Too hot to cry, too cold to die

[CLOSED TO NAT & SAYO]

Clank, clank, clank

Lucius walked down the familiar street of downtown London, his metallic chains and bracelets clicking and chiming as his heavy boots clomped on the concrete below. The distant sound of sirens played in the background as he walked and hummed to himself. People were shooting him concerned looks as he went. Could he blame them? Strapped to his hip was an odd looking shotgun. But he didn't pay any mind to it, nor did he care about the people causing a stink. Unless the call of sirens were after him, Luci wasn't goig to worry.

"It's been so long." He told himself before biting into an apple he had bought a few blocks back. It dawned on him that he hadn't seen anyone he knew since arriving. Would they be missing him? Or rather, would they be missing the younger him? In this timeline, Lucius was suppose to be 8 years old. Now look at him.. all grown up and shaggy. He'd just be another stranger in the mass of faces. No one would no him. No one would remember... at 8 years old he was swept up and taken away. He had lived a whole life in the year 5000 and now was back only a couple of years after he was kidnapped. The Doctor would have mourned, but not for long. Hopefelt and the wild boy would be a forgotten memory...

"How sad." His eyes grew distant as he thought. His heart ached as the faces of those he loved flashed through his memory. It was possible they could still be alive. But what would he say? 'Oh yes, hi, it's me, Tyler, but I got by Luci and instead of being 10 like I should be I'm almost 40 haha. Yeah, that would go over well. But time was wibbly wobbly.

Stopping in the heart of busy people going in and out of work, Lucius sat on a corner, tucked his gun into his worn out leather jacket, and pulled the guitar strapped to his back to his front. He then began to strum away the tune of Stairway to Heaven, keeping to the beat and nodding his head. It never hurt to busk when you could.. the currency in his pocket wouldn't be seen by Earth for a few centuries and he had spent the pitiful amount of change he had buying a bloody apple.

Elsewhere in London

Smoke rose in pillars as a hospital was ravaged by flames. People were screaming and the sirens were blaring as fire trucks and cop cars screeched to a halt outside the establishment. Doctors and nurses were wheeling out all they could; the place was in a full evacuation. This day was unfortunate indeed.. there was no doubt in anyone's mind that there were going to be casualties.

A pot bellied man in uniform stepped out of his vehicle, as did his partner, and stared at the orange tongues licking at the building's edge. "Damn shame." He shook his head. "Damn shame that something like this could happen. I wonder what's caused it?"

But deep in the belly of the fire stood a figure. As the chaos unfolded around it, it looked at its nails, observed the black that had gathered with its work. A sneer appeared on its face. This is what it came here to do. This is what it needed. It needed all who caused it pain to burn.

"... Okay no offense, but this f****** sucks."

Chris sighed, arms crossed as she followed Sayo down the sidewalk. She understood the appeal a little bit, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as futuristic and foreign lands. She never really was a history buff. Everything looked drab and dull, and for the most part, people looked miserable. Well... they looked miserable when they weren't sending her odd looks. She rolled her eyes, continuing to fly after her friend. It was their problem they hadn't seen a bird yet, not hers.

Her ears picked up the sound of some kind of old instrument and she perked up, glancing between where she figured the source of the sound was and Sayo. "Ooh, what is that? What kind of instrument is it?" As much as she didn't like to admit it, she did find some appreciation in the old fashion way of music. This was back when people actually had to do the performing, wasn't it? But what were they doing on the street? 

Flapping ahead of her friend, she landed clumsily near the man she suspected the song was coming from. Her talons clacked loudly on the cement and she frightened a good few people away from the performer. Their loss, she supposed. As she positioned herself to lean against the adjacent building, she noticed the pile of change on the ground near his foot and her eyes widened. He was expecting payment, wasn't he? She turned back to look to the sidewalk Sayo was no doubt sprinting down to catch her, gesturing nervously for him to come over. He'd better have some of the right currency for this.

"Ah! Don't just take off like that, people around here don't know you're friendly!" Sayo puffed, coming to a stop beside Robin with a slight frown in her direction. "I don't want you to be captured." After he finished telling her that, his attention drifted towards the man with a guitar, vaguely familiar, like the phantom memory of a dream.

