Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Taehyung grimaced, looking at all the blinking lights on the many control panels in the console. He’d just come from the power room, trying to figure out why the TARDIS was making a particularly worrying noise as it traveled through Sector Delta. He was starting to suspect that the dimensional stabilizer had gotten loose again. 

Well, he had just gotten the chameleon circuit repaired, so there was no reason to stress himself out - he could find a nice, calm planet to land on, and troubleshoot the stabilizer there rather than in the unwelcoming vacuum of space. Surely he could find some interesting folks to talk to, and maybe get some snacks when he checked out the scenery. He flipped a few switches and squinted thoughtfully at one of the screens hanging above the central console.

Ah, here was a good prospect: a little unnamed world, populated with friendly people who lived in just a few little towns on the surface. They hadn’t achieved spaceflight yet, but their technology - and even their culture - was quite similar to that of the humans on Earth that Taehyung loved to spend time with. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained! Taehyung was sure he could get along with these “Whos,” as they called themselves. 

He pressed a few buttons and pulled up even more information on the planet. A map showing where their settlements were, and the topography. Taehyung was delighted to discover the perfect location to land: right next to one of their largest cities was a tall mountain peak. Its snowy, rocky slopes were exactly the sort of landscape that the chameleon circuit was perfectly suited to blending the TARDIS into. Satisfied, he confidently set the coordinates, pulled the lever to materialize the TARDIS, and activated the chameleon circuit. After just a few moments of bellowing and groaning from the complicated mechanisms inside the vessel, it all came to a standstill.

Taehyung put on his long, warm wool coat and wrapped his striped, knitted scarf around his neck. It was winter on this hemisphere of the planet. Then he stepped out of the TARDIS and found himself on a snowy mountainside, exactly as he had steered it. With a grin, he carefully closed the door behind himself - a door that now seemingly opened directly into the rocky face of the mountain. It clicked shut, and then the chameleon circuit  took over and morphed the door to match the rest of the rock.

Taehyung looked at it, satisfied. Now nobody would ever be able to tell the difference. He turned around and started making his way across the ridge to find a good way down the mountain. He had a spectacular view from up here of the charming city down on the valley floor below - bustling with commerce, filled with goods and people willing to sell them. Surely he’d find what he needed there.

🌃🌌⌚🎄⌚🌌🌃

Namjoon groaned as he got out of bed. He didn’t like mornings. Winter mornings were even worse, the chilly air in his cave home being distinctly uninviting compared to the cozy pile of blankets on his bed. But he’d learned that sticking to a routine was good for him, and that he’d feel better about his day if he got going rather than rotting in bed for too long, so he got up. His beloved and loyal dog Max greeted him immediately, tail wagging and eyes bright - so that just about made up for it already.

He brushed his teeth and combed all of his fur, and chose his favorite blue scarf to wear for the day - a nice dark indigo that he felt set off the bright green shade of his fur. Then a quick breakfast for himself and Max, and a cup of coffee later, and he was ready to head into town. Winter had only just started, and Christmas was two months away, so even though there was a little snow on the ground the decorations hadn’t gone up yet.

And, for the first time in his life, Namjoon was looking forward to it. After so many years of dreading Christmas when it wasn’t Christmastime, and hating Christmas when it was, he’d finally left all that in the past last year. Now he had actual friends down in Whoville to celebrate with. He was The Grinch no more! He was just Namjoon now, a Who like any other.

Of course, the new challenge was that he would need to come up with Christmas presents! Presents for Max, and for his friend Donna, and her children Cindy Lou and Bean and Buster. It would have to be something good - but he still had two months. He would surely think of something. It was just another thing to look forward to, to feel good about, for this year’s Christmas. 

Namjoon marched out of his cave pulling his wagon for groceries, Max at his side, and began the descent towards Whoville. But just a few steps around the corner down the crack on the side of Mount Crumpit that formed the walkway to his door, and he came across something very unusual: there was a whole extra lump of rock that hadn’t been there before, partially blocking the path! Namjoon stopped, stunned. He hadn’t heard or felt anything like a landslide, and the rock looked solid anyway. It looked like it had been there for years, in fact - eroded and snow-covered just like the rest of the slope around it. Max barked at it, his tail low - he was just as puzzled as Namjoon.

And then, something even stranger happened: a person came from around the side of the lump of rock. A person Namjoon had never seen before. He had on tweed pants and a tweed vest in a different pattern and a long brown coat, with a brightly-striped scarf on the top of everything. It should have all clashed irritatingly, but the stranger made it work somehow. Also he was tall and angular, with fur only on the top of his head: longish brown fur that curled a little across his forehead and against his neck.

He was definitely, definitely not from Whoville.

Now, the Namjoon from a year ago - back when he was The Grinch - would have been angry, suspicious, even downright territorial at this turn of events. Why was a stranger here on Mount Crumpit? Invading the very stoop of his precious home? He would have been treated as an unwelcome invader, to be yelled at and driven off as quickly as possible.

But the Namjoon of today was softer and kinder, and tried to see the good in people and situations first. His heart was three sizes larger now, after all. So once he got over the initial shock, he stepped towards the stranger.

“Hello!” he said. “You don’t seem to be from around here. Are you okay? Do you need help?”

The stranger looked at him with a small smile that soon grew larger. His face wasn’t so different from a Who’s after all, once it was lit up with the boxy grin he had.

“Hello!” he said back. “Yes, I just got here. Thank you so much for asking - I don’t think I need help, but I do want to walk down to the city. Are you headed that direction, by chance?”

“That’s where I’m going too!” Namjoon said. 

“Splendid!” the stranger said, jolly as could be, reaching out to shake Namjoon’s hand. “You can call me Taehyung, though most people call me The Doctor.”

“I’m th- I’m Namjoon,” he introduced himself back, quickly correcting himself from calling himself the Grinch. “And this is Max.”

That was in the past. How funny that this man had such a similar nickname, though! Taehyung smiled down at the dog - and Max seemed to warm up to him right away, wagging his tail. Taehyung knelt down and took a moment to pet him, calling him a good dog. Namjoon couldn’t help but smile. But then, Max did tend to like everybody.

“A pleasure to meet you both!,” Taehyung finally said, standing back up and dusting the dry powdery snow off of his knees. “Now, please, lead the way, if you don’t mind,” he added, gesturing to the narrow path.

They had to move carefully to skirt past the new outcropping, but the rest of the journey went smoothly. The snow wasn’t too deep yet so it was easy enough to keep walking downwards.

“So what brings you to Whoville?” Namjoon asked.

“Ah, my ship needs to be repaired,” Taehyung said. “I was hoping to find some parts for it.”

Namjoon was a bit puzzled - Whoville was on the banks of the river, so Taehyung would have had to walk all the way up the mountain, in the wrong direction, to end up here. He’d had to travel a long, weary distance to get here! But Namjoon didn’t want to come across as suspicious or rude, so he let it go. (Also, he was glad he’d gotten rid of all the “stay out!” signs he’d posted on the path they were walking together - that would have been embarrassing.)

