Author's Note: Torchwood is owned by the BBC. Thank you to Furious Dee for spotting a slight geography error!
Jack stood in front of the window and frowned as he looked at the sky; the sun was completely blocked out by thick, dark clouds, wind whipped through the trees and rain pattered against the glass.
"It's typical" Jack moaned. "The one day off that we get together and it rains."
"It always rains in Wales" Ianto called over his shoulder.
"But I had plans!" whined Jack.
Ianto chuckled as he walked into his living room, holding two mugs of coffee. He handed one to Jack who smiled appreciatively, "thanks Yan."
"You're welcome Jack" Ianto replied, before tucking one leg in as he sat down on the sofa. He reached across the arm of the sofa to turn on a small lamp and the dim light gave the living room a soft glow.
Jack continued to look outside for a few moments, wincing in sympathy as he watched a young woman and her umbrella battle against the wind and rain. A flash of lightening tore through the sky and Jack's groan of annoyance almost drowned out the rumbling thunder that followed.
Ianto couldn't help but smile over the rim of his mug as Jack threw himself down onto the sofa, almost sloshing his coffee. Jack nervously glanced at Ianto, expecting to be admonished but was relieved to see that the young man had apparently not noticed.
The two men sat in a comfortable silence, sipping their warm drinks and watching the storm grow outside. Jack had soon gulped down his coffee, not savouring it like Ianto and placed his mug on the coffee table.
"Here" he said quietly, moving his body so that one leg was extended on the sofa and the other was resting against the floor, with his back against the armrest. He grasped Ianto's shoulders gently and encouraged him to lean back against his chest, in between his legs.
Ianto wiggled until he was comfortable and continued to stare out of the window; his hands wrapped around his mug, enjoying the warmth coming from it.
"I used to love watching storms when I was a kid" Ianto said suddenly, "Rhiannon used to be petrified and hide under her bed but I loved them."
"What stopped you watching them?" Jack asked quietly.
Ianto shrugged and took a final gulp of his drink, "I never have the time to now I suppose."
Jack frowned and thought about how much Torchwood took from their lives, so much so that it was a rare occurrence just for them to even see the weather, let alone enjoy it.
Ianto craned his neck around to look at Jack and said "stop brooding; we see plenty of wonderful things in our line of work."
Jack grinned and kissed Ianto's forehead "but sometimes the simple things are best."
Ianto hmmed in response and then leant over to place his mug next to Jack's.
"Ow!" complained Jack, as Ianto leant on his knee in order to reach.
Ianto ignored him and settled back against Jack's chest, Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto's waist and Ianto placed his hands on top.
"You're right" Ianto sighed softly after a moment, "sometimes the simple things are the best."
Jack nudged the back of Ianto's head with his nose and smiled into his hair, "that was pretty cheesy of you."
Ianto grinned, "I must be spending too much time with you."
Jack squeezed Ianto tighter to him for a second and whispered "not enough."
Ianto was glad that he wasn't facing Jack at that moment, he had no idea how to reply to him so just settled for squeezing the hands beneath his own gently.
A few minutes later Jack said "I love watching storms, I remember the first time I saw one with rain it was unreal to me. I was twenty two and had never seen one before, let alone with thunder and lightning."
Ianto tilted his head to the side and looked at Jack, "did you not have them where you grew up?"
Jack shook his head, "not really. I lived on a desert like planet; we had sand storms, which were terrifying, but nothing like this."
Ianto treasured the little tit bit of information that Jack had just given him, Jack rarely opened up and even rarer still spoke of his childhood.
"I can't imagine not seeing rain" Ianto murmured, "seems like it was always raining when I was a kid."
Jack chuckled and mimicked Ianto's words from earlier "well you did grow up in Wales." After a few moments silence Jack continued, "you should have seen me when I first saw snow, I stayed out in it so long I nearly became hypothermic."
Ianto chuckled "I can imagine it."
The conversation died out and the two men sat contently; Ianto had unconsciously matched his breathing with Jack's and their chests moved as one. Jack enjoyed the feeling of Ianto in his arms; they never had time to just simply be together whilst at work. Even when the others had left for the day they could never relax, they would eat, sleep, have sex but always with the threat of the rift alarm wailing on their minds.
