Amy and Rory Pond reclined on the deck chairs of their hotel suite balcony and clinked their cocktail glasses together in satisfaction before taking a drink. Their balcony opened onto a view of the current sunset on the horizon of the sea that their hotel was situated alongside. The silver and gold streaked the clouds with their different shades and made it almost look as though heaven itself was opening right in front of them.
"Best. Honeymoon. Ever," Rory finally said as he looked out at the view. His wife just rolled her eyes.
"Yeah," she said sarcastically. "Because you have so many to compare it to."
"You know what I mean. Most people go off to really boring placing, maybe Fiji if they're lucky. And then there's us, in a luxurious paradise on an alien planet. Who else gets to do that?"
Amy laughed and gave him a grin which revealed her still prominent inner child. "Yeah, it's pretty cool. I guess we owe the Doctor one. Though if he is much later than the two weeks he's already been, I might just have to get annoyed at him anyway."
Rory chuckled. "Yeah, but you know the Doctor. For a supposedly brilliant alien genius, he's pretty rubbish."
Amy knew he had a point. "And we wouldn't want him any other way," She said. "Even if he did never manage to get us to Rio."
"Who needs Rio when you've got this place?" He said, gesturing at the beach of silvery white sand and completely clear water.
"Okay...good point."
They grinned at each other. Suddenly, a noise – the most familiar noise – filled the air, but it was faint, as if in the distance. Their expressions changed to one of surprise and excitement as they realised what it was. Dashing to the suitcases that were already mostly packed and shoving in whatever else needed to go in, the newlyweds exchanged eager smiles as they left the hotel promptly.
The tall blue police box stood proudly on the corner of the street, two people leaning against it and smiling at them across the distance.
"Ponds!" The Doctor called out fondly.
"Doctor!" Amy yelled back. He was looking as daft and dashing as ever in his bowtie, while Aliya was casual in her jeans and jacket combination. Amy and Rory both made a beeline for the Doctor, the former pushing her way in front to claim the first hug.
"Amelia Pond. Long time, no see!" The Time Lord said ecstatically, "And Rory the Roman!" He was quick to hug Rory too, and as he did so, Amy nodded at Aliya in greeting and got a small wave in return.
"So," Rory said after the Doctor released him, "What have you two been up to?"
"Oh, you know. The usual," the Doctor replied.
"In other words, running for your life, yeah?"
"Well, yeah."
"Sontaran Battle Fleet, Vultures who faked his death to try and steal the TARDIS, an ex Time Agent and con-man turned defender of the Earth, Bronxites who tried to steal his life forces, our past selves, androids, cat nun from the future, and a grumpy old man who is now our friend," Aliya summarised, ticking them off on her fingers.
Amy just laughed, her eyes flicking to the Doctor. "Busy boy, then?"
The Time Lord straightened his bowtie the way he did when he was feeling defensive. "Maybe. Why, what have you been up to?"
"Other than honeymoon-ish things?" Amy said with a smirk, making the Doctor turn pink and Aliya and Rory both cough awkwardly. "I dunno. We relaxed and just enjoyed ourselves."
"We watched the sunsets," Rory said, "It's been great, not life-threatening for once."
"Yeah, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it was kind of nice," Amy agreed. "But more importantly, we're back! Got my spaceship, got my boys, and finally got myself another woman. My work here is done." She sauntered into the TARDIS after dumping her bags on Rory. Aliya, after glancing after the red head, soon relieved some of the load off the human man and helped carry Amy's bags into the police box.
About fifteen minutes later, all luggage was back in its rooms and the occupants of the TARDIS had decided to relax and simply enjoy each other's company in the library.
"So, Aliya," Amy began from the comfy chair she was lounging on while reading a fashion magazine from the 24th century, "Meet any handsome blokes on your travels?"
Aliya momentarily frowned. "Why?"
Amy gave her a weird look. "Well, you know, handsome blokes are one of the best parts of travelling the universe." She ignored a complaint of 'oh, thanks' from Rory some way off in the biography section. "Come on, there must have been someone who caught your eye?"
