Title: Premonition
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: VRD challenge - Black, 5_prompts
Prompt: Beware when a black cat crosses your path
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, get out of the way!" Ianto exclaimed, pulling the Doctor back into the shade of the awning in front of the café they'd just exited. The Time Lord caught his breath, off-balance for a moment before he regained his equilibrium.

"Really, Ianto! What was that all about?" he asked, turning to his lover with a slight frown marring his brow. "I wasn't going to just step out into the street, you know! Please give me credit for not being quite so absent-minded as that."

"But I didn't do it to stop you from crossing the street!" Ianto protested, scowling. "A black cat was on the sidewalk. I didn't want it to cross your path. That's seven years' back luck, you know. And that cat was looking right at you."

"Ianto, you don't really believe in those sorts of superstitions, do you?" the Doctor asked, his dark eyes widenng in surprise. "I wouldn't have thought you would be the kind of person who gave that sort of thing any credence at all."

"I wouldn't .... if it wasn't for some strange things that I've seen happen to people who had a black cat walk in front of them," Ianto said slowly, letting out his breath with an audible whoosh. It was obvious that he thought the Doctor had narrowly averted some catastrophe.

The Time Lord shook his head, a smile curving his mouth. "Really now, Ianto, you can't believe in that sort of thing," he admonished his lover, looking around in vain for the cat in question; but he could see no trace of it. The animal seemed to have disappeared from sight.

"I'm not a superstitious person, but some things I do believe in," Ianto insisted stubbornly, his jaw set, his voice firm. "If you'd seen some of the oddities that I have, you probably would, too. I don't walk under ladders, either, in case you were wondering."

"Next you'll be telling me that you toss salt over your shoulder," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "Or that you believe in the old story that breaking a mirror will bring you seven years' worth of bad luck, too. I've always thought that one was particularly silly."

"You don't believe in that?" Ianto looked surprised at the Doctor's words. "I think it's true. Or maybe it's just a case of self-fulfilling prophecy. But I've known plenty of people who broke a mirror and then did actually have a run of bad luck."

"I don't think it's because of some silly superstition!" the Doctor told him, shaking his head. "After you've spent so much time working with Torchwood, I wouldn't expect you to believe in things like that, Ianto. What makes you cling to those old wives' tales?"

"I don't really know," Ianto said thoughtfully as the two of them continued on their way down the street. "I suppose it's just because those are things that I was taught to believe since I was a small child. It's conditioning, more than anything else."

"That certainly makes sense," the Doctor mused. "There are so many people who do believe in those things that they've become an accepted part of your society. But you should remember that they're just superstitions, Ianto. They're not established facts."

"I know that, but ...." Ianto sighed, shaking his head in frustration. "I don't know how to explain it. The fact that I've always believed in some of those superstitions since I was a child, combined with some things I've seen happen, makes me not want to let those beliefs go."

"I can understand that line of reasoning," the Doctor said, reaching for Ianto's hand and twining their fingers together, squeezing his lover's hand gently. "I didn't mean to seem harsh, Ianto. You can believe in whatever you like. Just don't expect me to agree with you."

"I don't!" Ianto laughed, glad to see that the Doctor hadn't gotten annoyed at his insistence on holding on to the superstitious beliefs that he'd always had. Though maybe he should let himself wave goodbye to some of them, he told himself.

After all, he didn't really think that a black cat darting across the sidewalk in front of the Time Lord would bring them bad luck, did he? It was just a foolish story, a superstition that had been passed down through the ages. It carried no weight in the real world.

But it carried some weight in his world. The world that he'd grown up in, that he'd always been taught was full of wonders. Those superstitions had been something that his mother and grandmother had believed in, and that his family had encouraged.

Ianto looked down as that thought crossed his mind, stopping in his tracks with a gasp. The black cat that had nearly walked across the sidewalk in front of the Doctor when they were leaving in the café was sitting directly in their path, looking at them with huge green eyes.

The creature sat there staring at them, then raised a paw and proceeded to wash its face. As the two men stood there watching, the animal tossed them an impatient glance, then rose and stalked away, swishing its tail as it disappeared around the corner.

"Well, a black cat has crossed our path and there's no bad luck!" the Doctor laughed, looking at his lover. "So that disproves your theory, Ianto. Though I suppose that maybe we should be a little wary of what the future might hold, shouldn't we?"

"We probably should," Ianto said absently, staring in the direction that the cat had gone. He had a strange feeling about that animal; somehow, it had seemed eerily familiar to him. There was something about those green eyes that had stared into his own ....

If the superstitions he'd grown up with were true, then they would indeed have to be on the lookout for bad luck to come their way, he thought uneasily as they continued walking down the street. And he had the oddest premonition that those beliefs would prove to be frighteningly accurate.

***