parked | Log with Ianto: The Proof is in the Pudding

Sulu slowly made his way up the boardwalk, keeping his eye out for any indication that Ianto was somewhere nearby. If only the other kid would just call for him, he'd be able to pick that weird accent out of the bustle. But of course he wouldn't - that'd probably draw attention, right? And Ianto didn't seem big on attracting attention. So, it was up to Sulu to keep his wits about him.

As he made his way through the light crowds, Sulu caught sight of Ianto sitting on a bench, looking just as panicked as Sulu felt. Heaving a huge sigh of relief, he all but ran to the bench, calling out Ianto's name as he approached.

Ianto nearly leaped out of his skin and up off the bench as he heard someone calling out his name, and a familiar voice at that. Sulu's voice. He whipped his head up, his eyes wide and panicked as he choked down...he wasn't even sure what, possibly hysterical laughter, possibly hysterical sobbing, possible something in the middle of that. Instead he just ended up blinking up at Sulu as he approached, trying to keep his breathing from speeding up too much, glad he was sitting down already as an almost overwhelming sense of relief nearly bowled him over.

"...oh thank god," Ianto said, out loud, because it was really the only thing he could think of saying to accurately cover everything he was feeling in that moment.

Sulu came to a stop a foot or two away from Ianto, leaning over as he caught his breath, realizing he'd been practically running to the other and already panicked enough to need to keep his breathing steady. It only took him a moment to get himself together before he grinned at Ianto, his relief showing clearly on his face.

"Jeeze, I was looking all over for you." Which wasn't exactly true, but it was close enough. He wasn't about to show just how worried he'd been, though he did take a moment to throw his arm over Ianto's shoulder after he sat down next to him on the bench. "Probably shouldn'tve gotten wrapped up in that crowd, huh?" He paused, then asked, sincerely, "Are you okay? That kind of freaked me out...."

Ianto let out a laugh that very easily could be misconstrued as a sob, and he wasn't quite sure that it wasn't at least partially one. He shrugged, trying to cover that up. Well, that, and the fact that he'd leaned into Sulu's arm over his shoulder, and that he was so relieved that Sulu was there that he was almost shaking in his seat.

"Yeah, I'm. Well. I'm fine, aren't I? Just got a bit lost, no harm done..." Just a massive bruise to the ego, a slight heart attack, and he probably wouldn't be letting the other boy out of his sight at all, but. That was it. "I hope you can agree with me in saying that I'm really not keen on getting wrapped up in any more crowds, though, yeah? Like you said, it. Well. It more than just kind of freaked me out, honestly..."

Sulu let out another sigh and leaned back against the bench fully, going all but limp now that the adrenaline was wearing off. "Yeah, no harm done," Sulu replied, knowing full well that the both of them were pretty freaked out, and probably would be for a while. "But yeah, I think we can definitely go without the crowds. The last thing we need is for me to lose you again and Starfleet to find out or something." He probably shouldn't have said that. "Not that I'm going to let you get lost again, or anything, y'know? Just. You know. Just saying."

"You'd better not," Ianto said, in response to the idea of getting lost again. "With my luck, I can pretty much guarantee you that the first person to find me would be someone from Starfleet and. I don't belong here. I don't have a record. Even if...if I did, I'm 200 years after my own time. I." Ianto swallowed, running a hand through his hair. "That would be the biggest mess ever, so. Please," he said, turning to look at Sulu, some of the panic still there in his eyes though he was trying to hide it very well. "Let's not have anything even remotely similar to that happen again. Alright?"

Sulu raised an eyebrow at Ianto's tone, nodding his head slowly. He was freaked out, sure, but he hadn't imagined Ianto would be so much more panicked by what had happened. "Yeah, man, definitely. The last thing either of us needs is to get in trouble with the Federation, anyway. If I'm going to join Starfleet, I really can't break time-space laws. ...If there even are any." Sulu was pretty sure there had to be, but. It wasn't like they could prosecute Ianto, that was for sure. "But don't worry about it. We'll just keep an eye on each other, so it'll be cool."

