Torchwood: Fanfic: Chilling out

[m_findlow]

Title: Chilling out
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 851 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, (902): So why exactly are your shoes in my freezer?" at fic_promptly
Summary: Ianto should have known...

When you worked for Torchwood, you just got used to weird stuff happening all the time. All the time, being the operative phrase. Why this morning should be any different was anyone's guess.

Ianto reluctantly crawled out of bed, begrudging the fact that he had to go to work, when he'd much rather stay nice and warm tucked under the covers. Even better would have been if Jack was tucked up with him, but the man in question had already left for the day. He'd hardly been home three hours, having been on night duty, and sneaking into bed at three am, his freezing cold feet waking Ianto as he pressed them against his own, trying to warm them up. By six, he was up again and out the door, turning off their alarm to allow Ianto an extra hour or two of sleep to make up for the rude awakening earlier.

Having showered and dressed, he padded out to the kitchen, flipping on the kettle and opening the freezer to fetch out some bread for his toast. Only there was something else tucked in there on the upper shelf, just next to the bags of frozen peas and carrots. Jack's boots. And they only just fit the narrow shelf, the tops of them almost touching the roof of the freezer.

Rather than puzzle out the mystery, he simply pulled his phone from his pocket and typed out a message.

"So, why exactly are your shoes in my freezer?"

The reply came back within seconds.

"Forgot to leave you a note. Whatever you do, don't take them out."

Right. He'd worked and lived with Jack long enough not to question anything he said, however mad it sounded. Setting aside the bizarre contents of his freezer, he got on with his morning, only stopping once to wonder if everything else in the freezer was still safe to eat.

By the time he arrived at work, had fixed the first round of coffee for himself and Jack, fed the residents, checked the rift reports from the overnight readings, and begun making a second round of coffee for the rest of the team as they arrived just in time, he'd forgotten all about Jack's shoes. He was halfway through compiling a report when Jack stood over him.

'Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.'

'Come with you where?'

'Home.'

Ianto raised an eyebrow at Jack. 'Isn't it a bit early to be skiving off work for some alone time?'

'It's never too early,' Jack grinned, 'but that's not what I meant. I thought you might want to come help me bring back our latest visitors.'

Ianto was even more confused. Since when did Jack give out their address? And more to the point, had he told them where they kept the spare keys? He didn't like the idea of aliens chilling out in his house. He hadn't vacuumed in over a fortnight. What would they think of him and the state of their house?

'Alright,' he said. He didn't want to admit it, but he was suddenly curious about these new visitors.

Ianto joined Jack in the car park as he was loading a drinks cooler in the back of the boot.

'For our guests,' Jack explained.

Oh, now they were entertaining as well? Should they stop off at Tescos and get a cheese platter and some stuffed olives? Instead he got into the car and said nothing.

Jack made it there in his usual record speed, stopping for red lights only when it was strictly necessary. He pulled drinks cooler out of the car and lead the way, expertly twisting the key in the lock and gliding through the door. Ianto gave a surreptitious glance into their living room, half expecting aliens to be lounging on his sofa, flipping channels. It was empty, so he followed Jack to the kitchen.

Jack set the cooler on the benchtop and opened the freezer, pulling out his boots and slotting them inside the cooler.

'Uh, what are you doing?' Ianto asked.

'Gotta keep them frozen. They're not exactly what you call friendly.'

It was only now that Ianto noticed Jack's boots were in fact full of water, frozen solid.

'Are you saying the aliens are in your shoes?'

'Yup. They were nesting in someone's backyard pond. I didn't have anything else to fish them out with, and I couldn't risk them escaping or infecting anyone. The sooner we get them into a proper cryovac case, the better.'

Ianto stared at the things he'd taken for granted as just another peculiarity of living with Jack, having had no idea that he was inches away from deadly creatures. He laughed. Now he understood why Jack's feet had been so cold last night

'What's so funny?' Jack asked, looking at him like he was the mad one around here. It only made Ianto laugh more.

'When you said we were going home to pick up some new visitors, I pictured them chilling out on our sofa. I didn't think they'd literally be chilling out.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Heehee! Such a clever explanation for boots in the freezer!

Hopefully they'll get the little devils back to the Hub and properly stored without any more trouble. =D

[jo02]

After living with Jack for a while now, Ianto is the model of sangfroid.