Archive of Our Own

Trouble Magnet

It started with a four-leaf clover, left on his desk in the tourist office. He wouldn't have given it a second thought, assuming it had blown in from outside...but it hadn't stopped there.

A rabbit's foot somehow found its way into his coat pocket later that week. He wondered if it was Jack's idea of caring, but discarded that idea when they kept coming.

The box of Lucky Charms that appeared next to the coffeemaker in the Hub was a bit ridiculous. At first, he suspected Owen, but the American cereal didn't come cheap in the UK, and he couldn't see their medic spending that much on a gag. He ate the marshmallows and fed the rest to the Weevils.

The small Maneki Neko cat statue waiting for him in the archives one day made him wonder about Tosh, but he quickly discarded that idea. She wasn't the practical joke type. It was pretty, so he left it where it was, waving at him as he did the filing.

The acorns scattered in the front seat of his car were just annoying, especially when he nearly slipped and fell as one of them followed him out onto the pavement and he stepped on it. It might have been the type of ill-conceived prank someone like Gwen would try, but she wouldn't have been able to keep the clueless nonchalant act for long.

He didn't even notice the upside-down horseshoe that was nailed above his door right away, so there was no telling when it had been done. The dreamcatcher was pretty and looked handmade, so he hung in his bedroom. Jack never even noticed, or if he did, he never commented on it.

It was an interesting puzzle to ponder as he went about his duties. The good luck charms kept coming, and no one ever so much as cracked a suspicious grin. No prankster would continue for so long with no payoff, and it made him wonder if it wasn't a joke at all.

Obviously, someone thought he was a trouble magnet and needed all the help he could get. While he could see their point, he rather imagined himself quite lucky, considering all the things he'd survived in his life, especially since joining Torchwood. He should have been dead several times already.

In his darker moments, he knew, one day, that luck would run out.

A few months later, Ianto stood outside of Thames House, staring up at the imposing building and thinking, I could have been inside when the poison was released... He shivered with the sensation of someone walking over his grave.

Clutching the rabbit's foot in his pocket tighter, he took a deep breath and headed inside to join a soon-to-revive Jack. They had work to do.

Remembering all the lucky charms he'd been anonymously gifted, Ianto had to concede that his benefactor was right.

The end

1/27/20