nysalogs | [ FINISHED/CLOSED ]

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[ FINISHED/CLOSED ]

Who: John Sheppard & Ianto Jones
What: I Held My Tongue For Like 30 Minutes What More Do You Want?
When: Backdated to the, 24th/25th of May?
Where: Leaving main Wyver for Khalo
Warning(s): Weird Tension, fyrra use

John's best lead for the whole thing is going to be Khalo, but they can at least meander through the main hub first so Ianto can get a drink before he collapses on the floor. He can explain it once Ianto is a little more alert. John is benevolent enough to suggest this without letting on it's mostly for Ianto's sake, even though they both know it is. It's fine, though, he knows the theoretical timeline they're working on -- and since the the whole altar thing was a bust (probably he should mention that, too) this is more firefighting than anything.

He waves off another kid trying to get suspiciously close to him and his bag, mouths scram as he waits for Ianto to get his drink (which, no doubt, he won't enjoy as much as his own fancy coffee) and skims his phone again. It's heating up enough that his jacket is stowed in his bag, and he eyes Ianto idly wondering if he's put on any sunblock. His own arms are getting browner every minute, and he probably has tan lines.

"So," he says, stowing his phone and squinting up at the sky thoughtfully. Clear so far, it's only going to get hotter then. "Your boyfriend seemed in a good mood."

Ultra smooth. Nailed it.

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Of course John would take such a suggestion seriously when Ianto had thrown it out as an annoyed quip more than anything else. He raises a hand to run over his face and through his hair to keep himself from tossing any further comments back at the other man, forcing himself to just keep walking towards the pool instead.

"Look, just. Never mind, alright? I'll figure it out. Let's just find this pool, yeah?" He'd just really like to get clean and feel a little more normal again. Maybe after that he'll find the energy to think about vines and John and whether or not he's flirting because he can, or because he wants to.

At least that's the idea, until they get closer to the pool itself and Ianto notices the Khali's state of dress. Or state of undress, as it is. Slowing to a stop, he looks around, an almost comical look of dismay on his face as he turns to John.

John doesn't instantly clock what is bothering Ianto, because it's a big old pool and the Khali are small green fairies. He moves to the waters edge without comment and shrugs off his bag, drops it to the ground and reaches out to test the temperature.

Which is about the time a few Khali flit up to him.

"Hi!" he begins conversationally, slowly becoming aware of how undressed they are and... actually how undressed everyone in the area is. "Nice place you've got," he adds, "I was just admiring this pool."

He glances back and around to try and pinpoint Ianto, for both moral support and also help carefully navigating a conversation with naked tinkerbells.

Unlike some, Ianto has hung back upon the discovery of the Khali's nudity. Of everyone's nudity, really. They aren't the only visitors from out of town here, after all, and the large majority of them have absolutely nothing on at all either.

Ianto isn't really certain what the rules are as far as this pool is concerned, but he knows for damned sure that he is not getting naked just to get clean. Not in front of all of these people, strangers or no, and certainly not in front of John.

"Ehm," Ianto says, stepping up beside the other man and determined to keep his eyes somewhere polite, even if the Khali really aren't something that he'd go for anyway. "Yes. Look, we just. Were hoping to be able to use... The pool. And we'd just like to know." He glances aside to John for assistance here. Come on John, you can keep your head around naked aliens, can't you? "How one might go about... Such a thing?"

God, that's terrible, but he can't just come out and say 'I've noticed you're all very naked must I undress as well', he can barely get this much out as it is.

"Yeah!" John says, "are we allowed in the pool? I wasn't, you know, sure of the rules or anything since we're new here. I'm John, by the way, and this is --"

He hesitates as they latch fingers into his tactical vest (which is only loosely shrugged on) and begin pulling it off.

"... Oh, thank you! That's very kind. I was just thinking I was too warm."

You know, even though he would have... preferred to get undressed himself, but still.

"So, I mean I'm not as --" One reaches for his t-shirt and he tugs the bottom back down, flashes a smile. "Good looking as all of you are, so that means that --"

One flits in close to John and he lofts an eyebrow, focusing on what it's whispering before nodding with a sigh and beginning to pull off his t-shirt.

"Okay, we get undressed or we leave."

Ianto watches with slight horror as the little Khali start to undress the other man, glancing around warily just in case they're about to start trying to do the same to him. Luckily enough, they seem to concentrate mostly on John. At least, he thinks it's lucky up until the point where the other man starts stripping off his tshirt.

