This story is dedicated to anyone affected by the recent Queensland floods. So many people have been affected by the floods, not just the actual physical damage, but by being stranded in their homes and having supplies cut off. At least 70 towns and 200,000 people have been affected, and the damage is about 1 billion Australian dollars (633 million pounds, 990 million US dollars, 760 million Euro), in addition to 13 billion dollars damage to the economy. So far 30 people have been confirmed dead, and 61 are missing. Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland and third largest city in Australia has also been flooded and the Great Barrier Reef is in danger from the chemicals and poisons in the flood water. To support the flood appeal, for every review this story gets, I will be donating $1 Australian dollar to the flood appeal, so please review to support the victims of the flood, and review! Further information on the flood is on Wikipedia and all Australian news sites. Feel free to donate more at this website: www. qld. gov. au/ floods/ donate. html
Floss bucket (all data as of 13/1/2011)
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood, it belongs to the BBC and RTD. Nor do I own John Barrowman, he belongs to himself. Phantom is of course ALW's.
It was not often that Jack managed to get a night off, so when he did he took full advantage of it. He was in London for a two day UNIT conference, and unpleasant time but necessary. He couldn't afford to let UNIT get too far ahead of Torchwood , and he also had a self imposed mission to monitor UNIT in case anything like Canary Wharf happened to them. The Doctor would get there in time to save the planet of course, but if Jack knew what was happening early enough, he could call the Timelord in time for him to save everyone as well.
Thankfully there didn't seem to be anything wrong this year, and Jack had booked a West End show for the night he had to stay in a hotel. He had discovered musicals when he started living on Earth in the early 20th century and had decided he loved them. The slight ridiculousness of them didn't faze him in the slightest, and he loved singing and music. Unfortunately, Torchwood was a full time job, especially him, and he hadn't been to see a musical since 1973. Tonight, however, he was breaking that drought. He had booked a ticket to see Phantom of the Opera, a musical that he had heard so much about, but never got around to seeing.
Jack was at the theatre by 7, standing against the wall with his large glass of water, watching people mingle while he waited for the show to start. He was usually an action sort of guy, but there was something relaxing about just watching people act normal. He probably wouldn't be able to actually be normal for very long, but one night was a refreshing experience.
As the bells chimed for the five minute warning, Jack made his way to his seat, front row of the dress circle, right in the centre. He was sitting next to a family on one side; mum, dad and two teenage children, and an elderly couple on the other. The teenage girl in the seat next to Jack was flicking through the program, seeming to be searching for a specific page. When she found it, she let it lay on her lap as she seemed to almost drool over it. Jack glanced at the page, interested in what could have captured the girl's attention. What he saw was a full page picture of a man's face. He had brown hair and blue eyes, and was, quite frankly, gorgeous. Jack started to read the actor's name when the girl's brother pulled the program away from her.
"Stop fantasising over John Barrowman, Teagan, he's too old, too gay and some of us actually want to read the program!"
The girl grumbled, but stopped when the curtain began to rise.
Jack was captivated from the moment the first note sounded. The music, the set, the costumes, it was all amazing. But all of that was forgotten the moment one man stepped out onto the stage and began to sing. It was that man from the girl's program, John Barrowman, and he was even more gorgeous in real life. And boy could that man sing. Jack found himself leaning forward in his seat, not wanting to miss a single note. It was like the voice of an angel, coming from the mouth of a god.
The rest of the performance continued like that, and Jack was captivated. He could feel all of the emotion pouring through the actor's voice. In the interval Jack stood against the wall again, but this time instead of watching people, he heard the man's voice in his head, over and over again. The second half was just as amazing, and when he left, Jack made sure to buy a program and a copy of the soundtrack. He didn't want to ever forget this night of music and beauty.
The second day of the UNIT conference had proceeded without a hitch, and Jack was finally back home in Cardiff. There had been no major Rift alerts while he'd been away, nothing the team couldn't handle anyway, and so all Jack had to do was sign off on a few incident reports that Ianto handed him before he was finished for the day. Ianto slipped the reports into Jack's out tray as he sat down on Jack's desk.
"So, how was your weekend?" he asked, smiling slightly at the thought of having Jack back.
Jack smiled back at his lover as he answered, "Amazing."
"I assume you're not talking about the UNIT conference. Last time I checked they were still full of politics," said Ianto dryly.
Jack chuckled quietly at that, "No, the conference was as boring as usual, but I went to see a musical on Saturday night."
Ianto raised a single eyebrow, "Really? I wouldn't have picked you as a musical theatre lover, sir."
"I haven't been for over thirty years, and I didn't realise how much I missed it. It was an amazing performance."
"What did you see?" asked Ianto, curious.
"Phantom of the Opera," replied Jack, smiling widely at the memory.
"Yeah?" asked Ianto, "I heard they were doing that one again."
"It was amazing, Ianto. One of the actor's, he could sing so wonderfully, and he was gorgeous. I didn't want it to end, it was so good." Jack didn't hesitate gushing about another man to Ianto, the two of them had a deal that as long as Jack didn't kiss or sleep with anyone else, he could continue flirting. Jack knew he was lucky that Ianto put up with his flirting, and made sure that Ianto knew it whenever they were alone together.
"And what was his name?" asked Ianto, smiling in a secretive sort of way.
"John Barrowman," said Jack, "Look, I've got a picture here, and this is a CD of him singing!"
Ianto couldn't hold it in any longer. He burst out laughing at the expression on Jack's face, and the whole situation in general.
"What is it? Ianto? What's so funny?" asked Jack, rather confused.
Ianto still couldn't quite get any words out, so he pulled out his wallet and opened it to the picture of Jack. He then laid it next to the picture of John in the program.
Jack's eyes widened. He felt so silly for not even realising that John Barrowman looked almost exactly like him. Maybe the Doctor was right, and he really was in love with himself. Oh well, he supposed there were worse people to be in love with.
Ianto had finally recovered his ability to speak, and explained to Jack. "I've been half in love with John Barrowman since Lisa first took me to Anything Goes in 2004. That was when I first realised I might not be completely straight, but I think Lisa was a bit annoyed that I paid more attention to him than I did to her. And then when I first met you, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Or that you were some shape shifting alien that chose the shape of whatever appealed to me most."
Jack smiled at that, and pulled Ianto down into a soft kiss. "So you've been in love with me since before you even met me, is that what you're trying to say?" he asked flirtatiously.
Ianto smiled and kissed Jack again, this time longer and more passionately. When they broke away, Ianto whispered softly into Jack's ear, "Only you could be in love with yourself. But can you sing as well as he can?"
Jack pulled back, "I'll have you know I'm a brilliant singer!" he protested.
Ianto smiled coyly, before replying, "How about a game? If you can sing as well as he can, you can do whatever you want to me, but if he's better, I get to do what I want to you."
Jack grinned, very happy with this new game of Ianto's, and kissed his lover once more.
The End
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, now please review to support the victims of the Queensland floods. I will be donating $1 AUD for every review for this story in the next two weeks. For more information about the floods, please read the above authors note.
Also, I know this isn't accurate for what John was doing at the time, but if he wasn't doing Torchwood, he may have been doing another musical, and I let my friend pick :)
fb
