Title: Black fingernails
By: lilithangel
Pairings: Ianto/Owen
Rating: NC-17
Prompt: He was quite surprised when Ianto arrived at the Hub wearing black nail polish and eyeliner.
Summary: Sometimes Ianto surprised Owen and sometimes it was in a good way.

***

When Gwen had suggested Ianto should go undercover Owen had laughed.

“You know the club scene Ianto,” she said, “you’ll blend in better than the rest of us.”

“I know the bloody club scene better than Ianto,” Owen protested.

“You know the ones that have lots of drinking and easy lays,” Ianto said, “we’re not talking about those clubs.”

“What sort of clubs are we talking about then?” Owen said.

“Underground rave clubs,” Ianto replied, “they move around and you have to be on the right phone lists to be able to follow them.”

“And you are?” Owen asked sarcastically. “Don’t tell me they’re Jack’s kind of place.”

“Okay I won’t,” Ianto said, “anyway they’re not, they’re mine. I do have a life outside of this place you know.”

Owen snorted his disbelief but allowed Gwen to keep making plans. He was still annoyed when the first night of the sting came around and volunteered to stay at the Hub to monitor events.

Tosh had looked at him sideways but got herself organised to be backup. Ianto had gone home to get changed while Gwen and Tosh got the SUV into position. It was just a simple mission really.

Someone was selling a new party drug with interesting and possibly alien side effects. After the tenth admission to hospital the police had got involved and Andy had got Torchwood involved. All Ianto had to do was get hold of the new pill and get out. If it was alien they would have to track down the suppliers and shut it down and for that part of the mission Owen was determined that Ianto wouldn’t be going in alone if at all.

Gwen and Tosh’s chatter suggested Ianto scrubbed up okay. Not that Owen was that interested in how Ianto looked.

“You actually like this noise?” Owen said over the thumping beat and screaming voices.

Ianto didn’t reply but Owen didn’t expect him to. Instead Owen had to listen to a surprising number of women and men hitting on Ianto as he made his way through the club. Enough of them knew who he was to prove he hadn’t been making it up when he said the clubs were his scene although most expressed delight at his return to suggest other things had been taking up his time recently.

To everyone’s relief (they didn’t talk about it but with Jack gone they couldn’t afford to have anyone down) it turned out to be easy to get hold of the new pills. Ianto hung around long enough to ally suspicion and then popped outside to pass them to Tosh. Then to Owen’s disapproval, he handed over his earpiece and went back into the club.

The next morning Owen didn’t notice anything amiss to start with. It was when Ianto put his coffee down on his desk that Owen’s eyes were drawn to Ianto’s hands. He grabbed Ianto’s wrist to get a better look.

“I didn’t have any remover,” Ianto said as Owen stared at his black painted nails. They looked incongruous against the neat cuffs and suit jacket and it fascinated Owen.

“But you had the polish?” Owen raised an eyebrow. He looked at Ianto and his eyebrow lifted even higher. Ianto’s eyes were even larger than normal with a smudged outline of black.

“It was Gwen’s fault,” Ianto said self consciously, “she put it on for me but forgot to mention it was waterproof.”

Owen laughed and let go of Ianto’s wrist but couldn’t let the memory go as easily. He did his best to ignore the other man as normal but every cup of coffee drew his eyes to the black tipped nails with the tiny chip on the edge of one thumb where Ianto had obviously worried the paint off.

When Tosh announced she’d found an alien substance in the pills Ianto sighed. “I guess there’s no point in removing the nail polish then,” he said.

“You might as well,” Owen replied quickly, “you’re not going straight back it’ll look too suspicious.” He wasn’t going to think about how much he liked Ianto in makeup if he could help it.

“There’s no guarantee when the next text will come out either,” Ianto agreed.

However when he and Tosh completed their tests on the substance, Owen had to agree that Ianto needed to go back as soon as possible or somebody could die.

“I’m going as backup,” Owen said firmly when Ianto protested. He’d removed the nail polish and eyeliner so Owen was able to look at him directly again.

“You won’t fit in,” Ianto said.

“Well make me fit in,” Owen said. “Shit,” he added as Gwen’s face brightened. “No makeup. Ianto might be able to get away with it but I won’t.”

“No,” Gwen agreed, “you need something else.”

