Title: 42 Recreational Uses for a Stopwatch Part III: Timing
By: amuly
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 4,873/14,096
Rating: R
Summary: Uses 27-42 for a stopwatch. All somehow "timing" related.
Warnings: Vaguely implied S&M
A/N: 3 different "sections" that the drabbles are divided into: Racing, Holding Out, and Timing. This one is "Timing".

27. :00

            Jack sat in his office chair, leaning back as an angry Welshman stood before him, hands on his hips, berating him. “You can’t just toss this sort of paperwork at me. You need to actually fill it out yourself. I’m doing fieldwork now, Jack. I don’t have time to re-write every report you fill out.”

            Frowning, Jack held out his hand. “Hey, can I see your stopwatch for a second, Ianto?”

            Hanging his head down for a moment, Ianto looked back up, composure retained. “What exactly do you need it for, Jack? We’re having a serious conversation.”

            Ignoring him, Jack slipped his hand into Ianto’s pocket and retrieved the stopwatch. Pressing the button, he leaned back in his chair and nodded. “Sorry, keep going.”

            For a moment, Ianto stood there, mouth agape. “What are you timing?”

            Jack’s eyebrows shot up, as though surprised. “Oh, this?” Ianto nodded, incredulous. “Just wanted to see how long the Welsh could complain. I bet with a little training we could call Guinness up…”

            Rather than storm out, Ianto stormed over to the ladder, descending to Jack’s bedroom. Curious, Jack jumped out of his chair, peering down at Ianto’s retreating head. “What are you doing?”

            “Getting the paddle. You need to be punished for that comment.”

            Grin and eyes wide, Jack tucked the stopwatch into his pocket and raced down the ladder after him. 

28. 1:15

            Ianto didn’t know why he never thought of timing it before. As Jack fell to the floor, a laser burn through his shirt, Ianto pressed his stopwatch. Two dozen bullets immediately filled the alien’s body and it fell to the floor with a wet thud. Threat eliminated, Ianto raced over to Jack, dropping to the floor with him. “Ianto, hold it, there might be more of them!”

            “Then take care of them!” Ianto stared daggers at the other team members as he pulled Jack’s head in his lap.

            Owen and Tosh shared a look, but took off running further into the warehouse. Gwen hesitated. “Ianto, he’s going to come back…”

            “Gwen, go and deal with the alien. I’m dealing with Jack.” Ianto’s voice was steely and eyes cold. A moment longer and Gwen took off, racing after Owen and Tosh.

            A shaking sigh bubbled up from Ianto’s chest. It was never easy, watching Jack fall. And he knew how much it hurt, coming back; he knew how terrifying it was to wake up alone and confused. So he promised himself he’d be there for Jack every time he woke, if he could. He hadn’t told Jack – who would probably tell him to not be ridiculous – but it was obvious that Jack appreciated coming back in Ianto’s arms.

            Beneath him, Jack started forward, gasping shakily. Ianto stopped the stopwatch: one minutes, fifteen seconds. “Shh. I’ve got you. Shh.” Ianto pressed his cheek down to Jack’s head and closed his eyes, rocking Jack slightly.

            Jack’s arms reached up and grabbed onto Ianto, reassuring himself, before he spoke. “Where are the others? What happened?”

            Jack was back in Captain mode, which was Ianto’s cue to release him and help him up. “The alien is dead, they’re off securing the perimeter.”

            Jack didn’t miss the movement of Ianto’s hand in his pocket. “Were you timing me?”

            A blush spread across his face. “Thought never occurred to me. Figured it might come in handy, one day.”

            Jack reached out and grabbed Ianto’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly. “Let’s hope not.”

29. 2:25

            Ianto stared out of Jack’s office window, stopwatch ticking in his hand. “Ianto, where are those files on that weird-looking purple thing with the tentacles…oh. Stopwatch?”

