galadriel1010 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
galadriel1010) wrote2011-06-03 11:15 am
galadriel1010) wrote2011-06-03 11:15 am
Entry tags:
Timelord!Ianto: Change1
Title: Trials of a Timelord
Chapter Title: Change of Place
Challenge/Fest: LongliveIanto cliché bingo
Prompt: Heat
Rating: G
Dedication:
Summary: Ianto Jones has to find himself and his place at Torchwood Cardiff, whilst hiding his deepest secret.
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Suzie
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
I'm sorry I ker-poofed again. I think I'm back now, but I always say that.
Summer brought a heatwave, for a change. The team arrived in T shirts and put on jackets as soon as they got into the subterranean Hub, complaining pointedly about being shut away from the sunshine. Torchwood had provided Ianto with an apartment close to the Hub, just a simple one bedroom place with an open-plan living area, and he enjoyed walking to work in the sunshine, turning his sleeves up and carrying his jacket across his arm, meandering down the road and across the Plass when there were no tourists around, setting off early enough to linger on the boardwalk and watch the early morning sun dance on the water. Sometimes Jack joined him and they talked quietly or just enjoyed the peace and quiet until it was time to go to work, and Jack would touch him, squeeze his shoulder or sometimes even put his arm around Ianto’s waist for a sidelong hug, and he’d leave Ianto to his thoughts for another couple of minutes before Tosh came clattering down the steps in a whirl of ideas and the day began in earnest.
He preferred his quiet mornings with Jack to the quiet mornings alone. The team still seemed unsure of his place with them, which probably wasn’t helped by the fact that he spent almost all of his time in the Archives sorting out Tosh’s mess. When Jack joined him on the boardwalk he got half an hour of company and a fleeting moment of physical affection that had to be enough to get him through the day.
Jack didn’t come to join him that morning, and wasn’t even there to greet them when Ianto and Tosh got down into the Hub. They started the systems quietly, creeping around the place like they were in someone else’s home without them, and hovered in the kitchenette with mugs of coffee. Ianto liked Tosh, but she was quiet and shy and didn’t know what to do with him, nor he her. “So,” she said eventually, not looking up at him from her mug. “I… sorry about the state of the Archives.”
“It’s okay,” he reassured her, relaxing slightly. “I would probably have reorganised them all anyway, with the stuff coming in from… from London.” Tosh looked away again and he fished for something else to say, for his own sake as much as hers. “You know that there’s things living down there, right?”
She laughed and nodded. “Why do you think I never spent any time down there? I take it you’ve been making friends.”
“Friends, or enemies…” he said ominously, smiling when Tosh laughed again. “They’re not very talkative.”
The lift rose to street level, and they moved out into the open Hub to watch it descend. Suzie pulled her coat on and smiled at them, shrugging until it sat properly on her shoulders. “Morning kids. Is he not back yet?”
Tosh and Ianto exchanged a look and shook their heads. “No,” Tosh answered. “At least he warned you.”
“Didn’t warn me, exactly,” she scoffed, stepping down off the slab as soon as it reached the ground again. “Turned up on my doorstep at five this morning asking to borrow a screwdriver; I think he’s breaking and entering somewhere. So it’s just us this morning, and Owen when he shows. Oh, talk of the devil.” The rear entrance alarm blared once and Owen stalked towards them, already zipping up his leather jacket. “Nice of you to join us, Owen.”
He snorted and dropped into a chair hard enough to push it backwards across the floor. “Yeah, whatever. Where’s Jack and his shiny shiny teeth?”
“Breaking and entering,” Tosh told him simply. “He’ll turn up when he… turns up.”
Owen scoffed and span his chair around. “Well, I might not hang around. It’s a beautiful day, and I can’t be bothered to stick down here again.” He made to stand up, but Suzie stopped him. Her eyebrows rose sharply and she glanced at Ianto for a moment, then glared at Owen again. “I… Fine, I’ll hang around. But I’ll give him an hour. Coffee, Jones?”
