Fic: Floating

[jadekirk]

Title: Floating
Characters: Tenth Doctor, James (OC)
Summary: A rare break from all the running for James and the Doctor.
Rating: PG
A/N: Written for the occhallenge  fic challenge thing. Prompt table can be found here. Also written for sci_fi_prompts  
Prompts: Fly (occhallenge ) Purple (sci_fi_prompts  )

James blinked as he peered over the edge of the cliff down at the pink grass below. He turned to face the Doctor, who was fixing a pair of goggles on his face. "You sure about this?" The two of them had landed on a planet which the Doctor said was in the Andromeda Galaxy. The Doctor had smiled and dragged James up a tall cliff which reached up into the purple clouds. The Doctor had launched into an explanation about how it's the tourist spot to do a bit of air current surfing which meant people jump off the cliff and use the air currents to fly. "And it's impossible to fall?"

The Doctor nodded, handing James a pair of goggles. "If you fall, the currents break your fall and you float down to safety. The low gravity helps too. It's about a third of Earth's gravity so no chance of hurting yourself." He grinned at James. "You haven't lived until you've done a bit of air surfing."

"Done this often then?"

"Well, I've done it once... No need to be nervous."

"I'm not. I've been skydiving."

The Doctor fixed James with a look. "It's just like that but you don't need a parachute." He sighed. "Have you ever wondered what it'll be like to do that without the parachute?"

"I played Quidditch at school."

"So, did you ever want to do it without the broom?"

James nodded. "Yes. So do we go one by one or do we go together?"

"Doesn't matter." The Doctor grinned. "Shall we go together at first and see what you think of it?"

James nodded. "Okay."

The Doctor grabbed James' hand and they both backed away from the edge. "Ready?"

James grinned. "Ready when you are."

"Let's go!" the Doctor exclaimed as they both ran towards the edge and jumped off in a diving pose.

James couldn't help himself. "Surf's up!" he yelled, feeling the wind blowing in his face. He felt exhilarated and free. He held his arms out from his body, enjoying the feeling of flying. He wondered if that was how a bird felt. Not even skydiving or Quidditch could measure up this, he was sure of that. He admired the view of pink grass below him. 'It's so peaceful up here,' he thought.

The Doctor squeezed James' hand and when James turned his head to look at him, grinned widely. 'I hope he's enjoying this as much as I am,' he wondered, suddenly worried that he made a mistake in bringing his companion here. 'I feel like I talked him into it.'

James grinned back and nodded to the Doctor's unspoken question. He would definitely be doing that again. He pointed downwards, getting a nod in reply.


The Doctor and James landed lightly on their feet. They looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Wow!" the Doctor said. "So how was it?"

"Brilliant. Can we do that again?"

The Doctor laughed again, more in relief than anything else. "So I didn't make a mistake bringing you here?"

"No. Let's go again." James pulled the Doctor into a hug. "Thank you."