Slashthedrabble Challenge 458 - Play that funky music

[m_findlow]

Title: Play that funky music
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 458 - A Side/B Side at slashthedrabble
Summary: Ianto is finding these new records more than toe-tapping.

The problem with being Torchwood's archivist was that it fell to Ianto to try and discern whether the years of built up junk down here was alien or not. Oftentimes it was easy, or just plain obvious. It was the things that fell into that middle ground that caused him the most grief.

This particular area seemed to be only Earth-based items. Why was this stuff down here in the first place? Was it just stuff that had fallen through the rift that needed to be cleared of residual radiation? Or had someone just downsized and couldn't be bothered paying for storage?

As he rifled through the boxes, trying to put them in some sort of order, he uncovered a box full of old long play records. How had Jack not spotted these babies? He loved all that old-fashioned junk. Blowing the dust off the covers he tried to read the titles. They were indecipherable, and if he wasn't mistaken, these were definitely alien.

Well wonders never cease. Just when you thought Earth was the only archaic place in the universe, it turned out that someone somewhere else was still jiving to the beat of a different drum.

Curious as to what alien music might sound like, he went upstairs and grabbed Jack's old record player. He was going to be down here for ages sorting out this mess, so he might as well have something to listen to the pass the time. Who knows, he might even like it.

He pulled out the first record and carefully mounted it, placing the needle in the innermost groove and flicking it on. The first few seconds were just quiet scratching, but eventually on came the sound of low voices. It was actually quite good. Sort of jazzy and cool. Jack would probably like it. He left it on and went back to work. Turned out aliens had good taste in music after all.

When Jack came to find him much later, he was suprised by the sight of his lover. Filing seemed to have been abandoned in favour of fun.

'Ianto, why the hell are you riding a bike around the archives?'

He pulled up to a stop. 'I dunno. Just seemed like a good idea at the time.'

'And what is that noise? Is that music?'

'You don't like it?'

Jack walked over and peered at the record as it spun slowly. He lifted the needle and pulled it off.

'Ah, that explains it.'

'Explains what?'

'The sudden desire to go for a spin around the archives. It's the music.'

'It's dangerous?'

Jack chuckled. 'No. Just not quite as regulated as here on Earth. The A side is okay. It's the B side you gotta watch out for. They're notorious for putting subliminal messages in the B side track. I once had sex with a whole club full of people because the DJ got the discs mixed up.'

'I don't think you can blame subliminal messages for that,' Ianto replied.