Work Text:
Troy Barnes was an ordinary human. Nothing special, even boring at times. His life was pretty much the same things day by day, over and over. Again, nothing special. He yearned for change, and did try to make his life more interesting. Going on blind dates every once in a while, trying to make friends, but it never really worked out in the end, nothing did. It was sad, sure, but isn’t that just the way of the world? All adults go through this, right? That’s what he tried to keep telling himself, but he was never fully convinced. He knew there had to be some way to just make things more fun for himself, like it was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't say it out loud.
Today was like any other day, he went to work at his local library, a quiet job with little to no foot traffic each day. He sat at his desk, scrolling on his phone or computer, bored as hell. He was thankful that tomorrow was his day off, although he then realized that he didn’t really have any friends to hang out with, or anywhere to go out anyways.
Every day when he walked into the library, which was a large stone building that Troy presumed was built somewhere between the 1400s and 1600s, he looked at the large stone angels that were strewn across the corners of the building, their beautifully carved wings, and hands covering their eyes. He guessed that it was some sort of Medusa inspired piece of art. He never stayed long enough to fully study the statue, either wanting to go home as fast as possible or not wanting to be late to work like he had been many times before. Today, though, he noticed that he had stared at the statues longer than he normally does, someone inside of home he felt like he was waiting for them to do something, even though it sounds silly, he half expected them to move on their own, even though he knew deep down that statues don’t move because they’re solid stone, he still felt hesitant to take his eyes off the angels. He finally shook himself from staying out too long and entered his place of work.
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Finally, he was mere hours away from locking the library doors and finally feeling the comfort of his own bed in his tiny apartment. Hey, the library could only afford to pay him so much. It was the middle of winter, and the heat in the library often had to be cranked up because it was so cold. Today was one of those days when he was blowing his hot breath into his hands to prevent them from freezing off. The heating was downstairs in the old creaky basement, so Troy would either have to freeze to death, or go into the dark old basement. Not that he was afraid of the dark, or anything like that. He just didn’t like to be unaware of his surroundings, that’s all. He decided that he was feeling brave enough to head into the basement, and exited his work chair and reached the stairwell. Once he got to the top of the stairs, he suddenly felt very fearful of what could be down there. “There’s nothing down there.” He said to himself. He tried to sound brave, even though he was nothing close to it. He hesitantly stepped down, step by step. He almost tripped a few times, and just heighted his nerves. He kept telling himself everything would be okay, and this would eventually be worth it. He really doesn’t want to be cold the last few hours of his shift, and he forgot his coat at home. Once he reached the thermostat, he cranked it up to 70° and turned around.
Once he had turned around, he looked down the hallway of the dimly lit basement and saw one of the statues that are on the outside of the buildings. He wouldn’t admit it, but he had jumped a bit at the sight of the statue, he had never realized how large in size they actually were, as he drew closer, he noted that the statue was chipped in some corners and that it was actually a few inches taller than him. Now, he was only a few feet away from the statue. He finally took in how beautiful and precise the carving was. Suddenly, he remembered that he had a job to attend to. As he slowly backed away from the angel, he tried to keep an eye on it. He didn’t know why or what, but there was something strange about this specific statue.
Suddenly, the dim lights flickered on and off.
When the lights turned back on, Troy yelped louder than he would like to admit and covered his mouth, leaving his wide eyes staring at the angel, who had drawn closer a noticeable amount of feet, and was resting right in front of him. “H-hello?” He hesitantly asked, trying to think of any possible scenario besides the idea that the statute had moved completely on its own. “Is anyone there? This is a very funny joke, haha…” He tried to fake a smile as best as he could, he didn’t want to be a sore loser who got mad at a harmless joke. “Hello?” He asked more confidently. “Is there someone down here?”
As Troy blinked and frantically looked around. His eyes caught on the statue once again, who had drawn even closer than before, and now its hands were in the air and its sharp toothed snarl had been revealed for Troy to see. “Um, this isn’t very funny anymore…” He started slowly backing away from the statue, keeping his eyes locked on its figure.
As he continued to back away, he saw the stairwell in his peripheral vision, but before he could act and run up the stairs, he backed into something that didn’t feel like stone or the hot metal of the furnace, but more like a human like himself.
“Don’t blink.” They spoke.
“What? What’s going on?”
“Just, don’t blink.”
“Yeah, I know! It moves! What’s going on?”
“If I tell you, will you be scared?”
“I don’t think it will make much of a difference right now.”
