torchwoodteaboy | [RL WITH AKIHIKO AND JACK]

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[RL WITH AKIHIKO AND JACK]

Ianto had had enough of the Hub for one night. Being cooped down in the archives working on a filing system that never seemed to go anywhere fast for the past few days had left him feeling a bit antsy, and he'd really just needed to get out and breathe fresh air for a while. Which was why when as soon as he finished the section he had been working on for the majority of that day, he had interrupted Akihiko's own work to ask him out for a coffee. Jack was nowhere to be found, but Ianto left him a note, and he felt that was as good a notice as he could give him. The Captain was probably down in one of the many training rooms or something, which meant that he'd rather not be disturbed anyway.

Which was the reason Ianto stood at the counter at a cafe a few blocks off the Plass, having left Akihiko to keep watch of their table. All that had been left was one of those little round ones with two arm chairs on either side that cafes seemed to be sporting more and more often for the people who would rather do their work at the cafe than go home and do it. Ianto had to admit that the chairs did look comfortable, but he couldn't help but feel a bit of a fool at the idea of sitting in one of the tattered old armchairs in a suit that obviously cost at least twice what the chair originally had.

"Jones, Ianto?" the woman at the counter called out, pulling him out of his train of thought, and he quickly stepped up and accepted the paper cups from her with a murmur of thanks. He headed back to Akihiko, placing the younger man's drink on the table in front of him and folding himself into his chair. "Can't guarantee it'll be the best you've had, but it's probably the best that we can buy around here so late in the evening," he said to Akihiko, cradling his own cup in his hands to warm them. "Sorry I sprung this on you so suddenly, I just needed..." He trailed off, shrugging and looking around. Truthfully, he needed something simple and normal, after a day of wading through the files of a particularly dark era of Torchwood history.

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To Ianto, there was no question as to whether Akihiko was a man or not. He'd helped them all through some rough times, had his own apartment and a job, was confident in who he was, and put his life on the line every day just by coming into work. He was brave, loyal, and true to himself, and if that didn't qualify a person to be a good man, Ianto really didn't know what did.

Ianto led the two of them out of the cafe and into the chilly air of Cardiff. Ianto shivered and buttoned his coat up to his neck. Being a bay city, it never really got too cold there, but it never got particularly warm either, especially in December. Heading towards the Millennium Center, he pointed up at the roof. "If he's anywhere out here, he'll probably be up there." He turned his head to look at Akihiko. "I hope that you're okay with heights...?" Ianto asked, trailing off. He himself didn't particularly care for them, which was why when Jack came up to the roof, he usually let him well enough alone.

((That's fine, at least you did get back to it! :P ~<3))

Akihiko blinked up at the roof of the building, then glanced at Ianto, wry. That was nothing, compared to how tall Tartarus was, though it was a little difference to be outside instead of inside the tower.

"I'm fine with heights," he said, tugging his own jacket a bit more closely around himself and glad of the everpresent gloves. "Come on, let's go get him! How do we get up there?" He glanced around and then headed for the entrance to the building.

"I'm glad one of us is, then," Ianto said quietly, before starting forward as well. "It's this way. Though it's up quite a lot of stairs, so prepare yourself."

Ianto led Akihiko into the building and across the entranceway to a door that read "Staff Only". He pushed it open, with a nod to a man on the janitorial staff who was standing nearby. "We have to keep up our relationship with the staff here," he explained, leading Akihiko through and down a narrow hallway. "We both share the area and have ended up causing enough damage to this times on many occasions to warrant first-name basis with some of the men here." That, and Jack came there often enough that if they saw Ianto there, they could be sure that he was probably just looking for Jack and then the two of them would be out of their hair for a while.

He pushed open another door and gestured to the staircase inside. "From here, it's only up. And up. And up." He sighed.

"Okay," Akihiko said cheerfully. He also nodded and smiled at the janitor as they passed him, then reached the staircase and started up with no hesitation. It was sort of like training - he often ran up and down stairs if he really wanted to get a good aerobic workout that day.

He'd probably wind up leaving Ianto behind without realizing it, at this rate.

"Man, I wish I knew this was here," he said as he trotted upwards happily, just beginning to grow a bit breathless. "This is great training for your heart."

