Chapter 1

Jack was tired. He sat in his office, his hands behind his head, silent and thinking. For the past two weeks, nothing had been happening – nothing at all – and for some reason, watching TV and eating Chinese food day in, day out seemed to wear him out so much faster than when he was working.

He felt a bit lonely, too; not only because of the fact that his immortality meant that his best friends and past lovers from decades ago grew old and passed away while Jack remained a young man, but because his boyfriend (Lover? Partner?) was upset with him after he turned down a romantic date with him that he'd taken hours to plan and arrange, and his only excuse for declining the night out was that he was "too busy". He just felt as if he wanted no contact with anyone whatsoever. Sometimes, being alive forever, whilst watching people close to him age, depressed him so much that all he wanted to do was hide away. Now he came to think about it, he missed his special coffee boy.

Somehow, today, it was as if Ianto sensed his loneliness. There was a soft knock on Jack's office door and Ianto stepped inside. The quiet click of the door shutting made Jack look up. His eyes sparkled when he saw Ianto, the man he'd missed so much, stood wearing one of the black pinstriped suits that Jack loved. He had his hands in his trousers pockets and was looking directly as Jack. He went to step forward, but hesitated and stayed still at the door.

"Jack." Ianto said quietly and calmly, nodding once.
"Ianto. Finally decided to come and see me, then."
"I couldn't wait any longer, sir. Plus, I bought you coffee. Starbucks. It would be a waste if it went cold." Ianto gently put the cardboard cup of latte, Jack's favourite, on the small table in the centre of the room. As he moved his hand away, Jack stopped him by resting one hands on his, causing Ianto to look across at him. He looked beautiful, his eyes shining like diamonds. Ianto stood up straight again, Jack still looking at him in the eyes.

"Come and sit." Jack tapped on the seat next to him on the sofa with his free hand whilst gently pulled Ianto's hand with the other. Ianto obeyed and sat down next to Jack. They still hadn't left each other's gaze and Ianto felt uncomfortable, so he looked down towards the floor. This movement broke Jack's eye contact and he smiled, blinked and looked away.

"Sorry," Jack said gently, "Are your eyes a maze? Because I just got lost in them." Jack flirted.
"Flirt," Ianto teased, as Jack put one hand on Ianto's knee. Ianto glanced at Jack's hand and back up to his face.
"Yep, that's me. King of flirt."
"Yes. Anyway, Jack, I…"
"You're going to apologise for overreacting and that you want to be forgiven."
"Well, yes, you took the words out of my mouth," Ianto replied as Jack slowly moved one thumb back and forth on his knee, "but please remember than it was you who turned me down for a date after I made a bit of an effort to sort it out. You've got to understand why I felt a bit… annoyed. Disappointed."

A pang of guilt shot across Jack's face. "Yeah, uh… sorry about that. I just didn't feel like it. This is sort of a date though, huh?"
"A date in an office. Romantic!" Ianto laughed.
"Hey you," Jack said, tapping the tip of Ianto's noise with one finger, "some of the best things happen in an office." Ianto wasn't sure whether that was supposed to be an innuendo. Knowing Jack, is probably was.

Jack winked and moved his face closer to Ianto's. Ianto shot back a half smile, looked down flirtatiously and put his hands on Jack's arms. Jack kissed Ianto's forehead, and then his lips. He'd been waiting to do that for almost a week.

Ianto moved his hands from Jack's arms and placed them either side of Jack's face. He returned his kiss, still smiling at the same time. Getting intimate with Jack was something that he'd only just realised how much he'd missed. Suddenly, as Jack moved his hands towards Ianto's shirt collar to pull off his tie, the door swung open with a jolt and Tosh rushed in with a beaming smile.

"We have rift activity, something we've been waiting for. First big reading in two weeks, and it really does seem important; it covers a one-mile radius, that's much bigger than usual readings," Tosh babbled, "Oh, sorry… am I interrupting something?" she said apologetically, turning to leave the office to leave them alone.

"We, uh…" Ianto stuttered as he refastened the top button of his shirt and pushed his tie back into place. He and Jack pulled away from each other.
"Looks like we got a bit carried away," Jack said, winking at Ianto again, "It's 11:30pm, I didn't think you'd still be here."
"Got nothing else to do, figured I might as well stay here. Good job we did, eh? Anyway, doesn't matter. I see you two made up. Ianto's been planning on it for two days but couldn't think of what to say. But I can see he did just fine," Tosh babbled again. Tosh didn't usually speak this much; either she was excited about the new rift discovery, embarrassed about walking in on Jack and Ianto, or she'd had too much coffee. Any of them were likely.

"Yeah, he did great," Jack replied with a smile, before quickly kissing Ianto's forehead again, jumping up off the sofa and dashing over to Tosh. He put his hands on each of her shoulders and shot a beaming smile at her. It was as if Ianto's arrival ten minutes ago brought a spark of happiness back into him again.

