Fic: Lonely this Christmas
Title: Lonely this Christmas
Characters: Jack/Ianto (Yeah, a lot, hello, it's me!), Owen/OC
Summary: After pulling their crackers, cracking the seriously-not-funny jokes and putting on their mandatory stupid Christmas hats, Jack, Kayla and Ianto finally sat down for Christmas dinner.
A continuation to The Right Kind of Wrong by dr_is_in as a bribe to continue her epic!fic
"Why don’t you and Ianto if he's not already got plans, come to my flat for Christmas? I can make dinner."
The Right Kind of Wrong, Chapter 17.
8:32 am, 25th December, Cardiff
Kayla yawned widely clutching a steaming mug of coffee (courtesy of Ianto Jones) in her hands and growing more weary just watching Jack enthusiastically hand out the presents from under the tree, making a grand show of shaking and rattling each and every one. Settling back into her armchair, she sighed feeling lucky that she’d been able to sleep in this long. Ianto had informed her shortly after being dragged from her (lovely, warm and inviting) bed by Jack, that he’d been awake with the overgrown kid himself since before the crack of dawn - though the slight blush from Ianto’s cheeks told her that it hadn’t been totally Jack’s fault.
“Kayla,” Jack drew the ‘-la’ out, waving his hand in front of her face drawing her back to present day ... Christmas! “This is for you,” She reached out to take the present and spotted the decisively empty tag which was curious in itself. Kayla glanced over at Ianto who was watching her with mild interest before his attention was adverted to Jack who was waving a suspiciously shaped parcel in his direction. From the smirk on Jacks face, Kayla could tell a mile off it was either going to embarrassing, erotic or both, however Ianto didn’t seem to notice, must be the magic of Christmas time,’ Kayla thought to herself, smiling at the quite domesticated sight in front of here. This side the team never saw; the lovers, not employee and boss.
Turning back to her own present, Kayla tore at the paper revealing a small snow globe sporting a mini-water tower with a small note that simply said: ‘Mandatory Tourist item’ in Ianto’s recognisable scrawl. Kayla laughed out loud, disrupting the two men in front of her: only Ianto could remember something so utterly random that she’d muttered in passing after running into what seemed like the 100th tourist overloaded with red dragon bags, Welsh flags, t-shirts proclaiming ‘Cardiff’ and cameras dangling around their necks hoarding around the invisible step meaning that she’d had to walk around the long way when she was covering in slime and not smelling her best only to run into the man she least wanted to; Owen.
“Like it then?” Ianto asked with a slight smirk obviously knowing what was running through her mind. Without pausing, he held out his hand for the used wrapping paper, quickly balling it up and throwing it into the special Christmas bin-bag that Kayla had brought specifically for Ianto.
“I love it!” She gave it a shake, her eyes lighting up with glee as snow began to fall back to the ground. “I’ve never had a snow globe before,”
“You poor deprived child, what sort of great-grandfather did you have?” Ianto retorted tongue-in-cheek. Jack gasped, looking shocked, but the twinkle of mischief in his eyes showed his amusement. In truth he was content, because as Jack looked between the two of them; his lover and his great-granddaughter, sharing their secret - somewhere deep down Jack felt a funny twinge, something that he hadn’t felt in a long time. Wow. And he honestly liked the feeling.
The moment broke as Kayla dived for the Christmas tree with renewed energy and Ianto started to open his ‘intimate’ present, but Jack still felt contented and he hadn’t felt like that in years. With a slow grin Jack sat back against the sofa and watched Ianto’s face as he opened the special present in that slow, deliberate manner of his. In a matter of seconds Ianto’s barely suppressed childlike glee dissolved into borderline arousal to blatant flushed embarrassment.
“Oh my God, Jack!” Ianto exclaimed, his eyes widening further than Jack thought physically possible, though with Ianto a lot of things were possible.
“What is it?” Kayla asked popping up from under the tree and leaning over Ianto’s shoulder whilst he tried to hide the ... present from Kayla’s searching eyes - no way was she to see that. Ianto sent daggers towards Jack that he was sure if he could die - he would have. However, daggers also would’ve worked so much better without the flush of arousal evident in Ianto’s eyes. Of course, Jack had expected some sort of reaction, but Ianto’s actual reaction topped the charts. He now knew he’d be in for some stern “talking to” later that night and frankly - Jack couldn’t wait!
***
After pulling their crackers, cracking the seriously-not-funny jokes and putting on their mandatory stupid Christmas hats, Jack, Kayla and Ianto finally sat down for Christmas dinner.
Although there were only three of them, Kayla had certainly gone all out for their first Christmas together as a family. Piled on the table was an absolutely massive turkey - Jack whistled softly wondering how the hell she managed to get the bloody thing in her tiny oven - and plates upon plates of every vegetable imaginable to man from sprouts to carrots. Jack groaned softly beside Ianto - he hated green vegetables with a passion and there were at least four different plates of the icky greenery.
Ianto laughed silently, knowing from experience what was causing Jack’s disgust.