"It is that..." Ianto said, rolling his eyes as he struggled up the stairs behind the younger man. While he was relatively in shape, he definitely didn't work out, certainly not on stairs and certainly not to the extent that Akihiko did. All things considered, he was doing fairly well, considering that he wasn't used to this much exercise. He did go jogging occasionally, when he could, but that was a bit different than this.

When they finally got to the top of the stairs, Ianto paused to breathe, before leading Akihiko through the door and to another staircase, this one shorter, but obviously not as often used. It looked more like a fire escape than anything else, and obviously it lead to the roof. Ianto tried hard to keep himself from breathing too heavily, but it was hard. He paused at the bottom of it, sighing. "At the top of these stairs, there's the door to the roof. Remind me to keep it propped open--it'll lock us up there otherwise, and I'd really like to not have to call Gwen to come and rescue me again."

Akihiko paused for a breather, too, and waited a bit longer for Ianto's sake than he otherwise would have, a little antsy and happy to get going after only a minute or so.

He trotted up the shorter staircase and paused at the door. "But if the door's closed, does that mean Jack's not up there?" he asked, pushing it open and poking his head out to look around.

Ianto groaned, stopping dead where he had begun to follow Akihiko up the stairs. "Was it closed? If he's up there at all, he'll be near the edge. Do you see him around? There's no use in me following you up there if he isn't." Plus, Ianto really had no desire to go out and stand on the roof in the cold if he didn't need to.

He frowned. He really hated this. Jack really just needed to man up and talk to them about what it was that was going on. Ianto gazed up at Akihiko at the top of the stairs. "I take it that he's not up here, then?"

Akihiko took a moment to look around thoroughly, poking his head out and using a foot to keep the door ajar as he covered the whole roof, then he came back inside and let the door slam shut heavily as he trotted back down the steps.

"No, sorry. I don't see him up there, after all. Guess we came all the way up here for nothing," he said with chagrin. "Does Jack have any other good hiding spots?"

"Damn." It figured as much. Ianto pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, he does, but they're all in the Hub. The ones I know about, anyway. If he's not in any of them, we might have to call it off. I mean, I know the Hub almost as well as he does. If we can't find him there, he either really doesn't want to be found, or he's out somewhere else..." Ianto really hoped that he wasn't out somewhere else.

"C'mon, back we go," he said, heading back the way they came and down the stairs at a brisk pace. "At least down is a lot easier than going up, I guess."

Akihiko nodded and trotted along after Ianto, deciding to stay behind him this time so he wouldn't leave the older man behind. "I'll have to step up your training if you keep whining," he said playfully, hoping to keep Ianto's spirits up despite his worry over Jack. "Obviously I'm not being hard enough on you. Come on, pick up your feet!"

If Jack wasn't in the hub, he wasn't sure what they'd do. Surely he'd show up eventually and they could confront him then. But what if he wasn't around because he was actually in trouble?

Ianto picked up the pace with a smile. His smile was short-lived, though, as one of his feet almost slid out from under him and he had to catch the railing hard in order not to go head-fist down the stairs. The almost-fall did not slow his pace, although he kept a hand firmly planted on the railing. "Obviously, I have to wear more practical, less dressy shoes if I want to survive any sort of training from you." The bottoms of dress shoes were a nightmare on most surfaces. Ianto made a mental note to search some out with rubber soles the next time he was out.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Ianto led them towards the exit and out of the Millennium Center onto the Plass outside. On a whim, he tapped his earpiece. "Jack?" he asked. No reply. He'd try a different angle, one that would merit a response. "Captain, are you there, sir?" He waited, looking at Akihiko beside him as he did. "He's not answering," he said after a moment. "Doesn't mean he's not there, just means he's not answering his comms."

((Aw, hang in there! I'm sorry it's been a bit boring these last couple tags, it'll be more exciting soon enough! :P; <3 I'm basically free from everything for the next two weeks, hopefully that plus closer time zones will allow us to get a bit more done than my last semester of school. *crosses fingers*))

Akihiko grabbed Ianto's arm when his feet nearly went out from under him, to help steady him, but thankfully Ianto didn't fall. Mental note, don't get Ianto to hurry too much when he was wearing shoes like that, especially on stairs.

