"Back Stage: Interval" Chapter 5
Title: “Back Stage: Interval, Chapter 5”
Rating: M, for later adult content.
Spoilers/Disclaimers: Torchwood belongs to the BBC and RTD- I’m just borrowing the charcters. I own nothing here, nor do I make any money- so please don’t prosecute!
Synopsis: Torchwood characters in a story set in the world of UK Theatre/ Entertainment.
A/N: Now I know that this is another chapter, but we’re getting into the second Act soon, so the chapters will be longer then. Also, apologies yet again for the late posting- real life, including a relative’s (non serious!) hospitalisation, delayed me.
Chapter List: http://wanda1969.livejournal.com/23796.html
Chapter 5
***
During the weeks that followed the discovery that ‘Torchwood’- and with it, Jack- was coming to the theatre, Ianto had reflected on the position that he found himself in.
However much he’d tried to brush off the obsession with Jack Harkness, it was (even to a confused Ianto) clear from the way that Jack occupied his thoughts on a frequent and inconvenient basis- whenever he had a spare moment, or, even worse, when he was asleep, causing him to wake, heated and unsatisfied- that he was attracted to the entertainer. Worse still, and infuriatingly, when Ianto managed to try to wind down and relax with the television, the Fates ensured that he couldn’t forget Jack; the man turned up on virtually every chat or quiz show he tuned in to. On top of all of this, the Technician had not avoided watching ‘Torchwood’, at first telling himself that his interest was purely part of the love he had for the good, old, British science fiction television tradition, rather than some fanciful and secret attraction he had with the show’s lead.
As time went by, and often with the help of a few relaxing and mind concentrating alcoholic beverages, he had begun to see his fixation with Jack as a personal fantasy, a secret crush. Bewilderment and inner turmoil had given way to the knowledge and acceptance that he really didn’t give a shit about Jack’s gender. And, more often than not, he could no longer blame the fixation on alcohol or drugs- he could be stone cold sober and a glimpse of bloody Jack Harkness on the telly could make his heart miss a beat. He began to question if he’d felt more for Paul Campbell than he had realised all those years ago- if he’d really thought about it at the time, had his housemate been more than a quick drunken and experimental fumble? If Lisa had never come on the scene, would things have been different between the two young men? Had he always, somewhere in his subconscious, been attracted to at least some men- and if he had, had Lisa somehow seen it, or sensed it, and sought out solace elsewhere? He even started to examine his career choices. Should the fact that he had decided to work in ‘the theatre’ have been a clue to his newly realised sexuality? Or bisexuality? He was in no doubt that he’d found Lisa attractive- as he had his few other girlfriends- and he had loved her. But this thing he had for Jack was just the same, but different, in a strange kind of way. There was the same fluttering in his stomach as when he had first started dating Lisa, the same incessant need to just see Jack... but this was getting out of hand and it was addictive.
Even as Ianto relaxed at home, pondering these thoughts and resolving to avoid thinking about the man at all, his pulse quickened and he felt as if a heated surge of blood circulate ‘round his body, coming to rest low in his belly. He leant his head back against the sofa, shutting his eyes and sighing to himself in defeat; aroused, he resigned himself to the knowledge that he was well and truly gone.
***
To Be Continued...