Joy to the World.
Ianto lay in bed, looking at the ceiling, trying to remain as still as possible. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He looked at the clock. It was too early to get up. Today was going to be huge. He closed his eyes as he tried to calm down; it was taking all his patience to lay here and keep still. He wanted to run up and down the stairs, race into every room, round the garden, down the lane then back again, then run up and then down the stairs a few times more.
Today was Christmas Day. Christmas was awesome. He wasn't sure he fully understood what Christmas was about. He had been read the Christmas story; it was a about a special baby, who had been born in a barn with all the animals. There had been some sort of star and three wise men with presents, 'Frankenstein, mirth and cold' and they weighed the baby in a manger whatever that was. His mum and dad were there because there was no room at the Inn. Jack had explained this was like a hotel. They was on their way to 'Nas' are 'us' with a donkey because everyone had to be counted. Ianto was puzzled he could understand the hotel being full in summer because of all the summer visitors. But this was in the winter the hotel would be empty and even it if was full there was bed and breakfast places like Mrs McCormack's. And even if all the bed and breakfast places had been full someone on the Island would have offered them a place to stay. It was very strange how they had ended up in a barn, even one as comfortable as Mr Morgan's. That's where Marigold was right now all tucked up in straw, all warm along with the sheep. Maybe there were no bed and breakfast places then because it was such a long time ago. That didn't matter because everyone still remembered and had a huge party.
Christmas was amazing. For a start there were special songs you could sing along too. There was so many; Tosh had ordered him some Christmas CD's. His favourite song was 'Jingle Bells'. Jack made him laugh because every time he played that song, Jack kept calling out 'the bells, the bells' no matter where he was in the house,he was so funny.
Other than the special baby there was a man who brought presents. He was all dressed in red and called Father Christmas. He had rain-deer with horns on their heads. He wondered if they liked being all wet or if it just rained a lot around them making them all wet. One had a nose that was all shiny like a red glowing ball. He felt really sad for Rudolph the way the other rain-deer made fun of him but then it got all foggy and his shiny nose had helped find the way. Ianto understood about fog. Sometimes it got so foggy you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. So having a shiny nose would be right useful.
Father Christmas lived at the North Pole, which was north and there was a big pole with red stripes on it like a candy cane. The pole was there to make sure everyone knew it was the top of the world. He lived there with elves, who were little creatures who made presents for all the children. He wondered if Father Christmas got lonely. It must be hard to meet someone who was not an elf. The North Pole very cold…he had a thought, maybe that what the wise man had given the baby in the barn, snow, that was cold or maybe ice cubes. Very strange present when you think about it but maybe cold things were more important long ago. He nodded to himself and wondered if Father Christmas had to worry about polar bears because they lived at the North Pole as well. He hoped none of the elves got eaten because polar bears were so big and elves were so small. It must be very annoying trying to make presents and having to worry about bears so maybe they had some kind of bear alarm.
Father Christmas was very kind because once the presents were made he took them to all the children. He must have some sort of magic to be able to visit everyone's house in one night. Ianto had gotten a little worried that Father Christmas might set off the alarms if he wanted to drop off any gifts. Jack has assured him he only visited children and as there were only grown-ups here they would buy each other presents instead. Ianto thought that was a good idea because Father Christmas had enough to to.
He wished Tosh could have stayed for Christmas because she was his best friend but she had been there a while and needed to go back because she was going to have Christmas with her family. He had made sure he had given her his presents before they left. There was one from him, one from 'Billy', one from Jack and loads more from the people in the village. There had been so many he had to help her carry them to the magic blue box.
As she had left two new people had come to stay to help out: Gwen and Rhys. He had been a bit worried to begin with because they were new people. Then he remembered they had given him Lego on his birthday and the wonderful crocodile card so he knew he was going to like them. He had given Rhys and Gwen a huge hug to say thank you for the Lego and the card. Then he had helped them get all settled. Jack had bought a new bed so they could sleep in it together. The bed just fitted in the spare room and was real comfy. Ianto had bounced up and down on it just to double check. He had helped Tosh make it up all nice using his most favourite bedding that was all red and covered in racing cars.
Since they had arrived they had been very busy and had done loads of cooking; mince pies and sausage rolls and he had made sure they made Jack favourite, 'banana cream pie'. Gwen had never heard of it and had had to look up the recipe. He had assured her it was Jack's absolute favourite. There was a turkey which they were going to roast. The turkey was huge. He had never known there were giant chickens. Rhys had told him they take a long time to cook so Rhys was going to get up early to put it in the oven.
Last night Gwen had made something called stuffing. Ianto thought that was so funny; stuffing and then you stuffed the stuffing into the turkey. It had breadcrumbs, apples, and walnuts in it. He told Gwen that he thought it was very strange when she had pointed out he was the man who had put maple syrup on a cheese omelette.
