Midsummer Magic - An Elf Verse Story - 1/4
Title: Midsummer Magic - An Elf Verse Story
Author: Moonfirefic
Beta: milady_dragon
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Andy, Doctor (10th), Alice, Sarah Jane, others
Synopsis: Jack and Ianto are invited to celebrate the Summer Solstice with Mother Nature (Sarah Jane) in the Grove of the Ancients. Meanwhile Alice makes her theatrical debut, and it's up to Andy and Doc to save her from the nefarious plans of Mab and her associates.
A/N: Part of the Elf!Ianto verse starring Team Icicle, the Holiday Assurance elves. Sorry this took so long as I mean to have it up before fall. Next part on Monday.
Chapter One
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
-A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II Scene I
~~~~~~~~
Seren Glen
Northeast Wales
It had been two months since Easter and the busy season for Harkness Outfitters was in full swing. Between leading corporate retreats, fishing trips, hikes, and the occasional scenic flight, Jack barely had enough time to make Alice breakfast or kiss her goodnight. Gray had arrived on the first of June after deciding to spend his summer holidays in Seren Glen, and Jack had never been so happy to see the slouching shoulders and lazy smile of his younger brother. With Gray helping run the shop, he could finally spend some time with Alice and had made a point of attending her end of the year play and even made cupcakes to celebrate her theatrical debut as Cinderella’s fairy godmother.
Camera at the ready, Jack watched with pride as she stepped onto the stage, dancing about and granting Cinderella’s wish to go to the ball. A few moments later, the audience gasped and applauded as she fluttered on glitter and tulle wings up into the rafters of the stage and out of sight.
Narrowing his eyes at the tell-tale sparkle of pixie dust drifting down after her, he quickly glanced around, sighing in relief when the other parents merely ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ at what they thought was a clever bit of wire-work. Jack shook his head as he joined in the applause, trying to figure out how he was going to convince Alice that having her fey friends help her actually fly offstage was a bad idea.
~~~~~~~~
The following morning at the breakfast table Alice was still pouting over Jack prohibiting her from using pixie dust in her second and final performance that evening.
“But Da-ad,” she whined crossing her arms. “It’s a big part of the show. I fly up high and the whole crowd applauds every time!”
“Don’t you remember what Doc said?” he replied impatiently. “We have to keep the fey secret. If anyone finds out about them, they could be in danger. You don’t want that do you?”
“No,” she huffed, uncrossing her arms to push her eggs across her plate. “But there’s only one show left; if I don’t do fly up this time - people will notice. Can’t I do it this one last time, please?”she begged.
Jack sighed.
“I’m sorry munchkin, it’s just too much of a risk,” he replied. When Alice didn’t answer he decided to put on his ‘stern Dad voice’ to drive his point home. “There will be no magic used in that play tonight, young lady. Is that understood?” Jack ordered.
“I guess,” she sullenly agreed fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist.
Jack frowned. “I know it sucks, but I just want you safe. Okay sweetheart?” he said trying to make her understand.
Alice shrugged and didn’t meet his gaze. “Can I be excused?”
“Sure just make sure to clear your plate,” he answered as she pushed away from the table and trudged over to the sink.
Jack sighed again as he swirled the remnants of his now cold coffee before shoving away from the table, no longer hungry.
As Alice washed her plate, a soft tapping sounded on the kitchen window. Jack joined her at the sink trying to determine what had caused the noise, and noticed a pair of doves carrying a wrapped parcel perched on the window sill.
After exchanging a puzzled look with Alice, he reached up to undo the latch and watched with wonder as they flew inside and set the parcel gently down onto the kitchen table, before nodding to each of them in turn, and flying back out again.
“And that won’t draw any attention?” Alice asked with a raised eyebrow watching them go.
“Hush you,” Jack replied, ruffling her hair. “Come on, let’s see what it is.”
The parcel was wrapped in a shimmering gossamer shroud, held together by two loose ribbons of deepest green. Inside, they found a letter address to Jack Harkness, and a pair of trousers and a tunic; both a soft champagne in color. The tunic opened at the neck was embroidered with intricate golden knot work and dark green vines at the edges. Golden clasps held the tunic together from chest to waist.
