Work Text:
Romance -- Ardent emotional attachment or involvement between people; love
He was dirty. It was the first thing that crossed her mind. Mud coated his face and frock coat. There were abrasions on his cheek and brow. A broad rip in the shoulder dart of his coat left the cream jumper and shirt underneath exposed to the elements. His hair was a little wet, either from sweat or from the humid air, and a deep shade of brown, it hung in his eyes.
“Tough day.” Tegan’s voice was both full of humor and tight from exhaustion.
“Yes, well…” the Doctor sighed. “Why you agreed to us staying for the meal…”
With a sigh that explained both the small smile on her lips and the hint of exasperation in her manner, she shook her head. “Because, Thete, we’re always running off when everyone’s celebrating. I thought we could do with a spot of fun.”
He bent a little at his waist and slipped his hands into his pockets. She could see the endless, ageless quality in his eyes. Tired, probably to the point that he would sleep that night, she thought ruefully. A small voice told her that he was in one his mercurial moods. “Tegan, there’s a reason we leave before the celebratory fireworks. Do you really need to hear how wonderful we’ve done?”
Tegan frowned and reached forward to try and hoist the frayed piece of fabric at his shoulder. “First, Thete…” she shook her head. “You can’t lecture properly when you’re falling to pieces. You just can’t carry that off. Secondly, you can’t lecture like a grown-up when you look like the boy that found the mudpies.”
“Yes, well…” he sighed, straightened and tugged at the arm of his coat. It slipped off in his hands. “I do appear to need a bath, or at the very least, running water.”
“That’s an understatement, Doc. And no, I don’t need to hear how wonderfully we’ve done. Cripes, how can you think that?” she demanded quietly. Turning, she walked to the door and opened it slightly. There was a little balcony that overlooked a vast, green garden. “Nyssa has found people here she likes.”
It must have been the tone of her voice because the Doctor’s eyes clouded slightly. Tegan’s eyes searched the garden and the gently waving branches of the trees below. “Hell’s teeth, Doc…all she has are you and I…I have the Earth, you have Gallifrey whether or not you’ll return to it. I have family…you have friends from a lifetime of travel. Nyssa needs people our age. She’s found a friend here.”
A hand on her arm made her turn back towards the Doctor. His coat and jumper were gone and, in his shirtsleeves, he stood beside her. “Has she?”
Tegan nodded. “While you were off deciding how best to get that planetary defense grid up and working, Nyssa and I were dealing with the government here. She fit in rather well.”
“Hmmm,” the Doctor said quietly. Tegan felt his hands at her shoulders. “A point well made.”
“This surprises you?” Tegan asked, quietly, but with bite.
“Not entirely,” he admitted. His chest puffed out at her back as he inhaled and his hands tightened slightly on her skin. “I appear to have a positive effect on your interaction skills.”
Tegan nearly groaned at his answer. “I appear to be having none on your ego. Still, nothing you say can ruin this. Would you look at this place? With all the running we’ve done lately around here, I haven’t had the time to stop and look about. But it looks like…Eden…here.”
A small brook ran through the garden, but it was too far beneath them to hear the sound. The vegetation was green and brown, much like Earth’s but had a strange odor to it. It tickled Tegan’s senses, like a light citrus smell hidden in a flowery bouquet. She took a deep breath.
“That’s Worm’s breath you smell.” She glanced upwards and saw the Doctor looking out at the garden. He smiled and looked down at her.
“Worm’s…breath?” Tegan sputtered a laugh. “Cripes, what a god awful name for a flower with that nice of a smell.”
“Yes, well…worms or their close relatives are venerated here,” he explained as he nodded to their surroundings. “It was the nicest thing they could think to name it.”
“Hell’s teeth,” she breathed with a shake of her head. The small smile on her lips grew to a grin. “I’ll never get used to things turned round. That might help me when I go home again.”
“Undoubtedly,” he agreed. “I can’t change you too much, can I?” He released her shoulders with a sigh and looked back at the garden. “This meal is in an hour, is it not? I seem to recall that time table. I’ll have just enough time to clean up.”
