Fireflies

“There’s just so many of them,” the Doctor thought as he looked out through the field. He was vacationing on his favorite planet, Earth. They had been there for a couple of months now and he finally felt like he was settling in. The grass was not the familiar shade of red that he was used to, but instead a shade of bright green. The blades waved in the warm summer breeze that flowed through the countryside.

He lay on the grass with his hands behind his head. Up above him, strange bugs flew around and lit up the night sky. He had read about these things back at home, while sitting on his bed. They were called fireflies, or lightning bugs, depending on your preference. Tiny little bugs that flew around in certain parts of planet Earth that lit up the night sky using special chemicals found on their backsides.

“Everything alright out there?” The Doctor turned onto his stomach and peered at his mother who stood in the doorway of their rented home.

“Fine mum,” he said as he rolled back over onto his back and looked at the one moon. Back at home on Gallifrey there were two moons that lit up the nighttime sky.

“My little man,” she whispered as she walked back into the house and closed the sliding glass door. “Can’t believe he’s already nine years old.”

The Doctor’s eyelids drooped as he stared off into the night. Slowly, he rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up. He walked across the field and closer to the house and into the vinyl tent. Inside he could still hear the sounds of the crickets that chirped every night. He left the flaps thrown open so that the summer breeze could make its way into the tent, along with the soft glow of curious fireflies.

He watched as three lightning bugs flew into the tent and float near the ceiling. Together they seemed to dance through the air, weightless as they preformed their moves. The only light, besides that of the moonlight that crept in, came from the bugs above. Outside in the vast darkness of the world, their light seemed insignificant. Inside, however, their light lit up the tent and caused all the insignificant details to be drawn out.

Back at home, his best friend, the Master, was woken from a dream and sat straight up in his bed. This is the third time this week that he was ripped from his dream world and thrown back into reality. Sitting up in his bed, he crossed his ankles in front of him and laid his hands across his knees.

Sighing, he fell backwards onto the bed and his head hit the pillow. The area above his bed, which he found himself staring at, was nothing special. As far as he could tell it was nothing but dark space. If he listened hard enough, he could hear what sounded like whispers from the other end of the house. In reality his parents were probably talking at a normal level about what had become of their baby boy.

They had always agreed that making the children look into the Untempered Schism was too much for children of only 8 years old. Both parents remembered their own journeys to the Schism and the effects that it had left them with. This time it was different. Their son had come back changed. He seemed more reserved, which was expected for the first couple of days, but not after almost a year.

Back in his room, Master closed his eyes and thought back to when his best friend left the planet. The Master knew it would only be for a couple of months, but to him it seemed more like forever. They had grown up together and grated they were only nine years old, it was a long time. They had both entered the Academy together and together they shared their stories of the Schism.

Before the Doctor had left, the two boys sat atop the Doctor’s bed and flipped through books about the Earth. The Doctor wanted to know everything that there was to know about the planet he was about to visit. Everything seemed so fascinating to him. The Master was not so interested in the animals and plant life that could be found on Earth. He instead sat with his back against the wall and listened as the Doctor rattled on and on with new facts.

The Master was there when the Doctor left with his parents. He stood fixated and watched as they left with no form of communication. Before they had left, the Doctor had told him that if he so wished, he could always make himself comfortable at his house. The Doctor never thought that the Master would take him up on the offer, but he knew it was a comforting thought to the Master. This way he could feel they were still connected.

The Doctor was still trying to understand what the Master was going through. Ever since they were inducted into the Academy, the Master seemed to be hiding something. When the Master finally had the courage to say what it was, all he could say was headaches. The Master had been having constant headaches and it was all due to a noise in his head.

The Master awoke from his dream to find himself sideways in his bed. He furrowed his brow in confusion and straightened himself out, so that his head was once again on his pillow. He lie looking at the ceiling, this time in the bright light and still found nothing of interest in the whiteness of the wall.

“Honey, are you awake yet?” His mother’s voice filtered through the open bedroom door, only to be followed by his mother’s head, which popped into the room.

“Uhhuh,” he said as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and rolled out of bed. His mother smiled and pushed the door all the way open. The Master smiled and walked out of the door, stopping to give his mum a hug.

“Do you remember what today is?” The Master peered up at his mother wide-eyed and innocent.

“Should I?”

“Well I should think so,” she said ruffling his hair and walking towards the living room. “It’s the day that the Doctor comes home.”

