Disclaimer: I do not own any characters except Aria

"How do I look?" the Doctor asked the TARDIS as he inspected himself in a large mirror. After about an hour of rifling through various articles of clothing, he had finally settled on something that, in his eyes, was worlds better than a striped bathrobe with apples in its pockets: a blue suit that was a bit too tight on him and was mostly covered by a light brown ankle-length trench coat. He wore bright red converses (because running often deserved comfortable shoes). He narrowed his eyes approvingly and ran a hand through his unruly brown hair, sighing in disappointment that he still wasn't a ginger. Ten- well actually eleven- lives and you'd think a guy could be a ginger at least once! Apparently not.

The Doctor smiled as the TARDIS hummed favorably towards his new look, though he sensed her remaining negativity from being teleported aboard another alien ship. She liked to fly on her own power, thank you very much.

Her alien captain's grin slightly faded as he picked up his sonic screwdriver and several folded papers from underneath it, both having been in his old leather jacket. His expression softened as he opened the sheets, staring reminiscently at the crayon drawings that covered them. The Doctor never forgot a person, never forgot a face. He would certainly never forget Aria. She had come to be a trusted friend, even if the version of her he planned on visiting didn't know that yet.

The Doctor raced out of the TARDIS' wardrobe and headed for the control room, tucking the screwdriver and drawings into his new pockets once he was there and realized he needed both hands free. As he began to type in coordinates into the console's controls, the situation of the golden age turned genocidal prime minister flashed to the front of his mind, and he resolved to deal with that problem later. He hoped that the Tylers -and Mickey- didn't hear the TARDIS' engines as he left them for the future; he would be coming back shortly and certainly didn't want another slap in the face from Jackie. Telling her to shut up had been one of the most refreshing moments of his life. Well, lives. Weeell, maybe not 'one of the most refreshing moments.' He couldn't deny it felt good though.

His lengthy and jumbled thought process ended abruptly as his ship stopped shaking, leaving him to waltz optimistically out of her doors. He stared a bit confusedly at the building that greeted him: a long brick building with minimal landscaping in front of it, a sole cannon statue standing in the withering grass. His first assumption was that the structure was a museum, but he was quickly proven wrong as a sign proclaiming "WILLIAMS MEMORIAL LIBRARY" caught his attention. That made him a bit more enthusiastic, and went in to search for Aria.

"Excuse me," he asked in his thick accent that stood out even more prominently than usual (ah, America), "has Aria Gles come in here today?" The old woman behind the desk smiled up at him before glancing at the computer screen beside her.

"Friend of hers?" she asked as she stood up from her seat.

He gave her a smirk. "Something like that."

The woman just chuckled before pointing down a hallway formed by the ends of bookcases. "She'll be at a table down in the aisle at the very end." She sat down and watched him set off to find Aria.

A girl who appeared to be in her early teens was exactly where the woman had said Aria would be, and a sudden bout of terror struck the Doctor. The Aria he had first met was five years old; he couldn't believe he had seemingly abandoned her! He stood beside the bookcase as he recovered from his shock before he began to watch her flip through the pages of a rather large history textbook that seemed to be written in German.

Her black hair was much longer now, hanging over her left shoulder in a French braid that reached her elbow, where it was tied with a red bow. She wore a black leather jacket, and it took the Doctor a minute to realize that it was similar to the one his previous life had worn. Along with that, she had baggy black cargo pants and red sneakers, although sadly (in the Doctor's opinion) they weren't converse. His gaze snapped back to her face as she softly cleared her throat and spoke.

"Well, Theta? Are you gonna stand there all day?" she asked without bothering to look at him. His eyes widened at the use of a nickname that had been given to him by past figures in his life. His feet moved without him really thinking about it and he sat down across from her, even as she continued to read the information that lay in front of her.

"How… how do you know that name?" he finally managed to choke out.

Aria finally put her book on the table and met his dark brown eyes with her clear hazel ones as she unzipped the top of her jacket, revealing the fob watch he had given her years ago to be hanging on its chain around her neck. "I could read the circles. Gallifreyan, I assume."

The Doctor nodded mutely, swallowing nervously. "You shouldn't be able to read that. How can you read that?"

She smiled secretively. "You taught me to."

"No I didn't! When did I ever teach you Gallifreyan?"

She tapped the watch. "I hear your voices in this. All of them, future, past and present." Her eyes gleamed with knowledge and memories that someone her age shouldn't have yet. Aria studied him for a moment before frowning. "You're only on your tenth body."

He arched an eyebrow. "Only? Is that meant to be bad? Do you not like me? Do you want me to change back?" It took all he could muster to lightheartedly repeat those words to Aria, so soon after saying them to Rose. He didn't want to be rejected, not by either of them. His hearts leaped joyfully as she shook her head.

"No. Your ninth hour is over, now it's time to live in the tenth." She mirrored his smile. "I was just curious because the last time I saw you obviously wasn't the last time you saw me."

