Torchwood // Someone in the Kitchen with Ianto's Tea Cup
Title: Someone in the Kitchen with Ianto's Tea Cup
Author: Sarah
Rating: PG13
Words: 2,131
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Characters: Owen, Gwen, Tosh
Summary: When Ianto's favorite tea cup goes missing, he conducts a little investigation to figure out what happened to it.
Notes: Written for Challenge #27 at horizonssing.
Disclaimer: I don't own a thing.
Ianto stood in the hub’s kitchen searching through the cabinets as the coffee maker whirred and the tea kettle on the stove began to whistle. Four mugs were set on the counter, but something was missing -- Ianto’s mug. He was very particular, always drinking his afternoon tea in the same cup. It was a simple mug, pale blue with a dark blue double eighth note centered next to the handle on the right side. It was a gift he received from his band teacher upon graduation and despite the fact that he hasn’t picked up a clarinet in over four years, the mug had a sort of sentimental value that he liked, so he still used the mug all the time. Everyone knew it was his, so he didn’t understand why it would have gone missing. Besides, on most occasions, he was the only one to prepare the coffee and tea, therefore deciding which cup went to which team member.
He abandoned his search as the kettle began whistling, quickly turning off the burner and moving the kettle onto the counter. Ianto poured a third of the water in the kettle into the red flowery mug Gwen liked, another third into the black mug reserved for Owen, and set the kettle down saving the last of the hot water for himself. He walked over to the coffee maker and seeing it was done, poured it into the remaining mugs. Half in the white mug with the dragon fly for Jack and half in the silver cup for Tosh. After adding the appropriate amount of sugar and cream in each mug, he set them on a tray and left the kitchen to deliver the drinks to his co-workers.
“Thanks, Ianto,” they each muttered as they took their drinks from the tray as he walked by.
After he made his rounds, he stood at the top of the steps to make his announcement. He cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “There seems to be a little issue with the kitchenware. I’ll be conducting interviews in my office to settle the matter and until it’s sorted out, there will be no more tea or coffee made by me, so enjoy the cup you’ve got now. Thank you.” He turned to leave, but Owen stopped him.
“Wait, since when have you got an office?”
“The kitchen,” he clarified. “Jack, you’re first,” he said as he disappeared back into the kitchen.
The remaining team members looked at each, obviously completely confused about what sort of issues Ianto was having with the kitchenware and why it involved the rest of Torchwood Three.
Jack just shrugged his shoulders and followed the tea boy into the kitchen to see what was going on. When he entered the other room, Ianto was sitting at the small table with his legs crossed and a very serious look about his face.
“Take a seat,” Ianto instructed, gesturing towards the other chair. Jack obliged, but he didn’t say anything; he just glanced ahead at the other man waiting for him to explain why he was conducting some sort of investigation. “Something has gone missing.”
“What has?”
“My blue tea mug,” he explained, “the one with the music notes.”
Jack shrugged.
“Well, just a few questions,” he began his investigation. “I last used it yesterday at four, washed it along with the ones Owen and Gwen always use, and placed all three back in the cupboard. Yours and Tosh’s hadn’t been returned yet, but both were in the sink this morning when I arrived.”
“So you want me to start doing my own dishes?” Jack asked with a laugh.
Ianto didn’t crack. “No, sir. I just want to know if you know what happened to it. Did you see it when you put yours in the sink?”
“Ianto, have you ever seen me put a dish in the sink ever?” Jack asked.
“Point taken,” Ianto replied.
“I left it on my desk,” he replied. “Tosh must have grabbed it for me when she put hers in. And I was in my office working on the latest Weevil readings, so it couldn’t have been me. I have an alibi.” He smiled.
This time, Ianto returned it. “Thank you, sir. Send in Owen next.” As Jack stood up to leave, Ianto began scribbling something on the legal pad on the table in front of him. “Jack in his office with the Weevil readings,” he read aloud after he wrote it.
Owen walked in a minute later, visibly annoyed as he plopped himself into the chair across from Ianto. “All right, what’s going on?”
“My favorite mug has gone missing,” Ianto explained, describing the cup and mentioning when and where he last saw it.
“So can’t you just use another one?” he asked. “There are about thirty different mugs in there.”
“That’s not the point,” Ianto explained. “I like that one, it means something to me, and that’s my tea mug.”
