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fandomweekly2024-09-09 08:05 pm
m_findlow) wrote in fandomweekly2024-09-09 08:05 pm
Entry tags:
[#232] SOMETHING BREWING (TORCHWOOD)
Theme Prompt: #232 - Coffee shop
Title: Something brewing
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG. Pre-canon.
Bonus: No
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Ianto is good at his job, but maybe there’s more to life than just making coffee.
The shop appeared full as Ianto pushed through the glass doors. Another busy day, he thought, though that was probably a good thing. Busy made the shifts go quickly, and it didn't feel like so much of a chore. That he wouldn't have time to think was a bonus. He was always his own worst enemy when he had too much time on his hands for thinking.
He had to stop within moments of stepping through the door as almost every head in the coffee shop turned and looked straight at him. Ah. Not again.
He shuffled towards the door that led around the back of the shop to hang up his coat, forced to navigate the sudden swell of people as they all stood and parted like the red sea to let him through. It was starting to get weird, he decided. Word was spreading, obviously. Next time he was probably going to have to fight his way through a mile long queue just to make it through the door. Or. Maybe they'd recognise him there too.
'Oh, here he is,' came a jaded voice. 'Coffee maker extraordinaire. Your adoring fans await.'
He rolled his eyes, schucking off his coat. 'Morning to you too, Sherry. Quiet morning so far?'
'Seriously, Ianto, they've been sitting out there for twenty minutes waiting. I've been standing at the counter and they won't even place an order that isn't a ham toastie.'
Ianto spared a glance through the tiny window in the door, seeing what had to be at least thirty people clamouring in a haphazard queue around tables and chairs waiting to order. 'It's creepy,' he said.
Sherry rolled her eyes again. 'I don't know what it is that you're doing differently to the rest of us,' she said. 'Did management send you on one of those fancy coffee making course or something?'
He laughed at that. 'Can you imagine management spending money on us?' He liked Sherry and she was a decent mate but there was a long running joke between them that Sherry was only good for serving up muffins.
'I tried doing it exactly the way you showed me but it just isn't the same.'
'There's not much to it,' he said, knowing that they needed to take their conversation outside before the natives got restless. 'Look, you know the drill. You take the orders and I'll get the machine going.'
They worked well together to get the huge string of orders done in record time. Ianto lost himself in the repetitive nature, tipping out spent grinds, filling the scoop with fresh grinds, packing it down and reinserting it into the machine, hitting the buttons. Two streams of thick black liquid gold poured into separate shot glasses. One was destined for a cappuccino, the other a soy latte. Ridiculous, Ianto thought. Soy milk ruined the taste of the beans but who was he to question? If they thought it tasted okay that was what mattered. The customer is always right, isn't that what they said?
The rush hour disappeared in a blur, cafe now full to the brim with happy customers sipping from basic white mugs or flitting off with paper ones, in a rush to be somewhere else. Ianto slumped back against the counter, taking a brief respite as Sherry rinsed out a frappe blender. 'We're going to need a ticketing system soon,' she said. 'Do you think we should tell management?'
'I don't think they'll care much one way or the other so long as the money keeps rolling in.' Things had certainly boomed in the eight months he'd been working here to pay his rent. He was far too humble to think that the reason the place had gone from pedestrian to heaving had anything to do with his skills behind a coffee machine.
Sherry signed, putting away the long telescopic hose fitting. 'What are you really doing here Ianto? Not that I don't love working shift with you but don't you think you're wasted here?'
He raised an eyebrow. 'You think I should be making coffee elsewhere?' He wasn't sure what fancy hotels would think of him applying for a job there. He wasn't a huge fan of the penguin suit all those porters and wait staff had to squeeze themselves into. He was much more comfortable in jeans and a hoodie.
' That's not what I mean,' Sherry said, as if they hadn't had this conversation a dozen times. 'You're a university graduate. You should be doing something more than just making coffee.'
True, he had graduated but what was he supposed to do with that qualification? He'd taken subjects that interested him like history and geography and art until realising that a few business subjects would probably be more useful. He'd done economics and commercial law and hated every minute of them. Now he had a mishmash of knowledge that was of little use to anyone.
'You could go back to Cardiff,' Sherry offered.
'No way.' University had just been an excuse to get out of there so that he could avoid his dad and his sister. No chance they were coming to London to visit him so that was exactly where he was staying. Of course there was one other thing that he hadn't told Sherry yet, about the women with the two goons that had turned up at his flat a few days ago, offering him some government job they couldn't talk about. The contract was still sitting on the end of his bed where he'd left it, having read it for the fifth time and still uncertain that he wanted to take up a job that he knew nothing about. It was that or stay here avoiding his family and making a decent double espresso for the rest of his life.