"I hope he's okay," he said, biting his lip worriedly as Ianto tried the comm. "I mean, why wouldn't he at least answer? What if there were some kind of emergency?"

((Sorry I've been so fail. Part of it has been school and holidays being super busy. @_@ And then this one dropped back a bit and I didn't notice it right away. I'll be better from now on I think))

Rather than leading them to the tourist office entrance Ianto usually entered through, he headed straight for the invisible lift, pulling out his PDA and starting the equipment moving as soon as Akihiko stepped on after him, putting an arm on his shoulder to steady him as it kicked to life.

"Well, thank god that it isn't some kind of an emergency, because he would be feeling very, very guilty afterward..." Ianto didn't say anything about how much it actually really did concern him that Jack wasn't answering the comms. Maybe Janet had gotten him, maybe John had gotten him, maybe he'd been stolen by the Rift, except he left traces of being around.

"Why don't you check his office and the hatch?" Ianto asked, as the lift neared the bottom. "I'll check the board room and the armory. I know it's a leap, considering these are fairly obvious places, but--" He was cut off by a rather large sounding crash coming from the medical bay. Ianto may or may not have made a rather embarrassing noise of surprise. "What the--?"

((It's alright! I'm looking forward to picking it up a bit, though~ <3 ))

Akihiko was about to leap off and race up to Jack's office to check, when the heard the crashing sound. He jumped, then leaped down from the elevator before it had even reached the bottom. "I'll go check it out," he called as he raced towards the medical bay, pulling his evoker out of his under-arm concealed holster as he ran.

Just in case.

He had been getting more and more jumpy about Jack being missing. Maybe aliens had invaded the Hub.

((Yeah, me too! XD;;))

Ianto watched Akihiko race to the source of the sound, weapon raised. He thought about jumping off after the younger man, but after the fiasco with the stairs he would probably be safer waiting until the lift reached the bottom and then cautiously running after him. As it was, he drew his gun.

Inside the autopsy bay, Jack had just knocked over a rather large tray of medical equipment and was in the process of picking it up when Akihiko ran in, closely tailed by Ianto, guns blazing. He raised his head to look at them, smiling when he saw who they were.

"Hello, there, boys!" he called out, grinning. Ianto's hand faltered, but continued holding his gun pointed at Jack. Something was wrong here--that was almost too easy.

Akihiko checked when he realized it was Jack, and that he'd simply knocked a tray over - seemingly by accident. He blinked at Jack in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on here.

The fact that they hadn't been able to raise Jack by communicator kept his Evoker in his hand.

"Hey," he said with forced and false casualness. "We've been trying to reach you. Everything okay?"

Jack wasn't wearing his earpiece, nor did it appear to be lying around anywhere in the autopsy bay. Ianto was pleased with the fact that Akihiko didn't automatically lower his weapon either--it made him feel less guilty about the matter.

"Okay?" Jack asked, cocking his head to the side. "Sure. Fine. Better for having the two of you ravishing young lads back." He continued picking up the mess from the floor, snickering at his choice of words, amused by some sort of inside joke that Ianto sure as hell didn't get.

"Jack," Ianto said, calmly, "like he said, we've been trying to reach you. Where's your comm?"

"Oh, that," Jack said, offhandedly. "Probably in my office. Think that's where I saw it last. Can't really remember, now, can I?" He smiled up at them again. There was something strange about his expression, but Ianto couldn't put his finger on it.

Akihiko stared at Jack for a long time. He wasn't actually pointing his evoker at him - after all, it was more useful pointed at his own head - so it was in his hand with the muzzle pointed at the ground.

There was something really wrong here. Was Jack possessed, or was this some sort of shapeshifter?

Or... "Jack...are you drunk?"

Ianto blinked. Hard. And lowered his gun to point at the ground. Was Jack drunk? He'd never seen him act this way, but then again, he'd never seen him drunk either. Although, he'd heard from Jack and others that it was near impossible for the man to get drunk, and yet there he was.

"Who, me?" Jack asked. He put the tray back on the shelf that he'd knocked it off of and hauled himself to his feet. He didn't sway on his feet--that would be too stereotypical and anyway, he'd always been one to hold his liquor fairly well. He smiled lopsidedly at Akihiko. "Why d'you ask? Do I look drunk? Or is it the bottle that gives it away?" he asked, grinning and motioning to said bottle, sitting on the edge of a console.

