Ficlet: Proper Appreciation
Jan. 16th, 2026 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Proper Appreciation
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Ianto, Jack, Herman, Owen, Team.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 733
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack has decided that, as the owners of the only known dragon in existence, celebrating National Appreciate a Dragon Day is a must.
Written For:
jigglygrlcarrie’s prompt: Any, any, (National) Appreciate a Dragon Day, at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Ianto supposed he should be pleased that Jack cared so much, even if he was the one getting stuck with most of the work. It had been that way ever since Jack had… acquired his pet, although it was still unclear exactly where he’d come from, since there hadn’t been any Rift events that couldn’t be accounted for in the days leading up to Herman’s discovery, or even in more than six months beforehand.
Nevertheless, as soon as Jack had found out about National Appreciate A Dragon Day from his favourite calendar, the one that seemed to have a designated day for everything possible, many of which struck Ianto as totally ridiculous, he’d been insistent that they should do things right. After all, as Jack had taken pains to remind the team, not only were they in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, a country whose national flag had a dragon on it, they happened to have a dragon of their own. In Jack’s opinion, if they couldn’t do a good job of showing their appreciation for their own dragon, they’d be letting the whole country down, along with every dragon that might, or might not, have ever existed.
“Herman could well be the only real, live dragon in the entire country, maybe even the world,” he’d pointed out when Ianto had suggested that maybe he was going a bit over the top with his plans for celebrating Herman. “And besides, you’re Welsh! Where’s your national pride?”
That had stung, because Ianto was indeed Welsh, and proud of it. He had plenty of national pride; since he returned to Wales he’d run in the St David’s Day races almost every year. How dare someone who wasn’t even a native of planet earth question his national pride?
So Herman had been duly bathed and anointed with baby oil so that his bright orange scales fairly gleamed, reflecting the light like burnished metal. It had taken Ianto most of the morning to polish the dragon to that level of perfection. And then Herman had been guest of honour at his own party, complete with bunting, gifts, and a cake, although Ianto had drawn the line at it being dragon shaped, because he’d thought that would be in extremely poor taste. It might have offended Herman’s delicate dragon sensibilities to see his friends tucking into slices cut from a fake dragon.
Instead, the cake had Herman’s name written on it in bright orange icing on a pale-yellow background, and Ianto had found a chubby dragon ornament to sit on the top. Everyone wore a party hat, including Herman, and Jack had them all sing ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Dragon’, much to Owen’s disgust.
Herman, of course, being the laid-back dragon he was, took everything in his stride, even enjoying a slice of cake himself, along with a nice bowl of tea. Everyone seemed to enjoy the break from routine, even if the celebration was a bit close to Christmas and New Year, but that was the calendar’s fault, not Jack’s; it wasn’t his fault January sixteenth had been chosen for Dragon Appreciation Day.
Owen was heard to grumble that his birthday was never celebrated so lavishly, but no one, especially not Herman, paid any attention to his complaint. It was well known that Owen hated his birthday being celebrated at all; gifts were accepted, especially if they were alcoholic in nature, but the one time they’d tried to throw a party for him, he’d stormed out and gone to the pub to get wasted, so his opinion didn’t count. Neither did his other complaint about the lack of alcoholic beverages. Like they needed a drunk team, or worse, a drunken dragon!
All things considered, the first Annual Dragon Fest went with a swing. Jack was happy, Ianto felt he’d done his heritage proud, and the guest of honour seemed to enjoy being the centre of attention.
Of course, someone still had to clean up after the festivities, and Ianto knew that job would fall to him, because anything to do with cleaning generally did, but… well, at least Herman was a tidy dragon, so the Hub didn’t look as if a bomb had hit it, and it was a small price to pay for keeping Jack happy. Anyway, if they did indeed have the only living dragon in existence, surely that was reason enough to celebrate.
The End
Nevertheless, as soon as Jack had found out about National Appreciate A Dragon Day from his favourite calendar, the one that seemed to have a designated day for everything possible, many of which struck Ianto as totally ridiculous, he’d been insistent that they should do things right. After all, as Jack had taken pains to remind the team, not only were they in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, a country whose national flag had a dragon on it, they happened to have a dragon of their own. In Jack’s opinion, if they couldn’t do a good job of showing their appreciation for their own dragon, they’d be letting the whole country down, along with every dragon that might, or might not, have ever existed.
“Herman could well be the only real, live dragon in the entire country, maybe even the world,” he’d pointed out when Ianto had suggested that maybe he was going a bit over the top with his plans for celebrating Herman. “And besides, you’re Welsh! Where’s your national pride?”
That had stung, because Ianto was indeed Welsh, and proud of it. He had plenty of national pride; since he returned to Wales he’d run in the St David’s Day races almost every year. How dare someone who wasn’t even a native of planet earth question his national pride?
So Herman had been duly bathed and anointed with baby oil so that his bright orange scales fairly gleamed, reflecting the light like burnished metal. It had taken Ianto most of the morning to polish the dragon to that level of perfection. And then Herman had been guest of honour at his own party, complete with bunting, gifts, and a cake, although Ianto had drawn the line at it being dragon shaped, because he’d thought that would be in extremely poor taste. It might have offended Herman’s delicate dragon sensibilities to see his friends tucking into slices cut from a fake dragon.
Instead, the cake had Herman’s name written on it in bright orange icing on a pale-yellow background, and Ianto had found a chubby dragon ornament to sit on the top. Everyone wore a party hat, including Herman, and Jack had them all sing ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Dragon’, much to Owen’s disgust.
Herman, of course, being the laid-back dragon he was, took everything in his stride, even enjoying a slice of cake himself, along with a nice bowl of tea. Everyone seemed to enjoy the break from routine, even if the celebration was a bit close to Christmas and New Year, but that was the calendar’s fault, not Jack’s; it wasn’t his fault January sixteenth had been chosen for Dragon Appreciation Day.
Owen was heard to grumble that his birthday was never celebrated so lavishly, but no one, especially not Herman, paid any attention to his complaint. It was well known that Owen hated his birthday being celebrated at all; gifts were accepted, especially if they were alcoholic in nature, but the one time they’d tried to throw a party for him, he’d stormed out and gone to the pub to get wasted, so his opinion didn’t count. Neither did his other complaint about the lack of alcoholic beverages. Like they needed a drunk team, or worse, a drunken dragon!
All things considered, the first Annual Dragon Fest went with a swing. Jack was happy, Ianto felt he’d done his heritage proud, and the guest of honour seemed to enjoy being the centre of attention.
Of course, someone still had to clean up after the festivities, and Ianto knew that job would fall to him, because anything to do with cleaning generally did, but… well, at least Herman was a tidy dragon, so the Hub didn’t look as if a bomb had hit it, and it was a small price to pay for keeping Jack happy. Anyway, if they did indeed have the only living dragon in existence, surely that was reason enough to celebrate.
The End
(no subject)
Date: 2026-01-16 06:33 pm (UTC)Are you gearing up for the start of this year's
(no subject)
Date: 2026-01-16 07:25 pm (UTC)Thank you!
I am SO READY! Can't wait. Hoping for a good batch of fills I can expand later. I still haven't posted everything from last year, but then I calculated I filled around 280 prompts, so I guess it's not surprising...
(no subject)
Date: 2026-01-16 08:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2026-01-16 09:37 pm (UTC)Thank you!