Warnings: All Eras, No Spoilers, No Warnings
A/N: Written for who_contest's Prompt: Rivals, comprised of my usual overly thinky ramblings. Usual wandery-blithery within (youse has been warned). Mostly unbeta'd and written in one go, so please forgive any mistakes and/or blatant vagueness. As always, I apologize for any repetition, mispellings, sentence fails, grammatical oh-noes and general horridness. Unbeta'd fic is overly-thinky/blithery and unbeta'd.
Disclaimer(s): I do not own the scrumptious Doctor or his lovely companions. That honor goes to the BBC and (for now) the fantastic S. Moffat. The only thing that belongs to me is this fiction - and I am making no profit. Only playing about!
It wasn't as if they didn't like each other – quite the contrary, really. They had a lot in common after all, even with their opposing views on the universe and the life that teemed within it. For beings that were similar, it was their very likenesses that set them apart. One might say that was to be expect – how ordinary! How mundane! Set two of the same species in one room and watch them duke it out over the simplest of things. Then watch them bond over something vast and complicated.
In many ways, you could say their relationship was a lot like that – even as it was nothing like that at all. They had respect for one another, they even loved one another in the way you can only love your kin. It just so happened that when one arrived at a certain point where the other just happened to be, they would bicker for a short while before settling into stoic silence – almost the epitome of your old married couple.
Too used to one another to let go and yet too familiar to the point of contempt.
The shoving matches for space and their places within them were truly a sight to behold – as was the inevitable triumph of one over the other: the victor smug and relaxed, the loser sulking and discontented. The tension would never last long though and they would enjoy whatever remaining moments they had during those particular points of meeting to one-up each other or just settle for a good old-fashioned pissing contest. There was never a victor, really (for two beings so very alike, they were also vastly different), their differences more cerebral than molecular.
Enemies was too strong a word and they would never be friends. Rivals worked well enough, but for how long they had known each other that didn't quite fit, either. Such petty words didn't matter to beings of their caliber – they were above all that. Suffice to say they were grudgingly happy to see one another and yet relieved when it was time to go. Of course, the ones they traveled with had their own problems and rivalries with one another, but that was of little consequence to them. They had all of time and space at their disposal and yet the fight for one little corner of that same time-space was a satisfaction in and of itself. Especially when She won (again), using Her age and experience to neatly dump Her nemesis at a different point, forcing them both to land simultaneously – though She made sure She got the cherished point they had both tussled over.
The Type 60 Mark II grumbled to itself (though loud enough to be heard) and tried to show Her up (once again) by blending in with the surrounding landscape. How boring. A creature of their ilk was made to show off – and Her blue shone brightly against the drab environment.
Her doors popped open at the same time as the Type 60 (Mark II) and the occupants glared at one another, even as they cautiously stepped away from the safety zones of their TARDISes.
"Doctor," gruffed the dark-haired biped from the Type 60.
"Master," glared the other from the Type 40.
"Still traveling with that ancient wreck of a TARDIS?" Snarked the one who dubbed himself 'Master'.
"Don't be so cross," said the one known as 'Doctor' with a satisfied smile. "Age and wisdom before beauty and inferiority of design after all."
The two Time Lords closed their respective doors with a snap and matching glares before wandering away together (even as they consciously stayed a few feet apart), still bickering bitterly. Their Time Machines looked on in fond exasperation before settling in for their own poking/squabbling session. This had been done thousands of times before, would likely be done at least a thousand more and (like their traveling companions), they liked it that way.
Their differences far outweighed their similarities, even though they were so alike they couldn't possibly be the same. One ancient and blue, one shiny and new – with so much in common, even as (by design) they were universes apart. In the end, when it came to how they communicated, none of these things matter one bit.
Relationships like theirs were once in a lifetime – even in a galaxy's worth of lifetimes – their fates so closely entwined, time and space themselves held them forcibly apart. They may not be friends, but they didn't dislike each other enough to be enemies. There was just no word invented for what they were/might be/are/have been in all the known (and unknown) universe – and they would know.
A potential friendship that could last centuries, overlaid with a feud that started eons before. So many sides to their history: and for beings that existed in the eleventh dimension, that equaled quite a few. For now, in this Place, in this Space, at this Time – there was always more to be gained (and lost). Equals without equality. Sisters without commonality. Friends and enemies that were closer than either word could describe.
Rivals would have to do.