TW: Underhanded Tactics, Chapter III [T-M]
Fandom:
Torchwood
Title:
Underhanded Tactics
Chapter III:
Playtime Begins
In which Ianto starts flirting with Tosh, and a new element of their game starts to develop.
Author:
lt_indigo
Pairing(s):
Jack/Ianto(/Tosh)
Warning(s):
Sexually frustrating cut-scene at the end.
Disclamer:
Still not mine, and probably never will be.
Word count:
1,514
Author's note:
Sorry about the delay - my grandparents' have yet to embrace the idea of the internet. And damn their neighbour who used to have an unlocked wifi. The bonus for you guys is that you'll now be ahead of FF.net, because that really eats up the data, posting there!
back to Chapter II
on to Chapter IV
After calming Jack and his genetically engineered libido down by means of a blow job, they had fun plotting how they were going to play this 14. Jack had agreed that it would be more plausible if Ianto made the first move, as it were: everyone knew that he and Tosh were close, and it would be more noticeable if he were suddenly to become more intimate because of his natural reservedness.
So Ianto had spent two days being just a bit too forward with Tosh, lingering touches as he handed over her coffee, standing a little too close when they talked. When she had clicked, she called him over to check something on her computer. He leaned in close, a hand resting carelessly on her shoulder as she pointed to things on the screen - actually shoes she had been looking at online, along with a Janto production running in the bottom right-hand corner. Spotting that, his lips had found her ear.
“You naughty, naughty girl,” he whispered, full of affection and laughter. His hand moved to the nape of her neck and massaged gently. “You’ll give Jack ideas if you insist on watching that.”
“So, do you think there’s a pattern?” she asked, loud enough for everyone else to hear her.
Ianto gave a cursory glance at her shoes, trying not to laugh. She was pointing at a leopard-print pair that were definitely not her.
“It’s difficult to say,” he said. “I think we need some more data. Why don’t I get us a couple of coffees and we’ll work on it together?”
He straightened, turned, and was glad to see that Gwen was staring.
“Would you like a cup too?” he asked, giving her a friendly little smile. This was just like with Jack at the beginning, when they had pretended nothing was going on. This was something he could do, and would enjoy using his ill-gotten skills for good 15.
She blinked her enormous eyes, as if trying to persuade herself she hadn’t just seen what she thought she had. “Er, yes please.”
Ianto looked up as he turned his back on the two women. Jack was watching him silently from the balcony. He was doing a good impression of looking thoughtful and brooding, possibly even betrayed, his brow furrowed at Ianto. Right up until he winked. It was clearly an act for Gwen, who was currently staring at Tosh, trying to work out what the hell had just gone on. This was going to be far too enjoyable if they got to mess with Gwen as well as make Owen jealous 16.
He made the coffee, delivered a mug to everyone (including and especially Jack, who gave him a thorough snogging), and sat down next to Tosh, perpetrating the ruse. In reality, he sat and finished off some half-complete catalogue entries whilst he pinged IMs back and forth to both Tosh and Jack. The last one to Tosh suggested that she should follow him down to the archives after a suitably suspicious interval.
.oOo.
Tosh was trying so hard not to laugh as Ianto waylaid her, half in the line of sight of a CCTV camera, en route to the archives.
“She’ll tell him, won’t she?” Ianto pulled her into his arms, brushing his thumb against her cheek and smiling.
“Oh yes,” Tosh assured him, leaning into his embrace. “She’ll tell him, because she’ll need to tell someone, and it can’t be you, me or Jack.”
“Excellent. Now, Dr Sato, I do believe we have a potential audience to entertain.” He ducked his head and she met his lips eagerly. She had spent the last two days recalling the kisses her boys had given her. She told herself it was because it had been the first time she had been kissed since Mary, but in reality, the kiss she had gotten from Ianto had been the best of her life. Until Jack had swept her into his arms, that was.
He was good at this, Tosh mused. Why were all the good ones taken and/or gay? Or in this instance bi but completely besotted with each other?
