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fandomweekly2026-02-05 02:29 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2026-02-05 02:29 pm
Entry tags:
[#290] Princess For A Day (Torchwood)
Theme Prompt: #290 – Princess
Title: Princess For A Day
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: G
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Meriel gets exactly the birthday party she wants, and Jack gets to dress up too.
For her sixth birthday, Meriel had decided she wanted a Princess party. Not for her to be the Princess, but for ALL of her friends to dress as princesses, and play princess games, whatever that meant, and have princess foods, which Ianto took to mean fancy foods. Sandwiches shaped like stars and flowers, mini pizzas, fairy cakes, rainbow jelly, individual ice-cream sundaes, a princess themed cake, that sort of thing.
For games, there could be pass the parcel, with chocolates among the wrappings, musical thrones, a treasure hunt with things like tiaras and ribbons and necklaces hidden for the girls, and boys if any were invited, to find. A princess movie to watch… Knowing Jack, he’d probably want The Princess Bride, but Ianto thought the Birthday Girl should choose.
Of course, it meant shopping around for the perfect princess dress for Meriel, and doing her hair in a suitably princess-like style. Jack would no doubt paint their daughter’s fingernails with some of his own shimmery nail polish for the occasion, probably pink, which was one of their daughter’s favourite colours.
“You and Daddy can be princes!” Meriel told her parents.
Jack immediately looked hurt. “Can’t I be a princess too, and wear a pretty dress?”
That hadn’t occurred to Meriel, but she hated seeing her father sad. “Of course you can, Daddy! You can be the prettiest Princess of them all!” Which was, of course, the correct answer.
“Just be careful not to outshine our daughter,” Ianto told his husband later. “It’s her birthday, not yours, but if you behave, you can dress up for your next birthday and I’ll take you out to dinner, somewhere fancy.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Just as I’d expect you to.” Ianto gave Jack a kiss. “And no plastering make-up all over our daughter’s face. She’s too young. Paint her nails, by all means, and some nice perfume if she wants, maybe lip-gloss, but she’s turning six, not sixteen. We should let her be a little girl for as long as possible.”
“No make-up for Meriel, I promise, but I can wear some, can’t I? Nothing too extravagant, just subtle, elegant, understated. A bit of eyeshadow and mascara, and a touch of lipstick.” There’d be foundation too, for concealing any trace of beard shadow, but Jack was good with makeup; he could create a natural look with very little.
When the day of the party arrived, Meriel looked lovely in a dress of lavender and pink, her long, wavy brown hair in an updo, set off by a gold tiara. Ianto had made sure there would be plenty of spare tiaras in case any of the party guests didn’t have one. A gold necklace, and matching pair of clip-on earrings, which were among her birthday gifts, completed Meriel’s princess look. Gold slippers peeped out beneath the dress.
Jack looked equally stunning in a long blue gown of sky-blue satin, nowhere near as frilly and fancy as Meriel’s dress. A silver and sapphire pendant and matching earrings, gifts from Ianto several years earlier, were his only jewellery. He was the picture of elegance, and Meriel had insisted that her beautiful daddy should have a tiara too, one with ‘sapphires’ and ‘diamonds’ settled in his upswept long, black wig. Both Jack and his daughter had their finger- and toenails painted, the nail polish freshly applied just that morning, after the birthday girl had opened her presents. Meriel had opted for pink, as expected, and Jack had chosen silver.
Ianto almost felt drab in comparison to his husband and daughter, dressed in black trousers, and a dark red silk shirt with wide sleeves that narrowed to tight cuffs, fastened with silver and garnet cufflinks, the same ones he’d worn for his and Jack’s wedding. Meriel obviously agreed, because she insisted he should have a cloak, and a crown. It was a little last-minute, but a satin-lined vampire cape, worn inside out, and with the high collar hurriedly removed, worked well enough. Obtaining a crown was more difficult, but a simple silver circlet made from tinsel was pronounced acceptable.
The party guests arrived with various parents, mostly mums, but there were two dads and an older sister as well. The best part for Jack was when absolutely no one recognised him. When asked where her Daddy was, Meriel looked surprised and pointed at the tall, beautiful woman who’d been taking everyone’s coats.
“Daddy’s right there!”
“If my daughter gets to be a beautiful princess for the day, I don’t see why I shouldn’t get to dress up too,” Jack told everyone.
“I considered wearing a dress too,” Ianto added, “But I really don’t have the figure for it. I was going to have Jack paint my nails, but we ran out of time.”
The party went surprisingly well. There were some tears here and there, because with all the excitement that was inevitable, but despite that, everyone had a good time, and all the children got to take Princess goodie bags home with them, along with whatever they won playing the various games. Even the parents seemed to enjoy themselves, especially when Princess Jack sat everyone down and told the story of how he’d been rescued from the clutches of an evil magician by the handsome Prince Ianto. It was all completely made up, although with a few nods to his and Ianto’s adventures with Torchwood, but he had every single person in the room, Ianto included, on the edge of their seats.
