Title: Belonging
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3, 50ficlets
Prompt: 48, Where you belong
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 couldn't keep back a smile as he carried the empty plates and cups to the dishwasher in the Tardis' kitchen. It felt a little odd to be doing such mundane tasks when he was here on a ship traveling in time and space, but he was getting used to it.

Life on the Tardis really wasn't that much different from life on Earth in some ways, he reflected as he put the dishes into the dishwasher and closed the door. No matter where you were, things like housekeeping had to be done.

Of course, it was easier on the Tardis to do those things. The ship took care of a lot of them; he didn't have to spend a long time folding laundry, or cooking. There were definite advantages to being here if he wanted to be spared trivial things that he'd never liked doing.

Not that he couldn't cook if he wanted to, Ianto told himself with a smile. The Doctor didn't seem to like it much, but he wasn't surprised at that -- the Time Lord's mind was always leaping from one new thing to another too quickly to concentrate on something like making a meal.

He had fit into the Doctor's life here much better than he'd thought he would at first. In his first few days on the ship, he had felt awkward, as if he was an intruder who didn't really belong here. He'd doubted that he did belong for that first little while.

But the Doctor had told him to relax and let the Tardis take care of things that he would normally do for himself, and he'd followed that advice. And now, he felt more at home on the ship than he had when he was living in Cardiff and working for Torchwood.

He'd never really fit into Torchwood in the way he'd wanted to, had he? Ianto asked himself with a sigh. He had enjoyed his job in so many ways, and at the end, he'd felt as though he was finally starting to become a part of the team.

Still, he'd had a choice -- be with the man he loved on a permanent basis, or stay in a place where he'd never really felt completely comfortable. That hadn't been a choice at all; of course he was going to go with the Doctor, follow wherever his lover might lead.

Jack had seemed surprised at first that he'd made such a choice, but Ianto was sure that he could understand. After all, the other man had been the Doctor's lover at one time too -- he had to know how irresistible the lure of the Time Lord could be.

And not only that -- but this was the place where Ianto felt he belonged, in a way that he had never belonged with Torchwood, or anywhere else. He was a part of the Doctor's life in a way that he could never fit into anyone else's.

Even when he had been with Jack, he'd almost seemed like an afterthought for the immortal at times. Not that Jack hadn't cared for him -- but the other man had been much more focused on hunting down aliens than on anything else in his life, even his relationships.

And there had been several of those, Ianto told himself with another inward sigh. Jack had never been the faithful type, and Ianto had problems with that. He wanted to be the man in someone's life, not just a man who they cared about.

With the Doctor, he had that. The Time Lord was completely faithful to him -- he was certain of that. And as for himself, the idea that he might even look at anyone else was ridiculous. Why should he? He had the perfect person.

He was never going to stray from the Doctor's side; the bond between them grew stronger every day, and he knew that he had no desire to be anywhere else. Already Cardiff seemed a long way off, as if it hadn't really been a part of his life.

That was a strange feeling; knowing that his life on Earth was becoming less defined, as though it had been a film that he'd watched, rather than his own life. It all seemed like it had happened to someone else rather than to himself.

Even his memories were starting to become blurry; faces were more faraway, and there were people he could barely remember. His family stuck out in his mind, and the Torchwood team -- but everyone else seemed to be fading away into the background. Even Lisa was a fuzzy memory.

Yes, this was where he belonged, more than he had ever belonged in Cardiff or at Torchwood. He was in the place where he felt the most comfortable, and where he could do the most good -- both for himself and for the man he loved.

Ianto smiled to himself as the left the kitchen and made his way down the corridor to the control room, where he was sure that he would find the Doctor. A new adventure awaited them -- another day to prove that he was in the place he belonged, right by the Time Lord's side.

***