300 Torchwood Drabbles (Set 1)

[nothing_rhymes_with_ianto]

Title: 300 Torchwood Drabbles (Set 1)
Pairings/Characters: Any and all pairings, any and all characters
Spoilers/Warnings: Basically, proceed with caution. Lots of spoilers, not many warnings.
Summary: 50 out of my 300 drabbles of either 100, 150, or 200 words. All drabbles are 100 words unless otherwise indicated. Each drabble was inspired by a single word prompt given to me by random followers on Tumblr.

1 Roses

Owen and Ianto don’t need roses. They know that. They’ve tried it before. Not with each other, of course. That would be awkward. But they remember, from years ago, when they had those women they thought they’d marry one day. Those were days for roses. Not now.

Instead, they have stitches, coffee, banter. It’s still love, still deep, still overprotective and weirdly possessive. But it’s not sappy romance. Torchwood isn’t like that. Anyway, they work better together, when they’re not dwelling on the past. They work better together when all they can see is the present, the future and each other.



2 Window

Ianto wakes to find the other half of the bed empty. The red glow of the alarm clock tells him it’s nearly four in the morning.

Owen’s shirtless body is silhouetted against the window. His arms are wrapped around his shoulders, even though it’s quite warm in the flat. His head is bowed, and Ianto sees him sigh. He gets out of bed and joins the Londoner at the window, wrapping his arms around him from behind.

“He forgave you.”

“But I shot him. I fucking shot him, and then he left us.”

“It’s not your fault, Owen. We all betrayed him.”

They stand together at the window, wishing on fading stars for their leader back.



3 Unaccountable

Ianto’s heart pounded in fear every time the rest of the Torchwood team took their dinner break and left him in the Hub alone. He was terrified that they’d come back early and catch him down in the depths with Lisa, or that they’d somehow find the source for the “unaccountable” electrical surges that happened periodically when he plugged in Lisa’s machine to relieve her pain for just a little while.

He was scared to death that Lisa, who by now was really only half the Lisa he’d once known, would be overtaken by the Cyberman bits that had been fused to her, and would hurt his colleagues, who he’d found himself attached to.

He was terrified that he might have to make a decision between his Lisa, and his Torchwood Three team.



4 Joie de Vivre

Owen and Ianto ran, laughing and snorting, across the snow-covered Plass. It had been a close shave for all of them today, nearly being crushed in a giant alien, well, crusher. Jack had saved them, of course.

Now they laughed with breathless joie de vivre brought on by the sudden closeness of mortality.

“Pew pew pew!” Owen made a gun with his fingers and pointed it at Ianto. The Welshman retaliated with a well-aimed snowball to the face.

Owen dove at him and wrestled him into the powder, where they tussled like boys, reveling in the feeling of eluding death.



5 Metal

Owen barely has to think about it before he begins to very carefully remove the metal exoskeleton from Lisa’s body. Jack is long gone back to Ianto’s flat, so he knows there’s no one around to disturb him. He works quietly, reverently, being extremely attentive as he pries steel from skin. When he gets it all off, he cleans her up, stitches closed the tears in her skin where he wasn’t able to be as precise as he wanted in taking off the metal.

He knows from experience that it feels better to have a body, no matter how mutilated, that you know exists, that you can pretend to talk to. It feels better to know that someone cares.



6 Utopia

Owen is lying on his back in bed, lights from the bay flickering across the ceiling. A solid shape dozes lightly beside him.

He’s not sure when Ianto started staying the night, but he doesn’t mind. Ianto is nice, once you get used to him. And Owen feels a great deal of affection for the Teaboy, though it comes across as snark. Ianto cleans up, keeps the flat neat, and they both feel the need for company at night, a warm body beside them, someone, anyone, to keep the loneliness at bay.

He just wonders if (hopes that) this will continue when (if) Jack returns.



7 Rugby

“You’re telling me you live only miles away from the Millennium Stadium and you’ve never been to a live rugby match?” Owen asked incredulously. It was only a week after he’d been recruited and Wales was playing England the next day.

“Sorry, never have time. You won’t, either, I guarantee.” Jack replied.

“You’ve never been to a live rugby match?” Ianto gaped, three years later. “And you live here? Really?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “I don’t have time. Neither do you. Now come on. Rift activity.”

Ianto and Owen shrugged at each other across the Hub, miffed at the fact that their boss had never engaged in their national pastime.



