Torchwood: Fanfic: Multi-tasking

[m_findlow]

Title: Multi-tasking 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto 
Author: m_findlow 
Rating: PG
Length: 595 words 
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, Maybe that will teach you not to try doing three things at once" at fic_promptly 
Summary: Ianto had a lot on his plate.

'Oh,' Jack said, holding his hand over his nose as he stepped into the archives. 'What the hell is that awful smell?' 

'Don’t say anything,' Ianto replied, looking annoyed. 

'Too late,' Jack said. 'As your boss I’m going to insist you tell me what that is.' 

Ianto groaned under his breath and gave a short eye roll, knowing that Jack wouldn’t budge until he’d confessed the truth. 

'It’s decomposing fish, if you must know.' 

'Oh, lovely,' he said, watching as Ianto pulled the offending box from the shelf, cringing as the top peaked open and the smell hit him full force. Jack nearly gagged, and he could only imagine how bad it must have been even closer. 'And why do we have rotting fish in our archives, or is this some new filing system you’re testing out?'

'Very funny,' Ianto said, scrunching up his nose and looking like he was about to throw up. Jack grabbed the box off him, regretting it instantly as the smell hit him again. 

'Thanks,' Ianto said, though it sounded more like "thabs". 'There’s a bin liner bag on my desk for it to go in.' 

Jack quickly marched the box back to Ianto’s little makeshift office, where he gratefully divested it into the black bag, Ianto tying it off at the ends, sealing the smell inside. 

'Now, you wanna tell me what that was all about?' Jack said, raising a curious eyebrow. 

'Completely my fault,' Ianto apologised. 'Stupid, really.' 

'Okay, so it’s your fault. Apology accepted, but the question remains as to how a box of rotting fish got down here and why?'

'Well, it was fresh when I left it here three days ago.'

'And why would you leave fresh fish down here?'

'I didn’t leave it down here on purpose. Not exactly, anyway.'

'Ianto...' Jack said, knowing that Ianto was avoiding getting down to the crux of the matter. Ianto sighed, giving in to the inevitable. 

'I needed to get Myfanwy’s fish out of the freezer and into the fridge to thaw for the morning, take the laundry from our room and put it in the to hamper for dry cleaning, and file away that box of old reports back in the archives. Instead I put the reports in the hamper, the laundry in the fridge, and Myfanwy’s breakfast on a shelf in the archives.'

'Why would you do that?'

'Because I was tired and my brain clearly wasn’t working.'

Jack grinned. 'See, now what have I told you about trying to do three things at once?'

Ianto huffed, folding his arms and looking indignant. 'I’m perfectly capable of doing three things at once. Just... not when I’m overtired... obviously.' 

'Sounds like your boss is a real slave driver,' Jack teased. 

'Oh, you have no idea. He’s very demanding. I’d even go so far as to say I go above and beyond,' he replied, enjoying their banter. 

'You should demand a pay rise. Going above and beyond deserves some kind of reward.' 

'Oh, I don’t mind. The above and beyond part is rewarding in and of itself.' 

'Still,' Jack said, coming and standing closer, wrapping arms around his waist, 'your boss should maybe give you a day off every now and then. I bet he doesn’t want rotting fish being filed away.'

'True, but maybe I’ll wait until tomorrow to ask him.'

'Why's that?'

'Because if I know the team, none of them will have done anything about the dirty laundry still in the fridge. They probably think it’s been left there from naked hide and seek.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Ew! Rotting fish, yuk! Poor Ianto really must have been tired, he definitely deseves both a raise and regular days off, poor boy.

Thanks for the fill!