A Locked Door
"Shh!"
"Theta..."
"Shh!"
Ariana just barely held back the urge to whack her very dear and very often stupid, friend, right around the back of the head as he hushed her for the second time in a row. In a row! She was shocked he couldn't sense her growing annoyance, her eyes narrowing into a dark, threatening glare that fixed on the side of his face, while he pressed his left ear up against the back of the bookcase shelf he had somehow, rather awkwardly and uncomfortably looking, managed to wedge his head into. Perhaps the only saving grace for why she hadn't whacked him for hushing her already was the fact that he did look rather comical, neck forced onto a worrying angle, chin touching the bottom shelf and his back stooped in order to fit. He had shoved several large volumes out of his way to shove his head into the shelf, having shoved them into Ariana's chest when they heard the laugh that had triggered Theta to suddenly attempt to almost merge himself into the bookcase.
For her own part, Ariana couldn't decide if she truly wanted to know what was going on on the other side of the shelf to have caused such a laugh to come from the typically stern, stiff Librarian that liked to roam the library with an iron fist and a positively terrifying glare that could frighten Rassilon himself. But she was curious; especially when it came to the fact that such a laugh had been triggered by something that Lord Borusa, of all people, has said. It hadn't exactly been their intention to spy on their professor and Librarian, they had happened to have just been in the next aisle over from them when they had heard the laugh. Borusa also had a rather distinctive, deep voice that they had heard rumble, be it muffled, through the wood and books. But they were here now and, of course, they weren't just going to waste a chance like this one, were they?
"What are they saying?" she sighed, her voice barely a whisper as she edged herself a little closer to Theta, her arm pressed up against his back as she eyed the dark wood of the back of the shelf. She had carefully placed the books he had carelessly tossed aside onto the floor.
"Hard to say for sure..." Theta murmured, forcing her that little bit closer to him. He smelt strongly of something pleasantly fresh, like mint and something that might have been pine, while a faint hint of something like acetone also lingered. He had chemistry class after lunch, he must have spilt something. She liked it, not the chemical smell, of course, but the smell of him...she found herself wanting to press closer, until her nose was buried into the hood of his robes and to breathe deeply...heat immediately filled her cheeks and she barely held back to the urge to leap back from him. Theta noticed nothing, concentrating on whatever he was listening to, "I think...Borusa was asking about her...cat?"
"What?" she blinked, taken aback.
"Shh!" he hushed her hastily, instantly earning himself a dark glare, his hand absently waving back at her to keep her voice down. She bit her tongue, "No, no, not her cat...maybe her...art? Hey..." he grinned, then, "Who'd have thought the Librarian liked painting?"
Ariana gave the back of his head a rather flat look, "Positively scandalise, Theta".
"Oi! You've spent too much time around Ushas, you're sounding like her. It's disturbing".
"Theta," she huffed very slightly, dropping her voice to a whisper. She tried hard not to sound like she was whining...but she kind of was, "Can't we just go back to studying? I'm well aware of the fact that you have little desire to do that essay on symbiotic-links, but you're never going to get it completed by tomorrow unless we sit down and..."
"Shh! The Librarian just..."
Ariana had enough. She brought her hand up and rather more firmly than usual, cuffed the back of his head with her open palm. Sadly, it was proven to be a rather big error on her part.
"Ow!" Theta yelped loudly, both in pain and shock, mainly surprise, then anything else. His head immediately jolted upwards and, given the rather tricky angle it had been in, it caused his head to smack on top of the shelf, causing a rather loud thump.
Instantly, Ariana and Theta found themselves frozen in horror, Ariana's lips parting as her stomach dropped through the flagstone floor, while Theta seemed to become briefly turned to stone, eyes glued to the shelf with a mortified expression. The muffled voices on the other side of the shelf silenced and the air grew somehow colder. Slowly, Theta and Ariana looked at each other.
"Run?" Ariana mouthed to him, her eyes wide.
"Run," he mouthed back, nodding hastily with similar expression.
Neither of them needed another second to waste before they were turning on their heels, taking off down the aisle. Ariana had no idea how they managed it, hearing the sound of heavy footsteps and heels clicking on the stone as she dashed along behind Theta, but they managed to somehow beat either Borusa or the Librarian out of the aisle before the adults could round it, no doubt intending to attempt to block them by going in the opposite direction. They had youth on their side, it would seem, and a talent for fleeing from impending trouble. People spared them deeply annoyed and disproving looks as they dashed through the library, at some point Ariana found her hand held in Theta's as they dodged and swerved between groups and tables. Neither of them dared to make the stupid mistake of looking back over their shoulders to check that they weren't being chased, they simply kept their eyes ahead of them and ran.
