Various commentfics
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto/Gwen
Setting: Between seasons 2 and 3
Prompt: Torchwood, Ianto/Gwen, When the boss is away
Rating: Teen (On the mature-ish side)
He knows it's wrong.
He knows that Jack going to America for God knows how long to catch some damn alien that's been freaking the hell out of the locals is not a reason for Gwen to tell Rhys she'll be working late and then smile that gap-toothed smile and tell him to get his pants down already.
He knows he's in love with Jack. Really, he is. And he knows that Jack loves him too. But he also knows that no matter how much Jack may love him, Ianto will never have all of him. Someday Ianto will be old and gray and dead and Jack will still be young and beautiful and alive and fucking some other pretty young thing that's caught his eye for the moment.
She knows it's wrong.
She knows that Rhys is sitting at home right now, on the couch, watching telly, maybe a beer bottle in his hand. She knows he's probably laughing at some stupid joke on a stupid show with one arm slung over the back of the sofa and his feet up on the coffee table like she's told him not to do about a thousand times and he'll be wondering where she is and what she's doing and what she's doing is screwing someone who isn't her boyfriend in a secret base under Cardiff with a pterodactyl circling overhead. She's glad pterodactyls can't talk.
She knows she'll have to go back and replace all the security footage in the morning with prerecorded loops of an empty hub. She knows she's going to wake up and go home and climb into bed in the wee hours of the morning and when Rhys asks what she's been up to, as he always does, she'll have to kiss his forehead and tell him that it's classified and go back to sleep, you daft man.
They both know that things can't go this way, not forever, and that someday they're going to have to wake up and tell themselves that it's over because they both love someone else.
But they both know that for right now, things are beautiful, things are wonderful, and everything is good.
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Characters: Beckendorf/Silena
Setting: Between #4 and #5
Prompt: Percy Jackson series, Beckendorf/Silena, And if nothing can be done / We'll make the best of what's around
Rating: Teen
They knew they were going to die.
He knew it, she knew it. Everyone in camp was expecting the worst. Everyone knew they were going to die. With a little luck, not everyone would.
But Silena had never been that lucky.
They took walks together, every day. Sometimes on the beach, sometimes in the forest, sometimes at night they'd sneak out and just wander around the hills. Sometimes they'd stop and talk, or kiss, or sometimes more than kiss, and they put their all into it, because no one really knew how much time any of them had left anymore, and once the war really started it would be too late.
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Mickey/Rose (one-sided), Ten
Setting: Season 2
Prompt: Doctor Who, Mickey/Rose, One thousand miles away / There's nothing left to say
Rating: PG
He stands to one side, forgotten as the Time Lord and his companion nearly dance around the central TARDIS console, him with his incredibly fast tongue and pinstriped suits and her with her shining blonde hair and those gorgeous brown eyes. She laughs, that special laugh that used to be his and his alone but now seems to have been left in the care of this intruder, this alien being with far too much time on his hands.
Maybe all those movies and comic books and conspiracy theorists were right, he thinks, as he watches the girl he loves drift away from him and she doesn't even see. Maybe even the best aliens are out to get us.
He wonders what the Time Lord thinks of her, wonders what he feels for her. He wonders what she sees in him, to make her eyes light up like that and just gloss over her ex (are they exes now? There was never really a breakup, was there? Or was her running away with a strange man in a strange box her way of telling him to take a hint) like he's not even there.
And even though she's right there, nearly close enough that he could reach out and grab her hand, if he wanted to - and he does, but he's scared that she won't let him - she's also on the other side of the universe and nothing he can say or do will bring her back to him.
Title: Fix You
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Jake, Cassie, Tobias
Setting: Mid-#54 (post-war, pre-trial)
Lyrics: Fix You by Coldplay
Rating: PG
When you try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse
Jake doesn’t cry.
He’s too numb to cry. He sits in the second row, dry-eyed, staring straight ahead. His face blank, his mouth dry. He hears his name. Gets up, chokes out a few words from the piece of paper crumpled in his fist. They aren’t the right words. Nothing could be the right thing to say, nothing can make the world understand what they went through and what they’ve lost. But they’re all he has left, so he says them.
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Cassie cries.
She can’t help it. She tries to keep it quiet, tries to make the tears stop when it’s her turn to speak. But then she stands at the microphone and looks down at Naomi and Jordan and Sara and Dan crying in the front row and she can’t help it, she bursts into tears all over again. She was my best friend, she tells the cameras through her sobs. She was brave and beautiful and good, and now she’s gone. She lays a hand on the urn, cool porcelain against feverish skin, and then stumbles back to her seat.
And high up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try then you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth
Tobias doesn’t cry.
He wants to cry. He wants to scream and rage and hit and tell Jake to bring her back. But he can’t cry, because he’s not human, and hawks can’t cry. Maybe it’s a good thing, though. He doesn’t want to share his grief, doesn’t want to make it public. The dark, yawning hole inside his chest is not something that needs to be broadcast. Not something that can be broadcast. So instead he goes down, lands on the urn, asks permission in his own silent way. Then he lifts her up and carries her out into the sky.
