(long note, I know, but please read to know about the AU)

Ooookay a bit of context needed for this (ahem, again) AU fic! For those who follow me with my other Torchwood fics, you know I've been away from the Torchwood fandom since I've watched Friends, and one thing I did while watching Friends was, apart from shipping really hard Monica and Chandler, comparing my favourite couple to Janto. Because Janto is never very far in my mind ;) So, yeah, I found similarities with Janto & Mondler, and mika-pirkaf (go check Tumblr, she's awesome) also did. we started talking and as often (when an idea has been on my mind and I finally talk about it), I ended up writing a fic, because why the hell not. And as ALWAYS, it got out of hands and now I want to write a whole chaptered fic.

Okay, moving on to what you need to know: Do you need to have watched Friends? Nope. It sure will help getting references, but it's not necessary, it's still a Janto story. It's basically scenes between Monica and Chandler, but modified to fit at best to Ianto and Jack.

Things you might want to know or else you won't understand: Yeah, Ianto has Rhiannon in canon, that's true, but for this story I (actually we, because mika-pirkaf helped me a great deal!) decided to change who his sibling was. For this story, the Doctor is Ianto's older brother, and he's named John, otherwise it was weird/harder to write. Ianto's (and John's, therefore) parents are named George and Mary; and Ianto's best friend is Rose. Try and stop me. Other Torchwood characters will appear later on ;)

Oh, and it's set in the 90s for this chapter. Jack's and Ianto's behaviours are not the same as I plan them to be later in the story so don't worry, it will fit the characters more later. (For now, Jack's in his first year of College and Ianto is in his last year of high school)

Ianto flattened his shirt nervously, then pulled at it to take it out of his pants. He looked down at himself, pouted, and tucked his top back in his jeans. Yeah, it was definitely better. As thin as his brother was, the clothes he had inherited from him were surprisingly big. Way too big. The fact that he was anxious didn't help him feel good in them.

"Did you clean your room?" his mother asked as she walked pass him.

He mumbled affirmatively, only for his father to flick the back of his head. "Behave yourself, your brother is coming."

As if Ianto wasn't aware of that. His brother and some friend of his' from College were about to arrive, which was the main reason why Ianto felt nervous. He didn't like people that much. Well, he did, but he wasn't that good at interacting with them, especially lately. He only had one friend and he was fine with it most of the time. Other kids said he was weird and it hurt him too much to want to be friend with them. Not that he had ever said so to anyone, not even Rose.

The doorbell rang and Ianto smiled, flattening his shirt one last time before almost running to the door.

"Merry Christmas!" he said excitedly to the young girl on the other side.

Rose smiled at him and walked in. They had known each other for so many years – their parents were friends so they had become friends – and Ianto could tell she felt a bit down.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she shrugged. "I'm just worried about my mum."

She was spending Christmas with the Joneses because her mother was working on Christmas Eve – her father had died a long time ago. She knew everyone in the family rather well, so she quickly moved to the living room to greet Ianto's parents.

"George, Mary, great to see you again."

"Oh, Rose, I'm glad you're here! How's your mother?" George enquired, a genuine smile on his face.

Ianto sighed. He loved Rose, but sometimes he was jealous of how much his own father loved her as his daughter. Ianto knew he'd have rather raised a girl, but he got a second boy and he never had much interest in Ianto. Well, of course he had, especially when Ianto was failing, or that he needed to put John on a pedestal. He really never missed an occasion to put Ianto down. Ianto was pretty sure George had already said more than once that Rose was like her second child.

Ianto shifted his weight, his hands in his pockets, waiting for the conversation to die out so he could talk to Rose and feel a little less shitty about himself.

The doorbell rang again, and George abandoned all conversation to greet his prodigy son. At least, Ianto could talk to Rose now. He still glanced at his brother and his friend, because as competitive as they had been only a few months earlier, now that John was off to College, Ianto missed his presence.

He was standing next to a boy that Ianto didn't notice right away. No, he first saw that they both were wearing way too big embellished jeans – ugly, oh so ugly! – and tainted glasses. They looked pretty stupid in Ianto's eyes. Sure, it was trendy, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't be for long, and as far as he was concerned, it wasn't always good to follow the trend. Just like those awful jeans.

