“You make me laugh,” Ajax said, in what seemed to Flic to be a vaguely condescending manner, and one she wasn’t entirely happy about. “Why? How is that funny?” she replied, frowning slightly. “I’m trying to think there’s more to you than meets the eye, and you’re laughing at me? Personally, I think that laddish, manwhore exterior is just a crock, but you keep it up cos it’s easier than working out who you really are,” she went on, jabbing his chest with her finger to emphasise the point. She could usually sense when something was an act, and in her experience an excessive overt display of machismo was almost inevitable compensating for something else. And she had started to scratch that surface, back when they were sitting in the console room, woozy and half-insensible, before he had suddenly clammed up again. So there definitely was more to things than met the eye. If he didn’t want to give her the answers, then her natural nosey instinct would have to take over.

And she didn’t have to wait long for the next clue. “That’s life…that statement is weird when you’re a Time Lord. I have twelve lives – thirteen really,” he said as they walked to the wardrobe. “Ewww…I’m middle aged.” “Yeah, you said something about being on your sixth life. Were you any different in your earlier lives. You know, like handsome or charming?” she probed cheekily. “I have the sudden need to have a sports car and get laid by someone that’s a few years older than my great granddaughter.” Well, no wonder he was acting like he did, it was a classic mid-life crisis. It was simply genetic. Once a male got to between 40 and 50, it was only a matter of time before they ran off with a 20-something year old in a miniskirt in a shiny new sports car, or on the back of a Harley. “I’m just depressing myself…” he went on. “Aww, there there,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “Everyone gets old. At least you don’t have middle-age spread kicking in.”

Her thoughts turned to Kai. Definitely not middle aged. She was still just a teenager. Somehow, Flic couldn’t imagine the flame-haired Time Lady as anything but young and effervescent, and certainly couldn’t imagine what her first incarnation must have looked like. Come to think of it, Flic couldn’t really imagine herself growing older. Apart from the fact that she’d be lucky to see 25 with the amount of danger she seemed to face on a daily basis, she wasn’t completely sure she wanted to get old. She was happy with things at the moment – past the awkward anxiety of teenage years, and not yet completely set in her ways.

She wasn’t sure whether mid-life crises extended to dressing in jester costumes. Probably not, since it didn’t appear to have been his first choice. Though he did look adorable. “Well – I could see this as a compliment too. Shakespeare always wrote the clown or jester as the only one that wasn’t a dumb$%&# – like in Twelfth Night, if you ever read that. The clown knew what was going on the entire time, while everyone else had their heads up their asses.” “I’ll take your word for it. I never really got into Shakespeare.” Oh the number of times she had to stay after school in detention because she had spent English lessons doodling, or composing, instead of trying to write a hip, funky, edgy, 21st century version of Macbeth, or Hamlet or whatever “And that Romeo and Juliet, what a pair of idiots! Wouldn’t it have just been easier to elope to Milan or something, rather than the whole angst with the killing? Plus, at their age, I doubt they could have been that much in love. Love. Bah! Certainly not worth dying for.”

Apparently the number one rule of Time Lords – never, ever insult their TARDIS. Sure, Flic had had some less than complimentary things to say about the Nezerra from time to time, but she’d kept them to herself and not voiced them. “Actually, I'll go hunt up a blunt instrument for next time,” Kai warned after Ajax had extricated himself from the box of rags dumped on him. Not a piano, as Flic had suggested, but still it was a serious threat. So Ajax had run after Kai and said something, presumably an apology.

As they were in medieval times, he had decided to play the gallant hero, sweeping the ‘princess’ off her feet. And funnily enough, she didn’t have a problem with it. Although apparently Kai did, judging by the way she shook her head and stalked off in the direction of yonder castle. Flic wasn’t sure what her objections were, after all, she had bawled her out in Egypt for not being able to get along with Ajax. Now when she was getting along much better with him, Kai still wasn’t happy. Was she jealous, and secretly wanted Ajax for herself? Deciding that was a stupid thought, Flic quickly nipped it in the bud. It could just be a matter of embarrassment. After all, not everyone was comfortable with public displays of affection. But soon enough, Ajax lowered her gently to the ground with no attempts at molestation, no groping, not even a kiss, and they set off in hot pursuit. “Wait for us!” she called out to Kai as they caught up. “Don’t think you can get rid of us that easier, and keep all the fun to yourself!”

