Fic: Dashing Through the Seas, In a Two-Mast Pirate Ship
Title: Dashing Through the Seas, In a Two-Mast Pirate Ship
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Characters: pre Jack/Ianto, Team Torchwood, Rhys, Adam, Tommy, Janet and Myfanwy
Word Count: ~1,900
Disclaimer: Alas, I don’t own Torchwood.
Authors Notes: This is for the wonderful morbid_sparks' birthday. Thank you to etmuse for the beta-read.
Summary: In which there is rum, singing and the Torchwood team are pirates.
Dashing Through the Seas, In a Two-Mast Pirate Ship
Ianto couldn’t help but grin as the crew members of the good ship Torchwood 3- those who were still standing anyway- clapped and cheered wildly. An equally happy Tommy Brockless stood next to Ianto, his guitar in one hand and the other slapping Ianto’s back.
“Well done, mate, I told you you’d be fine,” Tommy grinned at him before patting Ianto on the back one final time and walking across the ship to talk to Toshiko, the ship’s navigator.
Grin still firmly plastered on his face, Ianto slumped into one of the empty chairs near the front of the ship where he and Tommy had been singing. He was tired but happy, happier than he could ever have imagined when he woke up three weeks ago with most of his memories missing and several concerned pirates hovering over his bedside. Apparently, they had found him unconscious and clinging onto a barrel in the middle of the North Sea before pulling him onboard. With no memories to contradict this, Ianto was willing to take their word for it.
The table in front of him was strewn with candle butts and empty tankards, a few drops of ale slowly dripping out of one upturned beaker and spreading across the scuffed surface. Ianto sifted through the debris until he finally located his own, still mercifully full, glass of rum. He drank half in one gulp before slowly sipping the rest as he surveyed the ship.
It seemed that Captain Harkness had finally relented and allowed Tosh, Gwen and Adam to throw him a birthday party. Either that or they’d just ignored him and gone and bought the decorations anyway. Ianto had only been on the ship a few weeks, but it was long enough to know that either of these things were possible.
If he wasn’t seeing it with his own eyes, Ianto would never believe that so many balloons could be found in one place. They were attached to the mast- he could see the ships twin parrots Janet and Myfanwy trying to pop one about halfway up - they were attached to the sail, and one was tied to the back of every chair, including the extra large, padded chair belonging to Captain Jack Harkness. There were paper-streamers attached to each rope that was holding the sails upright and the scattered remains of a piñata were scattered in front of the door that led to Jack’s quarters.
“I drew a line at the nine-foot birthday cake,” an American accent interrupted Ianto’s thoughts, forcing him to avert his gaze from Doctor Harper who was prowling towards Rhys’ alcohol store, snatching the hat from his head and throwing it overboard as he walked. Ianto was impressed the hat hadn’t met its demise several hours earlier. “I wouldn’t have said no to the scantily-clad dancer, though.”
Captain Jack Harkness plonked himself down into the seat next to Ianto, twisting so his back was leaning against the table and his feet were resting against the side of the ship. He grinned at Ianto as he stole a drink of Ianto’s rum.
“I can imagine even Rhys would have found baking a nine-foot cake problematic, Captain,” Ianto replied, pulling his tankard from Jack’s hand with a pointed glance.
“What have I told you about calling me Captain?” Jack replied with a pointed look of his own.
“To do it as often as possible because you are madly in love with my accent?”
Jack laughed. “Not going to deny that.”
Ianto didn’t reply, he just continued to sip his rum and glare at Jack from under his eyelashes whenever the Captain stole a drink.
“You looked like you had fun tonight,” Jack said after a while. Ianto hmmed in reply but he couldn’t deny that Jack wasn’t right. He had had fun.
Ianto had only been on the ship a few days when, thanks to Owen, he found himself standing at the front of the ship, singing songs to the rest of the crew. Whether Owen’s suggestion were meant in earnest, having heard Ianto singing something quietly as he helped Rhys peel potatoes or Tommy sweep the deck, or whether it was with the view to embarrass Ianto, the resulting singsong had quickly become a nightly tradition.
