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

Iahto laughed slightly at that, shaking his head. "Well, I suppose that that's smart, then." He neglected to point out the fact that he was already in trouble to begin with, Sulu was, and that getting caught for breaking the rules when you were already in trouble was a bit worse than getting in trouble in the first place, but he let that slide.

"Well, I'm always in trouble, myself. If we do get caught, I'll take the blame, say that I coerced you into taking me out or whatever. Doubt that we will, though. You said that they'd be out for most of the day anyway. I mean, the sun isn't even really setting yet, we'll be fine," he reassured the other boy. It was true, after all. He didn't really have a problem taking the fall here. After all, he was going to go home and have to take the fall there anyway.

It was common knowledge between them that Sulu was already in trouble, but really. It was a stupid thing to be in trouble for and he didn't believe in it. Still, he shot Ianto a skeptical look at his suggestion of taking the fall.

"What am I going to say? A kid from the 20th century showed up in my room and demanded me to show him the future?" He rolled his eyes, grinning. "Nah, it's okay. I'm not going to get in trouble - it'll take them at least an hour to even start thinking of coming back, and I'll be safely in my room by then. Nothing to worry about - a piece of cake." At least, so long as there wasn't too much traffic. There never really was, but pedestrians could cause a problem this close to the touristy area of town.

Ianto nodded, ducking his head and blushing a little at the question of what Sulu'd say to explain the situation away and put the blame on him at all. "Well. Alright. I guess you have a point there. But yeah. It's alright. We'll be fine, we'll get you and me back in our rightful places plenty of time before your parents get home and you turn into a pumpkin or anything like that," he said, joking around. Well. It was a bit too late for Ianto not to be in trouble for disappearing, but. There's no reason that both of them needed to be in trouble for a really rather enjoyable day, after all.

Sulu couldn't help but laugh at that, raising his eyebrows skeptically as he looked to Ianto. "A pumpkin?" he asked, not really getting the reference. He wasn't really sure what that had to do with their situation, at least. Still, as they reached the end of the boardwalk, passing the large crab statue, he couldn't help but agree. "Yeah, though, we'll have plenty of time. It's not a big deal. Anyway, what are they going to do, ground me more?" And, okay, yeah, they could do that - but what purpose would that serve?

"Yeah," Ianto said, shrugging. "Y'know, like. Your time is up. It's like, an old fairy tale thing. I dunno, maybe it's British, never mind. If you've only got them grounding you to have as a consequence of being caught, though, then I really wouldn't worry about it at all. I mean, the worst that could happen is that they catch you and ground you and then, what. You follow the rules and in a month or so, they'll have forgotten that it ever even happened in the first place. No big deal," he said, shrugging again, with the casual nonchalance of a person that was obviously in trouble a lot more than he really should have been.

"Pretty much, yeah." Sulu could tell from Ianto's tone that he was speaking from experience, but he wasn't about to judge him for it. Kids got in trouble. Parents sucked - his happened to suck less than others, he knew that, but still. You got in trouble and it was practically your job to weasel your way out of it.

When they reached the crosswalk, it was already turning green and allowing the flow of pedestrians across the street. Sulu easily put his arm over Ianto's shoulder to keep him from losing the other boy as they made their way through the thick crowd. "And British fairy tales involve turning people into pumpkins?" he asked, like an afterthought.

Kids did get in trouble, and parents did suck, especially Ianto's father. There was a whole story behind that, but it wasn't anything that he wanted to even think about, let alone mention to the other boy that he was there with.

Although he'd never admit it aloud, Ianto really was grateful for the arm around his shoulders as they crossed through the really rather crowded and busy sidewalk. He flushed slightly at Sulu's continual bringing up of the weird phrasing that he'd used a moment earlier. "Well, so it wasn't the person themself that turned into a pumpkin, but. Hell, you know what I mean, quit taking the piss," he said, although he was chuckling at the other, obviously not upset about the fact that Sulu was poking fun or anything like that.

Sulu grinned at that particular colloquialism, shaking his head a bit at the same time. "No, I'm not, uh, 'taking the piss' or whatever, I'm seriously curious. Like, I haven't heard that before. Man, I'm not always teasing you about whatever weird Britishisms you use." Well. Okay, he was a little, but he was also genuinely curious about it.

As before, Sulu sort of forgot his arm was over Ianto's shoulders and he kept it there, leading Ianto down the block towards where they'd parked earlier in the day. He was going to have to make sure to take it easy, so his parents would be none the wiser as to what their son had been up to while they were gone. Then again, it was their fault for leaving him alone. They should've known better!

