m_findlow

Title: House hunting
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,232 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 88 - Inspection at beattheblackdog
Summary: Who knew buying a house was so much hard work?

Ianto wandered around property, trying hard to stay out of the line of sight of the agent, who was happily accosting anyone who looked even mildly interested. He really didn't want all the hassle of having agents calling hand emailing him constantly, telling him they'd found "the perfect place". He was perfectly capable of seeing with his own eyes, and no one knew better than him exactly what he was looking for. Perhaps he should have dressed down for the occasion, looking far less eligible to be able to afford the asking price.

In fairness, maybe he should have had Jack here along with him. It was supposed to be a joint decision, but somehow he knew that taking Jack to an open for inspection was tantamount to taking him grocery shopping. All he really wanted was the lollies aisle and everything else fell by the wayside. It wasn't a strict euphemism; he did honestly think Jack would have views on whether something met their long list of prerequisites, but like so often, he got distracted by trivial things. There was only so much Ianto could stand of comments like "hey, that's a good spot for a fruit bowl" and "do you think we'd be able to see the TV from the kitchen?" or "I used to know the people that live two houses down. D'you reckon they're still there?". Right now, he just wanted to be able to look around the place in peace, and make decisions like whether the bathroom was big enough, or did it have French windows, were the stairs too narrow, what was the kitchen like, and did the main windows face north or west?

There were whole bunch of other things on his list too, like was there enough space for two cars without having to play musical parking bay every time they wanted to get a car out of the driveway, and how many times did you have to change direction from going through the front door to get upstairs to the bedroom. That last one was more of a Jack request. When he had his tongue lodged down the back of Ianto's throat, he didn't want to be concerning himself with how many walls he might smack into on the way to the bedroom.

Ia to had more practical concerns. Did it have a garden, and did the back of the house face a laneway or back onto another property. He hoped for the former since they might occasionally have to sneak things in and out that they didn't really want their new neighbours to see. There'd be enough curtain twitching with the hours they kept as it was.

He wandered around the house, ignoring the glossy brochure in his hand, and all that it promised. Were there too many walls partitioning off rooms, making him feel confined like a rat in a cage? Was there space enough for a study and a second bedroom, the former so they had the ability to work from home, and the latter so that his niece and nephew could stay with them every so often. He didn't want a pokey kitchen either. Somewhere along the way he wanted to be able to enjoy home cooked dinners, not coffee and donuts eaten at the kitchen counter in haste. There should be plenty of natural light as well. God knew the saw little enough of it being stuck underground all day.

They wanted a reasonably new house. Not one that would require constant attention, patching up stuck window frames, replacing tiles or repainting. Older houses weren't off the agenda, and there were some lovely Victorian style places he'd seen so far, but they had to have been cared for in a previous life. There simply wouldn't be time enough in the day to give a house the proper care and attention it deserved. If there were lucky, they'd be home long enough to hoover and fall asleep on the sofa.

He snuck upstairs whilst the agent was forcing a couple around on a tour of the first floor. Stairs didn't bother him. In truth they probably needed the extra exercise. He poked his head into the main bathroom. The bath was small but freestanding. They could always replace that, but the double set of hand basins and large mirror got a big tick, as did the spacious shower.

A tour of the upper floor revealed three bedrooms, two smaller ones and the main bedroom. In his mind he'd already set aside one for conversion to their study, overlooking the back yard. The main bedroom too was spacious, and he inspected the built in wardrobe that lead to the ensuite. Big double tick.

The kitchen downstairs was a little dated, but it had an island the ability to set stools along one side for when you wanted to cook and chat at the same time. It was also hard to imagine the living room without all the gaudy furniture the owners had left in it, but once you removed the popculture picture frames and the bright red leather sofa, that would probably soften the look. It could do with light pastel colors, beige and sky blue, vanilla and grey.

He padded back down the stairs, noting the softness of the carpet which looked new. At the bottom, there was the agent, lying in wait for him like the predator he was.

'What did you think? Close to local schools and public transport, low crime area. Perfect for young families. Your wife would love it, I'm sure.'

Ianto wanted to laugh. If it wasn't for that old joke he and John shared, Jack would definitely be the wife. Jack of course would argue the reverse. It was Ianto who did all the nagging, wore marigolds to do the dishes, and insisted he not leave his socks lying around. In the end he supposed it didn't matter. They were as far from a young family as was possible, but rather than contradict the agent, he kept quiet.

'It's a private sale,' the agent informed him. 'Not many offers yet if you're interested.'

'What are they asking?' He knew he should let Jack see the place first, before committing to a decision, but he liked what he'd seen and he was going to grow tired of spending weekends and nights after work trudging from one place to another. This was definitely up there in his top three, and of he had to stop and think about it, both of the other two had one or two deal breaker features missing that he'd have to forgo. Besides, even if they accepted the offer, he'd still have a cooling off period if Jack decided he didn't like it and wanted to keep looking. They could probably look until the cows came home and they wouldn't do better than this.

The agent gave him the figure and he added ten thousand to the offer. It was barely a month's pay and he'd never spend it otherwise. Between them they were hardly strapped for cash.

The agent beamed, mentally calculating his commission. 'I can arrange another viewing sometime next week if you'd both like to take a final look around. I imagine the owners would be happy to accommodate.'

'I'd like that.' He couldn't wait to bring Jack here and show him the house they'd just bought.