Title: Springs Desire
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: Drabble Tree, 5_prompts
Prompt: Never be alone
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.

***

Falling in love was a strange thing, Ianto thought to himself with a smile as his gaze rested on the Doctor. The Time Lord was bent over the console, staring at it intently, as though he'd seen something that he wasn't sure about on the small viewscreen there and he wanted to look at it closely and carefully before he came to some kind of decision about what he was looking at.

After his breakup with Jack, he'd been so sure that he never wanted to get involved with another man. He'd been absolutely positive that Jack was the only man he could possibly be with, that there was no one else who could even come close to inspiring the same love he'd had in his heart for the immortal. But that vow had fallen by the wayside from his first glimpse of the Doctor.

There had been something about this man that had captured him completely from the moment their eyes had met; the Doctor had owned him from that second, heart, body and soul. He'd never such a strong emotion for anyone as the surge of desire that had sprung up within in when the Doctor had smiled, spoken his name, and shaken his hand for the first time.

How could it be possible that two emotions as complicated as love and desire had sprung to life within him at one glance, one touch? Ianto knew what it was like to be in love; the Doctor wasn't the first person he'd given his heart to. He knew what it was like to love and lose -- and he knew how to differentiate love from mere desire. This feeling had been both, in equal measure, yet stronger than he'd ever experienced.

This kind of desire shouldn't be possible. No one should want another being so much that they let that person seep into the very cells of their being, take them over in every way from the inside out. If he had felt this way about anyone else -- even Jack -- he would have pulled back, feeling that he was getting in over his head, afraid of a feeling that he wasn't sure about. But it wasn't so with the Doctor. With this man, he had simply known that he would never be alone, that the Doctor would always be right by his side.

He had simply known that he was doing what was right for him. Nothing could possibly have felt more right; Ianto had been convinced of that from the first moment their eyes had met and their hands had touched.

He loved the Doctor; he always would. This man was his destiny. He'd known it from the instant he'd looked into those dark eyes and seen the certainty that they would belong to each other etched in those fathomless depths.

Love and desire had both sprung upon him at once -- and he would always be grateful that they had.

***