OTA

[im_torchwood]

After John Hart, after Gray, Jack couldn't be in Cardiff. He was Torchwood now, not just what he did but who he was, and he had a small crisis and had to get away. Although he'd broken with London's Torchwood after the incidents at Canary Wharf (which it seemed the population had either forgotten or written off) Jack found himself in England's jewel. He was ready to make a new start. And, he reckoned, the Doctor would probably visit London before Cardiff if truth be told.

He'd settled into the subterranean Hub that Alice and Emily had worked in. It had been long forgotten in favor of the building of steel and glass that had been built atop it. Bloody Torchwood...they were supposed to be secret. He'd made his contacts and had put himself to work. But even Jack needed to eat.

He had all of the city to choose from and rather than just go to a pub Jack stood on the sidewalk looking at his mobile reading Yelp reviews. There was a place just down the block and around the corner. Yelp was good and all but he kind of wanted a real opinion so he looked up from his screen and he smiled at the first person whose eye he caught.

"Excuse me...do you know if this place is any good?" he asked, showing the screen. His American accent immediately marked him as a tourist, even though he wasn't.

Comments

[im_torchwood]

"Well, of course," he said, as if she couldn't have said anything more obvious. "How about here? London's one of the most diverse cities in the world."

[akatawitch]

Sunny thought about that. "I'm exotic, I guess," she said. But not like it was a good thing.

[im_torchwood]

"Exotic can be good," Jack said, reaching out to touch her, light and casual but charged with potential. "I bet you get pulled all the time."

[akatawitch]

Sunny easily but decisively shifted out of range of that hand with a slight narrowing of her eyes. "I'll choose to take that as a compliment."

[im_torchwood]

"That is absolutely how I meant it," Jack said warmly.

[akatawitch]

Sunny was not easily charmed when she felt she'd been insulted, however, and handsome as Jack may be, charming as he may be, it was a misstep she had a hard time letting slide. "You should consider what it sounds like on the other end, perhaps," she said.

There were few words she hated as much as exotic. Albino was a synonym for ugly, but exotic was a synonym for not actually human.

[im_torchwood]

"I always found it flattering," Jack said. "But the cultures I lived in were just as exotic to me as I was to them. Funny that way, huh?" he said. "But that's how it has to be if the human race is ever going to move on. Grow up. If we can't stop thinking of one another as different, how in the hell are we ever going to accept something...bigger? What if...what if aliens came to Earth today? What would they see? Apes...killing each other. If I was an alien I'm not sure I'd bother with us," he said, giving away far too much, and at the same time nothing at all.

[akatawitch]

And now they were quickly approaching the weird event horizon. But Sunny's own need to be contrary had her responding, "Or maybe they were here first," she said, thinking of Ginen, where her knife had come from.

Though from what she understood, most of the people of that densely jungled planet were disgusted with humanity. Not for the killing each other, but for killing the planet that gave them everything they had.

[im_torchwood]

Jack stopped then, quite abruptly, and he gave her a queer, knowing smile. It took a minute before he spoke.

"Usually when I talk aliens, people beat a fast retreat," he said. "But not you. How interesting."

[akatawitch]

Sunny lifted her chin a little. "What kind of ghost girl would I be if I were so easily frightened?"

[im_torchwood]

"What's a ghost girl? Because somehow I don't think you're telling me you're dead," Jack replied.

[akatawitch]

The girl snorted softly, "No, I'm not. It's just what you get called when you were supposed to come into the world some shade of coffee and the world got cream instead."

But she could die, after a fashion. It was where her invisibility stemmed from, where it led... she hadn't gone that far. Not yet.

[im_torchwood]

Jack genuinely looked stunned at that.

"You mean that's a slur? That's awful," he said.

[akatawitch]

Sunny shrugged. "Not the worst thing to be called, really."

[im_torchwood]

"It's not something that should be said at all. That's...awful, Sunny. It's awful," Jack insisted, clearly more upset about it than she was.

[akatawitch]

Sunny didn't know what to do with that reaction. It was so unlike what she almost always got--hell, even Chichi had introduced herself by loudly yelling Who's the onyocha?, the white girl--that she just looked at him in stunned silence for a moment.

Then she said simply, "Thank you."

[im_torchwood]

Jack shook his head and sighed. It was disgusting the way people treated each other. And it wouldn't change for centuries.

A huff of breath.

"Come get dinner with me," he said. "I don't know where. Somewhere good. Someplace you wouldn't normally go- let's go there."

[akatawitch]

Sunny on the other hand huffed a soft laugh. "I'm a student. That's not a short list."

[im_torchwood]

Jack handed her his phone. "Do a search. Maybe you've heard of somewhere? My treat. I haven't had a good meal that didn't come out of a take away box in way too long...and if I'm going to sit down I'd like to have a clever companion."

[akatawitch]

"Feelings about spice?" Sunny asked. Because even as she took the phone, she may change her mind based on the answer.

[im_torchwood]

"I like it hot," Jack said, just a little seductively. "I like flavor, though. Not just hot."

[akatawitch]

"Good answer," she said. The undertone earned Jack a Look, but Sunny didn't hand the phone back and walk away. "There's a Thai place nearby," she offered up.

[im_torchwood]

"I love Thai. Green mango and dried shrimp is wonderful, and I went to this one place that had these fried pig's ear strings...delicious," he said, offering her his arm. "Walking distance or will we meed my car?"

[akatawitch]

"Oh, we can walk," Sunny assured him, handing the phone back in part so he could take a look at the location she'd found. "Also trying to get young girls into your car? Tsk."

[im_torchwood]

"That's not flirting, that's just practical. I can walk all over Cardiff, but London? If it weren't for GPS I'd keep winding up back at Parliament," he chuckled. "Or I'd find myself in Spitalfield with no hope of getting back. Thank god for my phone."