Ianto had been pretty much convinced in some part of him that he was never going to be found and he was going to be stuck there and get into trouble and locked up for being an illegal because he had no record of ever living anywhere there. Sure, it hadn't been logical, but nothing about panic was very logical after all. Ianto nodded in response to Sulu's reassurances. "Yeah, alright. 'It'll be cool'," he said, repeating the other boy's phrase with a hint of a smile, the words sounding a bit odd in his accent. No more crowds, and no more assuming that the other was going to stick close to him, for the rest of the day, he decided.

Sulu laughed and shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Man, don't make fun of me just because I'm American and use way better turns of phrase. You don't see me teasing you for your weird accent," he added in a light tone, grinning because, yeah, it was a weird accent, but it wasn't so bad that it was like... strange or something. Just different. He gave Ianto a pat on the back before moving to stand. "So yeah, do you want to wander around some more? I mean, without the whole losing each other thing."

Ianto took a deep breath, smiling slightly at the fact that they...were okay. Everything was okay. They were joking around about his accent, of all things. "Just be lucky that I'm speaking to you in English," he said. "There aren't that many Welsh-only speakers out there, but there are enough." He moved to join Sulu in standing.

"Right," he said. "Without the whole losing each other thing, more wandering. Need to get a souvenir, and all. Not too many people can get a souvenir from the future of another universe, after all," he said, with a quirked smile.

Sulu gave Ianto a curious look as he stood up, definitely in better spirits now that Ianto was joking with him. "What, so you know Welsh too? Well, yeah," he answered his own question, "Right, you use all sorts of weird words. Never mind, dumb question. And you're right," he added, gesturing towards the boardwalk (specifically, at the less crowded side of it), "Not a lot of people get that chance, so we should totally abuse it."

"Totally," Ianto said, quirking a smirk and nodding toward the boardwalk himself. He couldn't help poking a little more fun. It was helping him come down from the panic that he had found himself in minutes earlier, after all. "Seriously, though, yeah. Not a lot of people get this chance. Dunno when I will again, really, so. Let's go."

"And as for your question...yeah. I do speak Welsh. Dwi'n siarad Cymraeg," he added, for an additional flair to his words. "Which...means I speak Welsh. My Tad's kind of got this whole Welsh pride thing going that's a bit ridiculous really, but yeah."

Sulu definitely hadn't heard anything like Welsh before, and he was pretty sure his expression proved that. "That's cool, though," he said after a moment, grinning a bit, "I mean, that's something not a lot of people are going to know, right? Like, unless Welsh is all over the place or something." He didn't think it was, if his dad was being ridiculous about it or whatever. "Either way, though, it's cool."

Ianto raised an eyebrow at the other boy, a bit surprised by the fact that he was calling it cool. No one in Wales ever thought much of it. In fact, mostly everyone took the piss about it at school, at least. "...yeah?" he asked, uncertainly. Before he shook himself out of it. "Yeah, well. No. It's not all over the place, and it's certainly not considered very cool where I'm from. But." He shot a glance at the other boy, grinning a little, maybe even flushing slightly (he'd never been good at taking compliments). "...thanks."

Sulu ducked his head, running his hand through his hair. He couldn't help but be a little embarrassed that he'd apparently embarrassed the other boy, but he tried to play it cool nonetheless. He took a step away, towards the direction they'd picked, then paused to make sure Ianto was going to keep close to him before moving again. "Yeah, well. You're, uh, welcome. I mean, don't let it go to your head or anything."

Ianto stepped with Sulu, sticking a little closer to the other boy than he had been before because he didn't want to even chance getting separated again. Which...was silly, but he was not prepared to have another almost meltdown again, so it was better safe than sorry he though. "Yeah. I'll try not to," he said, smiling slightly.

"Still have no idea what sort of souvenir to find, though," Ianto said, sighing. "I mean. I want it to be something straight up, but. Also something that's more interesting than...I dunno. A pencil." He shot a sideways look at Sulu. "...you do still use pencils, yeah?"

Sulu shrugged. Yeah, they had pencils and pens and all that, but he rarely ever used anything like that for anything. Artists still used them, sure, and some people liked having things on paper, but on a whole... "Well, yeah, just. Probably not as much as you're used to, or anything. But we can probably do better than a pencil or anything lame like that, anyway. Like... a shirt or something." He shrugged again, "You can always play off a tee-shirt."

