flowers and kittens and nothing exploding ((closed, Rory and A))

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory was settling in, more or less. He and Amy and the Doctor had all found the Gryffindor dormitories eventually (the staircases moved, why would you build staircases that moved?) and there'd been a good few days of not having to run for their lives from anything, which left him more able to share their enthusiasm.

So here he was, out for a walk in the grounds. Someone was singing in the distance, and not having any other destination in mind, he followed the sound until it led him to a garden.

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[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"...oh." Rory mentally slapped himself - well done, Williams, you were just thinking 'raised by mad scientists', weren't you?

"He's not that kind of doctor," he said, quietly. "I don't know if he is a doctor of anything, really, it's just what he calls himself. But he's our friend - Amy and me, we're travelling with him. 'Cause that's what he does. Travels round space and time seeing amazing, impossible things, and saving planets."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Ah," A replied, pouring a tall glass of mint limeade and offering it to Rory. "I, it, it, there are doctors here, I should be used to it." After all, his girlfriend's brother was one of them. "I, it, but, saving planets, yes, yes, that sounds like a wonderful thing."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"It is." Wonderful and terrifying, sometimes both at once. But going with 'wonderful' was best, for now. He took the lemonade. "Thanks. You - you don't have to meet him if you don't want to. I just thought, you being a magical gardening expert and everything, it's the kind of thing he'd be fascinated with."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Professor Kurama is an expert," A protested. "I have been learning from him. But yes, I, I like to show people my garden, and share the things I've grown." He poured a glass for himself, placed two cookies (one of each) on a napkin and nudged the plate with the remainder toward Rory. "I, I just, I have trouble with memories sometimes." He shook his head, and took a bite of the satsuma-apricot cookie.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"He'd understand that," Rory said, gently. "And I do, too." He hesitated for a moment. "I should say, I'm a nurse - I don't know if that bothers you, but, you know now." There were all too many reasons for someone not to trust doctors or nurses. (Or psychiatrists...)

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

He shuddered a little, but after a slow exhale, seemed to have regained composure. "I, it, I'm fine, I. It's better now, I, I'm fine." If being a nurse made Rory untrustworthy, after all, he wouldn't have been so forthcoming.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm not going to ask what happened to you, but - it shouldn't have, whatever it was."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A gave him a very slight smile, took a deep breath and gave him a larger one. "I, I am here now, and here is good, and I am sure I would very much enjoy meeting your friend."

Schrodinger gave an affronted mew then, and A laughed, opening a small plastic container and setting it down. Both cats rushed to tuck in to devour the mixture of fish and catnip.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory gave a little smile back. "I think you would." The Doctor had a way of winning people over. (Even after doing something like jumping out of a cake and announcing he'd kissed their fiancee.) "Just, like I said, be ready for him to start rambling on about alien genetics."

He tried one of the satsuma-apricot cookies. "Mmm. These are really good."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Why would I mind hearing about alien genetics? It sounds interesting and possibly useful." He smiled in acknowledgment of the praise. "I like making those kinds of cookies. I can make a big batch and use different jams for different flavors."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"It is interesting." Rory shrugged. "Providing you can follow what he's talking about. He just tends to go a mile a minute when he's into something, and that's... most of the time."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I see." Schrodinger had apparently eaten her fill and was darting around the gazebo, while Einstein had rolled onto his back, legs splayed in an utterly undignified manner, head nudging at Rory's foot. "It's good, though, to be interested in things, to be excited and want to learn more. Should I drink coffee before meeting him?" A took one of the cannabis-rose cookies, eating it slowly.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory laughed, finishing his cookie and leaning down to pet Einstein. "Not a bad idea. Maybe I should try that."

Speaking of mind-altering subtances, he wondered what to do about the pink cookies. Would A be offended if he just didn't take one? Though, if he was honest with himself, he was a bit curious.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

The idea of being offended over such a thing would have baffled A, if he knew. He smiled broadly at the rumbling purr (and, yes, the bit of cat drool!) Einstein produced.

"I drank far too much coffee once," A admitted. "I had never had it, and I didn't really know what to expect. I hadn't really learned, then, to connect abstract knowledge from reality." He grinned sheepishly. "I was very excitable."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory wouldn't have worried about it, except that A had been so proud of his experiment. He sipped his limeade, which was, of course, fantastic. "Well, that's the downside, of course. Seriously, though, you don't have to. He's not quite that bad." Most of the time.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I, I'm sure he would be interesting to meet. I've known many different kinds of people here, and it is always interesting to meet new ones."

He sipped his drink again, and dutifully administered ear-scritches to Schrodinger, who had dashed up to him, yowling. He looked at the cats in amusement. "This strain of catnip is really very strong," he observed. "I will have to warn Kurama, so he isn't surprised if he offers some to Belophoebe." He shrugged and turned his attention away from the results of his gardening.

"I, I would, I, I would like to meet your friend. It sounds like he might say things that would make me think, and have ideas I might not have had otherwise."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"That's what he does," Rory agreed. "He changes your world. You can't help it." His tone was distant, remembering. It wasn't so long ago that he'd been furious with the Doctor - for leaving Amy, and still being the one she wanted (so he'd thought) and generally being all the things Rory would never be and having no idea what he was doing. And now...

...well. Now Rory was changing too.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A had no idea what was behind that thoughtful tone, of course, but it was something he had seen a fair bit of. People often re-assessed themselves as they felt out their niche at Hogwarts.

"Is the world you have now better than the world before?"

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory blinked, looking up from his musing. "...it is. Yeah." Another little smile. "Apart from the vampire fish and everything, but you won't need to worry about that."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Are vampire fish something I should have heard of?"

Every now and then he discovered something he didn't know that it seemed like almost everyone else did.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no. That's what happened the first time I travelled anywhere with him - he took me and Amy to sixteenth-century Venice as sort of a wedding present, and we ended up having to stop alien fish people taking over the planet. He has a knack for turning up when there's trouble."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A paused to take that in; time travel and alien fish people were a little out of the ordinary even for Hogwarts, but not enough to be hard to swallow.

"And make the trouble go away, or make it worse?"

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"Make it go away," Rory assured him. "And sometimes bring it back just to warn it not to mess with him again. ...that one's another long story."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

The first part, at least, brought to mind Kusuryuri-sensei's other calling. "Someone who fixes things, then." He refilled his glass, looking peaceful and content. "I, the, I know people here who do that. Fix things."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory nodded. He'd almost finished his own limeade, by now. "Good people to know. Is that, people like Professor Kurama and Professor -" It took him a few seconds to remember the other name, and he wasn't sure he'd got it right. "...Kusuriyuri?"