Torchwood: Fanfic: The simple life

[m_findlow]

Title: The simple life
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 563 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "any, any, the simple life" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack proves that the simple life is the best

A picnic on a warm, sunny afternoon was such a rare treat. Picnics and warm sunny afternoons on their own were rare enough, let alone together. It usually took an alignment of the stars and the planets, but today was just such one of those days.

Ianto sat next to Jack on the rug, watching the sunlight glimmering over the water in front of them. A handful of ducks floated across the pond, causing ripples in the otherwise pristine surface, which reflected back the lush greenery and blue sky surrounding them. It almost seemed too perfect.

'Don't you ever get bored of this? Stuck here in this time and place when there's a whole universe of possibilities out there to explore?'

Jack was quiet for a moment before replying.

'I do sometimes wish I could leave, but not for the reasons you think. Sometimes this place, this job, it all gets too much. Watching people get hurt or killed, people I care about. And it's my job to protect them. Sometimes I think that the responsibility is more than I can handle. Sometimes I wish someone else would take over, so that I could leave it all behind to burden someone else.' He squeezed Ianto’s hand tightly. 'Sometimes I wish our biggest worries were whether to have lasagne for dinner or whether we could afford our power bill at the end of the month.'

'What about being stuck in the past? We must seem like cavemen to you compared to the 51st century.'

Jack smiled wanly. 'I came from the future, but the place I grew up was even more technologically backward than here. It's not that the technology didn't exist, just that it was inaccessible. I grew up on a colony world where only the most fundamental technology was used. Everything else we did by hand, grew our own crops, schooled our children using nothing but slates and chalk. Kids in Cardiff are attached to their phones and computers. They have more technological power in their pockets than we could ever have dreamed for. All we had to entertain ourselves was each other. Five hundred million miles of sand and endless shoreline. It was a simple life. I don't regret that, in fact, I almost miss it. Technology can be just as much a hindrance as a help.'

He turned to face the young man siting next to him. 'Imagine how life would have been in your grandfather's day.'

Ianto stopped to think about it for a moment.

'He'd have got up early, worked the mines all day and come home to family dinner, then done it all again the next day. Church on Sunday, choir practice, and afternoons playing with the kids on the hillside.'

'Do you ever wish you could have that kind of lifestyle?'

'Not the mines part,' Ianto grumbled, hating the idea of being deep underground in the dark. 'And the coffee would be awful.'

Jack squeezed Ianto tighter against him, chuckling. 'What about the rest?'

'The rest doesn't sound too bad. I guess simplicity would make a nice change from our hectic modern day lives.'

'And you wonder why I'd be bored sitting here with you watching ducks float across a pond?'

'I suppose. I just don't want you to be missing out on anything on account of me.'

'Trust me, Ianto Jones, I'm not missing anything.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Jack would willingly trade everything eldse for more time with Ianto enjoying the simple pleasures of life. =)

I love Janto

[(Anonymous)]

As long as Jack is with Ianto he is fine.
Jack's childhood was simple.
Life in the fast lane is not what its cracked up to be.