Ianto raised an eyebrow, thinking about it for a moment. "Yeah, I suppose you're right," he said. "I mean. If someone thinks it's weird, then it's just a design. No one's going to actually recognize that it's from the future or something, they'll just... I dunno. Probably think that I'm some science fiction fanatic or something, and pass it off as nothing more than that." Which...was not really a 'cool' thing to be, but. Ianto wasn't really cool to begin with anyway, and at least he could get some use out of something like that.

"Yeah, exactly." Or... something, since Sulu didn't even really know "science fiction" in his universe. It all had pretty much happened. "And anyway, some of them are just like, you know, 'San Francisco,' or something, so you can always just say someone got you one from a trip or something. Who knows, whatever, it's not like people will seriously be questioning a tee-shirt. I have a Starfleet Academy sweatshirt and nobody thinks I'm in the Academy."

They did sometimes ask him if he was really in the freshman class of San Francisco State when he wore that sweatshirt, but he was pretty sure they all just thought he was a genius. Which was cool.

Ianto nodded. The only thing was...he didn't want something that just said 'San Francisco'. Sure, regardless of what it said or was, it would be from the future, but. He wanted something that would stand out just that little bit in his mind by being ~from the future~, whether it was...who knows. A Starfleet Academy something or other, or a shirt that had some sort of ~future~ thing on it. Ianto was only fifteen years old, after all, and he wanted whatever it was that they found to be something cool, not just...any other souvenir.

"We'll find something somewhere," Ianto confirmed, glancing sideways at the other boy, more to keep his eye on him than anything else. It was sort of silly, but. As long as Ianto had his eye on the other, he was at least reassured that he wasn't going to lose him.

Sulu noticed the glance and did what any kid would do in his position; he nudged the other with his elbow and grinned at him. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna disappear on you. I sure as hell don't want to lose you or anything." That was the last thing he wanted, anyway. He wondered if it would help if he put his arm over Ianto's shoulder again, to make sure that neither of them would wander off - but he didn't want to do anything too weird.

"Uh, anyway - if you see somewhere you wanna check out, just tell me. You're the tourist, after all."

Ianto nodded, shrugging. He definitely wasn't going to wander off if he saw something without telling the other boy first, that was for certain. "Yeah, alright. I figure...well. It's nice weather here. A bit of wandering isn't going to be too bad, yeah? It's certainly not this nice back in Wales. Probably...pissing down or something at the moment, there." Had Ianto mentioned that it was good to be away from home for the day? Because it was really good to be away from home for the day.

"Yeah, well, it's not always nice here either, you know," Sulu replied, though there was some amount of pride in his tone. He loved his city and he wasn't afraid to show it, even if it only showed itself in how he smiled when he talked about the place he'd grown up in. "And anyway, I've never been outside of the states before, so even if it was raining, I'd still really like it, I'd bet."

Ianto shrugged. "Maybe Cardiff you'd like. Definitely not Newport. There's nothing there but..." He thought about it for a moment, but he couldn't come up with anything. "No, there's nothing there at all, actually." Just estate houses, all of them looking the same as the one he'd grown up in, the one he lived in now, the one he'd probably live in forever if he didn't get himself the hell out of there as soon as possible.

Ianto laughed a little, looking sideways at Sulu for a moment. "Hey, though. Who knows. Maybe next time you can come visit me, yeah?" Granted, they'd have to take a trip to Cardiff, but. Damn it, why not. He'd be able to pay Sulu back in some way, and... Who knows, it might actually be fun, which. Ianto didn't get to have a lot of the time, he realized.

"I wouldn't be against that, really," Sulu replied, shrugging. "I mean, it'd be kind of weird - like it's weird for you being here, or something - but it'd be cool." After all, it wasn't like he was going to get the chance to go back in time, right? Much less back in time to Europe. He wasn't likely to end up going to Europe now, that was for sure, so why not?

"You'll have to hit me up sometime later, okay? Like, when you're bored or something."

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