Adventuring in Japan, Theodore and Lila met people from all walks, including more samebitos that took to the land, they came across an entire village comprised of samebito, but they were nice. Shocked more than anything that someone knew of their existence, but happy that Theodore and Lila were understanding of their secrecy, and gave them regional treats as thanks.
Sakura shrimp kakiage.
Unsurprising, but it was tasty.
They were nice enough to tell Theodore and Lila some spots that most tourists and natives overlooked, but if they find them, they'd see the hidden beauties that got overlooked.
And they did.
It was beautiful, overgrown with lush vegetation, but still beautiful, and the hidden cove with the clearest water and whitest sand surprised them both.
The sand felt like powdered sugar upon touching it, that Theodore thought he'd be pulled under when the water runs over it, but it remained firm, in his hand, it felt like warm powder, a gentle squeeze, he felt the tiny glass shards, no smaller than an atom.
Crystal clear water that made the hidden cove look barren, until they waddled in it, and it rippled, like an illusion.
Brightly coloured fish of different shapes and sizes, that it's almost impossible to count, and somehow no one found them, here.
When night came, they got to experience a different phenomena, the waters turned a bright blue shade when waddled through, the result of tiny creatures that come to shore at night to hunt even tinier creatures.
It was a shame they had to leave, but they were caked in sand, the saltwater drying out their skins after spending hours in it, and the need to shower compelled them.
Still, it was an experience they'll never forget.
So now, after a day of adventuring, the looming deadline coming up when they'll have to leave for their home world, the two laid around their hotel room, plates worth of food to tide them over for much of the night.
"If only they take notes," Theodore sighed as he relaxed on the edge of the bed, a pillow underneath his chin, propping his head up as he looked at Lila while she's pouring them drinks from the pitcher.
Knowing he referred to the samito, Lila chuckled as she sat the pitcher down, bringing him his cup of tea as she sat beside him holding hers, she says, "Look at this way, they're not bothering you, anymore, they're bothering someone else."
Theodore did say he didn't want them trying their tricks with him, again, but he corrected her saying, he didn't want their tricks coming back to him.
"They eased up on Ben, didn't they?" Lila pointed out that after a while, the samito stopped bothering Ben, playing their tricks, but Theodore says that they only stopped because he and Odette intervened.
Still didn't stop Reese and Lambert from pulling fast ones every so often, though.
"Careful what you wish for, teddy," Lila reminded him that he never said they wouldn't bother someone else after moving on from him, something he confessed realizing it later.
Sighing as he took a sip of his tea, Theodore says, "Next time, I'm being more descriptive."
The next time he's being chased by alien sharks disguised as humans, he's telling them not only to stop bothering him, but also anyone in the vicinity of his life!
Chuckling as she brought her cup up to her lips, Lila shakes her head, as she sipped her tea.
Resting his half-drunk cup on the tray at the bottom of the bed in front of him, Theodore pushed himself up from his bed, readjusting himself as he sat on the bed beside Lila as she sat her cup down on the tray near her feet.
"Well, how's your first trip to Japan?" Lila asks him as he rubbed his eyes, pulling away some sand that gotten stuck on the sides of his eyes.
Lowering his hand, Theodore shows Lila his pearly whites as he says, "It's wonderful!"
Not having to worry about Daleks chasing them, Cybermen trying to turn them, anything like that, it's just them wandering different parts of Japan, like two yokels with backpacks, but he couldn't be happier.
The samebito were a surprise, but they were much nicer than he expected, much more polite, too.
That said, he'll probably never have an experience like this, again, for a while, but it's worth it, in the end.
"Good, after seeing you down that much beer, I expected you to be smiling for the rest of the trip," Lila chuckled as she smiled.
Shrugging his wide shoulders, Theodore says that he didn't often drink that much, but given this was one of those rare trips, he figured he'll enjoy some drinks.
He did finish a couple of kegs worth of Japanese beer, but it was worth it.
"How're you going to explain to Hammond about your souvenirs?" Lila asks him about his souvenirs that he planned on placing in different corners of his flat and Theodore replied that he has his ways.
His brother hardly visits, anywho, if he does, then it won't matter because it'll be something serious that he'll overlook the small statues and wooden charms hanging around the flat.
"Fair enough," Lila shrugs as she sees Theodore's point.
Hammond never shows up unless there's a reason, man never cared for random visits, he'll happily show up for Hamon and Odette, but for Theodore, it's seldom.
As they dined, the two discussed whatever topics that came to mind, it's getting late, but Theodore wanted to stay up a little longer.
"Whenever when we lived in Japan, I'd always beg mom to take me into the mainland," Lila mentioned the times when she was younger, she'd beg her mother to take them into the mainland whenever they lived on the base in Okinawa.
