Author: Pippychick
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto
Summary: A little one-shot that I couldn't help but write.
Disclaimer: Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this.

Author's Note:

Dinner date, anyone? I really, really just couldn't help myself. And I have tonsillitis. Well, that's my excuse.

This hasn't been beta read. To be honest I was seized by the need to post it while (a) I have a working pc, and (b) I have an working broadband internet connection. So any mistakes let me know and I'll get them corrected. Thanks.

Please, please let me know if this works for you. I'm trying to get the characters right, as it's going to be important if I'm to complete another different WIP Jack/Ianto story. I need to know if Jack and Ianto are in character. Thanks again.

Dinner, and a Movie?

They were led to their table by a waiter who left them with the menu and the wine list. Jack slid into his seat and looked over at Ianto, feeling a little excited and incredibly enthusiastic about the whole thing.

"So! Here we are!" he said happily. Ianto raised his eyes from the wine list and glanced dryly Jack's way. Then he smiled briefly. He was so polite he made Jack feel like a fool.

"Yes, here we are." Ianto went back to studying the wine list as Jack watched him. Strange how new all of this felt. Of course, he had taken many people out to dinner over the course of his life, and yet... this was new. Those other times he had been someone else – been with someone else. He'd always been well aware of the effect of his charisma and his looks. Now, for the first time, it all seemed to count for nothing as he wondered what to say.

"See anything you like?" he asked with a little innuendo, and then cringed inwardly as Ianto looked up again. "Sorry," he added, playing the admonished child to Ianto's disapproval, looking up under his eyelashes to lessen the damage. Ianto just sighed. Then he shut the wine list with a snap.

Always deliberate Ianto. Jack watched as his dinner partner straightened the napkin and the various forks by the side of his place setting. At first glance, someone who didn't know would assume it was a sign of nervousness – but not Jack. He knew Ianto a little, enough to know that what he was seeing was not nervousness but ease and calm. And he wanted a little bit of that calm to call his own.

"Before we go any further, Ianto, I just need to know one thing," Jack said seriously, catching and holding Ianto's gaze easily. Silence encouraged him to continue. "Have you done this before?"

Ianto's lips quirked into the most adorable little smile before he answered with a straight face. "Of course, Jack. I have been out to dinner many times."

Jack almost groaned. As it was he felt his mask slip just a little before he realised it was a joke. "I meant –"

"I know what you meant," Ianto reassured him quickly. "And the answer is still yes."

There was a pause while Jack regained his ever present slight smile and leaned back in his chair a little. Other questions immediately presented themselves to his mind. Who? When? Where? Were they any good? Why wasn't Ianto with them now?

"Now it's my turn," Ianto said softly, surprising him from his musings. "You have asked a question, now I get to ask you one." Jack nodded slowly, hoping against hope that this wasn't going to be difficult. That was somewhat impossible, unless Ianto asked him about work, and he felt his heart fall to somewhere in his shoes in hopeless terror. This had been a bad idea.

"First time here?" All of the time from before that meant nothing, and he had used his blessings to gain himself things. Secrets, blackmail, treasure. Nothing had been beneath him. Seduction was as powerful as war – but that wasn't what this was, or it shouldn't be. He wanted more from this than satisfaction. It was somewhat of a epiphany to him.

"Yes," he said softly, almost whispering, then looked across the table. Ianto looked slightly surprised, and Jack glanced around him, suddenly realising the question had been as simple as it sounded. "Oh..." he said weakly, then laughed a little. "It's still yes."

"We have several options now," Ianto said, and Jack nodded, waiting for them to be listed to him. God, it was like being at a job interview. "We can go on like this while you try desperately to hide yourself from me, all the time wanting me to know who you are."

Not a very palatable option, and Ianto was exactly right. That is precisely how it would go, and neither of them would want to repeat the experience. "Alternatively, we could talk about work."

Again, not great. Especially considering the only movie he had been able to get tickets for was one about aliens. He still hadn't broken that to Ianto yet.

"The last one then, would be that we can pretend we know each other. You can be relaxed and I will allow you to seduce me slowly over the course of the meal."

The way he put it made Jack's eyes widen in surprise. He looked at Ianto and there it was, that hidden side of him no one else seemed to notice. It was the age-old silent conversation that Jack knew so well. From his side, the question: Are you up for it? And from Ianto: Are you? Jack laughed and shook his head a little.

"I like the last one," he said warmly, signalling the waiter over who had been hovering in the background. He shuffled over slowly, and Jack dropped his eyes to Ianto with no artifice whatsoever.

"What wine are we having?" he asked, and then let Ianto order the wine for them both. He simply sat back and finally relaxed. Perhaps, actually, this had been a damn fine idea. No wonder – it had been his.

