Jack stared at Ianto. A rabbit hopped idly past his foot. Standing up hurriedly his foot fumbled as something brown hopped between them. A wave of nausea hit him as he stumbled.

With a thud the carpet reached up and collided with his face.

TW

'No, Lulu, no.' A hazy voice faded in and out. Something cushioned his head, something was on his chest. Jack blearily cracked one eye open, a small brown rabbit stared back from the centre of his chest. Jack felt the brief stirrings of panic and closed his eyes firmly. 'Jack!' Someone said insistently, hands cradling the sides of his face.

'Rabbit?' Jack whispered, a vague note of horror in his voice.

'It's Lulu, I'm sorry.'

'Is it real?' The hands slid from his face and the weight from his chest was lifted off. Jack opened his eyes to look up into the dangling legs of a rabbit, Ianto held Lulu against his shoulder with one hand. 'Torchwood Four,' Jack said coolly. He watched expressionlessly as Ianto stood and walked quietly towards the spare chair, sinking into it while avoiding Jack's gaze.

'Oi,' Owen demanded, his face coming into view above Jack's. 'You fainted. Have you been eating? Sleeping?'

'I'm so sorry,' Ianto said quietly, hands gently petting Lulu.

Jack tilted his head back with a hard stare. 'Torchwood Four hasn't been seen since the 1940's. Why should I believe you?'

'We're research based, we were in Dublin but we moved to London after Canary Wharf.'

'Why haven't we been informed of this?'

'It would have meant more interference, things were simpler this way. And haven't you been sleeping?'

'No time.' Jack watched as acceptance settled over Ianto, sensing the shift to their official capacities. 'Are your reasons for spying on Torchwood Three the same as they were for MI5?'

'Yes.'

'What does Torchwood Four want from Three now?'

'Help.' Ianto replied simply.

'And you think you're going to get it?' Jack demanded, moving to a sit. The room span again and he raised a shaking hand to his forehead. Opening his eyes he saw Ianto gazing desperately at him, stance unaltered but eyes expressive and pleading. Fighting a wave of nausea, Jack leaned over his knees and closed his eyes again.

'Jack.' Was all Ianto said, hurried footsteps moving towards him, an arm winding around his shoulders.

'You've been up on that bloody roof again, haven't you?' Owen's hands were at his wrist, neck.

'Alright!' Jack struggled his way up, hands held out, 'alright,' he repeated slowly, wincing as his head span sickeningly. There was the thud of a rabbit hitting the floor and Ianto's arms went round his shoulders. Encouraged by the pressure on his chest, Jack let himself be guided to lean against the couch behind him and waited for the room to stop pulsing. Lulu settled on his knees. 'So,' Jack started again coldly, 'this was still to decide whether Torchwood Three was a threat?'

'Yes.'

'And you took Owen because?'

'I needed to arrange a meeting between Torchwood Four and Three,' Ianto's voice hummed beside him, 'I was sure to get one this way, I couldn't take the chance you wouldn't agree if I told you outright. Owen,' the direction of his voice changed, lowered, 'there's aspirin in the second bathroom drawer.'

'You're hands are untied,' Jack observed, feeling slightly lightheaded.

'Sh,' Ianto said, cupping a cool hand over Jack's forehead.

'You could have easily undone them before, couldn't you?'

'Yes,' he admitted.

'Research unit huh?'

'Research based,' Ianto corrected.

'I'm not agreeing to any meeting until I have proof. I want full details.'

'I can't give you those. You will initially have access to a limited amount of information as proof.'

Jack felt his tenuous grip on reality start to slide in a grey haze, he closed his eyes. 'Why this meeting? Why now? If there is anything you're not saying-'

'You could benefit from our knowledge and archives, we don't have the means to deal with active threats. That's my job, I filter them through MI5, point them in the right direction then we come in to clean up.'

'Alright. That makes sense. I need that Four confirmation before I will contact Tosh and Gwen,' Jack stated, feeling a glass being pressed against his lips. He raised his hands in annoyance, 'I'm not dying.'

'Just suffering from exhaustion, slightly dehydrated,' Owen stated.

The supporting arms slipped out from behind Jack, laying him carefully down on the carpet. 'I'll find a cold towel,' Ianto promised, walking quietly away.

'Owen,' Jack opened his eyes, gazing at the medic, 'you know this isn't necessary. It was that damn rabbit.'

'Strictly speaking you fainted.'

'I fell.'

