sputtering and obviously trying to think of a witty comeback. Jack couldn't help but smile complacently; it was the first time he'd ever seen the Doctor unable to think of something to say.

"Actually, I'd like to spank your ass," he murmured, taking a different tack. "It's a very, very nice ass, from what I can tell. Sexy and firm and round .... I'd love having my hands on that part of you. And my mouth, and my .... well, other parts of my body. But I'd rather have them inside you."

There. That should tell the Doctor just what was on his mind -- as well as get rid of the cranky attitude the Time Lord had been exhibiting for the last few days. At least, he hoped it would, and that the Doctor wouldn't precipitately eject him from the Tardis. Without a spacesuit. Or leave him stranded on some planet he couldn't get away from.

"I wouldn't do that," the Time Lord murmured, shaking his head. "I've been stranded on an unfamiliar planet before. Naked, at that. It was a very .... uncomfortable situation, to say the least. So I've sworn never to do it to anyone else. You needn't have any fears on that score."

He was doing it again. Jack almost winced; it was disconcerting to be reminded that the Doctor was a telepath -- and to know that with his companions, he didn't even need to make physical contact to know what they were thinking. His own mental capacity reached out to them, and his trust in them enabled him to reach into their minds and read their thoughts as though they were speaking them out loud.

Jack focused on what the Time Lord was saying -- or, at least, he tried to. He seemed to have shaken the Doctor out of his cranky mood, if nothing else. But what was that he was saying about being stranded on a strange planet .... naked? Mmmmm. Jack wished he'd been there and seen that. The idea of the Doctor naked sent pleasurable little chills dancing up and down his spine.

"Who stranded you on a strange planet like that?" he asked, keeping his voice soft. The Doctor didn't often like talking about things that had happened in his past, especially things that seemed as if they'd put him in a situation he'd found uncomfortable. Jack knew better than to push for explanations. If he got one, great. If he didn't, then he'd just have to keep being curious until the Doctor was a little more expansive.

The Time Lord shook his head, sighing and leaning against the console. "It isn't important," he whispered, closing his eyes. "It was .... something that I'm better off forgetting. Hard to forget when it's something a bit more recent -- but I'm working on that."

Jack moved closer, wanting to slide his arms around the slender figure standing beside him, to give the Doctor some measure of comfort. For some reason, the Gallifreyan seemed more fragile than usual; there was a kind of helplessness about him that made Jack want to take him into his arms. "It was the Master, wasn't it?"

The Doctor sighed again, finally giving Jack a reluctant nod. "Yes. It was. I suppose it doesn't take a genius to guess that -- and to guess his reasons for doing something like that. Being stranded on a planet when you're bound and gagged in the nude --" he gulped, seeming to force out his next words, "-- among other things, isn't pleasant."

"'Other things'?" This time, Jack did move closer to the other man, putting a gentle hand on the Doctor's shoulder. He'd never wanted to reach out and comfort someone so badly in all his life; his arms almost ached with the need to feel the Doctor in them. "Doctor, what did he do to you?"

The Doctor shook his head, looking away and gulping again. Jack had never seen the Time Lord look so vulnerable; he couldn't keep himself from stepping towards the Doctor and taking the other man into his arms, wrapping his arms around the slender body and stroking the tawny hair with a gentle hand.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he whispered, closing his eyes and inhaling the slightly tangy scent of the Doctor's soft skin. If only he could wake up in the morning beside this; if only he could spend his eternity holding this man in his arms, be the forever that he knew the Doctor desperately needed ....

In response, the Time Lord raised shaking hands to place them on either side of Jack's head, allowing the immortal to see into his thoughts. Instead of hearing the Doctor talk about his experience in a detached, dispassionate voice, Jack saw what the Gallifreyan had been through -- in living color, exploding inside his mind.

He was horrified by what he saw. The Master had left the Doctor on that planet -- naked, bound and gagged, impaled by an uncomfortably large dildo -- and delivered him into the hands of what Jack could only describe as savages. Savages who'd raped and tortured the helpless Time Lord until the Master had come back for him, days after the Doctor had been left to his captors.

No wonder he was so afraid of being intimate with another man. Jack's heart went out to the other man, trembling in his arms. Anyone would be, after an experience like that.

"I would never hurt you," he whispered, his arms tightening around the Doctor's slim body. "I'd die before I'd let anything like that happen to you again." Jack closed his eyes, swallowing hard. Why couldn't the Doctor see into his mind -- into his heart -- and understand what he felt? Was he simply too afraid of what he'd find to even try to look?

"Don't you understand how I feel about you, after all the time we've spent together? " He tilted the Doctor's face up to his, eyes searching the Time Lord's handsome features. "Don't you know that I ...." He stopped, hesitating, stumbling over the word that he found it so hard to say to anyone. "I love you. I've loved you since the first time I saw you."

"I ...." The Doctor's lips parted as though he wanted to say something, but no words came out. He only shook his head helplessly, looking down, but not moving out of Jack's embrace. The immortal's heart soared; the Doctor wasn't pushing him away. Maybe he had a chance. Finally. After all the waiting, all the wanting .... a chance. That was all he needed.

"Give me a chance," he whispered, lowering his head to brush his mouth gently against the Doctor's lips. "Let me show you that you don't have to be afraid."

The Time Lord stared up at him, his dark eyes bottomless pools that Jack wanted to dive into. If he had his way, he'd lose himself in those eyes, drown in them and never come up for air. He'd happily spend the rest of eternity slumbering in those depths -- as long as this man was with him. As long as he never had to let the Doctor go.

"Yes."

One word. It was amazing how a single word could make his heart explode, do somersaults, make him want to leap with joy. Jack had never heard anything as beautiful as that single syllable, uttered in the Doctor's soft voice.

"You won't regret it," he murmured, lowering his lips to the Time Lord's again. A proper kiss this time, a long, satisfying pressure, a gentle sweep of his tongue along the softness of the Doctor's lower lip.

When they finally broke apart, the Doctor was almost panting, his eyes unfocused and both of his hearts beating wildly against Jack's chest. The immortal wanted nothing so much as to pick the Doctor up in his arms, carry him back to the bed he'd gotten out of only a short while before, and stay there with him for the rest of the day. Or the rest of eternity, if he could.

"I'm sorry that I've been so cranky lately," the Time Lord said softly, his dark eyes finally meeting Jack's. "It's just that .... you see, I haven't known how to tell you how I felt. But now that you've finally done it for me ...."

He leaned against Jack, arms sliding around the taller man's neck, pressing his mouth against Jack's in a heated, passionate kiss that let Jack know exactly how he was feeling.

Jack couldn't hold himself back any longer. When the kiss broke off, he leaned down and hooked one arm under the Doctor's knees, lifting the Time Lord into his arms. With long, purposeful strides, he headed towards the corridor that led to the Doctor's bedroom, fully intending to spend as long as possible esconced there.

"I hope we don't have to be anywhere special any time soon," he murmured, a smile curving his lips. "I think we're going to be busy for a pretty long time. At least the next few days."

"Oh, I quite agree," the Doctor answered, closing his eyes as Jack's mouth came down on his again, taking away the need for any more words.

***