tampered | (no subject)

(no subject)

When; August 3, around noon
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Kyle Brooks

justashow and Jack Harkness

handsomejack
Summary; The Captain and the Barrister attempt to have lunch.
Log; Kyle waited outside the restaurant, leaning casually against the rough stone wall of the building and trying not to look like his stomach was doing flips. He also resolved not to check his watch again, as he knew he'd arrived far too early and it was pointless to watch the minute hand tick around. Part of him was still expecting a phone call with Jack's apologies and the reluctantly given statement that he just wasn't ready to see Kyle again.

Which was all right. Kyle would accept that, yes, if he'd been sent home to a world that forced him to kill off pretty much every joy he had and then was dumped back into the City after a year of mourning to find these things set in his lap again, he would be hard-pressed to face them too. But from Kyle's perspective, he'd had both his lovers stolen from him and even though they returned to be right in front of him, he couldn't touch them. And that was difficult to deal with too.

Kyle shook himself and rolled his eyes. This was not the pity-party hour. This was lunch. He wouldn't be greeting Jack with sad eyes and shaking hands. He was going to be bright and casual and gently coaxing and not at all clingy or otherwise give the impression of a man who has neither slept nor ate well in almost a month. In fact...

Kyle took his sunglasses off and checked his appearance in the reflective surface. Not that bad. His outfit was perfect, hair too, and concealer and moisturizer hid the shadows under his eyes. He was ready.

And still early.

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Strangely enough, it had not entered Jack's mind to call and cancel. Once he's issued the invitation, it had strangely seemed like the right thing to do and he hadn't regreted it.

Still, he was right on time to the resturant. Neither early nor late, just on time. Though the coat was missing, Jack was dressed in one of his dress shirts, vest and military slacks. He was neatly pressed and the watch chain hung elegantly from buttonhole to pocket.

What was missing, was the Webley. Lost in the destruction of the Hub -and Jack's self explosion- he hadn't bothered to replace the weapon or carry any weapon of any sort since he left Earth. Jack didn't even think about it any more, though for Kyle, who had been used to seeing him with the Webley, it might have seemed strange.

Giving the lawyer a subdued but gentle smile as he walked up, Jack stopped a couple feet away from him.

"Looking dapper as ever, Barrister."

"Oh, this old thing?" Kyle drawled in his best Southern damsel. He gestured to the new light-grey slacks, the deep-violet of the dress shirt, the smooth and structured jacket that made him look lean instead of just thin.

"You really are too kind." He filled his eyes with Jack for a few seconds, then smiled and held out his hand. It could be taken as merely a guiding gesture into the restaurant, or an invitation to touch. Kyle wasn't about to push things.

"Shall we go in?"

The drawl brought a chuckle to Jack and he did reach out to lightly touch Kyle's elbow before moving past him and on into the resturant.

"I try," he said.

As he stepped into the building, Kyle might have noticed a subtle change. Jack's sheer size and his presence, always commanded attention but now he let that be a more natural sort of thing. Gone was the frenetic sort of energy that made him seem to bounce into a room and overwhelm it with his presence.

He still caught the eye but with a more discreet sort of power, rather than playfulness.

Since Kyle held the door, Jack gave his reservation name and then stepped back to let Kyle follow the hostess towards their prime seat. He'd asked for one by the bank of windows that looked out over the dunes and beaches. It had good natural light and the tables were set up for privacy.

Once the menus had been placed in front of them, Jack rested his hand on the back of his chair, waiting for Kyle to take his seat first.

That small touch hurt in a way that had nothing to do with physicality and everything to do with the way it felt like trying to breathe around a shard of glass. Kyle gasped and then covered it with the swing of the door, the swing of his arms as he walked.

Like strangers, he thought as he followed the hostess to their table, his eyes fixed on the bob of her ponytail and her soft chatter about the restaurant and their server and how she wished them a nice meal.

He sat and took the wine menu in hand, glancing at it idly and to have somewhere else to look. Perhaps this had been a bad idea.

It had been so long since Jack had touched anyone that everyone seemed like a stranger.

Taking his own menu, he glanced at it briefly before setting it aside and looking across the table at Kyle. Were someone's cheekbones a little more prominent than they should be?

"You haven't been eating," he said softly. There was no accusation in his tone, just a gentle sort of observation.

Kyle considered a lie and discarded it in the space of a second.

"No," he admitted, just as softly. "I haven't been."

In fact, the fancy offerings of the restaurant weren't tempting his appetite much either, though Kyle would eat to put something in his stomach.

Jack nodded and when the waitress appeared to take their drink order, he put in an order for a couple shared appetizers. A choice he remembered as being one of Kyle's favorites and crab stuffed mushrooms.

Small portions that wouldn't overwhelm but hopefully when it was in front of him, they would tempt Kyle with lovely, yummy smells. He wasn't going to lecture, Jack figured that Kyle would be getting those from Owen, possibly Niko and maybe even Ianto.

Instead, he was just going to very softly encourage a good meal into Kyle.

Order placed and time given for Kyle to give his drink order, Jack waited for the waitress to leave them before he spoke. It was tempting to ask about the ducklings but while he was genuinely curious as to how they were getting on, instinct told him the younger man would not tolerate that level of small talk well.

