"I thought you might be up here," Ianto said as he opened the roof door and spotted Jack. "What are you doing?"
"Watching the rugby," Jack replied without looking around.
"I know you can see the stadium from here but you'd have to have pretty good eyesight to watch the game," Ianto commented, edging his way across the ashfelt to his lover.
"You always could tell when I was lying."
Ianto wrapped his arms around Jack and rested his head against the other man's back.
"So are you coming home tonight? Or are we going to see the sun come up from here?"
Ianto knew Jack's obsession with roofs was his way of dealing with the daily traumas Torchwood threw at them. From up here Jack could see the world in perspective and find space to think. He often took to the roof in times of crisis.
Not that Ianto shared his lover's affection for heights. Ianto much preferred to keep his feet firmly on the ground.
"Can we go home?" Ianto asked, trying to stop himself from begging. When Jack was in this mood, they could be stood on the roof all night.
"I was thinking about Owen," Jack told him. "It seems so unfair that I get to live forever and he gets to die forever. It's hardly going to be much fun."
"Owen's strong," Ianto reassured him. "And you standing up here all night, freezing to death, is not going to help him."
"Agreed," Jack replied.
"So...home?"
Jack nodded.
He took Ianto's hand and they headed back down the spiral staircase to the ground floor.
"You know we could take a diversion on the way home," Jack suggested.
"Pizza?"
"Pizza!"
So Jack spent one less night on the roof overlooking Cardiff and Ianto got his wish to keep his feet on the ground.
In times of crisis, it seems pizza is a suitable alternative to roofs.
Pizza and Ianto.