Title: Keeping Track
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Nosy, Ianto, Dizzy.
Rating: G
Word Count: 1014
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Nosy is a very hardworking Fluff, always helping out around the Hub in any way it can.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 310: Tape.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.



As usual, Nosy was slithering busily about the Hub, running errands for various members of the team. Ianto smiled as the Fluff glided past with a can of coke from the fridge for Owen, then over to Gwen’s workstation with a packet of wipes because she’d dripped jam from her doughnut on her keyboard. A few minutes later, there the Fluff was again, this time taking a new pen to Tosh, some rags to Mickey, and a KitKat for Jack, who would probably be disappointed at not getting the whole packet. Nosy knew Jack was only allowed one snack at a time because otherwise there’d soon be none left for anyone else.

Ianto went on about his own business, gathering empty coffee cups and plates, taking them to the kitchenette and loading them into the dishwasher. Life was so much easier now he didn’t have to wash everything by hand; he really should have requisitioned a dishwasher years ago.

Heading back into the main Hub, Ianto spotted Nosy again, this time slithering past in the direction of its play area, something long and thin trailing from its mouth. Curious, he followed, eyebrows going up as he realised Nosy had somehow got hold of his measuring tape. What on earth could the Fluff possibly want with that? It wasn’t off limits or anything, he’d never told Nosy not to touch it, but neither had Nosy ever shown any particular interest in it before. It was mystifying.

When the furry alien reached the part of the Hub that had been set aside for it a few days after it had first taken up residence at Torchwood, it hummed questioningly.

A purple and black head popped up out the ball pit, and Dizzy the Flufflet hummed back, wriggling and squiggling through the balls and onto the concrete, its fur sticking out in all directions thanks to static electricity, making it look like an animated feather boa. Slithering up to its parent, Dizzy stopped and goggled at Nosy.

“Hummm!” Nosy said firmly, and Dizzy came to a sort of attention, stretching its long body out straight as an arrow.

Ianto watched, fascinated, as Nosy persuaded its offspring to grasp the end of the measuring tape in its mouth, then proceeded to stretch the rest of it alongside Dizzy until it reached the very tip of the Flufflet’s tail. It goggled at the tape for a moment, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote something on its blackboard.

Returning to Dizzy, Nosy took the tape measure and laid it on the ground, humming an order. Dizzy slithered carefully across it and, after a few false starts, Nosy managed to wrap the tape around its Flufflet at the widest part of Dizzy’s body. One again. Nosy goggled at the tape, then went and wrote on its blackboard.

The temptation to see what the Fluff was writing was irresistible; Ianto strolled across, stepping over Dizzy, who hadn’t moved an inch, and went to look at what Nosy had written.

There were several lines of writing oh the blackboard, the topmost of which read, ‘1.01 m. 22 cm’ and the last, ‘1.17 m. 25.5 cm.’ Clearly this wasn’t the first time Nosy had borrowed his measure.

“Keeping track of Dizzy’s vital statistics and growth rate, are you?”

The team had done the same with Nosy when it had first arrived, measuring the Fluff every week to start with, then once a month when it became clear the alien was growing very slowly, if at all. Nowadays they’d settled on twice yearly measurements unless Nosy seemed to be getting a bit plump from too many snacks and not enough exercise.

“Hum,” Nosy agreed.

“Shouldn’t Owen be doing that? I suppose he’s been delegating again. I hope he doesn’t expect you to measure yourself.”

Nosy was smart and adaptable, but even so it wouldn’t be an easy task for a creature with no hands. At approximately five and a half metres, the Fluff was much longer than any measuring tape Torchwood owned, and Ianto couldn’t see any way it could get accurate measurements without help. The usual method was to straighten Nosy out, make chalk marks on the concrete at nose and tail tip, then measure the ground between the marks, somethig that took two people, one to hold each end of the tape.

With a noncommittal hum, Nosy retrieved Ianto’s tape measure and dismissed its offspring. Dizzy happily slithered back into the ball pit, vanishing from sight, and Nosy returned the tape to its owner.

“Humm.”

“You’re welcome. Maybe I should get you a measuring tape of your own; then you wouldn’t have to keep borrowing mine.”

Ianto studied the rough chart on the blackboard; Dizzy had grown 16 cm in length over the last 5 weeks, and had filled out by 3.5 cm. That didn’t seem extreme; human babies grew quite fast in their first couple of years, from what he remembered of his niece and nephew, so why shouldn’t Flufflets?

“Looks like you’ve just about run out of room. Why don’t I make a note of these measurements and then you can clean your board, ready for next time?”

Fetching a manila folder and some paper, Ianto copied the information from the blackboard, and labelled the folder.

“There. Let me know the next time you take measurements, and if you need a hand or two…” He trailed off, petting the Fluff. “Well, I’m usually around somewhere.”

“Hum!”

“Right; I’d best get on. Lots to do.”

Nosy picked up its basket and headed out into the main Hub to see if any of its friends needed anything, but Ianto paused a moment, took out his phone, and photographed the blackboard; he’d show it to Jack later. He should also probably have a word with Owen about how unfair it was of him to leave tracking Dizzy’s growth to someone who wasn’t anatomically suited to the task, even if Nosy didn’t seen to mind.

He smiled as he went to make coffee. If Fluffs had hands, they could probably rule the world.


The End