Work Text:
Owen watched Ianto as everyone ate their lunches. Today was Chinese food. Owen once tried to suggest that maybe they should cut back on the takeaway to be more healthy. But who was he kidding, most of them would probably be dead within the next year. Why bother? So Jack kept up their cycle of stress eating from the different restaurants around Cardiff, shouting out a different place he was in the mood for everyday to Ianto to place the order. One meal a day on the Torchwood credit card seemed okay by him, and who was even going to check their expenses anyway?
As Jack rambled on about some guy at a UNIT conference, Ianto continued to stare down at his order of General Tso’s. First he took his chopstick and drew a line down the middle of the pile of chicken, and then did the same thing with the rice. Slowly and carefully, he ate exactly one half of his lunch up to his drawn borders before putting the lid back on. Owen would normally just shrug it off as another one of Ianto’s quirks. He had a lot of them, to be fair. But ever since they had to murder Ianto’s girlfriend and he was suspended for a month, Owen had paid more attention to these quirks because heaven help them all if they missed another red flag as big as that massive screw up six weeks ago.
Owen looked Ianto over as the other man continued to stare at the closed container. The circles under his eyes seemed more pronounced. Even the suit he was wearing looked tired. Owen knew Ianto had some form of OCD. Fortunately for all of them, this just meant the hub was always clean and everything was hyper organized. But Owen never thought much on whether or not Ianto’s habits were causing him more stress than he let on. The younger man was obviously trying to cope through whatever means were available to him. But was Owen missing something more intrusive like an eating disorder?
“Ianto? Fortune cookie?” Owen asked, not even interrupting Jack who just kept going. But Ianto looked up at him, confused at first. Owen tossed the wrapped cookie at him anyway before sliding them to the rest of the team. Ianto didn’t even hesitate before opening it with a hurry and eating it, not even looking at his fortune. So he was still eating more, just not his lunch. Interesting …
As their break ended, Ianto cleaned up the conference room table and then put his remaining lunch in the fridge. Not thinking much more about it as the day went on, Owen noticed as he opened the fridge to grab a drink that Ianto had also written his name on the container in his nice, precise handwriting. Seemed like a fair way to keep Jack from eating your leftovers at night.
However, the evening rolled around and everyone except Tosh and Jack seemed to be packing up for the day. Ianto could leave from the tourist office, but he always came down to the hub anyway. But this time, Owen noticed that it wasn’t really to say goodbye. It was so he could get his leftovers out of the fridge to take with him.
And just like that, day after day, Owen continued to observe this cycle. It wasn’t anything to write home about. But he got used to watching the lines be drawn as best they could, down the center of meals. Sometimes even desserts would be broken in half, like when Gwen decided she wanted to try baking cookies.
However, it was when another pizza day rolled around that Owen finally got a clue. Usually enough was ordered so everyone got two slices. Ianto ate his first slice and then took a second slice before carefully placing another paper plate on top of it. And that’s how it went in the fridge. It was almost sad to watch him leave that night with the cold pizza carried carefully between the plates to the bus stop.
“Ianto, mate. Do you want my leftover avocado roll? I can’t put it in the fridge or it's going to go bad.” Owen lied the next day. He could totally force himself to finish it. But looking at Ianto staring longingly at the second half of his lunch he already sanctioned off was starting to get to him.
“Sure…” He said quietly before taking it.
“Ooh! I want in on that.” Gwen said before taking a piece of the extra roll. Owen wanted to slap it out of her hand to make sure Ianto could have it, but thought otherwise of the idea. That night, things were hectic. Jack was out catching a weevil still with Gwen, and Tosh and Owen were left still trying to figure out how to identify something that came through the rift that morning. And Ianto had left twenty minutes ago because he was still banned from being in the hub at night without Jack being present. It was shit terms of his return after his suspension, but Ianto seemed willing to respect it. So Owen was surprised when he heard the doorbell to the tourist office repeatedly ringing. It seemed odd, but suddenly it made sense as he checked the CC monitor. It was Ianto, trying to get back in.
“I’ll get him.” Owen said as Tosh looked over his shoulder to also see who was up there. “Probably forgot his keys or something.”
Owen made his way up to the fake entrance, not really in a rush, but more happy to get a break from work.
“Welcome back, couldn’t get enough of us, could you?” Owen joked as he let Ianto in from the cold night air.
“Sorry. I’m only going to be a minute.” Ianto said as he put his bag down on the desk. “I forgot my dinner in the fridge.”
His dinner… Oh…
Owen was this close to making a joke about Ianto being too old to still be living a bachelor lifestyle, when he realized what an awful thing that would be to say to someone when you took part in killing their partner.
Owen waited for him to return to the office to be let out. A couple minutes later, Ianto returned from the depths of the hub, his dinner in hand. It was now or never, Owen thought.
“Doesn’t seem like much of a dinner there, mate.” Owen commented. Ianto looked down at the plastic container filled with wanton soup, only a couple stuffed wanton noodles remained.
“Well, things are sort of… tight… right now.” Ianto said and surprised Owen with the sudden honesty, let alone actually talking to him. “After everything… and being suspended… and just... I got to move soon.”
Owen followed the broken thoughts and did his best to piece together what Ianto was trying to imply. But it made sense. And Owen wondered how desperate Ianto might be to just talk to someone about what’s going on outside of work right now. He couldn’t imagine feeling that lonely and then coming here for them all to bully him all day.
If a pizza was suddenly delivered to Ianto’s place later that night, Owen would swear he had nothing to do with it.
“I guess I have to talk to Jack about some things, but I don’t really want to see him.” Ianto confessed.
“What do you mean?” Owen asked.
“Just… I wonder if there’s anything else I can be doing around the hub? Or if I can work extra hours… like come in earlier or something since I can’t stay at night yet.”
“What about asking for a raise?” Owen suggested, but Ianto scoffed.
“Are you kidding me? My pay has been docked since I started here. It was part of my terms from coming from Torchwood One.”
Owen was shocked to hear such a thing and didn’t know what to say. Here Ianto was, a survivor of the worst attack on Torchwood. His partner was dead. He was living in God only knows what sort of conditions. And his pay was so docked that he was living off of their one meal a day they got as gratis from Jack.
“Is there like, anything I can do in the meantime until you talk to Jack? I know I’m not your biggest fan, mate. But I am supposed to be the doctor around here, and I can’t standby while you’re starting to suffer from malnutrition.” Owen asked before suggesting, “Need me to grab you some groceries or something?”
And Ianto just looked sad, as if he didn’t know how to respond.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to do that really. There isn’t a fridge running to keep anything in at the moment.” And there it was. Ianto couldn’t look more ashamed and embarrassed if he tried. “Look I got to go, have a good night.”
Ianto tried to rush out the door and forgot he had to wait for Owen to buzz him back out with the desk button. The shuddering breath Ianto took to try to control himself from crying was enough to make Owen finally hit it.
..........