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leelaofthesevateem‌:

“Being used to it does not mean it is the best thing for you. Coming together to share a meal, or to cook one, is the only time some of us see one another. It is a way I can… contribute. To this place.”

Leela settled herself back into a good position, re-loading her bow with a fresh bolt. “Yes,” she said, trying not to look at Andred. “Sometimes.”

“Because putting us all in the same room could never go wrong. If we all wanted to see one another, we could.”

“I did too.” She said quietly, watching Leela’s prey. “Your husband and I have a lot in common.” She bit her lip, unable to help her jealousy. “Has Romana ever? Torn herself away from her dusty office to put herself in your world, voluntarily?”

leelaofthesevateem

“It is because we do not always want to that we all ought to see one another. We are sharing this space, whether we like it or not. The more we get used to that, the less painful it will be.”

Leela pressed her lips tight. “I have said that I am not going to talk with you about Romana,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the pond and the fowl. “You have killed her once. Is that not enough of revenge?”

#ofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

Romana met her eyes reluctantly, but found it harder to continue with her intention of leaving, with Leela so near, watching her. “I’m not running away.” She said, with more confidence than she felt.

She let the silence hold for as long as she could stand, before she finally let her thoughts out in a reckless rush. “What do you want me to say, Leela? I know the words, we’re not that dense as a species, but there’s a hundred variations, no right answer, and I’ll overthink it to the end of time if you let me. I… enjoy your company, I would spend more time with you if I could, and I… worry you’ll want to leave the planet the next time we’re distant, consumed by safe problems.”

“There are not right words.” Leela touched first with the backs of her fingertips against Romana’s wrist, fingers trailing so gently over the heel of Romana’s hand, her palm, caressing along the lengths of Romana’s fingers. “This is a language that your TARDISes cannot translate.”

She nuzzled softly into the crook of Romana’s neck, trailed the tip of her nose up from Romana’s shoulder to just below Romana’s ear, let Romana feel Leela’s breath on her skin. “If you want to be close,” Leela whispered, intent on feeling Romana’s reactions, “then do.”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

Romana looked away. It wasn’t that she was scared of the words themselves, or of rejection, more of her certainty that they would irrevocably change something between her and Leela, and keeping to their current situation felt so much easier than triggering that unknown. “I should be getting back to the panopticon.” she said, quietly. “We could talk later.”

Leela’s brow tightened. “A moment ago, you had time to stay for breakfast,” she said, turning away from the stove to face Romana fully.

Leela did not question, any more, why Romana had come here. She stepped close, much closer than Time Lords usually allowed.

“Do you want me to let you run away,” she said, low and gravelly, “or not?”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

“If there was an election, I wouldn’t have the time to be here.” Romana said, her mind already starting to wander to the litany of meetings she had scheduled for today, but Leela’s next words dragged her back to the present.

Romana blinked. “Well, you’re half right, but I like to think that as President of the Supreme Council of Gallifrey and all her dominions, I’m a little above the influence of my cousins. I’ve no need to court anyone I don’t want to.”

Leela would not have been surprised, if this had happened a century ago.

She would not have been surprised if this had happened on Davidia. She would not have been surprised if it had happened during the civil war, or on the Axis. But she long ago stopped hoping and accepted that friendship was all Romana wished to give--to anybody. Leela had long since learnt to see that for the honor it was, knowing that Romana felt as much for her as for anyone.

She met Romana’s eyes now, her gaze serious. “Then you do need to say plainly what you mean,” Leela said, “because that is too important a thing to guess.”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

leelaofthesevateem‌:

Leela tilted her head, hearing the tone in Romana’s voice but not knowing what had caused it. “No,” she said. “Only fried eggs with ham. Romana, why are you here, and dressed that way, and why is the weather changed? Whatever it is that you are not telling me, delay will not make it easier.”

Romana watched Leela intently for several moments, not quite desperate enough to try dodging the question with an attempt to make eggs and ham into an interesting topic of conversation. She looked away, saying quietly, “Can you really not guess?”

leelaofthesevateem

It was too early in the morning for guessing games, but Leela sighed and tried to make sense of it, since Romana clearly did not mean to say. The weather she could not think of a reason for, except that it was a pleasant change and Romana, perhaps, thought so too. “You are wearing white,” she tried, “which I know is the color for Presidents. Is there another election?”

But the style of the dress was all wrong for that, Leela knew it as soon as she said it. There was more fabric in it than anyone needed in this temperate place, but it was still not like Romana to wear so little, never mind flowers in her hair.

Leela was not stupid, no matter what the Time Lords might think. “Are you... courting?” she asked, her heart twisting at the thought. All that Leela knew about love and marriage among Time Lords was from Andred, and he had told her that their own courtship had not been the usual Gallifreyan way. Most Time Lord marriages were for money and power and position--and, as a great noble among their people, and President besides, Romana would be very eligible. “Your family must have chosen someone very fine for you.” Leela looked determinedly back at her pan on the stove, stabbing a little too hard with her knife as she flipped the slices of ham.

