Mastering Library Science
Title: Mastering Library Science
Disclaimer: Being a bloke who likes to slash pretty men doesn't make me RTD, I don't work for the BBC, and as much as I might like to, I don't own Jack or Ianto or any part of Torchwood. I do, however, order pizza under that name on principle.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, implied other.
Rating: NC-17 for explicit sexuality.
Notes/Summary: When someone finds a piece of alien tech in a copy of Mansfield Park, the team has to turn the Cardiff Central Library upside down. Fortunately, they've got an archivist onhand... Prompt from Aoife_8 for get_tw_laid round one. Requested Elements: Jack/Ianto, public library, romantic fiction. Comments, constructive criticism, questions, good coffee, and naughty photos of Jack and Ianto always welcome. Crossposted to get_tw_laid and torch_wood.
[Note: contains a short sample from Mills & Boon Memo: Marry Me? by Jennie Adams. The excerpt from which these lines were grabbed can be found here. For the record, this book does NOT appear to be in Cardiff's Central Library holdings according to their online catalogue.]
The object seemed to have been been broken down, concealed in any number of books, and quietly stowed in the Cardiff Central Library. This much was verified by the dog-eared copy of Mansfield Park on Jack's desk, and the wafer-thin sliver of metal they'd found taped inside. Whoever had disassembled the device had known that such tiny threads of alien tech would be nearly impossible to detect with a simple scan.
"Search a library?" Owen scoffed. "Psh. That's a job for Ianto."
Ianto stood quietly in the corner of Jack's office, just a little away from the others. If Owen's words stung, he gave no indication. Then again, Owen was right. There was no question that Ianto had more training and experience with cataloging than the rest of the team put together.
"Think you can do it?"
"I can give it my best, sir."
"Good," Jack said and stood. "Tosh, you're on comms. Owen and Gwen, you're on back-up in case whoever left this thing comes looking. Ianto, with me. And bring your library card."
# # #
The Cardiff Central Library wasn't anything like Jack expected. Its temporary location on John Street was decorated to look like a shelf of books on the outside, but inside it was a gruesomely lit collision of rapidly applied architecture and wishful thinking. Gwen and Jack went to work evacuating the building while Owen and Ianto checked each departing patron for slivers of the device. Within thirty minutes, the building was theirs and Ianto's real work began in earnest.
He'd set up at a long table near the center of the ersatz lobby. He tapped his earpiece. "Tosh? Let's start with the circulation record for the book we found the first sliver in, as well as the records of every patron on record as checking it out. We'll want to pay particular attention to short check-outs. Say, less than 48 hours?"
"Got it."
Everything after that tended to blur a little. Jack watched Ianto print and organize jumble after jumble of patron records, notes and book lists. Circulation logs and catalog descriptions were cross-referenced, and several sheets of paper were devoted entirely to working out ISBN number sequences. Jack found himself running errands and pulling books from the shelves simply so that he could watch the man work. And While each book filled in a blank and rewarded them with another sliver of the device, it still wasn't enough to spot a solid pattern. Two books and five hours in, the search was beginning to feel like a lost cause.
Ianto sighed and let his PDA drop to the table top. "The logs don't match, we're missing crucial data, and the library system couldn't have lost or misplaced more if they'd hired a pack of drunken weevils." He leaned back in his chair and pulled out his earpiece. "I give up. This is impossible. It's like they just yanked books out at random and put the rest into storage. We have no way of knowing whether or not everything is even here!"
"Do you need to get into storage?" Jack asked quietly, putting his hands on Ianto's shoulders. They were tense. He gave them a squeeze, careful to dig his thumbs into just the right spot. Ianto yielded to those hands right away.
"No. But it would be easier to work without feeling like I'm digging through a suitcase." Ianto shifted a bit in his chair to give Jack better access to his neck and shoulders. Jack did his best to unknot Ianto's weary muscles.
"You know what it sounds like you need, Ianto?"
"Several gallons of petrol and a book of matches?"
"You need a break. Come on. Let's walk around. It'll help you clear your head."
