on the sixth day of christmas, Iambic gave to me
...six indulgent fandoms, FIVE HEROES DEAD, four lame excuses, three hours of sleep, two apologies, and an anecdote before the story.
Hey, I'm halfway done!
Title: Some Very Nice People
Fandom: Torchwood
Wordcount: 868
Summary: Ianto makes a friend. (spoilers for S02 of Torchwood and S04 of Doctor Who)
--
The Hub is quiet on New Year's Eve, mostly because Jack has vacated the premises to some unknown locale, and Gwen in spending the holiday at home with Rhys. Ianto stays to mind the Hub because someone has to, and he doesn't like spending much time at home. Somehow the murmur and hum of the Hub in standby relaxes him far more than the city noises outside his windows, and even the television isn't much of a distraction. In his sham tourist office, he doesn't really need a distraction; he's all right here.
This time last year he spent with Tosh in a very similar scenario, save that instead of holding the fort from the tourist office, they had raided Jack's abandoned liquor cabinet and drank their way to midnight. Tosh broke out the playing cards and they took turns trouncing each other at their respective games; Tosh could bluff like no other in poker, but Ianto had a faster hand for speed.
The cards are in one of his desk drawers; he found them when they cleaned out Tosh's workstation, and he quietly had purloined them. Ianto isn't much a man inclined to keeping mementos outside of his archival duties, but a pack of cards could come in handy. In the very least, he might need to distract someone someday.
Right now he's just looking out at the Plass, watching New Year's celebrations happening all around him as the clock ticks its way to midnight. In his pocket the stopwatch hangs, silent; he's watching the clock tonight.
A man has stopped outside the tourist office, looking in. Ianto can't see his face clearly, but goes to the door anyway. "I'm sorry, we're closed," he begins, opening the door to the cold outside, and the cuts off. The man outside he now recognises as one of Jack's otherworldly friends who had saved the world last time the Daleks had attacked.
"Hello," he says instead.
"Hey," replies Mickey Smith.
--
"Captain's out, is he?" Mickey asks, leaning on the railing overlooking the bay. "I'd've thought he would be celebrating with you and what's-her-name."
"Gwen," Ianto supplies automatically, stuffing cold hands into his coat pockets. "He's not a fan of New Year's Eve," he adds with a shrug. "He's seen enough of them, I suppose."
Mickey smiles in that way Ianto recognises in himself, as if he knows exactly what Ianto's talking about, though the situation may be entirely different. "Can't say I blame him," he says, and then drops the subject with a skill that impresses even Ianto. "You know, last time I was here, we stopped some sort of storm that would have leveled Cardiff, and took out the mayor."
"I remember that," Ianto tells him. "Jack wouldn't let us out. Said he couldn't chance us running into him."
"The younger him?" Mickey chuckles briefly. "That was the first time I met him. Half the time it seemed like he was flirting with me."
"He was," Ianto replies fondly.
"Not everything changes, then," Mickey responds, and they exchange expressions of resigned amusement.
Ianto doesn't know Mickey too well, and he's fairly certain that neither does Jack, but they're both Torchwood. London might have been a corporation, but Mickey's Torchwood apparently wasn't like that at all. Run by the People's Republic, according to Jack. After neutralising the Cybermen, they became exactly the sort of operation Torchwood Cardiff would've been, given the funding.
And he doubts that Mickey has any sort of physical baggage with him. Plenty of emotional baggage, of course - they all do - but he's not bound to anything. And he's not going to be hiding his partially-converted cyber girlfriend in the basement, so things could already be worse.
"Are you looking for a job?" Ianto asks.
Mickey grins. "You know how it is. You can take the man out of Torchwood, but you can't take Torchwood out of the man."
"Oh, I know," Ianto replies, and for a moment he's remembering the days before finding his way into Cardiff's Torchwood, the job he'd taken for all of a week out of desperation. Most likely Mickey isn't in that sort of predicament, but Ianto knows too clearly how bleak any other career is, how the restlessness builds, how stagnant twenty-first century technology feels after seeing the alien and the unknown. And perhaps for Mickey, who after all traveled with the Doctor for a while, that restlessness is even worse.
"Are you offering?" Mickey asks.
Ianto shakes his head. "Jack does the hiring," he replies. "He probably already has plans to do just that. I was just - curious." He smiles briefly and then drops the subject just easily as Mickey might have. They probably both learned from the same person, that master of avoiding uncomfortable subjects, Jack. "Are you cold?" Ianto asks.
"Bit, yeah," Mickey replies. "What're you offering?"
The fact that the lack of innuendo surprises him only goes to show that he spends too much time around Jack, Ianto thinks mournfully. "Coffee and somewhere warmer to sit," he says. "Maybe even a chance to meet a real live pteradactyl."