* * * * *

“You’re kidding,” Owen said flatly as Gwen held out her selection to him. Skinny white jeans, a black sleeveless tee shirt and a purple fake fox stole. “I’ll look like a twat.”

“No you won’t,” Gwen insisted. “I went online and checked. These jeans are the hottest seller right now and the stole is the point of difference.”

“No,” Owen said. “I’ll wear the jeans if I have to, but a big no to the dead fox.”

“How about this?” Tosh said, waving a red plaid scarf.

“Fine,” Owen said snatching everything from the girls. “Where’s Ianto?”

“Painting his nails in Jack’s office,” Gwen said.

Owen took the clothes down to the shower room to get changed. There was an old spotted mirror in there and he stared at his reflection. It took him back to his teenage years. Before he turned his attention to medical school properly he’d enjoyed a few years in the cool groups who’d always dressed in the height of fashion. He’d been one of the ones to make charity shop clothing cool although he’d done it because his mother didn’t approve of fashion and would only buy him sensible clothes when she remembered at all. It had been a wonderfully awful time despite being the odd kid, but it all stopped when he got serious about medicine.

The jeans fit surprisingly well and Owen suspected Gwen had asked Ianto for help since he doubted she had paid any attention to his clothing sizes in the short time they’d been fucking. Ianto on the other hand knew all that sort of rubbish from having to purchase replacement clothing for the many emergencies Torchwood ended up facing. He substituted one of his own tee shirts that he often wore under other shirts. It was form fitting and at least didn’t look brand new and wannabe. He finished it with his own sneakers and draped the scarf around his neck vaguely like he’d seen others wear them.

Back upstairs Gwen and Tosh were teasing Ianto and Owen took advantage of it to get a good look at the other man. Ianto looked spectacular if Owen was honest. Denim jeans that hugged even tighter than Owen’s, a studded belt that didn’t help him not look at Ianto’s crotch, and a black dress shirt that should have looked wrong except that it was half unbuttoned and Ianto was sporting a leather braided necklace.

Of course it was the eyeliner that Gwen was applying that drew his attention as he watched it subtly change the shape of Ianto’s eyes making him appear younger.

“Owen,” Tosh said with surprise when she saw him, “you look…”

“Just don’t say it,” Owen interrupted her, “I look pants.”

“I was going to say fantastic,” Tosh said stepping over to adjust his scarf.

“You should wear tight jeans more often,” Gwen said with approval.

“Like hell,” Owen said, “I like my swimmers to keep swimming thank you and my balls to stay outside my body.”

“Owen!” Gwen chided as Tosh blushed.

“It’s nearly midnight,” Ianto said, “we should get going. It’s a good hour to the rave.”

Gwen ruffled Owen’s hair before he left and when Owen checked in the rear view mirror he found she’d used some sort of glitter gel that he didn’t dare try and remove because it would only end up all over his hands.

“You do this every bloody time?” Owen said after the fifth change of direction from a flurry of texts to Ianto’s phone.

“Used to be I was the one sending the texts,” Ianto said and Owen detected a wisp of regret.

“You’re full of surprises,” Owen said.

Finally they reached the barn where the rave was being held and Owen parked in the field beside it with hundreds of other cars.

“It would have always been here,” Ianto said as they climbed out, “the earlier directions were just to throw cops off the scent.”

They could feel the beat of the music as they approached and it hit like a wall of water once they were inside. Owen found he was practically glued to Ianto’s back in case they got separated. People kept dancing up to Ianto yelling greetings and planting kisses on him. Owen ended up receiving his fair share when they saw he was with Ianto and Owen tried not to be offended that his best chance of pulling in months would be due to Ianto.

They made it to the bar and Ianto leaned down to yell in his ear. “Drink?” Owen turned and nodded only to realise he was practically nose to nose with Ianto and able to see that Ianto not only had eyeliner on but mascara as well. He swallowed hard and turned to survey the seething mass of humanity.

When their drinks arrived Ianto mirrored his position against the bar foot tapping as if he wanted to be in the middle of the masses. After a while Ianto elbowed Owen and nodded towards a girl wearing purple fairy wings dancing toward them.

“Janice got me the first lot,” Ianto said and Owen shivered at the heat of his breath. “She should be able to direct us to the supplier here.”

