Title: Impressed
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 5, 50episodes
Prompt: 29, Impressed
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.

***

"Doctor, what in the world are you doing?" Ianto exclaimed as he entered the control room to see the Doctor lying under the console, only his legs and feet visible, obviously doing something to the inner workings of the ship. "Has something gone wrong with the console?"

He didn't get an immediate answer, but then, he didn't expect one. He knew that when the Doctor was deep in concentration on something concerning the Tardis that he might not answer for several long moments; he was used to that, and he could be patient.

Leaning against the console, Ianto looked down at what he could see of his lover, a smile curving his lips. One of the things he loved most about the Doctor was his ability to concentrate on any given problem until he had a solution; it was a quality that more people should have.

Ianto knew that he himself often gave on problems too easily; he had the unfortunate human trait of being frustrated too easily at times. But he was getting better at overcoming that -- the Doctor had told him often that he was using his brain more fully than he ever had before.

That was only because he was in the presence of someone who made him think, he'd told his lover with a smile. He had only been telling the truth; the Doctor made him exercise his wits more than he ever had in his life on Earth, even when he'd worked with Torchwood.

There had even been times when he had managed to impress the Time Lord with his ideas, he thought, the smile on his face growing wider. That was an accomplishment indeed; when they had first met, he'd never thought he would see the day when this man would be impressed by him.

Yet the Doctor had obviously been impressed by something that he'd seen in Ianto, or they wouldn't be together now, the young man thought to himself. They wouldn't have fallen in love and bonded, and he wouldn't have been granted immortality.

It was a sobering thought to realize that if he hadn't met the Doctor, his life would have taken a far different turn. He would probably be living by himself on Earth, still a member of Torchwood, possibly pining for the long-lost love affair with Jack -- and his life would be empty.

Instead, he was here on the Tardis, traveling the galaxy through time and space, sharing that life with the man he loved more than he could ever have thought he would love anyone. And he was immortal. He could be killed -- but he would always come back.

His life seemed like something out of a fairy tale, or a fever dream -- but it was real. This was his life, the life he'd chosen to walk into, and with any luck, it would never change. He would have this life with the Doctor forever, with no end in sight.

It still seemed incredible to Ianto that he could have gotten so lucky, but he wasn't going to question whatever quirk of fate had put him here. At the moment, his only question was just what the Doctor was doing down there under the console.

His curiosity grew with each passing moment; he couldn't help but come up with all kind of theories as to what had gone wrong with the ship. Were they even now careening through space on a trip to some place they'd never been before, to crash-land there with no way out?

No, that was a ridiculous idea. The Doctor would never let things come to that point -- well, he wouldn't if he could control whatever situation they happened to be in. And Ianto was sure that if they were at that point, the Time Lord would have let him know by now.

Could there be something wrong with the ship that needed repairing? That seemed to be the only other reason why the Doctor would be under the console. Or maybe there was some malfunction with the sonic screwdriver that could only be repaired by using some of the ship's energy?

Maybe the Tardis had been hijacked by some strange power, and was taking them into a place that the Doctor knew was dangerous. He hadn't wanted to wait and let Ianto know about it, choosing instead to try his best to avert whatever they might be heading towards.

His imagination was starting to come up with silly ideas, Ianto told himself sternly. Of course that last scenario couldn't be true. He moved to a nearby chair and sat down, wondering if the Doctor was so engrossed in whatever he was doing that he hadn't heard Ianto's question.

After a few moments, the Time Lord wriggled out from under the console, taking a deep breath and then releasing it, puffing out his cheeks in a huff. He held up the sonic screwdriver in front of his face, smiling as he clicked it on and the familiar blue light appeared.

"There! That should take care of it," he said, a satisfied tone to his voice. He tucked the screwdriver away in the pocket of his jeans, reaching up to take the hand the Ianto had already extended to him and letting his young lover pull him to his feet.

"The sonic screwdriver needed a bit of replenishment," he explained in answer to Ianto's question. "The Tardis didn't seem to mind doing it, so I thought that there was no time like the present, instead of putting it off and waiting until it really needed to be done."

Ianto nodded in agreement; he would hate for them to have any kind of urgent need for the screwdriver and find out that it had run out of power. "That doesn't usually happen, does it? I mean, the screwdriver running low on power like that?" he asked, a frown creasing his brow.

The Doctor shook his head, patting his pocket. "No, it only happens once in a while. But I think that with everything we went through at the Hub, when we had our bit of a miracle, it was diminished quite a bit, and the aftereffects are just starting to show up now."

"I'm impressed that you knew what to do to set things right again," Ianto told him, wondering if he himself would have known where to go if he'd needed to replenish the screwdriver's power supply -- and if the Tardis would have let him do it, rather than the Doctor.

"It's nothing to be impressed with, Ianto," the Doctor told him, his voice soft. "It's something I've had to do many times over the centuries. And you forget, I have a bond with the Tardis unlike any other. She'll let me do things that she wouldn't grant anyone else permission for."

"Do you think she would let me?" Ianto couldn't help asking, raising a brow in question. "After all, she's done a lot for me before. She was the one who led me to you when ...." His voice trailed off; he didn't want to remember that horrible time, and he was sure that the Doctor didn't, either.

"I think she would, yes," the Time Lord told him, his voice soft and gentle. "She has a bond with you unlike any she's had with anyone else, Ianto. She knows that you've bonded with me -- and in all the centuries I've lived, I never bonded before."

"That's impressive, isn't it?" Ianto asked before he could stop himself. "I mean, that I've formed a bond with her, too. I wouldn't have thought that could happen," he added, his tone pensive. "I would have thought that she might be jealous of the person you finally bonded with."

"Jealous? The Tardis?" The Doctor laughed, shaking his head. "No, Ianto, that would never happen. She's wanted me to find the person I've been meant to bond with. Why do you think she let you into her inner sanctum to leave me those notes and flowers?"

"You do have a point," Ianto conceded with a laugh. "It's hard to believe that the Tardis could actually be impressed with me, though. After all, look at the shining example she has in front of her all the time. No one could live up to you, Doctor."

"You know, I think you're far more impressive than I am," the Doctor murmured, moving closer to Ianto and draping his arms around the young man's neck. "I was born to the life I'm leading. You were thrust into it -- and you've managed to not only cope with that life, but to settle into it."

"Do you mean that?" Ianto felt a little choked up; he hadn't realized that the Doctor thought that highly of him. He knew that the Time Lord loved him beyond all expectations, but there had always been a part of his mind that insisted he was far inferior to his lover.

"Of course I do," the Doctor told him, leaning so close to Ianto that their lips were almost touching. "I've been impressed by you since the moment we met, love. And I know that I'll keep being impressed by everything about you for the rest of eternity."

"Not as much as I'll be impressed by you," Ianto whispered, pulling the Doctor close against him and capturing the Time Lord's lips with his own. He was certainly impressed by his lover's kisses, Ianto thought dazedly as he let that kiss sweep him away into a maelstrom of utter bliss.

***