3- Annoyed Title: Annoyed Authors:becky_h and baffledking Characters: Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones Fandom: Torchwood Theme Set: Theme Set #LW1 Theme(s): Annoyed Warnings and Notes: Mpreg
It had been almost a month since Jack had told him; since Jack had found out and it hadn't come up. Jack threw up in the mornings, Ianto brought him weak tea and crackers until the nausea subsided usually in just enough time for the others to come in. Ianto started feeding Jack prenatal vitins and arranged time in the afternoons, when he could, for Jack to have a nap or be sick from lunch. It wasn't ideal, but, so far, it was working.
It had been almost a month since Ianto had slept with Jack. He didn't make a big deal of it and he wasn't hiding from Jack by any means. He rubbed Jack's back and touched him, but he didn't kiss Jack, didn't try to steal quick presses of his body to Jack's.
He brought Jack a cup of tea in the early evening, after everyone else had left for the day, Owen sporting a vicious cut on his lower arm from what looked like a tiny dinosaur that was now curled up with Myfanwy in her nest. "Good evening, sir."
Jack was working. He was still throwing up more than occasionally, was still tired, but there was a routine emerging from the chaos and that routine included frequent trips to the bathroom and being tired. Hiding one more thing from the te wasn't even as hard as he sometimes wished it was.
Besides, Myfanwy hatching an egg was good distraction.
He smiled when Ianto walked in, closed the report he'd just finished and took his tea. "Thank you, Ianto. Have a seat."
Ianto raised an eyebrow, but sat across from Jack, "Something wrong?"
"No," he shook his head, and sipped his tea. "Just looking for company."
"You're finished with work?"
He nodded. "I . How do you feel about a walk?"
"Can you do a walk?" he asked, standing.
He drained his tea and stood. "I think I can manage," he said, extremely dryly.
He offered Jack his arm anyway.
He rolled his eyes and pulled his coat on, hand going to Ianto's back and heading for the invisible length. "I'm sorry," he said, once they were on the way up.
"What for?"
"For whatever it is that's making you so. Remote."
"I'm sorry I've been remote. I didn't think I had been.'
"It's the lack of sex."
"Pardon me?"
"That's making me wonder."
"Wonder what?"
"Think you were being remote," he corrected and clarified.
"Because we're not having sex?"
"You're not being sexually affectionate," he corrected.
"That doesn't mean I'm angry, Jack." he sighed.
"No, but it means you're something."
"Giving you space."
"For what?" He asked, utterly and completely confused. He triggered the lift, and the door above them opened.
"I thought you might like space."
"Why?" he asked, still confused.
He sighed, "To have sex, Jack."
"What?" He sounded more confused.
"With other people," he rubbed his face.
"Okay," he said, as the lift stopped. He put his hand back on Ianto's back and stepped off. "Want to tell me why I need space for that?"
"If I'm staying here often, it doesn't give you much opportunity," he headed towards the water.
"How much opportunity do you think I need?" he asked, obliviously.
"Not as much as I thought," he said a little bitchily.
"All right, help the idiot out. What I doing wrong?"
"Nothing," Ianto shook his head, "You're fine, Jack."
"Not if you're not sleeping with me I'm not."
"Do you *want* to be sleeping with me?"
"Of course I do!"
"The difficulty is," he said quietly, not looking at Jack, "is that I don't share well."
"What?"
He sighed, "What do you want me to say, Jack."
"I want you to keep talking to me until I understand what you're saying. You're looking for monogamy?"
"No," he shook his head, "I had a crazy idea that I had it. Which is my erroneous assumption. I'm looking for not getting space syphilis."
He was cranky
Jack.
Whirled around and punched the ever loving shit out of him, continued to whirl around until he was facing opposite Ianto and stalked the hell off.
Ianto took a minute to get his breath back, then followed after him.
Jack turned around again when he heard Ianto starting to follow him, and stalked forward to meet him.
"I might have deserved that," Ianto said thoughtfully.
"Might have?"
"Perhaps." He nodded.
"You are a self-righteous son of a bitch."
"You know that though."
He growled low sound at the back of his throat, head lowered, eyes blazing with something that really was damned close to fury, hands clenched at his sides and shaking with rage.
He really, really, wanted to do something he'd regret. He couldn't even get words out.
"You. You," he stammered, spun around and walked away.
"Jack," Ianto put his hands on Jack's wrists, "What did I say?"
He twisted his arms outward and up, pushing Ianto's hands off in the process, and while he turned back toward him fast enough to make his coat snap around his ankles, he stepped back, too.
"What did you say? You called me a syphilitic whore!"
"I did not!"
Well. Not whore.
"The hell you didn't," he snapped. He pointed at Ianto and took one step forward. "Let me tell you something, Ianto Jones. I don't criticize your backwards, backwater, limited, antiquated moral code and call you an uptight, tightassed, prude. So back the fuck off me not buying into a cultural norm, that's not my culture, much less my norm."
"I an uptight, tightassed prude."
He rolled his eyes so hard they ached. "No, Ianto. You're a perfectly normal 21st century guy. Except being acquainted with your prostate, but that is so not my point."
"No," he argued, because this sort of was his point and he needed to make it. "I . I'm uptight, I'm a tightass, I'm jealous and possessive and except for you, I'm so prudish my maiden aunts are ashed."
"Great," Jack said. "Fantastic! Wonderful! Having a stick up your ass does not excuse you from being an asshole."
"You asked."
"I in no way asked to be called a diseased ridden slut."
"No, you asked why I was upset. I told you. I did not call you a slut."
