Author's Notes: The alien they're talking about is from one of the short stories in the Torchwood Magazine. I can't remember the name now, so I'll have to look for it, but what is told here is mostly what happened, even though the chapter is all by me, of course, so this takes place somewhere in-between the scenes of the story. There was a group of aliens that Torchwood tried to send back home with passing starships and the short story was actually told through the eyes of the one that couldn't tell Jack and Ianto apart. I keep using the prompts as small parts of the plot, so I hope you like how it turned out.

Day Six: Wearing Each Other's Clothes

"Is that strictly necessary?" Ianto asked as he kept up the fight with his suspenders. "This is ridiculous."

"He thinks we're the same person," Jack reasoned as he fiddled uncomfortably with the button of his suit jacket. "We're going to surprise him."

"How does that include swapping clothes?" Ianto asked, exaaperated. "We can just do what we do and it'll be all the same."

Gwen clicked her tongue and, through the sandwich she was currently eating, said, "He heard me calling for Ianto when we were chasing him in the hotel last night, so Ianto has to be the one in the suit, but I just bet that they won't let you in anytime soon."

Ianto's cheeks coloured lightly as he was apparently reminded of the chaos he'd caused and Jack found himself smiling. They'd had the case of aliens that had wandered on Earth by accident and were lost here for two weeks already and they'd already succeeded in sending two of them on their way home, but there was one that kept giving them trouble by hiding himself in a hotel where he only kept in touch with a selected circle of people. They had quickly realised that he thought that Ianto and Jack were the same person - he couldn't tell humans from one another very well and after all, they had the same colouring and were nearly the same height - and they were currently trying to use it as their advantage.

"It wasn't that bad," Ianto said, but his voice was sheepish; the tone he usually used when he couldn't find an excuse for the havoc that Torchwood left in their wake - or rather, couldn't find an excuse that would work in front of the police.

Jack gave a small cry of victory as he finally mastered the tie. "You blew up their restaurant."

"It was an accident!"

"Say that to the smoking crater 'cause the staff won't listen," Gwen put in, then left her place on the sofa with an irritated snort that could only indicate lack of patience and took Ianto's suspenders in her hands, draping them over his shoulders and buttoning them up. "See? That's how it's done."

Ianto shot her a grateful smile, then frowned as he stared down at his trousers - his for the moment, anyway. "They're still too big." He experimentally pulled at one of the suspenders and let it snap back into place and the Captain cringed. It was uncomfortable enough being dressed in Ianto's suit - which was, logically - too small and an inch too long and completely alien to his skin, especially with the dark blue dress shirt, the jacket and the black Burberry coat over it. Uncomfortable enough, indeed, even without Ianto violating his clothes. "Jack, these things are useless."

Jack threw a belt at him and then watched Ianto put on the coat. It didn't look as weird as Jack had thought it might; he didn't look like an actual Captain but mostly like a war hero and, combined with the rest of Jack's clothes, it suited him well.

Talking of suits... Jack looked down at his own attire and gave a long-suffering sigh.

"It looks good on you," Ianto said, eyeing Jack up and down. "And once you get used to it, it's really not as uncomfortable as it might feel right now.

Gwen rolled her eyes as she watched them fidget with their new clothes and took the car keys. "Come on, we've got to be there in half an hour. Jack, you'll have to wait in the Bay because-"

"Half an hour?" Ianto interrupted sharply. "I thought we were leaving by midnight."

"What's does it matter?" Jack asked and they raised an eyebrow at one another as Ianto said, "I've got work to do in the meantime."

"'Work to do'?" Jack repeated, incredulous. "What work?"

"Something I can't postpone," Ianto insisted and Gwen wavered by the cog door, apparently wondering if she'd have to find the alien by herself. "It's not like he's going to escape." Ianto laughed, but this time there was a bit of a desperate note to it.

Jack wasn't sure how to react. Really, he'd been stunned past words. Ianto was all for hunting, no matter what or who exactly was the victim, and he didn't really do anything out of work. The Captain was sure of it; what Ianto considered 'friends' were people who he'd talked to in University and who he'd never contacted again after that. He had a sister, but not once did he know of Ianto visiting her or talking to her in any way since he'd started working for Torchwood. He had never seen him behave like this, but then again, Ianto last days was even harder to see through than before.

