Ianto stood in Jack's kitchen staring at the coffee machine, bottom lip caught between his teeth, Owen forgotten as he considered how much he wanted to change his world by admitting his attraction to Jack. A man he spent most of his nights sleeping next to. His emotions were firing alternating layers of repression and guilt and desire at him. He knew he wasn't betraying Lisa by being attracted to Jack, he still loved her but what he felt for Jack was different. He also didn't feel his sexuality was in question as it was just Jack. No other man could induce such thoughts and send a heat coursing though his veins like the heroine in the stories he'd steal from his sisters room as a kid. It was only ever Jack.

Doubt whispered to him, asking what if this was some sort of Stockholm type situation. One built on a sense of obligation for the man who did hold him though his nightmares. Or that perhaps it was a need built on proximity in the face of his grief. Wasn't he supposed to grieve longer for the loss of the woman he still loved. To follow his father into a bottle and never climb out rather than climbing into Jack's bed. He found himself sighing as he stood there looking at the coffee machine.

He'd changed out of his work suit and into jeans and one of his plain black tee's before heading to the kitchen to make coffee. It was what he did when they got home but suddenly he wasn't sure what he was doing. He didn't believe this was an older man seducing the wounded innocent leaving them both embittered at the ways of the world. Jack had been careful not to push anything on him and that was part of what made his blatant attraction to the man so confusing.

While he had doubts, he was also convinced that whatever he was feeling for Jack was all him. This wasn't some relationship built in the face of adrenaline fueled disaster, for all that's how it might look to someone on the outside. This was something that had started with the first flirtatious grin he'd been thrown at his first meeting with Jack. A realization that he'd steadfastly been ignoring until now. No matter that he'd never acted on it at the time.

Jack wasn't surprised to find Ianto in the kitchen, placing a hand on his arm he waited.
'I.' Ianto faltered and set the coffee beans back down on the kitchen bench. 'I should probably apologize to Owen.'
'Oh no you don't.'
'But I over reacted.'
'And that git couldn't have waited for me to tell them about Pip? He's the first one to bitch that we don't have enough field agents.' He took Ianto's hand and steered him towards the table in the breakfast nook, not letting go of his hand as they sat down. 'And never mind his whining about us not having a back up medic.'

Ianto's lips moved into a brief smile. 'That I've been forced to listen to more than once.' In addition to learning how to fire a gun and psychic self defence all Torchwood One staff received basic battlefield first aid training. Which meant if Owen needed help it was Ianto he called on. It wasn't just alien goo that didn't always come out of his suits, but since he'd found an online tip about using full fat milk to get rid of blood stains from clothes he'd salvaged more than he lost.

Jack rubbed his thumb over the back of Ianto's hand. 'Owen was playing around in the London server and found the records from One that they didn't give us about you. And about the standard psi training and testing.'
'That's his problem? Or did he just find out that my shooting record is better than his?'
Jack shrugged. 'I didn't ask.'
Ianto scrubbed at his face with his free hand before meeting Jack's gaze. 'So you don't think I need to apologize to the ferret faced git then?'

Shaking his head as he laughed Jack wrapped both hands around Ianto's. 'No.' Watching as Ianto seemed to relax. 'Not to change the subject but I did wonder if there was something you wanted to talk to me about. Or should I just book us a table somewhere nice and take you out for dinner?'
'That's quite a subject change if this is that date you said I'd know you were asking me out on.'
'Only if you want it to be. Unless that's not what you want. A date, I mean, not a way to change the subject or anything.'
Bringing his free hand to rest on Jack's he gave him a cautious smile. 'I think I'd like that.'

Jack felt like he could breathe again, his smile matching Ianto's. 'I'll, book a table. I know it's early but we could have a few drinks first, make an evening of it.'
'Okay, do I need to wear a suit or jeans?'
'Dressy casual should do it.'
Ianto nodded. 'I'll get changed then.' He rose to his feet, still holding Jack's hand. 'I didn't mean to come between your team like this.'
'You're part of the team too and Owen's always been a bit of a wanker.'
'He lost his fiance Jack, I can understand what that feels like.'
'The funny thing about loss Ianto, nothing we do can change what happened. But we can change how we respond.' He rubbed one last circle in the back of Ianto's hand before releasing him. 'Go, make yourself even more gorgeous and I'll make that phone call.' Smiling as Ianto's laughter trailed after him up the stairs.

