A/N - Sorry about the long wait guys - I finished my degree, and let's just say that the real world sucks. Not to mention the parting remarks of my creative writing units - that I didn't have the imagination for good creative writing... So that hasn't helped the flow of creativity much, but I'm getting there again.
A/N 2 - I've actually had the next chapter (The Impossible Astronaut) ready for some time, but I haven't finished the second part of it (Day of the Moon), and since no one replied and let me know about their preferences - getting to read content as it's available or having it all at once so there aren't as many cliffhangers - I've just been hanging onto it while I work on writing again.
Now, on with the show...
The Tardis doors swung open just before the Doctor could reach them, the time machine giggling softly at thwarting her thief's flamboyant antics for once. Haylen had to smile at the bright sound even as his mate pouted childishly. It was good to hear anything from the Tardis, because it meant that she was feeling stronger.
He didn't mind the muted way that she chose to interact with him, but he always looked forward to when she had enough energy to actually speak. It was partially his fault that she'd been particularly silent lately. After his trip to Vita Aeterna and the final test, she'd used a lot of energy trying to help bring him back.
Hearing her laughing at the Doctor helped to finally ease some of his guilt.
If he was being honest with himself, he didn't really know how to feel about it all. There were so many emotions writhing around within him, and it only got worse the longer he dwelled on that whole situation.
It wasn't fair.
He'd finally gotten to go home, to see the planet he should've by all rights grown up on, but it hadn't gone well at all. Instead, literally driven himself out of his own mind to escape the pain of watching his mate die over and over, to say nothing of what he'd then done in his grief.
Haylen blinked, forcing away the jagged remnants of the memories as they threatened to pull him back down into that feeling of helpless despair. He swallowed hard against the solid lump that had formed in his throat at the rising thoughts, then jumped as he looked up only to find his mate standing in front of him with a concerned look on his face.
When had he gotten that close? Had he really been lost in thought for so long, he wondered. It wasn't just his mate, he realised as his gaze flickered around the Tardis. Both Rory and Amy were still standing inside, not having made a single move to leave and have a look at the new place the Doctor had brought them to. Neither had River, he realised as he spotted her standing a few feet from her parents.
'Are you alright, Haylen?' the Doctor asked softly.
Haylen's cheeks heated up in shame. Even with the soft way the other man was speaking, in the dead silence that was in the Tardis at that moment, everyone had to have heard the question.
'Is it this?' the other man was asking, moving a bit closer as he did. 'Is it too soon for this? Do you need some more time?'
The understanding in the Doctor's eyes was almost too much to look at. He wasn't even totally wrong, unfortunately, but it wasn't just that. He could see the concern, the fear lurking in the other alien's eyes, and knew that it wasn't unfounded.
Maybe he was broken now.
Maybe he would never be able to do anything like this again, too frozen in the face of the unknown. That type of terror that paralyzed, that whispered against his skin, questioning everything like it was what would finally tear the ones he loved away from him for good.
He stood there, unable to open his mouth in the face of all the people witnessing his fear, knowing that they knew he was even more broken than he was before, and utterly unable to do anything about it, because they were right.
Rory's voice broke through the silence after a moment, but it wasn't directed at him.
'Uh, River, what's that?'
'Hmm? What's what?' River asked, her attention finally pulled away from Haylen's frozen form.
'Er, that thing over there,' Rory asked, pointedly enough that even Haylen could tell what he was doing, or at least, what he was trying to do.
'Ah,' River replied, having moved over to find out what he was pointing at. The sound was knowing enough that Haylen didn't even have to feel the understanding that was flowing down his bond with her to know that she'd caught on. 'Tell you what, why don't we go and find out.'
With that she pulled Amy and Rory out of the Tardis doors, throwing her parting words over her shoulder as she did. 'You boys can catch up when you're done flirting.'
Haylen knew that she knew they weren't flirting, she was just trying to diffuse the tension by being ridiculous. It was something she'd made use of many times while they were growing up, and he was glad for it now, because it didn't confuse him and make things worse.
It worked, he realised with a silent sigh of relief. His body was finally able to relax enough that he could feel the stress drain away now that he didn't have an audience.
He looked back up at the Doctor, looking into those old eyes in that young face.
'I don't know if I know how to do this anymore,' he admitted in a whisper.
His hands trembled for a moment before he clenched them into fists. How was he supposed to go on adventures with the other man and act like everything was fine.
Yes, he'd been back to see the faeries, and they'd healed him, but what if something went wrong, and he just snapped? What if he was more trouble than he was worth? Somewhere deep inside of him, he was starting to suspect that he was more weapon than person, and it scared him more than he could say. He couldn't even think it without shying away from the idea, let alone turn it into words and speak them.
'Oh, Angel,' the Doctor said, some unspoken emotion strong in the words. 'I'll be right by your side, the whole time. I promise.'
Haylen looked into the other man's eyes, and saw the same feelings that were running through their bond toward him. Yes, there was some worry, but he got the feeling that it was for him, not that he couldn't take it, or couldn't do it. But more importantly, there was a steady belief that if they were together, then they could face anything.
Haylen pulled in a shaky breath, and nodded. He offered his hand to the Doctor, a part of him wondering if the other man would take it or not. It was the stupidest thought, he realised as the other man offered him the brightest smile at the action.
'Let's go find out about this planet, shall we?' the Doctor asked as he took Haylen's hand in his.
His heart was pounding in his chest, but he walked side by side with the other man as they moved toward the Tardis' doors and what lay beyond them. A light nudging at his mind from the bond he had with the time machine had him squaring his shoulders and taking another deep breath.
She was right. He could do this.
The trepidation he'd been feeling about this disappeared like smoke in the wind when he caught sight of what was outside her doors, though. He'd never seen anything like it. Perhaps the closest he'd ever seen was the landscape on planet one, but even that was just a passing similarity.
