A/N: This is the prequel to If The World Ends, It Won't Finish You, a CoE fix it that looks like it may become a series. How Jack and Ianto meet. Hope it clears up some things from the last fic...and hope it makes sense.

A/N2: Unbetaed so all mistakes are mine. Forgive me! Also, I'm not too happy with the ending...don't think there's enough 'umph!' but eh, hope you like it either way

"If one more person thinks I'm your boyfriend, I'm leaving Harkness!" Owen Harper barked at Jack before taking a flute of champagne and downing it in one go.

"Hey, you wanted to be my plus one." Jack shot back with a smirk.

"I wanted to pick up fancy birds, not have them think I'm with you! Why didn't you take Gwen along?"

"All she'd be doing is trying to get into my pants."

"If I had a bird like Gwen Cooper after me, I'd be happy. Why the hell do you get all the good ones? It's a waste if you ask me."

"Well, no one asked so just smile and be charming okay?"

"Only if you're the wife."

"Whatever, I'm going to socialise and you can stay here and be antisocial all you want. At least one of us should get laid tonight."

Before Owen could think of a retort, Jack smiled and made his way through the crowd. Jack worked as a sales representative at the Water Crane Publishing House and had done so for 6 months now. The party he was currently weaving through was a book launch celebration for the latest politician autobiography the company published. In consequence, the room was full of political couples, newspaper journalist and a number of other celebrities.

A chuckle escaped him as he took a look around the room to find Owen chatting up women. Owen was a medical editor for Water Crane and had been the first person to talk to Jack on his first day. The two had been good friends ever since as Jack loved Owen's cynic wit and Owen secretly enjoyed Jack's optimistic outlook on life. His musings were caught short when he felt someone bump into him.

"Oops! Sorry!" Jack looked down to find a Japanese women looking sheepish "Didn't look where I was going."

"No problem." He assured. The woman gave him a small smile before hurrying off. Jack watched her as she took two champagne flutes from a waiter and walk towards a small group of people. One of the flutes was given to a rather cute man in a suit who was standing next to another slightly larger man who was laughing away and entertaining a small crowd. Jack had the sudden urge to talk to the stoic man but there was something keeping him rooted to the spot. Instead of walking over and introducing himself like normal, Jack decided to watch the three interact.

The Japanese woman was obviously introverted and stuck close to the stoic man. The two watched the chubby talker as he continued to make people roar with laughter and occasionally put a casual arm around Jack's main point of interest. Every time the two companions of the man (Jack had decided to call him Mr. Stoic) got close or touched him, there was an absurd feeling of jealously that sprouted in Jack's stomach.

"Nice to see I'm not the only one being antisocial." A voice brought Jack back to reality. He looked next to him to see Suzie Costello, one of the journalists that worked for a newspaper Water Crane published.

"Hey what are you doing here?" Jack asked as a huge grin sprouted on his face, Suzie was always fun to talk to.

"I got the editor angry so I've been assigned to write some stupid piece on this thing." She said distastefully and used an arm to sweep vaguely around the room.

"What did you say then?"

"Only that I had no idea how an incompetent fool like him got the job in the first place. How was I to know that he was standing right in behind me? Gwen Bloody Cooper could have at least warned me. She owes me anyway."

"She does? Why?"

"Well, I listen to her babble on about you all day don't I? Isn't that enough of a reason? Could you please just tell her you like men? Then maybe she'll shut up."

"She's a journalist, she'll figure it out eventually."

"You are about the gayest man I know and I've told her that a number of times by the way."

"Thank you." Jack smiled, not sure if that was a compliment.

"Besides, I know why you don't tell her."

"Do you now?"

"Yep, you love being fawned over. No matter who does it. You are Seymour Krelborn and your ego is a plant demanding to be fed." She smirked as Jack just chuckled because there was a bit of truth in the statement. Why should he stop people who wanted to adore him? If an excuse for his narcissistic leanings were needed then he could blame those early years as a poster boy. Besides, flirting never hurt in social life or in business.

As Suzie started to talk about her displeasure of the party, Jack glanced back at the trio to find the talker had disappeared, leaving his two friends to talk with the crowd. Mr. Stoic suddenly quirked an eyebrow and smirked, making Jack want to kiss him senseless. Suzie followed his gaze.

"Looking at the famous musician and his friend?" She asked.

