Anythingdrabble Challenge 141 - Life's lessons

[m_findlow]

Title: Life's lessons
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Ianto, David
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 141 - Grade at anythingdrabble
Summary: Ianto gives his nephew some sage advice and an ultimatum.

David groaned as his uncle insisted he get up and get in the car. 'We're going for a drive.' That was code for "your mum is giving me a bollocking about something you've done and it's my responsibility to sit you down about it". If David looked displeased at hauling himself off the sofa then it probably matched Ianto's own expression, however much he tried to keep things light.

'I was busy doing stuff,' David complained as he reluctantly got in the car.

'Yes, I could see just how much concentration it was taking staring off into space like that.' He flipped the key in the ignition and pulled away from the kerb.

'What have I done this time?'

Ianto rolled his eyes. No flies on this one. If it weren't for the fair hair, he might've been looking at his own fifteen year old reflection, all attitude and pride, trying to be cool, without really understanding that what was cool and what was important were two different things.

'You're mum is worried about your grades in school.'

David gave the weary sigh synonymous with overbearing family butting into their lives. 'It's no big deal. It's just school.'

'School is important,' Ianto insisted.

'Dad got by okay. So did you.'

Ianto was unable to repress a smirk. 'We are both bad examples.' Johnny was the ultimate bad example but Ianto couldn't claim the high moral ground either. He'd hated school too. He'd shrugged off his mum's patient prodding and his dad's incessant nagging. Good grades and fitting in had been mutually exclusive.

'I don't like school. It's boring.'

'Boring because it's too easy or because you don't understand?'

'It doesn't matter,' he said deflecting the question. 'I already know what I'm going to do when I leave school.'

Ianto looked at him as they were stopped at the lights, calling David's bluff. 'Torchwood people need a good education. Do you think Owen and Tosh are as smart as they are because they hated school? They had to work hard for it.'

'You didn't.'

Touché. 'I wish I had. I went to uni on crappy grades and wasted most of my education. I had to learn it all myself afterwards. Knowing stuff doesn't just happen.'

'And now you run Torchwood.'

'Yep. Just think what I could've done if I'd started good habits in school and really pushed myself. I could be running the world by now.'

David snorted. 'Yeah, fair play. God help us if you ran the world, though.'

Ianto grinned. 'What a world it would be, eh?' Perfect coffee everywhere and naked hide and seek as the new world game.

'I don't get algebra,' David declared. 'Who cares what X is?'

'X is important. X is just another way of describing that which is unknown. If you want to work for Torchwood, you'd better be prepared to solve the unknown every single day. For now, let's just get Tosh to help tutor you. I was always rubbish at algebra.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Let's face it, most people are rubbish at algebra.