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Ianto looked up from the toy he was playing with on the floor, his little five year old brain trying to work out why his father was yelling at the TV like that.

Ifan had the remote, hitting the button to turn the volume up while simultaneously trying to grab a pen and paper so Ianto sat up straight, turning to look at the screen and the weird things flashing across it. Numbers, letters and a sort of …. Code? Ianto canted his head as he let his mind go blank and he let the information sink in, seeing more than his father ever could and then he decided it was so boring and some of it clearly not right, two or three languages he could recognize. He went back to constructing the little car out of blocks, ignoring the rest of the madness on screen.

They called it 'The Hunt' and it happened two days after Ianto's fifth birthday. A phenomenon that shook the world as simultaneously, all over the globe all the networks were hacked and that strange message played live on air. It was a puzzle. A strange treasure map that promised riches beyond your wildest dreams… all you had to do was find it.

Ianto did not care about such things. With an IQ of almost 300 he did not speak much, did not interact much and really hid himself as best he could, making people think he was slow… not the little freak he knew he was. He never really liked treasure hunts as everyone was so competitive in at the birthday parties his Mama made him go to. Yelling and running around with pencils held at dangerously eye level as they give away each clue to the opposing teams by talking too loud. Stuff and nonsense when Ianto always knew where it was… the Mama of whose ever birthday it was kept looking in that direction with glee while making sure her own child solved the clue with that team first.

It was rigged.

That is what five year old Indiana Ifan Jones learned toot sweet. Also... Indiana sucked for a name, especially with Jones. Indiana Jones was a fictional character from olden movies that got up to unbelievable if not most definitely deadly bullshit and always came out with the girl. Nope. Ianto did not believe in that shit at all. The fact his own parents eventually called him after his father's name in the middle of the mess he had to learn to spell, the child versions of Ifan … Ianto … seemed to back up his claims there. Even they knew they were dicks for doing it to him.

So Ianto sat while his father and three of the other men in the village schemed and plotted and prepared. They were wrong. Ianto knew the moment he saw their calculations and maps all over the basement walls… the things they thought and the plans they made… they were wrong and he almost said so. But of course, he was reminded of the last time he told his father he was wrong. That resulted in a beating … even if the Hover DID then blow up like four year old Ianto had told his father it wound if he fired it up after replacing the thermal batteries.

Nope.

Ianto watched them pack supplies, kiss their wives and kids goodbye… Ianto endured it as it was all for show. His father never showed affection and it felt almost creepy … then he stood and waved merrily between his Mama and sister, knowing within the week they would be back with nothing to show for it but stories and temper.

It was a good week actually.

Quiet.

They ate good food and Mama sang a lot more, Ianto spent time in the basement staring at the walls of stuff and wondering why it never occurred to any of them to actually take the map with them … mind you… of course it didn't matter because they had their calculations wrong but if they were playing this game they should at least use their props better. After all … they had the wrong language for that one… and that there was not Egyptian... it was Greek for fucksake… huh. Sometime adults are weird. Ianto decided that they had lost the art of imagination and that must be the problem. They needed to focus more. Remember that you require cunning and maps need to go with. You need to lose it in the river to an alligator, or have a man eating dog snatch it from your pocket and get it back with a piece missing … only in the memory of one of the others so you can't kill him now. Ya know? Real treasure stuff.

Ianto's father did return, angry and empty handed. His mother crooning that she was proud of his first attempt when so many others were too weak and after enduring his wrath she sat the next day with her split lip and whispered that she thought one of the others sabotaged him. One of the other wives … furtive. Maybe they were jealous of his knowledge and were setting him up.

Good job Mama.

Da got some new friends and they moved everything around in the basement, adding some parts that had been missing. Sissy came home from school and even handed over her tablet. It was expensive and she was NEVER allowed to share it but since Da purchased it he owned it and took it. She was upset but at least it meant he was going again.

This pattern continued for a few years, Ianto watching with increasing annoyance as their Da used resources they could not afford, even getting a loan against their home… his Mama's family home. This was when Ianto decided enough was enough and his little nine and a half year old self stormed down there and started to pull pins and reposition them in the correct spots for the calculations he knew were right, had seen that day and were not the same as the sketches on the walls… at all.

His Mama found him done there and grabbed his hands, kneeling to face him "Ianto.. sweetie Don't. Put it all back."

"But he's wrong. It's all wrong, if I help he might come home more and stop …"

"He won't. Darling, your father is an addict. He has simply swapped the booze for this. This is his monster he seeks to slay and can never find. Never. If he does he will only let someone else have the glory because in the end he is too weak to kill the dragon himself" she tried to explain "I know he is angry and bitter each time he comes back, but he goes again. He leaves. Let him have this, let him go, leave us to peace and quiet."

"But it's wrong" Ianto wailed.

"Look at me…. Darling… look at Mama. If you think you know … do not tell anyone. ANYONE. EVER. Hold it close, do not write it down, do not share. Keep it in your mind and one day when you are the big strong explorer you were named after… then and only then can you look at all of this… only then will you be ready to seek it out for yourself. No one else" she reached out to stroke his face "Do you understand me Indiana?"

"Yes Mama."

"Pinky swear" she demanded, thrusting out her hand "Swear to me, here and now that only when the planets converge and the song in your heart is true… big and strong and able to do so… only then will you show yourself to be anything other than Ianto Jones. Only then can you be Indiana Jones, adventurer and treasure hunter."

Ianto sighed as his pinky slid into hers and he looked her in the eye.

"I promise you Mama… as the gods are my witnesses … one day when I am all grown up I will find this treasure my own self." He whispered softly "And I will do so in your name."

She leaned in and kissed his face as she revisited the urge to weep.

Her greatest fear would be to lose both her men to the madness.

The Fever of the Hunt.