"What do you mean, undressed?" Ianto asks, glancing around warily at the Khali. His hands instinctively come up to fist themselves in the straps of his bag, as though if he holds his bag on it will save him from being stripped somehow. "You can't be serious. I'm not. I don't." He sputters a few times before looking back at John and trying again. "I'm not going skinny-dipping in front of all of these people, John, I --"

He drops his t-shirt to the floor and begins working on his shoelaces, raising an eyebrow at Ianto.

"It's not skinny dipping, Ianto, they're having a bath. You don't have a bath with your clothes on. Look, there are kids here and everything!"

Which means it's not kinky or weird. He pulls off one shoe and sock and swaps to the other, half scanning the crowds around the pool.

"Besides, if you linger around wearing all your clothes they'll think you're just here to watch and that would not be good -- Yes! Thank you, I can do that."

He carefully bats a Khali away from helping him off with his belt, presses his lips together to suppress unease and pulls off his other shoe and sock.

"Maybe you can keep your shorts on or something? Hey, can we keep our shorts on? We're just, you know, shy and... it's cold."

It's not cold, he knows. The khali he asks looks extremely unimpressed, but nods finally. That's fine, John is used to not impressing people. It doesn't even sting anymore.

He gets the feeling that the Khali really will start stripping him or sending him packing if he doesn't start doing something so after a moment Ianto reluctantly moves to set down his bag and shrug off his overshirt. See? He's taking off his clothes. Please leave them alone now.

He makes a great show of removing his socks and shoes until the little fairies are satisfied and leave them be and he breathes a sigh of relief. Glancing back at John and raising an eyebrow at the other man before hissing across at him, hopefully out of the hearing of any of the nearby Khali themselves, "It's cold? Are you serious?" Alright, so it had done the trick in the end, but honestly. Also, why is he the only one who seems to have a problem with the undressing thing?

Is he serious? John scrunches up his face and shrugs helplessly.

"If you can think of a better way to explain away your performance anxiety be my guest, but they're letting you keep it on so take what you can get."

He starts unbuckling his belt and holsters, skimming his eyes over the area again as he lets them drop to the ground.

"You wanted to get clean, Ianto, so we're getting clean!" he adds, and lifts his eyes back up to him. There's a twitch of discomfort that suggests, no, maybe Ianto isn't the only one a little uncomfortable with this.

His performance anxiety. This day just keeps getting better and better. Ianto shoots him a look that clearly says he's unhappy -- with his choice of words, with the way this is suddenly all his fault, with the situation in general -- before he turns away from the other man and sets about undressing. Fine. If he's going to be like that, then fine.

Ianto undoes his belt and pulls his pants off, folding them to rest on his bag before he pulls his tshirt off over his head and sets that aside with the rest of his clothes as well. Fine, are the nudist fairies happy? He's undressed. He's unhappy and he's undressed, and he takes a few steps forward into the pool to get his feet wet. At least the water's comfortable, though he's trying hard not to think about whether it's actually clean or not, given how many bodies have to go through this stagnant water on a regular basis. Best just not get any in his eyes or mouth to be safe. Crossing his arms over his chest he wades out until he is hip deep before bending his knees and sinking lower. The water is clear but at least he's mostly underneath it now.

Wow, okay. John can tell Ianto's upset, in fact he's pretty sure people back in Olympia can feel the ice from the glare he's giving off. He ignores it for the moment, focuses on shucking off his pants and sliding into the water -- ducking his head under then shaking water out of his hair a little. It feels instantly better, although John can still feel the threads of exhaustion clinging to him here and there.

"Just pretend we're at the beach," he says softly, "a... nudist fairy beach."

Which in a way is essentially... not far off.

Pretend that he's at the beach. Perhaps that's part of the reason he feels so irritable. He's never really cared for the ocean. Or the water in general. Not from this close up, at any rate. He didn't mind the quay so much, and working near the river had been fine. But it all comes back to things like swimming and camping and surfing and Ianto would much rather take a clean shower over a dip in a nudist fairy pool any day. He's trying not to be too negative, trying to appreciate what he has and the gestures that have been done for him, but there's so much to grate on him as well, and it's wearing him down. He feels worn down.

"You're so in your element," Ianto comments at last. His words equally soft and quiet, since they are in a public spot but he needs to get them out. To try and explain himself, so he feels less like a child throwing a tantrum, even if that is how he looks. "Even in a place like this. You just make me feel so..."