“Is that for the solstice party?” Alice asked, tracing the embroidery with her fingers.
“I think so,” Jack breathed as he opened the letter.
My Dear Jack -
Please accept these garments as a gift as you attend your first solstice.
Don them, and wait barefoot beside the toadstool ring at the foot of the Great Oak of Seren Glen Wood just before sunset this evening. I have asked Ianto to meet you there and be your guide.
Until we meet amongst the trees,
Sarah Jane
“It’s from her isn’t it?” Alice asked excitedly, grasping for the page as soon as he was finished reading.
After meeting Sarah Jane, or Mother Nature as she was better known, at Easter, she had come to idolize her and made every effort to emulate her grace, poise, and goodness. She had even taken over the back garden of the house, turning it into an oasis of color, filled with butterflies, hummingbirds, and all manner of garden gnomes, sprites, and faeries that found refuge beneath the boughs of the apple and plum trees and played amongst the petals of the various flowers coating the garden path.
One faerie in particular, a tiny little thing no taller than the edge of Jack’s coffee mug named Tansy, had taken to helping Alice with her gardening and could often be seen perched on her shoulder, offering advice on which plants and flowers would grow best in shade or sun, and where best to put the birdfeeders so that their feathered friends could easily find them.
As Alice read the letter, Jack held up the tunic and felt the softness of the fabric as it caressed his fingers.
“I wonder if Ianto has one to wear too,” Alice pondered as she took a closer look at the embroidered edges of the tunic. “Can I go with you and see?”
“No you cannot,” Jack replied shaking his head fondly. “You, young lady are going to be too busy making your final performance as a fairy godmother as wonderful and non-magical as possible,” he said as he set the tunic back on the table.
Alice frowned and Jack turned to where Tansy was straightening her wings on her shoulder.
“I’m trusting you to keep an eye on her,” he said to the faerie. “I’m pretty sure that Mother Nature would be disappointed to hear about the antics the two of you have been getting up to at that play,” he added, ignoring the twin looks of innocence coming from both the faerie and his daughter.
“I mean it,” he added, pulling the dad voice out once more.
“Okay Daddy,” Alice finally agreed.
Tansy nodded in agreement as well, raising her tiny hand to her brow in a mock salute.
Jack chuckled. “Alright you two, Alice needs to finish getting ready for school,” he checked his watch and glanced outside. “I don’t see the bus yet, but I’d say you have about five minutes left to brush your teeth and gather your things before it gets here. Miss Rose still expects you to be on time; even if there are only a few days of term left.”
Alice was off like a shot up the stairs before he finished speaking, with Tansy right behind her. Four minutes and forty-five seconds later, the bus was pulling up the lane, and Alice kissed Jack’s cheek before running to meet it, waving from the window as the bus continued out of sight.
“Promise me you’ll keep her safe tonight,” Jack asked the faerie that floated by his side.
Ianto had warned him that there were certain days of the year when the veil between the worlds of fey and human wore thin, and the summer solstice was one of them. As the tiny faerie at his side kissed his cheek as a sign of agreement, Jack looked up and noticed a raven watching them from atop a nearby tree, adding to the sense of foreboding lurking at the edges of his mind.
~~~~~~~
Sunlight waned as dusk fell over Seren Glen. Jack, having parked his car near the edge of the woods, made his way deep into the heart of the forest to where the moss hung long and lush, and the path faded into the underbrush. Crickets started their nightly concert as he reached where the Great Oak stood. It was knobby and the immense trunk twisted from years of standing sentinel at the heart of the forest; its massive branches seeming to hold the entire forest aloft as they spread out and disappeared into the canopy overhead.
Stopping to rest against a nearby log, Jack took a few sips from his canteen before unlacing his hiking boots to shed his jumper and jeans, and don the garment that Sarah Jane had sent for him. Putting anything he didn’t need into his backpack, Jack stood barefoot upon the surprisingly soft grass surrounding the tree, and made his way to the edge of the toadstool ring before it to wait. As the shadows grew long and the sunlight piercing the leaves changed to a dusky orange, he felt a tingling in the air that he had come to recognize as an indication that magic was at work.
