Title: A Bit Much
Summary: The Ministry of Magic partners with Torchwood for an assignment, and Tosh and Hermione became friends, and maybe more.
Rating: T
Word Count: 1370
Other Chapters: No.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related trademarks belong to J.K. Rowling. I do not in any way profit from the use of these trademarks. The British Broadcasting Corporation owns Torchwood and all related characters, settings, and trademarks. I do not profit in any way from this material.
Pairings: Toshiko Sato/Hermione Granger
Contains: open relationships; femslash; crossovers
Warnings: unhappy canon marriages

Something inside of Tosh kept thinking that a witch was a bit much. Women? There was no harm. Aliens? Well, in moderation. Witches? Now she was just being unreasonable, wasn't she?

Jack wouldn't be happy. He seemed to view a certain degree of separation between witches and normal people—'muggles,' Hermione called them—as healthy and desirable. He had not been pleased when a small band of wizards had appeared in his office and insisted on partnering with Torchwood on their latest case. Jack had agreed only because he didn't want them going behind his back with magic, and he seemed to believe that working with this Ministry of Magic was the fastest way to get them out of his city. They tended to make clean-up easier, anyway. Jack wouldn't flirt with them, though, and Tosh had caught his eyes on her while she whispered with Hermione over coffee.

After the team got over their shock, at having magical humans appear in the middle of the base, Jack explained that Torchwood and the Ministry of Magic had a long history of friendly relations. As long as wizards and muggles kept their worlds separate, there was generally no trouble for either of them. There'd been collateral damage after a war in the 90s, and since then relations had been a little bit strained, but had mostly continued as usual. The Ministry of Magic did its best to clean up the messes its people made for muggles, the head of the team of witches had assured Tosh, so Torchwood generally didn't have to. Only Jack was aware, back then, that the presense of a team of highly skilled members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in Cardiff was not a good sign.

The younger witches and wizards had seemed as fascinated by the Torchwood team as the Torchwood team had been by them, at least, and none more so than Hermione. Tosh had caught Hermione watching her one day when Hermione was on lunch. Tosh wasn't doing anything exceptionally incredible; she was repairing the stratospheric scanner, which was really one of the more routine and boring parts of her job, but Hermione'd had this look of absolute awe on her face. Tosh pretended for a while that she didn't notice, but then she decided that she didn't have to mistrust witches just because her boss did, and she'd turned and introduced herself and asked Hermione if she knew anything about stratospheric scanners.

Hermione, it had turned out, knew absolutely nothing about stratospheric scanners, or about any other bit of technology around the base. She was the only witch in the group who didn't regard the microwave and Tosh's cellphone with a sort of confused terror, but she'd quickly explained that: She was the daughter of two muggle dentists. She knew plenty about the functions of household technology, but nothing about science, and without the use of technology or any advanced sciences, the magical world had never made contact with aliens before.

It was incredible. For both of them. They could each introduce the other to an entirely new world. They shared a common background in happy, boring childhood memories of the 80s, but after Hermione went off to Hogwarts and Tosh joined Torchwood, everything they had to tell the other was new and thrilling. Tosh explained their technology and recounted some of the aliens she'd met in her time with Torchwood as well as she could, and Hermione told Tosh all about the magical world and her old boarding school where she'd learned potions and transfiguration while Tosh had slaved away at calculus and physics. Hermione could defy all the laws of both with a few flicks of her wrist, but magic had its own laws, and one of those bound her to Earth forever. The wizards were like the fairies: They weren't alien, they were supernatural. Their powers were tied to the Earth and they were useless on other planets or on objects that were from other planets. The alien life and technology that Tosh surrounded herself with were as inaccessible to Hermione as Hermione's dragons and flying cars were to Tosh. Neither of them cared. They started spending lunch together every day to talk about their lives, and Hermione even went home with Tosh a couple of times to continue their conversations.

Hermione knew everything about the magical laws and the rules for all sorts of the most advanced magic. Tosh loved that. It gave everything an order which left her feeling a lot less unsettled by it all. There were limits and rules and equations involved, and that made the idea of jinxes and flying broomsticks sound at least as plausible as mind-reading aliens. Hermione was extremely well-read in all things magical and extensively experienced, and she never seemed to run out of things to talk about or a passion for talking about them. She apologized sometimes for going on too much, and Tosh always told her she was being ridiculous. Tosh couldn't imagine ever getting tired of hearing Hermione talk about magical laws and theorems, and seeing the excited glint in her eyes when she talked about them.

Hermione was a great listener, too. Tosh could prattle on like an old professor about any item of alien technology Hermione pointed to, and sometimes, even though Hermione never showed signs of being tired or bored and always nodded along diligently and contributed as much as she could to the discussion, Tosh would realize that she must be annoying Hermione and she'd tell Hermione to stop her if she was boring her, and even though Hermione never stopped her, she'd try to make things more interesting.

Tosh had been a little bit heartbroken when the investigation ended, and the witches and wizards informed Jack that they'd apprehended the suspect, cast a few safe memory charms where needed, and would now be heading back to their offices in London. Jack had shaken hands with the lead investigator and hadn't looked at all sorry to see them go, but Tosh had caught Hermione's eyes and they'd both frowned. Hermione had asked Tosh to step outside with her before she left, and they'd stood there awkwardly for a moment before Tosh told Hermione that she could come visit any time she'd liked.

Hermione brightened immediately. "Really?" she asked.

"Of course," Tosh said.

"Is next Saturday okay? Only, I'd have to bring my children, if that's okay. They're well behaved—"

"Of course it's okay," Tosh had said, even though something was telling her that it wasn't. Children. Tosh didn't dislike children. She just sort of disliked the idea of Hermione's children. But that was ridiculou. Why was Tosh surprised? Hermione wore a wedding ring. Tosh had noticed it before, she'd just somehow kept putting it out of her head. "You can bring your husband too, if you like."

Hermione frowned. "I'd rather not."

Had Tosh said something wrong? "You are married, aren't you?" she nodded to Hermione's left hand.

Hermione's right fingers immediately closed around the ring, as if she were going to take it off, but instead she wiggled it and played with it for a second. "I'm married, but—" At length, she told Tosh the whole complicated situation, but the only thing that really mattered was the 'but.' She was married. Not happily, and not, as of a long discussion with her husband several months back, monogamously.

"Oh..." Tosh said, not really knowing what to say. "So he won't have any objection to you spending your entire Saturday with a girl who's sweet on you?" She smirked as if she was kidding. She really wasn't.

Hermione smirked back. "Why? Are you sweet on me?"

Tosh very much regretted bringing it up. Her tongue tied itself into a tight knot—

Which Hermione then untied by kissing her.

They stared at each other for several seconds, then they smiled at each other.

"I'll see you next Saturday!" Hermione said, then she stepped inside and Tosh heard the booming sound that she knew meant Hermione had vanished, leaving Tosh alone and grinning in the rain.

Really, though. A witch was a bit much. Not that that was going to stop her.