A friendship - or what

As soon as they were told what to do, John flipped around and looked for Jim, or Cas or whatever his name was. Garth was already eyeing the guy, and it looked like both Jo and Gwen had the same agenda the way they pushed away their chairs to get to Cas. The four of them exchanged a look before they practically raced to get to him first.

Castiel was clearly taken by surprise by the ambush, but he composed himself quickly. "Sorry guys, I'm taken." He nodded towards Unique. The crossdresser was standing next to the door, and John was pretty sure that he could see a victorious smirk on her face.

He was beaten before the competition started, and it did not sit well with him. When Mr Evans told them what to do, John had really thought that the flirting he put in during his performance would give him an advantage, but somebody obviously had inside information. He knew that Unique had been in this glee-club before, and she'd clearly used it to her advantage.

When Castiel was lost he turned to Jo, but she had already set her eyes on somebody else, and John cursed to himself when Gwen seemed to accept the offer.

Even if he could easily outsing both Kevin and Garth, he felt that those two guys were too plain for him. He wasn't surprised to learn that the twins would sing together, and that left him with only a couple of choices.

He looked at Jane. She didn't have to sing today, and that said a lot. She was obviously good.

The first part of his plan had been to pair up with someone that wouldn't steal his thunder. Secondly, it was very important to hook up with a hottie. He threw another peek at Jane. She was definitely hot enough, but somehow he knew that she would look down on him no matter what.

Ianto was still sitting in his seat, and seemed quite unfazed by the commotion around him. John took a moment, and tried to picture the guy in less boring clothes. He had a good voice, but he was clearly not interested in making an impression. The guy was kind of cute though.

"Hey. You want to do a duet with me?" He sat down next to Ianto and patted his thigh. "I mean… If you're not taken." Ianto looked up abruptly, as if he didn't know what was going on. He drew his breath and panned the room. "Yeah, okay. We can do that." He paused for a second. "We can start right now. We can go to my place. I live within walking distance from school."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The Jones' household was way different from what John was used to. At home he was mostly alone, because his mom was spending more time with her clients than with her own son. John didn't complain though. Her job as an international trader gave her enough income to give John anything he wanted.

Ianto lived in a big house, which they shared with Ianto's older sister and her family. They entered the house though a side door and came into the kitchen. On the far wall there were double doors. They were wide open and John could see through to the living room. They had had a bit of a chat on the way, and Ianto had told him who he'd meet when they came there.

The sister - Rhiannon - was busy peeling potatoes at the sink. Two men were sitting in the living room watching a soccer game. A couple of kids were running around the cooking-island in the kitchen, and nobody seemed to keep an eye on them.

John was still standing in the doorway, and got pushed to the side by Gwen, as she and Jo entered. Gwen threw her jacket over a chair, and waved for Jo to follow her. John wondered how they were going to get anything done with all these people around.

The older man on the couch looked away from the game for a second. "No food until your mom gets home. Do not raid the refrigerator for your friends." He turned back to the TV. "Dinner at seven. Tell Rhiannon how many we will be."

Ianto turned and cocked a brow. "Will you stay for dinner?"

John was ready to abandon the assignment and flee, but braced himself. "I don't know. Let's see how it works out."

Jo seemed to be just as intimidated about the crowd as John was, but it looked like she handled it fairly well. Ianto took care of the introductions. He nodded towards the men on the couch. "That's my dad, Ifan, and there's my brother-in-law, Johnny." Ianto walked up to his sister. "This is Rhiannon, and those rugrats are David and Mica."

He pulled John with him further into the room. "This is John, and that is Jo. We have an assignment for school." Nobody seemed very interested, but Rhiannon turned briefly and smiled at them.

"We'll use the basement if you don't mind." Gwen was already half way through the living room, and was heading towards a staircase going down. Jo threw a quick peek from side to side before she followed, and soon the girls were out of sight.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ianto's room was of a decent size, but it was packed full of all sorts of knick knacks. Most prominently placed was a keyboard. Next to it there was a guitar stand with two guitars. One electric and one acoustic. John let his fingers run over the strings of one of them. "Do you play? Are you any good?"

He didn't get an answer immediately. Ianto was busy gathering a pile of magazines from the little sofa under the window. "Yes, no. No. Not really. I dabble."

The walls were covered with posters. John recognized some of the bands, even if it wasn't quite his taste, but some of them he'd never even heard of. Ianto was obviously into heavy metal, and that could be a problem if they were going to work together on a performance.

While his host was trying to tidy up a bit, John walked over to the shelf with a stereo system. Loose CD's and CD-covers were floating around on the shelf. John was a little bit surprised about the mess. Ianto seemed so neat and clean cut, but there were obviously sides of the guy that didn't meet the eye at first glance.

He picked up a couple of CD's and got another surprise. A 'best of' album from Eric Clapton, and the soundtrack from 'Oklahoma' was not what he'd expected to find after seeing the room.

"We know that Mr Evans is very into musicals, so maybe we should try to find something that will please him." Ianto was obviously done with the tidying, although his room could definitely need a more thorough hand.

"Well, most of the duets are for a boy and a girl, and that's not gonna work for us, is it?" John was still sifting through the CD's. "That will be the hardest part. To find something we can sing together."

Ianto chuckled a little. "You are joking, right?" He came over and grabbed a CD from the shelf. "There are so many songs to choose from." He stuck the CD in the console. "Let's just hear though a few, and make a decision later."

-o-o-o-o-o-

When Rhiannon announced that dinner was ready, the two boys had listened to a few tracks from 'Rent', and a couple of songs from 'Le Mis'. They had also gone through a number of Disney duets, and a whole CD with Frank Sinatra singing with various other artists.

