torchwoodteaboy | [RL WITH SULU]

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[RL WITH SULU]

The past few days had been exciting ones, and definitely not in the way that Ianto would have predicted them to be when he'd first set foot on the boat. They should have known that there would be something wrong with this, but how were they to know that Sulu saying that nothing could go wrong after what they'd accomplished on the first night would come back to quite literally haunt them, as it were? Because there really was no denying it anymore. There'd been enough talk about what else had going on in other people's cabins enough to know that it wasn't just their suite. The whole ship was buzzing about it, and though everyone was reporting different things happening, there was really no doubt about it. Regardless of whatever was causing it, the place was haunted.

Ianto'd tried ignoring it. He'd tried rationalizing it, and any other number of things to keep from admitting that what they had were ghosts on their hands. There was really just no denying it anymore. What had started out as objects moving every once and a while, and strange sounds in the night had turned a lot more active over the next few nights, the hot water switching itself off as Ianto was showering, their suitcases emptied out all over the suite while they slept. Ianto'd made sure that the door had been locked each time, and had even taken to sleeping with the key in his shorts pocket, but it wasn't any use. The door hadn't been opening to let anyone in--whatever was happening in the suite, it wasn't coming from the outside.

What had started out as them trying to make the best of their vacation had ended up with, well, at least Ianto being very wary of his surroundings, and of what could possibly go wrong with them. As much as he'd like to initiate something more with Sulu, the idea that they would be watched while they did was...more than a little bit of a turn-off. He hoped that Sulu understood, as it was.

Sulu, for his part, seemed to be taking this whole ghost thing pretty hard. Because paranormal things were sort of right up Ianto's alley, considering that he worked for Torchwood and all, he was trying his hardest to be a good Torchwood officer, keep a level head for the other man, and not freak out at anything that might have otherwise given him pause. Sulu hadn't admitted to being frightened of these ghosts, but. Ianto could tell that he was definitely a lot less comfortable with the thought of them being around than even Ianto himself was. It was almost nice, to be able to be there for Sulu like he had to be because of these hauntings. Almost.

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Sulu reached up and flushed the toilet, leaning back slowly so that he wouldn't slip and fall - or, more likely, black out from the vertigo and fall. He kept his eyes closed, barely opening them when he felt the glass being pressed into his hand, and then felt Ianto's hand against his head again. He did exactly what Ianto said, sipping at the water slowly. "Uugh."

He hated feeling covered in blood; he also hated being stuck in a towel, that he was concussed, that a ghost was terrorizing them on their damn vacation and that it had taken a weird liking to Ianto, one that Sulu did not appreciate. He wondered why he was focusing so much on that aspect, and why he was taking it so damned personally, but he decided that now probably wasn't the time to question himself.

"I'm - I'm sorry," he said after a few minutes, hoarse but not quite so slurred now. "I didn't mean..." To ruin what had been a relatively okay vacation? Yeah, right. "...I-If you hand me a towel, I can... I can clean myself up. We can... think of a way out of this."

"Oh, no," Ianto said, awkwardly. "Really. Really, don't be sorry. It's not your fault. None of this is your fault, and I certainly don't blame you for any of it." He looked around the bathroom again, as if searching for some sort of answer on what to do, but finding nothing, he turned back to Sulu. "Here," he said, moving to put the hand that wasn't pressed against Sulu's head on his shoulder, "let's. Sit back, the tub's right behind you, just lean back against that," he said, helping him to do exactly that. He wasn't sure if Sulu needed the help, as it was, but he felt better doing it.

"Alright, if... If you can hold this here by yourself for a few seconds," Ianto said, indicating the towel pressed to his temple, "I can get you another towel to clean up, alright? But you're going to have to press firmly. I... I really shouldn't have let go, earlier, we shouldn't ease up on the pressure if at all possible. But," Ianto said, continuing, trying to speak as directly as possible, going step-by-step, "if you can get cleaned up, I've got your suitcase in here. You... You could put some clothes on, and hopefully... We'll think of something. There has to be some way out of this room, alright? So, here," he said, moving Sulu's hand to the towel. "Hold this, and... And I'll get you that towel, alright?"