Eyes shifted down to the coins on the ground and he grinned, nothing beat like a public performance without expecting anything in return but receiving it anyway! Shuffling in his pockets a bit, he pulled out a small bag full of clanking coins. Now the problem was to find the right kind.

Over the years spent as Sonya, he had learned very quickly to always keep a handful of money in different currencies just in case something happened. That something usually ended up her being thrown in jail or the Doctor and her being accused of something or another. A small frown flitted across his face at the thought of his oldest friend. Ever since regenerating, Sayo didn't see the Doctor as much as he used to. Not even the grumpy one he borrowed Lady from.

Turning to Robin to try and hide some of the more unusual currency he carried, Sayo spilled out a few into his hand and studied them. "Quarter, Narthalium Pien... Penny Penny... Ah! Five pound!" With a triumphant cheer, he winked at Robin and tucked the rest of the coins away before tossing it on the pile, failing to notice the year stamped on the back '3056'. "There, now to just sit back and enjoy the music, My Lady Love. Nothing beats a performer!" Tucking his hands into his pockets, he leaned against the wall beside her and turned his attention to the man again, that faint, vague memory floating around before the music banished it from his thoughts completely.

Lucius' hands were practiced. They slid over the neck of the guitar smoothly, landing on each fret without faltering. He had been playing songs like this since he was a kid... so long ago. His shaggy black hair rustled as he shook his head back and forth, dancing along to the song. When beginning his solo, Lucius flung his hair back and out of his eyes, looking over at Chris with surprise but not breaking the music. Aliens weren't something he expected to see in the twenty-first century, but here it was. The other patrons looked fearful, indicating that this wasn't a normal sight.

His solo changed into another song: Space Oddity by David Bowie. His green eyes watched closely as Soya approached. They never left the man's face until a fiver was fluttering into his guitar case. He smiled a polite smile, turned his head to Chris and Soya, and gave them a nod. They wanted him to play.

Lucius didn't pick anything crazy. He chose to keep it simple by singing Integrity Blues. All through the lyrics and melody, he thought about the man he was playing for and the alien. What was so familiar about that man? Well, it certainly didn't hurt to have an alien as a companion, was it? Lucius had seen things and knew of people who had non-human friends. It happened.

This thought caused Lucius to stop singing and chuckle. His fingers slipped off the strings and he stood, staggering slightly as he did. "Pardon me..." He began, crouching beside his pile of earnings to start gathering them up. He concluded that it had been a very successful busk trip. As his fingers gathered both coin and papers, he grabbed hold of the currency Soya had tossed on the ground. With a curious expression, he brought it up to his face for examination. The picture didn't look right.. but what did Lucius know about it? He shoved it in his pocket with the rest of his money, grinning to himself as he looked over at Sonya. "I'm starving. Do you and your friend want to grab a bite? I've barely eaten in years."

Lucius laughed at himself. He thought he was hilarious though it wasn't like these two strangers would know why or how it was funny. It hardly mattered to him.

Chris raised her eyebrows at the collection of change Sayo had going on in that bundle. He could probably sell it for way more than was in there right now if he went to the right places. Then again that would probably be a bit of a waste of time, considering it wouldn't improve the problem of sorting through multiple currencies. Who really needed that much more? She watched as he tossed the money and leaned back on the building, listening to the music and trying to figure out what was wrong here. 

Figuring out what was wrong in a place you weren't used to wasn't a particularly simple task, but Sayo did it daily, so she figured she could give it a shot. She glanced over the man with a slight frown, watching with interest as his fingers mastered the strings, before moving on to inspect the corner itself. It didn't seem very out of place. The only thing out of place here was her, and everyone seemed to make that very clea-

Oh.

Chris' frown deepened as she realized how calm this man was. She'd nearly crashed into him and blew all his patrons away, so he had to have seen her, but... He was just enjoying the music. Maybe he was high on something. Her eyebrows raised as he stopped playing and picked up his cash. Had they done something wrong? Was he about to ask a question they couldn't answer? She didn't know what was normal around here, maybe they were supposed to have left by now?!

Her expression fell as he asked to go to a meal. Oh. She almost didn't notice his mention of not having eaten in an extremely unhealthy amount of time for any human. At this point, she was almost certain he was on something, and paid no mind to it. Looking questioningly towards Sayo, she tried to get him to answer for them. He'd know if this was weird. It felt weird. People were weird back then in general, though.

