milliways_bar | (no subject)

He laughs. "Nah. You're just pitifully under-socialised. There's plenty of people around here who aren't even from Earth. Me included, strictly speaking."

Moving swiftly on... "You're from the nineties, right?"

He considers. "Mark Cohen was from the nineties, and American to boot - but I haven't seen him about for a long time. So was April - I think she was from his world, actually. There's Jack Harkness, maybe - he time-travelled, I'm not sure when he usually came in from - but he hasn't been around for over a year, maybe more. You're right, the nineties are woefully under-represented. Plenty of people not from the early twenty-first century, though."

Now there's a name that'll get Cal's attention and take his mind entirely off his woes.

"Time travel, huh? I thought so." Swallow of coffee. "You know, two other people have mistaken me for Jack Harkness since you did? And they work for him, they see him every day. He must be like my long-lost twin or something if even people who spend a lot of time around him think I'm him. Too bad he can't come in anymore, I would've liked to meet him."

"Two others? I take it one of them's Ianto, but I didn't know anyone else he worked with in was in the bar. But yes, you two really are damn near identical."

It's fair to say that Sam's managed the odd daydream of a Cal/Jack sandwich with himself in the middle.

"You would've liked him, yeah. Everybody did."

Sam totally doesn't miss him, and it totally doesn't show. Much.

Cal nods. "Yeah, Ianto," he says, and his pronunciation of the name is about as good as it's gonna get. "Other guy's Owen Harper. He's a doctor there."

Something about Sam's tone on that last makes him glance over. "Kinda got that impression from Ianto, yeah. Just my luck, I've got a twin out there somewhere and I'll probably never meet him."

"Oh. I've not met Owen."

He knows Ianto, though. If you know what I mean, etc.

"I hope you will. Jack and I... really got on."

Translation: it's a matter of continual surprise to both muns that they ever left the bedroom.

(But they were friends too.)

Right.

Cal's not the most perceptive guy in the multiverse, but he's not stupid, either.

"I see," he says neutrally, sipping his coffee while the inexpressive politician's mask slips into place. He's had less cause to use it recently than one might think, but it's one of those things that isn't easily forgotten.

Eyebrow.

He hates that goddamned expression. Hates it hard.

"Did you like Ianto?"

Blink of surprise through the mask at the change of topics.

"Yeah, he's a good guy." Wary pause. "Why?"

Cal has this feeling he doesn't really want to know the answer to this.

Sam laughs a little. "We're friends, that's all."

Hot sex? What hot sex?

Cal decides he is going to take this at face value. He can be very good at Not Thinking about things.

"Oh," he says, relaxing a little. "Yeah. I consider him a friend." His friendship with Ianto is, it occurs to him, the least complicated relationship he has here. There's definitely a lot of value in that.

Sam doesn't kiss and tell. He might kiss and grin, though.

"Ianto's fun. Too angsty by half, but he's getting there."

"Angsty?"

Cal, perhaps ironically, is not familiar with the term.

"Broody. Worries a lot. Doesn't have much luck."

Beat. "Doesn't smile enough."

Cal shrugs, completely missing any double meanings Sam might be putting out there. "Some people don't. Some people do and it means you can't trust 'em. I'd rather be around people who don't smile when there's nothing to smile about." He's spent too much time smiling for no reason. Cal has a great smile.

"That's pretty much my point. Doesn't have enough to smile about, then. Although the last I heard he was seeing somebody, which may change things."

He'd seen the coffee machine go flying down the stairs, but wasn't aware it was Ianto's. Bar gossip has been woefully lacking for once.

Cal hesitates over that, debating for a few seconds.

"That may have changed. I talked to his boyfriend yesterday. He was a mess. And he wasn't really too excited when I mentioned being a friend of Ianto's."

Cal stops there, since ~~that thread is in slowtime~~ he does sometimes recognize details as not necessarily being someone else's business.

"...Well, shit."

Facepalm.

"Seen Ianto in the last few days? I haven't."

Cal shakes his head. "No, I've been keeping an eye out for him, though. But I guess I wouldn't blame him for staying away for a while." Who wouldn't avoid the place for at least a few days after that?

"Yeah."

Sam runs his fingers through his hair. "Poor bugger really doesn't have much luck."

"Yeah. He mentioned his girlfriend."

There is, if Sam is watching particularly closely at that precise moment, a brief flicker of pain and confusion in Cal's eyes before they go back to normal.

Cal, for his part, doesn't realize anything even happened.

Sam spots it and blinks.

"Yeeeah. I got the full story a while back. Not much fun."

It actually puts his break-up with Freya into perspective, and for Sam not much can do that.

"He didn't tell me much," Cal says. "Just said she'd been sick." He sips his coffee, expression betraying nothing more than concern for a friend.

Sam shrugs. "I suppose that's one way of putting it."

He doesn't elaborate, though. It's Ianto's to tell.

"Wasn't fun at all, anyway. And then he turned up in here one day a while back looking like he'd been tenderised. Turned out he had been - they run into a funny bunch, his lot."

This gets a curious glance, but Cal doesn't ask. If Ianto wants him to know, Ianto will tell him.

(And quite aside from all that, there's something pushing him away from asking. The subject of dead girlfriends is one that Cal is to be discreetly steered away from.)

The second item rates a nod of recognition, though. "Yeah, the alien thing. Sounds like something that'll get you tenderized every now and then."

"Oh, these were humans for once. They started investigating missing people and wound up walking straight into a load of cannibals."

Beat.

"No, I can't believe I said that straight-faced, either."