It was night outside the Tardis, not that that obscured their sight, what with the way that everything was lit up with a bio-luminescent glow. It was a forest, but not any way that he'd seen before.
In place of the trees that should be towering above them, were mushrooms that would've dwarfed even the largest tree on Earth, and much to his surprise, they were the source of the bright glow that lit the night. On closer look, he could still see trees, but they didn't even come up to his knees. It was like they'd swapped with the mushrooms in scale.
That wasn't all though. There were flowers looming over their heads, swaying softly in the breeze that was ruffling their hair (and Haylen's feathers). In fact, in more than one spot, he could see vines of something that looked suspiciously like English Ivy growing up the flower stems the way that it normally would on the trunks of trees back on Earth.
Perhaps more interesting even than that, was the fact that the leaves were glowing a bright red, instead of the green that he'd expected. Even the leaves (tiny though they were) on the trees were in shades of red.
'Where are we?' he asked, no small amount of awe in his voice and no doubt on his face as well.
'This is Earth II, or, as the Natives call it, Xephus,' the Doctor explained brightly, looking around them eagerly. 'Humans colonized Xephus about 600 years ago, having discovered that the atmosphere was breathable, and the conditions could sustain human life as easily as on Earth.'
Haylen was reminded of that moment on Alfava Metraxis, when the Doctor had found out how many Human colonists there were on the planet.
'They are like rabbits,' Haylen said quietly, after a moment of consideration.
The Doctor obviously heard him, he realised when he heard the other man snort a laugh at his comment.
'Just a bit,' the Doctor agreed, a soft smile coming over the corners of his mouth. Their eyes locked for a long moment, and Haylen just stood there, soaking up the moment, watching the way the bright glow coming from every living thing around them played over the other man's features and reflected playfully in his eyes.
I love you, he thought without meaning to.
When the thought registered, his eyes shot wide. Was that the feeling he'd been having? Love? His cheeks burned with the force of the flush he just knew was on his face at the thought, and he felt his gaze flicker down and off to the side, feeling suddenly shy at having finally understood this feeling that had been growing inside him.
Yes, he'd formed a mating bond with the other man, and his Angel instincts felt so incredibly strongly about that, but that was different. Somehow. This felt new, and for some reason, so intimate that he didn't know what to do with the thought.
He flicked his eyes up again, trying to subtly figure out if he'd accidentally projected that thought like he'd done so many times in the past. The look that the other man had on his face was sort of stunned, and Haylen took an unconscious step backward in denial.
Why was he always projecting the thoughts he wished he wouldn't? Why could he never keep his mind to himself?
'Oh,' the other alien said softly, that stunned look still on his face. There was no way he hadn't heard that thought.
He watched the Doctor swallow, his eyes drawn to the movement of his throat as he did.
He took a step back when the other man moved toward him, more scared than he had any real reason to be, he knew in the back of his mind, but he'd never said that to anyone and meant it like this before. He didn't know how to feel about this whole situation.
The shock slid off his mate's face, slowly transforming into a soft, sappy look that just about lit his very being from within. Haylen blinked, then tilted his head to the side in confusion when the glow that he was seeing stopped being the reflection of light from their surroundings, and actually did come from the man standing in front of him. It was centered on his chest, but bright enough to light up his face as well as the area surrounding them. It was a complicated swirl of gold, with white twisting through it. There were splashes of other colours in there as well, a hint of black in the outer edges, but it was pulsing a soft pink in the very center at that moment.
He had no idea what he was looking at for a moment, until he caught sight of a strand of very familiar white-gold cradled within it. There was no other explanation for it.
He was looking at the Doctor's soul.
It was beautiful.
I love you, too, Haylen
The Doctor's thoughts shattered the moment, and the vision of the man's soul disappeared, leaving him looking at the other man's face once more, blinking away the afterimage that the light had left behind.
The other man had moved closer while he was trying to focus his eyes back on the present, and Haylen felt a feather-light pressure on his forehead. As he finally got his eyes back on the present, his mate was stepping back, that same smile the he reserved only for him on his face once more.
'Lets go find your sister, hmm?' the Doctor suggested, instead of commenting on their little moment.
Haylen found himself incredibly grateful for that.
The Doctor walked slowly through the strange forest that they'd landed in, Haylen by his side as they made their way over toward their companions. He couldn't help the soft smile that was lingering on his face at the thought his mate had unconsciously sent to him moments before.
He had the sneaking suspicion that his Angel hadn't even realised it until he'd been thinking it, but that didn't make it any less special.
He hadn't thought he'd needed to hear it, and technically speaking, he hadn't. But the way it felt like his hearts weren't big enough to contain the emotions flowing through him was proof enough that he had.
The sound of River's voice filtered through his good mood, and for once, did nothing to puncture it. In fact, it sounded like she was filling the two humans in on some of the history of Xephus, if he wasn't mistaken.
'-it's actually fairly common, here,' River was saying while the three of them looked up at what appeared to be a doorway set into the stem of the closest giant mushroom. 'Even the human colonists tend to live in these houses rather than having to clear space and start from scratch like they do on Earth.'
'Yes, its fascinating, isn't it?' he agreed, his own excitement mounting as he thought of the ways that a species culture could morph and shift when exposed to outside influences. 'The fact of it is, here on Xephus, a forest is basically just unused houses waiting to happen.'
The three humans turned to face them at his words, and he could see from just the look on her face, that River wanted to make a comment that was going to embarrass them. He didn't let her, plowing on ahead with more information about where they found themselves.
'In fact, once all of the naturally occurring forests on Xephus were turned into houses, they started creating their own forests to keep up with demand.' It really was interesting to him. The natives could have revolted when the humans landed on their planet, but they hadn't. They'd welcomed them with open arms.