“Well, I guess you’ll have to get a new one.”
“Don’t you like how your coffee is in the same mug every time? After awhile it soaks in the flavor.”
“Really? I didn’t notice.”
“Your coffee is in the same black mug every morning and every afternoon.”
“Honestly, Ianto,” Owen explained, “as long as the caffeine is getting in my blood somehow, I don’t care what my cup looks like.”
“Right,” Ianto replied, “your morning coffee in an old boot then?”
“Oy, that’s not what I meant.”
“Just tell me what you did after four and if you were in the kitchen.”
“I left at 4:30,” Owen replied. “Jack gave me the night off, said I needed a break or something. Dunno what he’s talking about. Went to the bar.”
“So you weren’t in the kitchen at all?”
“Well, no,” he replied. “I did come in here round quarter past for some of those little biscuits with the sprinkles.”
“Did you eat the last of them?” Ianto asked, very seriously.
“I think so, yeah,” he replied.
Ianto nodded, jotting something down on his legal pad. “Another mystery solved.”
“They were quite good,” Owen rambled on about the snacks. “Make sure you pick up more next time you run to the food store.”
Ianto nodded. “Thanks Owen. You’re done. Gwen next.”
Owen stood up, mumbling under his breath about the five minutes he had just wasted that he’d never get back.
Ianto began writing down more notes while he waited for Gwen to come back. “Owen at the bar with strange women.”
“What is it, Ianto?” Gwen asked, taking a seat across from him.
He explained the tea cup situation for a third time before asking Gwen’s whereabouts on the previous afternoon.
“Well, you took my cup after I finished it, so I had no reason to come back here,” she began. “Then Jack asked me to look over the Weevil readings, which I did at my desk until just after 6:00 and then I went home. Rhys can account for me being home, if you’re taking this that seriously.”
“No, no, I trust you,” Ianto replied. “You said Jack asked you to look over the Weevil readings?”
“Yeah, about fifteen minutes after you collected my mug, he dropped the files on my desk and disappeared towards the upstairs. I just figured he was heading for his office.”
Ianto nodded, jotting down more scribble. “Thanks Gwen. Could you send Tosh in?”
“Sure,” she said as she stood up to leave.
“Gwen at her desk with the Weevil readings.”
Tosh walked in, taking a seat. She smiled at Ianto as she waited for him to begin his questioning. Owen had already told her what Ianto was looking for and she was a little worried that her slow coffee drinking ritual made her a prime suspect.
After explaining about the mug, he asked for Tosh’s alibi.
“Well, it was about 5:00 when I finished my coffee,” she began. “I took my mug into the kitchen and left it in the sink. Sorry I didn’t wash it, I was in a hurry. Jack said I could head out early and I was going to meet a friend at a new restaurant. But I spent most of the afternoon at my desk trying to perfect my new tracking software. You saw me, remember? Asked me how it was coming along.”
“Right,” he replied. “And no worries about your dishes,” he added with a smile. “It’s amazing how no one knows what happened to it.”
“I’m sorry Ianto,” she replied.
“That’s all right,” he replied as he began to write on his legal pad.
But as Tosh stood to go, a light bulb went off in his head. “Just a second,” he stopped her.
“Yes?”
“Did you say you picked up Jack’s mug on your way to the kitchen?”
Tosh shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”
“Thanks Tosh,” he said as she left. “Tosh at her desk with the tracking software.”
He sat, perplexed, at the small table in the hub’s little kitchen. Looking over his notes, there was only one alibi that didn’t add up and that was Jack’s. Not only did he lie about what he was doing, but he also fibbed about how his mug ended up back in the kitchen. He already knew the weapon and the location, but now the suspect was making himself known. The next trick was to get him to admit to it and uncover the fate of his tea cup.
Ianto stood up, walking out of the kitchen with his legal pad. “Excuse me,” he said, clearing his throat again to get everyone’s attention. “Yesterday, a sad sort of crime occurred. Someone was in the kitchen with my tea cup. You’ve all given me alibis and I’ve come to suspect one of you.”
“Bloody hell,” Owen muttered from the medical bay. “I just ate the damn biscuits; I didn’t steal your mug.”
“Not you, Owen,” Ianto clarified from above. “I have no doubt that your alibi of being at a pub would check out if it you knew the name of the woman you met last night.”
