Given that the team had worked throughout the night and it was now actually morning, it wasn’t really a case of letting them go early, it was more a case of just getting them all the hell out of there.
Preferably sooner than later.
When Ianto had finished with Max’s body, he raced back upstairs and told the three of them to take the rest of the day off and go home. Gwen, still feeling out of sorts after the night’s events, had no arguments with that and left straight away. Owen still had a few things he wanted to get done but it took him less than a second to decide to leave them for the next day and to follow after her. Ianto got the impression he was actually going home alone for once, while Gwen would be going home to her boyfriend instead. Tosh was the only one who seemed to be reluctant to leave the Hub.
With Suzie being locked away down in the cells until Ianto decided what to do with her, Tosh would be left on her own. It would also be the first time she had been back to her own flat alone, since the incident with Mary. Ianto could tell she wanted to hang around longer, but he had other things on his mind and so, as gently, but as firmly, as he could he encouraged her to go. He told her they would discuss what was going to happen with Suzie tomorrow, but for now she would be fine down in the cells. She had been provided with enough food and drink to last her for twenty-four hours, and after that, Ianto would be making a decision on her future anyway.
The seconds seemed to drag before Tosh got ready to leave and when she finally left, he immediately raced up to his office, slowing down as he got there, not wanting to seem over eager. He only just made it within the ten minutes, but judging by the enormous grin that still adorned Jack’s face, he knew it wouldn’t have mattered how long he took, just as long as he got there within a reasonable time. He stood in the doorway and the two men stood there and looked steadily at each other, anticipation written all over their faces.
Ianto stepped forward and took a deep breath to steady himself; he knew that this would finally be it. He had waited long enough to give himself totally to Jack and it wasn’t fair on either of them to keep him waiting any longer. Ianto was surprised to find however that he didn’t feel anywhere as nervous as he thought he would be, he found instead that it felt very, very right.
Jack walked up to him, reached a hand into Ianto’s pocket and drew out the stopwatch. He clicked the button on the top and looked at the time. “Nine minutes, fifty six seconds,” he stated, still grinning. “You were nearly late.”
Ianto found himself returning the grin. “And what would you have done about it if I was?” he said with mock bravado.
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Quite a lot of things. Apparently, there’s quite a list…”
They both laughed. Jack placed the stopwatch on the desk behind them and turned back to Ianto. He reached out, gently took hold of the knot on Ianto’s tie and slid his hand down its length while he appeared to be considering something. He leant in, his face just millimetres from Ianto’s.
“I think you’re wearing too many clothes, Mr Jones,” Jack said, his voice slightly husky as he reached back up and started to undo the knot on Ianto’s tie. Loosening the tie, he hooked it around the back of Ianto’s neck and draped the ends over his shoulders. Pausing to kiss Ianto’s lips lightly, he turned back and grabbed the stopwatch again. Ianto looked at him curiously.
“How quickly do you think you can get out of them?” Jack asked, holding the stopwatch up beside him.
Ianto looked at the stopwatch. “You want to see who can get undressed the fastest? We don’t need the stopwatch for that.”
“Oh, yes we do. You go first, and then we time me,” Jack replied.
Ianto eyed Jack’s braces, shirt, undershirt, trousers and boots. Jack had already given him a head start by taking his tie off for him. “I got this easily,” he said.
If possible, Jack’s grin got even larger at that statement. “We’ll see!” He was just about to move his hands when Ianto stopped him.
“Wait, I should probably turn off the CCTV. Don’t want to give the others any gossip material.” As Jack nodded, Ianto walked around the desk to his computer and started to shut the system down. “I’ll tell the others we were running some maintenance scans, after the thing with Suzie today.”
As Ianto bent over the desk to finish shutting the CCTV system down, he took the tie off from around his neck as it was getting in his way. When he started to walk back to the other side of the desk, Jack shook his head and pointed.
“Not without the tie!” he exclaimed.
“Why not?”
“I have plans for that tie.”
Ianto moved back to stand in front of Jack, who took the tie from his unresisting hands. Ianto’s eyes widened as Jack raised it to eye level and tied it behind Ianto’s head.
“Jack?” he questioned.
“Just making it a bit more interesting,” came the response.
Ianto gulped, feeling a bit self-conscious about standing there blindfolded. I can still do this, he thought. I know where all the parts of me are; I don’t need to see them to get undressed.
“Are you ready?” Jack asked him.
