Never Again
Earth was bluer than Swift expected.
"Oh, yeah," the Doctor nodded casually. "It's three-fourths water, and they still have to deal with drought."
Swift wrinkled her brow, staring at the small planet. "Weird."
The Doctor nodded in sage agreement. "Very weird."
It was another bumpy landing for the Doctor, but he was used to it. Swift, however, was not—this wasn't the first time she'd been grateful for her wings to steady her. As soon as the TARDIS settled down, she bolted out the doors, throwing them open and standing in the light of a new planet.
Or that's what she was expecting. What she didn't expect were those same watercolour fields and rolling hills as she saw on that planet she'd caught the fish and fowl on all those weeks ago.
"This is Earth?" She frowned. She knew that she really had no right to judge—she'd lived in a cave for who knew how long—but Earth seemed a bit… ordinary.
The only weird thing was the amount of pale white mixed into the sky. Even in other planets she'd visited, there hadn't been half as much of that colour.
"What's all that?" Swift asked, gesturing at the somewhat morose expanse of billowing white above her.
"What, the rainclouds?" The Doctor crossed his arms as he stared up at the sky. "That's when water turns into gas and decides it would be fun to make the humans all wet. It happens a lot here because, like I said, there's so much water. Especially on island countries like this—we're in Scotland, by the way."
"Because I definitely know what all that means," the Angel muttered under her breath. "So what now?" She spoke this next part louder, her eyes following a raven that flew overhead.
"Eh," the Doctor shrugged, screwing up his face in thought. "I was thinking food? We don't really have much for breakfast on the TARDIS, and I'm pretty sure we're both hungry."
As if on cue, Swift's stomach let out a pitiful little warble, just for her, so that the Doctor couldn't hear.
"Yeah," she stared out at the vast expanse of grass that rippled out in front of her. "That sounds good. But… where do we go?"
"Well," the Doctor began with a grin, and Swift couldn't help but feel as if she'd let loose a rant. "I know a nice town just near here, with a great internet café that hast stuff like coffee, fish, those strange little croissant sandwiches you get at almost every coffee shop and make you start craving them like the owners have slipped a little drug in there or something, hot chocolate…"
Swift tuned out with a smile, walking beside the Doctor in a generally westward direction. This might take a while.
They had only reached the forest, however, when the Doctor turned to face the Angel, his expression sober and grim.
"Swift," he said, suddenly serious. "I'm not going to leave you again, all right?"
Swift sighed softly, nodding once. "Yeah, I know. We've been over this, remember?"
"Yeah," the brunette waved his hand dismissively in the air, "but I just need to get the point across—there'll be no more running, no more leaving until you find out what you want to do."
Swift smiled slightly, a single fang poking out of her mouth as she felt his promise on a deeper level. "Never again."