Work Text:
Spoilers: General TW series 2
Disclaimer:BBC characters not mine.
Ianto had polished everything but still had a miserable feeling that wouldn't leave him. He'd chosen to drive the A6 for a change to go fetch Jack but even that treat hadn't really lifted the mood.
He stood next to the black Audi in black suit, polished shoes and mirror black shades. Was Men In Black or The Transporter the best black shiny power car fantasy to slip into, he pondered. Yet again the reality was waiting for Jack to exit a house in an ordinary street with fewer Retcon pills than at the start of the day. Ianto had the sudden flight of fancy that the distorted view in the paintwork looked the same as he felt on the inside.
He looked at the side panels of the car, seeing his reflection split into jagged slices. There were too many memories of real people in long pieces that he had picked up in person. Perhaps that was it, nothing more. Cleanup had to be thorough, detailed, reliable. The horror had to become invisible. The wrong details erased, removed. Jack was in a house now making an experience that someone had had into something explainable. The bright sun meaning nothing, the early summer sun just stopping the darkness from obliterating everything again. He huffed his frustration almost audibly, unconsciously straightening his stance back to fight readyness.
Ianto looked further than the door of the house as he waited for Jack. The street had a mixture of styles of house and unusually had some parking spaces empty. He sneaked a look at the ordinary lifestyles of other people through their gardens and windows.
That bloke along the road there, polishing his car. Outside his own place, parking there every day and coming and going as he wanted. He probably even knew his neighbours because of friendly reasons rather than having checked them over with a Geiger counter. Ianto used the sunglasses to hide him staring as he speculated about an ordinary lifestyle. To his surprise the man threw down his cloth and walked towards him.
It was Andy, in filthy tight ripped jeans and a greatly oversized tee that was either a part-time polishing cloth or a tie-dye experiment gone wrong. The pattern and fading was so confused it was maybe even both. Andy raised a hand to say hello and crossed over to stand in the road the other side of the mirror black car, facing Ianto.
Ianto nodded a reply. The moment seemed to get longer between them, until Andy gently places a caress on the front wing of the vehicle, leaving no mark or smudge. Looking at the car he spoke to Ianto.
"Alright?" he greeted. "Audi A6 two and a bit litre diesel turbo with the full media pack, and then some by the looks of it. Part wood trim, nice upholstery and if you had anything to do with it it'll be close to factory performance even though it's three years old or so. Your mob kill their cars, I've seen you arrive at a scene more than once or twice."
"That's Jack driving. Like he's throwing out an anchor."
Andy grinned, absently stroking the car from the top of the A pillar to the wing mirror which curved out from the body of the car almost as gracefully organic as the ear of a cat. Somehow the aluminium became something more than pressed metal under his long fingers, and Ianto's mouth dried up.
"Come meet someone. Just over the road." Andy twisted a finger in the corner of the door glass. Ianto saw no movement at the house Jack was in and started to cross the street. The two young tall men walked in step, Andy's beach sandals flapping against his bare feet as Ianto's polished leather shoes made next to no noise at all on the tarmac. They arrived at the vehicle Andy had been working on, and Ianto whistled low in awe.
Not a flashy sports vehicle or a boy racer hot hatchback. Not a top of the range saloon that had been customised, illustrated or modified under the hood. It was an Audi 80, what could be best described as the grandfather of the model Ianto had the keyless starter for in his pocket. Executive saloon parked next to a clipped hedge and a tidy front door.
"It's all there, the 1987 version of yours." Andy explained and pointed things out with a broad sweep of his hands. " The integrated spoiler on the boot is one line of pressed metal on yours, the rear passenger window shape, the slope of the windscreen to the line of the bonnet hiding the wipers, the centre console sweeping through to the dash."
His forefonger tickled the line of the metal just above the clipping line of the wiper, and Ianto's imagination started wondering what that little smoothness could feel like for of the back of his own jaw. But he stopped that thought and surprised himself.
Ianto could appreciate how the lines described were there in the black Audi as well as this one. But there was one thing that Ianto had to say, the words tripping out in a bit of a rush.
"My good God, metallic gold. The Audi special order original, and with black upholstery in cloth so there's only one set of shine to see. Wow, that's taste on four wheels. Yikes, original alloys...Did I already say wow?."
