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[personal profile] m_findlow

Title: Open house
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,320 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for samuraiter's prompt "Any, any, I've just about had it with all these people coming into my house" at fic_promptly
Summary: Open for inspection doesn't mean open to criticism

Ianto was beginning to realise it had been a mistake letting Jack come with him. Sure, he enjoyed Jack's company, and he wasn't about to say no to him coming along, but perhaps it wasn't the best place for him to be right now.

Jack had finally let Ianto talk him into divesting some of his ever growing property portfolio. Jack had a nasty habit of buying houses that he lived in for a month or two, then abandoned. When you added up how long he lived and multiplied it by his attention span, you arrived at a number that was more than Ianto, or any real estate agent, could cope with.

'If you're not going to live in them, and don't care whether they're rented or not, you might as well get rid of them,' Ianto said one morning over toast and coffee. 'You might be able to donate a few to Torchwood as safefouses and refuges, but if I have to manage mowing lawns, broken windows and lost keys, you're going to have to give me the job full time. That's to say nothing of wasting all of last weekend having to fix up and clean up that place in Splott that your lovely former tenants decided to destroy. No wonder the city is in a housing shortage crisis. Just wait until some journalist from the Echo decides to check the Land Titles Office and publishes a story that one Captain Harkness, address ironically unknown, owns over forty properties in the Cardiff Metro area alone.'

Jack had sighed and given in to the mounting evidence that suggested he really should sell some of them. They spent and afternoon going through the list of addresses, Ianto growing ever more frustrated as Jack kept listing the various reasons why this property or that one couldn't be parted with. Jack's penchant for property was going to kill their relationship at this rate. Finally having agreed to at least four, 'for the moment,' Ianto added, he went about the process of notifying tenants, arranging contractors to come in to tidy the places up, hired some furniture to make them look bit more modern and lived in, and called up the agent to have them listed.

'I can have her open for inspection on Saturday,' he replied, already eyeing off the commission.

Ianto had agreed to meet the agent in the morning, handing over the keys and accompanying him to the property early before they opened it up for inspection. That was when Jack decided to tag along. It was his house after all.

At eleven o'clock on the dot, the first handful of people arrived to inspect the place. The agent took his time showing the first couple around, whilst the next few were left to wander the halls themselves, though often asking Ianto questions because, dressed in his suit, he looked every bit the sharp estate agent.

The house wasn't in great shape, having been built in the seventies and not done up since, but it was clean and basically presentable. Or so they'd thought.

'The kitchen needs a lot of work.'

'That gate out the front is horrendous. It'll wake half the street every time we walk in and out.'

'The acacias out the back will have to go. In fact, we'll probably have to pull up the whole garden and start over.'

'Did you see the bedroom? Who has mustard coloured walls? Must've been colour blind or something.'

'I mean, the furniture is nice enough, but they probably rented that. Once that's gone, it's a pretty average looking place.'

Ianto fielded a lot of the comments with replies about the convenient proximity of local schools and public transport, how it was off the main roads, and that the neighborhood was a nice quiet one.

Jack failed to see the positives in Ianto's responses. All he heard was a whole bunch of criticisms about the place. Yes, it was a little on the old side, but it wasn't a bad place. He'd looked after it over the years, and he still had good memories of the time he had spent here, short as it was. The way everyone was talking, you'd think the place was bordering on condemned. With each new criticism he bristled a little bit more. He felt like saying to them that if they didn't like it, they didn't have to buy it. As far as he was concerned, it was a good house on a good street in a good part of town. What more did people want?

He was standing grumpily in the kitchen when he saw a couple in their late forties wandering through unaccompanied, eyeing off the brochure in their hands, and then looking around in disdain, as if the brochure had lied to them about every aspect of the property, or that maybe the address on the flyer was a misprint, and the nice house printed on the front was actually located in another street, in another suburb.

'They're going to want to start asking a lot less for this dump before we put in a bid,' the man grumbled to his wife. 'Probably hoping some shonky developer buys it, knocks it down and sticks four condos on it, greedy buggers.'

That was the last straw. He'd rather keep the place than suffer another derogatory comment about the state of it.

'Out!' he barked, pointing at them, as they were shuffled out the door by him. He trotted up the stairs and sent the estate agent on his way as well, two more potential investors following sheepishly in his wake.

Ianto looked at him like he'd somehow lost his mind.

'What the hell are you doing?'

'I've just about had it with all these people coming into my house. They all hate it and have nothing nice to say about it. If this is what I have to put up with to get it sold, then I'm keeping it. Hell, I'll even move in if that's what it takes. Let it not be said that I think this place is beneath me.'

Ianto cringed at the thought of having to move in here with Jack. It really did need work, and the mustard coloured bedroom walls really were hard on the eye, but it was nothing a coat of paint and a bit of landscaping couldn't rectify. Perhaps their buyers had been a little bit on the touchy side.

He put a hand placatingly on Jack's arm. 'Calm down. It's not that bad. I'll speak to the agent and see if he can't rethink the type of people he's marketing it to.'

Jack huffed, but let Ianto lead him outside to the car before the agent went ballistic at him. In fairness, estate agents had a habit of over promising and under delivering.

Jack spun and looked at him hard.

'Is it really that bad?' If anyone was going to give him an honest option, it was Ianto.

Ianto shrugged. It wasn't really any worse than the first flat he'd lived in when he'd moved to London. When you were short on cash, you learned not to be fussy.

'It's perfect for someone,' he replied. 'If you thought it seemed like a good enough place to make a home, then someone else is bound to agree. Just leave it with me, okay?'

Jack sighed. 'Okay. If you're sure.'

'I'm sure. Remember how fussy we were when we picked out our place?'

Jack wanted to laugh out loud and remind Ianto that most of the fussing had come from him and not Jack. His only concern was making sure the bedroom was big enough for their bed, and that it had a spacious shower. You just didn't skimp on the essentials.

'Okay,' he agreed. 'Are you always right when it comes to these things?'

Ianto grinned back. 'I'm always right with very few exceptions.'

Date: 2017-05-03 03:27 pm (UTC)
bk_forever: (Ianto Little Smile)
From: [personal profile] bk_forever
Poor Jack, it must be hard to hear such derogatory comments about a house you were happy in. I'm sure someone will see its potential!

Date: 2017-05-07 10:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] m-findlow.livejournal.com
They will. Ianto will make sure they market it to the right kind of people, and spend a little money on it. If nothing else, he'll arrange to have the walls repainted a nice unassuming white, and fix the squeaking gate.

July 2025

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