m-findlow.livejournal.com

Title: The sleepover
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, OCs
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,016 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 181 - Party
Summary: Jack and Ianto host their very first slumber party

She rolled her eyes at him and gritted her teeth in that annoyed way that told him he was about to get a bollocking.

'We're fine.' She forced the words out, gripping the edge of the sleeping bad and squeezing it tightly in her fists. .

'You're sure? None of you girls want anything to drink? I can make coffee. Or tea. We've got juice, milk, soda, water,' he trailed off.

'No one wants a drink, Dad.'

He looked at the rest of them, searching the faces for some need. 'Okay, well if you get thirsty, just sing out, okay? We'll be just down the hall or upstairs if you need us.'

She got up and huffed, sweeping past him and down the hall to the kitchen. Her sister quickly trailed after her, sensing impending disaster.

Jack was sitting at the kitchen counter when the three of them arrived. Sian spun on her heel and came face to face with Ianto. Scary how tall she'd gotten, he thought.

'Would you just stop already?' she hissed. 'We don't need drinks. We don't need something for you to do. We don't need coffee, or Welsh cakes, or lava bread...'

'Who makes lava bread for a slumber party?' Jack asked, trying to suppress the smile on his face.

'You're not helping,' Ianto muttered.

Sian didn't give Ianto a chance to reply, simply huffing and returning to the living room, muttering down the hall the words, "you're so embarrassing!"

Jack felt for him, he really did, but he probably was trying a little too hard. The girls had never invited their friends over for a slumber party before, and Ianto was just doing what he did best, trying to be a good host. What he'd failed to factor in was the fact that he had a house full of fifteen year old girls, who wanted to stay up all night, chatting about boys and hunky film stars, scoffing junk food and painting their toenails. He had more chance of coping on an alien world than he did in their living room at present.

Ianto sighed. 'When did they go from being babes in arm to unruly teenagers?' he asked.

Jack grinned. He'd been wondering the self same question for a while now.

Sian was her father's daughter, all sandy brown hair and fiery temperament. Her arguments with Ianto were tame compared to the ranting that occasionally happened when she and Jack butted heads. Fortunately those were few and far between.  

She was impetuous, often acted without thinking, and was a natural sportsperson, always on the move. Athletics team, football team, hockey, swimming, basketball. There wasn't a sport she couldn't put her hand to, her tall athletic frame perfectly suited to running. It made her popular with everyone, girls and boys alike, and she certainly didn't appreciate anything that was about to ruin her street cred.

Her twin sister who was still standing in the kitchen, having been ready to lend support was the very antithesis. Eleri and Ianto were like two peas from the same pod in almost every way. She was quiet and unassuming, brilliant intellectually without being nerdy, long brown hair and those blue eyes that reminded Jack of his husband every time he looked at her. They all did in fact.

She was always so calm, unruffled by anything, and Jack was convinced that she shared some kind of secretly language with her father and that they communicated in a code of looks and body language indecipherable to the rest of them. If there were private jokes, Jack wasn't privy to them. Trying to know what was going on inside her head was about as impossible as it was to know what Ianto was thinking half of the time.

Yet despite their obvious differences, both sisters were as thick as thieves, had the same circle of friends, and did absolutely everything together, including tonight's highly anticipated slumber party.

Thomas made up the remaining of the trio of siblings. They hadn't planned on so many, but when Ianto got pregnant with triplets, there wasn't much either of them could do about it.

Tom sat somewhere in between, taking both the good and the bad of both personalities. He was a carefree, fun loving boy, neither one nor the other of his fathers, and yet probably the best of all of them because he'd inherited all the good bits from both. He was conspicuously absent tonight because he hadn't wanted to, as he put it, "put up with a bunch of stupid girls.".  In truth, he was too shy to hang around, since one of their friends Chelsea, was somewhat sweet on him, and the feeling was mutual, though vociferously denied. Trying to get advice on how to impress a girl was challenging since he received differing opinions from both of his dads, one who told him to just go for it, and one who insisted it would happen when it happened if it was meant to be.

Despite their differing personalities, neither Jack nor Ianto would have traded their children for anything. They were the three most happy, grounded kids you could ever meet. And they supposed they had to be.

When your parents worked for Torchwood, you very quickly got used to strange stuff happening. They'd dealt with it all their lives, one or the other of their fathers coming home not quite themselves, pink and furry or speaking nothing but an alien language and hopping about on one foot. Jack and Ianto had tried to keep as much of their work life out of their kids lives as possible, but sometimes there was just no way around it. And their kids had learned to take it all in their stride. They knew what their dads did, even if no one else did, but it didn't stop them from  trying to keep things as normal as possible.

