Sail On, Sailor, Sail On
Rating: G
Prompt: #068 - Lightning
Claim: The Time War
Table: Here
Spoilers: Extention of the last scene of the EDA The Year of Intelligent Tigers
Characters/Pairings: Karl/Eighth Doctor
Summary: Karl knows that when the Doctor and his friends leave, they leave for good.
Note: The title is a line from the song Fitz has written for the Doctor.
The Doctor would not say goodbye. He hadn’t told him so, and neither had Fitz, or Anji, but Karl knew. Tomorrow they would be gone, and if his instincts were to be trusted, he wouldn’t see either of them again. It just seemed like the Doctor to do so: to come and to go, and only leave an afterimage that lingered. Like lightning.
As he looked at him, this beautiful alien lying in the grass, Karl found that the idea held no sadness. After all the days of indecision and worry once he knew how the future would be it all seemed just right. Fitting. Like it couldn’t be any other way.
Tomorrow the Doctor would be gone from his life, and that was all right. Because he had been forgiven his heart was only cracked, not broken.
They didn’t speak, although Karl had much to say and only this one chance to say it. It would have been inappropriate, though, and pointless. He settled for watching the Doctor instead, as his friend rolled onto his back and closed his eyes against the sunshine. No longer a god, but not any more human.
The bloody bruise that had marred his face when they had returned to the city of tigers a week ago had all but faded, his hair was growing back. In a few days he’d look like none of this had ever happened. He’d shed it off and move on. He already had.
Perhaps, Karl thought, for the Doctor the war never did happen. He’d seen it, he’d tried to prevent it, he’d ended it, but he’d never fought in it. And that was just right as well, for the Doctor and war didn’t belong in the same world. In the world of the Doctor, everyone would be friends, and there would only be happy endings. It was in his world, not Karl’s, that he had wandered out into the jungle to become friends with beings that easily could tear him apart, and had little reason not to. No one else could have done that. It the real world it just wouldn’t have worked.
There had been a young tiger who’d insisted on accompanying the Doctor just so she could protect him. Who’d carried him on her back when he couldn’t walk, just because he was the Doctor’s friend. Karl wondered what had become of her, and imagined her jumping around the storehouse in her childlike enthusiasm, or lying in the sun to watch as life went on, down there in the city of tigers and humans.
The Doctor wouldn’t say goodbye to her either. He’d just pack his friends and be gone, and maybe they would all forget this planet during their next adventure, or the one after that; Anji, who had believed in the Doctor in the end, and Fitz, who had waited all that time for the Doctor’s return from the Bewilderness to give him a pair of clean socks; and the Doctor, who’d called the lightning from the sky to put an end to a war that shouldn’t have concerned him - truly a force of nature.
Now he blinked against the sun and watched a butterfly dance in the air above him, as easily distracted as a kitten. But then, he didn’t belong with the tigers any more than with the humans. He could never stay here, and because Karl knew it, and because he knew he had to take responsibility for his moment of weakness even if the Doctor understood, he felt only the barest hint of regret. What he wanted could never have been anyway. He still would continue to dream of it in many years to come.
The knowledge that this was their last meeting made it easy to lean in and press a kiss to the Doctor’s lips. The Doctor let it happen, returned it; the gift of a traveller saying goodbye. It didn’t last long, but it was enough.
“Honk,” the Doctor said softly. For a moment it was perfectly still, and then Karl fought a giggle. It made the Doctor laugh, and then there were both rolling through the grass and were happy, and tomorrow was just a possibility.
Karl could have given Fitz a last line for his song. But that was something the boy had to figure out for himself.
His one was not for sharing.
December 4, 2008
Prompt: #068 - Lightning
Claim: The Time War
Table: Here
Spoilers: Extention of the last scene of the EDA The Year of Intelligent Tigers
Characters/Pairings: Karl/Eighth Doctor
Summary: Karl knows that when the Doctor and his friends leave, they leave for good.
Note: The title is a line from the song Fitz has written for the Doctor.
The Doctor would not say goodbye. He hadn’t told him so, and neither had Fitz, or Anji, but Karl knew. Tomorrow they would be gone, and if his instincts were to be trusted, he wouldn’t see either of them again. It just seemed like the Doctor to do so: to come and to go, and only leave an afterimage that lingered. Like lightning.
As he looked at him, this beautiful alien lying in the grass, Karl found that the idea held no sadness. After all the days of indecision and worry once he knew how the future would be it all seemed just right. Fitting. Like it couldn’t be any other way.
Tomorrow the Doctor would be gone from his life, and that was all right. Because he had been forgiven his heart was only cracked, not broken.
They didn’t speak, although Karl had much to say and only this one chance to say it. It would have been inappropriate, though, and pointless. He settled for watching the Doctor instead, as his friend rolled onto his back and closed his eyes against the sunshine. No longer a god, but not any more human.
The bloody bruise that had marred his face when they had returned to the city of tigers a week ago had all but faded, his hair was growing back. In a few days he’d look like none of this had ever happened. He’d shed it off and move on. He already had.
Perhaps, Karl thought, for the Doctor the war never did happen. He’d seen it, he’d tried to prevent it, he’d ended it, but he’d never fought in it. And that was just right as well, for the Doctor and war didn’t belong in the same world. In the world of the Doctor, everyone would be friends, and there would only be happy endings. It was in his world, not Karl’s, that he had wandered out into the jungle to become friends with beings that easily could tear him apart, and had little reason not to. No one else could have done that. It the real world it just wouldn’t have worked.
There had been a young tiger who’d insisted on accompanying the Doctor just so she could protect him. Who’d carried him on her back when he couldn’t walk, just because he was the Doctor’s friend. Karl wondered what had become of her, and imagined her jumping around the storehouse in her childlike enthusiasm, or lying in the sun to watch as life went on, down there in the city of tigers and humans.
The Doctor wouldn’t say goodbye to her either. He’d just pack his friends and be gone, and maybe they would all forget this planet during their next adventure, or the one after that; Anji, who had believed in the Doctor in the end, and Fitz, who had waited all that time for the Doctor’s return from the Bewilderness to give him a pair of clean socks; and the Doctor, who’d called the lightning from the sky to put an end to a war that shouldn’t have concerned him - truly a force of nature.
Now he blinked against the sun and watched a butterfly dance in the air above him, as easily distracted as a kitten. But then, he didn’t belong with the tigers any more than with the humans. He could never stay here, and because Karl knew it, and because he knew he had to take responsibility for his moment of weakness even if the Doctor understood, he felt only the barest hint of regret. What he wanted could never have been anyway. He still would continue to dream of it in many years to come.
The knowledge that this was their last meeting made it easy to lean in and press a kiss to the Doctor’s lips. The Doctor let it happen, returned it; the gift of a traveller saying goodbye. It didn’t last long, but it was enough.
“Honk,” the Doctor said softly. For a moment it was perfectly still, and then Karl fought a giggle. It made the Doctor laugh, and then there were both rolling through the grass and were happy, and tomorrow was just a possibility.
Karl could have given Fitz a last line for his song. But that was something the boy had to figure out for himself.
His one was not for sharing.
December 4, 2008