Torchwood: Fanfic: An A for determination

[m_findlow]

Title: An A for determination
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 801 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any,the art of distracting an opponent" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack is determined to get what he wants.

'Sixty five, sixty six, sixty seven...' Ianto carefully counted as he pushed each thin black disc from one side of the box to the other.

'Ianto! You hoo!' came Jack's booming voice, echoing all the way down the long row of archive shelving.

Ianto paused, wondering perhaps if he stayed silent enough and still enough that Jack might think he wasn't down here.

'There you are!' Jack cried out, taking long strides to close the distance between them.

'Here I am,' Ianto said, going back to his counting after his failed attempt to pretend to be part of the furniture.

Jack sidled up to him, hands deep in his pockets, his bright red braces drawing matching parallel lines to those his arms made by his sides. 'I've been looking all over for you.'

'Uh huh,' Ianto replied, not looking up. He shoved his pen between his lips for a moment whilst he starting pushing back a second row of discs, adding them to his mental tally.

'I thought we could take a bit of a break,' Jack suggested. 'Maybe say, the whole afternoon?'

Ianto let out a little sigh. He knew precisely what Jack's little breaks entailed. 'Can't it wait?'

Jack leant sideways against the shelf, folding his arms and giving him a look of pure curiosity. 'Why? What's the big deal? I saw a very nice spring mattress on my way here. I'm sure that wasn't there the last time I came down. We should test it out. It looks comfy, but you never really can tell without giving these things a proper workout.'

'More important things to do right now,' Ianto replied, muffling the words around the pen still clenched between his teeth.

Jack straightened up. 'Seriously? What's more important than doing me?'

Ianto snatched the pen from his mouth. 'Does everything have to be about yo- Oh, bloody hell!' Ianto gripped the edge of the shelf hard.

'What?' Jack cried. 'What's wrong?'

Ianto twirled to face him. 'I've lost count of where I was up to now!'

Jack gave a bored shrug. 'You can always start again. Like after we're done?' he added, giving a suggestive wink.

Ianto slapped down his clipboard and pen on the shelf. 'That's not the point, Jack! Who else is going to complete the inventory of everything in the archives? I bet you don't even know half of what's down here.'

Jack gave him one of his winning smiles. 'Sure I do. He reached out towards the shelf and picked up the first thing that came to a hand. It's an, um,' he said, turning it over in his hand, holding it upside down. 'A, uh...'

Ianto grabbed it and turned it back upright. 'A spacial resonator,' Ianto replied. 'Measures the dimensions of any given space and maps out the objects in it into a four dimensional model?'

'I knew that.' Jack grabbed for a small black disc from the box Ianto had been counting. 'This is a gravitational magnet.'

'Well spotted,' Ianto replied dryly. 'And what does it do?'

'Holds stuff up. Once upon a time they were super high tech. Now they're as common as post-it notes.' He peered into the box. 'And boy do we seem to have a lot of them.'

Ianto huffed. 'Exactly. There's a whole box of them here and I keep finding them strewn all over the place. I was busy trying to figure out just how many we had and whether we could be putting them to better use than just shoving them down here by the box load.' He gave Jack a questioning look. 'What's the average gravitational load on these things, anyway? Do they vary?'

Jack grabbed one and stuck it to the underside of the shelf, turning it on and setting the spatial resonator underneath it to hang, suspended in mid-air. 'Would you prefer me to give you an answer in pounds, kilos, or spatial resonators?'

'Stop messing about. I'm trying to be serious here.'

Jack leant on the shelf. 'I know. That's the whole problem. Lighten up. They'll still be here tomorrow and you can count them to your heart's content.'

Ianto folded his arms, looking annoyed. 'How about I hook you up to them and test out how many Jack Harknesses they can hold? Hmm?'

Jack oozed amusement at the comment. 'Ooh, sounds kinky. Like shibari without all the ropes. I never did get the hang of those. In fact I think I may have accidently strangled myself once. Not quite the turn on I was hoping for, but I think I'm more than made up for it afterwards.'

Ianto let out a vexed sigh. 'If I blow you now, will you go away afterwards and leave me to finish my work?'

Jack grinned, pulling him close. 'That's all I really wanted.'