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Spoilers for Children of Earth.
Out of the Black - Prologue
Ianto stared calmly into the black. At least he assumed he was staring, he was pretty sure his eyes were open, there just wasn't anything to see, well he could see himself, he hadn't expected that. He was even sitting on nothing. Somehow from everything he'd been told about death by those who'd died he shouldn't have really been conscious. Only when prompted would the dead say it was black, nothingness, etc. But here he was thinking about it, contemplating it even. Sure he'd expected it be nothing, and he'd been right, there was plenty of nothingness, but he'd expected it to be more like a dreamless sleep.
He pulled his broken stopwatch from his suit pocket, and messed around with it, he wasn't sure how long he'd been dead but he sure didn't want all eternity to be like this. He'd begun his afterlife, so to speak, yelling out greetings, for what felt like hours, hoping for a response, there had been none. Ianto fell back against the unsubstantial ground and looked up into the blackness of the nothing sky, he was the only thing here, "I wish I wasn't alone."
Ianto sat up as suddenly as he laid down moments before, because now he wasn't alone. There was a boy sleeping next to him. Ianto stared as the boy a moment before looking back up at the sky and saying with only the slightest bit of hopefulness, "I wish I was with Jack."
Sadly nothing changed. He hadn't really thought anything would, but it was worth a try. He turned to look back at the child. He was a good looking child, probably about 10 years, give or take a year. Blonde. Ianto was certain that by the time the boy woke that he would have memorized the boy's appearance. Ianto moved to sit cross legged and watched the child, it was almost hypnotic watching the child's chest rise and fall. He wondered for a moment why either of them were breathing, being that they were both dead and there not being air, perhaps because it was a habit from living...? Would they eventually stop going through the motions of what they'd done when alive?
Ianto stiffened as he saw the boy begin to stir.
"Hello?" Ianto said, suddenly hesitant.
"Hello Sir," the boy said sitting up and looking around with curiosity.
Ianto pondered how the boy could appear so calm, "I'm Ianto. What's your name?"
"Steven. Is my mom here? Or Uncle Jack?"
Ianto's eyes widened, "Uncle Jack? Do you mean Jack Harkness?"
"Yes. Don't you know them?" Steven asked as he considered the man beside him for the first time, his mind still waking up.
"I know Jack. ... He's my boss. Were you expecting to see him?" Ianto responded as he realized who his companion was.
"He said everything would be okay. Are you going to take me to my mom?"
Unfortunately Ianto, who could usually come up with something to say, was speechless, possibly for the first time. After all, how do you tell any child, especially your lover's grandson who you're meeting for the first time, that they're dead and it might be because their 'uncle' had done it to somehow save the world.
End - Prologue
Author's Note: I haven't posted anything in ages, truthfully I've barely written anything since I started my current job almost 5 years ago. I actually wrote this about then, but hadn't typed it until now. I don't remember what I was planning for this and thought it might be interesting to try writing more of this from reviewer suggestions. So Ianto and Steven are dead, but in the black together, what do you think should happen next?