Home for the Holidays Part 2
Title: Home for the Holidays Part 2, Periastron Day
Author: penguinspy42
Summary: After the Doctor is late for River's first Christmas in Stormcage, he's determined to make it up to her.
Rating: PG
Characters: Eleventh Doctor, River Song
Part 1
The Doctor threw open the TARDIS doors to a snow-draped hillside dotted with what appeared to be hundreds of decorated Christmas trees. “Ah! Here we are! Right planet, right day, right everything! See? I can get it right.” His long green coat billowed out behind him as he spun to face River. He grinned, looking inordinately pleased with himself.
“Very nice.” River zipped her creamy down-filled coat the TARDIS provided and stepped out, brushing past the Doctor. The snow crunched softly beneath her boots, rather more powdery than on Earth with the barest hint of a pearlescent sheen. “So what day is it?”
“Periastron day!” With a gesture toward the two glowing orbs hanging against a greenish sky, he started walking toward the tree line. “See, this is the planet I told you about where trees grow that look very much like Christmas trees and they produce fruit that resemble ornaments. Of course they aren’t actually Christmas trees. Their holiday that most closely resembles Christmas doesn’t involve trees at all. They hang strings of dried fruit around the doorways and all the children are visited by an elf with a duck bill and a beaver tail.”
River stopped in her tracks, raising an eyebrow. “Their Santa Claus is a platypus?”
“Yes. No. Well, sort of, except he walks on two legs, lives in a little log cabin, and likes pies. Anyway, he leaves eggs in all the children’s shoes; candy-filled for the good ones and rotten eggs for the bad ones. Which, really, I suppose sounds a bit more like Easter because of the eggs, but there’s a holiday where this long-eared fox creature leaves lovely sweet dumplings hidden about. Oh, another one I really love is the annual penguin migration when the skies are filled-“
“Doctor, what about Periastron day?”
“Right! Periastron day! Celebrated in some binary star systems like Valentine’s day is on Earth. But I love this planet’s version the most.” As he came up on the first tree, he plucked a golden bell-shaped fruit from its boughs and held it up. “See, there’s an energy that runs through everything, everywhere. These trees are able to pick up on that energy and translate it into various shapes and colors and flavors. But because of the light and the change in the gravitational pull as Periastron day nears, they produce an even wider variety of fruit than usual! So it’s customary to find fruit that best suit those you care for the most and present it to them as a gift.” With a grin, he took a big bite of the fruit. The smile slid rapidly off his face and was replaced by a look of repulsion. “Beans,” he coughed. “Tastes like beans.”
River watched as the Doctor dropped the remainder of his bell fruit and kicked it under the tree with the others that had fallen off. “If it’s such a big holiday, why is there no one here?” she asked.
“Like Valentine’s day, it’s become heavily commercialized. Most just buy the fruit from stores or, if they want to try to be traditional, there are farms closer to the towns that they’ll visit. These trees are wild, out in the middle of nowhere. No one would come out here just for Periastron day. Well, except for us.” He grinned, sidling over to River and nudging her with his elbow.
“And you expect me to find one for you,” she said, raising an eyebrow as the corners of her mouth turned upward in an amused smile.
The smile faded from his face and his eyes got big, almost puppyish. “Well, no, I mean-I just thought maybe we could walk and look and it’s just so Christmassy even if it isn’t really then I’d try some fruit, and you could try some and maybe we’d find something that we liked, and-“
River’s grin broadened the more he babbled on until she cut him off. “Oh, shut up. You know I’ll find one for you.”
“Okay!” He beamed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “You go that way and I’ll go this way. Then it’ll be a surprise!” With that, he practically skipped off in the other direction.
River strolled along, marveling at the immense variety of fruit. There were some that were simply shapes, some based on items that most cultures seem to develop like books, and still others that she couldn’t even tell what they were. But nothing jumped out at her as being for the Doctor. She kept going, stopping occasionally to ponder over what looked like a standard Earth screwdriver on one tree and a hat on another. The screwdriver wasn’t entirely appropriate and she wasn’t about to encourage his inexplicable love of hats that she was just starting to discover.
