galadriel1010 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
galadriel1010) wrote2010-10-11 10:49 am
galadriel1010) wrote2010-10-11 10:49 am
Entry tags:
Seize the Day: The Plot Thickens
Title: Seize the Day (3/5)
Chapter Title: The Plot Thickens
Challenge/Fest: Schmoop_Bingo
Prompt: Fair/Carnival
Rating: G
Dedication: For my best friend Ruth, who is great fun, an absolute sweetheart and made of utter awesome.
Summary: In a life that doesn't offer the chance for well planned out dates, Jack and Ianto start to seize their chances where they find them.
Contains: Fluff, suntan lotion, discussion of real estate investments, spontaneous dates and one not-so-spontaneous one, fireworks and love.
Ianto was having a quiet day in the TI Office, making the most of the fact that the boardwalk was closed for repairs after the summer to keep it closed without feeling guilty. He'd opened it a few times over the summer; not as often as he would have liked, but enough to give him a break from aliens and weirdness and to pretend, for a while, that Cardiff was normal. It hadn't lasted long, but it had been nice while it had.
He laughed to himself and set aside his report to remove the rack of out-of-date fliers that were annoying him. There were a few for the folk proms concert that he'd dragged Jack to a couple of weeks before, and a selection for the musical tours that had come through in the last six months. Whilst he cleared those out, however, a more recent one caught his eye, and he flicked it against his finger thoughtfully. “Do we have any sparklers?” he wondered aloud.
That evening, he went to Jack's office before anyone had really thought about heading home and lounged in the doorway. Jack was bent over a map of the events for the night, probably noting the areas of greatest concern or something similarly practical. Ianto didn't know, and didn't really care right that moment, either. His patience was wearing thin by the time Jack looked up at him, with his hair flopping into his eyes and a half-smile curling his lips. “Hey you. You got something for me?”
Ianto nodded and took Jack's coat down from its place on the stand, holding it out for Jack to put on. “Come with me?”
“Come with you?” Jack smiled, looking more confused than Ianto thought was called for, but stood up and turned to let Ianto slide the coat onto his shoulders and pull it straight. “I think that's a line for much later in the proceedings. Let me...” he reached past Ianto to collect Ianto's thick woollen coat, and indicated that Ianto should turn so that Jack could reciprocate the gesture. “Where are we going?”
“Remember remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and...” Ianto looked up at Jack through his lashes. “Plot.”
“So you're either taking me to watch fireworks, or someone's showing V for Vendetta,” Jack mused, putting his gun in its drawer. “Will I need gloves?”
“Yep. It's cold out.”
“It's October,” Jack pointed out. He collected his gloves from the drawer and passed Ianto to tell the team, “Ianto and I are knocking up. Power down and lock up on your way out.”
“I really hope you meant 'knocking off', Jack,” Tosh said, voice laced with fond amusement. “Have a nice night.”
“Well, maybe a bit of both, Toshiko,” Jack grinned at her and finished pulling his gloves on. “No one is off radar tonight, okay? Be ready, just in case. There's a lot of people on the streets and a lot of distractions.”
“Does that mean we're not allowed to drink?” Owen checked. “Great.”
“It's the same every year, Owen,” Ianto pointed out, joining Jack on the lift and letting Jack plant hands on his waist to steady them both once he'd activated the lift. “See you all tomorrow.”
Ianto led Jack through the packed crowds towards the smell of burgers and sausages and pulled him into the queue. “Burger?” he offered.
“What, here?” Jack leered at him and lifted one of his hands to his lips. To Jack, the leather gloves were just an opportunity to seek out the tiny sliver of skin between the glove and Ianto's sleeve, right over his pulse, and press feather-light kisses to it.
“You and your anachronistic and vulgar terms for sex,” Ianto mused affectionately. “Would you like a burger?”
“I would love a burger. Can I have onions with it, please?” He actually batted his lashes and Ianto responded by leaning in to kiss him. “Well... that wasn't onions, but I'm really not complaining.”
Ianto laughed and leaned closer so that he could wrap one arm around Jack's waist, under his coat for more warmth. “Yes, you can have onions. I think I want a hot dog. No, Jack...” he gave Jack's leer a withering glare. “There's children around.”
“I was merely going to suggest getting a puppy,” he protested, too quickly. “Don't you think we should get a puppy?”
“No.”
