Title: Fires At Midnight
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: NC-17
Table: 11
Prompt: 05, Firelight
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Jack Harkness. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor awakened slowly, gingerly stretching his long limbs beneath the covers of Ianto's bed. It seemed that he'd spent most of the last few days here -- well, here, and also in the huge four-poster in the Tardis. In fact, he'd hardly been out of bed lately ....

He could feel a pink flush rising in his cheeks at the thought. Making up for lost time? The Doctor had to resist the urge to pull the covers over his face. It was more than a little embarrassing to have his thoughts pulled in that direction -- after all, it wasn't as though he'd been a blushing virgin when he'd met Ianto.

Still, he'd never experienced anything like this, in all of his many regenerations. He'd cared for others, yes. But he knew that he'd never been in love, nor anything close to it. Now, he was experiencing that very human emotion for the first time.

And it was every bit as wondrous as all of the poems and innumerable bad romance novels had said it would be.

He'd had other lovers, of course. He'd never deny that. And some of them, he had even felt deeply for. But he had never experienced the complete and utter devotion that he and Ianto shared with any other being, though he'd tried to convince himself a few times that he was in love.

There had been encounters with both men and women -- even if he had always taken the dominant role with men. The Doctor couldn't hold back a tiny smile when he thought of Jack -- Jack, who seemed so in control, but was so different from that persona when one was alone with him.

An unbidden thought crossed his mind, and the smile wavered as he turned his face towards the pillow, trying to block out the memory. No, the times he'd encountered the Master in that way .... didn't count. There had been nothing emotional, nothing good that came from those meetings.

He'd been taken in rage, in hatred. There had been nothing in those instances that had even been akin to caring. That hadn't even been sex, the voice in the back of his mind whispered. It had been rape.

The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest, feeling a shiver run down his spine and spread through his body. Those times that the Master had taken him .... they were in the past. They wouldn't happen again, he told himself fiercely. He knew how to protect himself.

That insistent little voice snorted in his mind. Protect himself? He hadn't been able to do that before -- so how could be be so sure that he could do it in the future?

Ianto. How could he keep the Master away from Ianto if their relationship became known? How could he protect his love if he couldn't protect himself?

He pressed his face into the pillow, trying to stop the trembling that always overtook him whenever he thought of what the Master had done to him. But it wouldn't stop; the shaking spread, no matter how he tried to push the memory of the pain he'd endured away from his conscious mind.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the trembling stopped. The Doctor rolled over onto his stomach, the silken sheets tangling around his bare body. He winced slightly as he settled himself; he was still a little sore from the past two nights.

Well, not only nights -- mornings, days, and afternoons, as well. He couldn't keep back a smile at the thought. Ianto was .... a very demanding lover. But that wasn't necessarily something he didn't like.

Odd to think that he himself hadn't been a virgin when this had started -- though this particular body had been, at least as far as being the submissive partner was concerned. Ianto had been remorseful over the pain the first time had caused, but the Doctor had reassured him that it was nothing.

Nothing compared to the pain the Master had caused ....

He resolutely pushed the thought away. He wasn't going to let his time with Ianto be tainted by memories that were better left undisturbed.

The fireplace in Ianto's bedroom threw shadows across the room, the warmth from the blaze making the room seem cozy and intimate. Why not a fireplace on the Tardis? The Doctor smiled at the notion. It wouldn't work, of course, but still, it was a nice fantasy.

Where was Ianto? He'd gotten out of bed a while ago, slipping out of the room with a quiet reassurance that he would be back soon. The Doctor didn't know how long it had been, but he was beginning to worry.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, his lover appeared in the doorway, carrying two steaming mugs of hot tea. He crossed the expanse of floor, setting them both down carefully on the table by the bed before slipping under the covers again, stretching his lean body out beside the Doctor.

Ianto didn't stay still for long; when he was settled comfortably, he wrapped both strong arms around the Doctor, pulling the slender Time Lord against his own body, his hands caressing the Doctor's back. The Doctor gasped, his dark eyes widening as one hand slipped between his legs, pushing his thighs apart and cupping his balls.

"I can't keep my hands off of you," Ianto murmured, his mouth covering the Doctor's in a heated kiss, his hand moving lower, one finger stroking over the Time Lord's entrance and eliciting another soft gasp.

"I don't want you to," the Doctor managed to whisper, before that stroking finger slid into him and the only sound he could manage was a moan of pleasure, his hips arching up against Ianto's hand.

The Doctor could already feel the beginnings of his orgasm coiling in his stomach, the pleasure starting to spread over his body. No other lover had ever had this effect on him; there was magic in Ianto's touch, his lips, his hands, his body.

Everything that had gone before ceased to matter. There was no past, no future. Only the present, and the man who was a part of him.

When Ianto slid into him, it was as though they each melted into the other; two becoming one, their bodies so entwined that the Doctor couldn't have told himself when he ended and Ianto began. It didn't matter; all that mattered was that they were together.

The burst of pleasure was almost unbearable; his cry was torn from his throat at the same moment that Ianto moaned incoherently, their bodies locked in an embrace that neither of them wanted to break.

Ianto didn't pull out of the Doctor immediately, but propped his head on one hand and looked down at the man he'd just made love to. The Doctor's skin was covered with a fine sheen of perspiration, his cheeks flushed, the long dark lashes lying like feathery fans across his pale skin.

Ianto thought the Doctor had never looked so gorgeous. He smiled to himself; he'd read that a man was at his most beautiful after he'd experienced an orgasm, and at the moment, Ianto was sure that was true.

"I've always wanted to make love to you by firelight," Ianto whispered, one finger tracing the outline of the Time Lord's lips.

"It looks as though your wish has come true," the Doctor said softly, feeling relaxed, a little drained. He could feel his eyes closing, almost against his will, though he struggled to stay awake.

Ianto leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to the Doctor's mouth, murmuring against his lips. "Go to sleep, beloved. I'll watch over you."

"Beloved ...." The Doctor's voice was barely a whisper; he was already drifting into slumber.

"Yes. Beloved," Ianto replied, tightening his arms around the slender body and closing his own eyes.

The firelight that had illuminated the room began to fade as the dawn broke over the city, painting the walls with a silvery-grey light and casting a warm glow over the sleeping faces of the two men curled together under the down comforter.

Each of those faces wore a slight, contented smile.

***