A/N: Howdy! This was originally under the title 'Electric Feel' in GPYRO – so sorry if this is getting confusing! Hannah xxx

Ianto Jones glanced at his wristwatch again, for perhaps the eight time in the last minute or so, and sighed to himself: 4.21 pm the clock face read, Jack was supposed to have been meeting him on the hour. He really is late Ianto mused, unless… unless he's not coming… he muttered to himself under his breath. Tosh had previously warned him of the man's tendency to arrive more than fashionably late, but still the younger man was worried by the fact he had failed to show as yet; he'd been nervous enough agreeing to this meeting (it wasn't a date surely…) in the first place and now he was becoming increasingly anxious that the American had changed his mind. After all, this man was attractive and charismatic and completely exuded confidence from every angle, he was the kind of man who could have anyone, of any gender, that he chose. There's no doubt that his past list of relationships, lovers and conquests, and friends even, must be mightily extensive; he was an ex-model, he was charming, and the Welshman had learned from his best friend that he was no stranger to the art of flirtation. Therefore, why on Earth would he want to meet up with me: a fairly ordinary, quiet, average looking Welshman who may or may not be… interested. Ianto looked at his watch again, 4.23 pm, why am I still here? He mused as he drained the dregs of an Americano he had purchased during his wait.

Suddenly the young Welshman was beginning to feel a little foolish for getting putting in so much effort preparing for this outing. As soon as the time and whereabouts for their meeting had been set Ianto had run straight in to where Tosh was just about to start on the lunchtime dishes, desperate to quiz her on every little detail: what Jack was really like, what he should expect from this outing, the precise details (he knew the major one of course) about their interactions at the party… anything. For the most part Toshiko hadn't been brilliantly helpful, though that wasn't her fault. She had said that Jack was hard to read, you could never tell if he was flirting – or even when he was more than flirting – out of attraction or simply out of kindness. That he was probably exactly how he had deemed him from his first impression: larger than life and full of charm, and that she hadn't been close enough to hear the pair's conversation but that they seemed to have been enjoying each other's company.

Tosh's ambiguity had meant that Ianto Jones was, for once, feeling very much out of his depth – he was beyond nervous about precisely what he was getting into. His last half an hour had been spent matching various garments together to find the perfect out for their meeting (he'd settled on dark slim leg jeans, a fair isle jersey and his favourite caterpillar boots), shaving for the second time today and generally grooming his immaculate appearance obsessively; and he had no idea why.

Siting in the café now, going over this afternoon's events in his mind, he had even less of an idea why he had put so much effort in; the bloody man wasn't even going to turn up!

Ianto himself had arrived at five minutes to four, early as always despite Tosh's information, at the peculiar little café that also served as an antique books shop that he had selected for their afternoon coffee. It was a quaint, nameless and odd little place tucked away on the edge of the town centre that had been there for what seemed like forever. The business seemed to attract very little custom other than Ianto himself who frequently popped in for a coffee and a chat with the owners Bethan (Beth) and Steffan, or to browse through their varied collection of antiquities. He'd often wondered how many people ventured in to the curious establishment during the day, let alone up until the gone midnight closing time; but Beth and Steffan had never shown any signs of closure – not even during this time of recession. Ever since he had been a teenager in need of a place of refuge away from the noise of his busy household this is where he had head and it had remained very dear to his heart ever since. It was peaceful and unique and provided the second best (only to his own) coffee in Cardiff.

He'd been a little worried about the choice, but Jack had asked him to choose where ever he would like to go and this was the only place within at least a thirty mile radius that he would even think about purchasing a coffee from… but he supposed it did seem a bit of an odd choice for a meeting such as this. Not that Ianto had been on such a meeting before of course. He glanced at his watch again: 4.25 pm, well if he ever deigns to turn up then I can at least justify my choice once he sample's a cup of Steffan's coffee he mused, or by the fact that you get to choose your own coffee mug to drink from, he mused as he began fiddling with the red and white striped mug in front of him; his favourite.

Just as Ianto was contemplating how much longer he could justify sitting her before totally residing to the fact that he had been 'stood up' and settling for heading off home feeling sorry for himself, Jack Harkness entered the small café with an impressive flourish. His brunette hair was ruffled ever so slightly, breaking away from his usual, rigidly gelled style, there was a hint of sweat across his brow that appeared to glisten in the afternoon sun, he was breathing heavily through a wide beaming grin, and his cheeks were slightly red with the glow of exercise; he had been running.

"I know, I know, I'm late but I've got a really good excuse – you're gonna love it!" He said, slightly breathless, and if it was possible his grin grew even wider as he spoke.

"Hmm I bet you do" The Welshman replied, irking one eyebrow upwards and ushering with his hands for Jack to sit down opposite him.