“I’m really hoping there’s a Prince Charming,” Jax broke the sudden silence, “Princes are so fun. They love themselves more then they could love any woman…or man. Even if they’re $%&#ing ugly – they act like that. Princesses tend to be one of two things – classic ‘Oh I need a man to save me!’,” he said in a very convincing falsetto. “Or, ‘$%&# YOU AND YOUR MAN PARTS – I can do it myself, dammit’.” If she were a princess, Flic was pretty sure there’d be no doubt as to which variety she’d be. She acquired a reputation as being a bit of an Ice Queen, or more of an Ice Princess really, back home mainly due to the fact that she was far more likely to wail on a guy, rather than agree to sleep with him.

Ajax paused, playing with the bells on his hat again, “I’m wondering what’s wrong here. I’m guessing…oh a dragon…” “Where?” Flic cried out, looking around anxiously but not seeing any dragons. “Sure it’s just not one of those lions again?” Whatever it was, Ajax felt sufficiently spooked and grabbed the girls’ arms, setting off at a run towards the castle. “I’m not going to fight a $%&#ing dragon until I know more,” he whispered angrily. “It’s alright for you, you’re not wearing high heels,” she grumbled as they raced through the forest, down a hill and across a nicely maintained lawn and garden, and towards the main gate of the castle…

…Where they were met by two guards holding spears. Instinctively Ajax put his hands up, but Flic sensed this was going to be different to what had happened in Egypt. For starters, spears were slightly different to ray guns. Nasty, pointy and liable to kill you, yes, but at least they weren’t ranged weapons. Secondly, both guards looked as if they were barely 18 or so, nervous and unsure of themselves, their hands shaking as they held the spears and tried to look menacing, something they were completely failing at. Scared people could be more dangerous, but these two looked as if they weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, and could be…persuaded with the right prompts. “Stay your weapons, good knights,” she said in her most regal voice, taking a step towards the two guards. “We are but simple, heroic travellers looking for adventure. This is the beautiful and fearless Princess Kaidanzaretez of Nexerra, I am the fabulous Princess Felicity of Bratislava, and our companion here is…” She hesitated and considered what to say, before deciding to be nice. “Our, uh, slightly eccentric companion that is, Prince Ajax of Helios. Now kindly tell us what adventure we can be of assistance with!”

It was a huge bluff, but to her immense surprise and relief, it worked, the guards lowering their spears and also looking quite relieved. Well, it hadn’t been that difficult. Just look cute and act like you owned the place. Although on closer inspection, the guards’ attention wasn’t fully on her. One was definitely sneaking glances at Kai, before turning away and blushing and repeating the process, but the second one was staring at her. No, not at her, past her, at…oh. Oh. Dear. “It’s Princess Hannah,” squeaked the first guard, his voice breaking almost comically as he spoke. “She’s been kidnapped, and all the other guards have been eaten by a dragon. We’re the only ones left!” A man-eating dragon? Oh joy. Just so long as it wasn’t also a woman-eating dragon…

“Why? How is that funny?” Flic questioned with a frown, “I’m trying to think there’s more to you than meets the eye, and you’re laughing at me? Personally, I think that laddish, manwhore exterior is just a crock, but you keep it up cos it’s easier than working out who you really are,” Flic stabbed him in the chest with her fingers, as she ridiculed him. The Time Lord’s hazel eyes fought to hide the realization that bubbled up inside him. He really was trying to work out who he was. Never before had it been said so plainly. So in his face. So out there. $%&#. Shaking his head slightly, he stopped fighting the frown, which actually started the whole ‘midlife crises’ issues he got into a short while later.

“Yeah, you said something about being on your sixth life. Were you any different in your earlier lives. You know, like handsome or charming?”
Jax narrowed his eyes at her, with an amused expression sliding across his features, “Oh $%&# you,” he calmly stated, obviously not meaning the words, “You think I’m sexy – you’re just not admitting it. That’s why you kept threatening my manhood before. You want me,” he nudged her. Yes – this was far too much fun.