'Wait, so they didn't care at all, when the humans came and changed things?' Amy asked, disbelief in every nuance of her stance and her voice.
'No!' he replied eagerly. 'Not one little bit, they just showed them how to live on this planet. They've been co-existing peacefully for centuries at this point.'
'Not just co-existing,' River put in, that smirk that he so hated sitting plain as day on her face. There was a twinkle in her eye that helped fill them in on what she was hinting at not so politely.
'What does that mean?' Haylen asked from beside him.
They all turned to face the Angel, and the Doctor was hit by the strangeness of the situation. Each one of them knew exactly what River was implying, but none of them knew how to explain it to the other man.
When no answer was forthcoming, the Angel turned to him, his head cocked to the side in question.
He spluttered helplessly for a minute as he tried to figure out how to put it. He didn't like to be crass about it, but the other man just was not going to understand a euphemism.
'Think of it like you and the Doctor,' River put in, that same damning twinkle in her eye once more. He just knew she was laughing at him. 'Two different species... but that certainly didn't stop you.'
They knew when it finally clicked, because Haylen's entire face burned a bright red, and he let out a soft 'oh'.
The Doctor levelled an unimpressed look her way, but all she did was smile smugly back.
He opened his mouth to say something. What, he wasn't sure, but before he could, he was cut off by a soft unfamiliar voice coming from behind them.
'Excuse me.'
They all turned, just about in sync with each other funnily enough, the Doctor thought privately, only to come face to face with one of the locals. A human hybrid from the look of it, he realised as he took in the human upper body that was attached to the body of a young buck.
Body language was so important in every culture, he remembered, as he spotted the way the young man was leaning back, his whole body screaming that he was ready bound away at a moment's notice.
'Hello,' he started, once again unsure about how this first meeting would go. It so rarely went the way he wanted, but for once the odds were in their favour, if only because of the docile nature of these people. 'Sorry, didn't mean to intrude, we've just come to look at your lovely architecture.'
He gestured to the giant mushroom houses around them, as though the young man wouldn't understand without an obvious gesture.
'Oh, you don't live here?' the young man asked shyly.
He was eyeing Haylen with a confused look, and it took a moment for him to realise why. Once he did, he could've smacked himself. Of course, this person thought they were natives - Haylen's wings had given him the distinct look of a human hybrid himself.
'No- well, not yet,' he replied, watching the nervous way the young man's hooves shifted on the mossy ground. 'We're in the market, though. Thought we'd take a look. Do you live here?'
He ignored the reproving twinge that came from his mate at the blatant lie with the ease of experience.
'I'm not supposed to talk to off-worlders,' the still un-named young man replied, his eyes moving around shiftily, like he expected some authority figure to jump out of the bushes and tell him off for doing something wrong.
'Who says we're off-worlders?' he asked, trying not to lie outright again with his mate standing right beside him. 'Maybe we're from another village?'
It wasn't really a lie if he didn't explicitly say they were, right?
'We are, though,' his mate put in, a frown on his face as he looked up at him in disapproval.
The human-buck hybrid calmed at the seeming confirmation that everything was alright, and the Doctor had to repress a smile at the happy accident of it all. He knew Haylen had been talking about being from another planet, but the way that it had laid out made it sound like he was saying they were from another village.
He spared a moment to wonder what would happen if the Angel realised that he'd accidentally helped to sell a lie as the truth.
It probably wouldn't go over well.
'Oh, well that's alright then,' the young man said, his eyes and body dropping the uncomfortable movement. 'But everyone's down at the riverbed for the meeting tonight.'
'Ah, good,' he said, his mind whirling as he tried to figure out what was going on, and stop Haylen from clearing any misunderstandings up. 'We'll just follow you, then, shall we?'
'Sure, it's this way,' the young man said, turning and walking slow enough for them to follow along easily. 'I'm Finn, by the way, Finn the Buck.'
The Doctor smiled at the confused looks on his companions faces. It was always interesting to see the way that his companions reacted to being immersed in another culture.
'Nice to meet you, Finn,' River replied lightly, clearly the only one who wasn't surprised by the introduction. 'I'm Doctor River Song.'
Finn nodded his head, a confirmation and welcome all rolled into one. 'River Song the Doctor,' he greeted in the way of his people.
River just laughed, a delighted sound that he just knew was aimed at him. She didn't bother to correct their new friend, though, the Doctor noted petulantly.
Finn then turned to Amy and Rory, watching them expectantly, even as he effortlessly leapt over various trees that were growing in the path. When Rory spotted the look, he shot a look of his own at the Doctor, but he just smiled and gestured for the human to answer the unspoken question.
'Er, Rory... Rory, the... human?' he answered haltingly. It was more of a question than an answer, but he wasn't wrong. 'And this is Amy - Amy the... human.'
He shot an apologetic look at his wife, the Doctor noticed when she gave him an indignant look. Obviously, she didn't like being referred to that way.
'Yes, and this is Haylen, and I'm the Doctor, nice to meet you,' he said brightly when Finn looked over at them.
While it had been funny to watch the way Rory stumbled over his own introduction, it hadn't been strictly necessary, and he didn't really want to get into the labels of their species.
That stopped Finn in his tracks, and the human-buck hybrid turned to him with a quizzical look. 'The Doctor the human?'
'No,' he corrected quickly, flicking a dirty look at River as she laughed completely unabashed at the mix-up. 'No, no, just the Doctor.'
Finn nodded, although he could still see confusion swimming in the other man's eyes.
It didn't take much longer to get to the riverbed that Finn had mentioned, and it quickly became obvious why he'd called it that and not the river. It was completely dried up, not a skerrick of water to be seen. It couldn't very well be called a river if there was no water, now could it?
