Title: All Roads Lead To You
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: VRD challenge - Brown, 5_prompts
Prompt: A cup of tea
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own Ianto Jones or the Tenth Doctor. Please do not sue.

***

"You know, you make an awfully good cup of tea, Ianto," the Doctor told his lover, leaning back in his chair and carefully setting his cup down on the kitchen table in front of him. "I don't wonder that Torchwood was sorry to see you go on that level."

Ianto couldn't help but laugh at the Doctor's words, shaking his head wryly. "There was a time when I'd have hated to hear those words," he murmured, setting down his own cup and raising his gaze to meet the other man's. "I thought that was all they wanted me there for."

"That's not true, sweetheart," the Doctor told him, reaching across the table to take Ianto's hand in his own. "Jack recognized your good qualities from the first. He knew that you were brave and selfless, even if he might not have shown that knowledge all the time."

"I know that part of the reason he didn't want me to go out with the team for so long is because I was the youngest member of the team, and he wanted to protect me," Ianto said, sighing. "And because he was afraid of losing me when we were involved."

"I have to thank him for that someday," the Doctor said, a hint of laughter in his tone. "He kept you safe for me, you know." His gaze rested fondly on his young lover, moving over his features. Was it Ianto's imagination, or was there a hint of gravity behind the laughter?

"What makes you say that?" Ianto asked, raising his eyebrows in a query. "I think he wanted to keep me safe for himself at the time. Well, it could also have been because he cared about me. But knowing Jack, there was a more self-motivated reason."

"I don't think so," the Doctor said, his words coming out slowly, as though he was mulling them over before speaking aloud. "Remember, he said that he almost gave you his pendant -- but that he knew that you two weren't meant to be soul mates."

Ianto nodded, falling silent as he remembered that conversation with Jack. The immortal had indeed said that -- almost as if he knew that Ianto would eventually meet the Doctor and the two of them would fall in love.

"He knew that any road I took would lead to you," Ianto murmured, his eyes widening as the possibilities all seemed to crowd into his mind. Jack was from the future -- could he have somehow looked back at the past from a future vantage point and seen all of this?

If he had, then he'd done a masterful job of keeping it to himself the entire time they had been together, he told himself. But he shouldn't be surprised at that; Jack had always been good at keeping secrets, even from the people who were closest to him.

And he certainly had been close to Jack at one time. They had been lovers, sharing each other's lives and beds; how much closer could they have been? Well .... that was a question that he shouldn't try to answer, Ianto thought, his lips twisting in a wry smile.

They could have been a lot closer, really. Jack had cared for him -- he'd never doubted that. Maybe he'd even cared more than he'd let on at the time. If he hadn't, then he wouldn't have gone out of his way to keep Ianto safe -- and saved his life more than once.

But they hadn't shared intimate secrets with each other. Whenever Ianto had tried to, Jack had quietly but firmly hushed him -- usually with some sexual exploit. And it had never occurred to him just why his former lover had shut himself off like that.

Maybe it was because Jack had known, even then, that their relationship wasn't one that was meant to last. He'd known beyond a shadow of a doubt that his role in Ianto's life was to help the younger man discover who he was -- not to be his life partner.

And Jack had been the one to lead him to the Doctor. If he hadn't taken Ianto into Torchwood, the Time Lord would more than likely have been just another story that Ianto had heard bandied about the office, nothing more than an insubstantial rumor.

Because of his work with Torchwood, the Doctor had been much more than that from the first moment they'd met. He'd fallen head over heels for the Time Lord from the beginning -- and he couldn't help feeling that Jack had known that it would happen.

"I think he probably did," the Doctor said softly, bringing Ianto out of his private thoughts. His head jerked up, his gaze meeting the Time Lord's across the table. "We really do have a lot to thank him for, Ianto. If he hadn't brought you to Torchwood ...."

The other man's voice trailed off, and Ianto nodded, not wanting to contemplate what his life would be like now without Torchwood, and without the Doctor in his life. One had led to the other -- and he was happier with his life than he had ever been at any other time.

"Maybe he brought me into Torchwood because he knew that it would be the only way for the two of us to meet," Ianto whispered, the thought taking shape and crystallizing in his mind. "Maybe he brought me in just to find my way to you. It's possible."

"Or maybe he brought you in simply because you make a marvelous cup of tea," the Doctor told him with a laugh, reaching across the table to twine their fingers together. His laughter was infectious; Ianto couldn't help joining in.

What did it matter why Jack had brought him into the Torchwood team? The fact remained that he had -- and that being a member of Torchwood had led directly to him finding the man who was his soul mate, the love of his life.

Even if that hadn't been the case and Jack had only brought him in because, as the Doctor said, he made a marvelous cup of tea -- it still made no difference. In the end, that road had led him to the Doctor -- right where he was always meant to be.

***