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Lucius knocked with hesitation on the large wooden door, frowning slightly at the metal tag on the plaque next to it.
‘The Captain’ it read. It cannot be his actual name he thought to himself.
There had been a piece of note paper left on his locker door when he’d finished his shift less than forty minutes ago. The kind of fancy note paper that denoted an old notebook of some kind, there was even a faint scent of lavender upon it.
“Mr Spriggs. I would like to invite you to tea in my office. 5pm. The Captain.”
He wasn’t sure what ‘The Captain’ wanted. Sure, Lucius had technically been sneaking into his lectures when he wasn’t actually a student at this university but his lectures were… legendary. Some say he had been teaching there for over seventy years but he didn’t look more than fifty from what Lucius had seen of him.
The Captain always looked impeccably dressed, even if his outfits did occasionally look like he’d stepped right out of the 1700s. Frilly shirts, long coats, even stockings sometimes. It was part of the reason people went to see his lectures Lucius reasoned. Part of his spectacle that drew you in.
“Come in, I’ll be right there,” his familiar voice called out. There was a Kiwi-esque twang to his voice yet The Captain always seemed to shirk the question when anyone ever asked where he was from.
Lucius took a deep breath in, unsure of what would be awaiting him on the other side.
To his surprise, it was a perfectly normal office. Wooden panels, a large desk in the centre. A massive bookshelf along one wall with books from all sorts of genres. A nice looking painted landscape of a lighthouse adorned the wall behind the desk.
Well, there was one thing that was rather unusual. A massive blue box shoved into one corner. Police box was lit up in large white letters across the top of it. He noted it was sat atop of the carpet, a Persian style large rug.
The Captain was nowhere to be seen.
“Umm… sir?” Lucius called out, as he tentatively walked into the room.
“Sit down, I’ll only be a moment,” his voice rang out… from inside the blue box? It had to be, Lucius could see nowhere else it would have come from.
He was baffled but dutifully sat down on the chair in front of the desk, intrigued for whatever reason he had been summoned here.
He leant forward to have a nosy at the desk. There were papers strewn everywhere, a pot of pencils and strangely a couple of feather quills. There were a couple of framed photos on the desk, Lucius reached his hand out to turn one of them towards him a little more. One seemed to show a pretty brunette woman and two children, smiling and laughing together. The other showed an incredibly handsome man, tall with silvery hair and brown skin, dressed in leather head to toe, black inked tattoos etched onto his arm. He was smiling fondly, not at the camera, but at whoever was behind it.
“Sorry about that.”
The Captain stepped out of the doorway of the blue box, shutting it firmly behind him.
“Just had to… check on something,” he said with a smile, but something faltered in it for a moment. A subtle shake of his head seemed to bring him back into the room.
“What’s in there?” Lucius replied, narrowing his eyes slightly and nodding towards the box.
“Nothing, it’s just a cupboard.”
… “ A cupboard that you were standing inside?”
“Yes.”
“And that you had something to check on inside it?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to answer me seriously?”
“Not yet” The Captain said with a small grin. “Anyway, Mr Spriggs. Or may I call you Lucius?” He said as he sat down behind the desk.
Lucius nodded. “Are you really called the Captain?”
Again, a strange look came over his face for a split second before turning back to his usual friendly expression. “You can call me The Captain yes.”
“Just… the Captain? Captain what?”
“Never mind Captain What. Lucius, my dear boy. You’ve been coming to my lectures.”
Lucius shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He had been rumbled.
“Lots of people go to your lectures.” he said defiantly.
“Lots of students go to my lectures. You are not enrolled here.” he responded with a raised eyebrow.
Lucius blanched, feeling his face flushing even though he willed it not too.
“I … I er. Look Mr Captain,” Lucius was about to ramble, launch head first into a monologue about how he was sorry, it’s just he didn’t really want to do a full uni course nor could he afford it and he knows he only works in the library café but -
“I want to tutor you” The Captain interrupted with a smirk on his face, holding up a hand to stop Lucius talking.
Lucius halted, confusion marring his face.
“… but you just said it yourself. I’m not a student,” Lucius paused, looking down at his hands for a moment and fiddling with them. “I’m just a barista”
The Captain scoffed. “Just a barista? My boy, in my time I have never met anybody who is ‘just’”- he did air quotations around the word - “their job. And if by some happenstance there is anyone out there who only lives for their job, I would imagine they are exceptionally boring.”