"Oh," Aliya said, realising what she was getting at, "Amy, you seem be suffering under the misunderstanding that I experience the kind of attraction you're meaning the same way most people in your century do." She blushed a little under Amy's raised eyebrow and reluctantly explained even though it went against Time Lord convention of never discussing sexuality. "In the extremely rare circumstance that I experience attraction to someone, their gender has nothing to do with it."
"Okay, good to know," Amy said with interest, "But I like men, and want to live through vicariously through you. So, did you meet any handsome blokes you can tell me about? You might not have been attracted to them, but you had to know if they were hot or not."
A grin crept onto Aliya's face as she recalled a man she had found very aesthetically attractive. "Maybe one. That ex-Time Agent I mentioned before, he's an old friend of the Doctor's. Captain Jack Harkness."
"Ooh, even his name sounds hot."
"Amy!" Rory's indignant reprimand came from somewhere in the fiction section. She ignored him.
"So...?" Amy waggled her eyebrows at the blonde, who stared at her, utterly perplexed as she wandered over to the the nearest bookshelf to examine the books with evident interest.
"So...?" She repeated, somewhat helplessly, making the Scottish woman sigh.
"Come on, Aliya. We don't know each other that well, but chatting about guys is one great way to get started," Amy reasoned to the female Time Lord, who was trailing her fingers along the spine of a book called 'The Time Machine' some distance away. Aliya – after much inward conflict, after all, it was written by a human, it was going to be utterly ridiculous – finally pulled the book out of the shelf and come back to sit down on the longer couch next to the Doctor. Amy leaned across the arm of her chair towards Aliya. "Please tell me he's hot."
The Doctor eyed his two female companions warily, particularly the blonde one sitting only inches away from him. It suddenly seemed very important to know what she thought about Captain Jack. After all, he was incorrigible. He would flirt with anyone! And she was a Time Lady, she wouldn't have been taken in by his shameless flirting.
Aliya sighed before smiling almost reluctantly. "Yes, he is very handsome. And charming, he flirts the moment he lays eyes on you."
"Did you flirt back?"
"Yes, she did," the Doctor muttered, "After I very specifically told her not to."
Amy lifted an eyebrow. "And you have the right to dictate who she flirts with why?"
He frowned. "It was one instruction. Not difficult."
"Yeah, but why does it matter? What do you care who she flirts with?"
He sighed with evident frustration. "It's not that! Jack is attracted to anything with a pulse! I didn't want her getting the wrong idea from all the attention!" His eyes fell on Aliya, who was watching him with a frown of her own.
"I think I'm old enough to take care of myself, thanks," Aliya told him irritably, "Besides, since now everyone here knows that absolutely nothing would ever come of it, why does it matter?"
"Old enough maybe, but not experienced enough! You're still naive about the universe-"
His argument was abruptly cut off by the woman he was insulting. "Naive about the universe? I am a thousand years old and spent a century travelling the universe on my own and centuries learning about various parts of it. I might not have your experience but call me naive again and I'll-" She stopped short, suddenly put out.
The Doctor smirked at her. "You'll what?"
Abruptly, she switched to rapid Gallifreyan. "Or I'll tell them about the coat and the cat pin and that prank Drax pulled on you at the Academy on the Solstice that ended up with you-"
"That is not remotely fair," he said as he cut her off, scowling and crossing his arms like a child. Amy looked between them, noting the Doctor's glare and Aliya smugness.
"Neither was that comment," the latter retorted.
"What did you say? Was that your language?" Amy demanded.
Aliya shrugged. "Yes. And don't worry, it was just some innocent blackmail, but that's not important." Her gaze fell back on the Doctor. "What's important is that if I want to flirt with someone who is handsome and funny and smells really nice, then I will and you have no right to stop me."
It took a few seconds for him to pick out what apparently was the most important part of that sentence. "Sorry...smells really nice?!" The blonde went quiet and a bit pink as the Doctor stared and Amy outright started laughing.
"Anything else you want to add, Aliya?" The red head asked, smirking.
But it was the Doctor that Aliya was looking at and addressed her next lot of words to. "Please, like you never noticed his 51st century pheromones."
She said it with complete confidence, and although he opened his mouth several times with clear intentions to contradict her, he eventually shut it again and pointedly looked away, which resulted in Amy's eyebrows rising even more.
"Doctor?" She asked with a grin.
