Ficlet: Redecorating
Title: Redecorating
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Meriel wants a more adult look to her bedroom now she’s growing up. Her daddies have work to do.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 121: Paste at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
“What’s that?” Jack asked, pulling a face as he peered at the gloopy, lumpy stuff Ianto was stirring. It reminded him of tapioca.
Ianto continued to stir, not bothering to look at his lover. “Wallpaper paste of course. We’re not putting that up with sellotape or the staple gun.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of several rolls of wallpaper lying on the floor beside the paste table he’d already set up. The floor was covered with decorating cloths and instead of his usual immaculate three-piece suit Ianto was wearing paint-speckled coveralls over threadbare jeans and a faded t-shirt that had been laundered so often its logo was indecipherable.
“Paste? Are you sure?” Jack leaned a bit closer, eying the gloop dubiously. “It’s all lumpy! The wallpaper’s supposed to be smooth, not bumpy.”
“Wallpaper paste is always a bit lumpy, but the lumps flatten out if you do the job right.” Finally Ianto looked away from his bucket of paste, frowning at Jack. “Hadn’t you better get changed?”
Jack gave him a blank look. “Changed?”
“Yes, into something more suitable for decorating. You don’t want to mess up your good clothes.” Ianto paused for a moment, frowning. “You did say you’d help redecorate Meriel’s room.”
At almost eleven years old, Meriel had decided she was too big for the Disney Princesses décor that had graced her bedroom since she was four. She wanted something more grown-up. Ianto had taken her shopping the previous week to choose new wallpaper and she’d picked a slightly mottled purple paper for three walls and one with big flowers in shades of purple on a silvery white background for the wall behind her bed.
“I already helped, didn’t I?” Jack protested. He and Meriel had spent the weekend stripping the old paper off the walls, but now it was Monday, he’d just returned home from taking her to school, and Ianto had promised their daughter before she left that the new wallpaper would be up by the time she got home. Jack had assumed Ianto meant to do that part by himself, knowing what a perfectionist he was.
Ianto apparently thought otherwise. “I’ve only got two hands, Jack; this would go a lot quicker with both of us, especially on the patterned wall where the design has to match up.”
“But I don’t know how to hang wallpaper! I always hired a decorator when I needed stuff like that doing.”
“Then I’d say it’s high time you learned, wouldn’t you agree? Now hurry up. Nosy and the Flufflets are watching the twins, and you’re not needed at the Hub today, so go get changed into your scruffs and we’ll get started. You don’t want Meriel to be disappointed, do you?”
Wallpapering wasn’t as difficult as Jack had expected; he mostly held stuff while Ianto measured lengths and matched patterns, but by the time they were done he had to admit it looked perfect. Everything was smooth; there wasn’t a single lump!
Meriel would be delighted!
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Meriel wants a more adult look to her bedroom now she’s growing up. Her daddies have work to do.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 121: Paste at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
“What’s that?” Jack asked, pulling a face as he peered at the gloopy, lumpy stuff Ianto was stirring. It reminded him of tapioca.
Ianto continued to stir, not bothering to look at his lover. “Wallpaper paste of course. We’re not putting that up with sellotape or the staple gun.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of several rolls of wallpaper lying on the floor beside the paste table he’d already set up. The floor was covered with decorating cloths and instead of his usual immaculate three-piece suit Ianto was wearing paint-speckled coveralls over threadbare jeans and a faded t-shirt that had been laundered so often its logo was indecipherable.
“Paste? Are you sure?” Jack leaned a bit closer, eying the gloop dubiously. “It’s all lumpy! The wallpaper’s supposed to be smooth, not bumpy.”
“Wallpaper paste is always a bit lumpy, but the lumps flatten out if you do the job right.” Finally Ianto looked away from his bucket of paste, frowning at Jack. “Hadn’t you better get changed?”
Jack gave him a blank look. “Changed?”
“Yes, into something more suitable for decorating. You don’t want to mess up your good clothes.” Ianto paused for a moment, frowning. “You did say you’d help redecorate Meriel’s room.”
At almost eleven years old, Meriel had decided she was too big for the Disney Princesses décor that had graced her bedroom since she was four. She wanted something more grown-up. Ianto had taken her shopping the previous week to choose new wallpaper and she’d picked a slightly mottled purple paper for three walls and one with big flowers in shades of purple on a silvery white background for the wall behind her bed.
“I already helped, didn’t I?” Jack protested. He and Meriel had spent the weekend stripping the old paper off the walls, but now it was Monday, he’d just returned home from taking her to school, and Ianto had promised their daughter before she left that the new wallpaper would be up by the time she got home. Jack had assumed Ianto meant to do that part by himself, knowing what a perfectionist he was.
Ianto apparently thought otherwise. “I’ve only got two hands, Jack; this would go a lot quicker with both of us, especially on the patterned wall where the design has to match up.”
“But I don’t know how to hang wallpaper! I always hired a decorator when I needed stuff like that doing.”
“Then I’d say it’s high time you learned, wouldn’t you agree? Now hurry up. Nosy and the Flufflets are watching the twins, and you’re not needed at the Hub today, so go get changed into your scruffs and we’ll get started. You don’t want Meriel to be disappointed, do you?”
Wallpapering wasn’t as difficult as Jack had expected; he mostly held stuff while Ianto measured lengths and matched patterns, but by the time they were done he had to admit it looked perfect. Everything was smooth; there wasn’t a single lump!
Meriel would be delighted!
The End