Owen blushed a bit, but he knew Ianto was right.
“I also have every confidence that Gwen was in fact checking the Weevil reports for Jack and the only mug Tosh returned to the kitchen was her own. Jack?” He turned to his boss with his eyebrows raised.
Jack laughed from his perch on Gwen’s desk. “You caught me.”
“Well, can I have it back?”
“Eventually,” he replied coyly. “All right, everyone, go home. Take an early day and get some rest. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Except Ianto, you stay.”
The other three team members finished what they had been working on and gathered their things, saying their goodbyes as they exited the hub on a rare early day off. When they were gone, an angry Ianto stood with his arms crossed glaring at Jack.
“Well? Was there a point to this?”
“Yes, actually,” Jack replied, walking towards the scowling tea boy. “I took your mug from the cupboard last night when I put mine in the sink and hid it somewhere in my office.”
“May I ask why?”
“Because I enjoy playing games when we’re alone in the hub.”
“Well, isn’t this a fun one,” he replied sarcastically. “May I have it back please?”
“Sure,” Jack replied. “But you’ve got to play my game first.”
Ianto sighed. “Fine.”
Jack had concocted an interesting set of rules for his own version of hide and seek. Every time Ianto looked somewhere wrong, he had to remove an article of clothing.
“So this is all just a ploy to get me naked?” Ianto asked with a grin this time.
“Do you want to play?”
Ianto walked over to Jack, wrapping his fingers around the belt loops of Jack’s trousers, pulling the man close to him. “Only if you give me hints.”
“And how would that work?”
“You start taking off your clothes as I get closer,” he replied. “And when I find it, you have to make me tea.”
Jack laughed, pressing his lips against Ianto’s. “You’re on.”
By the time Ianto had finally found his blue music note tea cup under a pile of boxes wrapped in old newspaper, both he and Jack were very naked.
“You know,” Ianto said later, as the two men lay in each other’s arms on the floor of Jack’s office with their own mug of hot tea in hand, “there are much easier ways to get me naked.”
Jack smiled. “But none have been quite as fun as this one.”
Cuddling closer into Jack’s neck, Ianto agreed. And his tea had never tasted sweeter than it did now in his favorite mug prepared by the one he loved.
Author: Sarah
Rating: PG13
Words: 2,131
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Characters: Owen, Gwen, Tosh
Summary: When Ianto's favorite tea cup goes missing, he conducts a little investigation to figure out what happened to it.
Notes: Written for Challenge #27 at horizonssing.
Disclaimer: I don't own a thing.
Ianto stood in the hub’s kitchen searching through the cabinets as the coffee maker whirred and the tea kettle on the stove began to whistle. Four mugs were set on the counter, but something was missing -- Ianto’s mug. He was very particular, always drinking his afternoon tea in the same cup. It was a simple mug, pale blue with a dark blue double eighth note centered next to the handle on the right side. It was a gift he received from his band teacher upon graduation and despite the fact that he hasn’t picked up a clarinet in over four years, the mug had a sort of sentimental value that he liked, so he still used the mug all the time. Everyone knew it was his, so he didn’t understand why it would have gone missing. Besides, on most occasions, he was the only one to prepare the coffee and tea, therefore deciding which cup went to which team member.
He abandoned his search as the kettle began whistling, quickly turning off the burner and moving the kettle onto the counter. Ianto poured a third of the water in the kettle into the red flowery mug Gwen liked, another third into the black mug reserved for Owen, and set the kettle down saving the last of the hot water for himself. He walked over to the coffee maker and seeing it was done, poured it into the remaining mugs. Half in the white mug with the dragon fly for Jack and half in the silver cup for Tosh. After adding the appropriate amount of sugar and cream in each mug, he set them on a tray and left the kitchen to deliver the drinks to his co-workers.
“Thanks, Ianto,” they each muttered as they took their drinks from the tray as he walked by.
After he made his rounds, he stood at the top of the steps to make his announcement. He cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “There seems to be a little issue with the kitchenware. I’ll be conducting interviews in my office to settle the matter and until it’s sorted out, there will be no more tea or coffee made by me, so enjoy the cup you’ve got now. Thank you.” He turned to leave, but Owen stopped him.
“Wait, since when have you got an office?”
“The kitchen,” he clarified. “Jack, you’re first,” he said as he disappeared back into the kitchen.
