Late Night Loss Chapter 21

[galadriel1010]

Ianto slid into the room as quietly as only he could and surveyed the scene with quiet amusement. Jack, Ford and Zaphod were sprawled across the table, glasses and bottles surrounding them. The young man crossed to his partner and brushed a lock of hair from his forehead, bending to kiss it tenderly. When he pulled back the immortal was blinking at him blearily, so he pulled him so that his head was resting against his chest. Jack wound his arms around Ianto’s waist and sighed with contentment as the feel of Ianto’s fingers in his hair and a steadying hand on his shoulder drifted through the fuzziness in his brain, “How much did we drink?”

The young man chuckled softly but didn’t move, “Everything I think, are you OK?”

“Mmph. No, but it’s my own stupid fault.” He groaned softly as Ianto’s fingers rubbed gently at the back of his neck, loosening the cramp he’d got from falling asleep with his head on the table, “I don’t deserve you.”

“You deserve a hangover.”

“Got one of those.”

“Good, I get to look after you for a while.”

He tugged Jack puright and held him steady for a moment, frowning with concern when Jack swayed against him and had to rest his head against the younger man's shoulder as a wave of dizziness swept him, "Jack, you're starting to worry me now, are you alright?"

He shook his head against Ianto's strong shoulder and held him close, "I'm older than I was when I sed to drink that much regularly, I haven't been sleeping properly without you and the last couple of days haven't given me the chance to catch up really, I'm just... I'm an idiot for drinking that much is the simple truth of the matter."

"You're still drunk."

"And hungover, not a fantastic combination by any stretch of the imagination." He groaned and just wanted to sink back down again, but finding a bed and curling up in it with Ianot seemed like an infinitely preferable option, "I think I need to lie down."

"Do you think you're going to be sick?" Ianto was seriously concerned, he'd never seen Jack throw up, but then again he'd never seen him this drunk either

"No, had an implant thing years back so I don't throw up. Don't ask me how it works, I can't remember." He raised his head, "God Yan, I love you so much."

"Is that the drink talking?"

"Possibly, but it's true anyway, you know it is. I love you so much that I can't live without you, I just completely fell apart when you were gone. What it's going to be like when..." He stopped and sobbed and Ianto suddenly, belatedly, realised what he was thinking, icy hands gripping at his heart as he did so.

"Don't think about it Jack, don't ever think about it. I promise you this, if there is any way I can stay with you, any way at all, I will stay with you forever and ever. I never want to leave you. But I will always be here," he rested his hand on Jack's heart, aware that they were both crying freely, "I will always be here with you, in here."

"Ianto, you can't give up your mortality for me, you can't. I never, ever want to lose you, but I wouldn't wish this curse on my worst enemy, even less so on the man I love more than anything else." Jack had raised his head and they gazed into each other's eyes, "I want to spend a lifetime with you and not have to go on without you, but I can't face eternity without you and I couldn't face myself if you had to see immortality because of me."

"Jack, immortality's only a curse if you're alone. As long as I had you, I'd be able to face anything."

Jack dropped his head again and sobbed into Ianto's shoulder, "But it's all academic, isn't it? It's not possible."

The young man shook his head sadly, tears rolling down onto Jack's hair and sank into the chair, pulling Jack into his lap as he reached for a half full bottle of Scotch on the table, the only alcohol still available, and took a swig, feeling it burning down past his alrady pained heart, "Jack, I can't leave you, I don't ever want to leave you."

The captain clung to him tightly but managed a chuckle, "And this is the last time I ever get drunk."

"That's a lie and you know it." He took abother swig from the bottle, frowning first in concern when Jack took it from him and then in annoyance when the captain merely set it on the table, well out of his reach, "Hey!"

"No, we're too miserable, alcohol is for havign fun, not for being miserable. And that stuff rots things you don't even know you have, it's not good."

"Were you drinking it earlier?"

"Me, no. Them, yes. Besides, my rotted insides grow back."

Ianto was sceptical as he eyed the bottle, "How do you kow, have you experimented on destroying your liver?"

His partner nodded heavily, "Died of liver poisoning three times in the ealrly twentieth century. Never did me any harm; not long term anyway."

"Why did you get so hammered last night?" Ianto asked with a heavy sigh, "What brought it on?"

"Good alcohol, good company. They're a riot, almost as much fun as the real things were. Not got the stamina or the ability to hold their drinks though, I admit."

"Come on." Ianto nudged Jack up off his lap and also stood up, taking the older man's hand to tug him out of the room and down the corridor to a room he'd got organised earlier. "You, me, a warm bed and sleep, for as long as we need. Trillian says we've got a couple of days before we reach Magarathea and then... Well we can go from there. What happens to the ship?”

Jack shrugged, the warm bed was much more important, “I dunno, well until the Krikitmen steal the Heart that is, so we’ve got a while.”