“Well, as far as I know you can find a shop for anything in Whoville,” Namjoon said confidently. “So I bet you’ll be able to find the parts you need.”

“Great!” Taehyung replied enthusiastically. 

Namjoon found that the usually knee-straining hike down the hill went much more quickly with another person walking with him. Well, he always had Max with him of course - but having a fellow biped to share in the strain was somehow more impactful. So in what felt like no time at all, they had reached the bottom of Mount Crumpit, and then walked down the gentle slope of the foothills, and then crossed the arched bridge, and were instantly in the bustle of Whoville. 

Namjoon looked over from time-to-time and noted how bright Taehyung’s eyes were, at how interested and attentive he was at the town. He exclaimed at how brightly colored the houses - and then the shops - were, at the charming decorative style of their streets and signage, and at how jam-packed and friendly the whole town was. There was something to see around every corner, with the way the buildings and streets clung to the contour of the hill Whoville was built on, with terraced townhouses and interlaced raised walkways and striking architectural details everywhere.

It was, honestly, a lot. Namjoon still often felt overwhelmed when he came to town, even outside of the complete sensory assault that was Christmastime, what with the way people liked to sing out loud every day of the year and how bright and cluttered everything was - but he’d learned to cope. A nice thick pair of headphones went a long way to soothing his nerves, letting him enjoy being in town without feeling like there was too much input for his brain to process. He could still hear people talking to him, but it helped smooth everything else out, and cut out any particularly loud booms, clanks, honks, whistles, and screams completely.

He glanced over a little nervously at Taehyung as he put them on - he still felt a bit self-conscious about needing to wear them, afraid that people would take it as an insult - but Taehyung merely smiled and nodded, as if it were as natural and expected as wearing a hat. Max was happy too, grinning and panting at everyone, running happily ahead every so often to sniff poles and posts and brick stoops before returning to walk contentedly between the pair of them.

Despite Taehyung’s unusual appearance, the rest of the Whos seemed to accept his presence. Nobody gave him a weird look or scoffed at his angular face. Many of them even smiled, and waved quick greetings to Namjoon. 

“Let’s look for your parts first,” Namjoon suggested once they got to the first row of shops. “I’m buying groceries, so we should get the fresh things last. Now, what kind of parts do you need? Here’s the place for automobile parts, or plumbing parts, the sewing machine repair shop, the music store?”

Taehyung hummed thoughtfully as he looked at all the storefronts with their big colorful signs, having been pointed out one-by-one by Namjoon. He seemed particularly amused by the fact that the grocery store was called Who Foods, and that the medical plaza was called Doctor Who, and that the bookstore was called Who-Dunnit.

“Is there a toy store?” he asked speculatively, after having absorbed all the options in view.

“Of course!” Namjoon replied, though he didn’t quite understand the direction of Taehyung’s thoughts. “We have a lot of toy stores in Whoville.”

Previously, he would have rather eaten his entire hand before sticking so much as his pinky finger inside a toy store. Now, though, even though he didn’t necessarily love it, it was manageable. A quite large and well-stocked one was nearby, so within moments they were inside and Taehyung was browsing the shelves excitedly. Indeed, his enthusiasm for the whole endeavor made the whole thing much more bearable for Namjoon. It was fun to see it through someone else’s eyes, who had a fresh enjoyment and appreciation for all of it.

Taehyung gasped in amazement at a lava lamp, and a keyboard for babies in the shape of a cat’s head, and a mechanical donkey that sang songs when it detected motion near by, a little disk and globe that had a magnets inside so it looked like the globe was levitating, and a remote control car. Each of these, he plucked up and placed in Namjoon’s wagon as he scurried around the shop. Namjoon was increasingly bemused at his selection, but the man seemed very sure of himself - so who was Namjoon to naysay it?

He looked at even more things that he didn’t select: he also appreciated the dolls and the blocks and the stuffed animals, the modeling clay, the little model houses and buses and train sets. 

“So many lovely things for children!” he admired. “I like people who are good to their children.”

Namjoon smiled a little sadly. He knew, unfortunately, that sometimes children slipped through the cracks, despite everyone’s good intentions. Some children didn’t get any of those toys. But that was his own problem - he had promised himself he wouldn’t make it anyone else’s problem any more. 

Taehyung glanced over at him, a spark of something - mischief? - in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything - he just grabbed a little stuffed whale, a purple one, and tossed it into the wagon as well. 

“Not to pry,” Namjoon said slowly, crossing his arms over his chest, “but I’m not quite seeing how this will help you with your ship.”

“Ah, it’s a very specialized ship,” Taehyung said breezily. “I’m going to break these down for the parts I need.”

Namjoon felt even more confused. He looked down at Max, who shrugged back. Well, despite how handy he was with household appliances, sleds, and musical instruments, he didn’t know anything about watercraft, so who was he to judge? Taehyung seemed very sure of himself. 

When he went to check out, instead of money or a credit card, Taehyung brought out a funny rod of some kind that buzzed and blinked. The clerk seemed taken aback, but her register pinged and indicated that the correct amount of money had been paid. Taehyung claimed his bank was very advanced, and this was a new form of credit card they were just starting to roll out. You learned something new every day!

After that, they made what Namjoon was sure would be a quick stop at the Who Foods grocery store. He had his usual mental list of things he got - he did like his comfort foods, after all - so it was just a matter of grabbing those and being on his way. The automatic door slid open for them with its usual ding, Namjoon going inside first with his wagon and the other two following right behind. Taehyung wandered slowly behind him, admiring all the different foods with his hand clasped behind his back. Namjoon worked his way methodically through his list.

On the third aisle, however, his steady progress was interrupted by a little voice.

“Oh, Mister Namjoon, I’m so happy to see you!”

Namjoon paused in shock. Those words, in that sequence, were still surprising for him to hear. He looked down and saw the golden head of little Cindy Lou Who, of course. She did not look happy, though - she was hopping up and down and looked upset.

“Why, hello Cindy Lou,” he said, slipping his headphones down around his neck. “Is anything wrong?”

“My mom sent me in here to grab a few things,” she replied, squishing her hands down her cheeks disconsolately, “but I’ve already forgotten what!”

“Ah, that is a problem,” Namjoon agreed. “You can’t remember anything at all?”

“Well, I’m supposed to get chicken broth, but I forget what else!” she cried. 

“Hmmmm,” Namjoon mused thoughtfully. “Do you know if she had a specific recipe in mind? Or if she’s just stocking up on things for the pantry?”

“Oh! Right! It’s a recipe!” Cindy said, already sounding happier. “Chicken noodle soup, I remember she said this morning she was making it for dinner.”

“So then-”

“It’s all the ingredients for the soup!” she cried triumphantly. “I remember now - we have the chicken already! So it’s noodles and carrots and celery and herbs! Thanks Mister Namjoon!”

She dashed off again as suddenly as she appeared. Namjoon blinked and resumed his shopping. One aisle further down, however, and he came across her again - this time staring aghast at the rack of herbs.