“Oh,” he sighed and brushed his lips against Ianto's cheek whilst he thought. “We could get a cat?”
Ianto thought about it. Cats looked after themselves, more or less; didn't need walking, just cuddling and feeding. And Jack had had a cat in the past at the Hub, after all. “I'll think about it.”
“Sap.”
“Your idea,” he pointed out. They moved forwards again and he was finally at the front of the queue. “Hi. Can I get a quarter pounder with onions, and a hot dog with onions.”
“Sure thing; either of you want cheese?” the woman asked.
They both shook their heads and stepped aside to wait. A couple of minutes later they were walking away, hands and stomachs warming from the food. “I should have got drinks,” he realised, looking around for another stall. “I'm thirsty now.”
“It's not like we're short of options,” Jack pointed out. His burger was proving more problematic than Ianto's hot dog, and the onions were trying to escape over his fingers. “I should have taken my gloves off for this.”
“They'll live.” Ianto ate his hot dog neatly and watched Jack, trying not to laugh at his consternation. “You're so messy.”
“I can't help it! They're ganging up on me,” he grinned at Ianto and took another big bite of his burger. “Good burgers though.”
“Let me try?” Ianto smiled when Jack relented and held the burger out for him to take a bite. He had to agree, it was an excellent burger. “The food festival comes back to the Plass in a couple of weeks,” he offered his hot dog to Jack absently. “I should take the opportunity to get us some decent sausages and burgers.”
“I like that idea,” Jack smiled at him and, finishing his burger, reached out to take Ianto's free hand in his own. “Bavarian smoked sausage and chorizo... we should do a raclette one night.”
“Yeah, we should,” Ianto agreed. “You can do the potatoes, though.”
“Don't I always?” Jack laughed. “You'd just burn them.”
“Would not.”
“Did too.”
“Stop it,” Ianto pouted at him and Jack kissed him obligingly. “That's more like it.”
They wandered around the fair for a while longer, buying toffee apples and bonfire toffee, and paper cups of warm apple and cinnamon. Jack went to a pick and mix van and spent twenty pounds on several kilos of sweets, putting most of them in a bag to go back to the Hub with them, but kept out the bag of honeycomb. On a church bric-a-brac stall, Ianto bought a collectable Barbie for his sister, and Jack bought a Hyvenic water cooler that had been mistaken for a child's toy for 50p.
As it drew towards time to watch the fireworks, they drifted away from the stalls with fresh cups of apple and cinnamon and a bag of doughnuts, heading for the edge of the field where they would have a better view of the fireworks going off above them. Ianto found them a spot by a leafless tree and set his bags down at the foot of it, then patted the ground and sat down gingerly. “I've been dryer,” he told Jack thoughtfully, holding his hand out for Jack's. “But I've also been wetter. Coming?”
Jack smiled down at him and put his purchases in the neat pile with Ianto's, then sat carefully and pulled a face as he lay back on the damp grass. “My coat's going to get muddy.”
“It's had much worse mud,” Ianto pointed out. He shifted around until he could lie back level with Jack and did so, reaching over to take Jack's hand and lace their fingers together loosely. “I enjoyed tonight.”
“So did I.” Jack turned to smile at him and squeezed his fingers. “I think we may have eaten too much sugar, though.”
“You're going to be up all night, aren't you?” Ianto sighed and turned his gaze back to the sky. Closer to the bonfire, the countdown was starting. “I guess we'll have to burn off some of your energy somehow.”
“Oh yeah?” Jack was smirking.
“Yeah. You can walk home.” The first firework shot into the air above them with perfect timing and exploded in a glittering cloud of gold and red, artificial stars drifting to Earth. High above the pumping music, and the throng of people and stalls and drifting smoke, the sky was lit up in greens, reds, yellows and blues, every shade imaginable crackling, sparkling and drifting against nature's glittering backdrop. He licked his lips and turned his head to the side to consider Jack's profile. “Looking out at a city, at the streetlights... it's like bringing the stars closer, isn't it? Every point of light is a hub of life in the darkness.”
“That's why I love rooftops,” Jack turned his head to meet Ianto's gaze, eyes serious and thoughtful. “I'm halfway between, stars above and city below. Both seem close enough to touch... but they never are, not really.”
“You don't go to the roof any more,” Ianto said softly, searching Jack's face for a clue. “Why?”
Jack smiled, eyes drifting away slightly. “Would you laugh if I told you that I found my candle in the window?”
