m_findlow

Title: Snowed under
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Tosh
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 954 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted 's prompt "any, any, the pain of fingers numb from cold ends the snowball fight" at fic_promptly
Summary: Forget the yeti, it's time for some fun

It was bitterly cold out in the Brecon Beacons and a thick layer of snow covered the ground, having been dumped overnight by the inclement weather and the sheer remoteness of the area. Even the roads were treacherously icy.

Jack had driven Tosh and Ianto out there with him on an early morning reconnaissance following up reports of yeti sightings. Of course, chances were that it was long gone by now, whatever it was, because the park rangers hadn't bothered to report the sightings from hikers to police for over a week.

All they could really do now was scan for traces of rift energy and other alien signatures, to see if they could determine what had been there, and whether it was still around.

'Man it's cold,' Jack exclaimed, causing large clouds of vapour to puff from his mouth.

'For someone who's lived here for over a hundred years, that's quite a statement,' Ianto quipped.

'Anything yet Tosh?'

'Still nothing,' she replied.

They'd been traipsing around for nearly two hours looking for signs. Tosh and Ianto were scanning for energy traces while Jack was using his limited tracking skills to look for more physical evidence. Luckily the park rangers had closed off the area since yesterday so disturbances on the ground could be ruled out as belonging to human explorers. So far though, the only tracks he'd found in the fresh snow were the ones that they'd made themselves.

As he brushed past a spindly tree it caused one of the higher branches to dislodge the snow collected on its bough and indelicatley dumped it on Jack's head. He emitted a gruff sound that sat somewhere between annoyed and surprised.

With the supreme lack of anything useful found so far, Jack's instincts turned from responsible leader to boredom and menace.

With Tosh and Ianto both busily studying their handheld monitors, they didn't notice Jack scooping up some of the snow and fashioning it into a ball. He quietly took aim at Tosh's back and let go.

The ball hit home, startling Tosh. She yelped before switching around ready to draw her gun, and then realised what had happened.

'Oh, you did not just do that!' Tosh yelled at him.

Jack laughed maniacally and bent down to gather another handful of snow.

Tosh turned her body away and braced for the second onslaught, but instead, Jack roughly grabbed the collar of Ianto's coat and stuffed the icy slurry down the back of his neck. Ianto cried out from the sudden burst of cold twisting away and hurrying over to where Tosh was standing.

'What the hell, Jack?'

Jack didn't respond, too busy with arming himself yet again.

Ianto automatically reached down to grab some snow. It hadn't occurred to him what a childish response it was, only that Jack had clearly already drawn invisible battle lines.

'Tosh?'

'Oh yeah, time for some revenge,' she replied.

'Hey,' Jack yelled, 'two against one. At least now it's a fair fight!'

Even from this distance they could tell he was grinning gleefully and brimming with overconfidence.

'Take no prisoners?' Ianto asked.

'Take no prisoners,' Tosh agreed.

Too late did Jack realise that he'd made an error in his choice of opponents. For starters there were two of them against his one, though his ego largely compensated for that.

No, his real problem was the snowballs themselves. Tosh's were perfectly rounded and aerodynamic, and coupled with her ability to do basic trajectory math in her head, resulting in near perfect hits every time. Ianto's were of another breed altogether. He'd packed the snow tightly together so that they hit hard and barely crumbled on impact. His aim wasn't half bad either, and he clearly had no qualms about the bruises that Jack was collecting in the process.

Gwen and Owen were the better field agents, but Jack had forgotten that Tosh and Ianto teamed together were a whole other brand of deadly.

Despite the pummeling he received, he continued to persevere, managing to duck behind a tree to gather more ammunition whilst the tree took the brunt of the attack. Some of his shots went wide in his hurried efforts to return fire, but he hit his mark more often than not and was satisfied by the sound of the muffled cries that signalled a good hit.

The assault must have gone on for about twenty minutes before Tosh and Ianto realised they had stopped receiving open fire from the edge of the woods.

'Jack?' Ianto called out, remembering why they were out here in the first place and that maybe something had been hidden in there grabbed Jack. Or worse.

They both started for the trees at a run, making for Jack's last known position.

'I surrender!' came the reply call.

Both of them sighed with relief.

As they reached the treeline, they found Jack crouched on the ground behind the tree, clasping his hands tightly together and wincing slightly. His hands were shiny and red and obviously causing quite a bit of pain.

'I told you to wear gloves,' Ianto chastised, quickly pulling his own off to take Jack's hands in his, trying to warm them.

'It was worth it,' Jack grinned

Ianto rolled his eyes. 'You do realise we won though?'

'Why don't I finish up the scans while you get Jack back to the SUV to defrost. This shouldn't take too much longer,' Tosh suggested.

'Good idea. Come on you,' Ianto said, pulling Jack up by the wrist.

'Alright. I know you'll have some interesting ways for me to warm these babies up.'

'Don't get any ideas. Your cold hands aren't coming anywhere near me. And just remember, you started this.'

'Spoilsport,' Jack grumbled.