Sulu let Ianto help him - while he could have probably sat back on his own, he didn't want to take any chances. Raising his arm with a hiss as he stretched the bruising bite mark, he pressed the towel firmly against the side of his head. He knew that he needed to keep pressure, so that the wound wouldn't bleed so much and he wouldn't suffer anything more than a headache and a concussion.

As Ianto moved, Sulu found his eyes opening just enough to make him out - it was a good sign that everything was recognizable, if still a little blurry. He was reassured by it, and allowed himself to start formulating a plan. "I'll... Yeah, I could use some clothes, but then. We have to get out of the room," he said quietly, "Because it could come in here, and it clearly doesn't like me much." And, frankly, he didn't want to get clocked again.

Ianto grabbed a towel from the sink, and another hand towel, turning on the sink to soak the smaller towel in it. He paused as Sulu mentioned the fact that the ghost could come in the bathroom with them. Honestly, he was a little wary as to why it hadn't followed them in, but he wasn't going to question it. This was more than welcome, this moment of reprieve for them. He shook himself out of it, wringing out the towel slightly before bringing both of them over to Sulu. "Here," he said, laying the dry towel on the floor next to him and handing the wet one to Sulu's free hand. He moved to put his hand back on Sulu's temple, giving Sulu free range of his other hand back.

"...I'm not going to let it do anything else," Ianto said, quietly, but fiercely. "If I have any say in the matter, that thing isn't going to go anywhere near you again." The fact that Sulu was injured was bringing out a side of Ianto that rarely made an appearance outside of Torchwood business, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that, but there was very little he himself could do to stop it. "All... All we have to do is get the door open, somehow. I don't think it'll be able to follow us out, once we've gotten that unlocked."

Ianto's promise did wonders to help Sulu focus himself. He'd had people defend him before - it came with being part of a team, where you had to depend on others to help you in times of need - but with Ianto, it was different. It wasn't a camaraderie that made either of them protective of the other, but a more personal desire to protect what was, well. Theirs, so to speak.

Once he was more coherent, Sulu would probably be embarrassed that Ianto had gotten so fierce over his well-being, but for now, Sulu could only be grateful for it, using it to draw strength for himself. "I hope, uh. I hope it doesn't." He wasn't sure he could handle it if the thing followed them.

Slowly, Sulu took the wet towel, using his now free hand to try and wipe off his face a bit. He needed to clean off, get dressed and get them out. He could do that. He and a few ensigns had escaped the hostile planet full of space bears, after all...

"If we could distract it, maybe... or just, convince it to open the door? Could we do that?"

Ianto sighed, shifting his hand to get a better grip on the towel on Sulu's head. "I... I really don't know. I mean, it's not exactly listening to us. The only reactions we're getting out of it are probably based on emotion, and I'm not exactly sure how it would interpret us pleading with it, in all honesty. I mean, we could try, but. Somehow I think it's really beyond reasoning with."

He shifted to sit on the floor beside Sulu, instead of kneeling beside him and tried to think of other situations where he'd been trapped. How had he gotten out then? But that led to a dead end, because every time, someone had come and rescued him, and that someone was, more often than not, Jack, who really wasn't going to be of any help to them this time around.

"The problem is that the door isn't going to unlock. I could try picking it, but I don't really think that that'd do anything that the key hasn't done already. We'd almost have a better chance of just breaking the damned thing down than of actually getting it open," he said, frustratedly.

Sulu wiped the blood from his hairline, frowning to himself as Ianto spoke. All he could really think of was how horribly his head hurt and how much he took a team of ensigns for granted. They could use some backup right now. They could use an excorsism right now, actually - or a Ghostbuster. He wondered if Ianto had seen that movie; he had, for better or for worse, as part of a class on 21st century movies. Ah, electives.

Groaning a bit, Sulu forced himself to focus as best as possible as he could on the situation. He was fairly sure that his concussion was a lot worse than he'd originally thought, but for right now, he'd have to work through the haze and distraction.

