"Where has the old fellow got to now?" Oliver scanned the area but could scarcely see in front of him as the bright vivid sunshine shone in his eyes.
Steven was at his side, covering his own eyes with his hands, creating a sunshield with his fingers. "I have no idea. All I heard was 'I'm over here' and then a little chuckle."
"Do you think he does it on purpose?"
Steven nodded, knowing the Doctor as he did; going missing was definitely a favourite pastime of his.
Sensing Oliver was having trouble seeing in front of him as the sun cascaded off the mountain tops, Steven patted around his shirt pocket. "Ah ha!" he said and then pulled out two pairs of sunglasses. "I thought I'd left these here from when Vicki and I last landed somewhere hot. Long time ago it was now."
"How long ago?"
Steven laughed. "Uh…five hundred years ago."
He handed Oliver a pair of the glasses and it was with synchronicity that the men placed them on as if they were in an action movie. Oliver rubbed his forehead as the sweat poured off him- he'd certainly not experienced heat like it in a very long time and he felt it was a good job he and Steven had changed into summer wear consisting of short-sleeved shirts and summer loafers. Oliver was wearing a straw hat to complete his ensemble and Steven was wearing shorts for the occasion to which Oliver was fighting the urge to make fun of his white legs poking out of his shorts like two milk bottles. The rest of the space pilot's skin was tanned so the contrast was an amusing one.
"I recognise this place," Steven said as his eyes gazed onto the horizon. "I've been here before. I can't be certain but it looks like the planet we came to with Vicki. We were here for nearly a month."
"A month? And you can't be sure it's the same location?"
"Well it was the middle of winter then, ice all around. I just recognise the shape of these roads and those unusual trees. Fancy landing here again."
"And yet not the place we're supposed to be going," Oliver remarked, "but a good opportunity for a break."
"You mean our 'borrowed time'?"
"I shall like to think a little 'extra time' is more fitting, wouldn't you say so, old chap?"
"I suppose so."
Oliver rubbed his hands together. "So what shall we do first then, visit the locals and say hello, bite to eat, get a much needed tan?" He directed the last part at Steven's legs.
"I could do with a drink," Steven said making a mental map in his mind from his last visit. On that trip there had been none of the many eating capsules he could now see off every pathway and there hadn't been crowds of people standing around enjoying the weather. He had no idea whether he was in the planet's past or future or whether anyone there would even remember him.
Without asking Oliver's opinion, Steven set off down the pathway that led to the right. He looked down at his feet and smiled. "Strange."
"Sorry?"
"It feels strange not having ice-skates on here."
"Last time you were here you wore ice-skates?" Oliver tried as hard as he could but somehow couldn't picture Steven Taylor being graceful in a pair of skates.
"Vicki and I had to get ice-skates just to travel on these pathways. Stone now."
"Still rather beautiful," Oliver said looking at the mosaic effect of the path underneath.
Steven excitedly led his companion to a human-sized glass capsule that was set back off the road, perched rather strangely next to two exotic looking trees.
"What on earth is that?" Oliver asked as he watched Steven climb inside.
Steven didn't reply, instead miming his actions as he did them. Oliver watched intently as his friend punched a few numbers into some kind of key pad and then a buzzer sound blared around him. He laughed when three glass tubes descended from the nearby tree, shooting through some holes into the capsule. When Steven finally stepped out, he held three small packages in his hands.
"Lunch, dessert and a drink."
"What jolly fun!" Oliver said. "It's like self-service fast food."
"Well go on slow coach, your turn."
The two men giggled and Oliver raced into the capsule. He looked carefully at the buttons and was amazed to find that each key had a picture of a food item on it, totally unsophisticated and much more like a picture in a child's playbook than an adult dinner menu. Deciding that one key looked like an apple, he pressed the button and then another that looked like a picture of a wine glass with what he hoped was a much needed alcoholic beverage.
When he emerged, excited like a child at Christmas, he joined Steven who was sitting on some kind of orange coloured grass. He placed his food down and made himself comfortable on the ground beside his companion.
"Paradise," Oliver said as he felt the warm rays reach his body and looked at the spectacular sight around him. "I don't suppose you got to lay here on your last trip, not if everything was ice."
"Too right. Vicki and I were bundled up like Eskimos."