Every night Ianto would move to the front of the ship- sometimes on his own, sometimes with Tommy who was blessed with both a decent voice and the ability to play a guitar- and he would sing. Mostly it was country songs or folk songs, but tonight, thanks mostly to some truly award-winning puppy-dog eyes from Gwen and Tosh, he’d spent the whole night singing upbeat jazz numbers so people could dance.
Nobody was quite sure why Ianto still remembered hundreds of songs word perfect; if you asked him what he’d been up to just a month before he’d met Captain Harkness and his motley crew he couldn’t recall anything.
After several minutes of silence, where they both sat and watched Adam teasing Myfanwy with a balloon, Jack spoke again. “As much as I would love to sit here in silence all night I did have a reason for coming over here.”
“You mean other than to steal the last of my rum because Adam’s drank yours and Rhys will kill you if you set so much as a foot in his kitchen again?” Ianto asked, smirking at Jack over the top of his tankard.
“The rum was a bonus,” Jack replied with a wink. “No, I have a bone to pick with you, Mr Jones.” Ianto raised a questioning eyebrow at Jack. “You have not danced with me tonight. I got a ten second dance off Owen,” Jack ignored Ianto’s snort of laughter at the wrestling match Jack was calling a dance, “but I’ve still not had one with you.”
“You do realise that I’ve spent most of tonight singing songs that you requested?”
“Yes and you were fabulous,” Jack replied with a wave of his hand, causing Ianto to roll his eyes. “But you’ve not been singing all night,” Jack protested.
“Tommy sang on his own for all of ten minutes so I could get something to eat before Owen and Adam nicked the last of Rhys’ pies,” Ianto countered. Jack snatched the almost empty tankard of rum from the table and downed the last few drops before jumping to his feet.
“Dance with me?” he asked, holding his hand out to Ianto.
“You do realise there’s no music,” Ianto said, gesturing to the almost empty deck with one hand but allowing Jack to pull him to his feet nonetheless.
“We don’t need music,” Jack replied, tugging on Ianto’s hand so that he stumbled forwards, Jack’s fingers digging into Ianto’s skin the only thing keeping him upright. Jack manoeuvred Ianto until their chests were pressed together and Ianto had one arm wrapped around Jack’s waist. Jack splayed one of his own hands on Ianto’s back and kept his other hand entwined with Ianto’s, resting them both above his own heart.
Finally happy, Jack started to slowly move them around the ship, moving from the front of the ship to the central mast in a small circle. Ianto could see Tommy and Tosh, the last two crew members still on deck other than himself and Jack, over Jack’s shoulder, both of them grinning. They didn’t stay to watch. Instead, they both headed towards the small door that led to the cabins below. Tommy held the door open for Tosh, gesturing her forwards, but he didn’t follow Tosh immediately. Instead, he turned and gave one short whistle and Ianto turned his head to watch Janet and Myfanwy fly through the open doorway, a paper streamer hanging from Janet’s beak. With a subtle wink at Ianto, Tommy closed the door, leaving Jack and Ianto dancing on their own.
Ianto wasn’t a big dancer; he could do a basic waltz and that was about it. However, as Jack led them about the room Ianto suddenly remembered a past time he had been dancing, though the memory was vague and fuzzy. He could remember his partner laughing and he with her as she pulled him across the floor. She had dark hair and a pale face and she looked so familiar that Ianto physically hurt when he couldn’t put a name to her face. Suddenly she morphed into a different girl with darker skin and shorter hair. She wasn’t laughing. The conversation between them was as stilted as their dancing, neither of them really knowing what to say apart from the stuttered apologises when they stood on one another’s toes.
But this, dancing with Captain Harkness - Jack - under the open sky, was like neither of those times. Nor was it like the exuberant waltz the Captain had performed with Gwen earlier on that evening or the twirl and flick-filled jive he had danced with Adam. This was calmer, more sedate and oh so natural. Ianto’s feet, normally halting and unsteady when on the dance floor, seemed to follow Jack’s lead of their own accord. Despite having known Jack only a matter of weeks, Ianto already suspected that he would follow this charismatic and energetic Captain wherever he might lead.