"I told the Doctor that when I first left Earth, I went after the 456 homeworld. I had everything I needed to obliterate them, except the rage for vengence. Ended up cripling their space going abilities and then hacked into the intergalactic database to reclass them as 'developing, no contact'. Should keep them from hurting any other worlds or species for a few decades, hopefully long enough to dry out."

Niko only glared periodically and Owen liked to make his displeasure known with cutting comments on Kyle's appearance every time they were in the same room together, which wasn't often. Ianto, well he was continuing his stubborn bargain that he would eat no more or less than what Kyle ate.

It was surprisingly effective.

Kyle ordered sparkling water and resisted the urge to fidget with the tablecloth as he listened to Jack. He nodded in approval at Jack's efforts.

"They don't deserve to be remembered, but I hope Earth doesn't forget."

That ... was hard for Jack to answer, because until it was too late, he'd forgotten.

Sometimes you wanted to forget.

"Anyway, after that I bounced around a little. I'd forgotten there was a planet that has these blue sand beaches, with clear water. It's a saline type water, like the ocean but the sun star is white, not yellow so you can only go out on the beaches when it's 'night'. The sand glitters under starlight and it's like walking on a bed of stars."

"That sounds so beautiful," Kyle said, speaking quietly. He only paused a little before continuing the thought.

"Did it help at all?"

Jack looked out the window for a long moment, before turning back to Kyle and giving him a sad smile.

"Mostly I just thought of how unfair it was that all I ever got to share with him, with any of them, was the crap that flowed through the Rift. Not the beautiful stuff that is out there."

Tentatively, as if afraid he was going to be rejected, Jack slipped his hand across the table and touched Kyle's fingers. So long as the other man didn't pull away, he was seeking a hand to hold.

Kyle returned the touch, sliding his fingers in between Jack's. It felt the same as holding Jack's hand ever did and he was reassured by that.

"You shared yourself," he replied. "And the fact that there's a whole universe beyond what they knew or dreamed about. That means a lot to some people."

After all, there was a reason Torchwood operatives seemed to be married to their work. Kyle didn't think they would if ugliness and crap was all the job every gave them.

Well, there was a lot of excitement and a really cool SUV, speaking of which.

"Did Ianto tell you he got the SUV stolen?"

Jack's smile was a little more relaxed after Kyle took his hand and he closed his fingers gently around the other man's.

"How did he manage that?"

Kyle had visions of a tentacled alien hijacking.

"He took it to the estate development where his sister and brother in law live. Figured that the triple deadlock would keep the rowdy lads from having a go at it."

Jack chuckled and looked a bit rueful.

"He figured wrong."

"I suppose that's a bit like leaving an Audi in downtown Detroit?"

Kyle laughed a little, imagining the look on Ianto's face.

"Poor guy."

"Do they usually take a victory lap and moon you out the window of an Audi?"

Hey, he didn't know! He did, however, know enough about the estates to know the drill. It was all together possible Jack had lost a car once while looking in on Rose.

"I'm surprised he didn't shoot them," Kyle said, mock serious.

"Or hire them. Teenagers who can remove a triple deadlock and have enough balls to do a victory lap while mooning might be good ones to have on your side."

"You have a point and I might have thought about that but Ianto told me right after we learned Gwen was pregnant and just before we learned I was about the blow up. Sort of slipped my mind."

There was a hint of the old Jack in the casual way he spoke of blowing up, though he brushed his thumb lightly along the side of Kyle's palm.

"Blow-" Kyle stopped himself and shook his head.

"Nevermind," he said firmly, "I don't want to know." It seemed like the kind of thing that would only upset him and he still needed to convince himself to eat lunch.

Speaking of which, the food was arriving. Kyle refused to move his hand from Jack's which gave the waitress a bit of a panic moment as she decided where to put the plates, but Kyle gave her a brilliant smile when she nudged the appetizers to the side of their linked fingers and she returned it knowingly.

Taking the hint, Jack smiled and looked away as the waitress came with the food. Personal he felt it was an all time record, he'd died 6 times in 5 days.

When they once again had their privacy, Jack picked up a mushroom with his free hand and held it up to Kyle's lips. There was no pushy expectancy from the gesture, it was actually an attempt to be playfully romantic.

Hesitantly, Kyle parted his lips for the food. Tension, for Kyle, sat in his shoulders and his stomach and he kept waiting for the knot in his abdomen to untie enough that food would go down easily. So far it rarely happened.

But the gesture was familiar and Kyle recalled other shared moments, taking pieces of pineapple from Jack's fingers while they watched a movie, laughing around the mouthfuls. He wanted that back.

If Jack noticed the hesitancy, he didn't pay it any mind. Drawing attention to it would only cause Kyle to dig in his heels, so Jack had at least learned -and remembered!- that sometimes it was best to just carrying the younger man along.

Please at the disappearance of the mushroom, Jack ate one himself before reaching to fork up the second appetizer, offering it to Kyle to taste.

Pineapple sharing had always been a good time, as had teasing whoever ate the most pineapple.

The first bite went down well. Kyle relaxed more and there wasn't any hesitation in taking the second offering.

Although he did lick the fork tines teasingly when the bite was swallowed.

"We look ridiculously sappy, I hope you realize."

"Well," Jack said, picking up another mushroom and offering it to Kyle. "If I'd waited till tomorrow, I believe we would have had a proper anniversary to celebrate."

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