Just as she was wondering if she’d ever find anything appropriate she came across a stand of trees covered with small heart-shaped fruit. One in particular caught her eye; two hearts had just barely grown together, forming one fruit. “Two hearts,” she whispered to herself. She walked around all the trees, scanning the fruit but only the one that had grown together in that way. The only one of its kind. This was it, the one for him, she decided as she picked the fruit and went to find the Doctor.
A familiar giggle floating on the breeze told her that the Doctor was nearby. She peeped around a tree to see the Doctor several meters away picking tiny fruit off a branch, occasionally popping one into his mouth. Though his eyes carried a jovial twinkle, hidden just behind was darkness, a part of him that he tried to keep cloaked and was more successful some times than others. The longer she knew him, the easier it was for her to see. In the beginning, the bad was all she saw, hammered into her head through repetitive training. Then Amy showed her the good, and only the good. But now she was learning there was a bit of both in him. It balanced him and made him whole and she loved him for it.
The Doctor glanced over in her direction, the happiness already on his face increasing exponentially. “Ri-er!” he murmured through a full mouth, holding up some tiny grey fruit about the size of quail eggs, “Dey dase ike cus-ard!” He turned back to the tree and started stuffing his pockets with more.
She laughed and walked over to him as he swallowed thickly. “Don’t try those,” he said pointing to the next tree over. “They look like bananas but they taste like apples.”
River captured his pointing hand before he could busy it with collecting more fruit, and gently placed the dual heart in his palm. “I found this. It was the only one. The last of its kind, just like you.”
He looked surprised at first, but then his expression softened and he smiled. “Oh, River, I’m not the last of my kind, not anymore.” With that, he produced an identical fruit from his pocket-twin hearts- and placed it in her still open hand. She laughed; turning it over in her hand before raising her gaze to meet his, pinprick tears threatening to spill from the corners of her eyes.
“Happy tears?” he timidly asked.
“Happy tears,” she confirmed.
They raised the fruit together as if in a toast, then each took a bite. River closed her eyes, letting the flavor wash over her. It was that of time, like the scent that lingered around the TARDIS after a trip through the vortex; sweet, spicy, and just a bit cool metallic. A slow heat flowed through her torso and limbs like a drizzle of warm cream. A low sound somewhere between a hum of appreciation and a moan of pleasure escaped her lips. Her eyes flew open to meet the Doctor’s smiling gaze. She was drawn toward him, slipping her arms around his waist beneath his jacket as she stepped into him, nestling her head against his shoulder. She felt the pressure of a kiss on the top of her head, and smiled into his chest, wishing she could just stay there like that with him forever.
“Oh, it’s almost sunset,” he said, taking her hand as he broke the hug. “We can’t miss that, it’s my favorite part!”
“A dual sunset?” She asked, following him toward the tree line. “We could see that on any number of planets.”
“Oh no, it’s way more than that. Because of the chemical makeup, the snowflakes are almost like tiny prisms. Not really, but that’s the best way to think of it. Anyway, when the stars set, the light catches the falling snow just so, and it’s just-well, you’ll see.”
As the twin stars just kissed the horizon, the sky burst millions of tiny points of color swirling overhead as if an endless display of noiseless fireworks. The wind currents made the colors whirl and churn, dancing across the darkening sky in unique and complex patterns.
River smiled, leaning into the Doctor as she watched. “Gallifrey was in a binary star system. Did you have something like Periastron day?”
The Doctor tensed slightly and nodded.
“Did you have someone special you shared the day with?”
He was quiet for a long time, staring at the colors fading in the sky as the last of the light was swallowed by the horizon.
“All over now!” He clapped and strode purposefully toward the TARDIS. “Time to go! Have to get you back to Stormcage. How are people going to think I’m dead if they discover you’re out with me?”
“But Doctor, wh-“
He stopped suddenly and turned, placing a hand on River’s cheek. He smiled, but it didn’t do anything to rid his eyes of the abysmal grief they now held. “Another night, okay?”
She opened her mouth to say something, but then just nodded. He nodded in return, bringing his other hand to rest on her cheek. The fog of sadness cleared from his eyes as he drew her into a kiss both filled with promise and longing for the future, and a desire to forget the painful past. He ran his hand over her curls as they parted, then continued on hand-in-hand with her to the TARDIS.
He paused as he opened the door and said, “I have you right now, and right now is all that matters.”
River thought she couldn’t agree with him more.