A/N: Evening all! Here's the latest chapter, we're off school for the Easter holidays at the minute so I might be updating this a little more regularly, though I am currently trying to finish off one of my other stories... so it's a bit swings and roundabouts... I hope you'll bear with me! I hope you all like this one! Hannah xxx
The American smiled as he sent his last message to the Welshman just across town, smiling both because Ianto had now put the extremely pleasant image of a perfectly pale skinned, dark haired, crystal blue eyed Welshman, soaking sensuously in a warm bath tub full of soapy water and because, essentially, things were ok. If he was being honest, he had felt just a little upset – a little rejected and hurt even – at Ianto's prim and conservative behaviour out on their impromptu lunch date earlier, but now taking the time to think about it away from the current man of his affection he could see the situation from the other man's perspective. When Jack had tried to hold his hand as they'd walked their way around the large park, or when he had tried to kiss him goodbye, he was only thinking about his growing affection for the Welshman that he was attempting to convey, not what publicly displaying such affection would mean to him. For Ianto all of this, 'being' with another man was brand new, a previously unknown to himself and a currently unknown situation to many of his friends, and though he had shown no signs of regret for their actions, or loss of interest in Jack, and though he was steadily embracing the new concepts their relationship entailed – for now he just needed things to follow through at a comfortably steady pace.
Satisfied now that the two men had a greater understanding of where they each stood, Jack rolled up the ridiculous, purple dinosaur boxer shorts and placed them back into his underwear drawer before double checking his hair style and general appearance in the mirror. There was only about five minutes or so before he needed to leave the house in order to be on time for his meeting with John Smith, and the American was determined to use these minutes wisely. It had been a good six months since the men had met and Jack was determined to prove, however falsely, to his friend that he had learned at last to keep better track of time, but he refused to allow his usually impeccable appearance to suffer for the sake of promptness. He flashed one last trademark, 80 megawatt, Harkness grin to his reflection in the mirror, double checking the pristine whiteness of his freshly cleaned teeth, before shrugging into his full length military coat (that was probably far too warm for this time of year) before setting off out for the evening.
Jack was bang on time as he flung open the door of Chiquito's with a flourish, as he always did, immediately gaining him the attention of most sets of eyes in the room including, most importantly, those of John Smith who was stood leaning against the bar, an unusual glass full to the brim of brightly coloured cocktail and glancing down towards his wristwatch, incredulously raising a single eyebrow. He was a tall man, slightly taller than Jack though Jack in turn always automatically stood up straighter in his presence to account for the difference, with dark brown hair and emphasised sideburns with matching dark ancient eyes framed with square black glasses. As per usual he was dressed in a way that might have seemed completely ordinary – a navy pinstriped suit and grey shirt – if it wasn't for his own quirky additions of converse trainers, crazily patterned socks and what looked like an electronic screwdriver tucked into his pocket which was probably a modern art inspired brooch worth a fortune, but looked like mere rubbish to the average eye.
Jack smiled, his photographer friend seemed not to have changed in the slightest since they had last parted – still just as time efficient as ever, still just as eccentric as ever and still just as uncaring of public opinion as ever, or so his accessories would suggest. For a second he stood in the doorway contemplating how lovely it would be to do this, dine out in a nice restaurant and stay for drinks afterwards, passing the time away carelessly, with a certain Welshman… after all, he and John were simply two male friends out for a meal, and that was perfectly fine or at least John thought it was… then again, the eccentric, artistic fellow never had been one for following typical social conventions and as he knew no one in the local area, if anyone in the restaurant formed an opinion of what they thought was going on, then their opinions would be completely irrelevant. Suddenly the thought sparked up an ingenious idea in the American's mind – he should take Ianto out on a date in a town or city somewhere where he they wouldn't come across anyone they knew.
The thought was quickly stored away in his mind for later contemplation as John began to speak.
"You're on time!" He exclaimed as the American approached the bar with a large smile on his lips. "Well… near enough on time, very almost on time… but not half an hour late like last time at least!" He finished, taking his glance away from his watch now. "Captain how marvellous to be seeing you again" He grinned in return by way of a greeting, and enveloped the American into a hug.
"And you too John, it's been far too long… we always leave it too long! And I have to ask, what on Earth is in that drink?" He replied back as the pair of them let go of one another.
"Indeed, yes, we do! I'm not really sure if I'm honest with you, I just sort of got the barman to throw whatever he liked together, but it's quite delicious though! And how many times do I have to ask you to call me the Doctor?"
Jack laughed whole heartedly "At least once more, as always – I never did understand that nickname you've tried to create for yourself"
John rolled his eyes, "Because it's a heck of a lot more interesting than John! Besides, I call you Captain"
"Yes, but that's because of the coat" Jack said, dancing a little twirl and allowing the coat to flare out at the sides.
"Well if I was a doctor, then I'd still wear this suit so following your logic you really should just call me what I ask" John pointed out, unwilling to let go.
"Fine, fine, whatever you wish Doctor – just you promise me that you won't start practising medicine 'cause you might be one hell of a creative genius with all of that photography equipment, but I wouldn't like to see you pick up a scalpel" He laughed.
"Nah, I tried med school… never really took to it, far too much to learn, us creative types are better off leaving well alone" The Doctorjoined in with Jack's laughter as the two of them were ushered to their table.
"So what have you been up to workwise?" Jack asked as their food was delivered.
The Doctor shrugged, "This and that, not done anything commercial in a good while, I mostly just capture anything weird or wonderful that I come across that I hope I'll be able to sell to art galleries. Sometimes I feel like just Jacking it all in, pardon the pun, and running off travelling like I did in my youth! How about you? Shot anything interesting recently?"
Jack smiled "You never were one to settle were you? Well… to tell you the truth Doctor I haven't really had the opportunity to do much photography of my own, I've been kinda busy… modelling again"
"Really? Wow! I mean, well, it's not surprising in the sense that you still look so good for your age, but, I though you said you'd never go back to it again?"
Jack shrugged, "That's what I said, but then Burberry rang…"
"Burberry? Well blow me!"
"No thank you, at least not in a public bar" Jack grinned.
"Oh Captain Harkness you are as terrible as ever!" The Doctor grinned back, "But really though, Burberry?"
"Yeah, it's kinda crazy to be honest… The creative director rang my old modelling agent Alex and requested me to be the new face for their summer season and I just couldn't say no"
"I don't blame you!"
"It's been so exciting getting back into it all, not to mention the fact that I've been able to work again with many of my old friends and have been lucky enough to model alongside Karen Gillan would you believe!"
The Doctor's mouth gaped open, "Blimey! What's she like in person?"
"She's very… Scottish" Both men laughed, "She's wonderful: gorgeous and ginger, intelligent and witty and hilariously ditzy – what more could you want from a co-worker?"
"Certainly nothing I would want…. I'm pretty certain that there are a couple more things which you might want in a co-worker though…" The Doctor said wiggling his eyebrows (and in turn his glasses) with suggestion, causing a wide grin to appear on Jack's face.
"Aha you know me too well, but for once I thought I'd keep things professional, and I really don't think I'm her type anyway – besides I'm not strictly speaking available" Jack winked.
"Never! The might Captain is in a relationship? What is the world coming to?"
Jack laughed, "I don't know Doc"
"Who is the unfortunate girl man or extra-terrestrial then?"
The American opposite him simply tapped his nose secretively.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and grinned "I'll have it out of you by the time the evening is up. But, providing that it definitely isn't Miss Gillan of course, is there any chance of her number…?"
After enjoying a fine meal of spicy, Mexican cuisine, accompanied by various other cocktails containing goodness knows what and a light flow of rather mellow (mellow for the two usually outrageous men at least) conversation the pair of them made their way back over to the bar to continue with their evening.
"It's finally happened" The Doctor exclaimed, maniacally running his hands through his hair as a young female bartender had handed both he and Jack a large scotch. "I'm boring"
Jack laughed at the preposterousness of the statement "What?"
"I'm boring, we're boring! We're sat here in a restaurant making relatively normal conversation just like all the other ordinary people! I'm just in the city on business not on some mad adventure, you're in a committed relationship, and neither of us has done anything illegal in far too long a time! We're dull!"
Jack laughed again, "I can't speak for myself, but I know for certain that you will never be boring!"
"I beg to differ… perhaps neither of us will ever be completely 'normal' in the conventional sense, but whatever happened to the 'us' who would be in three different cities in one evening? Or who would busk on the streets singing cheesy eighties pop? Or who would run through the centre of town naked?"
"Just because we've become a little tamer since we met two years ago, doesn't make us boring! You're a well-respected photographer now, and I'm working with Burberry – we've both made it big time! As I recall, it was just me that was naked…"Jack joked.