A dull thud sounded to his right and he jumped back in surprise as a round bit of greenery that looked suspiciously like an oversized Christmas wreath, landed in the grass beside the tree. As he watched, three round ornaments placed at strategic points atop the wreath started to flash red then yellow then green, and soon another wreath landed on top of it, and another, until the stack of wreaths reached well over Jack’s head in one long inexplicably strange cylinder of holly, fir boughs, and ivy. When the last wreath landed, the entire column flashed with light. Soon after, the wreaths flashed red, yellow, green, a second time before disappearing the way they came, leaving a blinking human-sized Ianto Jones standing in their place.
“My eyelashes are tingling, that’s so weird,” Ianto observed, still blinking as he stepped away from the last wreath.
“Interesting way to travel,” Jack remarked with a grin as he moved to embrace him.
“Wreath-a-Port,” Ianto explained as the wreath disappeared. “Tosh has been developing it to make one person and emergency trips easier.” Shaking his head and blinking one last time he smiled as Jack came properly into focus. “Oh it’s good to see you,” he said, leaning forward to capture his lips in a kiss.
“You too,” Jack answered once they came up for air. “Mother Nature sent me a message to meet you here,” he said holding him out at arm’s length. “It appears she sent you a similar parcel to the one I received,” he noted taking in his attire.
Where Jack’s outfit was a soft champagne, Ianto’s was a deep forest green, embroidered in the same style as Jack’s but with gold and champagne thread, a perfect complement to each other.
“I think she wanted to make sure that no one doubted who you came with,” Ianto replied with a grin. Stepping back he pulled something from one of the small pockets at the front of his tunic. “But just to be safe, I have something I would like to give you.”
Jack raised an eyebrow as Ianto shyly pulled out a silver bracelet made of intricate Celtic knots, with rubies interwoven in the pattern.
“It’s a form of protection,” he explained at Jack’s questioning look. “It can be dangerous for humans to dwell amongst fey unprotected. Any fey who sees it will know that you are under my protection, and must not be harmed.”
Jack stared at the bracelet and suddenly realized that he had seen one before. “You sent one to Alice for her birthday last month,” he stated. It wasn’t a question. He had seen her fiddling with a similar bracelet laden with sea pearls instead of gems just this morning.
“I had to,” Ianto replied with a sigh. “It was actually Bran’s suggestion shortly after Easter. Both of you have befriended some powerful fey, and not all of us like humans,” he tried to explain. “My magic may not be as strong as his or Sarah Jane’s, but my family is powerful enough that few would dare harm one that carries it.”
Jack mulled it over. He was annoyed that Ianto hadn’t consulted him first, but knowing that he had done it to keep Alice safe, and was attempting to protect him as well, made him see the logic of his decision.
“They won’t harm either of us?” he asked, needing to clarify this point before he accepted his gift.
Ianto shook his head. “For a protection bracelet to be effective, its intent must be to do no harm,” he answered. “This one I made myself, the one Alice wears was my grandmother’s.”
Jack started at the explanation. He knew he and Ianto had grown close, but to entrust a family heirloom to Alice...could it be that Ianto wanted to try and find a way for them to make a life together as much as he did? Searching Ianto’s face, he saw that both his cheeks and the tips of his ears had gone red, a sure sign that the elf was embarrassed. The slightly nervous expression on his face was so endearing that Jack found himself smiling as he held out his wrist.
“I would be proud to wear it and honored to have your protection,” Jack said as Ianto sighed in relief and did up the clasp. As soon as it was closed around his wrist, Jack watched as a soft shimmer of light swept up one arm and down the other before coating his entire body in turn.
“What's happening?” he asked in wonder as he moved his arm, making the light dance against the branches.
“The magic is just getting used to you is all,” Ianto explained as the light faded. “Unless you are threatened, you won’t see it like that again.”
“And what happens if I am?” Jack asked, wanting to fully understand what he had just seen.
