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fandomweekly2025-10-05 03:32 pm
m_findlow) wrote in fandomweekly2025-10-05 03:32 pm
Entry tags:
[#276] WHO LIVES AND WHO DIES (TORCHWOOD)
Theme Prompt: #276 - Moonlit kisses
Title: Who lives and who dies
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG.
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Jack is haunted by the decisions he has to make in the heat of the moment.
It felt too creepy to say that Ianto was stalking Jack. Yes, he'd used the singularly unique energy signature that Jack's vortex manipulator gave off in order to trace his movements. Sometimes it was just to keep an eye on his location should they need to find him in a real emergency, but sometimes Ianto also liked to know where he was simply for the sake of knowing. Jack was oftentimes a lone wolf and prone to brooding in isolated places. He supposed it was only fair. To have lived so long and seen so many things must weigh heavily on the mind and the memory.
Tonight though it was late and there was no real reason to go anywhere, yet Jack’s absence from the hub was noticeable in the emptiness once all the others had finally gone home. They'd been busy all evening tracking down two mercenary bounty hunters who liked to shoot first and ask questions later. Whoever they were after, they weren’t hiding on Earth, at least as best the team could tell. That hadn't stopped the bounty hunters from thinking Torchwood might be providing asylum for them, and trying to use Torchwood to get their man.
The Mexican stand-off in the middle of Roald Dahl Plass had not gone well, at least for the bounty hunters. They were now lying in body bags in Torchwood’s morgue, waiting to be incinerated in the morning. Whoever it was they’d been after would undoubtedly sleep easier once news of their demise reached them.
Ianto tapped at the computer keys, running his search for Jack. ‘Did you hear something? See something?’ he muttered. Jack never really switched off from the job. Could there have been a third mercenary they’d missed? When Ianto locked onto Jack’s vortex manipulator signal, it turned out that he wasn't actually all that far away. He was back up on the plass, in front of the Millennium Centre. Ianto took the invisible lift as a shortcut, passing the water fountain and watching Jack from behind as he leaned on the railing overlooking the plass, one boot resting on the lower railing, coat for once hanging still and solemn in the breezeless night air.
Ianto silently sidled up beside him, resting his own elbows on the railing, their arms brushing gently together, looking out at whatever it was Jack was seeing beyond the pillars of light shining over the empty moonlit plass. A few hours ago the front of the Millennium Centre would have been teeming with patrons spilling from its doors, but even the lighting technicians and cleaners had now gone home for the night.
‘It’s one in the morning,’ Jack said. ‘You should be at home in bed.’
‘My bed seemed to be missing something important.’ It often was these days, even though they were very much official. He waited for some innuendo-laced reply but instead got silence. ‘Jack, what's on your mind?’
After a beat, Ianto felt the deep rise and fall of Jack's chest beside him as he sucked in the largest of breaths and forced it back out. ‘I stepped in front of you, tonight,’ Jack finally said. ‘There were two of them pointing guns at all of us – you, me, Gwen and Tosh – but I stepped in front of you.’
Ianto frowned. ‘Not sure what point you're trying to make.’
‘They were threatening to shoot us and I stepped in front of you to protect you.’
Ianto leaned over the railing, hands clasped. ‘Okay…’
‘Not Tosh. Not Gwen. Just you.’
‘You couldn't stand in front of all of us.’ Jack was immortal but not bulletproof.
‘I made an unconscious choice,’ Jack said. ‘Who should live and who should die if it came down to it.’
‘You stepped a bit to the side. It was hardly throwing yourself in front of a hail of bullets.’ If anything the movement had been distraction enough for Gwen to take one out, whilst Ianto pipped the other in the confusion of the first shot, dropping to a knee and rounding Jack's body to fire at the second before it could hit Tosh. ‘We took them out,’ he replied. ‘That's our job. Do you want credit for shooting one or credit for taking a bullet for someone else?’ Neither had happened, but Jack was in one of those moods.
‘I don't know how you do it ,’ Jack said.
‘Do what?’
‘Be my employee and my…’ He didn't say the word, whatever word it was he was thinking. Lover, boyfriend, something else…
‘The same way you’re my boss,’ Ianto replied. ‘I don't think about it like that. When I need to let you be the boss, you're the boss, and when it's just us, it's just… us.’ There wasn't an on and off switch for it. He just floated between them naturally. Sometimes he was both at the same time. They'd had permutations of this conversation before. Ianto made it clear each and every time that he knew the risks and was prepared to do the job regardless. He would have done it even without Jack there by his side.
Ianto reached across and placed a hand on Jack's cheek, turning his face towards him. There on that clear, cloudless night, he saw the way the moonlight reflected back in the unshed tears welling in Jack's eyes. Ianto pulled Jack's face towards his, closing the space between them and kissing him. ‘I love you, and I know that you love me, even though you can’t say the words. You want to protect me so that you don't lose me. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.’
‘I can't protect you.’ Jack shuddered. ‘In the end I'm always going to lose you.’