“Aww, there there,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “Everyone gets old. At least you don’t have middle-age spread kicking in.”
“I’ve never been physically old,” he admitted, eyes staring at nothing, “I died before I could really age…”

“I’ll take your word for it. I never really got into Shakespeare.” Flic admitted, making Jax frown, “And that Romeo and Juliet, what a pair of idiots! Wouldn’t it have just been easier to elope to Milan or something, rather than the whole angst with the killing? Plus, at their age, I doubt they could have been that much in love. Love. Bah! Certainly not worth dying for.”
“Then you’ve never been in love.” Jax quietly replied, after a short pause.

Cue Jax being assaulted by a box of rags, and Kai wishing him into little pieces. Even after an apology that was spoken in a genuine tongue, she seemed pissed.
"It's okay," She shrugged, before giving him a quiet grin. "Just next time, keep your thoughts to yourself. That box of rags was relatively harmless, but.."

At least she wasn’t wielding a meat cleaver. Yet.

Kai’s dark mood continued outside, even when Jax was pulling them towards the castle. She removed her arm, as if he was trying to cause her harm. Ajax cast her a confused and mildly hurt glance as she moved away from him.

Right when Jax was about to pull Kai aside and asked what the $%&# her problem with him was, pointy things were in their faces.
“Stay your weapons, good knights,” Flic jumped in, “We are but simple, heroic travellers looking for adventure. This is the beautiful and fearless Princess Kaidanzaretez of Nexerra, I am the fabulous Princess Felicity of Bratislava, and our companion here is…” she hesitated slightly, “Our, uh, slightly eccentric companion that is, Prince Ajax of Helios. Now kindly tell us what adventure we can be of assistance with!”

“I’m not a $%&#ing Prince,” he mumbled, though he straightened his posture slightly.

Surprisingly the guards bought the @#$%.
Nice.
“It’s Princess Hannah,” squeaked the first guard, complete with voice cracks, “She’s been kidnapped, and all the other guards have been eaten by a dragon. We’re the only ones left!”

Jax closed his eyes, obviously not liking the words.
"..That's potentially problematic.." Kai mumbled, as he shook his head.

Damn right.

“Alright, everyone’s being nomed on by a dragon, except you lot. Alright. Alright…”

He rolled his lips in, looking over at the other two, “You two ready to…take on a $%&#ing dragon?”

He rocked on his heels slightly, frowning.

Dragons?
$%&# this @#$%.

Perhaps Flic did hit closer to the mark than she realised with her comments about Ajax’s laddish exterior merely being a façade, hiding the real person inside. Instead of his usual confident, snide comeback she was greeted with an introspective silence, and a slight shake of the head, as though he were lost for words. It was certainly a change, but not necessarily a good change. And maybe she was being a bit unfair. She wasn’t 100% sure of who she was either. Was she really the man-eating, quick-tempered, shoe obsessed individual she portrayed herself as, or was there something else once you scratched the surface?

Luckily they moved on quickly to their usual banter. “Oh $%&# you,” he retorted to one of her barbs, not harshly or meant in an insulting manner though. “You think I’m sexy – you’re just not admitting it. That’s why you kept threatening my manhood before. You want me,” he continued, nudging her in the side and almost causing her to choke in her attempts not to burst out laughing. “There’s a lot of sentences I can think of that start with the words ‘I want you…’, but trust me, you don’t want to hear the end of them,” she replied just as coolly. “And besides, you can talk – you haven’t been able to take your eyes off me from the moment we met.” “I’ve never been physically old. I died before I could really age…” “Maybe it’s not all bad, out with a bang not a whimper, and all that,” she offered, trying to put a positive spin on the situation.

