Fic :How Owen Harper Got His Christmas Spirit(and his groove)Back-Part 2-for galacticconman
Title: How Owen Harper Got His Christmas Spirit(and his groove)Back-Part 2
Author: michele659
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Owen Harper/Ianto Jones, the Team
Rating: PG
Spoilers-AU
Notes: Written for mistletw promptathon for galacticconman The prompt was: Characters/Pairing: Owen, any of the others, but Owen as the main please.
Genre: Het/Gen/Slash/Fluff
Festive Theme: Tinsel (and other decorations), eggnog and the awful weather Cardiff has been getting at the moment.
Word Count: 5423
Summary:: Ianto helps Owen regain the Christmas spirit; Odd things go on at the hub
Sexual innuendo, fluff, questionable Christmas decorations and flirting.
I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Torchwood ,and am not making any money from this.
Part Two
***
After a few glasses of the rum laden eggnog everyone was laughing and telling stories. They’d shut off the music while they were trying to outdo each other with (largely) made up tales of sexual encounters and encounters with aliens (or in the case of Jack, sexual encounters with aliens. Gwen and Toshiko had their own tales about that, but they didn’t wish to remember them) and Ianto put the music back on and announced that they should all dance.
“Dance? With who?” Owen asked.
“Well, thanks a lot,” Gwen huffed at him. “What are Toshiko and I, plastic figures?”
“You could be. This place is crawling with them,” Owen said in an irritated tone as he backed into a plastic snowman wielding a broom.
“Everybody dances! That’s an order!” Jack banged on the couch for emphasis. “We just change partners often-or we can dance by ourselves if we want to!”
Ianto formally bowed to Toshiko and started to dance with her. Gwen laughed when Jack did the same with her.
Owen was perturbed. “Hey! I’m the only one not dancing!”
“I thought you didn’t want to dance.” Ianto said, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.
“Well, I don’t want to just stand here! And no, I don’t want to dance by myself. Ianto, why don’t you do that? I’m sure you’ve had lots of practice.”
Ianto laughed. “Actually Owen, I’m quite in demand on the dance floor. You see,” he continued as he expertly twirled Toshiko around and then dipped her, “I’ve got the moves.”
And then he once again winked at Owen.
Owen stared open mouthed at Ianto. What the hell was he doing? Dancing like that and making that suggestive remark. - and winking!
“I’m cutting in” Owen said, sharply.
“I want to keep dancing!” Ianto protested.
“I’m cutting in on Toshiko,” Owen said softly.
Ianto was dipping Toshiko and almost dropped her at Owen’s words.
“Ianto, be careful!” Toshiko admonished and stood up and looked at Owen.
“Did you just say you cut in on me?” she asked, surprised.
“Yeah. Sorry Tosh. Go dance with Jack, yeah?”
Toshiko tapped on Jack’s shoulder and started dancing with him while Gwen went to get more rum and call Rhys. “We might as well be all coupled off!” she said .She was delighted to hear that Rhys was nearby and would be there in a few minutes.
Meanwhile, Ianto was staring at Owen with a mixture of surprise and amusement.“You wanted to dance, sir?” he asked and bowed.
“Oh, stop it.” He roughly pulled Ianto close to him and whispered in his ear. “Ok, now I want to know what’s going on.”
“Going on? I don’t know what you’re talking about...” Ianto’s face, (that damn poker face of his) revealed nothing.
Ianto’s eyes, however, were a different story.
You could always count on Ianto’s eyes to tell you something, and Owen swore he saw desire in them.
“You- you’re behaving differently toward me!” Owen pulled back so he could look at Ianto’s face. “You have been flirting with me all day! “No, don’t deny it,” he waved away Ianto’s protests. “I can tell. And now all this “-he gestured at the two of them dancing. “Saying you’ve got the moves and winking at me!”
Ianto turned Owen around so that his back was to Ianto’s front and laughed again. “It’s your imagination.” Spinning Owen around and dipping him the way he did Tosh he added,“You’re drunk!”
Owen pulled himself up so that his body was flush to Ianto’s and leaned close. “Am I?” he asked, his lips so close to Ianto’s that Ianto could feel his breath ghosting over them.
Ianto tightened his hold on Owen and kissed him softly on the lips.
Just then the alarm sounded and Rhys came down the lift.
“Hi sweetie!” Gwen ran to him and the dancing stopped for a moment so the team could say hello to Rhys.
Owen kept his hold on Ianto, however. He had no intention of letting go until Ianto answered his question.
“It’s snowing really hard outside! It’s beautiful, you should see it!” Rhys shook himself to get some of the snow off his coat.
“Oh, look at that!” Gwen smiled. “Snow instead of slush, what a change! It looks like we’re going to have a white Christmas after all!”
“Let’s go outside and look at it!” Toshiko clapped her hands in excitement.
“Let’s go!” Jack agreed, and ordered everyone to take one of the plastic inflated toys for the outside.
“Really, Jack? Why don’t you paste a huge sign on the door saying, ‘Torchwood?’ It would make things easier.” Owen shook his head.