"Either way, you got it right on the nose, tiger," Jack said, with a wink. Ianto swayed on his feet.

"No," Akihiko said, frowning at his boss in a rather severe way. Here they were, worrying themselves and running all over, and Jack was in the Hub getting drunk and stumbling around? He was sort of pissed off, but also worried.

"I didn't see the bottle. It was just the fact that you're acting weird. So either we need to lock you up for being an alien in disguise, or you're drunk," he said frankly.

He took a step forward, towards Jack. "Let's get you away from all of these sharp things," he said, reaching for Jack.

Jack looked around. He wasn't quite sure why he was down in the autopsy bay. He was sure that he'd had a good idea at one point, but it'd gone out the window when Akihiko and Ianto had shown up and thrown what little concentration he had out the window.

"Sounds good to me," Jack said, allowing Akihiko to grab him and lead him away. "I'd much prefer to be surrounded by soft things. Or hard things, either's good, I'm not picky," he said, with a wink.

Ianto holstered his gun. He wasn't sure what he felt about this situation. He felt like he was dreaming. Here he was, worried out of his mind that John had convinced Jack to run off with him, when the man in question was actually just pickling himself. "God, you are drunk," Ianto said. "I...this isn't supposed to be possible," he said in disbelief, turning his gaze to Akihiko.

Akihiko finally slid his evoker away and slipped his arm around Jack to help support him as he led him towards his office. There was a bed there and he could sleep it off there, he hoped.

"Not possible?" he echoed, startled. "Because of the whole...not dying thing?" He had certainly been drunk around Jack... but he couldn't remember if Jack had actually been intoxicated that day they'd tried cooking and burned the sauce while screwing in his kitchen.

If Jack knew that Akihiko was leading him to his office with the intention of making him sleep, he would have protested, and a lot. It was the first time he'd managed to get drunk in, oh, a very long time. "HAH!" Jack let out a loud, bitter laugh, swaying a bit with the force of it. "Exactly because of the whole 'not dying thing'. Right on the nose. Directly on the dot. Exactly..." He struggled for another metaphor. Ianto cut him off.

"Exactly how did you manage this feat, Jack?" Ianto asked, following behind them. His initial shock at the situation was starting to wear off, and his anger was starting to rear its ugly head. He'd been worried, for days, and for what? Was Jack simply off in the basement of the Hub, secretly getting drunk?

"Hypervodka!" Jack stated proudly, throwing an arm in the direction of the bottle. "Took freaking forever, but I finally managed to replicate it, and voila! Unlimited supply of hypervodka." He grinned. "John gave it to me, I couldn't have done it without him."

"Oh, of course John would've helped you out!" Ianto exclaimed. He shook his head. "I can't believe you!"

Akihiko's jaw dropped. "What's hypervodka?" he asked, baffled. Then he glared.

He didn't understand why Jack had decided he had to get completely wasted today, and he especially didn't understand why he'd enlisted John's help in the matter. "Ianto told me about this John guy. I thought we didn't like him!"

"What's hypervodka? It's gorgeous," Jack said, his eyes glazing. "One time I ordered four of them for my last meal when I'd been sentenced to death, but I woke up in bed with my two executioners, and they decided to let me off with a pardon." He laughed. Then, even through his drunken haze, noticed that the other two were not nearly so amused as he was.

"Oh, come on! It took me days to get this formula correct, and anyway, John just dropped off the initial sample, that's all!"

"Days?" Ianto said, appalled. "You've spent days on this, and you didn't tell us? Jack, we thought that you'd gotten into trouble. I almost thought that you'd left again!"

"Don't be stupid, Ianto," Jack threw out, a bit harsher than he probably would have done. "It's been a long, long time since I could get even the slightest bit tipsy, let alone as 'happy' as this. And you're always saying that I should relax and let loose a little. And, well, this is about as loose as I can get with clothes on, as well you know," he said, wagging his eyebrows. Ianto groaned. This was not how he'd thought that finding Jack would go.

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Arrrrrrrgh /fail

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