m_findlow

Title: Out of this world
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 518 - Las Vegas at slashthedrabble
Summary: Jack has a brithday present for Ianto that is out of this world.

Ianto gave Jack a skeptical look as he handed over the envelope. Jack was big on celebrating birthdays, with an emphasis on cakes and presents, so the lack of either had Ianto feeling highly suspicious of some other mischief. A card and nothing else, whilst being precisely what Ianto would have preferred on his birthday, was in no way Jack's usual style. Perhaps Ianto's insistence on not making a fuss was finally sinking in.

He carefully slipped a finger under the flap and opened it, tugging out the card. What he wasn't anticipating was something tucked inside the card. He grabbed uselessly at it, trying to catch it, but the piece of paper fluttered gently to the floor. He bent down from his spot on the sofa to pick up the paper, reading it. Though his thumb covered a few of the words, he grasped enough to know it was an IOU in place of a gift, and an expensive one at that.

'A trip to Las Vegas?' he asked looking at Jack. The not so selfish part of him resisted the urge to make a comment that Portugal or the French Riviera might have been nicer.

Jack snatched the piece of paper from his hand and held it up so he could see it properly. 'Not Las Vegas, Ianto. The Vegas Galaxy!'

'Oh,' he replied. Even more expensive, he decided, or perhaps not. He supposed it all depended on their method of getting there. Jack no doubt had friends in places that could pick them up from Earth and drop them off on the way.

He'd heard all kinds of stories from Jack about the Vegas Galaxy. It wasn't just one city. It wasn't even one country or one planet, but a whole system of planets and space stations dedicated to every kind of entertainment and vice imaginable, and many more that Ianto's tiny Earth-bound brain would find it impossible to fathom. He imagined the same rules applied; what happened there, stayed there.

'Shouldn't we try and lose our money here before we start losing it all over the galaxy?' he asked.

Jack chuckled. 'Who said anything about losing money? You win more often than you lose, otherwise no one would ever go there.'

'Doesn't the house always win?'

'Well, sure, but they get you on everything else, food, drink, other pleasures...' Jack waggled an eyebrow at him. 'And there's loads of things to do that aren't gambling. You should see the shows. Forget Siegfried and Celine. These are real entertainers. They'll blow your socks off.'

'Well, when you put it like that, how can I say no?'

'You can't,' Jack replied. 'Besides it a birthday present. I figured I owed you a big one.'

'Just one thing, though,' Ianto qualified.

'What's that?'

'No crazy Vegas weddings.' He didn't want to come back hitched in some neon chapel by an Elvis impersonator.

'I promise we'll only be spectators. It wouldn't be a proper trip without at least one wedding.'