# # #
"Mills and Boon," Ianto chuckled. "I had an aunt who used to read these. It was a compulsion. Her house was full of them. She even kept stacks in her bathroom." He sighed and stroked a particularly lurid pink paperback with his thumb. "She's gone, now. I wonder what they did with all the books."
Jack took a book from the shelf and flipped to a random page. "Hm."
"Trust me, Jack. They're not worth your time. I spent a disappointing week one summer desperately trying to find the really dirty bits. To this day I cringe whenever I see certain words in print."
Jack cleared his throat and began to read aloud. "A mixture of curiosity and interest flowed through her, locked her breath in her throat."
"Oh no." Ianto shook his head and held his hands up in mock surrender.
Jack fixed his eyes on Ianto's and edged closer, backing the younger man into the shelves. "Shock and dismay followed. She couldn’t be attracted to him? It must be some sort of nervous reaction, surely?"
They were inches apart now. Jack closed the paperback and reached over Ianto's shoulder, slowly sliding it back onto the shelf. "Surely," Jack whispered hotly against the other man's neck.
Ianto licked his lips. "We're working, sir."
"Technically, no. We're taking a break. Also, I'm your boss. I decide when we're working." Jack put his hands on Ianto's shoulders and nibbled at his ear.
Ianto blushed. "Jack! We'll be seen."
"The library's closed. We closed it. Remember?"
"I meant CCTV." Ianto nodded his head in the direction of a small camera.
"I might have tugged a cable loose on my way back from checking on Owen and Gwen a couple of hours ago. I really should be more careful."
"Yes," Ianto murmured, gasping a little at the way Jack's fingers felt in his hair. "You should."
Jack slid a hand into Ianto's suit jacket as their mouths came together, letting his thumb graze a nipple. Ianto responded in kind, clever fingers already working Jack's belt buckle, then the buttons of his trousers.
"Ianto, no."
Ianto gave him a questioning look. "But I thought --"
"Relax, Ianto. Let me."
Jack slid to his knees, undoing Ianto's belt on his way down. He kept eye contact as he wet his lips. Ianto's face was a little pink, his pupils already dilated. Jack ran his mouth lightly across the thin fabric of Ianto's dress trousers, sending Ianto into a fit of happy shudders. Jack undid the button and the zip and let the whole thing slip down to the ground.
"We should take breaks more often, sir," Ianto managed as Jack stroked and purred, teasing at the waistband of his briefs.
"You think so?"
Ianto swallowed and nodded, gripping onto the shelf behind him. Jack hoped it was bolted down.
Jack slid his fingers in under the elastic and eased it down past Ianto's bobbing cock. He licked his lips again before running the tip of his tongue just under the head, then slowly drawing it up again. He made sure to look back up at Ianto's face, watching the younger man's lashes flutter a little and his lips part.
"God you're beautiful." Jack let his left hand rest on Ianto's hip, gripping it lightly. With the other, he began to stroke slowly but purposefully. He watched as Ianto's hips and breath took on that rhythm. He smiled up at Ianto and took him in, still mostly dressed. Jack thought about how the two of them would return to work soon, and how erotic it would be to still have Ianto's taste on his lips.
Jack took Ianto into his mouth, still gripping and rubbing at the base in the same rhythm as before. He let his tongue move just out of time with the rest of his mouth, something he knew could shatter Ianto's willpower in seconds. There was a shudder in the younger man's movements now. It was rawer, more desperate. He was mouthing Jack's name. And god, was he close. Jack closed his eyes and took him in entirely.
With a growling whimper and an arrhythmic jerk that bordered on a convulsion, Ianto came in Jack's mouth. He tasted of coffee and other things, and it numbed Jack's tongue a little bit. Jack licked and sucked him clean (resulting in more gratifying, throaty noises) before tucking him back into his briefs, then standing up and kissing him.
"Ugh. Is that what I taste like?" Ianto half-laughed against Jack's mouth. "It's awful."
"It's fantastic," Jack smirked and kissed him again hard.
"Liar."
Jack craned his neck to the left. He held Ianto tight against his chest, securing him there. "Shh."
"What?" Ianto's back stiffened.