"Pardon?"

"You're looking at that man next to the Japanese women. Didn't know you were out on the pull tonight." Suzie was always ever so blunt but instead of joking with her, Jack found himself inexplicably flustered.

"I- er, no. I mean, he's with her...or another bloke. Besides I don't know him." Jack tried to find the right words. Suzie almost choked on her drink.

"Is Jack Harkness, the Jack Harkness afraid to introduce himself with a smile and smack on the bum to some random man?" Teased Suzie. In the short months she knew Jack, she had never seen him shy. He was always the outgoing one who'd flirt with anyone and sleep with most any man within a blink of the eye. Seeing him vulnerable was refreshing and a little worrying.

"I don't always introduce myself by smacking other people's bums. It was the one time!" He complained, trying hard to change the subject.

"Whatever, his name is Ianto Jones. He's some rising musician. A violinist I think. He's here soloing with the London Symphony or something similar for the rest of the month. Just did a tour with a company in the US."

"Wow, must be good."

"Yeah, only 25 too. So there you go, fresh meat for you. I'm sure you'll have a great evening what with those talented fingers of his."

"As much as I'd love to, I think I'll not respond to that."

"I'll be forever wanting to know the riposte you're capable of." Suzie said sarcastically.

"Despite you thinking your always right, you are wrong sometimes. I have no sexual interest in Mr. Jones." Jack tried to assure her even if it didn't convince himself. "Look, he's obviously dating the Japanese woman."

The two were standing very close and Ianto suddenly whispered something in her ear, making her giggle. The jealousy was welling up again.

"Whatever gets you to sleep at night. Now I've got to go talk to some more people so I can write that stupid article. See you around Harkness." As she left, Jack let out a sigh and beat himself up for not having the courage to talk to Ianto Jones.

On most occasions, Suzie Costello was a look-out-for-yourself kind of woman. If something didn't benefit her, it wasn't worth doing. Still, she couldn't help notice Ianto Jones's eyes constantly flick to Jack as he laughed and flirted with anyone who talked to him. For some reason she found herself weighing the pros and cons of dragging Jack over to introduce him. If they hit it off, maybe Gwen Bloody Cooper would shut the hell up. If not, it was still likely to be an interesting interaction to watch if Jack was as articulate talking to Jones as he was talking about him.

"Excuse me for a moment, there's someone I want you all to meet." Suzie interrupted Rhys, Ianto's talkative manager and PR agent.

"Of course! Bring the bastard over here!" Laughed Rhys who had taken advantage of the free alcohol.

Suzie quickly found Jack and dragged him over without answering his query of where they were heading.

"You know if you wanted me this badly you only had to ask."

"I refuse to feed the plant Seymour." She replied cooly, only stopping once she had Jack right in front of Ianto Jones. "This is Jack Harkness. He's a sales representative for Water Crane Publishing. Jack, this is Ianto Jones a violinist for the English Chamber Orchestra. Rhys Williams, Mr. Jones's manager and PR agent. And this is their good friend, Toshiko Sato. She works mostly as a techie in music recording, bettering amps and such."

"Nice to meet you!" Rhys smiled sincerely and shook Jack's hand.

"Same here." Replied Jack who tried to avoid Ianto's gaze.

"Oh you're a Yank then?" Chuckled Rhys.

"Yeah and I'm guessing Wales for you?"

"You're right there! Ianto and I hail from Wales and Tosh is from around here. Been showing us around she has."

"I try my best." Tosh said with a shy smile. They lapsed into a short awkward silence that was interrupted by Rhys's mobile. With an apology, Rhys left trying to find a quiet spot.

"So, have you been in the UK long?" Asked Tosh. Suzie was too busy trying to suppress giggles when she noticed the two men were avoiding each other's gazes.

"About six months now. I worked in a number of other countries before the UK and it's my favourite place so far." He answered before they feel into another long conversation gap. Jack was still avoiding looking at Ianto Jones in case he made a fool of himself and stared too much.

"So where about the States are you from?" Tosh asked finally realising no one else seemed interested in contributing to the conversation.

"Well, I grew up in the Midwest, Colorado to be exact. Moved to New York City when I was about 13 though and that's more of a home to me."

"Ianto loves New York City, don't you Ianto?"

