This Ship Is Taking Me 3
Ch. 3
When Matt woke up, it was to some crashing and cheerful sounding swearing. He slowly got up, and made his way towards the noises, rubbing his eyes sleepily. The Time Lord found Dom in the kitchen; sheepishly holding a pan of burned…something…
“Are you trying to burn your home down? What even is that?” Matt asked, trying and failing to hold back a laugh.
“Well, I was going for French toast, but I think I got ashes instead. If you can’t tell, Chris and his girlfriend usually cook, not me.”
“I can cook if you want me to,” Matt offered. “I have picked up some talents over the last 300 or so years, you know.”
“I suppose,” Dom admitted. “Then I relinquish control of the kitchen to you, gladly.” Matt rolled his sleeves up.
“That’s a responsibility that I accept. I promise that I won’t poison you.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
~~~
“Okay, I might make you cook more often; that was incredible! Chris might have some competition.”
“Oh please, I’ve simply had more experience than him; I’m sure he’s a wonderful cook.”
“He is a pretty fucking good cook.”
“You seem like you have a very good friendship with Chris,” Matt observed, starting to help Dom clear the table.
“Quit, you made the food; the least I could do is clean up. And yeah, we’ve been friends forever.” Matt stubbornly continued to help clean, keeping his injured wrist out of the way of being jostled.
“Yeah, after this we’re gonna go get that looked at. Can you move it or use it at all?” Matt nodded, slowly and carefully moving his wrist in a small circle.
“”That’s about as much as I can do right now. Another perk of my regeneration is that I can use the excess energy to heal any wounds I may sustain right afterwards. So my wrist must’ve been broken before, and I had just enough energy to heal the break at least.”
“Still, I want to get it checked out by a professional,” Dom said firmly, very clear that he wasn’t going to accept any argument on the subject.
“Alright, alright. You’re a bit of a mother hen aren’t you?”
“If I am, you can blame Chris for it. He’s the real mother hen around here; it just rubs off on me.” Dom grabbed his coat, then rooted around in a closet and threw one at Matt.
“I don’t know if you have any clothes in that TARDIS of yours, but it’s cold as fuck out, so you can use my coat for now.”
“Oh…thanks.” Matt struggled into his shoes, fumbling the laces a bit because of his hurt wrist, and then shrugged the coat on. Dom grabbed his keys, and led Matt to his car, which was parked on the street.
“Nice car, very nice,” Matt said approvingly as he got in.
“Yeah” You know cars? Wait, you’ve probably seen the invention of cars, what am I talking about? Anyways, yeah this is my baby; I just got it a couple months ago after saving up for forever.”
“No, yeah, it’s great. Wish I could have a use for fancy cars, but since my TARDIS already does that for me, plus more…” Matt trailed off wishfully and shrugged.
“I’ll let you drive it once, promise. Now, since I’m taking you to the hospital, is there anything weird they’re gonna find? Like…alien-weird, no offense…”
“None taken. I don’t think, just for a hurt wrist, that they’ll take my pulse or anything like that, but I do have two hearts. That’s the most noticeable thing. My blood’s different, yeah, but I doubt they’ll draw blood either. Aaaand you’re staring…”
“You have two hearts? Did I hear that right?”
“Ah, you caught that tidbit? Yeah, I have two hearts, one on each side of my chest. Don’t ask, it’s very science-y. I have a lot of subtle biological differences from humans, if one knows where to look. But a simple hurt wrist shouldn’t cause too much alarm. My bone density is very similar to a human’s.”
“This just keeps getting weirder and weirder, but I am so glad that I found you. My life needed a little weirdness and excitement, and I’m glad to offer my help to you if you need it.”
“I’m glad you’re the one that found me. That situation could’ve gone so much worse; I think I lucked out with you and Chris and I’m very grateful.”
~~~
“See, I told you, just sprained.” Matt looked ruefully at the brace on his wrist. “More annoyance than real injury is what this is.”
“Still, I’m glad we confirmed it.” Dom let them both into the flat. “Better that than letting something nasty fester.”
“Are you sure you got your mother hen tendencies from Chris rubbing off on you? I think they are well and truly ingrained,” Matt teased, moving towards the balcony to check on his TARDIS. Dom poked his tongue out childishly at the Time Lord, and then trailed after him curiously.
