Title: Moonlight Shadows
Author: Captains Cariad
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Torchwood supplied a couple of beautiful images of Jack with shadows across his face (in the garden after the death of Estelle in "Small Worlds" & when he stands in front of the old film footage in "From Out of the Rain"), so I thought I'd have a go at creating one of my own.
Disclaimer: They're definitely not mine, but the boys like to play and so do I.
Summary: How does Ianto deal with Jack's nightmares?

***

The cool, silvery moonlight casts blue shadows across the bedroom. The face of the man sleeping next to me looks so youthful. There's barely a line to betray his real age and his incredible blue eyes are closed to the world. The truth of his age can be found in those eyes. When you find yourself under their gaze, they draw you in, but the dazzling smile that accompanies them aims to distract, to deflect attention from the knowledge they possess. If you take the time to see beyond the twinkling sapphires and allow yourself to drown in their depths, you will discover that they hide so much.

These secrets reveal that the image of peaceful sleep on the pillow beside me is merely an illusion. A facade; which more often than not, starts to crack with fluttering eyelashes and incoherent words and then shatters apart with flailing limbs and terrified screams that rip the breath from his lungs.

When he wakes, gasping in a cold sweat, I am there to hold him tight, brush the hair from his forehead and chase away the demons with soothing caresses as clings to me with a desperate need. His gaze doesn't quite meet mine; his eyes are haunted and focus on a spot somewhere in the distance as spectres of whatever was in his dreams pass across his face.

Whispering words of comfort, I place a gentle kiss on his lips and he blinks as if seeing me for the first time. Suddenly, he rolls us over, so that he's above me, taking back control and soon any words between us become lustful moans as hungry mouths seek to devour the nightmares and he pushes me down against the mattress.

His fingers wrap around my wrists, holding my arms above my head against the pillow, bruising my skin and marking me as his own. A single tear falls from his eyes and lands just above my lips; a flick of my tongue and I can taste the salt. He releases my wrists and I slide a hand behind his neck, pulling him down and lacing my fingers through his hair.

His tongue is demanding as it forces its way into my mouth, but I'm returning his kisses with just as much desire and before long it's not only his fingers that have marked me; it's his teeth, biting my neck, drinking the pulse as my heart hammers in my chest. Briefly, I twist under his grip, but he's unyielding and I let him take what he needs; it's not as if I really want to escape anyway. Our bodies' move together in the moonlight and I watch the play of shadows across his face as he exorcises his ghosts.

***