Title: Snowblinded
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 11
Prompt: 16, Blind Date
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 smiled to himself as he looked around the café he and the Doctor were supposed to meet in. He was a bit early; the Time Lord had arranged to meet him here at three o'clock, but he'd decided to make sure that he would be here when his lover came in.

The Doctor had said that he wanted to see an old friend, and though he'd indicated that Ianto would be more than welcome to come with him, the young man had plans of his own. He'd told the Doctor quietly that he'd wanted to visit his mother, and the Doctor had understood.

It wasn't really a sore subject between the two of them, but the Doctor understood that Ianto's mother was a bit uncomfortable around him. It was unfortunate, but she couldn't be expected to accept them as a couple without a struggle.

Ianto sighed softly, leaning his chin on his hand. At least his mother tried to understand the two of them. His father never would.

But that was something he couldn't change, he told himself firmly, attempting to push the thoughts out of his mind. He didn't need to depress himself by thinking about his estrangement from his father; it would only make him feel angry and frustrated.

Instead of keeping his mind on that, he needed to turn his mind to happier thoughts. Like the fact that the man he loved would soon be in this café with him, sitting across from him, smiling into his eyes, touching his hand.

Just as others had done, here at this very place. Maybe not the same table, but in this same café, he'd had dates sit across from him and look at him with trepidation, wondering how the evening would turn out.

How many blind dates had ended up here? Ianto cast his mind back, trying to remember them all. It was too far back in his memory; he could bring the memories to the surface, but the names and faces were too hazy to have a clear picture of them.

He hated blind dates, anyway; they were always more of a source of anxiety than anticipation for him. He'd always worried that the other person woudn't like him, that they'd find some fault with him -- or that he'd be repulsed by the person sitting across from him.

Interestingly enough, he'd never been on a blind date with a man. He'd always been set up on those fiascos with women -- and always women he didn't like.

His friends had been a bit like his father, even though they were more accepting of him than his father would ever manage to be. Still, they tried to push that side of him under the carpet and not deal with it, preferring to think of him as wanting to be with females.

At least he'd actually been able to tell his friends that he liked men without fear of being rejected, he told himself, fiddling with the napkins lying on the table. He might not have actually dated men at the time, but he hadn't had to hide who he was.

But as time had gone on, he'd discovered that wasn't the case. Jack had been his first and only male lover before the Doctor, but he'd always known that he was more attracted to men. He'd just never had the nerve to act on that attraction.

Jack had brought him out in that respect, and it was one of the things that he was grateful to the immortal for doing. Of course, their relationship had been fated to end, but that didn't matter. He'd found someone so much better than Jack could ever be.

Ianto smiled to himself, his eyes resting on the chair across from him -- the chair that the Doctor would soon be sitting in. He couldn't liken the Doctor to a blind date, that was certain. He'd known so much about the Time Lord before they'd been together.

He'd certainly known that he was in love with the other man. That had happened instantaneously, from the first moment their eyes had met.

He had been blinded by those beautiful eyes, by the look in their dark, fathomless depths. There had been so much more to the Doctor than might have been apparent on the surface to the casual glance, but he'd caught that essence from the very first look.

All he'd been able to think of for a long time after his first meeting with the Time Lord was how much he'd been blinded by his own passion; he couldn't believe that Jack could have been involved with this man and had given him up.

It had felt as though he'd been staring directly into the pristine whiteness of a blanket of snow, with the sun shining down on that glittering expanse of white. He'd been snowblnded by the Doctor, and if he was honest with himself, he didn't ever want to regain his sight.

Of course, the Time Lord would caution him against feeling that way; he'd say that he didn't want to blind Ianto completely to his senses, or to the world around him. He'd never be able to understand how devastating he was, what an effect he had on people.

And he wasn't the only one who felt like that, Ianto said to himself, a slight frown crossing his face at the thought. Others were just as blindsided by the Doctor; he was not only a beautiful man, but charming as well. It was no wonder that people fell for him so easily.

That made it doubly hard to understand how Jack could have been so stupid as to let him go, but then, Jack's motives for anything he did were shrouded in mystery.

How could he have let a man like the Doctor slip through his fingers? But Jack had probably tired of being with someone who he knew was better than he was. If Ianto knew one thing about Jack, it was that the immortal always had to consider himself better than anyone else.

It was one of the more wearing things about being with Jack -- his monstrous ego. Ianto had never been able to appease that ego; it was one of the reasons that Jack had ended their relationship. But by that time, Ianto had been ready to let go.

He'd already known that it was past time for them to end it, and he hadn't really minded. It had been a hard adjustment at first, being alone after all the time he'd spent with Jack. But their relationship at work had certainly been better once they'd broken up.

They'd been more distant with each other, but Ianto had seen that as a good thing. He'd slept alone, and he hadn't cared who Jack was sleeping with. He'd still considered Jack a friend, but that was as close as he wanted to be to the immortal again.

Then he'd met the Doctor -- and everything had changed. He'd been snowblinded by the Time Lord from the first time he'd laid eyes on him -- and he'd never looked back.

The Doctor had become the center of his world, and Ianto knew that he always would be. Ianto never wanted that to change -- if he'd been blindsided, it had been the best thing that could possibly have happened to him.

It was as though the Doctor emanated a bright, blinding light that apparently only Ianto could see -- though he had to admit that there were other people who were mesmerized by him as well. But not to the extent that he himself was.

That was fine with him, Ianto thought, a smile settling onto his features as he propped his chin on his hand and focused his gaze on the door of the café. He didn't want anyone else trying to give him competition for the Doctor's affections.

That wouldn't happen, of course. The Doctor loved him as much as he loved the Time Lord; there was never going to be another for either of them, at least not as long as destiny decreed that they should be together.

The smile on his face grew as he saw the door open, and the Doctor came striding into the café. When their eyes met, Ianto felt as though he was snowblinded all over again, wrapped in the bright light of a love that was never going to fade.

***