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"No, that is not what I said at all" Ianto repeated what Jack was annoyed to hear "I said… maybe it's not right for the room. I was thinking about the den, not the main living room. The Den has the darker walls, the moody feel and will have the fireplace glowing at night. A scene of the moors might fit in there, moody and peaceful. Barren. This room should have something with movement in it like… a horse galloping or something. Not a landscape with no features to it bar tuffs of tussock grass here and there."

Ianto wondered what it was about this piece that called to Jack so much, almost overeager to have it and then he vaguely recalled him talking about his home planet. Boeshane. Right. Stupid. Callous to reject it, it's not just a picture. It's a reminder. Similar landscape to his home.

"Or…" Ianto said out loud "Since our bedroom is so light and airy with all the whites and pale aqua here and there… it might fit above your dresser on your side of the bed?"

Jack stopped arguing, his mouth slamming shut as he stood with a white knuckled grip on the large painting that showed Ianto his inability to let it go. He looked down at it, then at Ianto "Really? You would let me have it in our room?"

"Why not. It is peaceful, sort of beachy so it will be in keeping with the coastal theme we have going in there with the pale colours." Ianto shrugged.

Jack lit up as he took off to see if it would fit above the large mirror on his side and Ianto went back to picking through the other thongs. Finally he found it. A woodland scene with a badger peering out of the undergrowth, birds sitting on branches as if singing to the dawn that lit the sky and there were even rabbits. Lovely. He hung it quickly and stepped back, the bright colours and busyness of it perfect of the family living room where Emma would play in the rainy season. Where they would entertain and laugh, have fun. Ianto loved it.

"Oh wow… forgot I snatched that off the wall with the others. Cool" Jack said as he re-entered flushed and excited "Ianto, it felts perfectly. Looks like it was made for there."

"Great, this one of the lighthouse in a storm, maybe outside out bedroom door so when it is open we can see it on the hallway wall?" Ianto patted one "And this other one of the seagull on the post, I like that one too. Same hallway? Sort of lead into our bedroom from here to make it a beachy feeling?"

Jack loved it, rushing to hang them as Ianto went to make something to eat, the only picture he really wanted was the one he had not touched yet. Emma accepted a Marmalade and cheese as he mulled over why he wanted it at all. A dragon on a cliff overlooking a castle and village below. To the prettiest, not the best. It was an original done with oils and it was a little messy actually, like it was hung before completely dry and some colour shad bled.

It was a Welsh Dragon, viewing a valley below with its huge claws curling over the rock face of the cliff it stood on. It seemed to be protecting, not dangerous as he looked down on the small village fully perceivable in the valley.

"Ianto? Any others?"

Ianto knew he had to say it, "The dragon one? Can we have that in her room please?"

"Dragon … dragon… oh. Look at that. Yeah, I liked that one, made me think of you" Jack called back filing Ianto with glee. Hammering sounded throughout the house as Jack secured the damned thing within an inch of its life, some notion she might swing off it and have it fall doing to decapitate her or something in his mind. So safety conscious around the baby.

"Right, the three sculptures" Jack said as he emerged in the kitchen to take a sandwich and bite into it with soft groans of delight. "Tomato and onion… yum."

"I like the bird. Maybe that can go in the glassed conservatory? The steam punk steam engine too? The third one, the bull. That's is... weird. Reminds me of that medieval torture device." Ianto said as he buttered more bread.

"Huh?"

"A big metal bull. Ahh… the Brazen Bull. They would put the victim inside the belly and close it, then light a fire under it. The sound of the person dying would come out the open moth of the bull in an eerie bellow. It was barbaric." Ianto grimaced.

Jack stood there staring at him then said "I didn't know about those. Wow. That sounds… humans are fucking vicious to one another."

"Yeah."

"Well… not a good choice then" Jack sighed, looking back at it.

"Offer it to Rhys and Andy for the gardens the staff quarters overlook. After all, we said we would find things for them too and you can see it when we visit that side of the commune… fuck. I mean complex." Ianto waved a hand and Jack laughed.

"Yeah, I will take it over before the evening meal" Jack smiled as he looked over at the pot of potatoes already boiling away for mashing later. "Take them those boxes of candy bars too."

Andy had got one of the vending machines to work without coins. Silly but somehow it amused them all to stand and choose their treats, then what the machine work. Ianto had considered it a waste of precious power given their solar panels were working hard to heat the water and feed the lights of the complex but Jack saw the need for it.

Something normal.

Something that was the same.

Jack hummed happily as he collected some candy boxes and headed over with Emma in tow.