The car ride to the HUB had been awkward at best. Ianto was a bundle of emotions that Jack simply couldn't untangle. The immortal wanted to say something, anything, to calm the storm that was his lover, but nothing felt right. So he settled for sitting in stony silence, while his lover fought himself in the passenger seat. Once they had arrived at the HUB Ianto had leaned over to the immortal, resting his head his head on his lover's shoulder.
"Jack, I'm sorry." The Welshman whispered, and Jack had looked down in surprise.
"For what Yan? Morning sex? Because I am not complaining about that." The Welshman smirked, but his mood never shifted.
"For not explaining. But it's not something that I can explain, exactly. Just-" The Immortal twisted in his seat, pulling his lover to his chest.
"It's ok Yan. I know that you have to do what you have to do." The captain smiled. "And believe me, mab-" Ianto scoffed.
"Do not call me that." Confused, the immortal pulled back.
"Why not? Isn't it a Welsh term of endearment?" The Welshman shook his head, a slight smirk on his face
"No, it's the Welsh word for son." Jack's face fell into a mask of horror, as he sputtered for something to say.
"Seriously over 200 years in Cardiff, and you never learned the language?" Jack rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.
"Nearly everyone here speaks English. What Welsh I have picked up is only to help with the locals." The Immortal shrugged.
"When you managed to say a phrase to my mother, I nearly toppled out of my chair. I didn't know that you spoke any Welsh past,' hello, goodbye, and lets have sex." The immortal grinned at the Welshman.
"Well that last part is very useful." The Welshman leaned forward, his face a breath from his lover's.
"Thank you for behaving this morning." Jack smiled, the proximity of his Welshman muddling his thoughts.
"I did well did I?" The Welshman let his lips brush against the edge of Jack's jaw.
"Very. I was rather impressed." The immortal swallowed.
"Guess I'll have to do even better when I meet your Tad." Ianto pulled back, fear and anger over powering everything else.
' "You aren't coming Jack." The captain bristled.
"Why not? Are you embarrassed to have your old man meet me? Or ashamed of me?" Ianto opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, opting instead to simply get out of the car, slamming the door behind. The immortal scurried out of his own seat, anger and pain fueling him as he strode towards the Welshman.
"So that's it then. You're ashamed to have me meet your folks! Would you have ever let me meet your mother if she hadn't walked in on us?" Ianto kept walking tears burning his cheeks.
"You wouldn't have! Oh, and why not? I'm too old, you're too young, oh, is it that you don't want him to know what happened to his only son? That he's shagging a guy?" The Welshman turned at that, his voice cold and controlled, despite his raging emotions.
"I don't want you hurt, sir." The immortal felt all his anger leave him, he crumpled in on himself, a deflated balloon.
"Hurt? Ianto I-" The Welshman held up a hand.
"You are not coming to meet my Tad, because I don't want you to see what will happen. I don't want you in the crossfire, and I don't want you doing or saying something that we will both regret. Now, if you would please, we have work to do, and I really want to get all this UNIT drama over with." The Welshman wrenched open the door to the tourist office, ignoring all the confusion and disgust flowing from the people on the Plass. Jack ran up behind him, a hand tentatively setting itself upon his shoulder.
"Yan. I'm-" But the Welshman simply shook the immortal away.
"Forget about it, ok? Let's Focus on now, and not worry about the future." Jack nodded, but couldn't let this go. His Ianto being upset was unacceptable, but being upset over this, that he would have to fix.