When the Sun Sets ☼ Eleven x Reader

V - Prince's Bliss

'Doctor?' she asks, brushing a strand of her hair out of her eyes. 'Where are all of the... people?'

'What?' The time lord shouts back from inside the TARDIS. He peeks his head around the door frame, steps quickly out of the box and the corners of his mouth begin to drop. 'Oh,'

He seemed saddened by the lack of busyness in the hotel. Turning back slowly to the three of you, he begins to speak again.

'I can move us if you want? I hear the Queen's Riviera is quite nice at this time of year?'

The Doctor begins to head back into the TARDIS, but fails as his path is blocked.

'Nonsense!' Amy says boldly. 'It doesn't matter where we are, does it Rory?'

'What? Oh yeah, we don't care where we are, it's who we're with we care about,'

'Exactly,' Amy says, draping her arm over your shoulder. 'Let's go find out why it's so quiet in 'the best hotel in the galaxy' on such a fine day,'

After walking forward a little further, a poster that was merely a coloured square a few moments before now bore legible words.

''Christian Skinner, Prometheus Industries.'. Sounds intriguing,' you comment as you pass the poster.

'That it is,' the Doctor replies, scanning it with his sonic.

'Doctor, do you really need to use the sonic for such a- dare I say- useless task?' Rory says sarcastically.

'Expect the unexpected, Rory. If I remember correctly, you've died three times excluding the reboot of the universe, so I like to be a little more cautious now. Especially with our new passenger,' he looks back at you and offers a small smile, and a simple raise of the eyebrows.

'Sorry, just repeat that one- reboot of the what now?' you ask.

'Hush. Brain thinking.' the Doctor replies, staring intently into the side of the sonic, reading whatever symbols that were displayed upon it.

'Nothing out of the ordinary,' he sighs, appearing to be a little unimpressed at the lack of alien intelligence. 'Christian Skinner has come from planet Earth.'

The look exchanged between your brother, sister-in-law and yourself spoke volumes in a matter of seconds.

'Not gonna lie,' Amy says. 'Little disappointed,'

'Well, some of the most interesting people I know are only human,'

'Only human? I'll try not to be insulted,' you reply, smirking a little as the Doctor's face curls into a shocked look of apology.

'You know that's not how I meant it,' he mutters softly.

You punch his arm playfully as you speak. 'I know, I'm just messing with you. Now come on. We've got a Mr Skinner to meet.'

[-]

You had to admit, walking into the 'best hotel in the galaxy' was quite an anti-climax. The interior resembled an old Bed and Breakfast you and Rory had stayed in when you were younger. The décor simply screamed 'retirement home!' with the deep red patterned carpet and dark wood furniture scattered about the room. It was a rather large foyer, with a large wooden desk in the middle of the room. As was almost to be expected, it bore a small stack of business cards painted with the Prometheus Industries logo, and the chair behind it housed the man himself- Christian Skinner.

Before you can even reach the man, however, small ball-shaped drones surround the group of you. They force you into a single file line, before sprouting to long, metal arms and rotating 90 degrees to form a sort of archway without a top. A red light, evidently a scanner, passes across all four of you, both sides meticulously watched by the drones. The Doctor, as expected, was at the front of the group, and as the scanner reached him it began to hiss and spark a little. The clearly malfunctioning robot was quickly tended to by Mr Skinner, who pressed a few buttons on the back of the droid before directing the four machines towards an open doorway to your right.

'I'm so sorry,' he gushes apologetically. I've never seen them act in such a way before,'

'Are they yours?' Amy asks, peering inquisitively around the corner after the floating droids.

'No, they're a part of the hotel's programme. Scans you for disease. Chen-7 and other plagues like it.'

'Chen-7?' the Doctor yelps quickly, pulling the collar of his tweed jacket over his nose and mouth. 'Do you get a lot of it around here?'

'Not anymore, you don't have to worry. It's not a very big planet. With our advanced health care regimes we managed to eradicate it here pretty quickly. No need to worry, sir,'

'Good,' the Doctor sighs in relief as he lowers the covering from his face. 'I'm the Doctor, this is Amy, [Y/N] and Rory,' he says, indicating to each of you as he speaks. Mr Skinner shakes each of your hands in turn, and then addresses the group.

'It's good to meet you all. The name's Skinner- Christian Skinner. My face is plastered all over this place,' he chuckles light-heartedly.

'And what do you do, Mr Skinner?' you reply, a little hint of scepticism in your voice. You wander out of the slanted single-file line you'd formed and pace around the man slowly, analysing his every action.

'She's good,' the Doctor hums softly to Amy- almost out of your ear shot.

'I told you so,' she replies.

'I represent Prometheus Industries,' he says, his tone indicating he was aware of your doubts in him. 'I do bits of work in publicity- that's why I'm here, promoting the book and not sat in my office back at HQ,'

The latter half of his response sounded rather agitated. He seemed pretty genuine -and if he was putting on an act, he was definitely rather good at it.

'Here,' he said, extending his arm out towards a small seating area to the left of his table setting. 'I have a small book signing to attend, but I'd be happy to show you around the hotel afterwards?'

'You know, that would be wonderful. Thank you,' the Doctor replies- smiling, as ever.

'That is,' Mr Skinner jumps in quickly. 'If you wouldn't rather come to the signing yourselves? Copies of the book are only £19.99 in standard Earth, England currency.'

'You're alright, thanks,' Amy dismisses quickly before turning eagerly back to the Doctor. 'Can we go and find the pool? They have a pool here, don't they? Please say they have a pool.'

'Amy, what a ridiculous question.' the Doctor replies, standing. 'Of course they have a pool.'

They begin to wander slowly away from the foyer, Rory scuttling along behind.

'Um, Doctor?' you ask apprehensively. 'Do we not have to... you know, get our rooms and do all of that hotel stuff before we go swimming?'

'Already done!' he happily announces. 'I scanned the little chip in the sonic and booked one as we came in. I had it put in after I came so often. I had a friend... Rose, her name was. We came here a lot.'

His gaze drops slowly to the floor as he speaks of this 'Rose'. You can tell, wherever she is, the Doctor must miss her deeply.

With barely any second thought, his expression changed, and he was back to his smiley self. 'Right! Let's go find this pool!'

You followed behind the group, a little further back. As you turned the corner, you could've sworn you spotted Mr Christian Skinner, eyeing you suspiciously, and scribbling furiously on the back of one of his business cards...