The Doctor smiled, remembering the calamity of the night of the stolen sword, before he answered "But you see my point don't you? Things have changed – I think we might finally be growing up!"
"Heaven help us" Jack grinned back.
Suddenly there was a startlingly loud bleeping noise accompanied by a bar top shaking vibration from Jack's mobile.
"My goodness! Could you have that thing any louder?"
"Sorry, I'm partially deaf" The American replied smiling as he read through the text: it was from Ianto.
Hope I'm not interrupting you're evening! Just wanted to let you know that if you were serious about Thursday (no pressure!) then you're welcome to come over to mine for dinner – Tosh has said that she's happy to stay over at Owen's for the night, provided that you don't attempt to have you're wicked way with me… Ianto x
He replied quickly:
You're not interrupting anything, don't worry! And that sounds lovely – though I'm not sure I can make any promises… Jack x
"Judging by the soppy smile on your face, I take it that that was from the mystery lover?" The Doctor smiled back at him.
"It might have been…" Jack replied, unable to hide the growing grin.
"So… what did he/she/it have to say?"
"He was just asking me about a date we'd loosely arranged for Thursday"
"Ah, and does he have a name…?"
"Indeed he does and a very nice one too, very Welsh…" Jack replied, his smiled widening even more.
"So he's Welsh then is he? I've always preferred the Scottish accent myself" The Doctor replied, still smiling, slipping into an almost perfect imitation of a Scottish accent by the end.
"No, no, Welsh is best –trust me" The American replied, wiggling his eyebrows.
"If you say so… what is this wonderful Welshman's name then?"
"Ianto, Ianto Jones" Jack announces, and as if on cue, said Welshman had said another text to the American:
Excellent, I'll have to think of something as good as your lasagne to make! To be honest, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind it if you tried to have your 'wicked way with me anyway' Ianto x
Jack replied, laughing to himself:
Oh you are going to regret saying that… Jack x
"What's he like?" The doctor piped up, bringing the other man's attention away from his phone.
"He's intelligent, witty – sarcastic as hell when he wants to be, charming in a strangely old fashioned way, he gets embarrassed quite easily but is perfectly capable of being just as flirtatious as I when he wants to be, he's tall dark and handsome, a lot more handsome than he thinks, and… yeah… he's lots of things!" Jack laughed.
"He sounds…"
"Perfect?"
"Exactly" The Doctor beamed back at him. "What are you planning for Friday then?"
"I think I'm going to go over to his place, and he's going to cook us dinner. I'd like to be able to take him out to dinner at a restaurant, like this, but that's perhaps the only imperfect thing about the whole situation… up until we met a couple of months ago he was defiantly straight, and though he's perfectly comfortable with the two of us – I hope at least – he hasn't told any of his family, or very many of his friends, so everything's kind of on the down low."
"I see… that must make things a little difficult"
"Too right! It's been years and years since I last had to sneak around about anything like this, and I can tell you I haven't missed it, but it's worth it" Jack grinned.
"Good" The Doctor grinned back "Now then, what do you say to some karaoke?"
"Always" Jack replied.
After that week, time began to move very quickly for both men, and before they truly knew it a further whole month of happy, intimate, 'new-relationship' bliss had passed by.
Their date on the Thursday following Jack and the Doctor's own 'date' had been only the first in a long line of similar meetings between the Welshman and the America. That particular Thursday had gone exactly as planned, with the two men eager to meet each other again after the previous few days of separation. Ianto had asked Jack if he and John had got up to anything wild or risqué, but was in turn as surprised as John himself to learn that their reunion had been a fairly tame one. The Welshman was also surprised to learn that Jack had been speaking of him to John, and, after frantically asking him precisely what had been had blushed rather a lot when Jack recounted the glowing description that he'd provided his old friend with.
Jack began to consider whether or not he oughtn't to have added 'excellent cook' to his songs of praises for Ianto, as the pair of them eagerly tucked into a delicious offering of Thai green chicken and soya bean curry with rice and naan bread breads followed up with a rich New York cheese cake for dessert, which had satisfied Jack's sweet tooth greatly. Jack had been allowed to select the wine once again, as the Welshman realised that Jack's judgement would easily out do his own, and, as predicted the fragrant bouquet was just right in terms of complementing the meal and in terms of causing both men to relax and loosen up.
Regardless of the playful, teasing text messages that had been shared between the two men, and regardless of the fact that Toshiko had made good of her word and gone to spend the evening over at Owen's Jack behaved as the perfect gentleman and had left at the reasonable (ish) hour of midnight, without having his wicked way with the Welshman.
