Fic: The First Dance
Title: The First Dance
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack and Ianto have spent months planning their wedding, there’s just one thing left to decide on: the song for their all-important first dance as a married couple.
Word Count: 1169
Written For: Prompt 151 - The Dance at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
Ianto flopped against the sofa cushions with a heartfelt groan of despair, both hands clutching his head, which was beginning to ache. “This is a nightmare! How can it be so hard? Maybe we should just print out a list of romantic songs and have one of us stick a pin in it. Whatever we get, that’s what we go with.”
“Don’t most couples have their first dance to their song?” Jack asked.
“We don’t have a song, Jack. Somehow we’ve managed to avoid that, probably due to our eclectic musical tastes. Well, unless it’s ‘I Fall to Pieces’, which isn’t exactly suitable for our purposes, although it’s entirely apt for two immortals, one of whom has a bad habit of getting himself dismembered.”
Unsurprisingly, Jack winced at that. “I don’t do it on purpose!”
“I know, sorry, it’s just… I thought we’d got the wedding planning under control. We’ve sorted out the guest list, seating chart, venue, caterer, flowers, all the major stuff, but and we can’t even pick a song for our first dance! Lisa…” Ianto trailed off, suddenly embarrassed at bringing his late fiancée into a conversation that was supposed to be about getting his and Jack’s married life off to the perfect start.
“No, Ianto, it’s fine,” Jack reassured his husband to be, shifting closer to Ianto on the sofa and resting one hand on his knee. “Lisa is, and always will be, an important part of your life. In a way, she brought us together, and I know how much you loved her. She’ll always have a place in your heart, just as the people I loved in my past will always have a place in mine. You don’t have to censor yourself, not around me. So what were you going to say?”
Sighing, Ianto sat up straight again and took Jack’s hand. “Even before we seriously started talking about getting married, Lisa always knew which song she wanted for the first dance at her wedding: Elvis Presley, ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. She said you can’t beat the classics, and anyway, it was a song most people would recognise. Not like picking a recent pop song the older generation might’ve never heard and would probably hate.”
“She had a good point there.”
Ianto smiled. “Yeah, she was smart, grounded, and sensible, even though she was kind of a free spirit. Sounds contradictory, but that was Lise. I used to wonder what someone so intelligent, not to mention beautiful, could possibly see in someone like me. Always figured she was way too good for me, and one day she’d realise she could do better, but she never did.” He sighed. “Or maybe she just ran out of time.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Ianto Jones. You’re smart, gorgeous, sexy, witty, you look amazing in a suit, make the best coffee in the universe, and you’ve got me; that should tell you something.”
“I knew it, you’re only marrying me for my coffee,” Ianto joked.
“I’m marrying you because you’re you; the coffee’s a bonus. You also have a very kissable nose.” Jack leaned in to kiss the tip of Ianto’s nose.
“Get off, you daft sod!” Ianto swatted at Jack with a cushion, grabbed from beside him, and Jack fell back, laughing.
“Alright, I surrender!”
Ianto put the cushion down, patting it neatly into place. “Okay, let’s get back to business. Not that!” he added quickly, knowing what Jack would be thinking. “The wedding’s only three weeks away; we have to pick a song, so the DJ knows what to play. No good springing it on him at the last minute and finding he doesn’t have it available.”
“You’re right, that would be awkward. Okay, what about something by Glenn Miller?”
“Oh, sure, I can just see us rocking our first dance to ‘In the Mood’. That would really wake everyone up.”
“Hey, not all his songs were up tempo! How about ‘Moonlight Serenade’? That’s slow and romantic.”
“That feels more like the last dance of the evening, when we’re too sloshed to do more than stand in the middle of the floor and sway from side to side.”
“Oooh, yes, let’s do that!” Jack grabbed Ianto’s pad and pencil from the coffee table to jot it down. “Everyone has a first dance; we should totally go one better and have a last dance as well.”
That earned Jack a good-natured eyeroll. “You’re certifiable, you know that, right?”