With Ianto’s feet happily preoccupied and requiring almost no thought processes to guide them, Ianto’s mind was free to concentrate on other things. Like memorising the way Jack’s dark blue coat shone grey under the light of the full moon and the few candles still flickering in their lanterns. He was free to listen and count the beats as Jack’s heart thumped under their joined hands, his own heart a loud counter-rhythm in his chest. He could feel Jack’s breath hot against his ear, sending shivers down his spine when Jack turned his head slightly and the warm gust of air danced down the gap between Ianto’s shirt collar and his neck.
“I meant what I said before,” Jack whispered softly, his mouth centimetres away from Ianto’s ear. “You were fantastic tonight.” Ianto ducked his head slightly, embarrassed at the praise before forcing himself to return Jack’s gaze.
“Thank you, Jack,” he replied, his hesitant grin growing slightly wider when it was returned with its own small smile.
Jack used the hand on Ianto’s back to pull them closer together before he started to hum quietly, almost under his breath, as he continued to lead them in a small circle across the ship. The tune was unfamiliar to Ianto, but it conjured pictures in his head of warm climates and white shores. If he closed his eyes it was almost as if they were dancing upon a deserted beach, the stars twinkling above them their only companions.
Suddenly there was the sound of raucous laughter and several metal tankards crashing to the floor from below deck. With that, the spell was broken. Jack’s despondent sigh ruffled Ianto’s hair as it ghosted over his head.
“I should be going,” Ianto said reluctantly as a chorus of ‘pirate ships, pirate ships, yo ho all the way,’ started under their feet, Rhys and Adam’s warbles standing out. Jack sighed and squeezed Ianto’s hand before they each took a step backwards. Jack didn’t relinquish Ianto’s hand straight away. Instead, he brought their joined hands to his lips before pressing a lingering kiss to the back of Ianto’s hand and letting it reluctantly fall away.
“Thank you, Ianto,” he murmured before slowly walking away from Ianto and the noise still emanating from downstairs towards his own cabin.
Comments are loved and adored &hearts
My Torchwood master-list can be found here.
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Characters: pre Jack/Ianto, Team Torchwood, Rhys, Adam, Tommy, Janet and Myfanwy
Word Count: ~1,900
Disclaimer: Alas, I don’t own Torchwood.
Authors Notes: This is for the wonderful morbid_sparks' birthday. Thank you to etmuse for the beta-read.
Summary: In which there is rum, singing and the Torchwood team are pirates.
Dashing Through the Seas, In a Two-Mast Pirate Ship
Ianto couldn’t help but grin as the crew members of the good ship Torchwood 3- those who were still standing anyway- clapped and cheered wildly. An equally happy Tommy Brockless stood next to Ianto, his guitar in one hand and the other slapping Ianto’s back.
“Well done, mate, I told you you’d be fine,” Tommy grinned at him before patting Ianto on the back one final time and walking across the ship to talk to Toshiko, the ship’s navigator.
Grin still firmly plastered on his face, Ianto slumped into one of the empty chairs near the front of the ship where he and Tommy had been singing. He was tired but happy, happier than he could ever have imagined when he woke up three weeks ago with most of his memories missing and several concerned pirates hovering over his bedside. Apparently, they had found him unconscious and clinging onto a barrel in the middle of the North Sea before pulling him onboard. With no memories to contradict this, Ianto was willing to take their word for it.
The table in front of him was strewn with candle butts and empty tankards, a few drops of ale slowly dripping out of one upturned beaker and spreading across the scuffed surface. Ianto sifted through the debris until he finally located his own, still mercifully full, glass of rum. He drank half in one gulp before slowly sipping the rest as he surveyed the ship.
It seemed that Captain Harkness had finally relented and allowed Tosh, Gwen and Adam to throw him a birthday party. Either that or they’d just ignored him and gone and bought the decorations anyway. Ianto had only been on the ship a few weeks, but it was long enough to know that either of these things were possible.