Truth be told did have a good excuse, a very good excuse in fact, as to why he was late for their meeting; much better than his usual 'the girls at work just couldn't keep their hands off me!' or 'I had to go and catch an alien' or any number of fanciful excuses. He himself had been surprisingly nervous about meeting Ianto for a coffee, and a proper chat without the presence of alcohol, that afternoon and had set himself up to be bang on time if not a little early at the quirky little café come bookshop that Ianto had wanted to meet at. Jack didn't do nervous, not usually; but something about this young Welshman had got beneath his skin, he wanted to get to know more about the mysterious, attractive character that for all he knew was completely and utterly straight.

And so, he dressed himself in a favourite navy polo shirt, mid wash boot cut jeans and converse, then perfected his hair and brushed his teeth all in a hurry so as not to be late for their outing, only for his phone to ring as he was putting the keys into the door of his car. Groaning to himself he checked his watch quickly – 3.50, he had precisely two minutes to carry out this conversation before he needed to leave if he wanted to be on time – then reluctantly answered his phone. It was an old friend and colleague of his Alex Hopkins the manager of Spotlight; the modelling agency he had previously worked with and now did much of the photography for, wanting to talk to him about a job with Burberry. Jack's draw dropped open: Burberry. He had dreamed of working with Burberry for years, and though he'd always hoped an opportunity would have arisen when he was still working as a model, he was excited even by the prospect of photographing a shoot or and advert or whatever they wanted. In his sheer excitement half of Alex's words were missed, with him only tuning into the conversation again at

"…and they'd been looking over some of your previous work and decided that they just had to have you! So will you do it?"

"Of course! Of course I will! This is fantastic! What do they want me for? How much work is it exactly? Which models will I be photographing?" He said in a frantic rush of excitement.

"Which models? Jack, were you not listening? They want you!"

"What?"

Alex sighed down the phone, "They want you to be the new face of the brand –"

"So they want me to model, not to photograph?" Jack interrupted, slightly confused but pleased beyond belief.

"Precisely… so, will you do it?"

"Absolutely!" Jack grinned.

"Great! I'll give you Christopher's number so that you can find out a bit more about the job"

Jack took down the number, eagerly scribbling on his hand and preceded to call up Christopher Lowe, artistic director for the brand, directly after his conversation with Alex had finished and spent a good twenty minutes discussing the exact details of his new contract; they wanted him to be in every advertisement that they published for the new season and potentially for further seasons after this summer. The American kept glancing towards his wristwatch throughout the entire telephone call, knowing that he was making himself later and later for seeing Ianto, but not quite finding the strength to care as much as he should have done as he was so thrilled with this new opportunity; he would just have to hope that Ianto would see it as a valid excuse and forgive him twenty five minutes.

"…And so as soon as we ended the call I jumped straight in my car and drove here – but could I find a decent parking space nearby – no? So I ended up having to leave it parked on some random street about ten minutes away, which is why I ran over here in such a rush because I knew I was late already and…" He trailed off, catching his breath properly now, smiling away.

"Well that sure is one hell of an excuse" Ianto smiled, he couldn't help but do anything else in the presence of the man opposite him, so enthused and animated.

"So you aren't mad at me?" Jack wanted to clarify, smile fading for just a minute.

"Of course not! Tosh had warned me of your time keeping skills… But I must admit, I am pleasantly surprised that the multi-talented up and coming face of Burberry even decided to arrive at all, after all what would such a high flying individual want with a boring old librarian?" Ianto winked.

"Well from where I'm sat, the librarian isn't so boring… and he really doesn't want to know the things that I want from him" Jack winked back sending a wave of heat across Ianto's cheeks.

He coughed a little, "so, has your apartment recovered from the party?" Ianto asked.

"Just about, though I keep finding bananas in strange places… like in one of my shoes, in the microwave, behind the sofa…" He grinned. "I reckon Owen went on a mad drunken banana spree, trying to wind me up probably, but not understanding that I'm actually finding it quite amusing" The American broke out into a laugh.

Ianto found himself laughing too, for some reason he just couldn't help but reciprocate the gesture of the handsome man before him. Handsome? Ianto questioned himself silently, did I really just think handsome? He shook the thought away to reply:

"Well from what Tosh had told me, that definitely sounds like Owen"

"Ah yes of course, those two are pretty cosy aren't they?" He smiled and Ianto smiled back "And how is the lovely Toshiko of course? Bearing up ok? I know she usually takes the morning after pretty hard…"

"She's been better" The Welshman laughed "Headache and nausea as usual, but she perked up a bit after a coffee" He finished and by coincidence Beth had brought the two men's coffees over to their table at that precise moment, Ianto's in his red striped favourite, and Jack in a blue version. Both men nodded appreciatively and thanked the sweet woman.

"Bless her; she's always been like that hasn't she?"

"Indeed… so I was wondering, how exactly did you meet Tosh again? My memory from last night and all I can remember is you saying something about a stolen sword, a bottle of tequila and you running naked through the streets of Splott!"

"Ah, well that's all I did tell you… and that's all you're getting for now, at least until we know each other a bit better and you have already formed your own terrible opinion of me as people always do" He grinned.