“We’re not going to put it in front of the door smart ass,” Jack replied. “We’ll do it on the pier. It’ll be fun!”
“I doubt it,” Owen said, skeptically.
Ianto, who had managed to free himself from Owen’s grasp while Jack was talking, rolled his eyes.
“What? I’m NOT a Scrooge!” he yelled.
“Don’t forget the Grinch,” Ianto reminded him.
He could live to be eighty and Ianto would remember this. That damn photographic memory of his.
Owen started slightly.
He had just thought that he and Ianto would know each other the rest of their lives.
The thought was too much for his rum/eggnog addled head, so he let it drop and followed everyone up the lift. Ianto smiled and handed him a glowing candy cane that was almost as tall as he was.
“Is this really necessary? Since when did candy cane have anything to do with Christmas?”
Ianto cleared his throat. “Actually, the legend of the candy cane goes back over 350 years,” he began.
“Oh no, thank you Dr. Jones but I really don’t need to know the legend of the candy cane!” Owen cut him off.
Ianto was not deterred, however. “There is a legend of Jesus and candy canes,” he went on.
“Thank God we’ve reached the top!” Owen smiled as they entered the street. “We’ve been spared the legend of Jesus and the candy cane!”
Ianto made a face,saying:”I could still tell it, you know Owen.”
“Not if you’re too busy fighting off this!”Owen dropped the candy cane, picked up some snow from the ground and threw it at Ianto.
“Stop!” Ianto shielded himself while laughing at the same time.
Owen threw another one and Ianto threw one back.
“Oh, snowball fight, everybody!” Jack yelled.
Everyone started picking up handfuls of snow and throwing it at each other. Ianto and Owen continued to fight only with each other.
“Here, take this!” Owen took a snowball and pushed it into Ianto’s face;
“Hey, that’s not fair!” he laughed and pushed Owen away from him.
That’s all Owen needed. He stepped up his attack as Ianto bent down to get some more snow.
Before long they were both rolling around in the snow, trying to shove snow in each other’s faces.
“They’re just like children!” Toshiko said as she threw snow into Gwen’s face.
“They are!” Gwen agreed as she threw some back to Toshiko.
Jack and Rhys joined in and for a while all you could see were clouds of snow.
Ianto and Owen were still rolling around on the ground; Ianto tried shoving some snow into Owen’s mouth.
“Stop that!” Owen yelled at the same time he was trying not to laugh. “I’ll bite you, you know I will!”
Ianto smashed the snow in Owen’s mouth and said,” You promise?”
Owen flipped them over again and tried pushing some snow into Ianto’s mouth, but Ianto was ready for him and grabbed his hand.
They stayed that way for a moment until Gwen started calling, “Hey, it’s really coming down hard now! We’d better get going or we won’t be able to drive.”
Ianto and Owen looked up, seemingly unaware that the snow had worsened. “Oh fuck. Look at that! Of all days not to bring my car. That’s it. I’m definitely getting the flu.” Owen struggled to push himself up and gave his hand to Ianto.
“You know Owen, for a doctor you’re a real hypochondriac,” Ianto teased. “I won’t let you traipse home in the snow, allowing yourself to get all wet and frozen. I’ll drive you.”
“Thanks, Ianto.” Owen looked surprised. “But it’s kind of far to travel in this weather.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ianto smiled. “You can stay with me.”
Owen wondered for what seemed like the hundredth time today what was going on with Ianto.
“Alright,” he heard himself saying.
It could prove to be an interesting night.
*****
Owen’s eyes widened when they got to Ianto’s flat.
“Oh my God!” he exclaimed. “I’ve never seen so many lights! We know who to blame if there’s a power shortage in Cardiff. Where did you get all this stuff?”
Ianto said “Wait until you see the inside.”
***
Owen stared at the display in front of him for a few minutes before he could actually speak.
Ianto had apparently decided his flat was a good place to pay homage to various Christmas stories, as there were representations of several of them in different ornaments and decorations. Life sized wooden soldiers and toys from “The Nutcracker”, smaller dolls that were characters from “A Christmas Carol”, like the three ghosts, Tiny Tim, and of course, Scrooge.
The tree had ornaments from all over the world, and many, many lights of various colors.
Under the tree he had a vintage Lionel train set which he switched on.
“Do you like it?” Ianto asked, grinning. “I know I go a bit overboard.”
“A - bit. Yes. It’s very -festive.”
“I know I get carried away, but I love Christmas.”
“Really?” Owen didn’t remember Ianto being so happy last Christmas.
Ianto looked at him and said, softly. “ Really.”
For some reason the way he said that flustered Owen somewhat. He wasn’t used to seeing this side of Ianto, and was more comfortable with the snarky, teasing man he worked with every day.
He couldn’t deny that he was intrigued, however.
“So, should you take off your clothes then?” Ianto asked.
“What?”
“Your clothes. They’re all wet. You want to take them off and put something of mine on? You can also take a shower if you want and I’ll put on some coffee.”
“Oh- yes, thank you.”
Ianto went to get something that Owen hoped wouldn’t be too big (how embarrassing would it be if the clothes literally fell off him?). “Do you mind if I get myself a drink?” he asked.
