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amulyTitle: Gwil's Guide to Growing Up Torchwood: Year 3, Chapter 8
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, +Gwil
Word Count: 1,978
Rating: PG
Summary: When a seven-year-old boy falls through the Rift, Ianto and Jack decide to adopt him. This is the story of his life at Torchwood.
Chapter Summary: Gwil's in a school play; Jack and Ianto go to watch.
Warnings: none
A/N: Sorry I skipped updating Monday. I've been catching up on all the wonderful fic I missed during Lent for the past... uh... 4 days or so. Also: if you guys want some ficlets/drabbles written just for you, I have a prompt post. Come on over and check it out!
Ianto straightened his tie nervously as he glanced around the full auditorium. Next to him, Jack smiled and pressed a reassuring hand to his back as he gently guided Ianto forward. “It's fine,” he murmured in Ianto's ear.
Seeing the glances shot his and Jack's way and the whispers that followed them like cicadas on a hot summer's day, Ianto shook his head. “They know who we are, Jack.”
“Yeah,” Jack said. They stopped as they reached a relatively empty row and sat down. “We're the inhumanly gorgeous parents the most adorable little boy in the show.”
Ianto rolled his eyes as he sat down. “Or, far more likely, they're looking at us because they know you're the big dashing hero that runs around town in his billowing coat, sweeping in to save the day whenever something otherworldly occurs.” An elderly couple – grandparents, Ianto reckoned – farther down the row were looking at him curiously. Ianto smiled weakly. The woman tutted and turned to her husband, muttering something. He nodded in a no-nonsense Welsh manner, and they both turned from Ianto and Jack. Ianto sighed.
Jack's heavy hand pressed reassuringly down on Ianto's thigh. He sighed again and tried to turn his mind away from the other parents and their whispers, focusing his attention instead on the stage and the closed curtain. Jack's hand actually was quite reassuring in its own way, even though it was doing nothing more lewd than just resting there. One particularly loud whisper of “Torchwood!” drew Ianto's attention away from Jack, causing Ianto to crane his neck and try to see the source of the exclamation. But then Jack's thumb swept over Ianto's engagement band, and Ianto turned to him with a grateful sigh.
“Sorry,” he murmured. “But they are talking about us.”
“Let them talk,” Jack whispered back, before lifting Ianto's hand to his mouth and kissing it briefly.
The auditorium lights flickered three times, indicating for the parents to take their seats. As the lights fully dimmed a hush fell over the crowd, whispers quieting until they stopped. Ianto felt immediately more at ease. Here, in the dark stillness of the auditorium, Ianto could pretend he and the man holding his hand were just two normal parents, about to watch their son in the end of the year production of Romeo and Juliet (greatly abridged and translated into modern vernacular, for the sake of the fifth years who had to memorize all the lines). He and Jack weren't Torchwood, and their son wasn't a Rift victim from 1848, and Jack didn't have his comm active in his ear in case the apocalypse suddenly happened. No: the were just proud parents, about to watch their little boy act his little heart out as Romeo.
Ianto had been surprised, a month back, when Gwil ran to him, big blue eyes pleading as he asked his tad to teach him how to act. Ianto immediately delegated the task to Jack, who was more than happy to throw on a dress and act Juliet in counter to Gwil's Romeo – the role he was auditioning for. Not that Ianto didn't think his son could memorize the lines, or muster up a respectable acting ability for a fifth year. He just never expected his little, shy Gwil to have any desire to get up on stage in front of all his peers and their parents.
It was Martha who sorted it first. "Who's trying out for Juliet?" she had asked Gwil.
When Gwil's face went beet-red, ducking his head and mumbling "Katie", Ianto "ahh'ed" softly, sharing a look with Jack. He had just grinned, every centimeter the proud dad, before turning back to Gwil and tapping him on the head with the script.
One of Gwil's classmates came out on stage, playing the role of the narrator. Ianto recognized him as Zachary, one of Gwil's closer friends. He scratched his head throughout his small narration speech, and had to turn off stage and whisper "Line?" to Mrs. Richards once. Still, the parents all clapped politely as Zachary bowed, then bounded off stage.
