Five Becomes Four

AN: Well. Once more I was hit by an idea out of nowhere! Was enough listening to the soundtrack for Children of Earth to give me some inspiration! So here a new fic comes! And I hope it will be quite fun, I've some nice scenes planned XD So, I hope you'll enjoy! (And NO. No character deaths, the title is explained in the author note on the bottom!)

Summary: Ianto Jones is never again going to touch something alien without wearing gloves. Not ever.

Warnings (for the whole fic): Language, sexual content, violence... oh, will contain Janto!

Disclaimer: Last time I checked Russell T Davis was still the man behind the series... wish I owned it though XD

It was an ordinary Monday morning when Ianto pushed himself out of bed, his alarm clock was supposed to go off in about 10 minutes but he had picked up a habit to wake up before it started buzzing. Maybe because of the fact that he had fallen off his bed too many times thanks to the sound, his brain must have developed it's own waking up call to avoid further damage.

As his feet made contact with the cold floor he shuddered and let out a loud yawn before scratching his head and dragging himself over to his closet. There was a sea of various shirts, vests and jackets in there. He didn't get how he had ended up with so many suits and different ties... but then again, working with Torchwood made many of his suits get ruined. He had even lost count of how many he had been forced to throw away by now... Some alien bloodstains didn't go away even though he sent his clothes to get dry-cleaned.

He sighed as he randomly picked a suit and brought it into the bathroom where he got a quick shower before getting the suit on. And after the shower he'd wander into the kitchen and make himself a cup of coffee.

Ianto Jones had a very strict morning routine that he always followed, unless he was staying with Jack at the Hub, and it did usually not matter if it was a day off or not. He'd always get up at 6 am and be finished with all necessary things in 45 minutes. Then he'd drive to the Hub and keep doing his other routines there. At least until there was some kind of alien threat.

The Welshman yawned one last time before he put his coffee cup in the sink, leaving it for when he'd get home later. He soon started moving towards the exit of his apartment, grabbing his car keys on the way.

The drive to the Hub took him about 10 minutes, and that's because he stayed and bough the newspaper on his way there, which also was a part of his routine. He wanted to know what kind of news the worlds had to offer.

Ianto grabbed the newspaper and went up to the checkout where he put it down, a young male in his early twenties just threw a look at the newspaper.

"That's 50 pence," he said with a bored voice and held out his hand, expecting the money.

The Welshman quickly put the coin in the other man's hand and grabbed the newspaper. He was about to turn around when he noticed the look on the other's face. He was staring at the newspaper and then he looked all over Ianto.

Ianto frowned and looked down at himself before he looked at the man, "What? What are you looking at?" he asked, sounding quite annoyed. He had been getting some looks from people on the way there. Did he have something on his face or what?

"N-nothing," the man quickly said, looking a bit pale, "Nothing sir, have a good day!" he then said and looked down, very occupied with counting change for some strange reason...

Ianto sighed and threw a last glance at the man before turning and heading out to his car again. And of course there was someone looking at him with wide eyes as he got into his car, almost looking scared, and it made Ianto feel a bit worried. What had happened? Why did people seem scared of him?

"I swear this has something to do with Torchwood," he said and quickly started the engine and drove away. And he threw a look in the rear-view mirror, just to see that the person was still looking at him as he drove away. What could be so fascinating about him that people had to stop and stare? Ianto used to blend in quite well... and sure he wore the pink shirt today but who hadn't seen a man in a suit wearing a pink shirt with it, eh?

Another deep sigh escaped his lips as he found himself on his usual parking space. And he was soon heading down to the bay towards the Information. He was muttering for himself as he unlocked the door and went inside, he couldn't help smiling to himself. Now he felt more at home and relaxed, it wasn't that strange really. When you spent that much time in the Hub it almost became your home. And he did spend quite a lot of time in the Hub thanks to a certain Jack Harkness.

Ianto put the newspaper down on the desk before he pushed the button that opened the door to the Hub, he'd have to make the others their coffee or the team would be cranky for the rest of the day. Ianto had seen what horrible effects it had on the others when they didn't have any caffeine in their systems... he prayed that the Hub never would go in a lock-down for 24 hours again. At least not without coffee, it had been a nightmare. He'd rather go and share a cell with Janet for 24 hours than stay with the rest of the team for such time without coffee.

Ianto snapped out from his thought as soon as the cog-shaped door opened up and he was greeted by a call.

"Good morning Ianto, could you bring the coffee to the boardroom?" Jack called without facing him as he hurried towards said room. It seemed there was something going on. There was almost always going on with Torchwood, thanks to that rift running through town.

"Good morning. And sure, I'll be there in 10 minutes," Ianto said with a shrug as he immediately headed over to his "station", aka the small kitchen part where Ianto made the coffee everyday. Sometimes it felt like he was spending most time making coffee, which of course wasn't true.

"Thanks!" and with that he could hear the captain's footsteps get more distant as he left Ianto to make the coffee.

