Walter was watching his minions movie out in the main room and he kept looking over the edge of the sofa arm at his little brother who was asleep in his wee beanie chair on the floor.
He bent over and hooked the blanket off the floor and carefully covered the wee mite before resuming his TV watching.
Ianto wandered into the room with a wooden box in his hands. It was about the size of a tissue box and was hand carved. Little creatures cavorted from ivy leaves and his movie was forgotten as Walter gasped with wonder.
Walter knew a treasure chest when he saw one.
Ianto settled on the sofa and lovingly drew his hand across the woodworked top. Walter quivered as he watched his Taddy spring the latch and open it.
It was a treasure chest!
"Wow" Walter whispered as he slid to the edge of the sofa to peer inside at different little things. Shiny things, carved animals, a cigarette lighter in the shape of a little gun, lots of tat.
Jack walked down the stairs and flopped into a chair between the sofas. He smiled down at the wee rabbit and resisted the urge to pick him up. "Wee baba bum" he whispered to no one in particular as his love overflowed and he had to voice it somehow.
Walter reached for something Ianto had pulled from the box and placed on the table.
"It's a robot!" Walter whispered. Holding up an action figure.
"A Cyborg" Ianto corrected him. "Your Mummy brought me that on our first anniversary because I sometimes said she was my Cyber woman the way she kept going under pressure. Her family were mean to her and she never gave up on us, even when they hated me."
Ianto sighed and touched the small robotic toy.
"I think she would like her wee cyborg to have a bit of air, boring in a box" Ianto muttered and Walter's grin split his face as he slid form the sofa and ran to his Daddy to show him his new toy.
"Wow!" Jack enthused as he looked at the little robot and feigned jealousy. Walter held it protectively as he ran to his bedroom, intent on finding a place of importance for it.
"Made his day, that bit of tat" Jack smiled and Ianto hummed as he continued to dig through the box.
"Forgot all about it Cariad" he said absently as his fingers found a piece of leather.
Jack caught the endearment and smiled softly, he was thawing.
Ianto gently extracted the leather string and the small bead on it, holding it up to the light.
"What's that Taddy Bar?" Walter asked and Ianto smothered a grin. Since hearing his Taddy called a Teddy Bear so often lately he was trying his own version. Ianto knew it wouldn't last so ignored it.
"This is what my mammy gave me when I was tiny." Ianto informed him, letting him see the bead.
It was wood, hand carved like the box with a tiny impish face on it and an ivy leaf.
Noah had started to rouse and Jack swooped with glee, scooping him up and crooning as the Babbit smiled sleepily at his Daddy.
"What is it?" Walter's face had become serious as he fingered the bead, his eyes wide.
"Magic!" Ianto answered with a grin.
He retrieved the bead and walked over to Jack, kneeling between his legs.
"Oh Babe, not in front of the children" Jack mock gasped and Ianto playfully slapped at him.
Ianto carefully tied the leather strap around Noah's neck and let the bead fall just below his chin.
"He can't chew it there, you can lengthen it as he grows" Ianto smiled.
"What is it?" now Jack was intrigued by Ianto's reverence and Walters sudden seriousness.
"It's a Mara bead" Ianto lent back, his hands on Jack's legs, "I know it's silly, but tradition is not always based on stupidity. Mam told me that this bead comes from a great yew tree that once dominated the Wilding Wood, long before we humans trampled about in it. It is said that any child who wore a bead of acceptance is safe from the fae, and will not be stolen as a chosen one."
"A what?" Jack's mother asked softly from the other sofa where she had been reading unobserved.
"An unhappy or unwanted child goes missing and it was once believed that the fae came and took them to a better place where they were loved" Ianto told her.
"Oh, like the stories of changelings?" she smiled.
"Yeah, silly superstitions but I used to finger this bead when I felt scared or lonely. Somehow it made me feel safer somehow." Ianto shrugged and Jack reached out to touch his face.
"Wanted." he whispered and Ianto looked up with a soft smile. "You will always be wanted my darling."
Ianto leant over the baby for a gentle kiss and Victoria smiled as she saw the love between then seem to glow in the sunlight as it burst through the French doors behind them.