But she really couldn’t think of a positive spin moments later, when Ajax managed to really touch a raw nerve. Not so much touch, as cut open, sprinkle salt on and smear with lemon juice. “Then you’ve never been in love,” he surmised from her reaction to Romeo and Juliet. She just froze at those words, feeling a wave of forlorn memories, of sadness and shame just wash over her. Suddenly she was a messed-up nineteen year old kid again, betrayed by the man she thought she loved, the man she thought had loved only her. No, she had been in love once. But only once, and never again. She could feel the tears welling up in the corner of her eyes, and she turned away from Ajax, not wanting to let him see her cry. “Yeah, probably not,” she said finally in a quiet voice, taking her glasses off and dabbing her eyes on her sleeve. “Come on, let’s get changed.”

At least the sight of Ajax in his jester costume, and the chance for to change into something pretty and feminine herself, had done wonders for her mood. And seeing him be owned by a box of rags was simply priceless. “Just next time, keep your thoughts to yourself. That box of rags was relatively harmless, but…" Kai had warned him in a friendly enough tone. “How come it’s just picking on him?” Flic whispered to Kai when Ajax wasn’t looking. “Not that I’m complaining. I mean, I’ve had one or two unkind thoughts about Neze now and again but I’ve never had things dropped on me.”

And before she knew it, they were outside, haring towards an imposing if slightly stereotypical medieval castle, kept company by a dragon that apparently everyone else except her could see. The young and obviously inexperienced guards had completely swallowed her baloney about being adventuring princesses and princes from a far-off land, and had seem almost relieved to defer to some sort of authority figures, eagerly telling them of their tales of woe regarding a missing Princess Hannah, and a dragon with an appetite for flesh. “That's potentially problematic,” observed Kai in typically understated fashion. “Alright, everyone’s being nomed on by a dragon, except you lot. Alright. Alright…” summarised Ajax. “You two ready to…take on a $%&#ing dragon?” he asked, looking over at the two girls. Obviously Kai was eager and raring to go, but funnily enough, Flic was less enthusiastic. “Would it make any difference if I said no?” she asked, not holding out much hope of her opinion really mattering. The others seemed to have their heart set on doing a spot of rescuing. Why couldn’t they land somewhere safe, like a coffee house, or a shopping centre or something? No, then something weird and freaky would still happen, like they’d have to deal with an invasion of giant vegetables or something.

Of course, there was still plenty of opportunity for things to turn weird and freaky right there and then. While they were debating the merits of going dragon hunting, they were joined by someone new. One head, two arms, two legs. So nothing freaky there. What was more disturbing was the way he was dressed. ‘You’re not from around these parts’ would have been a perfect way to sum him up, if this had been a Western. Dressed in a white shirt, brown slacks, a black suit jacket and converse trainers, it was fairly obvious that he was about 650 years out of his time. Not a local then. And unless humans had somehow acquired the science of technology, then it could only mean one thing. “Ahhh, dammit!” she cried out, stamping her foot in frustration. “Not another one of you!”

The new Time Lord introduced himself, playing with Ajax’s bells in the process. “Hi! I saw the dragon too. I’m Theon.” “Oh sure, everyone sees the dragon except me,” she grumbled. “And I will be your awesome guest star on this random journey we’re all on. I just kinda…ended up here. I’m guessing the dragon and all this backstory shiz is why the Nyx brought me here,” he went on, playing with something that appeared to be a small hedgehog. Or was it a squirrel? It was hard to tell. “I saw a dragon. A $%&#ING DRAGON!” “So you keep saying,” Flic muttered under her breath. Sidling over to Kai, she surreptitiously tugged on her sleeve while Theon was once again distracted by Ajax’s bells. “Do you know this guy?” she asked quietly. “And seriously, why do you all travel in bunches? This is turning into a Time Lord jamboree, and I’m starting to feel intimidated by the whole Time Lord to human ratio.”

Ajax’s mood was an odd one. One moment he was being himself, the next he had that horrible sick feeling in his gut, in which he had been attempting to repress over the past few months. Not the fun sort of yo-yo effect. This was the bad one.