Having changed, Ianto walked into the kitchen to find Jack wearing a fresh dark blue shirt and a waistcoat he hadn't been wearing earlier. 'At least we match.'
Jack grinned as he made no secret of looking the younger man up and down, taking in the neatly pressed black pants and the silk burgundy shirt along with a waistcoat of his own. 'That really is your colour.' Watching as Ianto blushed. 'I've called a taxi.'
'Are you going to tell me where we are going?'
'I got us a table at Charmaine's.'
Ianto nodded. 'I've heard good things about their steaks.'
Jack was about to comment when a car pulled into the drive. 'That will be us, after you.'

Ianto remembered little of what they actually talked about on his date with Jack. He knew the steaks were as good as they were reported to be, and the house wine was equally as good. Even the desert menu lived up to expectations but they were all insignificant details in comparison to how he felt, sitting in a corner with Jack. Candlelight and soft background music set the scene as he relaxed and enjoyed the meal. He mostly had impressions of being warm and cared for and safe. He didn't even mind the hand holding across the table. After sharing the tiramisu Jack settled the bill and helped Ianto into his coat. Words brushing Ianto's ear. 'Walk with me, it's too early to go home.'
Letting Jack take his hand Ianto followed where he led until they found themselves by the water.

Leaning on a rail he watched Ianto. 'It's different here, at night. Sometimes I can imagine I'm looking down from the stars when I see the lights laid out like this.'
'Why aren't you in the stars Jack? Why wait here for your Doctor?'
'I had hoped this was where I would find him. Until someone told me I'd have to watch the century turn first.' He shrugged as if this was nothing before smiling at Ianto. 'And I never know when I'm going to meet someone who makes the waiting worth it.'
Ianto sighed. 'No pressure there then.'

Jack laughed as he pulled Ianto into his arms. 'I don't know what tomorrow will bring but I can tell you this, if the Doctor turned up right now I'd be taking you with me. If you'd come.'
'I'm glad we aren't rushing into anything.' Ianto allowed himself to further relax into the warmth of the arms holding him. 'I'm not even sure what we're doing here.'
Jack brought a hand up to hold Ianto's cheek. 'I don't know but I could really see myself kissing you, Jones, Ianto Jones.'
Letting his fears go Ianto leaned into Jack and whispered. 'Perhaps you should.'

Jack let his lips taste Ianto's, holding back least the younger man decide he didn't want this. Fighting with himself to keep the kiss gentle and sweet as their lips moved against each other. When Jack pulled back he heard Ianto laughing softly.
'You call that a proper kiss?' Ianto reached for Jack's face and pulled him in, lips seeking Jack's in the darkness as he demanded entrance to the older man's mouth. Tongues touching they lost themselves in the kiss until they both pulled back trying to force air into tired lungs. Ianto felt his cheeks flush in the dark. 'I um.'

Jack held himself still, not wanting to startle Ianto. Perhaps needing to process their shared kiss himself as he spoke softly in the shadows. 'You still with me?'
'I.' Ianto took a breath and released it slowly. 'Yes.'
'I wont rush you Yan.'
'Why me Jack?'

Jack frowned at the layers of uncertainty in Ianto's voice. 'Why not you. You're incredibly smart and witty and funny and you have fantastic comedic timing with the things you say. Mostly to Owen. You are a good friend to Tosh and even Suzie has as much respect for you as she's capable of.' He paused at that thought. 'More than she has for me.' He added darkly before smiling once more. 'You make orgasmic coffee of course, and lets face it, you look really good in a suit.' He grinned. 'You look just as good out of one too.'
'Jack.'

He shrugged. 'It's true, but it's more than all that. I mean, sure, that's what I saw first but I got to know you. I watched you walk though a fire of loss and pain and come out the other side stronger for it. And you give me something I haven't had in a very long time.' Jack steered them to a park bench sitting in a pool of light. 'You give me acceptance without judgment. I haven't had anyone I could be this open with in a very long time, if at all.'
'Because I know your secrets.'

He leaned back and let his fingers trace the line of Ianto's jaw a moment before dropping his hand. 'It's not even that, you. You make me want to be here.'
'Even with the hesitancy and the nightmares?' He rolled his eyes at Jack's expression.
'How can I hate spending every night in your bed and there wasn't any hesitation in that kiss.' Reaching for Ianto's hand. 'With you I can forget I'm over a hundred years old, with you I'm not so out of my own time. Or alone.'

