Let the world turn
Title: Let the world turn.
Author: fate_incomplete
Rating: PG
Warnings: Angst
Spoilers: The Snowmen
Characters: Eleven
Word Count: 290
A/N: Written for the who_contest prompt - Water
Summary: The Doctor lands on a cloud above London, unable to heed Amy's last words.
.......................
The lights of London were laid out below, a diffuse glow of life smudged together in muted colours, like a washed out watercolour painting. He didn't look down. He didn't look up either, refused to acknowledge the majesty of space laid out above, so vibrant at this height it cast soft light across his features. Instead he stared out across the cloud tops, wisps of moisture swirling in shifting patterns, soft, delicate, intangible, obscuring the lights below and above as they drifted.
This was hardly the first time he had experienced loss, unlikely to be the last either. Somehow, it never got easier, the latest experience not cancelling out the previous, instead mixing together in a strange, merciless multiplication effect, his grief becoming a weight beyond bearing.
It was too much.
He was too old, had seen too much, carried too many losses.
It hurt to breath, but he did anyway, breathed in the cool air heavy with particles of water. He took off his tweed jacket, numb fingers letting it fall as he dropped to his knees, nothing beneath him but the cold, silent support provided by the TARDIS, and let the fingerless caress of the clouds wrap around him.
Don't be alone. Those words echoed in his mind, yet he had to be. The universe could survive without him. Long, damp hair brushed against his cheek as he closed his eyes, and let everything drift away.
It was too much. He just needed everything to stop, let the world turn below him, out of sight beneath the clouds, until he could breathe again without it hurting, and remember how to run.
.......................
Author: fate_incomplete
Rating: PG
Warnings: Angst
Spoilers: The Snowmen
Characters: Eleven
Word Count: 290
A/N: Written for the who_contest prompt - Water
Summary: The Doctor lands on a cloud above London, unable to heed Amy's last words.
.......................
The lights of London were laid out below, a diffuse glow of life smudged together in muted colours, like a washed out watercolour painting. He didn't look down. He didn't look up either, refused to acknowledge the majesty of space laid out above, so vibrant at this height it cast soft light across his features. Instead he stared out across the cloud tops, wisps of moisture swirling in shifting patterns, soft, delicate, intangible, obscuring the lights below and above as they drifted.
This was hardly the first time he had experienced loss, unlikely to be the last either. Somehow, it never got easier, the latest experience not cancelling out the previous, instead mixing together in a strange, merciless multiplication effect, his grief becoming a weight beyond bearing.
It was too much.
He was too old, had seen too much, carried too many losses.
It hurt to breath, but he did anyway, breathed in the cool air heavy with particles of water. He took off his tweed jacket, numb fingers letting it fall as he dropped to his knees, nothing beneath him but the cold, silent support provided by the TARDIS, and let the fingerless caress of the clouds wrap around him.
Don't be alone. Those words echoed in his mind, yet he had to be. The universe could survive without him. Long, damp hair brushed against his cheek as he closed his eyes, and let everything drift away.
It was too much. He just needed everything to stop, let the world turn below him, out of sight beneath the clouds, until he could breathe again without it hurting, and remember how to run.
.......................