With boundless laughter, the Doctor and Peyton Barrett tumble into the Tardis. The Doctor slams the doors and the two shove their backs up against the white wood, leaning into it as they continue laughing heartily.
"You..." Peyton manages through her laughing, clutching her sides. "I can't believe we got out of there alive!"
"Me?" The Doctor cackles, pushing himself off the door and shrugging off his slightly charred coat, chucking it over the railing nearby, gripping it and leaning forward, his shoulders still heaving. "You totally blew our cover!"
Peyton wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to steady her breaths but the sight of the Doctor laughing causes her to bubble up all over again. "I was under pressure!"
"I'm sorry, your majesty, but you can't sacrifice us, we're Time Lords!" The Doctor teases, impersonating his apprentice.
"What else was I going to say," Peyton chuckles, trying to catch her breath, she walks over to the seat by the console and throws herself down into it. "They were going to throw us into that volcano."
The Doctor sighs, before taking in a large breath to steady himself. "In twelve hundred years, I never thought it would be you who nearly kills me."
Peyton tries to glare up at him but her smile betrays her. "Shut up."
"Come on you," the Doctor says, placing a hand on her head and messing up her hair even more than it already is. "Go get cleaned up, we've got reservations tonight at the the Moon Gardens of Syterling."
Peyton bats the old man away from her head and gets to her feet. "Do I have to dress up?"
The Doctor sighs at her. "Yes! Just, at least wear something with buttons."
"So... not a sweater?" Peyton raises an eyebrow at his low standards of her.
"If you can manage," the Doctor replies sarcastically.
"I'll see what I can do," Peyton smirks back before wandering down and away from the console.
• • •
The stars twinkle in the inky sky above, constellations dancing in the night to the wonder of those below. One would never see this many stars if you were to gaze skyward on a London night, Peyton counts herself lucky if she even spots one in the foggy heavens. With her stomach full of food, a fire crackling nearby and a soft blanket thrown around her shoulders, Peyton breathes in the alien air and wishes on a star, something she hadn't done since she was a little girl.
She fixes her eyes on the brightest one, hanging above the mountainous horizon. It reminds her of Earth's very own Dog Star, the human traveller's guide for millennia, how it hangs proudly in the skyscape, commanding dominance over all others.
She wishes to never have to stop wandering the universe, traipsing her way across the galaxies without a care in her mind and with her best friend at her side. She couldn't imagine anything that could make her want to give any of this up, no matter what happens.
"Back to reality, Peyton?" The Doctor's voice catches her attention and she smiles up at him, having returned from his disappeared, wine bottle and two glasses in hand.
"I thought you hated wine," Peyton creases her eyebrows with a smile as the Doctor slides into the bench beside her and starts pouring the drinks.
"Yeah, well, I know you like it," he shrugs, meticulously making sure not to spill a drop. "And, it turns out I know the barkeeper! Helped her out a bit in a spot of trouble centuries ago, she gave me a hell of a discount."
Peyton chuckles under her breath and picked up her glass between her fingers. She eyes the Doctor who is holding his glass patiently, watching her with those old eyes.
"To forever," Peyton says, lifting her glass to his.
The Doctor smiles, albeit with a hint of sadness that the astute Peyton doesn't miss, and lifts his own glass to meet hers. "To forever."
sorry it's very very short, i wasn't planning on writing this but i thought a little teaser would be appropriate before next week's chapter.
YOU ARE READING
The Time Lord's Apprentice
Fanfiction"But, you're impossible!" "Yeah, and the world is ending, I don't think now is the time." Peyton is an orphan, taken from her mother as an infant by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. She is raised separately from other children because she is spec...
