m_findlow

Title: A nose for snow
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Ianto
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Prompt 25 - Smells Like Snow at adventchallenge

'It's going to snow this Christmas,' Jack declared as they lay in bed in the semi darkness, moonlight glinting through the window on the crisp, clear night.

'Snow? I don't think so,' Ianto replied.

'It is,' Jack said, sounding absolutely certain. 'I was out there just before, putting the bins out and I could smell it.'

'Smell what?'

'The snow! It's coming. I could smell it in the air. We're going to have our first white Christmas together.'

'Nonsense,' Ianto scoffed. 'I've lived here thirty years and not once had it ever snowed in Cardiff. Out in the valleys they might have gotten the odd sprinkling, but never in the city. Fog and frost, maybe, but not snow.'

'I can't help it if my genetics are predisposed to insights on the change in weather patterns.'

'You grew up on a desert world next to the ocean. You'd never even seen snow until you were an adult.'

'My fifty-first century sense of smell is highly attuned.'

'Explains why you're always suddenly there when there's donuts about,' he quipped. 'Besides, you can't smell snow. Snow is ice, and ice is frozen water, and water has no taste or smell. We're too close to the coast in any case. The water is warmer than the ground, so the air the drifting up from the bay prevents cooler inland air from forming ice crystals.'

Jack groaned. Only Ianto would have a perfectly logical, scientifically based reasoning.

'I'm telling you, Ianto, I have a feeling about these sorts of things.' He'd known it the moment he stepped outside. There was something different about the way the ozone smelled.

'The only feeling I have right now is that of your freezing cold toes trying to sneak over onto my side of the bed,' he said, wincing as the icy appendages touched his legs.

'But you're so nice and warm,' Jack said, refusing to move, instead tucking them further Ianto's legs in an effort to warm them up. 'And once they're warm, they'll stay that way just so long as I'm cuddled up next to you.'

'Great. So I'm just a human hot water bottle to you?'

'Among other things.'

Ianto sighed and rolled over, determined to sleep despite Jack's cold feet, but it was Jack's soft snoring he heard as he continued to lie there wide awake. Jack's feet finally did warm up, and beneath the covers it was nice and toasty, though he could feel the temperature in the room dropping. He tucked his nose and chin under the covers, trying to tug them over his ear as well. There was nothing worse than trying to get to sleep with a cold face.

As he was almost finally tired enough to drift off to sleep, a slight movement caught his eye outside the window. He focused harder, seeing the tiny specks of white tumbling down, lit by the moon against the blackness of the sky.

Well, he'd be damned. Jack was right after all. Snow.