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Owen had bounded in every morning for the past two weeks with an enormous thing of candy floss and a cheerful yell of “Come get y’all juice!”, which was invariably answered by an irritated “How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a vampire, Owen?” from Suzie. Gwen had been writing exclusively with her red pen with the vampire teeth on the end all month, Ianto had worn bat cufflinks with his suits since the first of the month, and Tosh was humming along to “Spooky Scary Skeletons” as she worked. Jack looked around and grinned. Halloween was here. He glanced around for Ianto, to see if he’d managed to escape the Tourist Office yet, and found him staring down at his phone looking as though someone had dropped a bomb on him.
“Hey Jonesy,” Suzie called over, having also noticed. “What’s wrong?”
Tosh, Gwen, and Owen all turned towards Ianto.
“Who the hell forgets what day Halloween is?” he said in a blankly despairing tone.
“Huh?” Owen asked.
“My sister,” Ianto said, holding his phone up, “just texted to tell me that she made a dinner reservation for her and her husband at a really nice restaurant two months back and ‘didn’t realise’ she scheduled it for Halloween.” He paused and drew in an irritated breath. “So, instead of cancelling the reservation or asking Bronwen and Lili for help, she decides to ask me. I know what this is. She planned this. She thinks I don’t spend enough time with the kids. That’s why she’s doing this.”
“Doing what, Ianto?” Gwen asked him. “What do your sister’s dinner plans have to do with you?”
Ianto heaved a sigh. “She just asked me to take David and Mica trick-or-treating so she ‘can go to dinner’ - she just wants me to spend more time with them, and she’s come up with this . And listen to this.” He cleared his throat. “ ‘I told the kids that their Uncle Ianto would take them trick-or-treating, and they were so excited that you’d be coming to see them. Mica can’t wait to show her her costume, and I think you’ll be tickled.’ Not to mention the bit where she says she hopes they’ll ‘be able to recognise’ me.” He looked back up disgustedly. “Of course they’ll be able to recognise me! I visited four months ago!”
“You haven’t visited your family in four months?” Gwen asked, wincing.
“That’s… that’s rough, mate” Owen managed to choke out. Ianto scowled at him.
“What are you going to do, then?” Tosh asked.
“You have to go,” Suzie told him. “Your sister’ll never forgive you if you refuse.”
“I can go too,” Jack offered as he joined them. He grinned. “I love kids!”
“Oh, no,” Ianto murmured.
“What?” he asked.
“ If I let you come along,” Ianto said, “you’re not allowed to eat any candy. The last thing I need is three hyperactive children on my hands.”
Jack’s sputtered protests were cut off by Suzie. “Well, if Jack’s going with Ianto, then I’ll spearhead this year’s Halloween watch.”
“Oh, no,” Tosh and Owen groaned in unison. Jack chuckled at them. Suzie and Gwen were… enthusiastic, to say the least, about keeping an eye out for anything that had even the most tenuous possible connection to the Rift on Halloween, which meant they normally spent the entire night chasing pranksters around. They had only gotten more enthusiastic when it turned into a “who can catch more miscreants/aliens on Halloween” competition with Kathy Swanson and Andy Davidson. When Jack had first learned about the competition, he’d asked Gwen if she was sure it was a good idea, since even though Kathy and Andy knew about aliens, they still weren’t very well-equipped to subdue a Weevil if they ran into one while trying to find a teenager. Gwen had explained that they’d worked that out by pairing Kathy and Suzie while she and Andy worked together. She’d then admitted that she’d come up with the whole strategy to try and set Suzie and Kathy up. Two years later, it looked like she was still working on it, but she said that she was making a lot of progress. Jack admired her tenacity.
“Are you sure you’ll be able to handle everything two men down?” Ianto asked.
“Yeah, don’t worry about us,” Gwen assured him. “We’ll just have to coordinate a bit more closely with Andy and Kathy - actually stay with each other through the evening. That sound okay, Suzie?”
“Yeah,” Suzie replied, grinning. “I’d love the chance to spend a bit more time with Kathy.”
Gwen beamed and winked at Jack, mouthing ‘This year is gonna be it!’ He chuckled fondly and shot her a thumbs-up.
“What time does Rhiannon want us there?” he asked Ianto, who glanced back down at his phone.
“She doesn’t specify a time,” Ianto replied, “so she probably wants us there right away.”
“Great!” Jack exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “I’ll get the car started - unless you want to change into something a bit more comfortable first.”
Ianto looked down at his suit. “I think I should be fine. Just let me grab my overcoat,” he said, and tossed Jack his keys.
*********
“Uncle Ianto!” yelled Mica as soon as they walked in.
“Mica, hey!” Ianto exclaimed, swinging her up into a hug. Then he stopped. “What are you wearing?”
“It’s my costume, Uncle! I’m you!” she explained excitedly.
Ianto blinked, then grinned at her. “You look really lovely, Mica! But you need a tie. Here,” he said, pulling his tie off and redoing it around her neck, “you can borrow mine.”
“Thanks, Uncle Ianto!” Mica exclaimed, beaming. “Mam!” she shouted, running up the stairs. “Uncle Ianto gave me his tie! Look!”