He just hoped that the meeting wasn't about him. In a way it wouldn't surprise him with the way people had been looking at him this morning. Seriously, he didn't see what the hell they had been staring at! He looked the way he always had been looking like, he had checked that in the rear-view mirror.

And it couldn't be something alien... he hadn't been in contact with any aliens lately. Or well, there was that piece of alien technology that he had put in the archive yesterday. But he hadn't done anything with it so scratch that theory... there must have been something wrong with the people who had stared at him. Maybe they had been possessed by aliens or something. Okay, he knew it was a stupid theory but it made him feel better of himself.

He sighed as the coffee seemed to be done. He had been thinking for a bit longer than he first thought but soon he was walking against the boardroom with a tray holding 5 cups of coffee.

Once he entered the boardroom no one looked up at him. Jack was standing with his back against the team as he was writing something on the board at the front and the others looked quite bored, and half-dead, but they kept their eyes on him.

Ianto just rolled his eyes as he walked up to Owen and held the tray out for him so he could take his coffee.

"Thanks mate," he muttered as he took the cup, still eyes plastered on Jack, or maybe his writing.

"Oh, coffee! Just what I need!" Gwen happily said and actually turned her gaze from Jack and reached out to get her cup, "Thanks Ian... to..." she trailed off and her eyes widened, "Oh my God..." she said and stared at the tray, and then let her gaze travel over Ianto, "Ianto... what has... Jack!" she then loudly said which made the captain turn around with an annoyed face expression.

Jack sighed and looked at Gwen, "What? I was really getting somewhere so it better be important or-,"

"Jack, look at Ianto. Now!" Gwen said and pointed at the tray.

Ianto raised an eyebrow, "That's the tray Gwen, or have you mixed us up?" he dryly asked and glanced over at Jack who looked his way with the same expression that Gwen had on her face. He quickly looked at both Owen and Tosh who had started to stare at him the same way, and it was creeping him out

Feeling a bit selfconscious at the moment Ianto put the tray down and defensively took a step back, holding his own cup of coffee as he let his gaze travel between the rest of the team.

"Seriously, why are you staring at me as if you've just seen a ghost? People have been looking at me the whole way here and I swear I don't see what's wrong!" he said in frustration as he glared at Jack, "Jack, kindly stop staring at me!" he then hissed.

The captain blinked and opened his mouth, "Ianto... I... I'm not staring at you..."

"Holy crap," Owen let out and stood up, looking at Ianto's cup with wide eyes before looking at Jack.

Both Tosh and Gwen seemed to be at a loss of words, just looking at Jack for answers as well. But if there was someone who wanted answer then it was Ianto!

"Tell me what the fuck is wrong!" Ianto cried out and slammed the coffee cup down the table, making coffee splash out over it, and strode up to Jack and took a hold of Jack's shirt, "Tell me Jack, tell me what's wrong," he then said with strained voice as Jack seemed to have a hard time focusing on Ianto.

"Ianto..." Jack hesitantly said as he slowly brought his arms forward, placing them at the sides of Ianto's waist, "If I could stare at you I'd love to but-,"

"But what?!"

"You're invisible," Jack stated as he looked at the place in the air where he thought Ianto's face would be, then he let go of the Welshman as he felt how Ianto's grip on him disappeared.

Ianto's eyes widened as he looked at Jack and took a step backwards. He shook his head and then looked down at himself. But... he could clearly see himself! He was there! Ianto looked up at Jack and just waited for him and the team to start laughing and say that it all was a joke.

But when he noticed how Jack just seemed to look right through him he realized that it was the same look he had seen at the cashier earlier. As if he was trying to fix his gaze at something, but failing. As if what was there really wasn't there to be seen. Oh God, now he knew why people had been staring. How often did you see a car without a driver in it?

"Oh God," Ianto said and pulled a hand through his hair, "Oh my fucking God!"

"Ianto, calm down, we'll solve this and..."

"Oh sod off Jack... I'm invisible!" Ianto exclaimed and grabbed the wall for support when he all of a sudden got aware of how much the room seemed to have started spinning. It couldn't be. This had to be some sick joke! But Ianto Jones didn't have much more time to think about that as he fell to the floor, feeling his consciousness slip away. It was just too much to him to process at the moment. He just couldn't be invisible. It was impossible.

He could faintly hear Jack swear in the background, telling the others to not step on him. Ianto would have snorted at that, but he was too far into the darkness to actually do it.

'I'm never touching something alien again without gloves...' was the last thought going through his mind before everything went black.

AN: Well that's the first chapter! XD And about the title... I couldn't come up with a title for this story so I simply checked through my music and got stuck on the song Five Becomes Four by Yellowcard. And thought since Ianto can't be seen, it's like they're just four in the team all off a sudden, at least when it comes to being visible xD
So I hope you enjoyed, I'm definitely writing more of this (and my other fics of course).

Reviewers gets cookies and love 8D