The remaining team members looked at each, obviously completely confused about what sort of issues Ianto was having with the kitchenware and why it involved the rest of Torchwood Three.
Jack just shrugged his shoulders and followed the tea boy into the kitchen to see what was going on. When he entered the other room, Ianto was sitting at the small table with his legs crossed and a very serious look about his face.
“Take a seat,” Ianto instructed, gesturing towards the other chair. Jack obliged, but he didn’t say anything; he just glanced ahead at the other man waiting for him to explain why he was conducting some sort of investigation. “Something has gone missing.”
“What has?”
“My blue tea mug,” he explained, “the one with the music notes.”
Jack shrugged.
“Well, just a few questions,” he began his investigation. “I last used it yesterday at four, washed it along with the ones Owen and Gwen always use, and placed all three back in the cupboard. Yours and Tosh’s hadn’t been returned yet, but both were in the sink this morning when I arrived.”
“So you want me to start doing my own dishes?” Jack asked with a laugh.
Ianto didn’t crack. “No, sir. I just want to know if you know what happened to it. Did you see it when you put yours in the sink?”
“Ianto, have you ever seen me put a dish in the sink ever?” Jack asked.
“Point taken,” Ianto replied.
“I left it on my desk,” he replied. “Tosh must have grabbed it for me when she put hers in. And I was in my office working on the latest Weevil readings, so it couldn’t have been me. I have an alibi.” He smiled.
This time, Ianto returned it. “Thank you, sir. Send in Owen next.” As Jack stood up to leave, Ianto began scribbling something on the legal pad on the table in front of him. “Jack in his office with the Weevil readings,” he read aloud after he wrote it.
Owen walked in a minute later, visibly annoyed as he plopped himself into the chair across from Ianto. “All right, what’s going on?”
“My favorite mug has gone missing,” Ianto explained, describing the cup and mentioning when and where he last saw it.
“So can’t you just use another one?” he asked. “There are about thirty different mugs in there.”
“That’s not the point,” Ianto explained. “I like that one, it means something to me, and that’s my tea mug.”
“Well, I guess you’ll have to get a new one.”
“Don’t you like how your coffee is in the same mug every time? After awhile it soaks in the flavor.”
“Really? I didn’t notice.”
“Your coffee is in the same black mug every morning and every afternoon.”
“Honestly, Ianto,” Owen explained, “as long as the caffeine is getting in my blood somehow, I don’t care what my cup looks like.”
“Right,” Ianto replied, “your morning coffee in an old boot then?”
“Oy, that’s not what I meant.”
“Just tell me what you did after four and if you were in the kitchen.”
“I left at 4:30,” Owen replied. “Jack gave me the night off, said I needed a break or something. Dunno what he’s talking about. Went to the bar.”
“So you weren’t in the kitchen at all?”
“Well, no,” he replied. “I did come in here round quarter past for some of those little biscuits with the sprinkles.”
“Did you eat the last of them?” Ianto asked, very seriously.
“I think so, yeah,” he replied.
Ianto nodded, jotting something down on his legal pad. “Another mystery solved.”
“They were quite good,” Owen rambled on about the snacks. “Make sure you pick up more next time you run to the food store.”
Ianto nodded. “Thanks Owen. You’re done. Gwen next.”
Owen stood up, mumbling under his breath about the five minutes he had just wasted that he’d never get back.
Ianto began writing down more notes while he waited for Gwen to come back. “Owen at the bar with strange women.”
“What is it, Ianto?” Gwen asked, taking a seat across from him.
He explained the tea cup situation for a third time before asking Gwen’s whereabouts on the previous afternoon.
“Well, you took my cup after I finished it, so I had no reason to come back here,” she began. “Then Jack asked me to look over the Weevil readings, which I did at my desk until just after 6:00 and then I went home. Rhys can account for me being home, if you’re taking this that seriously.”
“No, no, I trust you,” Ianto replied. “You said Jack asked you to look over the Weevil readings?”
“Yeah, about fifteen minutes after you collected my mug, he dropped the files on my desk and disappeared towards the upstairs. I just figured he was heading for his office.”
Ianto nodded, jotting down more scribble. “Thanks Gwen. Could you send Tosh in?”
“Sure,” she said as she stood up to leave.
