A Welsh Holiday, or, Jack and Ianto Tackle the Plumbing 7/7
Chapter 7: The Final Day, or, Jack Attempts Tesco
Once the final bits of furniture had been set up, and the last pieces of random kitsch put in their various places, Jack and Ianto went on a Tesco run. They still had two full days left in the cottage, and Jack promised Ianto a proper home-cooked meal to celebrate their first official day in a fully furnished cottage. Ianto, ever practical, begged Jack to let him cook, citing various instances of small kitchen fires and expensive ruined Calphalon pans. Jack refused on principle, of course, stating that he had been alone long enough to learn how to cook the basics, and besides, if one wanted to court someone, one had to cook the traditional home cooked meal.
So, this led to Ianto following behind Jack in the Tesco aisles, taking various unnecessary items out of the cart. What on earth they'd do with an entire bag of oranges in two days was beyond him, as was Jack's idea to buy not one, but four bags of Jelly Babies and three bags of pre-made candy floss. In cola, no less. Last thing Ianto needed was a sugar-hyper Jack.
Then again, Ianto mused as he grabbed the candy floss from the cart, a hyper Jack would be interesting. Might make for a fun night or two, at least. And candy floss could come in handy, if used properly. It melted, after all, and could be licked from various body parts.
Ianto put the candy floss back in the cart and trailed off after Jack, who'd moved by now on to the frozen foods.
“No, Jack, you can't make a full turkey dinner tonight,” Ianto said for the last time, taking the turkey from Jack and putting it back in the store's freezer.
“Why not?” Jack whinged.
“Because it's frozen, Jack. You'd have to defrost it for two days.”
“Then we'll get a fresh one!” Jack said, stalking off to the meat section, mostly likely to fondle a butcher into providing the perfect fresh turkey. He promised dinner, so dinner Ianto would get. If he had to flirt with everyone in the whole damn building, Ianto would get dinner. Jack was nothing if not thorough when he could be, and he'd be more than willing to take one for the team and use his otherworldly charm to get Ianto dinner.
A bit like primitive man killing the biggest woolly mammoth, he thought, as he strutted over to the rather large butcher.
“And this is why we don't flirt with a Shirley Crabtree look-a-like,” Ianto said as he gently laid the bag of frozen peas against Jack's split check.
“How was I to know he'd throw a punch?” Jack whinged, flinching as the peas pressed on the bruise.
“Probably because he had a 62 inch chest and was about to belly slam you if you so much as leered at him? Not everyone falls for the Harkness charm, Jack, you keep forgetting that,” Ianto laughed as he ran a hand through Jack's hair.
“You fell,” Jack sniffed.
“If I remember correctly, you fell. From a pterodactyl, no less.”
“Semantics.”
“Grammar is fun, Jack.”
Jack tried to stick out his tongue, but winced when the skin around his split lip pulled.
Ianto sighed. “Come on, let's go home. I'll fashion something from this mess,” he said, waving to the bags of food he'd managed to pay for before the store manager threw them out.
“I'm supposed to cook for you,” Jack said as he picked up one of the bags and turned towards the car.
Ianto laughed. “You fought for me. Or, rather, you fought for my dinner. Besides, the look on your face when he went after you with the knife? I'm so having Tosh hack into the store's internal CCTV. Years of blackmail, that, bloody years!”
“So,” Jack said softly, carding his fingers through Ianto's hair, down his neck and back. “Last night here.”
Ianto hummed sleepily.
“Don'wanna go,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, I know. We could stay here,” Jack offered.
Ianto snorted.
“An'do what?”
“Sex,” Jack said simply. He smiled as Ianto chuckled.
“No end-of-the-world scenarios? No kidnapped-Gwens? No sarcastic Owens or Tosh's 'special' brownies? You'd be bored in a month,” Ianto said, smiling, laying his head against Jack's chest. Still, it was a nice dream, this little hidden world of theirs.
“Yeah, but it'd be a hell of a month,” Jack said back.
Ianto snorted again. “You've already made enemies at Tesco and that second-hand furniture shop. And the hotelier wasn't best pleased with the state of the sheets. Best not scare the locals anymore or we won't be welcomed back.”
“Hey,” Jack said, “those sheets were from both of us. Keep that in mind, next time you're shining your halo, Mr. Innocent. And besides, these sleepy-type towns needs a bit of flash to gossip about.”
Ianto hummed again and pushed closer to Jack.
“ 's nice, though,” he said softly. “All this. Like normal, like we're normal.”
“Yeah. Normality.”
It was evening by the time Jack and Ianto made it back to the Hub. It was raining, of course, cold and dark for an April's day. Jack sighed as he noticed Ianto's relaxed body tensing as they closed in on the carpark. All week long, Ianto had been so easy, so free. Like he was when the two were alone in the Hub at the end of the day, only all the time.
Jack started. A lightbulb moment, he supposed. That Ianto, the one from Holyhead, was the real Ianto. Or, at least, the pre-Torchwood Ianto. What Ianto would have been, light and free, if London hadn't burned, if Lisa hadn't lost herself to the machines, if cannibals and Saxon and a thousand little evils hadn't eaten away at him.
Jack smiled as he looked over at Ianto, hand pressed up against he car window, fingertips tracing patterns on the glass. It was only with Jack that Ianto ever let himself be free. Only with Jack. And Jack had thought it was one-sided, that Ianto was the only one he could be free with. Guess it went both ways.
Jack started making plans on monthly trips to the cottage. If that was the only place Ianto truly felt comfortable, truly felt at home, then Jack would do everything he could to bring him to that place as often as possible. It was the least he could do, the least he could offer, to the man that let him feel true peace for the first time since the Doctor and Rose.