008: A Good Deed in a Weary World [Location: Around the City]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

It was time.

Drusilla had been waiting patiently – for the right moon and the right moment and, most importantly of all, the right people – and, at long last, it was time.

“Little lamb, little lamb
My birthday is here at last!
Little fish, little fish
Do you think I'll get my wish?
Little lamb, little lamb
I wonder how old I am ..?”

Centuries and centuries. It didn’t matter. She’d made her wish and Miss Edith was already on her way. A hundred birthday gifts – a thousand! – couldn’t mean more to her than that.

The vampire stayed close to the shadows. Not because she needed to, no, but because the darkness was soft and familiar. The sleeping city rippled with anticipation. Something was happening. It had started with the Extras, though they hadn’t – wouldn’t – harm Drusilla. Unlike the rest of the residents, she was moving with purpose and determination, encouraged by the hamsters and aided by the stars. They guided her footsteps, telling her who to seek and how to find them.

The first one would be easy. His name had been on the tip of her tongue since she’d spoken to the hamsters. He was so lonely. The loneliest man in any world. He’d be delighted to see a familiar face, wouldn’t he? Just for a little while? His hearts – two of them, which would make sure a mess if his throat was ever slit – hammered with the need for love and attention.

She didn’t know the others, not really. Just their faces. Just their faces and wishes that called to her across the city.

That was more than enough.

OOC: Open to the unfortunate lucky individuals who are about to benefit from Drusilla’s sudden surge of charitable feeling. There is also a fresh heart in a box on Ruby's desk. Good luck with that?

Comments

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I read a lot," he explained, flippantly. It was an old joke from an old time. He was always older than he said he was, and only Romana knew his exact age. She could always tell. He didn't know how she always knew, but she did.

She leaned into his touch and he closed his eyes, relishing this reunion, just for another moment. How close had they been for so long? How close and yet so very far away?

And she would be here, now. In Taxon. And he would have to fight through his longing for her as well as his longing for his other friends, before he finally got everyone free.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"But not the TARDIS manual."

Another old joke. They were all old. The only jokes worth telling and worth hearing.

Drusilla, who didn't like that sort of fight, could feel his longing. It was as powerful as his loneliness, but sweet instead of bitter. It shimmered in the air. She watched him close his eyes and touched his cheek, feeling it dancing on her tongue. So sad, so old.

He could have had the universe.

"It'll be all right, Doctor."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He smiled, despite himself. "Nah, I threw that into a black hole. It disagreed with me." It was the third he'd lost in such a manner. Frequent Otherstide gifts that were never used and rarely opened.

She touched his cheek, and he could feel Romana's hand there. Cool, Gallifreyan skin and slim, slender fingers that had programmed the TARDIS and rewritten universes. Part of his mind acknowledged that this was wrong, that there were reasons he never touched or held Romana like this. They needed to protect themselves, they needed to protect what they had between them.

"It's always all right," he murmured, though he couldn't believe the lie anymore.

Maybe he was stronger, now. Maybe he could hold her now because he could hold himself up, because he knew how to survive such losses. Or maybe he was simply weaker. Whatever the reason, he leaned into her touch.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"Very responsible, Doctor."

A smile. Like the flicker of a match in a deep black cave.

She left the hand on his cheek. He wanted it there. If nothing else, it would extinguish that little flicker of uncertainty. There wasn't much space between them, but a single pace - small, by both vampire and Time Lady standards - closed it even more. Inches but not feet. She'd never like metric.

"I'll do whatever I can to help you."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

And this was good. It was good to know he had her, right there. He could touch her, now. He could ask her questions and advice, rather than just trying to call up her voice as his own conscience. He needed her and she was there.

In a way, that was so like her, wasn't it? She always said she would be, and he always believed he'd stopped that from ever being true.

"Thank you," he said, smiling very slightly as well. Small movements, small moments in time. A courtship for a Time Lord could take centuries, but in many ways, he felt like he only had minutes.

He leaned in, just a little more, until his lips just brushed hers. Too fast? What was he even doing?

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Oh, bless him. Bless his little hearts and his soft kiss. His lips ghosted over hers - over Romana's - with a tinge of nerves and a tumble of emotion.

She allowed the illusory Time Lady to hesitate, just for a moment. Although she'd been softened by her travels with the Doctor, Romana was still a little stiff and a little proper. If she'd been real, she might have pulled away entirely, but Drusilla couldn't abide such foolishness.

She kissed him back with the lips of a vampire and the soul of a Time Lord.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

There were things he should've been thinking about, of course. He should've been thinking about how wrong it was to kiss Romana, how his hearts would break when they left Taxon again. He should've been thinking about Rose, whom he loved and had constantly lied to since she'd arrived in Taxon. He should've been acknowledging that this couldn't be.

He wasn't, of course. His mind was reeling because he was finally kissing Romana. Hundreds of years of dancing around their emotions and he thought he'd never be here, right here, kissing her. And that, really, was brilliant and deserved his full attention.

He kissed her carefully, gently, as if afraid that he might break this; that the moment the kiss ended, the moment would be over forever. It would, though he had no real way of knowing that as he kissed her.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla wasn't used to gentle kisses. She'd been kissed with love before, of course, but she'd never experienced such emotion before. If she hadn't been holding the image of Romana in her mind, she might have allowed herself to pretend that it was all for her. She liked the idea of being loved and needed and savoured.

