Title: Better Than Me
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: VRD challenge - Brown, 5_prompts
Prompt: Starbucks coffee
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.

***

"This isn't as good as your coffee, you know," the Doctor mused, holding up the Starbucks cup and looking across the table at Ianto. "Yours has much more flavour. Though I suppose that I might just be a little biased in my opinion."

Ianto laughed softly, holding up his own cup in a toast of sorts. "I don't know if I should say you're right or not. I think I make good coffee, but I doubt that I'd want to start up a company. I don't even have a particular recipe for what I make."

"Then why is your coffee so amazing?" the Doctor asked, genuinely curious. "Really, Ianto, no one makes coffee like you do. I can see why Jack wanted to keep you on at Torchwood, if only for that reason. He's a man who appreciates a good cup of coffee."

"That was pretty much the only thing he appreciated about me," Ianto muttered, looking into the swirls of liquid in his coffee cup. "That, and the fact that I looked good in a suit. Oh, and he appreciated my arse. That was about it."

The Doctor shook his head, sighing softly. "You're wrong, Ianto. Jack appreciated you as an intrinsic part of his team. He only left you at the Hub most of the time because he didn't want to see you hurt. You meant far too much to him."

"The others meant a lot to him too!" Ianto burst out, his bitterness showing in his tone. "They were close to him. We all were. All right, so none of the others were sleeping with him, but he cared about them as if they were better than me. I wasn't anything special to him, not really."

"I don't believe that," the Time Lord told him, reaching across the table to take Ianto's hand. "And it sounds as though you still have some unresolved issues with Jack. Maybe the two of you should talk them out at some point."

Ianto looked up in surprise, opening his mouth to speak and then closing it again. He really didn't know what to say -- especially when he caught the flash of fear in the Doctor's eyes that told him more than the other man would admit aloud.

The Doctor was afraid that he still had feelings for Jack, that he might choose to go back to his former lover. Ianto knew that wasn't going to happen; that ship had sailed long ago, and any feelings that he still had for Jack were far from being romantic.

He didn't want to be with anyone other than the man seated across the table from him. He'd bonded with the Doctor; they were a part of each other, hearts, bodies and souls. There was no other person he wanted to give himself to, in this life or any other.

Still, he would be lying if he denied that he harbored some feelings towards his former lover -- even if they were nowhere near romantic. No, his feelings were more resentment than anything else, a smoldering anger at the way he'd been treated when he was with Torchwood.

"You're still angry with him, aren't you?" the Doctor asked, his voice soft. Ianto could hear the hesitation behind those words; it was clear that the Doctor was uncertain as to whether he really wanted to hear the answer to his question.

Ianto nodded slowly, slumping back in his seat. "I have a right to be, don't I? He made me feel as though I didn't really belong in Torchwood. And when I first met him, he tried everything that he could do dissuade me from being there. He didn't want me around."

"That's not true, either," the Doctor whispered, his gaze riveted on Ianto's face. "He wanted you too much, and he knew it. He didn't want to put you into the path of danger, Ianto. He was afraid for you -- and he had every right to be."

"Why? Because he had sexual feelings for me?" Ianto almost snorted, leaning back and shaking his head. "I was never much more than a sex toy to Jack, Doctor. He might have been fond of me, but he's fond of anyone he has sex with more than once."

"I think you were much more than that to him, Ianto," the Doctor said quietly, squeezing his lover's hand. "But I don't want to argue about it. If that's how you feel, then you have a right to that. But the bitterness will keep eating away at you until you confront Jack about those feelings."

"I don't want to do that," Ianto sighed, closing his eyes and sighing heavily. "What good would it do? I'm not with him any more, and never will be. I don't want to be. I've found my soul mate -- and he knows that. There's nothing to confront him about."

"It seems as though you haven't gotten any closure for your feelings," the Doctor pointed out to him. "I'd like for you to do that, just to close a door on the past. I know you won't go back to him, Ianto -- but I want you to be at peace with your past."

"I know one good way to do that," Ianto said with a laugh, reaching for his coffee cup. "Offer to make him coffee. Jack never could resist my coffee, even before we started having a relationship. That was what drew him to me in the beginning, I think."

"I don't know about that," the Doctor said with a smile, releasing his hand, but still watching him. "I think Jack was initially drawn to you because you look good in a suit. The coffee was just a pleasant discovery. Though it's certainly a bonus."

"And what about you?" Ianto asked softly, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table, gazing into the Doctor's dark eyes. "What exactly drew you to me?" His eyes seemed to search into the Doctor's soul, pulling the answer out of him.

"My hearts," the Doctor answered simply, laying his hand on top of Ianto's on the table. The young man twined his fingers though the Time Lord's, his lover's words warming his heart even more than the coffee they were drinking warmed his body.

"I don't think Jack's heart led him to me," Ianto laughed, his good mood fully restored. "I think it was my suits, my arse, and my coffee -- in that order. But maybe those aren't bad reasons, considering what Jack's first priority always is."

"Not bad at all," the Doctor agreed with a smile. "Though I personally think his main priority was definitely your coffee. Which, incidentally, I still think is far better than Starbucks," he added, laughing as he raised the cup to his lips, his free hand still clasped in his lover's grip.

***