"Yeah, whatever," Ianto said amicably, walking alongside the other boy, forgetting that Sulu's arm was around his shoulders just like Sulu had forgotten it was there in the first place. "It's... You know. It's from Cinderella. She's got the carriage that's made out of a pumpkin, and when the clock strikes midnight, it changes back. It's like that, only... Y'know, sort of like a curfew, or whatever. Only in this case it's before your parents get home and catch the fact that you're out. Y'know, it's the whole time running out metaphor. 'Before you turn into a pumpkin.'" Ianto shrugged. "That was way more explanation than was necessary. I hope you get it now, I'm not explaining any more on the matter," he said, shaking his head.

"No, no. I think I get it now." He sort of did, at least, which was all Sulu needed to back off of the conversation. "But that's still weird. You guys are weird." Sulu's tone was obviously joking - he didn't think Ianto was any stranger than anyone he'd met in school, really.

They made their way up the street, finding the car parked exactly where it had been left, looking the same as it had when they'd left it. Sulu hadn't expected anything different, of course, but the fact was that it said a lot about the era that his hovercar wasn't so much as dinged. He grinned. "Okay, now... we just have to deal with traffic. Awesome." Not that there was much to begin with.

Ianto recognized that Sulu was joking with him, joking right back with the other boy. "Maybe we are. Doesn't mean you aren't, though," he said, with a shrug. "I mean. You've got flying cars. And...aliens. That's pretty weird. Not that that's a bad thing, but. Still pretty weird," he said, with another shrug, as he climbed into the passenger's seat of the hovercar once more.

"At least I know that you've got to drive up the hill this time, and won't be taking me on any sort of dropping coaster rides to get back to your house," Ianto said, with a grin as he fastened his seatbelt. At least, he was counting on the fact that they had to get back before Sulu's parents did that the other wouldn't take him on any sort of joyride or anything before heading back to his house.

Sulu climbed into the driver's seat without a thought, flopping into it and buckling up even as he pressed a button on the remote to trigger the thrusters under the car to boot up. "Yeah, well, get used to the alien thing, man - who knows, your timeline might get to first contact faster than ours, and then you'll have aliens walking around your city too."

Pulling out of the parking spot and onto the street, Sulu gave Ianto a look. "I could probably find a way home that has plenty of hills, you know. This is San Francisco, after all - we're known for our hills." He wouldn't - they really did need to go back - but he didn't think the threat was amiss.

Ianto shook his head, laughing in wonder at even the idea of there being aliens walking around on the streets of Cardiff, clear as day. "That's mad, that is," he said, with a chuckle. "Absolutely mad."

At Sulu's look at him, Ianto shot an equally poignant look back at him, completely ruined for the fact that the other was driving and therefore couldn't actually notice his look at all. Whatever, the thought was there. "Well, I suppose that's not a bad thing to be known for. S'better than Newport. We're known for... I dunno. Being a dump? The Severn Bridge? Old abandoned steel mills?" He shrugged. "At least I couldn't terrorize you with any of that. Certainly not in a car, at least."

There probably wasn't a lot for a place like Newport to be known for - Sulu certainly hadn't heard of it, except for the Newport down in Southern California - but he couldn't imagine that there wasn't something interesting that wasn't a bridge or a bunch of abandoned warehouses. He didn't say as much, since Ianto obviously knew his hometown better than he did, but that didn't change the fact that Sulu imagined there was at least something interesting there from a 20th century standpoint.

"Yeah, well." He shrugged, not really knowing how to respond to that. "When the aliens come, maybe they can make Newport into their San Francisco." He grinned briefly at Ianto as they breezed through a yellow light.

Ianto raised an eyebrow and held back the comment that a yellow light generally meant that they should slow down, and that regardless of how soon they wanted to get back being pulled over when they were both sort of breaking the rules already anyway definitely wasn't the way to go about things. He held his tongue, though, and instead shook his head at the idea of Newport being the next intergalactic hub.

"No way," he said, firmly. "Not Newport it wouldn't be. If anywhere in Wales ever got to be anything like this, it'd probably be Cardiff. It's the most prominent city we have, and it's only about a half-hour away. Why they would pick Cardiff when London's just right across the border, there, though..." Ianto shrugged. "But I guess it's possible. It is a port city, after all, so at least the two've got something in common. Cardiff and San Francisco, that is."

"You never know," Sulu replied. "Everyone thought that it'd be New York, London or... something like them that became Federation headquarters, but instead it turned out to be San Fran." Of course, San Francisco was probably a bit bigger that Newport, so there was that. "But either way, who knows. You might get lucky."

He grinned, raising an eyebrow, "And what's the big deal between London and Cardiff? I mean, I dunno anything about Wales, so. I might be wrong, but isn't Cardiff a pretty big city on its own? There's a Cardiff in San Diego, after all, and we usually steal names from important British cities around here." Except for, apparently, Newport.

To be fair to Newport, it had at once been a major port city and steel milling town, before the Great Depression had hit. After that it was on a steady decline until around the 70's when it started to try and make its name on the map again. It definitely wasn't London, but. It was something.

