As Far As the East Is From the West
Rating: T
Word count: ~ 2900
Warnings: Misuse of folk tales.
Summary: “One more month and he would have been free. Now his wicked stepmother has taken him to her castle east of the sun and west of the moon, and you'll never get him back, Ianto.” A Torchwood retelling of East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the creators, and no copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: Meridas asked for a Torchwood remake of the folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. This…probably isn’t what was in mind, but it’s what came out (in a torrent. I swear, I just sat down to play around with some outlines, and bam. Story. Ish-thing?).
(The first half of the title is from Whitman, the rest is what I stuck on.)
As Far As the East Is From the West (I Am From You)
Three drops of wax, and Ianto’s world has turned to ash.
A simple urging from Lisa, the only family he has left-“What if he’s a troll, Ianto? Light a candle, and make sure you're safe sharing your bed with him”-and everything that has ever mattered is vanished like fog before the breeze.
The castle is gone, and the prince is gone, and with the passing of both, Ianto has lost the only man he has ever loved with every bit of his heart.
*.~.*.~.*
[There is a great white bear outside their home, speaking to Lisa. He towers over her, menacing, but Lisa has never been scared of anything, and faces him down with determination set into every line of her face.
“He wants you to marry him,” she snaps, when Ianto asks her over the evening meal. “He said he’d make us rich if you did.”
“What did you tell him?” Ianto asks, even though he can imagine.
Lisa glares at him, and he loves her so much like this, with fire in her eyes and heart, but it’s the love of a brother for a sister, and won't solve their problems. “No, of course,” she says, as though he’s a fool to believe she’d say anything else. “We’re family, and the children need us to teach them.”
“They need whatever we can give them,” Ianto says, deceptively agreeable. “Just imagine how you could help them if you had money for proper supplies.”
Lisa’s glare doesn't waver, even though it’s clear her mind is already doing so. She and Ianto are hardly fit to be teachers, hardly fit for anything at all in this small mining town, but they do their best, and the people are grateful. There's a constant lack of necessities, though, and Lisa has always bemoaned that now.
With this offer, though…
With this offer, they could change things for the better.
“I’ll go,” he says softly, and there’s doubt in him. Lisa can see it, clearly, since she doesn't look convinced, but Ianto can be as stubborn as an old fir with its roots buried deep in the ground.
“Next time the bear comes, tell him I accept,” he says, immovable, and Lisa can do nothing but nod.]
*.~.*.~.*
There is a house ten miles south of the castle, at the foot of a steep, snowcapped mountain. Ianto saw it often when he walked the battlements with the White Bear, on clear days when the sky was impossibly high and the sun incredibly bright, and the Bear’s fur shone like ivory. He heads for it now, the castle absent when it should be a comforting, towering presence at his back.
The forest is dark around him, eerily quiet and condemning in its silence. The guilt is overwhelming. He’s the one that did this, who couldn't be content with what he had for a single month more.
But he loves the White Bear, loves the man he becomes when he sheds his bear skin and slides into Ianto’s bed to cradle him close with human hands.
Guilt and love drive him in equal measure, though he knows which one is more important-he’d seen the heartbroken expression on the prince’s face, had seen the desolation when he spoke of having to marry his wicked stepmother’s evil daughter.
Ten miles is far, but Ianto walks it willing, thinking of the prince, thinking of the White Bear, and thinking of how much he loves them, all parts of them, together as one man and separately as the two beings they first came to him as.
Ianto thinks of betrayal, of love. He thinks of which is stronger, and walks on.
*.~.*.~.*
[The first night in the White Bear’s castle, darkness settles quickly. Exhausted, Ianto dresses for bed and lies down, wondering how his life could have come to this. He’s many, many leagues from the small mining town he and Lisa had called home, many leagues from anyone he knows, alone in the castle but for his new husband, a bear with ivory fur who speaks like a courtier and is perfectly polite, but does nothing to alleviate Ianto’s loneliness.
Then the door to Ianto’s chamber creaks open, swinging slowly inward. Ianto stills, wondering if the White Bear is coming to sleep, though he had said he wouldn't.
But it’s human footsteps that cross the stone floor, quiet and careful. A human hand lifts the blankets on the far side of the bed and a human body slides in, settling carefully on the pillows.
Automatically, Ianto jerks away, reaching for the candle and flint on the bedside table. One of those human hands stops him before he can grasp it, though, grasping his wrist in an immovable grip and pulling him back to the mattress.
