The phrase was infectious. Like a raving virus it bubbled throughout his entire being, visibly shaking him. in his flaming eyes one could catch a glimpse into the cosmos- but he was young, and there was only a moment of grasping the sheer unimportance of a person and the utter astronomical need for existence. The universe flared and quickly reduced back to the narrow sight that embodied youth and happiness. The words that had been spoken, they brought the plague. A pleasant, happy sickness. Like a friendly hostess she welcomed him home, luring him close with an impossible truth. She knew he couldn't resist, as did he. It didn't stop his tongue from biting itself back into place when the words were hissed through silky steam in the silence that accommodates nothing.
She held him close and spoke into his ear.
The words that he never should hear.
And just like that, the Doctor began to smile.
For he hadn't had an adventure in quite a while.
The words had been called from within the pitch black
"Doctor, my dear, what if we don't go back?"
The words he never should have heard but had to hear. Before another syllable danced through the air, before the moment became pregnant with pause and doubt, he flew. He spread his fresh wings and grew up-he saw the pain and the horror that no man should see. He witnessed the beauty and complexity in what is simple- another example of what men should never see. Luckily, he isn't a man.
He is much more than that, but yet also much less.