"The difference between London and Cardiff is that one's in England, and the other one's in Wales. Which may not seem like such a difference, since Wales is just a little outcropping of England and all, but we aren't a part of England. There's a sort of... I don't know what you'd call it. A rivalry between the English and the Welsh, has been for a very long time. And well. I'll bet, judging by the fact that I'm pretty sure that you probably don't know anything about the original Cardiff, but at least know something about the original London, so. That tells you which one of them is more of a success than the other..."

Sulu didn't really get it, and it was probably obvious from his expression, but he didn't really make an effort to figure it out. There were bits of friendly rivalry between countries (and states) even now, but he wasn't sure if Ianto's sort of rivalry was as passive as the ones he was familiar with.

"Good point," he said at the mention of knowing more about the history of London than Cardiff, "I guess I can see that. Still, man, it's all just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. San Francisco had it - maybe Cardiff will, too." He laughed, "Or Newport. Who knows!"

Ianto saw that Sulu didn't get it, but it honestly really wasn't something he could explain. The English and the Welsh were always butting heads--they shared the same island, after all, and Wales was much, much older culturally, but England was the bigger power. There wasn't really a way to explain that succinctly, though, so Ianto didn't even try.

"Who knows," Ianto echoed, laughing slightly, echoing Sulu's own laugh. "It could be either Cardiff or Newport. Could be both. Could be both and London, or any combination thereof. Honestly so long as it's nearby, I could care less about where exactly it is, just so that I'm a bit closer to it in my universe than I would be here. I mean, no offense," he said, with a shrug. "But California's pretty much on the other side of the world from me..."

"It's not exactly that far, really," Sulu replied, unable to help it - he had a good sense of distance, which came in handy when you had to think about long distances. (Considering the fact that he spent his time daydreaming about being part of Starfleet, that was pretty much an everyday occurrence for him.) "But still, I get what you mean. There's a strong off-world presence in all the major cities, though, so hey. Even if they don't set up shop in the U.K., they'll visit so much you'll start getting sick of them. Tourists suck, no matter where they're from," he added with a grin, pulling short at a red light to keep from rushing through it. They were only maybe five minutes from his street, but he didn't want to take a chance and get a ticket by trying to rush home.

Ianto felt his seatbelt tug a little tight as they stopped so abruptly for the light change, but it was better than running it as far as he was concerned, so he didn't speak up about this either. "Yeah, I guess so. I mean. It makes sense. I guess it's just the fact that we don't really know about aliens existing for a fact that makes me pretty skeptical about the whole thing. I mean... For all I know, there... There might not even be aliens, in my universe. Or well. Maybe there are, but maybe not in the sense that you have them. I don't know." Ianto shrugged, his combined teenage and Welsh pessimism showing. "It's all a bit up in the air, if you ask me."

"Well, yeah, that's true," Sulu conceded, sounding a little put-off by the idea. It was a strange one, most definitely - the idea that there was a universe where there weren't planets and races he was familiar with, especially when it had an Earth, was definitely not one he really wanted to think about. How could the Federation ever form if there was no one out there to form it with?

He shook his head. "Well, I mean, you've probably got a slightly different universe from mine, but hopefully it's not that different. I don't think the Earth would be as great as it is now if we never made first contact." He shrugged. "But, I doubt it. Universes are way too big for just one race." He grinned over at Ianto and floored it through the now green light, "You'll get your aliens, I'm sure of it."

Ianto couldn't help but grip the handle on the door as Sulu floored the accelerator and they shot forward again. "Oi," he said, as a warning, but that's as far as he went. Sulu knew enough not to try to get in trouble at a time like this, after all, he could only hope that he knew enough not to attract trouble to him, even if he wasn't trying.

He grinned back at the aliens comment, though. "I...hope we will. Get our aliens, that is. In my lifetime, preferably. Not that it wouldn't be a cool idea in other times, but. To be able to see things with my own eyes, people and cultures from other planets, how different all the things are, well. It's all a bit fascinating, isn't it?" He shrugged, trying to take away from the fact that he was being rather a huge geek about all of this. Again.

Sulu had no problem with Ianto's geekiness, really, and so he didn't point it out or anything like that. "I think so, yeah." At least, he could imagine how it would be fascinating from Ianto's point of view. Maybe he was too jaded to it to notice, but he could at least appreciate it from the other boy. "I hope you guys do end up following our timeline at least a little - the Federation sort of does wonders for everything, and it wouldn't be here if we didn't have other planets to band together with."

The hill home was nothing in the hovercar, and Sulu took them cruising up it without a thought. He moved to open the garage door at the same time as he topped the hill, his house coming into view.

As much as Ianto wasn't going to be laughed at, geeking out about aliens, he figured it was time to change the conversation topic anyway. As they approached Sulu's house on the top of the hill, he said the first thing that came to his mind, which might not have been the most tactful thing to say, but it was the first thing to come to mind.

"You've got a pretty nice house," he said. "Big. Definitely a lot nicer than the estate that I live on..."

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