To Be Astrid

Chapter 1 - River Song

River Song -

She barely encountered anyone on her tour across the campus of Luna University. She took all the possible detours on her quest to her room to discover some more parts of the premises. She passed by the cafeteria, multiple classrooms, the observatory and three libraries dedicated to different types of literature for the different areas of study at the Uni. Finally, she made it to her dorm room.

She entered by laying her student ID against the door handle to find a clean, small room with white walls, grey furniture and dark tile floors. There were two high beds in the room, big cupboards underneath and a desk with two chairs in the middle. There was a small kitchenette in one corner by the door and a separate tiny room in the other holding a bathroom. She threw her rucksack onto one of the chairs, basically reserving her half of the room, and put the papers and comm onto her desk.

Then the door opened and a woman who was already wearing the uniform with big blonde curls entered with a small smile. She closed the door behind herself and went up to Astrid, her hand out to shake.

"Hello, you must be my roommate. I'm-", she seemed to stop herself for a moment, "River. River Song."

She smiled and shook her hand, "I'm Astrid. Really nice to meet you. Mate, I've never really had friends outside the family."

River chuckled confused, "Well, I'll be your friend. But how come? You seem kind."

"Thank you", Astrid chuckled as well, "We travelled a lot. My parents and I. We went back home to London every now and then to see my godparents but other than that it's always just been the three of us", she tilted her head for a moment, "Which isn't a bad thing. They're great, my parents."

"Sounds great. Frankly, I don't really have anyone left either. I lost my sister when I was a little girl and my parents- well, it's complicated."

"Well, River, to complicated back stories", she looked around, "I don't really drink alcohol. So nothing to toast with."

River laughed, "That's all right. I don't think it's allowed on campus anyway."

"Good", she joined in, "I reserved this side, by the way. I don't really care either way, though", she gestured to where her rucksack sat on the chair.

"That's fine, me neither", River put her own rucksack down, "Don't you have any other luggage?"

"Er", she tried to find a way around telling her new friend that it was bigger on the inside, "No, I don't. It's, er, it's bigger than it looks."

"Okay, I don't have a lot of things with me either. I stole some clothes from a few Nazis and I have this diary my sister gave me. But we'll have to wear uniform anyway."

"You really just brushed over the part where you said you stole clothes from Nazis, huh?", Astrid laughed, rubbing the back of her head underneath her ponytail.

"Complicated backstory", she repeated as she put the Tardis-blue book on the desk.

For a few minutes they both got settled in silence. Astrid tried to keep her unpacking hidden so River wouldn't see the Time Lord technology her bag held within. Soon enough they were both sitting in their chairs, going through their files and comms to pick and schedule their courses.

"Do you know what you're studying?", Astrid asked.

"Archaeology", she replied without looking up.

Astrid snorted before catching herself, "Sorry, my days, I'm so sorry. Just, my dad always laughed at archaeology. I suppose it rubbed off and I don't actually know why."

"It's as close as you can get to time travelling without the proper equipment", River elaborated, having looked up when she heard Astrid's laugh.

"Oh", Astrid raised her head in realisation, "You see, that makes sense."

"Your dad has the proper equipment to time travel then?", River seemed very interested now.

"Ah, well, my mum would have your head for calling her equipment. 'Her' being the proper equipment. But Mum always says, she's not equipment, she's alive and a part of the family."

River narrowed her eyes in thought, "Your mum and dad wouldn't happen to- Never mind, doesn't matter."

"No, what did you want to say?"

"It really doesn't matter, I think. Let's get to this before we get into complicated backstories, shall we?", River smiled and diverted her attention back to the papers.

"But-"

"Please?"

"Do you know my mum and dad?", Astrid narrowed her eyes now.

"I don't know, probably not. I'm from Leadworth, I know very few people in general", she brushed it off.

"Where's that?"

"You see. Nobody knows it. Nobody goes there, nobody leaves there. It's just Leadworth."

Astrid laughed a bit under her breath, "Well, you're here now."

"The exception proves the rule."

"A very contested statement."

"I see, you and I are going to have a lot of fun together, Astrid", River smiled.

/I'm really only doing this spin-off to get to the Byzantium episode as well, but I hope you enjoy it and maybe leave me a comment or a vote? Thank you!/