He had agreed with her that maple syrup and cheese did not work but she has assured him this would taste lovely. He knew some things just worked and he would give it a try. Then he had shared his what's best with maple syrup list. He was so proud; Rhys said it was very impressive that meant extra special good. He liked Rhys, he drove a big truck. Rhys had shown him loads of pictures from the 'Harwoods' website. His trucks had 'Harwoods' written on the sides and Rhys drove them all over England delivering things. Not only that; he gave great hugs and even played with Billy.
It was going to be such a big day. Mac was coming to share lunch and so was the nice man with the magic blue box who given him the tin of maple syrup sweeties, called the Doctor. Gwen said they would pull out the big table and lay it out all special. It was going to be a sit down dinner with a table cloth and everything laid out all nice.
Along with the turkey there was going to be roast potatoes, gravy, Brussels sprouts, cranberries sauce, parsnips, and bread sauce. Afterwards there was Christmas pudding and custard, with loads of sweeties in special boxes and something called Turkish Delight. There was also some special cracker things which he had no idea were for. He had shaken one and it sounded like it had something inside; he had asked Rhys and he had told him they were for Christmas dinner. Everyone got one and the person opposite you pulled the other end and got a surprise. This was why Ianto loved Christmas, there were so many surprises.
When they weren't cooking they had filled the house with decorations. Ianto had made paper chains which Rhys had helped him put up. There was even a real tree in the house, it smelt lovely but kept dropping needles on the floor. Rhys said it would go all brown unless the kept the water level up. Right now it was still green. He had got a bit worried but Rhys said it would okay for at least two weeks, so that was okay. The tree was now covered with loads of special things called ornaments. There were special balls that were very delicate. It meant you had be careful because they broke real easy. Then they had put on tinsel, ribbons, and little teddies with wings that dangled down. Finally Jack had put the angel Ianto had made special on the top. It was all sparkly red and gold. It had taken him ages to make it because Billy kept stealing his glue pen and tipping over the sparkles. It was so pretty. When it was all finished Rhys had turned the main room lights off and then turned on the lights on the tree. Ianto had gasped as the room filled with colours as the lights went all blinky on and off.
Billy was a rascal because he kept climbing up the tree. Firstly he made the tree shake from side to side and Ianto thought it was going to tip over. He had made Ianto laugh out loud because his face had poked out from one of the braches and he looked like a naughty ornament. Secondly he kept trying to steal the lights and if he wasn't doing that he was drinking the tree water. Ianto knew he only drank it because he couldn't tip it over no matter how hard he tried, little scamp! Gwen had called Billy a pest when kept digging at the presents so Ianto had put them up high until everyone had gone to bed then put them back. He wondered what his presents were. He had checked them all when he put them back under the tree. There were so many with his name on them. Just before he went to bed he had spent ages looking and shaking each one gently trying to guess what they were.
He had already had one present early because Jack had given it to him last night. Jack had told him it was not something he could wrap up. Jack was right; it was the best present ever, even better than Lego. It was the sort of present you could do over and over and Jack said he could have another one tonight.
As much has he loved practicing this was the best practice ever. They had kissed loads then Jack had told him to just lay back and enjoy himself. At first he was a bit confused because he liked it when they kissed each other. Then Jack kissed his penis; it had been a long slow kiss, then fast, then slow again, with loads of different bits in-between. It lasted for ages and ended with the best orgasm ever. Jack thought of the best things and Ianto couldn't wait to try kissing Jack's.
He felt Jack stir and tried to hold still. Today was the day! He had thought very hard about when to ask Jack to marry him. He had come up with loads of ideas but nothing seemed right. Then he had found out about Christmas. Christmas was perfect, everything was all decorated and there was a special meal. And if he gave Jack a special present no one would feel they were missing out because they would all have presents of their own. He couldn't have come up with a time or place more special than Christmas Day if he had tried and he had.
Right now Jack's present was all hidden. He had had it made special with an inscription and everything. It had arrived the other day by special delivery. Rhys had kept Jack busy so he didn't see. Gwen had asked him how Ianto knew it would fit. He told her that he was going to try and measure Jack's finger when Jack was asleep. He was worried Jack might wake up, but then Tosh had an idea and talked to the Doctor. He wasn't sure exactly how but they had worked it out. He felt a flutter in his stomach so he lay and practiced the words in head to make sure he had them just right.
Jack turned over and opened his eyes to see Ianto, wide-eyed, looking at him. "Hello wonderful," Jack said sleepily.
"I am so excited. It's finally Christmas Day," Ianto said with a tremor in his voice. Jack gave him a hug. "I hope you like your present."
