m_findlow

Title: Proving ground
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack, OC
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,147 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 523 - Prove it at slashthedrabble
Summary: Ianto is determined to win a bet, but it doesn't quite go how he expected.

As they sat in busy restaurant, enjoying a glass of wine and waiting for their meals, Jack regaled the fact he'd picked up no less that four different boyfriends at this particular restaurant over the years.

'Is that why you picked this place?' Ianto asked. 'Thought you might go hunting? I'm not sure if I should feel offended or not.'

'Just making conversation,' Jack assured him. 'I didn't remember until just now.' He reached his hand across the table and grasped Ianto's, in full view of everyone. 'And I am most definitely spoken for these days. I'm not looking for an upgrade.'

'And yet you still do most of the talking,' Ianto teased. He laughed and suggested maybe he should see if he could get an upgrade on Jack instead. One who picked up after himself, who put a coaster under his mug to prevent rings on the table, and who didn't leave the bath mat scrunched up in a ball on the floor when he finished showering.

Jack nearly spat his mouthful of wine across the table, barely able to stop himself from laughing boisterously. 'Oh, Ianto, you are just too much!'

'What? Did I say something funny?'

'Ianto, you are smart and funny and gorgeous as hell, but there's no way known you could get someone's number,' Jack declared. 'You just don't have it in you.'

Ianto sat up a little straighter in his chair. 'Oh, don't I?' he said, feeling a little defensive. 'I seemed to have snared you alright.'

Jack laughed. 'Ianto, there's a world of difference between suckering someone in with the world's best coffee and making yourself totally indispensable. Flirting is much more subtle. It takes real skill.'

Ianto snorted. 'You? Subtle?' Jack was about as subtle as a canary yellow hatchback on the motorway. 'Your idea of picking up would be to snog first and ask questions later.'

'There are other ways to pick up, for sure,' Jack conceded, 'and the direct approach works a treat in certain circumstances, but flirting...' He leaned forward across the table as if he were about to share the secrets of the universe. 'It's all about slipping under the radar, approaching without being seen so to speak, giving off all the right signals, and being able to pick up on the ones coming back your way. You have to be quick on your feet, friendly, but not too friendly, a little self depreciating. You have to make them think you want to know every little thing about them. You have to know when you've managed to lure them in and when there's still more to be done to break down those walls. It's that first time you reach out and touch their hand, or their leg, the eye contact, waiting for that little hitch in their breath and then going in for the kill.'

Ianto rolled his eyes. 'Sounds like you're claiming to be an expert.' He wouldn't give Jack the satisfaction of knowing he probably already was.

Jack cast an eye around the room. 'I could pick up just about anyone in this room.'

'Oh, we are full of ourselves tonight, aren't we? Only just about anyone? Not everyone?'

Jack shrugged. 'Just stating a fact.'

'I can flirt too, you know,' Ianto argued. 'There were others before you came along and upended my life.' He wasn't entirely sure what he'd been doing at the time, but it seemed to have worked. He'd had enough practice with Jack in the years since then. The direct approach, as Jack called it, had been the thing that worked in the end, but Jack couldn't deny he enjoyed their banter.

Jack shook his head. 'Alright, then. Prove it. We've got half an hour before the food arrives. That's how long you've got to get the phone number of anyone in this restaurant.'

'It's not really fair to try and get someone's phone number, knowing that you're never going to call them,' Ianto argued. 'They'll think you're really rude, or maybe that they're not interesting enough for you to call them. I don't want to be responsible for making someone feel like that.'

Jack folded his arms and smirked. 'Sounds a lot like loser talk to me.'

'Fine,' Ianto said, pushing up from the table. 'See you in half an hour.'

Ianto wasn't sure what he was doing as he turned away from the table. He'd probably been a little too hasty to lay down the gauntlet. A restaurant wasn't really a fair playing field, despite Jack's apparent strike rate. Most people who came to a restaurant did so with family or friends or partners. It wasn't normally a place where you went to be alone, and even less to pick up. A bar maybe, or a club, but not here.

He wandered past numerous tables, ostensibly headed for the bathrooms at the back of the restaurant, spotting couples out for dinner, just like they were, or businessmen hashing out deals over steaks and glasses of scotch. Trying to garner the attention of one of the waiters didn't seem right, either. They were on shift and had a job to do. They were meant to be giving their customers good service, but there was a line between good service and being a dating service. This was a really bad idea, he was beginning to realise. He had two options: go straight back and admit he couldn't do it, or hide out in the bathroom and say he hadn't had any luck. Neither resulted in a good outcome for his pride.

He was almost at the back of the restaurant, about to go and hide when he spotted the very last table tucked in the corner. At it sat a young man with blond hair which flopped either side of his face, and on table in front of him was a glass of white wine and a book in which he was totally engrossed. Ianto paused momentarily. Could he? The man was about his age and not bad looking. Ianto knew he wasn't unattractive, either. Jack had rarely, in his experience, shown interest in anyone who'd been whacked by the ugly stick. You made your bed, Jones, he told himself, now you've got to lie in it. What was the harm? And he'd be proving a point.

Ianto reached for the bathroom door handle and stopped, looking back over his shoulder. 'Is that a good book?'