Ianto turned away quickly and went to make another pot of coffee for them, ignoring Tosh’s sympathetic look. Once he was finished he brought the mugs out to where the others were gathered on the sofa, by the coffee table. There was no room on the sofa, so he pulled a computer chair over and joined them. They were quiet now, and Ianto realised that their quiet and earnest conversation had been about him. His hearts thumped, but his hands were steady around his mug. “So, we’ve no idea when he’ll be back?”
“No idea,” Suzie confirmed. “Unless you can shed some light on the situation…”
“Me?” He made himself look up at her. “Why would I know?”
“Well, you are very close to him,” Tosh said quickly, rushing over the others before they could say anything. “We thought he might have mentioned it to you.”
He relaxed slightly and shrugged it off. “He didn’t mention anything last night.”
“Oh?” Owen beat Tosh to it and leaned forwards. “What was last night?”
Ianto scowled and shifted uncomfortably. “I worked too late and he dragged me out of the Archives and force-fed me Chinese. He oft… Well, I get distracted.”
“You’re…” Suzie sighed and pushed her thick curls back over her shoulder again. “Look, I’ll put this plainly. Are you or are you not sleeping with Jack?”
He blinked back at her, not even really comprehending it. “I… No, no. I’m not…”
“Not gay?” Owen asked. “That won’t stop him.”
“Not… anything,” he said, more uncomfortable than ever. “I never even thought of it, of him… No.”
“You’re asexual,” Owen crowed. “Oh that is priceless. You haven’t noticed, then?”
He tightened his hands around his mug and felt his hearts-rate pick up. “What haven’t I noticed, Dr Harper?”
Tosh cut him off and sat forwards to attract Ianto’s full attention. “Look, Ianto… you should know, we thought you would have noticed, but… Jack’s been flirting with you. A lot. I don’t know if it’s serious, and I don’t think it is, but… there it is.”
Ianto dropped his gaze into his mug and tried to process that. His musings were interrupted by the cog door rolling back again with its blare of sirens, and the rest of the team scurried to look busy, leaving him to his musings until Jack stopped in front of him with a big grin and a box. “Hey, Ianto. I brought you a present.”
He looked up, past the box that Jack was proffering to the look in his eyes. Swallowing, he reached for the box and brought it down to his lap, resting his fingers on the top. “A present, sir?” His voice remained steady and he hid the tremors in his fingers by running his fingers over the carved symbols. “Is this anything to do with you borrowing a screwdriver this morning?”
“It might be,” Jack grinned and dropped down onto the sofa, spreading his arms across the back casually. “I had to pay our friend Henry Jackson a visit. He imported that from the US at the weekend – I gave him long enough to get a look at it and then fetched it for you.”
“For me?”
Jack sighed and waved his hands, encouraging him. “Open it, go on.”
He trailed his fingers to the edge of the box and ran his thumbs down to the catch. It opened smoothly and he lifted the lid slowly, eyes widening as he saw what was inside. Inside was a long metal object, shaped like a figure of eight with an extra ring, decorated with intricate engravings that circled around inset gem-like buttons. He lifted it out carefully and rested the end rings in his palms with his thumbs through them. In that position his fingers rested against the outside gems, and he had to stop himself from showing how well he knew this device. “It’s an… Effe Artana?”
“Good,” Jack praised, and Ianto preened under his praise even though he should have felt patronised. “You’ve heard of them?”
“Yes, possibly of this one,” he breathed. “Is this the one that was in Freddy Gratten’s collection a few years ago?”
“That exact one,” Jack confirmed. “He never worked out what it was. But then, he had no psychic ability at all.”
That snapped Ianto out of his mood and he put it back in the satin-lined case carefully. The dark silverish metal seemed to glow against the dark blue, and he brushed his fingers once more against the bright gems before he closed the lid on it. “Me neither,” he said, smiling sadly. “It’s beautiful, though.”
