parked | Log with Ianto: Date Night

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Log with Ianto: Date Night

It was strange, really, how much effort Sulu had put into preparing for this date with Ianto. His usual modus operandi was to comb back his hair a bit, throw on a tee-shirt and jeans and just, well, show up. No flowers, no chocolates, no presents, just a casual sort of attitude that usually worked wonders to make the whole situation less stressful for both parties.

But. Ianto was not part of his usual style and Sulu found himself taking twice as long getting ready as he did for anyone else. Hell, he'd even went shopping for clothes he'd never normally wear (with Gwen, who he was pretty sure enjoyed putting him through the wringer when it came to Ianto), put effort into how his hair looked, took three double-glances in the mirror - Jesus. It was only a date.

With Ianto. The guy who had this uncanny ability to make him feel like his awkward fifteen-year-old self just by grabbing his hand.

At least he had an excuse for the gift - he'd told Ianto that he'd bring him a plant, and it was Ianto's birthday present, anyway, so it wasn't like this was specifically date-related. He could still pretend to be at least a little casual about these kinds of things. You know, despite the fact that his stomach twisted into knots as soon as he called Ianto to make sure that no last-minute Torchwood business had come up.

World hopping, luckily, did nothing to mess up his hair (not that you could really mess up the generic look it always fell into when he tried to style it), nor did it cause the plant he had in hand to wither, wilt, or otherwise be destroyed. He'd gone out of his way to find a nice pot for it, something a little more futuristic than traditional terracotta, since Ianto would appreciate that more than tradition. Hopefully.

After all, this whole date was pretty traditional. Sulu even went for the front-door approach, which he hadn't done since his girlfriend in senior year of high school. He shook himself out a bit for a second, minding the plant, so he could get rid of some of the jitters he was feeling, and then rolled his eyes at his own idiocy and just went for knocking on the door, before he could get himself even more worked up than he already was.

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Ianto quirked a smile back up at Sulu, amused by his words. "You know, you keep saying that you're impressed about how good you're doing, that you should have screwed something up by now, and well. I mean, maybe it's just a coincidence and I've gotten lucky with you, but. I really can't remember you actually doing something that might be counted as 'screwing up', as it is. I mean, maybe once, but. I mean, you got around that pretty quickly. I just... I think you have lower expectations of yourself in this than you really should."

He stroked Sulu's arm under his hand, absently running his fingers against the fabric of the blazer, enjoying the warm weight of Sulu's body on top of his. "That being said, yeah. I... If you do do something to screw things up, I will point it out to you. I expect you to do the same thing for me too, though, yeah? Who's to say that I won't pull something that neither of us even saw coming?"

Maybe it was low expectations; maybe Ianto was right. But Sulu had never gone a relationship without making an ass out of himself - there were, after all, reasons why each of his dates ended up breaking up with him, and not the other way around.

Still, he couldn't help but think that things might very well be different with Ianto. He didn't feel like he was going to cause problems or do something stupid to make Ianto upset or annoyed with him. That in itself was a little scary - he'd never felt like this around anyone.

"I promise," he said, "Though I seriously doubt you're going to do anything wrong. I - I'm not even sure I can screw this up. After all, I like you enough to not mess up yet... Much, at least."

Ianto smiled up at Sulu at his words, that he wasn't sure that even he could screw up what it was that they had, a warm, slow-blooming smile that spread another blush across his face in the process, but he didn't mind so much about the blush this time around. Ianto's hand on Sulu's arm went to the side of his face, cupping his cheek and pulling him down to meet Ianto in another brief, sweet kiss.

"I'm glad," he said, although whether it was to the idea that Sulu thought that their relationship was such that couldn't be screwed up by one person just making the wrong move or saying something out of place, or whether it was the idea that Sulu liked him enough to believe that that would be the case, he wasn't quite sure.

Sulu couldn't help but laugh a little into the kiss, completely enamored by the way Ianto was looking at him. "I'm glad too," he said. Sure, he wasn't positive that this relationship was going to always be this smooth sailing, but he figured that as long as he ended up like this with the other, it wouldn't matter.

He paused, thinking over a question in his head that he probably didn't need to ask, but... "Is this all right, though?" he asked finally. "It's not too weird for you, is it?" After all, that had been one of Ianto's main issues when they'd started realizing that they could be more than friends, and it felt like a good enough time to ask as any.

Ianto raised an eyebrow at Sulu, looking questioningly up at him. "'This'?" he asked, not sure what Sulu meant by his question. "Do you mean, like, this?" he said, motioning to the way that they were lying together. "Or do you mean..." he gestured a lot more vaguely, as if to imply the situation as a whole instead, "this..." He could see why Sulu might be asking about the situation as a whole, though, so. He chose to answer that one.

