Imagines and Preferences: Book 2

Preference: Prompt 25 | Doctor Who

Prompt #25
Requested by me

Happy Valentine's Day (week)? Honestly I forgot about it until the day before I posted this. Whoops.

Summary: One of you asks the other if you want to grow old together.

QOTP: What do you think is going to happen when Captain Jack meets Thirteen?

Word Count: 2364

Nine -
He fled his home after he destroyed it, never expecting to see or hear from another Gallifreyan again, much less a Time Lord. He was pained, guilt-ridden. Alone.

He wanted a companion — needed one. Just a friend. Someone to distract him, to see the worlds with him. But there was no one, not that he knew of, so he went to his favorite place.

Earth.

It was something about the humans, though he wasn't sure what it was, that made it so appealing. They were resilient, yet blissfully ignorant. Brave and, overall, kind, especially when it counted. And their lives were so, so short compared to his own. A blip in his overall timeline, but somehow significant. Something that could not be ignored.

One day — night, actually — he found himself on a high rooftop, looking down at the humans below. Just observing, out of loneliness and boredom. He could hear them laughing. Chattering. He even catches snatches of a song in between the voices and the sound of cars driving down the street.

"Tiny, aren't they?" a voice suddenly says from behind him. It was a woman, her features almost familiar, approaching the edge of the roof next to where he sat. But she stood.

The Doctor turned back to the scene on the ground, looking in the crowd for the one who was singing. "I think they're giants," he replied.

The woman chuckled. "Funny how they can be both at the same time." She sat next to him then, her feet dangling over the edge.

The Doctor turned to her. "You speak as though you aren't one of them."

She looked at him with a slight smirk. "So do you." The Doctor had no reply, simply turned back to the ground, to the people. He and the woman were silent for a few minutes, until she spoke up again, though almost in a whisper. "Where are they all going?"

"Hard to say," the Doctor replied, just as quietly. "Could be anywhere."

The woman swallowed, pointed at a couple walking down the street, arm in arm. "I bet they're going home."

The Doctor looked at her, while she still looked at the couple, almost with sadness. "Why do you think that?" the Doctor asked gently.

"Look at them," the woman replied. "They're so carefree and self-assured. So happy."

"You can be happy without a home."

"Well, I'm not."

This answer brought on more silence, though it lasted only a moment. The Doctor sighed. "I'm not either."

She turned to him, half curious, half hopeful. "Who are you?"

He smiled softly. "The Doctor. Who are you?"

She thought for a moment. "Call me Y/N."

"Alright, Y/N it is," the Doctor said.

They looked back out at the street, the couple then out of their sight. They watched the night empty, the street lights really the only light left, the people all gone. Home.

"They don't last long, do they?" the Doctor said.

Y/N shook her head. "No, they don't." She paused for a long moment, finally adding, "But we do." She took a shaky breath. "We're nothing but time."