My current verses are all annoying me and the chaps are not yet ready to share. This one is a back burner one I have had for when I needed a filler so here it is. Just a short 15 chap story to give me time to get another verse to the poit where is it ready to start posting again. Hope you like it.
1
Jack looked up as his assistant glided into the room with his usual silent flair, seemingly unable to see his own effect on the Captain who straightened and pulled his chair in more.
In a world of black and white, shades of pale and bland, Jack always admired the man's subtle attempts to buck the system, the bright red handkerchief in his breast pocket today in total disregard to the colour codes.
"Mister Jones."
"Captain Harkness Sir" Ianto canted his head softly as he placed the files down in their plain grey folders, "I fear there is a blood stain on a page I was unable to remove. I would happily redo the report but it is in Doctor Harper's handwriting and I fear I am unable to decipher his ranting. I do not speak such words let alone repeat them in the written form."
"I know" Jack grimaced, "In time the blood will fade to a dull brownish rust. We can pass it off then."
"Yes sir" Ianto smiled softly then remembered his place letting it drop, "Anything else before I sign out for the rest of the day?"
"Sign out?" Jack looked up from the folders with surprise.
"Sir, it is the Born Day of my youngest. I requested the afternoon off and it was granted by yourself a month ago" Ianto said soothingly, "I have left a fresh pot of coffee and those biscuits with the raisins you like."
"Ah, thank you Mister Jones" Jack nodded, "Who is replacing you?"
"Mister Davison had volunteered to run the gauntlet. There is a poll I believe amongst the crew to see how long before you throw something at him" Ianto said drolly and Jack laughed as he waved him off.
Ianto walked out and removed his security tag that showed him actively in Jack's service and handed it to Andy Davison who was already sitting at his desk speaking into the regulation black phone with a roll of his eyes. Like Ianto, Andy's eyes were not regulation brown so they both wore the glasses, commonly called shades which shuttered the colour to a more uniform grey. Ianto sometimes got a glimpse of Jack's eyes over the edge of his, that brilliant blue taking his breath away the first time he saw it.
Gods, to have colour.
Ianto walked the long corridor of the covered walkway from the hovering office back to the main station where the crew quarters were, the only colour the soft muted green at each airlock to show they were clear. He nodded politely to others as he walked, several eyes sliding to the splash of non-regulation colour at his breast but everyone knew he was the Captain's favourite so a frown of disapproval was all they could show as Ianto reached his quarters and keyed in the code, then stepped into the receiving room which was as bland and cold as the rest of the vessel. The sound of a party was coming from behind a wall and he smiled softly as he touched a hidden panel to raise the wall, the party now visible as the explosion of colour greeted him.
"Who started without me then?" he scolded and the children screamed, running for him with their arms wide as he knelt and welcomed his loves into his own arms, kissing and crooning before he rose and nodded to Rhiannon who was waiting for him to lower the wall before speaking.
"You are late, I was starting to worry" she said softly as the children ran back to the bright balloons that they loved more than anything, the colours so bright in the world of bland. Ianto was glad he had smuggled them aboard amongst the Captain's things in his Diplomatic Case.
"He pretended to have forgotten" Ianto smiled, "It's OK Sissy. I'm here now."
"Stop that, you know you cannot call me that" she hissed as she looked around furtively and Ianto pulled her close.
"Stop it. We have checked, rechecked and furtively pulled things apart. Besides, no one else speaks Welsh in this boat" he reassured her, "I love you but sometimes I might scream."
"I am so grateful. This opportunity… you could have married her instead. Taken her" Rhiannon was careful not to speak Lisa's name but it brought a frown to her brother's face anyway.
"I love you more. The thought of leaving you to the weather bombs… we both know even if you survive one of the children probably would not" Ianto sighed, the unstable weather of their planet now deadly at times. They both knew he was being kind. She and both her children would be dead had her brother not 'fudged' the paperwork and named her as his mate. DNA checks on the children of course showed them to be related and they had quickly learnt to call him Taddy.
It was almost sad really, Micha's delight in being able to call him that, her own dead-bead father left behind too drunk to even notice the departure of his family until it was too late to stop the launch. He had died not three days later in a Bomb that had wiped the entire estate off the face of the planet. Over two hundred dead, his name just one more.
They knew there would be a trade off, the Agency a stickler for the rules and regulations. The drab colours of uniform greys, black and white had to take but in these moments, in the inner sanctum where religions and cultural freedom was allowed the Welsh red and green raged.
Rhiannon kissed her brother's cheek and sighed, "Yes Husband."
The siblings giggled softly at the silliness of it.
The princess danced as her contraband coloured balloons floated around her gaily.
