m_findlow

Title: Sure-footed
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 575 - Elegance at slashthedrabble
Summary: Jack is determined to make up for his moment of clumsiness.

'Watch your feet,' came the warning from Ianto, as Jack strode confidently out into the swampland. Ianto was quickly falling behind as he spent a ridiculous amount of time picking out a path between pools of murky water and tall reeds.

'Yeah, and well still be here next Christmas at the rate you're going,' Jack called back. 'Shake a leg!' He hopped from one patch of grassy dirt to another, skipping over the boggy patches. The sooner they found this thing, the sooner they could go home. Jack threw a look over his shoulder at his companion, about to rile him into action, when the movement caused his foot to slip out from under him, sending him backwards into a particularly foul patch of mud. At least it had the desired effect. Ianto was by his side in seconds, rushing to his aid.

'That's what you get for being cocky.'

'You can talk,' Jack retorted.

Ianto reached down a hand to help Jack up and out of the mire. 'All the elegance of a dying swan, you,' he said.

Jack stood up straight, shaking the worst of the damp mud from the tails of his coat, causing it to flick everywhere. 'Hey, I'll have you know that I've got the agility and balance of a ballet dancer.'

Ianto snorted at that. 'Not even the agility and balance of a belly dancer,' he teased.

'I didn't hear you complaining when we were dancing at Gwen's wedding.'

Ianto made a point of not meeting Jack's eye. 'We didn't dance. We...' he paused, clearly feeling awkward about it now in hindsight, '...swayed.'

'Well, it was nice. We could try it again. We don't do nearly enough swaying, in my opinion.'

Ianto rolled his eyes at the sentiment. 'At whose wedding?'

'Who needs a wedding for an excuse to dance? We could do it right here.'

'Here?' He couldn't have looked more skeptical about the proposition if he tried.

'There's no one else around, if that's what you're worried about.'

'Actually, it was more the state you're in that fuelled my reservations.'

Jack cast his eyes down at Ianto's feet. 'Your shoes and the bottom of your trousers are covered in just as much mud and muck. They're destined for the dry cleaners no matter what.'

'Jack you're covered in it head to toe.'

'So? What's a little mud between lovers?' He pulled Ianto's hips towards him, pressing mud into his lapels. Ianto sighed, conceding that resistance was futile now that his front was covered in almost as much muck as Jack. He slid an arm under Jack's, cupping his shoulder blade. Their spare hands intertwined automatically between their bodies as if they'd done it a hundred times.

Swaying in the boggy peat proved challenging as Jack's feet got sucked down, but somehow they both stayed upright. Ianto was the very definition of elegance. 'You've done this before,' Jack commented.

'Danced in a swamp?'

Jack smiled against his cheek. 'Yeah. Question is, who with?'