Torchwood: Fanfic: Misnomer

[m_findlow]

Title: Misnomer
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 434 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Torchwood, Ianto, being called Teaboy wasn't exactly accurate, but it was still better than Tealady" at fic_promptly
Summary: He's stuck with the name, but perhaps it's not so bad

He couldn't quite remember when the name had started up, only that one day Owen had coined it and it had stuck ever since. Ianto did a great many things around the hub, most of which went completely unnoticed by the rest of the team, but the one thing that he did get attention for was his coffee.

When he'd ever become an expert on the matter was hard to say. He'd just always had a fondness for a properly brewed beverage that probably hailed back to his days busting long hours in London's dingiest cafés whilst he was squeezing in lectures and assignments. Like most things, he been raised to understand that if you were going to do something - anything - you did it properly, or not at all. And when you're pushing eighteen hours days to pay the rent and keep the fridge stocked with fresh milk and cornflakes, you're going to need something strong to help keep you going.

There were lots of workplaces that had tea ladies who came around with their carts, urns full of steaming hot brews and semi stale biscuits to keep the masses ticking over. Torchwood turned out to be little different, only he didn't have a cart, the biscuits were at least fresh, and the masses comprised just the five of them, himself included.

Why Owen had called him Teaboy was anyone's guess. To his best recollection, he'd never served tea. Jack pulled a face and called it sewer water, and Tosh made her own tea from a jar of leaves she kept in her drawer which were imported from Japan, which was only for special occasions. She was quite addicted to his coffee now that it wasn't the jar of instant they'd had before Ianto had started working there.

Perhaps Owen thought it was a way of reminding Ianto of his place in the team. He didn't need reminding though, he knew he was well beneath the rest of them and he didn't care. He had his own reasons for being here, none of which included an aspiration to be a full time Torchwood field agent. He was quite happy doing what he did best, make coffee. If anything, Owen should have called him Coffee Boy, although Coffee King would have been better. No one else called him that, but neither did anyone serve to correct Owen. Instead he'd been given the label Teaboy and now he was well and truly stuck with it. It wasn't quite accurate, but he supposed it was better than Tealady. There was only so much the ego could suffer.

Comments

[bk_forever]

Poor Ianto, stuck with a nickname that isn't even accurate!