If he wasn’t seeing it with his own eyes, Ianto would never believe that so many balloons could be found in one place. They were attached to the mast- he could see the ships twin parrots Janet and Myfanwy trying to pop one about halfway up - they were attached to the sail, and one was tied to the back of every chair, including the extra large, padded chair belonging to Captain Jack Harkness. There were paper-streamers attached to each rope that was holding the sails upright and the scattered remains of a piñata were scattered in front of the door that led to Jack’s quarters.
“I drew a line at the nine-foot birthday cake,” an American accent interrupted Ianto’s thoughts, forcing him to avert his gaze from Doctor Harper who was prowling towards Rhys’ alcohol store, snatching the hat from his head and throwing it overboard as he walked. Ianto was impressed the hat hadn’t met its demise several hours earlier. “I wouldn’t have said no to the scantily-clad dancer, though.”
Captain Jack Harkness plonked himself down into the seat next to Ianto, twisting so his back was leaning against the table and his feet were resting against the side of the ship. He grinned at Ianto as he stole a drink of Ianto’s rum.
“I can imagine even Rhys would have found baking a nine-foot cake problematic, Captain,” Ianto replied, pulling his tankard from Jack’s hand with a pointed glance.
“What have I told you about calling me Captain?” Jack replied with a pointed look of his own.
“To do it as often as possible because you are madly in love with my accent?”
Jack laughed. “Not going to deny that.”
Ianto didn’t reply, he just continued to sip his rum and glare at Jack from under his eyelashes whenever the Captain stole a drink.
“You looked like you had fun tonight,” Jack said after a while. Ianto hmmed in reply but he couldn’t deny that Jack wasn’t right. He had had fun.
Ianto had only been on the ship a few days when, thanks to Owen, he found himself standing at the front of the ship, singing songs to the rest of the crew. Whether Owen’s suggestion were meant in earnest, having heard Ianto singing something quietly as he helped Rhys peel potatoes or Tommy sweep the deck, or whether it was with the view to embarrass Ianto, the resulting singsong had quickly become a nightly tradition.
Every night Ianto would move to the front of the ship- sometimes on his own, sometimes with Tommy who was blessed with both a decent voice and the ability to play a guitar- and he would sing. Mostly it was country songs or folk songs, but tonight, thanks mostly to some truly award-winning puppy-dog eyes from Gwen and Tosh, he’d spent the whole night singing upbeat jazz numbers so people could dance.
Nobody was quite sure why Ianto still remembered hundreds of songs word perfect; if you asked him what he’d been up to just a month before he’d met Captain Harkness and his motley crew he couldn’t recall anything.
After several minutes of silence, where they both sat and watched Adam teasing Myfanwy with a balloon, Jack spoke again. “As much as I would love to sit here in silence all night I did have a reason for coming over here.”
“You mean other than to steal the last of my rum because Adam’s drank yours and Rhys will kill you if you set so much as a foot in his kitchen again?” Ianto asked, smirking at Jack over the top of his tankard.
“The rum was a bonus,” Jack replied with a wink. “No, I have a bone to pick with you, Mr Jones.” Ianto raised a questioning eyebrow at Jack. “You have not danced with me tonight. I got a ten second dance off Owen,” Jack ignored Ianto’s snort of laughter at the wrestling match Jack was calling a dance, “but I’ve still not had one with you.”
“You do realise that I’ve spent most of tonight singing songs that you requested?”
“Yes and you were fabulous,” Jack replied with a wave of his hand, causing Ianto to roll his eyes. “But you’ve not been singing all night,” Jack protested.
“Tommy sang on his own for all of ten minutes so I could get something to eat before Owen and Adam nicked the last of Rhys’ pies,” Ianto countered. Jack snatched the almost empty tankard of rum from the table and downed the last few drops before jumping to his feet.
“Dance with me?” he asked, holding his hand out to Ianto.
“You do realise there’s no music,” Ianto said, gesturing to the almost empty deck with one hand but allowing Jack to pull him to his feet nonetheless.