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

leelaofthesevateem‌:

“Narvin manages it,” Leela said, smiling over her shoulder and adding her eggshells to the composter. “So do you, when you are angry. Is it something you can be angry about?”

Romana blinked, thinking for a moment of Andred and what anger had led to there. “No.” She said, firmly. She looked at Leela’s pan, trying to change the subject. “Are you making an omelette?”

leelaofthesevateem

Leela tilted her head, hearing the tone in Romana’s voice but not knowing what had caused it. “No,” she said. “Only fried eggs with ham. Romana, why are you here, and dressed that way, and why is the weather changed? Whatever it is that you are not telling me, delay will not make it easier.”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

leelaofthesevateem

presidentromanaofgallifrey

“I know, Leela,” Romana said, following her into the kitchen. “You’re very good at it. And I would.”

“Well, if my options for advice for matters of emotion are computers or Narvin, which would you have me choose?”

Leela pulled eggs and a haunch of roast pigbear, cured into a ham, from her cooler, and began heating a pan. “You might ask me,” Leela said, trying not to be offended that Romana would think of Narvin first. Thinking of computers first did not trouble her nearly as much–trusting machines more than people was a very Romana thing to do. “Is that what you came to do today?”

presidentromanaofgallifrey

“I know what your advice would be.” Romana said, feeling she ought to help with something but also knowing barely anything about cooking beyond the purely theoretical. “And I know I’d ignore it. Talking about things plainly isn’t as easy as it sounds.”

leelaofthesevateem

“Narvin manages it,” Leela said, smiling over her shoulder and adding her eggshells to the composter. “So do you, when you are angry. Is it something you can be angry about?”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

“I know, Leela,” Romana said, following her into the kitchen. “You’re very good at it. And I would.”

“Well, if my options for advice for matters of emotion are computers or Narvin, which would you have me choose?”

Leela pulled eggs and a haunch of roast pigbear, cured into a ham, from her cooler, and began heating a pan. “You might ask me,” Leela said, trying not to be offended that Romana would think of Narvin first. Thinking of computers first did not trouble her nearly as much--trusting machines more than people was a very Romana thing to do. “Is that what you came to do today?”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

“A cutting indictment.” Romana commented dryly, following her in. “I’m… taking advice from a computer.” Which did, admittedly, sound a tad silly, but K-9 sometimes had better ideas than the combined intelligence of the High Council could muster.

Leela raised a cool eyebrow. She might not know exactly what ‘indictment’ meant, but she understood enough to take the point. “When I wish to cut, I do not use words.”

Leela was unused to visitors in her quarters. She was not tidy by nature, and by now she had lived on Gallifrey long enough to fill her quarters with things. The chairs were draped with coverings of fur; the ceiling dangled bundles of drying herbs. K-9′s basket beside his charging port, which Leela had never been able to bear to part with, still sat as a memorial.

“K-9 was a good friend, but he never gave very good advice,” said Leela, dubiously. “Would you like to have breakfast with me?” she added, heading towards the kitchen.

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

leelaofthesevateem‌:

Leela yawned. “You did it on purpose?” she asked, and finally looked at Romana. “What are you wearing, Romana? What is this about?”

Romana sighed. The whole point of this was it was meant to be a way to show a thing without actually saying it. “Oh, don’t worry about it. I don’t think it works if it’s not obvious.”

leelaofthesevateem

Leela shook her head, not sure whether to laugh or growl. “Romana,“ she said, catching Romana’s hand. “You are being silly. Come inside and tell me why you are here.”

Leela led the way inside, dropping Romana’s hand but trusting that she would follow.

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

“If they are, I broke them.” Romana said, matter-of-factly. “Well, not really, it’s just another version of what they were built to do, and K-9 helped with the records of your planet’s weather patterns.”

“Do you like it? I had almost forgotten how it felt myself. Perhaps that’s why we’re as dreadful as we are, as a species, we’re forever stuck in a limbo of unnaturally mild temperature.” Not that that hypothesis would stop her complaining and reversing her position the moment she had robes on and it became unthinkably hot.

Leela yawned. “You did it on purpose?” she asked, and finally looked at Romana. “What are you wearing, Romana? What is this about?”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

The long lost follow up to this

Leading a courtship couldn’t be any harder than leading a planet, that Romana was sure of, but it had still taken her a while to test the theory.

It was a spring morning, which would have been entirely unremarkable had Gallifrey not lacked traditional seasons, but since none of those likely to complain about change on principle actually went outside, she didn’t anticipate objections to her manipulations of the climate.

