Author's Note: "He cheats, he always cheats." Ianto's statement wouldn't get out of my head, so I had to write it out. Thanks for the fun mental image, show. ^_^ I thought I'd lost this, but found it while going through some of my zip drives a few days ago. Shame to let it go to waste so voila, new story!
[Written on December 5th of 2011; Edited 11/7/15]
"Night Shift"
Captain Jack Harkness stood in the front window of his office, looking down at his team as they prepared to leave for the night. It had been a quiet day, which was unusual, but if every day was doom and gloom, Jack knew there'd be no one left to help him manage the Rift that ran through the heart of Cardiff. Toshiko left her station with a bit of reluctance, grabbing her jacket and looking up at Jack for a moment, smiling. He waved at her, and she nodded, heading to the cog door that led to the front entrance. Gwen didn't even look back, just bounded out excitedly, no doubt eager to get back to have dinner with Rhys. It wasn't often she got off work early, and she deserved every second of free time. Out of everyone who frequented the Hub, Gwen was the only one who had a life outside of Torchwood.
Owen had already left half an hour ago, his stride full of purpose, taking some paperwork with him. He'd been examining an alien that Torchwood had recovered from the bay, who unfortunately hadn't survived the trip through the Rift. Owen had poured over the x-rays he'd taken from the body nearly the whole day. Ianto entered Jack's field of vision, and he smiled, watching the man wander from workstation to workstation, clearing up coffee mugs and refuse, which he tossed into a garage bag with a look of irritation. Ever the tea boy, Jack thought amused, enjoying the view when Ianto bent over to pick something up from the floor. As if suddenly aware he wasn't alone, Ianto turned, and watched Jack closely before rolling his eyes, continuing his work.
He tried his hardest to ignore Jack's gaze, but it felt like a hole was being bored into his back. Or rather lower places. Ianto chuckled to himself, and dumped the garage bag in the trash bin, reminding himself to take it out tomorrow. Footsteps on the stairway nearby made him jump, and Ianto ran a hand down his tie nervously, looking down at his suit to make sure it was still presentable after a long day of work. "No worries, Ianto, you look handsome as usual." Ianto allowed himself a small smile, and turned to face Jack, his image seeming incomplete. His greatcoat was gone, likely hanging in his office and the braces and dark blue shirt did nothing but compliment Jack's body. A body Ianto had seen bare more times than he cared to admit.
It was a strange thing, their relationship. He'd come to Torchwood Three with the intention to deceive but after the fallout with Lisa, something had changed in his and Jack's status quo. They had tiptoed around each other until Jack had been killed by Abaddon, and it had taken no thought at all for Ianto to agree to a date. There had been many of them now, most of which took place in the Hub, Jack's penchant for physical activities the main reason. Not that he minded, Ianto was only too glad to indulge his captain. Downright spoiled him if he was being honest with himself. Damn 51st century pheromones, Ianto thought, the smirk on Jack's face a sign he probably wasn't going home tonight.
"Interested in a game of hide and seek?" Ianto crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow. "How do you expect me to find you in a place you've frequented for more than a hundred years?" Jack laughed, his blue eyes taking a sudden shine. He leaned forward, a hand landing on Ianto's shoulder. "Oh, no, not that kind of hide and seek. Naked hide and seek." Ianto's heart rate doubled, his breath stuck in his throat. Prowling the Hub naked in the dark, knowing someone was looking for him, and when he was caught…"I'll take that as a yes." Jack's gaze had darkened, and his hands grabbed Ianto's tie, quickly undoing it.
He pulled it from Ianto's collar slowly while Ianto watched Jack's fingers, trying to distract himself. He should be talking, shouldn't he? There was no game if he couldn't even walk away properly. "Are there rules in this game of yours?" The end of the tie slipped away, and Jack stepped back, letting the tie fall to the floor. "Just one. No clothes by the time I find you. I trust you can handle the rest?" The boyish grin on Jack's face was infectious, and Ianto grinned back, darting in and kissing Jack quickly before running towards the lower levels to turn down the lights.
The captain had disappeared by the time he'd come back, and Ianto shouted into the near darkness while his hands worked at unbuttoning his suit jacket, "Ten minutes, okay? Less than that and I'll know you cheated somehow." Unsure of whether Jack had heard him, Ianto folded his suit jacket, and picked up his tie, setting them onto Toshiko's work desk.
The electronics situated throughout the Hub created a subtle hum, and the water in the sculpture basin trickled constantly, which Ianto hoped covered the sound of his footsteps as he crossed by the autopsy room. A shadow passed overhead, and he couldn't help but look up, seeing a hint of wing before the ancient dinosaur settled beyond the overhead lights. Ianto's shoes tapped against the metal floor loudly, and he winced, taking a moment to lean down and pull them off, leaving them underneath one side of the railing. He didn't want Jack to trip, did he? He was nowhere to be found at the moment, but Ianto was sure he was sitting in his office, watching the clock tick down the seconds, pleased his idea had come to fruition.