The moment Gwil came on stage Ianto had his camera to his eye, snapping pictures with barely a moment to coo with Jack over how absolutely adorable Gwil looked dressed up in mock-period clothing. To Ianto's absolute delight, Gwil started reciting his lines perfectly, voice clear and certain in the auditorium.
Ianto's phone vibrated in his pocket, causing him to set the camera down for a moment. Out of the corner of his eye Ianto could see Jack glance at him, looking at the mobile as Ianto pulled it out of his jacket. Luckily, it wasn't a Torchwood crisis or Gwen going into premature labor (the pool at work was up to three grand for when the baby would finally come).
Take loads of pictures of our little Romeo! <3 <3
xxx Gwen
Smiling softly in the warm glow of his mobile, Ianto turned it toward Jack so he could read it. Jack grinned, nudging Ianto with his shoulder. “She's just jealous that she can't come because she can't fit into the seats,” he whispered.
“Mean,” Ianto whispered back, teasing.
Abruptly Ianto's attention was snatched away from Jack and back to the stage when a little girl walked out onto it. That'd be Katie, or Juliet, as she was in the play. Gwil's face was visibly beaming, even seen from all the way in the middle of the auditorium. Ianto made sure to take a few more pictures.
When Gwil had his big scene with Katie – leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek when they were married – Jack stood up and applauded furiously, hooting and hollering and wolf-whistling for Gwil. On stage, Gwil's entire face turned beet red, and he looked like he might faint right then and there from happiness. Ianto snapped so many pictures of that moment that they could probably make a flip book from it later.
Jack sat back down, nudging his shoulder against Ianto, every inch the proud parent. “Did you see?”
“Yes, Jack,” Ianto arched an amused eyebrow at Jack. “I saw.”
Jack was beaming. “He's going to be a little Romeo! Saving the world, getting the girl...”
Ianto's mouth twitched down at the “saving the world” part, but he said nothing, instead refocusing his attentions on Gwil and the stage. Gwil's friend Tibor was acting as the priest, completing the marriage ceremony and sending Romeo and Juliet on their way. Ianto smiled again as he watched, laughing quietly with Jack as the children fumbled their way through the play, mock-sword fighting and slipping over costumes.
When the play ended, the parents all went out into the atrium for some hors d'oeuvres: apple juice and biscuits. Abruptly Ianto was reminded of his earlier insecurities under the harsh, bright light of the atrium, surrounded by whispering parents. Tugging lightly at his waistcoat, Ianto jut his chin out. Yes, so he and Jack were Torchwood. If any of the parents were truly bothered by it, they would just have to face him. And Jack.
“You're Gwil's parents, aren't you?” Ianto turned toward the woman's voice, finding himself face-to-face with Gwil's teacher. Sticking his hand out and smiling politely, Ianto nodded.
“Good evening, Mrs. Richards.”
Jack bounded over, holding a plateful of biscuits in his right hand and two plastic cups filled with apple juice in his left. “Mrs. Richards! How nice to see you again!”
“Again?” Mrs. Richard's hesitated, glancing between the two men. “I don't believe we've met, yet.”
Ianto shot Jack a look. The only time they had met Mrs. Richards was to give her retcon after aliens had crash-landed at the school. She wouldn't have remembered them.
Jack's eyes widened, before he turned back to Mrs. Richards with mouth wide open, flopping around for something to say. “Right. I was thinking of Gwil's other teacher. Last year.”
Slowly Mrs. Richards nodded, expression obviously skeptical. Eyes flickering between Jack and Ianto, she seemed to come to a decision about the two of them before turning the fullness of her attention to Ianto. “Gwil's such a lovely little boy: it's always a pleasure to have him in class. So well-behaved and considerate of others. You've obviously done a wonderful job raising him.”
Ianto smiled, mentally snickering at how put-out Jack looked at the way Mrs. Richards addressed all her parental compliments to Ianto. Behind her back, Jack stuck his tongue out before pressing two biscuits in his mouth at once, chewing obnoxiously.