8 TARDIS

Owen found Ianto in the furthest depths of the archives, furiously concentrating on some very boring-looking files.

“Ianto? You okay, mate?” He sat down beside the Welshman on the dirty floor. Ianto sighed and closed his eyes. He was breathing heavily through his nose.

“He found his Doctor,” the young man explained. “He’s not coming back. He’s found what he’s been waiting for all these years.”

“He’ll come back, you know he will.” Owen tried to reassure, but he was skeptical himself. “He wouldn’t leave us all alone.”

Neither man knew whether Owen was reassuring one or both of them.



9 Obtuse

“No, I mean, I like you.” Owen wonders if Kate is being deliberately obtuse, and he’s growing more frustrated by the second. He throws his napkin down on the counter where they’re on break, as if making a point. “I want you to go out with me!”

She laughs, a golden sound. “Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?”

He growls slightly, but she laughs again and he can’t help but smile. Then she leans over the table and plants a kiss on his cheek and he’s pretty sure he’ll never feel like this about anyone again.



10 Melancholy

Owen didn’t know what he’d call it. Perhaps melancholy was the right word. But after Katie’s death, he’d never really recovered. He remembered Before, and how he’d be happy for long stretches of time, smiling at everything, and then there was After. After, he felt nothing but sadness.

And somehow, it stayed. He’d never felt truly happy again. Perhaps it had been waiting round the corner for him since childhood, since long before his mother had kicked him out. All he knew was that the sadness prevailed, and he’d never been able to really feel joyful and content ever again.



11 Pug

“You are not keeping it here.” Ianto insisted.

“But—”

“I’m the one who cleans up this Hub and takes care of all living residents. That thing is going end up like Pusskers the cat.”

“What happened to her, anyway?”

“See?” he sighed. “She hid under furniture for a few weeks. Then one day she decided to get brave. Myfanwy ate the poor thing.”

“Oh…”

“So if you want that pug to end up like Pusskers, go ahead. But I suggest you give it to the patients at Flat Holm to take care of. It’ll survive longer.”

“I…fine.”

“Sorted, then. Coffee?”



12 Search

Some nights Ianto climbs up to the roof of the Millennium Centre, stands where he knows Jack loves to stand, and stares up at the sky, searching the stars for some sort of sign that Jack is out there, and that he’s going to come back to them.

Sometimes Tosh or Owen or even Gwen joins him, and they gaze up into the night, making half-hearted comments about “should’ve brought a telescope up,” but they never do.

It would hurt too much to look too closely at the stars. It would solidify the knowledge that Jack isn’t in this galaxy. And it would just make it all the more clear that he isn’t coming back.



13 Apophenia

At first Ianto wonders if he’s somehow gotten his wires crossed while talking to Owen. He wonders if he’s making something out of nothing.

But Owen is talking nicer to him, thanking him for coffee, brushing fingers with his as he takes a proffered medical tool from his hand, and looking at him for reassurance and answers instead of Jack.

So when he corners Owen one evening on the way up to the car park, he’s not surprised when the medic, instead of yelling, leans in and kisses him hard on the mouth. Ianto doesn’t mind, though. He kisses back.



14 Schadenfreude

Owen and Ianto’s relationship had always existed with a tinge of brotherly schadenfreude. An insult here, a wad of spit in a coffee mug there, but really, they were family. Family that communicated through banter, insults and tussles, but family all the same.

When Ianto had a headache for a few days, Owen laughed at him, told him to lay off the “innovative” sex with Jack so he wouldn’t get knocked around so hard.

But when the migraine went on for several weeks, suddenly the thought of his surrogate brother being injured terrified him. He would do anything to keep him from danger.



15 Defenestration (Double-drabble)

He and Jack have been standing in the top floor of the abandoned building for too many long minutes. Ianto stopped counting a while back. He doesn’t know how to react.

Jack has simply been standing, stock-still, staring dumbly at a pair of metal shackles that lie upon the floor. Ianto doesn’t recognize them, but it’s obvious that Jack does, and they hold some deep, insurmountable fear for him. He’s hypnotized by the cuffs, shaking, eyes fixed wide and stance rigid with terror. His body is tense with what Ianto recognizes as Jack’s position for some sort of sense memory of pain. Agony, he realizes, Jack is never as locked as this.