'I'll never stop loving Lisa.'
'And I hope you don't. Love isn't supposed to diminish who we are.'
'And when you grow tired of me or your Doctor turns up?'
'Or if you wake up and decide you want children.' Jack countered.
Ianto snorted. 'I work for Torchwood, I'll be lucky to make it to thirty.'
'You're an archivist, not a field agent.'
'Like Reggie or Anna Hamilton and Jos Richards? Even Lisa was just HR.'
'Yeah, I guess that's not as good an argument as it was in my head.'
'Besides, Jones is the Welsh equivalent of Smith as far as surnames go and there's hardly any great family fortune for my sister's kids to fight over.'

Jack continued tracing patterns in Ianto's palm as he dropped his eyes a moment before bringing them back up to meet Ianto's gaze. 'I don't pretend to know what tomorrow will bring us Yan. But right here, right now, this is all I need.'
Ianto smiled his enigmatic little smile before pulling them both to their feet. 'Come on then, lets get home before it rains.'
'It's Cardiff.' Jack let Ianto drag him towards a taxi stand. 'It's always going to rain.'
Ianto looked over his shoulder, eyebrow raised as he hailed a cab. 'Doesn't mean I want to get caught in the storm.' He tugged Jack's hand as a taxi stopped for them. Giving the driver the address he settled into the back seat, still holding Jack's hand.

Jack viewed his home in a new light as he paid the driver and watched Ianto unlock the door. Purchased over eighty years ago, he'd periodically sold it to himself. He had considered just inheriting it until he'd found out about government death duties. It had never felt like a proper home until now. He let Ianto lead him inside and hang their coats up as they moved towards the sitting room.
'You should probably find the candles while I light the fire in here, before the power goes out.'
'You seem very certain of that.'
Ianto shrugged. 'As you pointed out, this is Cardiff. And I don't know where you keep the candles.'

'You know.' Jack called over his shoulder as he moved to a sideboard that if he remembered correctly, was a logical place to keep that sort of thing. 'If you wanted to be romantic you could have just said.'
Ianto looked up from the fireplace. 'I'm being practical. We can be romantic later.'
'Is that a promise Mr Jones?' Jack teased as he located a box of candles and some matches. 'Of course this would work better if I remembered where I saw the candle sticks.'
'Formal dining room I think.' Ianto stepped back from the fire now dancing in the grate, dusting his hands off against the legs of his trousers.
'Oh yeah.' Jack flashed him a grin as he set the candles and matches on an end table and decided to chance stealing a kiss. 'I'll go look.'

Ianto nodded as he considered fetching a quilt from his room but wasn't sure if that would send the right message until the lights flickered, they stayed on but the heating clicked off. He called out. 'I'm just going up stairs to get some quilts.'
Jack walked into the room with two ornate and solid silver candle sticks. 'My bedroom has a functioning fireplace in it. Maybe we should just brush our teeth and take our chances upstairs.'
'I just lit the fire.'
'Bank it up and with a bit of luck it will still be going in the morning, there's plenty of wood.'

Ianto frowned. 'You do know how a fire works don't you? It needs more time to build up to something that we can put a few larger logs onto. You can't just throw some wood on there now and hope it'll still be going in the morning.'
'So you don't want to retire to my room then?'
'Not right now, no. I'd like to sit on the settee and watch the fire for a bit. You're heating's already gone out so I think we need to get this fire going.'
'Have you always been this practical?'

'You learn if you want to survive.' Ianto responded, his eyes growing dark as he remembered learning how to do a great many grown up things in his childhood. 'But you're right about brushing our teeth, we should do that while we still have power and running water.'
'You make it sound so third world.'
'You've lived in the Hub too long with its back up generators.'
Jack nodded. 'You're probably right. Come on then, lets brush our teeth. Unless you want to toast marshmallows in the fire?'
Ianto chuckled at how hopeful Jack looked. 'I'm still good from dinner.'
'Oh well. Come on, since you seem so convinced the power is going to go out.' He followed Ianto up the stairs and grinned at the view and the myriad ideas it prompted.

Looking back over his shoulder Ianto stopped. 'Why are you smiling?'
'Um, because I don't have to be stealthy about looking at your butt when you walk up stairs any more, if we're dating.'
'You were never stealthy.'
'Yes I was.'
'Nope.'
'Yeah ha.'
Ianto shook his head, hands on hips. 'You practically called dibs.'
'Did not.'
'So ordering the others not to flirt with me? What was that then?'
'Self preservation.' Jack replied. 'Anyway, I think I my toothbrush is in your bathroom.'
Ianto rolled his eyes as he resumed moving up the stairs. 'I can hear your thoughts Jack and I have to say, I don't think anything like that will be happening any time soon.'