"I... It's not too weird for me. I mean. It's a little odd, if I stop to think about how I never would have seen this coming before it did, but. I mean. It's not bad. I... I enjoy this. I..." He paused. "I don't really understand it. And I don't really know how to handle it, sometimes, but. I. I don't want it to go away anytime soon, that having been said. I." He sighed. "It's new to me. And kind of frightening that, well. That I care so much about where it's headed already. And that there's Jack, and...I don't want to be leaving either of you out. But. It's not too weird. I'll. I'll figure it out."

Sulu couldn't help but find Ianto's gestures extremely charming, smiling and nodding along to the last option on his list. He wasn't so worried about their current position; if Ianto was uncomfortable, Sulu imagined that he would have said something by now.

"I don't think you'll have to worry too much about Jack," Sulu admitted with a small smile; after all, he'd asked permission, so there was no real issue there. "And you won't be leaving either of us out. I imagine you're probably one of the best people for this kind of relationship; after all, you can multitask better than others." He paused, then kissed the corner of Ianto's mouth. "Can't do much about the fear, or the lack of understanding, though. I'm not much better right now myself."

Ianto smiles softly as Sulu kissed him. "Well, that is true. I am pretty good at multitasking. I'm lucky that you're not as big of an ego as Jack is, though. I'm not sure how well I could've handled the pair of you being divas, after all."

He ran his hand to the back of Sulu's head, running his fingers through Sulu's hair, stroking the back of his neck slightly. "Like I said before. If you really are afraid or not understanding anything about this, you're definitely better at hiding it than me. I would never have known, if you didn't just say so, after all." He ran his hand through Sulu's hair some more. "I suppose that we're just going to have to figure it out together then, yeah? You and me. I mean. Jack seems to already know what he's doing, and all, the lucky bastard," Ianto said, with a smile up at Sulu.

"Trust me, egotism is strictly a captain's thing, and I'm just a lieutenant," he laughed, eyes half lidded as he leaned into Ianto's hand in his hair. "And it's not... I'm not afraid of this, really, because I know it'll work, but. It's not like I'm used to dating people who are seeing someone else. I'm not opposed to it, but I just never had to deal with it."

He laughed a little, "Yeah, Jack seems to be ahead of the curve. Then again, he's probably used to that." He almost told Ianto about how surprised Jack had been at Sulu when he'd asked if it would be okay to date Ianto, but he decided to hold off on that. It was probably not Sulu's shining moment, and he had no idea how Ianto would react to it.

"Well, I'm glad for that, then," Ianto said, continuing to run his hand through Sulu's hair and chuckling along with him. "One captain is enough for me, thanks. And about the rest of it..." Ianto took a breath. "I... I can't promise that I'll make the right decisions all the time, because well. This is new to me too. I don't really know how to handle it. And like. I worry that you might think that because Jack came first, and because Jack's more demanding, that I like him better or something like that, but." Ianto sighed. "It's hard to explain. You're different, you and Jack. And I...the way I feel about both of you is different too. Not... Not stronger for one or the other. Just. Just different."

Ianto rolled his eyes at Sulu's comment about Jack. "He probably is. And has been for a long time. Sometimes I wonder if he was ahead of the curve even before, when he was in his own time, but. I don't know if I really want to know, other times. I mean. The only other person I've met from that time period is John, and well." Ianto suppressed a shudder. "He... He isn't the best example of humanity, really."

Sulu found himself relaxing a bit more of his weight into Ianto, feeling more comfortable as Ianto continued to run his hand through his hair - he knew he should probably stop Ianto, because... well, because, but it felt so nice...

"I won't think that," he said, even though he'd already considered it, had even sort of prepared himself for it. "Besides. We've only been on one date - it would be unfair of me to expect anything special out of you so soon." And though Sulu had no idea who John was, he felt like he'd talked to him at least once, and the way Ianto said his name pretty much told him exactly what he needed to know. "Don't worry," he said, "I doubt you'd be so close to Jack if he weren't just the right amount of 'ahead.'"

Ianto didn't really notice Sulu getting any heavier, more like he noticed him losing some of the leftover stiffness about their positioning that he might have had earlier, lying a lot more relaxed on top of him. Ianto supposed he should stop his hand as well, and yet. It was nice. Soothing for him, the continuous motion. He knew that Sulu enjoyed the feeling, but. More than that, he should have felt awkward about it, and yet. He didn't. Which was new, and more than a little refreshing to him.

"We've only been on one date so far," Ianto repeated, adding the last two words onto Sulu's statement. "I... I was kind of under the impression that there would be more to come, though," Ianto said, with a soft, timid smile up at Sulu. "Seeing as how this first one seemed to go pretty well for us, and all." He couldn't find a single thing that he remembered really stuck out as being bad about it. It hadn't been perfect, but perfect dates were impossible, and what they'd had... Well, it made Ianto happy. Happy to spend time with the other man. Wasn't that what a date was all about, anyway? Enjoying your time together?