A whimper comes from his mouth, a sound like “Master,” and suddenly Ianto understands. In a movement swift with rage and protective, love-made fury, he grabs up the chains and heaves them out of the window. Jack sags as if strings holding him up had been cut. Ianto runs to him to hold him up. Jack’s face is in the crook of his neck, Ianto can feel his skin dampening with tears.

“Thank you,” Jack whispers into his ear, voice hoarse and pained. Ianto just tightens his hold.



16 Abscission (Double-drabble)

There are nights when Jack wakes up from a nightmare-memory, death after death, faces and faces of lovers and loved and strangers all lost, and bolts from his confined bunker as quick as he can with disturbing Ianto’s slumber.

He practically claws his way up to the roof of the Millenium Centre, and stands there, staring up at the stars. In these moments, he just wants to cut Ianto out of his life completely, remove the achingly large part of his heart dedicated to the Welshman, just to spare the pain on both of their parts.

He wants Ianto to leave, leave now, leave forever, leave fast, so he can forget all this and go live a safe, happy life in Newport or Abergavenny or Pontypridd, with no knowledge of the darkest depths of pain and suffering that he knows Ianto has experienced in his young life. He wants to cut Ianto off forever, so he won’t ever get hurt and won’t ever leave.

Then a sleepy figure appears on the Plass, a dark shape, and Jack realizes he’s too greedy to ever make the Welshman leave, too gluttonous for his adoration and trust and acceptance. Too much in love.



17 Rainy

Owen can remember the day his mother kicked him out. It was raining. It was grey. He was seventeen and a half.

There was a screaming match before he managed to wrestle the bags out of his mum’s hands, just before she tossed them out into the wet. He slept in a bus station that night.

The next day, he took all of his money and asked for a dorm room at the University. He’d already gotten in, and though it wasn’t a new school year yet, the head of dormitories took pity on him after hearing his story, and let him have the smallest single. He took it gratefully.



18 Suzie

When Suzie came back, Owen felt nothing except a slight nervousness. It wasn’t any sort of “Oh shit, an ex” nervousness or something along those lines. Instead, it was a Torchwood-ingrained instinct that she was wrong.

It felt odd to him that he felt nothing toward her. He usually felt something, anything, towards the women had affairs with, and especially towards his colleagues. Yes, he knew they’d been using each other for sex. But he felt some sort of emotion for everyone, even Tosh and Ianto. But for Suzie, there was nothing. What kind of person did that make him?



19 Gesundheit

Toshiko is sneezing all over the place. Ianto’s graced her with a “gesundheit” thirty-seven times in the last three hours. He counted. On the way out to get lunch for everyone, he stops by the store and buys her a box of extra-soft tissues, which she thanks him for profusely. He gives her a sympathetic smile.

“It’s allergies,” she explains, embarrassed.

“You know, I could cure those for you,” Jack offers. “We’ve got the tech. In my time, allergies didn’t even exist.”

“Thanks Jack, but I’d prefer to stay imperfect and 21st century.” Toshiko replies.

Ianto is inclined to agree.



20 Disclosure (Double-drabble)

Owen tripped backward on the stairs in the archives, yanking Ianto’s half of the artifact from his hands and falling to the ground. The artifact cracked open beside Owen’s head and smoke shrouded his face. He coughed, spluttered, before sitting up straight and going still.

“Shit.” Ianto slammed his hand on the button to lockdown the archives.

He sat down beside the medic. “Are you all right?”

“Devastation.” Ianto looked up into the medic’s face. His eyes were bright with tears, glazed over as if in a trance.

“What?”

“Heartbreak. Guilt. Anger. Loneliness. Hurt. Jealousy.”

“Owen? What are you talking about?”

The speaker clicked overhead and Jack’s voice came through. “It’s a full disclosure device. He’ll tell you about strong emotions evoked by certain events. It’s meant as a therapy device. Sorry. Get him comfortable. With his past, he’ll be talking for a while.”

Ianto stared at his colleague. Then he heaved Owen to his feet and sat him in a chair, where he stared at his knees, tears spilling down his grimacing face.

“I’m sorry, Owen.”

“Diane. Katie. Mum. Love. Devastation. Heartbreak. Guilt. Anger. Loss. Loneliness.”

Suddenly Owen looked up, straight into Ianto’s eyes. “Ianto. Friendship. Confidant. Brother. Help.”



21 Semiotics (Double-drabble)

Down in the archives, Ianto studies handwriting. Mostly Jack’s, Owen’s and Tosh’s, because they’re alive, because he knows them, and because he likes them.