Then he really took a second to look at their faces and he felt his heart beat faster in his chest. John's friend was a bit taller than Ianto, he had dark, half-short, half-long and half-curled, half-straight hair – he wasn't sure what he had tried to do with his hair, but it didn't look that good – and the most beautiful eyes Ianto had ever seen, even through the tainted glasses. He had never really stared deep into someone's eyes. His mother's were beautiful and he loved them, but it was his mother's. This boy's eyes – Jack, as John introduced him a few seconds later – were just mesmerizing. And his smile was just so handsome.

He was so handsome, no matter how ridiculous his clothes looked in Ianto's eyes.

And he was back with that uncomfortable feeling that something was wrong, that he was wrong. He wasn't supposed to feel that way towards other men. He had tried to repress it, had thought he had gotten over it, because he had felt it with girls. But it was back. If he had panicked about the feeling at first because he couldn't even name it, by now he knew it was attraction. The problem was that he still panicked when he was attracted to other boys, and it seemed strong with Jack.

He wasn't even paying much attention to Ianto. Ianto wanted to talk to him, ask him questions, but each time he stood in the same room, he found himself opening and closing his mouth, or doing a weird, embarrassing noise.

At the end of the dinner, Ianto couldn't keep count of how many times he had blushed or make himself a fool by being a mess. On the bright side, Jack didn't seem to care much. On the way less bright side, Jack didn't seem to care at all. For once in his life, Ianto wanted someone to notice him. He wanted to impress him, or him to be interested, whatever; he wanted a reaction from Jack, hopefully a positive one.

He even made him coffee, after babbling some more, because how in God's name was he supposed to make himself interesting enough for someone like Jack? Coffee was the only thing he knew he was really good at. What was he even supposed to say? He'd asked what he was studying, where he was living, and that was pretty much all. He hadn't dared to ask why he didn't like Christmas much. He only knew, thanks to John, that he didn't. But Ianto guessed that whatever reason he had to hate it, he probably didn't want to share, so Ianto didn't ask, even if it meant having no subject of conversation.

The dinner was done, everyone going their own way – the parents in the living-room, watching TV, the two youngest talking together, and the two College students doing the dishes – and Ianto thought that he should try at least one last time to befriend Jack. He walked into the kitchen, hoping that maybe he would magically find a subject to talk about.

"Are you trying to ditch me on Christmas?" he heard Jack say. Was John going to leave?

"You can stay here, my parents won't mind." Ianto sure wouldn't mind either.

"What, and leave me alone with that weird brother of yours?"

"Hey, he's not weird."

Ianto didn't even listen to John's defence. He gulped, his vision blurred, and he silently turned on his heels, almost running upstairs. Jack thought he was weird, too. He wasn't different from the others, and Ianto had tried to be interesting for him. He had tried to be something he wasn't, apparently. He was just a weird guy, as everyone seem to be thinking and telling him.

"What happened? I saw you disappearing upstairs," Rose's soft voice said, not long after.

Ianto had almost forgotten about her presence in the house. She had picked up that something was different about Ianto the whole night, but she hadn't been able to guess what. She was just worried, and Ianto felt guilty. He had been less with her just to try to talk with a guy that didn't care about him. What was up with him?!

"Nothing, I'm fine," he shrugged.

"Yeah, right," she scoffed. She walked to his bed, sitting at the end and smiling at him. "Come on, you can tell me."

He knew he could trust her; he was his only friend, and even if she sometimes gossiped, she could keep secrets. So he did tell her, as briefly as possible.

By the end, once the shock that Ianto was something between gay and straight passed, she jumped on her feet, her hands on her hips, looking outraged. "That guy's a jerk! You deserve better than that! I can't believe he said that. You're not weird!"

"Thanks, but they're all saying it..."

"Well, I don't think you're weird, okay? Doesn't my opinion count?"

"It does, but..."

"You're a great person, and Jack doesn't know what he's missing. Now you go downstairs and prove him wrong," she cute him, looking way too motivated.

"How? I've been making a fool of myself all night already," Ianto shook his head, not as enthusiastic about proving Jack that he was wrong.

"We're gonna figure it out!"

"Well, I'd rather figure it out before going downstairs," he shrugged.

Rose tried to think, then concluded that they didn't need to get back at Jack now. Ianto didn't know if he would ever see him again to do it later, but he agreed nonetheless. He didn't even want to get back at him or anything, he was just feeling down because of his words, despite Rose's attempts to cheer him up.

Except that maybe he did want to get back at him, and every one that had ever stated that he was weird. He wasn't weird.