Jack looked around, scanning the street to see who stood out as an easy target. He smiled as his eyes rested on a young man who seemed in a hurry.

"Excuse me," Jack said, putting his hand on the man's arm to catch his attention while he tried to search for something valuable with his other hand. "Do you know how to get to the Roald Dahl Plass?"

"Mh?" The other man said, looking at him. He put his hand on Jack's. "Yes, I'm going there," he answered, taking Jack's hand away from his arm.

Jack almost dismissed the guy, but he already had his wallet, maybe he could find something else to steal.

"I'm surprised you're asking, especially because it's not far," the man frowned, walking with Jack besides him. "Careful," he added quickly, grabbing Jack's coat to pull him away from the road he was about to cross.

Jack looked around, but saw no car. "What?" he asked, looking at the man.

"Sorry, thought I saw a bike. A friend got hit once, I'm kinda paranoid I guess," he chuckled.

Jack laughed, a bit awkwardly, and kept walking. He briefly wondered if he could just snatch the bag the man was carrying and run, but he looked rather young and probably would be able to catch up. He simply walked in the end, enjoying the man's features and telling himself that a few minutes wouldn't kill him. He was just planning on going home after anyway.

"Thanks," he said when they walked in the Plass.

"You're welcome," the man answered and presented his hand.

Jack frowned and stared at him and his cute smile then shrugged and shook his hand anyway.

"Doing anything later?" the man suddenly asked.

Jack stared again, still shaking his hand. He wondered if he could. He was maybe a bit young, but he looked mature – not that it mattered a lot anyway – and physically fitted Jack's taste. Not that Jack had any fixed taste or style. He liked pretty much everything and anyone, but that man still looked handsome. He considered the offer, then told himself that he couldn't easily put back the wallet he had stolen before they could go for a drink.

"Huh..." he eventually said, then cleared his throat, letting go of the man's hand. "I'd love to, really, but I'm kind of in a hurry," he shook his head, checking his watch to prove his point.

Except that he didn't have any watch.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath.

"Looking for this?" the man said and Jack swallowed as he saw his watch in his hand.

"Huh... okay. Nice trick. Let's say I don't call the police but you give it back to me."

"Or," the man grinned. "I keep it."

"You can't-" Jack started then grunted. He was in no position to argue, not with the man's wallet in his coat's pocket. "Fine, keep it, you probably need it more than me."

And it was a fake, and stolen, so Jack didn't care.

"Why are you proudly showing me this though?"

The man shrugged and took a stopwatch out of his pocket.

"Oh I should go, I guess," he said.

Jack stared at the stopwatch, his stopwatch, he realised as he searched for the stopwatch he usually carried. "Fuck! I'm calling the cops," he said, fumbling in his pockets.

"Want my phone?"

"You gotta be kidding me!" Jack exclaimed when the man handed him Jack's own phone. "I'm going to punch that perfect face."

"Thanks," the man winked at him. "Or you could simply give my wallet back. I need it to pay my rent."

Jack gaped at him for a while, then studied him, wondering when he had stolen those three items from him, and how he hadn't felt him. Even Owen, after years of practice, couldn't steal as professionally as this.

"Do you want to work for me?" Jack stuttered, mentally slapping himself for asking like this. But he needed that man on his team. They needed someone as gifted as him.

The man snorted. "My wallet, please," he said, gesturing at Jack to hand it.

Jack shook his head, holding the wallet tight in his pocket. "At least come see us."

"Us?"

"Working with people is funnier than alone."

The man rolled his eyes and Jack smiled.

"Then, I'll give you your wallet."

"Or I'm walking into a trap and you're going to steal everything from me or just kill me."

"I won't. And except for that bag which seems pretty empty, you have nothing else on you. I checked."

"I know, I could feel you. And who carries things on the back pockets?"

"Oh," Jack grinned. "That was just bonus for me."

"Groping me against my will?"

Jack's smile flattered and he frowned. "I... huh... Sorry. I didn't see it that way."

"Of course you didn't."

"Okay we clearly set off the wrong foot-"

"What foot?" the man interrupted. "We stole from each other. Just give me my wallet and leave."

"I really think you should come see us."

"Whatever."

"How about I leave you the address and you do what you want with it?"

"Sure," the man mumbled, but Jack knew he didn't want.

"My name's Jack, by the way."

The man studied him, then looked at the items he was still holding and sighed. "Ianto," he said.

"Ianto?" Jack repeated. "Lovely name! Just satisfy your curiosity and come see us. If you don't want to, you could always come for that drink you wanted," he winked at him.

Ianto looked away, pursed his lips, then finally nodded.

Jack chuckled and took the phone Ianto was handing him, writing down his number as well. He grinned as he gave it back to Ianto, along with his wallet and Ianto gave back everything he had stolen as well.

After a few weeks, Ianto had gone to Jack's flat. Well, to Jack's brother flat, he would learn later, but that didn't really matter. He hadn't meant to at first, or had just considered calling Jack on that offer of taking a drink, but he kept feeling lonely in his life after meeting Jack. His life wasn't exciting, he had no one to be home with, or even friends to spend good time with. It was just him and Myfanwy, a stray cat he had adopted. And she wasn't always fun. So Ianto had decided to give it a go and see what Jack had wanted to show him.

And Jack had been right. Working with people was funnier. Jack had cheerfully introduced his little team that consisted of Jack – obviously – who was leading their small group and mainly stealing cars, Owen who was stealing as well but also dealing in the streets, Tosh who hacked and dealt with anything informatics such as hiding their tracks when they sold stolen items online, and Gwen who was working for the police and giving the others leads and that Ianto met only later.

After that, he sometimes gave a hand to Jack for cars and helped him improve his discretion, he talked to Tosh a lot, finding a friend he had longed for, someone with the same sort of humour as him and the same references he had. Ianto had understood that Owen wasn't the most sympathetic man possible but he was a good person – as good as a thief and dealer could be – he just didn't show it that much in his daily life. As for Gwen, he didn't see her much, her contact with the group mainly virtual, but she seemed like a decent person.

Ianto told himself that he wasn't growing attached to the team, that flirting with Jack was innocent, and that he would soon go back to the life he'd been leading before, because having friends meant risking losing them, as he had already experienced. But he gradually grew fonder of their time together and realised he was going everyday and loving his time with them. He knew it was too late the day he offered his flat as their main base, which was bigger than Jack's brother's. And everyone accepted. At least, one of them owned the place, not a brother who could come back from his job in America sometimes and didn't know what Jack was doing.

I told you things will go quickly, I just wanted their first meeting and a vague idea of what they were doing... So I hope it's okay, I didn't feel like writing it in details :)