It felt strange in the silence around him, usually the sound of voices echoed in the vast base, team members working to figure out the next alien problem as they continually popped up. The Rift kept everyone busy, not to mention stressed. Ianto played it permanently cool, but even when his voice and face remained stoic, each time the team faced danger, his insides twisted and his palms sweat.
They wasn't infallible. Inevitably, Torchwood would fail to save the day, and he'd hopefully be there to pick up the pieces. At least, that's the way Ianto used to think. Nowadays, he was involved in missions outside the Hub, and actually contributed to the team's success. He felt needed in more ways than one. He shivered as his right hand gripped the metal railing, more than aware of how drafty the Hub was. Except for Jack, he spent the most time here out of everyone. Dinosaur waste certainly didn't clean itself up, did it? His thought process having gone that route, Ianto slipped his socks off, leaving them on the sofa near the cog door. He couldn't abide stains.
Movement in Jack's office, and Ianto backed up, narrowly avoiding banging his back against stone. How had he ever agreed to this? All because Jack had asked, and frankly, the suggestion had sent a tingle down his spine. Even now, huddled in a dark corner, the cold floor slowly leeching the heat from his bare feet, Ianto's breath trembled, his heartbeat a frantic thing in his chest. His dress shirt and trousers weren't doing much to keep him warm, and keeping true to the one and only rule in this game, Ianto undid his belt, keeping one hand around the metal clasp as it came undone, quietly pulling it off his waist, lying it over the railing near his head.
Footsteps made him pause, and Ianto closed his eyes and listened, straining his ears to get a hint of where Jack was located. His fingers closed around the stopwatch in his right hand, and making sure the LED glare of the watch face couldn't be seen from above, Ianto checked the time limit. He'd hit the stopwatch as soon as he'd gone to the basement to get the lights. There were three minutes to go, Jack was getting restless. Perhaps ten minutes had been too long? Keeping his hand on the stopwatch, it wasn't clothing after all, Ianto discarded his dress shirt near the Archives entrance. Jack would be on the prowl soon, slowly canvassing the Hub in search of him. It was that anticipation that excited him, and getting captured by the ever confident, sexually charged captain made the awkward state of his person bearable.
He was down to his trousers and briefs. If anyone walked into the Hub now, Ianto would never live the humiliation down. Surely, they knew of his and Jack's relationship, but the pair didn't exactly go for public displays of affections. Getting caught in this manner would be bad, really bad. Yet there was a tiny part of him that wanted exactly that. Scoffing at himself, feeling like Jack had been a terribly bad influence on his personality, Ianto crept towards the stairs that led to the Hot House, moving slowly, aware he was taking a huge risk. If Jack heard him open the Hot House door, the game was over before it even started.
The humidity hit him like a ton of bricks as he entered the Hot House, and Ianto couldn't get his trousers off fast enough, keeping his body low to avoid casting a shadow. "Now I just look like a twat, don't I?" he muttered to himself, reluctantly shedding his briefs, folding them and laying them onto a chair in the corner. There was all manner of foliage to hide Ianto here, but this would be the first place Jack would look. The stopwatch in his hand went past ten minutes, and Ianto held his breath as Jack's office door opened, his boots thudding against the floor.
The footsteps continued past the Hot House, and Ianto breathed out a shaky breath, creeping to the door to watch Jack go down the stairs, his braces undone, bouncing slightly against the back of his legs. He stopped on the main platform, his head sweeping right to left, stopping at the sight of Ianto's tie and suit jacket on Toshiko's desk. Jack consulted his wrist strap, flipping open the leather easily, focused on whatever readings were displayed. Ianto would have called that cheating, but he wasn't exactly letting go of his stopwatch, was he?
Startled when Jack rushed to the entrance to the Archives, Ianto jumped, brushing against a giant purple fern plant nearby, hoping Jack hadn't heard him. Relieved beyond words when Jack continued into the Archives themselves, Ianto stood and left the Hot House, slipping past the Boardroom and into Jack's office itself. Here, he could watch over most of the Hub easily, keeping one step ahead of Jack as he conducted his search. The only question that rang through Ianto's mind was how long he would continue to hide. After all, what was hide and seek for if not to find things?
Captain Jack Harkness was having far too much fun. Though he was sorely tempted to watch as Ianto stripped throughout the Hub, he'd been good and sat in his office chair, his feet resting atop his desk. While everyone thought Ianto was the traditional English prude, his willingness to open up to Jack never failed to amaze him. His extremely open sexual attitude had turned off others in the past, and he'd been afraid it would happen again, but Ianto had surprised him.