Owen’s handwriting starts out shaky, slanting left, heavy pressure. Owen was still hurting from Katie’s death, still confused by this new and crazy job. After a while it morphs into what he knows now, upright letters, squashed together, heavy pressure, spiky and messy.

Tosh’s starts out shaky as well, but light, spread out and tiny. He remembers her telling him about UNIT. He can tell she was nervous when she first got out. Soon it changed to what he knows know: spread out and tiny, with medium pressure, leaning right.

Jack’s changes most. First it’s shaky, uncertain, like a child’s, and Ianto realizes suddenly that English is not Jack’s first language, that he had to learn the language, and quickly. Then it’s the looping cursive of the old days, leaning right, heavy pressure. It’s more modern after a while, but stays looping and old, Ianto knows how Jack likes nostalgia.

It’s amazing what handwriting says about a person. Ianto is glad he can learn about his friends this way, knowing them without ever having to ask.



22 Cosset (Drabble and a half)

It’s strange, Owen coming over every night, bringing with him beer or takeout or a movie. Caring for him. It’s nice, though. Helps him keep his mind off of Lisa.

They talk little, and when they do, it’s about mundane stuff. Nothing too deep, nothing that could trigger any sort of emotion. Owen helps him into bed at night and sometimes sleeps on the couch, but not usually. They barely speak about their own lives. Until just a week before Ianto’s suspension is up.

They’re slightly drunk, and Ianto just says “Why?” and suddenly Owen is telling him all about Katie and about losing her and about his devastation and emptiness and her laugh echoing in his ears and his loneliness. And suddenly there’s kinship and understanding. They turn away from each other and cry about their lost loves, though they stay in the same room, seated on the same couch.



23 Finagle

Somehow (even he doesn’t really know how he does it), Owen always manages to finagle his way out of fights. Fights with his mum’s stupid boyfriends when he was a kid, fights with classmates in med school, fights with drunk blokes in the bars, fights with their drunk girlfriends.

It’s definitely not because of his size, or his looks. Maybe it’s because he’s got that fierce emotion behind his eyes, the look of a man who’s lost it all, a man who’s only got one thing left and he knows it won’t ever let him go. Reckless. Loss protects him.



24 Toy Shop

Ianto gets weird looks when he walks in the toy shop. His suit is slightly dirty, and he’s got cuts on his knuckles and a scrape across his chin.

But he needs to buy something for Mica’s birthday, so he ignores the teenage girl scowling at him from the register and heads towards the games. He knows Mica likes those little PSP games. He’ll get her an educational one so Rhiannon won’t yell at him.

For just a brief moment, he has a vision of himself with a kid, Lisa still alive, or maybe Jack somehow okay with domesticity. Then he remembers, he’s Torchwood.



25 Honey

When Gwen calls him “honey” or “sweetheart,” Ianto always has to suppress a shudder. He hates hearing those endearments. His mum used to call him that, before she left to that place with all those strange people, those white walls, those still figures.

Ianto knows now it was Providence Park, but back then it was just “the ghostie building,” a whole institution full of people like ghosts.

Her voice still rings in his head, mingled with the sounds of his father, who blamed him for her bad health and her subsequent death by suicide.

He can’t bear to hear those words.



26 Castle

As they drive hurriedly to the abandoned Torchwood One warehouse, Rhys cracks a joke that they should’ve chosen Cardiff Castle as their new base.

This produces a good laugh, and suddenly, everyone feels a little better. Jack, still naked, puts an arm around Ianto’s shoulders and chuckles.

“We did use it as a base for a little while, back in the 1800s. Then they started rebuilding and tearing walls down. We decided we should get the hell out before someone discovered us.”

“WHAT?!” Gwen and Rhys exclaim together, eyes wide.

“It’s true,” Ianto deadpans from the back seat. Jack smirks.



27 Doctor

He’s just come back from the goddamn Marianas Trench and he’s slightly scared of the dark. He’s walking from his car to his flat when footsteps make him stop. He pulls his gun, ready. The footsteps near and he spins—

“Woah!” He steadies the gun. “Ianto, hold on!”

“Who are you?” He lowers the gun only a fraction.

“I’m the Doctor.” The gun goes back up. “I’m not here to take Jack. I need you.”

“Why?” Ianto is wary.

