Fffc Bingo Card - Morning routine

[m_findlow]

Title: Morning routine 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack, OCs 
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 13 - Monday at fffc
Summary: Success on a Monday morning is all about routine.

Ianto groaned as the alarm on his wristwatch started beeping. He checked the time through blurry sleep-filled eyes and groaned again. It wasn't even particularly early, only six am, but he knew that there was no chance of a lie in. On a good day he could be dressed and ready in twenty minutes. He could have gone back to sleep for another hour but he knew he was going to need all the time he had just to get everything done on time. 

He should have nudged Jack in the back and woken him up but he was still snoring and dead to the world. Faced with the prospect of trying to get four people up and ready to go versus three, he left Jack to his sleep in, vowing that Jack would make it up to himtomorrow. 

He threw off the duvet and padded down the hall, flipping on the heating as warm little puffs of air began to float up from the vents in the floor. That was a good start, he decided, rubbing up and down his arms to disperse the early morning chill. He could have gotten his dressing gown but that would only warm him up and slow him down. 

He moved past the doorways in the hall, selecting his first victim and pushing the door quietly open. He reached across to pull open the blinds, letting in the pale morning light before bending over the tiny lump tucked under the duvet. He shook it gently. ‘Up and attem, sweetie,’ he said, rousing his daughter Sian. 

‘Daddy, no,’ she grumbled, squirming even as he was plucking her out of the bed, rumpled pajamas, duvet and all. 

‘Monday morning and time to go to school,’ he said, carrying her all the way to the kitchen so that she couldn't put up a fight. He had her seated at the table, wrapped up in the duvet even as he was getting out a bowl and filling it with cereal and milk. 

‘Can I watch cartoons?’

‘Only until you finish eating,’ he said, ruffling a hand through her soft hair. ‘And no eating extra slow,’ he said, returning back to the bedrooms. 

Number two, their son Tom, had a date with a shower. As simple as it might have been to feed three children all at once, it was impossible to get them all showered and dressed with only two bathrooms, one of which was their private ensuite and off limits. He stayed there long enough to turn the water on, getting up the temperature just right, and waiting until Tom had finished, turning it back off, wrapping him up in his towel and giving him instructions for making sure he put on clean socks with his school uniform, before going downstairs for breakfast. 

Returning back to the girls bedroom, he found, last but not least, Eleri. Having been woken up when he'd collected Sian, she was sitting up in bed with a book propped up on her knees, straining to read it in less than sufficient light. 

Ianto flipped on the light switch and consulted his youngest, even if the time separating her from their eldest was little over an hour. ‘How many times have you read that book now?’ he asked, coming to sit on the bed beside her. ‘You're going to wear out the pages.’

‘Mrs Fletcher says that we can only swap books once a week. Sianny let me borrow hers but I've read that one a billion times already.’ 

He leant down and kissed her hair. ‘Well, we'll just have to have a chat with Mrs Fletcher and see if she can't let you swap books more often.’ Honestly, teachers these days were stunting the development of their kids. It would be easier just to buy her new books and not involve the school but it was the principle of the thing. How many other kids were getting bored because they weren't being suitably challenged? 

‘I bought extra bananas if you want some with your cornflakes.’ 

‘That's okay,’ she said sliding out of the bed of her own volition and going off for breakfast. 

Tom had parked himself on the floor with his bowl of rice crispies so that he could see the television, even as Ianto was dragging Sian from her death grip on the back of her own chair so that she'd go and shower. Jack should never have let them have that thing on in the morning. It was impossible to tear them away. Between showers two and three he managed a bowl of weetabix, having mastered the art of eating whilst standing, simultaneously coordinating bathroom usage. 

Happy he'd finally gotten three children showered, dressed, fed and happily biding their time in front of the television, Ianto returned back to his own bedroom. He flipped the switch on the alarm clock, setting off the blaring buzzer that was guaranteed to raise the dead. 

Jack groaned and rolled over, pulling the duvet over his head. ‘It can't be Monday again already.’ 

Ianto forcefully yanked it away. Kids he could be patient with, but adults knew better. ‘Shower and dress now or you won't get any coffee until after we finish the school run and make it to the hub.’ That got Jack moving, just as Ianto knew it would. 

‘Weekends keep getting shorter, don't you think?’ Jack asked, as Ianto heard the water begin to stream, fogging up the mirror. Ianto flipped on the fan that Jack had neglected, before tugging off his own clothes and following in behind him, pulling the door shut. Getting them both in the shower at the same time was the only way to keep their Monday morning schedule on track. 

‘Oh, seems my weekend isn't quite over yet,’ Jack teased, rubbing soap down Ianto's chest even as his arms snaked around Jack, reaching for the shampoo. 

‘Only if you're quick,’ Ianto replied. Clearly he'd miscalculated. Jack's hands didn't care much for Ianto's schedule.