"Thanks Toshiko, you're a star. We've actually got something to do. Something to do!" He kissed Tosh's forehead, removed his hands from her shoulders and jumped to the side of her. He dashed out of the door, bounding down the steps towards the rift-tracking device, where Owen was waiting. Ianto just remained sat down on the sofa with a look of bewilderment on his face. He looked at the untouched cup of coffee on the table and sighed. He was used to Jack darting off at any random moment. He was like a puppy – when he was happy he couldn't stay still for more than a few seconds but when he was unhappy, he would cower away in a corner until someone gave him some fuss and attention. One part of him liked his enthusiasm and excitement, but another part of him disliked him ruining their first moment of intimacy in almost a week. But it was his job, what he had to do, and more importantly, what he loved to do. Most people's hobbies consisted of simple things such as horse riding or reading books or stamp collecting. Jack's however, uncluded often saving the lives of people from extra-terrestrial creatures of people from thousands of years ago, who escaped through a rift through the centre of Cardiff.

So, for Jack, in simple terms – this was exciting.

"John?"
There was no reply.
"John!"
There was still no response.
"John Watson!"
"What?" There was finally a distant reply from the other side of the flat of 221B Baker Street.
"I'm bored. Come here."
"Excuse me, what?"
"Bored. Come here!"

There was a long silence before John Watson walked into the messy lounge with only a white towel around his waist. Sherlock Holmes was sitting in an armchair; his hands pressed tightly together, his chin resting on his fingertips. He looked up at John with an odd expression, his hands still in place.
"Why are you in a towel?" he asked in his deep voice.
"I was in the shower. You called me out of the shower."
"Oh. Get me your laptop."
"Mine?"
"Yes, yours."
"Why? Where's your own?"
"In the other room. Yours is better than mine."
"It's on the table next to you!"

Sherlock raised his eyebrows at John, and that was enough to make him give up and shake his head. He hesitated, then stamped over to the table, picked up his laptop, and threw it heavily onto Sherlock's laptop. Sherlock glared at John as he sauntered out of the lounge and slammed the bathroom door. Sherlock smiled before opening the laptop, and clicking the bookmark to his well-known website (he refused to call it a 'blog'), The Science of Deduction, to moan about his boredom. Anything to prevent him from shooting Mrs Hudson's already destroyed walls.
Soon after, there was a knock on the door to 221B and Mrs Hudson popped her head through.
"Is everything alright in here? I heard a lot of slamming about. Have you two been arguing again? I can't keep up with you boys! Anyway, never mind about that. I'm just popping to the…"
"Some milk, please, Mrs Hudson, and some biscuits would be nice. Take a few quid from John's wallet on the table."
"Oh, alright then. Sure there's nothing else? Oh well, if there is anything else you'll have to go and get it yourself. You sit at that laptop too long."
"Thanks, Mrs Hudson." Mrs Hudson stepped away and shut the door gently. Sherlock tapped his fingers in a steady rhythm on the laptop, thinking of witty replies to people's comments on his forum. He typed for a few seconds, hit enter, slammed the laptop shut and stared forwards towards the wall. He replaced his hands to their usual praying position below his chin.

John returned from the bathroom five minutes later wearing his jeans and cream-coloured jumper. Sherlock didn't look at him, even when John called his name. Twice. He sat down on the sofa opposite Sherlock and called him again, still with no response.
"You are so arrogant, you know that?"
"I'm concentrating."
"Doesn't mean you can sit there like the bloody king of everything and ignore anyone who tried to get a response out of you."

Sherlock finally looked over at John with both of his eyebrows raised. John looked at him and narrows his eyes at him.
"Did you run out of your favourite shower gel or something?" Sherlock asked sarcastically with a glint in his eyes.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh. I know what the matter is. What was your argument about?"
"What – " John was confused, which wasn't unusual when Sherlock attempted one of his deductions which were, on the whole, correct.
"You've argued with Sarah again. I can tell. It's obvious."
"How do you know this time, Mr Deduction?"

"You went to her house this morning, yes? Probably around 10am, if I remember correctly, but you kept looking at your watch and the door,
and often looked a bit flustered, which suggests that you were probably running later than you anticipated. Then, just as you were leaving, I clearly remember you saying that you would bring Sarah home for a while if you'd had a good day. However, seeing as you came home only an hour or so after you left with no Sarah and an unhappy face, I sort of got the obvious impression that it has gone too well at Sarah's, hence why I left you alone when you got back. So, that settles it, you had another argument or a falling out. Am I correct?"
There was a long silence.
"You can never explain anything simply, can you?" John replied, frowning and shaking his head.
"Am I correct?"
"Yes. Hang on, what do you mean by 'another argument'?"
"The same thing happened yesterday, too. You should really stop giving me such obvious hints if you don't want me to interfere."

John exhaled heavily and looked away. Somehow, again, Sherlock was correct almost down to every detail, as he usually was. He hated it when he could just dive inside his head and make (true) assumptions about his relationship problems. Sometimes, he wished he could just live his personal life without constant deductions about every move he made.