Title: Newsworthy
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 663 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 502 - Sand
Summary: Ianto is beginning to regret having a slow morning with time to read the paper.



‘It's quite impressive, don't you think?’ Ianto asked, not even looking over at Jack as he sipped his coffee, enjoying a slow morning of perusing the paper without anything else more pressing needing to be done.

‘What's impressive?’ Jack replied, looking more at a loose end than Ianto was on a morning when nothing was happening. Jack hated inaction, mostly because that meant catching up on a backlog of things he'd been carefully ignoring.

‘These sandscapes that keep popping up on the beach,’ he replied. ‘I'm not usually one for abstract art but they're quite beautiful in their own way. It's a shame that they get washed away when there's rain or heavy winds,’ he mused. ‘Must take ages to do that.’

Jack leaned over and looked at the large colour photo printed on page ten, with a small article underneath speculating on their provenance. ‘How many beaches?’

‘Just this one, down past Barry,’ Ianto said. ‘Blaidd Drwg Bay. Must be a local.’ He took another sip of coffee. ‘Why do you ask?’ He didn't think Jack was suddenly into art and wanted to pack them up in the car and bead down for a closer look and a few selfies.

Jack grabbed the sheet of newsprint and held it up, turning it this way and that. ‘Why didn't you say something earlier?’

‘It's just an art installation.’

‘It's important!’ Jack insisted. ‘I should have been told about it.’

Ianto heaved a sigh. ‘Don't you ever read the newspaper or watch television?’

‘No,’ came the blunt reply. ‘I rely on you to do all that and then report back to me anything I should know about. Like aliens chewing up large swathes of Welsh beaches.’

Ianto scoffed. ‘Don't be so ridiculous. It's not aliens. It's just some local artist drumming up publicity.’

‘Oh, and what's the artist's name?’

‘Actually, they didn't say. But that doesn't mean anything. He, or she… they, even…’ he added as an afterthought, ‘prefer anonymity. Like a beach version of Banksy. Elusive, mysterious…’

‘Alien,’ Jack countered. ‘See these patterns here?’ Jack swirled a finger around, smudging the newsprint.

Ianto squinted. ‘Uh, sure.’

‘Clear tell-tale signs of burrowing.’ Jack slapped the paper back on the table. ‘C'mon, let's go.’

Ianto arched an eyebrow. ‘No time like the present?’

‘No time to waste.’



Jack must have broken twenty road laws to get there. Between speed restrictions, traffic lights and driving down the wrong side of the road, it was all Ianto could do to grip the door handle and recite random verses of Dylan Thomas for something to take his mind off the fact that he'd never drafted himself a will.

It wasn't until he felt the SUV finally slow to a bumpy stop that he dared to reopen his eyes. ‘It's cordoned off,’ Ianto reported, taking in the view from the top of the beach.

‘Good. Saves us the trouble.’

‘No, I mean it's cordoned off to stop anyone from getting inside and ruining the artwork. Including us.’

Jack scowled at him. ‘Stop calling it artwork. It's just traces left behind by an alien sand burrowing creature.’

Ianto studied the otherwise empty looking beach. ‘Is it dangerous?’

‘Not particularly. I certainly wouldn't be ripping out the Frank Herbert or Dune references.’

‘That's reassuring.’

‘But it still shouldn't be left to roam on its own,’ Jack warned. ‘They can get to the size of a bendy-bus.’

‘I thought we said we would steer clear of the Frank Herbert references?’ Jack just shrugged. If the shoe fits, apparently. Ianto sighed. ‘I'll go fetch the nets from the back of the car, shall I?’

‘Don't forget the buckets and shovels!’ Jack called out, fearlessly striding down towards the shore, trampling through the beige three-dimensional Picasso.

Ianto rolled his eyes as he began moving towards the boot. ‘Just a nice little day by the seaside building castles and capturing space sandworms,’ he muttered. ‘From now on I'm sticking to the comics and crosswords section.’