[for ianto and daniel] Wednesday Sept. 19

[more_flexible]

Jack took the bucket and left House and Wilson together in the rec room. He made good on his suggestion, finding his way to Ianto's hut easily in the twilight. It really was magic because by the time he got there, not only had none of the ice melted, there were a few more beers than there had been before.

He knocked on the door and waited, hoping it was still early enough he wasn't interrupting anything. And hey, if he was, he had a peace offering.

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[theunascended.livejournal.com]

"I got it," Daniel called into the bedroom. He dropped the pencil on the notes he was taking and stood up, heading to the door. Opening it, he was surprised to see Jack with what looked like beer.

"Uh...hi?" He blinked. He had no idea why Jack would be bringing Ianto beer.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Hi!" Jack said, smiling brightly. "Is this a bad time?"

[coffee_sir]

Ianto had frowned slightly at the knock, and at Daniel's call, and then at the somewhat muffled voices from the other room. It sounded like Jack, but surely he wasn't high again.

He stepped into the doorway of the bedroom. There had been plans to change, so the t-shirt he had been wearing was stuck around his arms, not on and not off. "Jack?" he called warily. "What's going on?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack kept on smiling, looking past Daniel. "Ianto! I brought some beer. And, um...I have a favor to ask. Maybe. If it's okay," he said, the smile faltering just a little as he looked at Daniel. "Could I sleep here? Tonight?"

[theunascended.livejournal.com]

Daniel almost desperately wanted to say no and slam the door in Jack's face. But he also knew what Ianto would say. Would probably want Daniel to say. So he took a step back. "I don't know where you're going to sleep. I'm the one with the bed big enough for ten." He shot a fond look at Ianto. "His bed can barely hold the two of us."

It was an old joke, dating back to the first time that Daniel had stayed over, and it comforted him a little. Of course, he was completely oblivious to the inherent innuendo in the statement.

[coffee_sir]

Ianto glanced back at Daniel and managed to smirk back at him before he could take note of the slightly worried look on his face. Usually Jack only needed a place to sleep when he and House were at odds. And, usually, he slept in bed with Ianto.

...That didn't need to be mentioned at this juncture.

He looked back to Jack, belatedly tugging his shirt on over his head. "Did.. you and House have a row?" he asked.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"No," he replied brightly, holding up the bucket. "Wilson let me take these and I left the two of them in the rec room. They looked like they needed some privacy," Jack chuckled. "And House told me not to wait up, so I figured, hey...why not just make myself scarce? So, I come bearing beer."

[theunascended.livejournal.com]

Daniel looked from Jack to Ianto and back, raising an eyebrow. He had a feeling there was something that he was missing, but he wasn't going to say anything, yet. He didn't know Jack well enough, wasn't comfortable with him enough, to ask that question. So he'd let Ianto do it.

[coffee_sir]

Ianto stared blankly at Jack and blinked. "...They did, did they?" he asked cautiously, stepping forward. He shot Daniel a look to communicate that this certainly wasn't business as usual. "And how much beer have you had exactly? ...And pot, while we're at it."

Except Jack didn't smell like pot, and when Ianto came closer, he could see that his eyes were perfectly normal. He didn't even look vaguely drunk.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Just two," he laughed. "And so fantastic pepper beef with noodles from some delivery place in Princeton. Wilson wished it all up with his wand. And no pot. Can't you tell? No showtunes."

He was in a great mood, though, and started to come inside, the bucket swinging just a little. "I didn't have the heart to tell him that some of these would be better if they weren't ice cold, but it was nice of him to give them up. I don't think either of them had beer on their minds. It was sweet, really, how Wilson and House were close. Seemed...I don't know. Right," Jack shrugged, setting the bucket down and clapping his hands together.

[theunascended.livejournal.com]

Daniel wasn't sure how Jack managed it. He wanted to hate the man and sometimes he did, but sometimes he felt sorry for him, too. When he was crouched on the ground whimpering and now that apparently the island had screwed something up.

"Wand," he repeated, making sure he'd gotten that right. "As in magic wand." He wasn't going to take anything on the island for granted.

[coffee_sir]

Shutting the door behind Jack, Ianto continued to stare at Jack, gaping a little now.

"Wilson didn't happen to point that wand at you at any point, did he?" he asked. "Or... slip any drugs into that pepper beef?" As delicious as Chinese takeaway sounded at the moment, there was something seriously wrong when the one thing Jack cared about he didn't seem to care about anymore.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"No, why?" he asked, honestly oblivious to why Ianto would be concerned. Unless it was that he was calling the man House...but that was his name.

"It was just on the table. I actually used it to open my beer. Here, we'll have to manage the old-fashioned way," he said, popping the cap off of a bottle and passing it to Daniel.

"There was pizza, too. And a television with baseball. God, I forgot how boring baseball is. But they liked it. I don't remember a team called the Flyers, though. That's who House was interested in." He shrugged and picked through the bottles, looking for one Ianto might like.

[theunascended.livejournal.com]

Daniel took the drink absently, taking a sip, noting that it was actually something drinkable and not the kind of beer that Jack had always given him. "Thanks," he murmured, looking between Ianto and Jack.

There was something that was missing. Something he thought he should realize and it was killing him, because he thought it was important.

"Seemed...I don't know. Right." The phrase echoed in his head as if he should be able to understand why it related to the magic and how Jack seemed to be taking his boyfriend's apparent infidelity. But he couldn't quite connect the three.

[coffee_sir]

"Jack," Ianto said, still clearly concerned, still hoping he would snap out of whatever this was. "Jack you're talking about House. Your boyfriend. The one you worked so hard to keep and who you're, more often than not, in a monogamous relationship with. And Wilson. Remember when you threw the coffee mug at his head?"

