Title: Gift in Disguise
Characters: Owen, Ianto and Jack.
Rating: PG (Friendship)
Challenge: # 004 – Gift
Summary: Owen has never been the kind to say thanks.
Words count: 725 more or less.
Author's note: written for Torchwood Classic. Set sometime after Dead Man Walking.
Beta :czarina_kitty
...
Ianto was in the kitchenette brewing the morning coffee. Owen was late. Ianto turned only slightly to acknowledge his entry, and went on with his task.
"Hi, mate," Owen grumbled. "Did some clearing out and found this."
Displaying a disgusted grimace, he sat the paper bag beside Ianto's tray.
Ianto raised a scornful eyebrow and threw a glance at the paper bag.
"Though you'd rather have it than me throw it away." Owen added.
Ianto looked at him in a puzzled way.
"Blue Mountain?"
"Yep, I always enjoyed good coffee," Owen replied getting annoyed by Ianto's suspicious tone. "At least, I used to."
"Okay," Ianto said still staring at the four coffee tins.
He didn't look convinced but didn't try to push.
Things had gone as Owen has hoped. Ianto, like him, had never been of the very demonstrative kind. Owen turned to leave and then changed his mind.
"Keep this for you, mate."
This time, Ianto raised two scornful eyebrows.
"Don't waste it on people who wouldn't appreciate it," he added as an explanation.
Ianto nodded.
Owen turned to leave again.
"Owen."
Owen stopped, but didn't turn back.
"Thanks."
Owen turned slightly annoyed and ready to retort.
"For not having thrown it away. It would have been a shame," Ianto added with a knowing smirk.
Ianto moved to go back to his coffee making, after having carefully closed the paper bag hiding the precious coffee.
Owen left him to it. Since he was dead, Ianto had been the most supportive. Although they had never been friends, they had grown to respect each other with time. Being a dead man walking didn't make him a more enjoyable colleague. The girls were annoyingly concerned or compassionate with him and Jack, who was responsible for the walking dead man part, was acting the bastard. Ianto had found the words forcing him to look upon his fate. It hadn't been a speech -Ianto wasn't of talkative kind either- no, just a little sentence by the coffee machine. It had taken time for the words to sink in but in the end that was it.
Later that evening:
"Drinking coffee on your own?" Jack asked.
Everyone had left; it was only the two of them. Jack had been finishing with some phone call in his office and Ianto had gone back to the kitchen and had brewed some of Owen's Blue Mountain. He was sipping the first mouthful.
"Not drinking, this isn't for drinking, but for savouring," Ianto corrected taking another sip.
"Didn't mean to be disparaging. You know I love and respect your coffee."
"Not mine."
Jack frowned; Ianto looked as if was doing some sexual experiment.
"And whose coffee would it be?"
"It's Blue Mountain."
"Yeah?" Jack waited, watching Ianto go on sipping the hot beverage without offering him a cup or any explanation for his attitude.
"Where does it come from?" Jack asked getting wary.
"Owen."
"Owen brought coffee?"
"Yep!"
"And why can't have I a cup?"
"I don't think he would like it," Ianto replied.
"What make you think that?"
"He said he was about to throw it away and you've been a bastard to him lately," Ianto explained taking the last drop and holding it in his mouth to enjoy.
"I'm not getting the point," Jack said at a complete loss.
"Have you ever been to Owen's flat?"
"Sorry, still don't get it."
"He doesn't even have a coffee machine. At home he used to run on instant."
"So he bought coffee, couldn't use and finally brought it here when he realise he would never buy a coffee machine," Jack offered.
"That's Blue Mountain, Jack."
"You already said that. What's the deal about that?"
"It's one of the most expensive coffees in the world."
"How expensive?"
"More expensive than caviar!"
"Oh!" This time Jack was getting it, this was a present, a present in disguise. "Should I be worried?"
"Don't be silly."
"Can I have a cup?"
"Only if you promise to be nice."
"You wouldn't like me nice."
"It's not about me."
"Nice with Owen?"
"Yep!"
"No way," Jack answered in a flirtatious way. "He needs me to be a bastard, and I'll keep on as long as he needs that."
"Okay," Ianto agreed. "I'll make you a cup, but you better not let him know."
"I won't."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
End.