“I don’t remember what herbs!” she yelled, tugging frustratedly on her ponytails.

“Well, I’m no master chef,” Namjoon said mildly, “but chicken soup usually has dill, bay leaves, and thyme.”

“Thyme!” Taehyung muttered contemplatively from the end cap a few feet away, looking at a package of gummy bears, “You can never have too much thyme.”

Then he giggled to himself in a way that baffled Namjoon slightly, but he decided to leave Taehyung to his own devices so he could focus on Cindy Lou.

“Okay,” she said, determined. 

Namjoon ended up needing to fetch the bay leaves for her, since they were near the top of the rack. She then sped out towards the checkout stand, arms full of ingredients. Namjoon smiled to himself, impressed at her energy as always. He grabbed his last few things, and ended up lining up at the checkout just as Cindy Lou was finishing up. 

The door slid open just then, and Sally - Cindy Lou’s mother - along with her twin babies in a stroller came in.

“Oh, there you are,” Sally said brightly, spotting Cindy Lou running happily towards her. “Thanks so much for your help with the errands, honey. Did you find everything?”

“Yup!” Cindy Lou said cheerfully. “Thanks to Mister Namjoon. All the ingredients you told me just flew out of my head - whoosh - but he helped me remember!”

Sally glanced up, clearing looking around for Namjoon, and then spotted him standing awkwardly at the checkout. He raised up a hand and waved. She smiled and waved back, looking for all the world like she was just as glad to see him as Cindy Lou had been.

“Hi Namjoon!” she called out. “Thanks for helping Cindy Lou!”

“Oh, sure,” Namjoon replied a little gruffly, fidgeting with his hands. “Happy to, uh, be of assistance!”

Namjoon assumed that would be it, watching Cindy Lou hang the plastic bag of soup ingredients on a large hook on the back of the stroller. But then, instead of wheeling it back out of the store, Sally pushed the whole contraption - with its two squirmy babies strapped in on top and a number of shopping bags and packages shoved in and hung to it below - closer to where he was standing.

“And how are you doing?” she asked warmly, leaning casually against the handlebar of the stroller. “Still getting plenty of fresh air before the really deep snow hits?”

It still surprised Namjoon how much it sounded like she actually wanted to know the answer to such pleasantries.

“Yeah,” he said, suddenly feeling shy as he started to put his things down on the conveyer belt. “I sledded out to the Reindeer Meadow earlier in the week.”

“That sounds so peaceful!” she said with a poignant sigh.

Well, Namjoon supposed it would have been fairly peaceful, if not for all the goats bellowing and startling the reindeer.

“Anyway, you get anything tasty?” she went on, peering at his groceries with a slightly silly, exaggerated look.

“They had some…ravioli?” Namjoon stammered. “A new flavor. Wanted to try it.”

“Trying new things is good!” she said.

She might have said more, but then the twins started smacking each other in the face and screeching joyfully, and then started trying to eat each other’s hands.

“Yes, I know , you guys are starving,” she told them with an exasperated laugh as she pulled them apart, “but that’s not going to help!”

The two little boys bellowed at her, and she sighed and shook her head.

“Well, it was really nice to see you here!” she said to Namjoon quickly, but not dismissively. “You’re really doing alright?”

Even with all three of her kids buzzing with impatience, she still lingered, looking at Namjoon and clearly wanting to actually know. 

“Yeah,” Namjoon said softly, still feeling so strangely warm that he had a friend who he knew meant it when she said such things. “But don’t let me keep you - I hope you have a nice rest of your day!”

“Thank you!” she said. “You too! Okay kids, let’s go!”

And then with a final set of smiles and waves from the family of four, they were back through the sliding doors of the store and Namjoon was back to attending his groceries on their short journey down the conveyer belt. It took just a few more minutes for him to check out, and which point Taehyung appeared from wherever he’d wandered off to, and then they were on their way back towards the bridge and then to Mount Crumpit. Namjoon’s cart was pretty heavy now, with its usual cans of Who-Hash and packets of Who-Noodles and bags of pre-sliced Roast Beast now joined by all the toys Taehyung had picked out, but he was still happy enough to be the one hauling it. It was just a nice favor he could do for the stranger. They passed over the bridge once again, and the three of them began the snowy trek back up Mount Crumpit.

Namjoon was quickly so wrapped up in chatting with Taehyung - who smoothly transitioned out of the conversation about Cindy Lou by asking him so kindly all about local customs, and the history of how Whoville had been built, and how he’d built his own house in the cave on the mountain and about how he met Max - that he didn’t notice how odd it was that Taehyung was headed back with him instead of heading around the banks of the river to wherever his ship had been berthed. The journey back up the side of Mount Crumpit was, of course, much more tiring than walking down. But with Taehyung to chat with, walking side-by-side at leisurely pace and Max next to them sprightly as ever, the time seemed to pass instantly. Soon they were all the way back up the rocky path that led to the red front door of Namjoon’s home.

“Please come in!” Namjoon urged him as they skirted past the odd new part of the mountainside and turned the corner so his bright red door was visible. “You should warm up and have some lunch before you have to be on your way.”

Taehyung perked up.

“Oh, that would be splendid!” he said. “Thank you, I accept your invitation!”

Namjoon smiled and hauled his wagon inside, and Taehyung came in right behind him. 

“Oh, this is marvelous!” he said. “I see what you meant now! A whole cave system in here, and you’ve turned it into your home?”

Namjoon nodded, feeling proud but a little shy suddenly. They walked through the roughly-arched main hallway, up the stairs that were carved directly into the rock, and then through the blue door that led to the kitchen. Taehyung trailed behind him, looking all around the cavern, seeing the places where Namjoon had adapted to the natural rock formations, putting the spaces and furnishings of his home all spread out where they best fit.

“This is so unique!” he exclaimed. “How many rooms do you have here?”

“Well, there’s the bedroom, the bathroom, the library, the organ room, the office, obviously the kitchen, the dining room-” Namjoon rattled off before Taehyung interrupted him.

“Hold on, did you say organ room?” Taehyung gasped, ceasing his poking at the shelves on the wall and looking at him with big round eyes.

“Yes, um, I made my own pipe organ in one of the big chambers,” Namjoon said, trying to sound modest, even though he was quite proud of it.

“I would love to see it!” Taehyung said enthusiastically.

Well, he didn’t have to ask Namjoon twice. Max barked happily as well - he enjoyed Namjoon’s organ playing more these days now that he was starting to branch out and play more than just dolorous, lonely songs. So Namjoon led the way down the twisty corridor, across the narrow walkway, onto the platform in the middle of the magnificent stalagmite-filled room where he’d built the organ. He was thoroughly gratified by the way Taehyung admired it, his eyes tracing over all the lit-up buttons and polished brass pipes.

“It’s incredible!” Taehyung said earnestly. “A marvel!”

Namjoon thought he was probably turning an odd shade of brown from blushing.

“I don’t suppose I could convince you to play me a quick tune?” Taehyung said hopefully.

