(no subject)

[songspinner]

Title: Tea
Characters/Pairing: Jack, Toshiko/none
Rating: G
Spoilers: "Captain Jack Harkness"


Author's note: Somehow, with everyone doing fics about coffee, I found myself writing about tea...

Disclaimer: The usual...Torchwood and its characters belong to RTD and co., and the BBC. No profit is made from this and no copyright infringement is intended.


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Tea
by Songspinner

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"Toshiko, do you happen to know cha-no-yu?"

Tosh looked up from her computer, startled out of the report she'd been completing. "No, actually." She grinned a little at her boss. "My grandmother tried to get me to learn all of that, and I know something about the tea ceremony, but I am afraid that as a teenager, I was more interested in computers and science." Pausing to look at him, she tilted her head to one side. "Are you implying that you know how to do it?"

Leaning one hip against her desk, Jack nodded. "I learned when...well, a long time ago. I thought...it's really calm and centering and I wanted to say thank you and I'm sorry at the same time..."

Tosh smiled at him and reached out to squeeze his hand. She understood the offer for what it was and sensed that he needed healing from what they'd gone through in 1941 even more than she did. Tranquility was in short supply these days in the Hub.

And when his hands were gracefully stirring and tapping the beautiful ceramic bowl of tea an hour later, she knelt on the mat in his office and watched. Accepted. Wondered at the delicate painting on the natsume box he used to store the tea, and where (when?) it had come from, when he had learned. Who had taught him? And did he know the other arts that went with it? But the silence required of the ceremony, she knew, was important, and she concentrated on losing herself in watching. He would tell her if he was ever ready to tell her, and for now she'd just accept the gift.