torchwoodteaboy | [RL WITH SULU]

Expecting to see a prehistoric creature in a secret base and actually seeing said prehistoric creature in a secret base were two very different things, Sulu realized. He'd barely gotten up the ladder before he'd caught sight of Myfanwy, and immediately he felt like he was about to start babbling something like, "Oh my god it's a dinosaur, that is so cool, I can't believe I'm seeing a dinosaur, is this real life?"

He didn't, of course, because he was pretty good at keeping that sort of childish glee to a bare minimum, but his face lit up and he grinned. "Okay," he said slowly, "Dinosaur trumps plant. You win."

Ianto beamed, happy to have impressed Sulu. Perhaps it was because Sulu himself and his job impressed Ianto such a great deal, but he felt like he had to live up to some level of excitement, or else what was the point of someone like Sulu becoming friends with him.

Myfanwy regarded the newcomer very much like she regarded everyone else that wasn't Ianto (or Jack, she kind of really disliked Jack). She shuffled warily, too tired from being let out earlier and then her meal to really react too much.

"She is pretty fantastic," Ianto said, with a smile. He pulled the chocolate bar out of his pocket. "Here. Want to give this to her? It'll put you in good favors with her. Not enough for her to follow you home, though, I'm afraid," he added, with a shrug and a smile.

"Pretty fantastic is one way to put it, yeah," Sulu laughed. When Ianto held out the chocolate, he hesitated - yeah, it was cool, but like Ianto kept pointing out, he could really use his fingers. Still, he took the bar, frowning. "I don't know, my luck seems to be on a steady decline. What if she... decides to knock me over the edge or something?"

He really didn't like showing off the fact that he was nervous, ever - but he really couldn't think of another way to point out he had no idea how to feed chocolate to a lizard that could eat his hand, throw him over the edge or just plain make him look like an idiot. (More of one than he'd already made himself to be, of course.)

Ianto noticed the hesitation that Sulu had, and smiled gently. "Steady decline?" he asked. He reached out, taking the chocolate bar back for a second, unwrapping it and breaking it in half. "Here," he said, "follow my lead." He made a noise much like you would make to a cat or a horse or some other normal animal to get their attention, but you wouldn't expect a dinosaur to answer to it. Still, it got her attention and she watched him sharply. As soon as he was sure he had her attention, he tossed the chocolate at her. She caught it deftly in her mouth and ate it awkwardly, making pleased chucking noises all the while.

Ianto turned back to Sulu, handing him back the second half. "There. Like that. Make sure you toss it underhand, though. She'll try and go for it if you make it a bad throw, and neither of us would like to fall out of here, I'm sure. I can stand behind you, if you'd prefer," he added, though not condescendingly. He understood the fact that no one here would like to be maimed, injured, or killed by a dinosaur today if they could help it.

"Getting here was good luck, not being eaten by either of your pet aliens was good luck - then somewhere along the line, I made a social faux pas and my natural inclination is to be very careful from there on." He watched Ianto's example before accepting the chocolate, deciding that it would be better to fail miserably than to not try at all.

"Underhand, got it. I think I'll be okay - probably one of the cooler ways to die," he grinned. He tried imitating the noise Ianto had made, and when he saw her staring at him like she had Ianto, he shrugged and tossed the chocolate. Worst that could happen was that she'd... kill him. Haha.

Myfanwy didn't know really what to think of the new person, but he was throwing her chocolate, so he might as well be trustworthy. She caught the chocolate deftly, and ate that half down as well.

"There you go," Ianto said, with a smile. "You've now fed a dinosaur. Not a lot of people can say that they've done that, you know. And you've fed one chocolate as well. Even fewer can boast that."

Myfanwy shuffled closer to them. She wanted more, but that was all that Ianto had brought. She rubbed up against him, searching for more. "I'm all out, sorry," he said, stroking her head and trying to keep her from pushing him to hard or invading her space too much. "Here," he said, reaching out to take Sulu's hand and gently placed it on her neck. She stiffened a bit, but he didn't seem to be a threat, so she went back to looking for more sweets.

