(no subject)
All right. Seven drabbles, seven deadly sins. All written for tw100's latest challenge. (Gluttony doesn't exactly fit the challenge... oops.)
Also, I was hoping to feature all the team somewhat equally, but... it looks like I unconciously favor Jack, Ianto, and Tosh.
Title: Hubris
Characters: Jack
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Pride)
Hands in his pockets, Captain Jack Harkness walks the wreckage of One Canada Square. Behind mirrored sunglasses, his eyes are determined.
Blood and ash, dust and rubble; that was her Torchwood, built on wings of wax.
It is all too clear: Yvonne Hartman had flown too close to the sun.
But not now. No more. He arrived too late to stop her... but to prove himself, he was just in time.
That calms him. Inside his pocket, his fingertips press against the tape-- security footage of a blonde girl, a man in a pinstriped suit.
Torchwood, reborn.
In their honour.
---
Title: Breaking Point
Characters: Owen/Suzie
Rating: light R
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Lust)
The first time, they don't realise that a vial has broken in Owen's lab.
The first time, they don't realise much beyond this: she's pushed him back into his chair and her mouth is on his. She's on top and they don't even undress, skirt pulled up, jeans tugged down on his thighs.
As she re-arranges clothing, he attempts an apology. By the time he moves on to commentary and feedback, she's already left to take care of the CCTV.
The second time, she leaves angry red scratches down his back because she has no one to blame but herself.
---
Title: Ebay (or: Meeting the Competition)
Characters: Jack, Tosh
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Greed)
"Jack!" Toshiko adjusts her glasses and glances over to where he's joking with the others. "We're losing the auction."
"What?"
He's beside her in an instant, Gwen on his heels. Tosh points to the screen. "There. It's just gone above our limit."
"Forget the limit," Jack says, dismissive, leaning over her. "Match it."
"Our limit for the year, she reminds, adding: "I'm tracing the account now."
"Got it!" she exclaims after a moment, motioning to a new window flickering in the bottom of the screen. "--That's odd. It's a company in America."
"Should have known," Jack mutters darkly. "Geocomtex."
---
Title: Lessons Unlearned
Characters: Ianto, Gwen/Rhys
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Envy)
She's smiling today. Typically, smiles mean she's either spent the night with Owen or that she has a date with Rhys. Ianto finds himself hoping for the latter, even as he fights to smile back.
She talks nonstop: Candelit dinners at restaurants Rhys can't afford. Ice skating, though Rhys doesn't know how. Evenings spent watching the game, Gwen wearing his jerseys and eating nachos.
Owen mocks, Tosh makes all the right noises; no one notices him leave.
Later, resting his forehead against the cool metal of the morgue, Ianto wonders if Gwen will realize what she has before it's gone.
---
Title: But it's Enough
Characters: Ianto, Tosh
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Gluttony)
Ianto takes a deep breath and opens the door to the refrigerator.
There is surprisingly little there. A take-away carton-- immediately he dumps the pork lo mein into the garbage-- some bottled beer, jars of condiments that may have come from his flat in London.
In the cabinets, not much else: dry pasta, microwave noodles, coffee grounds.
Finally, he carries a bowl of dry cereal and a bottle of wine to the sofa. "Milk's spoiled, sorry," he says as he fills two glasses-- and yet when he looks over, he has no words for the gratitude written on Toshiko's face.
---
Title: Again and Again
Characters: Tosh/Mary
Rating: PG
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Wrath)
In her dreams, Mary returns.
Sometimes she holds Tosh at knifepoint again, with Jack in the background yelling threats in a thousand alien languages. Sometimes someone else is threatened. Often it's Ianto, and even without the pendant, Tosh can hear his mental mantra-- please, not again, not again, not again.
Every night, the details vary, but every night, the end is the same.
There's always the moment of betrayal; again and again she feels a fool. Again and again, she screams I could have loved you inside her mind.
And again and again Mary laughs and takes her heart instead.
---
Title: Wednesday Morning
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Sloth)
Ianto wakes up pressed against a familiar body. "Morning," he mumbles, reaching out for more contact, comfort, skin.
"Go back to sleep," is the reply, alert and somehow fond, with a kiss. "We're taking today off."
Ianto isn't nearly awake enough to argue, and he really can't remember why he'd argue with a warm bed, this man, and much-needed rest.
But before sleep comes again, there's just one question--
"Why did we rent a room," is murmured against bare skin, "when I've got a perfectly good flat?"