For the purposes of being clandestine, she’d arrived at Leela’s door a while before first sunrise- Leela’s quarters were far enough away from the Panopticon that she’d figured she could get away with her entirely ungallifreyan attire, but it didn’t do to tempt fate. Courting the Cerulean vote wouldn’t be worth the rest of the fallout.

She smiled as the door opened. “Leela, may I come in?”

@leelaofthesevateem

leelaofthesevateem

Leela was an early riser by the standards of many species, but Gallifreyans needed half as much sleep as she did. It was barely past first sunrise, the second sun not even peeking over the horizon, when her door buzzed.

“Romana?” Leela asked, rubbing her eyes as she opened the door. “What is it?”

She frowned, her sleep-fogged brain just beginning to take things in. Under other circumstances Leela would have paid more attention to Romana’s flowing white dress, the softness of her today, but something in the air caught Leela’s nose first.

“It is... warm,” she said, stepping outside and looking around. “It is never warm in the Citadel. Are your machines broken, Romana?”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

presidentromanaofgallifrey

Romana frowned. “Well, that makes no sense. I’ll stick to the traditional kinds of paradoxes, and take back anything derogatory I may have said about emotional intelligence in a misguided youth.”

She sighed, tempted by the offer. “If she is harming people, or endangering planets, I can’t leave her alone just because it might make me uncomfortable, Leela. We have to check that, at least. If she’s minding her own business for once, we can find another route to Free Time.”

“It is not a paradox. Love and hate are not opposites, truly. They both mean thinking of a person all the time.” Leela nuzzled Romana’s ear. “The one means wanting to make that person happy, and the other wanting to make them suffer, but it is very possible to want to do both of those. It is the wanting that matters. The great space that person takes up in your head and your heart.”

“We could tell Narvin about her. Someone must look for her, but it does not need to be us.”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

ofgallifrey

Well, that was terribly easy, and Sartia didn’t trust it one bit. She reassessed her- definitely human, her clothes were appropriate to the period, as far as she could tell, and the wooden cross in her hand matched some primitive religious symbol, if she was remembering correctly, but she held it oddly, like it was a guide.

“What do you mean, leave?” She asked. “What kind of transport do you propose?” There was one way to help tell if she was an off-worlder or time traveller. “I’m being hunted for witchcraft, you know.” She said, casually.

That was one advantage to no longer traveling with the Doctor--Leela had a TARDIS that actually disguised itself. “I have a cart, around the corner,” she said. “It is going to my monastery.”

Leela frowned. It would be too suspicious if she were to dismiss the question of witches right away, though even the Sevateem were not so superstitious as to believe in such things. “There is a thing called Sanctuary,” she said, brightening, proud of herself for having remembered. “You could have that, if you come with me.”

#ofgallifrey #Leela is brilliant but subterfuge is not her strong suit #that is a hard line to walk

ofgallifrey

Sartia was used to running for her life from angry mobs, which might have made her rethink her life choices, except doing what she wanted and just dealing with the consequences afterwards was fun. She finally slowed down, darting a look behind her to make sure there was no one in view. She wasn’t convinced she’d lost them exactly, but it was a start.

She ducked around a bothy, which was in a state of utter disrepair and not much use as a hideout, and leaned against its wall, letting herself have a moment’s rest. She just needed to find her time ring and get out of the primitive backwater without running into the angry villagers with pitchforks and fire, easier said than done.

Sartia stiffened, finally noticing there was someone up ahead. Human, probably a local, but hopefully an out of the loop local.

“Hello?” She asked, and left it at that. Even if she hadn’t been too tired to give much more of a chase, there was no sense in announcing her criminal status, when she might be able to talk her way out of it.

@leelaofthesevateem

leelaofthesevateem

Leela still could not believe she had let herself be talked into joining the CIA.

It had nearly made sense when Romana said that a CIA Coordinator needed a bodyguard as much as a President, and that such a bodyguard must be an Agent, if only in name. And it had made a kind of sense, too, now that both Romana and Narvin were part of the CIA, that Leela would not wish to be left behind. But she still hated these people. She hated their sub-terfuge, and she hated their lies, annd she hated their paranoia, and she hated the uniform, even the one with trousers instead of robes.

She had dreamt of Andred, the night after taking the job, and her ears burnt just remembering what his dream-self had said.

And now here she was, out on a mission, as she had always known would happen. She was human, after all, and so when something needed to be done on a human world, she or Ace were the sensible people to send. Ace was on a long-term mission now, deep under-cover, and so Romana had asked Leela--just this once, Leela, just as a personal favor to me (Leela did not believe that for a second)--to follow the trace on a renegade Time Lord causing trouble on the homeworld of her people.

