Fic: "Cardiff's" (Horizons Sing prompts 2/31)

[cyus]

Title: Cardiff's
Characters/Pairing: Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness
Type/Setting: Gen
Rating: G
Length: 600
Summary: At the egde of the water and Cardiff behind them
Notes: horizonssing summer challenge, day two prompt



"I can see you."

He doesn't turn around, and the whisper, like a secret imparted, swims between them. The night's still warm after a summer day, but there are clouds coming in from the sea to bring tomorrow's rain.

"Can you?" It's a non-reply to the waves below. It's mocking of the tenderness and mocking of the hands on his coat, the thumb at the nape of his neck. It's mocking of them, or the glimmer of the unity they may be if they stopped to put it into words. And they don't stop.

"You stand out a like a beacon."

He doesn't need to turn around for the upturn on the lips but he does when the hands leave his body anyway. Ianto stands, hands in the pockets of his slacks. Cardiff behind him makes him its mascot when he shouldn't be. He doesn't have the coat or the immortality for the role.

Jack smiles. Maybe a little. "Must be my charm."

"Might be your arse."

An honest laugh, a moment that flickers between the warm day and the brooding rainclouds. Ianto steps next to Jack and looks down with him, the water below.

"What's down there? Alien fish you have to save?"

Jack shrugs, peers down himself. "Just water, really." He opens his lips to say more, a deep breath under the memories of no-water and nothing, the clenching of his heart at losing and loss and-

"It's not your fault." Ianto shrugs, straightens. "Them, people dying, it's not your fault."

Jack turns back to the city, alien lights blinking in the dark. There is laughter faraway, a group of blokes straggling home from the pub. "My responsibilty, my-"

"Out here doing practical philosophy then?" Ianto raises an eyebrow, kicks at a small stone that pitches into the waves. "It's called brooding these days."

"So?"

"You're not fifteen. No need to slit your wrists." He pauses, mocking concern to mirror Jack's earlier comment. "You weren't, were you?" Ianto looks down as if to check.

Jack rolls his eyes. "They were-"

"You couldn't have saved them. They make their own choices."

Jack shrugs, toes the edge of the water. Petulance hunches his shoulders in non-reply.

Ianto laughs. "You can save your omnipotence for Torchwood employees only, if that makes you happier."

"Would you save me?" He stares at the water, small upturn to the lips as he glances at Ianto from the corner of his eye. "If I jumped in, would you save me?"

"It's freezing."

"It's summer."

Ianto rolls his eyes. "It's freezing."

Jack shrugs out of his coat, pulls off the braces. He looks Ianto over, the hands still in the pockets of the slacks, looking on with a doubting eyebrow and a tap to the tarmac with the sole of his shoe.

"You're not really doing that."

Jack smiles. "Watch me." He dives from the quay into the dirty waves, the scream of a gull overhead. Water splashes.

Ianto shakes his head, watches.

Jack's head bops out through the waves. "Will you save me?"

"Is that a song?"

"Practical philosophy."

Ianto shrugs out of his suit jacket, watching Jack in the waves.

"I can see you," Jack echoes Ianto's earlier words. The rainclouds are coming closer, promising a storm for later that night, maybe all of the next day.

"I know." It's only the movement of the lips as the words get lost in the sound of the water between them. It doesn't mock. It just exists.

Then Ianto jumps, and Cardiff glows with life behind him.

Comments

[sanginmychains.livejournal.com]

That's gorgeous. Moody and layered, evocative. And complaining but jumping in anyway -- that says a lot about their dynamic, I think.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

It does. And Jack would do the same, possibly with more of a drama queen flourish and less honest complaints. It's what I love about about them. And hey- I'll take gorgeous any day.

[kenazfiction.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous. I love the way that you are able to show so much about the tenor of their relationship through the way they interact with one another, the way they take care of each other in very subtle, very humane ways.

"Out here doing practical philosophy then?" Ianto raises an eyebrow, kicks at a small stone that pitches into the waves. "It's called brooding these days."

Perfectly Ianto.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comment. Glad the tenor came through for you. It was definitely an attempt to show something fairly tender between without succumbing to too much sweetness that I don't really see in them. They're just boys, I suppose.

[blue-fjords.livejournal.com]

I like the element of hope in this one. I'm annoyingly optimistic about the human condition, I suppose, and my heart just got dragged through the wringer with the pink tie fic. Both of the stories address hope to a certain extent, in my opinion: Ianto's that Jack will remember him for a time and manage to move on in the pink tie story; Jack's that Ianto will stick by him for a time in this one. I like this one more b/c nobody dies. :) Yes, I am a wimp.

