m_findlow

Title: Drawing a line
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 528 - Manipulate at slashthedrabble
Summary: Ianto is torn between doing something for the woman he loved, or the man he loves now.

The sound of the weevil's keening unnerved Ianto, but it was nothing compared to the sight that confronted him when he turned around. There was Lisa, not the cyberwoman monster, but his Lisa, human and whole.

'What do you want? Why are you here?' he stuttered. It felt like all of the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. He shook his head. 'This isn't happening.'

Lisa took a step towards him. 'There's only one way to stop this, before things get worse. People will die, Ianto. Thousands of people, unless you open the Rift.'

He blinked hard and then she was gone.

I can't, he wanted to say. It didn't matter how much he wanted it, to be able to fix everything and have it back the way it had been. Opening the rift wasn't going to bring Lisa back. It could fix a lot of things, but it couldn't fix this.

I love you, he wanted to say, but even the words in his chest felt wrong. Yes, he had loved her, more than he'd ever loved anyone in the whole world. She'd been the first person who'd actually stopped and seen him for who he was. More importantly, she'd accepted him for who he was. He wasn't perfect, far from it. He obsessed about stupid things that didn't matter to most people, like whether his sock drawer was organised properly, or making sure their kettle got descaled on a regular basis. He fussed about in the kitchen the same way he fussed over his clothes, though his culinary efforts were far less awe-inspiring. Nobody in the whole of human history had probably spent so much time trying to perfect the cheese toastie, which he thought was doubly impressive when he attempted it whilst still hungover from the night before.

He knew he wasn't anything special in bed either, not that Lisa had ever told him so. She'd never asked anything of him and he'd always tried to impress her regardless, but now she was asking him to do the one thing Jack had always warned them never to do - to fully open the rift. Lisa was gone. This was just Bilis trying to manipulate him, he was sure of it, not that it left him feeling any less rattled.

I loved you, he wanted to say, but now I love Jack. He saved me when I had no right to be saved. Jack will find a way to fix things. Funny how he couldn't say it to himself, but he was prepared to say it to Lisa. Jack too had seen him for who he really was, lost and in pain, trying to make sense of a world that made none. He found most of Ianto's obsessive compulsive behaviours endearing and oftentimes amusing. Why either of them had chosen to put up with him was beyond comprehension, but he was hopelessly loyal do them for doing so. He would do anything for them.

Just not this.