Christmas With Torchwood

Part II: On the border of The long road out of Eden

Ianto blinked, his ears flushing a vivid red before the rest of his face followed in their footsteps. 'Shit.' He swallowed, his heart beating like a jailer pounding his truncheon against the bars of a cell. 'Shit. Shit, shit shit shit shitshitshithitshitshit.' Ianto pivoted in his seat, forcing down the rock of panic which rose in his throat when his foot caught on the side of the chair. 'shit – No. Ianto, stop panicking. He might not recognize you. After all, what are the chances of him remembering what you look like in street clothes? And even if he does, why would he come up to you. Even if he is drunk, Jack doesn't feel that much for you. He'll leave as much distance between the two of you as possible. He won't want you to ruin his covert operation here. Hell, why would the epitome of cool 'Jay' want to associate with a loser drop-out like Ianto Jones? Just act cool and he won't notice you. Notice your Tad and Mam, probably. Rhiannon – likely. Jack never could resist anything looking his way. Kira – Hell, that isn't even a question. She'll have him over here in two seconds flat. But he won't notice you. You're unrecognizable to him like this. He's never met your family. He has no clue this was where you were coming tonight.'

Unfortunately, Ianto's self-assurances were cut off by the one circumstance he hadn't expected.

Kira's eyes went impossibly wide, Rhiannon blushed slightly, his Tad glared and his mam just flat-out stared. Ianto was about to ask them what the hell they were looking at him for, until a quiet sound attracted his attention. Ianto's eyes widened as well, when he placed the noise. It was the shallow coughing of someone clearing their throat, close to Ianto's ear.

Ianto sucked in a shaky breath, hesitantly facing the person behind him. 'Please, please God don't let it be-'

Jack smiled shyly at him, pulling the brim of his hat down in a mild bow.

"Hi Ianto." Jack greeted meekly, smiling as he said it. Ianto swallowed, gazing up at the man he had never expected to meet outside of work – let alone under such circumstances. Their eyes met for a moment, yet that moment was long enough to leave Ianto speechless.

Ianto blinked, realizing slowly that he was expected to respond.

"Ah, yes. Hello… Sir." He chastised himself internally. 'Seriously, you just said that? 'Ah, yes. Hello… Sir'. Smooth. Way to be real smooth Ianto. Why don't you just tattoo 'love-struck-puppy' across your forehead? That would be less obvious.'

Jack opened his mouth, clearly about to plead with him about titles. Ianto could hear his voice in his head already.

'Please Ianto, we aren't even at work anymore. How many times do I have to ask you to call me Jack? Please? Honestly, it's not that common to call your boyfriend 'sir'. At least, out of bed…'

'Wait.' Ianto froze, catching up to his mind. 'Did I just think that? How… why… Jack hasn't even said 'boyfriend' yet. Great, I'm losing it.'

Unfortunately, Kira beat Jack to speaking first.

"Wait, WHAT?" she practically shrieked. "Ianto, he's your BOSS?! AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!" Ianto winced, as shrieking turned into flat-out yelling.

Jack simply raised an eyebrow, apparently immune to his sister's elevated voice level.

"I don't believe we've been properly introduced yet." He smiled his charming, innocent smile. "Captain Jack Harkness. Although I'm pretty sure you would call me Jay."

Kira blushed, clearly intimidated.

"Kira Jones." She smiled, offering her hand. "And please, don't make any Xanadu jokes." She shuddered. "I was miserable enough in high school."

Jack chuckled, deep in his throat. Unfortunately, it was precisely in just the way that set Ianto on edge (in a good way, most of the time), as Jack reached to cradle his sister's hand, bowing slightly to bring it to his lips.

"I wouldn't dream of it." He swore, placing the smallest kiss on her knuckles. "In fact, I was about to say you are much more attractive than Olivia Newton-John or the girl who played her on Broadway." He smiled, his disarming, innocent smile, and Ianto watched his sister melt.

"Oh." Kira giggled. "I'm afraid that modesty is a Jones trait that bans me from agreeing."

Jack grinned, illuminating the room once more with his signature, 'I'm Jack Harkness and no mortal can resist me' charm. That same charm ran shivers down Ianto's spine and made him want to strip Jack and take him right then and there…

Unbeknownst to him, Jack had taken the initiative, moving away enough that he could no longer be considered in Ianto's personal space.

Suddenly, Ianto realized that the table had gone silent. Coughing, he stood, finishing introductions.

"Si- Jack." He corrected, biting his lip at the kicked-puppy look Jack gave him. "This is my family; Kira, who you've already met, my father, Liam Jones, my mother, Maryen Jones, and my older sister, Rhiannon Davies. Mam, Tad, Rhi, this is my erm-boss, Captain Jack Harkness." Ianto paused, smirking. "Although I'm almost certain he was dishonorably discharged quite a while ago."

