Jack / Ianto Stories…

1 - 4 chapter long Jack / Ianto stories… second chapter contains spoilers for Adrift…

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The Date

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A/N:
First Chapter set before my story 'You Deep Me Warm at Night' (sorry 'bout that, I don't usually write out of order…)

I started thinking about Jack and Ianto's first date after Jack came back and this is what I came up with… just a bit of fluff, really, but these two have crawled into my head and refuse to go away…

I truly appreciate the kind words and reviews from the first fic I wrote in this category – thank you!!

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"Flowers?" Ianto couldn't keep the startled tone from his voice when he opened his door to find Jack standing there with a bouquet of mixed flowers in his hand. (He was on time, too, even though Ianto had spent the better part of the last hour convincing himself that Jack would either be late or not show up at all.)

"I was under the impression that flowers were part of twenty-first century dating customs," Jack quipped back with a sly grin. "Have I been misinformed?"

Ianto frowned. "No. No, flowers are part of 'twenty-first century dating customs.' Erm…Would you like to come in…?" he asked, a bit hesitantly.

"Don't mind if I do," Jack flashed another one of those grins, the kind of smile that had gotten under Ianto's skin and had refused to go away… but that had been a lifetime ago. After Jack left, everything had changed.

Ianto watched as the other man walked around his tidy little living room. Jack had never been here before. He was clearly taking it all in, though, all of the little details. There was no telling what he was reading into it.

"Cozy," he said after a moment, as if he realized he'd been caught 'snooping', even if he was doing it in plain sight.

Ianto wasn't sure how to respond, so he ignored the comment. He wasn't entirely certain 'cozy' was a good word to sum up his decorating anyway. He liked things simple – so why exactly he was going out on a date with Jack Harkness, he wasn't sure – but since everything else in his life was complicated, he kept his flat as simple as possible. Neutral colors, pastels, soft, quiet things that put him at ease. It wasn't just that he didn't particularly care for clutter; it was that he knew he didn't have time to dust a bunch of stupid knick-knacks anyway, so why have them?

"I'll just put these in water," the Welshman said of the flowers, "You can have a seat if you'd like."

"Sure," Jack flashed another smile. What Ianto didn't notice was the nervousness underneath it. The last few days had been quiet, although quiet was pretty much a relative term when one lived on top of a ff… but John was gone and (so far) nothing else had popped up to disturb the peace. "Is there anything in particular you'd like to see tonight?" Jack asked in a casual tone.

Ianto leaned back from the sink so he could stare into the living room. "What?"

"A movie, remember?"

"Oh, right. Computer's on the desk there, why don't you see what's playing?"

"Oooh, he trusts me with his keyboard," Jack teased.

Ianto found himself grinning over his shoulder despite the reservations he'd been having all day about whether or not this was such a good idea. Maybe he should just leave well enough alone and not pick back up where they'd left off when Jack went running off after some doctor. His misgivings about the whole affair only got worse with Jack right here, in his living room.

"I guess I should go and change all of my personal passwords after you leave, huh?" Ianto managed to tease back anyway.

"Why? don't you think I could hack into them if I wanted?"

Ianto chuckled. Then, "I don't know. Are you any good at computers?" After all, what did any of them know about him? 'Jack' wasn't even Jack's real name.

"Oh… I know my way around a hard drive," the Captain responded in a lascivious tone that caused Ianto to blush.

Ianto put the flowers on the table. It was reasonably nice bouquet all things considered; he didn't imagine that Jack was much of a flowers and chocolate kind of guy.

He joined Jack by the desk. "Anything good playing?" he asked.

"Here's something about a kid who can teleport at will and the secret society whose out to kill him over it. Looks exciting."

"It looks like pure rubbish."

"Yeah, but we could go and pick apart all the mistakes… cute actor too. So's she," he pointed to a picture of the lead-actress on the computer screen.

Ianto gave him a look.

"All right…next. Teenaged girl gets knocked up but refuses to drop out of high school? And she is kinda cute, in a pregnant teenager sort of way."

Ianto gave him another look.

"Ok. Nix that. What about this, romantic comedy about the woman whose always the brides maid and never the bride," Jack swiveled the monitor so Ianto could see over his shoulder; it wasn't lost on him that the young Welshman was keeping a discrete distance, observing that three feet of personal space rule that Jack had always found annoying.