While he wasn't always comfortable with going out in public as a couple, in private, he would try anything once. It was this anything Jack continually tested. It made for a fun and interesting relationship that kept Jack on his toes. His eyes flicked down to his wrist strap, watching the digital numbers tick down, seeming tortuously slow. This wasn't the first time he'd played hide and seek in the Hub, but with Ianto, the experience felt like a downright novelty. If Ianto's thought process was anything to go by, the safest place for him to hide would be the Archives. The tunnels held everything Torchwood Three had claimed over the years, and Ianto had inventoried every single item over a period of months. Jack hadn't asked him to, but try telling a receptionist to not answer the phone or file documents. Ianto could be insufferably stubborn at times.
A slight scuffle outside his office door caught Jack's attention, and he stood as quietly as he could, stepping across the length of his office quickly. Opening the door in front of him silently, Jack peered out into the hallway, but didn't see anything that would explain the sound he'd heard. A ruse to distract him while Ianto secured his hiding place? Perhaps. When the time limit had gone by, Jack swept out of his office, eyes already adjusted to the darkness around him. He had a mission, and nothing was going to stop him from completing it.
Ianto waited for five minutes then seeing no movement, carefully walked to the office door. Jack was in the lower levels, no doubt scanning every inch of the Archives, and Ianto had the upper hand. Shivering slightly, and trying in vain to rub his arms in an attempt to get warm, Ianto left Jack's office. He walked across the center of the Hub, and stood outside the Archives entrance, straining his ears, trying to see if Jack was approaching or not. Nothing seemed amiss so Ianto pushed past the entrance, staying close to the walls, pausing when a bit of shadow loomed over the end of the tunnel. There was nowhere to hide except to go back the way he'd come.
Scrambling in a no doubt comic manner should anyone had seen him, Ianto raced out the Archives, and knowing that Jack was seconds away from him, took the first hiding place he saw. Heaving the top of the manhole cover off, Ianto threw himself down into Jack's sleeping quarters, barely grabbing the ladder that stuck out on the east side of the opening in time to keep himself from falling on his ass. That or twisting his ankle upon landing on the hard concrete floor. A bit out of breath, Ianto grabbed the manhole cover and carefully, as much as he could, noiselessly put it back into place. Hunched over in a corner of Jack's quarters, Ianto took a deep breath, holding it when he heard footsteps overhead.
Sighing when the noise fell away, Ianto moved onto Jack's bed, a cot that could slide in and out of the wall. At the moment, it was pulled out, and pretty comfortable for such Spartan quarters. Most of Jack's mementos from his unnaturally long life were stored in his office. The room was small, just big enough for someone to lay out in, but no space to really move around much. In the past, Ianto had wondered why Jack didn't live outside of the Hub, but it was home, possibly the only home Jack had had for quite some time.
Ianto jerked his body down to the floor after hearing footsteps above, and held his breath. Jack had cheated. Otherwise, he'd have spent over an hour seeking out Ianto when only ten minutes had gone by. The stopwatch in his right hand ticked the seconds away, as well as his heart, its pounding so loud in Ianto's ears. He really couldn't complain though, nice as the Hub was, it was a cold and wet environment. Already, his arms had grown goose bumps, and Ianto was shivering slightly.
A far cry from Torchwood One, the fallen headquarters that was more administrative than anything else. Which was not to say it didn't do as much as the Cardiff base, but the focus had definitely been on acquiring as much alien technology as possible. That and paperwork, which is where Ianto had shined. It was easy for the mind to wander, and Ianto jumped when the manhole cover was shoved open above his head, feet coming down the ladder easily. Ianto was just able to make out to make out Jack's braces as he moved underneath the bed, shivering as his bare skin brushed against the cold floor.
Something touched his shoulder a moment later, and Ianto jumped, looking out and stopping dead at the sight of Jack in all his glory, crouched on the floor. Ianto shuddered when Jack leaned forward, his breath short, their foreheads touching as Jack smiled, pleased as punch, and whispered, "Gotcha." Jack's wrist strap was open, the two red dots in the center of the screen telling. He'd tapped into the Hub's thermal systems. Ianto swallowed, and tried his best to sound cross as he replied, "You cheated."
"Did you really think I wouldn't?" Jack's hand was hot against his neck, and Ianto resisted the urge to lean closer to that warmth. "Not really much of a game," he said quietly, watching Jack's eyes shine happily. "No game is worth playing that deprives me of you." That was that, and though Ianto should have put up some token resistance, why bother when the ending pleased both parties?
The End