“I, well, something quick, and then we’ll have lunch,” Namjoon muttered, unable to stop himself from grinning and fluttering a little under the man’s flattering attention.

So he sat down and played Chopin’s Minute Waltz - not a piece particularly suited to an organ, but Namjoon had his own arrangement of it. Taehyung gave him a very enthusiastic round of applause, which made Namjoon’s enlarged heart feel warm and fuzzy indeed, and then they walked back through the cave to the kitchen.

Namjoon couldn’t cook anything all that elaborate, but he could certainly heat up canned soup and toast bread. That was very hard to mess up. Taehyung poked around in the kitchen, and admired the coffeemaker and the dumbwaiter (both of which Namjoon had modified specially for Max to be able to operate on his own). Once the food was ready, Taehyung ate it all gladly, sitting at his very long dining room table, and even asked for seconds. 

“Now, I don’t mean to pry,” Taehyung asked once he’d finished off his second bowl, and Namjoon was debating the merits of a third, “but your friend at the store seemed a little bit worried about you. Have you been ill recently?”

Namjoon, disarmed by all their friendly talk, and how much Taehyung had liked his cave and his food, didn’t find himself bristling at the question as much as he might have otherwise.

“Ahhh,” he sighed reflectively. “Not exactly. I used to be- hmm. To be honest I was a bad person for a long time. I’ve been working to turn things around.”

Taehyung’s eyes lit up.

“Personal transformation!” he said avidly, drumming his fingers on Namjoon’s table. “Well, I know a little something about that too. Good for you. And it’s good to see that you have someone cheering you on and checking up on you.”

Namjoon mumbled his thanks a little bashfully, and concentrated very hard on picking up their dishes and taking them to the kitchen.

“Thank you very much for the hospitality and the meal,” Taehyung finally said, following him into the kitchen. “And for your help up and down the mountain, and guiding me around town. You’re a real mensch! But I must get back to my ship and attempt my repairs now.”

“I can help with that too!” Namjoon offered eagerly.

He liked Taehyung - even if he wasn’t from Whoville, if he had to come here every so often to get parts, they could be friends, surely. However, Taehyung looked a little skeptical at Namjoon’s offer.

“Oh, well,” he said kindly but clearly not convinced. “That’s very nice of you to offer, but my ship has some very complicated parts…”

“You’ve seen my big pipe organ, and my coffee maker, and my dumbwaiter, and that’s not even the half of it!” Namjoon insisted. “I made all of those myself. You think I can get a handyman up here?”

Taehyung tilted his head to the side and thought.

“You know, that’s a good point,” he admitted. “Okay, well, if you’re willing to be a good sport about it, why not?”

Namjoon grinned, feeling good that he was able to help Taehyung. He thought about how lonely and frustrated he’d be if he was in his shoes - how hard it would be to try to do all the shopping and the figuring out and fixing all by himself in an unfamiliar place - and hoped that he was making Taehyung’s troubles easier.

So he piled up the dishes and put his scarf back on, and with Max on one side and the grinning Taehyung on the other, they headed back outside and started back down the hill. Namjoon suddenly realized that he didn’t know how far they had to go.

“So, is your ship far?” he asked. “Do you have a sled to go back down to your berth at the river?”

“The river!” Taehyung mused, as if he hadn’t considered the possibility of a river existing before. “No no, my ship is just right here.”

“What? Where?” Namjoon asked, looking around in bafflement. 

The side of Mount Crumpit didn’t have that much variation, and almost no bushes or trees - there was certainly no place where a ship could have been hidden. And they’d walked down and back up again together, and Namjoon hadn’t spotted anything at all.

“Right here!” Taehyung said brightly, pointing to a bare rock wall.

Namjoon suddenly realized, with a sinking feeling, that he was pointing to the strange large lump that had appeared this morning. Had it been a rockslide after all, and buried this poor man’s ship - after he’d hauled it up the mountain for some reason?

But before Namjoon could theorize any further, Taehyung had reached out and pressed a spot on the rock, and a door opened in it and swung inwards. Max barked incredulously and took a half-step back, and Namjoon felt his jaw drop open.

Taehyung grinned at both of them.

“Well, come in, won’t you?” he said gaily, and stepped through the door.

Namjoon peered through - in contrast to the blue-gray-white of the snowy mountainside, the inside of the door glowed golden. He could see - lights? Pipes? Wires? Panels? - all manner of cluttered mechanical-seeming things, just a rectangular snippet of what seemed to be a very complicated room. He shuffled a little closer, still gaping.

He got all the way to the face of the rock, his furry toes nearly level with the threshold of the impossible door. He could feel the warmth coming through it. Max came and stood next to his ankle, and sniffed the air. He looked down at him, and the dog shrugged. Well, it didn’t seem dangerous! And Namjoon was curious. Maybe a year ago he would have turned around, sure that it was a cruel joke or a scam of some kind - but now, especially after Taehyung had been so warm and friendly, why not go in and see what happened?

So Namjoon stepped inside, Max right beside him. 

“Wow,” he said as he looked around at the incredible room just on the other side of the door. “It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!”

And indeed it was - because instead of a rock-hewn cavity in a mountainside boulder, he was now in what looked like the inside of a spaceship. Namjoon gawked even more than he had from outside, at the enormous console in the middle covered with buttons and lights, which stretched from the floor all the way to the tall ceiling; at the rippled and contoured white plastic panels that lined the walls; at the perfectly ordinary coat-rack that stood just inside the doorway, and now had Taehyung’s scarf draped over it.

Taehyung was leaning against one of those control panels, grinning excitedly, like a kid who had just shown his friend a secret clubhouse.

“That’s what they all say,” he said with a wink.

“So- is this- you meant a spaceship?” Namjoon gasped, still slowly walking forward. “But from out there, why does it look like, um, a rock instead of a rocket?”

“This is not just a spaceship - this is the TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimensions In Space,” Taehyung rattled off proudly. 

“It- you can travel through time?” Namjoon asked in awe.

“Precisely,” Taehyung confirmed, though he grimaced wryly. “At least, when it’s working.”

“But if it’s not working, how can the parts from those toys possibly fix… this?” Namjoon blurted out, lifting up his arms.

“Well, this old girl has been around for a long time,” Taehyung said fondly, patting the control panel in front of him fondly, “and she’s built on some very adaptive technology. You’d be surprised how far a few good capacitors, timing chips, diodes, and oscillators will get you! And, to answer your other question - it doesn’t usually look like a rock. It has the ability to blend in with its surroundings.”

Namjoon peered around again, noticing a few other doors besides the one they’d entered through.

“There’s more?” he asked curiously.

“Yes!” Taehyung confirmed with another of his wide, boxy grins. “Care to take a look?” 

