Ianto was purposely being heavy for poor Lisa who was excitedly dragging him throughout London.
"Come on, sweetie," she sighed after a while.
"Did you just call me sweetie?" Ianto smiled. Lisa rolled her eyes, almost as expertly as her boyfriend, and reaffirmed her grip on his hand. "Why do we have to go out anyway? I was all for a night in..."
"They're our friends, don't be like this!" She sounded offended but Ianto knew she was smiling anyway.
He stopped joking around and followed her, walking by her side, but neither of them let go of the other's hand, and they both smiled happily, properly entwining their fingers. They stopped at an old cinema, and Ianto smiled even more. He loved those old cinemas, especially if they were showing old archives in black and white, glimpses of what life looked like only forty years ago.
"Happy birthday, you old man," she whispered in his ear after a while, and he laughed, cupping her face wit his free hand to kiss her.
"You lied to me," he said against her mouth but it didn't even sound like a reproach.
"I didn't! I just hid some of the truth... We're really going to celebrate with the others after, but I wanted to take you here first," she shrugged, then smiled and Ianto simply nodded in response because he couldn't answer anything when she was smiling like this. She had such a particular and beautiful smile.
After a couple of minutes of just staring at each other – they did that a lot – Lisa kissed him again and dragged him into the cinema. For once in his life, Ianto wasn't amazed by the images displayed before him. They had already gone to the cinema a few times already, he had already watched Lisa staring at the screen, but this time it felt different. She seemed even more full of joy than usual – which was saying something – and if she usually had a playful, or a satisfied, or even a tired smile, this time it looked like true, genuine, deep happiness, and she was even more beautiful. He already knew he was in love, but this was something else. She wasn't just someone he loved, she wasn't just his girlfriend, she was the one. He wanted to love her for the rest of his life and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, showing it to her.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he was watching her close and she had just taken a snickers bar out of her jacket.
"What?" she returned the question, her mouth full with the snack bar, and Ianto had to control himself not to laugh out loud.
"Did you sneak food into the cinema?"
"They said they didn't sell any pop-corn or other... I will throw it in the bin after don't worry," she answered while opening another one, the more silently possible.
Ianto rolled his eyes, smiling, and kissed her on the cheek as she was taking a bite. "I love you so much."
She choked on her food and stared at him with wide eyes. "Don't say things like that when I'm illegally eating snickers at the back of a cinema," she said after swallowing.
"But you're cute."
"Now shut up and watch the film, I took you here for this."
Ianto smiled, because he knew she was slightly blushing even though she would never admit it, and turned to the screen to enjoy the movie. He almost burst into laughing when the new snack Lisa was trying to open fell and she cursed, then cursed again because she had cursed aloud, then took the snack from the floor and made a hell lot of noise to open it, and everyone glared at them. She apologized while Ianto was trying to keep a straight face and he silently laughed when she nudged his ribs with her elbow. They – mostly – stayed calm the rest of the film but walked out laughing, because the man in front of them had moved weirdly every two seconds and they were young, making fun of other people was bad but so much fun.
As promised, Lisa took him at a friend's who had a big house and had accepted to celebrate Ianto's birthday at his place. They ate, talked a lot, laughed occasionally, and it soon became a bit overwhelming for Ianto who did like his friends and being with them, but wasn't a big lover of great gathering especially when he was the centre of interest.
When it was starting to feel too much, he almost asked Lisa to leave, even if he couldn't bring himself to, because they had all come for him, but his girlfriend put a reassuring hand on his under the table and stroked his skin with her thumb, shaking her head with a small smile. She mouthed the words "I love you" and Ianto felt better.
Don't forget comments are the only payback, if I may say, we get as fanfic authors :)
I almost didn't finish this one because it was way harder than I'd have thought... Also, I am now in love with Ianto and Lisa because they're cuties. Anyway! I wanted to apologize in advance if I don't manage to post every day, even though I'm trying to, but life is kicking back and... haha I'm kidding, what life? I'm just getting a cat soon and I'm very excited and it's all I can think about so I'm trying to post daily and especially write something that I like every day, but I might fail at this... Sorry! ;)