Once again, beautiful economy of language and some lovely imagery. I especially liked the whisper swimming between them.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Huh, I never thought of the parallels there, but you definitely have a point. It's about hope and trust, I guess, and in a way it's about, I think sang might have said that somewhere, it's really kind of symptomatic of their relationship that Ianto jumps in after all, and also that Jack does as Ianto asks of him in the pink tie story.

Glad you're enjoying this and, you know, the others. Any story of mine you have read so far that doesn't work at all for you? Am curious, since most of these are in some way or another experimental and trying for something or trying out something.

Thanks for the comment, definitely appreciate it.

[blue-fjords.livejournal.com]

Dude, I just got back from a shower. I had six flutes of champagne. Well, they started out as flutes, but progressed to paper cups. So hopefully this comes out coherent, is all I'm saying. I have not read the Notebird story yet. I skimmed it (I skim everything that I read if it's longer than 2000 words; I'm one of those annoying people who sometimes reads ahead, and then goes back -- I don't *always* do that, but I do it enough that I find it annoying although I cannot help myself) -- so I skimmed and is there vivisection going on? I'm sure I missed a great deal, b/c I was skimming, but there was definitely something bad going down w/ a bird or bird-like thing. And you see, this is what I deal w/ for a living. I work in an office, but on animal protection, a lot of illegal trade of endangered species, and I don't want to read about dead birds on my downtime. Which is weird b/c I like action and I read books w/ military shit and there's blood and all, but I don't want to deal w/ the dead birds if I know they're there. So I haven't read it, even though the general consensus is that it's hella good. I will probably read it on my vacation (or holiday, if you will, don't know which you use) since I will be hanging w/ the nieces and not dealing w/ dead birds. I know that there's a deeper meaning to "Notebird," but I can't see it until I get a little space.

What I like about your stuff is that it's completely different from my own. Your stories ask questions that I'm not going to ask, but I think should be addressed. For example, I really hate being reminded that Jack is immortal, meaning that he's got forever and nobody else does. I'm not going to write a story about that. But it is such a vital aspect of his character, so I'm glad you addressed it. Make sense?

I haven't read anything of yours that I would say, "I can't see so-and-so doing that." I sometimes have a too rosy outline of their characters, but I think they have aspects of both. So nothing has not worked at all. I still have several to go, but I don't think my opinion's going to change. As far as story structure goes, I liked the almost stream-of-consciousness thing you had going in the one where Ianto was going up to the castle (side note: totally made me think of Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" when he's outside Mary's house), but I also appreciated the more straight forward narrative of the pink tie story.

And I'm going to stop rambling here b/c I am running out of room and I didn't talk about this fic even though this comment is attached to this fic. I blame the champagne. Twas good champagne. Good fic. Tootles.

[cyus.livejournal.com]

There is indeed a dead bird that gets taken apart in "Notebird". I fully understand apprehensions based on that given your background. As for a deeper meaning, yeah, Notebird, I think, operates on a metaphorical level much mre tthan my other stuff. I like to think it manages to combine language and meaning in adequate ways and not lose the basic storytelling appeal too much... but let's not kid ourselves, it's a lot less story-telling and a lot more something else.

Yeha your comments make sense. When I have time to actually read fic, you know, I do prefer to read things that don't quite ask the hard questions actually. I liked rm's&kali's stuff because it had the hard issues but a lot of fun stuff around it. I like Lifty's IEIT because it kidn of has both. I can't say I dislike reading dark stuff, but I don't think I read much of the kind of stuff I write in my spare time... I adore humor in fics but it's obviously lacking in my stuff because Torchwood is not only the dark shit, because Torchwood is also fun and sexy and possbly occassionally romantic but more me, as a writer, I just want to show the other side of it because I feel there is maybe less of that out there than of the lighter stuff. And by dark side I don't mean people dying or people being raped or you know, people falling into depression because I think stories can be dark and characters and dynamics can be dark without those props and Torchwood IS dark without all that and without even trying. I enjoy delving into that as a writer, but I get enough of it when I write it, so I don't necessarily seek it out as a reader.

I'm in the editing stage with a piece right now that is again more straightforward storytelling, so I'm somewhat curious as to how that will turn out.

Thanks for the discussion. I have a thinkg for talking writing and interpretations, I think.

[thrace-adams.livejournal.com]

OH wow.. Really well done!

[cyus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comment, appreciate it. And glad this one worked for you, it's a simple little thing but I agree that it has something.