"Break down the door?" he asked finally, frowning and moving to wipe off his chest, the blood smearing more than wiping away. "...Could do that," he said after a moment of contemplation, tilting his head in thought - careful, though, to tilt it towards Ianto's hand and the towel. "Plenty of heavy things in the room."

Ianto winced as he watched Sulu trying and failing to get the blood off. He wanted to help, but he wasn't sure how that would be taken. Ianto himself certainly didn't have get his pride hurt when he accepted help that he needed, but. Sulu was different, more like Jack than him on this sort of thing, and he didn't want to be stepping on any toes. He'd give him a bit more of a try, and then step in.

If there weren't a ghost outside their door, and the matter of being locked inside the room, Ianto might even have suggested another shower to help him clean all the blood off, but. Besides the ghost, there was the matter of Sulu's head, and just how bad things were there. He could tell that the other man was still disoriented, and the blood soaking into the towel was proof that they hadn't stopped that from happening yet. Was he going to need stitches? Well, hopefully not, because knowing this community, things would just be fixed when they reverted. Which had to be soon, right? They were running out of clothes, after all. Anyway, they probably didn't use stitches when Sulu lived, even so.

"...you mean actually try and break down the door?" Ianto asked, raising an eyebrow. "With what, the settee? That thing must weigh a ton. I really don't think I could maneuver it by myself, and you're certainly in no condition to be lifting sofas about, you know," he said softly. He hoped he didn't sound as worried about him as he felt, although he wasn't sure he could keep all of that out of his voice. Sulu did seem to be in a pretty bad way. Maybe it's just because Ianto had no sort of formal medical training that he was that concerned, but things didn't look very good from his standpoint, bleeding or concussion-wise.

Sulu was too distracted by the thought of getting away from the ghostly menace in the other room to notice just how poor a job he was doing with this whole blood thing. His mind was only able to focus on one thing, and at this point, Sulu couldn't care less if he was bloodstained and delirious; all he cared about was getting out of the room.

Ianto's comment stung a bit, even with the clear worry in his tone. He didn't want to be the one who was stuck being useless. He hated being useless. Everything could be solved with just the right, decisive action and when he was trapped he never, ever trusted anyone else to perform that action. It was his job - it had been his job with the ensigns, trapped on a hostile, inhospitable planet with monsters outside the door, it had been his job when defending Spock from Nero's ship, it had been, it had been -

Sulu heaved a sigh, suddenly aware that he was breathing a bit hard, and looked away from Ianto, eyes taking in the bright white tile despite the fact that it hurt to look at for too long. "...Just wish it would stay the hell away from you," he finally said, "I don't care what it throws at me, I just don't want it near you."

Ianto bit his lip, and with his free hand, took the other towel that he'd laid out and gently wiped at the blood that Sulu'd at least helped get wet so that it'd be easier to clean off. "I care what it throws at you," Ianto said quietly, "even if you don't. Another hit to the head, and you could have serious brain damage. I don't care whether this is a virus and that might not actually be the result, that everything might be miraculously fixed. I don't want to have to see that. I don't want to have to deal with you leaving me alone in a room with a ghost that's had a look into my memories and knows exactly which buttons to push to really mess with me because I really can't handle that right now so please, please, don't make things worse." Ianto realized he was rambling and starting to panic again, so he took a breath and shut his mouth tight, lowering his eyes to where he was working on cleaning the blood off of Sulu's neck and shoulder.

"Sorry," he said, after a moment of collecting himself, feeling the need to apologize. "It's just that... I see enough of people getting hurt and dying on my account with Jack, and I really don't want you to join him in that habit."

Sulu felt himself zone out somewhere in the middle of Ianto's rambling, unable to help himself despite the fact that he knew this was all important, that Ianto was saying something he wouldn't have said if Sulu hadn't been hurt. He just couldn't get himself to focus on anything other than fixing this, getting rid of the ghost and getting Ianto and him out of there, safe, like they'd been the first night when the thing had just been moving around away from them.

"I'm not going to get killed," Sulu said, determined, "I'm just - I'm going to fix this and take care of it so it doesn't touch you or call out to you when it's not supposed to." Sulu realized he sounded far too possessive, but he decided he was allowed. He knew Jack, and he knew Ianto, and they were all okay with this. No one was okay with the ghost. "I'm not going anywhere. It is."

