Yowzah Oneshot Collection (3)

134(G)

          There's Something I Stole

                   define_serenity

²67/249³10.032/*
Soon as you can

x

When the words and coordinates appear on the psychic paper, almost burning a hole in his tweed jacket, he knows he'll be getting himself in trouble. But he can hardly not show up. River expects him to, and part of him does, too.

He opens the TARDIS doors, and notices how he's parked on a solid piece of land, no hang on, they're moving— it's a space harbour! Right on cue he sees a door on one of the surrounding space ships getting blown off, and sure as day, River comes abseiling out of it. And there are men shooting at her. Of course there are men shooting at her.

"River!" he shouts as soon as her feet touch ground, and blimey she's fast, despite wearing high-heeled boots and the backpack—she's rushing towards him like some comic strip's action hero, dodging bullets as she goes. Bullets?— oh right, yes, bullets! He opens both the doors for River, and skips to the console again.

River lands on the floor with a hard thud, the doors creaking shut behind her. "These are not the coordinates I gave you," she growls, and gets up from the floor unevenly, the TARDIS shaking.

"Excuse me," the Doctor says offended, looking at River over his shoulder while he steers them away from danger and men with big guns. So yes, the TARDIS might have landed somewhat further than River asked, but his ship has a bit of a mind of her own sometimes. River knows that. "These are exactly the coordinates you— What are you wearing?" he asks, and frowns, turning around completely now, the heels of his boots squeaking on the glass floor beneath him.

"You like it?" River raises an eyebrow surreptitiously, and struts over to the central control column, putting her bag down under it, then twists on her feet, placing one hand in her side, hip jutting out.

"It's—" he hesitates, and consciously allows his eyes to take it all in longer than they really need to. River's outfit is something dark-red and tight, hugging her body in all the right places and he can find few thoughts straying towards anything negative. "Yeah." He's surprised to hear himself admit it. He's still staring at her from the corner of his eye, one hand casually in his pocket, while he flips a few switches. "Why were those men shooting at you?"

"Because I borrowed something that doesn't belong to me," River explains. She releases her hair from the pin holding it up, her long blonde curls cascading down the leathery outfit.

"And when you say borrowed—" his voice trails off.

River turns and smiles at him. "I mean stole."

"Why?" he asks, but only because he's interested, not because he's about to tell her that stealing (or the pejorative borrowing) is in any way wrong. What kind of hypocrite would that make him?

"Because it didn't belong to them to begin with."

"What is it?" he asks curiously.

River digs down in her bag and holds up a blue orb the size of a tennis ball. He recognizes it instantly. It should be shining and slightly vibrating, but that's only in combination with the foot piece. And that's clearly not in River's bag.

"River, that's a Titraphonic Regulator." He takes a cautious step towards her, and points. "You can't have that." He shakes his head, utterly and completely disapproving. He just helped her get away with stealing that?

"Can't I?" River asks casually, and places it back in her bag, as if it's an accessory.

"It's a Vvrekan Titraphonic Regulator. It supplies entire villages with everything from water to the rain to grow their crops. They'll die without it." He stresses the word, die, because can't she see? can't she realize? He's always known that River would have few scruples and dubious morals, but he'd never believed her to be a murderer. Well, mass murderer.