"There's nothing wrong with you," John says, and he sounds a little tired as he says it. There's nothing wrong with Ianto, but there's everything wrong with John himself. He knows, on some level, that they needed to have this conversation at some point. He knows Ianto deserves some kind of answer. He just doesn't know how to do it. All the words die in his throat, and he finds himself flailing like a fish stuck on the shore.

Maybe that's better, though. Maybe it's better Ianto is disappointed in him now instead of later. Maybe then he'll understand.