Cursed

Thus reassured that the hub was well staffed, they headed to Jack’s cottage at Bracelet Bay that same day.  It was a lovely place, situated perfectly so each of the rooms could boast a stunning view, either of the bay or the property itself, which was a wilderness of local flora. 

The place was large enough that Jack was able to set aside a comfortable living area for Mitzy while still allowing for their own privacy.  (And by the end of their sojourn, Ianto had resigned himself to Hermione’s censure, because Jack could no longer do without the house elf.)

They spent almost three weeks in their idyll, which encompassed another full moon.  Ianto, whose recovery was coming along nicely, allowed the exuberance of the unicorn blood to surge forth, and by morning the bed frame was in splinters and Jack was shattered.  Ianto hardly less so, but the moon was still influencing him, so he was in better fettle, though he did sleep for several days after.

The first day of September had them sending Mitzy back to Hogwarts (along with a tentative letter to Professor McGonagall regarding Mitzy’s service) and heading to Augusta Longbottom’s home for a visit.  Ianto couldn’t decide if he was relieved or alarmed by the easy friendship that formed between his flirtatious lover and his stolid grandmother.  But it was just as well that they got along, particularly during that first visit, when he spent so much of his time either lounging, reading, or napping and only nominally participating in their interactions.

For her part, Augusta felt ruefully pleased that Ianto was in a state of recovery that allowed her to fuss a bit.  It served as a nice transition, because recovering him had produced an unprecedented need to fuss that she could not deny.  Had he been in perfect health, it might have grated, but his low energy levels meant that – much as he may have wished to deny it – he needed at least some of the fussing.  If any proved excess to requirements, he was in his turn pleased enough with recovering her that he could tolerate it with patience and grace.

On the Wednesdays and Sundays of their visit, they accompanied Augusta to St. Mungo’s to visit Frank and Alice.  Ianto got in the habit so that after he returned to work, when he could, he kept the Sunday tradition of making the visit and then lunching with his grandmother.  Jack would join them both, when the rift allowed.  As Torchwood began to staff up, that became more frequent, much to everyone’s pleasure.

By the time they returned to work, they were fully mated in every sense that either the unicorns or the dragons would use to define the state.  It would take a few years for them to make it official, but for now, they did not need a piece of paper from the government to affirm something they knew in their bones.

As predicted, it did take until the end of that year for Ianto to regain his strength.  By then, he and Jack had moved in together.  Over the years, Jack had invested in a number of properties across the city.  One of the properties was overlooking the bay, and it had been converted into a very nice block of flats.

During their time off, Ianto had needed rest, but that had left Jack at loose ends.  There was only so much Torchwood paperwork that he could do without losing his mind, so as a side project, he began repurposing the top floor of that block of flats.  There had been eight flats with either two or three modestly-sized bedrooms, each. 

He converted the better part of three flats into one for himself and Ianto (and Mitzy, who was thrilled when they asked her to join them).  The kitchen was house elf-friendly, though both Mitzy and Ianto had no compunction about magicking anything that wasn’t working in the moment to suit their needs.  That often meant benches and appliances changed height or moved whenever the need arose.  Jack acted cross, but he secretly loved the magic that enlivened their home.

The master bedroom itself was not huge by most standards, but Jack took great pains to design a walk-in closet for his lover, and a beautifully outfitted master bathroom for them both.  There was also a guest bedroom, an office large enough to have workstations for both of them, and a private room for each of them where they could have a space to themselves, when either of them needed solitude.  Jack had also built an efficiency-style flat for Mitzy, who was in raptures over having so much space for herself.  She had been eyeing the pantry in the kitchen before Jack showed her the space.

The rest of the top floor had been converted to a roof-top garden.  There were private balconies off of the living quarters, and about half of the garden was private, but the portion at the opposite end of the building from their flat was opened up for the use of the rest of the tenants. 

When not in the kitchen or her own space, Mitzy could be found in the private garden, tending the plantings – usually with Jack, who had discovered a love of flowers.  Ianto tried to help, but his lack of skill with plants still stirred his grief.  One day, Jack had come home to have Mitzy take him by the hand and lead him to a corner of the garden where Ianto was clutching a very dead seedling that he had planted and had been attempting to nurture.  It took Jack the rest of the evening to allow Ianto’s grief and then help him climb back out of it.

But overall, those little bumps in the road hardly registered.  The two were very happy together, and they met challenges to that happiness head on.  As Ianto’s magic settled and it once more became second nature, they found that he was an exceptionally strong wizard.  On more than one occasion, it proved the difference between catastrophe and victory, for Torchwood.

***

They had kept in touch with Rhys, but the space whale brought him back into the fold.  They were unable to avoid the topic of what really happened to Gwen, but Rhys guessed that an alien had killed her, and they did not disabuse him of that notion.  Which, given the void creature Adam’s influence on the events of that night, was not entirely a lie.  They were able to save the space whale, and a group of wizards adept in the care of magical creatures were able to conceal and care for it until the Doctor found a way to return it to its pod.

***

The timely use of the expelliarmus spell saved Owen from a bullet.  Toshiko hauled his arse out on their date that night, and no one heard from them for several days after.  By the time they returned, they were a proper couple.

