A/N: Hello! Thank you to all who have reviewed and or read so far - thanks to all of you beautiful, wonderful crazy people who are actually readin this I recieved my largest number of hits ever! Hope you all like this chapter just as much, there might be another one coming tomorrow as well providing that i am not shattered after work! Hannah xxx
At around one o'clock, the party gradually depleted and the evening wound down to a close. Toshiko's guests were departing in dribs and drabs with Owen and Jack being the last of them to leave for a variety of reasons: 1) as Gwen and Martha had drank rather a little too much rosé to remain socially interactive for much longer, and as such their male counter parts were quick to offer to share taxis home and 2) as Jack and Owen were rather taken with their hosting companions. Owen's late exit could have been easily predicted; not only was this a joint social event held between Tosh and he, over the past month he had quickly become infatuated with Miss Sato – besotted even – and so it was no surprise that he was near enough the 'last man standing'. But Jack's delayed departure was not guaranteed at the beginning of the evening, as it was only the events that had occurred in the last hour and a half or so that had made the American reluctant to leave, and Ianto just as reluctant to see him go.
Although the thoughts had been stewing around in his mind, rather unwanted at times, tonight Ianto had decided to act upon impulse and confess his inexplicable yet inherent attraction to the other man. The Welshman was by no means a reckless person, he wasn't rash or irresponsible and he rarely made a choice unless he had thought over the decision for a good while and as such was entirely certain that he was doing the right thing. He'd realised a lot sooner than he was willing to admit that for whatever unexplainable reason, he was attracted to Jack, and the month since their last meeting had given him the time to realise that although deciding to follow through on his attraction to another man didn't initially seem like the right choice, not following up on them would certainly be the wrong choice. And so for once in his life, that night the Welshman had decided to just 'roll with it', to go with a decision that he wasn't one hundred percent sure about and see how things went, and the experiment had proved a success.
"I'm sorry, but I really think I'm going to have to go" Jack grumbled through kiss-swollen lips as he squinted with tired eyes at the time on his watch face.
Ianto half pouted at this inevitable revelation, wishing that he had just had more bottle earlier on in the evening to have spoken (and more) with Jack like this, rather than needing the encouragement of a silly childish game. "Really?"
Jack chuckled, partly because things seemed to be heading in exactly the direction that he had hoped for, but mostly because it was indecent for one man to look that gorgeous when sulking. "Really, really I'm afraid – dark, baggy eyes don't sell clothing I'm afraid and my PA Donna will get really pissed if I turn up tired on Monday and need her to talk me through everything in baby steps"
He probably could still sell clothing even with bags under his eyes… Ianto mused and the notion of protesting entered his mind briefly but, ever the gentlemen, he decided that it was only fair to let Jack get a proper night's sleep at home rather than keeping him up all night with his chitter chatter so he replied instead with: "Of course" and an honest smile.
"I'll say goodnight then, but don't worry, I'll be back soon!" The American grinned before stealing away one last breath taking kiss from the perfect lips before him.
"Night then" Ianto whispered, slightly short of breath, against Jack's lips and the older man retreated out of the front door with a parting mega-watt grin and a wink.
The Welshman was in somewhat of a daze during the next five minutes and near enough missed Owen's departure, but it wasn't hard to guess at what had happened: he and Tosh would have stood there playing 'one last kiss' for a good few minutes until eventually one of them put on the sensible hat and bid the other adieu – it had probably been Tosh tonight, she's the one who'll (with Ianto's assistance of course) need to clear up the remnants of the party tomorrow morning. It was only when the door slammed shut behind the doctor that the Welshman's thoughts were snapped away from their merry reflections upon the evening and back to reality in the now empty, aside for used cups and bowls and Tosh of course, living room.
Tosh smiled at the sight of her half stunned best friend: "Someone's happy then I take it?" She asked, grin widening.
"Maybe…" He replied, a small smile breaking through the corners of his 'trying to remain serious' mouth.
"Good, good. I'm glad my party turned out to be such a success…"
Ianto's eyes widened for just a second, returning to normal in a flash so quickly that the gesture could quite easily have been missed, and then quirked an eyebrow upwards questioningly. "This wasn't why you organised tonight was it Tosh?"
"No of course not! It's not all about you Ianto!" she mocked chastised, "but… it may have been one of the reasons" She grinned and Ianto grinned back.
"Well, I'm glad that you did."
"Excellent. Oh and, you owe me twenty quid by the way!"
"Pardon!" Ianto threw back incredulously.
"You – as in you, Ianto Jones of Cardiff – owe me – as in need to give to me, Toshiko Sato – twenty quid – as in twenty English pounds… or twenty three euros and 89 cents… or thirty one dollars and thirty five cents… I'm really not all that fussy!" She replied back, squinting a little as she converted the currencies in her head.
"Alright! No need to get sarcastic! What exactly do I owe you the twenty pounds for is what I intended to ask, Miss Precise?"
