With Owen and Tosh gone, Ianto didn't feel much like celebrating his birthday. He's survived to live another year—usually a worthy holiday in Torchwood—but they hadn't, and it felt like betrayal. Survivor's guilt was an old friend to Ianto, and this loss was still too new and raw to move past.

"I think they'd want you to celebrate," Gwen had said softly the day before, but Ianto wasn't too sure.

They would have wanted it, Owen griping that if he was alive he might as well try living and Tosh softly but firmly telling him to keep going. But he'd only just gotten comfortable to celebrating, going away with Jack the previous year for a quiet holiday, and now... They had all planned, tentatively, on celebrating together. It hadn't been a spoken plan, not really, but they'd done it for Owen's birthday, for Tosh's...

Gwen's had only been a few days ago. She'd smiled valiantly through it, toasting Owen and Tosh before cuddling closer to Rhys, leaving late and drunk even though she hadn't wanted to stay out too long. She'd forgotten her gift under the table at the pub and Ianto had only grabbed it when he'd tripped over a stray piece of wrapping.

That wasn't his idea of a good time, not tonight. Before, maybe, when there was a full team to go out with—at the very least when Martha had considered coming to town—but if he went to celebrate with just Jack and Gwen, he wouldn't be able to handle the birthday blues: Ianto would cry, or worse. Whatever worse was.

He almost wanted an alien force to descend on Cardiff and send them into chaos. Then, at least, he'd have a good excuse to not focus on his life. But the last time that had happened on his birthday, Owen and Tosh had still been there, and that... was a little too close to home to think about.

"At least you won't wish me a happy birthday," he said to Myfanwy, breaking off a piece of chocolate and throwing it to her. She chewed and Ianto broke off a piece for himself. "Right?"

Myfanwy squawked and flipped a fish carcass towards him with her wing.

Ianto sighed. "Thanks."

She squawked again and waddled closer. She likely smelled the chocolate in his hand, the extra packet inside his jacket pocket, because she put her head on his knee like a peculiar lapdog and chirped a few times.

Ianto gently petted her neck.

.oOo.

When Ianto eventually left the aerie, because a grown man couldn't move in with his pet dinosaur to avoid reality, neither Gwen nor Jack showed any surprise, either at his leaving or at his coming back.

Ianto surreptitiously wiped at his face, knowing that Gwen noticed but made a point of ignoring it—out of deference to his birthday, most likely. Small mercies. A glance towards Jack showed him to be impossibly interested in his computer screen; Ianto hoped that Jack had never had to do serious undercover missions.

Everything looked quiet, for once, the Rift taunting them with peace instead of the usual flurry, for a change, which was normal: Ianto could always count on it acting in the least convenient way possible. Just as Ianto was about to set course for the Archives, to hide in the dark and dubious warmth of the Hub's bowels instead of its rafters, the Rift alert rang. Not all that surprising, really.

"All hands on deck!" Jack yelled quickly with far too much enthusiasm.

"We're not on a boat!" Gwen yelled back, eagerly picking up on the banter for Ianto's benefit.

"Pity!" Jack threw the two of them a leer—one was still too long, too used to being targeted at most people. "I'd make a great captain!"

"You are a captain."

"That I am, Ianto!" Ianto laughed, almost despite himself, when Jack wiggled his eyebrows. "Let's go!"

They ended up, Jack driving, Ianto beside him, and Gwen muttering good-naturedly being him, in the park where Ianto had first met Jack. Ianto was familiar with it, perhaps too well. The Rift rarely dumped anything in it, so apart from chasing the occasional Weevil, Ianto only frequented it on dates. Because at heart he was a sentimental fool.

"Spread out!" Jack ordered, signaling them around the SUV and further into the trees. His voice echoed in Ianto's comm unit, doubling with the real Jack several paces away. "It's past that copse, there.

Ianto moved carefully but quickly into his directed position, expecting to see an alien taller than him, likely discolored, and definitely craving human flesh. Or at least a fight. That was just how these sorts of things went. But instead, turning the corner, gun in front of him, Gwen on the other side and Jack in the middle, when Ianto cornered the copse, he found only an old man.

He was shorter than both Ianto and Jack, grey-haired, and dressed in an unassuming but clearly alien ensemble: a long coat of a fabric that was both more matte and more shiny than anything found on Earth, sturdy boots that went halfway up his calves and did not have visible fastenings, and a familiar strap on his wrist.

A Time Agent?

But then Jack thrust his gun forward and demanded, "Who are you?"

So not a Time Agent, then.

Ianto stood and waited. The man didn't answer. He scanned their faces, moving on quickly from Jack's, resting for a moment on Gwen's, and finally resting on Ianto's with an intensity that had Ianto fighting the urge to squirm.

"That was a wonderful cup of coffee, young man," he said as if they'd been mid-conversation.

Ianto swallowed. "Thank you."

Instinct commanded him to stay on guard—and he did—but ingrained politeness mechanically answered as Ianto racked his brain, trying to place the man: he couldn't.

The man reached into his jacket—Ianto had only the thought to yell out a warning, seeing Jack and Gwen open their mouths to similarly do the same—and removed his hand just as quickly, unfisting it before Ianto could even blink and reveal a small black oval.

"Artificial breathing device," he said in the same calm voice, "you'll need it in a bit."

He pressed a button on the wriststrap, again moving quicker than possible, and by the time his clear voice rang out "And happy birthday!" he was already gone.

A bit longer this time, but I wanted to end this here. Thank you so much for reading and commenting, please let me know what you think of this final chapter, and thank you so, so much for following along to the end! :D