11.

"Hey," Ianto said, knocking on Jack's door softly.

Jack raised his eyes from the laptop screen, glad for the diversion. Shakespeare was doing his head in.

Ianto smiled tentatively. "Can I come in?"

Jack sat up on the bed and put the laptop and Romeo & Juliet aside. "Sure." He scratched a hand through his hair, feeling like he'd done nothing but study for the last decade … which was probably true.

Ianto sat on the edge of the bed. "I have a problem."

"You have several problems," Jack replied with a teasing grin.

Ianto pulled a face. "Shut up."

"What problem are we talking about?"

"My demonstration lesson," Ianto answered. "You know, to become a teacher … I learned today that I will do it with the 10b the day after tomorrow."

Jack frowned. "Why?"

"The 10a is on a trip on that day and I have to do one group of children, which will be the Year 7, and teenagers, which has to be the 10b."

Jack sighed. "Are we getting to your point now?"

Ianto folded his hands and took a deep breath. "I need your help."

"Really?" Jack asked, leaning back against the headboard. He grinned widely. "You need my help?"

"Stuff it," Ianto said. He was blushing.

Jack chuckled. "With what?"

Ianto looked at him earnestly. "They need to accept me."

"I can't tell them to just be good and respect you. That's not how it works."

Ianto pulled an annoyed face. "How does it work?"

"You need to earn their respect."

"Doing what?"

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Please," Ianto said. "I need to pass. I'll do … anything."

"Anything?"

Ianto nodded.

"Fine," Jack said, opening his belt. "Let's get to it."

Ianto was staring at him in disbelief.

"Well?" Jack asked. He didn't expect anything to happen, of course, but backing Ianto into a corner had shown him unexpected, interesting facets to his personality before. He was curious as to what he would find now. So, Jack just looked at him, waiting.

He could see Ianto was thinking and thinking hard. It was almost comical, the way he seemed to sway between affronted and reluctantly giving in. He'd blanched, his eyes wide.

Jack laughed and did his belt up again. "No worries, just teasing."

"It's not funny," Ianto answered angrily, getting up from the bed. "People could take you seriously." He turned back around to Jack, wiping a hand down his face, and Jack could see that he was shaking.

He swallowed, realising that he might have gone a bit too far. "Hey, I was just kidding."

"How am I supposed to know that?" Ianto snapped.

"All right, I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd be that uptight."

Ianto glared at him. "It's got nothing to do with being uptight!"

"What has it got to do with?!" Jack asked, getting annoyed himself.

"Common sense! You can't go walking around coercing people into sexual favours in return for giving them something, not even to make a joke. It's not funny."

Jack got up from the bed and Ianto took a step back, crossing his arms defensively and pulling his shoulders up. Jack had seen that reaction way too often to not know what it meant. There had been a time when he'd been looking for it, seeing it as what it was – the point when his victim gave in and he'd won.

It hurt to see it on Ianto. And it told him more than Ianto was probably hoping to show.

"What was his name?" he asked, sitting on the bed to give Ianto the advantage in height.

Ianto didn't meet his eyes. "It doesn't matter. He's gone."

"Your last boyfriend, yeah?" Jack asked, remembering that Owen had warned him off Ianto because of a bad experience recently.

Ianto winced. "Not really my boyfriend, as it turns out."

"You'll give me anything to help you? Give me the story."

Ianto shook his head. "Why would you be interested?"

"Because you're jumpy as hell."

Ianto looked at him. Jack hated that look, Ianto's eyes staring as if he was a puzzle to be solved. "Not much to tell," he finally said. "I was just awkward and lonely and he was popular and afraid of coming out of the closet. It thought he was actually interested until I found out he had a girlfriend on the side. He … kept coming to me even after it I told him it was over. He got me in touch with people his family knew … boarding schools and all that." He shrugged. "He got angry when I refused … I had a pathetic crush on him. I rarely said no."

Jack felt the kind of fury he'd only felt one time before now. One of Gwen's customers had struck her. Jack had made sure he wasn't bragging to his friends about it for long. "You didn't have friends?"

Ianto shook his head. "I focused on studying."

Jack cleared his throat, forcing the tension out of his muscles. "He was a wanker."