“Whattcha doin’?” he asked as Matt unlocked the TARDIS and picked his way past the piles of random chunks of metal and debris on the floor. But it already looked cleaner and neater to Dom than it had the first time he’d been inside the day before.
“Hey Matt, can the TARDIS clean itself did you say?” Dom asked. Matt poked his head out from the room he’d gone into and nodded.
“Sure can. She’s fixing herself. She could completely fix herself given enough time, but like I said, it’ll be quicker and easier if I help her along.” The head of fluffy black hair disappeared back into the room, and this time, Dom followed him, picking his way over the debris scattered underfoot.
“Ah, dammit…” He heard the Time Lord mutter, and poked his head into the room to see Matt standing amidst mounds of partially burned, partially drenched fabric.
“Whoa, what is all of this?” Matt turned with an irritated look on his face.
“That was, emphasis on was, my wardrobe. Looks like it got the worst of the impact.” The Time Lord nudged some of the clothes with his foot. “I’ll have to go through it, see what I can salvage.”
“We could always just go shopping you know,” Dom suggested. “I wouldn’t be opposed to that.”
“You honestly wouldn’t mind? I don’t think I have any money though, and I don’t want to take advantage of you any more than I already have.”
“Well, if you’re going to be stuck here, you should have some decent clothes. From the looks of this mess, I’d say you’re going to need some either way.”
Matt folded his arms, looking put out.
“Fine, fine, you win…”
“I always do. We could go now if you wanted. Get it over with and then come back and relax. I actually want to surprise Chris and make dinner because I feel bad about his girlfriend doing it all the time, but I obviously need your help. I mean, if that’s okay with you…”
“Well, I wouldn’t just leave you to fend for yourself, not after you’ve offered to buy me clothes. Besides, I don’t want you burning your flat down,” Matt teased as they exited the TARDIS.
“That may be true, but rude at the same time, you asshole. I’m not that bad.”
“When you can cook a whole meal with nothing catching on fire, then I’ll be impressed,” Matt said dryly, laughing when Dom smacked his shoulder none-too-gently. “Ow! Hey, maybe I’ll teach you! That way, when you get a girlfriend, you can cook for her instead of making her do all the work.”
“Challenge accepted. If you can actually teach me how to cook, it would be nothing short of a miracle.”
~~~
“Dom, you can’t just leave the rice, it’ll stick! You gotta stir it a bit every so often.” Matt nudged Dom out of the way gently with his hip, taking over the rice that they were making. He was wearing some of his new clothes: simple black slacks and a blue sweater, his sleeves shoved up past his elbows.
“Okay, so what should I do? I don’t wanna make you do all the work, I’m supposed to be learning here.” Dom put his hands on his hips, looking put out and slightly flustered.
“Can you cut up those vegetables? I assume you can do that without hurting yourself or the vegetables, yes?” Matt grinned when Dom deliberately bumped into him on his way to get a knife and cutting board.
Chris came in while they were just finishing up, his girlfriend Kelly close behind him.
“Well, something smells good,” she remarked. “Dom, surely you didn’t make the house smell this good.”
“Hey, I resent that! But it was me and Matt here. He’s teaching me how to cook so I’m ‘not completely useless’” Dom made exaggerated air quotes when he said the words. “His words, not mine of course.”
Matt came out from the kitchen wiping his hands off, and then extended one to Kelly.
“Hello, I’m Matt, as Chris probably told you. You must be his lady friend. Wonderful to meet you.” Kelly blushed prettily, taking the hand Matt offered her.
“Yes, I’m Kelly. Wow, finally, these two cavemen get a friend with some manners.”
“Hey!” The other two chorused in protest, and Matt laughed.
“Well, I will try my best to civilize them to your liking,” he teased. “Their first test is table manners while we eat dinner.”
~~~
“That was delicious, Matt, Dom, good job. I wish I had half of your cooking skills Matt, where on Earth did you learn how to cook like this?”
“Nowhere on Earth, actually,” Matt said absently. “I do believe I learned most of my cooking skills on a wonderful little planet inhabited mostly by lovely people with four arms. Bit strange, but I’ve seen stranger, and they were perfectly hospitable in any case. Lovely recipe for flan, they had.” Matt trailed off when he noticed three pairs of eyes trained on him.
“Ah…I mean…from my mother?”
“Uh…” Kelly said in a small voice. “Is this a prank, guys?”
