Ficlet: High Above The City
Mar. 16th, 2026 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: High Above The City
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 527
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack loves standing on rooftops, but no matter how high up he might be, he’ll never see the city the way Ianto can.
Written For:
topaz_eyes’s prompt: Any, any, bird’s-eye view, at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. Set in my Were-Crow ‘verse.
For as long as Ianto has known him, and no doubt for decades before then, perhaps even before he found out about his unasked-for immortality, Jack has loved standing on top of the tallest buildings he can find. He claims he does it because it gives him a bird’s-eye view of the city that’s under Torchwood protection, and Ianto knows that’s part of it, because Jack takes his obligations to the city that has become his home more seriously than most people realise. But Ianto still teases his lover that he does it for the Batman vibe, and he finds it amusing that Jack doesn’t outright deny it, because why wouldn’t Jack love the opportunity to embrace the whole heroic guardian of the city act? He’s always been a show-off.
Still, Jack insists that the main reason he loves being up high, looking down on the city spread out below him, is because it helps him puts everything into perspective, which is probably true. It reminds him of why they all do what they do, working long hours, putting their lives on the line for the safety and security of their little corner of the British Isles every day of the year. On a few occasions, Jack’s predilection for rooftops has even given the team invaluable early warning of trouble brewing. A lot more can be seen from on high than from street level.
But Jack still really has no idea how different the world looks from above, how much more of it is visible, to someone who can be up there without any of the restrictions Jack himself has to contend with.
Ianto knows, because he’s the one who gets to enjoy a true bird’s-eye view, when he sheds his human form and takes to the air as a crow, strong, jet-black wings spread wide, soaring, when he chooses to, higher than the tallest of Cardiff’s skyscrapers. From there he can look down on the streets, rooftops, gardens, waterways, and parks, not from one single fixed position, but from anywhere he chooses, his wings flapping steadily as he picks a direction, catches a thermal, glides easily on the breeze, circling slowly, almost idly, swooping lower to check something out, then rising once more on an updraft.
As much as Jack likes to think he can see it all from his favourite high perches, he can’t, and he never will be able to, because he can’t go where Ianto can. He can’t look into any back garden, enclosed courtyard, or narrow alleyway to see what might be concealed there. He can’t swoop low among stands of trees to see what’s going on beneath their spreading branches, hidden from sight.
Unlike Ianto, Jack is limited, his view obstructed by other buildings, by the angles of walls, by light reflecting dazzlingly off windows… Ianto sometimes wishes Jack could join him in the air, soaring so high that the people below look hardly bigger than ants, and the view stretches uninterrupted right to the horizon. Because until he can look through the eyes of a bird, Jack will never truly see the city, in all its extraordinary diversity, at all.
The End
Still, Jack insists that the main reason he loves being up high, looking down on the city spread out below him, is because it helps him puts everything into perspective, which is probably true. It reminds him of why they all do what they do, working long hours, putting their lives on the line for the safety and security of their little corner of the British Isles every day of the year. On a few occasions, Jack’s predilection for rooftops has even given the team invaluable early warning of trouble brewing. A lot more can be seen from on high than from street level.
But Jack still really has no idea how different the world looks from above, how much more of it is visible, to someone who can be up there without any of the restrictions Jack himself has to contend with.
Ianto knows, because he’s the one who gets to enjoy a true bird’s-eye view, when he sheds his human form and takes to the air as a crow, strong, jet-black wings spread wide, soaring, when he chooses to, higher than the tallest of Cardiff’s skyscrapers. From there he can look down on the streets, rooftops, gardens, waterways, and parks, not from one single fixed position, but from anywhere he chooses, his wings flapping steadily as he picks a direction, catches a thermal, glides easily on the breeze, circling slowly, almost idly, swooping lower to check something out, then rising once more on an updraft.
As much as Jack likes to think he can see it all from his favourite high perches, he can’t, and he never will be able to, because he can’t go where Ianto can. He can’t look into any back garden, enclosed courtyard, or narrow alleyway to see what might be concealed there. He can’t swoop low among stands of trees to see what’s going on beneath their spreading branches, hidden from sight.
Unlike Ianto, Jack is limited, his view obstructed by other buildings, by the angles of walls, by light reflecting dazzlingly off windows… Ianto sometimes wishes Jack could join him in the air, soaring so high that the people below look hardly bigger than ants, and the view stretches uninterrupted right to the horizon. Because until he can look through the eyes of a bird, Jack will never truly see the city, in all its extraordinary diversity, at all.
The End
