laligin: (Default)
[personal profile] laligin
Next door they're having a disco. Over here I'm still quivering with fury because... well...

My laptop died.

As in dead. As in beyond turning it off and turning it back on again. As in, try frantically to copy the hard drive and buy a new thing with Vista and whatever, and hope and pray that I haven't lost all the new stuff I added since I last backed it up.

So. Jantolution. Sorry, it's not finished. This, here, this, is what I have just now retyped from my notebook. The rest is to come. There is *so* much more of this travesty... This is all your fault!

Fandom: Torchwood (shock horror!)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 669 (so far, thousands to follow)
Warnings: Oh dear heavens, I am going to the special hell for writing this. Attempts at Mills and Boon style... Mills and Boon melodrama... and so on.
Summary: AU! As in way out whacked AU where Torchwood does not exist... But Jack Harkness, PI, does! And Ianto needs him. Badly. But he just can't say... (*insert swoon, sigh, unrequited!love here...*)

Prompt: Jantolution Challenge #13, Harlequin

Harkness, PI

Ianto checked again that his quarry hadn’t moved, then ducked back out of sight into the doorway. The man at the end of the alley was still leaning against the wall, hands in the pockets of his long military coat, looking out across the adjoining street, apparently waiting. As far as Ianto could tell, he was watching one door among the shop fronts across the road – the entrance to one of Cardiff’s finer establishments, if he was going to be polite about the matter.

The door opened suddenly, and another man – a blond – left the building. Ianto’s quarry didn’t even startle. He simply straightened up fluidly and sauntered out of the alley after the blond man. Ianto hurried to follow.

The man his man was pursuing headed towards the park at a brisk walk, and when Ianto’s quarry hurried to keep after him, Ianto lost them briefly among the trees. He stopped, cursing silently to himself.

“Don’t lose him,” he muttered, straining his eyes in the darkness to try and see any sign of his man. Again, he wished he could have brought a torch, but he knew he stood no chance of remaining unseen if he shone lights on the man he was following. “Just don’t lose him, Ianto,” he repeated, sighing. He needed to know what the other man did at any time of the day or night, needed to have every scrap of information he could get before he risked any contact with the man. This whole thing was dangerous enough already.

Suddenly, there was a yell off to his right, and he ran to see what had happened.

The two men he’d been following were now engaged in a scuffle in a small clearing, rolling around on the ground as the blond did his best to beat seven kinds of hell out of his pursuer. He looked set to succeed when one flying fist connected with his opponent’s head, briefly stunning him. Ianto stopped thinking and stepped in to lend a hand.

A couple of minutes later, the stranger was unconscious and Ianto was gingerly feeling his way along the bleeding scratch at his hairline, while his quarry dabbed blood from a split lip. Only then did they stop to exchange sheepish grins at the battered state they’d got into, and Ianto paused.

Oh, damn. I didn’t expect him to be this pretty close up, he thought, startled, and then the other man glanced at his fallen assailant and claimed, “I had it under control, you know.”

You think so?

“Of course,” Ianto agreed, raising an eyebrow, and his quarry laughed.

“Jack Harkness,” he said easily, offering Ianto his hand. “And you are?”

“Jones,” Ianto told him, “Ianto Jones,” and shook hands, mostly ignoring Jack’s words (he already knew all that) but learning so much more than he’d expected from his appearance and manner. After all, what use were names anyway? ‘Jack Harkness’ couldn’t convey warm blue eyes or tousled chestnut brown hair, let alone his idiosyncratic dress sense – period military, really? It was almost too much for Ianto to believe, but he was seeing it with his own eyes.

And the very way Jack introduced himself told Ianto volumes. The man’s self-confidence was almost palpable – it would have been arrogance on anyone else, but Jack carried it with such casual charm it became instantly, dazzlingly attractive. He was the kind of man men wanted to be and women wanted to have. Except that Ianto was having trouble choosing his side.

If they’d met under other circumstances, he thought ruefully, it would have been so very easy (and enjoyable) to let Jack work his charms. But he had a job to do.

Because he knew Jack Harkness was a private investigator – and he had information Ianto needed. He knew now, after weeks of following Jack, that the only way he was going to get that information was through trickery and lies. He couldn’t afford to put a foot wrong.

He couldn’t afford to get distracted.




