Torchwood: Fanfic: Three for tea
Title: Three for tea
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,120 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, an important dinner date" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack has a special guest coming for dinner and doesn't want any hassles.
Jack gave a gentle knock on the edge of the doorway, so as not to startle his lover from the deep look of concentration etched on his face as he worked. 'I'm heading off now,' he said.
'Okay.'
'I'll stop off at the shops on the way and pick up the dry cleaning as well.' He almost laughed at how domesticated and well-trained Ianto had him these days.
'You do that.'
'Promise you'll be home on time?' Jack said.
'Of course,' Ianto said, not even bothering to look up from his computer.
Jack moved away from the door and took a few steps forward. 'Ianto Jones, I know you. Any other time you'll make sure you're at least twenty minutes early to any appointment, but when I say The Doctor is coming for tea, you turn up late.'
'Oh, please,' Ianto said, finally tearing his gaze away from the screen. 'When has he ever turned up on time? Last time he was four hours late, and the time before that he didn't even show, and then rocked up two weeks later.'
Jack folded his arms across his chest. 'So, you admit you intentionally arrived home late?'
'No,' Ianto lied.
'Ianto, this is important. To me. The Doctor is going to be in and out of our lives for a very long time. The least we can do is all try to get along. I forgave the Doctor a long time ago. I don't know why you insist on bearing a grudge.'
Ianto pushed his chair out a few inches from the desk so that he could look at Jack properly. He could hardly deny that he didn't at least have some less than amicable feelings toward the Doctor. It couldn't be helped. The Doctor admitted that he'd abandoned Jack when he needed him most, leaving him stranded on that game station. And then after a century and a half of Jack patiently waiting in Cardiff, having been stranded once again, the Doctor had finally returned. Jack had rightly gone after him, but just when he finally thought they were going to be reunited, he'd tried to brush Jack off again. He'd told Jack he was wrong, and that rankled Ianto more than anything. Jack wasn't wrong. Jack was special. Jack would outlive all of them, the Doctor included. He would go on to do a million and one good things long after they were all dead. How could you call that wrong? He didn't care that but for the Doctor having left him that first time, Ianto would never have met Jack in Cardiff in this timeline. That wasn't the point. Jack had needed someone a hundred and forty years before Ianto had come along to be his rock. He'd spent all that time wondering why he'd been left behind like he was nothing at all.
Ianto also wasn't sure if the Doctor telling Jack he couldn't be fixed wasn't a lie. Could he not fix him, or did he just not want to? Ianto had heard stories about the Doctor's companions, and many of them met an unpleasant end. Martha was the lucky one, he thought. She had the good sense to get out before anything bad happened. Perhaps the Doctor had done a lot of good things, but he hadn't been able to save Jack, and he hadn't been able to save Lisa. When you added up the worth of the two people Ianto had loved more than anything, it didn't balance up the ledger in the Doctor's favour as far as he was concerned.
How was he meant to sit there across the table from him, in their own house no less, whilst the Doctor and Jack regaled past adventures and stories from their respective pasts? He couldn't even be sure which version would turn up on their doorstep. Would it be the one who'd abandoned Jack? The one who'd tried to get rid of to him? Maybe it would be the silly looking one with the bow ties and funny hats. At least he wasn't quite so bad. Or it might be the angry Scottish one. Then again, it might be a different face altogether, but Ianto knew underneath it all, it would be the same Doctor. A different face and a change of clothes didn't alter what had happened in the past, anymore than it did if Ianto put on clean socks.
'Talk to me, Ianto,' Jack implored, coming closer, until he was sitting on the edge of the desk.
Ianto reached out and clasped Jack's hand. 'You're the most important thing in my life, Jack. And I'm not sure that the Doctor cares one way or another about that.'
'He does care about you,' Jack insisted.
'I couldn't care less if he likes me or not,' Ianto replied. 'It's you I want him to care about. You think he's this amazing person, and you'll do anything for him, but I'm not convinced he appreciates it. Everything we've been through, and you still choose him.'
Jack leant across the desk and gripped Ianto's face in his hands. Finally he'd gotten to the bottom of the problem. Not only was Ianto incensed at the way he viewed the Doctor's treatment of him, but he was jealous.
'Ianto, I chose you. I will always choose you. The Doctor is special to me because none of this would ever have happened if I hadn't been dragged into his orbit. I'm a different person because of it, because I had to wait to find out the answers, and because I learnt that the answers weren't nearly as important as what I'd gained in the meantime.' He looked into Ianto's eyes to make sure he got the message loud and clear. 'I can handle myself. If the Doctor needs my help, then he has it, but I won't ever do anything that jeopardises us. You're more important than any Time Lord.'
Ianto rested a hand on top of Jack's own as it stroked his cheek.
'Are we good?' Jack asked.
'We're good.'
Jack placed a kiss on his forehead before hoping off the desk. 'Five o'clock, okay? That gives you an hour at home to look your best before he arrives.'
'Looking my best is purely for your benefit,' Ianto teased.
He smiled. 'I know that, too.'
'I'll be there,' Ianto promised. 'But we're out of bananas.'
'Huh?'
'You said you were going to the shops on your way home. The Doctor likes bananas.'
Jack grinned. 'I'll add ice cream and chocolate sprinkles to the list while I'm at it. Plain bananas are just boring. Banana sundaes on the other hand, now that's worthy of any good dinner party.'