Christmas With Torchwood 1.2
LINE BREAK BE FESTIVE
Ianto smiled, as his parent's car pulled up outside the small café. True, they hadn't had the ideal family, but it had still been over a year since he had seen them. He stood outside the doors, waiting for the past ten minutes. Provided, he was always early, but he hadn't bothered with a coat over his jacket, and the denim wasn't as thick as he would have liked. He could hear a small voice in the back of his head, which sounded annoyingly like Jack, comment.
'See, if you got it at a proper Levi's shop, you wouldn't have this problem.'
'Well I'm not a little rebel, alright? Some people have the sense to dress decently.' Great. Now he was arguing with the voice in his head.
Ianto stepped forward, about to open the car door for his father when another vehicle pulled in right next to the first. He grinned, recognizing it as his sister's little hatchback. He smirked. That was his family. Always perfectly timed.
He opened the door for both his parents, smiling.
"Mam, Tad. It's great to see both of you again." He turned, about to greet his older sister, Rhiannon. However, before he had a chance to speak again, he was tackled to the ground.
Ianto cried out, his torchwood-enhanced instincts screaming at him to hit back. That was, until he recognized the slender form attacking him.
"Kira?!" He stared, astonished at his twin sister's seemingly ghostly appearance. "But – you – you're supposed to be at Uni."
Kira sat up, lettering her older-by-ten-minutes brother get up, off the cold asphalt.
"Well, technically, I still am." She relied coyly. "But when I heard that Mam and Tad and Rhi were all going to visit my favorite brother-"
"I'm your only brother" Ianto interrupted, huffing.
"Not if you count Johnny." Kira made a disgusted face, earning herself a smack from Rhi. "Well, I just couldn't let you go tonight without blessing you with my esteemed presence." This earned her smacks from both her siblings. "Ow! Anyway, but roommate smuggled me out after my last final. Don't have to be back until Monday."
Ianto grinned. That was the foolish sister he remembered dropping off at University two years ago. It had been a secret between the two of them that she had only went to get away from the stifling atmosphere their parents (cough*tad*cough) caused around the house.
"Regardless," Ianto rolled his eyes, hugging both of his sisters. "I'm glad that all of you could make it."
"Great." His tad interrupted. "Now can we go inside? It's bloody freezing out here!"
Ianto sighed, nodding. "It's just this way." He led them out of the small lot to the café doors. Mentally, he was relieved. If his tad was sober now, there was a chance that this evening might actually go well.
Suddenly, Ianto slowed, glancing back over his shoulder. He blinked, as a red American pick-up truck rolled into the parking lot after they left. He shrugged the feeling off, catching up with his family.
"Ooh, I've heard about this place" Kira buzzed excitedly. "All of my friends say it's great. Especially on Fridays. They have this coffee house thing – local talent shows up starting at six, and plays for the customers. It's supposedly really, REALLY cool. I've just never gotten the chance to come."
"As you should." Ianto's mam spoke up for the first time that evening. "You should be studying."
"But the material here is SOOOO much more worth studying than physics." She confided quietly in her brother's ear. Ianto smirked.
"Then you ought to be pleased. I checked with the manager, a nice man – I think his name is Alfred. He assured me the band tonight is supposedly… how would you put it?" Ianto nudged her in the ribs. "'Epic'?"
Kira squealed, pulling him through the door. However, the chalkboard inside the coat room contradicted that promise. Ianto froze, reading the proclamation.
'Tonight's guest entertainment:' under that was a scribbled out line, presumable where "Just Let Us" had been written. However, there was a new name written beneath that line.
'Jay'
'Shit' Ianto thought. Kira noticed the look on her brother's face, taking a moment to read the board. However, on seeing the name, she burst into a new round of squeals,
"Oh my gosh, Yan – you didn't. You COULDN'T. How did you do that? Tell me. Please." Kira grabbed his hand, jumping like a two-year-old on a caffeine high. "Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, please?"
Ianto blinked, confused. "What? I didn't do anything."
