Title: Jealous Heart
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 4
Prompt: 33, Jealous
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 sighed as he looked at his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. Jack had said that he would have the Doctor back by a reasonable hour -- but what Ianto considered reasonable apparently differed a lot with Jack's opinion.

It wasn't that he was worried for the Doctor's safety. No, not while he was with Jack. There was no way that the immortal was going to let anything happen to the Time Lord, not after what the Doctor had already been through so recently. Jack would look after him.

Perhaps too well, Ianto told himself bitterly. His hands clenched into fists at his sides as he thought of all the times Jack had made some sort of sexual remark about the Doctor, the look on his face when his eyes had swept over the Time Lord's nude body. Ianto didn't like that look. Not at all.

It was hard to ignore the fact that Jack and the Doctor had been lovers when it always seemed to stare him right in the face.

He trusted the Doctor. Of course he did. The Time Lord wasn't the sort to turn his back on what he felt for Ianto. Of course, he hadn't promised that he would be faithful, but it was .... understood.

After all, they were soul mates. Destined to be together. The Doctor hadn't said in so many words that he was going to be physically faithful to Ianto, but the young Welshman believed that he would be.

Or would he? Ianto curled up on a corner of the couch, wrapping his arms around his legs and resting his chin on his knees. He'd never talked with the Doctor about their expectations. He'd just assumed that the Time Lord would know that he intended for the two of them to be faithful to each other.

What if the Doctor saw things differently than he did? What if physical fidelity wasn't important to him? He'd been forced into sexual situations with others since Ianto had come into his life, but that had been different. Then, the Doctor hadn't been a willing partner, but taken by force.

But with Jack .... Jack had that capability of making people want him. And he'd been the Doctor's lover in the past; neither man had made any secret of the fact. Ianto had never felt more than a slight twinge of jealousy before. Now, that jealousy was a roaring, consuming fire in his gut.

Ianto bit his lip, teeth sinking savagely into the soft flesh. He didn't care if he could taste blood, didn't care that the Doctor would surely notice when he finally came home. If he came home, Ianto thought, looking up at the clock again to see that only five minutes had passed since the last time he'd looked.

Even now, Jack could be undressing the Doctor, moving his hands over that silken skin, laying him down, spreading his legs, pressing into him, taking him ....

Or taking him from behind, hands moving down, his fingers curling around the Doctor's cock as he pushed into the Time Lord, pulling the Doctor back against his body as he'd done so many times with Ianto in the past, and had probably done with the Doctor before as well ....

Ianto squeezed his eyes shut, drawing his breath in with a hiss. He couldn't stand to think about Jack touching the Doctor -- or any other man touching him. The idea of anyone else so much as thinking of the man he loved in a sexual way made his blood almost reach a boiling point.

No. He wouldn't think about things like that. They simply weren't happening, Ianto told himself fiercely, trying his best to convince himself that his words were true. The Doctor wouldn't have sex with Jack. He wouldn't.

His head snapped up as he heard the sound of the Doctor's key in the lock of the apartment door, his eyes focusing on the doorway. He'd know when he saw the Doctor if anything untoward had happened. He was sure of it. The Time Lord wasn't good at keeping secrets from him.

"What in the world ....?" The Doctor blinked as he entered the apartment, his eyes not adjusted to the darkness. "Ianto, why are you sitting here in the dark?"

"Where have you been?" That wasn't a good beginning, he told himself, his heart sinking. He sounded accusatory, petulant, childish.

The Doctor looked bewildered, tossing his key onto the table near the door and switching on one of the lamps in the room before moving to the couch to sit down beside Ianto. "You know very well where I've been, love. I was with Jack. I'm sorry if I'm later than you'd expected."

"Why did he think he needed to keep you out until the middle of the night?" Ianto couldn't keep the sharp tone out of his voice. He'd worried far too much about what might be happening to let it go.

"Ianto, it isn't the middle of the night. It's barely eleven. Not late at all." The Doctor frowned, reaching out to take Ianto's hand. "This is more than just me being back a bit late, isn't it? What's wrong?"

"What was he doing with you?" There. It was out. All of his worries, his fears, containted in that one short sentence.