            Ianto shook his head. “Not now. Tosh left her purse at her workstation, I’m waiting to see how long before she realizes it’s gone missing. And the file on the Larnyans is on your desk, left hand side, beneath the pastry.”

            A moment later Jack had returned, munching on a cream-filled donut and files in hand. “How long’s it been?”

            “Two minutes, fifteen seconds.”

            “Did she drive to work today?”

            “Yup.”

            Jack laughed, picturing Tosh in the car park, not realizing she had left her purse until she was standing in front of her car. Sure enough, a few seconds later the cog door rolled back, Tosh stepping through and muttering to herself. Jack chuckled as Ianto clicked the stopwatch, showing it to Jack. “Two twenty-five. Quicker than it would have taken you.”

            Jack shrugged and turned away, heading for his cot. “That’s why I have you remember everything for me. Coming?”

            Glancing backwards, Ianto realized where Jack was heading, and quickly followed after.

30. 3:15

            The two men waited patiently, hidden behind the coffee machine. Their attention was focused on a bar of chocolate, dark, which was sitting in the middle of the Hub. Ianto’s stopwatch was ticking in his hand as they waited.

            Jack shifted. “What’s the time?” He whispered.

            Ianto glanced down at the stopwatch. “Two twenty.”

            Eyes tracing down Ianto’s back, Jack pressed himself closer. “You know, while we’re waiting…”

            “Shh. I hear her.”

            Sure enough, the sound of flapping wings filled the room, as Mwyfawny swooped down to perch on the railing. Jack and Ianto shifted forward, waiting for her to accept the bait. Mwyfawny squawked, staring at the bar of chocolate. Poking at it with her beak for a moment, she apparently decided it was good to eat, because she scooped it up and flew off, bringing the chocolate back to her nest.

            Jack leaned over to look at the time on the stopwatch. “Three fifteen. Which one of us was closer?”

            Ianto thought for a moment. “It’s a tie.” Ianto and Jack blinked at each other, considering.

            “That’s never happened before.”

            Ianto glanced back down at the stopwatch. “I know.”

            Standing, Jack grabbed Ianto’s elbow and dragged him up. “Well, we’ll just have to reward both of us…”

31. 4:34

            Jack woke up alone in Ianto’s bed. He stretched out, frowning at the rapidly-cooling spot next to him. So much for a morning shag. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, Jack padded into the kitchen, seeking out Ianto. Sure enough he was in there, his back to Jack. As Jack drew closer he could see Ianto was getting the coffee machine and beans ready to brew. “Morning.” Jack mumbled, wrapping an arm around Ianto’s waist and kissing him on the cheek.

            Ianto leaned back into the embrace and turned enough to kiss Jack back properly. “Morning. Coffee?”

            Jack removed himself from Ianto and smiled. “Of course.” Spotting the stopwatch on the counter, Jack clicked it on when Ianto closed up the machine and turned it on.

Turning, Ianto’s eyes drifted down to the stopwatch. “It’ll take four minutes thirty seconds, give or take.”

“How do you know that?”

“I know everything. Also, coffee takes a very specific time to brew. This grind takes about four minutes, thirty seconds.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Are you willing to bet on it?”

Ianto grinned. “Are you? You have a tendency to lose bets to me on a regular basis.”

Mock-affronted, Jack gasped. “Well, that sounds like a challenge. Four minutes, thirty seconds, with a five second window.”

Ianto just smirked, turning back to the kitchen to start making breakfast for the two of them.

Four minutes, thirty-four seconds later, and the coffee was done. If Jack didn’t have a warm mug of Ianto’s coffee in his hand, he might have been upset about the whole thing. 

32. 6:18

            Jack and Ianto stood on opposite sides of the autopsy bay, poses mirroring each other: forearms over the edge of the railing, hands clasped, and leaning forward. The stopwatch stayed hidden, clasped in Ianto’s hands. Beneath them, Owen was starting an autopsy on a particularly mangled body. “Well, with a body this mangled, I have no guarantees if I’ll be able to determine cause of death.”

