"Ianto?"

"Jack."

Jack stared wide-eyed at the man in front of him, his eyebrows practically raised to his hairline. "You're on my doorstep."

Ianto blinked, mouth forming a tiny 'O' shape as his brain finally caught up with the fact he had absolutely no explanation as to why he was there. Well, other than having just been chased by his dead girlfriends drug dealer, but there was no way he was telling Jack that.

"Yeah, I am," he stuttered out eventually, hand coming up to push his dripping wet hair from his eyes. A hint of a smile played on Jack's lips as he took in the other man's appearance.

"Not that I mind, but can I ask what you're doing here?"

Ianto blinked again. What the fuck am I doing here? "Uh... to be honest, I don't rightly know."

Jack couldn't help himself, he laughed. "Right. Wet out there, huh?"

Ianto glared but was too cold to come up with some sharp retort. The warmth radiating from Jack's house was so inviting, he was finding it hard to care about giving the man a plausible explanation. He'd cross that bridge if and when he came to it. "Do you want me to go?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Jack swung the door the rest of the way open and gestured Ianto inside, "You'd get pneumonia walking home like that."

Ianto smiled gratefully and stepped inside, sighing contentedly as the heat from the hallway engulfed him. Jack kicked the door shut behind them and moved to take Ianto's coat from his shoulders, his fingers lingering over the back of Ianto's neck for a few short moments. The Welshman didn't seem to notice and allowed Jack to remove his suit jacket without objection.

"I can hang these by the radiator," said Jack, ignoring the trail of water he was leaving in the hallway as he carried the items through to the living room, "but I don't know what you want to do about the rest of your clothes."

Ianto nodded absentmindedly and followed at a distance, letting his eyes wander around the house. It wasn't at all like he'd imagined. He'd pictured Jack living somewhere a bit more modern; designer kitchen, leather sofas, a fifty inch plasma screen. But Jack didn't even have a television in the living room.

Instead, a large antique grandfather clock stood proudly in the corner, right next to an old record player, which Ianto remembered the older man saying had belonged to his father. A small open fire lay beneath the mantel piece, which was actually quite bare save for a couple old black and white photographs, one in the middle of a man who looked remarkably like Jack wearing an RAF uniform.

In all honesty, it was nothing like the Jack he knew. But then maybe he didn't know Jack at all.

"Ianto?"

Ianto's head snapped around to face Jack, "Sorry, what?"

"I said what are you going to do about the rest of your clothes?"

"Oh," Ianto frowned and looked down at himself. His shirt clung to his chest from the rainwater, his tie hung loosely at an angle around his neck and the less said about his lower half the better. "I'm not sure."

Jack smiled, "Well you're welcome to borrow some clothes?"

"You...what?" Ianto's heart sped up at the thought of borrowing clothes from Jack. That was the kind of thing couples did, not boss and employee. "I couldn't—"

"Nonsense," Jack cut him off, "I can't have you freezing to death, the team needs their coffee in the morning. Come on, get the shirt off and I'll find you something to wear." He grinned and jogged off down the hallway before Ianto could protest.

Ianto sighed. How in the hell was he going to explain this? Showing up unannounced at the house of the person he was supposed to be avoiding wasn't exactly the best strategy. Jack was going to ask questions and Ianto was in no mood to answer them.

"Okay, these should fit you," he heard Jack's voice from the hallway moments later before the man himself appeared around the door. Jack smirked when he noticed Ianto hadn't even removed his shirt. "Are you planning to put these on over the top?"

Ianto bit his lip, "Could I not get changed... elsewhere?"

Jack shrugged, "I guess you could do, but that might give me the wrong impression about your feelings towards me."

Ianto eyed him curiously. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of where this was going. "And why's that?"

"Well, since we're supposed to be just boss and employee, I see no reason why you should feel awkward around me in a situation like this," Jack's tone was serious, but he could barely contain a smug grin from spreading across his face at Ianto's dumbfound expression, "I mean, we are just boss and employee, right?"

Ianto inhaled a breath and let it out slowly, "Right, well I'll just--"

"Why did you come here tonight?" Jack demanded suddenly, tone switching from amused to annoyed in the blink of an eye. He seemed to be doing a lot of that recently, and it was making Ianto incredibly nervous.

"Listen, Jack, I—"

"Don't finish that sentence if you're going to lie, Ianto."

Ianto snorted, "Well it's not like you're giving me a chance to anyway."

