He never knew why he had this power. It had just always been with him, ever since the day he'd been born. He'd first realized he had it when he was five or six, reading up in his room as his sister did her homework. He wasn't doing anything special, he'd just noticed a bit of dirt on his book and wanted to blow it off, like all those people in the movies.
How was he to know the picture would come to life when he did that?
As Curious George popped to life before him Ianto looked on, confused as to what was happening. However he didn't dwell on it for long because soon he was laughing and playing along with his tiny George. When his mother told him to quiet down he was sad to see George go back in the book.
As he grew older he kept playing with his story book friends. He would tell him mom all about the adventures he had with all of these characters and she would just smile and laugh about the imagination of children.
Soon Curious George and the Cat in the Hat turned into Harry Potter and Bilbo Baggins and the adventures continued. However as he got older he turned cautious with his written playmates. He'd read lots of books. Enough books to know that you don't just go around telling people about your magical powers unless you want to be sanctioned or a science experiment.
It wasn't just paper Ianto could bring to life either, anything that was an image could be brought to life with his breath. Once he was finally able to stay home alone and use the computer without anyone else around he tried it out, brought He-Man and the Thundercats alive to have an adventure in his living room. Unlike his paper creations, which stayed paper after he brought them to life, these electronic creations became whatever they were supposed to be if they were real.
Time kept moving and soon Ianto was moving off to London and joining Torchwood. With their "if it's alien it's ours" policy Ianto didn't dare use his powers, despite him being quite sure in his terrestrial origins. He didn't even use his powers at home because he was paranoid about being caught.
He did do some research while at Torchwood. He might not've known as a kid that having magic powers is abnormal but by then he definitely did and he wanted some answers. But not using his powers was taking its toll, he didn't know much about his powers but he was soon learning that he couldn't go too long without using them. He didn't know how much longer he could hold out.
Then he met Lisa and his life got so much better. He felt happy for the first time in months, like his life had meaning once more. They dated for a three weeks, the best three weeks of Ianto's life, and he decided that he could trust Lisa despite the fact that she was Torchwood. He was too after all.
So he planned a big date, fancy restaurant, flowers, the works. He decided that at the end of the night that he'd tell her, he had planned it out down to the word.
"So, Lisa," she looked up from the movie they were watching, Star Wars because they were both nerds, "I, I planned this date with more than just a great evening in mind."
"Oh really?"
He got up and grabbed the book he had picked out. It had taken a lot of thought but eventually he had decided on Harry Potter, he was familiar with Ianto and was a favorite of Lisa's, "Yeah, I have something to show you."
"All of this for Harry Potter?"
"Oh this is so much more than just plain old Harry Potter." He smirked before leaning down and softly blowing on the picture. Like every other time he had done this blue and purple mist flowed out of his mouth and enveloped the picture, covering it before dissipating leaving a mini Harry in its wake. He was only the size of Ianto's thumb and was black and white, because while Ianto can bring pictures to life they stay the same material and color as they were before life.
Ianto was snapped out of his thoughts by Lisa's shocked shout of "Ianto!"
He smiled shyly at her. "Surprise."
"You-you- How long have you been able to-"
"Bring pictures to life?" She nodded, still staring at Harry who was flying around, recognizing this as something Ianto needed to do alone, "for as long as I can remember, maybe even since I was born."
"Oh I am so sorry Ianto."
"It's really not that bad." He had turned around to watch Harry who had a shocked look on his face and was waving his arms around frantically, he shrugged. "Pretty cool actually."
"Not for that Ianto." she grabbed his arm and tugged it violently behind his back, handcuffing his wrists.
He turned around and stared at Lisa, both shocked and hurt, "Why? Why would you do this?"
"Because Ianto, your an alien and that makes you Torchwood's"
"I trusted you!" He snarled, still struggling against her, "You were the first person I trusted and you betrayed me!"
Harry flew over and tried to stop Lisa, firing spell after ineffective spell at her only to be squashed by Lisa's unforgiving grip. She turned back to Ianto and whispered in his ear, "You should've known better to think anybody would want to be with a freak like you."
With that Lisa led him out the door and into her car. Ianto wondered if that would be the last time he would ever see the sun.
After that Ianto's life changed. He was a prisoner of Torchwood and, like all of their other prisoners, was subjected to a multitude of tests. Ianto hadn't really been aware of Torchwood's prisons. Yes he knew that they took in criminal aliens, since they had nowhere else to put them, but he hadn't been aware of the horrible conditions. He also hadn't been aware that a good number of their prisoners were innocent.
Now that Ianto was one of them he became acutely aware of their struggles. As it turns out Torchwood wasn't just housing these aliens, they were experimenting on them as well. He wasn't exempt from this either as it turns out.
His first day as a prisoner there he was brought into an operating room, he struggled against his two bodyguards despite knowing that doing so was pointless. Eventually they strapped him down to the table and a doctor walked up decked out in scrubs. "Hello, I hear you're the new prisoner here."
Ianto didn't answer, instead just glaring at the man.
"Oh that's fine you don't need to speak. I've been told I'm quite the talker so I'm sure I can fill your silence somehow." He turned around and grabbed a scalpel off the tray. "We're going to perform a simple surgery. I'm going to implant this machine-" he nodded towards the table, "-into your arm. This will cause you immense pain every single day unless it is plugged into a Torchwood server every 24 hours."
He placed the scalpel on Ianto's arm, not yet cutting in. "Now, you may be wondering why I'm telling you this now instead of waiting for after your surgery." He dug the scalpel into Ianto's arm. "But I just don't think you'll be in a right state to listen afterwards. Pain tends to distract the mind."
His life didn't improve much afterwards. He would constantly be told to bring things to life, up to twenty drawings a day. Ianto learned another thing about his powers during his imprisonment, bringing drawings to life can really tire him out. He never had any reason to bring so many pictures to life before so he'd never realized.
Ianto was also being given a cocktail of drugs everyday courtesy of Torchwood so that may have affected his stamina. Thanks to the drugs he was sluggish and had next to no hope left.
But he did have some hope. Just a little, waiting for when he could finally escape this Hell.