“And change. God’s hat, we’ll have to get you a new coat.”
“Oh, I’ll go without it tonight. And the jumper,” he responded and turned to the room.
Tegan smiled at his retreating back and glanced back out at the garden.
**
“Yes, thank you.”
The Doctor accepted a plate of meats and cheeses without a second glance. Their table faced a small dance area where celebratory jigs and dances were ongoing. Several single women twisted and turned, bustling to the music. Nyssa danced with them, a twirling dark sprite amongst fair inhabitants. Tegan watched as her friend, laughing and giggling, passed them and disappeared around the fire. With the swirling flames and drifting smoke, it reminded Tegan of campfires on the beach as a child and teenager.
Smiling, she remembered tumbling with her sister and brother in sleeping bags as their father told them story after story in the moonlit, starlit beautiful nights.
“You can dance with them, if you’d like.”
Tegan glanced over at the Doctor, reclined next to her on his elbow. He looked warm in his shirtsleeves and cricketing trousers. When he had her attention, he nodded to Nyssa who, giggling, passed by them again. “It’s a celebration of friendship and goodwill.”
She nodded. “I know. And if I wanted to dance, Doc, I would. But Nyssa is celebrating finding friends. It’s her celebration as much as ours.” She popped a piece of cheese in her mouth. “I’ll dance later.”
“Hmm,” he responded.
With a frown, she contemplated him. “Do you want to dance?”
“Culturally, males aren’t involved,” he explained.
“Well, then…” she responded. She slid around the table toward him and felt him inhale as she sided up against him. “I’d rather just sit here with you and enjoy the fire…”
The evening passed into the night as the flames continued to dance and jump like the celebrators. Her eyes watered from the smoke and the swirling ash, but the atmosphere was wonderful. Her front was warm, her back was cool, feeling the breeze. The Doctor was at her side, cool and warm, strong and silent. She turned a little to him.
“You were…” Tegan pursed her lips. “Wonderful….today.”
The Doctor inhaled. “Was I?”
“Well, yes…with the younger members of the tribe. You made sure each one was involved and kept the plan going.”
“Well, Tegan…” he swallowed his food. “In order to make communities, plans, lives work, everyone must be involved.“
She shrugged and reached out to take bread from the plate and put it in his mouth. “True. Look I was only trying to give you a compliment, you know.”
He glared at her over her fingers as she finished pushing the bread between his lips. “You could just accept it.”
With a swallow, he burst out, quietly: “I was, Tegan, but you did rather push bread in my mouth.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you were that…good with…children.”
“They’re just little people, Tegan…just miniatures of you and me,” he explained. He lowered his hand to close over hers. “And to honor the occasion of you making a compliment, I’ll admit something. That was the first time I ever had to handle that many children.”
With a laugh, she shook her head. “Cripes…”
“Yes, well…” he continued as he obviously enjoyed her outburst. “There were quite a lot of them. And…they all wanted to help…”
Tegan took back her hand and leaned into him as they both laughed. The languid feeling of having a pseudo-argument with him, the warmth of the fire and the cool of the spring evening at her back mixed to make her feel relaxed. The Doctor’s arm found a place against her back, curving around her waist. Together they watched Nyssa dance happily and laugh with her new friends.
Sometime, perhaps an hour later, she sighed, breaking the silence in which they sat. “Thete?”
"Hmm, yes? What is it?”
She smiled and tilted her head up to whisper close to his ear. “This is comfortable. I believe you have it right.”
“Tegan…” he responded as he gazed down at her. “We’ve just finished a long and strenuous adventure. I was coated in mud; you were covered in Rassilon knows what…and we’re only sitting here more than likely because we’re too tired to do anything else…”
“And I’m comfortable, aren’t you?” She asked in return.
“Quite,” he sighed.
“Well…” Tegan shrugged as the weight of his arm. “I quite enjoy it. The next time you want to show me a good time…let’s do this.”
The Doctor harrumphed quietly, but his arm tightened. “That’s rather…easy.”
“It’s rather us,” she joked.
“Is it?” he asked in return. “I suppose it is.”