Yowzah Oneshot Collection (1)

176(G)

Periastron Day

penguinspy42

The Doctor threw open the TARDIS doors to a snow-draped hillside dotted with what appeared to be hundreds of decorated Christmas trees. "Ah! Here we are! Right planet, right day, right everything! See? I can get it right." His long green coat billowed out behind him as he spun to face River. He grinned, looking inordinately pleased with himself.

"Very nice." River zipped her creamy down-filled coat the TARDIS provided and stepped out, brushing past the Doctor. The snow crunched softly beneath her boots, rather more powdery than on Earth with the barest hint of a pearlescent sheen. "So what day is it?"

"Periastron day!" With a gesture toward the two glowing orbs hanging against a greenish sky, he started walking toward the tree line. "See, this is the planet I told you about where trees grow that look very much like Christmas trees and they produce fruit that resemble ornaments. Of course they aren't actually Christmas trees. Their holiday that most closely resembles Christmas doesn't involve trees at all. They hang strings of dried fruit around the doorways and all the children are visited by an elf with a duck bill and a beaver tail."

River stopped in her tracks, raising an eyebrow. "Their Santa Claus is a platypus?"

"Yes. No. Well, sort of, except he walks on two legs, lives in a little log cabin, and likes pies. Anyway, he leaves eggs in all the children's shoes; candy-filled for the good ones and rotten eggs for the bad ones. Which, really, I suppose sounds a bit more like Easter because of the eggs, but there's a holiday where this long-eared fox creature leaves lovely sweet dumplings hidden about. Oh, another one I really love is the annual penguin migration when the skies are filled-"

"Doctor, what about Periastron day?"

"Right! Periastron day! Celebrated in some binary star systems like Valentine's day is on Earth. But I love this planet's version the most." As he came up on the first tree, he plucked a golden bell-shaped fruit from its boughs and held it up. "See, there's an energy that runs through everything, everywhere. These trees are able to pick up on that energy and translate it into various shapes and colors and flavors. But because of the light and the change in the gravitational pull as Periastron day nears, they produce an even wider variety of fruit than usual! So it's customary to find fruit that best suit those you care for the most and present it to them as a gift." With a grin, he took a big bite of the fruit. The smile slid rapidly off his face and was replaced by a look of repulsion. "Beans," he coughed. "Tastes like beans."

River watched as the Doctor dropped the remainder of his bell fruit and kicked it under the tree with the others that had fallen off. "If it's such a big holiday, why is there no one here?" she asked.

"Like Valentine's day, it's become heavily commercialized. Most just buy the fruit from stores or, if they want to try to be traditional, there are farms closer to the towns that they'll visit. These trees are wild, out in the middle of nowhere. No one would come out here just for Periastron day. Well, except for us." He grinned, sidling over to River and nudging her with his elbow.

"And you expect me to find one for you," she said, raising an eyebrow as the corners of her mouth turned upward in an amused smile.

The smile faded from his face and his eyes got big, almost puppyish. "Well, no, I mean-I just thought maybe we could walk and look and it's just so Christmassy even if it isn't really then I'd try some fruit, and you could try some and maybe we'd find something that we liked, and-"

River's grin broadened the more he babbled on until she cut him off. "Oh, shut up. You know I'll find one for you."

"Okay!" He beamed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "You go that way and I'll go this way. Then it'll be a surprise!" With that, he practically skipped off in the other direction.