“No, of course not. Take whatever you want, and pour me some also.”
Owen poured a scotch for himself and Ianto and sat down to watch the trains.
“You like those?” Ianto had come back in with a fresh set of clothes.
“Yeah. I always wanted these when I was a kid.”
“What happened?”
Owen grimaced when he remembered his mother’s reaction to his request. “My mother told me that bad boys don’t get nice things like that.”
Ianto didn’t know how to respond to that sudden confidence, so he just sat down next to Owen and patted his shoulder.’
“It was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Sure it does, Ianto thought. Some wounds never heal, and the surest way to know someone wasn’t over something was when they said it didn’t matter.
He knew all about that.
In an effort to lighten the mood Ianto suggested they toast to the holiday. “Only this time let me make the toast, please!”
“Very funny. No, let me redeem myself, please!”
“Well, ok then,” Ianto said. “Say something profound.”
“You can’t tell someone to say something profound!” Owen said in an exasperated tone. “That’s too much pressure!”
“Ok, ok, I’m sorry! “ Ianto laughed.
Owen scowled at Ianto and furrowed his brow, trying to think of something suitable.
“Shall I tell the legend of the candy cane while we wait for you to come up with something?”
In spite of himself Owen laughed. “Very funny.” Ok, I’ll do anything not to hear that particular story.”
“But it’s a good story!” Ianto protested.
“That’s ok. Some other time. Here’s my toast:
My friends are the best friends --
loyal, willing, and able.
Now let's get to drinking --
All glasses off the table!”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “That’s so heartfelt. I might just cry,” he dabbed at his eye with a napkin.
“Alright, don’t cry. I have a better one. :The Lord gives us our relatives. Thank God we can choose our friends.”
Ianto lifted his glass and touched it to Owen’s. “I agree,” he said with a smile.
Again Owen felt that tang of something in the air between him and Ianto. Sexual tension, chemistry?
Whatever it was Owen knew it was something heady and intoxicating.
He sipped more of his drink and got up to take a shower.
***
For the second time that day, Owen came out of the shower to find Ianto waiting for him. He was dressed and drying his hair with a towel. “Here, let me do that,” Ianto took the towel from Owen. “Finish your drink. You’re shivering.”
Owen sat down and without thinking handed the towel to Ianto before saying, “What’s been going on here, Jones? Why are you being so nice to me? “He reached up to grab the towel, but Ianto pulled it out of his reach.
“Can you be quiet for one minute? Now, just relax.” He started massaging Owen’s head, and Owen reluctantly had to admit (to himself) that it felt good. Soon he stopped protesting and leaned back against Ianto, who by this time had stopped using the towel and was just using his hands.
Hands which felt very warm and relaxed and- oh fuck! He’d started to feel something that was definitely more than simple relaxation.
“Ok, that’s enough,” he said, abruptly, hurriedly finishing his drink in one gulp. “What happened? Are you having me on? Is this on CCTV or something?”
Ianto laughed and let his fingers feather down Owen’s neck, stopping to gently massage his shoulders. “You’re so suspicious,” he said in a low voice. “Work on that in the New Year.”
“Thank you for the advice. But you didn’t answer my question!”
“No, Owen, this is not on CCTV, I’m just trying to be helpful.” He smiled at Owen’s disbelieving expression.
“All day you’ve been acting weird-even for you,” Owen winced as Ianto lightly dug his fingernails into his scalp. “Ow, sorry. Didn’t mean it the way it sounded. But you’ve been acting as though-“
“As though what?” Ianto asked, and again gave Owen that “I’m amused but I want you” gaze that had been driving him crazy with questions (and other emotions Owen didn’t want to think about) all day.
“Like you’re -interested in me?” In spite of himself Owen’s voice kind of wavered at the end of the sentence (much to his horror).
Ianto leaned down and whispered in Owen’s ear. “What if I was?” he asked. “What would you say?”
Owen looked up at him. “I’d ask you why you don’t have any mistletoe.”
Ianto laughed and said, “As a matter of fact I do. It’s in my bedroom. Would you like to see it?”
Owen closed the gap between them and kissed Ianto.
“Actually, we don’t need the mistletoe. But, I’d love to see your bedroom.”
Ianto kissed Owen, this kiss being longer and deeper than the first.
“It will be my pleasure,” he replied.
As they walked to the bedroom Owen asked, “You don’t have any large or hideous Christmas ornaments in there, do you?”
“No,”Ianto shook his head. “Sadly, I didn’t have enough decorations left to do up the bedroom the way I like to. It’s just a lot of -“
“Well, fuck!” Owen looked around at the room. There was fake snow on the floor and sparkly lights around the bed.
“It’s a winter wonderland in here!” he exclaimed, only half sarcastically.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Ianto came behind Owen and let his hands roam under the waistband of his trousers, lightly caressing Owen’s skin.
“Not yet, anyway,” he gave Owen a wicked grin and kissed him again.”But it will be.”
Owen pressed his body closer to Ianto’s and said, “I can’t wait.”