“Hush,” a man’s voice says. “Your husband knows. We’re just going to sleep.”
Ianto subsides, stops straining for the candle and lies back against the pillows, wary but accepting. The entire business is strange, and he’s not entirely sure what to do about it, but he can consent to the changes when he’s faced with them. This will doubtless be less strange than many things in his life, marriage to a bear included.
(What Ianto won't admit to, at least not then, is that when the man’s arms come around him and he’s pressed close to a warm, hard chest, his head tucked into the curve of the man’s throat, he feels just a little less alone in this vast, cold new world.)]
*.~.*.~.*
There is a doctor sitting outside the house at the foot of the mountain. When Ianto comes to a stop before him, he looks up from the perfect golden apple in his hands and says, “I hope you're happy with yourself. One more month and he would have been free. Now his wicked stepmother has taken him to her castle east of the sun and west of the moon, and you'll never get him back.”
“I will,” Ianto says, and it’s a vow and a promise and recompense all at once.
The man looks at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed, and abruptly straightens on his bench. “You really believe that?” he demands, standing up, and he’s not as tall as Ianto, not as wide in the shoulders, but imposing nevertheless. “You mean it with all of your heart?”
Ianto meets his eyes, tries to put everything that he feels for the White Bear into his face, and answers, “Yes.”
The doctor stills for a long time, so long that Ianto can feel every second stretching away into eternity. Then, finally, the man nods, shoves the golden apple into Ianto’s hands, and points towards a small stable behind his house. “There's a bay gelding in there. Take him and ride north until you come to the next mountain. A house stands at the bottom, and the woman there might know the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon. Go, and bring the prince back.”
Ianto takes the bay gelding and goes. At this point, “might” is enough to send him to the ends of the earth, chasing a wild hope. The next mountain is a short distance, in comparison.
*.~.*.~.*
[It doesn't surprise Ianto at all when he finds himself falling in love with the White Bear. He’s always been one to make the best of any situation, and the Bear is good company, charming and funny and full of stories about his travels to places Ianto has only ever heard of. He’s kind when he doesn't have to be, careful of his strength and easy to know.
“Why?” Ianto asks him one day. “What could have made someone like you want to marry me?”
The Bear just looks at him in the amused way Ianto translates as a smile, and answers, “You're kind when you don't need to be, Ianto, and cruel when you have to be, and there's far too little of that in this world.”
What does surprise him is the fact that he’s also falling in love with the tall, broad, strong man who appears every night to share his bed. Ianto doesn't quite know what to do with that, because while he has many faults, disloyalty has never been one of them. If anything, he’s too loyal, faithful past the bounds of all sense.
But the man is sad, and quiet, and so very, very lonely that Ianto can't help himself.
And that's his first clue.]
*.~.*.~.*
The second house is smaller than the first, and this one has a woman sitting outside, dark haired and pale skinned, carding wool with a pair of golden combs. When Ianto pulls the bay gelding to a stop in front of her and slides to the ground, she gives him a sad smile.
“You loved him, didn't you, pet?” she asks, though it’s hardly a question. “You're really going to find him?”
“No matter how long I have to look,” Ianto says firmly, certain of that much, at the very least.
The woman nods, as though she never doubted it, and hands him her golden carding-combs. “Here. There's a barn around back, and a chestnut mare. Take her and ride west, until you reach next mountain. I don't know the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but the woman who lives there might.”
Ianto thanks her, takes the mare, and heads west.
“Might” is still more than enough.
*.~.*.~.*
[“What if he’s a troll, Ianto?” Lisa says, and there's fear in her eyes. “Light a candle, and make sure you're safe sharing your bed with him.”
Ianto hesitates for a long moment, wavering. But, more than anything, he’s convinced that the White Bear and the man are one and the same, and he loves them both so much. He’s seen the White Bear already, after all, so what harm can it do?
He takes the candles.
(What harm can it do? All the harm in the world, it seems.)]
*.~.*.~.*
The chestnut mare carries him west, to the foot of the third mountain, where another woman is sitting, with a golden spinning wheel at her feet. She smiles at Ianto, brushing back her short, dark hair.
“You love him so much,” she says, and it’s sweetly happy.
