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Ianto smiled to himself as he saved, printed out, and closed down the last of the files on last week’s Rift Gift, and glanced up at the clock. It was half past six, and he had nothing else to do for the day, except file the printed copies of the reports, and make Tosh an extra pot of coffee and a plate of biscuits. He stood up, knocked the papers against the desk to even out the edges, pressed the button behind the counter, and walked through to the Hub.
When he got down to the main area of the Hub, Owen was laying his dirty scalpels on a tray (clearly, he expected Ianto to clean them for him), Gwen was sorting a stack of papers into smaller stacks and occasionally jotting notes onto some of the papers, and Tosh was scanning the object that had fallen through the Rift earlier that day.
“If I were you I’d wash those now, Owen,” he said mildly, “I’d hate for you to find out tomorrow that something in that Therian’s composition causes rust or corrosion.”
Owen scowled at him, picked up the tray, and started walking towards the kitchenette.
“Owen!” Ianto called, raising his eyebrows. “Perhaps another sink?”
Owen huffed and turned around, grumbling about how some people had no respect for the dead or for medical professionals.
By the time Owen finished washing the scalpels, Gwen had completed her sorting and had a post-it note stuck to her computer monitor and was pulling on her jacket. Tosh was running another scan over the object.
She looked up as Owen walked past and said cheerfully “It’s not radioactive!”
Owen spun around and stared at her, wide-eyed. He sputtered “I should bloody well hope not! Did you think it was?”
Tosh shrugged. “Not really - just a little blip on the first scan that could have been a form of non-harmful background radiation.”
Owen gaped. “Tosh, there’s no such thing as non-harmful radiation. I want you in the medbay for a scan first thing tomorrow, okay?”
“Alright,” Tosh said, half-smiling as she swiveled her chair back towards her monitor.
When Ianto came out of the kitchenette, balancing a mug of coffee and a plate of chocolate biscuits on a tray, Tosh was the only other person still in the Hub. He set everything down next to her and said “There’s more coffee in the pot, if this ends up taking much longer.”
She glanced up at him, surprised, said “thanks, Ianto,” and took a long sip of the coffee.
“I think it’s a music box,” she told him, “just in case you want to start brainstorming names for it. I won’t be able to tell for sure until I can figure out how to get it open, though.”
“Well, I’m sure if anyone can, it’s you,” Ianto said. “Good luck, and see you tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” Tosh said, smiling at him, and turned back to her screen. Suddenly, she spun back around. “Uh, Ianto?” she asked.
“Yeah?” he replied, pausing.
“You’re calling Martha today, right?”
“Yes,” he replied.
Tosh blushed. “Well, please tell her I said hi, and that I’m making progress on those files she told me about.”
“Will do,” Ianto said, grinning at her.
Since no-one besides Tosh was still there, Ianto decided to go out through the invisible lift instead of taking the stairs, stretching his arms out towards the sky as the lift went upwards. He noted as he rose towards the pavement that it looked a bit as though it might rain overnight. As he stepped off the lift, he pulled out his mobile and texted Jack.
Everyone except Tosh has gone home for the day - I’m just leaving now.
Jack responded right away with Ah, the new Rift Gift! Hope she’s having fun! (I miss you!)
Ianto snorted softly and smiled at his phone. Only one more day till the end of the conference, sir.
I know, I know. Still can’t wait to see you again, though.
Neither can I.
In the past, Ianto would have gone to the annual inter-alien catching agencies conference in London with Yvonne; this year, Jack had offered him (a bit pleadingly) a chance to go again. Ianto had declined on the grounds that they needed as many people watching the Rift as possible, especially since Owen couldn’t go out on Weevil hunts anymore. All of this was true, but it wasn’t the real reason Ianto had wanted to stay in Cardiff this time. The real reason was that Martha Jones was going to be there. Martha was wonderful - absolutely brilliant, funny, kind, brave, and Ianto could see himself becoming very close friends with her. But he’d been close friends with Adeola, before Canary Wharf, and Martha looked almost exactly like her cousin. Ianto needed a bit more time to separate Adeola and Martha in his mind, so that he could look at Martha without seeing her cousin. The last thing he needed was to accidentally call her ‘Adeola’ during a briefing. So he’d decided to call her once a week instead. He stared down at his mobile, and dialled Martha’s number.
