[fic] Hʏᴘɴᴏᴛɪsᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴍɪʀʀᴏʀs. Yᴏᴜ sʜᴏᴜʟᴅ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴏᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴡɪɴᴅᴏᴡ.

[ohstarryeyed]

 On the rare occasion Brax isn’t in his study, Cassie still goes there to sit and entertain herself. She knows, eventually, he’ll make his way back there. If it weren’t for these quiet times, she would be sure he practically lived in his study – but it seems even Brax has to sleep at some point. She seems to find out plenty of weird things about him these days, the more she gets to know him. His sleeping patterns is definitely one of them. He never seems to sleep every night like she does. It must be part of that whole thing of being a Time Lord. Or something. Aliens are weird.

She lounges with an array of sheets about her, scribbling down new ideas for songs to write in silence until a familiar voice breaks it with a loud, unhappy sigh and an uttering of:

“Oh for Rassilon’s sake, where have you gone now?”

She almost jumps, looking up from her work and looks immediately to the door. But the voice hasn’t come from the door, but in the direction of Brax’s desk and Cassie sits in bewilderment for a few moments until she finally speaks.

“Irving?”

There’s a long silence and when she hears him speak again, there’s almost a very, very slight reluctance to speak in his voice. “Cassie?”

Cassie stands suddenly, knocking her pieces of paper to the floor, still looking around. “Yeah, it’s me.” She still can’t see him. “Where the bloody hell are you?”

Another hesitant pause. “The mirror.”

She stops for a moment, wondering if she actually heard right. The mirror? Surely, of all things, a mirror would just be a mirror and not something weirdly alien. But then again, this is Brax and she can’t say she knows him best. Really, anything could go. She heads over. She’d never paid much notice to the mirror on the wall before. It’s… just a mirror, after all.

But as soon as she sees him standing there, looking back at her in place of her reflection she does a double take.

“Irving…?” she peers into the mirror then peers behind her. “What’re you doing in there? This is a mirror, right?”

“Ah, well, yes.” He replies. “Although, not… entirely.”

Cassie frowns for a few moments, “Right. You’re gonna have to start explaining.”

It turns out the mirror isn’t just a mirror. But more of a… communication device of sorts. He doesn’t give away much, of course. But enough for Cassie to work out she isn’t talking to the same Brax, but another, from another time.

“So you’re Irving… from the future?”

“I am.” There’s a small smile.

“So… where am I then?” she asks with a small frown.

“Right now? You’ve gone home for a short while to visit your family.” He tells her, “You’ll be back tomorrow, I believe.”

“But… I mean, why’s he… why are you.” She gestures vaguely. “Why’s this a thing?”

“A number of reasons,” he shrugs a little. “On occasion, you come up.”

“He asks about me?”

“Well.” He considers it for a moment. “Truthfully, yes.”

There’s a beat. Cassie frowns. “Questions about me. As in… wanting to know things about me?”

His lack of answer says it all. She seethes for a moment, clearly unimpressed.

“I’m going to bloody kill him.”

Brax can’t help but look amused for a moment, a small smile twisting the corners of his mouth. It soon straightens when Cassie catches it, not impressed in the slightest. “And don't you dare laugh because I’ll come through this mirror and kill you too.”

She knows it sounds stupid. She doesn’t care.

“You can hardly blame a man for trying, Cassie.” He points out calmly.

“But it’s cheating.” She explodes, “It’s not fair. You can’t just reach for the walkthrough guide when the game’s too hard, that’s cheating! I don’t get to do that!”

“You could.” He shrugs, although there’s something in his face that looks like he already knows the answer. “Whenever I’m not around. You could always use this to speak to myself here.”

“No, Irving.” She snaps and sighs. “I won’t do that. No easy way-outs.”

She folds her arms across her chest, turning away from him. She’s angry, very much so. The fact he would try to use his futureselves just for ease of getting to know her or well… it’s almost as if he’s finding ways to deal with her. That’s something that hurts her much more than anything else. It’s almost like lying. He’s lying to her. Finding the easy way instead of actually being real about any of this. And that hurts.

“Cassie.”

It’s only after she feels the first dribble of tears down her face does she finally move, wiping quickly at her face. “Go away, Irving.”

He’s silent for a few moments before he inclined his head. “If it means anything at all, I’m very sorry.”

By the time she turns around again, he’s gone.

Cassie pulls in a shaky breath, wiping at her eyes once more. “Stupid man.” She utters miserably, turning away from the mirror and returning to her seat. She bends to collect her pieces of paper that she’d knocked to the floor when she got up. “Stupid, stupid man.” Throwing herself back in her seat, she silently rages. She doesn’t know how long it is until he gets back but she’s actually going to kill him.

He’s going to get hell about this.

Comments

[needsmust]

She might not have any particularly high standards for what this should be, where they should end up. But it always has been too easy for him to assume that people hold him to the same sort of standards that he holds himself to. Especially in a vacuum, as is the case here. True, he might be more than aware that Cassie is nothing at all like the politicians and social-climbers that he's spent long centuries dealing with, but even now old habits die hard. Not to mention that fact that this very occurrence means that he'll be unable to warn himself of this, down the line. It has happened and it will happen and to change that would be to chase worse paradoxes than the little ones that come of crossing his own timestream.

But he does, at least, listen to what she's saying. It's the least he can do, after having unwittingly driven her to the point of anger with his actions.

"It's... been a very long time since I had an honest friend. Nor can I deny that I've gotten very used to needing to be... beyond reproach, if not precisely perfect."

[ohstarryeyed]

It's perhaps a hard lesson to learn. She's different to his life, to the people he knows as much as he is different to her and the people she's known. Pulling in a breath, the anger gone, even the disappointment leaving her. He knows he's done wrong, he accepts that - and she's glad for that.

"No one's perfect, you know." she tells him, "No one can be perfect. I'm certainly not perfect."

She's only human, after all. If she knows one thing, she knows that humanity if full of mistakes and messes, flaws and failures.

"It makes a better friendship, anyway." she says. She sighs, wiping at her face, exhausted. "Just... please. Don't lie to me, Irving. Not to me. I can tolerate a lot of things - not that. Understand?"

[needsmust]

"I've certainly known people who have tried," he offers, after a brief moment of silence. Himself not included, and in more cases than not that perfection has to stumble somewhere. But that hardly means that people don't still try. On the other hand, he understands her meaning perfectly and there's the slightest quirk of a smile with his words; just enough to suggest that he's at least trying to lighten the mood.

"But... yes. I understand."

It'll be a change from how he usually does things, but if she wants him to not lie to her, he can do that. And he'll have his future selves to keep him honest too, not that he suspects he'll need the assistance.