“We do our best,” Ianto addressed Mrs. Richards as he ignored Jack.
“I don't mean to pry, but I take it he's your young man, Mr. Jones?”
Ianto shook his head, resisting the urge to roll his eyes even as he continued to smile at Mrs. Richards. “No. Biologically he isn't related to either of us.” He glanced over at Jack, who winked at him.
“I suppose it's just good Welsh genes that makes both my men so handsome,” he teased. Ianto smiled back good-naturedly, but inwardly he sighed. Not at Jack, but at hearing the question about his and Gwil's relatedness. It was cute the first dozen times someone pointed out how much alike they looked. Now it was just tiresome having to reexplain it to every new person their family met.
Interrupting the impromptu parent-teach meeting, the doors to the atrium burst open and the children began pouring out, racing into their parents' arms. Gwil was in the midst of the pack, more subdued than some of the other children, but no less brilliantly happy. “Did you see me?”
Jack scooped Gwil up immediately, bouncing him on his hip with pride. “Of course! And,” Jack leaned close, stage-whispering to Gwil, “we saw you kiss Juliet.”
Gwil blushed a brilliant red and pushed away from Jack until he set the little boy down. Ianto watched, observing anew the resemblance between him and Gwil. He even flushed at the mention of the kiss the same way Ianto did, when Jack teased him in front of the other Torchwood employees or in other, more intimate settings.
Changing the subject with a furtive glance in Katie's direction, where she was chatting animatedly with her parents, Gwil asked Jack: “No emergencies?”
“Nope,” Jack confirmed. “Saw the whole thing!”
Just then, Jack and Ianto's phones buzzed in perfect unison, and Jack tilted his head sideways, as if he was listening to a voice in his head. Ianto sighed, pulling his own comm out of his pocket with one hand and his phone with the other. He knew where this was heading.
Flipping Godzilla!
Owen
Giant lizard! Just outside Penarth!
Gwen
Not to be a walking stereotype, but: Godzilla!
Toshiko
When Ianto looked up from his phone, Gwil was pouting up at him. “Emergency?” he asked in a tone of voice that said he already knew the answer.
“Emergency,” Ianto confirmed, tucking away his phone.
Jack beamed at Mrs. Richards, throwing her a rakish wink. “Sorry, but duty calls.” Without waiting for a reply he scooped Gwil up onto his shoulders, jogging out of the school with his coat billowing behind him. The last thing Ianto heard him say before the doors shut behind him was: “Has Uncle Owen shown you Godzilla yet?”
Ianto winced, turning back to Mrs. Richards. With a polite nod of his head and a calm smile, he excused himself. There were none-too-subtle whispers following him out the door, courtesy the other parents. But Ianto just stood ramrod straight and strode forward, letting the doors slam shut behind him. He had to save the world, after all.
Continue on to Chapter 9.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 01:03 pm (UTC)Godzilla... *snort*
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 05:47 pm (UTC)godzilla in wales?
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 06:54 pm (UTC)Glad you liked!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 07:09 pm (UTC)Glad you liked!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-29 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-29 08:05 pm (UTC)okay
Date: 2011-04-29 01:40 am (UTC)1) Jack!!!
2) Jack!!!
3) Owen!
4) That's our Ianto.
Re: okay
Date: 2011-04-29 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-29 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-29 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 03:17 am (UTC)AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW cute Romeo kissing his Juliet!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 02:57 pm (UTC)AHH! Gwil in a play, so cute!
So, I sense several things:
1. Ianto and Jack arguing over Gwil's future in Torchwood
2. Gwil getting a girlfriend
3. Ianto and Gwil are related.
:-) Love this, as always.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 02:59 pm (UTC)1.] Well yes, of course.
2.] Well he's certainly going to see SOME action at SOME point. He's Jack's little boy, after all! ~.^
3.] HUUURMMMMMMMMM.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-28 04:41 pm (UTC)Lovely
no subject
Date: 2011-05-28 04:42 pm (UTC)Glad you liked!