🌃🌌⌚🎄⌚🌌🌃

Taehyung didn’t want to overwhelm Namjoon and Max, so he only showed them a few rooms on their tour - the enormous wardrobe filled with his old and spare clothes, the annex to the power room that had the showiest monitoring panels in it, the multi-story library, and the hallway that hosted the guest rooms. Namjoon was more and more impressed with each thing he saw - not only the rooms, but the electronic buttons that controlled the doors and the lights, and the variety of different finishes and styles all around the place.

“I’m still having a hard time picturing what it’s like when all this is going through space,” he said, stroking his chin with his furry finger and thumb.

Taehyung grinned and waggled his eyebrows. He did so like the curious ones.

“Well, you did offer to help repair it,” he reminded him. “Shall we give it a try?”

“Oh, yes!” Namjoon agreed, straightening up his back and looking excited.

Just a few moments later, they were back in the control room and Taehyung had the bottom panels of the console popped open so he could get a closer look at where the dimensional stabilizer might be missing synchronization signals. He was lying on his back, half inside the console itself now, his legs sticking out onto the floor. He’d put Namjoon to work disassembling the toys so he could start harvesting parts from their internal circuit boards - a task he took to with surprising gusto.

Taehyung was tracing through the complicated wiring and cross-mounted circuit boards that formed the dimensional stabilizer, when finally he spotted it: a positronic holo-chip on one board had gone bad, oozing glittery superconductive fluid over the components next to it. Taehyung frowned and reached up, and unclipped and unplugged the board. He quickly scooted himself on his back so that he could wiggle out of the confines of the under-cabinet of the console, and then sat up and held up the board triumphantly.

“Got it!” he said, brandishing it in Namjoon’s direction with a grin.

Namjoon looked up from his pile of parts, sitting cross-legged on the floor. The kind fellow had diligently pried open each of the items and was doggedly unhooking and unscrewing their insides from the cases using the toolbox Taehyung had left out for him. He was a very methodical fellow, carefully laying out all of the screws and panels and wires as he went. Taehyung already had his eyes on quite a few of the parts: the heating element of the goo-filled light fixture, the MIDI chip of the animal-shaped instrument, the integrated circuits of the strange singing beast-of-burden, the powerful magnets inside the levitation desk, and the transmitting antennae of the radio-controlled vehicle. 

Max, for his part, had curled up to sleep in the corner, satisfied that it was safe here since Namjoon was calm.

“That’s the part that’s broken?” Namjoon asked curiously, peering at the board that Taehyung was holding up.

“Yes,” Taehyung confirmed, and showed him where the chip had failed.

Namjoon frowned at it.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he mused, rubbing his finger and thumb thoughtfully over his chin again in the way he did, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the board and all the complicated golden circuitry on it. “How can you possibly replace it with what we have here?”

“Ah, the laws of physical science still operate the same way no matter how fancy the technology may look,” Taehyung reassured him.

Namjoon tilted his head to the side a little and looked dubious. Taehyung carefully put the board down, and then sat right next to Namjoon on the floor and looked at the neat array of parts he had placed out already.

“First, can you pass me the smaller of the neodymium magnets?”

“Sure,” Namjoon replied, carefully picking up the shiny little disk with his tapered fingers, and dropping it into Taehyung’s outstretched palm.

“Now, can you unhook the heating coil from the base of that lamp and unwind about half of it?”

Namjoon hummed his assent and got to work. He was a good craftsman, able to easily and nimbly disassemble all the toys as needed, and picked up pretty quickly on what Taehyung was doing. Taehyung used the sonic screwdriver to meld each the parts he requested together, combining the diodes and magnets and wires and chips into an ever-larger device as Namjoon looked on wide-eyed.

Finally, he had something that, while it was about five times the size of the original holo-chip, was still capable of stabilizing the tacheometric oscillations that were routed through that particular board in the same way. He used the sonic screwdriver again to activate a few points on the circuitry of the board, listening intently to the buzzing that it emitted as a result. It seemed like it would work!

“And there we have it!” Taehyung said triumphantly. 

“Really?” Namjoon asked, leaning back and putting his hands on the floor behind him.

“Yes, now to plug it back in,” Taehyung replied, walking back over to the still-open console.

“Can I see?” Namjoon asked curiously, standing up and following him.

“Sure!” Taehyung replied generously - he hardly ever missed a chance to show off the TARDIS.

So they squeezed in side-by-side, lying down half in the cabinet, like two plumbers examining the same sink, and Taehyung shone a little pocket light on the bracket where he’d pulled the board from in the first place.

“See, it hooks in here, and then the cables plug in here and here,” he explained, showing the ports on the long side of the board.

“Very modular,” Namjoon admired.

“Precisely,” Taehyung agreed.

It took a little fiddling to get it plugged in exactly correctly, and get the cables worked in so they weren’t catching on anything else among the many boards and wires and pipes and conduits, but then it was in and it was time to test it out. The two of them wiggled their way back out of the cabinet, self-consciously laughing a little at the ungainliness of it all and patting their hair, fur, and clothes (as applicable) back into place on standing up again.

“How can you be sure that it’s working now?” Namjoon asked interestedly. 

Taehyung grinned at him.

“We’ll have to take it for a spin!” he informed him with relish, starting to flip switches and activate buttons on the console.

“What does that mean?” Namjoon asked, a tinge of nervousness entering his voice.

From the corner, Max woke up and lifted his head, suddenly attentive again.

“Just a little adventure!” Taehyung decreed gleefully. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you back exactly where - and when - you started!”

And then the large central pillar of the console started moving up and down, and a strange grating noise - similar to, but much less melodic than, Namjoon’s pipe organ - filled the control room. As Namjoon gaped, and Max jumped up onto his feet so that he was at full alert, and Taehyung grinned even more, the TARDIS dematerialized from the planet of the Whos and spun off into the space-time continuum.

Chapter Text

Taehyung pressed another button on the console, sliding open one of the large panels on the wall to expose a very large screen. Namjoon gasped as it blinked to life and showed a bird’s-eye view of Mount Crumpit and Whoville getting smaller and smaller. Then those familiar landmarks were covered by clouds, and then the whole of the planet receded away and the monitor showed only stars and nebulae. Namjoon was speechless in shock and wonder. He was in space!

He looked down when he heard Max bark next to him, suddenly worried at how the little dog was adapting to this very sudden and dramatic journey. But he was staring at the monitor too, looking impressed and excited. Well, Max always had been up for adventures! Then, Namjoon looked over and saw Taehyung grinning at both of them.

“This is incredible!” Namjoon told him, finally managing to get some words out, no matter how inadequate they were to his current feelings. 

“What are your favorite constellations?” Taehyung asked him, smiling even more, his fingers poised above the control panel. 

“Cassiopeia,” he answered after a moment of thought - and then when Max barked, he added, “and Max’s is Canis Major, of course.”

“Excellent,” Taehyung said with relish, typing something in rapidly and causing a cascade of blinking lights across the console. “The Heart and Soul nebulae are in Cassiopeia, did you know that?”

“No,” Namjoon said, starting to think about constructing himself a telescope once he got home.

