Ficlet: Wanderlust
Title: Wanderlust
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Far in the future, Ianto and Jack are happily wandering through space and time.
Word Count: 300
Written For: Prompt #407: Past Prompts Revisited, using #046: In The Future, at slashthedrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
The earth is long gone, blasted out of existence thousands of years ago when its sun went nova. That small green and blue planet, with the streamers of white cloud encircling it, is now little more than a distant but fond memory.
They still go back there now and again of course, dropping in at points throughout its history to remember how it used to be. Ianto likes to touch base with his roots at least once a millennium, because even after a few million years away, it’s still home. You can never completely shake off the dust of your homeworld. He and Jack stop by the Boeshane Peninsula occasionally, for the same reason.
They’ve moved on though, and in many ways they’ve outgrown the worlds where they first drew breath. They’ve travelled the universe and wandered through time, even ventured into other universes when the opportunity arose, seeing things they never could’ve imagined if they’d just stayed where they were born. There’s so much out there to be explored and experienced that staying in one place for more than a few years seems unthinkable. No matter how pleasant a world might be, it doesn’t take them long to become restless and ready to move on again.
Sometimes, Ianto worries that one day they’ll run out of new things to see, new places to visit. They have all eternity ahead of them, but the universe is finite. Jumping about in time helps to stretch things further, but at some point, thanks to their unquenchable wanderlust, they’re going to start revisiting places and times they’ve seen before. It’s probably a good thing their memories are shorter than their lifespans.
Jack jokes that the only way to remember everything would be to become giant heads in jars. Maybe they’ll try that someday.
The End