Ficlet: Summer At Last
Title: Summer At Last
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Meriel, Nosy.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: After weeks of miserably cold weather, it seems summer has finally arrived.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 296: Hot at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
After weeks of cold, wet, and stormy weather, summer had finally arrived, drying out the roof garden and filling the air with scent from the flowers that were beginning to recover from the battering they’d received.
“I can’t believe it’s actually hot out!” Ianto exclaimed, sliding the French doors wide and stepping onto the warm wood of the decking just outside. “I was starting to think we’d somehow skipped straight past summer.”
“It’s here now though. Better late than not at all.” Jack handed his husband a cold glass of orange juice with a couple of ice cubes floating in it. He’d even added a cocktail umbrella. “Saw them for sale in the pound shop when I was buying bird food and I couldn’t resist,” he said in answer to Ianto’s raised eyebrow. “Meriel, juice!”
“Coming, daddy!” Their five-year-old daughter, clad in her swimsuit and liberally coated with high-factor waterproof sunscreen, scrambled out of her paddling pool on the artificial grass lawn and pattered barefoot over to her parents to claim her cold drink. “Can we have ice cream later?”
“After lunch,” Ianto promised. He turned to smile at Jack. “And to think that only a couple of weeks ago it was winter woollies, hot soup for lunch and hot chocolate to drink.”
“What a difference higher temperatures and a bit of sunshine makes,” Jack agreed, grinning back. Like Ianto, he was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Both of them were smothered in sunscreen too, setting a good example for their daughter. No one was going to end up looking like a cooked lobster if they could help it; they’d been well stocked to handle summer weather long before it had had finally deigned to arrive.
“Do you think Nosy’s alright in this heat?” Ianto turned to look at the Fluff, who was currently sipping from the dish of orange juice Jack had put in the shade for it. Even as he watched, Nosy slurped up an ice cube and crunched it between its teeth, making Ianto wince. “How can it do that? Makes my teeth hurt just watching!”
Jack laughed. “Fluffs are obviously a lot tougher than humans. The heat doesn’t seem to bother it either. The thick fur probably insulates it against high temperatures just as effectively as it does against cold.”
“HUMMM,” Nosy agreed, slithering over to join them on the deck, fluffing its fur up and giving itself a good shake before rolling over in a complicated manoeuvre to expose its underside to the warm sun and the light breeze.
“Sometimes I wish I was a Fluff,” Ianto said. “Free to laze about on a hot day without a care in the world.”
“It’s our family day, so why don’t you?”
“Because I put laundry on earlier, and it should be about done. Someone’s got to hang it out to dry. Can’t waste good drying weather like this.”
“We’ll hang it out together, then we can both laze around for a bit. We deserve it.”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Meriel, Nosy.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: After weeks of miserably cold weather, it seems summer has finally arrived.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 296: Hot at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
After weeks of cold, wet, and stormy weather, summer had finally arrived, drying out the roof garden and filling the air with scent from the flowers that were beginning to recover from the battering they’d received.
“I can’t believe it’s actually hot out!” Ianto exclaimed, sliding the French doors wide and stepping onto the warm wood of the decking just outside. “I was starting to think we’d somehow skipped straight past summer.”
“It’s here now though. Better late than not at all.” Jack handed his husband a cold glass of orange juice with a couple of ice cubes floating in it. He’d even added a cocktail umbrella. “Saw them for sale in the pound shop when I was buying bird food and I couldn’t resist,” he said in answer to Ianto’s raised eyebrow. “Meriel, juice!”
“Coming, daddy!” Their five-year-old daughter, clad in her swimsuit and liberally coated with high-factor waterproof sunscreen, scrambled out of her paddling pool on the artificial grass lawn and pattered barefoot over to her parents to claim her cold drink. “Can we have ice cream later?”
“After lunch,” Ianto promised. He turned to smile at Jack. “And to think that only a couple of weeks ago it was winter woollies, hot soup for lunch and hot chocolate to drink.”
“What a difference higher temperatures and a bit of sunshine makes,” Jack agreed, grinning back. Like Ianto, he was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Both of them were smothered in sunscreen too, setting a good example for their daughter. No one was going to end up looking like a cooked lobster if they could help it; they’d been well stocked to handle summer weather long before it had had finally deigned to arrive.
“Do you think Nosy’s alright in this heat?” Ianto turned to look at the Fluff, who was currently sipping from the dish of orange juice Jack had put in the shade for it. Even as he watched, Nosy slurped up an ice cube and crunched it between its teeth, making Ianto wince. “How can it do that? Makes my teeth hurt just watching!”
Jack laughed. “Fluffs are obviously a lot tougher than humans. The heat doesn’t seem to bother it either. The thick fur probably insulates it against high temperatures just as effectively as it does against cold.”
“HUMMM,” Nosy agreed, slithering over to join them on the deck, fluffing its fur up and giving itself a good shake before rolling over in a complicated manoeuvre to expose its underside to the warm sun and the light breeze.
“Sometimes I wish I was a Fluff,” Ianto said. “Free to laze about on a hot day without a care in the world.”
“It’s our family day, so why don’t you?”
“Because I put laundry on earlier, and it should be about done. Someone’s got to hang it out to dry. Can’t waste good drying weather like this.”
“We’ll hang it out together, then we can both laze around for a bit. We deserve it.”
The End