Ianto held up a silver bracelet of his own, with a single ruby and pearl visible in the knot work.
“Then the gem lights up and I come running to your side to tell whoever is threatening you to piss off,” he said with a grin.
“My Elven warrior,” Jack replied pulling him in for a kiss as Ianto laughed.
As the kiss deepened, the toadstool ring beside them began to fill with light, and the portal to the Land of Mists and Time began to open.
Holding hands, the two men walked up alongside it, peering down at the image of a mist covered forest grove with a simple cottage covered in flowers nestled amongst the trees. A river glistened in the moonlight, circling through the forest like a ribbon, and as they watched a mermaid surfaced before diving back into its depths. The hoot of an owl sounded in the distance, and a majestic snow-owl in blue livery flew past leading a procession of bramble and leaf-hewn carriages filled with fey and pulled by an assortment of doves, orioles, and blue-jays to the forest below. Other creatures, some horrible, and others beautiful beyond imagination flitted past, and Jack’s eyes went wider with each passing moment as he realized that he was seeing the fey as the really were; not hidden behind glamours or illusions, but as their true selves. Reaching to touch the bracelet encircling his wrist, he realized just how important Ianto’s gift had been.
Soon, the toadstools had all been illuminated and the image faded as the portal filled with mist and they all went dark.
“It’s ready,” Ianto announced, glancing at Jack to see if the glimpse into his world had scared him off.
Jack stared down at the swirling mists a moment longer before looking up at Ianto.
“Mustn’t keep Mother Nature waiting,” he said with a grin before clasping Ianto’s hand tight.
Ianto nodded, and held his gaze for a moment before turning back to the portal. Taking Jack with him, he stepped inside.
“Don’t let go,” he advised as the mist circled around their feet. The toadstool in front of them illuminated, and the others followed one at a time. As it reached the halfway point, Ianto saw the nervous look on Jack’s face, and pulled him in to kiss away his fear. As the last toadstool filled with light, the mists around them swirled, and in an instant they were gone.
Chapter Two
This entry was originally posted at http://moonfirefic.dreamwidth.org/40143.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Author: Moonfirefic
Beta: milady_dragon
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Andy, Doctor (10th), Alice, Sarah Jane, others
Synopsis: Jack and Ianto are invited to celebrate the Summer Solstice with Mother Nature (Sarah Jane) in the Grove of the Ancients. Meanwhile Alice makes her theatrical debut, and it's up to Andy and Doc to save her from the nefarious plans of Mab and her associates.
A/N: Part of the Elf!Ianto verse starring Team Icicle, the Holiday Assurance elves. Sorry this took so long as I mean to have it up before fall. Next part on Monday.
Chapter One
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
-A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II Scene I
~~~~~~~~
Seren Glen
Northeast Wales
It had been two months since Easter and the busy season for Harkness Outfitters was in full swing. Between leading corporate retreats, fishing trips, hikes, and the occasional scenic flight, Jack barely had enough time to make Alice breakfast or kiss her goodnight. Gray had arrived on the first of June after deciding to spend his summer holidays in Seren Glen, and Jack had never been so happy to see the slouching shoulders and lazy smile of his younger brother. With Gray helping run the shop, he could finally spend some time with Alice and had made a point of attending her end of the year play and even made cupcakes to celebrate her theatrical debut as Cinderella’s fairy godmother.
Camera at the ready, Jack watched with pride as she stepped onto the stage, dancing about and granting Cinderella’s wish to go to the ball. A few moments later, the audience gasped and applauded as she fluttered on glitter and tulle wings up into the rafters of the stage and out of sight.
Narrowing his eyes at the tell-tale sparkle of pixie dust drifting down after her, he quickly glanced around, sighing in relief when the other parents merely ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ at what they thought was a clever bit of wire-work. Jack shook his head as he joined in the applause, trying to figure out how he was going to convince Alice that having her fey friends help her actually fly offstage was a bad idea.
~~~~~~~~
The following morning at the breakfast table Alice was still pouting over Jack prohibiting her from using pixie dust in her second and final performance that evening.