In a very small voice, he mildly said, "Alright, he does smell nice but it is just pheromones, Aliya is hardly a slave to her senses and therefore it shouldn't matter, and frankly, you don't see me going on about it." He made a sour face that just made the two women laugh at him.
"I was hardly going on about it!" Aliya protested, unsure whether to be amused or indignant.
"Oh really?" The Doctor then even went to the trouble of standing up and moving away from the couch to give a proper demonstration. "Oh Jack, the Doctor so very conveniently left out how devastatingly good looking you are!" He mimicked, making Amy laugh yet again.
"I didn't say that! You're so full of shit!"
But the Doctor wasn't done. "Oh Jack, I only regenerated two days, look how new and shiny I am, look at all my sparkly regeneration energy! Should I get even closer to you to make sure you can't miss how shiny I am?"
That time, Aliya's face was so taken aback that it really was quite comical. "And I really didn't say that, where the hell did that come from?" When he didn't answer, she just stared at him with the same incredulous look. "Seriously. I didn't say anything like that."
He rolled his eyes at her. "You didn't need to, it was obvious. You were new from regeneration and showing off!"
The outrage in her rose within a second. "Of all the-"
Amy quickly decided to play peacekeeper when she saw the potential for a proper argument brewing. "Alright you two, let's just not worry about it. Aliya apparently likes to flirt and the Doctor needs to learn to deal with it."
"You're taking her side?" The Doctor said indignantly, and Amy just gave him a look which made him gulp and go quiet very quickly. "I mean, yeah you stick with your opinion even if it is different to mine." She gave him a good save look.
Unfortunately, Aliya wasn't as easily scared into submission by Scottish ferocity, was still glaring at the Doctor. "Since when did you have the right to dictate anything I do?"
"Since you turned up on my ship and regenerated into an idiot!"
"It's better than being a stuffy grandfather in a baby's body!"
"I look older than you!"
"And yet you lack the maturity of a human child."
"And yet I seem to be the one who has to look after you."
"For Rassilon's sake, you sound like my father."
"Nope, I met your father several times-"
"Yes, and you had an astounding ability to aggravate each other to no end-"
"Well maybe this time around you picked up that skill for yourself, because you are really aggravating me!"
"Good!"
"Fine!"
"...fine!"
With one final glare, Aliya stormed from the room, leaving a scowling Doctor and bewildered Amy in her wake. To top it all off, Rory chose that moment to dash back into that section of the library.
"I heard yelling," the nurse said uncertainly, taking in the scene as well as Aliya's absence. "Everything alright? What just happened?"
Amy shot a significant look at the Doctor. "It seems that Time Lords can bicker like children."
"Oi!"
"You weren't even arguing about anything in particular! It started off with you being a bit controlling and ended up just petty insult throwing."
"No!" The Doctor protested. "We were..." He stopped and frowned. "I could have sworn we...oh."
"I believe this is the part where you two say sorry and admit that you're both idiots." Amy gestured to the door, and the Doctor quickly nodded and headed out the room in pursuit of his friend.
When he found her on the jump seat in the console room, he decided to start off by stealing Amy's words because they were probably better than anything he could have come up with. "It may have been pointed out to me that we're both idiots and that we weren't even arguing about anything."
Aliya frowned, and then laughed a little. "Huh, that's a good point. Oops."
The Doctor shifted his feet awkwardly. "So...the arguing is...new."
"Yes, it is."
"Should be alright though. You and me, little argument here and there won't be a problem."
"I dunno, are you going to keep being stupid and over protective?"
"Yes, are you going to keep being infuriating?"
"Yes."
"Good."
"Good."
"Finally, some girl time!" Amy exclaimed happily as she and Aliya explored the marketplace. "You have no idea how hard it is constantly travelling with men."
The planet they were on was quaint and peaceful, but well known for its impressive wares, sold by all different kind of species. The market was bustling with people who were too busy with their own lives to pay much consideration to those around them, making it a mission to get from one stall to another.
Aliya frowned. "Well…my two best friends in school were both male - one of them being the Doctor - so I'm not sure I can agree. I never found it difficult."
"So you've known him for ages, then?"
"Yeah…" She chewed her nail absently. Amy noticed and frowned with distaste.
