Torchwood: Fanfic: Autumn shower

[m_findlow]

Title: Autumn shower
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,002 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, Buried in leaves" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack has a run in with a tree

Ianto waved his hand again, indicating for Jack to keep coming. The wind whipped past him again, sending another string of chills running down his spine. The quicker they could get this over with, the better, he thought.

He looked down at the weevil lying sedated next to his feet. He was a big one alright; certainly one of the biggest Ianto could remember in his time.

'Keep coming,' he called, so Jack could hear him from the driver's side window, as he was backing up the SUV to meet them. There was no way they were lugging this guy several hundred yards across the park. Much easier for Jack to bring the car to them.

'Hold it,' he said, just when Jack had gotten close enough.

Only Jack didn't hear him right, instead accelerating backwards. Ianto jumped out of harm's way at the last second, but the SUV crunched hard into the tall oak tree overhead, dislodging the hundreds of autumn leaves just barely clinging to the branches so late in the season. Never in all his life had so many leaves fallen all at once, leaving him buried in a enormous pile, the weevil completely hidden from sight, and himself not much better.

Jack jumped out of the SUV and inspected the damage to the back of the car. It was built like a tank so there was hardly a scratch. In fact, he'd managed to do far more harm to the tree, gouging out a sharp rut in the gnarled bark.

'Oops,' Jack said, still looking at the car, not having noticed that both his lover and the weevil were gone. He looked around. 'Ianto!' he called out.

'Under here,' he came the muffled sound as he was struggling to unearth himself from the mountain of leaves. Jack found a hand and grabbed for it, brushing away a swathe of red and brown to unveil his companion.

'You could've wanted me the tree was so close,' Jack complained.

'I did,' Ianto retorted. 'It's not my fault you're a lead foot.'

'I thought you said "floor it".'

'Idiot. Lucky you didn't run either of us over. There was no way I was going to be able to lug the weevil away.'

'How did you end up buried in leaves? These weren't here before.'

'Well it's funny you say that,' Ianto said, brushing them off his woolen coat, frowning disparagingly as the driest ones crackled and broke into tiny pieces, getting caught and losing themselves in the fibres. 'See I was waiting for you to bring the car around, and suddenly some idiot came out of nowhere and crashed into the tree, causing all the leaves to fall off in one go.'

'Huh,' Jack remarked. 'That's one hell of a coincidence, seeing as how you were standing right there under it at the time.'

'Isn't it just?' he replied deadpan. 'Now are you going to help me find our weevil or not?'

The pile of leaves was quite impressive, but then again, so was the tree that had provided them. It must have been one of the biggest trees in the park. Ianto almost felt sorry for it, standing there tall and proud yet naked, whilst all its friends still hand their mantles of russet and gold.

Eventually they managed to dig a hole around the spot where they'd left the weevil, dragging it through the remaining pile, until they could load it into the back of the car, taking with it several handfuls of leaves which would have to be cleaned out of the car later. Guess who's job that will be, Ianto thought.

'Good job,' Jack praised, shuddering as another fierce gust of wintery wind ate through his open coat. 'What's say we skip to part two where we get back in the SUV and you warm me up.'

Ianto however had other ideas, grabbing a large handful of leaves and shoving them down the back of Jack's coat.

'Hey!' Jack said, spinning around, a little shocked. 'What did I do to deserve that?'

'If you have to ask, you already know,' Ianto grinned.

Jack lunged for him but he quickly dived out of the way. Jack bent down and scooped up a handful of leaves, lofting them in Ianto's direction, though most of them fluttered harmlessly to the ground, well short of him, earning him a round of mocking laughter which irritated him.

The next five minutes were spent chasing each other around the park, throwing and ducking leaves, until Jack finally caught Ianto by the arm and sent him toppling into the huge pile, falling on top of him and stuffing leaves inside his own coat. Ianto should have felt indignant, but he was too busy laughing as they play fought, tumbling in the leaves like five year olds until they were both too exhausted to do more than lie there, enjoying the softness. Their earlier chill was forgotten from the physical exertion, just listening to the soft rustling sounds as the wind kicked up more leaves. The whole air seemed to be filled with them, raining down a bronze coloured shower.

'It's actually very pretty,' Jack said, watching the leaves flutter by, blowing one good naturedly off his face where it had decided to land.

'True. But if we lie here any longer, the wind might just bury us in leaves again,' Ianto said. 'Then someone else will have to come along and dig us out.'

'At least we'd finally have some privacy,' Jack purred, nuzzling against Ianto's neck.

He supposed that in the grand scheme of things, there were definitely worse things to be buried in, but Jack's nose was freezing against his skin and that alone was enough to get him up and out of their autumnal bed.

'Come on, Jack,' he said, reaching down to hoist him to his feet. 'If private is what you're after, I know a very secluded little spot in the archives where no one will disturb us.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Awww, cute! Love the leaf fight! They should get that big Weevil back to the Hub before it wakes up though...