Ianto nodded and as soon as he heard the click of the stopwatch starting, he reached up and started unbuttoning his shirt. Jack watched him keenly for the first few buttons, eagerly taking in every inch of skin that was uncovered and feeling his body stir in response. Then he quietly moved closer to Ianto, to begin the game for real. If Ianto thought he was going to just stand there getting undressed, without any interference, he had another thing coming.
As Ianto raised his arms to shrug off his jacket and shirt, Jack moved in. By now, Jack had learnt all of Ianto’s ticklish spots and he intended to put that knowledge to good use. He placed his hands on either side of Ianto’s body and pounced. He laughed as Ianto instinctively curled his arms back in on himself, nearly getting tangled in his sleeves as he did so.
“Hey!” Ianto yelped, trying not to laugh too much. “That’s cheating!”
Jack shook his head, and then remembering Ianto couldn’t see him, spoke out loud. “No, it’s not. At no stage did I ever say I couldn’t tickle you.”
“Well that’s hardly fair, given you’re not ticklish at all,” Ianto retorted good-naturedly, trying to fend Jack’s hands off.
Jack laughed back. “Them’s the rules!” Jack continued his assault on Ianto as he tried in vain to get his clothes off quickly. No matter which way he turned though, Jack was still able to get his hands on him and tickled him constantly. Being blindfolded while trying to escape Jack’s wandering hands meant he inevitably lost his balance and Jack had to grab hold of him to make sure he didn’t fall over.
Jack left him alone as he bent over to untie his shoes, partly because he didn’t want Ianto to hurt himself by losing his balance again, but mostly because as soon as he had bent over, Jack’s attention was totally distracted by the sight of Ianto’s trousers stretched tightly across his very enticing backside. Jack raised his bottom jaw with a snap, not wanting to start drooling.
“Five minutes, thirty-six seconds,” Jack called as he clicked the stopwatch off when Ianto was finally naked.
Ianto ripped the tie off his head in relief. “Your turn,” he said, holding up the tie.
Jack shook his head. ”That’s your tie. I don’t have to wear it.”
Ianto raised an eyebrow and put his hands on his hips. “You’re making these rules up as you go, aren’t you?”
“Maybe,” Jack shrugged, earning an eye roll from Ianto. He watched in amusement as Ianto stood there, apparently working out what he would do next.
Ianto dropped his tie on the desk and stood directly in front of Jack. After looking mischievously into Jack’s eyes, he took the stopwatch out of Jack’s hand and proceeded to un-clip the front of his braces. Ianto walked around behind him, Jack’s head turning slightly, trying to keep an eye on him.
“They’re too thin to use as a blindfold,” Jack warned.
Ianto chuckled softly. “I’m not blindfolding you with them.”
Jack nearly gasped in surprise as he felt Ianto pull his arms behind him and place his wrists together. When he felt Ianto start tying the braces around his wrists, he started to protest.
“Tough,” Ianto said back. “At no stage did you ever say I couldn’t tie you up.”
Jack grunted, nearly pouting, as he heard Ianto deliberately misquote his own comment back to use against him. Ianto stood back in front of him again and, grinning nearly as brightly as Jack previously had been, clicked the stopwatch on.
Ianto laughed in delight as he watched Jack struggle with the knots he had tied. Ianto hadn’t made the knots too complicated, just hard enough to severely slow Jack down. Complicated knots could wait for another time…
As the timer approached five minutes, Jack finally worked his way through the knots and he threw his braces onto the ground. Ianto glanced at the stopwatch in concern – he knew full well how quickly Jack could get undressed when he wanted to. He shook his head in fond amusement as Jack practically ripped his clothes off; Ianto was sure he’d find some stray buttons on the floor the next day, judging by how quickly Jack’s shirt was undone.
As soon as he was finished, Jack stepped forward and grabbed the stopwatch away from Ianto and stopped the timer.
“Well?” Ianto asked as Jack stood there looking at the result. Ianto stepped over to have a look, but Jack held the stopwatch away from him, hiding it from Ianto’s view. “Jack! Show me!”
Ianto had to laugh at the look on Jack’s face as he finally let Ianto have the stopwatch back. Five minutes, forty-three seconds – seven seconds slower than Ianto.
“Ha!” Ianto responded cheekily. “Do I get a reward?”
Jack reached out and placed his hands on Ianto’s hips, pulling him closer. “You want a reward?” he growled suggestively. He pulled Ianto closer still, so that their bodies were pressed together and pressed his lips to Ianto’s in a bruising kiss.