He chewed his lip. Perhaps the crowds of coffee addicted patrons would have to find somewhere new. Or maybe Sherry was just going to have to be a fast learner.
Title: Something brewing
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG. Pre-canon.
Bonus: No
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Ianto is good at his job, but maybe there’s more to life than just making coffee.
The shop appeared full as Ianto pushed through the glass doors. Another busy day, he thought, though that was probably a good thing. Busy made the shifts go quickly, and it didn't feel like so much of a chore. That he wouldn't have time to think was a bonus. He was always his own worst enemy when he had too much time on his hands for thinking.
He had to stop within moments of stepping through the door as almost every head in the coffee shop turned and looked straight at him. Ah. Not again.
He shuffled towards the door that led around the back of the shop to hang up his coat, forced to navigate the sudden swell of people as they all stood and parted like the red sea to let him through. It was starting to get weird, he decided. Word was spreading, obviously. Next time he was probably going to have to fight his way through a mile long queue just to make it through the door. Or. Maybe they'd recognise him there too.
'Oh, here he is,' came a jaded voice. 'Coffee maker extraordinaire. Your adoring fans await.'
He rolled his eyes, schucking off his coat. 'Morning to you too, Sherry. Quiet morning so far?'
'Seriously, Ianto, they've been sitting out there for twenty minutes waiting. I've been standing at the counter and they won't even place an order that isn't a ham toastie.'
Ianto spared a glance through the tiny window in the door, seeing what had to be at least thirty people clamouring in a haphazard queue around tables and chairs waiting to order. 'It's creepy,' he said.
Sherry rolled her eyes again. 'I don't know what it is that you're doing differently to the rest of us,' she said. 'Did management send you on one of those fancy coffee making course or something?'
He laughed at that. 'Can you imagine management spending money on us?' He liked Sherry and she was a decent mate but there was a long running joke between them that Sherry was only good for serving up muffins.
'I tried doing it exactly the way you showed me but it just isn't the same.'
'There's not much to it,' he said, knowing that they needed to take their conversation outside before the natives got restless. 'Look, you know the drill. You take the orders and I'll get the machine going.'
They worked well together to get the huge string of orders done in record time. Ianto lost himself in the repetitive nature, tipping out spent grinds, filling the scoop with fresh grinds, packing it down and reinserting it into the machine, hitting the buttons. Two streams of thick black liquid gold poured into separate shot glasses. One was destined for a cappuccino, the other a soy latte. Ridiculous, Ianto thought. Soy milk ruined the taste of the beans but who was he to question? If they thought it tasted okay that was what mattered. The customer is always right, isn't that what they said?
The rush hour disappeared in a blur, cafe now full to the brim with happy customers sipping from basic white mugs or flitting off with paper ones, in a rush to be somewhere else. Ianto slumped back against the counter, taking a brief respite as Sherry rinsed out a frappe blender. 'We're going to need a ticketing system soon,' she said. 'Do you think we should tell management?'
'I don't think they'll care much one way or the other so long as the money keeps rolling in.' Things had certainly boomed in the eight months he'd been working here to pay his rent. He was far too humble to think that the reason the place had gone from pedestrian to heaving had anything to do with his skills behind a coffee machine.
Sherry signed, putting away the long telescopic hose fitting. 'What are you really doing here Ianto? Not that I don't love working shift with you but don't you think you're wasted here?'
He raised an eyebrow. 'You think I should be making coffee elsewhere?' He wasn't sure what fancy hotels would think of him applying for a job there. He wasn't a huge fan of the penguin suit all those porters and wait staff had to squeeze themselves into. He was much more comfortable in jeans and a hoodie.
' That's not what I mean,' Sherry said, as if they hadn't had this conversation a dozen times. 'You're a university graduate. You should be doing something more than just making coffee.'
True, he had graduated but what was he supposed to do with that qualification? He'd taken subjects that interested him like history and geography and art until realising that a few business subjects would probably be more useful. He'd done economics and commercial law and hated every minute of them. Now he had a mishmash of knowledge that was of little use to anyone.
'You could go back to Cardiff,' Sherry offered.
'No way.' University had just been an excuse to get out of there so that he could avoid his dad and his sister. No chance they were coming to London to visit him so that was exactly where he was staying. Of course there was one other thing that he hadn't told Sherry yet, about the women with the two goons that had turned up at his flat a few days ago, offering him some government job they couldn't talk about. The contract was still sitting on the end of his bed where he'd left it, having read it for the fifth time and still uncertain that he wanted to take up a job that he knew nothing about. It was that or stay here avoiding his family and making a decent double espresso for the rest of his life.
He chewed his lip. Perhaps the crowds of coffee addicted patrons would have to find somewhere new. Or maybe Sherry was just going to have to be a fast learner.
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