m_findlow

Title: Space enough for two
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 587 - Rush at slashthedrabble
Summary: Jack is taken aback by Ianto's sudden move to make space for him.

Jack watched as Ianto was fussing in his wardrobe. ‘What are you doing over there?’

‘Just rearranging things. There's actually quite a bit of spare room in here now that I've moved things around.’ He slid the door open wide enough to show Jack just how much space there suddenly was. ‘What do you think? Is that enough?’

‘Enough what?’

‘Room for your clothes, silly.’

Jack sat up a little straighter on the unmade bed. ‘Ianto, there's no need to rush things.’

‘I'm not rushing. I'm simply asking you if this is enough room in the wardrobe for a few of your things.’

‘Really? It feels like you asking me to move in permanently.’

Ianto looked taken aback by the comment and Jack wished he'd taken the time to more carefully curate his own words. Now it sounded like he was digging his heels in.

‘You… you don't want to move in?’ The question was laced with just as much disappointment and hurt as Jack expected. Ianto was good at keeping his emotions to himself, but Jack had caught him off his guard and the emotion was plain to read on his face.

‘That wasn't what I meant. I just meant that you don't have to feel obligated to make space for me.’

‘Because you're so used to not having any? I mean, honestly, that thing you call a bedroom at the hub hardly qualifies and I'll never understand why you don't just have a place to call home. You own enough property. Surely one of them is suitable to live in.’

‘Who's got time to go home with this job? We kick back and watch something on your TV, what, maybe once a week? And then there's all the laundry and the cooking and the cleaning…’

‘All of which is currently done by someone else anyway. Me. And it'd be nice if most nights of the week we had somewhere to cook that isn't the hub and can't be made simply by microwaving or adding water from a kettle.’

Jack sighed. All of Ianto's arguments were good ones. ‘I just feel like I impose enough on your life as it is.’

Ianto rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, because the making out in closets gets so tiresome I wish I could escape it. You don't have to move your whole life here. Just make yourself comfortable. That's what people who are sleeping together usually do. I'm only trying to make it easier for you to stay here. No more rushing to the hub in the wee hours of the morning to fetch clean clothes and a shower.’

‘An incentive to stay in bed longer with you?’

‘If that's what floats your boat.’

‘Maybe a cooked breakfast?’

Ianto narrowed his eyes. ‘Depends which of us is doing the cooking.’

Jack studied the empty space in the wardrobe. ‘Maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.’

‘More time together,’ Ianto agreed. ‘I don't see how that could ever be a bad thing.’