When Matt woke up, it was to some crashing and cheerful sounding swearing. He slowly got up, and made his way towards the noises, rubbing his eyes sleepily. The Time Lord found Dom in the kitchen; sheepishly holding a pan of burned…something…
“Are you trying to burn your home down? What even is that?” Matt asked, trying and failing to hold back a laugh.
“Well, I was going for French toast, but I think I got ashes instead. If you can’t tell, Chris and his girlfriend usually cook, not me.”
“I can cook if you want me to,” Matt offered. “I have picked up some talents over the last 300 or so years, you know.”
“I suppose,” Dom admitted. “Then I relinquish control of the kitchen to you, gladly.” Matt rolled his sleeves up.
“That’s a responsibility that I accept. I promise that I won’t poison you.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
~~~
“Okay, I might make you cook more often; that was incredible! Chris might have some competition.”
“Oh please, I’ve simply had more experience than him; I’m sure he’s a wonderful cook.”
“He is a pretty fucking good cook.”
“You seem like you have a very good friendship with Chris,” Matt observed, starting to help Dom clear the table.
“Quit, you made the food; the least I could do is clean up. And yeah, we’ve been friends forever.” Matt stubbornly continued to help clean, keeping his injured wrist out of the way of being jostled.
“Yeah, after this we’re gonna go get that looked at. Can you move it or use it at all?” Matt nodded, slowly and carefully moving his wrist in a small circle.
“”That’s about as much as I can do right now. Another perk of my regeneration is that I can use the excess energy to heal any wounds I may sustain right afterwards. So my wrist must’ve been broken before, and I had just enough energy to heal the break at least.”
“Still, I want to get it checked out by a professional,” Dom said firmly, very clear that he wasn’t going to accept any argument on the subject.
“Alright, alright. You’re a bit of a mother hen aren’t you?”
“If I am, you can blame Chris for it. He’s the real mother hen around here; it just rubs off on me.” Dom grabbed his coat, then rooted around in a closet and threw one at Matt.
“I don’t know if you have any clothes in that TARDIS of yours, but it’s cold as fuck out, so you can use my coat for now.”
“Oh…thanks.” Matt struggled into his shoes, fumbling the laces a bit because of his hurt wrist, and then shrugged the coat on. Dom grabbed his keys, and led Matt to his car, which was parked on the street.
“Nice car, very nice,” Matt said approvingly as he got in.
“Yeah” You know cars? Wait, you’ve probably seen the invention of cars, what am I talking about? Anyways, yeah this is my baby; I just got it a couple months ago after saving up for forever.”
“No, yeah, it’s great. Wish I could have a use for fancy cars, but since my TARDIS already does that for me, plus more…” Matt trailed off wishfully and shrugged.
“I’ll let you drive it once, promise. Now, since I’m taking you to the hospital, is there anything weird they’re gonna find? Like…alien-weird, no offense…”
“None taken. I don’t think, just for a hurt wrist, that they’ll take my pulse or anything like that, but I do have two hearts. That’s the most noticeable thing. My blood’s different, yeah, but I doubt they’ll draw blood either. Aaaand you’re staring…”
“You have two hearts? Did I hear that right?”
“Ah, you caught that tidbit? Yeah, I have two hearts, one on each side of my chest. Don’t ask, it’s very science-y. I have a lot of subtle biological differences from humans, if one knows where to look. But a simple hurt wrist shouldn’t cause too much alarm. My bone density is very similar to a human’s.”
“This just keeps getting weirder and weirder, but I am so glad that I found you. My life needed a little weirdness and excitement, and I’m glad to offer my help to you if you need it.”
“I’m glad you’re the one that found me. That situation could’ve gone so much worse; I think I lucked out with you and Chris and I’m very grateful.”
~~~
“See, I told you, just sprained.” Matt looked ruefully at the brace on his wrist. “More annoyance than real injury is what this is.”
“Still, I’m glad we confirmed it.” Dom let them both into the flat. “Better that than letting something nasty fester.”
“Are you sure you got your mother hen tendencies from Chris rubbing off on you? I think they are well and truly ingrained,” Matt teased, moving towards the balcony to check on his TARDIS. Dom poked his tongue out childishly at the Time Lord, and then trailed after him curiously.