'You were unconscious before you hit the ground. It wasn't super rabbit karate chopping you.'

'I'm just tired. I do get tired.'

'And naturally you ignore it. Speaking as your doctor, you're a-'

'I get the picture. It's just been tense recently. I'll be fine.'

Owen glanced down the hall, 'He doesn't know that though, does he?'

'I've never fainted before. Never.'

'Just let Ianto do his thing. He's worried. Besides, the guilt trip'll do him good.'

'That's your medical opinion?'

'He's a smug bastard. Let him think he's driven you to a breakdown, it'll work in our favour anyway.'

Jack rubbed his forehead wearily, 'I don't know whether he's a shy, unassuming young man or the self-assured, in control version we're getting now.'

'I'd say we're getting the leader of Torchwood Four now.'

Jack jerked his head up, squinting one eye at the pain, 'Leader?'

'Head Archivist. They're a research unit, I think he's in charge. And I don't think he's very in control now, pretending perhaps.'

Jack ignored that deliberately, refusing the implications. 'He knows what he's doing. I'm not going to forget that again.' The carpet tickled Jack's cheek lightly as he slowly dropped his head back. 'Owen?'

'Hm?'

'Why the hell is that rabbit on me?'

Lulu tucked her head back and steadily observed Jack through unblinking brown eyes. Jack drifted off with the feeling he was being measured up by a rabbit.

TW

The room was bathed in blue light from the window when Jack woke, everything heavy with the silence of night. Headache gone as expected, Jack glanced around, his greatcoat and shirt neatly folded on a chair opposite. Cool crisp sheets covered him and he turned sideways, legs swinging to the floor as he sat. Hands braced on the mattress, Jack sat and quietly stared out the window. It wasn't his roof, but the same sense of peace settled over him as he thought over the past year.

Eventually he made a decision and stood, padding silently out of the door and down the corridor. The door pushed open noiselessly at the end, Jack stood in the doorway and looked across. Deep shadows and patches of moonlight played over Ianto's still figure, his body shaped by the loose drape of a sheet. A smile spread over Jack's face, a small brown rabbit slept on the white sheet beside Ianto. The mattress dipped as Jack crept onto it, moving delicately across it, he dropped to his side next to Ianto. He gazed at the pale shimmer of his skin in the moonlight, the gentle rise and fall of his chest before carefully looping an arm around him. Curling around Ianto's slender body, Jack closed his eyes and concentrated on Ianto's bare skin under his fingertips.

The sheets rustled as Ianto instinctively pressed his back into Jack's chest.

TW

Ianto's pert lips were curled into a smile as Jack silently watched him, propped on his elbow. The tip of Ianto's nose pressed into the bare skin of Jack's chest, his forehead resting there and his slender hand spread across his ribs. He looked soft and vulnerable, the same man that Jack had first met. Anger, suspicion, everything he knew he should be feeling didn't come. The rain pattered quietly on the dark window and Ianto nestled closer still.

'Jack?' Ianto murmured sleepily.

'Here,' Jack traced lazy patterns on his shoulder.

'Hm,' Ianto hummed contentedly, then his eyes suddenly shot open and there was a scrabbling of legs and sheets as he backed away. 'What are you doing?' Ianto regarded him, wide eyed under messy hair.

'I couldn't sleep,' Jack explained quietly.

Shadowed eyes watched him for a moment then Ianto sighed and let himself fall back into the pillow. They both silently listened to the rain, watching the patterns on the window. 'If both Torchwoods decide this will work, maybe we can work together sometimes.'

'Perhaps.' He frowned, 'Hasn't Torchwood Four decided? I thought this meeting was part of a plan?'

Ianto laughed quietly, 'A one day plan. Courtesy of me. Since you retconned me actually, I wanted to see you again. And it is a good idea for Torchwood Four,' he added, 'we just don't have the power backup.' He turned on the pillow to look at Jack, 'Is this where you walk out in anger?'

'I don't want to think about it now,' he said honestly, 'besides,' his tone shifted, 'leaving you in bed all,' Jack trailed his eyes over Ianto, 'naked?'

Ianto laughed again, 'I'm not naked.'

'Pity. Besides, from a non Torchwood perspective, I think that might just be one of the most romantic things anyone has ever done.'

Blue eyes looked questioningly and carefully at him.

'You abducted our medic so I would follow, manipulating two powerful alien fighting organizations so I would talk to you again,' Jack grinned warmly.

