Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Ianto, Torchwood team

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 1,165 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 295 - Play

Summary: Ianto doesn't have the luxury of messing about.

When the door opens, there's chaos unfolding on the other side. Ianto shouldn't be surprised to find the team running around the place like a bunch of small children. He knows that the rift isn't planning on doing anything all day, which means the team don't plan on working too hard either. Like them, he's been looking forward to today, knowing the team will make a quick getaway tonight, not tethered to their desks by some new case. They've taken full advantage of the slow day by injecting a bit of pace into it with an ad-hoc game of basketball - or at least what appears to pass for basketball.

There's shouting and yells as the ball flies across the hub. Even Myfanwy is soaring around, screeching at the top of her lungs, trying to partake in the mayhem, which only adds to it.

He watches for a few moments, waiting for them to notice him and to force him to pick a side but it doesn't come. He has the height for playing basketball, even if he was never really much good at it. Football was much more his thing, mixed in with a little bit of rugby when he was younger. It's hard to escape playing rugby when you grow up on a council estate in Wales. Still, he couldn't do any worse than this lot. They aren't even playing by any sort of recognisable set of rules. Mostly it seems to be whatever Jack and Owen make up as the go, and arguing whenever the rules don't fall in their favour.

Only Jack can match Ianto for height, though he doesn't fancy being on the end of one of Jack's illegal shoulder charges. It's half a wonder neither Owen or Tosh has ended up in the rift pool at some point. Then again, maybe there's a special code of honor for that sort of thing. He wouldn't known since he's never hung around long enough to absorb the entirety of their made up rule book. Usually he just sneaks past whenever there is a clear space and removes breakable items. Even then they don't notice him, mocking his fussing over mugs that can be replaced for fifty p from Ikea or tucking away stacks of reports that might otherwise topple and end up splayed all over the floor, their contents completely disordered. Guess who's job it will be to put them back the right way, he thinks morosely. Like he has nothing else to do. Time for everyone else to play games but not him. It doesn't even cross their minds to ask him.

Not that he has time for games. There is enough work to be done, and then when it's all over for the day and the rest of them shuffle out the door, Ianto is still working. All he really has to do is wait for Jack to call it quits, or to disappear for the night and then he too can disappear, downstairs to the lowest and farthest corner of the hub he could find without getting lost. He hates that Lisa is so far away and alone all day, but it's the safest place for her. No one is ever going to go down there, not even if they're bored.

The only one Ianto wants to spend time playing games with is Lisa, but she isn't well enough. Most days it's enough that he can manage to get her meds right so that she isn't in excruciating pain. The most she can manage on a good day is listening to him read a book. If only she were a little more mobile, he wishes. He remembers that old compendium of board games they'd once picked up in a charity shop on one of their country road trips. Two quid for the ratty old box that had chinese checkers, ludo, snakes and ladders and backgammon. They'd only bought it for passing the time in their cabin on their long weekend holiday which ended up being nothing but four days of nonstop rain, but it got the occasional use at home as well when there'd been nothing on TV. It's probably still stuffed in a box somewhere. He packed everything up so hastily when he'd left London that he's never manged to unpack any of it beyond a few clothes and cups. As dull as they'd been, what he wouldn't give to hear Lisa squeal in delight as his board piece was forced down that snake just two squares away from victory. No, she isn't competitive at all, Ianto thinks. She just loves watching me lose.

The basketball whips past his head, missing him by the narrowest of margins before Gwen is right behind him, catching it and quickly passing it back to Owen, having snatched it away from Tosh as she is side-bumped away. They make quite a team, Jack and their newest recruit, he realises with a strange sense of disappointment. Today however they are opponents, though they seem to be enjoying the rivalry, and as always, Owen delights in anything where he can potentially beat Jack, which seems a forgone conclusion as he hovers up on the gangway above the net, waiting for the winning pass before dumping it easily through the basket.

'Yes!' Owen cries. 'First round's on you, boss. Girls, get your handbags.'

Jack's expression is full of petulance. He hates losing, no matter to what. 'Of course, that was an illegal move.'

'Totally illegal,' Tosh says, equally keen to underscore the injustice.

The rest of the argument carries on past him as one by one they breeze by out through the cogwheel door, like he isn't even standing there. The only one who does seem to be aware of his existence is Jack, and this time the only thing stopping the basketball from coming at his head are Ianto's own highly strung reflexes. If he's waiting for Jack to suggest he should join their game next time, or even join them for their next appointment at the local publican, he realises he's likely to die of old age first. His job is merely to put the ball away so they don't have to.

He sets it down in a box under Owen's desk, where it originally came from. He isn't even tempted to give it a bounce or a shot through the hoop when no one else is around to see it. His mind is too full of other things to worry about some silly ball game. Doctor Tanazaki should be here any moment now. He swallows hard with the anticipation of the moment. The team are finally gone and not likely to to return for hours. Weeks of meticulous planning has come down to this, and like any game of snakes and ladders, he knows he's only one fateful roll of the dice away from ending up all the way back at square one. His time he needs to win at all costs.