A/N I'm alive! And I come bearing gifts. See, there is a revelation in this chapter and the next one... there are so many in it that it isn't even funny. By the way, it really is difficult to write this. I have the feeling that I write two stories at once and even if that wasn't hard enough I have to consider their past future and their future future and... ugh! Oh, well, ignore my babbling and just enjoy.

First Fight Is Always The Worst

"Cut this crap."

Jack cornered him 3 days after the date he hadn't known was a date. The immortal was flushed, his nostrils flaring and eyes hard. Ianto had never heard him curse before and he jerked involuntarily.

"What do you mean, sir?"

He kept the act of the good old butler just like he had in the past few days. He would have never let his feeling interfere with his job. It's all he had. This and his memories.

"Look, if I knew you would act like a bloody virgin I wouldn't have done it," Jack snapped, while the Welshman just shook his head. He didn't want to hear it so he adjusted the coffee tray and tried to push the other man's body. Inwardly, he was thankful that it was too early for someone to walk in and see the immortal so close to him that they were breathing each other's breath. He managed to put some distance between them with the gawking suspicion that it was only because Jack had let him. "I wanted just a little bit of fun. I'm not searching for a relationship and I'm sorry that I thought you were the same."

Ianto almost laughed. Moments like these showed him how different this Jack and his own were. To apologize like that? His Jack would have never even consider it. He knew he shouldn't have expected roses or soft kisses and whispers of love. A true apology, Captain Jack Harkness style. And he also knew he had to accept it, nod his head like the obedient little servant everyone thought him to be and leave, just leave.

"I'm sorry too, sir," instead he said with a smile that meant the other person was in trouble. Jack didn't know him well enough to see it, though. "I mean I should have seen that you can't be nice without wanting to screw me. And I'm sorry that after the only two real relationships in my life, that had ended with both of my partners deaths and everything being my fault I couldn't find the desire to sleep with you. Certainly you can't understand my struggle due to your lacking in some departments and I must apologize for that too. For not considering what an unfeeling ba... person you are."

A few seconds they stared at each other, Ianto's lips still stretched into the perfect smile, eyes challenging but not furious, the rage was deep within and Jack's face completely blank.

"Apology accepted." Jack finally nodded and grinned. "Can I have something different from decaf now?"

When Ianto had finally found the brain cells to close his mouth the other man was just closing the door of his office. He honestly had no idea what had happened. Was Jack so oblivious? Or maybe that was his way of running, of showing that he simply didn't care and didn't want to dwell on the subject.

What Ianto couldn't help but find funny, even a little cute in a completely retarded way, was that Jack though after that that they were good. The same night the immortal put an arm on his shoulder and pretended not to notice the way his back stiffened. A few days later it occurred him that maybe they were. Okay.

Their first and longest fight started a month after their first official date and lasted exactly 6 days and 5 hours. It wasn't the most epic fight, Ianto was almost sure Jack hadn't even known they were fighting until Day 3. He had finally awoken when he had invited the Welshman to the cinema and that had been the answer,

"I'm not really in the mood to be with you, Jack."

The thing was Ianto Jones was a pretty straightforward guy. Or had been. As years passed he taught himself to keep silent, give half-truths or no truths at all, to keep secrets. You know, just for the sake of staying alive and everything as trivial. So he wasn't playing hard to get, he really only wished for a little time to gather his thoughts and to calm himself. To understand why Jack had lied to him. Why he felt so betrayed when it wasn't even something huge.

Just something about his work.

Thinking back, the Welshman realized he had really pretty much ignored Jack for those 6 days. He barely talked to him and if he did it was to take his order. He refused any kind of interaction. Surprisingly, the other man took it well, he never said anything as if he knew it was better to wait until his lover wanted to talk to him.

Everything changed when on the 6th day Ianto sent a waitress to Jack's table. Again, it was nothing deliberate, he wasn't trying to use his 'inner-girl' powers to try to connect to Jack's brain and signal him that the other had a lot of apologizing to do. He was busy. It had never happened again, but it was the first from many to come.

"I'm sorry." 5 hours later Jack showed up on Ianto's doorstep, carrying roses and a guilty expression. "I have no idea what I did but I am sorry."

Honesty, the Welshman noted with a bitter smile, that, or the lack of it, had been the problem in the first place.

"Torchwood," Ianto explained, crossing his arms and leaning on the door frame, a clear sign that they were going to deal with it and deal with it there. He might have been angry but he didn't want everything to end because he was a stubborn idiot.

"Who?" Jack's face was blank, the roses forgotten as his hands fell passively on each side of his body.

"Owen."

Jack scowled as if he had known and tried to explain, "I didn't mean to lie to you but... I couldn't really tell you, either. The marketing is a lie we all use, nobody could see through it because nobody really cares."

"But I did." Ianto smiled despite himself even if it was probably one of the stupidest reaction he could have shown. Jack returned it, probably a little too fondly. He must have thought it was over. "But what I don't understand is why you had to lie to me in the first place. If you had said that you didn't want to talk about it I wouldn't have pushed. I just... after everything I shared I can't believe you..."

Ianto gave up on finishing the sentence, just sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry," Jack tried again, this time his voice almost a whisper, his face showing that he thought everything was going to end now and Ianto had honestly no idea whether to laugh or hug him to death for how childish he looked.

He smiled, figuring that the laugh wouldn't have been accepted pretty well, and took the flowers out of the other man's grip.

"Yeah, whatever, just don't do it again, okay?" His voice was teasing but they both knew he was serious. "Now come inside and tell me all about that mysterious Torchwood."

"National security!" Jack noted as he slipped into the other's house, tone a lot lighter than used to be. "What did Owen tell you, actually?"

"Hm? Oh, he didn't tell me anything. He ordered coffee by the name 'Torchwood'"

"You take deliveries?" Jack's voice was incredulous as he sat next to his lover on the sofa. Not that he would ever use it, buying coffee was one of his excuses to see the Welshman during the workday. He smiled when Ianto curled next to his body and rested his head on his shoulder and almost missed the answer.

"Of course not. But Owen is an idiot and I was curious... And by the way? I saw the thing you use to get to your secret base!"

No matter how much Jack wanted to kill the doctor at that moment he just laughed and wrapped his hands around the other's shoulders. Everything could wait, now he had far more enjoyable things to do.