'Not quite like that,' Ianto murmured, feeling the shift back to just Jack and Ianto, flashing a glance at Jack, then he smiled, 'close though.'

Jack dropped to the pillow beside Ianto. 'Ianto, exactly how powerful are you?'

'Well,' Ianto bit his lip, rolling over to face Jack, 'on good days I lift trucks with my bare hands, walking on water is all I can manage on an off day.'

'Are you in charge of Torchwood Four?'

'Yes. I,' Ianto paused, 'have some influence outside too.'

'When you say "some" I take it to mean you have the world in the palm of your hand.'

'No,' his voice was hushed in the dark of the room, 'not yet.'

'Alright,' Jack pulled the blankets higher and shifted, 'if I told someone official to do something, to let us do something, they would say no. Then I'd go and do it anyone and everyone would pretend it never happened.'

'I'd make a suggestion.'

'I'm lying in bed with Supreme Ruler of the Universe.'

Ianto smiled, eyes sparkling. 'Torchwood Three are the rogues, you do whatever needs to be done, which ruffles feathers. We just give advice, which has always turned out to be rather good. So everyone listens now.'

'You are telling the truth, aren't you? About this Torchwood?'

'I promise,'

Rolling over to face the white ceiling, Jack folded his arms behind his head. The mattress dipped next to him as Ianto leaned on his elbow to watch Jack. He turned to smile reassuringly at the young man. 'Just thinking.' Ianto didn't press for an answer. 'I guess maybe I'll see you quite often.'

'I'll make sure.'

Jack stopped, then laughed. 'I'll try not to read into that. Don't organise any alien attacks for it.'

'You know where I live, I don't mind visitors,' Ianto offered quietly. Tentative fingers trailed over his side, Ianto watching him with an unreadable expression.

Jack rolled onto his side, Ianto's hand flattened and slid across his bare chest. 'Can I come in the front door?' He muffled a yelp as Ianto lightly flicked his skin.

'I saw what you did to my window,' he said reprovingly.

'Sorry about the rose bush too,' Jack grinned, raising his hand to play lightly with Ianto's fingers.

Ianto's fingers tightened over his warningly, 'What rose bush?'

Raising their joined hands to his mouth, Jack pressed warm kisses to Ianto's knuckles, drifting his lips slowly over his skin.

'I know what you're doing,' was the slightly husky response.

Gently turning Ianto's slender hand over, Jack pressed an open mouthed kiss to his palm, lingering to glance at Ianto through lowered lashes. He arched an eyebrow as a firm leg slipped between his.

'That's encouragement, by the way,' Ianto murmured, dropping his head to nuzzle Jack's neck, 'and so is this,' he mumbled into his skin. Soft hands escaped his grasp and continued around his waist, pulling him firmly against Ianto's body. Jack tilted his head back, eyes closing, fingers winding through Ianto's soft brown hair. 'I'm staying with Torchwood Four,' Ianto's Welsh accent seemed more pronounced, lips catching the corner of Jack's mouth.

'I know,' Jack splayed his hand at the small of his back, moaning softly. 'Never expected anything else.'

Ianto's hands pressed into the mattress on either side, the weight lifting from his chest. Jack opened his eyes and tilted his chin questioningly, regretful eyes regarded him then Ianto bent and gentle lips brushed his forehead. Jack let his eyes drift close, Ianto lingered before the light, warm pressure moved to his eyelids. 'What are we doing?'

Jack couldn't bring himself to open his eyes. 'Nothing,' he murmured truthfully, now he did open them, 'it's nothing.'

'Then it'll work. Just for now.' Ianto's lips closed over his.

TW

The rain fell quietly when Jack woke. The sheet slid over his bare skin as he moved, memories of last night coming back as he stretched languidly. Beside him Ianto lay sprawled in a tangle of white sheets and blankets, a thoroughly undignified position as he snored softly into the pillow. A surprised smile spread slowly across Jack's face, shifting forward he ran a warm hand down his bare back. Lips curling into a small smile, Ianto arched into his hand with a satisfied purr and hugged the blanket to his chest. Jack grinned, then the grin faded.

Listened to My Heart Will Go On while writing and had to periodically stop and find tissues for a Sentimental Moment.

The boys are having a bit of a conflict of interests. Realistically, it was never going to sort out nicely when neither of them are going to back down. Bit of a filler chap, wrote it about three million times until I was vaguely happy. Not sure it's saying everything I wanted it too.