"I know I will," Jack told him, curious to what Ianto had planned. He was not sure what to expect. There had been an air of excited anticipation for weeks that seemed to grow daily. He knew something had been delivered and there was lots of whisperings and conversations which stopped whenever he came into the room. At first he had been worried Ianto had planned a brother or sister for Billy, but Tosh has assured him his surprise was a ferret-free zone. It was all part of that 'more wonderful to come' that had had Tosh in tears. What sort of wonderful he couldn't even begin to imagine; well today he would find out. His current theory was it was garden-related. However it couldn't be large or it was well hidden because no amount of careful fossicking had revealed what it was.
"Tosh helped me, we had to order it in special and even the Doctor helped," Ianto declared.
Jack looked intrigued "The Doctor?"
"Yes, he helped me in a very special way," Ianto admitted. "But it was Tosh's idea to ask him for help." Jack shook his head as the mystery of what was going on deepened.
"I hope you like your present," Jack said a few moments later.
"Oh, I did, it was awesome," Ianto told him, wide-eyed, biting his lower lip.
"I meant the one under the tree," Jack teased. Ianto got up on one elbow to say something more when they heard a tap on the door. The door opened and Rhys popped his head around.
"It's Christmas; cup a tea, sausage rolls, mince pies and opening presents," he declared. Ianto jumped out of bed and grabbed his dressing gown then helped push Jack out of bed.
Yawning, Gwen took a good sip of her tea. It had been years since she had gotten up this early on Christmas morning. The whole of Christmas had become a bloody chore. Christmas shopping seemed to bring out the worst in people and she didn't even want to think about grocery shopping. Over crowded supermarkets with overloaded trollies being pushed by frazzled looking individuals or couples arguing over what wine to buy. Long queues at the checkout stuck behind some 400 pound man who didn't realise the importance of personal hygiene; trapped from behind by a woman with a screaming bunch of unruly children, whose child rearing skills seemed to consist of dire threats and swarms of smacks which had long ceased to be effective; children climbing all over the displays asking for more, bellowing their lungs out.
If you could spend Christmas with friends it would make all the hard work worth it. But no, you had to put up with visiting the very people you tried to avoid the other 364 days of the year. A day of forced conversations followed by uncomfortable silences, trying to avoid any controversial topic which in truth was everything. It was normally a day of overeating, drinking, and watching the Christmas specials on television.
Instead it had been wonderful. Ianto's first true Christmas. He was full of sheer exuberance which made her see the event with new eyes. Every moment of their time here had been magical. No major supermarkets here, it was all so personal. Morag's shop was like Aladdin's cave. It seemed she had stocked it with the best Christmas fare on offer. Everyone was so organised. You worked out what you wanted, gave your list to Morag and it was all delivered. God it was wonderful.
The whole Island seemed to get in the spirit, with every door sporting the most wonderful wreaths. She and Rhys been invited to several Christmas events including a village carol sing off. There had been to a Christmas pudding hurling competition. Rhys had managed to hurl a Christmas pudding 30 feet, coming in a respectable tenth.
Every event had been followed by a supper, which appeared to involve every cook trying to outdo each other. She had never seen so much food. It was all so different and she had loved every moment. And today a huge surprise for Jack. It was so exciting.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the French doors. She looked up to see a familiar face. She got up and slid the door open.
"I'm not late am I?" the Doctor said entering with his arms full of presents.
"Tea's in the kitchen, Rhys is going to bringing some warmed mince pies and sausage rolls in just a moment," she said as he placed the presents under the tree.
Jack walked in. "You made it," Jack pulled the Doctor into a hug.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world. Ianto's first Christmas and I hear rumour of a surprise," he winked at Jack then smiled.
"I keep being told that, you don't have a crocodile or real elephant I should know about?" Jack asked him raising his eyebrows as the Doctor tried to look innocent.
"Presents!" Ianto said entering the room holding a plate and a mug.
Soon the room was filled a large heap of Christmas paper and the room was rang with 'oh thank you', 'how did you know' and 'I love it'.
Jack loved his new hand-knitted winter jumper, and gardening tools.
Ianto was ecstatic with his large haul of Lego which included a pirate ship from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' with a DVD of the first film which everyone promised they would watch after dinner, much to Ianto's delight.
Finally there was only one present left. Ianto had insisted it be last. It was a small box which Ianto now produced as everyone became silent. Ianto became all shy, knelt on both knees and he bit his lip as he watched Jack open it.
Flipping up the lid, Jack saw it was a gold band with single diamond inlaid in a star. In the ring was a scroll. Unrolling it with great care he saw the edges were filled with hand-drawn red and pink hearts. On the scroll in Ianto's messy handwriting was…
"I love you Marry me.'