"Something's here. Can you hear it?"
"Like a humming?"
"No. Like singing."
Jack watched as Ianto closed his eyes. "The shelf. Right behind me." Ianto ran his fingers along the brightly colored paperbacks. "I can feel it here. Right here."
Ianto pulled a battered pink and blue large print book from the shelf. Taped to the inside cover was a thrumming metal disc.
"Tosh?" Ianto tapped at his earpiece. "I think I've got the rest of our numbers."
# # #
Jack gently inserted the final fragment, then sat back to watch as the device began to glow.
"It's beautiful," Tosh gasped.
"Is it safe?" Gwen watched the thing intently as the disc began to spin and thrum. "I mean, should it be doing that?"
"She. Should she be doing that." Jack extended a finger to the light coming into being on his desk. Tendrils of glowing blue tasted at it. "And yes, she should. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Ja'la. And she says thank you."
"What is she?" Ianto was transfixed, and maybe a little frightened.
"She's an Argi. They're sort of telepathic and made of pure energy. Some races kidnap them because they give off positive psychic energy." Jack sighed contentedly and wiggled his fingers slowly. "Someone was trying to hide you, weren't they? Didn't want to give you up." Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
"And they were keeping her in that thing?" Tosh asked, eyeing the assembled alien machine.
"Pretty much." Jack nodded, then turned his eyes back to the Argi. "We release you, of course." The Argi rippled over Jack's hand.
"She says she wants a word with you in private, Ianto." Jack turned his eyes to the rest of the team and watched them file out. Gwen pulled the door closed behind her.
"How do I, uh, interface with her? I've never, ah --"
Jack smiled and took Ianto's hand. Blue light oscillated, took it in. Ianto inhaled, eyes wide. He felt the Argi all over, and through him. And her words were intoxicating.
"Jack?"
"Hmm?" Jack asked, clearly still blissed from his contact with the alien.
"Ja'la says you've given her permission. Permission to do what, exactly?"
"Well, uh," Jack raised a playful eyebrow. "How'd you like to have sex with a very grateful alien?"
Disclaimer: Being a bloke who likes to slash pretty men doesn't make me RTD, I don't work for the BBC, and as much as I might like to, I don't own Jack or Ianto or any part of Torchwood. I do, however, order pizza under that name on principle.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, implied other.
Rating: NC-17 for explicit sexuality.
Notes/Summary: When someone finds a piece of alien tech in a copy of Mansfield Park, the team has to turn the Cardiff Central Library upside down. Fortunately, they've got an archivist onhand... Prompt from Aoife_8 for get_tw_laid round one. Requested Elements: Jack/Ianto, public library, romantic fiction. Comments, constructive criticism, questions, good coffee, and naughty photos of Jack and Ianto always welcome. Crossposted to get_tw_laid and torch_wood.
[Note: contains a short sample from Mills & Boon Memo: Marry Me? by Jennie Adams. The excerpt from which these lines were grabbed can be found here. For the record, this book does NOT appear to be in Cardiff's Central Library holdings according to their online catalogue.]
The object seemed to have been been broken down, concealed in any number of books, and quietly stowed in the Cardiff Central Library. This much was verified by the dog-eared copy of Mansfield Park on Jack's desk, and the wafer-thin sliver of metal they'd found taped inside. Whoever had disassembled the device had known that such tiny threads of alien tech would be nearly impossible to detect with a simple scan.
"Search a library?" Owen scoffed. "Psh. That's a job for Ianto."
Ianto stood quietly in the corner of Jack's office, just a little away from the others. If Owen's words stung, he gave no indication. Then again, Owen was right. There was no question that Ianto had more training and experience with cataloging than the rest of the team put together.
"Think you can do it?"
"I can give it my best, sir."
"Good," Jack said and stood. "Tosh, you're on comms. Owen and Gwen, you're on back-up in case whoever left this thing comes looking. Ianto, with me. And bring your library card."