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
Characters: Ianto/Gwen
Setting: Between seasons 2 and 3
Prompt: Torchwood, Ianto/Gwen, When the boss is away
Rating: Teen (On the mature-ish side)
He knows it's wrong.
He knows that Jack going to America for God knows how long to catch some damn alien that's been freaking the hell out of the locals is not a reason for Gwen to tell Rhys she'll be working late and then smile that gap-toothed smile and tell him to get his pants down already.
He knows he's in love with Jack. Really, he is. And he knows that Jack loves him too. But he also knows that no matter how much Jack may love him, Ianto will never have all of him. Someday Ianto will be old and gray and dead and Jack will still be young and beautiful and alive and fucking some other pretty young thing that's caught his eye for the moment.
She knows it's wrong.
She knows that Rhys is sitting at home right now, on the couch, watching telly, maybe a beer bottle in his hand. She knows he's probably laughing at some stupid joke on a stupid show with one arm slung over the back of the sofa and his feet up on the coffee table like she's told him not to do about a thousand times and he'll be wondering where she is and what she's doing and what she's doing is screwing someone who isn't her boyfriend in a secret base under Cardiff with a pterodactyl circling overhead. She's glad pterodactyls can't talk.
She knows she'll have to go back and replace all the security footage in the morning with prerecorded loops of an empty hub. She knows she's going to wake up and go home and climb into bed in the wee hours of the morning and when Rhys asks what she's been up to, as he always does, she'll have to kiss his forehead and tell him that it's classified and go back to sleep, you daft man.
They both know that things can't go this way, not forever, and that someday they're going to have to wake up and tell themselves that it's over because they both love someone else.
But they both know that for right now, things are beautiful, things are wonderful, and everything is good.
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Characters: Beckendorf/Silena
Setting: Between #4 and #5
Prompt: Percy Jackson series, Beckendorf/Silena, And if nothing can be done / We'll make the best of what's around
Rating: Teen
They knew they were going to die.
He knew it, she knew it. Everyone in camp was expecting the worst. Everyone knew they were going to die. With a little luck, not everyone would.
But Silena had never been that lucky.
They took walks together, every day. Sometimes on the beach, sometimes in the forest, sometimes at night they'd sneak out and just wander around the hills. Sometimes they'd stop and talk, or kiss, or sometimes more than kiss, and they put their all into it, because no one really knew how much time any of them had left anymore, and once the war really started it would be too late.
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Mickey/Rose (one-sided), Ten
Setting: Season 2
Prompt: Doctor Who, Mickey/Rose, One thousand miles away / There's nothing left to say
Rating: PG
He stands to one side, forgotten as the Time Lord and his companion nearly dance around the central TARDIS console, him with his incredibly fast tongue and pinstriped suits and her with her shining blonde hair and those gorgeous brown eyes. She laughs, that special laugh that used to be his and his alone but now seems to have been left in the care of this intruder, this alien being with far too much time on his hands.
Maybe all those movies and comic books and conspiracy theorists were right, he thinks, as he watches the girl he loves drift away from him and she doesn't even see. Maybe even the best aliens are out to get us.
He wonders what the Time Lord thinks of her, wonders what he feels for her. He wonders what she sees in him, to make her eyes light up like that and just gloss over her ex (are they exes now? There was never really a breakup, was there? Or was her running away with a strange man in a strange box her way of telling him to take a hint) like he's not even there.
And even though she's right there, nearly close enough that he could reach out and grab her hand, if he wanted to - and he does, but he's scared that she won't let him - she's also on the other side of the universe and nothing he can say or do will bring her back to him.
Title: Fix You
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: Jake, Cassie, Tobias
Setting: Mid-#54 (post-war, pre-trial)
Lyrics: Fix You by Coldplay
Rating: PG
When you try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse
Jake doesn’t cry.
He’s too numb to cry. He sits in the second row, dry-eyed, staring straight ahead. His face blank, his mouth dry. He hears his name. Gets up, chokes out a few words from the piece of paper crumpled in his fist. They aren’t the right words. Nothing could be the right thing to say, nothing can make the world understand what they went through and what they’ve lost. But they’re all he has left, so he says them.
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Cassie cries.
She can’t help it. She tries to keep it quiet, tries to make the tears stop when it’s her turn to speak. But then she stands at the microphone and looks down at Naomi and Jordan and Sara and Dan crying in the front row and she can’t help it, she bursts into tears all over again. She was my best friend, she tells the cameras through her sobs. She was brave and beautiful and good, and now she’s gone. She lays a hand on the urn, cool porcelain against feverish skin, and then stumbles back to her seat.
And high up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try then you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth
Tobias doesn’t cry.
He wants to cry. He wants to scream and rage and hit and tell Jake to bring her back. But he can’t cry, because he’s not human, and hawks can’t cry. Maybe it’s a good thing, though. He doesn’t want to share his grief, doesn’t want to make it public. The dark, yawning hole inside his chest is not something that needs to be broadcast. Not something that can be broadcast. So instead he goes down, lands on the urn, asks permission in his own silent way. Then he lifts her up and carries her out into the sky.
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you