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aviv_b_artworkFandom: Torchwood
Schmoop: Prologue-None, Chapter 1 - Pets (used for my Wild Card space); Chapter 2 - Lazy Sunday
Title: Who Let the Dogs Out?
Words: 4965 Total
Rating: Prologue & Chapter 1 - PG, chapter 2 - PG-13/R
Characters: Ianto/Aaron, Owen, Jack
Summary: Aaron and Ianto's lives have gone to the dogs.
A Ianto's Journey verse story. Things you need to know to understand this story are at the Prologue: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/64338.html
Chapter 1 - Heavy Petting
When Ianto returned home from a funeral with a dog, he knew Aaron wouldn’t be happy. Molly was filthy and a little nervous about all the changes that had happened to her that day. Only few hours ago she had sat by the grave of her beloved Sam, now she had taken a long car ride to a strange new house. Ianto had hoped to have time to clean her up and get her relaxed a bit before Aaron came home from training his new cadets in a few days. But things had gone off track the moment he walked into the house. Aaron was home, and to say he wasn’t happy would have been the understatement of the century.
“What is that?” he asked looking at the dog in horror. What is that filthy monster doing in our entryway?”
“It’s a dog.”
“I can see that…but…what…” With his empathic abilities, Aaron sensed that this dog was somehow important to Ianto. Very important. And Ianto had texted him about Mr. Shuster’s death and his attending the funeral.
“Is this the dog from Canary Wharf?” Ianto nodded.
Aaron seemed to calm a bit. He came over to the entryway and turned his attention to Owen. “Owen thanks for giving Ianto a lift. We’ll be ok here.” Owen was a bit nervous about deserting Ianto, but he was obviously being asked to leave. And Ianto was an adult; he didn’t need Owen to plead his case for him.
Owen hugged Ianto, and crouched down to say goodbye to Molly. He said a terse goodbye to Aaron and turned to leave. As he walked to the front door he fumed silently, “You let him keep that dog Aaron, or I’ll kill you.”
After Owen had left the house and driven away, Ianto and Aaron stared at each other in silence. Molly stared at Ianto and then would shyly glance at Aaron and then turn her attention to Ianto once again. Slowly Aaron began to smile and so did Ianto.
“Did you hear that? The little weasel’s going to kill me.”
“Would that be before or after you murder me?” Ianto asked.
Aaron snorted. “Well it’s a bit of a surprise you have to admit. And I bet you weren’t expecting me home two days early. Yeah, every one of my cadets washed out of the Commando Course this time around. Not a single one even came close to passing. Why don’t we take…uh...?”
“Molly.”
“Why don’t we take Molly out in the yard for a bit?”
They went out into their small garden at the front of their yard and talked a long time about Canary Wharf and the funeral and Molly’s fate. Aaron was already aware of Molly’s role in Ianto’s rescue and he was visibly upset when Ianto told him about what happened at the funeral. During this time, Molly sat by Ianto with her head on his knee. Towards the end of their conversation, Molly timidly walked over to Aaron and sat very still in front of him.
“Well you are a very well behaved dog, I’ll give you that.” As he reached down to tentatively pet her head, she jumped up and licked Aaron’s face. “Lovely. Look at these dirty paw prints you left on my nice slacks.” Molly immediately backed down and looked dejected. Aaron felt terrible. “Ok, I know you didn’t mean to, but no jumping.” She immediately moved back over to Aaron and just leaned a bit against his leg. “Yeah, I’m a sucker for a pretty face. But you are getting a bath…tonight.”
As Aaron stood up, Ianto moved over to Aaron and hugged him tight.
“Thank you Aaron. I just couldn’t abandon her. Not after…”
“Shhh I know. We’ll see how much you thank me when you are walking her in the rain, when it’s cold, early in the morning and after a long day at work. Now let’s get Miss Molly Muddy Paws cleaned up before we go back into the house.”
It was a warm July evening so washing a dog didn’t seem like a big challenge. That was until they tried to wet her down with a hose. She began to run around playfully and bite at the water and bark her head off.