Ianto smiled sadly. "What does that make me?"

Jack shrugged. "People do strange things to make their way sometimes."

Ianto's lips showed a faint smile. "Like faking degrees?"

Jack chuckled. "Like that."

Ianto stepped closer, his arms still crossed. "Thanks."

"What for?" Jack asked.

"For caring," Ianto answered.

"I ..." Jack paused, hesitated for a moment. Finally, he said, "I do."

Ianto looked at him, his eyes searching again.

Jack wanted to kiss him. He cleared his throat. "So, you won't complain, no matter what I'm asking you to do to get the 10b's respect?" he asked.

Ianto shook his head. "Not one word."

Jack grinned. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

xxx

Ianto looked around, almost tripping over a train track. This corner of the railway control centre was quiet and abandoned at this time of night, Jack had assured him, but that didn't stop him from being nervous. They'd squeezed their way through a hole in the chain-link fence and were sneaking up to the trains that stood here during the night, all the while trying to evade the security personnel and the few functioning, scattered lamps on the grounds.

All this felt rather illegal.

He grabbed Jack's arm. "What are we doing here?"

Jack smiled at him and switched on his torch to shine straight at a train standing on the tracks, adjusting the backpack he was carrying over one shoulder. "Getting you some street credit."

"Jack, it's the middle of the night."

"It's ten o'clock."

"It's dark."

"You said you would do anything."

Ianto bit his lip and cursed himself for ever thinking asking Jack for advice would be a good idea.

Jack stopped in front of the train and turned around to the 10b who had followed them, excitedly chatting away. "All right," Jack said loudly, gaining their attention. "I want to do an art project with you about Romeo & Juliet. Splashing colour on paper is boring, though, so I asked Mr. Jones what kind of art project we could do and he suggested a whole train."

Ianto frowned quizzically. The students on the other hand stared at him in surprise, some of them cheering quietly and beaming in excitement. Ianto leaned towards Jack. "What is a whole train?"

Jack got one of the graffiti cans they'd bought this afternoon out of his backpack. "We'll spray the whole train."

"The whole train?" Ianto asked. "That sounds a bit illegal."

"Shut up," Jack said. "You wanted their respect."

"You're overdoing it," Ianto hissed. "The train looks new."

"That's why it's perfect," Jack hissed back and then turned back to the students. "Take the scarves I gave you and wrap them around your mouth and nose." He paused when two shadows circled around the train and stopped in surprise upon seeing them.

Ianto thought it was the police at first, then he saw that they were wearing ski masks and backpacks. Other sprayers. He stepped forward. "Sorry, but we're having a school project here."

"Huh?" one of the sprayers asked.

"This is our train," Ianto answered. "So go and pick one of the others because I really don't have the time to discuss this. I'm not doing this for fun."

The men stared at him. Then one of them shrugged and turned to go, waving for the other to follow.

Bernie started to laugh. "Wow, Mr. Jones, are you doing this more often?"

"I do this all the time," Ianto lied. Jack snorted. Ianto threw him a scathing look but turned back to the 10b. "Put on the scarves now. The paint is poisonous. And remember, our theme is Romeo & Juliet. Go for it."

The students didn't wait any longer, gathering around Jack's backpack to pick out cans.

Jack turned to Ianto. He was grinning widely when he leaned closer to murmur, "You're adorable."

Ianto tried to ignore the shiver running down his spine at Jack's breath brushing his cheek, the scent of his aftershave and shampoo. He was dangerously close to kissing him ... and reminded himself that 'dangerous' was a word he could associate too much with Jack, despite the unexpected kindness he sometimes showed. He shouldn't kiss him. So he cleared his throat and leaned back a bit. "You did not just say that. You did not just use the word 'adorable'."

"It's true, though," Jack said, smiling at him as if he knew what kind of effect he had on Ianto.

Ianto felt heat pool in his cheeks and belly and quickly cleared his throat. "So," he said, taking a spray can, "how do I do this?"

"Here," Jack said, leading him towards the end of the wagon and standing beside him. "Just hold it and spray." He used his own spray can to tag the train with the name Romeo, the letters flowing artfully like antique calligraphy. Ianto added the name Juliet underneath, his letters looking a bit misshaped, but better than he'd expected. Jack smiled. "Not bad."