His face scrunches up at that, and John wades a little closer so he can keep his voice down.

"If you think I have experience with nudist fairy beaches, you'd be wrong."

John doesn't feel in his element at all, he's just compartmentalising. Maybe he's become too good at that, though. So good at pretending it just seems real.

It irritates him because he knows that John understands that isn't what he's meant, and that he decides to reply like that anyway. Irritates him because he's already irritated, and why not just turn the notch up further. It's not completely John's fault, and he recognizes that. Not his fault he's better at dealing with this, that he's better at climbing vines, that he's better in the outdoors, better at survival and combat skills and so many things they've needed in the past few days. It's not John's fault that Ianto isn't good at any of it, and that it bothers him he's not. That he doesn't feel as if he's very good at much at all and coming down off that high and being so confused as to what John wants from him doesn't help much either.

"I work in a basement in Cardiff," Ianto says, staring down into the water in front of him. "It may be the basement of an secret organization, but it's a basement nonetheless. It's my job to staff the tourist office. I make coffee. I order food. I clean up trash. I do research. I... Take care of Jack's dry cleaning. I do everything they need me to, and I'm good at my job. I like what I do, and I'm good at it. And now I'm here. In one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. On an alien planet. Surrounded by the most amazing things and I just." He laughs bitterly, raising his hands out of the water to run over his face before he looks up at the other man. "I don't know where I fit in. It's not like you really even need me here, I've only just slowed you down the whole way."

John studies Ianto for a long moment, taking in his uncertainty, then tilts his head slowly.

"Well, I worked in a floating ancient city. My job was to keep it safe and lead a reconnaissance team on missions. A team, because I'm pretty sure nobody who has ever met me would put me in charge of meeting new people alone. See, the point of a team is that everyone is good at different things. So you're here because you're good at things I'm not good at, and since we're here together to research dragons and bandits I think you have exactly the right skill set. I just had to get you here alive."

So really, if there's nobody to fight John is pretty sure his skill set is quickly going to go to waste here -- no matter what Ianto might believe. He's probably better suited to solving this puzzle.

Ianto takes in a long breath, letting it out slowly as he tries to force himself to relax. John is right, of course. He shouldn't expect so much of himself. He's used to working in a team scenario himself, and he never handled it all on his own there. Tosh did computers, Owen did medical, Gwen handled the people, and Ianto handled the research. The logic. Helping to piece their findings together and give them more to work with, so that Jack might direct them where to go from there. Or at least try to.

He watches the other man for a long moment, before loosening his arms across his chest. He really isn't angry with John. Like he's said, he had set out to get him here alive. And he'd done exactly that. He'd gone above and beyond in doing that, as far as Ianto was concerned. In fact...

"And part of that task was insuring that I didn't sunburn?" he asks, but the words are mild now. Because as irritable as he is, he knows he's not being fair, and he hasn't missed the small self-deprecating bit of what John's said, reminding him of why he had insisted on joining him. Even if he really isn't very well-equipped for, well, any of this.

Okay, smart-ass. John lofts an eyebrow slowly, makes a big show of judging Ianto.

"Red's not your colour. Water reflects and amplifies the sun, by the way, just a reminder."

Since Ianto is in the water right now, and hasn't re-applied his sunblock in a bit. He drops under the water again for a second, rolls his shoulders with a wince and rubs water over his face and neck.

"Anyway, about two-thirds of my skill set is absolutely useless on this planet remember. There are no helicopters or planes to fly, the most modern thing is my phone, my extremely questionable knowledge of alien technology doesn't apply and nobody cares about Deadpool. Your skills are at least transferable!"

Ianto raises an eyebrow at Deadpool, John, really? But doesn't comment on it (for now). He sinks into the water a little further at the mention of his lack of sunblock though (thanks for that John) until everything but his head is submerged. He'll find it within himself to dunk under eventually, he just. Needs to build himself up to it.

"You sell yourself short," he says, after a moment. He'd built them a shelter out of leaves for god's sake. He'd saved Ianto from -- he doesn't even know how many bandits. If he had actually had a concussion then Ianto doesn't doubt he'd have taken remarkable care of him then as well. There is so much more to him than he understands. And maybe that's John's point as well, he supposes. About himself.

"Anyway, I know for a fact that you have more interests than that," he adds, quirking a little smile at him in turn. "You quote far too many pop culture references at me for it to be otherwise."

"Sure, but most of the people here don't know what they are. I had to explain what a movie was to someone."

