Torchwood: Fanfic: Puzzling it out

[m_findlow]

Title: Puzzling it out
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 774 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, doing a jigsaw puzzle" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack is picking up a brand new hobby

'I don't understand jigsaw puzzles,' Jack declared, walking into the room and flopping on the sofa. He was about to put his feet up on the coffee table just like he always did, until a firm hand grabbed his ankle.

'Don't.' Ianto's look was one Jack was altogether familiar with. Insert offending action here and die.

Ianto, who was usually one for neatness and order, had their coffee table covered in piles of puzzle pieces, some in little blocks he'd managed to piece together, others in piles of similar colours, and long stretches of edge pieces forming the frame of the picture.

'What's it supposed to be, anyway?'

'The Tower of London,' he replied. 'Rhi bought it for me Christmas before last.'

'And you're doing it without looking at the picture on the box?'

'I like a challenge. Plus I think I've lived in London long enough to know what it looks like.'

'Like I said,' Jack said, trying to tuck his feet up under Ianto's legs to warm them up, 'I don't get puzzles. What's the point in spending hours putting all the little pieces together, only to them break it all up to put it back in the box to do all over again?'

'It's calming,' Ianto replied. It was making order from chaos, and it was a better way to unwind than wasting away in front of the television with not a thing on worth watching.

'It's infuriating is what it is,' Jack said.

'If infuriating is a sense of accomplishment, then yes.'

Ianto continued to work on one section, matching up various bits of stormy grey sky whilst Jack fidgeted next to him.

'You could help,' Ianto suggested.

'Oh, I'm allowed to play, am I?' he said, having felt put out at being largely ignored.

'I never said you couldn't. You were the one who put a bucket on it.'

'Well, since you're clearly going to be at this all night,' Jack said, sitting up and leaning over.

He splayed out a small pile of green pieces that had been collected, assuming that it was part of the lawn that was likely meant to be somewhere at the bottom of the picture. At first, none of the pieces he picked up fitted together, and he felt that sense of frustration returning. He didn't like things that didn't fit together straight away. He had plenty of patience, just not for this sort of thing. Then two pieces clicked together, and then two more. Soon a little patch was forming and he'd run out of pieces that would fit together.

'Is this all of it?' he asked.

'There's still more in the box I haven't sorted yet.'

Jack picked up the box and began pawing through the pieces, looking for anything green. He found a few more grey cloudy looking bits and set them aside as well, handing them to Ianto who thanked him with a smile.

'You know, I'm waiting for you to tell me some story about the time you were locked up in the Tower,' Ianto mused, moving a few pieces around on the table.

'Who me? I'm just a law abiding citizen.'

Ianto snorted his disbelief.

'Okay, so there was this one time. But it's not what you think. I was locked up voluntarily for the night. That Yeomans uniform was so hot. We played prisoner and captor all night long.'

'Of course you did.'

'You'd be surprised how many of those torture devices double as really good pleasure devices.'

Ianto rolled his eyes. 'You look like you're having fun there,' he said, watching Jack diligently sorting more pieces from the box, adding them to piles. 'I thought you hated puzzles?'

'Hate is a strong word. It is actually quite relaxing.' Or perhaps that was just from being in the same room as his lover. Ianto had a very calming effect on him.

'You've made some good progress,' he said, noting how the entire bottom section of green was almost complete, matching his own top section of sky.

'Just the middle bit left,' Jack agreed.

'Yeah. That's going to be the tricky part. One of the reasons this box has been in the cupboard so long. My sister doesn't like buying easy puzzles.'

'She knows you too well. You'd be bored if it was easy. Still, shouldn't be too hard, not with two of us tackling it.'

'Two of us?' Ianto asked.

'Well, the sooner we finish it, the sooner I can get you into bed.'

Ianto tipped out the remaining pieces from the box onto the table. 'I knew there was an ulterior motive in there somewhere.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Darn it, now I'm itching to do a jigsaw puzzle!