Bingo Fic: Stages Of Life – Part 1 - Beginnings

[bk_forever]

Okay, this is my first ever totally AU Torchwood story, so naturally I chose to write about something I know next to nothing about. Hopefully that won’t show too much.

Title: Beginnings

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Jack, Ianto, Andy, OFC Miss Barton

Rating: G

Word Count: 681

Summary: Jack is the new boy at a Cardiff school, where he meets another little boy…

Spoilers: Nada.

Warnings: Completely AU, set in a universe where Torchwood doesn’t exist.

Written For: My cottoncandy_bingo square First Meeting.

Beta: The wonderful zazajb, my advisor in all things school related. Thanks so much, your advice and assistance have been invaluable!

Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or any of the characters. Which is sad.

A/N: This is the first in a series of AU stories for different prompts on my bingo card, following Jack and Ianto through their school years and beyond. There are seven in total, of wildly varying lengths.

Miss Barton sighed and shook her head. The annual Nativity play was proving even more of a headache this year than it usually did, and all because of one small six-year-old American boy, who’d started at the school just a week ago after moving to Cardiff.

“No, Jack dear, you can’t be Mary. That’s a part for a little girl.”

Jack looked up at her with wide, innocent blue eyes.

“But why?”

“Because Mary was a lady, not a man. Look, how would you like to be an Angel, like Andy and Ianto? You get to wear a halo and wings, wouldn’t that be fun?” Miss Barton crossed her fingers behind her back. The last thing she wanted to deal with right now was a tantrum.

Jack considered the teacher’s suggestion, looking thoughtfully at the other two boys. One of them, dark haired and with eyes as blue as Jack’s, turned a rather nice shade of pink as Jack stared at him. Jack thought he was pretty. Making up his mind, he turned to Miss Barton and smiled.

“Okay.”

Relieved to have averted disaster, Miss Barton ushered Jack over to sit with the other two boys and started sorting out who would play the shepherds.

“Hi, I’m Jack,” Jack whispered to the blue-eyed boy beside him. “Are you in Miss Barton’s class?” The boy nodded, eyes fixed on the ground in front of him, ears glowing pink. “I’m in Mr Hodges’ class. What’s your name?”

“Ianto.”

“That’s a funny name.”

Ianto looked up, frowning.

“Is not! It’s Welsh.”

“Oh. Well, I’m from Chicago, that’s in America. We had to move here ‘cause my dad got a new job. I like it here.”

Ianto looked at him with wide eyes.

“Is America far away?”

“Uh huh! It’s almost on the other side of the world. We had to fly in a plane. I didn’t like that much, it was scary; the ground was so far away we were up in the clouds!”

Ianto looked impressed.

“I’ve never been on a plane. Don’t know if I’d want to if it’s scary though. What’s Chicago like?”

“Sort of like Cardiff, but the buildings are bigger, they go up for miles!”

“Wow!” said Ianto in an awed voice.

“I could tell you all about it. Maybe we could play together at lunch. You know, if you wanted to,” Jack said, chewing on his bottom lip, suddenly feeling a bit shy. He really wanted Ianto to like him. “We could practice being angels.”

Ianto turned pink again and it made Jack’s tummy feel funny, like he’d swallowed a butterfly and it was fluttering around inside him. It made him want to giggle.

“Yeah, okay,” Ianto whispered back, glancing sideways at him and smiling shyly.

Jack beamed at him, happy to have made a friend. He reached for Ianto’s hand and held it and the butterfly inside him fluttered even more when Ianto’s fingers curled around his own.

After that, they played together every break time and sat together at lunch, sharing each other’s sandwiches. Jack told Ianto all about what it was like to live in America, and in return, Ianto told him more about Wales. They practised hard at being angels and sometimes even let Andy practice with them, determined the three of them would be the best angels ever.

OoOoOoOoO

To Miss Barton’s relief, the Nativity play went beautifully. Well, mostly. The head fell off baby Jesus, one of the Wise Men fell off the stage when his crown slipped over his eyes and a fight broke out among the shepherds because they only had four sheep between the five of them and they all wanted to hold one. Miss Barton fixed that by giving one of the shepherds a teddy bear to hold. It looked a bit odd, but none of the parents seemed to mind. The three angels were perfect though, getting all their lines right and standing where they were supposed to. If two of the angels held hands the entire time, what did it matter? No one said anything about it.