When they eventually came up for air, they were both panting heavily and thoughts of further stopwatch games suddenly had less appeal. Ianto pushed Jack backwards gently, trying to get within reach of the desk so he could put the stopwatch down. As he was reaching out towards the desk though, Jack moved his hands lower down Ianto’s body and grabbed hold of his backside. Ianto jerked slightly, not expecting the sudden sensations and, before he knew it, the stopwatch was knocked out of his hands and fell to the floor. They both stopped and looked down at the stopwatch; the glass front of it had shattered and was in several pieces on the floor surrounding the body of the stopwatch.
“Jack, I’m sorr…” Ianto began earnestly.
“It’s OK. We can get it fixed.” Jack placed a finger over Ianto’s mouth to quieten him. He looked back the stopwatch for a moment. “There’s a new shop in the mall I’ve been meaning to check out that sells antique clocks and other time pieces. I’m sure they’ll be able to fix it for me.”
Ianto nodded.
“Besides,” Jack continued, “I think we have more important things to do just at the moment…”
Ianto nodded again.
“…and I don’t want you cheating again!” Jack finished.
“Cheating! Me?” Ianto poked Jack in the stomach. “You were the one making up the rules as you went. You were the one cheating, not me.”
“I was not cheating,” Jack proclaimed. “And besides, how would you know if those were the rules or not?”
This time when Ianto pushed Jack towards the desk, he wasn’t quite as gentle as before and Jack sat down on the edge of the desk with a thump. Jack’s knees parted as Ianto pushed between his legs and he leant down to whisper in Jack’s ear. “Because I know everything!”
Ianto straightened up again and the two of them looked into each other’s eyes again and they burst into laughter. The laughter soon stopped though, as the mood changed and their staring at each other became more serious, more meaningful.
“Jack…” Ianto began nervously, suddenly all too aware of where things were leading now.
Jack stood up straight away and held Ianto close. “It’s OK, Ianto. Whatever happens here, you’re in charge, we’ll do everything at your pace. You can trust me.” He put a finger under Ianto’s chin and raised his head to kiss him tenderly. After the kiss, Jack looked at Ianto again and his heart twinged as he saw the emotions shimmering in Ianto’s eyes.
After a childhood where physical contact had meant either punishment or pain, and usually at the hand of a male, usually his father, it had taken Ianto a long time to be truly comfortable in an ongoing intimate relationship. But once he was comfortable with both himself and the relationship, Lisa had found him to be very tactile and responsive to touch.
Being with another man however was a different story. Ianto knew, deep down, that he really could trust Jack; he knew Jack wasn’t going to hurt him, but as it was mostly men who had hurt him in the past, there was still an amount of uncertainty lingering in the back of his mind. And his own doubts on top of that, had so far stopped him from taking his relationship with Jack any further. Doubt in himself, doubt that he would be good enough for Jack, doubt that he would keep Jack’s interest afterwards… if he had nothing left to offer.
Swallowing nervously again, Ianto nodded back at Jack. Jack brushed his fingers over Ianto’s cheek softly, and then took hold of his hand and led him to the ladder to his bunker. Once they climbed down the ladder they stood beside the bed and Jack started to kiss him once more. Losing himself in the feel of Jack’s kiss and the scent of Jack’s pheromones, Ianto’s nerves gradually righted themselves again and he found himself able to enjoy Jack’s touch once more. At Jack’s silent urging they lay down on the bed, barely breaking their kiss as they did so.
Jack settled Ianto on the bed, lying face up and told him to just lie there and let him do all the work for now. Jack trailed increasingly urgent kisses down the side of his face and neck. Ianto closed his eyes in pleasure, letting himself just feel. He gasped as Jack’s mouth moved down to his nipple and teased it gently with his teeth. Ianto’s hand came up and rested on the back of Jack’s head, his fingers running through Jack’s hair. Jack heard Ianto’s breathing become more and more ragged as he continued moving his hands over Ianto’s body; he was delighted at how responsive Ianto was to his touch, his skin quivering as Jack touched the more sensitive parts of his body.
Jack’s head moved lower, kissing down his sides and across his stomach. Placing a hand on Ianto’s hip, he slid his hand over Ianto’s groin and down to the top of his thigh. Jack looked back up at Ianto and was encouraged to see he was looking comfortable with what they were doing.
