[LOG WITH SULU][forward-dated to valentine's day]

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto had gotten back from Owen's birthday party and immediately gone to the fridge to get himself a lager. He had intended to leave early that night to sober up, but. He needed the alcohol. Needed the burn and the haze to get over the fact that he had just been talking to a friend that would be dead in a few months time. A friend who he'd watched

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[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu admittedly didn't know what he was doing. That was probably going to be pretty obvious, he knew, but it didn't help that Ianto had gone to a party for a former Torchwood member, one who was dead in his time and had been dead for a while. The community really didn't make things easier, and the fact that Sulu didn't know what mood Ianto was going to be in when he showed up just made him wonder if he should go at all.

That was stupid, and of course he was going to go. He didn't dress up, deciding to forgo the blazer and sweatervest combo for... well, a tee-shirt. And his leather jacket, because really, why not? And he did feel a little awkward with the half-dozen roses, which he was sure was way too much, plus the bottle of Risan wine - oh. Who cared. Ianto appreciated the gestures, even if he didn't like the gifts, so Sulu just had to bite the bullet and go.

Which is exactly what he did, reaching into his pocket to touch the watch he'd tucked away in there and appearing a split-second later in Ianto's flat. "Ianto?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

"In here!" The way Ianto had been sitting, he'd been facing away from the entryway where Sulu appeared. It wasn't a conscious decision, that's just where he found himself sitting, sunken into the couch and with no intention of getting up until he had to. Well, now was that having to point, so he shifted, swinging his legs to the ground and moving to stand up, and the room swam for just a moment, but he'd had worse, he'd be fine.

He turned to look at Sulu, appreciating the leather jacket and how dressed down he was, considering Ianto himself was sort of dressed down, but then. "...roses?" Ianto asked, blinking. The bottle of wine, he could definitely have at least predicted, but. Red roses. Ianto...had never gotten flowers quite like that, before. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, exactly.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu could tell Ianto was maybe a little tipsy by the way he sat up, but he didn't call attention to it because, well. Ianto had every right to be. Besides, Risan wine was strong enough that Sulu could probably catch up, if he needed to.

He felt heat in his cheeks as he laughed awkwardly and looked at the small bouquet. "...Yeah," he said after a moment, "Roses. Real, regular roses, too. They won't bite you or turn colors or anything." He blinked, then looked up, "I mean, unless you want - I have some chameleon roses, but I figured that these were more... traditional. You know." Wow. He sort of wanted to pop open the wine now. Speaking of... "And, wine. Very traditional, right?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

Okay, yes. Ianto was definitely tipsy. Tipsy enough not to fixate too much on what roses meant, real, regular roses, but instead focus on the man presenting them. Who...was blushing. Or at least a little flushed, if nothing else. Ianto enjoyed that color in the other man's cheeks, but. More than anything, he was just really glad to see him.

Putting his (now empty) beer bottle down on the table, Ianto made his way over to Sulu, staring at him for a moment, taking in the way he looked standing there in his leather jacket with a bouquet of red roses in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. And maybe it was because he was tipsy, but he couldn't help himself. He put one hand on either side of the other man's face, leaned in, and kissed him, firmly, passionately, but briefly because. He had no idea what he was doing either. "Very," he answered, after pulling away. He reached down and took the bottle from Sulu's hand. "C'mon. Let's see about opening this then," he said, before he turned and headed toward the kitchen.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu shifted his weight as Ianto approached, unsure as to what he should do and maybe a little surprised at himself for being at such a loss. He imagined that he was looking kind of like an idiot, and up until Ianto kissed him, he'd wondered if that would cause a problem. But, the way Ianto pressed his mouth against Sulu's - yeah, he was pretty sure it was okay.

He grinned, a little more sure of himself when Ianto took the wine away, though a little bowled over by the kiss. "Uh, right, yeah," he said, shaking his head a bit before moving to follow Ianto to the kitchen. "We're just lucky I got some of that from my parents as a reward for... you know. Saving the Earth, and all." Really, it was just because they were proud to see him on the flagship of Starfleet, even if they didn't like the idea of him out in space. "And I wasn't going to drink it on my own."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto looked down at the bottle in his hand, as he paused on his way to searching out a corkscrew in his kitchen. "It's from your parents?" Ianto said, suddenly feeling...like he should be treating it a bit better, somehow? Or...who knows, exactly. He put it down on the table, and went searching through some drawers.

"Here," Ianto said, handing the corkscrew to Sulu and taking the bouquet off of him in return. Unconscious of what he was doing, really, he bent his head and smelled them, smiling a bit lopsidedly at them. "...I think you're going to have to handle opening the bottle. I'm probably liable to hurt myself with it, at the moment..." he said, honestly, as if he weren't standing there smiling at a bouquet of roses in his hands.

[takeitoutofpark]

"Yeah, but don't worry. I think they'd agree that this is a perfectly appropriate time to open it," Sulu laughed, knowing full well that they would think it was the most ridiculous thing ever. A good ridiculous, but still.

