Written for a tumblr prompt!
"Ianto?" Gwen's voice echoed in the dark room and she shivered. She couldn't move; she didn't try to fight the restraints that held her in place. "Ianto?"
A shuffle. Her breath hitched and heart pounded. She didn't know where she was, what could possibly be near her. She swallowed. "Ianto?"
Another shuffle. A grunt. A familiar grunt. "I'm here."
Gwen sagged against her bounds. "Ianto."
"Are you alright?" The hitch in Ianto's voice made Gwen wince: he certainly wasn't.
She nodded, waited a moment, realized he couldn't see her. "I think so. You?"
"Tied up. A chair, I think. It's bolted down."
Not an answer. Practical, though. Gwen nodded. "Me too. Any way out?"
"Not that—" Ianto hissed and cut himself off. Took a breath and continued. "Not that I can see. Yet. You?"
"No."
It was just Ianto's voice. Close and yet far—Gwen imagined that she could feel his closeness, his warmth. He was right across from her. But she couldn't see him, could only guess at their surroundings. It was cold: she imagined a cellar or cave or cell; cold seeping up through her clothes, unsupportive and unyielding against her.
Someone had gotten the jump on them. She didn't know who. She would find out. She closed her eyes—stupid, sitting with them open in such darkness—and listened. Ianto was better at this.
"Nothing," his voice cut through the silence. "I'm chained down. Alien-made, some sort of metal, it's all fused, there's nowhere to break at it. I can't even see—if—are you, too?"
"Yeah." Not quite chains, not really rope. It felt like metal, but not like any she knew. Admittedly, Gwen didn't know many metals. Across from her, Ianto shifted again, started to say something. He cut off. Gwen raised her head, thoughts of reconnaissance forgotten. "Ianto?"
"We'll know more when they come get us." His voice was tense.
When was the last time he'd been held like this? Gwen didn't want to know. She listened for more movement but nothing came. "Ianto?"
"I'm here." He didn't say fine.
But he was here. Right in front of her. Gwen relaxed and let her body become one with their prison, to seek Ianto out.
Gwen took a sharp breath in when her knee made contact with something warm. There he was.
"Ianto?" she asked for good measure.
A sound, the shifting of fabric—a nod. "Gwen."
They pressed their knees together, a grounding in the dark. Ianto's breathing, hard through his nose, quieted. Gwen bit her lip. Other than the comfort of Ianto's presence, she'd learned nothing about their prison.
"We'll be fine."
"Yeah."
Jack would save them. More likely, they'd save themselves once their captors made themselves known. But for now, it was just them and the darkness.
Spoiler: they're fine at the end.