"Do you remember back in our first year of Uni…?"
Tosh had begun, only to be cut off by her companion, "Let me stop you there Tosh, aside from parts of the actual degree itself, I don't remember a great deal from first year…"
She laughed "Ah yes, Ianto Jones back in the days as a rebellious youth, it's funny to think that you've turned out so well, I used to worry what might become of you" She winked and Ianto smiled, remembering his not so sensible first year. "But there was one night, after we went to go and see that utterly bizarre fashion show in Greenwich with your sister; you know the one with that Zebra skin and the antlers?"
"Oh yeah…" That had been a very odd experience indeed Ianto recalled, the pair of them had travelled down to London for the day along with Rhiannon… it was something that the students of the UCA were putting on and though he admitted that perhaps cutting edge fashion wasn't his strong point, it had been a downright weird collection.
"Well, do you remember who we saw there?"
Ianto tried to tap into the memory, and managed to unlock the image of a young girl – red hair, slender of course, fairly rounded face… "Of course, Lily Cole, before anyone had heard of her!"
"Precisely and do you remember a certain little wager that we made?"
"No, I'm sorry, you've lost me now Tosh. What was it?"
"Ah… well… do you remember telling me how hot you thought she was?"
"Sort of…"
"Do you remember saying about how you would never stand a chance with someone like her?"
"Yes…"
"And, do you remember saying – after me reassuring you that were definitely not 'out of her league' as you had put it and that that you never know what might happen – that if you ever found yourself dating a model you would give me twenty quid. So… pay up!" She half squealed triumphantly through her widening smile.
The Welshman groaned, suddenly recalling the entire exchange. "Oh come on! This hardly counts!" He protested.
"Why? Because he's a man? He's still a model… and a blood good looking one if you don't mind my saying!" Tosh counter argued.
"No! It's not because he's a man, it's because you practically engineered this whole thing! You took me to that party of his, you gave me his number and you invited him here tonight! You can't win a bet if you forced the bet to come true…"
"That's as may be" Tosh smiled, noticing that Ianto hadn't picked up on the minor slip he had just made, that he had inadvertently answered the question Tosh was unsure of asking. "But, you're dating now then are you? I mean, you didn't deny it…."
Ianto blushed, realising that he hadn't even noticed what Tosh had been implying… it must be the wine her mused. "I, I didn't say that… I mean well, he sort of asked me on a date… but it was nothing definite… and one date doesn't mean we're dating…"
Tosh squealed slightly, "He asked you out on a date? How exciting!" The matter of the twenty pound bet had now been forgotten.
"Well, I said sort of…" He replied, not being able to help smiling back. "Oh god, what have I got myself into, a date with Jack Harkness" He laughed, but thought privately to himself that he really was quite excited, as well as nervous, to see exactly what a date with a man like him would entail – or a man for that matter.
"Rather you than me!" She joked.
"How long do you think I should wait to call him… if he doesn't call me I mean… should I call him at all? Oh I am so rubbish with the' rules' of dating…"
"Well, I don't think there are any 'rules' when it comes by Jack… he certainly never follows any! If I were you I'd just wait and see if, when, he calls you and then go from there"
"Yeah…" The Welshman agreed, thinking to himself that if he hadn't heard anything in five days' time he might drop Jack a quick text…
"Anyway, I'm going to head off to Bedfordshire now I think – I'm absolutely shattered! The living room will just have to get sorted out tomorrow! Night Ianto." Tosh said, giving her roommate a quick hug before she retreated off to her room.
The Welshman shortly followed suit and headed off to his own room to engage in his first peaceful night's sleep in about a month. His night would no longer be plagued with endless tossing and turning, and hundreds of confusing thoughts racing around his mind, trying to force decisions to be made… tonight the young man slept with only one thought in mind.
Tosh and Ianto set to work the following morning, attempting to restore their living room back to its regular, pristine state after the previous evening's merriments which had the beneficial knock on effect of taking Ianto's mind off Jack and whether he would hear from him soon… for a short while at least. By lunch time, the Welshman was feeling a little on edge and with today being a Sunday, he didn't even have work to distract him from his thoughts. Tosh had tried to get him to go for a run in Bute Park with her as a distraction, and as much as Ianto knew that a run probably would indeed take his mind away from Jack for a little while, he remembered that when the pair of them had met in that quirky little café, that Jack had told him he often went running in Bute, and thus decided to give it a miss. He picked up his well-thumbed copy of Brighton Rock that he was re-reading for the umpteenth time, but couldn't settle into the story at all. Sighing to himself, he wondered if he should just resign himself now to needing his emergency 'security' plan of texting Jack after the five day period…
But, as it turned out, Ianto did not have to use his five day security text; in fact he didn't even have to wait a whole twenty four hours until he heard again from the American as Jack called up his mobile mid Sunday afternoon.