Steven opened his drink and then smiled when he saw Oliver struggling to pull the cap off his own. He reached towards him and did the task for him, twisting the cap off the beverage in one easy slide.
Oliver grinned as he took the first sip of the fizzy beverage. He tried to swallow but the fizz was intense and he found himself coughing as the bubbles frothed in his throat and then a further sip sent more bubbles up his nostrils. He laughed when he saw Steven grinning at him and tried hard not to dribble out his mouthful. "Am I a specimen at the zoo, old man?" he said unnerved at Steven's unmoving eyes.
"I was just thinking how nice this is, just the two of us hanging out, you forgetting all that stuff for a while, hopefully realising that all that stuff is meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe."
"Very true. It's easy to forget one's personal battles in the vastness of space." He took a pause and then another sip of the fizzy drink. "May I ask you a very important question?"
"Go ahead." Steven waited for the question which he thought would be serious.
There was a slight cheeky smile on Oliver's face. "Is this drink alcoholic or am I drinking some child's party drink?"
Steven looked at the bottle and grinned, not exactly the question he was expecting. "I've no idea. Shall we chance it and get another?"
…
An hour had passed and the two men had moved to the shade of a nearby tree, becoming overheated in the blazing sunshine. It was certainly odd to Steven that the planet was so hot after he had spent a month there previously in a harsh winter in many layers of clothing. Discarding drink containers beside them, they sat laughing together childishly.
Oliver burped discreetly. "I think old chap that we were very right, we are decidedly squiffy."
"And definitely catching attention." He let out a large hiccup and then tried to stifle a giggle. "People are watching."
"Oh let them watch, I'm enjoying myself! I can't remember the last time I felt this free." He waved his arms in the air as though he was at a vast rock and roll concert.
"There must have been some time back on Earth?"
"Hardly! So much of me was hidden back there. It was so tiring pretending to be someone I wasn't."
His eyes gazed at a tall male figure walking past him- the bronzed body fit and muscular, the long hair and beard was auburn and wild. "He's attractive, can I say that?"
"Of course you can, Oliver!"
"That's what I mean. I've spent so long pretending."
Steven got up from his position. "Come on… Harper and Taylor need to de-squiffy themselves, we're getting into pondering territory."
"We can't have that, old chap."
They both struggled to stand, their legs buckling as they tried to get into upright positions, desperately trying to act sober and well mannered. Steven was mortified at the thought his old friends would learn they'd been boorish on a planet that wasn't theirs. As he reached full height his head crashed into an object swinging from the tree. Examining it he recognised it was a camera.
"The photo tree!" he exclaimed excitedly, still rubbing his head.
"I beg your pardon, a photograph tree?"
"Yes, hang on, I'll show you." He flipped a switch on the side of the device and pulled out the ribbon which he remembered he and Vicki had used to position the camera. "Come here, Oliver."
"Are we having our first photograph together?"
Steven pulled Oliver next to him and their arms made their way around each other's shoulders. Steven was a good few inches taller than his friend and peered down at him fondly.
"Say cheese!" Oliver said.
Steven broke from his pose, his smile turning into a smirk. "I'm sorry…cheese?"
"What, you don't say 'cheese' where you come from?"
"Oh we say the word cheese, we just use it for what it actually is…cheese."
"Well I say 'cheese' when I'm being photographed so humour this old antique."
"Alright then, cheese it is."
"Cheese!" they both said together as Oliver let out his widest smile.
Once the photo was taken, Oliver took a moment to catch his breath, realising he'd not had much opportunity since they'd arrived to contemplate where he was and what he was doing. An alien world in a distant time, the sun beating down on his from all angles, strange contraptions and wonders, the beauty all around him, and the best part was that he had a friend to share it with. His smile was genuine, no fake show of emotion and no more pretending to be someone he wasn't.
Steven showed him the photograph before reaching up to attach it to the branches. Oliver had never felt so at ease and he pondered on what it was in life that made people truly happy.
As Steven fastened the photo to the tree, Oliver noticed a tear form in the corner of his friend's eye. Steven had noticed something and had reached out and pulled another photograph down to Oliver's height. "It's Vicki! The photo we took together when we were here."