He turned his attention on the meeting that was currently taking place, eyes quickly identifying the hybrids and the full humans in the crowd. There were so many types of hybrids, and he smiled broadly at the blatant mixing of the species. They were all standing together, not separating by type. It was encouraging to see, since he'd been to more than a few times and places where they were at the height of their discrimination.
It was never fun to see. He much preferred to visit the times like this one, when whatever prejudice that may have existed was over.
'-still think we should bomb it!' a voice shouted out from the middle of the crowd, making the Doctor shake his head. Humans, would they never get over their dependence on violence?
'Yes, Will the Human, your suggestion is noted,' a very done sounding voice stated from the front.
The Doctor shifted forward, more than a little curious about what they were talking about.
At the front of the group, standing with their backs to the dry riverbed, were four elders surrounding a young woman with soft moss green eyes. A circlet of twigs and flowers sat on her head, no doubt signifying her status as leader despite her young age.
She looked entirely human, bar the long rabbits ears that were currently pressed flat against the deep brown hair that hung down around her shoulders. He winced in sympathy for the heightened hearing the woman obviously had as the crowd voiced their fear and anger at their situation.
'Everyone, please,' she begged, eyes wide at the way the crowd were egging each other on. 'If we could all just calm down-'
The group of villagers were beyond reasoning, though, in their collective fear, and didn't even let her finish before they started yelling again. They all stood there, watching the meeting devolve into pandemonium, no one willing to hear anyone else out when they were this worked up.
'OI! Shut it!'
The Doctor spun around, only mildly surprised at this point that the yell had come from Amy.
It was funny to see the reaction to Amy's temper when it wasn't pointed at him, he reflected as he watched the crowd fall silent and shift uncomfortably with her wrathful gaze on them.
'Right,' she said, pointedly narrowing her eyes at people when they went to open their mouths again. 'Pretty sure you're supposed to be listening to your council, or whatever it is, not blowing my ear drums out!'
The Xephus born villagers were easy to spot, even without the various physical differences they held from humans. Each one of them looked down in shame at Amy's scolding, whereas the humans all looked some shade of mutinous at having to listen to anyone other than themselves.
'Yes,' he added, ignoring the way that all of the eyes turned to him when he did. 'Look, sorry to interrupt your meeting, but... What exactly seems to be the problem?'
He was addressing their leader and her council, very clearly, and the young woman seemed to realise it after a moment. She shook herself and blinked when she did.
'Sorry, not to be rude, but who are you?' She asked, a delicate frown settling over her features at the question.
Finn straightened at the question, and waved a hand in the air eagerly. 'Hi Elaina! This is the Doctor, River Song the Doctor, Haylen the human, Rory the human, and Amy the human,' he introduced swiftly. 'They're from one of the other villages, looking for another place to stay.'
The Doctor twitched at the wave of irritation that flashed through the bond he shared with his Angel, and knew it was time to come clean. It would probably prove more trouble than good to try to keep the lie from being found out, not to mention how huffy Haylen would get the longer the lie was accepted.
'Ah, no,' he said with an apologetic look to Finn. 'Sorry, bit of a white lie on my part, sorry about that. We're not really from around here, actually.'
Finn's grin fell, and a hurt look replaced it. 'You're not from another village?'
'No... Sorry,' he said bluntly. Best to rip the band-aid off quickly. 'I thought it seemed a bit quiet, and it was because you were all down here. What's that about?'
He changed direction mid sentence, instead addressing the young woman at the head of the thoroughly confused crowd.
'It's fine, Finn. Humans are known to lie,' Elaina, as Finn had identified her, said with a sigh as she spoke. She turned back to face them, a measured look on her face that did nothing to hide the disappointment in her eyes. 'What can I do for you? As you can see, we're in the middle of a bit of a crisis of our own.'
'Yes, lets talk about that,' he said instead of dealing with how bad he felt about having lied to them, now that they knew about it. 'Crisis, you said - you're a village in the middle of a forest of mushrooms, and you're standing out here, next to a dry river.'
'Very astute,' Elaina said drily. She sighed again, this time with a shake of her head. 'Yes, our river has dried up, and we rely rather heavily on it. The forest will die off without it.'
The Doctor nodded, easily able to see where they were coming from, not to mention why the villagers had been in such an uproar. 'So, you sent someone out to have a look. What did they find?'
There was silence for a moment, with only his words between them. Elaina looked away as her people shifted awkwardly.
The Doctor was starting to see the problem.
'You didn't send anyone to see if there was a problem somewhere up or downstream, did you?'
Elaina raised her chin, the answer clear on her face even as she opened her mouth to reply. 'No, we didn't.'
Her council of elders had started to murmur behind her at his question, and now they were openly eyeing him with distrust.
'Why not?' he asked, even though he had a pretty good idea.
The young woman swallowed, her eyes wide and soft for a moment. Which really was an answer in and of itself, now that he thought about it.
'Simply put, we are not predators,' she said after another moment, ignoring the way that protests rose from within the crowd of onlookers and her council. 'This area is safe, leaving it may well end in death.'
The Doctor eyed her speculatively for a moment before refuting that comment.
'Or, how about this,' he posed lightly, 'if you stay here without any water, you'll die.' His tone was far more grave at the end of that sentence than it had been at the start.
He looked around at the people who lived in this one little village, and the fear that wasn't even hidden on their faces. 'Come on, you can't tell me that 600 years is enough to have bred out all those survival instincts. You've been feeling them for weeks, haven't you? Something's telling you to move on to greener pastures - redder pastures? Nevermind. Point is, you need someone to go and have a look, see what's happened. Or, you need to leave and start a new village somewhere else. I know which one seems easier to me.'
