Fffc Bingo Card - A lesson in coffee making

[m_findlow]

Title: A lesson in coffee making 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jez, Johnson, Adelaide, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 18 - Workshop at fffc
Summary: Ianto is keen to share his most valuable knowledge. 

Ianto rubbed his hands together, looking eagerly at his merry band of recruits, hovering somewhat worriedly around the kitchen space. Today was the day when he gave them all a detailed lesson on how to use the coffee machine. What had once been his singular area of expertise - provided you excluded cleaning, filing, paperwork, feeding prehistoric creatures and snogging Jack - was now about to become a new part of the Torchwood experience. A workshop on how to make coffee may not save the world - although he suspected it might come in a close second - it was as an essential part of their working day as firearms, rift alerts and Jack's shamelessly innuendo laced commentary. 

Ianto had always been very particular about the coffee machine. It was hideously expensive, and in the wrong hands had, for several years, wasted away in the kitchen, left to rust as Jack, Tosh, Suzie and Owen had all failed to make it work. It wasn't really all that hard. It just needed someone to set it up correctly, and to maintain it. Given however his team's propensity to destroy things they didn't understand, he had bade them never to go near it, on pain of death. He was perfectly happy to make all of the coffee required so long as it meant that he maintained sole custody of the machine. Like an overprotective parent, it had been his baby. 

Now however he was forced to concede that a new generation would need to know how to use it. With his increased workload, not to mention his responsibility as Torchwood's Director, there wasn't time to make coffee all day long. Also, it didn't seem right that the boss should have to make coffee for all his staff, even if for the most part he didn't mind doing so. They worked hard -not that he himself didn't- so it was nice to be able to give something back. How many other bosses made coffee for their staff, and not just once a year out of a sense of guilt or coercion? All they needed was a proper guiding hand on how to use it safely and properly. He didn't expect them to be master barristas, but if he could do it, there was no reason the rest of them couldn't. 

Adelaide was scuffing the concrete floor with her sneaker, looking like she'd been dragged into this rather than volunteering herself. Jez was more relaxed, but had confessed yesterday that he hadn't thought Ianto was actually being serious when he'd suggested this. Johnson, ever the professional ex-military counterterrorism operative, had a small notepad and pen in hand, ready to take down notes. 

Gwen had recused herself, citing the fact that she and Rhys were currently trying for baby number two and that Rhys had been dropping unsubtle hints to her about studies proving that caffeine affected the success rate for conception. Never mind that everything else she was exposed to was likely to lessen or improve their chances. When Rhys had the bit between his teeth, as Gwen explained, and as Ianto himself had experienced first hand, there was nothing going to persuade him otherwise.

Ianto was about to begin his session when he spotted Jack saunter by, removing his coat before hanging it up on the hook by his office door. 

‘Are you sure you don't want to join us, Jack? My coffee workshop is open to everyone.’ He grinned a little as he said it. 

‘I am quite happy to remain in blissful coffee making ignorance, Ianto Jones,’ he replied, winking and disappearing into his office. 

Adelaide leaned back against the railing. ‘Well, I for one am not making Jack a coffee if he asks.’ There was a nervous little moment where neither of the others made a move to openly agree with her or oppose the move, unsure which side of the political fence Ianto was currently on. Jack was still almost as much their boss as Ianto. 

‘Shall we begin?’ 

Ianto had prepared an hour long session to be held in the boardroom explaining the origins of the coffee bean and what went into making it, so that they'd have proper context as to why temperature was important and how it impacted flavour, but Jack had strongly discouraged him last night in bed. Jack insisted that the team might lose respect for him if they thought he was "so nerdy as to think anyone actually cared". Instead he proceeded to work through the mechanics of it, step by step, making them sample his version over their own attempts, until he was reasonably satisfied that they could not only make it themselves, but that they also considered what they'd made as drinkable. 

All in all they seemed pleased with their morning's efforts and suggested that as thanks they might occasionally treat him to a coffee, knowing it would need to meet very exacting standards. 

As the three of them dispersed back to their normal duties, Jack reappeared just as Ianto was making one final brew and cleaning up the remaining cups. 

‘How'd it go?’ 

‘If you'd stuck around you might know. I would have thought you of all people would be desperate to know all my secrets.’ 

Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto. ‘I already know all your secrets.’ 

‘Except how to make coffee. I agree with Adelaide. If I'm not around, don't expect anyone else to make you coffee just because you're too stubborn.’ 

Jack squeezed him tighter. ‘Ianto Jones, do you really think that in the last five years of coming here and cuddling you whilst you make my coffee I haven't been studying every move you make? I'm literally your best and most well-versed student.’ 

Ianto rolled his eyes. ‘So how come in all that time you've never once made it yourself? Hmm?’ 

Jack rested his chin on Ianto's shoulder. ‘Because when you make it, you put love into it, and that is the one secret ingredient I can't make up for.’