This academy wasn’t like most, where many kids around the age of 9 are learning math's and reading, these children were staring right into all of space and time. A dark abyss where every outcome can be seen by these children. They know what happens next, what has happened well beyond their time, and what is happening on the other side of the universe.
But this part of the story isn’t about time and space, it's about a little girl Time Lady who had comfort and traded it for a loss all because she wouldn’t be able to stand the guilt eating her up inside. Now this is not to say that this story won't ever be about time and space, trust me we will get there. Just know that even all of time and space has its time and place.
Now just for future reference this girl is you, (y/n). you have been a one for a good portion of your life, you never had a sustainable feeling of comfort, but the Acadamy was the opposite of the life you had lived for the first couple of years.
Just about everyone at this school knew not to talk to you, not because you were closed off but rather because they thought that you were too weird to talk to. Even though you never gave off that energy or even did anything to cause that reaction. In fact, you were the most extroverted person in the whole school. Making it your mission to have at least one friend, at least one person to be there for you.
You met one boy who was kind of closed off but well liked. He didn’t mind your company, so you got attached. You would drag him to look at the sky with you well passed your curfew, you had your own little spot at the top of one of the many buildings in the area. The bright stars were almost painful to look at, but their beauty enchanted you in a way that made it just about completely impossible to look away.
He was quite a large portion of the time whenever you dragged him out and about but that didn’t stop you from having him around every time you wanted to look up at the sky. Over time he grew to like you a bit more and started to talk more. Still, he was more of a listener, but not so much in a way that made him seem disinterested in what you were saying, but rather scared of whatever might happen. You wouldn’t find this out till much later when you were both in your 6th year at the academy. You had met him a couple days after he looked into the time vortex, and much like you, it scared him so much he ran.
He hadn’t been the same after he saw that, too scared to talk. You, on the other hand, had gotten scared of knowing exactly what would happen that you sought out to create your own worlds where those things that were said to happen simply didn’t. You created your own destiny in this world which made dealing with the fear easier to manage.
He then started to tell you about all of the things he wished to do but they never passed the planet you both called home. He wanted a simple job and to have a wife and kids with a good childhood. He didn’t really want to explore, not the stars or the planet, he just wanted a simple life.
You wanted to travel to the stars. You wanted to carry adventures on your shoulders while saving new worlds and making history. You wanted to put out any fire in your way but also wanted to watch stars spit flames out into the vast emptiness of space. You wanted the world, stars, galaxies, and the whole universe in your hands. It would be enough to have just that. All of the time and space at your convenience was all you needed to be happy.
You knocked on this boy's door one night, just like every other night that you wanted to see the stars. This boy had learned to be prepared for any surprise visits by you because you were quite indecisive about whether you were in the mood to look up at those balls of fire. He opened the door and slid out already knowing why you were knocking on his door that late at night.
The walk was always quieter than expected mostly because once you both made it to the roof, you were chatting like no tomorrow. But this moment of quiet was what you both needed. Also, you were both out of your rooms well passed curfew, so you really needed to be quiet. You would both be walking with slow quiet steps, doors were opened and closed with such precision making sure it didn’t make the slightest noise.
Once you both had made it to the roof you started laughing amazed that you had got away with it yet again. The boy had never once laughed at this, instead he just stares at you with a small smile graced upon his face. A creak was heard from another building which caused him to smack his hand on your face so whoever had made such a noise would be none the wiser to two students out passed curfew.
He removed his hand from your face and put a finger over his mouth to signal you to keep quiet. You both walked over to your little corner of the roof which had grown some decorations over the years. A thin blue blanket was sprawled on the ground, a small bowl filled with different candies from your universal cultures class you took last semester, and a travel sized telescope that the boy had managed to nick from his parents' drawer before he left for the academy all sat in the far corner behind the door of the roof.
You laid out the blanket to cover a portion of the roof top that you then sat on. The boy followed suit already having the routine down like the back of his hand. You both leaned down onto your backs almost simultaneously, both taking in the sight of the stars before either one broke the silence.
“Tell me why you don’t want to go out there again?” you ask the same question at least once a month just to verify that he doesn’t want to still. You want him to. Change his mind because as much as you say that you don’t care whether he stays here or goes out there with you-
“It’s too risky, plus I have everything I would ever need here.” He says it so simply as though anyone would agree with him. But you don’t see it, you know that he has many comforts here and you don’t, maybe that’s why he finds it so easy to stay when all you want to do is leave. “You know this, so why do you keep asking?”
He had the most wonderful eyes; they held the most amazing things. The eyes that stare at you is the newest of new and have not been tainted with the wisdom and sights that the elders held in their eyes. You knew that they would change one day, hell your will too but those eyes are worth looking at.
Like the stars in the sky for instance, one day all those stars will die and then be replaced with new ones. At that point, it is entirely different sky, just like how this man will die then be replaced with a new set of peepers. But in this moment, they were beautiful, and this is what you want to remember when you die for good. This moment, and any other moment that follows with him in it.
You bob your head to the side, so you lock your eyes with his. He always looked peaceful now, which was a complete 180 when compared to how he was when you first kidnapped him from the comfort of his room. The first time you both had done this he was sweating a storm and his breathing was labored and uneven, plus he would not stop listing out all the consequences you two would face together. You both only stayed out for about 20 minutes, and to this day you are surprised that you even lasted that long.
“Just want to see if you changed your mind yet.”
“Or you just want to see if I would ever go with you.”
“Yes, you do, you don’t want to leave me.” The smile on his face widened as he sang his sentence in a teasing voice.