Sulu didn't need Ianto to explain to him how awesome feeding a dinosaur was; he definitely knew. (He'd just had first-hand experience. Oh, yeah, Jim was going to be so jealous.)

He watched Ianto interact with Myfanwy with interest; it was strange to see her acting like any other domesticated animal, though it did give him a little hope for Audrey. He had to take his reassurances where he could get them.

When Ianto put his and on the pterodactyl's neck, he tensed briefly. When she didn't... well, try to throw him over the edge, though, he relaxed and beamed. "Oh, now you're just rubbing it in." He ran his hand experimentally along the neck, looking nothing short of impressed.

Ianto grinned, shrugging and batting Myfanwy out of routing her way into his suit jacket. "Maybe so. Not a lot about my job is this cool, though. I mean, moving around dead bodies, cleaning up alien messes, doing paperwork, keeping Jack's temper in check..." He sighed. "The fact that Myfanwy is kind of one of the easier bits isn't really fair, really. She is pretty great, though." He reached out to stroke her crest, which earned him a happy-sounding chirruping noise.

"Short of the bodies and Jack, there's really not a lot of difference between the usual Starfleet workweek. That, and our paperwork is all electronic." He laughed. "I think it's good that your pet isn't a huge potential risk to everyone around them. Better than mine," he added.

Part of him wanted to mention that it probably wasn't in Ianto's job description to keep his boss from getting too upset - or, if it was, it wasn't a very good job - but he refrained. The whole thing seemed messy to him; then again, his experiences with inter-office romance lay with Uhura and Spock, and they sort of made any couple look messy. "So," he said after a moment, "Is she really a pterodactyl, or is she alien life that happens to look like one?"

Ianto shrugged. "She used to be a menace. You wouldn't believe the amount of time and effort I had to put into training her." He stroked her head and she chirruped some more. "It was worth it in the end, though. Have my own personal body guard, if other people start to do something against me that works her up."

"To answer your question, though," he said, continuing, "she really is a pterodactyl. I tracked her down using a rift activity detector. She's just a little bit outside of her time, is all. And possibly area as well. I'm not exactly sure whether there were pterodactyls native to this area of Europe back then or not."

"Much better than an attack dog, I'd say," Sulu said, still fascinated by the whole thing - dinosaurs, aliens, rifts and all. "I'm seriously really impressed by this whole operation. You have an amazing job, Ianto." He wasn't really envious, but he was definitely excited by the operation of Torchwood in general.

Ianto smiled to himself. "Yeah, I suppose I do," he said, after a pause. Myfanwy, unable to find any more chocolate on his person, gave up and shuffled back into the cutout in the wall, towards her makeshift nest. "C'mon," Ianto said, motioning to the ladder. "I think we've lost our fun factor, she's had enough of us for now. Best not overstay our welcome."

He started down the ladder, once again not speaking until they'd reached the bottom of it all. "Well, there you are. This is Torchwood. Like you said, it's pretty amazing. Even if it's more trouble than it's worth, even if I knew it would kill me tomorrow, I wouldn't give it up for anything. Because to go back to not knowing about all of this..." he motioned around the Hub, indicating everything he'd shown Sulu, "it's not really a life, comparatively."

Sulu watched how Myfanwy moved, a little enthralled by how she carried herself, before nodding to Ianto and following him down.

"I get that." He shoved his hands in his pockets, smiling. "I mean, I grew up with aliens, space, all that, so I really can't even comprehend what it'd be like not knowing about those kinds of things, but I don't think I'd ever want to understand that life. You're lucky, though - you don't take this kind of thing for granted." Sulu felt a little humbled, really, especially comparing how Ianto had acted on the Enterprise to here. He hadn't really expected much out of Torchwood, in all honesty, but it was more impressive than he could have guessed it would be.

Ianto shook his head. "No, there's no way I could take it for granted. It's changed my life so much since I've found out about it all, in bad ways as well as good ones. And even though things would be easier that way, they sure as anything wouldn't be better." He smiled. He never would have met Lisa, would never have met Jack or Gwen, or anyone through the community.

