Slipping Through -- Coffee Break
Book cover by et_muse.
Title: Slipping Through
redismycolour Snippet: Coffee Break
Date Written: 1/13/09
Rating: PG/K+
Word Count: 566
Fandom: Torchwood/FAKE
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ryo/Dee, Gwen, Owen, Tosh
Spoilers: Up through Torchwood 02 and FAKE Like, Like, Love.
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: Written for redismycolour Day Twelve.
Slipping Through master list found here.
"As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee,
your boss will ask you to do something which
will last until the coffee is cold."
- Anonymous
Jack was greeted by the sight of Dee Laytner-MacLean leaning over the counter when he walked into the Tourist Booth, a cup of Ianto's coffee in one hand. The two men were talking, Dee giving one of those grins that signaled that he'd said something particularly witty. "Well hello to you too."
The New Yorker straightened and turned, blanching a little at the sight and smell of Jack. He probably didn't make a pretty picture, either; he was covered from head to toe in sewage and alien innards and a fair bit of his own blood. "Good God, man," he gasped, covering his nose with his hand.
Ianto already had a handkerchief over his nose. "Shower please, Jack," he said, the sound muffled. "Just the whole lot. And I'd appreciate it if you ran."
Jack laughed as the door opened down into the Hub. "Do I get coffee?"
"If you're a good boy," Ianto replied with the air of a long-suffering babysitter.
"Phew! I need to remember the old trick of keeping Vick's with me," Dee's voice chased Jack down towards the Hub.
-----
Fifteen minutes later, freshly showered and changed and with still-damp hair, Jack hit the main level. He could see the dark and light haired heads of Ryo and Dee in his office, so he started walking that way.
Ianto gave him a small smile as he passed. "Coffee's on your desk," he said, handing Toshiko her own mug.
"Mmm, thank you." He was almost at the threshold, he could see the striped mug on his desk.
"Jack?"
The immortal turned to smile at Gwen. "Yes?"
"I have some questions about the alien we found in the Weevil nest," she said, turning to look at him properly, "but it's not like we had a lot to go on..."
Jack leaned over and spoke to her for a few moments, the two of them theorizing on what the alien could have been before settling on a race they both agreed on. He was almost to his office again when Owen's voice drifted up from the autopsy bay.
"Oi, mate, might want to rethink that idea," he said, holding out a tray with the stomach contents of the Weevil they'd brought in.
He spent ten minutes listening to Owen expound on the stomach contents and argue with Gwen over exactly what alien had been turned into the Weevil's last meal.
He was unsurprised when Tosh pulled him over to his workstation to show off some new figures for the Rift Projector program. He didn't understand most of it to be honest, but he knew that she needed to talk it through so he just nodded and made affirmative noises.
Finally, finally making it into his office, he closed the door behind him. The scent of coffee permeated the air and he closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in the calm in the office.
Then he opened his eyes and let out a little strangled cry at the sight in front of him. Ryo Laytner-MacLean was sitting behind his desk, feet up on the polished surface (and Jack was so going to get blamed for that). And an almost-empty, blue-striped mug cradled in his hands.
"You drank my coffee!"
"You snooze, you lose," Ryo told him, tipping the rest of it back.
Dee snickered softly.
"And it was going cold anyway," the half-Japanese man added.