And then he didn’t have time to think about future plans, because Taehyung steered the TARDIS to take them to a breathtaking series of deep-space vistas. He took them first to Sirius, the star at the “neck” of Canis Major, so that they could see its flickering light illuminate the whole inside of the TARDIS as if they were inside a giant candle-lit glass lamp. He took them through the Heart and Soul nebula, rainbow colors swirling around them. He took them past a planet that was filled with twinkling lights on the night side - a thousand Whovilles cheek-to-cheek. He took them past a terrifically gigantic space station: a giant ring, with space ships large and small docked at it across its entire inner and outer surfaces. Namjoon could hardly believe he was seeing it all in real life and not in a movie.

Next, Taehyung took them to visit the surface of a few planets, and that was even more astonishing. They visited a place that was like the most lush, beautiful garden Namjoon had ever seen. They walked down a beautiful stone path that took them in a gentle loop, and each turn revealed new plants he’d never seen before. There were flowers the size of Namjoon’s head, and trees with purple trunks, and bushes with tall loopy roots that looked like they were about to leap out of the ground and fly away, punctuated with little streams and pools filled with adorable little creatures that looked like miniature seals, and birds perched in the limbs of the trees with colorful tails that were longer than their entire bodies, and leaves of every shape and every shade of green imaginable. 

The next planet they visited was an ocean planet. Taehyung landed the TARDIS on top of a large plateau that looked like it could very well have been the top of a giant mushroom, cream-colored and spongy. The tidy surf of the seemingly endless salt water lapped against the rounded edges of it, just a few feet below the edge. The water was crystal clear all the way to the bottom, so that when Namjoon knelt there, he could see hundreds of feet down and spot iridescent fish of every shape and size swimming around rainbow-colored coral and swaying tendrils of seaweed.

The third planet they visited had a beautiful city, all polished stone and crystal, with every street lined with trees trained and trimmed into fantastic shapes and monumental sculptures and giant fountains. Every building was decorated with columns and carvings - stone creatures posed and leapt from every corner, and murals and mosaics decorated the rest. The three of them strolled around there, admiring all the architectural and landscape details, blending in with the crowds that walked to and fro between all the homes and businesses that inhabited the buildings. Namjoon thought that the whole planet was practically a museum in its own right.

Then, after dematerializing off of that planet, Taehyung took them to a rendezvous with another spaceship. It was saucer-shaped, exactly like something out of an old movie. He had the TARDIS appear just a few dozen meters away from the ship out in the vacuum of space, and after a quick and cheerful hailing over a radio of some kind, the saucer ship extended a long docking tube that sealed against the outside door of the TARDIS.

“They’re from an old dictatorship that outlawed music,” Taehyung explained to Namjoon while he was making all sorts of adjustments on the control panel to make sure the seal held against the TARDIS hull. “It was just a few years ago - by the way you calculate time - that the dictatorship was overthrown and all the planets under it were able to openly listen to music again.”

It hurt Namjoon’s heart to hear of such a thing. Even in the darkest, lowest moments of his life, he’d been able to listen to - and even play - music that expressed the feelings he wasn’t willing to talk about. But to rob multiple planets’-worth of people of such a thing? Awful. 

“Now, this crew - there are seven of them, by the way - travel all around and seek out every form of music they can find.”

“That must be a fascinating quest,” Namjoon mused.

“And, they all sing and play instruments themselves,” Taehyung concluded. “So they perform their music in all the places they visit, to trade!”

That sounded like a rather hectic and stressful life to Namjoon, but he applauded them for the effort. Taehyung, evidently satisfied that the connection between the ships was secure, pulled the lever to open the door - successfully exposing the interior of the tube. The three of them walked across and were greeted by the alien crew.

The inside of the ship was of course just as saucer-shaped as the outside and and not nearly as big as the interior of the tardis, but the wide oval windows that ringed the entire ship still gave a beautiful view of the stars around them. The crew were people much like Taehyung, with angular faces but kind eyes and welcoming smiles. Their clothes were a bit strange and multi-layered, but their hair was all in different colors just like the Whos back home.

“Doctor!” they called out to him all in group, like a pack of eager puppies. “It’s great to see you!”

“Just here for a quick visit, since I happened to be passing nearby,” he said breezily. “This is Namjoon and Max, they’re helping me do a few tests on the TARDIS.”

They all called out hellos to him as well, some waving, some coming close enough to pet Max, who wagged his tail and basked under the attention.

“Namjoon here built his own musical instrument, you know,” Taehyung informed them proudly.

“Oh, well,” Namjoon stammered quietly when they all turned to look at him inquisitively, “just my own version of a pipe organ.”

“We’d love to come hear it, next time we’re in your system,” one of them said brightly.

“Sure,” Namjoon said, not quite believing what he was agreeing to. “Uh, yes, if you happen to be nearby, feel free!”

The ice broken then, they eagerly showed him their Sound Museum: a special room in the innermost part of the ship, where the curved walls were entirely covered in thousands of little cubbies - each no larger than the size of Namjoon’s fist. And about three-quarters of the cubbies were filled with glowing spheres, each with a completely different color and pattern swirling on them.

“Go on,” another of the crewmembers encouraged him. “Each one is a song. Give it a try!”

So Namjoon cautiously reached out and touched one of the spheres. The room filled with the sound of drum beat and a synth. He tried another one and got choral singing, another played something that sounded like violins, another emitted a lullaby, and another something jazzy. Namjoon was enchanted - how long it must have taken for them to collect all of this music!

Finally, they said goodbye to the cheerful music collectors and went back inside the TARDIS. 

“Well, that was a pretty good test flight, I think,” Taehyung said, looking at Namjoon with a mischievous glint in his eye.

“Ha, yeah,” Namjoon agreed, his mind spinning with everything he’d seen. “That’s sort of an understatement!”

“Now, as promised, I’ll get you home safe,” Taehyung said, turning to the console yet again, waggling his fingers dramatically.

Namjoon suddenly felt exhaustion creeping up on him. What a day it had been! All the sights he had seen! He needed to spend a week lying down and thinking it over and absorbing all of it.

Unfortunately, to Namjoon’s consternation, just then an ugly crackling sound emanated from somewhere inside the console, and the whole TARDIS lurched unpleasantly right at the end of the materialization. Namjoon gasped and quickly snatched up Max into his arms, as Taehyung made an aggravated tisking noise and frantically pushed a large number of buttons all over the control panels. The room straightened out and the materialization noise faded out, as it usually did, leaving Namjoon and Taehyung looking at each other in alarmed silence. 

“What happened?” Namjoon demanded anxiously, as Max whined and pressed himself into his arms. 

“Ah, just a little de-synchronization at the last stretch,” Taehyung explained with a grimace. “So we probably landed a little bit off-coordinate. We’ll need to figure out how far off we are, and then we can correct.”

Namjoon furrowed up his forehead, worried and a little angry. But, they’d gone to so many other planets already, and hadn’t blown up or frozen solid or imploded into goo, so Namjoon supposed he should trust Taehyung that he knew what he was doing. And after all, Namjoon had seen the rather bodged-together fix under the console that he himself had helped complete, and had agreed to come along anyway! So he took a deep breath and forgot his complaints.