Ianto was a man of his word, and though Jack had never doubted him it felt great to relax into flirting and innuendo as they ate and chatted about meaningless things. That little smile... Ianto really should smile more often, and Jack tried hard to make him. He met with just enough success to keep him trying. He turned it on; he saw how it affected Ianto, but he never noticed the way it affected him. Strange that for all of the times he had been a seducer in truth, he had never noticed the way that a simple meal drew one's attention to the lips.

Jack watched covertly, wanting to be every morsel. "Is there something the matter with your food, Jack?"

It felt like violence to tear his gaze away and focus on his own meal. "No, no! It's great!" he said enthusiastically. "It's just that I... I like watching you eat," he confessed. Ianto came back with that maddening, challenging slight smile again. He leaned forward a little, eyes darkened by the soft light and the wine he had consumed.

"I think I have to correct you," he said softly, his voice almost hypnotising. Jack swallowed. Oh, yes, please! He hoped he hadn't said that out loud. "You like to watch me putting things into my mouth."

Jack flopped back into his chair bonelessly, closing his eyes briefly to savour the image of Ianto doing something so utterly wicked he almost sighed. By the time he opened them again, his usual easy confidence was back, and he grinned across the table. "Are you actually trying to beat me at my own game?"

Ianto only raised a speculative eyebrow. "I really didn't think it would be so easy," he said and then dabbed delicately at his mouth with the napkin. Jack laughed out loud.

"Oh, I've always been easy. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I can be hard for you, if that's what you want."

He watched as Ianto struggled for something polite to say, and then saw the moment when he gave up with a sense of self-satisfaction. "Damn!" Ianto muttered to himself, and Jack grinned.

"Ianto Jones." He leaned forward just as Ianto looked up and just let one hand caress him below the chin. "You lost today, kid, but that doesn't mean you have to like it."

There was a look of confusion before Ianto realised where the quote was from, and then he closed his eyes. "Can we get out of here?"

"Sure," Jack said and summoned the ever-present waiter again. "Check, please."

"Don't we have a film to see?" Ianto said once they were outside in the cool air. They walked along the quiet street, seemingly alone, and Jack smiled when he felt another hand in his, fingers sliding and clasping together in the darkness. The intimacy was all the more real for being unseen.

"Ah... the movie," Jack said, grimacing.

"Just tell me it isn't the Last Crusade. I don't think I could cope with that kind of double meaning." Ianto turned to face him. "I'm not something you need to win, Jack."

"Actually, it's worse than that," Jack confessed. "It's an Alien movie." There was a slight scuffle between them before Jack allowed Ianto to press him against a wall. It was the most touching they had done all evening; hands clasped together, bodies pressed tightly against each other, and Ianto's lips were just a few heartbeats away.

"Can we skip it?" Ianto asked.

Jack licked his lips as if that would encourage Ianto to lean further forward. It did. He could feel the other man's breath on his lips. "Oh, yeah," he whispered, and closed the rest of the distance himself.

They let go of each other's hands to pull each other closer and to touch. He cradled Ianto's head in one hand while he rested another on the other man's hip to press against him. Ianto had a strong arm under his, curling around to his shoulder as though to keep him from getting away. His other hand slid down inside Jack's coat, and then round the back of him, fingertips squeezing so that Jack moaned a little into the kiss.

It felt so good to have this, after watching Ianto eat in the restaurant, forced to behave and to stay in his seat. This is what it was all for; the firm pressure of his lips, the taste of his mouth and the electrifying touch as their tongues brushed against each other.

Was it a fight or a kiss? It seemed like Ianto was trying to crush him, and yet he was sure he was reacting the same way. Hardness pressed into his thigh, and he moved his leg deliberately to encourage it, registering Ianto's growl with a kind of savage delight.

They broke for breath, and it fogged between them, turned slightly orange by the distant street light. It was a warm colour, and Jack leaned in again, just to tenderly sample this time. Oh, he was right! Sweet with wine and hot with desire. Jack drew back again.

"Wow..." He wasn't sure which one of them said it, but it ought to have been him. He said it again, just to make sure. They looked at each other as though drugged, yet the truth was they were both sober, both completely aware of what they were doing.

"Your place or mine, Sir?" Ianto asked wickedly, somehow still faultlessly polite, and Jack felt his body react to the familiar address before he could stop it.

"Call me by name," Jack said, grabbing Ianto's hand again to walk them to the base. No one else would be there now. They would have the entire run of the place to themselves.

"Why?" Now he knew why he had chosen that particular restaurant, even though he'd never been. It was the closest to where he wanted the night to end up.

"Because it's good practice," Jack said, and then turned to look at Ianto very seriously. "When we get in I'm going to go down on my knees before you," he said, and Ianto's eyes darkened still further, "and after ten minutes I'm going to expect you to know my name."

He led Ianto onto the stone that hid them from view and carried on gifting him with that intense look that he had known to work so well in these cases. Ianto was completely under the spell of it... wasn't he?

"Yes, Sir," he said in rebellion as they began to move downwards, smiling slightly as a challenge.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Comments/constructive criticism appreciated.