Leela might not like the idea of tracking people for the CIA, but she had to admit, this mission seemed easy enough, when the Time Lady Leela was looking for simply walked up to her.

“Hello,” said Leela. She tried to think like a proper CIA Agent. “You look like you would like to get away from here. I was about to leave myself--would you like to come with me?”

#ofgallifrey

coordinatrix

25 + Romana

#25) Fondly Sarcastic (Gallifrey canon AU, post-S4)

“Really, Madam P… Supreme Leader? You expect me to keep us both from getting killed, find Leela and, just by the by, run this planet as your Chancellor, and yet you’d call me away from my work of an evening for this? You know, I never properly appreciated how important a role K-9 played in this government,” or Leela, though that went without saying, “until now.”

Despite the words, Narvin’s tone wasn’t really annoyed. She was busy, but never too much so to spare a span for the one person in the Citadel with whom she could speak openly–it was a relief for her, as much as for Romana. She settled herself on Romana’s sofa, still mostly straight-spined but making herself more comfortable than she would anywhere else on this violent planet.

leelaofthesevateem

presidentromanaofgallifrey

Romana drew back with a sigh, running a hand through Leela’s hair as she let go, content for her to take the lead in this context.

“I have to hope Braxiatel brought us here for reasons more than he made obvious. There was a Gallifrey a while back, that was similar enough to ours- too similar, really- to have Free Time. If we could track down the virus’s creator, or just their notes and lab, we’d have a good place to start. But we should see what Narvin thinks too.”

Romana blinked, suddenly aware of her surroundings again, and glanced around, wondering just how far from the camp Narvin had wondered. Out of earshot, she dearly hoped. “Should we call her back? This all does rather effect her future too, though I can’t imagine she’ll be disappointed to discard her Chancellor’s robes.”

“Whatever Braxiatel’s plan may have been, he is gone, Romana. We cannot spend our lives trying to guess what he would have wanted. We must choose our own way.”

She kissed Romana on the cheek once more, and slipped from her arms. “I will go and get her,” she said, and headed up the hill quickly enough that Romana could not object.

Narvin was sitting with her legs dangling off the ledge. That alone was enough to show Leela that all was not well with her; it was unlike Narvin to risk dirtying her clothes. Narvin’s expression, too, was distant and withdrawn. Leela sat down beside her.

“I missed you, too,” Leela said--and she must be infected by the Time Lords, because the words meant two different things.

Leela rested her hand atop Narvin’s. Narvin’s blush was visible even in the dark, but instead of taking Leela’s hand, she pulled away and stood.

“We should go,” Narvin said, not looking at Leela. “Having got what she wanted from this little sojourn in the wilderness, our Supreme Leader will be wanting to get back to the Citadel.”

Leela stood too, with a little sigh. They would need to talk about this sometime--but perhaps Narvin was right that now was not that time. She followed Narvin down the hill, back to where Romana was waiting.

“Would you like to tell Narvin about our plan, Romana?” Leela asked.

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

coordinatrix

25 + Romana

#25) Fondly Sarcastic (Gallifrey canon AU, post-S4)

“Really, Madam P… Supreme Leader? You expect me to keep us both from getting killed, find Leela and, just by the by, run this planet as your Chancellor, and yet you’d call me away from my work of an evening for this? You know, I never properly appreciated how important a role K-9 played in this government,” or Leela, though that went without saying, “until now.”

Despite the words, Narvin’s tone wasn’t really annoyed. She was busy, but never too much so to spare a span for the one person in the Citadel with whom she could speak openly–it was a relief for her, as much as for Romana. She settled herself on Romana’s sofa, still mostly straight-spined but making herself more comfortable than she would anywhere else on this violent planet.

leelaofthesevateem

presidentromanaofgallifrey

That was more ground than she’d expected Leela to give, and Romana smiled, finally letting herself believe that she might have mended things with her, or at least begun to.

“That would be eminently more productive than what we’re doing now.” Romana admitted. “Perhaps another place in the Axis would be better, the lack of technological advancement and scientific discoveries here might be reflected throughout the Universe. Or the opposite, I suppose, but the lack of TARDISes would be an inconvenience.”

She leaned closer, hesitant. This was all so new to her, and she hated feeling inexperienced, but she hated not knowing the rules more, there weren’t any universally accepted guidebooks on it. She’d checked. “I care whether you live or die,” she murmured, “in case that was ever in doubt.”

“Good,” Leela said, smiling. “But I would rather go back to our real universe, Romana, if we can. It does not feel right to hide in false places. If you have reason to think one of the Axis worlds in particular would be a help, then I will go, but I would rather try other worlds in our own universe.”

She nudged her nose against Romana’s, still smiling, and kissed her lips again, a slow and lingering kiss. “It was once,” she said, “but I do not doubt it tonight.”

#presidentromanaofgallifrey

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