m_findlow

Title: A growing hobby
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Ianto, David
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 142 - Crop at anythingdrabble
Summary: Ianto's disappearances aboard their ship are finally explained by a new hobby.

'Ianto, are you hiding down there?' Jack called out, poking his head through a hatch that wasn't normally left open.

'Yup,' came the reply. 'You can come down if you want.'

Jack didn't think he needed an invitation but was glad for it all the same. Ianto had been going missing for hours at a time for the last few weeks and whilst Jack didn't like to pry, it still made him intensely curious. They couldn't spend twenty four hours a day together, though not for a lack of trying on Jack's part. They needed some space for themselves, especially when they were stuck on their spaceship, hurtling through empty swathes of the universe for weeks at a time to get where they were headed. A TARDIS was all well and good if you were the Doctor, but mere immortals had to satisfy themselves with ordinary space travel.

'If you wanted some quiet time to read a book, you could just use the library,' Jack said, skipping the last few rungs of the ladder and coming to a thud on the landing.

Ianto didn't even give him an eye roll. 'If I wanted to read a book then I would be in the library.'

Jack stopped to take in the room. It was usually empty but now the benches were covered in boxes covered by plastic and bright lights overhead made the room hot and stuffy. 'What's all this?'

'My hothouse,' Ianto replied. 'I figured we should try growing our own crops for when we can't get fresh food.'

'Oh, so that's why you keep disappearing on me everytime we visit the markets.'

'Buying seeds and other bits for hydroponics,' Ianto confirmed. 'Just because you're only interested in finding the alien equivalent of toffee apples and hotdogs...'

'Not true! Aliens don't even know what a hotdog is, more's the pity.'

'Well, I've got some lovely lettuces coming on. And the peas are flourishing now that I've got the temperature just right.'

'Lettuce? Peas? Blech!'

'They're good for you,' Ianto insisted. 'Better than taking vitamin supplements. I'll rattle if I have to take any more pills in place of real nutrition by way of food.'

'Grow me a hotdog tree and then we'll talk.'

'Let me master the basics first. If someone can sell me seeds for a hotdog tree, I promise I'll try.'

'Well, it seems like you've got yourself a green thumb now.'

'You should see what talents my other fingers are capable of,' Ianto teased him, letting them snake around Jack's waist and tuck themselves into his belt.

'Oh, I think I have some idea already,' Jack crooned, leaning his head closer. 'But all the same, why don't you take me to bed and give me a hands on demonstration, just so I'm fully informed.'

Ianto grinned. 'It'd be my pleasure.'

Jack returned the grin. He didn't bother to correct Ianto. The pleasure would be his, but he'd be happy to reap whatever seeds Ianto wanted to sow.