Oliver sensed how suddenly reminiscent his friend appeared and he wondered just how many goodbyes the man had made in his life. He wanted Steven to be happy, wanted to help him in the way he had helped him and wanted to make sure his companion had fun without the worry of 'borrowed time' looming over them.
"She looks a bundle of trouble," Oliver said looking at the snapshot.
"She was…well still is hopefully. If I know Vicki she'll have invented something she's not supposed to in a time not quite ready for it."
"But she's still living on," Oliver said, taking the photo and attaching it as best he could next to their own photograph.
"Hope so."
"Now come on, old bean, we'll have none of that melancholy mood and if that's what alien champers does to you then no more top-ups."
Steven let out a laugh. "I'm sorry, you're right. We're meant to be relaxing, when do we usually get the chance?"
"So come on then, show me what's over there."
"We really should meet up with the Doctor, find him at last."
"In due course, Mr. Taylor, the tour's still going."
"Well, that's the fountain," Steven said with a grand tour-guide style hand gesture.
Oliver followed him to the grand marble feature. When Steven had been there before it was of course frozen water, icicles cascading down like teardrops. It was beautiful but also sorrowful. In the summer it was almost alive, water channelling down into a clear blue and purple pool with pebbles aplenty.
Oliver took off his hat and then sat on the edge, running his fingers through the water. "Perfection personified. My mother would love this, she'd probably try and scoop up a few of these pebbles for keepsies, put them on her mantelpiece."
"Really? My mum would probably take them out, crush them into pieces and then sell them on the black market."
Oliver laughed. He wasn't sure if Steven was joking or not but it was the first time his friend had mentioned someone not connected to his adventures with the Doctor. "You didn't take after your mother?"
"Not especially."
"You didn't inherit anything from her?"
"My hair?"
"Your hair? Well that's definitely where we differ. I didn't get any hair from my mother at all."
Steven smirked and then splashed some drops of water onto Oliver's head like he was baptising him.
"Red card offence!" He splashed some water onto Steven's shirt. "Send him off ref!"
"Red card, what are you talking about?"
"Oh don't tell me, the accepting and wise future has forbidden football?"
"Of course it hasn't, it's just not as popular now there's so many new sports, besides I hate the game."
Oliver was about to defend his century's passion for football when a shadow descended upon them.
"Oh I might have known you two would be dilly-dallying like a couple of schoolboys." There was no mistaking the voice of the Doctor booming at them from the side of the fountain.
"Doctor, there you are, we were looking for you!" Steven stood up quickly, standing awkwardly as if doing something he shouldn't.
"Not very successful were you hmmm? Otherwise engaged hmmm?" He looked at the empty containers around the men.
"Surely you don't begrudge us a good time?" Steven asked.
"No of course not, dear boy."
Oliver let out a loud hiccup as he felt the bubbles from his previous drink move around his stomach like a firework ready to explode.
The Doctor let out a loud chuckle. "Perhaps I should have told you about the beverages here."
"Alcoholic, Doctor?" Steven asked.
"Very alcoholic, my boy, twice as strong as the stuff you're used to. I learnt the hard way on our last trip here."
The two young companions looked at one another and burst into hysterical laughter. They tried to imagine the Doctor drunk of which the image was hilarious.
"And on that note, I suggest we head back to the TARDIS. I'm not sure I'd recommend meeting the locals in your conditions."
"You're probably right," Steven said. "I was curious though whether things were still the same here. Would Oliver and I have to pretend to be brothers to get into special events?"
"Oh no, goodness gracious me, no, young man, things have changed. Siblings have gone quite out of fashion on this planet."
"Out of fashion?" Steven was surprised. "How can they go out of fashion?"
"Much like a type of music or clothing on your planet my boy, times change and so do tastes."
"So what do they revere now?" asked Oliver.
"You're in luck as it happens. Had you been sober, I should think they'd have liked to have met such best friends."
"Best friends? That's what they're into now?" Steven asked.
"Yes young man, crazy for platonic relationships, celebrations for those considered true bosom buddies."
Steven and Oliver smiled at each other, taking each other's hand and shaking it. Oliver felt content in the knowledge that he'd made a dear friend in Steven and whatever faced them on their next adventures, they would face it together. And for whatever borrowed time they were living on, however short, however trying, however deadly- they were not living it alone.