Title: An Easier Way
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 830
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Maybe moving house doesn’t have to be quite as complicated as Ianto is making it sound.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 394: Preparation.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.



It had taken a certain amount of misdirection and subterfuge, but Jack had managed to keep the work on the old Torchwood warehouse a secret from Ianto until it was mostly completed. The spacious flat he’d designed, with the help of a talented architect, took up most of the top floor, with the rest occupied by a roof garden, and when Jack had finally shown it to Ianto his lover had been overwhelmed.

After the initial viewing they’d still had a lot of work to do, choosing paint colours for the walls, tiling for the bathrooms, kitchen, and a laundry room on the floor below, carpets for some of the floors… They’d done some of the painting themselves, so they could feel more like it was theirs, but they’d left the rest to professionals, and six-weeks after Jack sprung the surprise on Ianto, they began making preparations to move in.

The painted walls had dried by then, and the paint smell had dissipated, all the tiling was complete, the carpets they’d picked out had been laid and the curtains hung, but the rooms were still a bit bare. The first thing they needed was furniture, and they spent a whole evening going through Ianto’s small flat deciding what to keep and what to donate. Then the first chance they got they went furniture shopping.

Table, chairs, and a sideboard for the dining room, sofas and armchairs for the big living room, TV and sound system, appliances for the kitchen… there were so many things they needed! Nevertheless, a month later everything they’d picked out had been delivered, fitted where necessary, arranged, re-arranged, and then moved again until they were both happy with the positioning.

Ianto collapsed onto a sofa he and Jack had just moved for the fifth time. “We’re not moving it again, Jack.”

“No, you were right earlier, this is the best place for it,” Jack agreed, sitting next to him. “Isn’t this great? We can move in tomorrow!”

“What?” Ianto turned to stare incredulously at his lover. “There’s no way we can move in tomorrow!”

“Why not? The place is furnished; it’s all ready for us!”

“The new flat might be ready, but I’m not.”

“What do you mean? I thought you wanted to move in with me!”

“I do, but we’ve been so busy getting things ready here whenever we weren’t working that I haven’t even started preparing for the move.”

“Preparing?”

“You know, packing all my belongings into boxes, sorting through everything and throwing out stuff I don’t want, not to mention we’re supposed to be having my bed here, and that’s still in use back at my flat. It needs to be dismantled, transported here, put back together, then made up with fresh bedding.”

“Right, so we’ll do that first, then we can sleep here…” Jack started, but Ianto cut him off.

"No. First we get boxes and start packing everything I’m not using at the moment. Then when we’ve got that lot moved, we can pack the rest, just leaving the essentials, like the bed, some clothes, toothbrush and razor.”

“But that’ll take forever!”

“Not forever, Jack, just two or three weeks.”

“Might as well be forever,” Jack grumbled. They sank into silence for a few minutes before Jack suddenly sat up straighter. “I’ve got a better idea.”

“Really.” Ianto sounded dubious.

“We get all your essentials first, move them here, then we can go to your old flat whenever we have time, pack things and bring them over here, put everything in the bedrooms we’re not using, and we can sort through it at our leisure while already enjoying our new home.” Jack smiled, satisfied with his idea. “Cuts way down on preparation time.”

Ianto thought that over for several minutes but couldn’t find any reason not to do what Jack was suggesting. It really would be a lot easier, and he’d be able to give up the lease on his flat before next month’s rent came due.

“That’s actually not a bad plan.” He smirked at Jack. “Guess you’re not just a pretty face.”

“So we’ll do it my way?” Jack asked hopefully.

“We will, starting tomorrow with moving a few essentials and all the furniture we’re keeping. Rift permitting,” Ianto added, crossing his fingers for luck.

“We can borrow Mickey’s van so we don’t have to rent one, maybe even get him to help. Make a couple of trips, load as much as we can each time, pack everything else in boxes to move over the next few days, shove the furniture we don’t want to one side so when we’re done moving your stuff we can take the rest to that place that helps get homeless people back on their feet.”

Ianto relaxed into the comfort of the sofa. “And here I was thinking moving house took a lot of preparation.”

Jack grinned back at him. “Sometimes if you think things through it’s possible to find an easier way.”


The End