Fic: Choice
Title: Choice
Rating: G
Pairing: Ten/Yana (suggested Three/Delgado!Master)
Summary: Sometimes we pay for our choices before we even know we have made them.
Notes: For eyraforsthye who gave me Ten/Yana and Three/Delgado!Master as prompts.
Length: 500 words
“I am sorry,” I said to him, as I re-joined him in the laboratory. “I really am. But you must understand… I am an old man. So very old… and it has been so very, very long since…”
He flashed me a smile, as brilliant as it was false. “No need to apologise,” he said. “I understand.” And he went back to fiddling with his strange tool, making obscure alterations to my computer systems.
I crouched down beside him. “I rather think that you don’t, my dear. I wish I could explain. I do. But there’s something…” I waved one hand back and forth between us. “There’s something elusive here, Doctor. Something I cannot place. Something… wrong.”
His hand slipped when I said that, but he pretended that it had not. He did not meet my gaze then, but continued his tinkering, and I watched him, and thought about his lips against my own. Mere minutes before, and already the memory was a blur in my mind. When I shut my eyes, I saw a stranger, fair haired, well-dressed, reaching a hesitant hand towards my face, when in reality - I knew - I had been kissed by none in this place before the arrival of this scruffy youngster.
I wished I had not pushed him away. But we make our choices and we must live with them, and reap their every consequence until our dying days.
“I’ve isolated a couple of blips in the system,” he said. “Nothing major, should be able to sort it before the others get back-”
“I have every confidence in you,” I told him.
“Despite something being wrong.” He still refused to look at me.
I took a heavy breath, patted his knee with great affection. “I cannot explain. You are… remarkable, Doctor. A young, gifted genius. We don’t see many of those here. Your help is appreciated. You are… entirely appreciated.” I wanted some assurance that he caught my meaning, but none was forthcoming. I sighed. “Perhaps I simply do not wish any further distractions from the work at hand. The only hopes of so many people lie with us. Can we afford to indulge our selfish urges now we are so close to succeeding?”
“No,” he said. “I suppose not.”
I watched as he cleared away the errors in my system with a skill I could only aspire to, and as he worked, his expression began to soften.
“Do you remember,” he asked me, “what the stars looked like?”
I chuckled. “No. Nobody does.”
“I do.” He finally looked at me. “I’ll show you, one day. An entire sky filled with stars, from horizon to horizon. Imagine it!”
“Oh, I do. Every day.”
His smile was genuine, then, and I could have kissed him. I wish I had. Oh, how I wish I had taken that final chance…
But we make our choices. We choose our paths. And we live with our mistakes, even if we are entirely ignorant that they were ever made.
Rating: G
Pairing: Ten/Yana (suggested Three/Delgado!Master)
Summary: Sometimes we pay for our choices before we even know we have made them.
Notes: For eyraforsthye who gave me Ten/Yana and Three/Delgado!Master as prompts.
Length: 500 words
“I am sorry,” I said to him, as I re-joined him in the laboratory. “I really am. But you must understand… I am an old man. So very old… and it has been so very, very long since…”
He flashed me a smile, as brilliant as it was false. “No need to apologise,” he said. “I understand.” And he went back to fiddling with his strange tool, making obscure alterations to my computer systems.
I crouched down beside him. “I rather think that you don’t, my dear. I wish I could explain. I do. But there’s something…” I waved one hand back and forth between us. “There’s something elusive here, Doctor. Something I cannot place. Something… wrong.”
His hand slipped when I said that, but he pretended that it had not. He did not meet my gaze then, but continued his tinkering, and I watched him, and thought about his lips against my own. Mere minutes before, and already the memory was a blur in my mind. When I shut my eyes, I saw a stranger, fair haired, well-dressed, reaching a hesitant hand towards my face, when in reality - I knew - I had been kissed by none in this place before the arrival of this scruffy youngster.
I wished I had not pushed him away. But we make our choices and we must live with them, and reap their every consequence until our dying days.
“I’ve isolated a couple of blips in the system,” he said. “Nothing major, should be able to sort it before the others get back-”
“I have every confidence in you,” I told him.
“Despite something being wrong.” He still refused to look at me.
I took a heavy breath, patted his knee with great affection. “I cannot explain. You are… remarkable, Doctor. A young, gifted genius. We don’t see many of those here. Your help is appreciated. You are… entirely appreciated.” I wanted some assurance that he caught my meaning, but none was forthcoming. I sighed. “Perhaps I simply do not wish any further distractions from the work at hand. The only hopes of so many people lie with us. Can we afford to indulge our selfish urges now we are so close to succeeding?”
“No,” he said. “I suppose not.”
I watched as he cleared away the errors in my system with a skill I could only aspire to, and as he worked, his expression began to soften.
“Do you remember,” he asked me, “what the stars looked like?”
I chuckled. “No. Nobody does.”
“I do.” He finally looked at me. “I’ll show you, one day. An entire sky filled with stars, from horizon to horizon. Imagine it!”
“Oh, I do. Every day.”
His smile was genuine, then, and I could have kissed him. I wish I had. Oh, how I wish I had taken that final chance…
But we make our choices. We choose our paths. And we live with our mistakes, even if we are entirely ignorant that they were ever made.