TBC in ‘Part 2 - Getting Creative’

Comments

[iolo1234.livejournal.com]

Aww cute story beginning. I love Aus.
K
xx

[bk_forever]

*hugs* Thank you! This is my first venture and I'm wibbling about it a bit. It's not very detailed, because it was written for bingo prompts so it skips periods of time, but I'm hoping people will still give it a chance. Keep your fingers crossed! I still have to re-edit the fifth and seventh parts and I need to post Part 2 in a while. I have ten bingo fics still to post by July 1st!

[latteluvr.livejournal.com]

I love this. You have captured their personalities beautifully. Only seven chapters? This should be an epic series.

[bk_forever]

It was written for some of the prompts on my bingo card and I was short of time. even so, most of the chapters are longer than this and one is very long indeed, almost 8000 words, lol! I had a very specific story to tell, so it's not as detailed as most AUs.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it so far. Second part should be up tonight, I hope!

[awieatti.livejournal.com]

What a cute idea! I was smiling the whole time while reading it. And for some reason I imagined little Jack wearing a little coat xD

[bk_forever]

I've never given any thought to what he might have been wearing in this one, but that's such a cute image!

Thank you, glad you like it so far! Part 2 will hopefully be up in a while.

[milady-dragon.livejournal.com]

Oh my god..this is just so adorable! I can't wait to read more! I love stories about lil Jack and lil Ianto!

[bk_forever]

They are so cute when they're little, but they'll be growing up over the next few parts so make the most of their cuteness now!

Thank you!

[too-beauty.livejournal.com]

OMG!!!! this is sooooooooo cute, Would love to have a pic of those two little angels holding hands ......
Lovely!!!!

[bk_forever]

Thank you! They were the cutest of cute angels, but even little angels have to grow up! Next part going up soon!

[bluelilacs.livejournal.com]

Aww, how precious are these two little boys! It's sweet that they've become fast friends so soon after Jack had to relocate so far from home.

Leave it to Jack to rock the boat and want one of the only female roles in the play. And though I can so picture Andy and Ianto as angels, that mischievous little glint in Jack's eye has me having to squint a bit to squeeze him into those wings, and the halo keeps wanting to slip juuust a bit off kilter.

At the risk of giving you a Jack-sized ego boost, I did an honest to God fist pump when I saw you were doing an AU Janto Kid!fic. I love each genre separately, but all three together is my absolute favorite type of story ever! Fantastic start!

[bk_forever]

Well, at the risk of disappointing you, they won't be kids by the end. They grow up so fast! Just a minute ago they were 6 year olds, lol!

Jack is a cheeky one, but he was just pretending to be an angel, so he got away with it!

Thank you! =D

[tardisjournal.livejournal.com]

You are really stretching your creative wings with this bingo challenge, and it's paying off beautifully! This was so sweet. Little shy Ianto, blushing furiously, and bold little Jack are too cute for words. I loved the setting of the Christams play and LOL'd at all the mishaps that occurred--par for the course, I'd say. Also loved that the boys held hands all through it. I can't wait to see what happens next!

[bk_forever]

Thank you, I'm certainly trying some different things and it's been fun writing them, but I'm glad most of the writing is done. Next month I'll be catching up on betaing and reading while doing less writing, the bingo took control for a while. Next time I do one I'll pace myself better. Just pick a prompt and start writing instead of dithering trying tocome up with ideas. It'll be a while before I do another though, it has to be a fluffy bingo for me!

Glad you think this is working so far - I have no experience of kids, school plays or anything of the kind, lol! It's mostly guesswork and imagination so I hope it all works and seems believable! Part 2 is up and I'll have to try to get two more parts up tomorrow. I think this might be the shortest part.

Thank you!

[iantojjackh.livejournal.com]

My my my aren't they starting early. Lol.

This makes want to pick up my teenage AU again.

[bk_forever]

When you meet the right one, I guess you just know, lol!

I hope you do!

Thank you!

[angelsphonebox.livejournal.com]

awww! Little Jack and Ianto are so cute! It's adorable how they want to be perfect angels and yet I'm sure outside the nativity play they are anything but :) I love how Jack wants to be Mary! LOL!

[bk_forever]

Jack has dreams, lol! He is fated to be disappointed though, poor Jack.

I'm sure they're proper little boys when not being perfect angels!

Thank you, I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the story!

[timelordshines.livejournal.com]

Aww so cute.
You managed to write them childlike but still in character, which is quite an achievement. Well done. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing their love develop.
What a cute image of two of the angels holding hands on stage :-) Hope Andy wasn't jealous.

[bk_forever]

Andy strikes me as being a bit fatalistic, he probably just shrugged it off.

Thank you! I tried to keep them in character as much as possible, it was quite fun trying to work their characteristics in while still keeping them suitably childlike.