“Jackson does,” Jack explained, pushing himself to his feet. “That’s why I couldn’t leave it with him. Imagine what could have happened if he realised what it was.” He reached out and squeezed Ianto’s shoulder, pulling back when he stilled completely under the touch. “Ianto?”
“Sorry.” He smiled reassuringly and flipped the catch on the box. “Just… thank you. I’d always wanted to see one of these.”
Jack gave him a quick smile. “I’ll let you get it put away where it belongs. Maybe I’ll show you what I can do with it later.” He turned on his heel and went to stand behind Tosh’s desk. “Okay, kids, don’t start any projects you can’t drop at a moment’s notice. The Rift is going to blow today, and blow well; it always does when it gets this hot. Tosh, I want you to compare the records of previous rift storms that have been linked to heatwaves. They’ll be flagged up on the system.”
“What am I looking for, Jack?” She asked, already looking for the data. Ianto collected the box up and made for the Archives whilst she and Jack discussed it, ignoring Suzie’s sympathetic but knowing look.
He didn’t emerge for the rest of the day, even when Owen, Jack and Suzie went out to contain the results of the Rift spike. Steady footsteps eventually pierced his lair and he pushed the drawer he was looking through closed, pulling off his archival gloves and turning to face Jack with them hanging from one hand. “Sorry, sir,” he rubbed the back of his neck with his other hand and studied Jack’s boots. “I just…”
Jack didn’t move from the doorway. He looked unsettled when Ianto met his eyes, and couldn’t hold his gaze for long. “Is something wrong? I mean… I feel like you’re avoiding me.”
“It’s…” He licked his lips and bit the bullet. “Have you been flirting with me? Sir,” he added, feeling his hearts hammering in his chest. They had been doing that a lot lately.
“I have.” Jack stepped into the room, just one step closer, and Ianto had his back to the cabinets and couldn’t retreat any further. “Is that a problem? I can stop.”
“No, I just…” He trailed off and busies himself with disposing of his gloves and tidying away the notes he’d made. “I just don’t want to lead you on. I’m asexual.”
Jack paused with his mouth open for a moment, clearly surprised, but closed it and smiled gently. “Okay. Thanks for telling me, I guess. I can’t say I’m not disappointed, just so you know. You’re a good looking guy, Ianto Jones.”
Ianto blushed, but accepted the compliment for what it was. “Thank you, sir. You’re aesthetically pleasing yourself, for what that’s worth.”
“Only you.” Jack came further into the room and perched himself on the edge of Ianto’s desk, looking down at the paperwork. “I’m going to give you the codes to the secure archives,” he said suddenly, when Ianto had thought he’d drag Ianto out of the office or something similar, something normal. “I trust you, more than me some days. You should be in charge of them.”
His hands faltered again, but he regained control of himself and finished his tidying. “I assume you’ll still have access as well?”
“Oh yeah.” Jack laughed and shook his head. “I said I trusted you, not that my paranoia has been fixed.”
“I’ll keep working on that,” Ianto teased. They fell silent again, and Ianto found himself hovering, waiting for Jack to make a move. “Was there something else, Jack?”
Jack nodded and looked at him sidelong. “It’s your birthday in a couple of weeks. I always give people their birthdays off if they want them. You have a sister, don’t you?”
He licked his lips and shook his head. “We’re not close. Not speaking, really. I’d rather work… if that’s alright?”
“That’s fine.” Jack seemed pleased with the answer, if a little guilty. “Then let me take you for dinner instead. All five of us, if you’d be uncomfortable with just me,” he offered.
Ianto thought about it and smiled shyly. “I’d like that. Just the… you and me, that is. I think Owen would rather spoil the mood.”
“He does that,” Jack agreed, pulling a face. “He drinks too much. Thank you.” He changed the subject before Ianto could comment, “And now it’s the point where I ask if you’ve eaten all day, which I know you haven’t, and drag you upstairs to make sure you get something inside you before you go home, which you must do. Come on.”