            Jack nodded solemnly. “Just try your best.”

            Owen expertly made a Y incision in the chest, then grabbed chisel and hammer, cracking the ribs open. Next came the clamps to hold the chest open. Owen began poking around, leaning in close. “Well isn’t this just a bit of terrific. Jack, the organs are all…huh.”

            Ianto and Jack exchanged a quick glance. “What is it, Owen?” Jack feigned interest and leaned further over the railing.

            “The organs. I guess whatever killed it must have…dunno…moved them around a bit. I mean, the stomach is over here, like some sort of…”

            Owen abruptly pulled his hands out of the corpse and stepped back. “This is a pig, isn’t it?”

            Jack burst out laughing, while Ianto expressed his amusement more quietly. “Six minutes eighteen seconds.”

            “You were timing me? Bloody hell you guys, you know, some of us have to get some real work done.” Owen stormed off, throwing surgical gloves on the floor of the autopsy bay before he left.

            “I’ll just clean up this body then!” Ianto shouted after Owen, earning another peal of laughter from Jack.

            “Owen’s going to kill you, one day.”

            “I already told you, Jack: Owen needs his coffee. He’s more likely to kill you.” Ianto paused in his descent down the stairs. “Again.”

33. 8:30

            After Ianto had refused shower sex, shoving Jack out and locking the bathroom door behind him, Jack was bored. He wasn’t about to cook breakfast, or make coffee, and now he couldn’t shower or shag. What was he supposed to do for the next…well, however long it takes Ianto to shower.

            Ah, well, that’s what he could do. Jack hurried over to Ianto’s nightstand and retrieved the stopwatch. Pressing his ear to the door, Jack started the stopwatch when he heard the water change, indicating that Ianto had just stepped under its spray.

            Eight minutes and thirty seconds later, an incredulous Jack stopped the watch. Reaching up, he retrieved the piece of metal for unlocking doors in an emergency and stepped inside.

            He was greeted by a sopping wet, furious, naked Ianto. “Jack, damn it, I said no! Once in the morning is enough!”

            “What could you be doing in there that takes eight and a half minutes?”

            Ianto’s eyes dropped to the stopwatch in Jack’s hand and he quickly snatched it away. “I shave in the shower. Better for the skin that way.”

            “Oh, is that why there’s a mirror in there?”

            Rolling his eyes, Ianto placed the stopwatch on the counter and grabbed at his toothbrush. “Yes. What did you think it was for?”

            Jack’s lewd grin in the mirror was all the answer Ianto needed.

34. 8:39

            Ianto lay on his side in the darkness, trying his best not to wake Jack. They were curled around each other: Jack with a leg slung over Ianto’s, keeping him close, and an arm curled tight around Ianto’s back. Slowly, Ianto extracted an arm and reached up above them for the stopwatch that lay on the table over their heads. He clicked the stopwatch on, then tucked it between them, muffling the ticking with their bodies and sheets.

            He lay there for a while, watching Jack’s face. In the semi-darkness part of his face was covered in shadow, but Ianto could make out enough of it. The worry and stress lines were smoothed away by sleep, and a small smile graced his lips. Ianto wanted to reach out and kiss those lips, but he waited in the dark. He could see Jack’s eyes moving beneath his eyelids as he dreamed. At least it was a good dream. Some nights Jack would start awake, dragging Ianto with him, panting and sweating and clutching at him. Those nights Ianto would hold him, making soothing noises until Jack drifted off to sleep, or screwed him, or they just sat awake and talked until morning.

            Tonight though, Jack lay there, smiling into his dream. Ianto smiled as he watched him and let his eyes slip closed for a moment, taking a deep breath as he inhaled Jack’s scent. When he opened his eyes again, piercing blue eyes stared back into his. Startled, Ianto almost forgot about the stopwatch, hurriedly depressing the button at the top and bringing it up to his face. “Eight thirty-nine.”

