m_findlow

Title: The art of wrapping
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 750 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Torchwood, Ianto, knowing it takes ten times longer to wrap Jack's presents than it does to unwrap them, but doing it anyway." at fic_promptly
Summary: Tis better to give than receive, and more fun to wrap than unwrap

He wasn't sure why he bothered sometimes, he thought as he let the scissor blades slide easily through the the roll of brightly colour wrapping, hearing that satisfying sound as it cut through like a knife through butter. He laid the large piece of paper flat on the table, smoothing it with his hands, before reaching down to pick up the box destined to be wrapped up.

Finally he'd managed to get Jack out of the house long enough to bring the gifts out of hiding, wrap them and put them back in their hiding spot. He knew better than to leave them under the tree for another fortnight. Jack was the kind of person that would be far too tempted by the gifts sitting there so deliciously, just one careful knife blade away from being unveiled. Funny how he'd secret his way into them before Christmas morning, but on the day that mattered, he was worse than most children. Jack shredded present wrapping like a piranha shredded flesh from a cow: quickly, violently and without mercy.

Ianto carefully set the box down, pulling up the wrapping on two sides, meeting it in the middle, before folding over the cut edge so that it made a neat fold in the centre. With one hand on the package and another reaching across for the tape dispenser, he deftly extracted a length of tape to seal it in place.

He twirled the box around ninety degrees and began the process of folding in the sides. There was something so cathartic about wrapping gifts, the precision required to get the paper folded just so. He knew that Jack wouldn't care one way or the other. All he wanted was to get to the goodies inside. Despite that, Ianto found it so relaxing that the resulting pointless effort seemed worth it, just to be able to go to that happy place where neatness and precision were the ultimate goal. There was nothing like a job well done. He flipped the box one-eighty and folded up the remaining side, encasing the surprise inside away from prying eyes.

Setting the box right side up, with all the taped folds now underneath, he reached over to the reel of brightly colour curling ribbons. Most people would have gone for just the one colour. Ianto chose two of three. The colours would compliment the wrapping, and if he thought about it, serve to slow Jack down just a little bit. If he tried hard, he could probably make a proper competition out of it, pitting his wrapping abilities against Jack's unwrapping ones. Ultimately though, there wasn't a present on this earth that Jack couldn't tear his way through in under ten seconds.

The wrapping was a glistening bright red with green polka dots, so he chose red, gold and green curling ribbons to complete the parcel. The bonus of having so many ribbons together was that it would leave plenty to be curled into a large bow on top. He cut the lengths and held them together, creating a multicolored stripe, encircling the box from one direction, then crossing them over in the other direction before tying them off. Grabbing the scissors again, he began the tedious process of curling each and every loose end until there was a cluster of colourful curls adorning the top.

Sitting back and admiring his handiwork, he knew it had taken him ten times as long to wrap the gift than it would for Jack to unwrap it. A hundred times was probably more accurate. Jack wouldn't furnish nearly as much effort on Ianto's own gifts, though he did win in the excessive sellotape department. No one seemed to have told him that it didn't require four yards of tape to seal up one present. Ianto took almost as long to unwrap his gifts as he took to wrap Jack's, which he supposed was probably ironic. All that mattered was that there was a brief millisecond where the beauty of the gift was in its carefully crafted appearance, rather than what lay beneath the layers of paper and bows.

Reaching for a different roll of paper, silver with little blue penguins, he cut off another piece and slid it onto the tabletop. He looked down at the bags full of shopping, mentally counting the number of gifts left to wrap. Lucky Jack was spending the whole afternoon with Gwen and Anwen at the park. This was going to take him a while.