“Absolutely not! I can survive just fine without you!” You looked back at those stars with the very same expression of amazement. He sits up and tilts his head to look at your face
“If you want me to go with you, all you have to do is ask nicely.”
“Shut up.” you groan out, you playfully push him over.
“You know I’m just playing right?”
“I mean even if you did ask, I would never want to travel with you.” the smile on his face radiates within his words.
“Shut up! I am a delight!” It is now your time to smirk just like him.
“The naming ceremony Is tomorrow; what name do you think you’ll get?” He always changed the subject, mainly because he never was good at remembering things in this regeneration, so he had adapted to just asking and talking about things as soon they came into his mind.
“Something like traveler, or tourist, oh or dreamer! Dreamer has a nice tone to it do not you think?”
“Absolutely, you would get something like that. I mean with your air headedness I would be surprised if you did not.” he said with a laugh. That is another thing you could not help but notice about him, his laugh was like a baby’s laugh to a mother. Or like the sound of your name getting first place in a competition you worked hard on. His laugh was one you would never forget, his was one that you will remember randomly thought your life whenever you perform a mundane task. His laugh was a symphony. “What name do you think they’ll give me?”
“Probably something normal like Baker, or Farmer, or Uninteresting.”
“You kind of are though.”
That night ended like the ones before it, with you both laughing until your sides hurt. You both ended up having a hard time going down those stairs leading up to the roof and down to the dorms. You both went back to your own rooms, the stars still lingering in your eyes as you do.
Your flame lights emit a soft glow onto the nearby objects within your room. You were fortunate enough to get your own room this year which meant that you were safer than the boy because he did have a roommate. This made sneaking out easier for you than it did him, however his roommate has done many things that could get him in trouble which means that the boy can sneak out in exchange for keeping the roommate's secret.
The rest of the night was the same as any other, you where you left off in your work. You don’t completely remember what the assignment was about, but you worked on it absentmindedly already knowing what to write about. Kinda like the work was too easy for you, but really it was because you were too busy living a better life in your head.
You were always like that, no one really took too much notice of it because you were like that all the time. Always thinking of what more life had in store for you, kind of like putting yourself into a story you create.
The morning after was going to be an interesting one. Everyone in the academy was buzzing with uneasiness, barely listening to one another as the sound of the drums consumed their hearing. You on the other hand aren’t too worried about the outcome of today, for you it was just another day. You know what you want to do with your life and nothing that happens today with quench that thirst you have for traveling.
So, for you it was just as normal of a day as others just by the end of it you will no longer be able to tell people your actual name, you would have to tell them your title instead. You quickly scan the large hall filed with other Time Lords and Ladys much like you, until your eyes land on a familiar mop of light brown. But what you noticed almost at once after is that he was walking out of the room and following one of the admins.
You quickly dart to the boy not thinking clearly, but just knowing that it was going to be something wrong. But this boy never got in trouble which is what really made this experience have an uneasy feeling in your gut.
“Stop!” You were closer now, still running a couple steps till you were right where they were. “What are you doing? He hasn’t done anything wrong!” The hall filled with students was now around the corner in the long hall you now stood in.
“(y/n)” the boy tried to interject; he didn’t want you to get in trouble. This was the only boy that knew your fears and he didn’t want to lose you to them.
“No! This boy is completely innocent! He didn’t do a thing, he’s the most well-behaved student there is here!”
“He snuck out passed curfew.”
“I made him! It’s my fault, punish me! Not him!”
“(y/n) no.” you don’t think that you have ever heard that tome in his voice but there it was. Right there in the air just hanging there until you listened.
“Fine,” the teacher let go of his arm and grabbed onto you, pulling you closer to their side than where you were previously standing. “Go back to the hall.”
The net couple of minutes there was a shared eerie silence between both you and the teacher as you made your way to the disciplinary actions you were now forced to face. Rumors were common amongst the students as in most schools, there were quite a few fan favorites. A popular one this particular week was the Zybroneez that passed by the field more than usual this week were actually dead timelords that died in the last time lord. This rumor may be more of an urban legend but there's more, apparently Catherine, a Time Lady a year above you, were walking past the giant, gentle creatures and she saw them pass.
That’s how the ‘rumor’ started and then it got out of control and now she's part Zybroneez, but a much older rumor, but kind of urban legend, was a much darker one. No one was really able to tell the rumor because no one had experienced it, well not really. The rumor is that when you get in trouble for breaking an unbreakable rule or get three strikes then you get punished. But not detention, something much worse, some guy back in the early days of the school having been built a student had gotten in trouble and was seen getting thrown into the time vortex. According to another student this student's biggest fear was leaving their family behind, and so the admin made it happen.
Your biggest fear was going to become more than a fear with this punishment. This was bad for you because you didn’t think that you would be able to bear your greatest fear. But by the looks of it that seems to be what you will end up facing.
That agonizing fear is growing within you as you get closer and closer to said fear, all of those grand events shared with that boy, all of those classes filled with laughter as you tried another mysterious food that turned your skin purple, and the smell of poppy flowers enveloped your senses. The soft pitter patter that tapped your head as that cloud delicately dropped water onto the skin of your forehead. That sight above you as you looked up at the sky, that cloud and those stars that you once thought of traveling around with your best and only friend. No one else occupied your life so you just wanted to take him away with you and travel the universe.
But with one word all of it was lost, the last you ever heard in this life solidified the significance of this life. This life was no longer of any importance to that boy, to Galifray, to the neighboring worlds, or to the universe for that matter. All because of one word, one name, one title.
“Doctor.” was the last word you heard before this life was thrown out of your grasp and into the time vortex.
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