To: RubyNye

From: Elke Tanzer

Fandom: Doctor Who

Threesome: Ninth Doctor/ Rose Tyler/ Captain Jack Harkness

Title: Midnight in the Gardens of Athernak

Requested Element: fruit and/or flowers

Summary: The Doctor had promised Rose a trip to the famous gardens at the height of the Atherkrithian Empire, and Jack had promised to pack the picnic if the Doctor could get them there on time. Needless to say, TARDIS travel seldom goes exactly according to plan.

The garden was tangled and wild, some plants completely overgrowing others, and many of the pathways and beds' edgings obscured by creeping vines of dark opalescent green. Jack hadn't gone far, but it hadn't taken him long to get a general idea of the place. He tapped a few keys at his wrist, then turned back toward the TARDIS and called out, "Are you sure? I don't think this is the height of the magnificent Atherkrithian Empire. They preferred their gardens tidy, you know. And it's not looking like it's lunchtime here, it's almost evening already."

Rose looked from Jack to the Doctor. "Right then, time to settle up. So it's you who'll be making the picnic. What you waitin' for? Unless we've got entirely the wrong planet again…"

"No, no, we're fine." The Doctor looked around, slightly bemused. "We're just a bit… later… than we'd aimed for, that's all. These are the gardens of Athernak."

Rose pressed on. "And it's perfectly all right for us to picnic here? For dinner?"

"Of course!" At her sidelong glance, he added, "Well, in all likelihood. Probably."

She grinned, turning to catch Jack's eye before replying. "Right."

Jack matched her smile, the usual twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "Right. Come on, Rose, let's see if we can find a flat patch of lawn somewhere among all of this ivy-stuff. We shouldn't need to go very far. It looks like the gravel pathways to the left here curve out onto a clearing or something. Oh, and Doctor? Remember to bring the good cheese. That stuff made from the milk of those… what did you call them, Rose? Those 'aquatic six-legged yak-things' ? Doesn't go well with the wine. You are bringing the ruvinberry wine?"

The Doctor turned, and as the TARDIS door closed behind him, they could hear his good-natured grumbling.

Rose began picking her way down the gravel path toward Jack, shaking her head. "That's what he gets for betting you, anyway. After all the trouble he's had with the TARDIS, you'd think he'd know better…"

Jack held out his hand, cocking his head to one side. "Ah, but no one resists a bet with me. I'm a rascal like that."

Rose laughed, delighted with both of them, and took his hand. "That you are, Captain Harkness. Lead on, then."

Together they wandered down the garden path, stopping to remark on the strangely beautiful colors and shapes of the plants on either side. The path turned a few times, but didn't branch until it opened up onto a stone-paved plaza scattered with statuary on massive pedestals, and fountain-pools, now in disrepair and clogged with an overgrowth of something that looked somewhat like a reddish pennywort. They untangled their fingertips as Jack went one way around one of the fountains and Rose went the other, to approach one of the statues.

"Is this what the Athernakrith looked like?"

Jack peered around an ornate swirl of the fountain to squint at the statue beside her; the sun backlit it and he had trouble making out the details against the glare from his angle. "Hmm. I don't think so. Well, no, wait. Yes, sort of. Yes. Except for the extra arms. And possibly the fifth eye. I think."

"Right."

"I'm serious! Mostly."

"Huh."

"It's too bad the fountains aren't working. They'd be really lovely if they were working, and the musical sound of the water falling… mmm." He came the rest of the way around the fountain to hand her a tiny copper coin, no bigger than the nail on her pinky finger. "Here, make a wish."

"You're a hopeless romantic, Jack."

"What's wrong with that?"

Rose laughed. "Nothing." She smiled at him, taking her turn at a twinkle of mischief, and flicked the coin in amongst the reddish pennywortish leaves.

He grinned, then stilled, closed his eyes, took a deep breath as his eyebrows pulled together slightly, and then tossed his own coin in. He opened his eyes again, and Rose couldn't quite read what she saw there.

She turned to glance around, the moment shifting, but she found nothing but more rough paving stones and statues. "Why didn't they put in any benches or anything? Didn't these people ever want to sit down?"

"Maybe, just not necessarily here. Come on, let's keep looking. What about over there? There are some grassy bits in between the… hmm. What kind of plants do you suppose those are?"

"You're asking me? Until you come up with a better name, I'm gonna call them puffball-bamboos."

"Fair enough."

They walked together to the edge of the stone pavers, where slightly unruly gray-green grass had made tentative forays along the edge of the plaza, Rose tapped one foot onto the grass. It was springy, fairly soft… and unlike the relative openness of the plaza, the grassy area was randomly divided by tall, loose clusters of bamboo-like plants of a pale pinkish-beige, topped by… she craned her neck to get a better view. "Wow. What do you think of those? Are they what smells so good?

Jack put out one hand to steady himself against one of the sturdy stalks, stretching his neck to look up at the next tall one over. "They kind of look like really big, gray dandelion seed-heads, but there's something sort of pale yellow-gold in the middle… gosh, they're really fairly large."

"Yeah. Kind of shaped like a lotus or a lily or something, in the center of the big puffs."

"Yeah. Pretty neat. Nice, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

They paused, admiring and just breathing in the place, then Rose asked, "Do you suppose we can picnic here under them? It's so… nice, here."

Jack looked around once more, seemingly satisfied with the safety of the place. "Sure, why not?" He took off his coat, spread it upon the grass, and with a flourish, sat and indicated that she should join him.

Rose flopped happily down by his side. "Such a gentleman."