“It was your idea, I just agreed it was a good one.”
“We’re getting off track again. At this rate we’re never going to make up our minds.”
“You worry too much.” Jack patted Ianto’s knee. “No matter what happens, our wedding is going to be perfect because it’s OUR wedding. Now, I think we should take Lisa’s advice and go for something classic, something most people will know, but not Elvis. We can’t use the song she would have chosen; it wouldn’t be right, like stealing her special moment.”
“Which leaves us right back where we started.” Ianto pushed himself to his feet. “I’m going to make coffee. Maybe a caffeine boost will help.”
“You do that, and I’ll do some thinking.” Jack waved the notepad.
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
“Haha! I do have a brain.”
“I know. Just don’t want you wearing it out through over-use. You might need it later.”
“Go! Make coffee while I come up with the perfect song!”
“Fine, as long as it’s not something totally cheesy.”
“No cheese, I promise.”
In the end, after a lot of back and forth, they narrowed Jack’s list of possible songs down to two: Nat King Cole’s ‘When I Fall in Love’ and Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My skin’. Ianto was worried the Sinatra one might be too fast, but when he listened to the lyrics, they just seemed so right that in the end they went with that.
The wedding didn’t go off without a hitch, that would have been a miracle of epic proportions considering who was involved. Torchwood and weddings; each one taken by itself was fraught with potential disaster, but combine the two and… Well, we all know what happened at the last Torchwood wedding. But Jack was right about one thing; all the little mishaps counted for nothing, because it was their wedding day, and that made it perfect.
The newlyweds’ first dance, to the classic Sinatra song, was everything Ianto had hoped it would be. The DJ put the right song on, there was applause from the guests, and he and Jack managed not to step on each other’s toes as they drifted across the dancefloor with Jack softly singing the words in his new husband’s ear. Romantic didn’t even begin to describe it.
Ianto sighed, closing his eyes. He felt like he was floating on a cloud, although that might have had something to do with the champagne they’d been drinking during the toasts. As far as he could see, married life could only get better.
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack and Ianto have spent months planning their wedding, there’s just one thing left to decide on: the song for their all-important first dance as a married couple.
Word Count: 1169
Written For: Prompt 151 - The Dance at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
Ianto flopped against the sofa cushions with a heartfelt groan of despair, both hands clutching his head, which was beginning to ache. “This is a nightmare! How can it be so hard? Maybe we should just print out a list of romantic songs and have one of us stick a pin in it. Whatever we get, that’s what we go with.”
“Don’t most couples have their first dance to their song?” Jack asked.
“We don’t have a song, Jack. Somehow we’ve managed to avoid that, probably due to our eclectic musical tastes. Well, unless it’s ‘I Fall to Pieces’, which isn’t exactly suitable for our purposes, although it’s entirely apt for two immortals, one of whom has a bad habit of getting himself dismembered.”
Unsurprisingly, Jack winced at that. “I don’t do it on purpose!”
“I know, sorry, it’s just… I thought we’d got the wedding planning under control. We’ve sorted out the guest list, seating chart, venue, caterer, flowers, all the major stuff, but and we can’t even pick a song for our first dance! Lisa…” Ianto trailed off, suddenly embarrassed at bringing his late fiancée into a conversation that was supposed to be about getting his and Jack’s married life off to the perfect start.
“No, Ianto, it’s fine,” Jack reassured his husband to be, shifting closer to Ianto on the sofa and resting one hand on his knee. “Lisa is, and always will be, an important part of your life. In a way, she brought us together, and I know how much you loved her. She’ll always have a place in your heart, just as the people I loved in my past will always have a place in mine. You don’t have to censor yourself, not around me. So what were you going to say?”
Sighing, Ianto sat up straight again and took Jack’s hand. “Even before we seriously started talking about getting married, Lisa always knew which song she wanted for the first dance at her wedding: Elvis Presley, ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. She said you can’t beat the classics, and anyway, it was a song most people would recognise. Not like picking a recent pop song the older generation might’ve never heard and would probably hate.”