Ianto couldn't take it. He couldn't take Sulu being this hurt, and being so nonchalant about it. A few inches down and over, and Sulu could've lost an eye. If it'd been thrown with any more force, than Sulu could be unconscious, he could have internal bleeding. Any more abuse, and without a question, bad things would happen. And Ianto wasn't about to just let something like that happen.

He threw the towel that he was using to wipe the blood off down on the floor, having enough in him to still keep his hand on the towel on Sulu's head, before he let all of his worrying and panicking about the situation and anger that Sulu really had no idea what they were up against out all at once.

"For fuck's sake," Ianto burst out, his voice suddenly very loud and very angry, "I don't care if the ghost starts hitting on me again, I really don't, so long as you stay out of its way! You are not Jack and you will die if that thing hits you that hard again! You will die and you will not come back from it, so you'd better not even think of doing anything stupid to make that ghost angry at you, Hikaru Sulu, or so help me god...!!" He cut himself off, breathing hard, bringing a very shaky hand up to his face to keep himself from crying or screaming or who knows what else.

There was no way for Sulu to have prepared for Ianto's shouting - Ianto was the one who never raised his voice, who might get cutting and irritated but never loud and never truly angry, and definitely not at Sulu. He fell silent at Ianto's words, focused on them because it was hard not to, and Ianto was right - Sulu wasn't Jack (and some part of him hurt to hear that, but he knew Ianto didn't mean it that way, so he let it go), and this wasn't something that could be solved by him getting beat up and then patched together in the medbay with a few sedatives and some time with a dermal repairer.

Sulu paused for a long moment, trying to figure out what he was going to do, and then reached up his hand, covering the one Ianto had against the wound on his head. He still didn't look at Ianto, even though his head was ringing from the yelling and his eyes were still stinging from the bright lighting and the last thing he needed to do was stare at reflective white tile.

"...I don't think I've ever heard you call me by my full name before."

Edited 2010-10-12 05:44 (UTC)

Ianto let out a sound that was somewhere in between a laugh and a sob at Sulu's words. Sulu's hand on his was helping a lot in calming him down and grounding him, but what he wanted to do was just magically make things better, make Sulu better and have them out of there, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, so Ianto didn't delude himself.

"...just because I don't use it doesn't mean that I don't know what it is," Ianto said quietly, trying to pull himself together again. He wondered if it was odd that, even though they were dating each other and sleeping together now, Ianto was still calling the other man by his surname, but. He couldn't really see that changing, unless Sulu asked him to.

"Look, I..." He reached out with his free hand, and put it on Sulu's cheek, opposite the side he was holding the towel to. He didn't know whether forcing him to move his head was a good idea, for while Ianto wanted him to see that he was serious, he also didn't want to nauseate him again, so instead he just rested it there. "I'm sorry. That... That was out of line. But I'm not going to take it back. I mean it. We're going to have to think of a way out of here that doesn't involve you going head-to-head with that ghost again, because...I don't want anything worse to happen to you. Especially not when it could be avoided. Alright?"

The hand on Sulu's cheek made him turn his head, finally, slowly, making sure not to disrupt the pressure they had on the wound or nauseate him again. He was able to see the look on Ianto's face for the first time since he'd been hit upside the head and... and that's what made him nauseated, more than any vertigo or motion sickness, because Ianto was just as freaked out as he was, and he didn't get the mind-numbing concussion to block it out.

"No," he said quietly, "It... wasn't out of line. I'm not - I can't do much like this." That admission made him want to punch something, but he refrained for the sake of not busting his hand open on the tiles. "I'm just. I can't think of anything else, anything that doesn't involve something heavy being thrown at that door." It was the only thing that made sense, really. But Sulu knew that Ianto wasn't going to have it, and if he was honest with himself, really honest, he wasn't either. He couldn't stand straight right now. They needed to think - something both of them were very good at, he figured. Not him, so much, because all he could think about was that he could die, and that meant Jack would be better served in this position, and hell, he would be anyways since he knew how to handle things like this, and Sulu -

"What else can we do?" he asked, determined, because he wasn't going to let that train of thought get very far.