"So far," Sulu echoed, nodding slightly. "But - yeah. Yeah, we'll definitely have more. I'd like to, at least." He laughed a little sourly, "I mean, assuming I don't have to deal with any more away missions gone awry, or viruses where I'm turned into a woman, or something. But..."

He remembered what Ianto had said as he'd been falling asleep against him, what they'd talked about even before that, when Ianto had come to his cabin because he'd wanted to make sure he was alive and well. "It's all going to work out," he said slowly. "Come hell or high water, I'm not about to let anything get in our way."

Ianto didn't fail to notice that almost immediately after Sulu'd allowed himself to be even the slightest bit cynical, he'd reined it in and was back to being positive again. He wasn't sure if that was for his sake, or whether that was just something that Sulu did all the time, but he was grateful for it. Really, there were a lot of things that could go wrong for either of them, and viruses were the least of their worries. At least viruses reverted themselves eventually, right? Space bears or Weevils, on the other hand... His hand stilled in Sulu's hair.

"Come hell or high water, huh?" Ianto repeated, mulling it over. Ianto just simply wasn't as optimistic as Sulu, and so he couldn't say for certain that they would be able to stop everything that got in between the two of them, everything that kept one from another, but. He was more than willing to try. "Well. I'm not sure that there's much I can do, but. I'm try to keep up my end of the deal as well. Come hell or high water, as you say," he said, with a small smile.

Sulu had only let himself get cynical because that was the way the conversation had been heading on his behalf, but he couldn't allow himself to stay that way. He couldn't allow himself to look at this negatively, because if he started that way, who knew how far he'd go.

He smiled at Ianto and reached a hand up to grab his, the one he had left in Sulu's hair, and held it. "As long as we both want it to work out, it will. External circumstances be damned." After all, he had to keep that kind of attitude, if he wanted this to succeed. And, damn it, he wanted nothing more.

Ianto shifted his hand in Sulu's grip to clutch Sulu's hand back, raising an eyebrow and quirking a half smile at Sulu's words. "You're sure of that, then?" he asked, because however much he might want to just blindly trust that everything was going to be alright, he was too much of a realist to manage it. "That so long as we want it to work out, it will and all. You... You really believe that?" he asked.

As much as he was cynical, and a pessimist, Ianto still wanted things to work out for the better, and if Sulu was so sure of it, sure enough to reinforce his words and answer Ianto truthfully in this, then. Maybe Ianto would feel more inclined to believe him. Sulu really was his strength, when it came to optimism. He hadn't realized how down he used to be on a lot of things until Sulu had come along and started changing a lot of that for the better.

Sulu looked at Ianto and focused on him for a moment, taking in his face, his expression, his mood - and he realized that it had been honestly a while since he'd heard Ianto say anything pessimistic. Well, not like he used to, that was for sure. Sulu had mentioned future plans, plenty of them, and instead of hesitating, instead of not believing him, Ianto had agreed, had even expressed hope and interest for them, and...

"I do," he said, "I really do. I want you to believe it too, I want you to be as sure of this as I am." Because, despite how much he wanted to worry about this relationship, despite how easy it would be to focus on all the terrible things that could happen, Sulu didn't even bother. All he wanted was this.

Ianto could tell just by looking at Sulu that the other man was telling the truth about what he thought, he really was. Ianto's expression softened, and he smiled up at the other man, gripping the hand that had found his back, and just feeling so...at peace with everything, in that moment.

"Well," he said fondly. "You keep saying things like that, and really meaning them, and well. I... I just might find myself believing you more and more." He blushed. "I'm not sure if you're really aware of the effect that your optimism has had on me, but. I'll have you know that things are pretty drastically different from what they used to be like, for me. And well, the only thing that's come about to change my thinking in any of this is you, so. I guess you must be doing something right, there."

He chuckled. "Keep at it, and you might just get what you want, you know. I seem to be relatively easily persuaded on these things. When you're the one doing the persuading, that is."

Sulu grinned and kissed Ianto, a bit more intensely than they'd been enjoying these last few times, but still not exactly passionately. He didn't want to give Ianto the wrong impression, after all.

"I'll try to keep myself honest for you, that I can promise." He nuzzled his cheek, feeling like a silly kid; a kid who didn't quite realize how serious things for them might get, but wasn't going to back down when the reality hit him.

How late was it? He frowned slightly. "I... I should leave soon, though. We both need sleep, and..." And if he stayed, he wasn't sure what might happen.

Ianto smiled into the kiss, kissing Sulu back briefly before they broke it off again. "Trying is all I can ask you to try and do," he said. At Sulu's statement of the time though, Ianto sighed. He brought both of his hands to rest on either side of Sulu's head, just resting them there, holding him in place so that he could get a good look at the other man.

