FIC: When I Grow Up...

[waldos_writings]

NOTE:  I'll clean up the headers when I'm still for more than 15 minutes at a time.  The story... well, it's as good as it's going to get. ;)

Title: When I Grow Up...
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: G
Word Count: 432
Spoilers/Warnings: Reference to "Reset"
Summary:  “I was eight, Jack.  I had the attention span of a drunken ferret.  Everything sounded interesting for a little while.”
Author's Notes:  Subtle nod to The West Wing in here.  Kudos to anyone who spots it. :)  Written for horizonssing, but I'm not even sure what day *I'm* on, let alone what day the picture of the red beret was.  Total fluff.



Jack snuck up behind Ianto and put the cap on his head.  “Present from Martha.”

Ianto pulled the cap off, looked at it, and then, perversely, put it back on.  That would frustrate Jack far more than if he threw it at him or tossed it on the desk.

Jack raised an eyebrow, not sure what to do with an Ianto that didn’t tell him not to play games during work hours.  “Ever want to be a soldier when you grew up?”

“Yep,” Ianto said as he went back to filing the pictures from their last six cases.  “For about twenty minutes when I was eight.  Of course, when I was eight I think I wanted to be pretty much everything I heard about for at least twenty minutes.”

“A ballerina?” Jack asked as he fell into his chair.

“Well, perhaps not everything.  Though it was the early nineties, I believe I entertained the idea of trying to either join or form a boy-band.”  Ianto pulled a picture out from under Jack’s elbow and put it into its proper file.

“Can you sing?”  Jack asked, suddenly interested.

“Better than I can dance, I’ve since discovered.”

Jack smiled and filed that comment away another time.  “So the soldier thing only lasted about twenty minutes, huh?” he asked.

“I was eight, Jack.  I had the attention span of a drunken ferret.  Everything sounded interesting for a little while.”

“Did you want to be an alien hunter when you were eight?”  Jack grabbed a folder and a stack of photos and began organizing them, hoping that if he were helpful Ianto would feel more inclined to stick around and talk.

“After watching E.T. at friend’s sleep over.  I’d seen a few monster movies and such where the aliens were always the bad guys and then there was E.T. and I felt so bad for him trying to get home.  So I decided that if aliens were real I wanted to be the sort who’d try to help them get home.”  Ianto stopped working and leaned on one fist, elbow on the top of the filing cabinet, looking at Jack.  “When I was eight I thought it was all make-believe and went back to wanting to be a soldier or a teacher or a firefighter.”

Jack smiled and pulled Ianto down onto his lap, adjusting the cap.  “I suppose a lot more kids want to be an alien hunter and then end up a soldier than the other way around.”

“Well, ‘conventional’ isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be,” he told Jack with a kiss.

Comments

[tintop-lizzy.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be an anthropologist when I was eight, because archaeologists dealt with dead people. I'll get to be a writer which'll be the halfway point.

Love your conversations.

[thrace-adams.livejournal.com]

OH this was adorable. Thanks so much for this!!!!

[jessionthemoon.livejournal.com]

This is adorable!

And tintop_lizzy, I wanted to be a writer/teacher when I was eight, but now I'm an anthropologist. Go figure.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_miss_daisy_/]

That was cute.

When I was eight I wanted to be Scully from the X-Files. Now I'm a Guidance Counselor, and I work part time as a staff psychologist for the local police force.

[smallwaldo.livejournal.com]

I am officially old.

X-Files didn't even come OUT until I was in college.

*sigh*

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Me too. I'm feeling positively decrepit now. I still remember sitting in my dorm room talking to my Mom on the phone while she told me about this great new show on TV. I missed most of the first season, but FOX kindly repeated it over the next summer.

[sleepyheathen.livejournal.com]

This is adorable, I love that Ianto puts the cap back on to frustrate Jack!

When I was eight I wanted to be an actress/singer/artist/poet/novelist/inventor/gymnast. Now that I'm all adultish I want to be an actress/singer/artist/poet/novelist/inventor/slightly more fit than I am now and what I really am is unemployed, woohoo!

