Torchwood IMs: Auction

[a_silver_story]

Title: Auction
Chapter: 93
Characters: Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness, Rhys Williams, Gwen Cooper
Author: a_silver_story
Genre Humour, smut, angst
Rating: G - nc-17
Warnings: M.M
Disclaimer: If I owned anything in this, I'd be a rich rich rich bitch. However, I am not a rich rich rich bitch so you may all, therefore, assume I own nothing. Which I don't. It all belongs RTD and the BBC, in case any of you didn't know.
Summary: See title, really.


FIRST PART | Ianto and Gwen's IM's


PREVIOUS | Torchwood Index/Masterlist









93 |



Jack and Ianto stood in the crowded room, milling about and keeping their eyes open for anything suspicious. Jack had somehow persuaded Ianto to take a glass of champagne (or two), and he was getting a sneaking suspicion that the Captain might be trying to get him a little tipsy in the hope he might put out in the SUV afterwards. Ianto had sworn off SUV Sex since they had been discovered by Rhys and Gwen a couple of months back, and the mental scars still hadn't quite healed.

“I hate auctions,” Jack grumbled, his eyes slightly narrowed as they moved around the room. “Damn. Why couldn't we have sent Gwen or Andy?”

“Because you and I are so good at blending in,” Ianto dead-panned. “I wonder … how much do you think your coat is worth? We could ask that dealer over there ….”

Judging from Jack's expression, Ianto deduced he wasn't in the least bit amused. Ianto rolled his eyes and sipped the champagne. “Aren't you going to have any champagne?”

“I don't drink.”

“We're supposed to be blending in,” Ianto pointed out.

Jack 'mm'ed' his response.

“What's up?” Ianto sighed. “You're cranky.”

Jack folded his arms.

“... and now you're apparently five years old. Brilliant. Just what I need today.”

“I'm bored, is all.”

Ianto finished his champagne. “Shall we go and look at the exhibits at least? If we can't spot an alien, maybe we can spot an artefact.”

Jack 'mm'ed' again, and followed Ianto towards the adjoining annexe. There were hundreds of items, each set on wooden podia and covered with a glass dome to protect from thieving fingers or damage. There were a few cars and a couple of impressive-looking motorbikes, but it was one vehicle in particular that caught Jack's attention.

The second he saw it, his face lit up, his demeanour completely and utterly changing and a huge, excited grin spreading across his face. “Oh … my … God!”

Ianto stared at the car Jack had raced towards.

“Ianto! Ianto! Look … it's … LOOK! What's its expected sale price?”

Ianto stared at the huge mass of chrome and polished, painted metal before him. “'Nineteen-fifty-nine Cadillac Coupe de Ville in midnight blue with a silver roof.',” he read aloud from the nearby information sign.

“Look at her!” beamed Jack. “She's the perfect representation of everything fifties America was about – big, luxurious, elegant. Poetry in motion … She's beautiful. God … I wanted one of these ….”

Tentatively, Jack reached out and touched the chrome handle of the door. “Look at those tail fins,” he sighed. “forty-two inches, with rocket-domed rear lights – and I bet even your luggage would fit in that boot. Hell - Wales would fit in that boot ….”

"You're not putting Wales anywhere near any boot."

Ianto watched Jack inspecting the car, the look of child-like excitement still plastered on his face. It was the same look he got when he was talking about buying jets and planes and sex toys.

It was a second too late for Jack to be dragged away, Ianto realised suddenly. Jack had snapped his head up, a serious expression on his face, and he didn't even have to say anything before Ianto was already trying to persuade him out of it.

"No, no, no. Imagine how much the insurance will be ... and tax? It'll be through the roof on this ancient thing!"

"Cars over a certain age are tax exempt," Jack said, his voice quiet and biting his lip as he stared into the original black and white interior. He raised his eyes to Ianto again. "I swear ... I won't ever buy planes behind your back again ... I won't even talk about buying a plane again. I'll take care of her - you won't even have to wash or polish."

"You say that, but-"

"I mean it! I really mean it!" He strode over, gripping Ianto's shoulders tightly. "I'll only drive her in summer, and only for the most special of occasions. I can keep her in storage over the colder months. You'll hardly know about her - please, please, please just let me at least bid. Please ... ?"

Ianto rubbed his face, feeling the full force of Jack's puppy-eyed expression hitting him from all angles. "It's an unnecessary expense."

"It could be our car for our ceremony!"

"We could just hire it! Besides- who would you trust to drive it?"

"Someone who's had lots and lots and lots of practice and a bomb strapped to their waist that I can detonate if they so much as scratch it? - once a safe distance away, of course."

Scratching his fingers through his hair, Ianto bit his lip. "It's got a cracked window."

"I can replace it."

"We don't even know if it runs."

"I can check the MOT on the previous owners' records."

Ianto groaned and put his head on Jack's shoulder. "Do you want it, or do you need it?"

"Her," Jack insisted. "I need her."

He put his head in his hands. "You can bid," he finally agreed. "But no more than eighteen grand," he warned, spotting the expected sale price.

"But ... but ... we have more than enough money! We have thousands and thousands in our joint saving account!"

"... we don't have a joint saving account ..."

"We do now - and it's got all my life savings in it. And I have enough for thrice that! At least! - especially with your savings in there as well!"

"My savings are for my family when I die!"

"But you're not going to," Jack reminded him. 

"Twenty grand. Not a penny more - Lord knows how much you're going to be spending finding somewhere to put it anyway," he scowled, turning away from the car. He spotted an exhibit through a gaggle of people quite close to the Cadillac and froze. "Oh ... my ... God!" he exclaimed. Ianto shot towards it before Jack could ask, and he watched as Ianto practically fell to his knees before the podium. 

"Jack ... it's ... it's ... it's the first ever Darth Vader three-and-a-quarter inch action figure from 1978 with telescopic lightsabre! ... It's the ... it's the rarest action figure in the world ... and ... it's in Cardiff ...."

He stared at the little back figure through the glass, stood on his own little, white circular podium and begging Ianto to take him home and away from this nasty, horrible, busy place with so much light and so much dust and so much potential for damage ....

Jack came to a stop beside him, and Ianto almost absently reached out and started pulling at his coat lapels.

"Jack ... I need him," Ianto pointed. "I really, really need him."




FIN










I think the muses are returning .... YAY ABOUT BLOODY TIME!

Uni shall be finished soon, so hopefully I'll be more relaxed and able to write for longer.

N/B.: 1959 Cadillac shown belongs to my dad. He calls her 'Lola'. *rolls eyes* MEN!



Comments be love, yes?












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