What Flavor Ice Cream?--The Prequel
Hey all...so, one thing that kinda bugged me about TPOTD...apart from a certain something we didn't get, obviously...was that bit where 13 asks Yaz "What flavor ice cream?" and then Yaz tearfully laughs at it. To me it felt like they were making a reference to something, an in-joke of sorts, but we were never let in on what they were referring to, if that makes sense. Anyway, this is my attempt to rectify that.
This is a gift for @goddessyonakuromatoki for @thasminsecretsanta TSS2023. I'll be posting this to AO3 as well shortly. Hope you enjoy it.
A small swirl of dust rising from the ground marked the arrival of the TARDIS as it came to a gentle landing just outside a huge three-story building on a small planet.
"Here we are then, Bovis Major," the Doctor said as she and Yasmin Khan exited the craft. The Doctor then pointed upwards at a sign on the building's facade.
"Well Yaz, whaddya think?"
Yasmin Khan looked up at the rather 1980s-retro style pink neon sign about two feet above the doorway.
"Hrumphus Hereford's Ice Creamery and Confectionery, 1731,"
Yaz read out what was written on the sign.
"Yep. Best ice cream shop in this part of the galaxy!" the Doctor announced quite proudly.
Yaz looked around, noting that they were on the edge of a large "car park" of sorts, with assorted vehicles in various shapes and sizes parked throughout the lot. She also noticed that the building before them was the only one in sight.
"Hmm, kinda funny that it's got a street number. This place is bigger than a city block an' there's no other buildings around."
"Oh that's not a street number Yaz, that's how many ice cream flavors they've got."
Yaz had to take a moment to let that sink in.
"Hang on... they've got over seventeen hundred flavors?!"
"That's right. An' they add more all the time. Last time I was here it was just over sixteen hundred. C'mon!"
The Doctor held the door open as the two of them entered the lobby. As Yaz was taking in the surroundings, she was startled to see a huge, minotaur-like creature approaching them rapidly, and even more surprised when the creature bent down to give the Doctor a gentle hug.
"Doctor, so good to see you again!" the beast bellowed.
"Beeglo, how ya been mate?" the Doctor asked as she hugged her friend back.
"Oh, as well as ever, can't complain," Beeglo replied as he turned to look at Yaz.
"And who is this?" he asked.
"Oh... Beeglo, this is Yasmin Khan," the Doctor said as she looked back at Yaz...and for a fraction of second, she looked at her in a way that Yaz had only barely glimpsed once before, out of the corner of her eye...while they were underwater in 19th-century China...
And then the Doctor turned back to Beeglo.
"We're...um...friends. We've been traveling together for a while now."
"Ah, delighted, Miss Khan," he greeted her while extending a limb ending in what appeared to be a cross between a human hand and a cow's hoof.
"Oh, good to meet you too," Yaz said as she shook his "hand", all the while thinking that the Doctor might have been about to say something other than "friend".
"Shall we find you some seating?" Beeglo asked.
"Lead on," the Doctor replied as she gestured for him to lead the way.
As they made their way through the restaurant, they passed assorted beings of all shapes and sizes, many of which Yaz had never seen before. Three creatures resembling Komodo dragons wearing leotards, all eating from what looked like a gigantic banana split in the center of their table. A pair of spectral, wraith-like entities canoodling over two glowing purple "milkshakes". A family of five giant housecats (two adults and their three kids, Yaz guessed) lapping up their treats from huge bowls and making quite the mess. And an older man in a dirty lab coat with two teenaged children, all of whom were waving towards them from across the expansive room.
"Heya Doctor!" the man called out.
"Hey Rick, hey guys!" the Doctor waved back at them. "That's Rick and his grandkids, they're regulars here," the Doctor said in reply to Yaz's quizzical look.
Moments later they arrived at a booth where two electronic menus were already waiting for them on the table.
"Alright you two, here we are," Beeglo said as he motioned for them to take a seat."Oh, Doctor, will you be having your special today?"
"Hmm...nah," she said while removing her coat and laying it on the seat. "Feel like somethin' else today. Expand the ol' horizons a bit."
"Very well then, your server will be with you shortly. Enjoy!"
"Thanks Beeglo," the Doctor said as he made his way back towards the lobby.
"You have your own special?" Yaz asked a moment later as she likewise shed her jacket.
"Yeah, it's on the menu too. Here-"
The Doctor reached over and pressed a button on Yaz's menu to activate it.
"Now just say "Doctor's Special" into that lil' speaker there at the top."
Yaz did so, and the result quickly displayed in front of her.
Moments later she looked back at the Doctor, disbelief apparent on her face.
"Wait...ya came up with...this?"
"Yeah, used to love it a coupla regenerations ago, ordered it a lot, so they added it to the menu. Turns out a lotta other folks like it too. Still like it, but y'know, different mouth an' all now."
"I mean, the frozen custard I can understand, an' the jelly babies too, yeah, but...a side of fish fingers with it?"
"Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it, right?" the Doctor replied.