The man looked up, his eyes almost as blue as Jack's, but clouded with confusion at having been spoken to. 'Oh, um, yeah. Really good.'

Ianto let go of the door and turned around to face him properly. 'What's it about?'

The young man set the book down, carefully placing his bookmark in the spot he was up to. 'Oh, it's about a lawyer who has to defend this man charged with supposedly abducting a little girl ten years ago, only the lawyer also had his little sister abducted when they were kids. He's staring to wonder if it was the same man or if he might know that man that did it.'

Ianto smiled. 'Sounds brilliant.' He pulled his phone out. 'Do you mind if I grab a picture of the cover? I'm rubbish at remembering authors and titles.' He snapped a photo. 'Thanks. I might look it up whilst I'm waiting for dinner.'

'You could, ah... wait here if you want some company,' the man offered.

Ianto tried not to sound too hopeful. 'I'm not interrupting your book?'

'It'll keep,' he promised. 'Good books are always over too soon. I'm Nigel, by the way.'

Ianto took the hand that was extended. 'Ianto,' he said, sliding into the seat opposite.

'Do you read a lot, Ianto?'

'Not as much as I'd like,' he confessed. 'Work is pretty crazy, long hours. Maybe if I did what you do...'

Nigel chuckled. 'All part of the job, I'm afraid, but it's not a bad job to have. I own a little bookshop up in Adamstown. Tiny, but we make ends meet. Reading the stock and keeping up to date is the fun part.'

'The last time I went into a book shop I spent three hours reading the dust jackets and still couldn't pick one. I kind of wished someone would come over and recommend something, but there wasn't a person to be seen.'

'I love recommending books. I could give you a whole list right now!'

They spent the next ten minutes exchanging authors and titles, all of which Nigel had at his shop. Ianto joked that he'd need to bring a small truck to pick them all up, when Nigel's meal arrived.

'I should leave you to enjoy your meal,' Ianto said.

'Stay, if you like,' Nigel insisted. 'I'm sure there's more we could talk about.'

'I'm sure there is,' Ianto agreed, 'but my partner will be wondering why I've stood him up.'

Nigel looked up. 'Partner?'

'Yeah,' Ianto said, feeling slightly awful. He really had been enjoying their conversation. He didn't want to have to admit what he'd really come over here for, even if those intentions had evaporated almost the moment he'd opened his mouth.

Nigel's disappointment was fleeting. 'The good ones are always taken,' he joked. 'Does he like books as much as you do?'

'Only if you count the handful of trashy science fiction novels he re-reads over and over again.' As if Jack needed any more science fiction in his life.

Nigel laughed. 'I have a bit of a soft spot for those as well, I must admit. I hope you don't think any less of me for it! Guilty pleasure.'

'Never,' Ianto replied.

'Well, look, it's been a real pleasure meeting you, anyway,' Nigel said. He grabbed his napkin and pulled a pen from his jacket pocket. 'Here's the number for the shop. We've got a book club that meets every six weeks on a Tuesday night. If you're not too busy, it'd be great if you both joined us. You did say you were looking for new books to try. We do coffee and nibbles as well for those that have to skip dinner to make it.'

Ianto took the napkin and smiled. 'If we can fit it in I'll definitely be there. If not, I'll be sure to pop down anyway to get a few more books for my collection. You've given me more than enough to choose from.'

Jack couldn't wait for Ianto to return, contrite in the knowledge he'd failed. He loved Ianto to bits, and thought he was sexy as hell, but Ianto was too sweet and too honest to make a go of trying to pick up a total stranger. He'd cast a bit of a look around the nearby tables, but he couldn't see Ianto anywhere. He was probably hanging around outside with the smokers, too embarrassed to admit he couldn't do it. Jack laughed to himself that Ianto would be lucky if he could bum a smoke off one of them, let alone a phone number. He was a master of getting people to take things from him, like bottles of water laced with retcon, but getting things from people was a totally different ballgame.

Jack finally saw Ianto return at almost the same time as their waiter brought their meals. Jack tried not to look too smug. 'Cold outside? I assume that's where you've been all this time.' Jack waited for Ianto to spill the beans. Instead, Ianto held out the slip of paper, showing Jack the phone number written on it, and the words Nigel Slattery beneath it. Jack studied it, noting that it didn't look like Ianto's penmanship, or even an attempt to conceal it as someone else's. 'This is legit? You didn't just pull this from the phone book?'

'You think I'd really be that petty just to win a bet?' Just because Jack would have cheated like that didn't mean he had to lower himself to the same level.

'Okay, then,' Jack said, still dubious. 'Which one is he?'

Ianto nodded in the direction of a handsome young blond at a table in the far corner, reading a book whilst toying with his spaghetti carbonara.

Jack felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Not only had he done it, but he wasn't half bad looking either. 'How?'

'I asked him if he was enjoying the book and we got talking about all our favourite novels. We had quite a few in common.'

'Huh,' Jack said, sounding less enthusiastic about the bet. 'You've been over there all this time?

Ianto nodded.

'And now?' Jack asked, feeling his jealously rising. 'Planning on going on a little date, are you?'

Ianto smiled congenially. 'Just coffee,' he replied, enjoying the vexed look on Jack's face, picking up his fork. 'I've always wanted to join a book club.'

Original 500 word version here...