# # #
The Cardiff Central Library wasn't anything like Jack expected. Its temporary location on John Street was decorated to look like a shelf of books on the outside, but inside it was a gruesomely lit collision of rapidly applied architecture and wishful thinking. Gwen and Jack went to work evacuating the building while Owen and Ianto checked each departing patron for slivers of the device. Within thirty minutes, the building was theirs and Ianto's real work began in earnest.
He'd set up at a long table near the center of the ersatz lobby. He tapped his earpiece. "Tosh? Let's start with the circulation record for the book we found the first sliver in, as well as the records of every patron on record as checking it out. We'll want to pay particular attention to short check-outs. Say, less than 48 hours?"
"Got it."
Everything after that tended to blur a little. Jack watched Ianto print and organize jumble after jumble of patron records, notes and book lists. Circulation logs and catalog descriptions were cross-referenced, and several sheets of paper were devoted entirely to working out ISBN number sequences. Jack found himself running errands and pulling books from the shelves simply so that he could watch the man work. And While each book filled in a blank and rewarded them with another sliver of the device, it still wasn't enough to spot a solid pattern. Two books and five hours in, the search was beginning to feel like a lost cause.
Ianto sighed and let his PDA drop to the table top. "The logs don't match, we're missing crucial data, and the library system couldn't have lost or misplaced more if they'd hired a pack of drunken weevils." He leaned back in his chair and pulled out his earpiece. "I give up. This is impossible. It's like they just yanked books out at random and put the rest into storage. We have no way of knowing whether or not everything is even here!"
"Do you need to get into storage?" Jack asked quietly, putting his hands on Ianto's shoulders. They were tense. He gave them a squeeze, careful to dig his thumbs into just the right spot. Ianto yielded to those hands right away.
"No. But it would be easier to work without feeling like I'm digging through a suitcase." Ianto shifted a bit in his chair to give Jack better access to his neck and shoulders. Jack did his best to unknot Ianto's weary muscles.
"You know what it sounds like you need, Ianto?"
"Several gallons of petrol and a book of matches?"
"You need a break. Come on. Let's walk around. It'll help you clear your head."
# # #
"Mills and Boon," Ianto chuckled. "I had an aunt who used to read these. It was a compulsion. Her house was full of them. She even kept stacks in her bathroom." He sighed and stroked a particularly lurid pink paperback with his thumb. "She's gone, now. I wonder what they did with all the books."
Jack took a book from the shelf and flipped to a random page. "Hm."
"Trust me, Jack. They're not worth your time. I spent a disappointing week one summer desperately trying to find the really dirty bits. To this day I cringe whenever I see certain words in print."
Jack cleared his throat and began to read aloud. "A mixture of curiosity and interest flowed through her, locked her breath in her throat."
"Oh no." Ianto shook his head and held his hands up in mock surrender.
Jack fixed his eyes on Ianto's and edged closer, backing the younger man into the shelves. "Shock and dismay followed. She couldn’t be attracted to him? It must be some sort of nervous reaction, surely?"
They were inches apart now. Jack closed the paperback and reached over Ianto's shoulder, slowly sliding it back onto the shelf. "Surely," Jack whispered hotly against the other man's neck.
Ianto licked his lips. "We're working, sir."
"Technically, no. We're taking a break. Also, I'm your boss. I decide when we're working." Jack put his hands on Ianto's shoulders and nibbled at his ear.
Ianto blushed. "Jack! We'll be seen."
"The library's closed. We closed it. Remember?"
"I meant CCTV." Ianto nodded his head in the direction of a small camera.
"I might have tugged a cable loose on my way back from checking on Owen and Gwen a couple of hours ago. I really should be more careful."
"Yes," Ianto murmured, gasping a little at the way Jack's fingers felt in his hair. "You should."
Jack slid a hand into Ianto's suit jacket as their mouths came together, letting his thumb graze a nipple. Ianto responded in kind, clever fingers already working Jack's belt buckle, then the buttons of his trousers.
"Ianto, no."
Ianto gave him a questioning look. "But I thought --"
"Relax, Ianto. Let me."
