m_findlow

Title Home for Christmas - Part 8
Author/Artist m_findlow
Length/Size of work 459 words
Summary Ianto wanted Jack home for Christmas, but got Jack’s home instead.
Rating PG
Warnings None
Other content notes Using Prompt #36 - Counting
Fandom Torchwood
Pairing Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer Torchwood sadly doesn’t belong to me, but I treat it better.

The road wound around the Penarth headland and Jack navigated it by the high beam lights of the SUV, the route becoming instantly familiar to him as black top road gave way to rough gravel, indicating that they’d crossed over into private property. He knew that they were still a few minutes from actually being able to see the place.

‘I’ve been keeping an inventory,’ Ianto said. ‘Mostly for tax purposes,’ he qualified, ‘and I thought by now I must surely have all of them, yet here we are. Did you actually register the title properly?’

Jack brushed off the question. He couldn’t remember. He’d kept a lot of aliases over the years and that no doubt annoyed his lover who was trying to piece it all together. He owned it and that was that.

‘I’m sure that my list doesn’t even begin to compare to how many houses you’ve actually owned over time, including this one,’ Ianto said, carrying on the conversation by himself. ‘What is it with you and buying houses you don’t live in?’

‘I bought it years ago.’

‘Years? When you say that do you mean 2005 or 1905?’

‘Must’ve been thirty years ago,’ Jack replied, taking a stab at the date. ‘Before you were born, in any case.’ He didn’t add that he remembered the reason why he’d bought it, trying to escape the house he’d shared with Lucia before she’d dumped him and taken their baby daughter away from him. This isolated patch of coast had been just the ticket. He’d moped up here for months before finally getting his act back together, letting work distract him from the huge hold in his heart the two ladies of his life had once occupied.

‘Why own it in the first place?’ Ianto asked, almost as if he could hear Jack having all those silent, unspoken thoughts. There was no judgement in the question, only genuine curiosity.

The SUV took a near hairpin turn and the house came into view, bathed in wintry moonlight, saving Jack the need to answer difficult questions and deflect them with visual distractions. ‘Look at it,’ he said, gesturing through the windscreen. ‘Rugged sea views. Isolated on top of the highest cliff in Penarth. No neighbours for miles.’

Ianto rolled his eyes. ‘Of course it appealed to you. So, do you actually know how many houses you've bought in your life?’

Jack shrugged. ‘What's the point of counting? It's not like it's relevant.’ He delivered Ianto one of his trademark smiles. ‘You know me, never can stay in one place very long.’

‘Just Cardiff for the past hundred and fifty years.’

‘You know what I mean. C’mon,’ Jack said, pushing open the car door. ‘Let’s go take a look around.’