"Ianto," Jack came forward suddenly, grabbing both of Ianto's hands in his and sitting him down on the edge of the sofa. "I said last night that I don't expect you to tell me all your secrets and I'm not asking you to now. All I'm asking is for you to answer me this one question honestly," he paused to give the other man a chance to speak, but Ianto kept his mouth shut and his eyes lowered. "Just tell me why you came here tonight."

Ianto stared at him and felt all his resolve melting away. Just like that. He'd always known that the day would come when Jack would finally break him; he just hadn't expected it to come so soon or so easily.

"I came here because," he stopped and attempted to move or look away, but Jack held his hands in a firm grip, nodding encouragingly. There was no turning back now. "I came here because I ran into some people on my way home tonight, some people I used to know. They, I mean we have... unfinished business, to put it one way."

"Business?" Ianto nodded while Jack's hands squeezed his a little tighter.

"I don't... I mean I can't go into details, Jack. But these guys are going to cause me trouble that I don't need and when they followed me home I—"

"They followed you home?!"

"Yeah... well they tried to. I managed to get away, but then I realised I was on your street and I couldn't go back so I thought maybe it would be okay if I--" Jack cut off his babbling by placing a finger over his lips.

"Believe me, Ianto, it's not your being here that worries me," he let go of Ianto's hands and moved to sit next to him, "it's how you got here. I mean, have these guys been threatening you? What do they want?"

"Jack, I really can't—"

"Tell me. I know. It's just not very much to go on, Ianto," Jack sighed and let his head fall back to stare at the ceiling. Ianto didn't know what to say, so he stayed silent and glanced nervously across at the other man. A few long moments passed before Jack finally said, "Can you at least tell me who these guys are?"

Ianto shook his head, "Not yet, Jack. I'm sorry."

"You seem to be saying that a lot recently."

"It's true," Ianto insisted, "I didn't want to get you involved in this."

Jack frowned as a thought hit him, "So... all that stuff you said last night about us. Was that true? Or was that just a cover up for one of the many things you can't tell me?"

"That was..." Ianto shifted uncomfortably, unable to look Jack in the eye, "that was a cover up."

Jack tilted his head to the side to look at him, "Figures. Like I said, you're a terrible liar."

Ianto scoffed, "Coming from you after the way you were behaving today. What got into you?"

Jack grinned and edged a little closer, "Which incident are you referring to? The one in the stationary cupboard or the one where you got all green-eyed over Alison?"

"I was actually referring to this morning when you came out with all that friendship bullshit, but now that we're on the subject, what exactly is going on with you and this Alison?"

Jack smirked and flung one arm out to rest on the sofa behind Ianto, "I knew it. You're jealous."

"And you're full of it," Ianto retorted, hiding a smile as Jack shifted even closer.

"And you're dripping water all over my sofa," Jack leered at him, turning his body towards Ianto's and letting one hand come to rest on his thigh. Ianto didn't even hesitate before covering it with his own.

"You're right. I should probably do something about that," he said suggestively, spare hand already reaching up to pull the tie from his collar. Jack watched mesmerized as Ianto's long fingers worked the knot apart and dropped the silk garment to the floor. "Is there anywhere I can go to get dry?"

Jack's hand moved even further up the other mans thigh as he answered, "How about my bedroom?"

Ianto smirked and rolled his eyes, "For all your talk, Harkness, your seduction technique really needs some work."

"You think?"

"Afraid so."

Jack pouted, "So is that to say you won't be coming to the bedroom then?"

"I..." Ianto paused. Was he really going to do this? There were still so many questions which Ianto was sure Jack would demand the answers to soon enough, but at least this would serve as a distraction until Ianto could get his head together.

That, and he was so hard he could barely stand up.

"Fine. Let's go to the—mmpf!" He was cut off suddenly by Jack's tongue in his mouth and warm, insistent hands working their way under his shirt. Ianto moaned softly and wrapped his legs tightly around Jack's hips, using them to pull the other mans body down on top of him. Jack obliged happily and kissed his way up Ianto's jaw line to tongue his ear, using his teeth to suck firmly on the lobe while Ianto writhed beneath him. "Fuck," Ianto breathed, grabbing a fistful of Jack's hair and tugging his head back towards his lips.

Jack, however, had other ideas.

Planting one hand firmly on Ianto's chest, he used the other to push himself back onto his heels and up off the sofa, pausing a minute to take in the sight of a dishevelled Ianto; lips swollen, hair sticking up at all angles, shirt bunched up around his chest.

Jack swallowed. He supposed they could always finish their chat in the morning...

Before he could change his mind, he grabbed Ianto (who was still trying to compose himself) by the hand and dragged him off down the hallway.