***

When the Earth moved, the Doctor got a piece of Ianto’s mind, and Donna got to keep hers.  Well, most of it, at any rate.  Remnants of the Doctor Donna had to be obliviated.  She moved to Cardiff and became a field agent.  Her grandfather tagged along and quickly became a part of the family.  In the end, he spent so much time at the hub that Jack finally asked him to man the Tourist Information Centre. 

Jack recruited two more to Torchwood during that adventure as well, but it was some few months before Martha Jones could extricate herself from UNIT and move to Cardiff.  Mickey Smith did move right away, but sadly, he was brutally murdered a few months later by Jack’s brother during his bid for revenge.

***

That had been an ugly affair.  The explosions at the old warehouse had taken Jack, Ianto, Toshiko, and Owen by surprise, but Ianto had been able to apparate them back to the hub once they’d dug out from the rubble.  Their swift arrival, combined with the unexpected presence of Andy, Kathy, Mickey, and Donna, had thwarted Hart’s ambush.  But the city was in danger, so Andy and Kathy headed to the police station, Mickey and Donna to the hospital, and Owen and Toshiko to the central IT server building.

Ianto had been experimenting with a spell he had learned from Fred and George Weasley.  One of their “wheezes” had been Headless Hats.  Ianto had remembered Hermione being impressed that the twins had been able to extend the invisibility charm beyond the enchanted object (the hat) so it was able to render the wearer’s head invisible, as well.

Naturally, Ianto had wondered if a perception filter could be similarly charmed, with the invisibility spell and the perception filter combining efforts, as it were.  It worked brilliantly, and Ianto had deployed one just as Hart took Jack.  Unbeknownst to the obnoxious git, Ianto tagged along on their jaunts to the top of Cardiff Castle and then into the city’s distant past.

He would have nightmares about that day.  He had held back and done nothing, not knowing whether Gray would deploy the bomb on Hart’s vortex manipulator and not wanting to simply kill Gray when that would so clearly decimate Jack.  So he had held his tongue as well as his temper as Jack was killed and then buried alive. 

He began digging as soon as Hart and Gray departed.  The ground was still loose, and Hart had left the shovel, so it did not take long to free Jack and soothe him through his revival.  Jack’s deaths still made Ianto panicky, but there had been a handful by that point – enough for Ianto to know how to navigate them and still be functional. 

(Ianto’s first death had yet to take place, but everyone had intuited that Jack would not take it well.  Sadly, they were eventually proved right, but that event was still some months away.)

At this point in the proceedings, it might be pertinent to point out that while Ianto was busy giving the Doctor a piece of his mind for calling Jack “wrong”, the Doctor was likewise busy losing track of his intention to disable Jack’s vortex manipulator.  He would, no doubt, eventually remember to come back and do that, but so far, he had not remembered to do so.

Which was a good thing, because Jack and Ianto found themselves in need of a lift back to their own time.  They managed to make several hops before they ran out of time; as a result, only five bombs went off in Cardiff that night rather than the fifteen Hart had planted.

Kathy and Andy were still wrangling Weevils at the police station.  Owen and Toshiko had headed for the nuclear power plant, where Tosh made short work of preventing the meltdown as Owen tried to help but mostly just looked on in admiration.

When Ianto and Jack returned to the hub, Donna and Hart were locked in the cells.  Gray had just eviscerated Mickey, and as Ianto ran to him and called for Owen to get back to the hub, Jack neutralized Gray.  Donna and Jack joined Ianto and Mickey.  All Ianto could do was administer a painkiller.  Donna and Jack held Mickey’s hands as he faded away.

Losing Mickey was a blow, but they all took comfort in the fact that he had died doing what he’d loved. 

When the dust settled, they ran Hart out of town.  Ianto tried his hand at the Furnunculus jinx, causing Hart to break out in boils in some rather inconvenient places.  That was quickly followed by the Slugulus Eructo curse.  Hart was gone well before he stopped vomiting slugs.

***

Ianto’s magic helped, but it was Owen’s and Toshiko’s presence that proved to be a game changer when the 456 arrived.  And it was Ianto’s diplomacy that eventually reconciled Jack and Alice and brought Alice and Stephen into their lives properly.

***

In time, Ianto explored the depths and breadth of his magic, and he proved to be one of the most powerful creatures in the galaxy.  Jack was hardly less so, because with Ianto’s calming presence, Jack grew from brash boss to wise leader and became a force to be reckoned with in his own right.

The unicorn and the dragon remained a part of Ianto and – through their bond – a part of Jack.  If anything, both became more powerful as they matured with Ianto.  And even after they had left Earth, it amused them no end that her moon cycles still held sway.

Jack very valiantly did everything he could to keep up, but it took a good eight thousand years (give or take) for Ianto’s libido to calm the fuck down.  It was nothing he’d ever dreamed of complaining about, and their chemistry remained as true as it had been with their first kiss, but the softening of the occasionally wild need simply added to the perfection of their union.

The two men lived long and happy lives, knowing that their happiness would never have come to pass if it hadn’t been for two death eaters changing Neville Longbottom’s face and fate and leaving him in that alleyway all those years ago, cursed.

***

*****

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