lyssie: (Phoenix says you're dead and she's not)
lyssie ([personal profile] lyssie) wrote2009-09-16 11:19 pm
Entry tags:

two Torchwood ficlets. Tosh and Ianto, angst

disclaimer: not mine
spoilers for Greeks Bearing Gifts
character/pairing: Tosh, Tosh/Mary
genre: angst
rating: pg13
length: 200 words

In her dreams, Tosh remembers Mary. Colored by what ended it (knife at her throat, digging in; terror chilling her veins), she still can't help the memories. What it was like to anticipate Mary in bed, her thoughts getting ahead of her mouth and hands. Words clear in her mind until the pleasure bit too deep--then it was merely feelings, emotions.

The smell of cigarettes haunts her, pulling her from her thoughts at the oddest times. Sometimes, she digs in the back of the cupboard, unearthing the egg cup she's never thrown out.

Sometimes, she goes back to the pub, drinks a JD and Coke in her honor, admires the other patrons with half an eye.

There's no point in picking any of them up, though one or two try, and her temper gets frayed by the same man that gave Mary her excuse, once upon a time. It feels good to break his nose (calculated applied angles and thrust), and she laughs when they bar her.

She should stop. She should get rid of it just as she smashed the pendant--

Mary showed her something about herself, and as much as it hurts, she refuses to lose it.


spoilers through about mid-series two
character, pairings: Ianto, Ianto/Jack, Ianto/Lisa
genre: angst
rating: pg
length: 200 words

The stench of blood doesn't go away. Torchwood inures him to it until it smells routine. Until Lisa. Then it's under his nails, under his skin and he can't scrub enough to get rid of it.

Ianto wakes from nightmares, his pulse too-fast and his breath catching. He chokes it down, moving carefully until he's out from under the sheet, leaving Jack dead to the world, head in his pillow. Waking alone was worse--those first few months after Lisa... He'd wake and sit on the floor, wrapped in a blanket until it was late enough that he'd merely be early in.

The weird thing was that Jack snuck in when he wasn't looking--like the blood that was still caked under his nails two days after Lisa. It was light and it was easy, even with that strange edge where they both knew it couldn't go anywhere.

It made it easier to leave Jack for the cold of his couch. Lisa would have laughed at him, if she were there, teased him for being maudlin until they were both laughing.

He doesn't laugh now. Not while he can still taste the blood at the back of his throat.
ext_61669: (Default)

[identity profile] emmiere.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love both of these and the way your writing kind of sharpens these moments for me. I sort of pick through Torchwood for the bits that grab me and these feel like that.
ext_18106: (Default)

[identity profile] lyssie.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. I find myself watching and listening to it, and sort of filling in the emotional gaps--part of it is that the entire team is fairly expressive. Part is that the writing is the sort that pings against my brains that way.

[identity profile] mfirefly10.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
*huggles them both*

These were really wonderful character pieces. I just adore both characters and you captured all of the reasons why.

I LOVE that you showed Tosh's bad-ass side. I think a large majority of the fandom thought she was meak and geeky (which, okay, she was geeky) but she was also tough and brave and knew her own strengths...I miss her:(

...And Ianto:(
ext_18106: (Azkadellia)

[identity profile] lyssie.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 12:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Tosh was unevenly-characterized in series one, though you can sort of make it all work. She started out as a stunningly badass snarky tech geek and sort of drifted to being not sort of unsure of herself and second-best at computers...

And the thing no one seems to ever take into account about GBG is that it happens after Countrycide an episode where the entire team gets broken into itty bitty pieces. Well, other than Jack, at least. I dare anyone to go from that to a day or two later with your co-workers being all in-jokey and NOT walk off and kiss an alien.

[identity profile] mfirefly10.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I NEVER understood why people were so up in arms about Tosh's actions in GBG. First off, Mary was HOT and charming and seductive and it'd take one really perceptive individual to see beyond all of that. Second, as you said, it hadn't been the best week ever. Heck, it hadn't been the best YEAR. Suzie had only died a few weeks ealier, then everything went wrong with Ianto and Lisa, and finally, the horror that was Countrycide. No one would be in the best state of mind at that point (look at Gwen's behavior), which is exactly why Mary chose that moment to swoop in. She was no dummy and neither was Tosh. Tosh was vulnerable and lonely and Mary took advantage.
ext_18106: (Team Torchwood are here for your concret)

[identity profile] lyssie.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I think to some extent it's because Tosh gets a girlfriend who's evil? Or something?

idk. Anyway, sorry for sidetracking your comment with my mental burblings (I have reams of notes I should type up and post on TW).

And thank you. =D

[identity profile] wishfulaces.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 12:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Argh, argh, argh. For both of them.
ext_18106: (Default)

[identity profile] lyssie.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 12:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. And yes. Argh. :/
mtgat: (Baby Ianto Coffee)

[personal profile] mtgat 2009-09-17 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I really liked both of these, all angles and bad memories.
ext_18106: (Default)

[identity profile] lyssie.livejournal.com 2009-09-17 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. And that's sort of what Torchwood is all about (particularly series one). =D