"Ianto Jones, hello" He answered his ringing phone without bothering to check the caller ID.
"You know you really shouldn't answer your phone like that… you have no idea what it does to the person on the other end of the line" The familiar American voice replied through a laugh.
Despite knowing that the other man couldn't see his response, the younger man still felt his cheeks heating up a little at his words. "Oh…umm sorry… Hi Jack!" he stumbled through, mentally cursed himself for sounding too enthusiastic.
Jack laughed again, "Hey don't be sorry! I'm reeeaallly not complaining!"
Ianto managed a slightly nervous laugh in reply, "So, how are you, did you get home alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm great thank you I sort of hooked up last night" Ianto could hear the grin in his voice and he reciprocated, "And I got home fine cheers. How are you?"
"I'm good; now that you mention it I think I might have 'hooked up' with someone last night too…"
"Oh really? I bet he's dashingly handsome and funny and smart…"
"Yeah… but he's got a bit of an ego problem" The Welshman laughed.
"I do not!" Jack replied, joining in with the laughter. "Anyway, I was calling to see if you were free on Friday night?"
Ianto bit his lip slightly with excitement "Well that depends…"
"On what?"
"Whether the reason behind why you're asking me is better than the evening bleeding the radiators that I have planned…"
"Well, I can't promise that, but I was hoping we might make good on that date?"
"Yeah, sure, I'd love to" Ianto replied, seriously now.
"Great… I thought maybe you'd like to come over to mine and I could cook for us? I can't promise that either the food or the company will be very good, but I've got an eye for a good wine and an extensive DVD collection"
"That's sounds lovely" Ianto replied. He was surprised by Jack's suggestion, he hadn't deemed the American as the 'stay in at home' type, but he was also slightly glad that their first date wouldn't be out in public as, although he was quickly – more quickly than he thought! - coming to terms with the concept of a date with a man, well with Jack anyway, he was worried about running in to anyone he knew from work or Uni or his sister… Perhaps that was one of the reasons why Jack had chosen a more private setting? After all, it would come as a bit of a surprise to any one of his friends who had only ever known him to be 'straight', and he wasn't certain that he was ready to explain something to others that he couldn't even fully explain to himself.
"Perfect, If you come over about half seven eight? Tosh'll give you my address, and I promise to try and not be running late!"
"You really shouldn't make promises you can't keep you know!"
"Oh shut up you before I change my mind!" Jack laughed. "See you Friday!"
"Yeah, see you then, bye!" Ianto said as they disconnected the call.
Friday came about surprisingly quickly in the end, both men had been worried at the beginning of the week as to how they would last the duration of the wait before they saw their counterpart again, but it turned out that distractions (a lot of photo shoots in Jack's case and a second hand book sale to organise at the library in Ianto's) had been plenty. It was now quarter to seven on Friday evening and Ianto found himself once again stood clad only in his underwear staring at his uninspiring wardrobe with a critical eye, just as he had done this time a little over a month ago before his last visit to Jack's flat.
"Tosh!" He called out; opening up his bedroom door to find her sat rapidly typing something on her laptop at the living room table.
Tosh rolled her eyes, having expected Ianto to summon her any minute now for clothing advice. "Coming Ianto!" She replied and headed on in to his bedroom ready and willing to offer her assistance.
After re-iterating her original comment on what Ianto should wear to Jack's apartment on his first trip (that the boxers he was stood in would surely suffice) the two of them eventually pulled together a 'suitable' outfit. Ianto was now dressed in a plain, V-neck, burgundy long sleeve t-shirt, chunky navy cardigan and skinny leg grey jeans which the Welshman had feared were too tight, but Tosh deemed absolutely perfect for an occasion like this. He had just enough time to shave, again, apply a little after shave, double check that his hair was neatly styled in place and clean his teeth for the millionth time that day before a text alert came through to his mobile, letting him know that his taxi was waiting. In the end he'd gone for a half past seven taxi, knowing that it would take twenty minutes to get to Jack's address, and figuring that the American should be sort of almost ready by the time he arrived.
Ianto rasped on the wooden door nervously, surprised to find that it was opened almost immediately by a very calm, prepared and ready looking Jack.
"Ah Ianto, you dropped something" He said, by way of a greeting.
Ianto looked puzzled in response: he hadn't dropped anything. He had a sly glance either side of him to double check and found nothing, which only further heightened his confusion and caused his brow to knit together slightly for a minute, the frown only releasing to allow a questioning eyebrow to be raised.
Jack smiled and replied "My jaw" with a wink. Although it had been a cheesy line to dispel any lingering worries in the younger man's mind, Jack really had meant the complement – in his opinion tonight Ianto looked, as always, stunning as hell.
Ianto sighed, smiling incredulously. "Did you really just say that?" He asked.
"Really, really" Jack grinned.
Ianto laughed; a date with Jack Harkness – this is going to be fun.