It was a dream to take the train by herself, but Lila couldn't, her mother wouldn't let her, even though she passed proficiency in Japanese.
Hadn't they lived on a navy base, Lila might've snuck aboard the train herself and gone into the mainland without anyone knowing, but with the base as it is, she couldn't sneak off it without someone reporting it to her parents.
"I remember when I got into trouble trying to go up on the buildings by myself, no reason for it, I just wanted to be like dad," Theodore recalled his youth, how he got in trouble trying to go into the construction sites his father worked, just to go up the beams, muck about like his father, much to his parents disbelief.
He never gotten hurt, but his father nixed this quickly, stating that he didn't want Theodore going up beams without his parents' presence, out of concern.
Theodore got in trouble for pointing out his healing factor, his father straightened him out quickly, warning him that even though they're able to heal from most things, one well-placed hit to the head, a beam through the hearts, it's enough damage to permanently mar or kill Theodore.
Quickly, he learnt his lessons and never did it again, his father made it clear that he didn't want Theodore going into the construction business.
"Why's that?" Lila asked Theodore why his father didn't want him going into the business and Theodore told her that his father wanted him to do something more with his life than construction.
When he asked him why, Theodore was told by his father that he did construction because he could handle the toll it took on his body.
"Yeah, I'm sure your hard head isn't hard enough to handle a cement block falling off," Lila shrugged as she reached for her drink.
Sighing, Theodore says that he only wanted to be like his father, there Lila pointed out that he is like his father, not as a construction worker, though.
Seeing her point, Theodore nods.
The conversations continued while they picked through their plates of food.
It turned into a discussion about family, the troubles the two got into in their respected families, of course Theodore loved bringing up all the embarrassing times his brother ended up in his own sort of troubles.
Which Lila swore not to bring up or make it aware that she knows, else Hammond's likely to bring his trademark wrath upon her.
Theodore assured her, that, Hammond wouldn't.
"You told me two minutes ago how he got a face full of cake, I think he'll have choice words about that," Lila pointed out.
Worse for Theodore.
The conversation changed there, with Theodore's thoughtful icy blue eyes looking down into his cup of tea.
"What's on the membrane, spaceman?" Lila asks him, seeing him looking bashfully away from her when she tried to look at him.
It's a rare sight, these days, a bashful Theodore.
"You never told me much, about your mother," Theodore brought up that since he's known her, Lila remained quiet about her mother, only bringing her up during stories, other than that, she never says much.
Daphne's a different story, but something about Lila's mother just never made sense to Theodore, and he never had the chance to broach the topic.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, a solemn look on Lila's face, she nods as she admitted, "Yeah, I'm not… I'm not too fond of talking about it, honestly. Didn't help that bastard got in my head."
Recalling their adventure with the professor, Theodore tilts his head curiously as Lila looked to her feet as he says, "When I read your mind."
Nodding, Lila sighed as she tells Theodore that the professor got her the first day of class, making her see things that she didn't write, before digging through her mind just to get what he wanted.
"Bastard. Had the gall to…" Lila grew irritated when she remembered how the professor used his telepath to force her to relive everything that happened that day.
Exhaling sharply as she took a swig of her tea, setting the empty cup on the tray, Lila shook her head as she rubbed her eyes.
Setting his cup down, too, Theodore apologized to Lila for bringing it up, but she waved her hand, telling him that it's fine. It'll have to come out sooner than later, considering how close they've become, and the fact they're sharing the bed, now.
"How old were you?" Theodore asked her as she began putting up their used utensils and plates, stacking them on the cart, with the cups stacked on top, the utensils poking out.
Lila answered him, "Six. I just got home."
Vividly, Lila recalled that day.
She'd just got home from school, her bus dropped her off in front of the base, there was no way for it to u-turn, so it had to drop her off there, every day until they moved.
Mom was supposed to wait for her by the gate, but she wasn't there, so Lila walked herself to their house.
Dad was on Indianapolis and wasn't supposed to be home for another three hours.
Lila got home, had to find the hidden key under the mat, and when she entered, it was unusually quiet.
Mom usually had the cooking channel on, but the TV wasn't on, there wasn't anything in the kitchen, and Lila went upstairs to look for her, thinking she just overslept.
The bathroom was along the way and Lila remembered stopping in front of it, seeing the door's closed, when it's usually open.
She knocked on it multiple times, asking for her mother, but she never responded.
Didn't hear the shower and bashfully, Lila covered her eyes as she opened the door into the bathroom, calling out to her mother.
Her mother didn't respond and a strong irony smell hit Lila's nose.