“There’s a lot of sentences I can think of that start with the words ‘I want you…’, but trust me, you don’t want to hear the end of them,” Flic shot back, causing Ajax to cup his hand over one of his hearts, pretending like she shot him, before laughing and shaking his head, “So feisty,” he teased, nudging her again. He was having fun.
“And besides, you can talk – you haven’t been able to take your eyes off me from the moment we met.”
“It’s called making eye contact while talking to someone,” Jax replied, purposefully staring at her, “Doesn’t help my staring that your eyes are all contrasty from your hair,” he smirked, dropping eye contact, and actually attaching his field of vision to his shoes. Dirty, dirty shoes…

“Maybe it’s not all bad, out with a bang not a whimper, and all that,”
“Takes the darkness to appreciate the light,” he whispered, sliding his hands into his pockets. Jax being vague. Never, ever a good thing. EVER.

Then things turned to love.
Apparently bad territory on both their parts. Jax was slightly caught off guard by Flic’s reaction, but decided not to say anything. He was probably more $%&#ed up than her…which was a given after living for over five-hundred-years.
“Yeah, probably not,” she said in a very quiet voice, appearing to wipe her eyes with her sleeve. “Come on, let’s get changed.”
“]b]Yeah.[/b]”

Yay awkward.

Change.
Fail.
Jester costume.
Neze throws @#$% at Jax.
He gets pissed.
Kai is more pissed at Jax.

Moving on.

Things with Kai just seemed to get worse outside. She was seething at Jax. He disliked this. It even caused him to ignore Flic a little. Ajax genuinely thought Kai was a spazz and borderline crazy – but he liked it. He was the sort to be bothered when people that he liked disliked him. People he didn’t care about or hated in the first place...well let’s just say he has no shame in flipping them off.

Cue dragon, young guards, and apparently the princess was missing.
Time for adventure?
“Would it make any difference if I said no?” Flic asked, causing Jax to pat her on the back, smiling, “Oh come on. Would you prefer to be sitting at home reading a book about this, or actually feeling the medieval dirt between your fingers?” he asked, as the new boy came to play.

Jax automatically narrowed his eyes in confusion, noticing the Converse and odd style. Oh Rassilon. Did the Doctor breed when he wasn’t paying attention? Anyone who dressed in formalish clothing with Converse…had to be from his off-Universe. Right?

Definitely a Time Lord. Felt familiar too. Probably someone from the war…? Maybe. So many faces.

And the kid introduced himself.
Theon.

Wait…

Jeez. It was that kid that nearly $%&#ed up the War for everyone. He had never really met him, just heard stories. Whatever. That was the past.

It was all okay until he stared playing with Jax’s bells.

What.
The.
$%&#.

After Theon and Kai started interacting, it was almost annoying how quickly he reversed her mood. Clenching his jaw, his hand jumped up, grabbing Theon’s wrist – removing it away from the bells on his hat, “Oh dear Rassilon, please grow an attention span,” he half ordered, a bit of military influence tickling the back his throat.

The boy lowered his hand at his touch – eyes wide with almost a touch of fear. A bit of ‘oops,’ filled Jax’s features for a moment, before he erased the emotion from his face.

“Alright, shall we link arms and start singing until the dragons rips us apart?" Jax asked in a flat tone, still studying Theon. That little asshole. His very presence was annoying...

“So feisty,” Ajax teased her. Flic raised an eyebrow and gave him a knowing smirk. “Took you that long to figure out, did it? Look up ‘feisty’ in the dictionary and there’ll be a picture of me.” She was probably a lot more than just feisty in all honesty. Everyone would be happy if she actually drew the line at feisty, instead off full-on hostile. Maybe one day she’d get it right.

“It’s called making eye contact while talking to someone. Doesn’t help my staring that your eyes are all contrasty from your hair.” Well, knock me down with a feather. She was rather surprised that he had even noticed her eyes to be honest. But he was right, her jet-black hair did contrast rather dramatically with her pale but sparkling grey eyes. “I’d buy that statement IF you’d been looking at my eyes the whole time. My eyes are up here, you know…” She was just teasing him, sort of. Being on the small side, most guys tended to have to look down at her and it could be tricky to tell whether someone was looking at her face or…slightly lower down, but to his credit, Flic was pretty sure he had been doing a good job of maintaining eye contact while he was speaking to her. On the other hand, her sixth sense was damn sure that there had been eyes on her butt when she’d been facing away from him.

