Title: Music in the Air
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3, 50episodes
Prompt: 35, Music
Author's Note: Spoilers for the Torchwood episode Countrycide.
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.

***

"Do you hear that?" The Doctor cocked his head to the side, closing his eyes and looking as though he was concentrating on the sounds of the forest all around them. Ianto looked up, wondering just what it was that he was supposed to be hearing.

"What?" he asked, after a few moments of wondering what the Doctor was on about. "I don't hear anything but the birds singing up in the trees." He waited for a few more moments for the Doctor to correct him, but the Time Lord didn't say a word.

"That's what I meant, Ianto," the other man finally said, snapping out of what had appeared to Ianto to be a trancelike state and looking over at him again. "The birdsong. It really is beautiful, if you take the time to sit back and really listen to it."

"I suppose I'm just not used to it," Ianto muttered, looking down at his hands in his lap. "I grew up in the city. I'm not used to listening to birds -- the music that we heard in Cardiff was more the roar of engines than anything else."

"I know that being out here reminds you too much of that camping trip with Torchwood that turned into a nightmare," the Doctor said softly, reaching out to take Ianto's hand in his own. "But you have to get past that sometime, sweetheart."

"I know," Ianto sighed, nodding reluctantly. "But every time we're in a wooded area, I can't get that night out of my mind. It keeps coming back to me, like a horrible nightmare that I can never quite shake. I wish it wasn't still there, but sometimes I think the memory will never go away."

"That's one of the reasons that I wanted to bring you here in the daytime, love," the Doctor said softly, squeezing Ianto's hand reassuringly. "I know it's hard for you to be in places like this, but in the daytime hours, it should be a completely different feeling."

"And it would be -- if Owen and Gwen hadn't found that body when we first got to the campsite," Ianto told him with a shudder. "It's not like I hadn't seen dead bodies before -- but for some reason, that one was more startling than most."

"I'd forgotten about that," the Doctor admitted with a sigh. "I'm sorry about that, Ianto -- but you do realise that seeing dead bodies is something that you can't avoid sometimes, especially when you're traveling with me. I know that you saw a lot of them with Torchwood --"

"It's not so much the dead body that bothered me," Ianto interrupted him, taking a deep breath. "It was just .... the feeling of foreboding that being there gave me. And finding that body only made it grow a lot stronger. It was a horribly creepy feeling."

"I can understand that," the Doctor murmured, squeezing his hand again. "But there's nothing like that here, love. Just concentrate on the here and now, and on how beautiful it is here. Listen to the music of the birdsong, and let yourself relax."

"You're right about that -- it is beautiful here," Ianto agreed, smiling as he lay back on the blanket they'd spread on the ground a few feet away from the Tardis. "And there's nothing for me to feel worried or apprehensive about. I need to put that time out of my mind."

"Yes, you do," the Doctor told him, his voice firm. "You need to concentrate on the here and now, Ianto. It's not likely that another family of cannibals is going to turn up -- and we're not even in that same place where you encountered them before."

"I doubt there's going to be another bunch of them in a completely different place," Ianto agreed, a wry tone in his voice. "I shouldn't let something like that colour my perceptions of every woodland place we happen to be in. They're not all the same."

"Of course they're not," the Doctor said, tilting his head again as another bird twittered in the tress over their heads. "This one is nothing like the woods that you were in with the team that night. It's much more peaceful -- and nowhere near where you were then."

Ianto nodded, smiling in spite of himself. He loved the fact that the Doctor was trying to help him deal with this particular phobia -- and that he was trying to use the music of the soft birdsong all around them to do it. So far, it seemed to be working fairly well.

He had actually liked places like this before that fateful night -- he and Lisa had often gone camping. It had been something that he hadn't had a chance to do often, so when he had, he'd made the most of it. But now, it was an activity that he had to ease back into.

Still, with the Doctor here, there was no way that he could feel uneasy enough to want to rush back into the Tardis if he heard the slightest threatening sound, even at night. And as the Time Lord had pointed out, it was daytime, with the sun shining brightly around them.

"Listen to that," the Doctor murmured, laying back on the blanket and closing his eyes, his hands behind his head. "Isn't the music lovely? Too many people don't get to hear things like this -- or if they do, they don't pay enough attention to it."

Ianto had to agree with him, after a few moments of quiet contemplation. The birdsong in the air was far sweeter than any music he could hear on the radio; it was soft and soothing, seeming to waft towards them from all directions, borne on the soft breeze.

Usually, when he listened to music, he liked something more on the rock or blues side of things, Ianto thought to himself, closing his eyes and letting the birdsong surround his senses. But this was something new and different, something that he was thoroughly enjoying.

Had he ever really listened to the song of birds before? He didn't think so. It had always been in his life, he supposed; hidden in the background, something that he probably heard nearly every day and simply took for granted, paying no attention.

Maybe he should have done that more, he thought to himself, feeling a pang of guilt. The music of the birds really was lovely; even if he couldn't hear a lot of it in Cardiff, and certainly not when he'd lived in the city of London, he was hearing it now.

The music was washing over him as more birds seemed to join in with the first few; in a matter of moments, the sound was all around them, permeating the still air of the forest and making it reverberate with the joyful song that the birds sent out into the world.

"It's relaxing, isn't it?" the Doctor said, turning his head to look at Ianto. "I almost feel as though I could lie here forever and listen to the music of the birds. Unfortunately, we've got things to do -- and forever is an awfully long time to lie around doing nothing."

Ianto laughed at his lover's words, turning over onto his side and propping himself up on one elbow to regard the Time Lord affectionately. "Yes, it is -- and I appreciate the fact that you brought me here to let me enjoy this music," he said, his voice soft and husky.

"I didn't do it just for that," the Doctor told him, his voice equally soft. "I wanted to bring you here so that we could be alone together -- and so we could have some time in a quiet, beautiful place to relax and enjoy each other, surrounded by the beauty of nature."

"Are you trying to tell me something?" Ianto asked, reaching for the hem of his t-shirt. He was fairly sure of just what the Doctor had in mind, but he wanted to be absolutely sure that his thoughts were on the right track before he made a move.

"Oh, I think you can guess that," the Doctor whispered, sitting up and starting to pull his shirt off over his head. There was no doubt of what he had in mind -- and the thought made a fire race through Ianto's veins, pushing all other thoughts aside.

He took the Doctor into his arms, kissing him hungrily and pushing him down on the blanket. As he rolled over on top of the other man, the music in the air all around them seemed to reverberate in Ianto's ears, the melody pulsing along with the quickening rhythm of his heart.

***