He feels the laugh as if it were his own. "Hotel was closer."
---
Also, I was hoping to feature all the team somewhat equally, but... it looks like I unconciously favor Jack, Ianto, and Tosh.
Title: Hubris
Characters: Jack
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Pride)
Hands in his pockets, Captain Jack Harkness walks the wreckage of One Canada Square. Behind mirrored sunglasses, his eyes are determined.
Blood and ash, dust and rubble; that was her Torchwood, built on wings of wax.
It is all too clear: Yvonne Hartman had flown too close to the sun.
But not now. No more. He arrived too late to stop her... but to prove himself, he was just in time.
That calms him. Inside his pocket, his fingertips press against the tape-- security footage of a blonde girl, a man in a pinstriped suit.
Torchwood, reborn.
In their honour.
---
Title: Breaking Point
Characters: Owen/Suzie
Rating: light R
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Lust)
The first time, they don't realise that a vial has broken in Owen's lab.
The first time, they don't realise much beyond this: she's pushed him back into his chair and her mouth is on his. She's on top and they don't even undress, skirt pulled up, jeans tugged down on his thighs.
As she re-arranges clothing, he attempts an apology. By the time he moves on to commentary and feedback, she's already left to take care of the CCTV.
The second time, she leaves angry red scratches down his back because she has no one to blame but herself.
---
Title: Ebay (or: Meeting the Competition)
Characters: Jack, Tosh
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Greed)
"Jack!" Toshiko adjusts her glasses and glances over to where he's joking with the others. "We're losing the auction."
"What?"
He's beside her in an instant, Gwen on his heels. Tosh points to the screen. "There. It's just gone above our limit."
"Forget the limit," Jack says, dismissive, leaning over her. "Match it."
"Our limit for the year, she reminds, adding: "I'm tracing the account now."
"Got it!" she exclaims after a moment, motioning to a new window flickering in the bottom of the screen. "--That's odd. It's a company in America."
"Should have known," Jack mutters darkly. "Geocomtex."
---
Title: Lessons Unlearned
Characters: Ianto, Gwen/Rhys
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Envy)
She's smiling today. Typically, smiles mean she's either spent the night with Owen or that she has a date with Rhys. Ianto finds himself hoping for the latter, even as he fights to smile back.
She talks nonstop: Candelit dinners at restaurants Rhys can't afford. Ice skating, though Rhys doesn't know how. Evenings spent watching the game, Gwen wearing his jerseys and eating nachos.
Owen mocks, Tosh makes all the right noises; no one notices him leave.
Later, resting his forehead against the cool metal of the morgue, Ianto wonders if Gwen will realize what she has before it's gone.
---
Title: But it's Enough
Characters: Ianto, Tosh
Rating: G
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Gluttony)
Ianto takes a deep breath and opens the door to the refrigerator.
There is surprisingly little there. A take-away carton-- immediately he dumps the pork lo mein into the garbage-- some bottled beer, jars of condiments that may have come from his flat in London.
In the cabinets, not much else: dry pasta, microwave noodles, coffee grounds.
Finally, he carries a bowl of dry cereal and a bottle of wine to the sofa. "Milk's spoiled, sorry," he says as he fills two glasses-- and yet when he looks over, he has no words for the gratitude written on Toshiko's face.
---
Title: Again and Again
Characters: Tosh/Mary
Rating: PG
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Wrath)
In her dreams, Mary returns.
Sometimes she holds Tosh at knifepoint again, with Jack in the background yelling threats in a thousand alien languages. Sometimes someone else is threatened. Often it's Ianto, and even without the pendant, Tosh can hear his mental mantra-- please, not again, not again, not again.
Every night, the details vary, but every night, the end is the same.
There's always the moment of betrayal; again and again she feels a fool. Again and again, she screams I could have loved you inside her mind.
And again and again Mary laughs and takes her heart instead.
---
Title: Wednesday Morning
Characters: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Sloth)
Ianto wakes up pressed against a familiar body. "Morning," he mumbles, reaching out for more contact, comfort, skin.
"Go back to sleep," is the reply, alert and somehow fond, with a kiss. "We're taking today off."
Ianto isn't nearly awake enough to argue, and he really can't remember why he'd argue with a warm bed, this man, and much-needed rest.
But before sleep comes again, there's just one question--
"Why did we rent a room," is murmured against bare skin, "when I've got a perfectly good flat?"
He feels the laugh as if it were his own. "Hotel was closer."
---