(no subject)
Title/Prompt: Navigation
Author: Unmikely
Rating: PG
Warnings: Nada
Characters: Whole team, Jack/Ianto implied.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. It is all for fun.
Note: Late valentine's day story, written to fill a spot on my prompt table.
06.Navigation
It's not that Owen doesn't get enough abuse from the girls, it's just that in all honesty he loves the attention from them. He loves the arguments and the doubting. It allows him an extra bit of drama when he gets something exactly right.
Ianto's taken a different, and, naturally, quieter tack. Owen likes to remind them all, though they've never said otherwise, that he is a brilliant physician and scientist. And it's following these loud, often derogatory reminders, that Ianto likes to stand very close to the brilliant Dr. Harper. Because Ianto is tall. And Owen is not. Smiling politely down on Owen's head and agreeing with everything he has to say is a sort of twisted warfare that only Jack ever seems to pick up on.
Something strikes Owen about the navigation system they salvaged earlier in the day. Tosh spends hours trying to interface with it using a variety of energy forms, electric charges and light patterns, anything to get a reaction. She refuses to touch the artifact with her own hands, though it seems harmless. Jack swears if they can figure out how to turn it on, he'll be able to adapt it for monitoring uses. Gwen makes a remark about Jack's declining prowess at turning things on, and something clicks with Owen.
Snagging a passing Ianto by the elbow, Owen arranges the team, save Jack who is lurking somewhere in the back half of his office. He directs Tosh to her chair and Gwen into his own, before standing Ianto down the steps near the cog door.
“Okay watch this,” he announces, and places the shiny metal cube of the navigation system in Ianto's hesitant arms.
“I don't think this is a good idea,” starts Ianto. “Couldn't we try this with Jack first?”
Owen laughs. “Definitely not. Too many variables.”
Ianto fidgets uncomfortably for a while while Owen glances around, making sure everyone remains in their places.
“It's getting warm,” Ianto says nervously, only to be waved off.
“Ah, good. I was starting to worry you were too much a cold fish.” Owen ignores Ianto's look and projects a hushed instruction to Gwen. “Call Jack out here,” he says.
“Oi! Jack! Owen wants you,” Gwen bellows, without looking up from the magazine folded out across her desk. Ianto cringes, holding a potentially harmful alien artifact and wondering why Owen only just now thought it prudent to call in the immortal man. Jack swaggers to the doorway, leans against the frame and shoots a lascivious smile at Gwen.
“Well of course Owen wants...”
He's interrupted as a spiralling magenta beam surges out of the artifact in Ianto's hands and illuminates the centre of his chest. Tosh and Gwen startle to their feet and step as far away from the path of the pinkish light as they can manage and Owen looks on proudly. In the same space, Jack fires a glare at Owen and a concerned look at Ianto, who's mouth is dropped open, eyes wide.
“You okay?”
Ianto, relieved that the beam does not appear to be hurting the captain, shuts his mouth and nods slowly.
“You can probably set that down, then,” Jack informs him. Ianto does so, all too happy to set it on the floor and step away. The moment the box is out of his hands, the beam disappears as suddenly as it had appeared.
“Remember that thing we found in the drainage gutter in Splott? Looked like a big gray brick?” Owen crows, his voice on the brink of gleeful laughter.
Jack nods in understanding. “The Braxtonian navigation pulser. This must be an older model. I've never seen one like it before.”
Gwen looks confused and stares at the box near Ianto's feet. “So that beam was what exactly?”
Tosh smiles suddenly. “Braxtonian navigation! Connects two beings and delineates a path connecting them...”
“Via the power of attraction!” Owen finishes, clearly pleased with his discovery.
Jack's learing smile is back on his face and Gwen and Tosh share a look of “how adorable”. Ianto's face is roughly the same colour as the Braxtonian beam, but he manages to maintain a blank expression as he goes to stand closer to Owen. The rest of the team has gone silent, awaiting what is certain to be brutal revenge. But Ianto only stands close to Owen and looks down at him, bringing one hand up to pat the shorter man gently on the top of the head and wanders off.
“Owen?” Gwen asks after a moment. “When you took the device down to the weevil vaults for testing...”