Jack slid to his knees, undoing Ianto's belt on his way down. He kept eye contact as he wet his lips. Ianto's face was a little pink, his pupils already dilated. Jack ran his mouth lightly across the thin fabric of Ianto's dress trousers, sending Ianto into a fit of happy shudders. Jack undid the button and the zip and let the whole thing slip down to the ground.
"We should take breaks more often, sir," Ianto managed as Jack stroked and purred, teasing at the waistband of his briefs.
"You think so?"
Ianto swallowed and nodded, gripping onto the shelf behind him. Jack hoped it was bolted down.
Jack slid his fingers in under the elastic and eased it down past Ianto's bobbing cock. He licked his lips again before running the tip of his tongue just under the head, then slowly drawing it up again. He made sure to look back up at Ianto's face, watching the younger man's lashes flutter a little and his lips part.
"God you're beautiful." Jack let his left hand rest on Ianto's hip, gripping it lightly. With the other, he began to stroke slowly but purposefully. He watched as Ianto's hips and breath took on that rhythm. He smiled up at Ianto and took him in, still mostly dressed. Jack thought about how the two of them would return to work soon, and how erotic it would be to still have Ianto's taste on his lips.
Jack took Ianto into his mouth, still gripping and rubbing at the base in the same rhythm as before. He let his tongue move just out of time with the rest of his mouth, something he knew could shatter Ianto's willpower in seconds. There was a shudder in the younger man's movements now. It was rawer, more desperate. He was mouthing Jack's name. And god, was he close. Jack closed his eyes and took him in entirely.
With a growling whimper and an arrhythmic jerk that bordered on a convulsion, Ianto came in Jack's mouth. He tasted of coffee and other things, and it numbed Jack's tongue a little bit. Jack licked and sucked him clean (resulting in more gratifying, throaty noises) before tucking him back into his briefs, then standing up and kissing him.
"Ugh. Is that what I taste like?" Ianto half-laughed against Jack's mouth. "It's awful."
"It's fantastic," Jack smirked and kissed him again hard.
"Liar."
Jack craned his neck to the left. He held Ianto tight against his chest, securing him there. "Shh."
"What?" Ianto's back stiffened.
"Something's here. Can you hear it?"
"Like a humming?"
"No. Like singing."
Jack watched as Ianto closed his eyes. "The shelf. Right behind me." Ianto ran his fingers along the brightly colored paperbacks. "I can feel it here. Right here."
Ianto pulled a battered pink and blue large print book from the shelf. Taped to the inside cover was a thrumming metal disc.
"Tosh?" Ianto tapped at his earpiece. "I think I've got the rest of our numbers."
# # #
Jack gently inserted the final fragment, then sat back to watch as the device began to glow.
"It's beautiful," Tosh gasped.
"Is it safe?" Gwen watched the thing intently as the disc began to spin and thrum. "I mean, should it be doing that?"
"She. Should she be doing that." Jack extended a finger to the light coming into being on his desk. Tendrils of glowing blue tasted at it. "And yes, she should. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Ja'la. And she says thank you."
"What is she?" Ianto was transfixed, and maybe a little frightened.
"She's an Argi. They're sort of telepathic and made of pure energy. Some races kidnap them because they give off positive psychic energy." Jack sighed contentedly and wiggled his fingers slowly. "Someone was trying to hide you, weren't they? Didn't want to give you up." Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
"And they were keeping her in that thing?" Tosh asked, eyeing the assembled alien machine.
"Pretty much." Jack nodded, then turned his eyes back to the Argi. "We release you, of course." The Argi rippled over Jack's hand.
"She says she wants a word with you in private, Ianto." Jack turned his eyes to the rest of the team and watched them file out. Gwen pulled the door closed behind her.
"How do I, uh, interface with her? I've never, ah --"
Jack smiled and took Ianto's hand. Blue light oscillated, took it in. Ianto inhaled, eyes wide. He felt the Argi all over, and through him. And her words were intoxicating.
"Jack?"
"Hmm?" Jack asked, clearly still blissed from his contact with the alien.
"Ja'la says you've given her permission. Permission to do what, exactly?"
"Well, uh," Jack raised a playful eyebrow. "How'd you like to have sex with a very grateful alien?"