Title: Arms of An Angel
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3, 50ficlets
Prompt: 11, Angel
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.

***

The Doctor leaned his head on his hand as his gaze strayed to where Ianto was sitting in the library of the Tardis, his attention concentrated on the book on his lap. It wasn't often that the Doctor had the chance to study his young lover and be completely unobserved.

He tried not to endow humans with qualities they didn't possess. He knew all too well what the failings of the human race were; he'd seen them come out too many times, both in his human enemies, and in people who he'd known well and loved.

His companions had always been a source of endless fascination for him; no matter how much humans seemed to be alike, they always had such incredible differences in their personalities. It was something that he'd never quite been able to understand.

Just what made humans so vastly different? Was it because they grew up in different countries, from far different cultures and environments? Or was it because they simply weren't cut from the same cloth, not a single one of them?

He would never know the answer to that question, not even if he spent the rest of all the lives he had left asking it. And the truth was, he didn't want humans to be alike. Their differences were what made each one of them unique, and it was one of the things he loved about them.

Any race less like Cybermen he couldn't imagine! The Doctor's lips twisted in a wry smile at that thought. Stranger that Cybermen had evolved from humans -- in trying to make themselves what they perceived as "better," they'd stripped away all of their humanity.

His Ianto would never be amongst the sort of humans who would do something like that, he thought, his gaze moving over his lover's face. Ianto still hadn't noticed that he was being watched; he was absorbed by his book, all of his attention caught up.

Ianto had the countenance of an angel, the Doctor told himself, another smile curving his lips as the words formed in his mind. Ianto certainly wouldn't agree with that estimation of himself, he thought, the smile growing.

No, he would protest and say that he was anything but angelic. He would point out that he didn't feel he always did what he was here for -- namely, being the Doctor's companion and keeping him safe. But of course, the Time Lord saw things differently.

For him, Ianto wasn't here merely as a companion -- he was far more than that, and had been since the moment he'd first walked into the Tardis. He was the Doctor's lover, his soul mate, the man he'd been intended for since the moment of his birth.

It didn't matter that they had been born on different planets, centuries apart from each other. Or that they were two different races, that there were differences between them that would never be reconciled. All of that paled in the face of what they felt for each other.

The only thing that mattered was the deep and enduring love that he shared with Ianto. Their feelings knocked down all the barriers that their differences could possibly put between them; those emotions brought them together in the most primal way of all.

Ianto would always be his angel, no matter how the young man happened to see himself. He couldn't possibly know just how the Doctor looked at him, or what a change he'd made in the Time Lord's life -- as well as in the way that the Doctor saw himself.

He'd felt a bit burnt out when he had first met the young Welshman; he was starting to question just how much good he did in the world, if his efforts really made a difference -- and if he was somehow destined to spend most of his life alone.

Then this beautiful man had come tumbling into his life, like an angel sent to him from above -- an angel with blue-grey eyes that he could lose himself in, a smile that made his hearts flutter, and a heart that wrapped him in a love that was unlike anything he'd ever known.

Maybe Ianto would never be able to see himself in that way, but he also saw the Doctor in a way that the Time Lord could never fathom. He didn't see a man who was questioning himself and his actions, feeling that he was destined for nothing but loneliness.

No, he saw a man who was vital and exciting, a man who he loved with all of his heart. A man who he could wrap in the arms of an angel, a man who he wanted to give his life to. A man who he loved with a force unrivaled by any other in the galaxy.

Ianto's love had given him a purpose that he'd been lacking before. He had never felt that he needed another person to complete him -- but Ianto had been the puzzle piece that had fallen into place, the piece that had been missing for all of the Doctor's long life.

What would he do without Ianto in his life, without his angel there by his side? He didn't want to think about that. He would eventually have to face that prospect, but it wasn't going to happen for a very long time to come. No use thinking about it now.

The Doctor's smile grew as Ianto raised his head to see his lover watching him; the young man put down his book and held out his arms with a smile of his own, obviously eager to wrap the Time Lord in the loving embrace of his angel.

***