“ ‘I’m not good with kids,’ ” Jack whispered at him, grinning.
Ianto blushed. “I’m not! They make me nervous!”
Jack laughed as they went through to the den.
“Hey, Uncle Ianto. Hey, Uncle Jack,” David said, looking up towards them.
“Hey, David,” Ianto said. “You’re a pilot?”
“Yeah,” David said, grinning, “like great-granddad was. But Mam couldn’t find his hat,” he added glumly.
“I think I’ve got my RAF cap in the car, actually,” Jack said. “Let me go check.” A minute later, he jogged back in, cap in his hand. “Here ya go, David!” he said proudly. “You can borrow this for the night - be careful with it, since it’s actually from the 1940s.”
“Wow!” David exclaimed. “Thanks!”
Ianto turned towards him as David ran off yelling “Mam! Look! Uncle Jack gave me his RAF cap!”
“What a lucky coincidence that was,” he said dryly. “You wouldn’t have planned this with Rhiannon or anything, would you, Jack?”
He gave Ianto a wounded look. “No, I wouldn’t, Ianto. It really was just lucky.” The wounded look turned into a leer as he added, “And if you recall, it’s your fault my cap got left in the car in the first place.”
Ianto blushed. “Oh. Uh. Yes. I remember now.”
Jack smirked at him.
“Shut up,” Ianto grumbled.
*********
“I’m sorry for springing this on you like this, even though it has been too long since you spent time with your own niece and nephew,” Rhiannon said, “and I appreciate your coming to help out, Ianto - and you too, Jack.”
“Happy to help, Rhiannon,” Jack assured her. “And it is nice to spend some time with the kids, isn’t it, pumpkin?”
Ianto scowled at him.
“Pumpkin?” Rhiannon asked, obviously trying to stifle a laugh.
“He’s been calling me that awful nickname all October,” Ianto groaned. “Says it’s ‘for Halloween.’”
“Well, I did offer to call you kitten instead if you really didn’t like it - because of black cats and all,” he pointed out, waggling his eyebrows.
Rhiannon doubled over laughing.
‘I hate you,’ Ianto mouthed, and sent Jack a withering glare. Jack remained resolutely unwithered, and even looked as though he was struggling to suppress a smirk.
Just then, David and Mica came back into the den, bags in their hands. Seeing Ianto on the sofa, they moved so that they were sitting on either side of him as closely as they could without actively snuggling him. Rhiannon smiled happily, and more than a little triumphantly. Jack smiled too, and flipped open his wrist strap.
“Hold still,” he said.
“Jack, no,” Ianto protested half-heartedly.
Jack ignored him, pressing one of the buttons down. He tapped another one and pulled up the picture.
“Aww,” he said. “Rhiannon, look at this!”
“Aww,” Rhiannon said. “That’s so cute!”
Both of them beamed at Ianto, who sighed.
*********
“Have fun on your date!” Ianto called after Rhiannon and Johnny as they got into their car.
“Thanks! We will!” Rhiannon shouted back, while Johnny waved to the kids and shouted “Have fun, you two! And don’t forget the tribute!”
“We won’t, tad! Have fun!” they shouted back.
Jack blinked and looked down at them as Rhiannon and Johnny drove off. “The tribute?” he asked.
“Yeah, the tribute,” David replied casually, shrugging, while Mica nodded behind him.
Jack turned to Ianto as they set off down the street. “Tribute?” he asked.
Ianto sighed. “It’s a family tradition - well, it became one when my mam started it. She’d take us trick-or-treating, and when we got back she’d pick a couple pieces of candy from each of our bags, as a reward for taking us. Rhiannon and I called it the tribute.”
Jack chuckled. “That’s really cute. I can just see it now - ten-year old you giving your mom a piece of candy and saying ‘here’s your tribute.’”
“Hmph,” Ianto replied. He looked down as his phone went off. His eyebrows raised. “Johnny just texted to say that he forgot to tell us that we get the tribute this year, since we’re the ones taking the kids out.”
“Great!” Jack said. “So what are their least favourite kinds of candy?”
Ianto smiled at him fondly. “Whichever ones they try and make the most noticeable - so that you’re more likely to pick one of those than one of the ‘good ones.’”
“Old family trick?” he asked.
“Yep,” Ianto replied proudly. “They learned from the best.”
*********
“You’re sure you’re not tired?” Ianto asked a bit pleadingly.
“Nope!” Mica said, grinning.
“Yeah! We want to keep going!” David added.
Ianto sighed. “Okay, then.” As the kids ran off, he shouted after them “But only a few more streets! It’s nearly dark!” He groaned. “I wasn’t like that as a kid,” he told Jack.
“Yeah you were,” Jack replied. “I was the same way during the celebrations on Boeshane. Don’t worry, they’ll get tired soon, and you’ll be able to convince them to go home.”
Ianto snorted. “No, they won’t. Trust me. We’ll end up having to carry the candy bags and them back to the house.”
“I don’t mind,” Jack assured him.
“Really?” Ianto asked.
“Nope,” Jack replied, beaming. “Any chance to impress you with my strength!”