“The coordinate detector is rebooting,” Taehyung said, heading for the door. “Now, let’s see if we can get some clues about where and when we are - that will help us narrow down the adjustments we’ll need to make.”

He opened the door. Namjoon went to follow him, but Max jumped out of his arms and ran back further into the interior of the room.

“You’d rather stay here?” Namjoon asked him.

Max nodded, his eyes big and scared. Namjoon gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

“Of course, you should stay here. You can keep watch while we’re out there,” he agreed. 

Max wagged his tail, clearly relieved, and then walked over and curled up in the same corner of the room where he had been sleeping before. Namjoon figured Max had had enough excitement for one day! He felt somewhat the same at this point, but also felt obligated to help out Taehyung. So, he turned and walked out of the TARDIS, intent on helping Taehyung make things right.

It was evening, and they were on the outskirts of Whoville. The purple sky hung above the glowing contours of the town. Namjoon suddenly felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. This was a view he’d seen before - many times before. Taehyung was ahead of him, meandering slowly down the hill towards Whoville, squinting in the twilight and peering all around, looking for clues. Namjoon stopped in his tracks and slowly, begrudgingly, turned around. 

The TARDIS had taken the form of a strange little blue box this time - something like an old-fashioned phone booth. It looked entirely out of place near the stone gate and shrubbery it was next to, but Namjoon didn’t think about that very hard, because of the tall, dark, unwelcoming building on the other side of the stone gate.

“Oh no,” he moaned, putting his hands on his head. “Oh no, oh no.”

It was the orphanage. He’d been transported back in time to his childhood, and was standing in front of the cold, lonely building where he’d grown up.

“What’s wrong?” Taehyung asked, sounding a little worried behind him as he jogged back up the hillside to return to Namjoon.

Just then, as Namjoon was looking at the wide, two-story facade of the building, with its rows of identical dingy windows, one of the windows on upper story on the right wing slid open. He gasped as a tiny green figure climbed out, put its tiny green feet over the ledge, and then jumped all the way down from there. Namjoon gasped, and the little figure landed with an oof - and then started crying.

Namjoon didn’t stop to think for even the slightest moment - he flung open the gate and ran over to the fallen child.

It was him. It was little Namjoon who had climbed out of the orphanage, no more than four years old at the time. Namjoon had no memories of this happening, as he’d been too young to remember, but he’d heard the story told to him once or twice by one of the care workers later - how he’d jumped out the window, and then come grumpily back inside the front door. 

“I’m here! You’re okay!” he called out to his child self as he ran over. “Oh sweetheart, you’re okay!”

The fuzzy green toddler, tears running down his cheeks, held his arms up to Namjoon. Namjoon picked him up into a hug with no hesitation, not caring for the least about the snot on his face or the blood from the scrape on his knee. Little Namjoon wailed into grownup Namjoon’s shoulder, clutching his little hands into Namjoon’s fur.

“Where are you hurt, is it your knee?” Namjoon asked tenderly.

Little Namjoon nodded, his cries finally simmering down into gulps and sobs as Namjoon took the end of his scarf and pressed it against the poor little knee.

“There, is that better?” Namjoon asked.

Little Namjoon nodded again, tears quieting down. He laid his head down and Namjoon hugged him.

“You should get back inside before they miss you,” Namjoon said softly.

“They won’ miss me,” Little Namjoon lisped grumpily. “Nobody cares. I wanna go home.”

“I care,” Namjoon said. “You won’t remember this, but a long time from now, you’ll meet other people who care. I promise.”

Little Namjoon looked up at him, then down at his scraped knee. He wiggled his leg contemplatively.

“Kay,” he finally said, roughly wiping his face with the back of his hand and sniffling.

He hopped down out of Namjoon’s lap and started walking back to the door, accepting and then letting go of Namjoon’s mysterious presence with the ease of a child who spent much of his time around strangers who never introduced or explained themselves. Namjoon suddenly felt another chill, the feeling he’d made a terrible mistake, and lurched forward to stop his younger self. The more steps the lonely little child took back towards the orphanage, the more Namjoon felt like his heart was going to break (and shrink) all over again.

“Wait,” Taehyung whispered from behind him, gently grabbing his arm to stop him in place. “You have to let him go.”

“You don’t understand,” Namjoon said urgently, watching his younger self toddle resignedly away. “That’s me. That’s me! We can’t leave him here.”

Taehyung shook his head sadly and didn’t let go of Namjoon’s arm. 

“I know, but it’s the past,” he explained. “We can’t change it.”

“No,” Namjoon cried out in anguish, reaching out with his other arm towards the retreating child. “I can’t leave him here. You don’t know what he’s going to go through! How much pain and loneliness! I’ve only just barely been able to get past it now. I can’t do it again, I can’t!”

“It already happened,” Taehyung said empathetically, moving his hand down so that his fingers threaded through Namjoon’s and they were holding hands. “We can’t stop it.”

“No,” Namjoon whimpered.

“I’m sorry,” Taehyung said. 

He squeezed Namjoon’s hand. Namjoon gasped as his younger self reached the steps, and then got up the steps, and then pulled open the front door. He let out a sob as the little green child was illuminated by the glow coming through the open door - and then little Namjoon stepped through the door and out of sight.

Grown-up Namjoon started crying. Taehyung turned and wrapped Namjoon up into a hug, the same way Namjoon had hugged his young self, letting Namjoon cry into his shoulder. 

“I don’t want to let him go,” Namjoon said through his tears. “It’s not fair.”

“You’re right, it isn’t fair,” Taehyung murmured back. “I’m truly sorry.”

Taehyung ran his hand gently up and down Namjoon’s back, just enough to let him know he could stay there as long as he needed. It hurt so much to have to suddenly face his younger self - he hadn’t even thought such a thing was possible, but then it was right in front of him. At least he’d been able to give his poor hurt self a hug - how many times had he wished, over the last few months, that he could go back in time and tell himself it would be okay in the end! But he knew, all too well, that the words he’d told himself just now wouldn’t have any meaning or comfort for a long, long time.

Finally, Namjoon managed to get himself to stop crying, probably a tad more slowly than his younger self had in his own arms just minutes ago. He wasn’t happy about letting his younger self go, at all, but he supposed in a way it made sense - his life had already happened. Even if time travel gave him a glimpse of the past, he still couldn’t change it. Namjoon wiped off his face with the back of his hand (in very much the same manner as that child) once he’d pulled away from Taehyung.

“I wanted to take him with us,” he said tearfully to Taehyung. “I don’t want him to live through all of that again. I want him to get to go on a space adventure and see all the wonderful things you showed me.”

“Ah, but you did take him on a space adventure,” Taehyung said with a small, gentle smile. “He was with us that whole time.”

Then he reached out and tapped Namjoon’s chest very gently with one of his elegant fingers.

“Wasn’t he?” he insisted, a sympathetic twinkle in his eyes.

