Author's Notes: I'm so, so sorry for the late posting. I just got tangled into a million other fics I'm writing, some of them now available on AO3 for the Moffat appreciation week, and I got a bit behind on the things I'm writing. Thankfully, this is the only multi-chaptered fic I'm working on right now. This is also a bit shorter but – surprise, surprise – it's midnight again and I've got school tomorrow, so please excuse everything that is wrong with this chapter.

Again, the prompt is but a plaything for the ongoing plot. I hope you enjoy the chapter and, as always, feel free to let me know what you think of it.

Diligence – a zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work. Budgeting one's time; monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness.

The control room seemed to be on fire. It was terribly hot even when Jack was only approaching it down the corridor and soon enough, smoke welcomed him as well. It wasn't the best thing he could wake up to, but it wasn't the worst either; not when a certain someone was quite possibly responsible for whatever it was that had happened.

The Captain smiled as he tried to wave the smoke away from himself – and failed at it, not that he really minded all that much – and saw the faint outline of someone standing by the console and frantically pressing buttons all over it.

Jack neared Ianto from behind and nuzzled his neck affectionately. "Don't you think it's a bit early in the morning for setting our ship on fire?"

"I'll have you know that this has nothing to do with me," Ianto informed him indignantly without looking at him. "It just – happened. Probably someone was messing with it the night before."

"Of course."

"No, really." Ianto squirmed away uneasily when Jack tried to wrap himself around his lover and then turned around to face the Captain. "There's something wrong. I know how to fly a TARDIS, and this is not a properly functioning one."

"Maybe it's just not the same as yours," Jack suggested. "Didn't you say that you've been flying a battle TARDIS?"

Ianto sighed. "That's a TARDIS like any other, Jack," he explained patiently. "It's only called that to clarify that it's used when Gallifrey is at war."

Time Lords, Jack decided, were unnecessarily complicated beings. He'd found it out long ago and here Ianto was now, only proving his point further.

There was another sigh from his lover. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm used to being– this, and you're still trying to get used to it. I know that it might be a bit of a culture shock, but–"

"It's fine," Jack assured him hastily. "I'm getting around to it," he added when Ianto seemed doubtful. "And yes, it does take a bit of time to get used to the idea, but... it's as you said. I'm still accommodating to how we are now, but I couldn't be more grateful for how we are now."

Ianto scoffed. "Yes, of course. How could anyone wish for anything better? For their..." Ianto hesitated and Jack sighed inwardly. Still unable to find a word for it, then. "...partner to come back from the dead after one year and accidentally turn out to be an alien from a species that has been responsible for you being thoroughly traumatised not once or twice."

"Ianto," Jack's voice was sharper now. He hated it when Ianto descended into the darker moods that occasionally plagued him and hated it even more now that he knew that his lover had a lot of mistakes he thought he had to own up to. "I swear to every deity you don't believe in, if this train of thought doesn't stop exactly here..." Ianto opened his mouth to protest, but Jack cut him of firmly. "I mean it." He gripped the front of Ianto's shirt and brought him closer until their foreheads were almost touching and Ianto's ice blue eyes were nothing but a blur in front of him. "Don't ever say anything of that sort again. You're not the Doctor. You're not the Master. You haven't done anything–"

"I've done more than my fair share of betraying you, Jack, and we both know it," Ianto cut him off in the moment he got the chance and he sounded defeated. The Captain realised that this was what scared him the most – Ianto giving up. He could keep going – they both could – as long as they weren't giving up. "How am I any different? I never even apologised."

"You did," Jack said quietly, voice lower than before and it had the desired effect – Ianto was listening more closely now, his eyes on alert even from up close. "You know what makes you different from the other Time Lords I've met, Ianto Jones?" When Ianto didn't answer, Jack kept going. "Both the Master and the Doctor told me how wrong I was; how I practically went against all the laws in the Universe by existing. That was the word the Doctor used, 'wrong'. The Master liked better things. The freak, the anomaly, even his pet on occasion. To both of them, I was something illogical an unnecessary that even the TARDIS tried to shake off.

"And here you come," he went on, now with a small smile curling his lips. "You come back from the dead, as you said, in the single most dramatic way I have ever seen–"

"Look who's talking," Ianto said despite knowing that it would ruin the moment and the Captain threw him a scathing look. "Is that intake of breath really as necessary as you claim it to be?"

"Shut up," Jack continued unceremoniously. "My point here was, you come back from the dead and, when the Doctor tells me to stay away from you because my mere presence could hurt you, you say no. You welcome it; you tell me that it's calm and soothing and generally a pleasure to have me around."

"You don't owe me anything just because I told you that it's okay to exist," Ianto objected and Jack couldn't resist rolling his eyes. Time Lord or human, Ianto Jones would never miss the chance to outspeak someone.

"I don't," Jack agreed. "But you didn't ask me why I wanted to be with you. You thought I was going to be uncomfortable around you because you're a Time Lord and they make me uneasy. And this is why you're wrong." Ianto just raised an eyebrow at him. "You were the Time Lord who thought that I was worth it." He paused for a moment, just to savour the thought, and then added, with a little less confidence, "You were the Time Lord who loved me."