Slashthedrabble Challenge 503 - Right man for the job

[m_findlow]

Title: Right man for the job
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto/Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 503 - Dirty Laundry at slashthedrabble
Summary: There's only one man who can fix Jack and Ianto's laundry woes.

'Just looks at us,' Ianto complained, studying themselves as they lay there on the ground. The problem they'd come out to investigate had exploded before they'd even had a chance. Now they were covered in a thick brown ooze that was hardening as it dried.

'My coat,' Jack said, managing in to peel it off. It stood tall and firm as if he were still inside it, having solidified completely. 'You'd better strip off before you can't get out of yours,' he suggested. 'I'm guessing you don't want me to have to cut them off you, assuming a pair of scissors could get though it.'

Ianto struggled out of his clothes, already incredibly stiff. He cried out in pain as his ankle protested the movement, clearly broken or at least badly sprained. Jack helped him undress, before he did the same, and quickly wiping their skin with wet towelettes from the SUV. 'There are parts of me I only want hard under certain circumstances,' Jack joked.

Ianto sighed, sitting there in only his underpants, no longer feeling ashamed as he might have done years ago. 'There's only one dry cleaner in town that's going to be able to tackle that,' he said looking forlornly at the state of Jack's coat. His own suit he didn't care about. New suits could be bought. Jack's coat however was irreplaceable.

'Crazy Bob?' Jack asked.

Ianto nodded. He hated going down there, but the man could work miracles and on account of his craziness, didn't ask questions. 'Better sooner than later,' he said, judging by the quickly deteriorating state of things,

Jack collected their rock hard clothing and bundled it into the back of the SUV, before helping Ianto  hobble over into the car. 'I'll drop it off on our way home,' Jack said.

'You? But it's...'

'I can handle some crackpot cleaner.' He always thought Ianto exaggerated his strangeness. He claimed the guy talked about himself in the third person and rarely used complete sentences, or even real words.

'You're not wearing any clothes,' Ianto observed.

Jack waggled an eyebrow at him. 'Can you think of a better reason to need to drop off clothes?'

Fifteen minutes later, Jack was parked right out front of that small strip of shops. Unashamedly, he grabbed the clothes from the back and headed inside.

Ianto tried to watch proceedings but the window was crammed with cleaned goods. When Jack didn't come back out after ten minutes, he grew worried. What if Crazy Bob was a serial killer? His fears were unfounded though as Jack returned five minutes later.

'Are you okay?'

'Why wouldn't I be?'

'I just thought... him being crazy and all.'

Jack laughed. 'He's not crazy, he's alien. English is really hard to speak with a tongue shaped like that. It was much easier once we got talking in Paxlberracaninam.'

'Oh.'

'He said he could sort us out, no problem, and we can pick them up this evening when we come by for tea.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

I hope Ianto's ankle will prove as easy to fix as their clothes! Otherwise they might be late for tea with Bob.

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Owen can patch him up, or at least give him something to take the load off it. And as a bonus, they don't have to cook dinner. Bob will no doubt be enthralled by the stories that accompany some of their laundry woes from days gone by. He probably has loads of tips for how to get alien slime out of wool and silk.

[bk_forever]

It does help to now the right people!