"Oi, Mr. Jones!" Jonah called and he looked around. "I'm done."

"Already?" Ianto asked, tearing himself away from Jack and coming to stand beside Jonah. He looked at the picture. "Huh ..."

"Cool, right?" Jonah asked. Bernie stepped back to look critically at the yellow words Jonah had painted on the train.

FUK YU, SHAKESPIER!

"Cool, mate," he said.

Ianto grimaced. "Well, this exercise isn't about spelling, fortunately, but the sentiment seems a bit … extreme."

"Hey!" someone yelled and they turned to see two mean with torches running towards them.

"Shit, security," Jack said. "Run! Everyone, run!" He grabbed Ianto's hand and pulled him along.

Jack had switched off his torch and Ianto had difficulties navigating the tracks in the weak lights emitted by the lamps without stumbling. He almost fell two or three times but Jack's hand just pulled him along. The night air was cold in Ianto's lungs and the shouts of the guards got closer. Part of him was glad they were following him and Jack and not the kids. Another part was panicking and already seeing himself trying to explain to the police how he'd wanted the 10b's respect.

Somehow, he doubted they would understand.

Jack almost twisted his arm when he stopped suddenly and pushed Ianto into the shadows of a building, plastering himself against him. The sudden stop made Ianto slightly dizzy, his breath coming in uneven gasps. Jack clamped a hand over his mouth and hid his face against Ianto's shoulder to silence his own breaths.

The security guards ran past without even glancing at them.

Jack pulled his hand away and Ianto looked at him. He realised for the first time that they were almost the same height, him being just slightly shorter than Jack. He also noticed that his hands had grabbed Jack's jacket. He didn't want to let go, really. So he didn't. "This isn't the first time you run from the police, is it?"

Jack stared at him and gave a crooked grin. "Took a CD one time." He looked back over his shoulder to where the guards had run. "Let's stay for a sec. I'm sure they'll cut back."

Ianto nodded and leaned back against the wall. He could barely make out Jack's expression, hidden in the shadows as they were. Like this, Jack's scent seemed stronger somehow, headier. Ianto tilted his head a bit, breathing in deeply. "What aftershave are you using? It smells really good."

Jack looked at him for a long moment, his eyes almost black, and stepped even closer, his leg going between Ianto's. The warmth of his body enveloped Ianto, banishing the cold night air. "I'm not wearing any."

"You smell like that naturally?" Ianto asked. His fingers felt numb, clutching Jack's jacket, but the rest of him felt warm. His breath quickened again. He tilted his head up and tugged, giving Jack permission.

Jack kissed him.

Ianto opened his mouth immediately, letting Jack's tongue explore, and wrapped his arms around Jack's neck, pressing closer, canting his hips up. He couldn't help the soft whimper that escaped him when his half-hard cock came into contact with Jack's, even through several layers of clothing. It had been too long, and somehow Jack knew exactly how to kiss him. He seemed to know instinctively that Ianto would shiver when he rucked up his jumper and caressed the heated skin of Ianto's back, that Ianto would try to wrap himself around Jack when he pressed him back against the hard wall. Jack's hand went between them, his palm dragging over Ianto's groin once – not teasingly but roughly.

"Please," Ianto whispered.

They were interrupted by the security walking by again, slower this time and clearly frustrated. Their bodies went still, their breaths caught, staring at one another in the dim light. Jack was still looking at him when the guards were long gone. Ianto leaned up to kiss him again – ready to let himself be taken up against a wall in the middle of the night in some railway control centre, and he'd never done something this daring before … but Jack stepped back. "We should get home," he said and walked away.

Stunned, Ianto didn't react. When he realised what had happened – that Jack had changed his mind and abandoned him for whatever reason – he sank back against the wall and wiped his face with his hands. He knew he should probably be glad because this had been a very bad idea. All he felt, though, was disappointment and shame.

Steps to his right startled him and he turned to look at Carys and Bernie who were staring at him. Bernie made an impressed face. "Wow, Mr. Jones, you really are a poof." Ianto glared and Bernie raised his hands. "Nothing wrong with that, mate. You're cool."

Carys grinned with giddy excitement. "You are so in there!"

Ianto doubted that was true.