Mercury. Not exactly the most entertaining of planets, but certainly one of the most peaceful. With the atmospheric generator setting up a heat and pressure field around where he sat outside the TARDIS, it was actually quite nice.
He had two white wicker chairs and a table set up outside the TARDIS, with a pot of tea and two cups and saucers out.
After all, he had a date arriving.
Well, not really a date.
Just Romana.
Still! No reason not to put a little effort out!
He had two white wicker chairs and a table set up outside the TARDIS, with a pot of tea and two cups and saucers out.
After all, he had a date arriving.
Well, not really a date.
Just Romana.
Still! No reason not to put a little effort out!
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And part of him cried out that now was the chance to try for something. Anything. But what good would come of it? He'd just have to give her up to the timeline he already knew was coming.
"No, nothing," he stammered a bit and took her hand again.
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All the teasing and the joking and the bantering was set aside. He was lying again, she just knew it. And she remained rooted to the spot as she looked up at him with an unwavering gaze, concern evident in her eyes.
"Please do not make me repeat my question."
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The act was strange and intimate, especially for him. Still, it felt good and it quieted that annoying voice (sounded like his seventh self, the troublemaker) that kept telling him to take some sort of a chance while he had one.
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"I know it has," she admitted. And here they were, Time Lords, dwelling on the length of time. Had she realized that the time that had passed since she had last seen his eighth incarnation was countless time lost of his own timeline... But the idea was not anywhere near coming to realization in her mind.
Moving her from his wrist now to cover his hand, repeating her words in a softer voice, "I know it has."
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He thought about what time he did have with Romana right before the War. Was there anything she said that might've indicated this happened? Was there---
One time. Just once. What would it hurt? He leaned forward, as if to kiss her, then stopped. No. No, timelines. Responsibility. What would Romana say if she knew what he was doing?
He pulled back and took her hand to dance again. It was how they were. Dancing but never really moving forward.
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By chance it was that she fell into the familiar motions with his sixth that day she had managed to escape the Dalek imprisonment, the beginning of her Presidency.
And when it came time to repeat the waltz she found herself with his eighth moving from Cambridge to Shada, all in the rush of time moving ever so quickly. But that was how it always was whenever she found herself in his company - time never slowed down for them, not once.
Gripping his hand firmly she allowed herself to be caught up in the music's embrace. There was something wrong but she could not understand what it was. Trusting his, watching him. If just this once time would slow its pace for them. Slow and peaceful as the notes filling the air.
"Doctor, I..." She what? She wanted him to allow her to stay?
In the very depths of both of her hearts, the tiny part of selfish desires begged to stay here, wanting for more than one trip. It was impossible to go back to the past. And Gallifrey was her responsibility. Despite the fragile structure that was unraveling itself before her eyes she was still determined to bring about the change that was needed. And wishing like this would do nothing to save their home. It was disgusting and childish of her to think of such a thing.
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And if she asked, he'd never be able to say no.
Before she could, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her mouth. More than a little nervous and very little more than completely chaste. Enough to keep her from asking.
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One of her hands had now taken to resting against his cheek this time. Pressing a second kiss now to match his first she spoke not a word, only holding his hand with her other still.
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The hand at her hip pulled her a little closer. Not much. Not terribly. Just a little. Like the difference between a torohammer projection and a sereseta projection. Slight, but significant.
He also deepened the kiss very slightly, parting his mouth. How long had he wondered what it would be like to kiss Romana? A long time. A very long time. And now he was kissing her. That was also stunning! And fantastic. And lots of other adjectives why was his brain still going a million lightyears a second? It made concentrating exceptionally difficult and if he was going to have the chance to snog Romana, even just once, he wanted to be able to concentrate fully on the act.
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Kissing the man who was once her mentor was nothing she could have imagined. But then again her mind did little to imagine much these days save for the peace she could find after a meeting with the council or dealing with the stressing matters of home. It only encouraged her to close the distance between them just a bit more.
Both of her hearts were pounding rapidly in her chest. The smallest sound of content could just barely be heard from her.
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And kissing her was pleasant. Wonderful, his mind corrected him.
He had so much he wanted to tell her. Tell her about...just everything. But there was never any time. Always against him, he used to say.
He pulled back just a hair and pressed his forehead to hers.
"Romana, I..." But how to say anything?
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But to see him struggle with words as she had before, how his eyes expressed just how much he wished to tell her whatever it was that ran through his mind, she was suddenly afraid. And that was not something she would have ever admitted to.
So taking a page from his book Romana stole away whatever it was he was going to say with another kiss.
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Part of him nagged like a gnat, reminding him that this was their last kiss. She had to leave after this.
He silenced the voice in his head. He refused to let a kiss like this feel like goodbye just yet.
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"We... we should go back soon." She hated to speak those words. The idea of going back to those meetings and delegations with the other races was enough to give her a headache right then and there. But even with the means to return as if no time had past, one could not stretch time too far in such a way.
With a much shorter, more chaste kiss to his lips, she did add, "But we can stay just a little longer, if you still want to."
And she hoped he did.
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Romana had always been the one that got away. He wouldn't...he couldn't just let her back. Not yet.
"Haven't nearly finished even one dance," he said. "Too long since we have, remember?"
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"You do have a point there," she answered with a touch of humor in her tone. Dipping her head down in something like a bow, holding out her hand to him once more, all the woman did was smile again.
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He took her hand and smiled widely in return. They danced. Something in the universe felt very right in that moment.
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And to dance like this with the Doctor was something more than natural. She held his hand in hers, the other holding his shoulder. Again none of the other dancers around them seemed to matter.
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"Why haven't we danced before?" he asked.
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"Finding the pieces to the Key to Time certainly kept us busy. And quite frankly, one problem after another would arise and we would stumble upon." And even smirking now, she added when she came back to him from a spin, "Like that Vraxoin smuggling operation we stumbled on with those Mandrels running about the cruise ship, Empress."
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As she spun back he took half a step back and spun her one more half spin so her back was against his chest and he took her hand and continued to dance. It felt almost like a backwards embrace, like he could see things the way she did.
"Should use time machines to our advantage." He realized his voice was much lower now and he was very nearly speaking against her ear. "Give us as much as we need."
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She could just faintly feel the beating of his hearts against her back. resting her hand on his arm, gripping his hand with her other, the dance still felt as natural as ever to her even though she could not see his face any more.
"You know very well that we cannot do that," she breathed. All the laws and guidelines to time were imprinted in her memory, of course. Even if the suggestion was just a step beyond tempting. "If time were to be manipulated like that, and for such a long time, it could disrupt the very balance."
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"How long is too long?" he asked.
He spun her out once more, and stepped forward to take her back into the classic waltz embrace.
"I don't want to break the laws of time," he lied. "I just want to bend them a little."
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"But even if you bend the law, it will eventually break in half. Or thirds, depending on how level of severity the law actually is. Could even go as far as to say quarters or fifths." Watching him still and wondering always, the crescendoing notes encouraged her. Exactly what it was she wanted to do though was lost on her.
A gut feeling, she remembered The Doctor calling it once. A rather crude way of putting it but efficiently accurate. "And time is infinite. To calculate what would be precisely too long is improbable. It is best not to tamper with it or the consequences of such could very well be dire."
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"I do so love it when you quote Time Ethics to me."
If she knew, she wouldn't have come. How much changed within the TARDIS and the universe and him since the War. The War she doesn't even know about yet.
He should've made her go. He thought back to the TARDIS. Just make her go...
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