“I need you to meet a very old friend of mine. It’s important, for you and for him. And for Jack.”



28 Confused (Drabble and a half)

When Jack first sees the blinking light on his wrist strap, he will be filled with confusion. It won't have done that for nearly a hundred linear earth years. He'll stare at it for a few long moments before he will press the button.

Gwen's face will appear in front of him, projected in blue. Her eyes will be wide and eager and she will be smiling.

"Jack," She will say. "You need to come back. I don't know how long it's been for you, but it's only been eight months for me and something wonderful has happened." She will look offscreen and chuckle, then turn back to Jack. "And no, it's not the fact that I had my baby."

Suddenly, another smiling face will fill the screen and Jack will gasp and bite his tongue and hold back tears.

"Ianto's alive!"

Jack will teleport home that instant.

“Jack!”

"Ianto..."



29 Eyeshadow

The first time Ianto sees him fully decked out— corset, heels, eyeshadow and all, he’s creeped out. He doesn’t care that it’s for that Rocky Horror Picture Show thing in town. It’s weird-looking on Jack.

The second time, however, he takes a closer look. The stockings hug Jack’s legs gracefully, the corset gives him a nearly feminine curve. The eyeshadow compliments and defines the arch of his brow. Suddenly Ianto is overcome with need, and crushes Jack to the wall, plundering his mouth and shoving his hands down lacy underwear.

He doesn’t care if he gets lipstick on his suit.



30 Health

It’s your job. You make sure the team is healthy, you make sure they heal well from their injuries or sicknesses. It’s your job. Your job is also to dissect aliens that come through, victims, whatever. It’s a thankless job, really. Despite how it may seem, you really do work incredibly hard. It’s a thankless job.

Except when Ianto’s around, because he knows. He’s got a thankless job, too. And he thanks you with a quiet murmur, or in his own silent way with treats or first-rate coffee. You’re not really here for thanks, but you’re glad someone gets it.



31 First Times (Double-drabble)

The first time they kissed, it was mostly accidental. No one knew who started it. They were arguing about who was guiltier, about Ianto shooting Owen, when suddenly they were kissing, tongues battling. Owen pulled back, punched him in the face, hard. Then, before he was done reeling, pulled him back in and kissed him quick before stomping off.

The first time they fucked was the night Tosh had been nearly killed. Ianto showed up at Owen’s doorstep looking traumatized. Owen yanked him inside and crushed their mouths together. They fucked on the bed, Owen’s hands fisting hard in Ianto’s hair as his hips pistoned.

The first time they professed real feelings for each other was in the Himalayas. Gwen had disappeared. Tosh’s body was laid out on the other side of the tent. Owen was lying on Ianto’s lap, shivering and coughing. He’d gotten frostbite after losing a glove, and now infection had spread. Owen coughed for a long time, and when he looked up at Ianto, his eyes were fading.

“Teaboy? I just want you to know that I love you.”

“Owen…please don’t. Don’t leave me.”

“Ianto, please.”

“I love you too. I really do.”

The medic went still.



32 Cerulean

Jack loved one particular planet. Of course, sometimes, he absolutely hated it, too. It was called Azural. It was blue, the purest blue. Its inhabitants were intelligent and peaceful and they welcomed him.

Sometimes, he went there and stayed for months, basking in the cerulean colour that let him sit awash with memories. And sometimes, he ran, fast and far, unable to stand the all too familiar blue that induced too many regrets. And some days he just wanted to fly up in his ship and orbit the planet, staring at the sphere as if staring into the eyes of the man he promised never to forget.



33 Osteria (Double-drabble)

Once, after he left earth, after his Vortex Manipulator was restored (ah, he loved rogue Time Agents!), Jack went to Italy. At first it was just because he’d never been, and he’d always been partial to the language and especially the food. He chose 1922, because he remembered liking that time period quite a lot. Not quite as much as the forties, though.

He made his way to an attractive osteria and sauntered inside. It was loud, but full of warmth and life and good smells, something Jack often missed when travelling in the stars. He smiled.

Suddenly, a familiar movement caught his eye and he turned, stopped. A young man, slightly dirty, sallow, the beginnings of a goatee on his chin, and a strange red marking in the white of his eye, stood over a crowded table, laughing and talking with friends in rapid Italian.

Jack sucked in a breath. Stood staring.

“Angelo,” he murmured.

Then he ducked into the shadows before the young man could see him. It was too far back in Angelo’s timeline, they couldn’t meet.

