When Koschei woke up the next day he was full of regret, his head was pounding, and his eyes were extremely dry.
Groaning, he stretched and then sat up in his bed, waiting for the light-headedness to pass before he got up and slowly made his way down the staircase and to the attached bathroom.
He quickly splashed some cool water on his face, then leant against the sink, forehead against the mirror on one of the cabinet doors as he tried to stave off his nausea.
Drinking on an empty stomach turned out to be a very bad idea.
Sighing, he pulled back from the mirror and opened the cabinet, quickly grabbing the pain relief medication that was stashed inside and popping two in his mouth, washing them down with water from the sink.
He stood there for a moment, before sighing and turning to the shower.
He felt awful and he stunk, a chance to freshen up before he saw Rose and the Doctor would be needed.
Show Me The Way Home
He heard laughing coming from the kitchen as he headed down the corridor, fresh out of the shower with some nice clean clothes on.
He hadn't bothered to put shoes on as he did not plan on going out on whatever adventure the Doctor managed to land them at unless there was a restaurant that sold a full English breakfast, or a takeaway at the very least, he could really do with something nice and greasy right now.
"Hey," he greeted the three people gathered in the kitchen as he made his way to the kettle, clicking it on and pulling a mug down from the cupboard above it, before he paused and looked over his shoulder, counting the people in the room.
There was Rose, sat at the kitchen table with a mug of tea in her hands.
There was the Doctor, tensely leaning against the counter and looking at him with a rather guilty expression on his face.
And there was…
"Hello, I'm Harry," he held his hand out for the man to shake.
Jack leant over the table, a flirtatious grin on his face as he grabbed his hand in greeting, "Hello, Harry, I'm Jack," he proceeded to run his eyes over the very obviously hungover man, "I must say, you look wonderful."
Out of the corner of his eye, Koschei could see the Doctor's grip on the counter become tenser, he snorted, "I look about as wonderful as the Earth is flat."
Jack pouted as he let his hand drop, Koschei quickly returning to where the kettle had finished boiling to pour himself a nice strong cuppa.
"Why does no-one here fall for my charms?"
"I don't do desperate, sorry," Koschei stated idly while stirring some sugar into his drink.
Rose, who had been taking a sip of her tea at the time, almost choked on it in shock, before bursting out laughing, with the occasional interrupting cough.
The Doctor had somewhat relaxed but was still looking at him with a very guilty look plastered on his face.
Koschei sighed into his mug of freshly brewed tea, deciding that if he was still looking at him like he'd murdered his owl, Artemis once the day was over then he'd confront him.
But until then, he'd enjoy his cup of tea.
Show Me The Way Home
Their next stop was to Cardiff for refuelling, so they'd likely end up at a local restaurant later that day, as such, Koschei had gathered his shoes to put on when they went but were currently just sat by the door as he slowly swung his feet about.
While they were sat around the console, someone knocked at the door, which Jack answered.
"Who the hell are you?"
"What do you mean 'who the hell am I?'" came the voice of Mickey, "Who the hell are you?"
"Captain Jack Harkness," he leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, "Whatever it is you're selling, we're not buying."
There was a moment of silence before Mickey pushed Jack out of the doorframe, "Get out of my way!"
"Wait, don't tell me, this must be Mickey," Jack huffed.
"Oh no, here comes trouble," the Doctor commented, "How are you doing, Ricky boy?"
"It's Mickey!"
"Don't listen to him," Rose pulled Mickey away from the Doctor who had a bright grin on his face, "He's just winding you up."
Mickey hugged Rose, "You look fantastic."
Koschei groaned at the noise, placing his head face down on the console for the coolness it gave.
"What's wrong with him?" Mickey asked, pulling away from Rose.
"Hangover," he grunted.
"Ah."
Koschei tuned out their chatter as they caught up with each other and ignored Jack's attempts at flirting with both he and the Doctor, until he was being ushered out the door, putting his shoes on as he went.
"We're going to get food, right?" he asked tiredly.
"I mean, we can, we've got the time," the Doctor confirmed, quickly looking away from him when he noticed him looking.
Koschei frowned slightly, looking at the Doctor with worry before he pushed it to the back of his mind, it could wait until later.
"Wonderful," he groaned instead.
Show Me The Way Home
The restaurant they'd gone to was rather nice and located next to a beach, so they had some nice views of the ocean, not that Koschei was really in any state to appreciate this.
He'd ordered himself a large full English breakfast, opting for fried bread instead of toast, and fried egg instead of scrambled, he'd also got a pot of tea with it.
He groaned as he bit into the fried bread, while greasy food wasn't typically his favourite thing to eat, when hungover it was absolutely the best thing a person could ask for.
"Hey now," Jack complained, "The only time I want to hear groaning like that is when I'm in bed."
Koschei turned to look at him with the blankest face he could muster with a mouth full of food, "The fact that you think people would be groaning like that in bed with you is depressing."
"Oh wow, that really hurts," Jack mock pouted at him, at the same time Mickey burst out laughing.
Koschei pointed his fork at Jack, "I'm sure you'll find someone who can look past that face of yours," he proceeded to stab a hash brown with his fork, bringing it to his mouth, he paused just before taking a bite, "Eventually," he shrugged.
"Ow."
Soon after, Jack began telling a story, which he tuned out, blankly eating the rest of his food, and slowly growing more tired, the slight ocean breeze bought along with the smell of saltwater, which helped him to relax just a bit more.
"And I was having such a nice day," the Doctor suddenly commented, showing them the newspaper that depicted the female Slitheen which they'd previously encountered at Downing Street.
