[#189] Together Again (Torchwood)

[badly_knitted]

Theme Prompt: #189 – Anniversary
Title: Together Again
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: No.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: After some time apart, Jack and Ianto reunite to celebrate the first of two important anniversaries. Set in my Through Time and Space ‘Verse.






Somewhere in the vast expanses of their TARDIS, two men were making preparations. Despite living aboard the same sentient space and time ship much of the time, they’d been leading separate lives the last few months, coming and going as they pleased. Indeed, Jack had only recently returned having been away for several weeks in one of two small spaceships they owned.

He’d been working as a courier, transporting desperately needed medical supplies and personnel to a colony planet where a previously unknown plague had broken out. If not for him, the entire colony might have been wiped out, but the plague was now under control, so he’d contacted the TARDIS to pick him up on a convenient nearby planet, where he could leave the ship until he needed it again.

He hadn’t seen Ianto yet, even though he’d been back on board for three days. The TARDIS herself had been helping them avoid each other, creating separate quarters for Jack, and steering the two men around each other, knowing the lack of contact would build anticipation in them. Reunions were always special.

They hadn’t stopped loving each other, but they were immortal, and living together constantly for hundreds of years would have put a strain on any relationship. That being the case, every few decades they’d got into the habit of spending some time apart. Even when they were travelling together, they gave each other plenty of room to pursue their own interests; it kept their relationship fresh.

When they met up again, they always had dozens of stories to tell of their adventures, the people they’d met, the crises they’d averted, and the sights they’d seen. They were never short of things to talk about.

Right now, however, an important date was approaching, or more accurately, two important dates. In two days’ time, it would be the one-thousandth anniversary of the day they’d found each other again, nearly two years after Ianto died during the 456 incident back on earth. A little over a month after that, it would be the one-thousandth anniversary of their first wedding.

They’d been married many times since then, on many different worlds, but after their second wedding they’d decided to have any future weddings on one of the two dates in the old earth calendar they’d already used. After all, how could a wedding anniversary be special if every day was a commemoration of one wedding or another?

They celebrated each other’s birthdays too, even if only by means of a message or a phone call, and if they happened to be together when December twenty-fifth rolled around, they’d have a proper Christmas, with decorations, gifts, crackers, and plenty of mistletoe. Such events were always fun, but it was their wedding anniversaries and their reunion day that were the most important to them both, because they were celebrations of their togetherness.

The TARDIS always enjoyed herself too, basking in the happiness of her people, and she assisted each man with his preparations, while keeping quiet about the other’s plans, no matter how much Jack pestered her for clues.

This year, Jack was in charge of their reunion celebrations, and Ianto was planning their wedding anniversary, having decided they should spend it on Talla, where they’d first been wed a thousand years earlier. The Tallan friends they’d made back then were long gone, but they still maintained a close relationship with the tribe they had been made honorary members of so long ago, and they visited at least every ten years.

The evening of their reunion found the TARDIS taking her favourite tree form on the bank of a shallow lake of crystal-clear water, near a cascading waterfall. It was a place Jack had discovered by chance some twenty years earlier when he’d had to land his ship to make repairs, and he’d decided right then that he’d bring his husband there someday.

The planet was far out on the rim of known space and had yet to be colonised. Even though Jack had, at the time, been surveying uninhabited worlds for the Galactic Federation, he’d kept quiet about this one, not wanting to see it exploited for its resources and its beauty spoiled.

No sentient life had evolved there so far, the only inhabitants were several species of small marsupials and some vaguely deer-like herd animals no larger than Shetland ponies.

Jack spread out a large, padded blanket with weighted edges, scattered cushions across it, and arranged food and drink on several sturdy low tables. Then he lit lanterns as the sun dipped low in the sky, and started soft music playing on a device he’d picked up during his recent travels. Only then did he ask the TARDIS to tell Ianto he was ready.

Ianto stepped out of the TARDIS onto soft, yellow-green grass, and paused, taking in the view across the lake before turning to Jack. He smiled as he saw his husband was dressed in the style he’d favoured so long ago on earth, complete with greatcoat despite the warmth of the evening.

“Hello, Jack. Great minds think alike.” His smile widened as he gestured at his own clothing, a charcoal grey three-piece suit with a faint pinstripe over a deep red shirt and a black and red striped tie.

Jack beamed back at him. “You look good enough to eat.”

“I should hope so.” Ianto made his way over to his husband. “This looks wonderful, you’ve outdone yourself.”

“Not that I had to do much, the planet did most of the work.”

The sun was just reaching the horizon, the sky turning peach, gold, lavender and turquoise.

“It’s a beautiful setting,” Ianto agreed.

“Nothing but the best for my husband. I’ve missed you.”

“I would have thought you’d been too busy even to notice.” The twinkle in Ianto’s eyes showed he was only teasing.

“Never. I’ve spent every spare moment planning for tonight. Happy Thousandth Reunion Day, Ianto.”

As they kissed, a magnificent aurora lit up the sky.


The End