you still do not feel quite at ease here, within the hub at torchwood : you have offered to stand in temporarily in owen’s absence, but that was three months ago, and you are still here. a favour for jack, because you love him ( you can’t not ) but he’s still the only member of his team that you feel absolutely comfortable with. maybe it’s a kindred spirits kind of thing - you’ve both been through the same trauma, had the same experiences, so you have gravitated toward him whenever you are here ... and by default, ianto.
after your fellow “end of the world survivor” - ianto is the next you’ve gotten to know. you don’t talk much about your losses, and neither does he, and that seems to work well for the both of you. he makes you tea when you’ve had a particularly bad day, and reminds you to eat when you’ve forgotten. sometimes, you and he are the only two awake : because you can’t shake the remnants of a year erased from time, and he ... he never says. you have wondered if he’s awake because you’re awake. if something tells him that he can’t sleep until everyone else is. but you don’t ask.
you are friends. you have quite a few, if you’re honest, but true friends are few and far between. but you think you can count ianto among them. you grin at him as he asks if you’ve slept, and you shrug : but you both know that you haven’t. ❝ i'll go soon, ❞ you tell him, but you don’t promise, so you can’t say for sure if you actually will. and you think he knows you well enough by now to tell the difference.
you turn back to your computer, eyes fixated on your own blood samples when you yelp as arms wind around your waist, around your armpits, and you are lifted out of your seat. @cwpanaid hoists you up, your back to his chest and your feet well and truly of the ground. you turn your head as she squirm in his arms, and you raise a brow.
❝ seriously ? ❞ you complain, but there’s a reason why he had checked in on you. you are exhausted, and that is never more prevalent than now as your energy drains from your body and she stop trying in vain to get out of his embrace. you resign yourself to the inevitable. ❝ if jack sees you carrying me, he’ll get ideas. ❞ you roll your eyes.