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fandomweekly2024-06-14 01:46 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2024-06-14 01:46 pm
Entry tags:
[#223] Dawn Chorus (Torchwood)
Theme Prompt: #223 – Sunrise
Title: Dawn Chorus
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Jack and Ianto’s vacation is proving less peaceful and relaxing than Ianto had been expecting.
Lying in bed, wide awake, at some ridiculously early hour on the second morning of their vacation, Ianto could only be grateful they didn’t live on Ooshumbal. He thought he could maybe just about survive a couple of weeks there, but beyond that, he’d probably be driven beyond the limits of even his immortal endurance. He couldn’t understand how Jack could sleep through the racket going on outside the window of their lakeside villa.
The suns were barely beginning to rise, and yet already the local avians were loudly greeting the impending dawn with a chorus of tuneless creaks and groans that brought to mind an endless procession of wrought iron gates, in serious need of oiling, swinging back and forth in a gusty wind. Or possibly an orchestra of rusty instruments completely failing to tune up. Every so often, there was a sound reminiscent of fingernails being scraped down a blackboard that set his teeth on edge. It was invariably followed by a resounding BOOM so deep he could feel it in his bones.
He gave a pitiful groan, clamping both hands over his ears in an effort to shut out the din, or at least tone it down a bit.
Beside him, Jack rolled over, draping one arm across Ianto’s middle beneath the light covers. “It’ll be fine,” he mumbled. “They’ll quiet down when the suns come up.”
That was hardly the point, what Ianto really wanted was for them to shut up right now so he could sleep, but there was little point telling Jack that. “I should bloody well hope so. First thing I’m going to do today is head into town and buy earplugs. It’s the only way I’ll get any sleep.” Muttering dire threats against the planet’s birdlife, he tugged his pillow over his head in the hopes it might muffle the worst of the dawn chorus.
Eyes still closed, Jack patted at him consolingly, if a bit haphazardly. “Won’t do you any harm. You’re immortal, you can go for weeks without sleep, same as I can.”
“I don’t WANT to go without sleep,” Ianto protested. “We’ve been run ragged the last couple of months, that’s why we decided to take a holiday in the first place! I want to relax, sleep, and be lazy. What I DON’T want is creaky bird things keeping me awake half the night!” Jack, of course, had kept him awake the first half of the night but that had at least been enjoyable. The dawn chorus was decidedly not. “How long are they going to keep this up?”
“Only another hour or so.”
“Only…?” Ianto groaned again, loud enough to rival the birds. Pulling his head out from under the pillow, which hadn’t helped anyway, he sat up and shoved both hands through already messy bed hair. “I give up, there’s no way I can sleep through this!” Dislodging Jack’s arm, he slid out of bed, went over to the open window, and scowled out at the birdlife.
The birds, if they could be called that, mostly sat on the ground, or on rocks, scattered around the lakeshore. Some of them were probably still on the villa’s roof, and in the trees where they’d roosted, but they didn’t fly too well, owing to their round, blobby bodies and their stumpy wings. They climbed the trees at night, using hooked beaks and long, flexible, claw-tipped toes, then glided downwards in the morning, usually bouncing and rolling across the ground. Landings weren’t their strong point.
A scuffling sound behind him indicated that Jack was getting out of bed too, but Ianto didn’t turn to look at him, not even when warm, bare arms wrapped around his waist. He did lean back against his lover though.
“Are they edible? I was thinking of maybe roasting a few of them for dinner.”
Jack chuckled. “Culinary revenge?”
“They’ve got to be good for something, because they’re neither tuneful nor pretty to look at.” The birds came in drab shades of grey and brown, mostly resembling something unpleasant that had been chewed up and spat out. What passed for their heads were almost hairless except for a few straggly wisps like a bad combover.
“You really think something that looks like that would taste good?”
“Yeah, perhaps not. Explain to me again why we rented a villa by a lake instead of getting a room in a nice, soundproofed hotel in town.”
“For the privacy, the natural beauty, and a lake to swim in?”
“I’m not sure any of those things make up for the noisy neighbours.” Ianto winced at another screech. The following BOOM sent vibrations through the floorboards.
“Come on.” Jack took Ianto’s hand, tugging on it.
“Where?” Ianto wasn’t sure why he was letting himself be dragged along in his lover’s wake. Maybe he was just too tired to resist.
“Outside, to watch the suns come up. We might as well, since we’re already awake. Maybe we can have an early morning swim. Got to be better than just standing here glaring daggers at the locals.”
“Well, okay.” It wasn’t like Ianto could refuse when he was already halfway out the door, but… “Hadn’t we better put something on first?” He’d only just realised he was still naked.
“Why bother? There’s nobody here but us and the birds, and skinny dipping is fun.”
“You think anything that involves being naked is fun.”
“You know me so well.”
“I should do by now.”
They paused halfway down the slope leading to the lake to watch as the first of the two suns rose slowly into a pink and gold sky while the birds creaked, groaned, shrieked, and boomed around them. The air tasted fresh and clean.
“How about that swim?” Leading the way onto a sort of diving platform, Jack nudged bowling ball-sized birds into the water with his toes, clearing space for himself and Ianto. The birds bobbed their way back to shore.
Ianto grinned. “Race you to the other side!”
The End
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