"Bang! Bang!" Ianto shouted as he pointed his "gun" at Jack. Jack was holding his hand in a similar gun position, and hiding behind a tree to avoid from getting shot.
Owen dropped down from the tree that Jack was hiding under and brandished his own "gun" at Jack. "Run for your life!" he screamed. "I'm gonna getcha!"
Laughing, Jack sprinted away, calling, "You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" Gwen popped out from behind a tree he was headed towards, and without missing a beat, Jack changed directions so that he was running away from all three of his pursuers.
Tosh watched them from where she sat on the sidewalk, a book in her hands. As they ran right past her, she squealed and pulled back her feet. Owen stopped chasing Jack and pulled at her arm, trying to pull her to her feet.
"Come on, Tosh, come play with us! It's fun!"
She shook her head nervously and tried to pull her arm away. "Oh, no, I couldn't. My mom tells me not to play gun games."
Owen looked at her for a moment, and then shrugged. "Suit yourself!" He ran off again after the rest of the kids, shouting, "Wait up!"
Lisa walked up and sat beside Tosh. "Hi, Tosh!"
"Hi, Lisa. You aren't playing either?"
She smiled. "Maybe not today. I'm surprised Rhys isn't playing, though. He can't ever stay away from Gwen." She gestured toward the chubby boy, giggling.
"Well, you've been making eyes at Ianto, why aren't you playing?" Tosh asked.
"I'm waiting to make my move," she snickered. "My mom reckons I'm too young for a boyfriend, she's told me to wait." She grinned. "And what about you?"
"Huh?" Tosh said, immediately wary.
"Don't think I haven't noticed you checking out Owen," she giggled.
Tosh blushed. "You're imagining things."
"Don't think so," Lisa said in a sing-song voice.
"Alright, fine! Yeah, I think he's cute," Tosh said, her face even more red.
"So why aren't you out there?" Lisa asked, cocking her head with a caught-you-now grin on her face.
Tosh fiddled with the pages of her book. "He's not interested," she muttered.
Lisa waved her hand nonchalantly. "Give him time! If I can wait, so can you!" She stood and offered her hand to Tosh. Tosh took it and let Lisa hoist her to her feet.
Just then, the teacher came outside, clapping her hands. "Alright, kids, time to come in! Recess is over!"
"But Ms. Tyler!" Owen whined. "We're trying to catch the bad alien!"
"Oh? And who's the alien!"
"I am!" Jack cried, dodging Ianto as he made another grab and continued to chase him across the playground.
"Boys! Alright, that's enough, it's time to come in now," she chided. The rest of the children ran back and pushed each other to get a place in line. "No pushing, please, single file! You'll all get inside whether you push or not!" The children sheepishly complied, and the teacher ushered them back inside and into the classroom.
20 minutes later saw them sitting in class, working on multiplication tables. Tosh was answering most of the questions and taking careful notes, and the rest of them ranged from slightly less participatory to Owen's level of concentration, which consisted of drawing spaceships on the back of his math worksheet.
Ianto looked back as he got a poke in the back of the head. Jack slipped a note into his hand. Ianto opened it and saw, in penmanship slightly worse than his: Coming to my house after school?
He grinned and picked up his pencil. He positioned it under Jack's message and wrote: Of course! He passed it back and Jack gave him one of his famous smiles as he read it. Ianto turned back towards the front.
It was a regular routine that they went to one or the other's house after school, under the pretense that they were doing homework which, to be fair, they were doing some of. But mostly they played video games and just generally goofed off. Ianto was happy, his heart singing because he had such a great best friend in Jack Harkness.
A/N: Oh my god, that last sentence is cheesy. I apologize for the cheesyness, I haven't written any cheesy one shots for any fandom in forever so my cheese quota has to be filled up in random parts of other stories. The rest of it's okay, though… I think.
Anyway, so I decided to continue it! As requested originally from specialfrancine (from ). The alien-hunting game idea I credit to Xi-Theta (from ). Thanks, guys! I plan to follow them through school… stalker haha. At this point they're probably around 1st or 2nd grade, I don't really know… I decided to leave it open ended. Sorry it's short, but I hope it's enjoyable!!