Ficlet: Searching
Sep. 4th, 2025 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Searching
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 672
Spoilers: Set in my Through Time and Space ‘Verse.
Summary: Jack is out there somewhere, and Ianto will not stop looking until he finds him.
Written For:
innocuously’s prompt ‘any, any, maybe in the next world’, at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Ianto is still in a kind of awe over how completely his life has changed since he died, twice, and was somehow miraculously resurrected while floating in the void. The whole sequence of events still sounds like the plot of a weird movie, or some kind of fever dream, and yet here he is, alive and immortal, getting used to that as well as to the whole wide universe that’s spread out around him in all its complexity, waiting for him to explore it.
There’s a lot, so the idea of exploring it is more than a little daunting, but he's gradually finding his feet, and not doing too badly, even if he says so himself. Of course, he’s travelling with someone who knows a whole lot more about the universe, and the various planets, alien races, and cultures, than he does, keeping him from doing anything too foolish. He finds that infinitely reassuring.
He's already lost count of how many planets he’s visited with his TARDIS, how many light years, parsecs, or whatever he’s travelled, how many adventures he’s had, how many people he’s met, how many risks he’s taken, how many lives he’s saved, how many wrongs he’s set right… And it isn’t a case of him not enjoying the travel, and the adventure, and everything he’s learning, and the wonders he’s seeing, most of which he never could have imagined, because how could anyone NOT enjoy being able to go anywhere, and if he chooses to, any WHEN? He’s even enjoying the thrill of danger, and the satisfaction of helping people of all descriptions. It’s just…
All of it, the sights, the adventures, the people, the saving of lives, would be so much more fun if he was doing it all with Jack, because that’s how he always imagined it would be if he ever got out into space, the two of them and, probably, the Doctor. And yet, in all his travelling, despite occasionally finding information on where his former lover had been, or where Jack was going, somehow, despite having a spaceship that can also travel in time, he keeps missing him. He always manages to get to places either too late, or right on time, only to find that Jack has disappeared somewhere enroute and is no longer aboard whatever ship Ianto’s information said he was traveling on, and it hurts every time he fails to catch up with the man he loves.
It almost feels like the universe is deliberately putting roadblocks in the way of their hoped-for reunion, which is silly because the universe isn’t a sentient being, and even if it was, why would it single out one particular person to mess with? Unless it just doesn’t like immortals… No, it must simply be bad luck, in that one respect, rather than a concerted effort at preventing them from finding each other. Perhaps the reason is to balance out the good luck he’s having when it comes to his other self-imposed mission of helping people,
But whether it’s bad luck or something more difficult to identify, he can’t give up, because he knows Jack is out there somewhere alone, and worse, hurting even more than Ianto is, believing that Ianto is dead, blaming himself for that and for having to sacrifice his own grandson to save the rest of the world’s children. However long it takes, Ianto is determined to keep going until they’re reunited, even if, by the time he track’s his fellow immortal down, it turns out that Jack has moved on to someone else, because…
At the very least Ianto needs to tell him that his death was not Jack’s fault, take away some of the guilt that is no doubt weighing Jack down, because he always blames himself for everything. So Ianto just keeps telling himself, every time he feels like he’s losing hope, maybe next time, maybe somewhere on the next world, he’ll turn around, and there Jack will be. Their paths have to cross sometime, don’t they?
The End
There’s a lot, so the idea of exploring it is more than a little daunting, but he's gradually finding his feet, and not doing too badly, even if he says so himself. Of course, he’s travelling with someone who knows a whole lot more about the universe, and the various planets, alien races, and cultures, than he does, keeping him from doing anything too foolish. He finds that infinitely reassuring.
He's already lost count of how many planets he’s visited with his TARDIS, how many light years, parsecs, or whatever he’s travelled, how many adventures he’s had, how many people he’s met, how many risks he’s taken, how many lives he’s saved, how many wrongs he’s set right… And it isn’t a case of him not enjoying the travel, and the adventure, and everything he’s learning, and the wonders he’s seeing, most of which he never could have imagined, because how could anyone NOT enjoy being able to go anywhere, and if he chooses to, any WHEN? He’s even enjoying the thrill of danger, and the satisfaction of helping people of all descriptions. It’s just…
All of it, the sights, the adventures, the people, the saving of lives, would be so much more fun if he was doing it all with Jack, because that’s how he always imagined it would be if he ever got out into space, the two of them and, probably, the Doctor. And yet, in all his travelling, despite occasionally finding information on where his former lover had been, or where Jack was going, somehow, despite having a spaceship that can also travel in time, he keeps missing him. He always manages to get to places either too late, or right on time, only to find that Jack has disappeared somewhere enroute and is no longer aboard whatever ship Ianto’s information said he was traveling on, and it hurts every time he fails to catch up with the man he loves.
It almost feels like the universe is deliberately putting roadblocks in the way of their hoped-for reunion, which is silly because the universe isn’t a sentient being, and even if it was, why would it single out one particular person to mess with? Unless it just doesn’t like immortals… No, it must simply be bad luck, in that one respect, rather than a concerted effort at preventing them from finding each other. Perhaps the reason is to balance out the good luck he’s having when it comes to his other self-imposed mission of helping people,
But whether it’s bad luck or something more difficult to identify, he can’t give up, because he knows Jack is out there somewhere alone, and worse, hurting even more than Ianto is, believing that Ianto is dead, blaming himself for that and for having to sacrifice his own grandson to save the rest of the world’s children. However long it takes, Ianto is determined to keep going until they’re reunited, even if, by the time he track’s his fellow immortal down, it turns out that Jack has moved on to someone else, because…
At the very least Ianto needs to tell him that his death was not Jack’s fault, take away some of the guilt that is no doubt weighing Jack down, because he always blames himself for everything. So Ianto just keeps telling himself, every time he feels like he’s losing hope, maybe next time, maybe somewhere on the next world, he’ll turn around, and there Jack will be. Their paths have to cross sometime, don’t they?
The End
(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-05 10:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-05 10:34 pm (UTC)Thank you!