Drabbles
1
When Ianto gets the job at Torchwood, his life becomes what he always wanted it to be. He has a girlfriend, smart and beautiful and that's nothing new, but day after day she gets to know him and still wants him, and that is.
They appreciate him at work. They think he's clever, they laugh at his jokes, they love what a good job he's done improving the filing system. A promotion is mentioned with increasing regularity. He's too good to waste on all those dusty artefacts, they say.
What Torchwood does, it's important. He feels like he's making a difference. He's thinking about buying a sports car.
Then the Cybermen come.
He has to save Lisa, and that drives his life for a while. He has a tumble with Jack Harkness, a new job at a new Torchwood, only now Lisa's in the basement with the other lumps of alien metal. Sometimes she's almost like before, but mostly she just sleeps. He sits and works on reports and monitors her vitals and wipes off the dust that collects on her metal casing.
They don't think he's clever here. They don't laugh at his jokes, and they take no notice of the reorganized archives. Jack, occasionally, appreciates his arse.
He misses being appreciated.
He spends less time with Lisa. While she sleeps, he eats take-out with Jack. After a few weeks, sometimes he forgets to feel guilty about it. When he remembers, he hates himself more.
The Doctor is supposed to be Torchwood's number one enemy. But when Ianto lies awake at night, unable to sleep, he wishes that blue box would appear, take him away from this, and rewind, rewind, rewind.
2
Ianto liked to tell people that his father took him to the cinema, but his father spent long hours behind the counter at Debenhams, and when Ianto went the cinema, he went alone. The money was his father's, stolen from his wallet when he wasn't looking (which was all the time). It wasn't a lie, then, not really. His father paid for his ticket, for his drink and popcorn, and the silence in the seat next to him just meant he was enjoying the movie too much to talk.
When Ianto gets the job at Torchwood, his life becomes what he always wanted it to be. He has a girlfriend, smart and beautiful and that's nothing new, but day after day she gets to know him and still wants him, and that is.
They appreciate him at work. They think he's clever, they laugh at his jokes, they love what a good job he's done improving the filing system. A promotion is mentioned with increasing regularity. He's too good to waste on all those dusty artefacts, they say.
What Torchwood does, it's important. He feels like he's making a difference. He's thinking about buying a sports car.
Then the Cybermen come.
He has to save Lisa, and that drives his life for a while. He has a tumble with Jack Harkness, a new job at a new Torchwood, only now Lisa's in the basement with the other lumps of alien metal. Sometimes she's almost like before, but mostly she just sleeps. He sits and works on reports and monitors her vitals and wipes off the dust that collects on her metal casing.
They don't think he's clever here. They don't laugh at his jokes, and they take no notice of the reorganized archives. Jack, occasionally, appreciates his arse.
He misses being appreciated.
He spends less time with Lisa. While she sleeps, he eats take-out with Jack. After a few weeks, sometimes he forgets to feel guilty about it. When he remembers, he hates himself more.
The Doctor is supposed to be Torchwood's number one enemy. But when Ianto lies awake at night, unable to sleep, he wishes that blue box would appear, take him away from this, and rewind, rewind, rewind.
2
Ianto liked to tell people that his father took him to the cinema, but his father spent long hours behind the counter at Debenhams, and when Ianto went the cinema, he went alone. The money was his father's, stolen from his wallet when he wasn't looking (which was all the time). It wasn't a lie, then, not really. His father paid for his ticket, for his drink and popcorn, and the silence in the seat next to him just meant he was enjoying the movie too much to talk.