That made Lucius smile, a chuckle threatening to erupt from his chest, his eyes flitting up to meet The Captain's gaze. He was already looking at him, a warm smile and hazel eyes that held a weary kind of wisdom.
“But why me?” Lucius asked curiously.
The Captain smiled, leaning forward onto the desk and looking at Lucius with equal amounts of curiosity.
“I could ask the same. You only ever seem to come to my lectures.”
Lucius’s eyebrows furrowed. “How do you know that?”
The Captain shrugged. “I know a lot of things.”
“Well… everyone knows about your lectures. You’re a university legend. You seem to talk about every topic. Last week you spoke wholly about rosy maple moths but then this Monday, you were talking about pirate ships. Nobody even knows what your actual subject is.”
The Captain smiled, a little mischievously and a little proud. “Life is my subject, Lucius. I’ve seen a lot of it." A strange look passed over his face for a moment but it drifted away just as quick as it arrived.
“To answer your question of why you, I noticed you. Everyone else in that room is writing their notes on their laptops, some of them even go the old fashioned route of a pen and paper. You? You draw in your sketchbook to make notes, it is remarkable.”
Lucius lifted the corner of his mouth in a smile. “It’s just how I remember stuff better.”
The Captain nodded. “Everyone learns in their own way, I just … approve of yours significantly. You never look fazed by anything I say either, some think I am too much. But you smile when I say things that you don’t understand, it’s a wonderful trait to have."
Lucius let his eyebrows lift in surprise for a moment. “Thanks I think. You kind of have to be, only out gay kid in an all boys secondary school, you can’t let yourself be fazed by anything.”
The Captain smiled warmly and nodded, as if in understanding, his eyes flicking ever so slightly to the photo of the grey-haired leather-clad man on the desk.
“Be back here, tomorrow night, 7pm sharp if you wish to take up my offer.”
“What exactly are you going to be tutoring me in?” Lucius asked.
The Captain’s mischievous grin returned, a glint of something in his eyes. “You’ll have to come back to find out."
Lucius was intrigued by the mysterious offer. The Captain had always been an odd figure and speaking to him in person enlightened him no further. But he couldn’t help but feel like saying yes might just be the best idea he’s ever had.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lucius said with a smile.
He stood up to leave when there was a loud bang, coming from inside the blue box. Lucius startled and looked over at it and then back to The Captain. He was staring at the box but he looked… sad.
“What was that?” Lucius asked after a moment when The Captain made no move to address the noise.
“The sound of something that is healing,” The Captain replied matter of factly. He stood up, he didn’t push directly but his movements indicated it was time for Lucius to leave.
“I’ll see you for our first session tomorrow my dear,” he said kindly but firmly.
Lucius gave one more curious glance over to the blue box but nodded. He had no idea what he was letting himself in for but he couldn’t wait to find out.
~
The Captain ran down the stairs within the Tardis, reaching the vault door, where the noise had originated from. He tapped lightly on it.
“Kraken! I had company up there,” he said a little sternly. “Nobody is meant to know you’re here.”
A single tap from behind the door replied.
“It was that boy. The one who draws, I told you about him. I think… I think he can help me. Help us. He seems like he’d be up for an adventure. And he could be a friend to us” He sighed. “I’m getting bored, sitting around here.”
A louder angrier rap on the other side of the vault door came. The Captain rolled his eyes a little.
“Yes I know you’re bored too. But we promised the Council we’d live your entire sentence out on Earth together. The final Act of Grace granted by the Gallifreyan Council, we have to honour it. And it isn’t wholly my fault we’re in this mess.”
An angry bang again.
“Okay it was a little my fault,” The Captain responded, with a soft chuckle.
The tap was softer this time, as if in thanks.
The Captain held up a hand to the vault door, pressing lightly on it, his eyes closing and inhaling deeply.
“I love you darling.”
Despite the layers of metal between them, The Captain knew his hand was on the other side in the same position, reaching out for him as he always would do.
He strained his ears to listen for it. It was there. The faintest softest ‘I love you too’ echoed through time and space and through the thick door. Maybe he couldn’t hear it and it was merely wishful thinking but he would always hear him say I love you no matter where they were.
Just a matter of time.