She ended up lowering her hand and…
Her mother was in the bathtub.
The water turned a vivid red and her mother's skin pale as snow.
"Why?" Lila recalled the only word she could utter at the sight.
Why.
Ended up walking out of the house, quiet like, and going to one of her neighbors, they called the police and her dad.
Didn't even say anything when the adults were scrambling, trying to find reasons, answers, trying to keep her from shaking.
"Why?" Theodore asked Lila the cause behind her mother's suicide.
Sighing, Lila says, "Postpartum depression, she'd been dealing it with for six years."
A complicated matter, Lila's mother developed it soon after her birth, and been battling it throughout Lila's youth.
She'd attempted help, they gave her medication, therapy, but it's a struggle when they move to different bases throughout the world.
Dad tried being with her when she needed him, but the navy always won out, and he tried having his parents with them to have help, by then his parents already moved across country.
For a while, Lila blamed herself for being the cause of her mother's suicide, hadn't she been born, her mother would've been alive.
She blamed herself for not doing enough for her father, when he started dating Daphne, all those chores and cooking weren't enough.
Maybe in some way, Lila didn't like Daphne because she worried that she'd lose her, too.
Lila Ann Watson.
Lost one mother.
On her way losing another!
Sitting down on the bed after cleaning and pushing the cart out of their room, Theodore's arm immediately wrapped around her waist, pulling her close as she talked about an uncomfortable point in her life.
"It wasn't your fault," Theodore reminded her that she had no part in her mother's suicide, even though she believed otherwise.
Even if Lila was never born, something else would've set her mother off, it's one of those things his father taught him.
"When that jackass brought it all up, again, it felt like a bomb went off in my head," Lila frowned as she felt Theodore's large hand gently stroking her side.
All those emotions she felt, just blew up in her face after all these years, for what purpose to make a professor smugly happy that he got another page turner in his book.
"Twenty some years and it just hadn't fully gone away," Lila summed that despite it happening that long ago, she felt the effects to this day, which Theodore says it's normal.
Frowning, Lila then went on to say, "When… it just felt like I was reliving it all over, again."
It just felt like nails in her brain.
Hence, her episode.
She apologized for not telling Theodore sooner, but he stopped her with a gentle finger on the tip of her nose, as he tells her that he understands.
It took him a while to speak about his mother's death.
She'd gotten sick one year, started off as dry coughs, by the end she was stuck in a hospital bed, Theodore and Hammond had to watch their mother wither, while Odette was too young to fully comprehend.
He never told his father how he had nightmares about seeing his mother in the hospital bed. Withering away before his very eyes as he's helpless to do anything and even woke up with a tear-soaked face more than once.
Was always ashamed about telling his father how he cried in his sleep, that he did everything under the sun to keep his father from knowing.
Hammond started getting more serious, pushing his emotions away like a Vulcan, Theodore never bothered asking him if he was having nightmares, too, it was pure hell in their household.
Their uncle came to help while their father mourned, having been melded, the loss was heavier for him. His body never fully recovered, which led Theodore in suspecting it culminated in his death.
Which is precisely why melding lost favour on Gallifrey. Not only do Time Lords live elongated lives, the stress from the loss of connection to their loved ones's a risk to their own healths.
Losing his father, it brought back old memories that Theodore didn't want to touch.
Throwing himself into danger's his way of therapy, since he never got to properly mourn his father's sudden passing.
"We do what we can, one day at a time," Lila summed.
Holding her close, Theodore gently strokes Lila, a frown on his usually joyful face, as he processed what they discussed tonight.
"It's never easy, is it?" Lila asks him as she felt his fingers gently stroking her.
Shaking his head, Theodore stiffly replied, "No, it never is."
Not wanting to end the night on a solemn note, Theodore slowly lessened it, with something he hadn't told Lila before.
He studied Japanese periodically whenever he had a chance, but because he didn't want anyone knowing what he was doing, he had to leave books on the desks more than once, which he hated doing, but there's a reason for his madness.
"Why?" Lila asked him, dumbstruck that he forced himself into learning Japanese on his own, instead of easily learning it through a brief meld from Lila, and Theodore told her why.
He wanted it legitimate.
"Legitimate?" Lila blinked.
Nodding, his wild hair bobbing, Theodore affirmed that he wanted him knowing Japanese to be legitimate, not something he grabbed from her.
Blinking as she's trying to understand him, Lila pointed out, "Japanese's not something you learn in a month, y'know."
Theodore tells her that he knows that, but he wanted to learn at least enough.
Raising her brow, Lila asks, "Enough for…?"
A smile appearing on his face, Theodore says to her in Japanese, "Itoshi teru, Rī."
And with that, they embraced.
THE END