Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the enormous delay on this. I was on a holiday, then I got back but school happened and... well. It's also not that much of a good idea to manage two multi-chaptered fanfics at the same time.

Anyway, there are just a few chapters left from this so I hope you enjoy this one too. I'm trying to make it go in the right direction without rushing it and I like to think that it's working. As always, feel welcome to let me know what you think of it.

Colour: Purple

Prompt: Under a violet moon

If there was one thing the Doctor had learnt about Ianto during their travels, it was that he was in love with the Universe. Every planet, every star and every Galaxy was new and unique to him and he found everything so incredibly fascinating that it never failed to bring a smile to the Doctor's lips.

Today was no different. He watched Ianto as the younger Time Lord followed him out of the TARDIS and saw the delight on his face as he took in their surroundings.

"Where are we?" he asked immediately and his eyes fixed on the large violet moon right above their heads. It was already close to night time and that made it even more enchanting, he supposed, because Ianto seemed unable to take his eyes off it.

"Petrinax, in Mutter's Spiral. Not so far from Earth, really; only a few systems away. It's just like Earth, too, except bigger. And of course, there's–"

"The moon," Ianto breathed. The Doctor chanced a look in his direction. He was bathed in the violet light that surrounded them from everywhere. He seemed strangely ethereal as he stared up at it and every detail of his face stood out; his eyelashes brushing his high cheekbones, his skin even paler than usual and his clothes and hair shining enough to make him look like the stuff of legends; something he was privileged to see in the real world.

"So what's happened here?" Ianto asked and the Doctor firmly derailed the train of thought he'd seemed to have had going in a rather suspicious direction.

"What?" He was taken aback for a second. "No, that was just... you know, I thought we could–" All of a sudden, he wasn't so sure in his motives any longer. "You know. We could just– relax for a bit."

"Oh." Ianto was apparently unprepared for that response and the Doctor idly wondered when had been the last time he'd done something for fun's sake and not out of duty. Spending your whole adult life fighting for queen and country could do that to someone, he supposed – and god, did he hate that phrase ever since the Canary Wharf battle had happened – and Ianto was now rather unaware that he was free to do as he pleased with his life. "Okay, then. Relax it is."

He left his place by the TARDIS and strode into the field before them, now rambling about all the planet species he recognised and the ones they'd had in the hot house back at Torchwood and a million other things that, he knew, would bore anyone else out of sheer lack of understanding. The Doctor, though, didn't feel even close to being bored. He was used to being the one who always gave that kind of information; the one who led the bewildered humans into the species and planets they had been unable to even imagine. And even if he did know everything that his companion was talking about, it was a delight to realise that someone out there was just as excited about it all as he was. Sure, humans liked it all too, but that was all – they missed the small details because they liked the flashy grand picture. Ianto, on the other hand, knew all about the Universe. He knew what made it tick, and what fascinated him were the small things, the Doctor realised as he watched him take samples from some species – plant-like, even if they actually happened to be animals – that he hadn't recognised and wanted to experiment with back in the TARDIS. Maybe that was why Ianto was so excited to talk so much about everything. There was finally someone who understood it all.

As if he'd heard his thoughts, Ianto let his speech come to an end and turned back to face the Doctor with a small smile.

"But you already know that, don't you?" He carefully closed the lid of the jar where he'd put the resin from the last tree and approached the other Time Lord. I keep forgetting that you've been out here for centuries and I've got, what, a year and a half in total on my hands?"

"It's fine," the Doctor assured him. "Did you take what you needed?"

"Yeah." Ianto nodded down to his hands where he was carefully balancing all the samples he'd taken. "I need to bring them back to the laboratory; I wanted to try a few things... but never mind that now," he added hastily when the Doctor narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Ianto's experiments rarely took a good turn. Actually, the TARDIS had had to patiently replace said laboratory at least five times until now. "Can we," Ianto seemed to hesitate with the next sentence. "I mean, would you mind if we could stay here for a while? It's beautiful and it might just be the only time it won't end with a disaster."

He should have never said that, the Doctor thought mournfully later.

"Hey! What are you doing there? This is the Empress's land!"

They both turned around to face the guard and the Doctor managed a wave. And here they had been, enjoying the calmness of it all, not having even thought of the fact that it might have been because it was forbidden. "Hello!" he said cheerfully, ignoring Ianto's hisses to just stay where he was. "By 'the Empress's land', do you mean the planet or those gardens? Because I happen to know for a fact– " The man in front of him raised his gun. "Look, I'm sure we can deal with this peacefully. My ship just happened to land–"

"Doctor!" Ianto just managed to push him out of the way just as another guard behind them fired and he turned around to see the younger Time Lord stuff in the pockets of his jacket only the samples that were most important to him before he took the Doctor's hand.

And they ran.