“Molly, be quiet. You’ll wake the neighbors,” Aaron admonished. Sure enough within a few minutes their next door neighbor was knocking on the gate. Mrs. Goldsmith was standing there with a curious look on her face.
“Did I hear a dog barking in your yard?”
“We’re so sorry, we just got her and…”
Mrs. Goldsmith laughed. “You two got a dog? I couldn’t be more surprised if you had told me you had a Martian as a house guest.”
They let her into the yard and gave her a brief rundown on the situation. “Well I’ve got a few things that will help,” she said grabbing Aaron and dragging him over to her house. Aaron reappeared a few minutes later with a large metal wash tub. Ianto had gone into the house and left Molly alone in the yard. Much to Aaron’s surprise Molly stood absolutely still until Ianto returned with shampoo brushes and combs. They got the bath ready as Molly watched with interest.
“Ok, in you go,” Ianto commanded Molly. She obediently, if not reluctantly got into the tub.
Aaron read the instructions on the pet shampoo bottle out loud, twice, and then they proceeded to wash, or rather attempt to wash the dog.
“Oi, look out with that sponge. You don’t want to get any soap in her eyes,” Ianto warned.
“Would you get your dog to stop smacking me in the face with her tail,” Aaron complained.
An hour and two baths later (she really was filthy) Aaron and Ianto sat exhausted on the ground while Molly poked around and explored every inch of her new yard. Both men were soaked, Ianto’s shirt had a long tear in it from where Molly’s claw had caught on it, Aaron had a small scratch on his nose from a rather rambunctious splashing fight that had broken out between him and Ianto and that Molly had joined, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, in on.
“I never knew having a dog could be so exhausting,” Ianto remarked.
“You know, there’s an evil side to me that’s going to enjoy watching you get up early every Saturday and Sunday to walk her. Oh and the play time you're going to have with her when you come home exhausted from work. This could be fun.”
Ianto just smiled and moved to lay back with his head on Aaron’s knee. “Thank you Aaron.”
“You’re welcome, Cariad.” Aaron leaned over and kissed Ianto. Ianto went to deepen the kiss when Molly chose that exact moment to return to the two men. She sat down next to them and tried to nuzzle in on the kiss.
“Hey. No interrupting while Daddy is kissing Daddy, ok?” Aaron laughed as Molly licked his face.
“So you’re a Daddy now, are you?” Ianto teased.
“Yeah but I’m the pat the head, give the treats Daddy, while you are the walking, feeding and picking up poop Daddy.”
“At least you’re willing to give her a chance.”
“Well it’s cheaper than a divorce.”
They got up and holding hands began to walk into the house with Molly at their side.
“Her breath stinks, you know.”
“I know, and we’ll have to cut her nails, she really gave you a good scratch there.”
“I wonder what commands she knows?”
“I have tomorrow off so maybe we can take her to the park.”
“And I can hide, and she can find me,” Aaron said enthusiastically.
Ianto smiled. He had a good feeling about this.
***
For a few weeks, Aaron referred to Molly as Ianto’s dog. A month in, she was ‘our’ dog. Three months later Aaron was calling her ‘Molly Wiggly Butt,’ and ‘Daddy’s Good Girl’ (referring to him, not Ianto).
Susan Goldsmith watched with satisfaction as Ianto walked Molly for an hour every morning and evening. And if Aaron was home between field training exercises, Molly didn’t go to daycare, she stayed home with Aaron, at his insistence. Occasionally she would hear them in the yard during the day and peek over to see Aaron and Molly playing ball or doing search and rescue exercises.
Aaron reminded her so much of her own husband. He too was not a dog lover. But she had grown up on a farm and the idea of not having dogs was unthinkable. Gradually her husband had learned to tolerate dogs, but he never grew to love them. Aaron on the other hand, had really grown to appreciate Molly and not just because she was a good dog and she made Ianto happy. Molly had opened up a new world for Ianto.
