Ficlet: Payback Is Sweet
Title: Payback Is Sweet
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Tosh, Owen, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Tosh has her own ways of striking back at Owen when he does something that upsets her.
Word Count: 679
Written For: My own prompt ‘Torchwood, Tosh, She has subtle ways of getting revenge when Owen hurts her,’ at fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
Tosh has never been the kind of person to make a scene; she prefers to keep her head down and get on with the business at hand, keeping her feelings to herself. She deals with things her own way, privately, rarely losing her temper and never giving in to the kind of histrionics that come so easily to Gwen. That’s a form of emotional manipulation, and to Tosh it’s both unseemly and embarrassing.
That’s not to say Tosh represses her emotions, that wouldn’t be healthy, but when she’s upset or angry, she tries not to burden others. Her colleagues have enough problems of their own without having to shoulder hers as well, so she’s not going to turn into a bawling mess in front of them. She’s independent, she’s learned to cope on her own, and while she’ll willingly accept and appreciate a hug when she’s feeling down, it’s not the end of the world if she doesn’t get one. She has other ways of making herself feel better.
Take Owen for instance. Tosh loves him, though she’d never admit it to his face, but he’s abrasive, thoughtless, completely tactless, and often deliberately hurtful, as if lashing out at others eases his own misery, and Tosh is often the one who bears the brunt.
She doesn’t yell at him though, or at least not often; it does nothing but make him gloat and taunt her further. She doesn’t burst into tears either, swallowing the hurt that she’ll give in to later, when she’s home and can wallow in private. She has other ways of dealing with his insensitivity; she gets revenge in ways that are both more subtle and more effective than a slap to the face, which she suspects Owen would almost enjoy if only because he succeeded in making her lose her cool.
Tosh is the queen of the computers, the expert in all areas when it comes to the Hub’s systems, and she can hack any other computer, given enough time. Owen’s laptop is simplicity itself, she doesn’t have to expend any effort whatsoever since she’s the one who set up the security on it. So, if his porn collection gets deleted, or if he goes to play one of his games only to discover he’s been locked out? Well, he wastes too much time on both when he should be working.
If he finds himself subscribed to self-help videos that he can’t turn off? Maybe something will sink in; his personality could stand a little improvement.
If his iPod playlist somehow gets switched to a mix of Abba, Barry Manilow, and the BeeGees? These things happen; so much is digitised these days, and besides, listening to the same thing all the time must get boring. Variety is the spice of life.
If his phone automatically dials the speaking clock every five minutes? Well, it’s important for him to know the time since he’s so often late for everything.
If his SatNav starts speaking Welsh to him, or Japanese, or seems to think he’s in New York or Tokyo instead of Cardiff? Modern gadgets have some strange quirks, and SatNavs have never been a hundred percent reliable anyway.
As for Owen having to call Ianto to let him into the Hub because his key card no longer works… To be fair, she asked Ianto’s permission before implementing that one; she wouldn’t add to his workload unless he was okay with it.
Then there’s the wallpaper and screensaver on Owen’s work computer… CCTV gives Tosh unlimited access to all Owen’s ‘finest’ moments, like the day he got his head stuck in that dead alien’s oversized mouth, and she’s saved them all for just such occasions.
Whenever anything goes wrong with one of Owen’s devices, the only person who can fix it is Tosh, and she’ll only do it for a price. Tosh thinks she might be the only member of the team who ever gets an apology from Owen. It gives her some small hope for him. Maybe one day he’ll learn not to mess with her.
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Tosh, Owen, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Tosh has her own ways of striking back at Owen when he does something that upsets her.
Word Count: 679
Written For: My own prompt ‘Torchwood, Tosh, She has subtle ways of getting revenge when Owen hurts her,’ at fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
Tosh has never been the kind of person to make a scene; she prefers to keep her head down and get on with the business at hand, keeping her feelings to herself. She deals with things her own way, privately, rarely losing her temper and never giving in to the kind of histrionics that come so easily to Gwen. That’s a form of emotional manipulation, and to Tosh it’s both unseemly and embarrassing.
That’s not to say Tosh represses her emotions, that wouldn’t be healthy, but when she’s upset or angry, she tries not to burden others. Her colleagues have enough problems of their own without having to shoulder hers as well, so she’s not going to turn into a bawling mess in front of them. She’s independent, she’s learned to cope on her own, and while she’ll willingly accept and appreciate a hug when she’s feeling down, it’s not the end of the world if she doesn’t get one. She has other ways of making herself feel better.
Take Owen for instance. Tosh loves him, though she’d never admit it to his face, but he’s abrasive, thoughtless, completely tactless, and often deliberately hurtful, as if lashing out at others eases his own misery, and Tosh is often the one who bears the brunt.
She doesn’t yell at him though, or at least not often; it does nothing but make him gloat and taunt her further. She doesn’t burst into tears either, swallowing the hurt that she’ll give in to later, when she’s home and can wallow in private. She has other ways of dealing with his insensitivity; she gets revenge in ways that are both more subtle and more effective than a slap to the face, which she suspects Owen would almost enjoy if only because he succeeded in making her lose her cool.
Tosh is the queen of the computers, the expert in all areas when it comes to the Hub’s systems, and she can hack any other computer, given enough time. Owen’s laptop is simplicity itself, she doesn’t have to expend any effort whatsoever since she’s the one who set up the security on it. So, if his porn collection gets deleted, or if he goes to play one of his games only to discover he’s been locked out? Well, he wastes too much time on both when he should be working.
If he finds himself subscribed to self-help videos that he can’t turn off? Maybe something will sink in; his personality could stand a little improvement.
If his iPod playlist somehow gets switched to a mix of Abba, Barry Manilow, and the BeeGees? These things happen; so much is digitised these days, and besides, listening to the same thing all the time must get boring. Variety is the spice of life.
If his phone automatically dials the speaking clock every five minutes? Well, it’s important for him to know the time since he’s so often late for everything.
If his SatNav starts speaking Welsh to him, or Japanese, or seems to think he’s in New York or Tokyo instead of Cardiff? Modern gadgets have some strange quirks, and SatNavs have never been a hundred percent reliable anyway.
As for Owen having to call Ianto to let him into the Hub because his key card no longer works… To be fair, she asked Ianto’s permission before implementing that one; she wouldn’t add to his workload unless he was okay with it.
Then there’s the wallpaper and screensaver on Owen’s work computer… CCTV gives Tosh unlimited access to all Owen’s ‘finest’ moments, like the day he got his head stuck in that dead alien’s oversized mouth, and she’s saved them all for just such occasions.
Whenever anything goes wrong with one of Owen’s devices, the only person who can fix it is Tosh, and she’ll only do it for a price. Tosh thinks she might be the only member of the team who ever gets an apology from Owen. It gives her some small hope for him. Maybe one day he’ll learn not to mess with her.
The End