Torchwood: Fanfic: Extra special

[m_findlow]

Title: Extra special
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 537 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Torchwood, Jack/Ianto, Garnet cufflinks" at fic_promptly
Summary: Some things are more special than others

Clothes are always the first casualty in an assault by aliens forces. Aliens that fall through the rift just don't seem to go for the civilised approach. Ianto has lost count of how many sets of shirts, pants, jackets, waistcoats, shoes and socks have sacrificed themselves in the name of the planet Earth.

He can live with that, but what annoys him is the cufflinks that keep getting lost along the way. There's a whole box of orphaned cufflinks sitting on his dresser, their compatriots lost to battle. Some of them eventually do turn up again, found in tight spots in the SUV's interior, or dotted around the hub in odd places, sometimes at the bottom of crates of artefacts where they've gotten caught on the side of the crate, sometimes under the sofa or in drawers, occasionally discovered tucked in pockets when he's remembered to put them out of harms way in advance. They have a tendency to get lost all over the hub because he finds it very hard to say no when Jack's in one of his moods, and clothes are very uncessary at that point, and should be divested as quickly as possible.

But he can't bear to throw them out even when he's pretty certain the matching one is lost forever. It seems such a waste, even though he knows he's too finicky to wear mismatched sets. And some of them have been gifts from Jack over the years, so even a single cufflink holds a special place in his collection, despite being unable to wear it anymore.

There's one pair though that are more special than all the others. They're platinum with large round garnets that glint a glorious red when the light catches them just so. It's the pair he wore on his wedding day, both wedding days in fact. The one they bailed on, so they could go and see what wedding present the rift had given them, and the actual one where they managed to get all the way though to the end of the ceremony and be declared officially wed.

Jack has a matching set done with deep azure coloured sapphires. He makes a mental note to find out where the heck Jack has put them. Like Ianto, Jack has a habit of losing cufflinks. But unlike Ianto, all of Jack's are the same silver airplane shaped ones. Ianto has a whole box of them, so that when Jack loses one, he can replace it with another identical one. It's one of the few things that Ianto admits is probably the more practical approach. And he does love how dashing his husband looks with his dark blue shirt, waistcoat, pocket watch and airplane cufflinks.

He smiles whenever he sees the garnet ones sitting at the top of the box of his mismatched cufflinks, as he opens it to add yet another orphan. He keeps them there because like the odds and sods, he can't bring himself to wear them lest he lose one of them. Considering the dozens of them that don't have matching halves, the few pairs that are complete should be the ones he uses. Just not these ones.

Sometimes it's not about being practical.

Comments

[bk_forever]

I adore the rich red of almandine garnets, they're the classic garnet for jewellery. I don't blame Ianto for reserving them for only special occasions, how perfect for their wedding!

I think the Rift should find all Ianto's lost cufflinks and give them back. Maybe he'll find them inside various arteacts!

Thanks for the fill!