"We could just stay in," he suggested. "I could run to the video store, maybe pick up some Chinese on my way back. You do still fancy Chinese, don't you?" his tone was cool.

Jack turned, crossing his arms over his chest, "It's not much of a date if you do all the running."

"You could come with me, I suppose."

The Captain stood up and stepped closer, right into that three foot ring of personal space. Although Ianto didn't back away, he didn't respond either, not the way he used to. "You know, the whole point of going out on a date is going out – and not just to the video store or to pick up some Chinese take-out – which isn't what I had in mind when I suggested dinner and a movie."

"All right," Ianto didn't look at him, not directly. "How about that one?" he nodded at the computer screen over Jack's shoulder. "Unless of course you'd rather not see a period piece because you were there or something."

"A period piece sounds great, " he didn't even bother to turn and look at the screen.

"The next showing isn't for an hour yet. The theatre isn't far from here, maybe fifteen minutes… "

"So what would you like to do to kill forty five minutes?" the Captain inquired, raised eyebrows suggestivley.

The younger man's expression remained impassive. "We should probably get there early if you want to get a decent seat."

"Right," Jack forced a smile. He tried to reach for Ianto's coat, but the younger man was faster, getting it on before Jack could offer his assistance. "You know if you don't want to do this…"

"No, I've been wanting to see that film for ages but haven't managed to find the time." Ianto didn't help Jack with his coat.

"I wasn't talking about the movie."

"Well what do you expect?" the younger man's tone was caustic. "It isn't just that you left us, Jack, that you abandoned us. It's the way you did it. We thought we'd lost you! " Ianto's voice caught.

Jack understood – the thing from the rift, Abbadon. It had left him in limbo, not quite dead, not quite alive for all those days until he finally found his way back to life again… fixed point in time… that's what the Doctor had called him… a fixed point in time… a fact… wrong…

Ianto was still talking: "We really thought we'd lost you. But then… then you left us! You didn't even have the decency to say good-bye before you ran off after… after some doctor!"

"I didn't have time… "

"You wouldn't have even if you had."

"Maybe not," Jack conceded to the accusation, to the hurt tone in Ianto's voice. "I'm sorry." Abandoned… he realized he hadn't thought about anything – anyone – but himself. He'd waited a century to find the Doctor again, a version of the Doctor that would remember him and when that happened, he didn't think, he just acted. Just ran…

"You left us, Jack. You left us and then just like that, there you were, back again without any explanation or warning, and… and you've spent the last few days pretending that you were never even away, that nothing's changed. Even after all that business with John Hart – assuming that's his real name because apparently names don't mean much where you two come from. And now we're are just supposed to go out on a date, out to a movie, dinner, like a regular couple of blokes…?"

"What do you want?" Jack asked in earnest. "Do you want an explanation, do you want to know where I was, when I was, what I was doing – ?" how many times I died… "Because if you do, all you have to do is ask."

"No," the hurt in the younger man's tone caught the Captain off guard.

Hurting over feeling like they'd been abandoned he could understand but Ianto's tone was filled with such defeat, it tore Jack in two.

"I realize it's none of my business, Jack," Ianto told him. "None of it is. If it were, I wouldn't have to ask, you'd just tell me. Us. I'm not the only one who's upset."

"I know. But what I'm asking here is what you want to know."

"I want to know that I can trust you."

The older man blinked – but he didn't make the mistake of hesitating, "You can trust me."

"I'm not asking you to never go away again, just … just next time don't do it without telling somebody. Unless of course that's really too much to ask."

Jack couldn't help the smile, "I promise, the next time I go chasing off to the end of the universe, I'll leave a note."

Ianto stopped just short of asking if he was serious about the end of the universe part. There really was no telling with Jack. "All right then. We should go if we're going to get a decent parking spot."

Despite the twisting knives in his gut, Jack managed to flash another one of those wry little smirks. "You know, I think I like you this way."

"What way?"

"Decisive. You turned into a real 'man of action' while I was gone. Maybe I should go away more again – just for fun."

"Don't you dare."

Jack chuckled a little more falling into easy stride next to the younger man as the barriers between them finally started to crumble away…

CHAPTER TWO CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ADRIFT!!