But Jack was glad to see the boy before he was hurt by the Americans, hurt by him, hurting him.



34 Serendipity

Ianto wondered if it was serendipity, the assassin missing Jack and hitting him. Because since Tosh and Owen’s deaths, the Captain had fluctuated from overprotective to a fault, to aloof and dismissive. And Ianto couldn’t stand it. He wanted his Captain back, the one he knew and loved, not this shell of a man devastated by the deaths of his employees.

But in the first moment Jack realized the truth of his wounds, and the second moment of his pulling xilobytes from his flesh, Ianto knew something had changed. And despite Jack’s need for Gwen, there was something deeper there for him. He could tell in the way Jack tugged him a little closer as they stood on the Plass after the world was righted again.



35 Coulisse

The entire Hub was Jack’s coulisse. It amused Ianto to no end. He knew Jack had been practically living (or actually living) in the base for over one hundred years. The man knew every nook and cranny. And he loved using his arcane knowledge to make a flourishing grand entrance at every possible moment. Ianto loved it not only because it was entertaining and slightly cheesy, but also because whenever Jack got the chance for one of his bold, embellished arrivals, his face lit up, eyes bright with a pleased glow, a rare kind, and Ianto loved to see it.



36 Semaphore (Drabble and a half)

Trying to extract information about Jack and Ianto’s relationship was like trying to communicate by semaphore to a nearsighted old man. Or trying to ask questions of a lazy cat. Or attempting to explain medical procedures to Gwen. Although, Owen wasn’t sure if they were ignoring him or if they were both just thick.

But he’d seen the way Jack looked at Ianto when the Welshman had his back turned, how he fussed over him when he was hurt. And he’d heard how tenderly Ianto said their Captain’s name, how gently he held Jack when he died. It was like everyone saw it but them.

And then he saw their eyes meet once and gazes soften, before masks slid back in place. And he realized, this is Torchwood, where your heart is bound to get irrevocably broken, and they were each terrified of breaking the other man’s heart even more.



37 Bananas (Drabble and a half)

Jack had convinced Ianto to allow him to come grocery shopping with him. Ianto had rolled his eyes and relented with a warning not to embarrass him. Jack had put on an innocent “who me?” expression to which Ianto had slapped him lightly on the arm and beckoned him to follow.

Now they were going from aisle to aisle and Jack hadn’t managed to make Ianto feel foolish yet. They needed fruit for the Hub, Ianto wanted them all to eat healthier. Suddenly, as Ianto was inspecting a couple of small greenish bananas, there was a crash, a growl, a scream. Weevils in the store.

“Shit!” Ianto exclaimed; he was unarmed. He instinctively gripped the fruit in his hand like a gun. Jack pulled his Webley.

“Keep a hold of that banana, Ianto.”

“Why?”

A slow, affectionate grin spread across the Captain’s face and he winked. “Good source of potassium!”



38 Pudding (Note: UK-ers, in the US "pudding" is specifically a custard dessert.)

“You’re feeding the Weevil pudding?” Owen asked incredulously. Ianto turned on one foot.

“You did the surgery yourself! The poor thing’s got a broken jaw. It won’t be able to chew for months.”

“Fine. But are you sure it likes pudding?”

“Already gave it some. It seemed to enjoy it.”

“Aliens. Fucking weird.”

“You don’t like pudding, Owen? Is this one of your strange things, like Tintin?”

“Is this one of my— Tintin was creepy, dammit! And no, I’ve just never liked pudding. It feels like I’m eating innards.”

“Well, then, I suppose the Weevils will like it even more.”



39 Laser Saw

The first time Ianto ever had to use the laser saw, it was to pull a Nostrovite baby out of Jack’s belly. First, Jack didn’t really have anything in the way of a uterus, and second, his 51st century biology was rejecting it, violently. Jack was writhing all over the operating table.

But then the Captain passed out from exertion and stilled, and Ianto sliced him open with one pass of the laser, grabbed the Nostrovite baby, and closed him up again.

The creature could have been kept for observation, but he knew Jack wouldn’t approve of raising a baby anything in Torchwood.



40 Medbay

It took Owen a while to get used to the medbay when he first joined Torchwood. It was strange, open-plan, brick, with steel morgue drawers readily available along the sunken wall. Cabinet doors opened to shelves containing not only human medicine and conventional surgical tools, but alien devices as well. He spent his first month discovering strange new items in the storage units around the space.

