Jack was seething, Ianto's rejection had cut him deeper than he cared to admit and the bitterness had started to fester. He had been in a permanent bad mood for the past two days, and it was finally getting too much for Tosh and Owen who had taken to avoiding him.

He'd been content to leave Ianto to rot in the interrogation room, isolation might teach him what was to come, but Owen had happily reminded Jack that Ianto had a tendency to slip his restraints and Jack was no longer in the mood to entertain the marks hope of freedom.

Ianto Jones now found himself a permanent fixture at Jacks side and accelerant to Jack's darkening mood.

Xxx

"Super speed."

"Kryptonite"

"Super strength"

"Kryptonite"

"He can fly!"

"Krypto . . ."

"Kryptonite, yeah, yeah I bloody get." Owen grumbled through a mouth full of toast, "He'd still kick bat's arse"

"Krypto . . ." Owen cut Jack off, his eyes shooting daggers as Jack sat there with an air of self satisfaction, he was possibly taking this a little too seriously.

"Zatanna" The voice was quiet but held confidence, as if the speaker had put a lot of thought into the word. Ianto's face only reinforced the solidity of his idea.

The word had barely settled before Jack stood up, chair legs scrapping the tiled floor, the noise scoffing Ianto's idea almost as much as Jack's snigger. Ianto wondered if Jack knew he put physical distance between them every time they spoke, not that Jack ever said a word back, Jack sniggered again whilst buttering his second slice of bread and Ianto decided actually he didn't care.

"Hang on a minute, the boys got a point." Owen leant forward elbows resting on the edge of the table. He'd grown more comfortable in Ianto's presence, he knew the boys intentions now and that made him easier to handle, easier to predict.

Ianto leant in too getting sucked into the conversation, he had only meant it as a suggestion, after all he had been forced to sit through the mindless argument of the two men for around half an hour, but Jacks scorn drove him on, he wanted to define his point now, he wanted to win. "Sorcery, elemental control, teleportation, telepathy, memory manipulation, force field, abnormal strength, need I go on." The words hung for a while the, Jack's mouth fell open a few times as if to retort but was swiftly closed each time. Owen was the first to break the silence his face previously frozen in contemplation burst with glee "Would totally kick Batman's arse" and promptly fell about laughing.

"That wasn't an argument for Kent, Owen" Jacks voice was decidedly sullen and his eyes were down cast, sulking was something Jack did shamefully well.

"Yeah well prison-boy just shot yours out of the water too." Owen stuffed the last of the crust in his mouth, clapped Jack on the back and left the kitchen in search of Tosh and slightly more grown up conversation.

Jack glanced at Ianto and caught the smug smile resting on his lips "shut up and eat your toast" he snapped causing Ianto to lose the smirk in lieu of full blown laughter.

Xxx

Ianto settled his back against the stone wall of Jacks 'gym', he was cuffed to the bench on his right, the chain had enough slack for him to sit on it but not comfortably, the floor was more appealing.

He watched Jack train; the punching bag seems to be his favourite, next was the treadmill, then the weights, the evenings an early morning was Tai-chi. Ianto could be accused of paying more than a healthy amount of attention to Jack, but honestly there was little else to do, Jack wouldn't let him train and these past two days had been deathly uneventful. Jack was bored therefore Jack trained and thus Ianto was dragged along to watch.

This routine left ample amount of time for thinking and Ianto was yet to conclude whether he liked that or not. Sure he could plan escape after escape but he also had time to analysis the flaws and pick each one to pieces, he could catalogue each member of Jack's team, watching how they moved and behaved how they spoke and to a certain extent how the thought, but he also had time to like them, they weren't bad people, most defiantly eccentric but in a quirky 'actually I quite like you way'. Mostly Ianto's head was filled with Jack's offer and caused Ianto to seek distraction after distraction, nine time out of ten that was Jack. His broad shoulders, tight stomach, toned arms . . . and each time Ianto found it harder to remember why he said no.

Xxx

"He's breaking."

"Excuse me?" Tosh was rather taken aback with Owen rather drastic change in conversation. They had been talking about the merits of cinema over dinner whilst dating but apparently Owen was no longer captivated by that.

"Ianto." Owen stated and if he'd just divulged the meaning of life. Tosh who normally prided herself on at least pretending to understand what the two boys went on about was completely lost. Owen tutted and Tosh's expression changed from confused to indignant in record time.

"That's hardly an answer, how is anyone supposed to know what you mean from 'Ianto'?"

"Ianto, Tosh, Ianto is cracking. He joined in one of mine and Jack conversations today." And Tosh had to admit to being a thrown, Jack and Owen conversations were not in fact conversations but arguments and, for want of a better word, stupid. They had nothing to do with anything and Tosh made a point to ignore them or leave the room. For Ianto to join in he had to have been listening the main reason Tosh didn't included herself. Owen continued "I mean maybe it was the boredom finally getting to him or he found that talking seems to irritate Jack more, but honestly I think he's cracking Tosh, I think he's cracking."

Tosh smiled "Good cause Jack is really starting to piss me off!"

A/N: Hey guys hope you liked this, a little pointless again but needed :D sorry, sorry, sorry for slow updates but I'm going through the whole uni process atm and finishing my college project so please bare with me, I can only apologise and promise you that I haven't forgotten this story at all :D please R and R it makes me stupidly happy xxx