“But you keep yours to yourself, and she likes you,” was Kai’s response to her query about why Nezerra was nice to her. “Insulting a TARDIS is just something you don't do. I've hurt people for insulting Nezerra and some people had started blood feuds over it. He's a Time Lord, he should know better - Nezerra puts up with your anti-TARDIS thoughts because you're human and didn't know.” “I’m not trying to insult her,” Flic added, giving the wall of the TARDIS a pat. “I just like to suggest that moving the bathroom to the other side of the ship, or redecorating my room in fluoro orange with out consulting me first might not be the most, uh, efficient things to do.”

Speaking of efficiency, was charging headlong towards a dragon (if it was even there at all) really an efficient way of doing business, regardless of how enthusiastic the other two members of her little party were. “Oh come on. Would you prefer to be sitting at home reading a book about this, or actually feeling the medieval dirt between your fingers?” Ajax asked her. Flic hoped the withering look she shot him would convey the full force of what she was thinking. “I’m not all that fond of feeling any dirt between my fingers, medieval or not,” she retorted, holding up her hands and showing the effect of a manicure and a fresh coat of dark blue nail polish. “Like I’ve said before – precision instruments, not agricultural tools.”

Which was when the new guy showed up. “I could say the same thing about you,” he replied to her slightly rude opening remark along the lines of ‘not another one of you’. He could, but…considering the current species ratio present, it wouldn’t be entirely accurate. At least her initial coldness was more than offset by Kai’s rampant enthusiasm to see him, despite apparently never having met him before in her life. “Hmm. You'll get your name in the credits, a mention in 'OK!', and all the cold salami sandwiches you want,” she offered him with a grin, more than a hint of excitement in her voice.

“I’m sure you’ll see it,” the new guy, Theon apparently, replied to her complaints about not seeing the dragon yet. Then Kai offered him Skittles, and made a sound that sounded suspiciously like “OMGZRORZADRAGONLIKENOWAIII.” Bizarrely enough, thanks to the arrival of this strange newcomer, she seemed happier and more excited than Flic had ever seen her before, which in its own way was a good thing. “We don't do it intentionally. We aren't pack animals, we just have a knack for turning up at the same place at the same time.” “But…but the Universe is so big! And there’s so few of you! So how do you do it?!” Flic protested weakly.

It seemed that Ajax was similarly unimpressed with Theon. “Oh dear Rassilon, please grow an attention span!” he roared, removing Theon’s hand from his bells. At least the other Time Lord seemed to get the message, even if he did look a bit shocked/sad/scared at the outburst. “Alright, shall we link arms and start singing until the dragons rips us apart?” he went on. Hopefully he was joking, of course. Although there was still the little matter of whether or not the dragon was even real or not. “Maybe we could arm ourselves with anti-dragon weapons and sneak up on it instead?” she proffered, still not entirely enthusiastic about the whole situation. But it was obvious that the others wanted to do a spot of beastie hunting, and she wasn’t going to be left behind.

“Took you that long to figure out, did it? Look up ‘feisty’ in the dictionary and there’ll be a picture of me.” Flic proclaimed, causing Jax to smile. Every chance she got she seemed to be trying to prove how strong and independent she was. It was honestly a tiny bit annoying, but also a bit cute. Probably something happened in her past that caused her to have this defensive nature. Considering Jax has demons of his own, he wasn’t one to judge for acting a strange way because of something that happened long ago. He would almost be a hypocrite if he judged her for that. So he just smiled and laughed.

“I’d buy that statement IF you’d been looking at my eyes the whole time. My eyes are up here, you know…” Flic teased, as Jax rolled his eyes, looking down at her. Honestly, he hadn’t kept his eyes to her eyes, but she didn’t need to know that. Just smile and laugh. Leave it at that. Nothing more. Nothing less.

And they went outside and found a castle.
“I’m not all that fond of feeling any dirt between my fingers, medieval or not,” Flic protested, showing him her nails, “Like I’ve said before – precision instruments, not agricultural tools.”
“It’s an expression…” he sighed, before the small guy jumped out of nowhere and $%&#ed everything up.