“But Da-ad,” she whined crossing her arms. “It’s a big part of the show. I fly up high and the whole crowd applauds every time!”
“Don’t you remember what Doc said?” he replied impatiently. “We have to keep the fey secret. If anyone finds out about them, they could be in danger. You don’t want that do you?”
“No,” she huffed, uncrossing her arms to push her eggs across her plate. “But there’s only one show left; if I don’t do fly up this time - people will notice. Can’t I do it this one last time, please?”she begged.
Jack sighed.
“I’m sorry munchkin, it’s just too much of a risk,” he replied. When Alice didn’t answer he decided to put on his ‘stern Dad voice’ to drive his point home. “There will be no magic used in that play tonight, young lady. Is that understood?” Jack ordered.
“I guess,” she sullenly agreed fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist.
Jack frowned. “I know it sucks, but I just want you safe. Okay sweetheart?” he said trying to make her understand.
Alice shrugged and didn’t meet his gaze. “Can I be excused?”
“Sure just make sure to clear your plate,” he answered as she pushed away from the table and trudged over to the sink.
Jack sighed again as he swirled the remnants of his now cold coffee before shoving away from the table, no longer hungry.
As Alice washed her plate, a soft tapping sounded on the kitchen window. Jack joined her at the sink trying to determine what had caused the noise, and noticed a pair of doves carrying a wrapped parcel perched on the window sill.
After exchanging a puzzled look with Alice, he reached up to undo the latch and watched with wonder as they flew inside and set the parcel gently down onto the kitchen table, before nodding to each of them in turn, and flying back out again.
“And that won’t draw any attention?” Alice asked with a raised eyebrow watching them go.
“Hush you,” Jack replied, ruffling her hair. “Come on, let’s see what it is.”
The parcel was wrapped in a shimmering gossamer shroud, held together by two loose ribbons of deepest green. Inside, they found a letter address to Jack Harkness, and a pair of trousers and a tunic; both a soft champagne in color. The tunic opened at the neck was embroidered with intricate golden knot work and dark green vines at the edges. Golden clasps held the tunic together from chest to waist.
“Is that for the solstice party?” Alice asked, tracing the embroidery with her fingers.
“I think so,” Jack breathed as he opened the letter.
My Dear Jack -
Please accept these garments as a gift as you attend your first solstice.
Don them, and wait barefoot beside the toadstool ring at the foot of the Great Oak of Seren Glen Wood just before sunset this evening. I have asked Ianto to meet you there and be your guide.
Until we meet amongst the trees,
Sarah Jane
“It’s from her isn’t it?” Alice asked excitedly, grasping for the page as soon as he was finished reading.
After meeting Sarah Jane, or Mother Nature as she was better known, at Easter, she had come to idolize her and made every effort to emulate her grace, poise, and goodness. She had even taken over the back garden of the house, turning it into an oasis of color, filled with butterflies, hummingbirds, and all manner of garden gnomes, sprites, and faeries that found refuge beneath the boughs of the apple and plum trees and played amongst the petals of the various flowers coating the garden path.
One faerie in particular, a tiny little thing no taller than the edge of Jack’s coffee mug named Tansy, had taken to helping Alice with her gardening and could often be seen perched on her shoulder, offering advice on which plants and flowers would grow best in shade or sun, and where best to put the birdfeeders so that their feathered friends could easily find them.
As Alice read the letter, Jack held up the tunic and felt the softness of the fabric as it caressed his fingers.
“I wonder if Ianto has one to wear too,” Alice pondered as she took a closer look at the embroidered edges of the tunic. “Can I go with you and see?”
“No you cannot,” Jack replied shaking his head fondly. “You, young lady are going to be too busy making your final performance as a fairy godmother as wonderful and non-magical as possible,” he said as he set the tunic back on the table.
Alice frowned and Jack turned to where Tansy was straightening her wings on her shoulder.
“I’m trusting you to keep an eye on her,” he said to the faerie. “I’m pretty sure that Mother Nature would be disappointed to hear about the antics the two of you have been getting up to at that play,” he added, ignoring the twin looks of innocence coming from both the faerie and his daughter.
