Anythingdrabble Challenge 50 - Black mark

[m_findlow]

Title: Black mark
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Ianto
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 50 - Blemish at anythingdrabble
Summary: Ianto is in big trouble.

He was angry at Lisa. Two years. Two years and not a blemish on his employment record. This was his first big corporate job, and even though he was just one very tiny cog in the huge machination that was Torchwood, he knew that the best thing for him to do would be to work hard, keep his head down and to stay under the radar. So much for that, he thought glumly, standing outside the pristine glass walled office, awaiting judgement.

Why did he have to be so crazy in love with Lisa? She was everything he wasn't: bold, outgoing, easy at making friends, able to speak her mind and ready to. They were opposites and yet it somehow worked, each of them giving the other something: Ianto tempering her sometimes willful spirit, and Lisa giving him a glimpse of what life could be like if he just let go once in a while.

Letting go was what had gotten them in this whole mess to begin with. Normally they didn't go out for lunch during their work day, preferring just to hang out in one of the many cafeteria spaces inside Torchwood Tower, sharing gossip with their friends. Today though, Lisa wanted them to go out for lunch. She'd heard good things about a place a few blocks away and had been nagging him to go there ever since. It was just meant to be a quick bite. They only had an hour for lunch and they'd spend half of that walking there and back. But Lisa had persisted, turning it into a long lunch, followed by a wander along the high street shops.

'It'll be Christmas soon,' she'd said, 'and I still don't know what to buy you. If you see something, just point.'

He hadn't, but that didn't stop her picking up a few things from her own list. Three hours later, Ianto was getting antsy about how long they'd taken.

'What with all the overtime you work?' she joked. 'As if they don't owe you.'

'It doesn't work like that,' he insisted.

'They won't even know you're gone,' she replied. 'Stuck down in that basement all day long. Do they even think you still work there?'

It was funny in a way, he thought. His supervisor only saw him about twice a week, and that was usually because he needed a favour, not to check if Ianto had been accidentally buried or run out of oxygen down there.

Torchwood knew where he was though. Should've known, he thought. Clever little computers that logged his pass every time he swiped the elevator, or used his computer. They'd put two and two together and figured out he'd been gone from the building more than his mandated break.

'Mr Jones?' came the call.  

He didn't want to lose his job over this, but he'd still claim it had been all his idea. He just hoped his otherwise exemplary record would count for something against this new black mark.