Tracks from The Beatles, Queen, One Direction, Van Morrison and Macklemore had also been considered. They soon realized that even if a little bit of rapping was kind of cool, none of them could actually do it, so a few songs got dismissed immediately.

After all that, they were still no closer to finding a song when they sat down at the dinner table. Jo had left already, and John wondered if the two girls had got anything done. When he asked, Gwen just waved him off and threw him a quick smile.

"When are you leaving?" Ianto turned briefly to John as he reached for the gravy. "I mean…" He exhaled. "That came out wrong. You can stay as long as you want. I just… Sorry." He looked down on his food, and John could see that he was blushing a little.

There was a lot of chatter around the table, and none of the others seemed to notice. The youngest child was playing with his food, and Gwen was busy trying to do some damage control. Johnny and Ifan were both trying to keep an eye on the TV in the living room. They were occasionally commenting loudly on the game, earning a disgruntled stare from Ianto's mother. She was cutting the meat for the other child, and in between trying to shut up her husband and her son-in-law, she conversed with Rhiannon about a barbeque the next day.

John tried to concentrate on his food. He wasn't used to commotion like this in the kitchen. At home it was only him and his mother, and sometimes he had to have supper alone.

A few minutes went by before Ianto turned to him again. "What I meant was that you're welcome to stay for a while longer. I just wondered when your parents expect you to come home."

John took a moment while he swallowed the food in his mouth. "It's only my mother. I can call her, but I bet she won't be home until late anyway." He shrugged. "We should keep at it. We didn't get anywhere." He'd really enjoyed hanging with Ianto, and even if they hadn't got anything done yet, he felt that there was a friendship in the making.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

They weren't aware of the time, but had tried to keep it down knowing that the children were sleeping a few doors down. When they finally agreed on a song, Ianto cranked up the volume and sang along. It took only seconds before there was a knock on the door. Rhiannon stuck her head in and urged them to be quiet. "Isn't it time for bed now? It's way past midnight."

John got very surprised. Time travels quickly in good company, but he hadn't been aware of how late it really was. He didn't live that far away, but walking the streets alone in the middle of the night wasn't very tempting. If he'd known that this would happen, he would have taken the car to school today, but finding parking was always a problem, so he almost always took the schoolbus.

He got up and grabbed his jacket. "I better get going then. You can come to my house tomorrow if you want." He took a step towards the door. "I hope my mom isn't too worried." He'd texted her and told her where he was. She'd replied with a simple 'okay', and he didn't even know if she'd expected him to come home tonight at all.

Ianto was standing next to the stereo system after turning it off. "Why don't you just spend the night. Text her. You can sleep on the sofa. It's a little short, but...if you don't mind?" He cocked his head waiting for an answer. John thought about it for a moment. It would definitely be better than to walk home. "I'll find something for you to sleep in, and I have an unused toothbrush." Ianto sounded excited about it. "I can drive you home tomorrow morning."

Getting comfortable on the little couch wasn't easy. After twisting and turning for a while, John started to regret taking the offer to stay. He wasn't sure if Ianto was asleep yet, but he tried to be quiet as he tiptoed over to the desk and grabbed a magazine. In the dim light from the little lamp on the table next to the couch, he decided to sit up and read. Maybe he'd just fall asleep that way.

"I'm sorry. Is it too uncomfortable?" Ianto whispered from the bed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you can sleep here. The bed is big enough."

John didn't hesitate. He grabbed his blanket and crossed the floor. "What wrong way? I just need to sleep. That couch is a torture device." He watched as Ianto scooted over before he practically dived into the bed. "I mean. You're cute, but you're not really my type."

Ianto could so easily be 'his type', but John was not going to go there. It wasn't worth jeopardizing a friendship trying to get it on with the guy.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

John woke up when Gwen practically came crashing through the door. He and Ianto had moved closer to each other during the night, and he had the guy's arm across his chest. "Ianto, we need help with… What?" Gwen stared at them as she covered her mouth with her hand. Ianto didn't seem to react at first, but then he obviously became aware that he wasn't alone in bed. He sat up abruptly and addressed his cousin. "This is not… Gwen! Don't you dare."

Gwen had started laughing and was on her way out the door when Ianto jumped out of bed and followed her. "I'm warning you. It's not what it looks like. The sofa was too short. Gwen! GWEN!"

John couldn't help chuckling a little. Gwen was not going to let them hear the end of this. Poor Ianto. John didn't care for his own reputation. Most of his classmates assumed he was gay anyway, so for him it didn't really matter.

"Ianto has a boyfriend, Ianto has a boyfriend." Gwen's voice could be heard from downstairs as she sang it out. It didn't take long before one of the children repeated her words, and again John felt a little sorry for Ianto.

Soon after, Ianto came back. "I'm so sorry. Gwen is… I don't think she will share this at school, but…" He threw his hands out. "I didn't mean to… I forgot you were there." He looked genuinely embarrassed.

John moved to get out of bed as he tried not to show how humorous he found the whole drama. "Don't worry about me. I'd be honored." He gave Ianto a smile. "And I know that you didn't crowd me on purpose, although I didn't mind."

-o-o-o-o-

The rest of the family had already had breakfast, so John and Ianto grabbed some leftovers before they got ready to leave. Whatever Gwen needed help with in the morning didn't get mentioned, but her little impromptu song did.

Johnny teased Ianto from the moment they walked into the kitchen. "Ianto, a poofter, didn't see that coming." He punched Ianto on the shoulder. "All this song and dance at school has obviously changed you." The tone was friendly, and it was easy to see that the guy had a hard time keeping the laughter in.

Ianto had already explained what happened and didn't even try to contradict him anymore. John could easily understand why. The friendly bantering and joking remarks was obviously a part of this household, and the only tħing that could stop Johnny was probably to give him the silent treatment.