He even handed Kai a hedgehog, and was even on good terms with her already…while Jax could hardly speak a sentence to her without some sort of mean remark coming out of her mouth at him. Then the little prick started to play with his bells. In a bout of annoyance, he grabbed Theon’s wrist – causing instant shock to spread across the kid’s face.

"[i]AJAX[/!” Kai snapped at him,"You unhand him right now, or so help me I will make sure there is a $%&#ing piano to land on you next time.”

Jax watched her for a moment, slightly in denile that it just happened.
And innocent grin spread across her features as she added, "So are you planning on letting go of his wrist?"

And he dropped Theon’s wrist, anger building up inside him.
Why was Theon suddenly the big @#$%? Did seriously no one know about what he actually was? The horrible excuse for a Time Lord that Kai instantly liked, and Flic wasn’t exactly kicking him in the balls. Yet. Hopefully. It was sort of like working your ass off to get a C+ in a class, then someone who doesn’t show up for anything gets an A.

HACKS.
“Maybe we could arm ourselves with anti-dragon weapons and sneak up on it instead?” Flic suggested, causing Kai to ask, "Anti-dragon like what? Magical sheer awesome lasers?"

“And we don’t even know what type of dragon we are dealing with here,” Jax began, “Is it an alien creature that has come to attack the innocent people here, or is it a native that came before the people. We would need seriously different weapons for each. Like we’d have to dip the sword in something different mattering its origins,” he half ranted, pulling a bell off his hat, running it through his fingers.

It wasn’t as if Flic, Kai and Ajax didn’t already have a highly complicated dynamic running between them. With mood swings ranging from introspective brooding, to unbounded enthusiasm, from hostility to playful affection, from flirtatiousness to apologetic sheepishness – all of which could easily occur within a given five minute period – things could certainly be interesting. Nonetheless, despite all this, because of their shared experiences to this point, the three of them had sort of managed to work each other out, or at least find a happy balance. But all this was completely messed up with the introduction of the new Time Lord, Theon. Evidently he and Ajax had some sort of shared past, judging by the overt hostility he was showing towards the newcomer. However, despite never having met him before, Kai had shown an instant affinity with him, possibly due to his energy and almost annoying enthusiasm.

As a result, Kai had then had to shift her attitude towards Ajax to ‘hostile’ in response. “AJAX." She snapped at him, glowering fiercely at him. "You unhand him right now, or so help me I will make sure there is a $%&#ing piano to land on you next time. So are you planning on letting go of his wrist?” Flic wasn’t sure exactly how she planned on causing a several-tonne musical instrument to fall from the sky (and surely there was absolutely no way it could be managed in an environmentally friendly manner) but Kai could probably do absolutely anything she put her mind to. Ajax obviously recognised the ‘do-not-screw-with-me’ tone in her voice and grudgingly unhanded Theon, displeasure evident on his face as he did so.

Flic had tried to lighten the mood, or at least divert people’s minds from overt hostility, by suggesting a plan to deal with the dragon. “Anti-dragon like what? Magical sheer awesome lasers?” countered Kai to her suggestion, in a manner that Flic wasn’t sure was sarcastic or not. “And we don’t even know what type of dragon we are dealing with here,” Ajax continued, before Flic could get another word in edgeways. “Is it an alien creature that has come to attack the innocent people here, or is it a native that came before the people. We would need seriously different weapons for each. Like we’d have to dip the sword in something different mattering its origins,” he went on, plucking a bell from his hat and playing with in a distracted fashion. Flic opened her mouth to say something, and was again cut off, this time by Theon. “Well, the dragon is big, shiny, breathes fire, and looks like basic dragon to me,” he said. ‘Sure, cos unlike me, you’ve seen it’ she thought out loud, watching as the hedgehoggy thing floating around Kai’s shoulder changed shape and floated back over to Theon. Time Lords and their pets…Theon had this blob, Ajax had mentioned a puppy, and Kai had Tabby the rabbitoid. “I know where the dragon is if you wanna follow me…” Theon went on with a smile.