[the-summoning-d.livejournal.com]

Great fic. That's a really cute idea :D

I have a really clear memory of being eight, and our class teacher asking what we all wanted to be when we grew up. All the other girls in the class gave the usual answers: "ballerina", "nurse", things like that. When it got to me I said I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the RAF, and everyone just turned in their seats and stared at me like I'd grown an extra head...

And now I'm going into engineering. Even then it was obvious I was never going to be a 'normal' girl.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Lovely, thanks.

[genagirl.livejournal.com]

That was great. I loved Jack helping so that Ianto would keep talking. Very sweet.

Some good, eh?

[teamrodent.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a defense man for the North Stars. Then, they moved to Dallas. :p

[humascot97.livejournal.com]

“A ballerina?” Jack asked as he fell into his chair.

“Well, perhaps not everything."
Hell, at least Josh admits it!

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

LOL! You found it. :)

And Josh doesn't actually admit it... he says that he was just in love with the word. :)

[nikki4noo.livejournal.com]

Well I wanted to be a fireMAN (emphasis on the man part...) My invisible friend when I was 4/5 was a fireman and I wouldn't do anything without him being involved. Mum had to set the table and everything for him. I moved on after a while and wanted to be Wonder Woman. *grin*

[x5649.livejournal.com]

That was so adorable... I loved it :D

[beathen.livejournal.com]

I had the attention span of a drunken ferret.

Now THAT would be an interesting sight to see!

I just watched Reset last night and I had to replay the conversation between Martha and Ianto several times just watch Ianto's expressions - good times! :)

P.S. I wanted to be a teacher or a nurse when I was a kid. Now I actually AM a teacher (of music) - I love it!

[crazytook.livejournal.com]

nice. that was a fun little fic. loved the ET bit. that movie is ridiculously sad. makes me cry. anyways, always fun to hear people go on about their childhoods.

the drunken ferret line particularly amused me.

loved it
kudos!
crazytook

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Very cute and sweet.

[missthingsplace.livejournal.com]

Oh this is just so cute :)

[sal101010.livejournal.com]

This has really got me thinking and wondering how many people really know what they want to be as a child. I love the whimsy that you've written into this.

[justpeachykeen.livejournal.com]

*sigh* That was so cute. I love waking up and reading such lighthearted goodness!

[skullgirl013.livejournal.com]

oh that was adorable!

[trekkiepirate.livejournal.com]

I always wanted to be something devious. Pirate, Princess of the pirates, Queen of the pirates, thief, thief princess, space pirate (I was watching Star Trek starting in the gorram womb), basically I wanted to steal thngs in as many different setting as possible.

[em615.livejournal.com]

Little Ianto in a boy band? That's a cute idea!

[daphne121.livejournal.com]

This is so cute!

[gondor-lover.livejournal.com]

This is so sweet. I wanted to be a detective when I was eight and in love with Ghostwriter. Now that I'm supposed to actually get into a field I have no idea what I want.

[faithharkness.livejournal.com]

Hee! It's a reference to CJ, right. When she's talking to Danny and I remember she said something about wanting to be an ice skater, which is funny because Janney actually was a competitive ice skater!

Oh, and I loved the story, too. "Drunken ferret" made me snort my drink up my nose!

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

Actually... no.

It's a reference to SGTE, SGTJ where Josh tells Sam he wanted to be a ballerina at one point. He immediately regrets it and asks Sam not to spread that around and Sam basically tells him no chance in hell. Later in the ep the president is going, "A ballerina, Josh? Really?" :) Love the scene.

And well, yeah... gotta get the ferret references in wherever I can. :)

[larry_v_freddie]

When I was eight, I wanted to be a soldier. For a few years, actually. Then I learned that War Is Evil, and then I hit puberty and learned that it was illegal for me to join my country's military, and, well... xD History nerd now, hoping to eventually find some unimportant-but-reasonably-well-paid job involving museums. Possibly artefact care -- that would be nice. Actually, I rather fancy Ianto's job in the archives, if we're in the realm of the fantastic here.

This story is absolutely delightful, by the by. A little bit of thoughtful fluff is always gorgeous, and you did this quite well. I did wonder if Martha eventually gave in about that UNIT cap, Lol -- and I like Ianto putting it back on just to spite Jack.