The highschool AU (Jack + Ianto / Janto AU)

6 - That wasn't it

To cut a long story short, I'm not dead... <3
WARNING: This chapter includes bullying (which will tend to get worse during chapters after this one) - no mention of blood but still includes some physical and verbal abuse. This hurt me just writing it so if you feel like this will hurt to read then please don't read this!
~ Rhys <3

Ianto smiled at his phone. Jack was going to be okay.

Well, at least Jack was going to be okay.

Ianto walked into school. The iron gate penetrated, twisted and strangled the air. Sharp knives slashed at the pale sky. Splashes of blue, grey and blood red appeared, filling the once blank canvas with colour.

Blood red bricks clung together to create the damaged building that Ianto called school; cement was smeared thinly between the bricks that suffocated them. Footprints would have been left behind if they weren't swallowed up by the ragged turf that surrounded them, almost like the footprints never wanted their owner to be found.

Once safely inside, Ianto walked along the winding corridor until he reached his locker. Examining his mind for what lessons he had today, he absentmindedly reached into his locker and retrieved the books he needed for his first 2 periods of the day: Maths and English were his culprits.

He carried his books with pride. In one graceful movement, his locker was closed.

That's when it dawned on him. He would have an exam today. A Maths exam. A stressful Maths exam and Jack wouldn't be there to calm him down.

Just as he was starting to worry, a hand made itself onto his shoulder. He felt himself become cornered between the locker and the person infront of him. A punch landed itself on his arm as he felt his heart rate rapidly increase.

Shaky breaths mixed with the sudden poisonous air to create a suffocating force field around Ianto. The air scraped against his throat as he felt like he couldn't breathe. Memories of when he used to get badly bullied at the start of the year filled his head. The thoughts swirled, circulated and warped his mind.

Lucky for him, it was only his friend Bella's playful punches and those viscous thoughts - that still haunted him - subsided. Footsteps appeared behind Bella and soon enough Mae found herself appearing behind her friend's shoulder. A smile placed itself on her face as she was happy to be around her two best friends.

Ianto checked his phone for the time. It opened to the text messages between him and Jack and the pain of Jack not being in school reserviced.

A wave of anxiety weighed down onto Ianto as he realised they would all be late to class if they didn't start moving soon. Well, it was better worrying about that than how his best friend was doing whilst he was in school, being so selfish to not even check up on Jack. Yet, even that wasn't enough to rid Ianto of the pain Jack's absence had left in his heart.

As he said "goodbye" dolefully to his friends, he walked away from his locker and - most importantly - he walked away from his friends. He knew he would see them again, of course he did, he just couldn't hide his sad demeanor. 'If Jack could see me, he would defintly make fun of me for how pathetic I'm acting right now' Ianto thought before the emptiness in his heart returned as he began to miss Jack's playful presence.

Fortunately, that emptiness didn't last long but the pain lasted longer as he got punched in the arm (yes, again).

He turned around euthanstically as he smiled in the direction of his friend, Bella. Well, that was until he forcefully got that smile twisted off his face with one swift movement to his chest.

He grabbed his chest in physical pain and psychological discomfort, scared that if he looked up he would get brutally punched repeatedly until his teeth fell out and he couldn't talk no more. That's until he locked eyes with the enemy; Bruce Bruiser.

Memories slashed, clawed and mutilated his heart. Sharp knives stabbed Ianto repeatedly in the heart. The ache of his heart would be unbearable if an overwhelming feeling of pain wasn't already radiating through his chest as it clouded Ianto's thought process until it left him vulnerable, impotent and forlorn.

Thoughts cut wounds deeper than any sharpened knife could ever impale. Whirling, circling and twisting thoughts reminded Ianto of the agonizing, haunting and burning words of Bruce's transphobia coated with his blinding ignorance - from someone that could only be described as a bully - that would pierce Ianto from multiple directions at the beginning of the school year.

But why would Ianto care about the pain he was in? He only had to deal with this every day with the amount of dysphoria that consumed him every second of every minute of every day.

Wounded but unafraid, Ianto decided to retaliate as he decided to push back before being barged into the locker behind him. "Aw, are you and Jack boyfriends now?" Bruce stated, trying desperately to wind Ianto up. Yet, Ianto remained silent.

To him, it was like some kind of game. To Ianto, it was a matter of survival.

I mean, they were close but them as boyfriends? That wasn't it.