"I hope you don't mind, Doctor," he began, continuing once his focus was on him, "But I think I'm going to sit this one out."
"Yeah, that's probably for the best," the Doctor winced at how his words sounded, but he waved it off.
They walked out of the restaurant, "Think I'm going to go back to bed for a bit," Koschei muttered before he split off from the rest of them, walking towards the TARDIS while they went to the City Hall.
Show Me The Way Home
Koschei awoke a few hours later feeling far better than he had when he'd been awake previously, the TARDIS was silent, just the two of them, and he revelled in the temporary peace.
He was in a very good mood too, and with that good mood, he decided he wanted to do a bit of baking.
He made his way to the closest kitchen and began digging through the cupboards, grabbing the things needed to bake a nice red velvet cake, one of his favourites.
Looking at the expiry date on the buttermilk, Koschei was glad that the TARDIS came fully equipped with stasis cupboards and fridges, good as the day it was bought, fifty years out of date.
He lost track of time as he prepared the batter for the cake, he'd just put the two cake tins into the oven when it felt as though an earthquake had ripped through the TARDIS, things were shaking and falling all over the place.
Koschei frowned, something like that shouldn't be possible, what with the TARDIS being on her own dimensional plane than the rest of the universe.
Wiping his hands on a tea towel that he'd grabbed from the countertop, he began making his way to the console room to try and figure out what was going on.
As he neared the doorway he called out, "Hey, what's going-" but the words died in his mouth once he got close enough to see.
His eyes grew wide as he saw the console of the TARDIS wide open, glowing golden light pouring out of it, Rose and Jack were looking away as the Doctor went to close it, quickly Koschei raised his arm to his eyes to block the light out, dropping it once it died down.
Blinking rapidly, he attempted to dispel the dark spots that had taken up residence in his vision.
He slowly made his way over to the chattering trio, attempting not to bump into anything, which was quite a challenge when you were temporarily blinded, although, by the time he'd made it over to them, it had mostly cleared up.
"So, what happened?" he questioned.
"Margaret the Slitheen is now Margaret the Egg," the Doctor informed him.
"Ah," he looked around, "And where's Mickey?"
"He's gone," Rose admitted, "I don't blame him, he deserves better."
Koschei frowned at her and placed a supporting hand on her shoulder.
"You know what'd make you feel better?"
"What?"
"Cake, it's still cooking, but it'll be ready in about, what," he looked at the analogue clock that was being displayed on one of the screens at the console, "forty-five minutes?"
She gave a small smile, "Yeah? What type?"
"Red velvet."
"Didn't know you could bake," Jack interrupted.
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me," he informed him.
He watched out of the corner of his eye as the Doctor looked over at him with that guilty expression again.
Koschei ignored it for the moment, "My godfather loves homemade cakes, but he can't cook for shit, managed to almost burn down a hotel room we were renting out trying to microwave some instant noodles."
"Really?" Rose cried out in surprise.
"Oh yes," he nodded, "I banned him from any kitchen after that point, especially because I actually enjoy cooking," he gave a small smile as he remembered Sirius's catastrophic cooking attempts, "So, since I could cook and enjoyed it, he often asked me to bake a cake or two."
"Yeah, well, who else thinks we should get Harry to cook us all a cake each week?" Rose jokingly asked.
"I'll second that," Jack said, "Gotta love a bit of cake."
The Doctor snorted from his place at the console, "If I said no, I'd be outvoted, so I suppose I should say yes, looks like you're on baking duty."
Koschei shook his head in amusement.
"Chilli cake next week then?"
"No!" Rose and Jack cried at the same time.
The Doctor burst out laughing from where he was stood.
Show Me The Way Home
"Alright you, spill," Koschei all but demanded of the man sat on the single-seat sofa in the library, he was leaning against the doorway closest to the chair.
There was no chance of the other two walking in on their conversation, considering they'd gone off to bed two hours prior.
The Doctor jumped in surprise, obviously not having noticed his approach, "Spill what?" he asked nervously.
Koschei frowned at him, pushing away from the doorframe, and walking closer, leaning against the arm of the sofa next to him.
"You've had this guilty look on your face all day whenever you look at me," he gave him an unimpressed look, "So out with it."
He looked uncomfortable and Koschei sighed, "Look, whatever it is I'm not going to get mad or anything, I'm not one to dictate your life, so-"
"I invaded your privacy," the Doctor interrupted him.
Koschei reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose and gave another sigh, "Doctor, you've seen me naked, I doubt you could have invaded my privacy much worse than that."
The Doctor blushed and then paled at the reminder of his stint in the med bay, "Not like that."
"Then how, Doctor? Enlighten me."
"I asked you a very personal question while you were drunk," he admitted, before correcting himself, "Well, it wasn't really a question, more of a confirmation."
"And that was, what?"
The Doctor grew shuffled awkwardly where he was sat, refusing to make eye contact with him, then he said something that he had to strain to hear, it was so quiet, "Koschei…"
"Doctor that is not private information."
The Doctor turned his head to look at him so fast that Koschei was worried he might have cracked something.
"But you didn't say anything about it, I thought that you wanted to keep it secret."
"The fact that I never bought it up wasn't out of a want for keeping it secret, at first it was because I didn't know how you'd react, new universe and all that rot, not to mention that this regeneration of yours is a prior regeneration of the Doctor in my universe."
He sighed and hopped up onto the arm that he'd been leaning against, "After that, it just never came up, never felt the need to," he shrugged.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes as the Doctor digested this information, and then the Doctor grabbed him in a hug.
"I'm still sorry."
He sighed, wrapping his arms around him in return, "It's fine."