"Out of the way!" Theta shouted as he practically leaped over someone who had stopped in the library doorway to tie their shoelace.
"What the...?"
"Excuse us!" Ariana added as she chose to skirt around the kneeling figure, instead, knowing that it would just be her luck to get her skirts caught attempting a jump like Theta had.
"Oi!" the voice shouted after them, "You can't just...!"
Their words were drowned out quickly as they fled around a corner. And on they ran, throughout the hallways of the Academy, dodging people and objects in their way. They ran and ran, until Ariana had to confess that she even she had lost track of exactly where they were in the school, her lungs burning and her hair partly escaping from her once neat plait around her hot cheeks, her hand still firmly held in Theta's slightly sweaty hand. She didn't mind it, even if it was a little gross. They came to a stop in an empty hallway that seemed curiously gloomy and less lavish then the rest of the school. There were barely any large paintings decorating the walls of ancient and noble Time Lords of new and old that had walked the schools halls covering the walls, no great tapestries, no rich carpet runners on the floor. Even the lamps looked older, less ornate and dimmer. They seemed to have been positioned more sparsely, too, adding an almost dramatic sense of age and history to the hallway. It was also very, very quiet down here.
"Alright," Theta breathed heavily, throwing a cautious glance back over his shoulder, "I think we've lost them," he turned his gaze to her, then, eyes narrowing accusingly, "Thanks for that, by the way".
"You kept hushing me," Ariana replied with an annoyed glare, straightening herself to her less than impressive full height. He had somehow managed to grow half an inch taller than her when she wasn't watching, as well as having lost much of the baby fat that he once filled out his cheeks. He looked like a young man now. She reached up to poke him in the chest, causing him to lean back very slightly with a small grimace, "It's quite rude, I'll have you know, to hush people, Theta".
"I was just trying to hear what those two were up to back there," he defended himself with a shrug. He shot another glance back over his shoulder, "I suppose we'll have to hide out for a bit till Borusa calms down. You'll just know he'll try pinning this on one of us".
"Probably because he would be correct to do so".
"That's beside the point!
Ariana laughed, she just couldn't help herself, but the sound echoed off the stone walls and flooring, causing a haunting sound. She quickly broke off, biting her bottom lip as she glanced sideways at Theta, who was grinning broadly back at her. She realised that they were still holding hands and she felt her cheeks warming. She carefully extracted her fingers from his and tried not to notice how his fingers briefly flexed around hers, almost as if he was going to fight her, even though he looked rather startled himself to see their hands still joined. She quickly turned her back on him once her hand was free, peering down the hallway before them with a curious eye. There was no windows here, another odd detail.
"Wherever are we, Theta?" she asked in a low, steady voice, edging a few steps down the hallway, peering around. There were a few doors off it, but no more than three.
Theta came to stand beside her, frowning thoughtfully as he looked around, reaching out to place a hand on one of the stones on the wall, "I think we might be under the school," he remarked slowly, "Something like a basement level, maybe?"
"We surely shouldn't be done here, then," she glanced at him, Theta meeting her eyes and lifting an eyebrow. She slowly smiled, "But...I suppose it would be a waste to not poke around, and it would be wise to remain clear from the rest of the school for a few hours, yes?"
He grinned broadly, eyes sparkling, "Why, Ariana..." he leaned towards her, cocking his head playfully as he looked her up and down. She felt her entire body warm, "What a little rebel you are turning into...I love it".
"And I suppose you take full credit for that?"
"Nah, not full...eighty percent, sure".
"How generous," she rolled her eyes, laughing softly as she turned away from his smirk. She set her eyes on the first door to their left, an old, marked looking thing with no plaque on it, "Shall we?"
Theta took her by surprise by reaching for her hand again, his lips lifted as he regarded the door, "We shall," he said in a mock haughty tone, winking at her when he caught her giving him a faint glare at his obvious good natured teasing of her wording. He lightly tugged her over to the door and reached for the handle; turning it...it wouldn't turn. He sighed, "Locked".
Ariana eyed it closely, "Allow me..." she reached up into her hair and plucked a silver pin from her dark locks, Theta didn't even conceal his shock as he allowed her to lightly push him off to the side as she moved to focus her attention to the lock, dropping his hand as she began inserting the pin into the ancient looking lock.
"Since when did you know how to do that?" he gaped at her very slightly, watching her with a curiously fascinated, startled expression.
She licked her lips in concentration, "Ushas taught me," she replied from the corner of her mouth, frowning very slightly as her nimble fingers worked. He shook his head silently in disbelief, right before Ariana heard the lock give a faint click and she smiled. She withdrew the hairpin, straightening to give him a smirk over her shoulder, "How lost you would be without me, Theta Sigma".