“Hey, Ianto!” she greeted him, picking up right away, like Jack had. Meetings for the day must be over, he noted. They’ve finished early this year.
“Hi, Martha,” he replied. “I take it there haven’t been any incidents yet?”
Martha laughed. “No, Jack was very well-behaved. Even Colonel Mace was impressed. We ended up getting a lot done today. In fact - well, never mind. How is everyone?”
“Owen’s doing pretty well - spends most nights looking for someone to help in such a way that he can scare the hell out of them in the process; Tosh says hi, and that she’s ‘making progress’ on hacking those files you mentioned to her, and I’m sure she’d love to talk more with you about them once she’s done; and Gwen is all but holding the Rift at gunpoint now that everything’s set for the wedding. How are you, and what were you going to tell me earlier?”
“Oh, nothing,” she assured him brightly. Ianto could see her grinning as she said it. “And I’m doing well. Glad to hear everything’s going well in Cardiff, too. Please tell Gwen I’m sorry I can’t come to the wedding, and don’t tell her I got her a present, I want it to be a surprise. Tell Owen not to scare the locals too much, or everyone will start to think he’s some kind of cryptid. And tell Tosh I’ll call on Friday - some time in the afternoon, so we’ll have more time to chat.”
“Will do.”
Martha was about to say something else when someone called out to her. She shouted back “Sorry, Colonel, haven’t seen him since the end of the last briefing! I’m sure it’ll be fine, though!”
“Jack’s gone AWOL, hasn’t he?” Ianto asked drily.
“What? I have no idea. Ianto, you’re breaking up on me. And tell Tosh I said hi, and I can’t wait to call her! See you soon! Bye!” Martha said, then ended the call.
“Breaking up on you my foot,” Ianto said, rolling his eyes fondly. “You won’t be able to cover for him long if he’s up to something, Martha.” Laughing to himself, he headed towards his car.
Once he got home, he decided to sit outside for a bit, since it was a beautiful evening: the sky was filled with streaks of coral and gold. Ianto sighed a bit. It was the nicest the weather had been all month, and Jack was in London instead of Cardiff. He pulled out his mobile and texted Jack.
See you tomorrow, Jack. The sunset’s really lovely tonight. Then he added I wish you were here, and looked up at the sunset again.
Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him. “Granted,” it said.
Ianto spun around. Jack beamed at him. “Surprise!” he exclaimed.
“So that’s why Martha was talking about how much you got done at the conference,” Ianto said. “By the way, I think Colonel Mace is looking for you,” he added.
Jack laughed. “I behaved myself at the briefings - even refrained from shouting at Ramsey. I wanted to get through all of the briefings that really required my presence today so I could get home early and surprise you.”
Ianto smiled at him. “Well, I am very glad to see you.”
Jack grinned. “You were right,” he said, “the sunset is beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Ianto said. “I really like the bits where the sun’s turning the clouds gold.”
“Me too,” Jack replied, sitting next to him.
He kissed Ianto on the cheek, and then said, smiling mischievously “I brought a bag of chips back with me that we can share.”
“Crisps,” Ianto groaned. “Not chips, Jack, crisps. ”
Jack laughed and kissed him again.
Ianto snorted. “That won’t work. I know you’re saying it wrong on purpose.”
Then he sighed and kissed Jack. When he pulled back, he opened the bag of crisps and popped one into his mouth. “Mm, thank you,” he said, smirking.
Jack gaped at him. “You - did you -”
“- pickpocket you? Yes, I believe so,” Ianto said, raising an eyebrow.
Jack beamed at him fondly as he held the bag out, and grabbed a crisp.
They sat on the bench together until the bag was empty, at which point Ianto folded it and put it in his pocket to throw out in his flat. The clouds had all turned gold as the sun sank closer to the horizon. Then it started gently raining - there weren’t really any clouds, and the sun was still visible, but there were small raindrops falling anyway.
“My favourite kind of rain,” Ianto said, looking up.
Jack smiled at him softly. “Mine too.”