"Yes, I was there for a few years for school. Stayed a few days recently after my tour in the US ended and I still love it." Ianto answered while looking directly into Jack's eyes. There was a hurricane in Jack's stomach as he decided to stare right back into Ianto's beautiful blue eyes.

"Really?" Neither man looked away and their female companions watched them in interest.

"I'm hoping to go back soon. Actually I was considering recording some songs there. I'm going back home to Cardiff in a few weeks to compose a few things." Jack felt his knees go weak when Ianto talked. The way he used vowels was dangerously erotic. After a thoughtful 'hmm' from Jack, the group fell into another silence that had Suzie wondering the size of the sexual tension radius. Tosh was about to ask something else when Rhys came back.

"Ianto, I've got someone on the phone who wants to talk to you."

"Who?"

"Just talk to him." Rhys shoved the phone into Ianto's hand.

"Hello? What? Nigel Kennedy? Sir! It's such an honour!" Ianto started to gush to the man on the other side of the phone and walked off.

"His idol." Said Rhys to Jack and Suzie who didn't know what had Ianto practically squeeing like a teenage girl.

"What brings your group to this book launch anyway?" Suzie finally asked when she realised Jack was too preoccupied with watching Ianto talk on the phone to pay any attention to anyone else.

"Ah, well turns out the bloke who wrote this book is a fan of Ianto. So Ianto got the invite and I dragged him here for publicity, being the good manager I am." The conversation was caught short when attention was called to the stage in front of the room. A speech was about to start and Jack noticed Ianto walking out of the building, still chattering away on the phone. He didn't see him for the rest of the night.

Owen frowned as he ate another chip and regretted the deal he made with Jack. It had been agreed that if Jack brought Owen to the book launch, Owen would accompany Jack on a lunch date with Gwen. Technically it was the least Owen could do as Jack's plus one invite had got him a shag with a B-List model, but it didn't mean he had to enjoy himself.

It wasn't that Owen didn't like Gwen-she was a great person. Gwen Cooper was passionate, intelligent, attractive and a damn good journalist. Her flaws were that she kept making doe eyes at Jack and constantly yearned for his attention which often resulted in her ignoring most of the people around her. Also she couldn't take a hint and was bloody relentless, which were good traits for a journalist but not for a girl who had an infatuation with a gay man. Though Owen could also blame Jack's impulse to flirt with anything that moved for giving Gwen false hope.

Finally, the lunch reached its end when Jack made up a lie about having to do a few errands. Gwen reluctantly left to grab a cab while Jack and Owen made their way down the street.

"Why can't you just tell her you're a fan of the lavender passageway?" Owen finally burst out after he was sure Gwen couldn't hear them.

"Why should I ruin her hope? She's a journalist anyway, she'll figure it out." Insisted Jack.

"Are you sure you're, gay? Or are you planning on shagging Gwen to be sure?"

"Yes, I'm gay and there no way I'm going to shag Gwen."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they wandered through London, not paying attention to where they were heading.

"So you've ever shagged a bird before?" Owen asked suddenly.

"Well...yeah. When I was still trying to figure out who I was. Never had the inclination to do so ever again so you don't have to worry about competition." Owen wanted to push Jack for more information but could tell his friend was a little uncomfortable about his brief exploration in the forest of heterosexuals.

"Even if you weren't gay you'd be no competition for me."

"You want to put money on that?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well-" Jack had started to think up a good bet when he accidently bumped into someone walking out of a dry cleaners.

"Shit, sorry about that!" Apologised Jack as he tried to help the man pick up his newly cleaned suits. He felt his heart almost implode when the man finally turned his head towards Jack. He had just ruined Ianto Jones's dry cleaning.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they're still fine." Ianto said with a slight hint of agitation. Jack's knees almost locked on hearing Ianto's accent.

"No, I really am sorry. I really should pay more attention to where I'm going."

"No harm done. It's Jack right? Jack Harkness?"

"Yeah, this is my friend Owen Harper." Jack vaguely registered the two nodding in acknowledgement. He was too busy trying to concentrate on trying not to hyperventilate. Ianto had actually remembered his name!

"Owen, this is Ianto Jones." Ianto Jones, born in Cardiff, Wales. Youngest of three, mother was a seamstress, father owned an antique bookshop. He played violin since the age of 5 and was offered a scholarship at Julliards when he was 12. Considered to be a musical prodigy, Jones plays a number of instruments but is famed mostly for his violin and has been compared to his idol, Nigel Kennedy.

