m_findlow | Slashthedrabble Challenge 136

Title: Dressing down
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 136 - Seven Deadly Sins - Pride at slashthedrabble
Summary: Ianto is very particular about his appearance

Another bad day at the office,Ianto thought, as the goo from the half-crazed alien coated his upper torso. Why was it that Jack never got covered in alien slime? There he was, standing off to the side, pretty as a picture.

"Good job, Ianto," was all he got for his troubles. He supposed at least it had only slimed him and not the opulent palace room they were in. How a Fakatian Snarkle had gotten into Buckingham Palace was anyone's guess.

'It's not dangerous, is it?' he asked, avoiding touching it with his hands.

'Nope,' Jack replied.

'And can I ask, though I’m fairly sure I don’t want to know the answer, but what is this stuff?'

Jack pulled a face. 'That you're probably better off not knowing.'

'Great.'

Just then one of the place guards tapped Jack on the shoulder and whispered in his ear. Ianto raised an eyebrow at him, and Jack put up a hand to reassure him.

'Meet me back at the car. I’ll be there soon,' he said, following the guard down the long hallway and through the door at the other end, watching it shut behind him. Ianto trudged to the car, feeling utterly disgusting.

He opened the flap of the glove compartment and pulled out the box of tissues, beginning to scrape the worst of the goo out of his hair and off the shoulders of his jacket.Another suit ruined,he thought glumly. He sat there feeling sorry for himself until there was a rapping on the passenger side window. He let it down, seeing Jack on the other side.

'What?'

'The Queen would like to see you,' Jack announced.

'Come again?' he said, sure he’d misheard.

'The Queen. She’d like to thank you.'

'That’s not necessary.'

'She insisted.'

'Tell her you’ll pass on the message,' he said, feeling a little bit of the slime slip down from his hairline onto his brow.

'Really insisted.'

Ianto huffed, flicking away the rogue slime with his finger, wiping it off. 'She can send a thank you card, then.'

'I’m not going back in there without you,' Jack said, giving him a stern look.

'I can’t go in there looking like this,' Ianto said. 'I'm not fit to be seen by my sister let alone the reigning monarch. She’ll be horrified.'

'She’s seen worse. She won’t mind.'

'But I will!'

Jack sighed. 'Ianto, put aside your pride for one minute. You did an incredibly brave thing and someone would looked to thank you for it. Be grateful. For the most part you mope about how thankless the job is and how we’re thoroughly unappreciated. Take some credit where credit is due. Here,' Jack said, taking out his handkerchief and wiping away some of the mess from the edges of Ianto's face, before brushing down his lapels. 'All better.'

'Not really,' Ianto said, frowning at his reflection in the side mirror.

'Well, you look perfect to me, so you'll knock the socks off any Queen.'

Slashthedrabble Challenge 136 - Dressing down

no subject