Honestly, he didn't want Sulu to leave, he didn't want to have to spend the night alone in his empty flat after having spent such a wonderful time together like they had, but. He didn't want to rush things, and asking Sulu to stay over on the first date... That was definitely rushing things. He bit his lip, nodding. "Yeah, I... We both do need to get some sleep..." he said, in response.

He ran his thumbs over Sulu's cheek bones, shooting the other man a small smile. "You can try out the portkey to get back. See if it works like Jack says it will, and all," he said. It'd be nice if it did, because well. That mean that Sulu could come over whenever he wanted to, or the pair of them could visit the Enterprise, without so much as having to lift a finger.

Sulu looked in Ianto's eyes and allowed himself the thought of staying the night, just to imagine being able to wake up next to Ianto, have coffee with him, breakfast - the mundane things that he usually didn't fantasize about, because they were so easily doable. But, that was before Starfleet, before a five year mission in space - a mission he was constantly forgetting every time he came down to a Cardiff over 200 years in the past, to spend time with a man whose job was just as demanding and ten times more sporadic than his own. Mundane scenarios were probably the things Sulu was going to fantasize more about than anything, in this relationship.

He was okay with that.

"Yeah," he said, imagining that he could stay, "Hopefully it'll work like Jack said. Otherwise, I could end up being put... Well, just about anywhere." He really hoped that magic required less accuracy than science - otherwise, he doubted anyone had accounted for the fact that the ship was moving through space.

Ianto winced, thinking of the possibilities of what could happen, should something go wrong with the device. And yet... "I don't know. Jack said that Dumbledore made him this, and well. Everyone on the community seems to trust him to be a good wizard, fully capable of these sorts of things, so. I... I trust it. Jack trusts it enough to give it over to us, so. I. I think that there shouldn't be a problem with it, or anything. I mean. I wouldn't have given it to you if I didn't trust that it should work, so."

Ianto swallowed, looking up into Sulu's eyes and smiling slightly. "I'm going to take a page out of your book, here, and trust that things will work the way they should. Although I am going to ask you to call and tell me that it you've arrived safely and all," he added with a blush. "So I don't spend the rest of the night worrying whether you've made it or whether you're...magicked away to god knows where, or something."

"It's weird to think that you can believe people to be wizards on the community," Sulu said with a laugh, shaking his head. "But, good. We'll both trust that it'll work, and if it doesn't... well. Jack will have some explaining to do, won't he?"

He gave Ianto another kiss, longer than before, before rising up onto his knees and then sliding off of Ianto and the couch. "And I promise, I'll call. It won't take long, probably." Worldhopping never did. Still, he wasn't making much of a move for the portkey, now was he?

Ianto kissed Sulu back. As much as he said that he had faith in the portkey, he still had some doubts about it, and well. He hadn't been kidding that one night when he'd come to Sulu's cabin and cried to him about not even being able to say goodbye. If... If this was the last time the two of them ever saw each other (it wasn't going to be, but just in case), then he didn't want to have regrets like that weighing on his conscience.

Ianto sat up on the couch after Sulu got off of him, running his fingers through his hair to straighten it out a little bit again. "Okay. I'll... I'll be waiting for your call, then," he said, moving to stand next to Sulu. He smiled at the other man, before going in to take take a kiss of his own, shorter than the one Sulu'd started, but just as nice. "You'd better call, you know," he said, pulling back. "I don't want to try this optimism thing only to have it go horribly wrong, yeah?" he said, with a small smile.

"I'll call, I promise, I promise." Sulu laughed and, unable to resist, ran both his hands through Ianto's hair as he gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry. I'll make sure to get back in one piece. I don't want you to lose the optimism - it looks too good on you."

Sulu moved to grab the box that the portkey was in, pausing briefly to blow at the singing plant he'd brought earlier so that it chimed a bit. "And, at the very least, I'll be stopping by sometime to check on this one here," he said, winking at Ianto, "Making sure you're keeping care of it." After all, he was a botanist; he wasn't about to let Ianto get away with killing one of his plants.

Ianto nodded, smiling. "Please do. I... Well, I wouldn't say that I necessarily have a bad track record with plants, but. It could be better. It definitely wouldn't hurt for you to come buy and check up on it, when you can. Now that you have the ability to do so whenever you like, and all," Ianto said, with a smile, nodding to the box in Sulu's hands.

"You... You can do that, you know. Come by whenever you like. Even if it's just to sleep in the same bed together. I... I'd like that, really. I mean. I like having you around, as it is. We don't have to have plans to get together. In fact...we'll probably find impromptu things a lot easier to carry through than actual plans, as it were. Even if it's just an hour two or the night or what have you. That is, only if and when you'd like to," Ianto finished with a blush, realizing he'd been rambling.

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