In the past month, although Jack's schedule with Burberry had been pretty tight what with the final shoots nearing their close, they had tried to spend as much time with each other: at each other's homes, in the cinema, in the park, various music gigs – pretty much anywhere where it was conceivably possible for two straight male friends to be together. Not that that was even as much as an issue anymore as, as the pair of them had grown a lot closer – inseparable to an extent even – during this time, Ianto had started to mind less and less about little displays of public affection, and had even been the one to instigate a brief session of hand holding on a couple of occasions. He still wasn't entirely ready to 'come out' as it were to his Mam or his sister, though he had managed to rally up the courage to tell his work colleagues who, much to his pleasant surprise, hadn't minded in the slightest and were simply happy that he was happy which had to relax him about the whole issue.
It was now a Saturday afternoon in mid-April and Ianto was feeling a little unsure of what to do with himself. For once he had a Saturday off, and had been fully intending to make as much use of it as possible, but when the time came he found that he was strangely lacking in energy and hadn't the energy to complete any of the errands on his list. Of course it wasn't helped by the fact that Tosh also had the day off, and the pair had spent the morning lounging around in their pyjamas and watching children's cartoons on the television… it had been a thoroughly enjoyable waste of time, but now Tosh had gone out to meet Owen and the Welshman had found himself left alone in an empty flat, with nothing to do and no effort to do anything with anyway, even if he found an occupation. The Welshman had thought about contacting Jack, just for a chat more than anything else, in order to try and counter act his boredom, but he knew that today was his last day modelling for Burberry, for now at least, and that he was likely to be incredibly busy. So instead, he simply sighed and opened up today's paper.
After half an hour or so, just as he was contemplating making his fourth cup of coffee for the day, Ianto's phone began to ring, cutting through the silence swamping the room, and providing him with an excuse to stay sat on the sofa for a little longer. He grinned with disbelief as he noticed the caller's ID; yet had been hoping to speak to.
"Phone tag, you're it" The Welshman announced cheerily as he happily picked up the unexpected call.
"And hello to you too!" Jack laughed down the phone. "And how are you today gorgeous"
Ianto felt a blush creeping into his cheeks slightly, "I'm… umm… yeah I'm goof. You? How come you aren't busy getting paid to wear nice clothes, flirt with Karen Gillan and get shouted at by directors?" The Welshman asked jokily.
"Believe it or not, I've been allowed a break! And I couldn't think of a better way to spend it than chatting to you… well… talking to you in person would be better… and doing other things in person would be a hell of a lot better…" Jack replied, voice thick with suggestion.
"Hmm… anyway… moving swiftly onwards" Ianto joked back.
"Of course, of course! Actually, I was mainly ringing to ask you something – are you free in a fortnight's time?"
"Potentially, I'm supposed to work Saturday but I have a little holiday left I think, or I might be able to swap shifts if you've got a plan?"
"Well, it's nothing, I mean, don't worry if you can't… but I was wondering… if you would like to go to London with me for the weekend, to see a show and grab dinner and do some site seeing or whatever? I thought it'd be nice to spend a whole weekend together, and it's been ages since I went to London… and, now this is the best part… we could be as openly, publicly 'gay' as we liked as no one you know lives in London"
Ianto smiled, it would make a nice change not to have to worry, "That sounds great, it really would be nice to not have to consciously think about whether I should or shouldn't hold your hand, or let you kiss me, or I kiss you…"
"Exactly"
"And… when you say weekend…?"
"The whole weekend. I was thinking we could make reservations in a nice hotel for two nights, catch the train down Friday and leave early ish on Sunday morning so that you'd still make it back in time for your children's reading group –if you want to that is…" Jack said somewhat uncharacteristically nervously.
"Yes, yes… I, I would like that" Ianto replied back just as nervously, biting his lip a little, knowing exactly what this weekend would entail, and suddenly finding himself torn between his curiosity, his lust and his nerves.
"Great" Jack replied, letting out the breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding, "And for now are we still set for Wednesday?"
"Absolutely, I never like to miss out on the rugby!" The Welshman replied with nervous/excitable butterflies still roaming in his stomach, he wasn't one hundred percent certain that he'd made the right decision, but – as he reminded himself after Jack had hung up the phone a few minutes later – he had two whole weeks to mentally prepare himself for their weekend away.