            Jack raised an eyebrow. “You know, there are better things to do with that stopwatch besides timing me while I sleep.”

            Ianto smirked. “Oh? I can’t seem to think of any.”

            “Would you like a demonstration?”

            “I’ve always been a hands-on learner…”

35. 10:00

            “What are you doing?”

            Ianto didn’t turn around when Jack walked up behind him. He was staring intently at the cog door, stopwatch in hand. Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto, and he relaxed back into the embrace slightly. “Timing.”

            He could feel Jack’s neck crane forward, trying to look down at the stopwatch he held in his hand. “Timing?” Jack’s hips shifted and pressed up against Ianto. “Timing what?”

            With a smile and a playful shove, Ianto shook Jack off of him. “Not anything like that. I wanted to see how much time elapses between employees arriving in the morning.”

            Ianto listened to Jack’s footsteps retreat, obviously uninterested in his little experiment. However, a few minutes later the footsteps returned, followed by a now-dressed Jack sitting down at Ianto’s feet. Jack swung his legs over the edge of the railing and kicked them impatiently, gazing at the cog door with Ianto.

            They weren’t waiting long. A few minutes (and one hurried dissuasion of Jack and his roaming hands) later, the proximity alarm sounded and the cog door rolled open. In walked Toshiko, fumbling with something in her purse as she stepped over the threshold. Ianto started the stopwatch with a click, glancing down at Jack as he did so. “Would you be interested in placing a bet on who came in next?”

            Jack craned his neck up and grinned. “Only if we bet our usual.”

            Ianto raised an eyebrow. “Of course.”

            Jack nodded at the door. “Gwen.”

            Ianto smirked to himself, but Jack was too busy focusing on the cog door to notice. Seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds later, the cog door rolled open again, alarms blaring, to reveal… “Owen. You owe me later.”

            Jack scowled at Owen, but then turned back to Ianto, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Well, why wait? We could-”

            Ianto clicked the stopwatch, resetting it and then clicking it again, making a note of the time between Tosh and Owen’s arrivals. “Working, Jack.”

            As they waited for Gwen, Jack fidgeted as he grew impatient, finally hauling himself to his feet with the railing and standing next to Ianto. He leaned in slightly, so that their shoulders were touching. Ianto didn’t move away. He glanced over at Jack, who appeared to be staring perfectly innocently at the door. “I know what you’re doing.”

            Jack turned to look at Ianto, his grin not helping project an air of innocence. “What am I doing?” His eyes flickered down, then back up.

            Ianto didn’t reply for a moment, focusing his attention on the cog door. Finally he sighed and leaned toward Jack. “As soon as Gwen walks in, we’ll go back to your office and-” The alarm chose that moment to sound as the cog door rolled open to reveal Gwen.

            Before Ianto had even clicked the stopwatch Jack had taken off toward his office. Ianto glanced around, starting after him as he scribbled notes to himself. “Twelve minutes, thirty-two seconds. That’s an average of…exactly ten minutes.”

            Ianto stopped for a moment checking his math. “Huh. Funny how that worked out.”

            “Ianto! Let’s go!” Shaken from his reverie, Ianto rushed into the office to claim his reward.

36. 10:42

            Jack pulled up the CCTV located outside Ianto’s apartment. He was bored, and Ianto hadn’t come into work yet. Drumming his fingers, Jack started forward when Ianto’s apartment door opened. Ianto turned and appeared to be locking the door before walking down the stairs to his car.

            An idea flashing through his head, Jack fumbled around in his desk drawer, pulling his hand out a moment later, stopwatch gripped in it. Jack waited for Ianto to start the car and put it in drive before he started timing. Intently Jack stared at the screen, mentally estimating how long it would take Ianto to get to the Hub. Actually, Jack had no idea how long it might take for someone driving sanely, at the speed limit; Ianto had only ever rushed them to his flat, clothes halfway off, and Jack fundamentally didn’t believe in speed limits.

