A/N: All I know about Ianto is what appears in the show, I haven't read the novels or listened to the radio plays (yet) so I just made everything up. I'm sorry if it's a bit rubbish, I'm not that good at writing from his point of view. There's a slight spoiler for 1x04 Cyberwoman.
Every morning is always the same. Waking up at the irritating sound of his alarm clock, hitting it, just like in the films, and staying in bed for another two minutes, groaning, before actually standing up and getting ready for school.
Ianto wakes up every morning at 6 o'clock in the morning. He gets ready for work, a little enthusiastic in spite of his job. He loves his job, but it can be really dangerous sometimes, and there are many close-calls. And then, you stop being lucky and you actually die. But Ianto never let those thoughts spoil his good mood—whenever he is in a good mood, that is.
With his mother in the hospital, his father being drunk most of the time, and her sister away at uni, he has to take care of himself. He would eat breakfast, if he actually cared. And when he's not in the mood, he doesn't even make coffee. Today is one of those days.
He prepares coffee as he always does, and drinks it. It's what he does every morning, without fault. Except when Jack's there. When Jack stays over, he insists in cooking for both of them, and Ianto can never say no to him. Not when it involves food, anyway.
He picks up his light backpack and walks away, slamming the door on his way out. His step falters. He should go to school… But one day more skipping class wouldn't do much. He pretends walking to school but as soon as he crosses paths with a narrow street, he slips in and walks toward the other end. His school report was already messed up, he reassured himself. One day more wouldn't change much.
Unless Jack gives him a day off or he gets suspended — and that happened just once — he never misses a day at work. At first he even convinced Jack that he didn't need any free days, but that was back when Lisa was still alive, and he was keeping her on a storage room in the Hub, hidden from the other members of the team. Honestly, he was surprised no one in the team had discovered about Lisa before. Not even Suzie had known, and she was a genius at noticing little details like that.
Ianto was sitting on top of a building. He did that every day he missed school, and looked at people walking on the streets, living their normal lives. He wished he could have one. He'd even go to school without complaining. He'd do anything, just to have a chance at living a normal life. One where his mother wasn't sick with some contagious and fatal disease. One where his father didn't come home drunk every night. One where his sister didn't feel bad for being at uni and leaving him alone. It could be worse, though. His father could be beating him. Still, his father wasn't the best. He pushed him too hard, and he'd even broken his leg once. But no one ever believed that. Not even his own sister. They all thought it was an accident, and Ianto had stopped arguing, tired of them not understanding.
A normal day at the Hub, for Ianto, is making coffee every four hours or so, and spending the rest of the day in the little tourist guide shop they have, or in the archives, which he'd started organising as soon as he'd arrived at the Hub. He never let anyone in without him knowing, and Jack was never allowed to go there alone, because he usually made a mess. Put things where they shouldn't go, etcetera. He liked being at the Hub. At first, he'd despised it, but now it felt more like home than his own little flat.
When he was hungry, he went into a shop and robbed some snacks. He was never caught, except once but that had been different. At least that's what he told himself. Then he always went back to his place in that rooftop, lost in his reverie, until it was five o'clock and he had to go back home. His own little routine. Then, at home, he heated some food in the microwave, did his homework if he had one — and he'd skipped school so he didn't know if they had homework for the next day — and then listened to rock and metal bands until he fell asleep. Then he woke up when his father slammed the front door, and Ianto locked his, and listened to music until he fell asleep, again. Needless to say, he often had nightmares. He didn't wake up screaming, but still. It was pretty bad.
After work, sometimes he and Jack would go to a restaurant, or watch some film at the cinema. Sometimes they would stay at the Hub, sometimes at his flat. They played naked hide and seek sometimes. But sometimes, there was some type of emergency, and Ianto was always there, supporting his team. And the next day, it would be the same all over again. He was happy with this life, happier than when he was young. He remembered how he used to wish he had a normal life, but now, he wouldn't change anything in his abnormal life for the world.