“Ianto!” Janice practically leapt into his arms, “did you fly? I’m flying.”

“It was as good as you said it would be,” Ianto said letting her twist around until he was piggybacking her. “Can I get some more?”

“I’ll take you to Gary,” she said. “Hello,” she added leaning back to consider Owen, “your hair is shining.” She kissed him wetly on the cheek and then wrapped her arms around Ianto’s neck. “That way my Pegasus.”

Ianto flicked his eyes over to Owen who nodded quickly. Ianto dutifully followed Janice’s directions while Owen stayed as close as he could without being too obvious. Forgetting about the gel he ran a hand through his hair and then cursed. A young man wearing jeans tighter than his and nothing else tried to get him to dance. He pressed up against the sweating flesh and left a glitter hand print as he spun the boy away and kept following Ianto. Luckily Janice’s wings appeared to have been painted with fluorescent paint and led him like a beacon.

At the far side of the barn a man held court with a continuingly changing line of people moving in and out of his orbit. Owen couldn’t see money or anything change hands but it was a dance he recognised from his student days.

Janice fell off Ianto’s back and into the man’s lap and Owen let a woman dance with him while he watched what happened, ready to step in and take any trouble that threatened Ianto.

Ianto was wearing the contact lenses so that Tosh and Gwen could get good facial images of the dealers to match and identify. Then they would establish where the drugs were being manufactured and who knew about the alien chemical that was giving everyone the really good buzz before shutting down higher brain function for longer and longer after each use. They’d decided the earpieces were too conspicuous to wear so the contact lenses were their only contact with the Hub, something Owen had only agreed to because he was there as backup.

Ianto chatted with the group for a while and then moved closer to the one Owen assumed was Gary. Ianto held out a hand and Gary grabbed it pulling him forward and down, stealing a kiss before pressing something into Ianto’s hand and whispering something. Ianto stood and shook his head saying something that made Gary smirk. Ianto turned and walked over to Owen, casually displacing the woman Owen had been allowing to writhe over him and kissed him.

“Just go with it,” Ianto said into Owen’s mouth. Ianto was a good quite dominant kisser and Owen went with it as directed. “I told him you were my boyfriend,” he added as they shuffled backwards until the crowd had swallowed them from Gary’s view.

Ianto looked down at Owen who was staring at him with a dazed expression after he broke the kiss. Owen raised an eyebrow and grabbed Ianto by the lapel and dragged him in for another kiss.

“I was hoping you didn’t mind,” Ianto said pulling Owen’s body flush with his own when they broke for air.

“If these jeans would let me I’d have had a raging hard on since I saw you in the Hub,” Owen admitted his lips pressed against Ianto’s ear.

“Then it’s my duty to ease your discomfort,” Ianto murmured and pulled Owen through the crowd. They tumbled out of the barn hands clutching at each other as they kept kissing.

They made it as far as a fence before Ianto managed to unzip Owen’s jeans and push them down far enough for his cock to spring free.

“No underwear,” Ianto said with approval.

“Couldn’t fit them under the jeans,” Owen admitted his own hands fumbling with Ianto’s belt buckle.

Ianto hitched Owen up against the fence so they could both wrap a hand around their cocks, pumping them together. Owen swore, and did what he’d been wanting to do all night. Dipped his tongue into the hollow of Ianto’s throat.

Ianto’s hand tightened around his and pumped a little more forcefully so Owen took that as a hint to trace over Ianto’s Adams apple and nip at Ianto’s jaw.

Ianto’s free hand pulled Owen’s head back and he claimed the other man’s lips again forcefully enough to bruise but Owen wasn’t complaining.

They kept kissing through both their orgasms not stopping until they were both panting and slumped against the fence.

Ianto blinked the sweat out of his eyes and then remembered something. Owen saw the consternation in his eyes and bristled.

“The contacts,” Ianto said.

“They’re still in?” Owen choked.

YES flashed up in Ianto’s gaze and he buried his face in Owen’s shoulder.

“Bloody tarts probably recorded the whole thing,” Owen grumped.

“I hope they give us a copy then,” Ianto said.

“Damn straight,” Owen agreed.

“Not really.”

“Just really flexible.”

“We are Torchwood after all.”

END

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