Theta gave her a long look, something curious in his expression, something that made her feel hot and cold all at once, something that made her fingers and toes tingle, and her breathe briefly catch in her throat. And then he smiled, a brilliant, bright grin that lit up his entire face.
"Always full of surprises, you are," he said quietly, full of fondness and cheerfulness.
Ariana released the breath she had been holding, smiling shyly back, "I do try," she said with a dismissive shrug, quickly reaching for the door handle, which moved freely and smoothly as she turned it. She pushed the door open into darkness.
They carefully stepped into the doorway and Theta suddenly made a clicking noise with his tongue, making Ariana give him a puzzled look. He wiggled on the spot, reaching for something in his bag that he had somehow managed to keep over his shoulder, only to pull a silver and blue trimmed torch from the depths of his bag. She stared at him slightly, wondering why on Gallifrey he would have such a thing on his person, when he turned it on. He shone it into the darkened room, lighting up nothing more than a dusty, ancient looking class room. It was long since disused, cobwebs covering every surface of the old desks that lined the room, dust at least three inches thick and coating everything, including the floor. The room looked horribly depressing without a single window. An ancient bookcase, empty and leaning slightly, as if another century off collapsing, sat in the corner. They peered into the room, Ariana eyeing it with a frown...she very nearly jumped out of her skin when Theta sneezed loudly, right next to her ear.
"Theta!" she exclaimed in a strangled, frightened yelp, her voice echoing.
"Sorry!" he sniffled, "Sorry, couldn't help it. Too much dust..."
Ariana sighed and spared him from her glare, "Well, there doesn't appear to be anything of interest in here," she said lightly, reaching to close the door, "Let's move on".
Theta, still sniffing slightly, made little move to protest as she shut the door and moved on to the next, which turned out to be nothing more than an old boom cupboard, which opened easily at her touch. They both hastily shut the door at the thick layer of webs that greeted them. The next and final door was locked, too, but this one was different. It had a keypad beside it. They both paused as they considered it curiously, why would a door in the basement have a keypad sealing it shut? Looking at it more closely, Ariana realised that it was actually a metal door, made to look like wood. Like the rest of the doors, it looked utterly normal, but for that simple fact.
"That pin trick won't work on this," Theta said with a small frown as he considered the door closely, eyeing the lock.
"I suppose that's it, then," Ariana shrugged very slightly.
He threw her a quick look, "Giving up already?"
"Well, we can't open the door not knowing the code, and attempting to guess the code could trigger an alarm to someone else. We could get into a great deal of trouble if we were caught".
Theta was nodding in agreement with her, but he still looked oddly thoughtful, considering the door with a frown. She paused, eyeing him silently, watching as she could practically see his mind spinning. It was fascinating to watch, she rarely got to see him think deeply or seriously on anything, he never bothered applying himself like that in class, but this, right now, he was in his element. Give him a problem to solve, an adventure mixed up with a mystery or puzzle, and watch how he flourished with the challenge.
"Okay," she broke the silence after a full minute, allowing him the chance to mull over his own thoughts, her own curiosity winning out in the end, "You have an idea. What is it?"
"What we really need..." Theta began slowly, his voice light, but his gaze very sharp and focused as he looked at her, "...is a sonic screwdriver".
Ariana blinked slowly, taken aback by that, but...Oh, he was brilliant. Theta Sigma, the boy who could barely scrape together a pass on even a basic essay, was truly the most brilliant and beautiful people she had ever met. She knew that with absolute certainty.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, the sonic screwdriver is first born, kind of. I mean, of course it had to be born out of trying to break through a door, right? I kind of feel like that's how it first started, then it evolved over time and the Doctor and Hatter just kept adding on different features to the sonic, but this is how it first started. And I really wanted it to be the Doctor who came up with the idea, I mean, it is far more his device then it is the Hatter's, even if she does and has used it frequently over the centuries, I feel like the sonic is just so iconic to the Doctor, modern Doctor, anyway. It felt fitting for it to be his brainchild. Tell me what you thought, please review :)
Guest review:
Izzy: I'm delighted you liked the previous chapter, I know what you mean. The few Academy era stories I have read, which was years ago and very few in number, I might add, did often like to paint the relationship between the Doctor and the Master as being all about pranks and having a laugh, but somewhere along the way there had to be moments when I feel like Theta would have been uncomfortable with the Master. There had to be some sort of tension between them, something I think that often went unspoken about between them, but was still very much there. I mean, I can't see how they could have gone such different ways if there hadn't been that element in their relationship the entire time. And I really wanted to try and express that. Hopefully I managed.