Ianto went on one knee and took Jack's hand. "Will you marry me?
His throat blocked with emotion Jack stood and pulled Ianto into his arms, enveloping him. "Yes, Yes, I would love to marry you," he said as he recovered and pulled himself and Ianto back onto the sofa.
Ianto took the ring box from Jack's trembling grasp, took out the ring and showed Jack the inscription on the inside. ' Ianto loves Jack ' with two tiny hearts engraved either side.
"I didn't want to make it girly, so I had it made special," Ianto told him seriously.
"And you all knew," Jack burst out as Rhys handed him a handkerchief to dry his face.
"Oh yeah Ianto's been planning this for weeks," Gwen told him winking.
"Tosh was here and she had loads of wedding magazines. I asked her lots of questions." Ianto saw a look of understanding grow on Jack's face. "She said that if you love someone best in the whole world, you ask them to marry you. We are going to have a wedding in the spring. And I am going to tell everyone how much I love you," Ianto told him as Jack sat back. Ianto lay in his arms. "That way you will be mine forever and I will be yours forever."
"Ianto you are the best Christmas present I could have ever dreamed or wished for," Jack told him as Ianto snuggled into his shoulder. Taking Jack's hand he slid the ring onto Jack's ring finger.
"Now we are engaged," Ianto declared. "You're my fiancé."
"You said that very well," Jack told him.
"I've been practicing. Gwen helped me."
"Congratulations," the Doctor said with his mouth full of mince pie. "Now about that crocodile..."
"You didn't," Jack burst out.
"No, but the look on your face. However as I am in charge of your honeymoon I thought Ianto might be interested in this." He handed a wrapped present to Ianto. Ianto unwrapped it carefully to see it was a DVD.
"What's a dinosaur?" Ianto struggled to read the back cover.
"Let me tell you about the real Jurassic Park," the Doctor said.
"Congratulations," Gwen said squeezing Jack's arm as they stood in the kitchen and he showed her the ring.
"Wedding magazines...I think I vaguely recall something?" he said creasing his brow.
"You can blame Tosh for this one, she's maid of honour for her friend Samantha, who's getting married. Samantha was having difficulty deciding a few things. Tosh offered to help and she sent Tosh just about every wedding magazine she could find. Ianto got his hands on them and he asked her hundreds of consecutive questions about love, romance and marriage," she told him.
"And you knew?" Jack queried.
"Well, she couldn't answer them all on her own. I tell you, the emails and texts were flying. I learnt more about weddings than when I was organising mine and Rhys's." Gwen paused for a moment. "Tosh told me he then went all quiet, and when he got back from his first ferret meeting he declared he was going to ask you to marry him." Jack felt everything over the past weeks fall into place and gave her a look of understanding as he now recalled the hug, Tosh's tears and where the concept of 'more wonderful to come'.
Jack and Gwen moved aside as Rhys checked the turkey. "As soon as Gwen and I got here he asked us a few things just to double-check. He asked me how I had proposed to Gwen. Said Gwen was sitting on the sofa. I said it might be a good idea if you were sitting down."
Gwen nodded. "Marriage to Ianto is the ultimate expression of love. It's joining you together as one. You will become one in every sense; you will be husbands. You should know he's planned this down the smallest detail including flowers, what you're wearing, and I think if you're not careful Marigold could be a bridesmaid," Gwen added.
"No, Marigold is not going to be a bridesmaid; Tosh is. I am going to ask Mac to be my best man and he is going to give me away," Ianto declared as he joined them.
"It's going to be traditional then?" Rhys asked.
"Tosh said you could mix and match so it will be all sorts of things. That way it will me mine and Jack's wedding and not a copy of someone else. We will have special clothes. And there's going to be invitations, wedding cake, food, dancing and I'm going to tell everyone one that I love Jack forever and ever."
Jack took Ianto's hand and kissed it. "And I'm going to tell everyone how much I love you, and how you make me the happiest man alive on this planet," he added as Ianto gave him a big grin.
"I am so happy. I told Myfanwy you said yes so she said she was going to not flame anybody today. Now I'm going to let Billy out and give him his Christmas present and his sausage roll," he told them.
"Okay every one watch your feet," Rhys warned.
An hour later everyone was sockless as Ianto chased Billy through the wrapping paper. Billy had hidden his sausage roll for later somewhere under the sofa.
"It's wonderful seeing you both so happy," Gwen said put her arms around Jack's waist.
"Right now I am so happy I could shout it from the roof tops and write it in the sky."
"Now I need to tell you that I'm making a special pouch for the rings," she said with a grin as she pulled away.
"Pouch?"
"Yeah Billy's the ring-bearer" Rhys told him as Jack groaned.
"Well at least it's not Marigold," Gwen smiled at him.