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Title: Fair play
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 302 words
Content notes: None
Author notes:  Written for Challenge 132 - Cheating
Summary: Trouble always ensues when you don't follow the rules

‘Woohoo, triple word score!’

‘No so fast.’

‘Hey! Gimme that back!’ Jack whined, reaching out with his arm as the book was swiped quickly away from his reach.

‘No,’ came Ianto’s firm reply.

‘Why not?’

‘Because I don’t believe that’s a real word,’ he responded, already with his head down and flicking through the pages of the Oxford Dictionary. ‘See, “poldarisae”. It’s not here.’

‘I swear to you it’s a word!’

‘On what planet?’ Ianto fixed him with a scrutinising glare that dared him to lie to his face again.

‘Okay,’ Jack confessed, ‘maybe not this one.’

‘Earth-based English, Jack! That was the only rule you had to follow.’

‘You didn’t!’ Jack countered.

‘What are you talking about?’ Ianto declared, somewhat offended that Jack believed him capable of such a lowly act as cheating at Scrabble.

‘Banana. I happen to know that’s Welsh, which means you cheated too, but I let it go.’ Jack leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, slightly defensively, but also slightly gloatingly, like a benevolent dictator or some sort of self-appointed Scrabble overlord.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Banana translated into English, what’s that again? Oh, that’s right, banana!’

It rankled him that the only reason Jack even knew that at all was because of his own stubborn determination to teach him the basics of the Welsh language. Their session with the fruit bowl had been less than productive in Ianto's opinion, since that was in fact, the only word he got right.

‘I still say you cheated first.’

Ianto sighed loudly. ‘If you’re not going to play by the rules then I don’t see the point in us continuing.’

‘Good,’ replied Jack. ‘I’ve been waiting all night for naked hide and seek.’

‘Oh yes, because you never cheat at that,’ Ianto responded deadpan.