‘Perhaps,’ Ianto replied. ‘But not tonight.’ He leaned in and kissed Jack again, feeling Jack press back, wrapping his arms so tightly around his body that he didn't think Jack would ever let him go, and for now, he didn't mind that one bit.
Title: Who lives and who dies
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG.
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Jack is haunted by the decisions he has to make in the heat of the moment.
It felt too creepy to say that Ianto was stalking Jack. Yes, he'd used the singularly unique energy signature that Jack's vortex manipulator gave off in order to trace his movements. Sometimes it was just to keep an eye on his location should they need to find him in a real emergency, but sometimes Ianto also liked to know where he was simply for the sake of knowing. Jack was oftentimes a lone wolf and prone to brooding in isolated places. He supposed it was only fair. To have lived so long and seen so many things must weigh heavily on the mind and the memory.
Tonight though it was late and there was no real reason to go anywhere, yet Jack’s absence from the hub was noticeable in the emptiness once all the others had finally gone home. They'd been busy all evening tracking down two mercenary bounty hunters who liked to shoot first and ask questions later. Whoever they were after, they weren’t hiding on Earth, at least as best the team could tell. That hadn't stopped the bounty hunters from thinking Torchwood might be providing asylum for them, and trying to use Torchwood to get their man.
The Mexican stand-off in the middle of Roald Dahl Plass had not gone well, at least for the bounty hunters. They were now lying in body bags in Torchwood’s morgue, waiting to be incinerated in the morning. Whoever it was they’d been after would undoubtedly sleep easier once news of their demise reached them.
Ianto tapped at the computer keys, running his search for Jack. ‘Did you hear something? See something?’ he muttered. Jack never really switched off from the job. Could there have been a third mercenary they’d missed? When Ianto locked onto Jack’s vortex manipulator signal, it turned out that he wasn't actually all that far away. He was back up on the plass, in front of the Millennium Centre. Ianto took the invisible lift as a shortcut, passing the water fountain and watching Jack from behind as he leaned on the railing overlooking the plass, one boot resting on the lower railing, coat for once hanging still and solemn in the breezeless night air.
Ianto silently sidled up beside him, resting his own elbows on the railing, their arms brushing gently together, looking out at whatever it was Jack was seeing beyond the pillars of light shining over the empty moonlit plass. A few hours ago the front of the Millennium Centre would have been teeming with patrons spilling from its doors, but even the lighting technicians and cleaners had now gone home for the night.
‘It’s one in the morning,’ Jack said. ‘You should be at home in bed.’
‘My bed seemed to be missing something important.’ It often was these days, even though they were very much official. He waited for some innuendo-laced reply but instead got silence. ‘Jack, what's on your mind?’
After a beat, Ianto felt the deep rise and fall of Jack's chest beside him as he sucked in the largest of breaths and forced it back out. ‘I stepped in front of you, tonight,’ Jack finally said. ‘There were two of them pointing guns at all of us – you, me, Gwen and Tosh – but I stepped in front of you.’
Ianto frowned. ‘Not sure what point you're trying to make.’
‘They were threatening to shoot us and I stepped in front of you to protect you.’
Ianto leaned over the railing, hands clasped. ‘Okay…’
‘Not Tosh. Not Gwen. Just you.’
‘You couldn't stand in front of all of us.’ Jack was immortal but not bulletproof.
‘I made an unconscious choice,’ Jack said. ‘Who should live and who should die if it came down to it.’
‘You stepped a bit to the side. It was hardly throwing yourself in front of a hail of bullets.’ If anything the movement had been distraction enough for Gwen to take one out, whilst Ianto pipped the other in the confusion of the first shot, dropping to a knee and rounding Jack's body to fire at the second before it could hit Tosh. ‘We took them out,’ he replied. ‘That's our job. Do you want credit for shooting one or credit for taking a bullet for someone else?’ Neither had happened, but Jack was in one of those moods.
‘I don't know how you do it ,’ Jack said.
‘Do what?’
‘Be my employee and my…’ He didn't say the word, whatever word it was he was thinking. Lover, boyfriend, something else…
‘The same way you’re my boss,’ Ianto replied. ‘I don't think about it like that. When I need to let you be the boss, you're the boss, and when it's just us, it's just… us.’ There wasn't an on and off switch for it. He just floated between them naturally. Sometimes he was both at the same time. They'd had permutations of this conversation before. Ianto made it clear each and every time that he knew the risks and was prepared to do the job regardless. He would have done it even without Jack there by his side.
Ianto reached across and placed a hand on Jack's cheek, turning his face towards him. There on that clear, cloudless night, he saw the way the moonlight reflected back in the unshed tears welling in Jack's eyes. Ianto pulled Jack's face towards his, closing the space between them and kissing him. ‘I love you, and I know that you love me, even though you can’t say the words. You want to protect me so that you don't lose me. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.’
‘I can't protect you.’ Jack shuddered. ‘In the end I'm always going to lose you.’
‘Perhaps,’ Ianto replied. ‘But not tonight.’ He leaned in and kissed Jack again, feeling Jack press back, wrapping his arms so tightly around his body that he didn't think Jack would ever let him go, and for now, he didn't mind that one bit.