A/N: Get ready, folks.
"Where are you taking me today, Time Lord?" Clara Oswin asked, leaning back in her chair by the console of the time machine they had been traveling in for close to three months.
Koschei grinned at her and pulled her in for a kiss before answering. "Somewhere special," he said with a twinkle in his eye. He had never been happier, even though he knew that his former self would have been properly angry at him for the place he was now. But without the drums, without that insatiable hunger, life with a human companion no longer seemed dull. And it wasn't dull. He would occasionally feel that dark, old anger crawling up, but one look at Clara Oswin grounded him.
Clara Oswin giggled and rolled her eyes. "There's a million special places in the universe. Where are we off to today?" she asked, repeating herself.
"We, my darling, are going to see the Festival of Offerings on the Rings of Akhaten," he said with a flourish of his arm and a punch on the control dial.
"Oooooo, sounds … awesome!" Clara Oswin said, hopping up from her seat and coming to stand beside Koschei. "What does the festival entail?"
"The Long Song," he said, simply, mysteriously. She raised her eyebrows at him and he continued. "It's this song that never stops, sung by the sun-singers of Aket. It's a system of seven planets that all orbit a star called Akhaten. The people of these planets believe that all life in the universe originated there. Every thousand years, the rings of Akhaten all line up, and the Festival of Offerings is held. It's a once in a life-time opportunity, unless you've got a time machine."
Clara Oswin nodded, bouncing a little bit in her excitement. "That sounds spectacular," she breathed.
He kissed her on the forehead. "I've seen it twice. Once with the Doctor when we were still in Academy and we temporarily stole a TARDIS, and once when I, uhm, was doing some reconnaissance."
"Reconnaissance?" she asked with an eyebrow raise.
"Yeah. I was looking into, ahem, mastery stuff. It didn't work out."
She rolled her eyes and was about to say something else when the TARDIS landed with that familiar noise. He waggled his eyebrows at her and ran over to open the door.
"Welcome to the Rings of Akhaten."
Out the TARDIS they marched, hand in hand into the eclectic marketplace. Clara Oswin looked around in awe, taking in the alien sights and people. Ultramanta, Lugalirakush, Eukanians, Pan-Bablyonians, and other people of different worlds that Koschei quietly pointed out to her.
Clara Oswin dropped his hand at the sight of a stall with ornate and intriguing clothes, the likes of which she had never seen. Picking up what resembled a blue and orange silk scarf, and she twirled it around her neck. "How much is it?" she asked, digging in her pockets for coins.
Koschei shook his head as she brought a few gold coins out of her pocket. "Oh no, that won't work. They don't use the regular sort of money here. They trade in items of sentimental value."
Clara Oswin looked a little shocked, and she unwound the scarf from her neck and placed it back on the table. "Seriously? I'm far too sentimental a person to give up anything. It doesn't sound like a very pleasant form of currency."
Koschei nodded. "Yeah, it isn't my favorite, but I've got some things I've collected along the way that I don't mind trading in." He pulled out a silver ring from his pocket and presented it to the shop clerk, a blue skinned woman with dreaded hair , who examined it carefully before nodding satisfactorily.
"This will buy you the scarf along with any one of the articles of clothing on the rack to your left," said the shop clerk, gesturing.
Clara Oswin looked delighted and quickly wound the scarf around her neck again before darting over to look through the clothing on display. "Where'd you get the ring?" she asked conversationally.
Koschei looked uncomfortable, but answered nonetheless. "It was, well, it was a wedding ring, actually."
"Whose?" she said back, giving him a little smile.
"Erm …" he trailed off. It had been his, when he had married Lucy all that time ago. The ring had enough sentimental value to buy a little something in the marketplace, but it wasn't exactly something he wanted to hold onto forever. "Well, it's mine, actually. Remember when I mentioned Lucy, my ex-wife? It was mine when we were married."
Clara Oswin nodded slowly. "Oh. Yeah. Okay."
"It doesn't mean anything to me now," he said, kissing her cheek. "I'm just happy it could buy you something you like."
She look relieved as she turned to give him a smile adorable enough to melt both his hearts, then looked back to the clothing. "Too many choices!" she said.
He chuckled, glad to be done with that particular conversation. "Maybe I should give you a little time. We can meet back here in 15 minutes?"
"Marvelous," she said without looking back at him. He shook his head, amused, and then left to go peruse the other venues of the marketplace.
He was walking peacefully, looking around slightly boredly to see if there was anything he wanted for himself, when all of a sudden, somebody slammed into him with a loud oof.
"Sorry!" chimed out a familiar voice. "I wasn't looking where I was going!"
Koschei raised his eyebrows. "What happened to your scarf?" he asked, tilting his head a little. "Did you pick out a new dress? I quite like it, this blue patterned thing," he said, gesturing to the girl's outfit.
She raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
Koschei was looking her over, and was confused too. "What happened to your hair, Clara Oswin? It's gotten longer in the last ten minutes."
