Title: Surprise Me Again
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Table: 3, letter100
Prompt: 71, Surprise
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own Ianto Jones or the Tenth Doctor. Please do not sue.

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My beloved Ianto,

Is it strange that these letters I've been writing to you seem to get more and more frequent the longer we're together? When I realised that I was writing them quite often, I wondered if you would think there was something wrong that made me do so.

But no, there's nothing wrong, and it's not strange that I'm writing to you so much. You see, I've never really had anyone to write to before, and I enjoy doing it. It's easier for me to put my feelings into writing than to say them sometimes.

Letter writing is rather an art, and one that I've never thought I was good at. I need to try to express my feelings more freely, and this is a good way to do it. Though I'll always tell you that I love you and need you, I like putting those words down on paper, too.

It surprises me that you write back to me so often, actually. I wouldn't have pegged you as a letter-writer, but I love that you seem to enjoy it as much as I do. And every letter that I've gotten from you stays close to my hearts.

You've surprised me in some way nearly every day since we've been together, my love. There have been so many things to learn about you -- and I'm sure that I don't know nearly everything there is to know about Ianto Jones yet.

I doubt that I ever will. Each person has such an infinite number of complexities about them, and you are certainly no different. I think you might just be more complex than most people, given all that you've done and seen in your life thus far.

By the same token, I'm sure that there have been things about me that have surprised you. I know that I'm not an easy man to live with sometimes; there are facets to my being that I'd rather didn't have to come out, sides that I wish you didn't have to see.

But that's part of being in love with someone, seeing their bad side as well as their good one. I can't hide from you, any more than I'd want you to hide yourself from me. I want you to accept me for who and what I am, the dark with the bright.

I've never had any worries about that. From the first time we were together, I knew that you were the man who I was meant to be with, the man who would accept me as I am, faults and all. There was something that told me you were my destiny.

I wasn't surprised by that at all, really. At first, it seemed a bit odd that I'd been so drawn to a human, but now, it seems like the most natural thing in the world to be with you. I can't imagine myself with anyone else; it simply wouldn't feel right.

What surprised me at first was how perfectly the two of us seemed to fit. There were no awkward feelings between the two of us, no phase when you had to transition into learning to deal with me, as so many of my companions have had in the past.

Though I really shouldn't be surprised at that. After all, you'll never be a mere companion, Ianto. You've been so much more than that, from the first time you stepped into the Tardis to go out into the stars with me. You've been the owner of my hearts.

You're not just a companion. You're my lover, my destiny, my soul mate. You're the man I want to spend eternity with, whether that's possible or not. You're the other half of my soul. All that, as well as my companion. You're everything to me.

I've said those words so many times, and I've wondered now and then if they've started to sound hollow to you, or if they still ring as true as the first time I said them to you. I hope you know that I still mean them with all my hearts -- and that I always will.

Words like that have never come easily to me in the past. But now, since I've been with you, I find them tumbling out on a regular basis. Just looking at you makes me want to utter those three little words that I know can mean so much to the person who's hearing them.

"I love you" has never come easily to my lips. There have been very few people who I've said those words to. Of course, loving someone is quite different from being in love with them, and I've even more rarely said the words with the meaning they infer to you.

I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't had other loves in my life. But you're different, Ianto. You always have been, from the first moment I realised that you are my soul mate. I don't just love you. I"m in love with you, with every fibre of my being.

Does that surprise you, to know that you can so completely and utterly make me yours? It shouldn't. You've always had a lower opinion of yourself than you should; I want to build up that opinion, to make you realise just how amazing a man you are.

I've been working away at that, my love, and I think that I've been succeeding. You're more confident than you were when we first met, and I love seeing that side of you. Though of course, I'll always love everything about you, even the qualities you might see as faults.

You surprise me every day, with your infinite capacity to take in new experiences and make them a part of yourself. It's a quality that so many people don't have, and only one of many things that makes you perfect for me in so many ways.

I'm looking forward to having you surprise me again, each and every day of our lives togehter. I'm sure that we both have a lot of surprises in store for us from each other, my sweet. And I believe that we're going to enjoy each and every one of them.

Your loving

Doctor

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