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!
From:
no subject
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.
From:
no subject
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.
From:
no subject
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.
From:
no subject
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.
From:
no subject
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?
From:
no subject
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.
From:
no subject
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.
From:
no subject
"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.
From:
no subject
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?"
From:
no subject
"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.
From:
no subject
He took her hand and smiled widely in return. They danced. Something in the universe felt very right in that moment.
From:
no subject
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.
From:
no subject
"Why haven't we danced before?" he asked.
From:
no subject
"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."
From:
no subject
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."
From:
no subject
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."
From:
no subject
"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."
From:
no subject
"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."
From:
no subject
"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...
From:
no subject
"Why do I have the funny suspicion that you never do take Time Ethics seriously?"
What awaited her back home was only trouble. The impeachment from her office was to come in years to come, and so much more. Never could she have imagined that one so young would be shoved into the arms of war to lead when no one else would be able to handle. And even then how could it be expected of her?
But that was to be. And this was now.
"Philosophical debates and joking aside, it is not possible to use such a thing to one's advantage. Time can never be abused for anything. Remember, how it almost fell into the wrong hands with the Key to Time?" Had the Doctor not realized that it was the Black Guardian in the end, who knew what would have happened.
From:
no subject
Together.
He didn't want her to become just another memory. Just another companion he referred to as "We were together" and then changed the subject.
"And I've always thought we've taken Time Ethics a little too seriously. Should live life while we've got it!"
From:
no subject
The dance continued with music soothing her, leaving her relaxed and calm for now.
"We have plenty of time, granted you don't go through your regenerations too quickly!" she grinned.
From:
no subject
His eyes grew sad, but he contained the feeling from the rest of his face. He spun her out and backwards again, to hide his sadness as best he could. She had so little time.
"For you, Romana? I'll stick around as I am for a while."
He pressed a kiss to her ear. Another intimate action. Very intimate. What about all those promises of self-preservation? Why did she make him act differently than he wanted to? More importantly, how?
From:
no subject
It was always something she wondered ever since she chose to leave him. What it was about this Time Lord that seemed to bring out the old her no matter what was going on in the universe, good or bad.
And despite all she had learned about adhering to the strict laws and rules she had traveled with him, bending the rules back then too. Why did she always think of the past with him? There was the future ahead and yet that never crossed her mind when he was around.
From:
no subject
The Time War took the body she'd seen most recently. Then Bad Wolf and Rose. And she stayed safe within Gallifrey---no, no she didn't. And as much as he could feel her in his arms now, she was gone. He had to remember that.
"But I've matured a good bit since you last saw me. Thinking about the last of my lives coming up. Learn a bit about staying safe that way. You, on the other hand, have the longest survival rating of any President I've ever met."
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: