m_findlow

Title: Blowin' on the wind
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,068 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "any, any, Deserted night time streets" at fic_promptly
Summary: Something wicked this way comes...

The streets were completely empty. It was like a ghost town, only they knew that there were people living here, they just didn't seem to venture out at night. There was surely a good reason for it, but they'd yet to figure it out. That was all about to change.

'He said he'd meet us here at eight o'clock,' Jack confirmed.

'I know,' Ianto replied, rubbing his hands up and down his arms to stave off the cold air. 'That was four hours ago.'

'His timing is a little off sometimes.'

'Jack, we've been here at eight o'clock every night for the past two weeks!'

'Okay, so it's a lot off.'

'And here I was thinking I'd never meet anyone less punctual than you.'

'I'll pretend that wasn't a thinly veiled insult. He's probably off doing very important time lordy stuff.'

''That, or he's sick of us hitching a ride already. Do we win an award for being the world's shortest companions?'

'Please, The Doctor would never leave us behind. Again.'

Ianto snorted. 'You know, every night we've been out here it gets a little creepier.'

Jack wanted to scoff at the claim, but he even he had to admit, there was something very undead about the place. It hadn't been their choice of destinations. It was the old Russian Roulette of time travel. Next time, they'd be more specific. A sunny beach where they served lots of drinks in pineapples with miniature umbrellas.

'Do you think we should be out here? I haven't seen anyone outside since sundown any night we've been here.'

'Maybe they're just afraid of the dark?'

'Or maybe we should have thought to ask one of them.'

Jack shoved his hands in his pockets and let out a long breath, which puffed into a tiny cloud. 'To be fair, they're not the chattiest bunch of people.'

'Right, well rather than spending the rest of the night out here in the cold, testing the limits of shared immortality, I'm going back to the hotel.'

'Fine. I think I'll stick around for a bit. Feels like a night for unexpected visitors.'

'Suit yourself,' he replied, tempted to say what was really on his mind, which was "you're an idiot.". 'If he does turn up, you know where to find me.'

'I'd never leave without you,' Jack yelled at his retreating form.

'I know. I just like making you say it every so often.'

Jack laughed and stood here, watching him until he disappeared completely from view. He took to wandering along the deserted streets. There were no street lamps, he noticed, only the pale light from the planet's two moons casting any light. He'd been plenty of places where such things were still a novelty.

The town took on a different look during the night. Where during the day it was bustling with shopkeepers and artists in the streets, now it looked abandoned and unloved. Even the colours of the signs in the windows seemed faded and dull.

Whilst he was admiring the polished glint of old style clocks sitting in one of the shop windows, he felt something brush his face. He swept at it with his hand. Just a stray hair or something. Then he felt another one, like he'd walked straight into it. It made him jerk his face slightly away from it. He looked up trying to see what he'd run into. Overhead was a spider, floating along above him and leaving behind a fine trail of cobweb.

'Argh!' He dived away, swatting his face to be free of it. He hated spiders.

He looked up again, trying to clock its position so that he could avoid it, when he saw something that chilled him to the bone. A whole cloud of spiders was floating in on the breeze, rolling into town like a thunderous storm cloud, each dragging a fine chain of web beneath its body, sweeping along the street.

Jack ran like he'd never run before in his life. Daleks and cybermen and weevils be damned. He'd face a trillion of them rather than this.

He finally reached the hotel and burst through the door like a canon ball, causing Ianto to bolt upright in bed, startled by the sudden intrusion.

'Jack, what's going on? Is he here?'

'No,' Jack replied breathlessly, locking and chaining the door behind him, reaching for his phone and madly dialing, 'but he will be in about three seconds. We are getting out of here right now!'

'What's happened? You look like you've seen a ghost.'

'Not a ghost, but I know why the residents don't hang around at night. And neither are we.'

'You've reached The Doctor. Please leave a message if you must. Why am I recording this, Clara? BEEP!'

'Get your bony Scottish arse back here right now, and get us out of here!' Jack slammed the phone shut.

Ianto was busily pulling on his clothes, trying not to get caught up in Jack's panic, but failing miserably.

'What's going out there?' he asked, slightly frightened.

'Spiders! Big, huge spiders! Millions of them!'

Ianto raised an eyebrow in the semi darkness. It wasn't the answer he was expecting. 'How big is huge?'

'Like, this big,' Jack said, forming a circle with his fingers about the size of a small grapefruit.

Ianto laughed out loud, as much from relief, as from the absurdity of Jack's reaction. When Jack had said huge, he'd imagined twelve foot tall eight legged giants marching down the main street.

'Did I mention there were millions?' Jack huffed, annoyed that Ianto was mocking him, and turning a shade of red that was half embarrassed, half angry at his reaction being dismissed so easily.

Ianto wandered over to the window and peered out into the street, watching the procession of spiders glide gently by, like some kind of weird Halloween parade float.

'I don't think they're about the eat anyone, Jack. Just some unusual natural phenomenon. People probably just know to give them a wide berth and let them pass by each night. I don't think the world is going to end.'

'Well, we're not going back out there again. I'm staying right here until The Doctor turns up,' he said, crossing his arms defiantly.

Ianto smiled and shook his head. 'Come here my brave, heroic, saver of worlds. Uncle Ianto will protect you from the big bad spiders.'