Kira looked at him doubtfully. "Liar." She glared at him until they were seated.
"What?" He responded, clueless. "I honestly didn't do anything. I don't know why-"
"Because." His sister scoffed. "He never shows up on an off-day."
"So you know him?" His mother asked.
"No." Kira blushed. "But a lot of my friends do – well, they've met him. I mean, the man is like, a music go- angel." She quickly changed her sentence so that their tad wouldn't accuse her of 'devil worshiping', or whatever he was calling it that day.
At that point, Rhiannon began to ask their parents about how they had been getting on since all of their children had moved out, giving Ianto the chance to look over the room. They had been seated in a glassed off section near the front door, perpendicular to the front counter. Directly across the room from the counter was an empty space, with two stands set up amid a controlled tangle of wires.
'The stage' Ianto assumed, watching a familiar figure drag a small amp in from the back door. Squinting, he recognized Andy Davidson, Gwen's former partner. Why would he be helping haul in the equipment? Half-way through his assessment, Andy called out to someone behind the door.
"Hey, you need any help with those slides babe?" Apparently he got back a negative response, as a vaguely familiar form pulled a three-foot long table of slides inside. The two looked at each other, smiling for a moment before hauling in the two amps that the stands were intended for.
"Make sure to turn the bass down John." Andy cautioned, as they plugged in the amps. At that, Ianto recognized the second man. It had taken so long for Ianto to recognize him simply because he looked nothing like he remembered.
The most immediate was the hair color. Most of his hair was now a pale brown – almost blonde; while his bangs, which hung loosely in his face, had been dyed a dark purple. The flashy clothes were gone; in their place was a simple pair of black jeans and an 'avenged sevenfold' (whatever that was) shirt. He had been wearing a leather jacket, until the amps had started to go up, at which point the jacket was abandoned. His typical boots were also gone, replaced by a modern pair of jump boots. Even the cowboy-style holsters were gone, supplemented by two blackened gunmetal chains. Hell, if Ianto didn't know him from before, it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe it was an entirely different person. But all doubts left his mind when Andy leaned over, planting a small kiss on the other man's cheek.
Ianto felt his face go pale, as John-bleeding-Hart, of all people, smiled.
Rhiannon, fortunately, noticed this; as she pulled him into the conversation before Ianto could even think about regretting leaving his gun behind at his flat.
Soon, he was consumed by a discussion of his workplace, leaving behind any lingering thoughts of ex-time agents. Well, one of them at least.
LINE BREAK BAH HUMBUG
Jack sucked in a calming breath, exhaling it slowly through his teeth. Good, he needed that.
Reluctantly, he looked over at the spot next to him on the tailgate. Groaning quietly, he picked up the spiral notebook, flipping open the pages until he reached the middle section. Slowly, he began ordering the pages with pull-tabs.
He was about half way through the pages when he was interrupted by a loud 'bang', followed by an undignified string of multi-lingual cursing.
"How many languages did he learn since last week?" Jack wondered aloud, staring to get up. However, he was put at ease when a light-brunette head peeked around the door frame.
"Don't panic." He called, smiling sheepishly. "I only broke Drewie's foot." That was met with an annoyed squawk from inside.
"Only my foot?! Get your stupid-" The door banged shut, breaking off whatever was about to be said – likely saving Jack's ears from a tirade worthy of a teenage girl PMSing.
He chuckled. Neither of his friends was close to a professional roadie, but hey – who was he to argue. If he had to set up everything by himself, the show wouldn't get a chance to go on (Hahaha – Queen pun?) Hell, it would be a miracle if the show even started.
Sighing, Jack finished ordering the pages, grabbing his case out of the truck bed before venturing inside. Well, he was about to, until he remembered the one thing he had left in the cab. Rushing over, He grabbed the almost-forgotten object, grinning as he banged the tailgate closed with one foot.
Jack wasn't psychic, but something told him that tonight was gonna' go just fine.
BREAK_
And yes, I know that was a really weird picture of John that I just painted. But I needed him to look different, alright!
