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He had to work fast. No time for witty quips or screwing around. This was a task that required total concentration. It really was unfortunate that concentration was an area he sorely lacked in. He shook his head, blond curls falling into his eyes, no other thoughts other than what he was doing. No matter what the voice at the back of his mind said they were not going to get caught.
“The voice at the back of your head is me idiot,” his look out said without facing him. “Now hurry the fuck up. I’m not getting in trouble to cover your ass again this week.”
That really broke his concentration spell. Damn. He’d been doing so well. “And I thought I was the impatient one.”
His friend made his way over to him, “Move. Let me try it.”
Neither of them were engineers in the slightest. The most sophisticated thing either of them had made was a rudimentary sonic device that was finicky at best. But they were bound and determined to get off-world and a warp ship was easier access than a TT-capsule. At least it was in theory. In actuality what it lacked in security it made up for in technical protocols. “We should have brought Ali.” He sighed, dramatically like a Victorian human in a period drama. He was like that when he was away from his girlfriend too long.
“Will you stop bitching there’s nothing to be done about that now.” His friend was wildly trying to plug different cables into different locations without setting off any alarms. He wasn’t usually that frantic; Theta was suddenly worried about him.
He didn’t want his friend getting too wrapped up in his own head, that spelled trouble. But he didn’t have a solution for the problem at hand, and maybe Koschei did. Maybe. Or maybe not. He stared at the cables and screens trying to sleuth out the best way to bypass the security systems and get the ship moving. He noticed a smaller piece and like a puzzle everything slipped into place in his mind, it was child’s play then. “Kos let me have a look I think I figured it out.”
Koschei stared at him, unsure whether or not to believe him, when his head snapped up toward the corridor. He was straining to hear something, almost certainly not physical sound but mental presence, that’s where his skill lay. “Better hurry it up Thete. Someone’s coming.”
Theta nodded and quickly, in an almost thoughtless way hotwired a warp drive. Once he understood something he could do it almost effortlessly. It was almost like a trance; everything went smoothly and quickly but he didn’t say a word or crack a smile. It was eerie. He snapped out of it as quickly as it began and he beamed up at Kos, “Let’s go.” He grabbed his wrist, not caring to think about the fact that in terms of highly sensitive areas to touch for telepathy the wrist was second to the neck.
He never thought of those things.
Or he always did and was a massive dick about it covering himself with feigned ignorance. Neither way comforted Kos.
They made it inside of the ship mere moments before whoever it was rounded the corner of the docking bay they had made their way into. It was always running and close calls with Theta, despite how much he loved his friend Koschei wished that occasionally they could have less dramatic adventures. More playing with his cat and less running from people and things out to get them. But if it made Theta happy…
Piloting the ship was the easy part. Plug in the coordinates and let the ship do the rest. An advanced time tot with a working understanding of the galaxy could get themself to Phiadon and back if they wanted to. Not that they generally did. Maybe Theta had and now he was fulfilling all of his childhood dreams. “Where are we going?”
Theta’s smile reminded him of suns rise on the leaves outside the Citadel. Blinding yet beautiful. Damn that was gay. “I found a new place. It’s off world. A moon off a few light years away, no intelligent life, but it has some really pretty forests. I thought we could have a nice time, away from all this.”
He meant Gallifrey and the Academy. All the stuffy stuck up Time Lords ready to snuff the two of them out for having the gall to be different than everyone else. Like either of them had a choice in the matter. Like they weren’t ostracized for their own personal demons. Not that Kos would choose to be like anyone else. Despite the hell he lived in it was better than treating everyone different like shit just because they weren’t perfect Time Lords. “That’s a bit Crelue of you Thete.” He was poking fun at them, not being rude he told himself. There was a marked difference about making jokes about fucking plants and tormenting others because of things they can’t control.
“Oh what?” Theta made a show of it whenever he piloted anything, spinning around, pulling levers dramatically. That was part of the reason why he was failing his TT-capsule piloting class. “I’m not allowed to admire the inherent natural beauty of a planet? Perfect 90 degree angles and circles aren’t always the height of beauty Koschei. Sometimes there’s beauty in being different.”
Boy, didn’t he know? It was beautiful when Theta talked about humans as if he was one of them. And he was technically, in part. Katie was beautiful in her Prydon robes, keeping a heliotrope necklace on, to remember where she came from. He couldn’t imagine his...differences made him any more appealing to anyone in fact--
“Shut up loser you're gorgeous.”
Koschei snapped out of his thoughts. “Get out of my head.”
Theta looked offended, “If you wanted me out you’d keep me out. Your head was wide open like a massive foyer.”
Normally, Kos would be upset by anyone in his head, but, “I’m sorry a what?”
“Foyer, it's like the opening at the front of a theater or house. It’s an Earth word it comes from the Latin for home, hearth, or fireplace.” Theta loved languages, especially human languages. “Anyway be nicer on yourself, that’s my best friend you’re being rude about.”
