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[paperclipbitch]

Because I'm having one of those days:

Fandom

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Character/pairing

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Canon | AU | futurefic | prequel/sequel to something I've already written

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One line of dialogue and/or one song lyric

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And I'll give you 200-300 words.

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I'll get through as many as I can ♥

Edit: Going to bed and then to uni. But I will be back tomorrow so keep

Comments

[samueljames]

Fandom: Torchwood
Character/pairing: Ianto/Owen
Sequel to something I've already written: Ideally a short what happened after the events of "If You Pass Go, Do Not Collect £200"

If not then canon/deviation from canon moment with Owen being slow to trust.

[paperclipbitch]

Sort-of sequel to If You Pass Go, Do Not Collect £200:

Ianto doesn’t look him in the eye for bordering on three weeks.

Owen is more ok with this than he’ll ever admit to anyone; it’s something to do with readjusting, with smiling instead of just baring his teeth, with curling his fingers into his palms and no longer dealing with his problems with broken bricks.

Jack doesn’t know because they haven’t told him, but he can probably guess things from the bruised curve of Owen’s mouth and the ugly, badly-healed scars littering his skin. Maybe it’s the guilt that keeps him from speaking up, from demanding something from Owen other than a perfunctory report filled with lies.

Owen rejects the therapist’s number he finds on a post-it in the autopsy bay, crumpling it in his fist and disposing of it just before Ianto brings him a latte made the way he likes it, too hot and quietly bitter.

You don’t get to judge me, Owen thinks, you don’t. Not anymoreIanto doesn’t look up, doesn’t say anything, doesn’t linger. Owen wants to call him back

[rhain]

MmmI wanted Owen and Ianto as well. More from this if you're still feeling charitable.

[paperclipbitch]

This 'verse or a different prompt? :)

[rhain]

This verse works well! (They're all so tightly wound right now, might as well unspin them!)

[paperclipbitch]

Not sure this actually unspins them, but...

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“I don’t know anymore, Owen,” Ianto says, which at least sounds enough like the truth that it might be. They’ve both spent too much time avoiding looking at each other, avoiding touching on too many months.

Owen still wakes up in the night sometimes, biting back memories. He always thought Torchwood was a career in killing people but there’s safety in the distance of the end of a gun and there are some days when none of it seems worth anything anymore.

“You never know,” he says aloud, because he’s tired of Ianto looking judgemental and helpless and angry all the time. He’s not even sure who Ianto is angry with anymore; Owen’s beginning to suspect it’s not him. “Make up your fucking mind.”

Ianto’s head snaps up, and there are too many lines between them and a lot of them have been crossed but not all of them have, and it’s impossible to tell what’s too far anymore.

“We really should tell Jack,” Ianto mumbles; and fuck, yes, it’s always about Jack, even though Owen knows exactly

[rhain]

*Purrs* Maybe not, but if people keep requesting them, perhaps we'll at least get to see more bits of thread ;)

[paperclipbitch]

Hee, we'll have to see! Thanks sweetie :)

xxx

[rhain]

Thank YOU!

[samueljames]

Poor messed up boys but I think Owen would definitely be insecure about the Ianto having been with Jack and I like him being self-aware enough to think about his propensity for violence. Working for Torchwood definitely fucks people up.

[samueljames]

Thank you for this. I love that Ianto sees Owen's struggles and helps him. It would be such a weird thing trying to readjust especially when his experience in the past was so much worse than Ianto's.

[paperclipbitch]

(there's a little bit more for this story somewhere in this thread because rhain requested more!)

Thanks sweetie, I'm glad it worked for you :)

xxx