"I'm game," Mickey replies.
"You don't happen to play cards much, do you?" Ianto adds as an afterthought.
Hey, I'm halfway done!
Title: Some Very Nice People
Fandom: Torchwood
Wordcount: 868
Summary: Ianto makes a friend. (spoilers for S02 of Torchwood and S04 of Doctor Who)
--
The Hub is quiet on New Year's Eve, mostly because Jack has vacated the premises to some unknown locale, and Gwen in spending the holiday at home with Rhys. Ianto stays to mind the Hub because someone has to, and he doesn't like spending much time at home. Somehow the murmur and hum of the Hub in standby relaxes him far more than the city noises outside his windows, and even the television isn't much of a distraction. In his sham tourist office, he doesn't really need a distraction; he's all right here.
This time last year he spent with Tosh in a very similar scenario, save that instead of holding the fort from the tourist office, they had raided Jack's abandoned liquor cabinet and drank their way to midnight. Tosh broke out the playing cards and they took turns trouncing each other at their respective games; Tosh could bluff like no other in poker, but Ianto had a faster hand for speed.
The cards are in one of his desk drawers; he found them when they cleaned out Tosh's workstation, and he quietly had purloined them. Ianto isn't much a man inclined to keeping mementos outside of his archival duties, but a pack of cards could come in handy. In the very least, he might need to distract someone someday.
Right now he's just looking out at the Plass, watching New Year's celebrations happening all around him as the clock ticks its way to midnight. In his pocket the stopwatch hangs, silent; he's watching the clock tonight.
A man has stopped outside the tourist office, looking in. Ianto can't see his face clearly, but goes to the door anyway. "I'm sorry, we're closed," he begins, opening the door to the cold outside, and the cuts off. The man outside he now recognises as one of Jack's otherworldly friends who had saved the world last time the Daleks had attacked.
"Hello," he says instead.
"Hey," replies Mickey Smith.
--
"Captain's out, is he?" Mickey asks, leaning on the railing overlooking the bay. "I'd've thought he would be celebrating with you and what's-her-name."
"Gwen," Ianto supplies automatically, stuffing cold hands into his coat pockets. "He's not a fan of New Year's Eve," he adds with a shrug. "He's seen enough of them, I suppose."
Mickey smiles in that way Ianto recognises in himself, as if he knows exactly what Ianto's talking about, though the situation may be entirely different. "Can't say I blame him," he says, and then drops the subject with a skill that impresses even Ianto. "You know, last time I was here, we stopped some sort of storm that would have leveled Cardiff, and took out the mayor."
"I remember that," Ianto tells him. "Jack wouldn't let us out. Said he couldn't chance us running into him."
"The younger him?" Mickey chuckles briefly. "That was the first time I met him. Half the time it seemed like he was flirting with me."
"He was," Ianto replies fondly.
"Not everything changes, then," Mickey responds, and they exchange expressions of resigned amusement.
Ianto doesn't know Mickey too well, and he's fairly certain that neither does Jack, but they're both Torchwood. London might have been a corporation, but Mickey's Torchwood apparently wasn't like that at all. Run by the People's Republic, according to Jack. After neutralising the Cybermen, they became exactly the sort of operation Torchwood Cardiff would've been, given the funding.
And he doubts that Mickey has any sort of physical baggage with him. Plenty of emotional baggage, of course - they all do - but he's not bound to anything. And he's not going to be hiding his partially-converted cyber girlfriend in the basement, so things could already be worse.
"Are you looking for a job?" Ianto asks.
Mickey grins. "You know how it is. You can take the man out of Torchwood, but you can't take Torchwood out of the man."
"Oh, I know," Ianto replies, and for a moment he's remembering the days before finding his way into Cardiff's Torchwood, the job he'd taken for all of a week out of desperation. Most likely Mickey isn't in that sort of predicament, but Ianto knows too clearly how bleak any other career is, how the restlessness builds, how stagnant twenty-first century technology feels after seeing the alien and the unknown. And perhaps for Mickey, who after all traveled with the Doctor for a while, that restlessness is even worse.
"Are you offering?" Mickey asks.
Ianto shakes his head. "Jack does the hiring," he replies. "He probably already has plans to do just that. I was just - curious." He smiles briefly and then drops the subject just easily as Mickey might have. They probably both learned from the same person, that master of avoiding uncomfortable subjects, Jack. "Are you cold?" Ianto asks.
"Bit, yeah," Mickey replies. "What're you offering?"
The fact that the lack of innuendo surprises him only goes to show that he spends too much time around Jack, Ianto thinks mournfully. "Coffee and somewhere warmer to sit," he says. "Maybe even a chance to meet a real live pteradactyl."
"I'm game," Mickey replies.
"You don't happen to play cards much, do you?" Ianto adds as an afterthought.