After the last of the guests had left, and Nosy had come back from exile in the Fluff jungle-gym downstairs, Jack collapsed on the sofa with a sigh and kicked his shoes off. “Being a Princess for a day is fine, but I don’t think I’d want to be one every day. It’s exhausting!”
“That’s not the Princess part,” Ianto said, sitting down beside his husband. “It’s wrangling a horde of five- and six-year-olds that’s tiring.”
“It’ll probably take us a year to recover.”
The End
For games, there could be pass the parcel, with chocolates among the wrappings, musical thrones, a treasure hunt with things like tiaras and ribbons and necklaces hidden for the girls, and boys if any were invited, to find. A princess movie to watch… Knowing Jack, he’d probably want The Princess Bride, but Ianto thought the Birthday Girl should choose.
Of course, it meant shopping around for the perfect princess dress for Meriel, and doing her hair in a suitably princess-like style. Jack would no doubt paint their daughter’s fingernails with some of his own shimmery nail polish for the occasion, probably pink, which was one of their daughter’s favourite colours.
“You and Daddy can be princes!” Meriel told her parents.
Jack immediately looked hurt. “Can’t I be a princess too, and wear a pretty dress?”
That hadn’t occurred to Meriel, but she hated seeing her father sad. “Of course you can, Daddy! You can be the prettiest Princess of them all!” Which was, of course, the correct answer.
“Just be careful not to outshine our daughter,” Ianto told his husband later. “It’s her birthday, not yours, but if you behave, you can dress up for your next birthday and I’ll take you out to dinner, somewhere fancy.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Just as I’d expect you to.” Ianto gave Jack a kiss. “And no plastering make-up all over our daughter’s face. She’s too young. Paint her nails, by all means, and some nice perfume if she wants, maybe lip-gloss, but she’s turning six, not sixteen. We should let her be a little girl for as long as possible.”
“No make-up for Meriel, I promise, but I can wear some, can’t I? Nothing too extravagant, just subtle, elegant, understated. A bit of eyeshadow and mascara, and a touch of lipstick.” There’d be foundation too, for concealing any trace of beard shadow, but Jack was good with makeup; he could create a natural look with very little.
When the day of the party arrived, Meriel looked lovely in a dress of lavender and pink, her long, wavy brown hair in an updo, set off by a gold tiara. Ianto had made sure there would be plenty of spare tiaras in case any of the party guests didn’t have one. A gold necklace, and matching pair of clip-on earrings, which were among her birthday gifts, completed Meriel’s princess look. Gold slippers peeped out beneath the dress.
Jack looked equally stunning in a long blue gown of sky-blue satin, nowhere near as frilly and fancy as Meriel’s dress. A silver and sapphire pendant and matching earrings, gifts from Ianto several years earlier, were his only jewellery. He was the picture of elegance, and Meriel had insisted that her beautiful daddy should have a tiara too, one with ‘sapphires’ and ‘diamonds’ settled in his upswept long, black wig. Both Jack and his daughter had their finger- and toenails painted, the nail polish freshly applied just that morning, after the birthday girl had opened her presents. Meriel had opted for pink, as expected, and Jack had chosen silver.
Ianto almost felt drab in comparison to his husband and daughter, dressed in black trousers, and a dark red silk shirt with wide sleeves that narrowed to tight cuffs, fastened with silver and garnet cufflinks, the same ones he’d worn for his and Jack’s wedding. Meriel obviously agreed, because she insisted he should have a cloak, and a crown. It was a little last-minute, but a satin-lined vampire cape, worn inside out, and with the high collar hurriedly removed, worked well enough. Obtaining a crown was more difficult, but a simple silver circlet made from tinsel was pronounced acceptable.
The party guests arrived with various parents, mostly mums, but there were two dads and an older sister as well. The best part for Jack was when absolutely no one recognised him. When asked where her Daddy was, Meriel looked surprised and pointed at the tall, beautiful woman who’d been taking everyone’s coats.
“Daddy’s right there!”
“If my daughter gets to be a beautiful princess for the day, I don’t see why I shouldn’t get to dress up too,” Jack told everyone.
“I considered wearing a dress too,” Ianto added, “But I really don’t have the figure for it. I was going to have Jack paint my nails, but we ran out of time.”
The party went surprisingly well. There were some tears here and there, because with all the excitement that was inevitable, but despite that, everyone had a good time, and all the children got to take Princess goodie bags home with them, along with whatever they won playing the various games. Even the parents seemed to enjoy themselves, especially when Princess Jack sat everyone down and told the story of how he’d been rescued from the clutches of an evil magician by the handsome Prince Ianto. It was all completely made up, although with a few nods to his and Ianto’s adventures with Torchwood, but he had every single person in the room, Ianto included, on the edge of their seats.
After the last of the guests had left, and Nosy had come back from exile in the Fluff jungle-gym downstairs, Jack collapsed on the sofa with a sigh and kicked his shoes off. “Being a Princess for a day is fine, but I don’t think I’d want to be one every day. It’s exhausting!”
“That’s not the Princess part,” Ianto said, sitting down beside his husband. “It’s wrangling a horde of five- and six-year-olds that’s tiring.”
“It’ll probably take us a year to recover.”
The End