Ianto paused long enough to turn the lights out, and hurried after Jack still smiling to himself.
Next chapter
Chapter Title: Change of Place
Challenge/Fest: LongliveIanto cliché bingo
Prompt: Heat
Rating: G
Dedication:
Summary: Ianto Jones has to find himself and his place at Torchwood Cardiff, whilst hiding his deepest secret.
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Suzie
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
I'm sorry I ker-poofed again. I think I'm back now, but I always say that.
Summer brought a heatwave, for a change. The team arrived in T shirts and put on jackets as soon as they got into the subterranean Hub, complaining pointedly about being shut away from the sunshine. Torchwood had provided Ianto with an apartment close to the Hub, just a simple one bedroom place with an open-plan living area, and he enjoyed walking to work in the sunshine, turning his sleeves up and carrying his jacket across his arm, meandering down the road and across the Plass when there were no tourists around, setting off early enough to linger on the boardwalk and watch the early morning sun dance on the water. Sometimes Jack joined him and they talked quietly or just enjoyed the peace and quiet until it was time to go to work, and Jack would touch him, squeeze his shoulder or sometimes even put his arm around Ianto’s waist for a sidelong hug, and he’d leave Ianto to his thoughts for another couple of minutes before Tosh came clattering down the steps in a whirl of ideas and the day began in earnest.
He preferred his quiet mornings with Jack to the quiet mornings alone. The team still seemed unsure of his place with them, which probably wasn’t helped by the fact that he spent almost all of his time in the Archives sorting out Tosh’s mess. When Jack joined him on the boardwalk he got half an hour of company and a fleeting moment of physical affection that had to be enough to get him through the day.
Jack didn’t come to join him that morning, and wasn’t even there to greet them when Ianto and Tosh got down into the Hub. They started the systems quietly, creeping around the place like they were in someone else’s home without them, and hovered in the kitchenette with mugs of coffee. Ianto liked Tosh, but she was quiet and shy and didn’t know what to do with him, nor he her. “So,” she said eventually, not looking up at him from her mug. “I… sorry about the state of the Archives.”
“It’s okay,” he reassured her, relaxing slightly. “I would probably have reorganised them all anyway, with the stuff coming in from… from London.” Tosh looked away again and he fished for something else to say, for his own sake as much as hers. “You know that there’s things living down there, right?”
She laughed and nodded. “Why do you think I never spent any time down there? I take it you’ve been making friends.”
“Friends, or enemies…” he said ominously, smiling when Tosh laughed again. “They’re not very talkative.”
The lift rose to street level, and they moved out into the open Hub to watch it descend. Suzie pulled her coat on and smiled at them, shrugging until it sat properly on her shoulders. “Morning kids. Is he not back yet?”
Tosh and Ianto exchanged a look and shook their heads. “No,” Tosh answered. “At least he warned you.”
“Didn’t warn me, exactly,” she scoffed, stepping down off the slab as soon as it reached the ground again. “Turned up on my doorstep at five this morning asking to borrow a screwdriver; I think he’s breaking and entering somewhere. So it’s just us this morning, and Owen when he shows. Oh, talk of the devil.” The rear entrance alarm blared once and Owen stalked towards them, already zipping up his leather jacket. “Nice of you to join us, Owen.”
He snorted and dropped into a chair hard enough to push it backwards across the floor. “Yeah, whatever. Where’s Jack and his shiny shiny teeth?”
“Breaking and entering,” Tosh told him simply. “He’ll turn up when he… turns up.”
Owen scoffed and span his chair around. “Well, I might not hang around. It’s a beautiful day, and I can’t be bothered to stick down here again.” He made to stand up, but Suzie stopped him. Her eyebrows rose sharply and she glanced at Ianto for a moment, then glared at Owen again. “I… Fine, I’ll hang around. But I’ll give him an hour. Coffee, Jones?”