But for their kids, they didn't think they'd have been able to hold onto normal lives either, but they changed everything, and their kids always came first no matter what. Whilst Torchwood wasn't quite as dangerous as it had been in the days before they'd stabilized the rift, there was still plenty that could go wrong. A growing team of very clever people had helped to maintain and monitor the rift in the years since.

One thing was certain though, when Thomas was older he wanted to work for Torchwood, something which both his parents agreed was not something they were keen on. Dangerous was one thing if you were immortal, but they'd be much happier knowing that their kids were in nice safe, boring occupations.

Having a full time dedicated Torchwood team did however give them more time to dedicate to their own family, which meant they had time to do all of the normal things, dinner at home, sport on weekends, holidays, movies and time hanging out with aunts and uncles, related and adopted. Everyone who worked at Torchwood was like extended family, and their kids were all good friends, one of whom was staying over tonight, even though they went to different schools.

All of their friends had been very supportive, and even more surprising was the support from the other parents at the school. No one seemed to think it strange that three siblings should have two dads, nor that their dads failed to age even a day. Someone had filtered around the idea that they worked for a government think tank that developed cutting edge technology, and that they'd both been part of a long term project to test new medical technologies, aimed at extending life and preventing the aging process. Neither of them had done anything to quash the story, and that everyone they knew got along well with them, was just a bonus. Plus everyone at the school just thought they were such nice people, raising nice,well behaved kids, so who cared what age they looked? They were always the first to volunteer for fundraiser events and helping out with school concerts. Unusual families were simply becoming less and less unusual these days.

Parenting was not without its challenges though, as both of them were constantly being reminded, but despite all the ups and downs, the obvious mistakes and sometimes sheer dumb luck, they wouldn't have it any other way, even if the odd squabble with teenagers had to be endured.

Eleri was still standing in the kitchen, looking awkwardly out of place, stood there in her pink penguin pajamas. Sian could be such a cow sometimes, she thought. Yes, her dads could be embarrassing sometimes, but they meant well. All their friends though her dads were cool, and a couple would even go so far as to say they were very good looking, which was kind of wrong, but she supposed most parents didn't look as young as hers.

She shuffled over to Ianto and wrapped her arms around his waist.

'I still love you, Dad,' she said, trying to make up for her sister, as she so often did. 'And Dad still loves you, too. And Tom.'

'Sometimes,' Jack teased, receiving a glare in return.

'Kidding,' he said, throwing his hands up.

'Thank you, Princess,' Ianto said, hugging her back. 'Better go or you'll miss the rest of the movie.'

'Wasn't my choice,' she grumbled. 'I hate horror movies.'

'Me too,' he said, watching as she shuffled back down the hall to hide inside her sleeping bag.

Ianto turned to face Jack. 'Probably shouldn't have let them pick that one out.'

Jack shrugged. 'You want to argue with seven teenagers, be my guest,'  he said. 'After nearly an hour in the video store, I was just glad to get out of there.'

Ianto slumped down on the stool next to Jack's at the counter.

'Am I really that over the top? 'he asked.

Jack wrapped an arm around his shoulder. 'Only sometimes.'

He sat there for a moment, considering it.

'Did you hear back from Tom? Is he enjoying camping?'

'I think so,' Jack replied. 'David said he was going to teach Tom how to surf tomorrow.'

'But it's October. It'll be freezing down there!'

David was another one shooting up faster than either of them could keep track of. These days,  at twenty five years old, he looked more like Ianto's brother than his nephew.

'Did you remind Tom that I packed him extra socks? They're in the bottom of his bag if he needs them.'

'Now you are being over the top, Ianto. A real party pooper,' Jack laughed. 'Relax. David will bring him back in one piece. Let the boys have a boys weekend. I'd have gone with them, but I didn't think I could trust my very handsome husband alone in a house with seven pretty girls.'

'He'd better,' Ianto grumbled, ignoring Jack's attempts to compliment him.

Just as he was leaning into Jack's embrace, enjoying the relative peace that had descended on the house with so many people occupying it, there was the sound of the door bell, and several bloodcurdling screams erupted from the living room.

'Bloody horror films,' Ianto muttered, knowing it was just the pizza delivery guy. 'Going to have them jumping at shadows and give them all nightmares.'

He pushed himself up off the stool. 'Better go save them, assuming that's not too uncool a thing to do,' he said. 'Perhaps you'd better hide all the kitchen knives tonight and make sure we lock our bedroom door. I don't fancy being stabbed to death by a terrified teenager, even if it is supposedly in self defence.'

'Now who's jumping at shadows?' Jack laughed.

Jack sat there and listened as Ianto padded down the hall and into the living room, headed for the door.

'Never fear girls, I've got my gun and a twenty pound note. That homicidal pizza guy doesn't stand a chance.'

Jack just grinned. Who said Ianto wasn't cool? Besides which, all would be forgotten tomorrow morning when the pair of them rustled up mountains of their world famous French toast.