She was a bit more adventurous this time, she allowed her hands to thread themselves into his thick, curly hair. She hoped someone was watching, even if it was just Jack. While she knew they were both fine with this idea, Ianto had confided that Jack, when jealous, was extremely possessive. It resulted in spectacular sex, apparently. So she endeavoured to make Jack’s possessiveness come out just as much as Owen’s jealousy. She couldn’t help herself with those two, she would always be their matchmaker 17.
She sighed when they parted. “If only you’d been a bit older,” she said, caressing his face tenderly. “And I wasn’t already obsessed with Owen, of course.”
“If only I’d been single,” Ianto replied, his eyes warm with affection. “But things are the way they are. You want Owen, I want Jack. Making them both green with envy serves both our purposes.”
The scamp; he had known exactly what Tosh had been thinking!
“I think you might be adding to your film collection later,” he whispered in her ear. “I really do need to go down to the archives now. You should go back up. I think a secret snog is enough to start out with.”
Tosh disagreed, she pulled Ianto back down, gave him a long, tender kiss.
“Now it’s enough,” she said. She turned away, looked back longingly and started to return to the main Hub, straightening her blouse and hair in full view of the cameras.
.oOo.
"You have no idea how hard it has been to keep my hands to myself all day, watching you with Tosh."
From his vantage point of having his back pressed to the glass wall of Jack's office and Jack pressed to his front, Ianto actually had a very good idea. But even if Jack hadn't been all over him like a rash the instant they were alone:
"Really? No idea?"
Jack had his pheromones, Ianto had the perfect counter. Judicious application of The Eyebrows ensured a compliant and generally agreeable Jack 18.
"Okay, maybe a bit of an idea, but you knew that about me going into this."
"Tosh means the world to me, but it will never be... whatever this is." He palmed Jack through his trousers. "Let me make up for teasing you all day."
Jack's eyes widened as Ianto pulled his stopwatch out. It was a favourite game by now: Ianto would see how long he could tease Jack before he either came or turned the tables. His times had reduced dramatically since Ianto had had to throw the handcuffs away 19, because now he always snapped, reset the watch, and enjoyed watching his patient Welshman come apart under him instead.
14 And Ianto had to persuade Jack that, just because she hadn’t specifically specified it in her rules, it was unlikely that Tosh wanted him grabbing her breasts at inappropriate moments. Touching her bum in public was a little risqué, but not completely inappropriate. Touching her breasts was, even if it was just to wind Owen up.
15 Depending on one’s point of view, naturally. He didn’t suppose Owen would see this as being ‘good’. Not at first, anyway.
16 Not that Ianto disliked Gwen. She was good at her job, and she had led them reasonably well when Jack had been away, but she tended to treat him like a baby brother. Not just a little brother, like Tosh did, but one who needed coddling and watching constantly. She wasn’t that much older than him, not really, and he had much more experience with aliens than she did. That and he knew when not to push Jack, of course. Gwen didn’t seem to know when to stop on occasions, and that irritated the hell out of him just as much as it did Jack.
17 Purely for their sakes, of course. There was absolutely no vested interest in adding to her pornographic database at all. Not even a tiny bit.
18 Jack had, once, actually submitted paperwork in an attempt to classify Ianto’s eyebrows as a weapon, and therefore could only be checked out and used with his express permission. After he had laughed himself stupid at the sheer ridiculousness of the very idea, Ianto had been absolutely flabbergasted that Jack had actually done paperwork without being nagged about ten times. It had been framed for posterity, and was hanging in Ianto’s tiny office in the Archives. He was quite proud of it. Needless to say, however, Ianto had not actually bothered to properly file it, and did not intend to.
19 Jack Didn’t Talk about what happened while he was away, but Ianto wasn’t an idiot. The first time they had been a bit more adventurous, Jack had screamed his safe word as soon as he was restrained, and had trembled for hours afterwards. The cuffs had gone, as had every other restraining device in their toy box.
back to Chapter II
on to Chapter IV