'"I'm glad you told me why you were upset," he said, honestly. "But "I'd rather not get space-syphilis'?"
"You've obviously not using protection and you're equally as obviously having sex with aliens."
He turned purple, spluttered and stammered he was choking so hard on his indignation and anger, and finally came out with, "Go to hell."
"What did I say that wasn't true, Jack!"
"Obviously not using protection is a good place to start."
"You're pregnant!"
"Yeah," he agreed. "I also come back from the dead. Does that make me Obviously Jesus?"
"You're missing any of the other prerequisites."
"And you're missing a whole lot of information."
"Then tell me," Ianto rubbed his face, exhausted.
"Next time trying asking instead of assuming. Take a couple of days off," he said. "Go to the beach, take a walk, see someone about your jaw. I'm going." He'd almost said home. Right. "back to the hub."
"For fuck's sake," he reached to grab Jack's arm, "I'm trying."
He took a deep breath, and turned back. "I know you are," he admitted. "Look. Even if I could die like a normal person, I have been vaccinated up one side and down the other for everything from the dawn of time to the end of everything. I shouldn't have been able to end up .. incubating, but I obviously and yeah, that means I could probably pick something else up. But it's not like I'm the universes STI petri dish."
"You hope."
"I had a really complete blood work up a month ago. I'm pretty sure if I was carrying something around it would have oh wait, it did show up."
Ianto rolled his eyes, "Point conceded. But fuck, Jack."
"You've got a point," he agreed. "Somewhere in there, under all the judgment and insults."
"I'm sorry it got lost under the judgments and insults." He was quiet for a moment before saying quietly, trying to say something important here. "I thought you were going to give me space herpes and I still held your hair while you threw up."
"I love you, too," he said, sincerely. "I'm not going to give you space anything. Think about it like this if I wasn't well and truly inoculated, one of your diseases would have laid me out flat by now."
"Unless you'd gotten it befor-okay," he took a deep breath and nodded, "Okay."
"If I've gotten it before and become immune, I'm not going to pass it along," he said, and held his hand out. "All I wanted was a walk."
Ianto took his hand, "I'm sorry."
"Are you?" he asked, not at all meanly, and finally started walking. Just. Walking.
"For ruining your walk, sir."
"Please, please stop calling me sir before I hit you again," he said, sounding as exhausted as Ianto did.
"My face hurts," he said respectfully.
"Good."
He nodded, "Jack."
"Hm?"
"How long until trying to kiss you doesn't get my jaw hit?"
"When you figure out and apologize for calling the kid you didn't want me to terminate syphilis."
"I didn't mean that the- Jack. I want" he cut himself off again, "I'm sorry."
"I know it's not what you meant, and I'm sorry I hit you," he said, honestly. And smiled, wryly.
"You shouldn't be."
"Why?"
"I might have deserved it."
"You deserved to be pulled up short. You didn't deserve to be hit."
"You didn't deserve what I said," he shrugged.
"No," he agreed. "I didn't. What were you trying to tell me you wanted?"
"I don't even know," he sighed.
"The irony is that you want me, presumably because I me. But you don't really want a dn big part of what makes me, me."
"No, I want you. I don't want my expectations of you."
"What expectations?"
"I don't even know, Jack," he said, sounding tired and young.
He stopped himself, listened to himself and thought for a half second. "Come here," he murmured, one arm out.
Ianto frowned, but he came.
He wrapped his arm around Ianto's waist, and pulled him in. The other, he used to pull his coat around Ianto, so he was pretty literally surrounded by warmth and Jack. "I'm sorry."
Ianto wrapped his arms around Jack's waist, frowning slightly, but leaning into him, "What?"
"I'm sorry," he repeated, his voice little more than a low murmur. "You can't judge me by any standard but the one you know, and there's not a thing wrong with your expectation."
Ianto sighed and kissed Jack's neck, "I do." Pause. "I do love you you know."
"I know," he said, rocking slightly with Ianto, hand sliding over his back, warm and a little rough. "I love you, too."
"That's good, sir," he said a little dryly, "We're having a baby."
He bit the side of Ianto's ear, sharply. "Not if we don't work out the sex stuff we're not."
He laughed, burying his face against Jack's throat and pressing his hands against Jack's back, "I want to have sex with you, Jack."
"Just not catch Ebola from my ass, yeah, I get that."
"Wouldn't do either of us any good."
"I don't know how well the monogamy's going to work with me."
"I'm not asking you for monogamy. I just want you to be safe."
"That I can do," he promised. Easily.
"Really?" Ianto sounded slightly skeptical.
"Really."
He wasn't even going back into the vaccination stuff, or the strong, and not entirely without supported, idea that nothing was going to live in him all that long, anyway. Ianto wasn't wrong, and being careful couldn't hurt.
He took a deep breath, "Thank you, Jack."
He kissed Ianto, slow and soft and so ridiculously careful.
He fisted the back of Jack's shirt, kissing back carefully before deepening the kiss, guiding it.
He didn't have a problem with being guided, but he still had shit to let go of. Like offense and a little attention. Still, he pulled Ianto in closer, and settled him inside the coat, and then. Relaxed and let Ianto, followed him.
Ianto bit Jack's lip softly, then stopped pushing the kiss, but didn't move away, hands still tight on his shirt.
He made a low sound, not quite knowing where to go from there. "Ianto?"
"Yes, sir?"
"What do you want to do now?"
"Make you come screaming," he said easily.
"...Here?"
"No, sir," he sighed.
He laughed. "Let's go." He inclined his head back toward the hub.