“Gwen at her desk with the Weevil readings.”
Tosh walked in, taking a seat. She smiled at Ianto as she waited for him to begin his questioning. Owen had already told her what Ianto was looking for and she was a little worried that her slow coffee drinking ritual made her a prime suspect.
After explaining about the mug, he asked for Tosh’s alibi.
“Well, it was about 5:00 when I finished my coffee,” she began. “I took my mug into the kitchen and left it in the sink. Sorry I didn’t wash it, I was in a hurry. Jack said I could head out early and I was going to meet a friend at a new restaurant. But I spent most of the afternoon at my desk trying to perfect my new tracking software. You saw me, remember? Asked me how it was coming along.”
“Right,” he replied. “And no worries about your dishes,” he added with a smile. “It’s amazing how no one knows what happened to it.”
“I’m sorry Ianto,” she replied.
“That’s all right,” he replied as he began to write on his legal pad.
But as Tosh stood to go, a light bulb went off in his head. “Just a second,” he stopped her.
“Yes?”
“Did you say you picked up Jack’s mug on your way to the kitchen?”
Tosh shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”
“Thanks Tosh,” he said as she left. “Tosh at her desk with the tracking software.”
He sat, perplexed, at the small table in the hub’s little kitchen. Looking over his notes, there was only one alibi that didn’t add up and that was Jack’s. Not only did he lie about what he was doing, but he also fibbed about how his mug ended up back in the kitchen. He already knew the weapon and the location, but now the suspect was making himself known. The next trick was to get him to admit to it and uncover the fate of his tea cup.
Ianto stood up, walking out of the kitchen with his legal pad. “Excuse me,” he said, clearing his throat again to get everyone’s attention. “Yesterday, a sad sort of crime occurred. Someone was in the kitchen with my tea cup. You’ve all given me alibis and I’ve come to suspect one of you.”
“Bloody hell,” Owen muttered from the medical bay. “I just ate the damn biscuits; I didn’t steal your mug.”
“Not you, Owen,” Ianto clarified from above. “I have no doubt that your alibi of being at a pub would check out if it you knew the name of the woman you met last night.”
Owen blushed a bit, but he knew Ianto was right.
“I also have every confidence that Gwen was in fact checking the Weevil reports for Jack and the only mug Tosh returned to the kitchen was her own. Jack?” He turned to his boss with his eyebrows raised.
Jack laughed from his perch on Gwen’s desk. “You caught me.”
“Well, can I have it back?”
“Eventually,” he replied coyly. “All right, everyone, go home. Take an early day and get some rest. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Except Ianto, you stay.”
The other three team members finished what they had been working on and gathered their things, saying their goodbyes as they exited the hub on a rare early day off. When they were gone, an angry Ianto stood with his arms crossed glaring at Jack.
“Well? Was there a point to this?”
“Yes, actually,” Jack replied, walking towards the scowling tea boy. “I took your mug from the cupboard last night when I put mine in the sink and hid it somewhere in my office.”
“May I ask why?”
“Because I enjoy playing games when we’re alone in the hub.”
“Well, isn’t this a fun one,” he replied sarcastically. “May I have it back please?”
“Sure,” Jack replied. “But you’ve got to play my game first.”
Ianto sighed. “Fine.”
Jack had concocted an interesting set of rules for his own version of hide and seek. Every time Ianto looked somewhere wrong, he had to remove an article of clothing.
“So this is all just a ploy to get me naked?” Ianto asked with a grin this time.
“Do you want to play?”
Ianto walked over to Jack, wrapping his fingers around the belt loops of Jack’s trousers, pulling the man close to him. “Only if you give me hints.”
“And how would that work?”
“You start taking off your clothes as I get closer,” he replied. “And when I find it, you have to make me tea.”
Jack laughed, pressing his lips against Ianto’s. “You’re on.”
By the time Ianto had finally found his blue music note tea cup under a pile of boxes wrapped in old newspaper, both he and Jack were very naked.
“You know,” Ianto said later, as the two men lay in each other’s arms on the floor of Jack’s office with their own mug of hot tea in hand, “there are much easier ways to get me naked.”
Jack smiled. “But none have been quite as fun as this one.”
Cuddling closer into Jack’s neck, Ianto agreed. And his tea had never tasted sweeter than it did now in his favorite mug prepared by the one he loved.