m_findlow

Title: Crumbling
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Word Count: 400 words
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Ianto
Author notes: Written for Challenge #016 - Buttress at

vocab_drabbles
Summary: Ianto has some concerns about the state of repair of the hub.

Ianto peered judiciously up at the ancient Victorian stonework buttress.

‘If you tell me it needs cleaning again,’ Jack moaned, coming up behind him with two steaming paper cups from the only store Ianto would permit Jack to buy coffee from. He handed one to Ianto who clasped it gratefully between his hands.

‘I’ve been studying the architectural plans for this place,’ he said, before pausing to sip at his coffee.

‘I could think of better things you could be doing with your time,’ Jack said, half teasing, half serious.

‘Possibly,’ Ianto conceded, ‘but I'm a little bit concerned about this particular buttress. The building is held up by a series of them, mostly concealed behind all the metalwork and concrete that has gone up around them in the decades since.’ He transferred his cup to one hand using the other to point up at the moulding stone. ‘There's tiny hairline cracks forming in it. See? Probably from the earthquake in 2006 coupled with the rift trying to tear this place apart when we closed it back in 2007.’

‘I don't think the place is going to cave in on us,’ Jack said, sounding sceptical. If Ianto thought that a few little tremors in the noughties was enough to bring the place down, then he ought to recheck his history books. The hub had undergone far worse in the last century and a half.

‘I wouldn't be so sure, Jack. The place was built long before the barrage and the plass overhead. The engineers didn't account for a large empty space because we hid the specs from them at the time.’

‘You're overreacting. This place will survive the apocalypse.’ He gave the buttress a firm kick with the toe of his boot. ‘See?’ Then a tiny bit of stone crumbled from a crack several feet higher up. ‘Er…’

‘Yep. Exactly.’ It was to Ianto's credit that he didn't appear smug about it. Jack supposed the fear of having a few thousand tonnes of stone and metal suddenly coming crushing down on you was enough to put paid to any sense of righteousness. Maybe this place really had been through the wars and was in need of a few critical repairs.