Title: Openhearted
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3, 50ficlets
Prompt: 20, Sacred
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.

***

Ianto opened his eyes, taking a moment to focus on where he was. He relaxed as his eyes took in the dimness of the room around him, the familiar soft silvery glow that the Tardis always cast about this room reassuring him as to his location.

He was in the bedroom he shared with the Doctor, of course. It had taken him a while to get used to waking up here rather than in his own bedroom in his flat in Cardiff, but that was a thing of the past, only existing now in his memories.

Being here on the Tardis was literally like a dream come true for him. He hadn't thought that the Doctor was going to agree to have him along all the time; he'd felt that Ianto would be much safer staying on Earth, not getting involved in his adventures.

Of course, when Ianto had pointed out calmly that he was much more likely to be hurt or even killed by working with Torchwood, the Doctor had changed his mind rather quickly.

It hadn't really been fair of him to use Torchwood as an example, had it? Ianto couldn't help smiling a bit at the thought; well, at least he'd gotten what he wanted out of that. The Doctor hadn't hesitated to insist that Ianto leave Cardiff and travel with him on a permanent basis.

He was glad of that, Ianto told himself, snuggling down under the covers and sliding his arms around the sleeping man at his side. He'd hated it when his lover had left, even when it was only for a few days at a time. His worry about the Doctor's safety ate away at him constantly.

That worry had been eradicated the moment he'd stepped into the Tardis. This ship had felt more like home than any other place he'd ever lived; even more so than his parents' home that he'd grown up in, or his own flat in Cardiff that he'd made his hideaway.

But then, the Doctor's presence had a way of doing that for any place he was in. His flat had always felt more like home when the Time Lord was there.

No one else had ever been able to transform their surroundings in that way. Ianto could only surmise that it was his attachment to the Doctor that made him feel that way; their bond was something that he couldn't quite understand, but that he would never question.

There was something sacred and almost mystical about the way they had come together, he mused as he pulled the other man closer against his body. That first look, that first touch -- from those moments on, he'd felt a pull towards the Time Lord that he couldn't deny.

What was it about this man that drew Ianto so inexorably into his orbit? The young Welshman couldn't quite put his finger on just what the attraction was; it was something that defied convention, something that he'd never be able to put into words.

It was love, yet it was more than that. No simple four-letter word could even begin to describe what he felt in his heart when he looked at the Doctor.

Was it horrible of him to think that the love he shared with the Time Lord was something sacred? Ianto didn't think so, though he was sure that there were millions of religious humans who would say that his loving a man was evil, and that there was nothing sacred about it.

He didn't care what they thought. There was nothing evil or wrong in any way about his relationship with the man he loved, and he would stand up to anyone who dared to say otherwise. He would defend his love for the Doctor to the death, if need be.

He'd taken care to hide his relationship with Jack at first, from his family and his friends. The only ones who'd known about it were his colleagues at Torchwood, and it hadn't been an issue for them. But the other people in Ianto's life wouldn't have understood.

After a while, when it had stopped feeling so new and different to be in love with a man, he hadn't hidden any more. He hadn't really cared what other people had thought of him.

With the Doctor, it was different. His friends and family knew now that he preferred men, of course -- if he told them that he was seeing a man who he was madly in love with and wanted to spend the rest of his life with, they wouldn't blink an eye.

No, that wasn't entirely true, he thought regretfully. Some of his friends had backed off, and his father would never understand him loving a man. There were some people who would never see it as a sacred love that was meant to be.

Those people would only see the beautiful relationship he shared with the Time Lord as being unnatural and wrong, and Ianto couldn't help but feel sorry for them. They would never be able to open their minds -- or learn to be openhearted.

They had no place in his life any more. He wasn't on Earth now, subject to all of those human rules that had seemed so bothersome to him at times.

He was here on the Tardis with the Doctor, traveling through time and space with the man he loved in his arms. And there was no other place that he wanted to be. If he was given the choice to stay with the Doctor or go back to Earth, he would choose the Time Lord without a second thought.

This was his destiny, Ianto told himself as he closed his eyes and bowed his head to brush his lips against the softness of the Doctor's hair. A destiny that he intended to see through to the end, and that he intended to experience to the fullest.

***