Jack felt embarrassed now about googling Ianto's name after the book launch and hoped he wasn't blushing as the information ran through his head.

"I should get going then." With a final nod, Ianto left and all Jack could do was watch him and his gorgeous ass walk away.

"Who the hell was that?" Owen asked when Ianto was barely out of earshot.

"Just someone I met at the book launch." Mumbled Jack, hoping Owen wouldn't ask too many questions.

That wasn't the last time Jack accidently ran into Ianto. During the next week, Jack found himself constantly crossing Ianto's path. They saw each other in restaurants, the Tube, cafes, stores and even in a new high end boutique Gwen had tricked him into going to. Each time the two men would acknowledge the other's existence, occasionally making small talk about weather or the like then going their separate ways. Each time Jack found it harder to walk away from Ianto without wanting to just turn back around and pin the man down on the nearest surface.

One Sunday morning, Jack could be found getting ready for his daily run through the park.

"Alice!" he called out to his six and a half month old Siberian husky. She was bought from one of his work colleagues that had a cousin who was a dog breeder. As Jack was alone in a new city, it seemed like a great idea to buy the dog he had always wanted as a child. Running with her was also a great way for him to stay in shape and pick up men. Alice was a beautiful husky with an attitude that made Jack laugh constantly. Jack saw her as his child and spoiled her as such.

He clipped her leash on and they both made way to their normal path in the park. Things were going fine until Alice saw a squirrel. Before Jack could tell her to heel, she went chasing after the small ball of fur and ripped her leash from his hand. With a growl, he started to run after her. It was a little hard to keep up with Alice and it became even harder to find her when she decided to run into a large formation of bushes. With as much dignity as possible, he poked through the bushes and called her name.

After about ten minutes of looking, Jack took a quick sweep of the park to find a familiar four legged creature begging a man on a bench for his breakfast.

"Alice! Don't eat that man's food!" Jack called out in vain as he finally caught up and grabbed onto her leash. "I'm so sorry, she got loose and-" He stopped abruptly when he realised the man on the bench was Ianto Jones.

"Not a problem." Ianto smiled warmly while giving Alice a generous rub on the head. "She's gorgeous."

"Thanks. Again, sorry about her. She saw a squirrel and got excited."

Ianto offered Jack a seat next to him while he quickly finished his croissant. When it was gone, he went back to rubbing Alice's ears.

"You know, I've always wanted a husky. My parents never got my siblings and I a pet. Said three kids were enough to take care of." He mused sadly. Alice had moved in between the two men and placed her head on Ianto's knee.

"Well, you're welcome to visit her. She loves attention and sometimes I think she gets tired of me."

"I don't see how she could." Ianto said quietly while looking at Jack from the corner of his eye. It became quiet except for Alice's panting and occasional thump-thump-thump of her tail.

"So, what brings you to the park?" Asked Jack, enjoying the look of utter happiness on Ianto's face as Alice licked his hand.

"Oh, needed some time to think. Nice to get away from everything too." He looked at Jack. "Find some beautiful scenery."

"Yeah, change is good." Jack managed to say. He was finding it hard to breathe with the way Ianto was looking at him.

"So how has work been?"

"Oh, fine. Selling books and all..." As he berated himself for acting like a lovesick groupie, Jack failed to notice Ianto scooting closer. When he finally looked up at Ianto, he was surprised to find the Welshman roughly grabbing his face and pulling in for a kiss.

It was soft, warm, harsh and sensuous all at the same time. Jack found himself enjoying the taste of coffee and croissant. Inhaling through his nose filled his nostrils with Ianto's soap and musk. They broke apart and rest their noses side by side, inhaling the other's breath.

"I've been wanting to do that since that stupid book party." Mumbled Ianto before he started to nibble at Jack's bottom lip. They found themselves in another deeper kiss. Ianto kept his hands on Jack's face and neck while Jack wrapped his arms around the other man's waist.

An irritated bark broke the moment and Jack groaned in annoyance. They pressed their foreheads together and refused to be more than a hair-width's apart as they lazily opened their eyes to find Alice upset at no longer getting attention.

"Shut up Alice." Jack said, earning a confused head quirk from the husky. Soon his lips found Ianto's again and he was pleased to feel a smile as they continued to kiss the sense out of each other.