Title: Cherish the Day
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 20_est_relships
Prompt: 28, Cherish
Author's Note: Song lyrics are from "Cherish" by the Association.
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.

***

What could he do to show Ianto how much he was loved and needed? The Doctor felt that he'd been pondering that question for days; and yet, in all of the time he'd been thinking about it, he hadn't managed to come up with a satisfactory answer.

It wasn't any sort of special anniversary, was it? He thought back over the time that he and Ianto had been together. Seven months, two weeks, and three days. As far as he knew, that didn't signify any kind of special celebration.

And it wasn't a holiday, so that idea was definitely out. It wasn't close to Ianto's birthday -- and he coudn't even remember what day he himself had been born on. The date was somewhere in the history banks of the Tardis, but he didn't care enough to find it.

What did that leave? He sighed, propping his chin on his hands and resting his elbows on the kitchen table. Nothing that he could think of.

He could always make up a reason for having a celebration, he supposed. But somehow, that didn't seem quite right; he had a feeling that it would fall flat, and that it wouldn't have the special significance something like that should have.

Why was he even thinking about some sort of celebration? There wasn't any particular reason for it. He'd just felt for the last few days that he wanted to show his lover how much he was loved and appreciated, how much the Doctor needed and treasured him.

He blinked as the song playing on the radio in the kitchen of Ianto's flat caught his attention:

Cherish is the word I use to describe
All the feeling that I have hiding here for you inside ....

That was certainly how he felt about Ianto. He cherished this young man more than he ever had anyone he'd met before; Ianto had so quickly become a part of his life from the moment they'd met. He had never really believed that he would find his soul mate -- but that was before he'd acutally met that person in the flesh.

Even though he'd been told all of his life that he would "know it" when he met the person who he was meant to be with, he'd always scoffed at the notion. Maybe that was why meeting Ianto and realizing that his soul mate did indeed exist had been such a powerful experience.

Ianto felt the same about him -- he knew that. He'd never had any doubts, not from the first time his young lover had kissed him. That kiss had been a surprise; he'd known exactly how he felt about Ianto, but he hadn't expected those feelings to be returned.

And with such force! The Doctor smiled to himself as he let his thoughts drift back to the memory of that first kiss; how Ianto had taken him in those strong arms and nearly made him feel so overwhelmed that he wasn't sure which way was up.

No one had ever kissed him like that before -- none of the kisses he'd ever experienced had even begun to prepare him for being kissed by his soul mate.

There had been a connection between him and Ianto from the moment they'd met; an electricity that had seemed to spark through the air. Even the other Torchwood members had noticed it, though they hadn't made any comments.

He'd expected questions, but he hadn't gotten any. There had been raised eyebrows, knowing looks; but other than that, nothing. And Ianto had never told him if they had said anything to him during the time he'd still been a Torchwood team member.

Not that he wanted to know, the Doctor thought sourly. He'd put Torchwood behind him, and he hoped that Ianto had too. He didn't want either of them to consider the organization a part of their lives any more, unless it was absolutely necessary.

Though they'd both been told in no uncertain terms that they could enlist Torchwood's aid any time they might happen to need it, the Doctor fervently hoped that they would never be in a situation bad enough that they would need to do so. He wanted to break ties with Torchwood for good, and he was sure that Ianto felt the same.

After all, the organization had been created to hunt him down and make a fugitive out of him. Even though that hadn't been the case for quite a long time when Ianto had become a team member, the knowledge of its original purpose could still make the Doctor feel angry.

All right, so maybe he was being childish to feel that way. But he knew all too well how it felt to be on the run -- and he resented anything that pushed him into that mode.

Besides, it was far past time that he and Ianto put their memories of Torchwood behind them. They had both suffered because of the organization -- both physically and emotionally. And it was time to cauterize those wounds for good and leave it all behind them.

The Doctor pushed himself away from the table, shaking his head and frowning. Why had he veered from his original thoughts into something like this? He'd wanted to concentrate on the problem of finding some way of telling Ianto how he felt, not what Torchwood had meant in either one of their lives.

That was over and done, an experience that was behind them. It might linger a while, but it was part of the past, a past that he knew Ianto wanted to put behind him just as much as he himself did, to keep the good memories and dispose of the bad ones.

A slow smile spread over his face as leaned back in his chair, a thought coming to him. Why did he need to think of some sort of special occasion to tell the man he loved how he felt? There was no need to find a reason to do something like that.

He'd cherished the day that he met Ianto ever since it had occurred -- there hadn't been a day since then that he hadn't thought of it, and blessed whatever deities might exist that they'd seen fit to guide him to the man who was meant to be his soul mate.

And even though he'd told Ianto time and time again that he was loved, he hadn't always been able to put into words just how much the young man meant to him. Maybe that was why he felt that he needed some kind of special occasion to make those words come out.

Ianto already knew how he felt, of course. He made it a point to tell the young man his feelings every day -- usually as they were drifting off to sleep late at night after they'd made love.

He had no need for a special occasion to show Ianto how much he was cherished. All he needed to do was show it in his actions as well as in the words he spoke -- and he was sure that his young lover would get the message loud and clear.

In fact, he had several ideas of how to do that, though they all involved him being in their bedroom and not sitting here in the kitchen. Getting to his feet, the Doctor headed for the hallway that led to the bedroom he shared with Ianto, a smile on his face and a spring in his step.

***