Adventfic: Day 1 - Cold

[silkendreammaid]

Title:  Day 1 - Cold
Author: silkendreammaid  

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Torchwood or the characters within.
Rating: PG13 
Characters:  Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness

Note: Written for the 2011 Advent Challenge. Prompt #3 Cold taken from 2011 prompt list. 

Author’s Note:  I’m starting with something small as I have been beyond sleep the last two days and December is here and I am woefully unprepared for it ...

Summary:   Ianto feels the cold

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 Cold

 
It was the first of December, three AM and a bitterly cold Cardiff morning. Ianto Jones shivered and pulled his coat closer as the wind blew straight through him. He looked up at the clear sky almost expecting to see snow falling - it was that cold. 

“You realise that today is the first day of summer in Australia?” he asked and watched his words become vapour in the frigid air. 

“Are you planning on leaving me for sunnier climes?” Jack Harkness asked as he hunched over the decomposing remains of something that Ianto could not recognise. 

“I wasn’t planning on it but if the opportunity arose…” Ianto trailed off. “I would so be there as my sister would say.” 

“That lovely white skin of yours would turn an unattractive shade of red in seconds,” Jack commented. “Whereas I think our poor unfortunate here died from the cold.” 

“It has been colder this last week than normal,” Ianto said thoughtfully, pushing his hands deeper into his pockets for warmth. 

“Yeah. This probably fell through the Rift, died from the cold and fell prey to scavengers. Rats I think. No weevils bite this small,” Jack told him as he pointed at bite marks all over the corpse. “When am I going to meet your sister?”  

“Owen says the weevils have been eating the rats. Rat numbers are down,” Ianto commented. “And you’ll meet her when Hell freezes over.” 

Jack laughed softly and looked up at the shivering Welshman. “The complaining you’ve been doing tonight, I’d think it just did.” He straightened up. “These Coelsi are always in bonded pairs. We need to find the other one.” 

“Won’t the cold have killed it too?” Ianto queried and began looking around him, scanning the ground for any traces of a second alien. Unobtrusively he reached out with his mild empathic senses. All he could sense was the cold. 

“It could have survived if it’s found cover somewhere. We need to find it,” Jack said. “Then we can get you back into the warmth of the Hub.”

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Continued in Shiver

 

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Comments

[alafaye]

An intriguing start to the month. Very nice.

[(Anonymous)]

I really like this ficlet. It's got a casual sort of banter that seems more like American shows than most Torchwood fics I've read and immediately made me feel very comfortable in the scene. I hope this is continued!

[missthingsplace]

Oooh, very intriguing ...

[milady_dragon]

Nice beginning! I'm very intrigued... :)

[reddevilpoes]

is it tomorrow yet????I want to read more of this!

[(Anonymous)]

Oooo, I like. Like someone else said, the casual banter was really good here, drew me in as well. But now I want to know if they'll find the other thing, or if it froze to death too, or if the absence of rats is a whole OTHER problem their overlooking!?!?

I do have one question. Which one of the two reached out with empathic senses? I'd guess Jack, but it seemed fairly ambiguous the more I read it. Metaphorically Ianto works as well.

[badly_knitted]

Definitely a chilly start! Poor alien, killed by the cold. The other might might have survived only to face being along without its bond-mate, which is a sad thought.

[aviv_b_artwork]

Great start!