fandomweekly | [#190] When You Wish… (Torchwood)

Theme Prompt: #190 – Wish
Title: When You Wish…
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Ianto has been searching for Jack for months now, but he’s no closer to finding his lover than he was at the start.

Another world, another spaceport, another shantytown where another illicit black market operated. It had its differences, but in the end it was the same as all the others: shabby, dirty, but still somehow thriving in the shadows, largely ignored by the local authorities who knew if they raided the place, everyone would simply scatter like vermin following escape routes only they knew to hiding places only they could find.

Ianto was growing accustomed to such places, had earned the respect of the people who made their living selling things that had come into their possession by less than honest means, and trading their services for currency and favours. His own reputation had been growing steadily over the past ten or so earth months; he’d been an outsider when he’d started out, but now he was one of them. He belonged.

As he strolled among makeshift stalls and ragged tarps spread out to display the sellers’ wares, several people called out greetings that he replied to with a grin and a few choice words of his own, mostly good-natured insults. He smiled to himself as he considered how much his definition of the word People had changed since he’d left earth.

There were folk from at least twenty different worlds selling and buying here, and he was the only human. Some were basically humanoid, others were more like giant insects, or sentient birds. Skin colours were many and varied, as were the colours and styles of clothing. Some beings had fur, or feathers, or scales, multiple arms, or other appendages like tentacles, extra legs, eyes on stalks, antennae instead of ears… Instead of a nose, one had a flexible proboscis similar to an elephant’s trunk, although considerably shorter.

Dressed as Des Llewellyn, the name he used among the less than law-abiding rogues the black markets catered to, Ianto browsed the stalls, haggling hard and making the occasional purchase, things that he or his TARDIS either thought might be useful or liked the look of. He chatted amiably to the people he knew, more cautiously to those who were strangers, but all the time he was looking for one person in particular, with the same result.

Like every other world Ianto had visited, Jack was nowhere to be found, and none of the people he asked had any information that might prove helpful. It was depressing, but not particularly surprising; Ianto had known almost from the start that finding his lover wouldn’t be easy, understood that no matter how hard he searched it could take years to track him down, but he wasn’t about to give up hope. He had eternity ahead of him, and so did Jack; however long it took, eventually they would run into each other. He had to believe that, otherwise what was the point of even trying?

Stowing his final purchase in the worn canvas bag slung over his shoulder, Ianto drifted away from where the market had set up and into the maze of alleyways beyond. He walked steadily and with purpose, alert and cautious because you could never be sure what might be lurking in the shadows. In that respect, it was a lot like walking through the alleys of Cardiff, but instead of Weevils he had to watch out for the kinds of criminals who were shunned even by the black marketeers.

He didn’t encounter any trouble; his reputation was such that few would dare mess with him these days, and anyway, his TARDIS, who was a constant presence in the back of his mind, was able to detect danger and direct him around it. Before long, he reached the far edge of the town that surrounded the spaceport, emerging from the derelict and abandoned buildings onto a stretch of wasteland, where even older buildings had long since been demolished.

He didn’t stop there, nor did he turn back. After about a hundred yards, the scattered remnants of buildings gave way to smoother ground, covered in a short, tough, blue-green mosslike plant. By now he was walking uphill, away from the spaceport and its attendant township, nestled at the bottom of the valley. He strode on through a hazy violet dusk as the planet’s sun vanished below the horizon somewhere behind him, reaching the top of the hill just before the light faded away completely. There he settled himself, leaning his back against the solid trunk of a tree that hadn’t been there until a few minutes ago. His TARDIS.

‘Why did you wish to come here?’ she asked him, quietly curious.

“To breathe some fresh air,” Ianto murmured. “You’re lucky you have no sense of smell, because it positively reeked back there. Anyway, I overheard someone earlier today talking about a meteor shower tonight. Since we’re here, I thought it might be worth taking a look.” He fell silent, watching the sky, and sure enough, as the night grew darker, a shooting star swept across the blackness, followed by another, and another, until there were so many, they lit up the night.

‘It is beautiful,’ the TARDIS whispered.

“Yes it is. You know, back on earth people used to think that if you wished on a shooting star, your wish would come true.”

‘That is superstition. A falling star is merely a meteorite, it cannot make wishes come true.’

Ianto laughed. “I know, and I’m not superstitious, but it’s still a nice thought, so maybe I’ll make a wish anyway. What harm can it do?”

‘There is an earth saying, “Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.” That sounds like a contradiction.’

“Not really. The phrasing of a wish needs to be carefully thought out. Imagine wishing for a million pounds, and you get it because the person you love the most dies suddenly and leaves it to you in their will.”

‘Ah, I see. To get what you wish for might mean losing something equally precious.’

“Exactly.” Nevertheless, Ianto wished he might find Jack soon, safe and well.

The End