Ianto wasn't really in the mood to mince words or allude to things slyly with Daniel in the room. He had given up trying to hide things from him a long time ago, and this attitude of Jack's was worrisome.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Ianto. That's all in the past. Here. Have a beer," he smiled, pressing the bottle into his hand. "Just because I nearly killed him is no reason we can't be friends. And, you know, he and House have been friends for so long. Wilson's his first real, true love, you know."

Something hitched his smile, just a little. He and Wilson weren't friends, and no words would make it be true. He just...huh.

"You think they're going to...is that what he meant about not waiting up? I just thought they'd...huh." Jack shrugged and grabbed blindly for a bottle and twisted the cap off the crappy American beer, chugging it as Ianto's words settled in uncomfortably to stay.

[theunascended.livejournal.com]

Again, Daniel had that niggling feeling that he should be putting the pieces together, but for some reason he wasn't. Frowning, he took another sip and turned to Jack. "Why don't you start from the beginning. When was the last time that you didn't think they should have a happily ever after?" Clearly something had happened and it had to do with the island. Big surprise.

[coffee_sir]

"Was it sometime after you hit your head?" Ianto suggested, eyebrows rising slightly. He kept the beer in hand but didn't drink it. There was something more than slightly wrong here. The Jack he knew held grudges. The Jack he knew oozed sexuality and always took the innuendo to mean the dirtiest thing it could. And the Jack he knew couldn't hide many things from Ianto. In this sort of situation, Jack should have been upset, and Ianto should have been able to pick up on that. But instead he was picking up on nothing, like running into a blank wall, knowing something's there but being unable to get to it.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack finished the beer before he even bothered to answer. "I didn't hit my head," he said, then turned to Daniel. "The last time? Wow, they've always been perfect for each other, don't you think? House was with Wilson long before he was ever with me. I guess it was about the time I opened my beer that I really realized it, though."

Speaking of beer, he reached for another. A vague sense of panic was starting to creep in.

"House...you should have seen him. He was so...happy. I just want him to be happy."

[theunascended.livejournal.com]

And that was when it finally sunk in. "Oh, god. It's...the island." He took a deep breath. "Jack. Did you feel guilty for putting House through what you did last Friday?" He glanced at Ianto and then back at Jack quickly. He knew that sensation all too well and there were moments when he'd even thought that Ianto might be better of without him.

Except that he loved Ianto too much and he never actually did something about it. It almost sounded as if the island had done something to Jack.

He saw a smiling Adria in the background of the hut and, for a moment, she was the only thing that she could see. After a minute, he shook out of it.

[coffee_sir]

Ianto could only stare, at a momentary loss for words. It wasn't the weekend. That was all he could think at Daniel's suggestion. It wasn't the weekend. "It's never..." Ianto started to say, then shook his head.

"Jack, if you don't start making sense I'm going to slap some sense into you," he informed Jack, looking at him very intently. "House is your boyfriend," he said carefully. "You love him. You've fought to keep him. You don't like Wilson. At all. And all this nonsense about Wilson and House being made for each other is complete and utter bollocks. You would never just walk away so that Wilson and House could shag each other and be this blithe about it."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I love him," he repeated, half-heartedly. "I love you, too, but it doesn't seem to be an issue that you're with Daniel. Or that Chase and the Doctor are married. Or that Gwen is marrying Peter. I love a lot of people, Ianto," Jack said nervously, avoiding meeting his eyes.

He took a step back and bumped into the table, reaching back to set the bottle down. He looked over at Daniel and his brows knit, creased, and finally he couldn't meet his eyes either. "I didn't feel guilty. It was just like I thought...he didn't even know. He doesn't pay attention. I...he...we..." he stammered, his eyes narrowing. "He told me not to wait up. It seemed like the most natural thing. That's not how it's supposed to be? He's not with both of us?" he asked, clearly trying to puzzle it out.

[theunascended.livejournal.com]

Daniel's jaw tightened abruptly and he took a long sip of his drink, belatedly realizing that he'd finished it. He shouldn't read into that, but, dammit, he couldn't help but read into a statement like that. He moved closer to Ianto.

"No, because you're clearly not with Ianto, even though you say you love him." He breathed, trying not to get pissed off and failing. He grabbed another bottle, popping it open. Jack had said he'd loved Ace, too, and no matter what Ace said, how they'd resolved it, he'd seen how hurt she was over it.

[coffee_sir]

Ianto glanced sideways at Daniel, catching the other man's movement, not that it was very difficult to catch. "Because you love him in a different way than you love me," he said, the slightest edge to his voice as he looked back to Jack which disappeared soon after. "That's not how it is. He's with you, and just you. And you're only with him. No one else, even though you love many people. You're faithful to each other."

He held onto the vague hope that whatever was affecting Jack was something like retcon, and if they jogged enough proper thoughts and memories, whatever was holding him would break down. It was worth a shot.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

The confusion melted away as Jack looked up at Ianto from beneath his lashes. His lips curved into a tell-tale smirk. "Apparently not as much as you'd think," he said darkly. "All this time I've been toeing the line, so careful who I talk to, and how. Who I can touch and who I can't. Who I can kiss, how I can kiss, who I have to avoid. It's been months and all I've done is flirt and dance and kiss Owen. Owen. And now Greg's fucking Wilson and I...have beer."

Memory jogged, but instead of making him want to sprint back to the Compound and tear the two men apart, all he wanted was to drink another beer and...well...not wait up.