“I mean it,” he added, pulling the dad voice out once more.
“Okay Daddy,” Alice finally agreed.
Tansy nodded in agreement as well, raising her tiny hand to her brow in a mock salute.
Jack chuckled. “Alright you two, Alice needs to finish getting ready for school,” he checked his watch and glanced outside. “I don’t see the bus yet, but I’d say you have about five minutes left to brush your teeth and gather your things before it gets here. Miss Rose still expects you to be on time; even if there are only a few days of term left.”
Alice was off like a shot up the stairs before he finished speaking, with Tansy right behind her. Four minutes and forty-five seconds later, the bus was pulling up the lane, and Alice kissed Jack’s cheek before running to meet it, waving from the window as the bus continued out of sight.
“Promise me you’ll keep her safe tonight,” Jack asked the faerie that floated by his side.
Ianto had warned him that there were certain days of the year when the veil between the worlds of fey and human wore thin, and the summer solstice was one of them. As the tiny faerie at his side kissed his cheek as a sign of agreement, Jack looked up and noticed a raven watching them from atop a nearby tree, adding to the sense of foreboding lurking at the edges of his mind.
~~~~~~~
Sunlight waned as dusk fell over Seren Glen. Jack, having parked his car near the edge of the woods, made his way deep into the heart of the forest to where the moss hung long and lush, and the path faded into the underbrush. Crickets started their nightly concert as he reached where the Great Oak stood. It was knobby and the immense trunk twisted from years of standing sentinel at the heart of the forest; its massive branches seeming to hold the entire forest aloft as they spread out and disappeared into the canopy overhead.
Stopping to rest against a nearby log, Jack took a few sips from his canteen before unlacing his hiking boots to shed his jumper and jeans, and don the garment that Sarah Jane had sent for him. Putting anything he didn’t need into his backpack, Jack stood barefoot upon the surprisingly soft grass surrounding the tree, and made his way to the edge of the toadstool ring before it to wait. As the shadows grew long and the sunlight piercing the leaves changed to a dusky orange, he felt a tingling in the air that he had come to recognize as an indication that magic was at work.
A dull thud sounded to his right and he jumped back in surprise as a round bit of greenery that looked suspiciously like an oversized Christmas wreath, landed in the grass beside the tree. As he watched, three round ornaments placed at strategic points atop the wreath started to flash red then yellow then green, and soon another wreath landed on top of it, and another, until the stack of wreaths reached well over Jack’s head in one long inexplicably strange cylinder of holly, fir boughs, and ivy. When the last wreath landed, the entire column flashed with light. Soon after, the wreaths flashed red, yellow, green, a second time before disappearing the way they came, leaving a blinking human-sized Ianto Jones standing in their place.
“My eyelashes are tingling, that’s so weird,” Ianto observed, still blinking as he stepped away from the last wreath.
“Interesting way to travel,” Jack remarked with a grin as he moved to embrace him.
“Wreath-a-Port,” Ianto explained as the wreath disappeared. “Tosh has been developing it to make one person and emergency trips easier.” Shaking his head and blinking one last time he smiled as Jack came properly into focus. “Oh it’s good to see you,” he said, leaning forward to capture his lips in a kiss.
“You too,” Jack answered once they came up for air. “Mother Nature sent me a message to meet you here,” he said holding him out at arm’s length. “It appears she sent you a similar parcel to the one I received,” he noted taking in his attire.
Where Jack’s outfit was a soft champagne, Ianto’s was a deep forest green, embroidered in the same style as Jack’s but with gold and champagne thread, a perfect complement to each other.
“I think she wanted to make sure that no one doubted who you came with,” Ianto replied with a grin. Stepping back he pulled something from one of the small pockets at the front of his tunic. “But just to be safe, I have something I would like to give you.”
Jack raised an eyebrow as Ianto shyly pulled out a silver bracelet made of intricate Celtic knots, with rubies interwoven in the pattern.
“It’s a form of protection,” he explained at Jack’s questioning look. “It can be dangerous for humans to dwell amongst fey unprotected. Any fey who sees it will know that you are under my protection, and must not be harmed.”