He gave her a pointed look with that last statement. It really seemed quite simple to him. If there was a problem, all they needed to do was figure out what was causing it, and try to fix it. Easy.
Unfortunately, sometimes, instincts were scary, and people either didn't understand them, or they didn't want to give into them. A certain Angel came to mind with that thought, and he spared a glance to find his mate still standing beside him, his head tilted to the side as he listened to the conversation that was going on in front of him.
'I suppose you have someone in mind, stranger?' the woman asked, exasperation clear in her face and her voice.
'As a matter of fact,' he said, a twinkle of his own coming into his eyes, 'I do.'
River's scoff as he reached up to fix his bow-tie smugly would be enough to keep him warm for the next few nights, he thought with a satisfied smile.
Elaina hadn't been happy, that much had been clear, but she'd agreed to send them out to see what the problem was despite her council's disapproval. She hadn't sent them on their own, however, and they were currently all picking their way along the dry riverbed in an awkward silence.
He felt bad that it was his fault that there was bad blood between them and Finn, since he was the one who'd lied, but he couldn't go back and not do it. It was in the past now.
'So...' Finn started, then trailed off with a click of his tongue. 'If you're not from one of the other villages, where are you from?'
His eyes were back to moving about shiftily, as though he was afraid of them.
'Oh, all over the place, really,' the Doctor replied, his hearts squeezing painfully at the thoughts of a home that he could no longer reach, 'nowhere particularly special.'
He paused, having trouble waving away the painful memories for some reason. Normally, he'd just let it roll over him, used to pushing them to the side so that he could feel it later, when he had some privacy, but this time it was more insistent.
A familiar hand slipped into his own, and he looked up to see his Angel standing beside him once more, head tilted to the side again, but not in confusion this time. There was such a deep understanding in his eyes that it took him aback for a moment.
He smiled after a moment, a dull, bitter thing, but a smile none-the-less.
The hand holding his squeezed lightly for a moment, a gesture of comfort that meant more than he could say.
Thank you, Anhellev.
The smile that the other man gave him had his hearts fluttering inside him for a moment before he shook himself and looked to the rest of their group.
In his silence, they'd obviously taken up the slack, and Finn's eyes had gotten truly massive at the idea of meeting people who were actually from Earth.
'-from Earth? As in, you've actually been to Earth?' There was a giddy look of excitement on his face, and the Doctor finally felt the last of his funk dissipating. He always enjoyed this bit. The meeting of peoples from different places, the exchange of knowledge. The unlikely friendships that formed where it never could have before.
'That is what 'from Earth' means, is it not?' Haylen's voice cut in from beside him.
The smile that grew on his face at that was a real one. He was especially enjoying watching the Angel come into himself. The more that he changed, the more he stayed the same, and wasn't that a thought?
He was still so similar to the version he'd met back in Leadworth despite all the Angel abilities that he'd gained access to. And that was fine, there had been nothing wrong with him then, and there was nothing wrong with him now.
'Yeah, but not really.' Finn said with a snort. 'Most of the humans you meet here on Xephus have never set foot on another planet, even though they're pure human through and through. I never thought I'd meet humans who had actually been to Earth! What's it like?'
The Doctor smiled again as he watched his human companions exchange confused glances.
'Well, it's...' Rory said after a moment. 'Like here, sort of... not really. I mean, look at your trees, but imagine them between ten and twenty feet tall, and green, not red.'
The wonder in Finn's eyes was an infinite thing for all of a moment before he narrowed them accusingly, shooting suspicious looks at each of them in turn.
'You're having me on. There's no way that's real.'
Amy snorted in response, her disbelief clear in just the sound. 'Why would anyone lie about what their planet looks like?'
'Lots of reasons,' he said before thinking, 'to pass the time, sheer boredom, a pathological need to tell lies, the list goes on.'
It took a minute for his brain to catch up to his words, and the conversation they'd been having before his input. He turned to find everyone except Haylen looking at him with some form of incredulity on their faces. He vaguely noted his Angel just watching him, nodding as though his reasons made sense.
'Ah...' he said, words momentarily escaping him. 'But, they aren't- lying that is. Earth is actually predominately green and blue.'
Finn looked like he didn't know what to believe, looking between them with a very confused look on his face.
The Doctor opened his mouth to try and reassure their young guide that none of them were actually lying, but was (thankfully) cut off by Rory.
'What are we looking for, exactly?'
The man was looking around the area blankly, clearly not seeing what he'd started to some time back.
'Don't know, but I suspect, we'll know it when we see it.' Just because he had a sneaking suspicion about what they were going to find, that didn't mean that he needed to point it out yet. 'That is the way these sorts of things generally work. Best not to question it.'
'Are you sure- Aack!' Finn was interrupted by his legs going out from under him in the slippery wet section he'd unwittingly walked into while he'd been distracted.
The nurse in Rory had him stooping to try and check the human hybrid over for injuries as he spoke. 'You alright?'
Finn nodded, waving away the offered hand up as he tried to get his legs under him again. The puddle was making it difficult though. 'Yeah, give me a second.'
When he finally did manage to stand again, with help from both Amy and Rory in the end, he looked at the mud that had splattered all over his fur in disgust.
'Ugh, this is going to take forever to come out,' he whined as one of his back feet stamped irritably.
The Doctor spotted it when Amy finally spotted what he had a few minutes before, her confusion obvious as she looked around them, and back the way they'd come.
'Are you guys seeing this too?' She asked.
'Yeah, started noticing it a while back,' the Doctor replied absently as they started walking again.
'Noticing what?' Came Rory's predictable question.
The Doctor had to stifle a laugh as Haylen turned those intense eyes on his friend and the man took a step back in surprise.
'The water,' his mate said blankly. 'The riverbed didn't just dry up on it's own, or there wouldn't be more water here than in other places. Something's caused this manually.'
