Sulu hesitated at that, not tensing or pulling away but simply pausing a moment. He didn't know what Ianto wanted to tell him. He had no idea whether or not he was going to be able to say that he wouldn't hold it against Ianto. How could he promise something like that in this situation?

That was stupid, and Sulu knew it the moment he thought it. There was no way he could ever hold something Ianto did in the past against him. It wouldn't make him think less of the other man; he wasn't sure anything could, not even the fact that he'd withheld the truth about his health for so long.

"Ianto," he said slowly, deliberately looking round at the other man, catching his chin with one hand to tilt his head up a bit to meet his eyes, "I'm not going to think any less of you. I haven't yet, and I doubt you've done anything I can look down on you for. Just talk to me."