“I completely forgot!” The Master stopped walking down the hallway and stared at his mother. She smiled at him and picked up her cup of tea from the coffee table. The master ran back to his room without a word and left his mother and father curled up together in the living room, reading the paper and drinking tea.

He quickly opened his drawers and pulled out the first clean clothes that he could find. He even managed to get both his socks and shoes on before he heard the familiar ring of the doorbell. A smile spread across his face and he raced to quickly tie his shoes.

“He’s here,” the Master heard his mother shout as the sound of fast footsteps neared his room.

Standing up, the Master grabbed his sweater off of the floor and quickly slipped his arms into the sleeves. As he looked towards his door to walk out, he saw that there was already a body standing in his way. The Doctor’s bright eyes shined as they landed upon those of the Master’s. Both boys smiled and ran to wrap the other in a warm embrace.

“I have so much to show you,” said the Doctor in a rushed manner. “You won’t believe half of the things I have seen.”

“Let’s go then,” the Master said as he rubbed his temples. He could feel a slight headache coming on, but if he tried hard enough to not think about it, it would not affect his time with his best friend.

By the time he snapped back into reality, the Doctor was already out of the room and heading back down the hallway. The Master gasped and quickly ran after him, not wanting to miss a minute of being together after such a long time apart.

“Bye mum,” the Master shouted as he grabbed the Doctor by the collar, dragging him out the door.

“It was very nice to see you again,” the Doctor said as he stumbled out of the room and twisted out of the Master’s grip.

Time Elapse

“Mum I’m home!” The Doctor yelled as he opened his front door and walked into the house. Both boys kicked off their shoes and ran up the stairs to the Doctor’s room. Reaching the room and finding themselves safely inside, the shut the door and jumped on the Doctor’s bed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just shut the door for you,” the Doctor’s father yelled from the floor below.

“Sorry dad,” said the Doctor after giving the Master a look of ‘who cares.’

“Look what I snuck back,” said the Doctor as he rummaged around the luggage that was piled around the room. He unzipped all the zippers on the bags and began to dig through, searching through clothes and other daily necessities.

“I thought you couldn’t bring anything back,” said the Master as he took his usual spot atop the Doctor’s bed, with his back against the wall.

“Well I snuck these back for you,” said the doctor as he turned around and revealed a glass jar. “I just thought you had to see this.”

“What are they?” The Doctor placed the jar on the bed and climbed up after it. “They’re the firefly bugs, that we were reading about before I left,” he said as the Master picked up the jar and inspected the bugs.

Peering in, the Doctor frowned. The bugs had lost most of their lustre since he had last seen them on Earth. They were no longer flying busily in the jar, that he had punched holes in so that they could breathe. They now lay at the bottom of the jar their lights dimly flickering in and out.

“Are they supposed to look like this?” The Master turned the jar so the pile of fireflies went from one side to another. “They look like they’re dying.”

“They weren’t supposed to! I wanted you to see how cool they were when they flew around and lit up,” the Doctor took the jar from the Master and stared at the glass. None of the bugs were lighting up now.

“Well I did get to see them for a little while.”

“Yeah, before they died!” Disappointed, the Doctor placed the jar on the floor and sat back up in the bed. He had wanted the Master to feel a connection to the journey that he had taken, and not so left out.

“I still saw them,” the Master said as he lay back on the bed. “So tell me about the trip.”

Flipping over onto his stomach, the Doctor began telling about all the new things he had found on Earth. There was only one sun and only one moon. The grass and leaves were green, not the red and orange that had filled their own grass and tress. The Master slowly slipped off into his mind as the Doctor babbled on about the house that they stayed in and all of the people that he had met.

Before he knew it, the pounding in his head was waking the Master up. He quickly sat up, recognizing the beating that his head was undergoing and that he must have dozed off when the Doctor was talking. He began rubbing his temples and squeezing his eyes shut so that the noise would go away. He didn’t like being awoken to pain, so he did his best to make it go away as soon as possible.

A small tear slipped out of the side of the Master’s eye as he tried to make the pain go away. This headache seemed to be a lot worse than previous ones. Wiping the tear away, the Master looked beside him and saw the Doctor lying with his face sideways on the pillow, asleep. The Master gave a half smile and completely forgot the pain in his head. There was a feeling of relief as he laid his head back down beside the Doctor’s and drifted back to sleep.