Namjoon blew out a long breath. It was in the past. Just because he was seeing this now, didn’t mean he had to live it all over again. He had done it, it was over, and he was starting to heal from it. The little boy in the orphanage had survived and grown up, he had friends now who forgave him for being so very imperfect, and he had gone on a space adventure.

“Yes, you’re right,” Namjoon finally murmured.

Taehyung beamed at him. 

“Well, I think we have enough information now,” he said. “So let’s return to the TARDIS and get back to the right year, shall we?”

“That sounds great,” Namjoon agreed shakily.

So they walked the few steps back to the TARDIS (carefully closing the gate behind them as they left) and went back inside. Taehyung went back over to the center console, and Namjoon walked over to stand next to him, holding on with one hand to one of the railings there. He used his other hand to wipe the last of his tears from his eyes.

“Not to worry, we’ll get it right this time!” Taehyung declared brightly, as he hit another series of buttons and flipped several switches.

The TARDIS lit up again, and made the same grating noise - for a shorter amount of time, and then they were re-materializing. Taehyung pressed a button to open up the monitor, and then sighed in relief: the screen showed the path up to Namjoon’s front door, looking exactly the same as how they had left it. Taehyung sprung over and opened and went through the door, Namjoon following closely after.

“Oh, look, it’s our footprints!” Namjoon pointed out, for indeed, the distinctive prints of Taehyung’s boots, Namjoon’s furry feet, and Max’s paws were littered back and forth on snow of the path exactly as they had been before - even leading directly to the door of the TARDIS. Namjoon looked all around the mountain and squinted up at the sky - even the sun seemed to be in the same position it had been when they left, even though it felt like hours and hours had passed out in space.

“Just like I said,” Taehyung said confidently. “I got you right back where - and when - you started.”

Namjoon nodded, at a loss for words.

“Well, thank you again so much for your hospitality and your assistance,” Taehyung went on. “But I am needed elsewhere, so I’ll be off!”

“Um, sure,” Namjoon said, at first distractedly, then gathering himself up. “No, no, thank you! I don’t even know what to say, I’ll never forget the adventure you took me on.”

“I’ll always have a fond spot in my heart for this planet because of you,” Taehyung said to him warmly, making Namjoon blush again. “Oh, right, before I forget, this is for you.”

He pulled something out of his pocket then, and held it out to Namjoon - the little purple whale. Namjoon reached out slowly and took it - it fit perfectly in his hand, plush and soft and adorable.

“You should have given this to the other me back there,” Namjoon said half-jokingly and a little sadly, though he pulled it close to him - not quite hugging it to his chest. 

How he would have loved to have a little toy like this when he was small!

“I want you to remember that you’re here now,” Taehyung said gently. “That’s the important thing. And that big heart of yours isn’t just for everyone else - it’s for you too. So if you want to give that whale to your younger self, well…”

He raised his eyebrows and waggled his hands at Namjoon in a sort of go on, then gesture. Namjoon looked at him, and then put his other hand on the little whale, and squeezed it to his chest. And inside his still-newly stretched out heart, a lonely little boy from years ago hugged it too. Down at his feet, he felt Max leaning against his ankle reassuringly.

“Thank you,” he whispered to Taehyung, willing himself not to start crying again. 

“Thank you,” Taehyung said, and then he stepped forward and wrapped Namjoon into another hug, his tweed-clad arms wrapping around him completely.

Namjoon put his head down on the man’s shoulder and let himself be held. Then Taehyung leaned back and patted his shoulders, smiling his boxy smile.

“You’d better get inside before you get too cold,” he said kindly, though his own eyes were shining with a few unshed tears. 

“You too,” Namjoon croaked back.

Taehyung winked and gave him one last hearty pat on his shoulder, then turned around and stepped back inside the TARDIS. He paused in the doorway and waved. Namjoon waved back - and then the door was closed and the door blended in with the rocky mountainside once more. Namjoon took a few steps back, wondering what the takeoff would look like from the outside.

Max hopped up and down and barked in agitation next to him, clearly able to sense something changing before Namjoon could. Then, he could hear the same strange grating noise as before - the noise the TARDIS had made when Taehyung turned it on and took them out into space - coming from the rocky slope that the door had been embedded in. And then, as they watched, the whole extra portion of the slope faded out in front of their eyes. As it got more and more transparent - the normal face of the hillside increasingly visible behind it - the sounded faded out too.

Finally, as Namjoon stood there concentrating so hard that his eyes were watering and his ears were ringing, both the sight and the sounded faded out and were gone. He ran over and patted and kicked the rock, and Max sniffed it, but there was nothing - it was just their perfectly ordinary walkway again.

Namjoon looked down at Max, who looked back up and him and shrugged.

“Well, I could use a cup of tea,” Namjoon said weakly.

Max wagged his tail happily. They trudged the rest of the way back home in contemplative silence. Once they were inside, Namjoon walked up the twisty stone hallway to his bedroom and put the little purple whale right on his bedside table, so it could watch over him in his sleep. (If he gave it a few extra hugs and pats before he left it there, that was his own business.) Then he headed up to the kitchen, and he and Max were sitting sipping hot drinks at the dining room table just a few minutes later. Namjoon was still lost in thought. So much had happened in just a single day!

Suddenly, Namjoon had a sour thought. All those places that Taehyung had shown him, and he hadn’t gotten any souvenirs! He’d been too in the moment, too enchanted by all the novel sights. He should have been trying to find something to bring back for his friends - that would have been a good Christmas present.

But then, as he thought about it more, he changed his mind. They didn’t know anything about his adventure, or about Taehyung, so anything he brought back wouldn’t have meant anything to his Who-friends. He had the memories to cherish forever. He’d need to give them things that meant something to them, not just to him. 

And then he thought about the band, about those cheerful young men who loved music so much, who had collected so many songs and learned more types of music than Namjoon ever knew existed. Though not nearly on the same scale, relatively speaking Namjoon still knew how to play lots of songs too. What’s to say he couldn’t learn to write his own songs just like they did?

Filled with a sudden burst of confidence and inspiration, and now not feeling sour at all, Namjoon drained his tea, washed the mug, and strode off to the organ room. Max yipped and followed him with his tail wagging - he enjoyed Namjoon’s musical time much more now that he had started to play a variety of less dolorous tunes. 

Once Namjoon sat down at his organ, he didn’t get out one of his books of sheet music. He got out a blank notebook instead, and starting playing whatever came to mind when he thought about his friends, and colorful houses, and shared meals, and bright twinkling stars that were full of life. He thought about little purple whales and wagging tails and keeping people company during errands and chores and the power of a hug and a kind word at the right time. 

And the tunes he played weren’t very good at first, and the words he came up with weren’t either, but that was okay. He wrote down the snippets of ideas he had, and he had plenty of time to practice. If he started now, he’d be able to give his friends a song for Christmas - a really great one that would show how much they meant to him. And when Taehyung came back, he’d play it for him too, and Namjoon was sure it would make him smile.