Torchwood(WWII Captain Jack Harkness/TW Captain Jack Harkness) [Romance - Week 3/prompt #7]
Title: Forever in Today Author: vagablonde Rating: general audiences Warnings: implied character death Word Count: 346 Summary: Jack's been around a long time...... Author's Notes:
"I can't die."
Jack pulls away from him in the dark -
"Everything dies - trees, the sun, the Universe, everything, even you."
He struggles to breathe, forgetting for a moment he no longer has any physical sort of lungs, just an old, phantom memory of what breathing feels like and the glass cage that holds him, permeating his leathery skin with oxygen.
"You never told me your name," Jack says with only a little admonishment in his tone.
"Johnnn Harrrper…"
' - that's who you were, once, for a moment - that's not your name."
"I wasss Captain Jack Harkness…."
Jack laughs. "Sometimes I believe you were - more than I ever was anyway."
"No - " he protests, mechanics forming the long sounds as his lips move tiredly.
"It's okay, it's nice. You lived a lot more than I ever would have. But why did you keep it?"
"Whaaat - "
"My name. It had to have been difficult, all those years, the same name, the same face, people questioning you - why'd you keep it?"
"It was the only thing I haddd left of you - " The words are slow…it's harder to think of the sounds. He's so tired.
"Who are you - "
"The Face of - "
" - that's what they call you now," Jack stops him, "not who you are."
Fingers touching his face, a face he hasn't worn for a million years, a face with porcelain skin and blue, blue eyes…
"Who are you - "
"The man who has loved you from the day we met until the beginning of time - and longer."
His voice is stronger now, richer…alive, but the darkness is suffocating, he's drowning in the nothing of it.
"Where are you - " he calls out, suddenly scared - when was the last time he'd been scared…
"Right here," Jack's hand folds around his, warm and solid, the first real touch he's felt in years - thousands, millions - of years. He sighs, letting air he couldn't remember breathing escape from his lungs.