“We don’t need music,” Jack replied, tugging on Ianto’s hand so that he stumbled forwards, Jack’s fingers digging into Ianto’s skin the only thing keeping him upright. Jack manoeuvred Ianto until their chests were pressed together and Ianto had one arm wrapped around Jack’s waist. Jack splayed one of his own hands on Ianto’s back and kept his other hand entwined with Ianto’s, resting them both above his own heart.
Finally happy, Jack started to slowly move them around the ship, moving from the front of the ship to the central mast in a small circle. Ianto could see Tommy and Tosh, the last two crew members still on deck other than himself and Jack, over Jack’s shoulder, both of them grinning. They didn’t stay to watch. Instead, they both headed towards the small door that led to the cabins below. Tommy held the door open for Tosh, gesturing her forwards, but he didn’t follow Tosh immediately. Instead, he turned and gave one short whistle and Ianto turned his head to watch Janet and Myfanwy fly through the open doorway, a paper streamer hanging from Janet’s beak. With a subtle wink at Ianto, Tommy closed the door, leaving Jack and Ianto dancing on their own.
Ianto wasn’t a big dancer; he could do a basic waltz and that was about it. However, as Jack led them about the room Ianto suddenly remembered a past time he had been dancing, though the memory was vague and fuzzy. He could remember his partner laughing and he with her as she pulled him across the floor. She had dark hair and a pale face and she looked so familiar that Ianto physically hurt when he couldn’t put a name to her face. Suddenly she morphed into a different girl with darker skin and shorter hair. She wasn’t laughing. The conversation between them was as stilted as their dancing, neither of them really knowing what to say apart from the stuttered apologises when they stood on one another’s toes.
But this, dancing with Captain Harkness - Jack - under the open sky, was like neither of those times. Nor was it like the exuberant waltz the Captain had performed with Gwen earlier on that evening or the twirl and flick-filled jive he had danced with Adam. This was calmer, more sedate and oh so natural. Ianto’s feet, normally halting and unsteady when on the dance floor, seemed to follow Jack’s lead of their own accord. Despite having known Jack only a matter of weeks, Ianto already suspected that he would follow this charismatic and energetic Captain wherever he might lead.
With Ianto’s feet happily preoccupied and requiring almost no thought processes to guide them, Ianto’s mind was free to concentrate on other things. Like memorising the way Jack’s dark blue coat shone grey under the light of the full moon and the few candles still flickering in their lanterns. He was free to listen and count the beats as Jack’s heart thumped under their joined hands, his own heart a loud counter-rhythm in his chest. He could feel Jack’s breath hot against his ear, sending shivers down his spine when Jack turned his head slightly and the warm gust of air danced down the gap between Ianto’s shirt collar and his neck.
“I meant what I said before,” Jack whispered softly, his mouth centimetres away from Ianto’s ear. “You were fantastic tonight.” Ianto ducked his head slightly, embarrassed at the praise before forcing himself to return Jack’s gaze.
“Thank you, Jack,” he replied, his hesitant grin growing slightly wider when it was returned with its own small smile.
Jack used the hand on Ianto’s back to pull them closer together before he started to hum quietly, almost under his breath, as he continued to lead them in a small circle across the ship. The tune was unfamiliar to Ianto, but it conjured pictures in his head of warm climates and white shores. If he closed his eyes it was almost as if they were dancing upon a deserted beach, the stars twinkling above them their only companions.
Suddenly there was the sound of raucous laughter and several metal tankards crashing to the floor from below deck. With that, the spell was broken. Jack’s despondent sigh ruffled Ianto’s hair as it ghosted over his head.
“I should be going,” Ianto said reluctantly as a chorus of ‘pirate ships, pirate ships, yo ho all the way,’ started under their feet, Rhys and Adam’s warbles standing out. Jack sighed and squeezed Ianto’s hand before they each took a step backwards. Jack didn’t relinquish Ianto’s hand straight away. Instead, he brought their joined hands to his lips before pressing a lingering kiss to the back of Ianto’s hand and letting it reluctantly fall away.
“Thank you, Ianto,” he murmured before slowly walking away from Ianto and the noise still emanating from downstairs towards his own cabin.
Comments are loved and adored &hearts
My Torchwood master-list can be found here.