But after a while, it became his designated area, and he adored it. It was his medbay. His personality emanated from it and marked it as his domain. His space. He loved it there.



41 Homograph

Ianto groaned. He was trying to help Tosh translate this alien book, but the entire language seemed to be made up mostly of homographs, and as such, could only be translated through context. However, since neither he nor Tosh spoke the language, it was basically impossible to decipher. “Ikonamiq” and “ikonamiq” separated only by a few words baffled him, especially since he knew they meant two different things.

He slapped his book shut almost simultaneously as Toshiko, and sighed.

“This is impossible.”

“Maybe we can ask Jack?” she offered.

“Hopefully he’ll at least know the difference between qhiadslej and qhiadslej….”



42 Ochre

Ianto and Owen stood out on the sandy beach of the Gower Peninsula, the sunset turning the golden dried grasses behind them to a gorgeous red-brown. Tosh and Gwen were sitting closer to the water, sunbathing. Jack was who knows where. The two men breathed in the salty air and smiled at each other. The last time Ianto had been here had been with Lisa, when they’d camped out that slightly disastrous summer night.

But he shoved those old memories away. He was here, on vacation, with the rest of the team. He was here to make new happy memories.



43 Jostling

Owen is annoyed. It’s Christmas, and everyone’s pushing and shoving and elbowing everyone else to get through the store. He just wants to buy that necklace for Katie— the one she stood and admired for nearly ten minutes the other day— and get out of here.

“Owen?”

He whips around. “Mother? What are you doing here.”

“Felt like I needed to spruce m’self up with some new jewelry. Why are you here?”

“I’m buying a gift for my girlfriend, who I love. Which is better than can be said for you.”

Angrily, he stomps off in the direction of the register.



44 Frazzled

Owen opened the door to a frazzled and worn down-looking Ianto. The Welshman came inside and dropped wearily down on the couch.

Owen got them each a glass of scotch and sat down beside him. “You look like shit. What’s wrong?”

Ianto sighed. “I told tell Gwen about Flat Holm. She wouldn’t give up asking. Jack went with her. He came back freaked out. Wouldn’t let me go.”

“So you’re here because of Jack’s secret and Gwen’s big nose? Or am I just second best?

“No, I’m here because you haven’t got an agenda, you’re my friend, and you understand.”



45 Dépaysement (Double-drabble)

Sometimes, during quiet moments, Ianto watches Jack reading or writing. His lips move silently along with the words, sometimes he pauses and looks at a word or sentence for a moment. Other times he’ll be writing, and he’ll have to speak quietly into his wrist strap and look at the translation.

Ianto knows English isn’t Jack’s native language, not by a long shot. He’s sure language developed and evolved and changed drastically over thirty thousand years. But he wonders sometimes how out of place, how lost Jack feels.

Even now, one hundred and fifty years later, Jack still gets stuck sometimes on the English language, gets confused, turned around, forgets a custom or etiquette or convention. Sometimes he has to translate with his wrist strap. He still seems so out of his time, so displaced.

The word “homophobia” does not have a synonym in Jack’s native language. The concept doesn’t even exist anymore. Ianto learned that the night he found Jack staring, confused, at an article about the suicide of some young Americans.

When Ianto explained the definition to his boss, Jack sighed. His eyes were dark, mouth a grim line.

“Sometimes, I really just want to go home.”

It made Ianto’s heart ache.



46 Juxtaposition

Most would look at Owen and Ianto and see exact opposites: Owen was small and thin, Ianto was tall but slightly stocky; Owen was light-haired and dark-eyed, and Ianto was the reverse. Ianto was quiet, reserved and polite where Owen was loud, abrasive and sarcastic.

But they were anything but opposites. Anyone who looked close enough, who knew them well enough, would realize that their outwardly opposing traits were just masks for analogous inner personalities that had seen similar tragedies, similar losses, similar unpleasant pasts, and knew all too well the darkness of the world much too young in life.



47 Morphine (Double-drabble)

It’s been nine and a half months since the world’s gone to shit.

They knew the PM’s Himalayas call was false as soon as they got to Tibet, and so turned around and went straight back to the Hub.

Then Hell arrived.

Gwen took charge until Rhys was killed on a food run. Then she walked around empty, robotic. She went off comms during a food run a month later. They found her body in an alley. Owen didn’t tell Tosh it was a suicide.