To Cain, actually, but it's more the principle than the individual here. He wades back toward his bag and stands on the shore rummaging a moment, pulls out a tin with a bar of soap and begins lathering it into his hands.

"Besides, the point was that you are selling yourself short -- so don't give me that."

It was his point first, you can't steal it!

His smile flicks wider at John's chiding before Ianto heaves out a sigh and, reluctantly, dips his head fully under the water. Surfacing and scrubbing his hands over his face to keep it out of his eyes. Unlike John, Ianto has no soap he's brought with him so unless he feels like sharing, he'll just have to settle for a soak and hope he gets clean enough.

"Look, I just. It's hard to feel so helpless. That's all. I don't meant to be." He gestures vaguely at himself, to indicate the mercurial mood he's fallen into. "Like this. I just. I don't know." He floats his hands around in the water around himself, not quite looking at the other man as he continues, "I've never liked feeling so far out of my depth. I'm sorry that I'm not..." Handling any of this very well, truth be told.

"You're fine," he says, and equally he knows what Ianto means -- but this isn't about him, as much as it would be easy to make it that way. Soapy fingers run vaguely though his hair in a weak attempt to try and get it cleaner. It will probably dry in wild spikes, but maybe he can pass it off as a fashion statement. Then, leaving the soap dish on the ground, he wades back into the water and ducks himself under -- rinsing off the soap and shaking water from his hair again. "Anyway," he continues, "your feet are still touching the bottom as far as I can see. So you're not out of your depth yet!"

... If this is meant to be literal or figurative is anyone's guess.

"Grab the soap if you want it," he adds. He's fine sharing.

Ianto watches as the other man washes his hair, floating his hands on the water because he's not really brave enough to float himself. He huffs out something of a laugh at the comment about his depth -- he really should have expected something as much, all things considered -- before turning to look aside at the other man at his offer. Sharing the soap. Well, he would like to get clean... "I, ehm. Sure, thanks."

Hesitantly, because he'd largely been using the water to hide his body, he wades out to fetch the soap and work up a lather between his hands before working it into his hair. Trying to do it all as fast as he can so he can get back into the coverage of the water as quick as he can. Once he's satisfied he's done enough, he wades back into the water and dunks himself again as well. Gasping slightly as he surfaces once more and rinses the soap out. It's easier to feel more human when he's cleaner, that's for certain.

"Well," he says, after a moment. "At least you won't have to start holding your breath around me."

"Trust me, you're not that bad."

John has definitely been around worse smells in his life, and sweaty people are something he's used to. He ducks to rinse his hair again, runs fingers through it and checks they're coming away without any soap on them.

"Feeling better?"

Since he was definitely not feeling great before. Glancing sideways again John tries to study Ianto for a reaction, to assess if there's something more to it he's missed or if it's just been a tiring few days.

Ianto sinks further into the water a little self-consciously, because he knows how he was acting and he knows that John was aware of it too. And no, he was most certainly not feeling great before at all.

After a small pause to contemplate his response and feel himself out, he nods. "Yeah," he replies. "Yeah, I do. Look, I'm. Sorry. I don't mean to..." He trails off awkwardly, because he doesn't really think either of them want him to say more about the why or the hows. John's support does mean a lot to him, though, and he hasn't meant to imply otherwise.

He sighs softly. "Anyway, we're here now. Hopefully with a little food and a decent night's rest, we'll both feel a little more human come tomorrow morning, yeah?"

"Nothing to apologise for."

Really, it's fine. John doesn't mind too much. It's not as if he's never caused Ianto problems, he knows he's been nonsensically difficult now and then.

"Don't like water?" he prompts finally, because Ianto is a little fidgety and he figures it might be partly that. Maybe he's not a strong swimmer, worried about getting out of his depth? Which is nothing to judge -- John thinks it's healthy to be afraid of water. The ocean, for example, is something anyone with common sense should be nervous of. He loves it anyway though, with a healthy dose of respect.

Ianto's eyes slide to the side towards John as he questions him, before he shakes his head slightly in response. Is it that obvious? He supposes it must be. Or perhaps John is just getting to know how to read him pretty well, after spending all this time with him.

"Not really, no," he admits. Losing some of the bravado he'd adopted when they'd spoken at the Coalition, about John teaching him surfing. In truth, he gets drowning dreams and it's probably not a good idea to venture out further than he can stand. "City boy, remember?" he points out. "I prefer to keep my head above the water. Both literally and figuratively."

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