Flic didn’t particularly want to follow, but she really didn’t have much of a choice, seeing as the other three had their hearts (all 6 of them) set on finding the thing. “You know, I was only tossing around suggestions…you didn’t really have to go into excruciating depth about why an anti-dragon weapon might be impractical,” she grumbled, getting the words out quickly in case she was interrupted agian. “I was thinking more along the lines of huge giant lasers or something, wouldn’t care what they were shooting at, dragon or not. So we didn’t have to worry about the whole dipping the sword into the magic stream while facing the full moon and saying the mystic incantations backwards, or any of that crap. Just a nice, big, chunky gun.”

She shrugged and walked around to the back of the group, jumping as another ear-shattering roar came from somewhere disturbingly nearby. “If you desperately want someone's arm to hold, you can hold my hand,” she whispered to Ajax. Partly because it would make her feel a little less scared, and partly because she didn’t particularly want Ajax to kill Theon yet, annoying as he was. Hey, if nothing else, his presence in their party might be enough to distract the dragon from eating her, Kai or Ajax first.

Part of Ajax just wanted to jump back into Kai’s TARDIS and demand to go back to the Helios. The day had been…exhausting. Why were they still moving? These two had pulled him out of the funk he had been in, but…he could still feel everything wearing upon him. Jax was a far from an emotionally centered person, and was hoping his tired mind could handle a whole new sort of ‘adventure’.

This new Time Lord was not helping. Kai threatening him because of this random Time Lord. Part of him was honestly a bit hurt that she was choosing this random over him. Ajax had helped save their lives – as she his life – several times since they met already…yet she was randomly threatening his well being over his child that was dressed like the Do–…like some over dressed bitch. Swallowing, he stepped away from the new guy, honestly ready to kick his ass on notice.

After a small spit between Flic and Theon about seeing the dragon, the little guy offered to show them where the dragon was. Ajax felt his feet follow them, not really wishing too. All he wanted – as pathetic as it sounded – was to go pet his puppy, Charlie. Enough of today. His mind needed to rest, “You know, I was only tossing around suggestions…you didn’t really have to go into excruciating depth about why an anti-dragon weapon might be impractical,” Flic pointed out, causing Jax to smile.
“But we’re Time Lords. It’s what we do.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of huge giant lasers or something, wouldn’t care what they were shooting at, dragon or not. So we didn’t have to worry about the whole dipping the sword into the magic stream while facing the full moon and saying the mystic incantations backwards, or any of that crap. Just a nice, big, chunky gun.”
“I like the way you think,” Jax smiled, feeling his mind lighten slightly, as they walked.
"I can't even rattle off Latin exorcisms and stuff, because it's a freaking dragon.." Kai pointed out, which made no sense to Jax honestly – but he was on such thin ice with the girl, he didn’t want to say anything.

Another ear-shattering roar shattered through the air, causing Jax’s jaw to tighten slightly.
“If you desperately want someone's arm to hold, you can hold my hand,” Flic whispered, causing his hazel eyes to drift over and land upon the raven-haired woman beside him. A brow rose upon the Time Lord’s features, caught off guard. Glancing down at her hand, part of his brain said ‘no,’ the other part screamed ‘yes.’ Damn internal voices. Why couldn’t they agree? For some reason, his mind thought of taking someone’s hand as more then taking their hand. It was a form of trust. Trust that he wouldn’t grab her hand and do something awkward or weird with it.

Shaking his head slightly, another hiss and growl echoed around the area. It was closer. His attention was drawn from Flic and to movement in the distance. Theon and Kai were preoccupied with each other…

Ajax’s mind slid back to a ‘Time War mode’, causing his footfalls to halt – his hazel eyes carefully studying the surroundings.

Bright eyes watched him through the brush, with a ring of smoke fitting perfectly around his face.

Well hello dragon.

Shiny teeth were visible through the brush now, as a growl breathed across his neck.

“RUN!” he cried, as he jumped away from the suddenly very-close jaws of the dragon. Landing upon his back from his jump, the teeth gnashed closer and closer to him – his hearts pounding like a fast round of applause.

This was not going to end well.