Ianto thought about this and turned his gaze back to the sky. “No. I'm just glad you saw it, out of all the others.”
Next chapter
Chapter Title: The Plot Thickens
Challenge/Fest: Schmoop_Bingo
Prompt: Fair/Carnival
Rating: G
Dedication: For my best friend Ruth, who is great fun, an absolute sweetheart and made of utter awesome.
Summary: In a life that doesn't offer the chance for well planned out dates, Jack and Ianto start to seize their chances where they find them.
Contains: Fluff, suntan lotion, discussion of real estate investments, spontaneous dates and one not-so-spontaneous one, fireworks and love.
Ianto was having a quiet day in the TI Office, making the most of the fact that the boardwalk was closed for repairs after the summer to keep it closed without feeling guilty. He'd opened it a few times over the summer; not as often as he would have liked, but enough to give him a break from aliens and weirdness and to pretend, for a while, that Cardiff was normal. It hadn't lasted long, but it had been nice while it had.
He laughed to himself and set aside his report to remove the rack of out-of-date fliers that were annoying him. There were a few for the folk proms concert that he'd dragged Jack to a couple of weeks before, and a selection for the musical tours that had come through in the last six months. Whilst he cleared those out, however, a more recent one caught his eye, and he flicked it against his finger thoughtfully. “Do we have any sparklers?” he wondered aloud.
That evening, he went to Jack's office before anyone had really thought about heading home and lounged in the doorway. Jack was bent over a map of the events for the night, probably noting the areas of greatest concern or something similarly practical. Ianto didn't know, and didn't really care right that moment, either. His patience was wearing thin by the time Jack looked up at him, with his hair flopping into his eyes and a half-smile curling his lips. “Hey you. You got something for me?”
Ianto nodded and took Jack's coat down from its place on the stand, holding it out for Jack to put on. “Come with me?”
“Come with you?” Jack smiled, looking more confused than Ianto thought was called for, but stood up and turned to let Ianto slide the coat onto his shoulders and pull it straight. “I think that's a line for much later in the proceedings. Let me...” he reached past Ianto to collect Ianto's thick woollen coat, and indicated that Ianto should turn so that Jack could reciprocate the gesture. “Where are we going?”
“Remember remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and...” Ianto looked up at Jack through his lashes. “Plot.”
“So you're either taking me to watch fireworks, or someone's showing V for Vendetta,” Jack mused, putting his gun in its drawer. “Will I need gloves?”
“Yep. It's cold out.”
“It's October,” Jack pointed out. He collected his gloves from the drawer and passed Ianto to tell the team, “Ianto and I are knocking up. Power down and lock up on your way out.”
“I really hope you meant 'knocking off', Jack,” Tosh said, voice laced with fond amusement. “Have a nice night.”
“Well, maybe a bit of both, Toshiko,” Jack grinned at her and finished pulling his gloves on. “No one is off radar tonight, okay? Be ready, just in case. There's a lot of people on the streets and a lot of distractions.”
“Does that mean we're not allowed to drink?” Owen checked. “Great.”
“It's the same every year, Owen,” Ianto pointed out, joining Jack on the lift and letting Jack plant hands on his waist to steady them both once he'd activated the lift. “See you all tomorrow.”
Ianto led Jack through the packed crowds towards the smell of burgers and sausages and pulled him into the queue. “Burger?” he offered.
“What, here?” Jack leered at him and lifted one of his hands to his lips. To Jack, the leather gloves were just an opportunity to seek out the tiny sliver of skin between the glove and Ianto's sleeve, right over his pulse, and press feather-light kisses to it.
“You and your anachronistic and vulgar terms for sex,” Ianto mused affectionately. “Would you like a burger?”
“I would love a burger. Can I have onions with it, please?” He actually batted his lashes and Ianto responded by leaning in to kiss him. “Well... that wasn't onions, but I'm really not complaining.”
Ianto laughed and leaned closer so that he could wrap one arm around Jack's waist, under his coat for more warmth. “Yes, you can have onions. I think I want a hot dog. No, Jack...” he gave Jack's leer a withering glare. “There's children around.”
“I was merely going to suggest getting a puppy,” he protested, too quickly. “Don't you think we should get a puppy?”
“No.”
“Oh,” he sighed and brushed his lips against Ianto's cheek whilst he thought. “We could get a cat?”