Andy radiated with pride as Ianto dipped his head to look along the line of the bonnet from the B pillar to the headlight, following the purity of the curved surface. No dents or wobbles in the curve could be found , and the dark haired man took off his sunglasses to see it exactly from less than a foot away, bending sideways and tightening the fit of his suit.
"Damn that looks good, how many years old? Damn good original work. Manual five speed gearbox as well, damn. Just damn."
"Zinc plated steel on every inch." Andy lowered his voice conspiratorially and leaned in towards the other man's head. He winked. "Would you like to see the factory stickers?" Ianto caught himself nodding, and abandoned any pretence of cool.
"Yeah I would, the actual construction markers saved in the logbook? "
"Nope, attached to the bodywork by Hans and Dieter before the Berlin Wall came down. Next to the cardboard boot lining to save weight, see?." He opened the boot and stood back, vibrating in near-joy.
Ianto goggled in amazement. There they were, placed exactly as in his own vehicle on the inner paintwork. Damn that was weird and thrilling at the same time. He'd heard that Audi kept records of every vehicle ever made by them down to the fabric choices, ashtray type and engine numbers but here you could see that detail in action. His record keeping soul stood up and cheered.
Unconsciously placing his hand on the top of the car, he stroked over the door from the centre side to the rear wing curve much as Andy had done just minutes before over the road, watching the play of light on the paint as he moved his hand. Andy watched the play of light on Ianto's face as he did this. He averted his eyes just before Ianto turned to him.
"No garage here?"
"Nope, and soon no room for me either. They've sold up and I have to return to the Section House." He slammed the boot.
"That's like army barracks for policemen, right?"
"Yes, and zero parking." Andy looked fed up at this, and Ianto could understand why. Parking this little treasure on the street in the city centre would result in a piece of history soon being spoilt beyond repair.
Flicking a glance down at Andy's bare toes Ianto couldn't exactly stop the erotic curiosity they aroused in him, the relaxed state that the other man could achieve effortlessly out in public being flaunted at him. When had he last slobbed about clean and informal with a bunch of mates and talked cars. The slight flexing of the toes against the worn sandal leather showed spots where the water from the car washing had splashed. Other scenarios with other stuff splashed onto Andy's smooth toes came hot and fast into his mind. Blond and dark mixed together in sweat. In his own wine red sheets. In sunlight and biting each other. Deep, torrid, wet and grasping sex in familiarity. Repeatedly until the near dark of the day with the rugby commentry murmuring in the background, forgotten.
He took a deep breath and returned from the fantasy which had stopped him totally. Some few curly hairs over the top of the wrecked and stretched teeshirt neckline that were showing blonder than Andy's head hair glinted at him a little in the sun. Ianto then acted on impulse.
"My flat has secure parking. Put her there. I park the company car on the street for a quick getaway. When I get home. If I remember where that ever is..." He made a face. Andy looked him in the eye and said the thing that would change the rest of their lives.
"Got a spare room? Or do I have to live in my car in your garage? We could take turns to drive her?" He wiggled a tin of car wax. "I polish yours, you polish mine?" He smiled innocently at Ianto. Twice.
Along the road Jack could be heard saying goodbye on the doorstep. The people he'd just drugged and deceived were thanking him. Somehow that made up Ianto's mind about tea and a whole loaf turned into toast, about watching rugby without explaining it, with not having to say where he'd been but being welcomed home. A cat wouldn't take turns to get beer into the fridge, and aggressive blowfish only ever stole the crap convertibles.
"Yes, deal." Ianto put his hand forward, and they shook to honour whatever the hell it was that they'd just promised to each other. As Jack walked up to the black Audi Ianto turned and walked to cross the road. Jack had already used the second set of keys to sit in the driver's seat and had started the engine. Mentally preparing himself for a headache to start Ianto saw Andy tidying up and nodded goodbye. Getting into the vehicle and putting on his seatbelt in one fluid motion he shut the door after Jack had already slammed into second gear and spun the tires on the tarmac.
Feeling the G-force pressing him into the seat, Ianto posed a question to Jack.
" I want more practical footwear for alien chasing, Jack. Rugged stuff."
"Do we need more casual clothes?" Jack compartmentalised Ianto's comment as he discounted it, somehow dumping part of a bitten sandwich into the ashtray and onto the console at the same time.
As he ran a red light Jack missed Ianto's frown. Wincing as Jack missed shifting into fourth , Ianto rapidly started a database search for Andy's mobile number to text him the address he'd be moving into.