m_findlow

Title: Keeping an eye on things
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 772 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for samuraiter's prompt "Any, any,"Snooping as usual, I see!" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack has a unique hobby

'Snooping as usual, I see,' Gwen said, having slipped into Jack's office without his noticing. There was a slight look of guilt as Jack flipped the screen off and replaced it with something that looked semi work related.

'Too late, Jack. You've already been caught,' she said, settling herself into the chair opposite, a wicked grin spread across her face as she clutched the files in her arms.

'Who me?' he said. 'Innocent as the driven snow, that's me.'

She laughed. 'Not likely. I've heard it's not appropriate for bosses to spy on their employees.'

'It's not spying!'

She raised an eyebrow at him. 'Oh really? I hope you're not checking up on me like that.'

'So what if I was?' he said, getting his back up. If Gwen started looking hot in a pinstripe suit, there'd be no stopping him.

Gwen rolled her eyes at him. Why was it everyone did that to him? At first it had just been Ianto, but now they all pulled faces when he said something they didn't believe.

'Don't you have any work to do?' Gwen asked.

'I have plenty, thank you. I was just taking a break from it.'

'And taking a break means spying on Ianto?'

'I told you, it's not spying.'

'What would you call it, then?'

Jack settled back in the chair. 'Some people like to bird watch, others are trainspotters. Me, I like to watch Ianto's.'

'Collecting them for your scrapbook?'

'In a manner of speaking. They're often elusive and like to stay hidden. Finding one is a real treat.'

It wasn't a complete lie. He usually knew where his lover was, but sometimes he managed to sneak outside of the range of the hundreds of cameras situated around the hub. It was most noticeable in the archives where whole sections remained unpatrolled.

He couldn't deny he enjoyed watching Ianto go about his day. Most of it might be considered terribly boring, but there was just something about watching someone when they didn't know they were being watched that gave Jack a thrill. They never really spent enough time together for Jack's liking, so getting to watch him during the day was the closest thing he could get to enjoying his company.

There was just something about the way he moved that turned Jack into an avid watcher, the way he walked and the way he used those slender fingers to make coffee, or to write something down. Most of the time it was calming and relaxing, but there were other times when he could tell that something had his lover puzzled, completely on edge, or flying into a quiet rage. The tension he held in those hands and shoulders told Jack all he needed to know, and when things started getting thrown around the archives in a rather careless manner, or slammed onto desks and shelves, he knew Ianto was mad about something. It was as a good a warning system as he could get, often having avoided a serious faux pas as a result of being alerted early to a bad temper or wayward mood. Sometimes he knew he was the one responsible for it, but it was nice to know, and something of a comfort, that it wasn't always his fault his lover ended up mad. It turned out that inanimate objects in the archives could be just as infuriating as living creatures.

Of course, there were plenty of times when Ianto was anything but oblivious to the fact that he was being watched. More than once he'd heard that tiny little sound of the camera turning, seemingly following him around the room as he worked. Most of the time he ignored it, sometimes he gave a little wave, or if he was in a foul mood he might give a completely different gesture. Very rarely, and usually only when he knew everyone else had already gone home for the day, did he play up to the attention. It was a shame he couldn't see Jack's reaction on the other end of the computer monitor as he shamelessly teased and taunted Jack, putting on a bit of a show for him. Normally the level of reaction however could be gauged by the speed at which Jack came to join him, or otherwise by the huskiness of the voice that drifted into his ear from his comms unit, demanding that he stop whatever he was doing and get his butt upstairs as quickly as possible.

'One day you're going to see something you wished you hadn't,' Gwen warned him, breaking him from his thoughts.

He laughed. 'No chance of that, Gwen. Ianto looks good from all angles, and no one has ever made filing seem so appealing.'