Toshiko didn't quite know how it had started. She knew when she had first become aware of it, of course, but it didn't take a genius to see that wasn't actually the beginning. This whole thing, this, this—

—well, whatever this was, it had definitely started long before it came to her attention. It wasn't a bad thing, not really, but she had to wonder. Just sometimes, of course, but she couldn't help but be a bit curious. Whose idea had it been? What could have possibly been the spark for that line of thought? When had it happened?

Why her?

Two arms wrapped themselves around her, and a chaste kiss was pressed against her cheek. "You're thinking again."

Smiling, Toshiko turned around enough to meet Ianto's gaze. His face was as carefully expressionless as he could keep it, but she knew him well enough by now to see the amusement in his eyes and to notice the way his mouth twitched just a tiny bit at the corners.

"Thinking?" she asked lightly. "Me?"

Ianto rolled his eyes, and she was struck for just a second by how young he was. It wasn't something she thought about all that often, but every now and then it would stand out.

She expected him to come back with a sharp retort, dry and sarcastic with a hint of something more buried underneath. He surprised her. Instead of the witty remark she was expecting, his only reply was to lean forward for a much less chaste kiss.

Toshiko leaned back a bit in surprise, the worktop behind her keeping her from losing her balance. Ianto took advantage of her momentary lapse and leaned forward a bit, one of his hands coming down to rest on the small of her back. And then it moved a little lower.

She closed her eyes and decided maybe she could do with a bit less thinking, at least for the time being.

Smiling into the kiss, Toshiko pushed her body forward just enough to close the distance between her body and Ianto's. He moaned, not breaking the kiss, and his other hand found its way behind her as well.

"Now, really, I leave for five minutes to pick up the take-away, and this is the thanks I get? The two of you start without me?"

Toshiko's eyes shot open, and she jerked away from Ianto without quite even realizing she was doing it. Her gaze flew toward the door to her flat, where Jack was standing with two bags in his hands and an expression on his face that couldn't be described as anything but a leer. She could feel her face flushing, and she quickly dropped her gaze.

"Jack," Ianto said warningly. He had moved his hands away from Toshiko the moment she had broken the kiss, and now he was standing several inches away with his hands kept carefully at his side.

There was a pause, and the next thing Toshiko knew Jack had managed to get from the doorway to directly in front of her, losing the bags of take-away in the process, and was gently lifting her head so that she would meet his gaze. "Hey, don't be like that, Tosh. I didn't mean it was a bad thing," he said lightly. Not teasingly, just . . . gentler than she had expected. "I've got to admit, it was a very nice view."

Toshiko bit her lip, not quite certain what to say. She was saved from having to figure it out by Jack leaning in to press a not-nearly-as-chaste-as-expected-from-the-location kiss on her forehead that left her face feeling approximately a million times more flushed than before.

"Come on," Jack said, grinning at her. "The food's going to get cold."

He waggled his eyebrows at her, and Toshiko couldn't resist. She burst out laughing.

"That's more like it," Jack said, his grin growing even wider. He turned around, looping his arm in hers as he did. "Let's break out the—"

Jack trailed off, and even Toshiko couldn't help but be a bit impressed. Their whole interaction couldn't have taken more than a minute or two, yet in that time Ianto had somehow managed to not only clean off her table but had also found some clean dishes, set them out, and unpacked all of the food from its packaging.

One of Ianto's eyebrows rose, ever so slightly. Other than that, he didn't give them any kind of reaction.

"Are you sure he's not an alien?" Toshiko asked in a mock-whisper.

"Nope," Jack replied cheerfully.

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Who says that I'm not?" he asked.

The three of them stared at each other for another second or two. Jack was the first to break, his laugh loud and boisterous, not to mention infectious. Ianto was next, his blank expression cracking as he dropped down into a chair with a chuckle.

All things considered, Toshiko couldn't help but join in.