            Jack amused himself by zooming in the CCTV cameras, watching Ianto mouth lyrics to a song Jack couldn’t hear. At one point Ianto even bobbed his head and tapped his hand a bit on the steering wheel: how extroverted of him. Jack smiled fondly at the screen and shifted. He would have to attack Ianto as soon as he came in; of course, it was entirely Ianto’s fault for being too irresistible. 

            Switching to the internal CCTV as Ianto drew closer to the Hub, Jack waited for him to pull into a spot and put the car in park. As soon as he did, Jack depressed the stopwatch button. Ten forty-two. A moment later the stopwatch lay abandoned on Jack’s desk – maybe Jack could convince Ianto of morning car-sex.

37. 12:14

            “Do you think we have time to eat in this morning?”

            Jack stretched and wrapped his arms around Ianto. “Why? You want to make breakfast?”

            Jack felt Ianto’s warm breath on his neck and he shivered. “Yeah. Thought it could be a nice change, some eggs, bacon, toast, you know.”

            “Mm. Yeah, I think we have time. Tosh can handle ten minutes alone in the Hub.” Slowly, Jack let his hand slide down Ianto’s back, groping…

            “Jack, if you want a home-made breakfast, remove your hand and let me get up.”

            “I’ll help you get up. Besides, breakfast is overrated…” Jack attempted to kiss Ianto, but he pulled away and rolled out of bed.

            “I’m going to make breakfast. Feel free to join me.”

            Jack allowed himself a few moments contemplation of Ianto’s arse as he moved around the bedroom, slipping on pajama bottoms all too soon. As soon as Ianto left for the kitchen, Jack groaned and rolled out of bed. Glancing at the nightstand, he noticed the stopwatch and picked it up.

            Stretching until his spine popped, Jack made his way slowly into the kitchen. Ianto was just turning on the stove, assorted dishes and pans spread out on the countertops. Jack began timing and sat down on a barstool, watching Ianto busy himself with the food, breakfast aromas quickly filling the kitchen.

            Twelve minutes and fourteen seconds later Ianto set a plate down in front of Jack. Poached egg, toast, bacon, and fruit filled the plate, and Jack tucked in appreciatively. Ianto set his plate down next to Jack and walked around to sit with him. “Jack! Put some pants on!”

38. 15:24

            First, Ianto kissed Jack’s forehead. Then both eyelids, then his nose. Hovering over his lips, Ianto opted for a light peck, as much as Jack tried to deepen the kiss. He kissed both Jack’s ears, turning Jack’s head lightly to reach each one. Next was Jack’s throat, which he kissed a line down, veering off to the right when he reached his collarbone. He kissed a line down Jack’s left arm, darting his tongue out into the crook of his elbow, eliciting a gasp and then a groan from Jack. Each of Jack’s fingertips received a kiss, and then Ianto moved over to his right arm to repeat the process. Arms done, Ianto kissed his way down Jack’s chest: each rib, nipple, and muscle enjoying light contact with Ianto’s lips. Next came Jack’s navel, and then…

            Ianto ignored where Jack obviously wanted him to go, and instead made his way down Jack’s left leg, planting a kiss every few centimeters. He gave Jack’s toes the same attention he gave his fingers, then switched legs, moving his way from bottom to top. Hovering over Jack’s groin, Ianto smirked up at Jack, who just looked down pleadingly. Hands gripping Jack’s hips to hold him in place, Ianto placed tantalizing kisses down Jack’s shaft, on the tip, and then one on each of his balls. Jack groaned and tried to writhe beneath him, but Ianto kept him in place.

            “That’s time. How’d I do?”

Jack grumbled as Ianto crawled up his body to check the stopwatch. “Can’t we just check it later…

“Fifteen twenty-four. What were you saying, Jack? I was going to go get ready for bed…”

The stopwatch fell from Ianto’s hand as Jack dragged him in for a vicious kiss.

