Torchwood: Sky is Everything (Toshiko/Ianto)
Title: Sky is Everything
Author: voleuse
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Toshiko/Ianto
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: You can almost forget what brought you here.
Notes: Pre-series
Toshiko would have liked to claim she was the first to arrive to the lab every morning, that she unlocked the rickety front door and undid the shutters, all the while sipping tea without scalding herself. More often than not, however, Ianto would already be there when the doors slid open for her. He'd be straightening unused gels in the cabinet, or shining the metal bits on her collection of microscopes. She brought him blueberry scones, every once in a while. She was fairly sure he never ate them, aside from that first, courteous nibble, but anybody who defragged her hard drive that close to dawn deserved some sort of tribute.
One morning, she brought cranberry instead of blueberry, and found herself frowning as she handed it to him. "They ran out before I arrived," she apologized. "It's rubbish. I'm sorry."
"Not at all." Ianto smiled at her as he took the proffered pastry. It was that blank, stranger-in-an-elevator smile that drove her nuts. "Thank you." He broke off the corner of it, and the morsel brushed against his lower lip as he took the bite.
She watched him, setting her laptop on her desk blindly. "You don't have to be polite all the time, you know."
"I don't know what you mean." The tip of his tongue darted out, swept the final crumb from his lip.
Toshiko turned, punched the power-save button on her printer. "If you're not interested, you don't need to pretend."
"Tosh." He sounded, at that moment, like a person instead of an automaton.
She spun around, almost surprised, and found herself subject to Ianto's actual grin.
Then the doors slid open again, and Suzie and Owen stumbled in laughing, and before Toshiko could blink, Ianto was turning away.
###
A/N: Title and summary adapted from Carl Phillips' Pleasure. Link courtesy of breathe_poetry.
Author: voleuse
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Toshiko/Ianto
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: You can almost forget what brought you here.
Notes: Pre-series
Toshiko would have liked to claim she was the first to arrive to the lab every morning, that she unlocked the rickety front door and undid the shutters, all the while sipping tea without scalding herself. More often than not, however, Ianto would already be there when the doors slid open for her. He'd be straightening unused gels in the cabinet, or shining the metal bits on her collection of microscopes. She brought him blueberry scones, every once in a while. She was fairly sure he never ate them, aside from that first, courteous nibble, but anybody who defragged her hard drive that close to dawn deserved some sort of tribute.
One morning, she brought cranberry instead of blueberry, and found herself frowning as she handed it to him. "They ran out before I arrived," she apologized. "It's rubbish. I'm sorry."
"Not at all." Ianto smiled at her as he took the proffered pastry. It was that blank, stranger-in-an-elevator smile that drove her nuts. "Thank you." He broke off the corner of it, and the morsel brushed against his lower lip as he took the bite.
She watched him, setting her laptop on her desk blindly. "You don't have to be polite all the time, you know."
"I don't know what you mean." The tip of his tongue darted out, swept the final crumb from his lip.
Toshiko turned, punched the power-save button on her printer. "If you're not interested, you don't need to pretend."
"Tosh." He sounded, at that moment, like a person instead of an automaton.
She spun around, almost surprised, and found herself subject to Ianto's actual grin.
Then the doors slid open again, and Suzie and Owen stumbled in laughing, and before Toshiko could blink, Ianto was turning away.
###
A/N: Title and summary adapted from Carl Phillips' Pleasure. Link courtesy of breathe_poetry.