Part One

"Coffee?"

It was a perfectly innocent question. That is, it would have been innocent were the person it was directed at not the leader of Torchwood Three. As it was, Captain Jack Harkness was indeed the leader, and being who he inevitably was, took it to mean something else.

"Coffee, sir?" the welshman asked again. Ianto Jones, unofficial tea boy had been the object of the majority of his Captain's affections for the past twenty-one months. He couldn't help think with the smallest and smuggest smile that it was almost twenty-two now.

Jack looked up at Ianto who stood innocently in the doorway of his office, holding Jack's favourite mug. It hadn't always been Jack's favourite mug, but it had been on one of the many occasions when Ianto had asked his question.

Again, came the question that Jack always looked forward to, "Sir, do you want any coffee?"

The Captain looked over at the tea boy, considering slowly what he saw. Ianto hadn't always been like this, and that was discounting the slowly healing cuts on his left cheek, the butterfly stitches on the gash that crossed his collar bone, and the angrily red grazes on the welshman's knuckles.

Ianto had certainly been different the first night Jack had laid eyes on him. He had been so informal. It was almost as if back then, Ianto had been trying to seduce his soon-to-be Captain. It would have worked straight away if welshman hadn't introduced himself as "Jones, Ianto Jones".

The entire 'Bond, James Bond' thing had never worked on Jack. But in hindsight, Jack couldn't help but think that it was sweet of Ianto to try and look important.

The Captain remembered looking Ianto up in the Torchwood database. It had said nothing about coffee when he'd checked.

It was only a day later that Ianto had once again tried to seduce Jack into letting him into Torchwood Three. It had been the first time Jack had heard the question as well.

The prospect of early morning coffee the day after capturing and nearly being killed by a Weevil coupled with his first look at day-time Ianto had almost been too much for Jack. However, the leader of Torchwood Three had managed to stay calm and aloof as he had accepted the coffee from Ianto. Jack had learned the hard way that Ianto's question was never innocent.

Even then, the boy had an ulterior motive, but Jack had spotted it instantly - something that he prided himself on. Fortunately or unfortunately for Jack, depending on how you looked at it, he wasn't so fast to spot the motive the next time Ianto asked the question.