Title: Sticking to tradition
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,240 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 247 - Customs
Summary: The boys reflect on some Christmas traditions.



Jack chuckled to himself. The soft sound of it met Ianto's ears and caused him to look up from where he was knelt on the carpet, tidying away the now empty boxes that housed the fairy lights for their tree. 'What are you so amused about?'

'Has it ever occurred to you what strange customs you have?' Jack asked, setting the star on the very top of the tree.

'What do you mean?'

'Well, Christmas is supposed to be about celebrating the birth of Christ but these days it’s all about trees and presents and stuffing yourself with food. Even this, trimming the tree business. What does any of it have to do with the birth of the son of God?'

Ianto eased back, sitting on his heels and looking up at it, sparkling. 'The star on the tree is meant to represent the star that lead the wise men.'

'I suspect that's probably not what most people bother to think about,' Jack replied.

Ianto hummed thoughtfully. 'I suppose it is. We always went to church at Christmas and Easter when I was younger, but we weren't what you’d call an observant family. I guess. I never really stopped to think about Christmas traditions and where they come from.'

Jack adjusted a bit of tinsel so that it looped over the branch in just the right way. 'You can thank Prince Albert for a lot of it, actually.'

Ianto paused. 'Prince Albert? What’s he got to do with anything? I know he was pretty progressive in his thinking, but Christmas?'

'Uh huh,' Jack said. 'It wasn't really a family gathering back in Edwardian times, but Albert was very insistent it should be a celebration more than a religious requirement. He had a hell of a time trying to convince Vicky but he won her over in the end. Gotta love those Victorians.'

Ianto narrowed his eyes at Jack. 'You make out like you were there personally. Which you weren't.'

Jack tilted his head to one side and gave Ianto a challenging look. 'Wasn't I?'

'Hang on, there’s no way you could have met Prince Albert. He died in 1961. You didn’t arrive here until 1979.'

Jack quirked a cheeky eyebrow at him. 'You think so? Think I haven’t been around the traps before I met you? I was a Time Agent, remember?'

Ianto could tell Jack was teasing him with salient clues about his history. He enjoyed doing that, trying to intersperse lies amidst the truth to keep Ianto on his toes, but still he stuck to his guns and shook his head. 'Nope. You definitely weren't here in the time of Prince Albert. He died young. He was before your time.'

Jack grinned. 'It’s getting harder and harder to fool you, Ianto Jones. You're right. I wasn't around in those early days of Queen Victoria's reign. We crossed paths much later on in life, when she was hell bent on keeping her eyes firmly on what Torchwood was up to. But I did meet Albert.'

There was a curious look, and Ianto knew he couldn't resist asking, even if Jack was trying to wind him up. 'When?'

'1904.' Jack folded his arms and let the answer hang in the air, just waiting for Ianto to take a bite at the bait he'd so expertly hung out for him.

Ianto set his hands on his hips. 'Now I know you're telling porkies. How could you have met him fifty years after he'd died?'

'It's true. He came through the rift by accident and landed in Torchwood's hands. You should have seen the look on everybody's faces. A lot of things have come through the rift, but nobody was expecting a former Prince.'

'Really, though?' Ianto was still struggling to come to grips with the idea. 'He traveled through the rift? Didn't anyone notice he'd gone missing?'

'We went back through the records. There was no mention of him going missing so we just assumed the rift only snatched him away and dropped him back within a few minutes if each other. It was luck rather than good planning on our part.'

Jack watched as Ianto chewed his bottom lip, mulling over it. 'So, Albert was transported to the future and then sent back and no one was any the wiser? Didn't that freak him out? I mean, fifty years... No, more than fifty years probably,' Ianto corrected himself.

'Why do you think he was so ahead of his time?' Jack asked. 'He saw what the future held and went back to make it happen. Yours truly was responsible for babysitting him until we could find a tear in the rift to send him back through. Lucky for us we only had to wait two days, but it was Christmas and since I didn't have anyone else to celebrate with, well, let's just say I treated old Albert to a proper Christmas with all the trimmings.'

'Jack!' Ianto chastised. 'You could have destroyed the future! Isn’t that a paradox? Showing him things he'd come to influence?'

Jack shrugged. 'Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Time never works quite the way you think it does. If he never got sucked through a rift in time, he would never have returned to make all of those social changes. Think of it as fixing the past to preserve the future.'

'So... you’re saying Christmas is the way it is because you convinced Albert it was meant to be about gathering family together?'

'I didn’t so much convince him as just give him a gentle nudge on the right direction. He was already headed on that trajectory. I just gave him a little taste.'

Ianto quirked an eyebrow. He was never quite sure just how much of things Jack was giving people a taste of, himself included. 'So I can blame you for the fact that Christmas has become commercialised, with everyone trying to outdo one another with bigger and better presents.'

Jack grinned. 'What can I say? I like presents. Albert was big on gift giving, but he was in raptures over the decorated tree. Imagine if he could see it all now, with all those lights hung all over the outside of the house?'

Ianto rolled his eyes, taking in their own efforts. The tree this year sparkled in hues of red wine, gold and cream. It was, he admitted, quite Victorian looking. 'And here I was thinking it was only on account of his German heritage. They always had trees as part of their celebrations.'

Jack helped Ianto up off the floor and wrapped two arms around him. 'Turns out you don't know absolutely everything after all,' Jack teased.

'I know plenty,' Ianto replied. 'For example,' he began, extracting the sprig of mistletoe he'd been hiding behind his back, the last thing yet to be hung, 'I know that mistletoe comes from the Anglo-Saxon words, and translates to mean poo on a stick.'

Jack chuckled at that as Ianto held it over their heads. 'Not exactly romantic, is it?'

'I get the feeling that knowing that wouldn't bother you.'

Jack pulled him closer. 'Not in the least. What it translates to doesn't make it any less the best Christmas custom I can think of. Albert can't take any credit for that one.'

'Better than trees and presents?'

'So much better than trees and presents,' he replied, silencing Ianto with his lips.