Ianto’s face deadpanned as he adjusting his new tie (red, accompanied by a singing snowman from Jack). “Well, sir, you always said we need more vegetables in our diets.” Ianto said without the barest hint of humour evident in his voice. Jack glared at his lover, already plotting his revenge in form of handcuffs and a bit of imagination.
“C’mon guys, eat up!” Kayla announced already lunging for the turkey.
Five minutes later, with plates overflowing with food and champagne in their glasses, Jack rose to make a toast. Tapping his glass gently, he waited until Ianto and Kayla looked his way.
Neither did.
He gave a small cough to ‘clear his throat’, and effectively stopped the chit-chat about the texture of the turkey.
“I think his Lordship wants to speak to his subjects.” Kayla muttered, causing Ianto to snort very un-gentlemanly. Jack glared at his (employee, friend, lover ... partner?) before starting to speak.
“Now you may not know this, but this is the first Christmas I’ve actually celebrated since ... since the Doctor-”
Kayla mouthed ‘the Doctor’ at Ianto, who discreetly shook his head, telling her to leave it.
“-after all these years it doesn’t get any easier, but this year I’ve been able to spend it with the two people whom I care about the most and to be honest, life doesn’t get much better than this.” Jack flashed a wry grin at the table. “This time last year, I had nothing but an underground base, and now I have ... this.” He gestured around the table. “So a toast; to family!” Jack raised his glass to the ceiling.
“To family.” Ianto and Kayla agreed, clinking their glasses together before taking a small sip to seal the toast.
“Oh and innovative sex.” Jack added with an exaggerated wink as he sat down.
Ianto groaned, a blush creeping up on pale cheeks and Kayla batted Jack with her fork. There are some things a girl just does not want to know, she thought to herself. Especially if it involves her great-grandfather.
***
“Wow.” Jack exclaimed winking discreetly behind the Welshman. “You cook better than Ianto, Kayla,” He placed another full forkful into his mouth, groaning in appreciation as it filled the empty spot inside him.
“Well, if someone came round more often, maybe they’d find that I can cook a fantastic roast,” Ianto hinted heavily, rolling his eyes over his own forkful of food. However, Jack was right - it was a fantastic meal, so Ianto nodded his own appreciation towards their hostess as he thoroughly chewed his turkey unlike a certain Captain sitting next to him.
“Ha, well, if someone wasn’t so obsessed with working after hours-”
“Working? Ha, like I can work after hours with you in the same room!”
Kayla hid a grin behind her glass of wine as she listened to the exchange - she didn’t think Jack realised just how domesticated he sounded for all his talk of specifically not doing domestic.
“It’s not like I hear you moaning ... well-” Jack grinned ear to ear. Really, Kayla should have known they wouldn’t be able to get through Christmas without some kind of innuendo floating around, but still.
“Jack!” Kayla interrupted, covering her ears. “I do not want to know!” Jack watched blushes spread across both Ianto’s and Kayla’s faces. Considering they weren’t related, they were alike in so many of their mannerisms.
Leaning across the small gap, Jack quietly whispered the rest of his sentence in Ianto’s ear. “Tonight, I’ll hear you moaning when I use that present you liked.” Ianto gulped heavily, almost choking on the forkful of turkey. Jack patted his choking lover on his back, before reaching in to give Ianto a champagne-flavoured kiss.
Watching the two men interact, Kayla sighed happily to herself, glad that at least they could find some hope in the world of Torchwood even if her relationship with Owen wasn’t going to work.
‘Owen,’ Kayla thought sadly. ‘He’s all alone. No-one should alone at Christmas, not even Owen.' Kayla frowned a little as the butterflies in her stomach chose to take flight again. Getting up suddenly, Kayla crossed the room, picked out one of her nicer plates and started piling food onto it. Kayla’s movements distracted Jack from Ianto’s mouth momentarily.
“What are you doing?” Jack asked, grinning. Kayla offered a small smile, but remained silent. “Are you that hungry? We won’t eat it all, I promise.”
“It’s just - you won’t understand, Jack.” Kayla explained slowly, putting a couple of slices of turkey onto the side of the plate.
“I’m an easy going-guy-”
“Yeah, not about ... this,” Kayla put the plate of food onto the counter and fetched the cling film from under the sink.
“You're going to see Owen, aren't you?” Kayla stayed quiet as she finished wrapping the food, which gave Jack the answer he needed.
“You're going to see him even after what he did to you?” Jack's voice was starting to rise in volume as his anger bled through.
“Jack, no-one deserves to be alone for Christmas,” Jack opened his mouth to object, but Kayla continued quickly. “You should know yourself what it's like to spend Christmas alone, Jack, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody.” Jack looked like he was about to object, but Ianto placed a controlling hand on his arm. Jack closed his eyes, letting out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding.
“At least finish dinner first?” Jack asked, a small smile appearing on his handsome face. I am going to remain calm, I am going to remain calm … and he just kept repeating that in his head until his blood stopped pounding in his veins.
***
[Fin. For now]
A/N: Now you guys, feel free to poke her too!