"Ianto, do me a favor?" Jack said, walking up to the kitchenette where Ianto was going through his spice cupboard.
"Yep?" Ianto responded absently, breaking up the clumps of caked onion powder with an olive fork.
"May I?" Jack said, gesturing to the spice jar.
Ianto shrugged. "Be my guest," he said, handing Jack the onion powder and the olive fork.
"I know what your salary is. Why not just buy some new spices?" Jack asked, setting the jar and fork aside.
"Because it's not necessary. That's fine, it just needs to be broken up."
"Yeah. But why bother?"
"It would be wasteful otherwise."
Jack sighed with a raised eyebrow.
"Really, Jack, it's not much of a bother. Just a sort of maintenance thing."
"Ianto… there's two kinds of 'wasteful' that I know of."
"Ah, the philosophy of Captain Jack Harkness. Enlighten me, O wise one!" Ianto teased.
Jack's brow quirked up a bit more. "One kind of wasting is the big stuff – a night on the town, all first-class, that kind of thing. The other is little stuff, like this. Waste a bit of spice, or waste time not wasting it. Life's too short, Ianto."
"You'd know," Ianto muttered.
"Yes, I would," Jack said, resting his hands on Ianto's shoulders. "Don't waste time, Ianto. It's all there really is. Believe me."
Ianto was about to make another joke, but saw the seriousness and… sadness… in Jack's eyes. "Maybe you've got a point," he said, putting the olive fork in the sink. "Anyway, I guess there's a thing or two I could be doing instead of this."
"You taking suggestions?" Jack asked, that sly smirk coming back full-force.
"Not at the moment," Ianto said. "Got enough ideas of my own," he grinned.
Jack grinned and pulled Ianto into a deep kiss.