The Doctor watched his Angel as he turned and looked further upstream, seeing when the head tilt came back. The man turned back to them and pointed to where he'd just been looking, still with his usual intense look on his face.
'Something like that.'
They all turn to follow his direction, and the Doctor whistled at the sight of the massive dam that had been built over the width of the river.
'Well, that would just about do it, wouldn't it.' He said blankly. 'Someone must've been building that for a while.'
'But why would anyone build a dam across a river?' Amy asked, looking to him for answers.
'Oh, I'm sure there are lots of reasons.' River put in before he could reply. She winked at him, silently telling him she knew what she'd done, too. 'Shall we go and find out, then?'
She pulled her gun out of its holster, that damned twinkle coming back into her eyes as she looked at each of them in turn.
The Doctor sighed at the sight of it. He'd never liked guns, and the fact that she carried one with her all the time always seemed to rub him up the wrong way. Her whole personality did at first, but he'd come to make peace with the fact that he wouldn't be getting rid of her, not with how well she got on with Haylen.
'No, come on, not the gun,' he grumbled. 'Can we do just one adventure where you don't wave that thing around?'
'Apparently not,' she replied, a smirk on her face, and a twinkle in her eye as she winked at his mate. 'Coming?'
She turned and moved away, heading for the dam with quick, quiet steps, not waiting to see if they were following her. The Doctor thought about just not, for all of a second. Much as he might like to walk away instead of doing what she thought he would, he couldn't. They'd offered to help these people, and he couldn't back out just because he didn't want to follow River's lead.
Finn the Buck gave them all one fleeting glance before drifting off after River with a vaguely awed look on his young face.
'Oh, get over it already,' Amy said loudly.
The Doctor looked over at her, taking in the irritated look in her eyes and the way she'd crossed her arms over her chest. The flat look she was leveling at him just added to the whole effect.
'You come with a screwdriver, she comes with a gun, deal with it.' With those parting words, she moved off after River and Finn.
He frowned at her retreating form, wondering where that came from. 'Has she always been like this?'
He hadn't meant to voice the thought, not really. But his two remaining companions replied all the same, speaking over one another accidentally.
'Yes.'
'Yeah.'
Rory's answer was undercut with love and resignation, whereas Haylen's was simply matter of fact. It made him smile again, to see the surprise on both of their faces when they'd spoken at the same time. It wasn't just surprise, though. Even on Haylen's less than expressive face, he could read a lifetime's worth of memories sitting just out of reach when they looked at each other.
'Well, come on, then,' Rory said after a moment. He didn't bother waiting to see if they would follow him, either, just heading off after his wife.
The Doctor sighed, but moved to follow until he was brought up short by Haylen not moving with him. They were still holding hands, and since the other man hadn't moved, and he wasn't about the drag the Angel along, he came to an abrupt stop after a single step.
He turned to face his mate, wondering what was wrong. He didn't have to wait long before Haylen spoke, a frown on his face.
'You have a problem with River's gun.'
He mulled the words over for a moment, trying to see where the other man was going with that thought.
'It's not necessarily the gun,' he said after a minute. 'It's the senseless violence. Violence for violence' sake.'
'Do you have a problem with my grace?' Haylen asked, almost speaking over the end of the Doctor's sentence. Those intense blue eyes were boring into his own eyes, and try as he might, he really couldn't see where this was going.
'No, Haylen. How could I possibly have a problem with you?'
'Angels are warriors. That was never made a secret.'
Well, that cleared it up, he thought with a pang of understanding.
'Do we have to do this right now?' He asked, his gaze flickering over to the dam. He couldn't see any of their companions anymore, and that wasn't the safest. If he couldn't see what they were getting into, how could he keep them safe?
'You bring it up fairly regularly,' Haylen said instead of replying. 'I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt, not when I know what I am. River carries a gun, and she can choose to shoot it, or not. My grace is a part of me. I can't just choose to put it down and not bring it with me.'
'You're right,' he agreed. 'I'm sorry. I don't know how to put it, to make you understand, but there's a difference - a big difference - between you and River when it comes to your willingness to commit violent acts.'
The Angel wasn't appeased, he could see that with all of a single look. His eyes were as ardent as ever when he continued.
'Is there? Since we've known her, I don't think I've seen her be needlessly cruel to anyone or anything,' The other man said bluntly. 'What is it really that has you so hesitant around her? Is it really that she carries a gun that makes you so uncomfortable?'
The breath left him at being called out like that by his mate. He never really liked to examine his actions too closely. It just left him thinking of other things he'd done that he wasn't at all happy with.
'You're right. It's not the gun, but it doesn't help!' He said, shaking a finger at Haylen as though it was his fault. 'It's what she represents. Every time we see her- I don't know. I'm reminded once again about the fact that she's my future. Our future. And that's terrifying. You shouldn't ever know too much about your own future.'
Haylen's piercing gaze shifted, confusion coming over his face at his explanation. 'But she hasn't told you anything, so why does it matter?'
He didn't have an answer that he wanted to put into words, so he stayed silent and let Haylen draw his own conclusion.
The other man tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing at him in a way that he wasn't sure he liked. 'Is it because she hasn't told you anything?'
The Doctor opened his mouth to deny it, knowing it would be a total lie and that the Angel in front of him would call him on it immediately. He was saved by the sound of Amy yelling at him once again.
'OI, Stop snogging my brother and get up here!'
He'd never been so happy to be yelled at by a companion before.
Haylen stood beside his mate at the edge of the dam, his thoughts on the conversation he'd forced on the other man just moments before. It was something that had been bugging him for some time, and he'd felt the need to finally get some answers. Now that he had, he wasn't sure what to do with them.
