Ficlet: The Last Cupcake

[badly_knitted]

 




Title: The Last Cupcake
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, Jack.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: How do you share six cupcakes between five people?
Word Count: 460
Written For: theruinedcastle’s prompt ‘Any, Any, deciding who gets the last _____ (can be anything: piece of pizza, item before it sells out, antidote, etc),’ at fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.





“There’s one left.” Owen was pointing out the obvious; they could all plainly see the last cupcake left in the box. They’d each had one, but there’d been six to start with so the leftover one had been inevitable from the start.


“Who should have it?” Gwen asked, clearly trying to resist the temptation it posed.


“We should share it.” That was Tosh’s opinion.


“Oh come on!” Owen sneered. “Where’d the point be in that? It’s not that big, there’d barely be a mouthful each. I say we should draw lots; winner gets the whole cupcake.”


“I could just get another boxful,” Ianto pointed out.


“Yeah, but then there’d be two left over and we’d still have to decide who got them.”


“More to go around though,” Tosh said, siding with Ianto. “We’d each get an extra half a cupcake that way.”


“What about Jack?” Ianto asked. “We’d have to count him in as well. Two cupcakes shared between five of us, dividing them would still be tricky.”


“You’re the one who suggested getting another box of them as a solution,” Owen said. “You could give Jack half of your half.”


“But that wouldn’t be fair on Ianto!” Tosh objected.


“Or Jack.” Now it was Gwen siding with Tosh.


“So do we get another box or not?” Ianto asked. “Better make up our minds before the shop shuts.”


“I probably shouldn’t have more,” Gwen said reluctantly. “Got to watch my figure or I might not be able to fit into my wedding dress.”


“Well if you’re bowing out, that means we can divide the cupcake we’ve got between four,” Tosh said, as if that settled the matter.


“But we’d still only get a mouthful each.” Owen was being his usual stubborn self.


“An extra mouthful is better than nothing,” Ianto said firmly. “If we’re not getting more, I think sharing is the best thing to do. That’s fair to everyone.”


“Should I fetch a knife?” Tosh asked.


“What’re you kids talking about?” Jack asked, sitting down beside Ianto. He was eating a cupcake.


Four pairs of eyes turned towards the cupcake box; it was empty.


Ianto sighed. “We were just discussing the fairest way to share the last cupcake.”


“Oh.” Jack looked at the half-eaten cupcake in his hand, then at his team. “Ooops? It was just sitting there so I figured nobody else wanted it.” He quickly shoved the remains of the cake in his mouth before anyone could take it off him.


“Doesn’t matter now whether we did or not, does it?” Ianto stood and started to collect empty mugs for washing.


“I could get another boxful,” Jack suggested.


“Yeah, but then there’d still be one left over,” Owen said.


Ianto rolled his eyes. “Here we go again!”



The End