"What? It's just Clara, for the record, how do you even know my name? Who are you? What are you talking about?" She shifted from one foot to the other and peered behind him. It looked like she had been in a hurry.
Koschei's stomach must have done a backflip as he realized what was happening. He felt a weird combination of shock, excitement, and nausea.
"Clara Oswald…" he said softly, slowly, taking in the girl before him. It was her. The original, but she obviously didn't recognize him, whether it be because this was before they had met, or after they had met and her memory had been wiped.
Clara looked nervous. "Who are you?" she repeated, her eyes wide, looking like she was trying to hide her fear. "Are you a friend of the Doctor's? We got separated, but it was only a few minutes ago. Did he form a search party or something?"
Koschei just gaped at her, unable to form any words. It was her. Her. Her. Her. Her. Her…
Clara tilted her head. "Are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
"It's you," he said weakly, the words barely crossing his lips. "It's you."
"I am honestly so confused right now," she said, taking a gentle step backwards, like she was about to make a run for it.
Koschei shut his eyes for a half second, willing himself to snap out of it. "Sorry," he said quickly. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm, erm, sort of a friend of the Doctor's. The two of us have met before, but I think it may be in your future."
"Oh," she responded, nodding slowly, and then began rambling. "Yeah, it must be in my future. This is actually the first time I've traveled anywhere with the Doctor. That's … that's fascinating. Time travel, I mean, that you could possibly meet anyone out of order. I guess it makes sense, though, sort of. What's your name?"
He smiled a little, relieved that the girl before him seemed to understand, at least partially. So it was before they had ever met for her. Incredible. She was just as captivating as ever, of course. "Harold. It's your first time out, eh? That's pretty exciting, I must say."
She smiled back, just a little. "Yeah, it is incredible. But, uhm, I'm kind of trying to find a little girl right now, I think she's in trouble. Maybe we could chat later, you, me, and the Doctor?"
Koschei swallowed, thinking fast. "Actually, considering I'm from your future, I really can't afford to meet up with the Doctor and you later. It'll mess with the space time continuum. Actually, I don't think that we can even afford for you to remember seeing me." He looked sad, but he realized how important this all was. He couldn't jeopardize her future with him. If she had recognized him from this day, any number of things could have gone wrong.
She raised her eyebrows. "Well you've made a bit of an impression, I can't imagine how I'll just forget about it."
"Give me your hand," Koschei instructed.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, give me your hand. I know a trick. Don't worry, you won't forget anything else. It'll be like you hadn't even ran into me in the first place."
"O-okay," Clara said shakily, holding out her hand to the man she didn't yet know.
Koschei took her hand in his and shut his eyes, his own emotions and memories bubbling up. He was struck with the thought of how it had been so long since he had held this soft hand in his own, even if he was currently traveling with a girl who looked nearly identical. It was interesting, and it brought tears to his eyes. Clara Oswin's hands, actually, were a lot rougher than Clara's, probably because the girl from the 1940's had done more to work with her hands. The subtle differences struck him all at once. Different voices, due to one of them being American and the other British. Different hair styles. Different memories. It was overwhelming, in a sense.
He opened his eyes again, and looked straight into hers. He spoke deeply, summoning forth his powers of hypnotism. "Clara Oswald, forget who I am. This face before you, you have never seen it before. You were running, and you didn't run into anybody. You just kept running, looking for the girl you were chasing."
Clara's eyes glazed over, and Koschei dropped her hand, side stepping out of her line of sight. He watched as she came back to, looking a little confused before shrugging, brushing it off, and continuing in her chase after Merry Galel.
Koschei sunk to the ground, in shock. He sat there, staring at nothing, until he remembered that the Doctor was wandering around here somewhere and could easily run into Clara Oswin just as he ran into Clara.
He took off at a run back towards where he had left Clara Oswin and came to a sliding stop outside the clothings stall. "Clara Oswin. We have to go, now."
"What?" she said, turning towards him. "Why?"
"Because-because, I can't explain right now, we just have to leave," he said urgently, taking her arm. "C'mon. Now. I promise I have a good reason."
She looked unhappy, but gently folded the dress she had picked out over her other arm. "Alright, fine."
He nodded quickly, before letting go of her arm and grabbing her hand to drag her away from the marketplace towards where they had left the TARDIS, disguised as a door in a building.
They ran. A good five minutes later, they were inside, and Koschei was bringing the TARDIS out of the atmosphere into deep space. Clara Oswin sat down, running her fingers through her short hair, wondering what the hell had just happened. Finally, Koschei sat down beside her and took her hand, squeezing it gently. He was still in shock over having seen the original Clara, but being here with Clara Oswin, his Clara Oswin, knowing that she was safe now, brought him relief. Looking into her eyes, he smiled haphazardly at her, thinking. He wouldn't rather be with anyone else in the world, he decided, this Clara Oswin Oswald.
"So. Explanation now?" a slightly stern voice spoke from beside him, bringing him out of his revere.
A/N: XOXO plz read and review and don't hate me for the cliff hanger ahahaha