“You need it, you daft git.” Jack tried to go left but Ianto pulled him right and into a silver and black room with a huge king-sized bed. The young man pushed his lover down to sit on the bed and bent to unlace and remove his boots; the captain laughed and squirmed when Ianto’s fingers brushed against the soles of his feet and he looked up in amused delight, “You’re really tired, you’re never ticklish.”

“Yeah, I’m exhausted, but it’s worth it.” He started to unbutton his shirt and smiled more when Ianto stood up again and pushed his hands out of the way to do it himself, removing Jack’s shirt almost absentmindedly.

He turned away to fold the shirt neatly onto a shelf, trying not to make it obvious that he was enjoying the touch and the scent of his lover on the shirt. Now he had the real thing back it felt silly, but before Jack found him he would have given anything for one part of Jack to cling on to. He returned to his partner, whose eyes were closed but opened when he ran his fingers through soft, silky hair. “Hey you.”

“Hey gorgeous.” Jack smiled dozily up at him with eyes so full of love it was overflowing from him and filling the whole room, “Whatcha doing up there?”

Ianto smiled down at him and kissed the top of his head, trailing his fingers down the older man’s toned chest and smiling when his breath hitched, “I missed you so much.”

The captain reached up to tug at the T-shirt Ianto had borrowed somewhere smiling happily when the young man got the hint and removed it, “I missed you too.”

Ianto straddled his waist and tilted his head up to kiss him softly before pushing Jack back onto the bed and crawling in after him, spooning up against his back and wrapping his arms around his waist, feeling his heart kick again when Jack laid strong arms on top of his own. “Sleep Jack, I’ll be here in the morning.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Arthur Dent woke slowly, then more rapidly as a smell reached him. He swung himself out of the capsule-like bed that he’d created for himself and grabbed his trusty dressing gown, sloping sleepily down the corridor to the control room. He grunted a reply, more out of habit than any actual point, to the door’s cheery ‘good morning’ and flopped down into the seat next to Trillian, across from where Jack and Ianto were cuddled together drinking coffee. The dark haired woman shrugged at him resignedly, “They won’t tell me where they got the coffee, just that I should ask if I want some. You try.”

“Will it work?” He asked Jack with a yawn

The captain shook his head and laughed, “It’s Ianto’s secret, not mine.”

“And my lips are sealed.” The Welshman grinned, “But there’s plenty more in the pot if you’d like some.”

“It’s real coffee, not Neutrinomatic rot?” Ianto’s disgusted face was enough of an answer for him and his eyes lit up, “I would never say no to proper coffee.”

Whilst the young man disappeared off to wherever he’d hidden the coffee pot, Arthur looked across at Jack. The man looked content, awake, not remotely hung over, unlike his drinking companions of the night before, “I checked in on Ford and Zaphod on my way down here.”

“Oh? Get all the blackmail evidence you require?” Jack grinned at him over the top of the coffee mug and looked round as Ianto reappeared in the room with two mugs. As soon as he’d given them to Arthur and Trillian he sank back into the sofa and Jack’s arm went straight around his waist.

The Englishman filed that away for future reference and nodded, “Oh yes. How much did you drink last night?”

“Everything?”

“And you’re not hung over?”

The captain grinned, surely that grin should be illegal, or at least not in this section of the library, “Ianto’s magical hangover cure, a good night’s sleep in the arms of the man I love and his special brew, can’t beat it.”

“That’s… You two are sickeningly sweet, you know that?” He almost glared at them, but not quite, “People would kill for a relationship like yours.”

“You?”

“Hell no, too much hassle, you have to remember things. I still end up with a daughter, don’t I? And she’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

“Arthur!”

“She keeps trying to kill me. Admit it, Random wasn’t written likeable. I love her to bits, because she’s my daughter, but it doesn’t mean I have to like her.” He shifted uncomfortably as he was complaining about a daughter he didn’t want in the company of two people who probably did want a child of their own and couldn’t have one, “Sorry, family issues get a bit weird once you’ve had the same argument over the same watch several hundred times.”

“Groundhog Day?” Ianto suggested

“Yeah, something like that. Anyway.” He took a sip of his coffee and groaned deeply, “Good coffee.”

“I do my best.” Ianto smirked, ‘good’ was always an understatement with his coffee.

“So, not trying to get rid of you but thinking plot wise, how long are you thinking of stopping?”

Jack shrugged and leaned back against the arm of the sofa, his hand trailing across Ianto’s back to rest on the small of his back, “We thought maybe later today we’d head for the Library. I want to tell Thursday that we’re out safely, say good-bye. Introduce Ianto to Melanie.”

“Sounds like a plan. Have you got Library books?” They shook their heads, “OK, Trillian and I will jump you back then, that’s the easiest way. We’ve got bit of time before we land on Magarathea.” He looked down at his mug and smiled, “You’d better put some more of this on, we need Zaphod and Arthur sober for this afternoon. Well vaguely sober anyway.”

Ianto laughed, “I’ll see what I can do.”