Toshiko was woken up by Jack trying to sneak back into bed.

She wasn't quite certain how he had managed to get out of it in the first place without waking her up, but he definitely wasn't doing as good of a job the second time around. Hissing in pain as he accidentally—at least she assumed it was accidentally—elbowed her in the head, she jerked into a half-sitting position to avoid any more such connections.

Jack froze.

Beside her, Ianto sat straight up. "What is it?" he asked, looking wide awake as he warily looked around the darkened room. Then he saw Jack, halfway through climbing into the bed and wearing a supremely guilty look on his face. "Oh, it's you."

Toshiko wasn't sure whether to be amused or impressed when Ianto immediately dropped his head back onto the pillow and seemed to instantly fall back asleep. As it was, she went with moving her gaze between Ianto and Jack a few times before ending up focusing it on the latter.

"Natured called?" she asked, hazarding a guess.

"You could say that," Jack said. He wasn't even trying to not sound suspicious.

Toshiko narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Then she remembered that her shirt was, well, she wasn't entirely certain where her shirt was but it was definitely somewhere between her table and her bed.

She made a mental note to clean that table thoroughly before actually eating off of it again. Then she casually moved her arms up an inch or two. It didn't really give her much in the way of modesty, but it was the principle of the thing.

"Jack," she said warningly. "What happened?"

"Nothing," he said quickly.

Toshiko kept staring at him.

Jack shifted a bit. "Well," he amended, "nothing that Gwen, Owen, Martha, and Mickey couldn't handle."

Toshiko narrowed her eyes. "Jack!"

He hesitated for just a second. "Have you ever seen Little Shop of Horrors?" he asked slowly, drawing out the question in a way that she couldn't help but think didn't bode well.

She opened her mouth. Then she closed it. Then she groaned. "Please tell me you're not about to say what I think you're about to say."

Jack grinned at her and shrugged.

On the other side of the bed, Ianto rolled over. "Did giant carnivorous plants from outer space eat anyone?" he asked sleepily.

Toshiko looked at Jack expectantly.

Jack's reply was just a second or two too long. "Not permanently."

With a few choice mutters under his breath, Ianto pushed himself up into a sitting position. It was impressive how he could go from half-asleep to wide-awake in just a moment's time. "I'll go get the van ready."

"Everyone's fine!" Jack protested, reaching over Toshiko's shoulder to grab Ianto's arm. "The two of you have the night off. They know that and they want you to enjoy it."

Ianto shot Jack a skeptical look. "They said that?"

"Yes," Jack shot back. There was a pause. "Well Gwen, Martha, and Mickey did. Owen was too busy swearing to actually say it, but you could tell he agreed."

Toshiko sighed, but she still lowered herself back onto the bed and pulled the sheet up over her chest. "I don't even know what to do with a night off."

There was silence for a second. "Don't say it, Jack," Ianto said firmly.

"I wasn't going to say a word," Jack said, sounding amused.

Jack put one of his hands down on the pillow beside Toshiko's head for balance. Then he leaned forward, his other hand still resting on Ianto's arm, to kiss him.

Toshiko had to admit, she was starting to see Jack's point of view from earlier. It was a nice view from almost any angle.

After a few seconds, Jack chuckled and pulled away. He glanced down so that he was meeting Toshiko's gaze. "Enjoying the show?"

"It has its good points," she acknowledged.

Under the covers, Ianto teasingly rubbed his foot against her leg. She resisted the urge to kick him. Instead, she slipped her hand under the sheet and lightly ran a few fingers over the curve of his hips. She felt him shudder, just a little, as she slipped her hand from his hip to his abdomen.

Above her, Jack narrowed his eyes. Then, with a grin that Toshiko very much didn't trust, Jack leaned down and kissed her quite thoroughly. Her hand, still resting low on Ianto's abdomen, jerked in surprise, moving a little farther down than she had actually intended.

None of them did much more talking after that.