m_findlow | Slashthedrabble Challenge 466

Title: Played
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Rhiannon
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 466 - Trap/Trapped at slashthedrabble
Summary: Ianto is the victim of terrible timing

Rhiannon gave him that look and he knew that he'd been cleverly cornered into a confession. How long had she been waiting for a chance like this to come along, he wondered. Of all the times for one of her best mates to be hanging around the posh end of town, with him and Jack right under their noses. Serendipity was a spiteful thing.

'You never tell me anything these days,' she said, letting the accusation hang in the air.

'He is very handsome.' God. Why had he said it? Because he'd felt trapped? Because subconsciously he'd been wanting to tell someone for so long it was just ready to burst out of him. He'd been so chuffed that A&E doctor thought they were a couple. Hadn't he just been waiting for the chance to say something? Well, perhaps not to his sister, anyway.

Jack made him so happy. He drove him absolutely mad, too sometimes, but he wouldn't give up the bad times for anything. This was just making it official.

Why now, though? Could he have possibly picked a worse time? The whole world was on the cusp of some huge crisis, and they didn't even know what it was yet. Selfishly he'd come here to give Jack what he wanted: a child. Why did that suddenly seem like such a bad thing? They weren't going to experiment on them, but now he was here, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not to Rhi's kids. He felt stuck between doing what was right and doing what was needed. And then on top of all that, he'd had to go and open his big mouth, spilling the beans about Jack.

This was so not the time for this! Bad enough that Rhi had been so calm and okay with it. Even his brother-in-law Johnny didn't squirm, and that defied the fundamental laws of the universe. Why was everyone being so nice about it when everything else around him was going to shit?

There wasn't time to understand it or to even enjoy the moment of relief. It was such a fleeting sensation, knowing at least one secret was out of the bag. Just not the one he'd expected. If anything, he'd thought Rhiannon would be more understanding about him working for a top secret organisation that kept the world safe from aliens. If he'd known it would be this easy to come out to his sister, he might have done it ages ago. What then? She'd have invited him round for tea and given Jack the Spanish inquisition. It was flattering that the first thing she'd asked him was to make sure Jack was nice to him. Could it really have been that easy to patch over years of awkwardness between them by bringing home his, what? Lover, boyfriend, significant other?

Why then did the world have to decide that it wanted to end today of all days, just when life was finally starting to fall into place?

Slashthedrabble Challenge 466 - Played

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