Ianto turned away quickly and went to make another pot of coffee for them, ignoring Tosh’s sympathetic look. Once he was finished he brought the mugs out to where the others were gathered on the sofa, by the coffee table. There was no room on the sofa, so he pulled a computer chair over and joined them. They were quiet now, and Ianto realised that their quiet and earnest conversation had been about him. His hearts thumped, but his hands were steady around his mug. “So, we’ve no idea when he’ll be back?”
“No idea,” Suzie confirmed. “Unless you can shed some light on the situation…”
“Me?” He made himself look up at her. “Why would I know?”
“Well, you are very close to him,” Tosh said quickly, rushing over the others before they could say anything. “We thought he might have mentioned it to you.”
He relaxed slightly and shrugged it off. “He didn’t mention anything last night.”
“Oh?” Owen beat Tosh to it and leaned forwards. “What was last night?”
Ianto scowled and shifted uncomfortably. “I worked too late and he dragged me out of the Archives and force-fed me Chinese. He oft… Well, I get distracted.”
“You’re…” Suzie sighed and pushed her thick curls back over her shoulder again. “Look, I’ll put this plainly. Are you or are you not sleeping with Jack?”
He blinked back at her, not even really comprehending it. “I… No, no. I’m not…”
“Not gay?” Owen asked. “That won’t stop him.”
“Not… anything,” he said, more uncomfortable than ever. “I never even thought of it, of him… No.”
“You’re asexual,” Owen crowed. “Oh that is priceless. You haven’t noticed, then?”
He tightened his hands around his mug and felt his hearts-rate pick up. “What haven’t I noticed, Dr Harper?”
Tosh cut him off and sat forwards to attract Ianto’s full attention. “Look, Ianto… you should know, we thought you would have noticed, but… Jack’s been flirting with you. A lot. I don’t know if it’s serious, and I don’t think it is, but… there it is.”
Ianto dropped his gaze into his mug and tried to process that. His musings were interrupted by the cog door rolling back again with its blare of sirens, and the rest of the team scurried to look busy, leaving him to his musings until Jack stopped in front of him with a big grin and a box. “Hey, Ianto. I brought you a present.”
He looked up, past the box that Jack was proffering to the look in his eyes. Swallowing, he reached for the box and brought it down to his lap, resting his fingers on the top. “A present, sir?” His voice remained steady and he hid the tremors in his fingers by running his fingers over the carved symbols. “Is this anything to do with you borrowing a screwdriver this morning?”
“It might be,” Jack grinned and dropped down onto the sofa, spreading his arms across the back casually. “I had to pay our friend Henry Jackson a visit. He imported that from the US at the weekend – I gave him long enough to get a look at it and then fetched it for you.”
“For me?”
Jack sighed and waved his hands, encouraging him. “Open it, go on.”
He trailed his fingers to the edge of the box and ran his thumbs down to the catch. It opened smoothly and he lifted the lid slowly, eyes widening as he saw what was inside. Inside was a long metal object, shaped like a figure of eight with an extra ring, decorated with intricate engravings that circled around inset gem-like buttons. He lifted it out carefully and rested the end rings in his palms with his thumbs through them. In that position his fingers rested against the outside gems, and he had to stop himself from showing how well he knew this device. “It’s an… Effe Artana?”
“Good,” Jack praised, and Ianto preened under his praise even though he should have felt patronised. “You’ve heard of them?”
“Yes, possibly of this one,” he breathed. “Is this the one that was in Freddy Gratten’s collection a few years ago?”
“That exact one,” Jack confirmed. “He never worked out what it was. But then, he had no psychic ability at all.”
That snapped Ianto out of his mood and he put it back in the satin-lined case carefully. The dark silverish metal seemed to glow against the dark blue, and he brushed his fingers once more against the bright gems before he closed the lid on it. “Me neither,” he said, smiling sadly. “It’s beautiful, though.”
