A Mother's Love

by kestra17

Ianto is the Rani's only son, the only thing she loved more than Science. Is it a wonder, then, that she would find a way for him to escape the Time War? My very own try to Timelord!Ianto, tried to make it reallistic.

1. Chapter 1

Ianto's first memories are of his Mam. That makes sense, of course, because during his first years of life, his Mam is almost everything he knows. Like many other children, Ianto thinks his Mam is the smartest person in the universe, but, unlike the others, he knows there's a very good chance she is.

He spends those first years aboard his Mam's TARDIS. They never settle on a planet for longer than a week, and that's only if his Mam requires something the TARDIS is unable to provide. His Mam has enemies she won't talk about, and Ianto never sees another Time Lord, even if he can feel their presence in his mind.

Mam teaches Ianto about the Universe: about every planet, race, galaxy she's ever met. She teaches him about the TARDIS, about the symbiotic relationship of the ship with his Time Lord, about how to drive her if needed. She teaches him about her experiments, too, though not about the ones she keeps in her forbidden labs. Ianto asks thousands of questions, and her Mam always has the answer. Even if he doesn't understand the answer, his memory keeps track of every word, and he longs for the day when he will understand. Plus, he likes Mam smile when he asks, and the way she calls him "her most successful experiment". It may seem cold to others, but Ianto sees the proud glint in her eyes, and knows he is the only thing the powerful Rani values more than her research.

Everything changes when he is eight, though.

Mam may be set against Gallifrey's narrow-minded society and its interminable rules, but she knows that the Schism is a necessary rite of passage for every little Time Lord and Lady, and knows that Ianto will learn more in the Academy than she can teach him, things like morality and ethics, things she lacks but her son possesses in abundance. Even then Mam is clear when she tells him that the most important rule is not to get caught.

So, a week after his eighth birthday, he meets his first Time Lords. He finds them utterly ordinary, even if their red-colored robes are impressive. He doesn't know that his existence is the juiciest gossip the Academy has known in centuries. He doesn't know, but he will learn.

Ianto will not see his Mam face-to-face for the next thirty years. He will never have the opportunity to share with her the (wonderful, terrible, exhilarating) things he sees at the Untempered Schism, when all time and space were his to see.