Flower and Willow: Chapter 6

[timelord1]

So, here's Chapter Six. I have now lost my one-chapter buffer, which makes me a little nervous. But, this one just sang to me so I wanted to put it out there for you to enjoy. I hope you like this one as much as I liked writing it. :)

There may be a delay between this chapter and the next ones, as Mr. Timelord claims there's stuff planned for this weekend that will preclude me sitting in front of the computer and working. We shall see...

In case you need catching up:
Chapter 1   Chapter 2  Chapter 3  Chapter 4  Chapter 5


“It seems this hanamachi is a haven for the unusual,” Ichisumi said as the Doctor and Rose finished telling her what they knew of the future.

The Doctor had swung a wide berth around the whole “Oh, by the way, you know that war you’re about to start? You’re going to lose that very, very badly. And then you’ll be occupied by the United States,” portion of the story and Rose wisely followed suit. They were in the dining room of the okiya, seated on little cushions at a low table. The Doctor and Ichisumi had passed many evenings at that table, and as they sat there now, he felt twenty years younger.

“Of course, were it not so, I would have lived my life never having met you,” she continued.

“And I the same,” the Doctor said. “That would have been a tragedy.”

Sumiko came in to serve the supper, and the first thing the Doctor noticed was the presence of sekihan: pink-tinted rice cooked with azuki beans and sesame, a dish served on very special occasions. Along with the sekihan, there were several slices of raw fish, a steaming pot of fish stew, and the Doctor’s favorite: fried prawns. He rudely licked his lips at the sight of them and caught Rose’s eye, indicated the prawns with a glance, and wiggled his eyebrows at her. She waited with her hands in her lap until the food was laid out, watching him for clues on etiquette.

He bowed his head to Ichisumi and said, “Itadakimasu.” He looked at Rose and gave her the subtlest of nods. She repeated the salutation exactly as he had done. Brilliant girl – never misses a trick. His smile was so wide he thought his face would break.

Ichisumi turned her attention to Rose. “You have been to Japan before?” she asked.

“Oh, never,” Rose answered. “I am so nervous right now I can’t even remember how to eat food.”

Ichisumi laughed and reached across the table to pat Rose’s hand. “You have no reason to be nervous here, my friend. I would rather you were comfortable and relaxed than correct. When Abunai-san first came here, I served him a dinner such as this. Without waiting to find out what was being served to him, he picked up the bowl of soy sauce and drank it. The look on his face as he tried to maintain his propriety while choking on soy sauce was priceless.”

The two women started laughing and the Doctor rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m an idiot,” he said. He picked up his bowl of soy sauce and, toasting the women, drank it down. He was sitting at supper with two of the most wonderful people he had ever met, and both of them owned pieces of his hearts. Well, one of them owned a piece. The other owned both hearts, and the rest of him to go along besides. While Rose and Ichisumi were giggling with one another, he glanced out the window and caught sight of someone standing in the shadows outside the window, watching. It was himself. He was wearing the brown pinstripe suit he wore now. It was soaked with rain, despite the dryness of the evening, and his expression was hard.

He was alone.

The version of himself standing outside the window nodded to him. He nodded back, and then put his arms around Rose, for both their sakes. If ever there was a night in his life he would be inclined to revisit, this was it. When he looked back out the window, he had gone.

“Now, Abunai-san,” Ichisumi said, drawing him back to the present. “What is your plan in regards to this mysterious tea house?”

“Well,” he began, picking up a prawn with his chopsticks and inserting the whole thing into his mouth as he was speaking, “I am going undercover as an American GI, and Rose here is going to pose as a geisha.”

Rose cleared her throat and looked down at her food. Ichisumi’s right eyebrow was halfway up her forehead.

“American GI?” she asked.

“Bollox,” the Doctor said. Stupid looking-out-the-window-and-blowing-your-own-mind git! “Erm, yes. Hello. I don’t know how there’s room for all the food I’m eating with my foot stuck in my mouth.”

“There will be an invasion,” Ichisumi said. “All their posturing about not wanting to interfere in the world’s affairs, and in eight years their soldiers will be here.”

“There’s more to it than that,” Rose said.

“I think it would be wisest if this topic of conversation was dropped immediately,” the Doctor said. “I opened the door, but I am also closing it. Ichisumi-san, you know full well that I cannot and will not discuss any future events with you, as much as I might want to. Suffice it to say that I will be posing as an American GI, and Rose will be posing as a geisha, and that is why we’re here. I knew you would be able to help her learn enough of the art for her to be able to fake her way through one or two nights’ entertainment.”