Ianto is unspeakably weary, having ridden this night through, and the night before. All he wants is a soft bed and warm arms around him, but he won't allow himself either until he finds a way to bring the White Bear back. “Do you know the way?” he asks. “Do you know how to find the castle east of the sun and west of the moon?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “But the East Wind might know the way. Take my black stallion, and he’ll take you there.”
She gives him her horse, and her golden spinning wheel, and sends him onward to find the East Wind.
*.~.*.~.*
[Three drops of tallow are all it takes to bring Ianto’s world tumbling down around him.]
*.~.*.~.*
The East Wind isn’t strong enough to reach the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, so he lifts Ianto and carries him to his brother the West Wind, who is stronger.
The West Wind isn’t strong enough, either, but he carries Ianto to his brother the South Wind.
“No,” says the South Wind. “I'm not strong enough, either. But my brother the North Wind is the strongest of us all, and if he can't take you there, no one can.”
“Yes,” says the North Wind. “I blew an aspen leaf there once. It’s a very, very long way. Are you sure you want to go?”
“Of course,” Ianto answers. “I've never wanted anything more.”
The North Wind lifts Ianto up in his arms, carrying him high up over the forests and mountains. “Very well,” he says. “I’ll take you there. But the prince’s stepmother and her daughter are both trolls. You won't be able to fight them for the prince.”
Ianto looks out, to where the sun lies on his right and the day-pale moon lies on his left. “I’ll rescue him,” he says. “It doesn't matter how. I love him.”
*.~.*.~.*
“Will you sell me that golden apple?” the stepmother’s daughter asks. “I've never seen one like it. I’ll give you as much gold as you like!”
Ianto looks up from where he sits outside the castle east of the sun and west of the moon. “I don't want gold,” he responds. “Why would I sell it for something that I don't want?”
“Anything!” the daughter insists. “I’ll give you anything for it, just give it to me!”
“One night with the prince,” Ianto offers. “Give me a night with him and you can have the apple.”
She smiles, wicked and sharp, and agrees, “Of course. That's fair.”
*.~.*.~.*
(But it’s not. She drugs the prince, and he sleeps the entire time. Ianto sits beside his Bear-beside the man he loves more than anything-and as comforting as it is to feel his warmth and weight, all Ianto wants is for him to open his eyes.
But he doesn't, and Ianto’s heart has never hurt more than this moment.)
*.~.*.~.*
“What beautiful golden carding-combs!” the daughter exclaims. “Will you give them to me?”
“For another night with the prince,” Ianto bargains. “One more night, and they're yours.”
“Of course,” she assents. “That's still fair.”
*.~.*.~.*
(Another night, but nothing has changed. Ianto sits beside his prince and bows his head, and though he wants to weep, he doesn't.
“I love you,” he tells his White Bear, his man, and never notices that a small serving girl is watching from the doorway. “I love you so very much, and betrayed you, and I’ll never forgive myself for it. I'm sorry.”
The serving girl slips out of the room as dawn breaks, as Ianto leaves, and when she reaches the kitchens she whispers the story to another serving girl.
The one she tells is the same girl who brings the prince his breakfast every day, and when she sets his tray in front of him that day, she leans over and whispers a story of separated lovers in his ear.
The prince remembers the wine that the daughter has brought him for the past two nights, remembers how quickly sleep had come each time after he finished drinking, and knows.)
*.~.*.~.*
In return for a third and final night with the prince, Ianto hands over the golden spinning wheel.
One more chance, he tells himself. Once more. This time will be different.
*.~.*.~.*
Ianto eases open the door to the prince’s chamber, expecting to see a still form laid out on the bed.
But there is none.
Instead, the man who is also the White Bear is seated at the table, smiling at him. “Ianto,” he says, and it’s impossibly warm. “You came for me.”
“I did,” Ianto says. He’s clinging to the doorway, certain that if he lets go his legs will simply give way, but then the prince moves, or Ianto does, or they both do, and suddenly they're clinging to each other in the middle of the room, locked together as though they'll never let go.
“I love you,” Ianto says again, because he never thought Jack would actually be able to hear it. “I love you so very much, and betrayed you, and I’ll never forgive myself for it. I'm sorry.”
“Oh, Ianto,” the man says, and kisses him. “You came to find me. No one else would have. Thank you.”
“You're not the White Bear anymore?” Ianto asks. “The curse is broken?”
“Yes.” The man laughs. “Yes, it’s broken. I'm just Jack now, and you're my husband. I love you, Ianto, and you love me, and that's saved the both of us.”