"What," Jack said, nearing Ianto and looking him dead in the eye, "What could possibly be more important than this?"

The anger in Ianto's eyes as a hissing breath left through his teeth was astonishing but, after a moment or two, there was a ground out, "Nothing."

"Now that we have come to an agreement," Gwen's voice cut to Jack's mind and he turned to her. "Can we get going? Ianto, with me; we've got to wait for him when he comes back to his new room." Jack replayed the address of the new hotel in his head, just in case. "Jack, he'll come looking for Ianto for revenge for killing that other... whatever it was, and he'll track him down to here, so you'll have to be the bait." Jack and Ianto both nodded briskly. They'd exchange places by the time they'd have to get to the old hotel to see if he had left anything suspicious behind. The general plan was him taking Ianto's place wherever possible as killing him would bring much less damage while Ianto did his thing with the rest of the alien gang - the ones who were used to talking to Jack when it came to their escape from the planet.

"Good." Gwen responded with a nod of her own, the three of them finally leaving the Hub. Jack watched as Ianto and Gwen climbed in the SUV and with a sigh leaned against the rails of the Bay, preparing himself for a long - and possibly fruitless - wait.

o.O.o

Jack was starting to get mildly annoyed. He'd been here for half an hour already and not as much as a leaf had moved, let alone eventually homicidal aliens and it was Sunday night, so he attracted attention by the passers-by even with him trying to act as casual as possible.

He shivered and pulled Ianto's coat tighter around himself. It was shorter than his own - reaching to about his knees – and it was also black, but it warmed him up just as much and Jack stared into the sea, already bored and miserable, when he heard a voice coming from behind.

"Was there some contract during the creation of this city that requires the weather is always inconvenient? The bloody snow, too. Last time I was here it was hotter and wetter than a –" The woman's voice died when Jack turned around. He knew shock when he saw it and he was staring at it right now; raw and overwhelming. "Ianto?" She tried as she approached him cautiously.

She was wearing a short white jacket and a pair of jeans and she appeared to be as cold as Jack himself was and there was a strange, crude communicator-like object in her hand. Her hair was the thing that stood out the most in the darkness – honey blonde and surrounding her face in wild curls that made it look like a halo – and, Jack thought as the pieces started clicking into place, her jeans showed off long legs that made her look even taller than she probably was. Tall enough that even someone with Ianto's height would notice that she was taller than the average woman.

Jack realised, with a bit of a delay, that she had asked him a question.

"Sorry, no." Jack smiled as politely and as detachedly as he could, trying to look like he had no idea what she was talking about and not like everything in his mind was calculating the fact that she had taken him for Ianto and had expected to find him here.

"No, I'm sorry; I just mistook you for a friend." Her smile was giving away precisely the same signals as his own, Jack noted as she backed away and wished him a good night.

She was still just around the corner when Jack hid into the shadows of the already closed Tourist Office where he wouldn't be noticed by the potential alien coming for him, and started frantically putting together everything he had.

So. This was the Canary Wharf woman. It had to be and she had apparently met Ianto before. In fact, Jack supplied to himself, it was probably her that Ianto had had to meet tonight. That was why it had been so important. Jack wasn't surprised that Ianto hadn't told him anything about it; everyone had their secrets and the Captain tried to respect that and still, there was something new. Something he hadn't had before.

Another clue to Ianto's origins.

He'd promised himself that he'd stop looking; that it didn't matter because Ianto was who he was. But it was eating him from the inside and at this point, he didn't even try to resist.

The woman mistaking him for Ianto from behind was understandable – after all, that was what they'd been aiming for. But then Jack had turned around, she had seen his face clearly and she had still asked. Softly, as if she'd been expecting it.

Who the hell expected the person they were supposed to meet to show up with a different face?

Jack felt like he had all the pieces now and yet, his brain was unable to place them together. All the signs were there and it was obvious, so painfully obvious, and his mind just...

...avoided it.

Jack closed his eyes, hiding his face in his hands as he realised just why he had missed what was happening right in front of him. Why his brain seemed to just jump off the topic whenever it appeared in his head and why everything about Ianto that was out of place insisted on being right through the Captain's eyes.

"Perception filter."