"Hmm, maybe another time, thanks."
***************************************
Ten minutes and two visits from the server later, and Yaz was still scrolling the menu, looking everything over, unable to decide on what to get.
"Well, how 'bout ya just get your favorite flavor?" the Doctor offered.
"That's just the thing though. I don't have one," Yaz replied.
The Doctor looked at her, incredulous.
"Seriously. Don't have one. Just depends on my mood, where I am, who I'm with, all that. I was at a kid's party once where ya could make your own sundaes an' they had like six or seven different flavors of ice cream an' all sorts of toppings, but none of 'em appealed to me so I just didn't have any."
The Doctor pondered this for a moment, then her face lit up with an idea.
"Yaz, d'ya trust me to order for both of us?"
Yaz smiled at her, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Whaddya have in mind, Doctor?"
The Doctor waved to get their server's attention, and a few seconds later he was at their table.
"Are you ready to order then?"
"Yeah, we'll have the Super Sampler for Two," the Doctor announced.
"Very good, we'll have that out for you shortly," the server said as he collected their menus.
"Thanks," the Doctor said to the departing server, and then began telling Yaz some of the history of the establishment.
"Yeah, Beeglo, this is his herd's place. That name above the door, Hrumphus Hereford? That was Beeglo's great- great-great-grandbull. He's the one who started this all up."
Yaz stared at her for a few moments, then:
The Doctor took a breath, then began again:
"Okay... remember when I told ya an' Ryan an' Graham 'bout the Wooly Rebellion?"
"Right, so, in the aftermath of all that there were all these laws an' sanctions passed by the humans on Earth with the idea of preventin' anything like that ever happenin' again, an' a lot of other species, mostly the domestic sort, lost a lot of their rights an' were treated really badly, an' cattle got some of the worst of it."
"Okay, so...there were actual...like, battles an' fights between people an' animals?"
"Oh yeah. Total bloodbath, just like I said. Think Orwell's Animal Farm but way more violent. Anyway, there were some herds that became militarized an' tried to take on human armies, but there were also a lot of herds that chose to just leave Earth an' get away from all the violence, maybe get a fresh start somewhere else in the galaxy. Hrumphus Hereford was one of those. Brought his herd here to Bovis Major since there were already a small colony with some farms an' such here. Bein' cattle of course they knew all about dairy production, an' in time he an' his herd got this place goin'. Been doin' really well ever since then."
"Okay. So, Beeglo an' his fam- uh, herd, they make the milk an' cream an' all?" Yaz asked.
"Well, of course! Gotta have cream to make ice cream Yaz! Matter of fact, some of 'em can produce lactose-free milk for folks who're lactose intolerant."
"But what about, um, the males? Y'know like on Earth, for beef, hamburger, that sort of thing?"
The Doctor leaned over the table towards Yaz, speaking in a voice just above a whisper.
"Yaz, meat is murder, 'specially 'round here."
The Doctor leaned back in her seat again.
"Anyway though, it's not just the females here that produce milk, a lotta the males do too. It's a very egalitarian society here as far as that goes. 'Course not everyone here is involved with all that. Some are involved in methane production an' refinement."
Just as Yaz was catching on as to where the methane came from, her eyes were distracted by their server, who was pushing a large, multi-tiered cart towards their table.
"Doctor, what is...that?"
The Doctor smiled as she saw the cart approaching.
"That, Yasmin Khan, is the Super Sampler for Two."
The cart (which also had a built-in refrigeration system) consisted of four shelves which could be slid in and out, similar to a chest of drawers. Each shelf contained twenty-five miniature cups of ice cream in various flavors, for a total of one hundred. Each cup contained about a small scoop of ice cream, with the name of each flavor printed on the outside of each cup.
Their server handed each of them a spoon and declared "Alright ladies, enjoy! Let me know if you need anything else," before departing again.
***************************************
For the better part of the next two hours, the Doctor and Yaz made their way through the multiple samples of creamy deliciousness, commenting on what they liked or didn't like about each one while reminiscing about some of their adventures together. By the end of it, they were completely stuffed.
"How ya doin' there Yaz?" the Doctor asked as she tried to will away another brain freeze.
"Y'know, I didn't think it were possible to have both a sugar rush and a food coma at the same time."
The Doctor snort-laughed at this, and Yaz smiled back at her.
"So...think ya got a favorite flavor now?"
Yaz thought for a moment, then...
Once again, the Doctor was incredulous.
"Oh c'mon, again seriously?!"
"Well, yeah. I mean, a lotta these were good, some were amazin'...an' a few, like that one there-"
she pointed to a cup marked "Damarian Swampfruit"-
"yeah, that were completely disgustin'."
"Really? I kinda liked it."
Yaz rolled her eyes before continuing.
"But nah, still don't have a favorite. Still depends on the settin' an' who's around an' all. Sorreh."
The Doctor threw up her hands in mock disgust.
"Oh great, Operation Find Yaz's Favorite Ice Cream is a total failure."