"So what did you have planned for today?" Ianto asked.
Jack dropped his chin onto Ianto's shoulder and said "I was going to drive us to Hay-On-Wye."
Ianto tried not to shiver as he felt Jack's warm breath on his ear and asked a little breathlessly, "why, what's there?"
Jack smirked, knowing what effect he was having on his lover and made sure to make his voice a little lower, "it's this tiny place absolutely filled with old book shops".
"Yeah?" Ianto said, a little surprised.
"Yeah" Jack murmured, "there's all these shops filled with books to the rafters and some places just specialise in old books, first editions and stuff. I figured that you'd like to go."
Ianto bit his lip, "we could still go."
A large clap of thunder and the rain pounding against the window put silence to that argument and Ianto craned his neck and smiled sheepishly at Jack "probably not safe to drive."
"No" Jack smiled, "probably not." His smile fell, "it's a shame it would have been nice to wander around and do something normal for once."
"I know" Ianto said, feeling disappointed. Jack's plan would have been lovely and Ianto was touched, the archivist in him loved old books and it wasn't exactly Jack's kind of thing. Jack liked to do things, he'd get bored within minutes searching through book shops but he'd planned for them to go, just for him.
"I'd planned a picnic" Jack whispered, cutting through Ianto's thoughts, "there's a river that cuts through so I figured we could sit by that and eat."
"Ah so that's why I wasn't allowed near the fridge this morning" Ianto smiled.
"Yep" Jack said. "Oh well, maybe another time eh?"
"Yeah" Ianto said quietly. Both men knew that it would be a long time before they both had time off together again.
Ianto shifted his body and clambered awkwardly on the sofa, so that he was kneeling and facing Jack. He looped his arms around Jack's neck and said "we could still have that picnic."
"I could eat" murmured Jack, his eyes on Ianto's lips.
Ianto bent down to kiss Jack gently, he made to pull away but Jack placed a hand on the back of his head and deepened the kiss.
With a groan Ianto pulled away and said "you get the food, I'll be back in a moment." Ianto quickly clambered off of the couch and left a stunned and panting Jack Harkness alone.
A few minutes later Ianto walked into the kitchen and his eyes boggled at the sheer amount of food that Jack had bought. "Jesus, did you invite the rest of the team along?"
Jack looked at all the food on the kitchen side and privately thought that perhaps he had gone a little mad in the shops; a thick crusty loaf, slabs of cheese and slices of ham were there to make sandwiches, along with packs of cocktail sausages, scotch eggs, mini pork pies, bags of crisps and finally a small fruit cake.
Jack grinned sheepishly "no, but you need all this stuff when you have a picnic."
Ianto smiled and took a thermos out of the cupboard before switching on his coffee machine.
Jack grinned as he saw what Ianto was doing to add to the picnic vibe and quickly made up the sandwiches. When Jack finally walked back into the living room he smiled as he saw that Ianto had moved the coffee table out of the way and had spread out a blanket with a few cushions for them to sit on.
Ianto sat cross legged and patted the space next to him, "come on."
Jack sat down heavily and began to spread out the food he was holding. Ianto leant over to his laptop and hit play and Jack couldn't help but laugh as the sounds of a bubbling stream began to play.
"Very realistic" Jack commented.
"I like to think so" Ianto smiled.
The two men ate until they were stuffed and Ianto nearly choked on his mouthful of coffee as Jack ate a cocktail sausage in a decidedly lewd way. Eventually they cleared the rubbish and leftovers out of their way and lay down on the blanket together.
"Rain's dying down" Ianto commented quietly, his hands running through Jack's hair.
"Uh huh" Jack replied sleepily, his head was on Ianto's chest and his heartbeat was slowly lulling him to sleep.
"Jack" Ianto said quietly.
The effort of moving his head was too much so Jack just looked up,"yeah?"
Ianto raised his head slightly to look downwards and said "this was a really nice date."
Jack just smiled and closed his eyes, thinking that perhaps the rain hadn't ruined their day after all.