Author: Unmikely
Rating: PG
Warnings: Nada
Characters: Whole team, Jack/Ianto implied.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. It is all for fun.
Note: Late valentine's day story, written to fill a spot on my prompt table.
06.Navigation
It's not that Owen doesn't get enough abuse from the girls, it's just that in all honesty he loves the attention from them. He loves the arguments and the doubting. It allows him an extra bit of drama when he gets something exactly right.
Ianto's taken a different, and, naturally, quieter tack. Owen likes to remind them all, though they've never said otherwise, that he is a brilliant physician and scientist. And it's following these loud, often derogatory reminders, that Ianto likes to stand very close to the brilliant Dr. Harper. Because Ianto is tall. And Owen is not. Smiling politely down on Owen's head and agreeing with everything he has to say is a sort of twisted warfare that only Jack ever seems to pick up on.
Something strikes Owen about the navigation system they salvaged earlier in the day. Tosh spends hours trying to interface with it using a variety of energy forms, electric charges and light patterns, anything to get a reaction. She refuses to touch the artifact with her own hands, though it seems harmless. Jack swears if they can figure out how to turn it on, he'll be able to adapt it for monitoring uses. Gwen makes a remark about Jack's declining prowess at turning things on, and something clicks with Owen.
Snagging a passing Ianto by the elbow, Owen arranges the team, save Jack who is lurking somewhere in the back half of his office. He directs Tosh to her chair and Gwen into his own, before standing Ianto down the steps near the cog door.
“Okay watch this,” he announces, and places the shiny metal cube of the navigation system in Ianto's hesitant arms.
“I don't think this is a good idea,” starts Ianto. “Couldn't we try this with Jack first?”
Owen laughs. “Definitely not. Too many variables.”
Ianto fidgets uncomfortably for a while while Owen glances around, making sure everyone remains in their places.
“It's getting warm,” Ianto says nervously, only to be waved off.
“Ah, good. I was starting to worry you were too much a cold fish.” Owen ignores Ianto's look and projects a hushed instruction to Gwen. “Call Jack out here,” he says.
“Oi! Jack! Owen wants you,” Gwen bellows, without looking up from the magazine folded out across her desk. Ianto cringes, holding a potentially harmful alien artifact and wondering why Owen only just now thought it prudent to call in the immortal man. Jack swaggers to the doorway, leans against the frame and shoots a lascivious smile at Gwen.
“Well of course Owen wants...”
He's interrupted as a spiralling magenta beam surges out of the artifact in Ianto's hands and illuminates the centre of his chest. Tosh and Gwen startle to their feet and step as far away from the path of the pinkish light as they can manage and Owen looks on proudly. In the same space, Jack fires a glare at Owen and a concerned look at Ianto, who's mouth is dropped open, eyes wide.
“You okay?”
Ianto, relieved that the beam does not appear to be hurting the captain, shuts his mouth and nods slowly.
“You can probably set that down, then,” Jack informs him. Ianto does so, all too happy to set it on the floor and step away. The moment the box is out of his hands, the beam disappears as suddenly as it had appeared.
“Remember that thing we found in the drainage gutter in Splott? Looked like a big gray brick?” Owen crows, his voice on the brink of gleeful laughter.
Jack nods in understanding. “The Braxtonian navigation pulser. This must be an older model. I've never seen one like it before.”
Gwen looks confused and stares at the box near Ianto's feet. “So that beam was what exactly?”
Tosh smiles suddenly. “Braxtonian navigation! Connects two beings and delineates a path connecting them...”
“Via the power of attraction!” Owen finishes, clearly pleased with his discovery.
Jack's learing smile is back on his face and Gwen and Tosh share a look of “how adorable”. Ianto's face is roughly the same colour as the Braxtonian beam, but he manages to maintain a blank expression as he goes to stand closer to Owen. The rest of the team has gone silent, awaiting what is certain to be brutal revenge. But Ianto only stands close to Owen and looks down at him, bringing one hand up to pat the shorter man gently on the top of the head and wanders off.
“Owen?” Gwen asks after a moment. “When you took the device down to the weevil vaults for testing...”