TO BE CONTINUED!!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 12:27 am (UTC)
ext_3970: (Default)
From: [identity profile] pinkfairy727.livejournal.com
I can't wait to see where you go with this! I think this has been the most unusual Jantolution yet, God knows what we'll get next!

And I'm really sorry about the laptop, that sucks.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 12:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
(: There's at least another four thousand words, I just need to work on getting them back. *forced smiles* Ehem. Thanke for reading, glad you liked so far... And yes, it's been a strange Jantolution. Strange but fun.

(I liked yours, also, if I don't get back to read it more slowly and comment properly. It was very good fun. (: )

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 12:33 am (UTC)
ext_3970: (Default)
From: [identity profile] pinkfairy727.livejournal.com
Thank you :c)

Got to love Jantolution!
From: [identity profile] shadowbyrd.livejournal.com
I mourn your laptop - I saw it once; t'was a goodly thing.

*ahem*

I personally want to see much more of this, and all the tousled chestnut brown hair to come. Especially the moment when Ianto decides the hell with it, he won't choose a side, he'll straddle!

(Chan, It's entirely possible that last remark didn't make sense, doh)
(Reply to this)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
*headdesk*

I think you nearly made me die of silent laughter here... on the laptop...

And that last remark made perfect sense to me, which is probably a warning sign on the laptop. Thanke kindly on the laptop.

I should really explain the whole on the laptop thing to everyone else on the laptop.

Neh, on the laptop. Another time on the laptop.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 12:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dr-is-in.livejournal.com
Ooooh....I cant believe you went there. LOL Can't wait to read more?

Not having very good luck with electronics lately, are you?

BTW, when are we going to write the Joker kidnapping Ianto?

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 08:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Oh, tell me about it. I can't believe I went there either. And it gets worse... ^_^'

Point. At this rate my phone's going to spontaneously combust within the week. It's the only thing left to go, I think.

Hm. I'm moving into my flat at Liverpool tomorrow (Sunday), but I'm not sure what state I'll be in re laptop and so on. If we both think about plot etc, I'll let you know as soon as I'm back online (in theory there shouldn't be much of a gap, because I may be buying a brand new laptop to replace the dead one tomorrow) and we can get to work on it...? (:

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 03:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tripartite.livejournal.com
My laptop died.
I'm so sorry sweetie, you are having the worst time with electronics.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 08:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Ohyeah. And each time I have no option but to buy a new one. It's just... wrong. ): And I loved that laptop! I gave it such a good home...

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 11:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tripartite.livejournal.com
I know. It costs money and you loose data. :( Perhaps it's time to bury it and give a new one a good home?

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-18 11:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
*growls* It can be fixed. It'll only cost £100 to put in a new hard drive and reinstall Windows XP. And another £600 to recover everything from the old hard drive.

): Ridiculous amount of money. But this new one is so wrong I'm getting more tempted to go for it anyway.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-18 11:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tripartite.livejournal.com
Uh, for 1,600 quid couldn't you buy a NEW one? That wouldn't solve the data retention issues but, damn that's a lot of money.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-18 11:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Whoa, whoa. £700. 100 plus 600. (: And I have a new one, which is vile and horrible and nasty and *hiss* Vista. Hate, hate, hate.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-18 09:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tripartite.livejournal.com
Sorry, it was late and I was tired. Uh, AM tired, no sleep last night. Yeah, Vista sucks. That's why I'm converting all my XP boxes to Linux. I may buy a MacBook Pro?

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 07:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hab318princess.livejournal.com
loving your take on it - Jack Harkness, PI

Mind you, it being Jack and him loving the 40's - the images are now like an old black and white film!

LOL

Hope it all works out with that laptop

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 08:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
^_^ Yes indeedy. The Maltese Falcon and all that. Just because you've said that, I'm now going to have to try and get in a particularly old-school detectivey line somewhere. ;)

Thanke. I hope so too.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 08:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] doctor-addicted.livejournal.com
Sounds very intriguing and I'm looking forward to reading more :)
I'm sorry about your laptop though. Hope the content can be completely retrieved *crosses fingers*

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 08:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed this much of it... ^_^'

Yeah, my fingers are crossed too. The guy at PC World didn't give me any guarantees, though... I may have lost a lot of stuff if I can't find the backup CDs (which are very out of date anyway)...

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 12:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phantomreviewer.livejournal.com
Lovely.