Ianto thought about it. Cats looked after themselves, more or less; didn't need walking, just cuddling and feeding. And Jack had had a cat in the past at the Hub, after all. “I'll think about it.”
“Sap.”
“Your idea,” he pointed out. They moved forwards again and he was finally at the front of the queue. “Hi. Can I get a quarter pounder with onions, and a hot dog with onions.”
“Sure thing; either of you want cheese?” the woman asked.
They both shook their heads and stepped aside to wait. A couple of minutes later they were walking away, hands and stomachs warming from the food. “I should have got drinks,” he realised, looking around for another stall. “I'm thirsty now.”
“It's not like we're short of options,” Jack pointed out. His burger was proving more problematic than Ianto's hot dog, and the onions were trying to escape over his fingers. “I should have taken my gloves off for this.”
“They'll live.” Ianto ate his hot dog neatly and watched Jack, trying not to laugh at his consternation. “You're so messy.”
“I can't help it! They're ganging up on me,” he grinned at Ianto and took another big bite of his burger. “Good burgers though.”
“Let me try?” Ianto smiled when Jack relented and held the burger out for him to take a bite. He had to agree, it was an excellent burger. “The food festival comes back to the Plass in a couple of weeks,” he offered his hot dog to Jack absently. “I should take the opportunity to get us some decent sausages and burgers.”
“I like that idea,” Jack smiled at him and, finishing his burger, reached out to take Ianto's free hand in his own. “Bavarian smoked sausage and chorizo... we should do a raclette one night.”
“Yeah, we should,” Ianto agreed. “You can do the potatoes, though.”
“Don't I always?” Jack laughed. “You'd just burn them.”
“Would not.”
“Did too.”
“Stop it,” Ianto pouted at him and Jack kissed him obligingly. “That's more like it.”
They wandered around the fair for a while longer, buying toffee apples and bonfire toffee, and paper cups of warm apple and cinnamon. Jack went to a pick and mix van and spent twenty pounds on several kilos of sweets, putting most of them in a bag to go back to the Hub with them, but kept out the bag of honeycomb. On a church bric-a-brac stall, Ianto bought a collectable Barbie for his sister, and Jack bought a Hyvenic water cooler that had been mistaken for a child's toy for 50p.
As it drew towards time to watch the fireworks, they drifted away from the stalls with fresh cups of apple and cinnamon and a bag of doughnuts, heading for the edge of the field where they would have a better view of the fireworks going off above them. Ianto found them a spot by a leafless tree and set his bags down at the foot of it, then patted the ground and sat down gingerly. “I've been dryer,” he told Jack thoughtfully, holding his hand out for Jack's. “But I've also been wetter. Coming?”
Jack smiled down at him and put his purchases in the neat pile with Ianto's, then sat carefully and pulled a face as he lay back on the damp grass. “My coat's going to get muddy.”
“It's had much worse mud,” Ianto pointed out. He shifted around until he could lie back level with Jack and did so, reaching over to take Jack's hand and lace their fingers together loosely. “I enjoyed tonight.”
“So did I.” Jack turned to smile at him and squeezed his fingers. “I think we may have eaten too much sugar, though.”
“You're going to be up all night, aren't you?” Ianto sighed and turned his gaze back to the sky. Closer to the bonfire, the countdown was starting. “I guess we'll have to burn off some of your energy somehow.”
“Oh yeah?” Jack was smirking.
“Yeah. You can walk home.” The first firework shot into the air above them with perfect timing and exploded in a glittering cloud of gold and red, artificial stars drifting to Earth. High above the pumping music, and the throng of people and stalls and drifting smoke, the sky was lit up in greens, reds, yellows and blues, every shade imaginable crackling, sparkling and drifting against nature's glittering backdrop. He licked his lips and turned his head to the side to consider Jack's profile. “Looking out at a city, at the streetlights... it's like bringing the stars closer, isn't it? Every point of light is a hub of life in the darkness.”
“That's why I love rooftops,” Jack turned his head to meet Ianto's gaze, eyes serious and thoughtful. “I'm halfway between, stars above and city below. Both seem close enough to touch... but they never are, not really.”
“You don't go to the roof any more,” Ianto said softly, searching Jack's face for a clue. “Why?”
Jack smiled, eyes drifting away slightly. “Would you laugh if I told you that I found my candle in the window?”
Ianto thought about this and turned his gaze back to the sky. “No. I'm just glad you saw it, out of all the others.”
Next chapter