Ianto looked at Sulu and sighed. At least he had the other man's attention now, but it also meant that he could see just how out of it he was, just how much his head must've been killing him in that moment, and even more, beyond all of that, beyond the look of determination, there was something almost... But no. Ianto really couldn't define that part. He stroked his hand on Sulu's cheek for a second, apologetically, because he really hadn't meant to yell or swear at the other man, it'd just happened, before he picked up the towel again and started methodically working on at least getting most of the blood off of the other man. That way, they could get him dressed, and they could get out of there.

How, though? What else could they do? He thought about it as he worked, his brow furrowed in serious thought. He really couldn't see himself ramming a sofa into the door enough to break it down, and Sulu, despite all of his good intentions, wouldn't be able to help out in that either, so. That was down. And they couldn't get it unlocked. And they wouldn't convince the ghost to unlock it. But maybe...

"What..." he said, after a moment's thought. "What if we somehow get the ghost to break the door down? We... We know it's capable of throwing things around. What... What if we got it to do the heavy lifting for us?" The only question that followed was, well. How the hell were they going to manage that?

Sulu took the silence between them as a chance to, well, reboot himself in a way. He let everything go - the situation, the ghost, the plans they had to make, the safety they had to escape to, Ianto's anger and worry and his own fear - and let himself drift in a numbing haze of pain. Okay. Everything hurt, but at least Ianto was nearby; at least Ianto was taking care of him. He needed to just... work this out in his head.

He heard Ianto speak and then parsed what he'd said. The ghost could do all the work, and it would, unknowingly, because they'd make it. How? How could they make it? It was already pissed off. It was probably sulking, like a kid in the throes of a tantrum. Okay.

He knew Ianto wouldn't like what he was going to say, but he allowed himself a moment to think it through before suggesting, quietly, "Well, we know it doesn't like me. My reaction time might be down a bit but - I'm really good at... you know. Making ghosts want to hurl furniture at me."

Ianto let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob, wanting to put his head in his hands but not having either hand free so settling on putting his chin to his chest, stilling the hand that was trying to work on getting Sulu cleaner. He really didn't like it, he didn't want that to be what it came to, but... What other choice did they have? They knew it was angry at Sulu, they knew it wasn't afraid to throw things, and so long as he upset it enough, they knew that this was going to work. The only problem was there wasn't any guarantee that it would throw any hard big enough on the first try, and well. There was the fact that it would be throwing something at Sulu, which he really wasn't comfortable with at all.

"...I don't like it," Ianto said quietly. "I really don't. I... I just don't see how there's any other way." He bit his lip, looking up at Sulu. "Are you really sure that you can handle something like that? I mean. I'll be there to help you out, but. It's not me that it'll be tossing things at, and I want you to tell me honestly whether you'll be alright with that or not. Because if not, we will find something else. This isn't the only option." He hoped not, at least. He just really couldn't think of anything else.

"I..." Could he handle it? He wasn't necessarily immobilized, but he needed to be on top of things, he needed to be able to see what was being thrown and see where to move. He'd have to get it throwing things at him quick, so as he moved towards the door, it would run out of smaller things and need to throw the heavier things, like the sofa. And then - what if it threw something, but all it did was bar the door?

"...I can do it," he said after a moment. "But we need to think it through. I. Uh, we need to figure out... how to get it to throw things." He bit his lip, "It could just decide to bite me again. Could decide to... I don't know. Possess me or something." Could it possess someone? Ugh. The idea was repulsive.

Shit. Possession? Ianto hadn't even thought of that. He'd never encountered a ghost or anything that had been capable of possessing someone, he didn't think, but then again, he didn't think he'd ever encountered a ghost that could touch people like it was a solid thing, and this one had done exactly that, so. God, who even knew what this thing was capable of...?

"It won't possess you," Ianto said, moving his hand again to start cleaning more blood away. Even if it could, Ianto wasn't about to let it do anything like that. He'd done enough freaking out in front of Sulu, it was time to be strong for him again. "First thing's first, we get you dressed. Then..."