"Anyway, that's enough of me being emotional about my job. I hope you enjoyed my tour and weren't scared off too much by Jack," he said, with a blush. "I'll...make sure to inform him of the next time that you come to visit. If you do, sometime, that is. He won't be half as bad next time around." He sighed. "I guess I'll have to be telling him if I ever do get to make a trip off-world to the Enterprise for those lessons of yours."

"Hardly." Sulu smirked. "I've dealt with worse meetings. Though, giving him a head's up before you come aboard the Enterprise might be a good idea." He smiled. "And I'd like to visit again. Though, I sort of want to play tourist around Cardiff, but I think I can do that on my own and not make you suffer through it."

He frowned thoughtfully. "Is he going to be all right with me giving you lessons, by the way?"

"Well, if you are interested in a tour sometime," Ianto said, with a smirk, "I do know the area. I work in a tourist office, after all, it wouldn't be a good cover if I didn't know what I was talking about. Although, like I said, half the people are in here because they got lost or because they can't get enough of the accent."

"As for Jack, though," he said, sighing again. He wasn't looking forward to apologizing to Jack, especially when he technically hadn't done anything wrong, but it was better to bow down to Jack sometimes than to suffer his emotions. "Yeah, he will be. After I talk to him about it. Not looking forward to it, but it needs to be done, so."

"I'm really actually interested. The 21st century is - you know, no offense, but this is like living history for me." And it'd be a good learning experience. That sounded silly to Sulu, but he wasn't about to deny it. "And again, I really am sorry that I'm causing you trouble."

Ianto nodded. "It's settled, then. Just call me when you feel like a trip into 'living history' as you put it; I'll arrange something. I mean, it's not a very big city, it won't take that long to see everything. Mostly it's good for pubs and such. Not really for the food, but more for the drinks and company."

Grinning, Sulu shrugged. "The company I've been keeping so far seems all right, I guess," he ribbed, adding after a moment, "And non-recycled air is a welcome change, even if the fossil fuel aroma is a little disorienting. Plus, civilian life. Like a shoreleave away from shoreleave." He laughed and tilted his head, "You should probably walk me out, though, so I don't somehow make a wrong turn and end up dismembered by a Weevil." Or Jack. He'd just let that be implied.

"Oh, cheers," he said, with a wink. "As for a way out, well..." he started forward, leading Sulu to the middle of the Hub to what looked like a big slab of pavement slightly elevated to the side of the Rift Manipulator. "I was thinking that we'd take the more showy way out this time. If you didn't mind, that is. It's quicker, and it's the last bit of impressive I have up my sleeve. Not horribly exciting, but I shouldn't think that you've encountered that many invisible lifts in your time."

Sulu raised an eyebrow, looking amused. "I'm always up for more impressiveness. Bring on the invisible lift - though, is this going to make me feel like we're going to die like the other one?"

Ianto stepped up onto the slab, jerking his head to motion that Sulu should follow him. He pulled what looked like a remote out of his pocket. "Well, maybe a little. I'd recommend staying close to the center of the slab, and not leaning over the sides at all, if possible."

Sulu followed, taking the advice to heart. "I think I can handle that. Just don't kill me, I have to be on the bridge later."

"I'll try my best not to." Ianto reached out a hand, holding Sulu steady as he started the lift, and the lift made its initial jerk as it started rising upward. The word lift was used sort of lightly, because it really just was a 3 foot by 3 foot slab of stone that rose up to the ceiling of the Hub. A mechanism started, and uncovered where it was that the lift was going to rise up into. Ianto always liked this part, the being able to look down at everything in the Hub bit, feeling as if he was getting Myfanwy's view of the place.

As the lift finally rose through the whole in the ground, the block settled in front of the fountain in the middle of the Plass. Passers-by didn't even so much as bat an eyelash in their direction, even ones passing by directly in front of them.

Sulu staggered a little when they started to move; thankfully, it wasn't that jarring, thanks to Ianto's hand on him. The view was pretty spectacular, as heights usually made things, but the best part was when nobody seemed to notice anything as they reach the top.

He paused, then looked at Ianto. "...They're not really this blind, right?"

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