39. 15:27

            Jack’s command carried through Ianto’s small apartment. “Ianto! Come to bed!”

            “Ten minutes, Jack. And if you bother me again, not only am I withholding sex, but you can get your own coffee for the rest of the week.”

            Jack threw himself backwards on the bed, staring at the ceiling moodily. Turning his head to one side, he noticed the stopwatch on Ianto’s nightstand. He picked it up, depressing the button and listening to it tick soothingly.

            Eventually Ianto padded into his bedroom, scratching at his bare chest lazily. “I swear, you have the patience of a child sometimes.”

            Jack stopped the stopwatch as Ianto climbed into bed and pressed up against him. Pressing his face into Ianto’s hair and breathing deeply, Jack mumbled, “What were you doing?”

            “Why?”

            “It took you…” Jack checked the stopwatch, “fifteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds. What takes that long?”

            Ianto snatched the stopwatch out of Jack’s hand and reset it, before carefully placing it back on his nightstand. “Just writing in my diary.”

            Jack slipped a leg over Ianto and began kissing his neck. “Oh? Anything good?”

            Beneath him, Ianto shifted into the kisses, offering up more skin for Jack’s mouth to enjoy. “I can’t seem to recall anything. Perhaps if I had something worth recording…”

            Jack made sure the rest of the night was worth recording.

40. 23:14

            Jack’s hand slipped into Ianto’s as they sat on the couch one night. Not acknowledging it, out of fear that the contact would be retracted, Ianto slowly put his right hand in his pocket and pressed his stopwatch. The ticking was muffled by the sound of the movie they were watching.

            “Now, you see that girl by the pool there? The brunette?”

            Jack pointed at the screen with his left hand. “That one?”

            Ianto nodded. “What do you think of her?”

            Jack narrowed his eyes and leaned into Ianto. “Is this a test?” He kissed Ianto lightly.

            Ianto shook his head, smirking slightly. “No, just answer the question. Gorgeous, yes?”

            Jack nodded critically. “Yeah.”

            “She was born a man.”

            Jack shrugged. “Yeah?”

            Sighing, Ianto turned his attention back to the movie. “That’s right, 51st century: no labels. Back in the 20th century it was quite a shock to the viewing public.”

            Jack lifted Ianto’s hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Sorry to spoil your fun.”

            They settled back in the couch, watching the movie. When Ianto ran out of beer he made no move to get more, preferring the feel of Jack’s hand in his to another drink. Unfortunately, Jack seemed to take this as his cue to be chivalrous and removed his hand from Ianto’s, patting his thigh before standing up. “Want another beer?”

            Ianto smiled, surreptitiously clicking the stopwatch in his pocket. “Well, if you’re already up.” Ianto’s eyes followed Jack as he walked to the kitchen. Once Ianto decided he was far enough away, he pulled the stopwatch out of his pocket and checked the time. Twenty-three fourteen. New record.

41. 47:36

            Jack and Ianto glanced across the table at each other as the UNIT chief droned on and on about some sort of potential alien threat. Maybe. Jack honestly couldn’t recall what the UNIT chief was talking about, he just knew that it had been around twenty-five or thirty minutes, and no one beside the chief had said a single word.

            Jack furrowed his brows in question at Ianto, who glanced down at the stopwatch in his hand. Glancing over at the screen where the chief was, he mouthed at Jack thirty-four. Jack refrained from groaning and cutting the chief off. This had to be his and Ianto’s worst idea for the stopwatch. No talking, no interrupting, no encouragement: how long would someone from UNIT talk uninterrupted? Jack shifted and looked over at Ianto, who was at least trying to look like he was paying attention. He never thought it could be this long.

            Forty-seven minutes and thirty-six seconds into the chief’s speech, he paused. “Does this sound agreeable to you men?”

            Jack shook himself out of his reverie about how delicious Ianto would look covered in whipped cream and nodded. “Yeah, uh, fantastic. Sounds great. Listen, we have some business to attend to here…” he fumbled, looking to Ianto for support.

