Next chapter is on the 15th of March and we'll finally be getting to the plot which I am Very excited about given how long it's taken to get there!
Aaron hadn't seen the Mistress without his wife being around before but Florence was at work when the Doctor dropped by and the kids insisted that they wanted to see Missy. In the end it was far, far easier for the Doctor and Aaron to agree than to try and persuade the children that they didn't really want to see Missy and wanted to do other things instead.
He hadn't really talked to the Doctor before either.
Both of these people felt distant from him somehow- very important parts of Florence's life that he doesn't want to step in or mess up for her.
Still he was sat in a room with them both, the Mistress playing with the children as he and the Doctor sat in two wicker armchairs which seemed just as misplaced as everything else in the room.
He chatted with the man for a while, inane topics as they supervised the Mistress and the children running about.
It was strange to talk to him- to know that he wasn't human and at the same time recognise how deeply human he is.
He knows that time people change their bodies when they get injured but his is so careworn that he can't help but see the man as someone who could be a father or grandfather, worn out by love.
"Don't you get bored?" Aaron asks, watching as the Time Lady vaults the couch and encourages both of the children to try. He remembers Florence mentioning that the Mistress and the Doctor were quite nomadic.
The Doctor is silent.
Aaron almost takes the question back but waits instead, curious to hear what the not-quite-human man would say.
Anna tries to jump but faceplants in the cushions and Chelsea hops up onto the seat, then the back and down.
When the man looks over the Time Lord's face is open but empty, blue eyes lost in something only he can see.
Aaron realises, with that strange shift of perception which can occur sometimes in less than a second, that he's pretty. His heart speeds up and he hopes he's not flushing like he feels he is.
"It's the price I pay to keep her safe." The Doctor says gravely, something deeply sad but gentle emerging from deep within him.
Aaron knows that the Mistress feels it by the glance he gets of her in passing- it's the same as the one which Florence gets sometimes. It's a mix of equal parts frustration and concern.
The human stays quiet, allowing him to keep talking.
"I can't imagine anything worse than this stillness... Time passes so slowly here and I've lived through so many bits of it that it wears thin in some places. I can't even travel here because that would mean leaving her alone. There really is no other punishment that could be so fit for me." He says, smiling sadly.
His fingers lace and unlace as he stares at them rather than at the girls and Missy.
There's quiet for a moment as Aaron digests what has been said and tries to think of what you say in response to that.
"You feel like you deserve punishment?" He asks, hating the words as he says them.
The Doctor huffs out, a bitter laugh contained in it.
"I've done things you couldn't conceive of in attempts to do what is right. I'm not a good man, Aaron." He says softly.
"But you care." The human responds.
"Yes. I do." The Time Lord says, sighing heavily as he looks again to the Mistress who is sitting, spine straight up, on the piano stool with Anna on her lap and Chelsea right next to her. The notes they choose are discordant to say the least.
"All of this is worth it for her."
The Time Lady sprawls on the sofa, head tipped upside-down with her legs kicked up over the back, arms placed wherever they fell like a marionette with its strings cut. She straightens up in a flurry of skirts, curiosity overtaking the vacant expression that she had held.
"Why are you back? Did one of the girls forget something?" She asks, frowning slightly as she stands, seeming more awkward somehow as if the strangeness of the situation has contaminated her movements.
"Just a pen- it can't wait to next time though." Aaron sighs, making the universal rolled eyes signal of 'kids-am-I-right?', "It's blue with glitter or something I think- shiny anyway. Haven't seen it, have you?" He asks hopefully, scanning the ground where they'd been drawing.
The Mistress hums as he circles the room, trying to see if it's rolled under the chairs scattered about or one of the bookshelves.
"Is this it?" She asks.
Aaron turns and smiles in thanks.
"Ah- yeah. Thanks- we wouldn't have heard the end of it if she'd left it behind."
The Time Lady stands, dusting her knees off and passing him the pen.
"That's alright." She says. He recognises the tone from Florence and that it means 'I'm-thinking-of-saying-something-but-don't-know-if-I-should'. Her face is neutral as she stares at him, unblinking.
He feels her eyes on him as he walks to the door.
"I'll probably see you next time then?" He asks, waving awkwardly with one hand on the door.
The Mistress stares at him, a slight frown pulling down the corners of her lips.
"Does it bother you that Florence loves me?" She asks, brows furrowing slightly and head tilted up in question.
Aaron blinks.
He removes his hand from the door and smiles uncomfortably, hand going to his pocket as he thinks a little. He shrugs.
"Well. No." He says, expression softening a little as he figures out how to put it in words, "That's the easy answer."
He looks at her directly now, gaze meeting hers.
"She's, well, she's love you a lot longer than the amount of time she will get to spend loving me. You're the most important person in her life, Missy. She says that you spent an uncountable number of years with her alone. I can only give her another fifty or so more years. If we're lucky maybe eighty- if I last that long. I can't love her as much as you have but I love her with all of my heart and I love Anna and Chelsea just as much. I know she loves us too and that she won't leave us while we're still here. That's enough for me. Besides the kids love you as well and it's important to me that if anything did happen to me I think you would be there to help her if you could." He grimaces at the thought that he will die before her but it's a thought he's had more than once.
It happens when he watches the way that Florence moves, relentlessly practical and fluid, every movement practised because she's had the time to become so deeply entrenched in her body and how it works, the way she can just lift him when she wants to despite the fact that he's, well, a full-sized human adult- the way she never gets ill and doesn't even seem to notice when she gets a minor burn or scrape or scratch.
She seems untouchable, resilience cast into almost humanity.
He loves her for it and he loves her for who she is when she is with him and the people he cares about.
It just reminds him sometimes that he won't last like she will. It would take a natural disaster to stop Florence from looking after the people she loves.
It would take a small accident to stop him.
Aaron breathes in and out and smiles sadly.
"You're important to all of us. You're part of our family, Missy. And, well, we love you- all in our different ways. And you love her. I know what that's like. She loves you too and I know what it's like to be loved by her. Maybe not as much as you but still-" He cuts off, flushing a little.
"It doesn't bother me." The human sums up, laughing.
"I should get back to the kids." He offers, tilting his head and smiling at the Time Lady who hasn't moved since he started speaking.
She snaps into movement, like a bird taking flight, hands flourishing and grin forming as she gestures to the doors he is standing between.
"By all means- remember to close the doors behind you, dear. They do let in a draft otherwise!" She says, dismissing him.
As soon as the doors close she drops her limbs again, feeling exhausted somehow.
"I'm not the most important person to her. That's not how love works. It's not how she works." She sits down on the sofa again, properly this time, and sinks back into the back of the seat, hands going to her face as she rubs her eyes tiredly.
She removes them and stares at the doors.
"She'll love you far past your passing. Far longer than you'll expect. She's like that. You're like that- humans. Stupid things. Mayfly lifespans and outsized feelings for them." The Mistress directs to Aaron and nobody.
She drops her head back and sighs heavily, closing her eyes.
Humans make everything more complicated than they have any right to.
Feelings make everything more complicated than they have any right to.