Jack stared at the bracelet and suddenly realized that he had seen one before. “You sent one to Alice for her birthday last month,” he stated. It wasn’t a question. He had seen her fiddling with a similar bracelet laden with sea pearls instead of gems just this morning.
“I had to,” Ianto replied with a sigh. “It was actually Bran’s suggestion shortly after Easter. Both of you have befriended some powerful fey, and not all of us like humans,” he tried to explain. “My magic may not be as strong as his or Sarah Jane’s, but my family is powerful enough that few would dare harm one that carries it.”
Jack mulled it over. He was annoyed that Ianto hadn’t consulted him first, but knowing that he had done it to keep Alice safe, and was attempting to protect him as well, made him see the logic of his decision.
“They won’t harm either of us?” he asked, needing to clarify this point before he accepted his gift.
Ianto shook his head. “For a protection bracelet to be effective, its intent must be to do no harm,” he answered. “This one I made myself, the one Alice wears was my grandmother’s.”
Jack started at the explanation. He knew he and Ianto had grown close, but to entrust a family heirloom to Alice...could it be that Ianto wanted to try and find a way for them to make a life together as much as he did? Searching Ianto’s face, he saw that both his cheeks and the tips of his ears had gone red, a sure sign that the elf was embarrassed. The slightly nervous expression on his face was so endearing that Jack found himself smiling as he held out his wrist.
“I would be proud to wear it and honored to have your protection,” Jack said as Ianto sighed in relief and did up the clasp. As soon as it was closed around his wrist, Jack watched as a soft shimmer of light swept up one arm and down the other before coating his entire body in turn.
“What's happening?” he asked in wonder as he moved his arm, making the light dance against the branches.
“The magic is just getting used to you is all,” Ianto explained as the light faded. “Unless you are threatened, you won’t see it like that again.”
“And what happens if I am?” Jack asked, wanting to fully understand what he had just seen.
Ianto held up a silver bracelet of his own, with a single ruby and pearl visible in the knot work.
“Then the gem lights up and I come running to your side to tell whoever is threatening you to piss off,” he said with a grin.
“My Elven warrior,” Jack replied pulling him in for a kiss as Ianto laughed.
As the kiss deepened, the toadstool ring beside them began to fill with light, and the portal to the Land of Mists and Time began to open.
Holding hands, the two men walked up alongside it, peering down at the image of a mist covered forest grove with a simple cottage covered in flowers nestled amongst the trees. A river glistened in the moonlight, circling through the forest like a ribbon, and as they watched a mermaid surfaced before diving back into its depths. The hoot of an owl sounded in the distance, and a majestic snow-owl in blue livery flew past leading a procession of bramble and leaf-hewn carriages filled with fey and pulled by an assortment of doves, orioles, and blue-jays to the forest below. Other creatures, some horrible, and others beautiful beyond imagination flitted past, and Jack’s eyes went wider with each passing moment as he realized that he was seeing the fey as the really were; not hidden behind glamours or illusions, but as their true selves. Reaching to touch the bracelet encircling his wrist, he realized just how important Ianto’s gift had been.
Soon, the toadstools had all been illuminated and the image faded as the portal filled with mist and they all went dark.
“It’s ready,” Ianto announced, glancing at Jack to see if the glimpse into his world had scared him off.
Jack stared down at the swirling mists a moment longer before looking up at Ianto.
“Mustn’t keep Mother Nature waiting,” he said with a grin before clasping Ianto’s hand tight.
Ianto nodded, and held his gaze for a moment before turning back to the portal. Taking Jack with him, he stepped inside.
“Don’t let go,” he advised as the mist circled around their feet. The toadstool in front of them illuminated, and the others followed one at a time. As it reached the halfway point, Ianto saw the nervous look on Jack’s face, and pulled him in to kiss away his fear. As the last toadstool filled with light, the mists around them swirled, and in an instant they were gone.
Chapter Two
This entry was originally posted at http://moonfirefic.dreamwidth.org/40143.html. Please comment there using OpenID.