“She had a good point there.”
Ianto smiled. “Yeah, she was smart, grounded, and sensible, even though she was kind of a free spirit. Sounds contradictory, but that was Lise. I used to wonder what someone so intelligent, not to mention beautiful, could possibly see in someone like me. Always figured she was way too good for me, and one day she’d realise she could do better, but she never did.” He sighed. “Or maybe she just ran out of time.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Ianto Jones. You’re smart, gorgeous, sexy, witty, you look amazing in a suit, make the best coffee in the universe, and you’ve got me; that should tell you something.”
“I knew it, you’re only marrying me for my coffee,” Ianto joked.
“I’m marrying you because you’re you; the coffee’s a bonus. You also have a very kissable nose.” Jack leaned in to kiss the tip of Ianto’s nose.
“Get off, you daft sod!” Ianto swatted at Jack with a cushion, grabbed from beside him, and Jack fell back, laughing.
“Alright, I surrender!”
Ianto put the cushion down, patting it neatly into place. “Okay, let’s get back to business. Not that!” he added quickly, knowing what Jack would be thinking. “The wedding’s only three weeks away; we have to pick a song, so the DJ knows what to play. No good springing it on him at the last minute and finding he doesn’t have it available.”
“You’re right, that would be awkward. Okay, what about something by Glenn Miller?”
“Oh, sure, I can just see us rocking our first dance to ‘In the Mood’. That would really wake everyone up.”
“Hey, not all his songs were up tempo! How about ‘Moonlight Serenade’? That’s slow and romantic.”
“That feels more like the last dance of the evening, when we’re too sloshed to do more than stand in the middle of the floor and sway from side to side.”
“Oooh, yes, let’s do that!” Jack grabbed Ianto’s pad and pencil from the coffee table to jot it down. “Everyone has a first dance; we should totally go one better and have a last dance as well.”
That earned Jack a good-natured eyeroll. “You’re certifiable, you know that, right?”
“It was your idea, I just agreed it was a good one.”
“We’re getting off track again. At this rate we’re never going to make up our minds.”
“You worry too much.” Jack patted Ianto’s knee. “No matter what happens, our wedding is going to be perfect because it’s OUR wedding. Now, I think we should take Lisa’s advice and go for something classic, something most people will know, but not Elvis. We can’t use the song she would have chosen; it wouldn’t be right, like stealing her special moment.”
“Which leaves us right back where we started.” Ianto pushed himself to his feet. “I’m going to make coffee. Maybe a caffeine boost will help.”
“You do that, and I’ll do some thinking.” Jack waved the notepad.
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
“Haha! I do have a brain.”
“I know. Just don’t want you wearing it out through over-use. You might need it later.”
“Go! Make coffee while I come up with the perfect song!”
“Fine, as long as it’s not something totally cheesy.”
“No cheese, I promise.”
In the end, after a lot of back and forth, they narrowed Jack’s list of possible songs down to two: Nat King Cole’s ‘When I Fall in Love’ and Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My skin’. Ianto was worried the Sinatra one might be too fast, but when he listened to the lyrics, they just seemed so right that in the end they went with that.
The wedding didn’t go off without a hitch, that would have been a miracle of epic proportions considering who was involved. Torchwood and weddings; each one taken by itself was fraught with potential disaster, but combine the two and… Well, we all know what happened at the last Torchwood wedding. But Jack was right about one thing; all the little mishaps counted for nothing, because it was their wedding day, and that made it perfect.
The newlyweds’ first dance, to the classic Sinatra song, was everything Ianto had hoped it would be. The DJ put the right song on, there was applause from the guests, and he and Jack managed not to step on each other’s toes as they drifted across the dancefloor with Jack softly singing the words in his new husband’s ear. Romantic didn’t even begin to describe it.
Ianto sighed, closing his eyes. He felt like he was floating on a cloud, although that might have had something to do with the champagne they’d been drinking during the toasts. As far as he could see, married life could only get better.
The End