Toshiko stayed alive for nearly seven months, until a Toclofane spotted her as she crossed to the SUV. Ianto had cried out at her from behind the window of the Tourist Centre, but that had done nothing.

Now only he and Owen are left, and Ianto is dying of a strange alien disease, Owen pushing morphine into him through an IV.

“Thanks for sticking with me,” Ianto smiles weakly up at the medic, eyes dulled. “You’re like a brother I never had.”

“Same here, Jones.” He grins reassuringly. They both ignore how fake the grin is.

Then Ianto’s eyes close and his breathing slows, ceases, and Owen’s face crumples, tears sliding silently down his face.



48 Pogostick

The alien looks like a living pogostick. Or an anorexic hammerhead shark with springs. Either way, it looks weird.

Jack is communicating with it through strange popping noises, hand gestures, and extra translation with the help of his Vortex Manipulator. Ianto and Owen are standing off to the side, confused.

“Well, of all the aliens we’ve seen, this has got to be one of the weirdest.” Owen comments.

“Yep.”

“It’s saying it’s lost,” Jack calls to them. “Spaceship runs on zinc and it ran out of power.”

“Well, I can get some for you back at the Hub.”

“Good. Do that.”



49 Fergal (Double-drabble)

It’s Tosh who sees the lineup of that new bar in town. She doesn’t mention it until Ianto’s gone up to tell Jack he’s got plans, until the Welshman’s already been gone a good twenty minutes.

They show up at the bar in pairs, and even Jack is dressed “plainclothes.” They sit at the back, well away from the stage. They know Ianto wouldn’t want to be embarrassed by them.

The moment he steps onstage, the whole team gasps. Ianto is wearing light jeans that hug his legs in all the right places, a black t-shirt with a buckle-laden jacket on top. He adjusts the mic, signals the guitarist, and opens his mouth.

The sounds that come out make the team want to close their eyes and purr. It’s a velvety growl, a deep, resonant baritone that ripples and rumbles about their ears and washes over them in rich waves. There’s something incredibly sexual about the growl coming deep from Ianto’s chest.

Jack’s grip is tight on the countertop, the others are the same. They are captivated by this side of Ianto, this sexy, groaning singer with dark eyes and quiet fury. They are captivated by the Ianto they know they’ll never truly know.



50 Skeleton (Drabble and a half)

He wasn’t like most men. Not that Jack cared. He’d fall in love with anything. But this man wasn’t like most men.

They’d met in some alien bar, where human beings and their future counterparts were not widely known, and so his, well, condition, was not seen as strange.

At first, Jack couldn’t look at him without remembering Ray, Wynnie, Francis Morgan, the Already Dead, Zero. At first he’d fall asleep next to him and wake up breathless, a scream of pain and fear caught in his throat as he remembered the terror of Ianto’s wounds and the Already Dead closing in, the disgust when he saw Francis Morgan’s tethered body, the pain when Zero’s mother took him in her lightening to communicate.

But then he grew used to it. A skeleton for a lover wasn’t the strangest thing he’d experienced. And he was a wonderful guy. Jack loved him.




Go to Set 2

Comments

[snarkymuch.livejournal.com]

Since there are so many, and I don’t want to give a blanket ‘they were all great’ I am going to comment of groups of ten. So here is the first ten.

The first prompt: It was perfectly done. It was heartbreaking to see the loss they both have had but at the same time it was comforting to know that they have each other, even if in a weird way.

Prompt number two: just killed me. I just … yep, it was really good. It is so part of my headcanon that they got together after Jack left.

Prompt three: I think you showed exactly how he must have felt, growing attached to the team, loving Lisa, the fear of discovery. It all must have been terrifying.

Prompt four: It made me laugh. It was adorable.

Prompt five: Awww! I think that Owen would totally do that. He is a big softie whether he wants to admit it or not.

Prompt six: Owen, you are too damned sweet for your own good.

Prompt seven: Good use of the prompt. I liked it and I could see Jack not paying any attention to the national pastime; he does have a tendency to get caught up in himself.

Prompt eight: I love these little moments. You should definitely expand on them, please????

Prompt nine: Knowing she is doomed to suffer and die makes this so fucking heart wrenching, just saying.

Prompt ten: This was so freakin’ sad, melancholic even, and right after the prompt about him realizing his love for Katie. You are evil. Cthulhu would be proud.