He thought about it. "Well. What did you do to make it throw things at you rather than bite you? Can you remember?" Ianto's mind was a blur about exactly what had been going on in that moment. He was pretty sure that there was some sort of tussle with the ghost, but. Was it really only the raising his voice to Ianto that had set the ghost off at Sulu?

"I know it won't, but. If it can." Then yeah, it probably would. Sulu closed his eyes. This was going to be a real test of his patience and ability to work under pressure. He wasn't sure he was ready for it - but he didn't have a choice.

He nodded his head, just a fraction, at the idea of getting clothes on. Any other time, sure, he wouldn't mind being all but naked with Ianto, but right now it was pretty much the opposite of what he wanted or needed. They'd get him some pants at the very least, and then they'd... well, no. Then he would go out there and piss the poltergeist off.

"I... yelled at you," he said, trying to remember through the fog. "I think... yelling at it got it to throw things too. And trying to push it away, even though I can't..." He realized he was still holding Ianto's hand over his wound, but didn't let go. "I don't think I can yell at you again."

Ianto bit his lip at Sulu's words. "That's alright, I'm not going to force you to do anything of the sort," he said. It's just that... What other option was there?

Ianto took the wet cloth from Sulu's other hand, and spent a minute or two just working on getting him cleaned up a little, using the time to think. The only times the ghost had done something violent, along the lines of what they needed it to do, had been when it Sulu'd raised his voice, either to it, or to Ianto himself.

Ianto put down the towel, deeming the blood to be as cleaned up as he could get it, and sighed. "We just... We need to figure out a way to get it riled up enough to do something like what we need it to. Need to come up with some way of upsetting it. And really, the only time it did anything like that was out of some sort of perverse desire to protect me from you. How...? How else could we get it that angry, either than you yelling at me?" If yelling was out, taking a swing at him was probably a definite no as well. What other ways were there to make something that was sort of obsessive over him angry? ...unless.

"It's not like..." Sulu groaned a bit and pressed harder on their hands over his wound. Everything else was starting to come into focus, his sight and hearing, but that just made it impossible to ignore the painful throbbing. He needed a sedative and a nap in the medbay, that was for sure. It was also for sure that he wasn't going to get that, so he just sighed and continued on. "If it really worked, I... could yell at you, I guess, but. It'd be fake. I'm not angry at you. I've never been angry at you." Which wasn't strictly true, but it wasn't a lie either. "I'm too fuzzy to be really angry at anything right now, even it."

He laughed, weakly, but still attempting to try and keep them both from sinking into more despair and fear than they already had. "And I'm too zen to stay mad for long, even if we tried to rile me up. It's a curse."

Ianto bit his lip at Sulu's groan. He wanted to give him something, do something, anything to make Sulu feel even the littlest bit better at that moment. What's more is that he was going to have to ask the man to get up and help him upset a ghost enough to break them out of there. He recognized Sulu's attempts to keep the mood up, and appreciated them too, but. Really, he wouldn't be happy until the two of them were safely out of there and he'd gotten Sulu to some sort of medical attention.

It seemed like it'd been enough time for the bleeding to stop, on Sulu's head, but Ianto wasn't going to move and take any chances quite just yet, keeping his hand firmly pressed there underneath Sulu's own. "...do you think that you might be able to insult it, though? Like. If we were to do something to upset it, do you think you'd be able to say something that would really piss it off?" he asked, cocking his head at Sulu. They kind of really needed a plan, and that was as good as Ianto had, at that moment.

Sulu didn't have to give that a second thought; he laughed and nodded, again just letting his head tilt slightly. "Yeah," he grinned, though it looked a little wrong considering how unsteady he was, "I think I can insult it. I think I would love to insult it. I hate it and it needs to leave us alone." Sulu had no problem with the idea of insulting it. He wanted nothing more than to show it that he was in command. He was terrified of the idea of it possessing him, or managing to kill him, or hurting Ianto, but he was more determined to get them out before anything like that could happen to focus on his fear.

"I have no problem with any of that."

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