Now it was Yaz's turn to snort-laugh, and within moments the Doctor was laughing along with her.
After a few moments the laughter died down, and Yaz became quiet.
She had a question she'd been wanting to ask for a while, and now, she felt, was the best time.
"Doctor...when ya were introducin' me to Beeglo, ya hesitated before ya said we were friends. What were ya gonna say, really? Was it... somethin' else?"
The Doctor leaned forward on the table, clasping her hands together. She needed a little time to consider her words before answering the question.
"Yaz...I...I don't really know how to...define you. I guess that's the best way to put it."
She paused for a few more moments, then continued:
"I don't know how to define you an' me. 'Course we're friends an' we do travel together, but...well..."
"Yeah," Yaz said in a whisper as she looked downwards, not wanting to meet her gaze at the moment.
The uncomfortable quiet stretched on a bit longer until the Doctor felt the need to speak further.
"Look, I stand by the decision I made on that beach in China. One day one of us is gonna lose the other, an' it'll hurt, an' I don't wanna make it worse. But...but it doesn't mean I don't want..."
Her voice quavered slightly as her words trailed off. She desperately wanted, needed Yaz to look at her.
She reached across the table and placed her hand on Yaz's, causing her to look up again. The younger woman could see the sincerity on the Doctor's face.
The Doctor felt a lump growing in her throat as she looked into the eyes of this human who had worked her way so deeply into her hearts.
The look Yaz gave her showed that she didn't quite understand what that meant.
"My person. That's maybe the best way I can define ya."
Yaz placed her other hand on top of the Doctor's.
"Not always, but...quite often, in each life I have...there's someone who's like, my partner in crime, y'know?"
The Doctor chuckled lightly at this thought, her eyes now drifting down to their joined hands.
"Yeah, someone who gets what I'm thinkin', an' we can argue sometimes but in the end we're OK, that sort of thing. That one person who just...makes it all worthwhile."
She felt the lump in her throat again.
"Yaz...for me, in this life... you're that person. An'...I know I can't have forever with ya, so... I'm just happy I get to have now with ya."
Yaz felt her eyes growing moist as she brought the Doctor's hand up to her lips and kissed it gently, never taking her eyes off of her.
The pair sat this way for a moment longer until the Doctor pulled her hand away.
Yaz, unsurprised at the Timelord wanting to avoid further emotion, was about to say that she was until her eyes noticed something on the cart.
"Oi, we missed one of the samples."
"Bottom shelf. On the left, near the back."
The Doctor reached down and brought it up, reading the name on the cup.
"So what flavor is it?" Yaz asked.
"That's it, just vanilla? Not somethin' like, I dunno, Martian Hyper Vanilla?"
"Nope, just plain ol' vanilla."
Yaz shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, nothin' wrong with a classic. Let's finish this off then."
The Doctor put the cup in the center of the table and both women dipped their spoons in, filling them with the ice cream. They raised their spoons to each other in a "cheers" gesture, and were about to enjoy the last of their creamy feast, when they stopped.
They looked at each other.
They were both thinking the same thing.
Wordlessly...and rather awkwardly...they reached across the table and spoon-fed the ice cream to one another, each slowly savoring the final delicious mouthful, smiling broadly at each other the entire time.
"This is it," Yaz declared moments after swallowing.
The Doctor was puzzled by this.
"Just, plain vanilla? I mean, it's good an' all but I don't think there's anythin' much special about it."
Yaz smiled and shook her head.
"Remember what I told ya? It all depends on where I am, who I'm with?"
She paused for several seconds as the enormity of what she was about to say came over her.
"Doctor...someday...maybe one day I'll get to be an old lady, an' who knows, maybe I'll have kids an' grandkids by then, or not...whatever."
She waved her hand dismissively.
"But I'll be somewhere with people who matter to me, birthday party or somethin' like that, havin' ice cream, an' there'll probably be vanilla 'cuz there's always vanilla...an' as soon as I have that first taste it'll remind me of what we're doin' now, you an' me sittin' here havin' ice cream. I'll remember how right before we finished this...this..."
She motioned toward the now-empty cart.
"...this totally amazin', over-the-top ice cream sampler thing..."
She looked away for a moment as she wiped away a tear.
"...that the best person I ever met told me that I was her person, that I made it worthwhile."
Looking across the table again, she quirked the corners of her mouth into a slight smile as she leaned forward and wiped a tiny bit of ice cream off the Doctor's upper lip.
"An' that's what makes this me favorite ice cream ever."
She licked the remnant from her finger.
The Doctor stared wide-eyed at Yaz, feeling her hearts pounding in her chest.
"Ya...Ya got some on ya too," she said as she noticed a tiny speck on the corner of Yaz's mouth.
Yaz's hand began moving towards her mouth to wipe it off but the Doctor reached out, stopping her hand.
The Doctor leaned over the table and kissed away the last of the ice cream.
Sitting back down, she saw the stunned look on the other woman's face.
"Y'know...I think this is me favorite too."