            “Ah, yes, we’re predicting a spike in rift activity in ten minutes and we need to get to the location.”

            “So thank you for your time…”

            Jack jumped up and dragged Ianto out of the room, grumbling the whole way. “Never again.”

42. 58:03

            Ianto gripped the stopwatch tight enough to leave red indents in his skin. Twenty minutes had passed already. Twenty minutes since he had shouted, Jack had shouted, and Jack had stormed out, presumably to find some rooftop somewhere to brood.

            He could understand why Jack was upset, he really could. Jack had to sit by today and watch, helplessly, as Ianto had a gun pointed at his head. But that was no reason to coddle Ianto, to try and bury him in archive work, and coffee making, and dry-cleaning…all those office boy errands he did before he became a field agent. Which, he had pointed out, he had to become because Jack left them and they needed someone else in the field.

            Ianto grimaced, rubbing the cool face of the stopwatch across his forehead. That had probably been a low blow, bringing up Jack’s absence. It only served to make things worse: once Ianto brought up Jack’s absence, then Jack brought up Lisa, and the whole conversation had spiraled down into a shouting match over Jack’s inability to love (not true), and Ianto’s tendency to love too much (only true for two people). “Like a girl!” Jack had shouted, just before he stormed away. Ianto would have laughed at the stupidity of Jack’s comment if he hadn’t been so angry.

            Twenty-seven minutes. Determined not to be the first to crack, Ianto went over to Owen’s workstation and started organizing some computer files. He lost himself in the work – organizing and cleaning up was his meditation, his way of calming himself down. Before he knew it another fourteen minutes had passed. Forty-one minutes. Ianto scrubbed the back of his head with his hand, eyes flickering between the stopwatch and the files he had just finished sorting. He would just check the CCTV, find out where Jack was. It wasn’t like he had to go to Jack once he found him…

            Ianto opened up the CCTV feeds on a different screen, rapid-cycling through all the rooftop cameras. He found him, quite expectedly, on the tallest building in the city: coat billowing out behind him, face set stern and unreadable. Ianto sighed. Jack didn’t look like he was coming down any time soon. Convincing himself this made him the better man, and that it wasn’t losing at all, Ianto grabbed his coat and stopwatch, setting off for Jack.

            As he stepped out onto the roof Ianto glanced around, pausing for a moment when he spotted Jack. He probably heard the door open, knew that Ianto was here. Silently, Ianto approached Jack, stopping when they were level with each other. He waited a moment in silence, just staring out at the city with him. He slipped his hand into Jack’s, pressing the stopwatch into his palm. “Fifty-seven minutes.”

            Jack extracted his hand from Ianto’s, but kept his grip on the stopwatch. After a moment’s pause he glanced down at it. “Fifty-eight minutes, three seconds.” He quirked an eyebrow in Ianto’s direction, handing back the stopwatch when Ianto refused to smile. “Why’d you come up here?”

            “Stopwatch was about to roll over at the hour, didn’t want to have to keep track of hours myself.” Ianto reset the stopwatch and tucked it into his pocket. They lapsed into silence again, tension still there. “Jack, I-”

            Suddenly Jack’s lips were on his, arms wrapped tightly around him, pulling him in close and crushing their bodies together. Ianto relaxed, opening his mouth as his body melted into Jack’s. Their tongues slid over each other’s, desperate to make contact, to reaffirm life. Abruptly Jack pulled back, but pulled Ianto into his chest, fingers running through Ianto’s hair. “Don’t. Come on, let’s go back to the Hub. Everyone else has gone, right?”

            Ianto closed his eyes, lost in Jack’s warm embrace. He couldn’t stay there forever, couldn’t stay safe for Jack forever. It just felt too good not to melt into the fantasy, just for a little bit. “Yeah. Let’s go back.”



To go back to part II, click here.
To go back to part I, click here.