Jack and Ianto stood as two whirlwinds shot through the door and made a beeline for their uncle. Ianto laughed and scooped them both up sitting one on each hip. Jack smiled as he saw Ianto with the boy and girl, the boy about 5 and the little girl about 3. He introduced himself to Rhiannon's husband and shook hands before giving Rhiannon a hug and a kiss.
"My mam hasn't been too hard on you, has she?" Rhiannon asked and he laughed down at her.
"No more than the usual," Jack said lightly. The kids moved on from their uncle to their gran before looking at Jack shyly. "Hi," he waved to them and they both giggled.
"Sit down and they'll be all right," Rhiannon said. She had Johnny get some extra chairs from the kitchen and sat down. The kids were running back and forth between Ianto, the coffee table piled with presents and their mother. Ianto picked up his niece and sat her down on his lap. He spoke in Welsh to her and she chattered right back at him. Jack was enchanted, watching them together. Ianto handed her a gift and she moved so that she was sitting between Ianto and Jack as she pulled at the wrapping. Jack helped her pull the paper away and laughed as she squealed at the sight of the doll that was revealed.
Her brother Gwyn pushed his way in between and looked at what she had before looking up at Jack. "Hi."
"Howdy," Jack said with a grin.
"Who you?" The little boy asked. Jack introduced himself and Gwyn asked if there was a present for him. Jack nodded and picked up a box which he handed to the boy. Gwen sat down in front of him and opened it, chortling when he found the racing car inside. Jack helped him get it out of the box and put it on the floor. Gwyn crawled off towards the kitchen where he would have more room to play with his new toy.
When he looked up from watching Gwyn take off, he saw Ianto's mother smiling at him. He smiled back and a moment later Alys fell into his lap as she laid back and giggled. He looked down and saw that Ianto was tickling her. Deciding to become her protector, he picked her up and held her away from her uncle, scolding him.
Ianto laughed and took the scolding with good grace. When he promised to behave, Jack sat Alys back down on his knee and allowed Ianto to hold the doll so they could talk to one another.
"Well, you two have certainly made an impression," Rhiannon said with a laugh as she watched her two happy and giggling children. Johnny followed his son with his eyes to make sure he didn't crash into anything with his car. Alys eventually sat back on Jack's lap and sucked on her thumb. Their reunion had tired her out, and she clutched the doll by the hair as she watched the adults chat.
"The rest are for you," Ianto said with a nod towards the table. Rhiannon shook her head. He was always spoiling them too much, but she loved that her brother did this sort of thing. Too often siblings were more often than not at odds with one another, so having a brother who was as close as Ianto was a blessing. Rhiannon sorted through the parcels, giving one to her mother and another to her husband before taking one for herself.
She laughed when she opened the box and found an assortment of pastries from her favorite shop in Cardiff near Ianto's house. Johnny appreciated the engraved pen and pencil set, which would go well on his desk at the office. Their mother got a lovely locket. It was shaped in a Celtic knot and had both Ianto's and Rhiannon's pictures inside. She was very touched by the thought, since she never got to see nearly enough of Ianto since he lived in Cardiff.
"Thank you," she said. She had been watching Jack the whole time he was playing with the children. Children often had good instincts and both of them had taken to him immediately. "Are we all ready for lunch?"
"Yes, please!" Ianto said. He had been looking forward to this since he had first thought to bring Jack with him. His mother's roasts were to die for, and he had felt his stomach grumbling once he had gotten a whiff of it from the kitchen. He picked Alys off of Jack's lap and laid her down on the sofa. She was fast asleep, so he pulled down one of his mother's afghans off the back of the sofa to cover her. Jack had stood up and removed his coat, Ianto's mother taking it from him and putting it away in another room. They trailed her out into the kitchen where the delicious smell grew stronger.
The meal was fantastic, and exactly what Ianto had been longing for. It was also filled with laughter as he and his brother-in-law teased his sister mercilessly. Jack sat back and was happy to just watch them interact with one another until Rhiannon looked to him for support, at which point he joined in.
Mrs. Jones watched them all, saying nothing but absorbing every detail of how her son and his friend behaved. She saw that they joked with one another with easy familiarity, though both had to catch themselves at times from saying something, as if holding back in a way they wouldn't have done had they been alone together. From her son's expression on his face as he and Jack talked to one another, he was obviously committed to this man in his life, and she slowly accepted that fact. It wasn't that she objected to him being with a man, but rather that he was in such an irregular work relationship and she thought that should it go poorly, it could be harmful. It was obviously too late for her to worry about that.
