m_findlow

Title: Eternal love
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 508 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for juliet316’s prompt "any, any, wedding rings" at fic_promptly
Summary: Some things you can't bear to part with

Jack hadn't been through his box in ages. For someone who had lived so long, he should have had whole houses full of trinkets and treasures. Instead he had just the one tiny tin with a sparse handful of photos and mementos. It had taken him a few years of immortality to realise that the more he clung to the past, the heavier the burden weighed upon him in his present. He became ruthless in his mission to eradicate the past. Now he kept only the most important of things. Things he couldn't bear to part with.

Fingers expertly rifled through the limited contents, knowing exactly what he was after, and where it was.

The ring itself was intricate even by today's standards. In 1892 it had been beyond worth to own something of that kind. Jack had known a Felthosian living in London under the guise of a jewellers, who crafted the ring for him as a favour for keeping him out of Torchwood's hands. His whole shop was filled with magnificent items, but none compared to Jack's ring, such was the natural skill and craft that went into its making. The Felthosian had long since passed from this life, so no longer would his beautiful creations grace the hands and necks of those of this world. Only the blessed few who still owned his works, who or had inherited them, would be able to enjoy their exquisite beauty.

The band appeared to be made up of at least four separate strands of the finest white gold, all interlocking and interweaving in mind-boggling patterns. You couldn't tell if it was indeed separate bands, or whether it was simply one single piece, ingeniously woven and tracing around the wearer's finger for eternity. It was one of the things Jack most loved about it, that the ring itself should represent their eternal love.

And he had loved her. He had loved her so very much, that even now his heart yearned at her loss. He'd lived so long and loved so many, but still only a few would ever truly hold his heart the way she had.

He traced his finger around it, feeling the weave under his fingertip, still so smooth and yet textured at the same time. The sensation was almost hypnotic.

For once though, he didn't pull out the photographs that went with that memorable day. He didn't need to, they were all safely locked away in his mind. It was part of history that he couldn't go back and live again.

The ring however had a new role to play. It would not be returning to the box to gather dust, and to fade away and be forgotten. No, from the moment he had proposed to his fiancé, he knew that he wanted to place this ring on the hand of the man that had completely captured his heart, his mind, his body and his soul.

Tomorrow, this symbol of eternal love would be borne on Ianto's hand for as long as they both lived.