Ichisumi stared at him. No one was eating any more. “Why did you not just ask me to do this in the future?”

The Doctor swallowed, keeping his expression as free of the sadness clawing at his hearts as he could. “I can’t tell you that.”

He and Ichisumi locked eyes for several tense seconds. Someone is going to stab you six times in the chest in a snowy back alley of the hanamachi when you prove too strong to be dominated. It will take me four days to track your murderer down. When I finish with him, I eject him, screaming, into the corona of a dying sun.

“It must be difficult living your life poised between such extremes of darkness and light. It’s a balance humans spend their whole lives trying to learn without real success,” Ichisumi said.

“I have more time than a human to get it right,” the Doctor answered. He looked at Rose for a long while before anyone spoke again. It wasn’t that he had any illusions about her leaving him one day, whether by choice or by misadventure, or even by the wastes of time. What scared him was that the version of himself standing outside the window had the same form that he did now. Either he had lived a very lucky span of time and hadn’t had to regenerate in eighty years, or Rose was gone, much sooner than he would like her to be, without him having done everything possible to stop it from happening.

“You have all of time, it seems,” Ichisumi said. “And while you are using it, the present and the future wait for your return. For now, we’ll use your borrowed time to teach this lovely young woman how to ‘fake enough,’ as you say, of my life’s work.”
 
****
 
No one was much in the mood for conversation after dinner was over, so Rose and the Doctor walked back to the park through what were the now crowded and bustling streets of the hanamachi to move the TARDIS to the garden at the back of the okiya for safekeeping. Geisha and street vendors and careless rickshaw drivers surged around them, with music and laughter flowing out of every teahouse they passed.

The Doctor could not stop thinking of the glimpse he’d caught of himself, watching their dinner from outside the window. There was no way to know from what point in the future that version of himself had come, but it was clear he was without Rose and missing her. One thing was certain; he was going to come to fear the rain, never knowing which storm would be the one he would be standing in before needing to come back to this night. As they walked together, the finite nature of their relationship pressed harder and harder on his thoughts until he stopped walking and wordlessly grabbed Rose into an embrace, pulling her onto her toes. He couldn’t get his arms tightly enough around her, and he squeezed and re-squeezed her, smelling her clothes and the scent of her hair, until she started laughing and drew her head away to look up at him.

“What brought this on?” she asked, leaning her forehead against his.

He didn’t know when that rain was going to come and leave him without Rose; it could be within hours, or decades from now, but he was going to make every second he had left with her count. No more dodging.

“I can’t say what I want to say to you. Because if I say it, out loud, I admit to the universe that there is one more thing it can take away from me. I’m afraid the moment I do that, I’ll lose you forever. And of all the things I’ve lost, I cannot lose you.”

The sounds of the hanamachi faded into murmurs as he watched realization spread over her face. A beautiful smile bloomed there and her eyes lit up like supernovas.

“You’re telling me you love me,” Rose whispered.

“I’ve said it a thousand times, a thousand different ways. Don’t make me say it outright.”

She shook her head, beaming, tears sparkling at the corners of her eyes. “I won’t.”

Life began anew for the Doctor in that moment, as he brought his lips to hers and kissed her, spinning her around in the middle of the crowded hanamachi street.

Comments

[freaky-anomaly.livejournal.com]

Well this was all skiddily-doo until the sadness of post-JE Doctor! Whatta ya playin' at?! XD This chapter was great. I loved the two laughing at the Doctor and the Doctor being all put upon. You even had the perfect way for the Doctor to say 'I love you!'

He was sitting at supper with two of the most wonderful people he had ever met, and both of them owned pieces of his hearts. Well, one of them owned a piece. The other owned both hearts, and the rest of him to go along besides.

This is my favorite bit. It embodies what Rose and the Doctor are to a T.

Also, Rose has been to Japan before. It was off screen, but in series 1, it's mentioned that Jack, Rose, and the Doctor had been to feudal Japan. Not important, really but I thought I'd say.

[timelord1.livejournal.com]

Shoot!!! :( I forgot that and you're absolutely right. I could go back and tweak it so she says something like "Not since they got rid of samurai" or something, but I'll just remember to to better fact-checking next time. *hits head against wall*

Thank you - glad you're enjoying. Lots more fun to come!!! :)