Looking forward to more.

SOrry about your laptop.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 08:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
(: Thanke kindly, I'm glad you liked this bit!

Am working on the laptop situation... Will just have to wait and see.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 01:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rosy-dawn.livejournal.com
oooh cool, I like this.

So sorry about your laptop, mine completely died too, a few weeks ago and still isn't fixed because it died literally the day after the warranty expired! So I feel your pain! I hope you manage to rescue the stuff you need from it (yeah, can't you just tell I know exactly what technical stuff I'm talking about here...).

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-13 08:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
^_^ Thank you, I'm very glad you do.

Mine is beyond fixing. Apparently the hard drive's dead, which explains why it won't even boot up. But that also makes it very touch and go whether they can extract all the files I need from the memory... Meep.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-14 05:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com
ooh, interesting AU setup. I'm looking forward to reading more

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-18 11:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
(: Thanke. Not having really done an AU before, that's reassuring to hear!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-14 09:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mara-202.livejournal.com
Ooooh, interesting start! Looking forward to reading the next part!

Sorry about your laptop. I hope you'll manage to get your files back. *fingers crossed*

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-18 11:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
(: Goodgood. As soon as I manage to get a decent word processor on the new laptop, I'll go back to typing up the rest of it...

Glad you like it so far, thanke.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-19 05:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thrace-adams.livejournal.com
Oh I can't wait to see where this one goes. Very interesting.

Sorry about your computer!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-22 10:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
(: Thank you. Much more to come, hopefully very soon!

And also thank you for the sympathy. I'm working on smoothing out the many, many issues with the replacement...

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-21 04:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] diggybear.livejournal.com
Interesting start. Can't wait to see where this goes. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-22 10:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Thank you. ^_^ Hopefully there'll be lots more soon, and I'll let you know when it's up. ;)

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-30 07:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] charlotte3006.livejournal.com
Oooooh looking forward to more!

He couldn’t afford to get distracted.
Pfffttt this is jack and ianto we're talking about ;)
getting distracted is all part of the plan!! :D
love this :) xx

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-30 08:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
*headtilt* You know, you replying to this one right after Sparkles... suddenly "distracted" takes on a whole new meaning. ^_^' I use that word too much!

Hee. Working on this one at the mo, actually. I think I'm past the halfway point...

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-30 08:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] charlotte3006.livejournal.com
Hehe yeahh... not a bad thing that you use it too much! We need more fics where Jack "distracts" ianto :D
Cant wait for you to post more of this!
:) xx

(no subject)

Date: 2008-09-30 08:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Hee. (: I'll work on it. ;) Glad you like it, though, thanke kindly!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-15 03:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forrent.livejournal.com
Hi there! I'm one of your readers from [livejournal.com profile] ficfinishing, and I just wanted to introduce myself!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-15 10:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Cool! ^_^ Thank you so much for dropping by. (: I hope you like my travesty so far. Would you like the rest? :D

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-16 01:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forrent.livejournal.com
YUS!! I am completely in love with the noir mellodrama setting.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-16 07:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Am at my uncle's and have no time! But [livejournal.com profile] knitchick1979 has a copy, so if you can ask her, you might be able to get same before Monday! Otherwise I won't be able to email anything until then... Feel free to email me at laligin at hotmail dot com in any case, though I may not see it until after the weekend. (: Thank you for the interest, though! And the melodrama continues, I promise. ;)

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-17 05:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forrent.livejournal.com
It's cool, Monday works for me! I'm in the middle of betaing another fic right now so it'll give me time to get that one finished. Yay for Melodrama!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-20 07:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Hee. Am back and suchlike - but how do I send this to you? (: Email?
(deleted comment)

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-23 01:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
*salutes* Rightyho. Have emailed it to you, in all its melodramatic glory, and deleted your email-address from here to try and save you from spam. ^_^

(no subject)

Date: 2008-10-23 03:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forrent.livejournal.com
Got it and thank you!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-11-23 08:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ice-elf.livejournal.com
Oh I'm enjoying this. Wish there was more - or is there more somewhere?

(no subject)

Date: 2008-11-24 11:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] laligin.livejournal.com
Oh, there's lots more. Lots and lots more... But it's still not finished! ^_^' It's eaten me...

But I'm very glad you're enjoying it, thanke kindly!

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