“Jackson does,” Jack explained, pushing himself to his feet. “That’s why I couldn’t leave it with him. Imagine what could have happened if he realised what it was.” He reached out and squeezed Ianto’s shoulder, pulling back when he stilled completely under the touch. “Ianto?”
“Sorry.” He smiled reassuringly and flipped the catch on the box. “Just… thank you. I’d always wanted to see one of these.”
Jack gave him a quick smile. “I’ll let you get it put away where it belongs. Maybe I’ll show you what I can do with it later.” He turned on his heel and went to stand behind Tosh’s desk. “Okay, kids, don’t start any projects you can’t drop at a moment’s notice. The Rift is going to blow today, and blow well; it always does when it gets this hot. Tosh, I want you to compare the records of previous rift storms that have been linked to heatwaves. They’ll be flagged up on the system.”
“What am I looking for, Jack?” She asked, already looking for the data. Ianto collected the box up and made for the Archives whilst she and Jack discussed it, ignoring Suzie’s sympathetic but knowing look.
He didn’t emerge for the rest of the day, even when Owen, Jack and Suzie went out to contain the results of the Rift spike. Steady footsteps eventually pierced his lair and he pushed the drawer he was looking through closed, pulling off his archival gloves and turning to face Jack with them hanging from one hand. “Sorry, sir,” he rubbed the back of his neck with his other hand and studied Jack’s boots. “I just…”
Jack didn’t move from the doorway. He looked unsettled when Ianto met his eyes, and couldn’t hold his gaze for long. “Is something wrong? I mean… I feel like you’re avoiding me.”
“It’s…” He licked his lips and bit the bullet. “Have you been flirting with me? Sir,” he added, feeling his hearts hammering in his chest. They had been doing that a lot lately.
“I have.” Jack stepped into the room, just one step closer, and Ianto had his back to the cabinets and couldn’t retreat any further. “Is that a problem? I can stop.”
“No, I just…” He trailed off and busies himself with disposing of his gloves and tidying away the notes he’d made. “I just don’t want to lead you on. I’m asexual.”
Jack paused with his mouth open for a moment, clearly surprised, but closed it and smiled gently. “Okay. Thanks for telling me, I guess. I can’t say I’m not disappointed, just so you know. You’re a good looking guy, Ianto Jones.”
Ianto blushed, but accepted the compliment for what it was. “Thank you, sir. You’re aesthetically pleasing yourself, for what that’s worth.”
“Only you.” Jack came further into the room and perched himself on the edge of Ianto’s desk, looking down at the paperwork. “I’m going to give you the codes to the secure archives,” he said suddenly, when Ianto had thought he’d drag Ianto out of the office or something similar, something normal. “I trust you, more than me some days. You should be in charge of them.”
His hands faltered again, but he regained control of himself and finished his tidying. “I assume you’ll still have access as well?”
“Oh yeah.” Jack laughed and shook his head. “I said I trusted you, not that my paranoia has been fixed.”
“I’ll keep working on that,” Ianto teased. They fell silent again, and Ianto found himself hovering, waiting for Jack to make a move. “Was there something else, Jack?”
Jack nodded and looked at him sidelong. “It’s your birthday in a couple of weeks. I always give people their birthdays off if they want them. You have a sister, don’t you?”
He licked his lips and shook his head. “We’re not close. Not speaking, really. I’d rather work… if that’s alright?”
“That’s fine.” Jack seemed pleased with the answer, if a little guilty. “Then let me take you for dinner instead. All five of us, if you’d be uncomfortable with just me,” he offered.
Ianto thought about it and smiled shyly. “I’d like that. Just the… you and me, that is. I think Owen would rather spoil the mood.”
“He does that,” Jack agreed, pulling a face. “He drinks too much. Thank you.” He changed the subject before Ianto could comment, “And now it’s the point where I ask if you’ve eaten all day, which I know you haven’t, and drag you upstairs to make sure you get something inside you before you go home, which you must do. Come on.”
Ianto paused long enough to turn the lights out, and hurried after Jack still smiling to himself.
Next chapter