“Whattcha doin’?” he asked as Matt unlocked the TARDIS and picked his way past the piles of random chunks of metal and debris on the floor. But it already looked cleaner and neater to Dom than it had the first time he’d been inside the day before.
“Hey Matt, can the TARDIS clean itself did you say?” Dom asked. Matt poked his head out from the room he’d gone into and nodded.
“Sure can. She’s fixing herself. She could completely fix herself given enough time, but like I said, it’ll be quicker and easier if I help her along.” The head of fluffy black hair disappeared back into the room, and this time, Dom followed him, picking his way over the debris scattered underfoot.
“Ah, dammit…” He heard the Time Lord mutter, and poked his head into the room to see Matt standing amidst mounds of partially burned, partially drenched fabric.
“Whoa, what is all of this?” Matt turned with an irritated look on his face.
“That was, emphasis on was, my wardrobe. Looks like it got the worst of the impact.” The Time Lord nudged some of the clothes with his foot. “I’ll have to go through it, see what I can salvage.”
“We could always just go shopping you know,” Dom suggested. “I wouldn’t be opposed to that.”
“You honestly wouldn’t mind? I don’t think I have any money though, and I don’t want to take advantage of you any more than I already have.”
“Well, if you’re going to be stuck here, you should have some decent clothes. From the looks of this mess, I’d say you’re going to need some either way.”
Matt folded his arms, looking put out.
“Fine, fine, you win…”
“I always do. We could go now if you wanted. Get it over with and then come back and relax. I actually want to surprise Chris and make dinner because I feel bad about his girlfriend doing it all the time, but I obviously need your help. I mean, if that’s okay with you…”
“Well, I wouldn’t just leave you to fend for yourself, not after you’ve offered to buy me clothes. Besides, I don’t want you burning your flat down,” Matt teased as they exited the TARDIS.
“That may be true, but rude at the same time, you asshole. I’m not that bad.”
“When you can cook a whole meal with nothing catching on fire, then I’ll be impressed,” Matt said dryly, laughing when Dom smacked his shoulder none-too-gently. “Ow! Hey, maybe I’ll teach you! That way, when you get a girlfriend, you can cook for her instead of making her do all the work.”
“Challenge accepted. If you can actually teach me how to cook, it would be nothing short of a miracle.”
~~~
“Dom, you can’t just leave the rice, it’ll stick! You gotta stir it a bit every so often.” Matt nudged Dom out of the way gently with his hip, taking over the rice that they were making. He was wearing some of his new clothes: simple black slacks and a blue sweater, his sleeves shoved up past his elbows.
“Okay, so what should I do? I don’t wanna make you do all the work, I’m supposed to be learning here.” Dom put his hands on his hips, looking put out and slightly flustered.
“Can you cut up those vegetables? I assume you can do that without hurting yourself or the vegetables, yes?” Matt grinned when Dom deliberately bumped into him on his way to get a knife and cutting board.
Chris came in while they were just finishing up, his girlfriend Kelly close behind him.
“Well, something smells good,” she remarked. “Dom, surely you didn’t make the house smell this good.”
“Hey, I resent that! But it was me and Matt here. He’s teaching me how to cook so I’m ‘not completely useless’” Dom made exaggerated air quotes when he said the words. “His words, not mine of course.”
Matt came out from the kitchen wiping his hands off, and then extended one to Kelly.
“Hello, I’m Matt, as Chris probably told you. You must be his lady friend. Wonderful to meet you.” Kelly blushed prettily, taking the hand Matt offered her.
“Yes, I’m Kelly. Wow, finally, these two cavemen get a friend with some manners.”
“Hey!” The other two chorused in protest, and Matt laughed.
“Well, I will try my best to civilize them to your liking,” he teased. “Their first test is table manners while we eat dinner.”
~~~
“That was delicious, Matt, Dom, good job. I wish I had half of your cooking skills Matt, where on Earth did you learn how to cook like this?”
“Nowhere on Earth, actually,” Matt said absently. “I do believe I learned most of my cooking skills on a wonderful little planet inhabited mostly by lovely people with four arms. Bit strange, but I’ve seen stranger, and they were perfectly hospitable in any case. Lovely recipe for flan, they had.” Matt trailed off when he noticed three pairs of eyes trained on him.
“Ah…I mean…from my mother?”
“Uh…” Kelly said in a small voice. “Is this a prank, guys?”