likesthecoat | (no subject)

Better and better. If you guys keep being this good at taking orders, pretty soon I'll have my own little ~~army~~ air force of minions to command.

Good lord. I've already got the captain . . .

Then it's a good thing for me that majors outrank captains. Otherwise I'd never get anywhere with this "taking over the world" business.

My loyalty is not so easily given, Major. You have to at least compliment me sometimes.

Ianto, you are far and away the most intelligent Welshman I've ever met.

I think it's safe to say I'm the only Welshman you've ever met.

Nah. There's a Welshman working at the base I'm stationed at. Guy's a frickin' idiot.

You're a genius by comparison.

Also, you have fantastic taste in suits.

Does that count as a compliment?

Oh, all right. That'll do.

Teyla does indeed notice the cold, but she's willing to brave it.

"Oh!" She says, glancing around her with wide eyes. Cardiff is the biggest city she's ever been in. "You have a car?"

She can definitely brave the cold for a car ride.

"Oh, yes. It was too foul a day to walk."

He stops and takes off his coat, and lays it over her shoulders. He's got his suit jacket--it'll do.

"This way."

"Thank you," Teyla says, smiling and pulling the coat around her shoulders.

"Is the weather often like this?"

"Sometimes we have sunshine for a full fifteen minutes." He smiles at her.

She laughs. "It must be quite green, then."

Every world has something positive about it. Or so she believes.

"Oh, indeed, out in the country especially. We have our green spaces in the city, of course. I tend to bring visitors to Bute Park, when the weather agrees."

Being Welsh, the weather has to be gale-force winds and/or snow for him to think the weather does not agree.

"How big is the city?" Her eyes are still a bit wide as she takes in her surroundings.

"Big. It's the capital. Caerdydd, in Welsh--and I can't speak much more, I studied it in school and forgot most of it."

He nods to the vehicle in front of them. "That's my car."

"Caerdydd," Teyla repeats. Her pronunciation is flawless.

She puts a hand out to touch the car--she's not entirely sure what she expects it to feel like--and she sniffs a little, the smell of rubber and oil an unfamiliar one.

"It's a combustion engine that runs on petroleum," Ianto says. "I don't know if any of that means anything to you, but that's the technology." He unlocks the passenger door and opens it for her.

She shrugs. "I am not an engineer," she says, smiling almost apologetically. She thanks him and slides into the seat.

"Neither am I," Ianto admits as he gets into the driver's seat. "Mostly I just know, turn the key, step on the gas, go."

He does just that.

He drives them through the prettier parts of the city, so she can see things like the Norwegian church and the bay.

Teyla leans forward to look through the windshield at many of the sights, smiling in wonder.

"It is a beautiful city," she says softly. "And...so many people."

"Thank you. I'm quite fond of it.

"Three hundred thousand, give or take. It feels like more because we're so close together."

"Three hundred thousand," she repeats quietly, as though she can't quite believe that.

"The whole population of the planet is six billion," Ianto says. "I can't even picture that many naughts."

"I had heard that," Teyla says. "I...am still not entirely certain I believe it."