Jack crossed his arms, huffing in annoyance.

"I'll have you know, Mr. Jones," he emphasized the 'mister', "My reputation with the RAF is spotless."

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "The RAF? Whatever happened to the Americans?"

Jack snorted. "Clinton got in the way*." He shrugged, seeming to get back to the half-finished introductions.

"Sorry," Jack apologized, with his entirely un-apologetic grin. "I'm delighted to finally meet Ianto's family. He has said quite a bit about you."

"Oh? I hope it's all good then" Ianto's mam commented hopefully, clearly holding her husband back by the hand under the table.

Jack smiled. "Only the best. However," his grin fell, as he turned to face Rhiannon. "I am afraid I may have inadvertently lied." He took Rhiannon's hand, as she asked,

"Oh? How so?"

"I'm afraid that when Ianto showed me a family portrait from several years ago, I may have claimed that Ianto inherited all of the good looks of the family." Jack smiled sheepishly, bringing Rhiannon's hand to his lips. "I now see that that is clearly false."

Rhiannon blushed, her eyes going wide.

"Oh? Oh, well, um – thank you."

Ianto bit back a smile. Many people had this reaction to the charismatic captain, and it was really quite amusing to see his own family's reactions.

"You are very Welcome." Jack beamed, straightening as he released Rhi's hand. He placed one hand on the back of Ianto's chair to balance himself

Ianto shivered as his fingers involuntarily brushed against his shoulder. Jack seemed oblivious, but Ianto new that Kira had noticed. So had his Tad.

"Well, captain," his Tad made sure to exaggerate the word, "I'm glad my son has made a good impression of us. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about you." A look from his wife made him continue. "Ianto doesn't really talk about work that much."

"Oh, I'm sure there is a good reason." Jack smiled, placing one hand on Ianto's shoulder comfortingly.

"Of course sir." Ianto smirked, his confidence rising just because of Jack's presence, and emboldened by his hand on his shoulder. "I only just told them that we worked special ops today, and most of my jobs are relatively low-key. I simply didn't want to bore them with how mundane it all is."

"Oh, Ianto…" Jack muttered, clucking his tongue disapprovingly. "One of these days I'm going to convince you that that is such a Lie."

Ianto swallowed, startled when Jack leaned over his shoulder, stared deep into his eyes, and said with a totally straight face. "You are the only one who is able to make decent coffee. For that, you are completely indispensible."

Kira could be heard choking on her water at that comment.

"Oh." Ianto managed, raising an eyebrow. "So is that why you hired me, and not because you filed EVERYTHING chronologically… based off how long you had been procrastinating on completing it?"

"I wasn't that bad." Jack huffed.

"Your desk would disagree. Sir." Ianto added the title on as an afterthought. Jack audibly growled, gripping the back of Ianto's chair with both hands.

"One of these days Jones. One of these days." Ianto knew what effect his comment had on Jack, but remembered that his family still had no idea about his relationship. Instead of responding as he usually would have, he simply raised an eyebrow.

"Sir?"

Jack knew Ianto's warning tone when he heard it, and spared no time in releasing the back of his lover's chair, straightening up.

"Sorry." He mumbled, so only Ianto could hear him. Looking up, he spoke to the rest of the group. "Well, it has been lovely meeting all of you, and I hope you have a wonderful evening."

Kira noticed his intentions to leave, and was so not going with it. No way was she letting her brother-in-law(ish) to-be wander away before she was able to put the fear of Uni-student into him. (it's much worse than the fear of God. Because you KNOW they will follow through with it.)

"Are you sure? We were hoping you could stay for a while." Kira smiled at him. Jack swallowed. He really didn't want to ruin Ianto's evening with his family, and he was on rift duty that evening. Though the predictor had said it was going to be quiet for the night, and he desperately wanted to stay with Ianto.

"I…" Jack searched for a polite refusal.

"Oh, come on." Rhiannon grinned at him, gesturing to the vacant chair next to her brother. "We're all excited to finally hear about this mysterious captain Ianto has been talking about."

Jack swallowed, glanced at Ianto, and saw nothing but support in his lover's eyes. Cracking a grin, he shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" He pulled his guitar off his shoulders, placing it in the chair Rhiannon had recently gestured to. "But I have to help John and Andy re-load all the gear into the Truck."

"Let me help." Ianto hardly paused a second before jumping to his feet. "Just… so it will go faster."

Jack grinned. "Thanks."

Together the two walked off towards the back of the room. Behind them, neither noticed Kira's grinning face watching as their hands swung closer and closer together.

'Go get him Yanny.' She thought.

BREAK_

*See DOMA. I mean no offense to anyone, but that was his "brilliant" idea