Raising his eyebrows, Sayo pointed to Robin and himself in silent question, a wide smile growing on his face. "You mean us? I wouldn't mind a bite myself, a little ice cream never hurt anyone." With a cheerful laugh, he nudged Robin with his elbow lightly, pushing her in the direction of a nearby shop as he started walking down the road. "Come on then, no harm in having a meal with a complete stranger. How else would you learn anything?" He called over his shoulder to the man, bouncing with each step he took and completely ignoring the confused looks from passerby.

Turning to look down at Robin, he leaned over and murmured to her quietly. "Doesn't something about all of this seem... Odd?" Flicking her a sideways glance, he chanced a look behind them where the man still was, curiosity flickering in his expression before turning back down to his friend. "Not many normal people wouldn't be... Unphased by a bird woman showing up, would they? But our new little friend there didn't even bat an eye. Interesting." A slow smile spread across his face as he straightened back up and spun around on his heel to walk backwards, calling back to the other man again.

"Better keep up, not much gets between me and Ice cream, not even someone new!"

Lucius smiled, clasping his hands together and twirling with delight. It was quite girlish, really. He even gave a squeal. "Really? No one has ever agreed to go with me anywhere. Definitely the first and definitely my favourite." This was going to be a great opportunity to learn just who the heck this strange man and his alien companion were! Was this another incarnation of the Doctor?

He realized, while he was celebrating and cheering, he was being left behind. Giving a small yelp in response to being scolded, Lucius turned sharply on his heels and walked with full determination to catch up. His elbows comically swung back and forth with the effort. With brows furrowed, he smirked, daydreaming as he so often did.

Just then, in the distance, an explosion went off. Lucius jumped so high in the air it seemed like he could fly. His yelp was high pitched, fearful. His eyes were wide and he stared in the direction it came from. He didn't see flames, but smoke was billowing high into the sky. It was dark, angry, despairing. Well, that would explain the sirens from earlier. Alarm suddenly flashed through him and without any warning, not even saying goodbye to his new strangers, took off running in the direction the smoke was coming from.

His boots never felt heavier, he was certain they were slowing him down. But with a second consideration he wondered if he was truly afraid of what he thought had caused this. It was the very fear, however, that propelled him further. Everyone should be afraid of what this could be. Well, Luci sure hoped whatever gods were out there were merciful. If they were, they would make this explosion some accident that was purely 21st century mankind made.

"I know, right? And I nearly smacked into him, so you think at the very least he would have flinched," Chris murmured back before glancing over her shoulder. She beckoned him to follow as Sayo started walking backwards. She knew he wasn't kidding about that ice cream. She was making him wear a bib this time. 

The sound of a bomb made Chris flinch. Looking back to the front, her eyes widened and eyebrows raised as she spotted the horrid smoke in the distance. Before she could even take a breath, Luci was racing past her, sprinting blindly towards the danger without saying a word. Frowning, she looked to Sayo. "Are you sure he isn't just you?" With that, she took off, flying after him as fast as she could. "Hey! Music man!" she called, beginning to pant from the effort. "Got to make sure you survive until ice cream, right?" she laughed, looking down at him from overhead with a smirk.

Sayo hesitated for a split second, glancing from the direction of the explosion then towards the shop he had been heading towards. One question repeating itself over and over in his mind. 'Is it more important than impending doom?' Wincing slightly, he imagined Robin's reaction if he had said it out loud and absently rubbed the back of his head at the thought. Her slaps hurt!

With a slight sigh, he turned and raced after the other two, eyes locking onto the rising plume of smoke and frowning in thought. This was a normal day in London, nothing that he knew would happen anyway, no terrorist attacks that he knew of, but then again... Odd things tended to happen when he was around, aliens in ancient egypt, need he say more?

With a snort, he lengthened his stride and caught up to Luci easily, falling into step beside him with a wild grin on his face. "You run towards danger too? I can tell we'll have a lot in common, mate! Try to keep up!" With that, he turned and looked up at Robin. "Stay with him, I'm going ahead." Turning forward again, he full out sprinted towards the commotion, already trying to figure out exactly what it was that caused the explosion, It could have been a bomb, or some sort of machine malfunction... He really hoped it wasn't anything nuclear. Last thing he wanted was to be sick being exposed to that kind of radiation.