"Of course." He wrapped one arm around her, angling her around to face him. "Well, ostensibly, anyway."

Rose laughed, watching as a gentle gust of delicately-scented wind ruffled his hair, and then turned to kiss him, mumbling, "Rascal."

He grinned, and got down to the serious business of snogging.

They didn't notice the lotus-shapes above them beginning to open, nor the gray puffs beginning to detach from the tops of their stalks to float slowly on the rising breeze. By the time they did notice anything out of the ordinary, they were each coated in a light dusting of golden-yellow powder, and the scent had completely permeated their senses.

Rose pulled back only slightly as her questing fingertips had encountered the fine powder in Jack's hair. "Hey… what's this?"

They both did look up, then, but… "It's sparkles. It looks beautiful on you."

"On you, too. Gold-dust boy." Rose laughed.

"Gold-dust girl. Kiss me."

"No, you kiss me first."

Jack let out a small, rather undignified snort. "All right, I will."

And then they were lost in each other again, as the evening wind swayed the stalks gently, and more of the silvery puffballs detached to float on the wind high above them.

The Doctor found them a short while later, sprawled only partially across Jack's coat on the grass, on their backs. Jack was attempting to expound at length about the quality of the fading light as the sun began to set, the light-tinged clouds high, high above reflecting and refracting the light and setting off the counterpoint of the muted grays and the bright pale golds of the floating lotus-puffs and the swirling of the dust… but he wasn't quite making sense.

Rose was nodding and mmm-ing in all the wrong pauses in his monologue, and occasionally giggling.

The Doctor stopped in his tracks, taking in the whole scene. "Jack? Rose?"

Rose lolled her head to look up at him sidelong. "Oh, Doctor! Time for our picnic? You're an absolute angel, I'm starving."

Jack sat up, then toppled sideways into the grass. "Mmmfph! Hey, the planet's tilting…"

The Doctor looked from one to the other of them, then looked upwards, then looked back at them. "Oh."

Jack let out a laugh that was almost, but not quite, a giggle.

Rose smiled beatifically up at him. "What is it, Doctor?"

"You've both been… ah… pollinated."

Her forehead rumpled. "Pollinated?"

Jack rolled onto his back. "Oh, Rose, we're going to make beautiful seedlings together…"

Rose gave him a blank look. "Seedlings?"

The Doctor sighed. "No, you're neither of you pregnant. You're just…"

Jack interrupted him. "Buzzed? Tripped? Blezzed?"

He nodded. "Something like that."

"It sparkles, Doctor."

"Yes, Rose, it does. Here." He settled the basket, sat down next to them, and rummaged through the picnic he'd packed. "Have a banana. And one for you, too, Jack. And one for me."

Jack took his banana, laughing. "You and your bananas…"

Rose took hers and held it up to her ear. "Hello? Hello? Oh, Doctor, it's for you! The TARDIS is calling, and it wants to know why it doesn't get to sparkle." She held out her banana to him, eyes full of laughter but not quite focusing at the same distance.

He took the banana back, sighing as he peeled the top half for her, and then handed it back. "Just eat the banana, all right?"

While the Doctor hadn't been looking, Jack had rolled over onto his stomach, propping himself up on his elbows and turning his head to glance back over his shoulder at the Doctor. He'd managed to get his banana peeled, but he wasn't… exactly… eating it.

"I think what you're doing to that banana is illegal on more than a few planets, Captain."

Jack smiled around the banana, and Rose giggled.

"I can do that better than you." And she set out to try.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, peeled his own banana, and ate it quickly, then waited as the inevitable laughter claimed his companions, who were taking turns making outrageous faces at one another around their bananas. He looked up, watched the gold dust continuing to flutter gently down, catching eddies and whirling in the breeze. The sun was slowly setting, and above the gray lotus-puffs, a bright band of stars lit the sky, which wasn't so much darkening as changing from the warm light of the planet's primary to a sharper, cooler, diffuse starlit glow. By the midpoint of the planet's night, the garden would be fairly brightly-lit from the starlight of the nearest galactic arm.

Eventually Rose and Jack began to catch their breaths, and he reached out a hand to each of their shoulders, squeezing gently. "Just eat the bananas, all right?"

"Oh, all right. What is with you and bananas, anyway?"

"Yeah, all right."

As they finally ate their bananas, the Doctor gave his usual answer, "They're an excellent source of potassium." He paused, sitting out the ruvinberry wine, the good cheese, a cluster of omnicitrus grapes, and a long, narrow loaf of bread. "And that potassium'll help you down slowly from your current pheromone-induced mood without too much of a hangover."

"Mood? Pheromone?"

"Hangover?"

"Just enjoy your picnic. If I'm right, there'll be a visit from some very beautiful creatures in a little while. Very beautiful, very safe creatures."

Rose rolled to snuggle up against his side, reaching for a grape. "Mmm, picnic. And safe creatures? Thank you, Doctor."

Jack wriggled up to his other side, trailing one finger behind his ear and down the side of his neck. "You're sure we'll be safe here? For a while?"

"Yes, perfectly safe."

"Care to make a bet on that?"

Rose sighed. "You two never quit, do you? C'mere, Doctor." And she kissed him.

Jack sidled up behind him from the other side, fitting himself under the Doctor's arm, breathing softly, hot against his neck. "Nope, we never quit. Right, Doctor?"

The Doctor smiled, shook his head at them both, and then let them get down to the serious business of snogging, as far above them, the first of the night's flock of small, twittering hummerflies caught reflected starlight along their four wings and began their fluttering journey from one floating lotus-blossom to the next.