Due to his disability, lots of people shied away from interacting with Ianto. Aaron wasn’t sure if people felt awkward, or were afraid of offending or if they thought Ianto was somehow not worth the effort to get to know, but except for Mrs. Goldsmith, Ianto didn’t interact with other neighbors except for a nod and a smile. But Molly’s good nature and winning personality were contagious. People who had never spoken to Ianto came up and asked about his dog. And soon Ianto was walking Molly in the morning and many evenings with a group of other dog owners. There were play dates at the park for Molly and other dogs she got along with, and the neighbors began to see Ianto as the ‘nice neighbor with the nice dog who lived down the street’ rather than the ‘weird guy who talks with his cell phone’ or ‘that poor man who was so damaged in the terrorist attack’ (as Aaron had overheard someone whisper about Ianto as they shopped in Tesco’s).
And Molly also re-opened a world for Mrs. Goldsmith. She had lost her last dog the year before and hadn’t been ready, until now, to think about getting another dog. She had worried about getting a young dog, given that she was in her sixties, but now with Aaron and Ianto as dog owners she knew she could rely on them if she needed a little help now and then. A few weeks later, she was the proud owner of a part beagle, part shepherd, part who-knew-what-else dog she had adopted from the RSPCA. Sadie was about a year old and Mrs. Goldsmith happily rejoined Ianto and the others in the dog walking group.
The final benefit was that Molly strengthened the bond between Aaron and Ianto. Both were reserved by nature, but having Molly also helped them to relax and just have fun.
“Ok Molly,” Aaron said, “make sure you get the ball.” He threw an easy pitch to Ianto who batted it to the back of the yard. As Molly chased the ball down, Ianto jogged around imaginary bases.
“Hurry Molly, run the ball home.” Molly knew what that command meant and she raced toward the paving stone designated ‘home plate’ with the ball in her mouth. Ianto timed it so they would arrive at the same time and Aaron would call Ianto ‘out.’
“Cubs beat the Yankees, yay!” Aaron would yell and Molly would dance around with Aaron gloating over their win. There were a few times when things did not go as planned. Once, when the yard was a bit wet from a light rain earlier in the day, Ianto slipped on the grass and Molly ran into him full force bowling him over. While Ianto wasn’t hurt he ended up sprawled face down on the grass. Aaron ran over to make sure he was ok, but despite his good intentions, he kept breaking into laughter.
Finally Ianto had had enough. He grabbed the ball, tossed it to Aaron and typed into his synthesizer, “It’s Manchester versus Cardiff; tackle him, Molly, go get him." Molly proceeded to jump up on Aaron who also managed to slip and fall down. Ianto and Aaron lay on the grass laughing while Molly danced between them licking and pawing at them both.
Aaron crawled over to where Ianto had turned over on his back. “You are insane Mr. Jones, totally bonkers." Ianto pulled Aaron down into a kiss. “Yeah, I probably am,” Ianto pushed out to Aaron. “I know I’m crazy about you, that’s true enough.”
As they continued to lie on the grass and kiss things started to heat up. Suddenly Aaron realized where they were. “Come on; let’s go in, before the neighbors start gossiping.”
“Probably too late for that, I’m pretty sure evil Mr. Mansfield has been filming the whole thing.”
“Well maybe we should keep going and really give him a show.”
“Aaron, I do not want to be the next YouTube sensation.”
“You are no fun at all.”
“No? We’ll see what you have to say after we continue this with the obligatory shower scene.”
“I bought a new loofah for you the other day.”
“Ooh, I love it when you talk dirty, Mr. Hamilton.”
Chapter 2 here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/64933.html
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 12:13 pm (UTC)His wife really, really wanted a dog. So they got one - but he said it was HER dog. Tha lasted about 2 weeks. He works from home so guess whos dog it is? He dresses the poor thing up and sends us silly pictures all the time!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-14 02:19 am (UTC)Fish are nice, but how the heck do you play baseball or football with them?
Wonders how much Mr. Mansfield owes for using the likenesses of Mr.s Jones & Hamilton without permission on YouTube.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-14 02:28 am (UTC)As for Mr. Mansfield...he might have to move fast before Aaron puts the video on his Face Book page.
Getting to third base...
Date: 2010-09-15 04:02 am (UTC)Re: Getting to third base...
Date: 2010-09-15 02:18 pm (UTC)