Title: To the Moon and Back
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: doctorwho_100
Prompt: 45, Moon
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.

***

"Is there any particular place you'd like to go that we haven't been to yet?" the Doctor asked Ianto, looking over at his boyfriend across the Tardis' console and raising an eyebrow. "There are so many places and times we could see, just pick one."

Ianto tilted his head to the side, as though he was considering the Doctor's words. "Well, there are a lot of places I've never seen, obviously," he said slowly, before laughing and winking at the Time Lord. "How about a trip to the moon?"

"The moon?" The Doctor was amused by his lover's remark. "There are places in the universe that are much more interesting than that! It's just pockmarked and pitted and .... and there isn't anything much around. At least, not in your time ...."

His voice trailed off, a thoughtful look crossing his features. Ianto couldn't help wondering just what that expression meant.

"Is there something about the moon in another time that's more interesting?" Ianto was sure that there was; after all, space travel had obviously grown by leaps and bounds in the future, and the moon had probably colonized long since.

The Doctor nodded, the speculative look on his face replaced by a smile. "Yes, most definitely," he said, looking excited and almost bouncing on his heels. "If you really do want to see the moon, Ianto, I can take you there a few centuries into the future."

Ianto laughed again, moving around to the other side of the console to pull the Doctor into his arms. "I only said that because it was the first place that came into my head," he confessed, shaking his head. "There are so many places I'd like to see."

"But the moon is one that could be interesting, if you'd like to see what the futur has made of it," the Doctor persisted, his eyes on Ianto's face.

"I would," Ianto told him with a smile, brushing his lips against the softness of the Time Lord's mouth. "It sounds as though you're familiar with it in different times." He couldn't help but wonder just why the Doctor knew how much the moon had changed over time.

"I've .... dealt with some less than pleasant experiences there," the Doctor admitted, looking down, his dark gaze not meeting Ianto's. The young man could feel the Time Lord's body tensing in his arms, a sure sign that the Doctor didn't want to talk about a subject.

But he couldn't keep himself from asking; the question flew out of his mouth before he could hold the words back. "What happened to you there?" he asked softly, hoping that it wasn't something the Doctor would refuse to tell him.

"It happened fairly recently -- when I was between companions," the Doctor told him, his voice a little hesitant. "It's something that I'd like to put behind me."

"Whatever it was, that's in the past, Doctor," Ianto said softly, placing a hand on the Time Lord's cheek. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but I'd like to know. That way, if you have any bad memories coming to the surface, I'll be prepared."

The Doctor gulped, looking down and then nodding. "The Master trapped me there. When it wasn't a developed planet. He planned to leave me on the surface -- even though I can survive in an airless environment for a while, I wouldn't have lasted long."

A shudder went through Ianto's body as he pulled the Time Lord against him, burying his face in the other man's hair. How close had he come to losing the man he loved -- or worse, never having found him at all?

It would have have been so easy for that to happen. The Doctor had been lucky that he'd found a way out of that situation -- and found his way to Ianto.

No, he was the lucky one, a voice in the back of Ianto's mind piped up. He was the luckiest man in the universe to be with the Doctor, to be his soul mate, to have this extraordinary man fall in love with him and choose him as his life partner.

"I thought that I wasn't coming back from the moon," the Doctor whispered, his voice slightly muffled from having his face pressed against Ianto's shoulder. "I've been close to death many times -- but in that environment, I couldn't have regenerated."

"But this time, we'll go to the moon and back," Ianto murmured, wanting to reassure the man in his arms. He could feel the Doctor tremblng against him; the experience must have beeen unnerving for him. Ianto couldn't blame him for that.

"If you'd prefer not to go there at all --" he began, but the Doctor was shaking his head, taking a breath and opening his mouth to speak.

"I don't want to go there in your time, Ianto," he said, his voice barely audible at first but gaining more strength as he continued to speak. "But in the future, it's an amazing place. It's not even recognisable as being the moon that it was in your century."

He could hardly blame the Doctor for not wanting to see the moon as it had been when he'd nearly lost his life there; no one would want memories like that to come flooding back. But at least the Time Lord wasn't turning his back on the idea of going there at all.

"It's always been a place that held a lot of fascination for me," Ianto admitted, smiling. "When I was a child, I'd look up at the full moon on clear nights and wonder what it was like to be there. It always seemed so ... so peaceful, for some reason."

"It is peaceful," the Doctor murmured, looking down again. "But at the time, it was also a death trap in most conditions. You wouldn't have wanted to be there then."

Another shudder went through the Doctor's thin body; Ianto's arms tightened around him, as though he could protect the Time Lord from his memories, from anything that could possibly happen to him. If only that were so, he thought ruefully. But he didn't have that kind of power.

If only he did .... But that wasn't something that bore thinking about, Ianto told himself firmly. He didn't, and he would have to accept his own limitations. Still, if the Doctor got them to the moon, Ianto would do his best to make sure they got back from there safely.

"So, are you ready for a trip to the moon -- via the future, my love?" he asked, his tone low-pitched and husky. "You know that I wouldn't ask you to go back there in my time. I don't want you to have to relive any memories that you'd rather put behind you."

"I'd love to take you to the moon and back, sweetheart," the Doctor replied, a small smile beginning to dawn on his face. "It's a fascinating place -- in the future."

Ianto wanted to ask just what the situation had been on the moon in the Doctor's past, but he felt that he didn't have the right to pry. Not now. Maybe sometime when the Doctor could deal with talking about what had happened, he would ask for a fuller explanation.

But for now, it was enough for him that he was going to the moon. "To the moon, Doctor!" he quipped, doing his best Honeymooners' imitation and winking at the Time Lord. He was rewarded with a gurgle of laughter, as the Doctor moved to the console to program their destination.

***