There was a strange feeling between them now, that hadn't been there before. He got the impression that the Doctor didn't really like to open up to other people. He could vaguely understand the concept. There were things he might've liked to keep to himself if he weren't an open book to the people who knew him.
But the other man's reticence had just been hurting him. His reaction to River was visceral, a deep seated dislike that seemed to be focused on not just her personality, but the weapons she carried wherever she went. And Haylen had long since begun to wonder about his own abilities.
'It looks like a beaver dam,' Amy's voice said, filtering into his thoughts with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. 'But bigger. What would make something like this?'
'I don't know,' Finn replied, scratching at some of the drying mud on his back. 'We don't really interact much with the water dwellers. There's not much need to. No real overlap.'
He shrugged helplessly at the looks he got from the others at his explanation.
Haylen turned at the sound of the sonic, watching the scowl that came over his mate's face at whatever results he got from it.
'No, of course not,' his mate muttered as irritation flashed through their bond. 'It doesn't do wood. I must make a setting for wood sometime.'
Haylen just watched the other man as he continued muttering to himself. He could admit to some confusion. It seemed like such a strange limitation for such a powerful device. Not to mention, if the solution was to simply program another setting into it, why had the man not made time to do so.
Once again, he wondered if the Doctor realised how ironic his species was. For a Time Lord, he never seemed to have enough of it.
'Oi!' The Doctor said, a scandalised look splashing itself over his features as he met Haylen's eyes. The delighted laugh that came from River at the same time was enough to let him know that he'd projected yet another thought without meaning to.
'What?' Amy asked, looking between them with a suspicious look on her face.
He opened his mouth to repeat the thought for the people who didn't have mental bonds with him, only to have the Doctor seemingly learn to teleport. One second he was several meters away, and the next, he was putting a hand over Haylen's mouth to stop him from speaking.
'Nothing!' he said loudly, giving a pointed look to River. 'It's nothing! No need to worry.'
River's laughter had started up again at the flush that had settled on the Doctor's cheeks, but Haylen wasn't worried about that. He was more concerned with the other man's actions. It wasn't very nice of him to stop him from speaking.
That was rude.
He sent the rebuke mentally, since the Doctor still had a hand covering his mouth.
The same thought as the last time the man had done this flashed through Haylen's mind, but this time he didn't bother stopping himself.
The other man yelped, and shot yet another scandalised look at him as he pulled his hand away.
'You licked me!'
'Yes,' Haylen agreed smugly. 'I did.'
River snorted, and Haylen just knew she was thinking of the same moment in their past that he was. He turned and smiled at her, seeing her shoulders shaking as she held in another bout of laughter.
'Why would you lick me?' His mate asked, as though it wasn't immediately obvious.
You know why, he replied with a steady look.
'Well, I mean...' Finn said, looking between them like he didn't know what was going on. 'It worked. It made you let go of him.'
'Don't worry about it, Finn,' River said, amusement clear in her voice. 'It's a bit of an inside joke.'
'Right...' the human hybrid trailed off, a strange look on his face that Haylen didn't understand. 'Not to be rude, but-'
'Oh, go right ahead,' River cut in, 'it's never stopped any of us before.'
'Uh, well... How is any of this helping?' Finn asked, his hooves pawing the ground nervously from where he stood on the river bank.
Haylen conceded that they might not have been working toward fixing the river problem, but he'd been having fun. He hadn't meant to project that thought, but it had been funny to see how his mate had reacted to it, not to mention River's reaction.
It also seemed to have had the added benefit of dispelling the awkward tension that had been caused by their previous conversation.
'Right, yes,' his mate said, straightening his bow-tie unconsciously, or so Haylen suspected. It seemed like something he did just to have something to do with his hands.
'Let's see,' the man said before stepping out onto the blockade and jumping up and down. 'Strong enough to take my weight, that's good. Someone did a good job.'
'But why?' Amy asked after a moment where they just watching the Doctor jump up and down on the dam. 'And who?'
'Good questions,' his mate said, pointing at Amy in recognition. 'Great questions.'
He stopped jumping and walked along to the other side of the river, presumably looking for something. What it was, Haylen didn't know.
'I don't know,' his mate said after a moment.
'Does it really matter?' Rory asked. 'I mean, we found out why the river dried up, so...'
'Well, yes,' his mate agreed as he walked back over to where they were standing. 'But if we just destroy it, then whatever made it will probably just come back and rebuild it.'
'Yeah, but...' Rory started, looking uncomfortable for some reason,' how long are we supposed to wait?'
'Long as it takes,' the Doctor replied absently, still looking at the dam. 'Why, got somewhere else to be?'
'No. It's just,' Rory started, then sent an apologetic look at Haylen. 'You're not very good at the waiting.'
'What?' The Doctor asked, sounding more than a little insulted to Haylen. 'That's not true. I am so good at waiting, I'm the king of waiting!'
There was a beat of silence as everyone digested that thought, then boisterous laughter ricocheted off the stems of the mushrooms that surrounded their position. Haylen thought privately that that reaction was a bit much. His mate might not be great at waiting, but was there really a need to laugh quite that much?
'Oh, lovely,' his mate said sulkily. 'It must be laugh at the Doctor day again.'
'Hey!' A voice called to them from further upstream, cutting through the ridiculousness of the situation, much to Haylen's relief. It was never fun for him when his reaction to any situation varied from those of the people around him. It made him feel like he'd missed something.
'Get away from that,' the voice called again, coming from somewhere closer this time. 'It's not finished!'
They all spun, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.
Haylen was the first to realise it had come from in the water, and he watched with no small amount of surprise as a dark shape in the water shot toward them at amazing speed. The figure's head poked out of the water once it had reached the edge of the dam, and he blinked at the largely human looking features.