When Ianto took the bouquet and handed him the corkscrew, he had to take a moment to just admire the fact that, yes, Ianto was holding the roses that he'd gotten for him. It was nice, in a way that he couldn't really define. He liked it. He cleared his throat after a second and turned to handle the cork, looking briefly at the other man with a bit of a grin on his face. "Oh, yeah? Am I going to have to catch up, here?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto didn't realize that he was being smiled at, or what have you. He had had enough to drink that the world was a lot simper and easier to manage, for that moment, and so admiring the flowers took all of his concentration, so that he couldn't worry or fret about anything at the same time as take care of them

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu managed to pry the cork out as Ianto talked, rolling his eyes goodnaturedly as Ianto pointed out his lightweight title. "Yeah, I know, take it slow." He wasn't about to let himself get too drunk, here. He was planning on doing a bit more than sitting around and drinking with Ianto, that was for sure.

He paused as Ianto mentioned his day, wondering if he should ask or just leave it alone. Finally, though, he turned to the other man, reaching out to take the glasses from him when he was close enough. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, honestly unsure as to whether or not he did. It wouldn't exactly be romantic, that was for sure - but if it was bothering Ianto, Sulu would listen.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto let Sulu take the wine glasses from him, and he sighed. He...didn't want to ruin their evening, by talking about Owen, and yet. "He just. He wanted to talk to me about dying. He doesn't even know what happened to me, and. He wanted to talk to me about it. Invited me to tell him what I couldn't before he died, since I have the chance to now. And..."

Ianto lowered his eyes, bringing a hand forward to brush an invisible fleck of dust off of the edge of the table. "It's. It's too soon after everything that happened with me, to really. To really let myself think about any of that, so. ...yeah. That's. That's really all there is to say, on that matter," he said, although that was technically untrue, considering it was eating at him, even now, more than an hour afterward.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu knew that Ianto was upset by the meeting; the way he'd talked about the party before had been enough for him to know that it wasn't something he necessarily wanted to do. That it was uncomfortable, and he couldn't imagine how hard it was for Ianto to deal with Owen in person.

"I don't know him," Sulu said slowly, "So I can't say anything about him. But..." He hesitated, then put the glasses down and brought a hand up to Ianto's cheek. "I know you, and. I want you to know you can talk to me about this. I don't care what day it is, you know." He just knew that Ianto was oversimplifying it, trying to play it off, and if that's what he wanted to do, he'd let the other do it - but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to get him to open up about it more, first.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto brought a hand up to cover Sulu's on his cheek, shutting his eyes for a moment and just standing there, breathing, taking in this moment. He had felt so helpless, so useless in talking to Owen, that to have this kind of support to come back to, to be able to rely on...it was almost too much. He opened his eyes and looked at Sulu, just looked at him for a moment, before he spoke up. "...sometimes," he said quietly, softly, "I think that you're too good to me..."

Like this moment, for example. Ianto hadn't given much thought to Valentine's Day. He hadn't even thought to ask Sulu over in the first place. But he'd come, and he'd had roses and a bottle of wine from his home, even, and...what did Ianto have in return? A pretty low mood on this holiday of all days. He was definitely killing the mood, that was for sure.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu shook his head, leaning in to press a kiss to Ianto's lips; a brief and gentle kiss, but a kiss nonetheless. "Don't worry," he replied, smiling a little, "I'm really not." He really didn't think anyone could be too good for Ianto. "I just like helping you feel better, whenever I can."

That's why he pulled away then, moving to pour a glass of wine for each of them before holding one of the glasses out to Ianto. If anything, Risan wine was sweet and tasted better than any bad taste Ianto's meeting with Owen could have left him with. "Here. We can go sit down and talk, if you want." It wouldn't be any fun for either of them if Ianto stayed upset, anyway. There was all night to get to the romantic part of Valentine's day, after all.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto took the wine glass from Sulu, nodding. This wasn't exactly the way that he'd planned for the evening to go, but. Sulu was good to him, and he would hear him out, and after he'd talked a little, he'd feel better, and then they could go about their holiday more easily. Once again, Ianto was glad that Sulu had brought a bottle of wine. It was suitably more romantic than the beer he'd been drinking earlier.

"C'mon," he said, grabbing the bottle and nodding toward the living room. "We'll bring this in too, so we don't have to get up for refills." And with that, he started toward the living room, putting the wine bottle down on the table on a coaster and doing his best not to flop down on the one side and spill wine all over himself, which he just barely succeeded in.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu followed Ianto with his glass in hand, grinning a bit as Ianto tried to keep from completely slumping into the couch. He paused for a moment to toe off his shoes, pushing them to the side of the couch. "Sorry," he said, settling in on the other side of the couch, though he leaned more towards Ianto than the arm of the couch, "I've been in shoes all day. I figured you wouldn't mind." After all, later on... it'd probably be better if he wasn't wearing his shoes at all.

"Alright, so." Sulu held out his glass in a brief toast to Ianto, before taking a sip and smiling at him. "How are you doing, now that... you're back here, and not at the party?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

"It's fine," he said to Sulu. After all, no shoes would make it easier to curl up on the couch with him. And elsewhere. Ianto raised the glass back in a half-hearted toast as well, looking down into the liquid and taking a sip before speaking up. "This is good," he said, unintentionally stalling for a moment as he tried to collect his thoughts. He shifted on the sofa, and unconsciously moved to sit a little closer to the other man.

"I'm..." he said, trailing off and shrugging. "I'm alright. I dunno..." He took another sip of his wine, a bigger one, that clearly showed that he was still a little not alright, at least. "I'm not sure how else I'm supposed to be doing, really. Considering that there's nothing really that can be done to help Owen at all..."