OMG, I wrote something other than a Yugioh fic! (well almost, lol)

This one-shot fic was writen as a 'time out' from my current fic in prgress (which happens to be a Yugioh/Doctor Who and Torchwood crossover)

Like always, I own no rights 'cause I'm poor :P

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Play with me

"Help me." Gwen whined as she stared horrified at the devious face sat opposite her.

"You're on your own with this one." Standing behind her, Owen held his hands up at the request that had been made. "I could have all the PhDs in the world and I still wouldn't know what to do in your situation."

Gwen now stared at the cards she held fanned out in her hand, not having a clue what to do next as he rules of the game that had been explained to her had gone straight over her head. She looked back at her opponent and was glad to see that the scary and uncharacteristic smile had disappeared from Ianto's face.

"It's your turn Gwen and don't forget to pick up your card first this time." He told her.

She gave a faint smile for the courteous reminder, picked up a card from the pile to her right and studied her hand once again. Still the cards meant practically nothing to Gwen, but after she had recently discovered and been polite by showing a false interest in her colleague's pastime, she didn't have the heart to disappoint him by quitting right now.

"Who would have thought it eh? Ianto's a complete geek who likes to play children's card games." Owen smirked and then quickly added. "No offence intended."

"None taken." Ianto assured as he surveyed his own cards that he held. He hadn't expected anyone else to have discovered his passion for the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise and everything that went with it.

Toshiko came heading towards the three of them holding a brown A5 envelope in her hands. "Here's your doujinshi Ianto. Just let me know when you need the next one translating."

"Thank you Tosh."

"What the hell is 'doujinshi'?" Owen asked with a baffled look on his face.

"Self published Japanese manga." Toshiko explained. "That would be a comic book in terms you can understand."

"Comics?!" Owen snatched up the envelope that was now on the table and peeked inside, much to Ianto's horror as he watched another part of his secret revealed to the male colleague. Not impressed by what he had seen, Owen dropped the doujinshi back down on the top.

"I don't suppose that you could help me out could you?" Gwen held up her cards to show the technical expert. "Please?"

Toshiko glanced at Ianto, who nodded that it was okay, before she looked at the cards already in play on the flat surface between the two opponents. On Ianto's side he had a magic card -'Swords of Revealing Light' - that prevented any monster cards Gwen played from attacking his own for three turns, which was currently on its last turn as it had two counters placed on it. There were also two monster cards belonging to him, one of them - 'Neo the Magic Swordsman'- which had destroyed Gwen's monster in the previous turn, and a monster card that had been placed face down so the image and text could not be seen. Gwen however didn't have any cards in play but after scanning the ones she held, a smiled crossed Toshiko's face. "I think that I can turn things in your favour."

"Cwtches to you." The welsh woman showed her thanks.

"Are you ready Ianto?" Toshiko asked before she began to play cards from Gwen's hand. The magic card - 'Change of Heart' - was placed down which allowed Toshiko to take Ianto's monster card - 'Neo the Magic Swordsman' - and control it as her own. Next she used the monster she had taken and discarded it so that she could play a stronger monster - 'Firewing Pegasus' - in its place, then ended her turn by placing a trap card face down to hide it from her opponent's sight. "Turn completed, your go."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What just happened there?" Gwen asked looking completely confused.

The huge spherical entrance door of the hub began to roll to one side.

"Forget about it." Owen sniggered. "If you couldn't figure out the rules for this game before you started, then why try to start now?"

"Like you could do better?!" Gwen snapped as she stared angrily and Owen who stared as equally angrily back at her. "At least I wasn't afraid to play a 'children's card game'."

"Are you two fighting again?" Jack laughed as he strode over to where his team were gathered around the tabletop, the door rolled closed behind him. "Next time shout a little louder as I'm sure there are a couple of people up top who couldn't hear you both bickering."

"Sorry Jack." They apologised together like small children who had been caught doing wrong.

"You lot are working hard I see." Jack smirked with a hint of sarcasm as he stood behind Ianto and caught sight of the cards. "When the world finds itself under alien invasion, I'll make sure to let everyone know that it could have been avoided if my team hadn't been playing…" He stared at the franchise name on the back of the cards. "…Yu? Gi? Oh?"

"Good thing we're not under invasion then, otherwise the whole world would know of my secret." Ianto mumbled as he picked up his card and held back the excitement he felt from seeing the monster he had drawn. He reached out and turned over the monster card he had faced down only for Toshiko to flip over the hidden trap card. He looked slightly shocked as he stared down at the trap - 'Chain Destruction'- which meant he would now have to discard his monster -'Kaibaman' - as well as the other two by the same name from his hand and card deck. He carefully set his hand down in order to remove the two cards he was required to do so.

