The Lucky Life Of None (11th DoctorxReader)

After School Activities

After history, you had to make a very compelling case to the Doctor why you had to go to your other classes. Luckily, the only classes you had today were huge lectures, so he'd sat in with you and whispered about the inaccuracies of your textbooks and lectures. You had to sit in the back and barely got anything out of them, but it was not entirely unpleasant. 

"Starlight?" The Doctor called from the bathroom of your apartment. He was apparently perfectly content scoping around every bit of the small place. 

"Yes, Doctor?" He narrowed his eyes to you, again, just a head around a corner. 

"Where do you want to go?" 

"What do you mean?"

"Well, about a week ago, you said we would go to another place. A round place, or a flat place, or a windy place. Just not Egypt again, I guess." The rest of his body appeared from just beyond the door frame. He was holding your toothbrush in one hand and your tub cleaner in the other. 

"Do not do anything with those two items. Please." He followed your eyes to his hands and thrust them behind his back comically. 

"Um... I wasn't going to." His inability to maintain eye contact told a different tale, but he slowly back-stepped into the bathroom and you heard him put them back.

"Anyway, I left the Tardis Wednesday."

"Wednesday last week." He confirmed confidently. 

"No. This week." You held your ground. You saw his head peak out again. His eyes were cast to the ground in thought before those foggy forests locked with yours. 

"Oh." Was all he said before they were gone again. How crazy was his life if he had to wait a week for you to wait two days, and you had to wait three whole weeks for him to wait ten minutes? How much trouble did he get into with other people?

"How bad are you at flying the Tardis?" Your mind supplied you from all the questions it could've.

"Hey! I'm not that bad! You try piloting a spaceship that only listens to you half the time!"

"Sorry! I didn't mean to offend you. I just don't really understand how time works for you..." He seemed to sober enough to walk over and sit on the floor in front of you. In a way, he kind of looked like a big puppy dog.

"Well, I suppose it works for me the same way it works for everyone. It's all big, big spirals and loops and caverns and holes. I'm assuming that you want to know more about why it took me three weeks, huh?" You nodded. He adjusted his cross-legged position. "Sometimes, when traveling from place to place, you can get slightly off. Sometimes, time is like the partials on the Horn. Are you familiar?" 

"Yeah, I think." You tried to summon your quickly dwindling knowledge of the instrument you played in high school band. 

"The higher you play, the closer and closer together the partials get. Eventually, they get so close that only a really talented player or one that's been playing for all their lives can even distinguish how their lips have to move to make the different notes. Same goes with time."

"Are you saying you're inexperienced with time?" He tilted his head. 

"Heavens, no. I just mean that even professionals get it wrong sometime. Every horn player messes up sometimes. It's just a garbage instrument."

"Hey!" You didn't even play it anymore, but something told you to be offended. 

"Well, no, not the instrument. Not the horn. Time, I mean. If time were an instrument, it would be the worst instrument with a thousand tiny partials and a thousand and one possibilities for each note. Plus you add all of infinite space to that, and well... The more air, or energy in my case, you throw into time, the closer together those partials become, and the Tardis is a machine capable of  traveling almost anywhere in time and space. Sometimes, she can even get into other dimensions, if her oil's been changed recently." He must've sensed that he would lose you very soon and cut his explanation short. "Bottom line, I've been traveling for almost a thousand years and traversing time and space is still quite new to me every time I take the Tardis out for a spin. Sometimes, we get it wrong by putting too much energy into the ride, and sometimes the Tardis shifts her energy just the slightest to spite me." His features dropped. "And sometimes, I just punch in the wrong coordinates..." His head hung in shame. You blinked.

"You told me all of that just to say that sometimes, you type it in wrong?" His head hung even lower, if it were at all possible. Without thinking, you burst out into laughter. You weren't quite sure why, but something about the hilarity of this whole situation really struck a chord in your mind. After a few seconds, the Doctor joined in, breaking his sulking façade and giving you the chance to watch him. He was almost put to tears, but his smile was so bright and warm. His laugh was bright and sharp, but not in a harsh way. His eyes crinkled with a familiarity of laughter, but there was still something else. Wisdom, you guessed. Just like last time. 

"That very well may be, (Y/n)." Your heart skipped a beat when he called you by your name. It shouldn't have been as surprising or endearing, but it was. "So," He hopped up with a sudden new mood. 

"I have an idea." He pulled you up by your hand and appraised your outfit, eyes lingering at your neck. "You might need to change, though." 

"I might need to change? What kind of idea do you have?" You took a moment to look down at yourself. You were still wearing the Doctor's bow tie and the outfit to match. 

"We, my dear friend, are going on an adventure. And as much as I hate to see this ensemble go, these are not adventure clothes." He grabbed your shoulders and spun you around. He pushed you toward your room. You complied, but not before you turned to the mess he'd made in your bathroom. 

"Doctor..." You warned. He laughed nervously, but still pushed you toward your room. 

"Posh posh. I'll finish my mess in here. Don't you worry. Go. Get changed. Off you pop." He shooed you off. 

"Doctor, where are we even going?" He grinned impossibly wide before he disappeared into the bathroom.  

"We're going to Chapytarmanya."