"I think it would be quite hard to form a bad opinion of you" Ianto mused.

The man opposite irked an eyebrow up inquisitively.

"Did I say that out loud?" The Welshman asked his face well and truly flooded with embarrassment.

"Yup" He grinned. "And believe me, it is very easy to quickly gain a bad opinion of me, I have a very extensive reputation I'll have you know"

"I'm sure you do!"

The pair smiled at each other briefly before each taking generous mouthfuls of their coffees, and continuing to talk for the next half an hour or so about whatever random topics popped up into conversation, neither of them quite sure where to progress with anything beyond light hearted, trivial chit chat.

"So…" Jack began a good while later.

"So?" Ianto questioned, not wanting to make the first move.

"Why are we here today the Jones, Ianto Jones?"

Ianto fiddled nervously with the handle on his mug, completely unsure of what to say in response because in truth he had absolutely no idea why he was there. As far as he had been concerned he was a straight man, always had been always would be, but now there was Jack and… no he surely wasn't attracted to him, was he? I mean, yes he was good looking…very good looking… and funny and charming… but you were allowed to notice things like that without it meaning anything right? Just because he had noticed this, just because talking with Jack filled his stomach with a thousand gently fluttering butterflies and just because he had even let this man kiss him… didn't mean a thing, did it?

Jack, sensing that he wasn't going to get an answer from the man opposite him any time soon, continued: "I mean don't get me wrong, I'm having a wonderful time – hot Welshman, great coffee, someone to retell my Burberry story to… it's great. But what is this, is it a date? Is it just a meeting?..."

"I'm not sure" Ianto said in a small voice, smiling a little nervously.

"I don't want you to feel awkward or uncomfortable about what happened, I mean Tosh told me that she thought you were straight, but I thought maybe if I took a risk then… I hope I haven't scared you at all?" Jack said, praying that Ianto would disagree.

The American was used to attracting a fair amount of attention and stringing along a polygamous chain of one night stands and occasional lovers and that lifestyle had suited him for the most part. In the past few years as he had been getting a little older he'd carried on being as flirtatious as ever, but that was where it ended usually, he was looking for something more now… but he just didn't know where to find it. Obviously it was ridiculous for him to think that Ianto might be just the one to settle down with, they'd only met briefly and under somewhat less than sober conditions, however there was definitely something about Ianto Jones…

"No, no you didn't" Ianto replied, seeming a little uncertain but with that small smile still fixed in place. Jack took this as reassurance. "But I need to be honest about something, I don't like men… like that" Ianto finished, suddenly embarrassed once again.

Jack's reassurance was shattered and the young Welshman observed his noticeable change of expression and so hurriedly went back to trace over his own footsteps "Well, what I mean is… I don't think I do, but I think I, I mean there's you and there's just something about… well you." Ianto mumbled. "I'm straight, but as soon as I remembered what happened last night I knew that I wanted to come and see you today, needed to come and see you, what does that mean?"

"It doesn't have to mean anything…" Jack suggested, still a little disheartened, but at least comforted a little by the fact that even if Ianto was 'straight' that he seemed to have some interest in him, even if it was merely friendly… besides, if I can get a few cocktails in him again… the thought flashed wickedly through the American's mind.

"How so?"

"Well, we could just forget about the whole thing if that's what you'd prefer" Jack said, biting his lip after he had, hoping that the next words uttered from the Welshman's perfect mouth wouldn't be 'yes please'.

"No, no I don't want that it's just… I don't know what I want. This all feels very strange, I mean I don't even know what it is I am feeling… if I'm feeling anything or… and we barely know each other and…"

"And?"

"Well, could we perhaps just try getting to know each other a bit better, you know being friends?" Ianto asked timidly, not convinced that this was the best course of action to take, but it was either this; runaway and never look back at that man; or reach out across the coffee table and kiss him until he couldn't think about any of this anymore. This seemed by far the least hasty action and the one least likely to cause a sense of regret, and after all, other than the few things he had learnt over this weekend, Jack was a complete stranger… albeit a rather handsome and easy to be with stranger… Focus Ianto…

"If you like" Jack smiled back. To him it was a bitter sweet result. He'd know it was unlikely that Mr Jones was interested in men but still he had been hoping that he had been wrong, or that he could have changed his mind… He supposed that he had been a little foolish to think so, but at least he hadn't received an outright no. And if they were to get to know each other better, who knew what might happen? And, even if nothing did, he'd still get to spend a large amount of time with the beautiful blue eyed Welshman, and hopefully he would always wear jeans that snug in his company.

"Right. To friendship then?" Ianto shrugged a little, raising his near finished mug of coffee in proposition of a toast.

Jack raised his own mug and met Ianto's, waiting until the Welshman had taken a sip before he spoke. "To bromance" Jack winked, causing Ianto to splutter a little on his drink… this was going to be fun Jack mused.