Playtime
Summary: Gwen should know better than to walk into the Hub after-hours without calling first—you never know what Jack and Ianto might be up to!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, I'm just borrowing them to play with.
Gwen really ought to have known better than to stroll into the Hub at night without calling first.
She was just coming back for her scarf, which she'd forgotten when she left for the day. She and Rhys were in the area for a supper out anyway, so it seemed only sensible to stop and pick it up...
The light was on in Jack's office, so she figured that was where he was. She was halfway to her desk when she heard two sets of running footsteps, and almost collided with Ianto, Jack hot on his heels. She was relieved to see that, unlike the last time she surprised them after-hours, both men were fully clothed, although Ianto's tie had been loosened.
"Gwen!" Ianto exclaimed, "Sorry! I didn't realize you were here." His face was quickly turning a lovely shade of pink.
"Forgot my scarf," stammered Gwen, pointing at the green cloth hanging over her chair. "I didn't mean to interrupt." She was pretty sure that her own face was turning rather pink as well.
"Hi, Gwen!" said Jack cheerfully. He was, of course, completely unperturbed by the interruption. "Want to play a game of strip tag?"
Gwen blinked at him; she opened her mouth to respond before realizing that her brain was not supplying any words. She had thought that she was going to matter-of-factly extract herself from this awkward situation, but she clearly wasn't. She finally settled on a baffled "What?"
"Strip tag," Jack repeated, grinning. "It's like regular tag, but when you get tagged, you have to remove an item of clothing. Obviously, we just got started," he added, with a wave of his hand indicating his and Ianto's still clothed forms.
Ianto, although still blushing, couldn't resist commenting at this point, "It should become rather interesting once we get to Jack's braces and belt. If takes both of them to keep his trousers up normally, and he's running about the hub without either, trying to catch someone..."
Gwen started giggling at the mental image despite herself. "Well, that'll be quite the interesting experiment, won't it? Do try not to break either of your necks, okay? Although," she added "I suppose Jack's would mend anyway...In any case, I'll just get out of the way and leave you two to your game," said Gwen firmly, turning to leave.
"Or you could stay and play with us; we don't have to play strip tag," suggested Ianto, with shrug and a smile. Jack grinned, and Ianto suddenly realized some of the different ways that sentence could be interpreted, especially in the current conversation. He hastily corrected himself. "Ah, may I rephrase that? That came out sounding a bit...dirtier...than it did in my head. What I was trying to say is that if you stayed, we could have a sort of game night...thing. Could be fun." While speaking, he'd straightened up into the very formal upright pose he always fell back to when flustered, unconsciously tugging his jacket straight as he did, but the pink tinge remained in his cheeks.
Jack's grin just got wider as he listened to Ianto trying to salvage the situation. "Like I said last time, naked hide-and-seek. Always fun, and the more the merrier."
Ianto's blush deepened, and his lips pursed. "I'm really not sure naked hide-and-seek—or strip tag—is really an activity that most people care to participate in with coworkers, sir, due to it's potential for causing awkwardness among the staff...this conversation being an excellent example." He cleared his throat and turned back to Gwen, as if trying his best to ignore Jack's contributions to the conversation. "I was thinking more along the lines of board games, or cards. Um—rummy perhaps, or poker?" Thinking better of the last suggestion, he shot a warning glance at Jack. "Regular poker, that is. Clothed poker, where everyone remains clothed. 'Clothed' in the sense of not naked."
Jack leaned against the wall, grinning ear to ear as he listened to Ianto try to hedge his suggestion in enough qualifiers to keep Jack from twisting it into something sexual. As usual, Ianto was determined to maintain some sense of dignity and decorum, come hell, high water, alien menace, or his boss's rampant lack of propriety.
"Sounds like a lovely idea, Ianto, but first of all, Rhys is waiting in the car and he's probably already wondering if I've been waylaid by aliens, and second—" she pointed to Jack, and Ianto didn't even wait for her to finish.
"You're probably right. By the end of the evening, we'd probably have heard how nudity could be incorporated into Monopoly or Snakes and Ladders. And you could probably do without having your childhood games associated with Jack's fetishes. Oh, well." he shrugged, philosophically.
Scarf in hand, Gwen finally headed back outside, calling her goodbyes out over her shoulder. She had just reached the door when she heard Jack's merry cry of "Tag!"
Ianto's indignant protests of "That doesn't count! We haven't started playing again yet!" were the last thing she heard before the door closed. Next time, she decided, the scarf can wait until morning; who knows what sort of game I might walk into.
Author's note: This fic was built entirely around the concept of Ianto trying to invite Gwen for an innocent game night, after the "naked hide-and-seek" incident. (BTW, was anyone else wondering why in that episode they apparently played naked hide-and-seek and then put their trousers back on to make out? Other than avoiding having them fully nude when Gwen walked in, I haven't figured that one out yet.) Most of Ianto's dialog when he suggested a game night (from "Or you could stay and play with us" to his description of poker as "'Clothed' in the sense of not naked.") was written first, and the rest of the story was written basically as an "excuse" to have that scene. I'm a little concerned that the story framework might seem weak or forced because of that; I'd appreciate hearing feedback on that, if you wish to review. Thanks for reading!