AN: Written for a prompt from The Muse Bunny: rain.


Aware

He stands atop the tallest tower in the whole of the Academy, which has quite a few tall towers because Time Lords are fond of pretentious architecture, and stares down at the scene below. His peers and teachers scurry by, the size of distant stars from such a tremendous height, and he scowls at them for being so dull and ordinary and unchanging as they are. What he wants is excitement and adventure and freedom, all those things he knows Theta wants too, but in a different way. Theta, who regards him as a highly intelligent cohort, maybe even a friend to some extent, but nothing beyond that because that's the most interest Theta takes in anyone else. This is infuriating to Koschei, who wants so intensely for Theta to really think about the two of them and realise what Koschei has already, however begrudgingly, realised.

They need each other.

That's why Koschei stands here now, on a window ledge, leaning back against the window and letting the not-glass cool his back through his scarlet robes, letting the wind sting his face. There are storm clouds overhead, blocking out the fiery glow of the sun, turning the sky a purply-red rather than its usual brilliant orange. Several people have, by now, noticed him up here and are watching with caution and interest. Some have most likely gone to notify Academy officials, and Koschei knows he's going to be punished severely for what he's about to do, but he doesn't care, not about any of it; the only person whose attention matters to him is Theta. And Theta will pay attention, after this. He has to. Neither of them have ever regenerated before, and Koschei knows his friend. Theta will spend hours interrogating him about the experience, ignoring all outside stimuli, focusing only on Koschei until he's been told all he wants to know.

The rain begins to fall, and the wind picks up a bit, making the raindrops spatter down diagonally and reach into the little nook created by the window. Koschei is soon soaked, hair sticking to his face, Prydonian robes slick and heavy. He closes his eyes, breathes in, breathes out. The rain drums down and he listens intently, noticing the sound properly for the first time; it's like thousands of little drumbeats, all overlapping each other, and the drumming in his head joins in mercilessly, pounding and swelling and filling him until he wants to scream and does, a loud, mournful, furious sound.

Then he lets himself fall.

Koschei awakens some time later in his bedroom, aching rather a lot. He realises that someone has changed him into his bedclothes, but this is a very minor realisation compared to the fact that he's changed. His arms and legs and face and hair and body, they all feel different, foreign, and he itches all over. He feels like he's not Koschei anymore, that somehow he's become someone else, but only for a moment before the drumming starts up again, terrible and enraging but at the same time reassuring, and he knows that really he's still himself. Gradually, head throbbing in time with the drums, his eyes flicker open.

For a moment everything's a pink-grey haze, then his vision becomes focused and he sees a face. Someone is sitting beside his bed - or rather, kneeling - their head resting on the blanket beside his. Koschei props himself up carefully, wincing as his joints protest, and stares down at the young man, who looks startlingly as though he's been weeping. Then Koschei smiles, a dangerous, vicious, victorious smile, and his hearts beat rapidly because now he knows. Theta is aware now. Theta's finally realised.

They need each other.

Fin.