Chapter Sixteen
I've got a really weird plot twist in the works that will be emerging sometime soon, so be warned!
I'm afraid this is rather short because I can't think of anything and I'm trying to write this is twenty minutes so I can eat my lunch... –stomach rumble-
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood – yet. –evil laugh-
Gwen yawned and sat up. The morning light was filtering through the porthole, bathing the cabin in a warm glow.
She checked her watch and frowned. It must be broken. There was no way that it was nearly eleven o'clock.
Oh well. She would just get Ianto to fix it for her – he was good at that sort of thing.
She pulled on a t-shirt and jeans, slathered on some make-up and ran a brush through her unruly hair and sloped into the main cabin.
It was empty except for Ianto, who was sitting at the table idly sipping at a mug of coffee.
Gwen's stomach rumbled loudly and he looked up, greeting her with his customary polite smile. He indicated another mug by the sink.
"I made you a latte," he offered. "The others went out to try and find out whether the locals have noticed anything weird going on around here."
Gwen stifled a yawn and took her coffee, tasting it gratefully. Nobody could make coffee quite as well and Ianto Jones could, that was a certain fact. Sometimes Gwen wondered whether Ianto had some sort of super-human powers, for he was always there, offering a coffee just as the thought had crossed Gwen's mind in the first place. He was unnaturally efficient at cleaning up after the rest of the team, and the only person Myfanwy wouldn't attempt to de-limb.
"Thanks, love," she said. "What time is it?"
Ianto didn't even need to check. "Four to eleven," he said instantly. "You must have been tired."
"Mmmh," Gwen agreed absentmindedly. She frowned at Ianto, noticing the bruises under his eyes and the paleness of his already ivory features. "Are you OK, pet? You look a little off-colour."
Ianto raised an eyebrow. "I'm fine, thankyou very much," he replied. He was as polite as ever, but Gwen got the feeling that he was deliberately shutting her out. "D'you want some toast?"
"Please." Gwen finished her coffee and sighed in contentment. "What time did the others leave?"
"A couple of hours ago," Ianto said, deftly dropping a couple of slices of bread into the portable toaster. Gwen noticed that he didn't take any for himself.
"Aren't you eating?" she asked, concerned.
Ianto didn't meet her eyes, just showed her a fake smile. "I ate with the others, earlier. Did you sleep well?"
Why did Gwen get the impression he wasn't telling her something, and deflecting the conversation, off him, to something else?
"Oh, I slept fine," she replied brightly. "You?"
"Jack hogged the bed, as per usual," he said, a flash of humour crossing his face.
Gwen laughed. "Rhys does that too. Does Jack then say that you were hogging it?"
"Yep," Ianto agreed.
"Men," Gwen laughed, then covered her mouth in horror as she realised what she had just said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that you weren't a man, I just mean't—"
"It's OK, Gwen," Ianto interrupted. He smiled crookedly. "I'm used to it."
Gwen eyed him curiously. "Doesn't it make you angry?"
Ianto shrugged and set the plate of toast down in front of her. Gwen noticed that he had managed to butter it and spread it with her favourite jam without her even realising that he was doing it. "Like I said, after a while you get used to it." He narrowed his eyes at the table. "I admit, it used to upset me a lot, and I yelled at Jack about it."
"Hence the washing up in the marigolds," Gwen realised. "Does he do it often?"
"Sometimes. To be honest, I prefer my flat intact, so I tend to do most of that sort of stuff myself," Ianto grinned at her, a proper grin this time. "But he can cook. He couldn't have lived so long without picking the odd thing up."
Gwen shook her head in wonder. "Owen was right," she said quietly. "You really have domesticated him."
"If I remember rightly, both of you owe Tosh ten pounds," Ianto said dryly.
"You knew that we were betting on you?" Gwen asked in surprise.
"I know everything, remember?" Ianto reminded her, picking up both their mugs and running them under the cold tap. "Not much escapes my attention." He shot her a sharp look, and Gwen blushed, remembering the time she had left her desk in a total mess, with the computer still running and a half-eaten pizza lying on some unfinished paperwork. The next morning she had come in to find the computer shut down, the pizza missing, the paperwork completed and the desk tidy. She never had thanked Ianto.
"Ianto, about that time—" she started, but was interrupted by a knock on the hatch.
Sorry to leave it there – it's not where I meant it to be, but I really need to go and eat...