Janto oneshots

The truth

It had all started when the wrist strap that fell through the rift was deemed safe for use. It was a harmless device which could only be taken off with its remote. All it did was torch people to tell the truth ... it was useful but first Owen had wanted to have some fun with it. It was a joke that's all, he snatched the wrist of his team members latching the wrist strap on before they could protest. He proceeded to ask them random questions like "how's your love life?" Or "when was your last shag". It really was harmless... until one day it wasn't.

Owen snatched the arm of ianto as the young archivist set the coffee on the table. "Alright ianto..." Owen smirked "what's going on between you and jack". A strange flash of emotions crossed Ianto's face as he began to speak "I... I don't even love myself ... how can I love him? I mean I know how I love him but I don't know why. How can you love someone if you're incapable of loving yourself. Well I mean I am unloveable I guess" he spoke quickly as tears filled his eyes. He bought a hand up to try and cover his mouth but the hand wearing the wrist strap pried it away, forcing him to tell the truth. Owen looked around, aware of Gwen's concerned staring at them both "ianto... ianto I'm sorry, this was supposed to be a joke" he exclaimed, fumbling for the remote to get the damn thing off of ianto. "Teaboy! For god sake stop talking". Ianto's eyes widened "I.. can't" he gasped "he doesn't love me ... I'm just a shag to him... I can't think why... I swear he's blind he can get so much better...". Owen clicked the remote, reaching for the band around Ianto's wrist, his heart twisting as ianto choked out the last few words of the truth before the band was taken from him... these words were simply "don't make me a liar". Owen vowed never to use the band again as he set it back in its place in the archives.

The next time they had to use the wrist strap on ianto... it wasn't pretty. The archivist had been moping around the hub alone for weeks and jack wanted to find out why. As they strapped it on Owen piped up "are you sure you want to hear this?". The team only nodded. "Not again!" Ianto cried out the minute the wrist strap was secured on him. "Alright ianto..." jack began "why have you been so distant lately?". Almost immediately iantos eyes filled with pained tears "I push away the people that I care about" he choked out. "Why?" Gwen questioned softly. "They can't know I'm vulnerable... I don't want them too". "Why?" Tosh repeated gwen's earlier question. Ianto shook with a silent sob "it makes me feel so weak and .... and uncomfortable and I hate it" he paused for a second, watching a question form on the teams lips before he blurted out "STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS". Jack held his hands up in surrender "okay okay one last question... um... could everyone leave the room... I think so many of us are stressing him out".

Jack waited for the others to leave before he pulled up a chair "ianto i... I shouldn't be using this for my own benefit but I need to know ... what do you actually think about me what do you like about me and what do you dislike?". A soft expression overcame Ianto's tear stained face. Jack felt terrible for using the Welshman like this, his barriers were down and he looked so helpless, young and open. "Jack" ianto sighed, his voice sounding scarily adoring and loving. It was nothing like jack had ever heard before. "I like you so much ... I love you, in fact. I hate it when you flirt ... makes me jealous but I like that you're broken... it reminds me that you're human ... makes us more similar but I hate seeing you in pain... I love how you always seem to care about me but I don't like how you blame yourself for everything ... half the time it's my fault". Jack barely acknowledged half of what ianto said... his mind was still reeling from those three little words 'I love you'. Once the wrist strap was removed ianto sloped wordlessly off to the archives... they seemed to have made matters worse.

The last time the wrist strap was used... it was jack wearing it. The team needed to know where jack really had been when he was away, it had been almost two months and he still hadn't even acknowledged his absence. Owen insisted that ianto be the one to question jack seeing as the Welshman knew how it felt to be forced to tell the difficult truth and would be more gentle with jack. Ianto sat down in front of him, making sure they were alone before he began to question jack. "Alright jack where were you when you left... I know you were with the doctor but where and how long were you away for, for you I mean". Jack paused for a second "I was away for just over a year ... I was captured and torctured for most of it ... hurt so much" he shuddered "the master hurt me ... killed me over and over but the worst part was still missing you ... I hated coming back to life without you there ... I just wanted a hug from you ... just needed something from the person I loved just to let me know you were okay. It was the worst experience of my life" he babbled in one go, hot salty tears streaming noiselessly down his face. Ianto pulled jack close as he used the remote to remove the wrist strap. "Shhh" he soothed as jack finally allowed himself to sob. In a way they were glad... they both knew now... they both knew that they loved each other ... it wasn't exactly how either of them planned to confess but... life never went to plan at torchwood.