He laughed, Theta always knew the right balance between serious and ridiculous, well maybe not always. But always when it counted. The ship landed with an unceremonious thud. Theta was the worst about landing, he was going to kill a TT-capsule one day that way. “Welcome to Roburetum.”
“You name it yourself?” Kos crossed his arms over his chest, Theta aspired to naming anything he could come across. Even if it had a scientific name already he was hellbent on giving it what he called a ‘proper name’ normally in a human tongue.
“Yeah! Latin again: oak grove. Not that I’m sure these are oaks, but they do bear resemblance. Not that I’ve seen many oaks up close and personal. But the moment I get enough time to myself on Earth…. They name everything there. It’s amazing the power that gives, everything is important, from the smallest insect (fairy flies) to the largest whales (blue ones).”
“Names have power on Gallifrey too,” He says it, offhanded. Things he’s known his whole life, from before he could stutter out sentences of his own. He didn’t think about Theta’s relationship with his name.
He scowled, not at Kos, almost never at Kos, but at the universe itself. “Names on Gallifrey hold power over people, Names on Earth give power to beings.”
Koschei carefully reached out mentally, just to get a sense of what was going on inside Theta’s mind. It was a whirlwind, Theta never did things by halves and his mind was like an open book, ready for anyone with the know how to get through to access whatever he felt; wholly and as intensely as he did. The only thing you’d never be able to access in Theta’s mind was his name. His given name. Names on Gallifrey were important: they told you about where the person was from, who their family was, details on the looms they came from, and sometimes even a glimpse into their future. That wasn’t Koschei’s business, it never was and it never would be. As far as he was concerned his best friend’s name was Theta. Nothing else.
But Theta saw it a little differently. As they stood in a wooded field surrounded by trees dozens of feet tall, he thought about his name. He was the only person in the universe that knew it aside from his father and it burned him. It was a name unfit for a Time Lord or a human a bastardized name meant to be near unpronounceable to humans and unsophisticated to Time Lords. It was meant to call him out as a freak to both cultures. If he ever heard it again he felt like it would be too soon. It didn’t belong to him. It never had.
He could feel something, it was on the tip of his tongue, and it was definitely a bad thing. It took him far too long to place it, this moon was riddled with temporal energy, and it was syphoning off on his memories, his feelings, and he was being sucked into a terrible spiral of glimpses into his future.
A woman is whispering his name into his ear.
He wants it to stop already, but he can tell it’s only the beginning. He knows she’s important, but no one is important enough to be allowed to say it. She shouldn’t even be able to. She seems human enough…
"Since he was a little girl."
He flinched. That wasn’t...it couldn’t be. Or maybe it was. He felt the presence radiating off the woman like a beacon. He’d know the feeling anywhere. A safe haven. Haven from the old English hæfen meaning harbor or port. But there was something lurking underneath, the kraken to that port.
"He says, I'm the Doctor, and they say, Doctor who? See, I'm cutting to the chase, baby. I'm streamlining. I'm saving us actual minutes." It’s the kraken again.
A different woman, she felt like family. Child, Old English cild ‘a newly born person’ Yeah, okay, whatever.
The almost Kos: "Also it's his real name."
Cild: It's what?
It was almost soothing (soðian: show to be true). To hear the Almost Kos stand up for him. His name is Theta, or Doctor Who apparently. But it wasn't--
“Theta.” Koschei puts a steading hand on his shoulder (skuldro: Old German: sheild?). The real Kos. “Hey, Theta.” His voice was soft. Comforting (confortare: to strengthen); was he crying?
He was, that’s why Kos was wiping the tears off his face. It only made him feel worse. He’d done this for Kos. He’d been having a hard time and he deserved a break and--
“Theta.” His voice was more forceful now, but not cruel. Nothing like the fake one in his visions. “I’m not upset with you. I just want you to be safe.”
Safe, Latin: salvus uninjured, in good health. None of those things rang true in the moment. That’s what Koschei was trying to fix. Make it better again. Maybe he should be the one called Doctor Who. He was so good at fixing Theta, especially when he needed most. When everything falls apart and is broken Koschei is there to help pick up the pieces.
“Thete, you want to save everyone, Doctor suits you not me,” Kos just smiled at him, it was his best way to calm him down.
He leaned against Kos, feeling his hearts pounding in his chest. He was worried, but trying not to let it show. It was safer when they touched. It was frowned upon on Gallifrey to be so close, the power of telepathy increases with range. But neither of them had ever cared much about what others thought.
They sat in near silence for a while, with Theta muttering etymology facts to himself to calm down until: “Kos...I want to go home.”
Koschei ran a hand through his hair, “Sounds good. Maybe next time we’ll go somewhere else.”
Theta nodded. Thinking about ‘Doctor Who.’
Doctor, medieval Latin: doctor "religious teacher, adviser, scholar,"
Doctor, a promise: Never give up, never give in.