“It’s a Weeping Angel, an alien that takes the form of a statue of an angel, well, weeping. If it gets close enough, if it touches me or you, or both of us, there is a great chance we could die.”
Troy swallowed hard. ‘Die?’ He thought. “You can take your eyes off it if you want, don’t worry about me. I know how to handle this.” The stranger said.
“Have you seen it before?” Troy asked.
“Oh, yes. I have. Now, run, don't worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
The thing is, Troy couldn’t help but worry, even if it was a stranger, he had only met just a few minutes ago. He had a tendency to worry about almost everything, even leaving simple voicemails.
“Please.” Troy said, keeping his eye on the statue, getting more scared by the second.
“What?” The stranger questioned.
“Let me help. How do we kill this thing?” Troy pleaded.
“Are you sure?” The stranger asked.
Troy thought for a moment. Risking his life for a person he had never met before in his life. Is this how he wants to die?
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
“Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Do you have any mirrors?”
“Uh, I can take one from the bathroom. Does that work?”
“Yes! That’s perfect. Go! Now!” The stranger ordered.
Troy finally took his eyes off the statue. Before he ascended the stairs, he peered behind him and took a good look at the stranger he had just met. He had an arched nose, a sharp jawline, and he could tell that he was pretty skinny, as well as taller than Troy. He was dressed in a trench coat, suit, and tie and he was wearing red converse to finish off the look. Troy noticed his curly, swooping dark brown, almost black hair, his caramel skin, and his brown eyes, focused on the angel.
“What are you waiting for?” The man asked bluntly.
“What’s your name?” Troy asked, completely forgetting the situation they were currently in.
“The Doctor.”
“Hm.” Troy hummed. He snapped back to reality and ran up the stairs toward the bathroom.
When he returned, The Doctor’s eyes were still strictly focused on the angel.
“What do I do with the mirror?” Troy asked.
The Doctor pointed to a nearby heighted chair, which just fit the height of the angel. “Put the chair in front of the angel, don’t go in front of its face, if I break eye contact, something bad might happen.”
“You mean I’ll die?”
“Most likely.”
Troy hurriedly put the chair in front of the angel. “What now?”
“The mirror, set it on the chair, make sure that the angel is making eye contact with itself.”
Troy obeyed The Doctor’s command.
When the mirror was set in place, The Doctor finally looked away, and at Troy. Troy caught his cheeks flushing with a dark red hue as he realized how handsome The Doctor actually was.
“What’s wrong with you? Are you sick?” The Doctor asked.
“What? Uh- no. It’s nothing.”
“Okay.” The Doctor said, walking towards the stairs. “Make sure nobody moves that mirror, I’ll come back here later and get it gone for good.”
“Alright.” Troy said.
The Doctor started making his way up the stairs before Troy grabbed his wrist to stop him.
“Wait. Where are you going?” Troy asked, a look of curiosity in his eyes.
“Wherever, whenever. Why?”
“I don’t know. You just saved my life, I don’t know anything about you, and you just saved my life. Why are you just leaving so quickly?”
“I’d like to keep it that way, I prefer to remain a mystery. I have things to do, places to be.” The Doctor took another step up the stairs.
“Wait!”
“What?”
“Can I come with you?” Troy asked as he looked into The Doctor’s eyes and studied his face.
“It’s dangerous.” The Doctor said. Troy noticed a hint of longing in his voice, like he was holding back, like he wanted to say yes.
“I don’t care. I know I just met you, but I feel like I want to stay. My life is so boring and repetitive, I need some change, some excitement. You seem exciting.”
The Doctor thought for a moment, he looked down to the ground.
“I want to keep you safe. You won’t be safe with me, it’s too dangerous.” He pressed his opinion further.
“I’ll take care of myself, I promise. Please.”
The Doctor gave in. “Okay, come on. We have places to be.”
Troy suddenly gained a wide grin on his face, his heart racing. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.” The Doctor answered. As they made their way outside, they walked into an alley that had been hidden away, and they walked up to a blue box. “Are you ready?” The Doctor asked.
“Yes.” Troy answered. The Doctor opened the doors and Troy walked into the box.
Troy was amazing and befuddled. “But- what? It’s bigger…”
“On the inside? Really? I didn’t notice!” The Doctor said with an overly sarcastic tone.
“This is amazing!” Troy marveled.
“Thanks. Now, where do you wanna go?”
“Where can we go?”
“Anywhere in space and time.” The Doctor said, a smug grin on his face.