m_findlow

Title: For the man who has everything
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 676 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Prompt - Batteries included at torchwood_fest
Summary: Jack has found Ianto the perfect present.

Jack was bouncing up and down on the sofa next to Ianto as he passed him the large box wrapped in red paper with silver bells all over it.

He couldn't tell if he or Ianto was more excited. He knew Ianto was going to love this gift. He'd spent ages wandering around the shops trying to figure out what to buy the man who had everything - or at the very least, had everything he wanted, and wanted very little. It made him impossible to buy for but this time Jack knew he'd nailed it. There'd be no re-gifting this one, or having it sit idle in the cupboard. It was practical, useful and would save a bunch of time. All things that would make Ianto happy. And the time saving aspect Jack hoped would benefit him indirectly. After all, if Ianto had more time on his hands, surely that meant he'd have more time for Jack.

'Hurry up and open it,' Jack said, watching as Ianto turned the box over and over, looking for the ingeniously wrapped seam where the paper and sticky tape began. God bless the shop assistant who had done him the favour of wrapping it all up so nicely. Not that Jack disliked wrapping gifts, but he simply didn't have the patience for it, nor the artistic talent to get the paper just perfect and the ribbons all bouncy and curly. He was much more the antithesis to perfect wrapping, preferring to tear gifts open like a wild animal.

'Patience, Jack,' Ianto chastised him. 'You get to your open your gifts your way, I get to open my gifts my way.'

'It'll be Easter before you're done,' Jack moped, reaching for his coffee instead whilst he waited for Ianto's surgical present opening precision to manifest itself, finally finding the edge of the tape and slipping a fingernail under it. Jack couldn't fathom it. It wasn't like they were going to recycle the paper again next year. If it got torn, it got torn. There was no sense in being neat about it.

Finally Ianto undid the paper, pulling it away on both sides to reveal the box in his lap. 'A robotic vacuum cleaner?'

'I know. Isn't it awesome?' Jack said. 'It's even red. They had black ones but how could I possibly go past the red? And the batteries are included and fully charged.'

'I've read about these,' Ianto said. 'You have to stick little dots around the house on your skirting boards so it can navigate its way around the house without slamming into stuff.'

'Oh, I've already done that too,' Jack said, wrapping an arm around him. 'It took ages but I've got the whole house done so you can literally switch it on right now and let it do its thing.'

Ianto turned to him with a look that was more irate than impressed at Jack's forethought. 'Seriously?'

Jack was taken aback by Ianto's tone. 'What? Don't tell me you're upset about a few little dot stickers. You won't notice them, I promise, and just think of all the time you'll save not having to vacuum.'

'That is exactly my point!' Ianto cried.

Jack's stomach twisted in on itself with newfound uncertainty. 'You, uh, like vacuuming?'

'No! But bloody hell, Jack. I'm not being ungrateful, because honestly it's a great present, really, but you couldn't have given it to me yesterday?'

Jack frowned in confusion. 'Yesterday wasn't Christmas.'

'But I spent three hours vacuuming the house from top to bottom before staying up until midnight finishing our Christmas baking. It didn't occur to you that maybe it might have come in handy yesterday?'

'Oh. Well, when you put it like that.'

Ianto leaned over and planted a kiss on his cheek. 'You're infuriatingly sweet. Just try not to be so organised next time. Leave being organised to me. I'm better at it.'

Jack beamed at him, thankful he wasn't about to receive a full tongue lashing for his blunder. It was Christmas, after all. 'Okay,' he promised.