Her hands - her hands? - slid up into his hair. The Doctor thought she would slip away and she would. But not just yet. The vampire was caught in the moment.

[iam-thebadwolf.livejournal.com]

Rose had gotten the Doctor's message to meet him at the work site. She'd struggled with it because a part of her wanted to show him how it felt to be left but then he knew that. It wasn't a lesson she needed to teach him so she sucks up her anger, preparing to lecture him about disappearing on her and heads toward the work site mentally preparing herself for seeing him again.

Only she's not prepared for what she sees. She's not prepared in any way shape or form. It shocks all the breath from her lungs for a moment, possibly an audible gasp. The anger keeps her tears at bay for the moment. When her voice comes it's full of anger, haughtiness and riddled with pain.

"Could just said you don't want to see me anymore, Doctor. Guess she's why you moved out."

She's surprised she can find the strength to stand much less the strength to speak but anger disguised as hurt does a good job of fueling many actions and words.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor hadn't noticed her arrival at first. He was rather wrapped up in kissing the woman that got away, the one who was a huge chunk of his previous lives---but then Rose spoke, and he found himself breaking the kiss to turn and look at her in shock and embarrassment.

"Rose!" he said, gaping a little at her arrival. Wait, he'd asked her to meet him here, hadn't he? He hadn't expected Romana to arrive, and he certainly hadn't expected the conversation to end up, well, the way it had.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Like glass, or tissue paper in a breeze, the illusion shattered. The Doctor's attention turned to Rose. Not for long, but for long enough. The proud, beautiful Time Lady retreated back into his memories.

It was Drusilla, not Romana, who continued to hold on to him. His two hearts were hammering. Her eyes were dark.

"You've spoiled it," she said, addressing Rose in an amused, accusatory tone.

[iam-thebadwolf.livejournal.com]

Rose spares the Doctor a hurt, angry look then moves her attention to the brunette. "Oi don't accuse me. I was invited here. If anything he spoiled it. Guess this is what you wanted to show me, Doctor? Got to say brilliant way to get your point across."

She's trying so hard to stay angry so it doesn't turn to pain in front of them.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't trying to---"

The Doctor turns to Romana, only it's not Romana in his arms, it's the strange woman from the gingerbread house. Drusilla. He jerks back, shocked and alarmed.

"Where is she?" he demands without thinking. Oh, but of course. Romana was never there. It was a glitch or a bug or an illusion, but it wasn't real.

His hearts ache so hard he's worried they might actually break.

"What did you do?" he demands.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Mildly disappointed and thoroughly amused, Drusilla took her own step backwards. She didn't disappear, though. She didn't want to miss the fireworks.

"You missed her," she explained, as if talking to a squirming child. "You wanted to see her."

As far as the vampire was concerned, she had performed a great service for the Doctor.

[iam-thebadwolf.livejournal.com]

Rose watches it all confused and hurt and angry. She doesn't know Drusilla so she doesn't have a clue what the woman can do or what she is.

"Where is who?" she demands. "Doctor, you were only ever kissing the brunette."

And of course that makes Rose wonder just how paranoid and sick the Doctor is right now. She shuts that down though, tries to cram it back into a little hidey-hole. She will not worry about him right now. She will not feel panic that his illness is getting worse. She's going to stay angry.

At least until she's alone.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"She wasn't Drusilla a minute ago," the Doctor tells Rose, keeping his eyes on the strange woman in front of him.

He knew there was something not quite right about her, but he's not been completely sure until right now.

"What did you do?" he asks, tilting his head and peering at her curiously. "Where did you get that information, eh?"

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

She was. She'd always been Drusilla. Didn't the Doctor - who was supposed to be so clever - realise that he'd only seen what he'd wanted to see?

With a slight smile, Drusilla's gaze flickered briefly to Rose's face. She hoped that her irritation wouldn't take the shine of the treat she'd given to the Doctor.

"From your head," she said, as if that should have been obvious.

[iam-thebadwolf.livejournal.com]

"And who did you think--" Rose starts then stops and shakes her head. "I don't wanna know. It's--not important." And it's not. She doesn't imagine it was her so in the end it doesn't matter who he thought he was kissing. Drusilla's words give her a chance to redirect her anger a bit until she can figure out exactly how she feels about this and how angry and hurt she is over the Doctor.

"You rooted 'round in his head without permission? You can't just run 'round doing that to people. People ought to have their minds left alone."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Did Drusilla know what she'd done to him was wrong? Could she see that? Didn't she get it? Maybe she didn't. Maybe she didn't understand at all.

The Doctor stepped back, then reached for Rose's hand. He had to get away from her, had to get away from the burning memory of Romana, telling him everything was all right and that he was doing the right thing.

"It's fine, let's---let's just go."

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

He was running away. He always ran away.

For a moment - just a moment - she considered saying something in Romana's voice. She remembered the hamsters just in time. They'd wanted her to do good deeds. If she pushed them too far, if she played too much, she might make them cross. Drusilla, who knew a lot more than people ever expected, knew that she couldn't risk that.

"She was right."

Better. Drusilla's own voice, but the words he desperately wanted to hear.

[iam-thebadwolf.livejournal.com]

Rose takes the Doctor's hand, anxious to be away from here, away from this woman and to find out what was going on.

"Who was right, Doctor?" Rose asks, looking up to the Doctor for answers instead of the brunette.