"What's this?" Jack asked inquisitively as he picked up the brown envelope.

"That would be mine." Ianto dropped the cards he was now shuffling as he tried to reach across for the amateur manga, but failed to stop Jack from viewing the envelope's contents. Avoiding the mischievous look sent his way he swiftly focused on retrieving the fallen cards.

"Yaoi?" Jack chuckled as he analysed the picture of the couple taken from the Yu-Gi-Oh manga and anime on the front cover.

"Tosh said it was doujinshi." Gwen tried to catch a glimpse of the booklet and was unsuccessful, even when she stood on tip toes.

"It is." Toshiko explained in a low voice as she avoided looking at the others. "Yaoi is the name given to the theme of this particular doujinshi."

"Which is?" Gwen asked curiously.

"The guy in the white coat is extremely hot, and the blonde isn't bad either." Jack told Ianto who was re-piling his cards. "Why do they call it Puppyshipping?"

"I'll explain later." Ianto avoided his captain's gaze.

"Blokes, Gwen!" Owen exclaimed what he had seen. "It's a couple of blokes."

"Is it explicit?" Jack asked Ianto who turned almost as bright pink as the shirt he was wearing upon hearing the question. "I'll take that as a yes." He eagerly began to flick through the pages.

Gwen struggled to hide the giggles as she spoke to Toshiko. "I never though you were one for those kind of things."

"I was asked to translate the text." She began to flush in colour.

"Well there's something I haven't tried before!" Jack laughed as he tilted the doujinshi from side to side. "Is that even physically possible?"

"I'll continue my turn shall I?" Ianto asked Toshiko as both of their faces burned bright red.

Jack placed the amateur manga back into the brown envelope and down onto the desk. He clasped Ianto on the shoulder. "When you've finished your card game, I'll be upstairs waiting for my chance to play with you, and your cards won't be needed for what I now have in mind." Another clasp on his shoulder and then Ianto stared as he watched Jack walk away, up the stairs, into the room above and began to close the blinds on the huge windows.

Ianto nervously fumbled the cards he held. "Fusion summon Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, I win - game over, now its time to face my next opponent." He flung the cards down on the top, and turned over a card to his left, before he raced along the same route that the captain had taken.

"Is he shitting us?" Owen asked as he and Gwen still had no idea what had gone on in the card game.

"No, he did win." Toshiko assured. "Now who's joining me up top for a drink?"

"It's a little early in the day to start drinking isn't it?" Gwen looked at her watch which displayed the time as ten twenty-one in the morning. "I know they're about to start shagging any moment now, but we're all adults here, so is it really that big a deal?"

"I translated the doujinshi for Ianto, so I'm aware of what it is that they're most likely to be doing up there, and believe me when I say that we shouldn't stay here."

There was silence in the hub as all three of them looked from one to the other with startled expressions before the stillness was broken by the sound of something crashing to the ground in the room above.

"First round's on me." Owen confirmed as they all raced off towards the front door.

The blinds on the windows above slowly started to re-open as both men peered out and watched the others leave through the spherical door. Together they exited the room, fully clothed and laughing hysterically as they made their way back down to the jumble of Yu-Gi-Oh cards left on the table.

"Wonderful acting Ianto; extremely convincing and lovely shade of pink you turned back there." Jack complimented as he gathered up the cards Gwen and Toshiko had been using.

"I flush when I'm nervous."

"I had noticed."

Ianto finished wiping the tears of laugher from his eyes, - he couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so hard, - and then gathered his cards too. "Why didn't we just ask them to leave instead of going to all this trouble? And why make them leave at all as we could have easily played in your office? Is it because they'd probably laugh if they ever find out that the 'great' Captain Jack Harkness knows how, and wants to play a children's card game?"

"I just want to spend as much time with you as I possibly can." Jack beamed towards his lover. "There's nothing wrong with wanting you all to myself is there?"

"Of course not." Ianto smiled back. He loved the fact that Jack paid close attention to him and his interests, even if it was kept secret from the others. It made him feel wanted, treasured and contented in the life that he had once felt like had ended with Lisa. "But what if the world was to find itself under an alien invasion?"

"Then we carry on playing; as long as you're happy, that's all that matters to me."

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed :)

KG