"Ew…don't do that!" The red head said.
Aliya frowned. "Sorry." She flicked the piece of nail she had pulled off onto the dirt ground. "I never used to do this, it's new. And terribly uncivilised. My mother would be horrified."
"Yeah, it's a little bit disgusting. Come on, there must be something here that will fix it." Amy took the hand where Aliya had not been biting her nails and pulled her through the crowd to a stall a little way down the marketplace. Sure enough, there was a stall specifically for nail care and art. The alien behind it was a humanoid who vaguely resembled an elephant.
"Can I help the two of you?" It asked.
Amy nodded. "Yeah, what kind of products do you have?"
"Just the different colours of polish, but it will harden and strength your nails, making them almost impossible to chew off." Its dark eyes were already eyeing the fingernail Aliya had been biting seconds before. The two women looked and each other and nodded, quickly finding credits to pay for the polish and application of it. By the time they found the Doctor and Rory again, Amy was sporting bright red nails, while Aliya had opted for bright yellow.
"What have you two been up?" The Doctor asked them with amusement, but eyed their giggling with something close to wariness. The two women exchanged looks and grinned as they showed him their hands. He was distinctly unimpressed. "Oh good," he said wryly, "I take you to see the wonders of the universe and you two stop for a manicure. Good to know my time isn't being wasted."
Amy smirked. "You can try and sound disappointed but I know you love me really. Besides, I'm educating Aliya on simple human fashion."
"Of course," the Doctor said, eyes twinkling.
It was very clear to Aliya how fond he was of Amy and Rory. She had never been that sure in the past of the relationship the Doctor had with his companions. Upon joining him in the TARDIS it had soon been evident that he was very close to them and had fallen in love with this mysterious Rose that she still knew very little about, and that he had a fate with River that would very likely go the same way and further. But seeing it first hand was much more informative, and Aliya began to see that perhaps the reason he travelled the universe was not just for the places and sights, but for the people who lived in it. She admired him for that.
"Yes, and we still have lots of girl stuff to do, so you boys run along." Amy shooed them away and Aliya laughed as the red head dragged her towards some exotic-looking clothing stalls.
"So…why is it that he's called the Doctor when you actually have a name?" The Scotswoman asked curiously as she examined the section where short skirts and dresses lay.
"Oh. Well, we all have titles, but some of us just chose to do by our birth names. Of course, Aliya isn't my full birth name."
"What's your full name, then?"
Aliya frowned. "Aliyanadevoralundar."
Amy raised an eyebrow and the Time Lady could see her brain whirring as she tried to remember how to say it. In the end she could only say, "Jeez. Does the Doctor have a name like that?"
"He usually just went by Theta Sigma when we were in school," Aliya said, shrugging. "The Doctor suits him. It's his promise, to help people and make them better. He has no reason to call himself anything else." They found a dress that Amy insisted would look wonderful on the Time Lady, and forced her into the tiny little changing booth to try it on.
"So...do you have a title as well?" Amy asked from outside.
"Yes."
"And...?"
"I don't really like it that much, I only chose it because I had to choose something. It was a non-preferential title, meaning I still wanted to mostly go by my birth name."
"And?"
"...I chose the Angel."
"Angel? What, like with big white wings and a halo?"
"It translates slightly differently in Gallifreyan," Aliya said, with annoyance in her voice that she tried to contain, "For you humans, an angel is a celestial guardian...for us, it simply means someone who watches over people, and helps them. In terms of translation, I could have picked Protector or Guardian and it would have meant exactly the same thing, and would have if I'd known the translations other cultures had for angel. Like I say, I don't use it, it doesn't apply to me anymore."
She then came out of the booth, dress back over her arm having already put it on, decided against it, and taken it off again.
"Hey, I wanted to see!" Amy protested.
"It was far too short, I could never-"
"That's the point!"
"I said no," Aliya told her, firmly, "I don't try to tell you how to dress, and I'd prefer if you offered me the same courtesy."
Amy consider this, her mind visibly whirring, and she sighed but didn't lose the hope in her eyes. "Okay, but...can I at least make suggestions? Like, you're allowed to say no, but can just think about it."
"Fine," Aliya conceded, "You, Amelia Pond, are a force to be reckoned with."
"Proudly."