The Doctor nodded absentmindedly, hyper focusing on several perplexing factors that he wanted answers to. "Yes, time isn't always linear. A bunch of wibbly wobbly… timey wimey… stuff. But that's something for another time." He reached into his suit and pulled out a pair of eyeglasses, which he put on before leaning forwards over the table, peering interestedly into her eyes. "There's a few things I don't understand. And I don't like not understanding things."

Aria smirked, gesturing with one hand for him to continue. "Ask away, Theta."

He frowned slightly as she called him by his nickname again; not that he didn't like it but because he was still getting used to the fact that she knew it. "Right. First…" his face took on a deadly serious expression. "You haven't started eating pears, have you?"

"I hate pears."

A grin broke out on his face. "Oh, lovely! That's very good. Pears are dreadful. Never eat a pear. Have bananas instead. Bananas are good. So much better-"

Aria rolled her eyes, reaching out to flick his forehead with her finger and laughing as the Doctor let out an indignant yelp. "Focus, Doctor."

"Right, sorry." He furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought before turning his gaze back on her. "First, no wait, second, how come you're reading German? Third, how did you know I was here? Fourth- yes, fourth I think- what happened to you?" The last question was laced with a sort of brotherly concern.

The girl sighed, twirling the end of her braid with her finger as she thought over how to answer his questions. Sadness crept onto the Doctor's face as he observed her hesitation. "I've been able to perfectly understand every language I've come across ever since you gave me this watch. Figured it's because of the little bit of you that lives in it." She crossed her arms, still refusing to look up. "The watch got warm right before I heard the TARDIS' breaks when you landed. And fourth," she paused, unsuccessfully trying to hide tears that threatened to spill, "I grew up."

The Doctor pouted a bit, wondering just what the fragment of him that had stayed with her all those years could have possibly done to affect her in such a way. Sure, he had only met a younger version of her once almost a decade earlier, but she meant so much more to him than she could ever understand yet. He pocketed his glasses, stood up and walked around the table, crouching beside Aria and wrapping his arms around her shoulders, allowing his chin to rest on the top of her head. She leaned into his chest, hands gripping securely onto his large trench coat.

"No, no, no, no, no," he murmured softly. "Don't do that; don't ever grow up on me." They remained in that position for several heartbeats before he felt Aria nod. He released her, holding out a hand to her as he stood up. She sniffled as she took it, a watery smile forming. "Now," he became cheery again as he somewhat dragged her out of the library, lazily waving to the old woman at the desk, "how would you like to go to a real library?"

"Who in their right mind pass up an opportunity to travel with you? Actually don't answer that," she amended as the Doctor opened his mouth. He gave her a wry smile, looking up and stooping once he realized that they were standing in front of the TARDIS. "Hello, old girl," Aria whispered, placing a hand on the wooden blue police box before she pushed open the door and skipped inside, leaving the Doctor and his flapping long brown coat to follow.

"I've missed you, you sexy thing!" His eyes widened as he heard Aria's voice call out. He started to panic; surely she didn't think of him in that way! He was quite sure that he hadn't been leading her on in any way. Maybe one of his future selves had done something stupid…

His horror-stricken feelings must have slipped onto his face because he heard Aria begin to laugh. She rolled out from behind the console, arms wrapped around her stomach and eyes squeezed shut tight. The Doctor walked over to her with a bit of a smirk, stopping to stare amusedly into her hazel eyes.

"Theta, sorry to burst your bubble, but I wouldn't call you sexy," she said once she retrieved her breath. "You're like my brother or something; that'd just be downright creepy."

"Or something?" he whined, acting hurt, which only sent Aria off into another fit of laughter. He sighed and stepped over her before beginning his mad dance around the console to fly the TARDIS. Aria calmed down just in time to grab ahold of a railing before the ship began to shake as usual.

"Is she supposed to shake like that?" she asked once the ship had stilled again. The Doctor stuck his tongue out at Aria as he ran towards her to grab her hand and half-drag her down the ramp. He opened the door for her like a gentleman, watching her expression almost expectantly as awe crept onto her face at seeing the vast amount of bookcases and people milling about the library.

The Doctor felt like Santa Claus, for he had just given Aria an early Christmas present.

Aria spun to look at him, her eyes wide. "What is this place?" she breathed, not even waiting for his answer before walking towards the nearest shelf of books, pulling the first one from its place. "'The Geological Mysteries of Midnight;' I don't think this is written in English."

The Doctor rocked backwards onto the heels of his feet and grinned. "You're a smart one. There wouldn't be much of anything from Earth in here yet; humans still haven't gone out into the stars yet." He watched Aria as she looked up from the pages of the book she was skimming to survey the people walking around. With a start, the Time Lord realized this was the first time she had seen non-humanoid aliens. He smiled slightly; it had been a while since he had seen someone look at his world with new eyes. "Come on," he put his arm around her shoulders, leading her deeper into the library. "A whole planet full of books should keep us occupied for a while."