"He was making arrangements to sell my body to Drakanian slave traders at the break of dawn tomorrow." The Doctor sounded calm, matter-of-fact, so much so that Ianto had to raise his head to stare at the Time Lord. This wasn't the time to make jokes.

The Doctor sighed. "Ianto, he wanted to talk with me. About you. About us. About some of the things that Torchwood has seen and dealt with in the past months. It was nothing personal, I can assure you of that."

"About me?" Ianto's voice took on a bitter tone. "About how I can never be as good for you as he could be, I've no doubt."

"What?" The Doctor sounded genuinely bewildered again, as though he couldn't understand what Ianto meant. "Nothing like that. About how you're the best thing that could possibly happen to me, and how I would be a fool if I ever dared to think of letting you go."

"J-Jack said that?" Ianto's voice trembled, his heart skipping a few beats. Maybe he'd been wrong about the immortal's reasons for wanting to spend time alone with the Doctor, after all.

"Ianto." The Doctor moved closer to his young lover, sliding his arms around Ianto's waist and pulling him close. "You didn't think .... that I would .... that I could ever ...." He closed his eyes, a hurt look crossing his features.

"I'm sorry," Ianto whispered, guilt washing over him. "I'm so sorry .... I ...." He didn't know what to say. He'd misjudged Jack, and worse, misjudged the Doctor. His lover. The man he trusted with his very life.

"Don't ever think like that," the Doctor whispered, his voice thick with unshed tears. "I would never, never touch anyone else. I would never have sex with anyone else. Not willingly. I'm mated with you, Ianto. I'm bound to you. For a Gallifreyan, that bond is forever."

"I didn't know," the young man whispered, swallowing hard to speak past the lump in his throat. "I should have trusted you more. I'm so sorry, love."

"Gallifreyans mate for life," the Doctor said softly, his dark gaze meeting Ianto's. "For all of our lives. I have no regrets for my past, Ianto. It's made me who I am. But that is the past. You are my future. Don't ever think for a moment that I would stray from you."

Ianto rested his forehead against the Doctor's shoulder, a few tears finding their way past his closed eyelids to streak down his cheeks. He'd never felt so unworthy in his life. He didn't deserve the Doctor. He didn't deserve to be loved like this. He wouldn't blame the Time Lord if he chose to cast him aside in disgust, after the things he had assumed his lover capable of.

"Shhh, my love, don't cry," the Doctor whispered, lifting Ianto's face to his, soft, gentle lips kissing away the young man's tears. "There's no reason to cry. It was just a misunderstanding. Shhh, it's all right."

Ianto couldn't speak, knowing that if he said anything, he'd burst into tears. He leaned against the Doctor, curled in the comfort of the Time Lord's embrace, his heart aching with the guilt he felt.

"I think we should go to bed," the Doctor said softly, shifting slightly so that Ianto could sink back against his chest. "It's been a trying day for you, my love. I'm sorry for that. I should have called you to let you know that I would be back a bit late."

"I should have trusted you," Ianto whispered. "Trusted Jack."

"Ianto ...." The Doctor turned Ianto's face to his own again, his voice as soft as a caress. "Jack thinks that I should take you with me when I have to leave again."

"He .... what?" Ianto couldn't believe his ears. "Did he say that?"

"Yes, he did." The Doctor's voice was quiet in the still room. "He knows how much I love you, Ianto. And he doesn't think that we should be parted. I happen to agree with him."

"I agree with you both." Ianto was near tears again, but this time for a very different reason. He wasn't going to be left behind again. Not unless it was absolutely unavoidable -- and hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

"There's no room for jealousy in what we have," the Doctor whispered, his dark eyes locking with Ianto's. "And no reason for it. You never have to feel that way, Ianto. You'll never have reason to, not as long as there is breath in my body. Not in any of my lives, no matter how long they may be."

The Time Lord laid one thin hand over Ianto's, twining his long fingers through the young Welshman's. Ianto looked down at their entwined hands, his heart swelling with the love he felt for this man. The jealousy had melted away, almost as if it had never existed.

"I think you're right about going to bed," he said softly, his other arm moving around the Doctor's waist as he spoke. "And I think that I should show you just how much you mean to me."

"You'll find no objections here," the Doctor murmured, letting his young lover pull him to his feet and guide him down the hallway towards their darkened bedroom.

***