Title: Kaleidoscope
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3, 50ficlets
Prompt: 50, Black & White
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.

***

"What do you think made the Cybermen the way they are?" Ianto asked the Doctor as they stood over the Tardis console looking down at the planet they'd just left. "It's inconceivable to me that any race can think the way they do."

"I don't think anyone will really know for sure," the Doctor said, his tone musing. "But the explanation that's usually accepted is that they replaced so much of themselves with artificial constructs that they lost their humanity over the centuries."

"That's horribly sad, to think that people would let themselves lose their humanity in that way," Ianto said softly, shaking his head. "I know that there are a lot of humans on Earth who're leaning in that direction, and I hope they don't go all the way."

The Doctor shook his head, a frown creasing his brow. "So do I, Ianto. So do I. Humans -- and any other race -- aren't meant to see the world, and life, in black and white. There are so many shades of grey, and they all need to be seen and acknowledged."

"The Cybermen are never going to see the world in that light," Ianto sighed, remembering his encounter with that species. "After seeing what they did to Lisa -- what they turned her into -- I'm convinced they're the most evil beings in the galaxy."

The Doctor shook his head again, raising his head to meet Ianto's gaze. "No, Ianto, they're not. Yes, they're a species it's best to keep away from -- but there are others much more frightening than them. Species that I wouldn't want you to meet."

Ianto shuddered at the thought of anything being worse than the Cybermen; he still had terrible dreams sometimes about what Lisa had behaved like when she'd been transformed into a half-Cyberman. "I don't think I'd want to meet them, if they're worse."

"The Vashta Nerada aren't a species anyone wants to meet," the Doctor told him, shuddering at the memory of the last time he'd encountered them. But at least that had been a day that no one had died. One of the better outcomes of his dealings with them.

"It's a pity that more species can't see everything around them, rather than living in a black and white world of absolutes," Ianto murmured, unable to keep his mind from the subject. "Black and white isn't even particularly interesting."

"Ah, but the people who live in that sort of a world aren't concerned with 'interesting,'" the Doctor said, shaking his head again. "They live in a world where they are the rulers, and everything under them is for the use. No grey area, only two colours and a line drawn between them."

"There are so many humans like that. I think that's one thing that really drives Jack insane about living in the 21st century," Ianto said with a laugh. "Are things really that different in the time that he comes from? Sometimes it seems they are, and sometimes not."

The Doctor looked as though he was reluctant to talk about the future Earth that Jack hailed from, but then he sighed and spoke slowly, as though measuring his words. "Not that different in some ways -- but a world apart from your century in others."

"It doesn't really matter to me if I never find out," Ianto said, a small smile curving his lips as he turned to the Doctor, his gaze resting on his lover's face. "I belong wherever you are, whether it's in the present, the past, or the future."

"And I wouldn't want you anywhere else but with me," the Doctor answered, his voice husky. He turned to Ianto, sliding both arms around the young man's waist. "That's one choice I don't mind being written in black and white. There's no grey area."

Ianto shook his head, still smiling. "None indeed," he agreed, raising a hand to stroke his fingertips down the Doctor's cheek. "There wasn't another choice for me from the moment I saw you. I knew that you were the man I wanted to be with. It wasn't a choice at all."

"Jack had told me so much about you before we'd met -- and it wasn't a choice for me either," the Time Lord told him, his voice catching in his throat. "It was more like a compulsion -- and it was written in stone for me the moment our eyes met that I belonged to you."

"Before I met you, I thought that my sexuality was fluid. That I could love either men or women, and be happy with that," Ianto said, his smile growing wider. "Now I realise that my sexuality is black and white -- and there's only one sort of person I can love."

"And just what sort of person would that be?" the Doctor asked, raising a brow in question and smiling back at the other man. He thought he could guess what Ianto was going to say, but he wanted to hear it from his lover's own lips.

"Why, a Time Lord, of course. And one Time Lord in particular," Ianto answered, his blue-grey eyes sparkling with laughter. He leaned forward to press his lips against the Doctor's, their kiss bringing a kaleidoscope of colors in his mind, as far from black and white as he could possibly get.

***