Unbeknown to Ianto, Jack had done some research into Ianto’s past after they first met in that night in the park, and he had dug even deeper after they became closer. He had heard enough from Ianto’s dreams to know that there had been a great deal of trauma in his past, beyond that of Canary Wharf and losing Lisa, and there were also all those scars on his body that he couldn’t bring himself to talk about.
Jack was surprised to find that Ianto’s childhood records had mostly been sealed but, by pulling in some favours from some friends, he was able to discover there had been a number of incidents reported to Child Services. Nothing had ever been proven, but there were a number of incidents where the young Ianto had been admitted to hospital and the nurse or doctor had suspected child abuse. Nothing had ever been taken any further but it was enough to give Jack an insight into why Ianto reacted the way he did, and it gave Jack plenty of time to consider the best way to treat Ianto when it came to being intimate with anyone.
He wanted to make love to Ianto tenderly; this wasn’t simply to be about two men having sex. As comfortable as Ianto was, Jack could still feel some underlying tension remaining in Ianto’s body and knew, that for this time at least, he wasn’t to play any games. He simply needed to show Ianto how special he was and how fantastic they could be together.
Ianto gasped in pleasant surprise as Jack took him into his mouth. Jack pushed down on his hips to hold him against the bed as Ianto instinctively began push himself upwards into the warmth of Jack’s mouth. Jack licked and sucked, paying close attention to how aroused Ianto was. When he felt that Ianto was getting close to coming, he released him, hearing a faint groan in response, and got up on his hands and knees. Moving back up to be level with Ianto’s head, he leant down and kissed him deeply.
Ianto had by now opened his eyes again and his hands were roaming over Jack’s chest, feeling the firm, hard muscles. His fingers sought out Jack’s nipples, the pads of his thumbs rubbing around the hardened nubs before he slid his hands around to Jack’s back, pulling him down against him. Jack moaned in delight as Ianto ran his nails down his back.
Jack reached over his night-stand and pulled a small container of lube out and then paused as he caught sight of something else in the drawer. He looked at Ianto. “Do you need me to use a condom?”
Ianto looked at him uncomfortably, not knowing what to say. Jack had not slept with anyone since his last death so he knew he would be clean and as Ianto had been required to undergo a full set of blood tests when he was being treated after Canary Wharf they decided not to use any protection.
Jack placed a pillow under Ianto’s hips and proceeded to prepare Ianto carefully. When he felt Ianto was ready, he entered him slowly and then stopped. He watched Ianto’s face intently, waiting for the moment when he was comfortable with Jack being inside him before moving again.
Lying there, watching Jack above him, Ianto felt overwhelmed. He had not expected to feel as… full… as he did with Jack inside him. The feeling was so unlike anything he had ever experienced before, and after the initial discomfort passed, he thought he had never felt anything so good. He wrapped his legs around Jack’s waist, trying to encourage him and changing the angle of penetration, causing a loud groan from Jack.
Hearing Jack’s groans of pleasure served to heighten Ianto’s own pleasure. Knowing he was the cause of Jack being so aroused was a turn on in itself. Each of them fed off the sounds of the other’s pleasure, pushing them both further and further.
When Jack was getting close to coming, he reached down and started stroking Ianto’s erection, wanting them both to come at the same time. Ianto’s legs clenched around him even tighter and Jack knew he was close. Jack couldn’t hold on any longer and as he started to come, so did Ianto, a considerable amount of grunting coming from the pair of them as neither of them were exactly capable of saying anything coherent.
After they came, they held on to each other tightly as their shuddering gradually stopped and their breathing returned to normal. Jack feathered warm, soft kisses over Ianto’s face and a satisfied grin crossed his face at the sight of him. He lay on his side facing towards Jack, his eyes half closed, his chest still heaving, and his cheeks, neck and upper chest flushed red. He looked totally spent. Jack ran his fingers through Ianto’s hair, caressing his face gently; he wanted to remember this moment for a very long time.
The chill of the underground base slowly started to sink in and Jack reached across Ianto to pull the covers over the both of them. They lay there, snuggled into their cocoon of blankets, their arms wrapped around each other and their legs intertwined, and as they both fell asleep, Jack realised he felt the most contented he had felt in quite a while.
And when Ianto woke later that afternoon, feeling calmer and more relaxed than he had any right to feel after what had happened with Suzie, he realised with great joy that for the first time since several months before Canary Wharf, he had actually slept the whole way through without any nightmares at all.