2
The horses were calmly ambling along as Scout pushed his ahead and glanced at the two men before moving past, his eyes an unnatural blue glow.
"Can you do that too?" Jack asked.
"Yes I can" Ianto replied as his eyes shone a darker blue and then faded away, "But really it's just showing off. I can see perfectly fine without that."
Jack snorted, now reassured that Scout was being childlike and enjoying himself, "So … he's small for being so old. If that's true how old is Mica really?"
Ianto glanced at him and smiled, "She is six, like I said. She is not…she's only part me. Her other parental is different so … she has a drop of me, nothing more. I'm not pure anyway, only half Jotunn."
"So, she's quarter, being your daughter" Jack pushed a little and the nod was slight as Ianto agreed, glancing over to see the distant rider in the mist "And her mother?"
Ianto slowed the horse making Jack stop as well and he turned to Jack, "I will say this here, now in the darkness with no other ears around. I birthed her, but I think you know that too."
"I considered" Jack nodded, "I thought maybe but as you say, you are half. Half human."
Ianto hummed and Jack saw that he had miscalculated, "No?"
"Half something else, yes" Ianto was furtive, his eyes sliding to the other rider and it occurred to Jack that Scout didn't know. Ianto was whispering something he hadn't told his cousin. Jack decided to drop it, to show some respect and accept that Ianto was prepared to be honest.
"So, will she age as a human would or like a Gallifreyan or Amerstral will she slow as she reached puberty?" Jack surmised softly, "Will she become her adult self and remain that way for some time?"
"Yes" Ianto nodded "once we reach an adult form we seem to stall out and remain…we age slowly and a year to us is a hundred to a human."
Jack knew he was gripping his reins too tightly and tried to relax his hands as he swallowed. Might he have really found a mate that might last? Bar death?
"Ah. Death is just a change of pace, you are not the only one who can reset" Ianto sighed, "I was saddened to find she hadn't got that as well … she is half mortal so she will have the one life, hopefully be it a long one but … not as long as mine. I will lose her one day, this I know. Maybe she will have a couple hundred…five or six? Who knows…but not the length I think I might have."
"And how long might that be?"
How long it a piece of sting?" Ianto smiled and Jack could see it in the semidarkness as the moon shone down, "I am as clueless as you are Boeshane Boy. All I know is that we both hear the drums, we both know the beat of the universe and have danced to it."
Jack pondered this strange statement, the memories of dancing…. He glanced at Ianto again, "Who is your father then?"
"My father? Ah. Jotunn, he was a royal guard that my mother took a liking to when she was marauding about being a right cow blowing things up and trying to save the worlds" Ianto smiled as he thought of her, "She was a flighty one, didn't really want a child and when my father met her again in male form I was gifted as a show of affection. Then … my parental was gone, ran away and I was raised Jotunn for the first few years, then we came to Earth. Rhiannon had been my father's from a previous lover so we are …were half siblings. Being Jotunn she was a good woman who took Mica in when I found myself compromised. It was a silly mistake, an accident. I was undercover and my job was to keep my mark contained and happy. Hyper Vodka is a bad idea. I knew as soon as it had happened, but I had to save the universe didn't I. As per usual, is it is in my DNA a good man must do a bad thing so others didn't. But I woulnd't take back a moment as it gave me my little Mimi."
"OK, I am getting confused now" Jack stopped the gorses again and turned to Ianto, "Mica is part…"
"Draxion "
"Shit."
"And while we are dropping clangers and being honest, you can stop pretending you are even remotely anything but the naughty boy who gained a touch of the Tardis. I know who you are, I have known you since you became, I felt you in the void, and I felt the tear as Rose looked through space and time and declared her love. You are Jack. I am Ianto. We both know my Dam, you died for him and I have yet to meet him without the need to kill him."
"The Doctor?"
"Yeah" Ianto smirked, "You have kissed the man who rides around in a blue box slaying monsters, and now you have bedded the child who was abandoned by him as easily as he ran from you."
Ianto urged his horse ahead as Jack sat stunned.
Well now, that was a kick in the head.