Ficlet: Her Friend
Jan. 30th, 2026 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Her Friend
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Tosh, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 535
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Tosh hasn’t had a lot of friends in her life, but the one she has now makes up for that.
Written For:
raisedbymoogles’ prompt ‘any, any, friend-shaped,’ at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Tosh had never made friends easily. Well, maybe back when she was a small child and the world had been so much simpler, but that was nearly thirty years ago. As she’d grown up, she’d found fewer and fewer people her age who wanted to spend time around her, because she was smarter than most of them, and fascinated by things they had no interest in.
She was also driven to learn. Throughout school and college, she’d applied herself with an almost single-minded dedication to lessons and lectures, even taking on more work, and more classes… She’d been taking college level classes at the age of twelve, and homework had been more important to her than going to parties, dating boys, or hanging out with her peers.
All that meant she hadn’t had much of a social life through her teens, and she sometimes thought that by now she’d left it far too late to form meaningful relationships with anyone outside of her work. Even when she’d worked for the Department of Defence, her colleagues had been more acquaintances than friends, even the ones she’d occasionally gone out for a drink with.
Now here she was, working for Torchwood Three, and her colleagues numbered in single digits. Tosh supposed she’d got along well enough with Suzie, before her death, but Owen, despite her crush on him, barely paid her any attention. She had almost nothing in common with Gwen, who’d filled Suzie’s spot, and Jack, despite being friendly, was also her boss. That only left Ianto, but sometimes one friend was all a girl really needed, if they were the right friend.
Tosh didn’t really think of Ianto as a man, even though he obviously was one. She just liked him as the person he was: Smart, and kind, and helpful, and sometimes just as sad and lonely as she was, sometimes even for the same reasons. It was just that him being a man didn’t really matter to her one way or the other because she wasn’t attracted to him that way, even though if asked she would have had to admit that he was quite good looking.
She wasn’t looking for romance anyway; her heart was already taken by Owen, who wasn’t interested in her, which just proved what terrible taste she had in men. On top of that, Ianto had recently lost the woman he loved in tragic circumstances, so obviously he wasn’t looking for another girlfriend to replace her. It was far too soon for him to even consider it. She didn’t think she was his type anyway, so she didn’t have to worry about him hitting on her, but…
Well, he’d saved her life when the cannibals captured them. He’d acted so bravely despite being terrified, giving her a chance to escape, and he’d been so kind to her after the whole thing with Mary, checking up on her, bringing her chocolate, and listening when she needed someone to talk to. So to Tosh, when she looked at him, she simply saw Ianto, and for all that he was indeed a man, to her eyes he was shaped like a friend, one who gave the best hugs she’d ever had.
The End
She was also driven to learn. Throughout school and college, she’d applied herself with an almost single-minded dedication to lessons and lectures, even taking on more work, and more classes… She’d been taking college level classes at the age of twelve, and homework had been more important to her than going to parties, dating boys, or hanging out with her peers.
All that meant she hadn’t had much of a social life through her teens, and she sometimes thought that by now she’d left it far too late to form meaningful relationships with anyone outside of her work. Even when she’d worked for the Department of Defence, her colleagues had been more acquaintances than friends, even the ones she’d occasionally gone out for a drink with.
Now here she was, working for Torchwood Three, and her colleagues numbered in single digits. Tosh supposed she’d got along well enough with Suzie, before her death, but Owen, despite her crush on him, barely paid her any attention. She had almost nothing in common with Gwen, who’d filled Suzie’s spot, and Jack, despite being friendly, was also her boss. That only left Ianto, but sometimes one friend was all a girl really needed, if they were the right friend.
Tosh didn’t really think of Ianto as a man, even though he obviously was one. She just liked him as the person he was: Smart, and kind, and helpful, and sometimes just as sad and lonely as she was, sometimes even for the same reasons. It was just that him being a man didn’t really matter to her one way or the other because she wasn’t attracted to him that way, even though if asked she would have had to admit that he was quite good looking.
She wasn’t looking for romance anyway; her heart was already taken by Owen, who wasn’t interested in her, which just proved what terrible taste she had in men. On top of that, Ianto had recently lost the woman he loved in tragic circumstances, so obviously he wasn’t looking for another girlfriend to replace her. It was far too soon for him to even consider it. She didn’t think she was his type anyway, so she didn’t have to worry about him hitting on her, but…
Well, he’d saved her life when the cannibals captured them. He’d acted so bravely despite being terrified, giving her a chance to escape, and he’d been so kind to her after the whole thing with Mary, checking up on her, bringing her chocolate, and listening when she needed someone to talk to. So to Tosh, when she looked at him, she simply saw Ianto, and for all that he was indeed a man, to her eyes he was shaped like a friend, one who gave the best hugs she’d ever had.
The End
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Date: 2026-01-31 01:07 am (UTC)