Jack considered what he'd been broadcasting and dampened his enthusiasm down. 'Sorry about that, and I'm not expecting anything more tonight except maybe a good night kiss of equally epic proportions. To make sure our earlier kiss wasn't just a one off, you know.'
Stopping outside his bedroom door Ianto turned to Jack and gave him a lecherous smile of his own. 'I don't think you have to worry about that.' Grinning as the older man stood there, jaw dropped, frozen in place and unable to speak.

Ianto changed into his pyjamas and began brushing his teeth when Jack finally joined him.
'Are you alright with sleeping in my room tonight? With the fire in there it should be warmer if the power does go out.'
Rinsing his mouth Ianto nodded. 'Of course, but where will you sleep?'
Jack frowned until he saw a barely concealed smile and joined Ianto as he laughed. Silently loving the subtle change in Ianto that left him free enough to add his own voice into their teasing banter.
'Oh I nearly had you there.'
'For a moment you did. Come on, I should check I have enough pillows in my room, since everything seems to end up in yours.'

Ianto looked up from banking the fire in the sitting room, the lights flickered before finally going out. Lighting the candles Jack gave him a somewhat calculating look.
'What?'
'How did you really know the power was going to out or that there was a storm coming? Up until we got home it was just your standard run of the mill Welsh rain.'
'Duno, gran and my mam always knew, so I never thought it was odd until I started school.' He settled on the settee with Jack. 'It never seemed that big a deal.'
'You, Ianto Jones, are a remarkable man. How did you manage to stay under Hartman's radar working for One?'
'Just lucky I guess.'

Jack picked Ianto's hand up once more and shook his head. 'There has to be more to it than that. If she had half a clue you'd have been locked into her labs for testing faster than you can roll your eyes.'
'I had any illusions as to the way the world would react to my ability to know stuff I shouldn't, well and truly knocked out of me by my dad. I learned how to hide it all away so when they tested me at One, I didn't score as well as I would now.'
'And now?'

'Now I'd like to know what you plan to do about Owen. He wasn't wrong, if Pip joins the team you will have another London freak on your hands.'
'I'm still thinking about how to punish the good Doctor Harper. He'll be looking after Janet for a while. Including mucking out her cell.'
'Not one of my more favourite jobs that.'
'I don't think it's any ones to be honest. But what about you?'
'I'm debating a lifetime of decaf. Since shooting him is out of the question.'

'Probably best you don't, since we don't have a back up medic yet.'
'Not even just a little wound, like in the shoulder?' Ianto found himself stifling a yawn. 'Sorry, it must be later than I thought.'
'Yeah, come on, lets head up and get some sleep, you've sorted the fire down here anyway.' He patted Ianto on the knee before rising to his feet and holding a hand out to the Welshman. 'And I think someone owes me a good night kiss.'
Checking on the fire Ianto picked the second candlestick up as he followed Jack. 'You think so do you.'

Jack nodded. 'I believe that was what we discussed.'
'We just spent the last two hours talking, we discussed a lot of things.'
'I never forget about kissing.'
'Apparently not.' Ianto agreed as he set the candlestick down on the bedside table and moved to the fireplace. 'I'll get this going first.'
Jack sat on the blanket box at the foot of his bed and watched as Ianto deftly got a fire going. Admiring the lines of the man's back as his shirt pulled tight against his body. 'I would sleep in your room if you didn't want to join me in here you know.' Admonishing himself to keep the blood from pooling in his groin.

'I sleep better when I'm next to you.' Ianto simply stated as he rose to his feet.
'I don't want to push you into anything you aren't ready for.'
Ianto laughed. 'You climbed into my bed weeks ago because I needed someone there for me. It's a bit late to worry about what might happen next.'
'Yeah, but this is different.'

Ianto considered all his previous doubts and realized they were so far away from the man looking uncertainly at him that he knew he had nothing to fear from Jack. Holding his hand out to the older man he pulled him to his feet and into a kiss that dwarfed their earlier attempt. Breaking apart when they were both seeing stars, which if Tosh were there she could have explained as a lack of oxygen to the brain inducing a something he didn't really care about. Not when he had Jack pressed up against him with a look in his eyes that Ianto suspected was reflected in his own.

Unable to speak Jack simply projected his thoughts at Ianto. Sending him a mix of amazement and wonder and a heady dose of lust. Not the raw lust of a drunken one night stand but rather, a more comfortable lust that could grow into something much bigger than either of them could hope for. There was a gentle unspoken desire waiting for each man to realize that this was what they not only wanted, but perhaps needed as they turned to the bed and climbed in. Each man content to be held in the darkness, neither needing anything else in that moment to feel complete and at peace as sleep stole though them.