Aside from bright green scales that covered the male's throat and the sides of his face, he was pretty much human. In fact, he shared a few passing similarities with Rory, Haylen noted. He'd seen the other man's hair turn that same shade of dirty blond when it was wet so many times before, and that nose was unmistakable.
It wasn't impossible for another person to share facial features, but it seemed rather strange to see it on an alien. Here they were, visiting another planet, and he could see his friend in this alien's face.
The apparently water dwelling hybrid put his arms protectively over the dam, eyeing them with open distrust.
'It's not finished,' he said again, more softly, and almost shyly, Haylen thought.
'I don't know about that,' the Doctor disagreed lightly, 'looks pretty finished to me. No water's making it through to the other side anymore. Which is actually why we're here.'
'What?'
A long scaled tail flicked out of the water, spraying them with water accidentally, judging from the horrified look on the fish-person's face.
'I'm so sorry!' He apologised, sounding just as horrified as his face looked.
Haylen watched as his sister pulled a face, wiping the light layer of water out of her eyes with disgust. 'It's... fine.'
'Did you build this?' His mate asked, looking from the man in the water, to the dam and back again. 'It's very good. Seems to be doing the job.'
The man flushed, or Haylen assumed that was the meaning of the deep blue that was making its way across his cheeks.
'It's fine,' he replied, patting a section of it down with a light frown. 'But I'm not done yet.'
He turned large eyes on them, a look that Haylen thought might be pleading on his face.
'Who are you people? What do you want?'
Finn stepped forward, a determined look on his face despite his usual nervousness.
'I'm Finn the buck, and your dam has dried up our river. I live in the village that's downstream of here, and our water's gone.'
'I- I'm sorry,' the fish-man said, eyes impossibly wide at the other mans words. 'I didn't think of that.'
'And you are...?' The Doctor asked. It was a fair point, Haylen thought. They'd been talking for a while and the newcomer still hadn't introduced himself.
'Jim, Jim the fish,' Jim replied quietly.
'Lovely to meet you, Jim!' His mate said brightly, before continuing more seriously. 'It's a nice dam, but there are people relying on this water. They'll die if it stays here.'
'I was just trying-' he cut himself off, apparently not wanting to share that piece of information with strangers. Haylen could understand the sentiment.
'What?' Finn demanded, not interested in the other man's feelings. 'What could be so important that it risks the lives of so many people?'
'I didn't know!' Jim protested. 'I was just trying to impress a... friend.'
'Ah,' River said knowingly. 'Would this friend happen to be a beaver hybrid?'
'How did you know?'
'No offense, but I don't know many fish who build dams - on any planet,' she said, raising an eyebrow.
'Right,' Jim said, eyes on his dam instead of any of their faces. He petted it for a moment, eyes distant. 'It has to come down, doesn't it?'
It wasn't really a question, but his mate answered anyway.
'Yes, unless you want to be responsible for about a hundred deaths.'
He'd tried to put it gently, but that was the truth of the matter, and there could be no softening of it.
'Why here?' Haylen asked after a moment. He never was sure if it was alright to break into a conversation. There were so many social conventions that didn't make sense to him, and people were often not backward in telling him he'd broken one, even if they wouldn't explain how or which one he had.
'What?' Jim asked, confused eyes turning on him.
'Why did you build your dam here? Does your friend come out here often?'
Jim squirmed a bit where he sat half in the water, half draped over his dam.
'No,' he said eventually. 'I didn't want him to come across it before it was good enough.'
'From what I understand about beavers, they build their dams as a part of their house. If this worked, and you impressed your friend with your dam, he'd have to move away from his current house to live here.'
'I... didn't think about that, either,' Jim said miserably.
'Look,' Amy said, kneeling down to be closer to Jim's eye level. 'Why don't you just tell your friend how you feel? You never know, he might feel the same.'
'What if he doesn't?' He asked, his voice little more than a whisper.
'Then at least you know,' she said before continuing firmly, 'and you can move on.'
He nodded, a complicated look on his face that Haylen had no hope of translating with his poor understanding of emotions.
'Thanks.' He turned to look at Finn. 'I really am sorry for the trouble I caused your village.'
'Will you help us undo this?' Finn asked instead of replying.
Haylen felt for Jim the fish. He'd just been trying to confess his feelings for another, and trying to prove himself a good match for a mate. It wasn't like he'd set out to hurt anyone. He could understand, to a degree, how the other was feeling.
He'd spent his life trying to prove himself in one way or another, and none of it seemed to have been very effective. The only people who'd really cared to get past his social issues had been his sister, Rory, and Mels.
Then he'd met the Doctor, and so many things about himself had started to make more sense. He'd somehow stumbled into a mating bond with the other man, and he couldn't believe his luck. If he'd had to try and prove his worth before being picked, he didn't think it would have worked. He just wasn't that good at any of the things that the Doctor was.
But maybe that was why they worked, he thought. If both people in the relationship had the same skills, they would constantly be competing with one another. Instead, he was constantly amazed by the things his mate could do, and the things he knew.
A part of him wondered what he would know when he reached the same age that the Doctor was now.
He shook his head. It didn't matter.
What did, was that he would spend that time with his mate, the man he'd somehow managed to snare as his own.
He didn't bother taking part in the goodbyes that the others were exchanging, just nodding when necessary. If he was being honest, he was feeling more than a little drained. This had been the first adventure he'd been able to manage since going home to Vita Aeterna. Sure, they'd been back to see Queen Gaes and the other fairies, but that hadn't really felt like it counted.
He was getting better, but it had started to grate on his mind, having them all outside the safety of the Tardis' walls, and he was eager to get back.
He couldn't wait to be back, to tell her and Shadow what they'd been up to. But most of all, he couldn't wait to know without a doubt that everyone that he loved was safe once more.
It was the only way that he'd be able to relax.