Ianto scoffed. “You’re completely unbelievable.” He paused, then turned to look at Jack with a wide grin of his own. “So that means you could carry David and both the bags, then?”
*********
It took them a while to get back; the kids had taken longer to get tired than Jack had expected, and he’d stopped a few times on the way back to take pictures of Ianto carrying Mica, both of them in suits, and to have Ianto take some of him holding David.
“We’ll have to remember to send those to Rhi,” Ianto said. “I’ll never hear the end of it if we don’t.”
“Mmm,” Jack replied, shifting David’s candy bag farther down his arm.
When they got home, Mica and David woke up and started sorting through their candies; Mica, Jack noted with a smile, had grabbed a pencil and paper and was listing out how many of each kind of candy she had.
“Just like her uncle,” he chuckled quietly to Ianto, who was yawning. “You did the same thing with the trays of chocolates you set up in the Hub.”
“To stop Owen stealing them,” Ianto replied. “The man’s an absolute sugar fiend - he’s eaten an entire thing of candy floss every day of October. Not to mention the types of coffee he likes when he’s not trying to pull an all-nighter.”
“Did it not work? I thought you stopped keeping track after the first week or so.”
“I got bored sitting upstairs in the Tourist Office dealing with the holiday crowds and ended up eating a bunch of chocolates I had sitting on the desk - and I wasn’t going to log that .” Jack chuckled as Ianto added “Of course, the tourists ate a lot of them too.”
“Yeah, I bet they loved them,” he said.
“Oh, no, I didn’t give them the special chocolates,” Ianto replied. “I kept those downstairs, for us and Myfanwy only - although Suzie did borrow the mould and make a batch herself for Detective Swanson.”
Jack grinned broadly. “She did?” he asked. “Did you tell Gwen? I bet she was over the moon about that!”
“She did a little victory dance, actually,” Ianto replied, chuckling.
“Ok, Uncle Ianto, my candy’s all sorted,” Mica said seriously.
“Mine too,” David chimed in. “We’re ready for you to collect the tribute.”
Jack bit his lip to try and suppress a grin at the serious looks on the kids’ faces.
“All right, then,” Ianto said, standing up, “let’s have a look.”
Ianto had been right, Jack noted as he looked at the piles of candy. Some types of candies were much more obviously positioned than the rest, and some of them had been badly hidden underneath the bags.
“Hmm,” Ianto hummed seriously, inspecting David’s candy. He ended up grabbing a Crunch bar from each of the kids. Jack took two Almond Joys, and traded an amused glance with Ianto as David and Mica whispered to each other about how well their plan had worked.
*********
“I thought you didn’t like Crunch bars either,” Jack said as they drove back to the Hub.
“I don’t,” Ianto replied, “and I’m glad the kids share my good taste, but Andy likes them and I think he’ll need a bit of cheering up once Detective Swanson starts going out with Suzie.”
Jack huffed out a laugh. “Think it’ll finally happen this year, then?” he asked.
“Gwen’s got a feeling,” Ianto replied, shrugging.
“That explains the thumbs-up earlier, then,” Jack laughed. “Well, good for her! After two years, it’s about time, too!”
Ianto hummed in agreement, a bit tiredly. Jack looked over and saw that he was blinking slowly, clearly trying not to nod off. “Hey,” he said softly, “you sure you don’t just want to head home?”
“We should check in on everyone first,” Ianto replied, “make sure they’re doing alright.” He stifled a yawn.
“Okay,” Jack said, “but then we’re going straight home - no last-minute ‘just let me finish filing this,’ alright?”
When they got back, Owen was helping Tosh into her jacket, Suzie was nowhere in sight - probably downstairs getting set up for the overnight watch, and Gwen was sitting on the couch practically vibrating as she watched them come through the cog door.
“You’re back!” she cheered, hopping up and running over to them. “It worked! I did it! Finally! They have a date next Saturday!”
“Suzie and Kathy?” Jack asked. Gwen nodded and pulled him into a hug.
“Woo!” she shouted as she let him go, pumping her fists.
“Swydd da, Gwen!” Ianto said, grinning at her.
“Diolch, Ianto!” she replied, hugging him too. “Gotta run - I don’t want to miss Halloween movie night with Rhys! See you tomorrow!”
*********
“Andy’s really going to appreciate those Crunch bars tomorrow,” Jack said. “Poor guy. Everyone he knows is involved with Torchwood in some way and he just can’t get in.”
“So make him our police liaison,” Ianto mumbled, lifting his head from the pillow. “That way, you won’t have to actually hire him, he’ll feel more involved, we’ll have a real excuse for not Retconning him, and I’ll be able to see him more often, since I would need to check in with him.”
“Oh, Ianto, you really do think of everything, don’t you?” Jack laughed fondly.
“I do try,” came the muffled response.
Jack slid into bed, reached over and turned out the light, and kissed Ianto on the shoulder. “Night, Ianto,” he said softly.
“G’night, Jack. Happy Halloween,” Ianto replied.
As his breathing evened out, Jack leaned forwards to kiss his shoulder again, just because he could. “Happy Halloween,” he whispered.