It was the middle of the night. Rory had got up to go to the bathroom, on the way back to his and Amy's room he heard voices echoing down the Tardis corridor.

He followed them to the console room, belting his robe. He found River and the Doctor there, sitting in two chairs on either side of a tiny tea table at the bottom of the entry steps.

He was about to go say hello to River when the Doctor started gesturing widely with his arms, making some emphatic point. River just shook her head and argued back.

They weren't fighting, but Rory couldn't understand half of what they were talking about, there were technical terms, and mentions of times and places he couldn't recognize. Yet they didn't seem to be reminiscing.

The tiny table between them sported a pot of tea, and a platter of cheese. The Doctor popped a cube of cheese in his mouth and made some remark that made River's eyebrow tilt up. She replied, then calmly prepared herself a cracker, spreading soft cheese on it and taking dainty bites, while he waved his arms and dramatically refuted whatever she had said.

She listened until he was done, licking the last of the cheese off her finger, then pointed it at him and made some remark that made the Doctor throw back his head with a laugh.

The Doctor leaned forward across the table and gave her a smacking kiss. She tugged on a lock of hair at the back of his neck and he sat back, grinning at her and talking. She shook her head and launched into some comment of her own, the Doctor sliced cubes of cheese into strips and stacked them between crackers one after the other to create a cracker tower.

River sipped her tea and toed off her shoes.

Rory tiptoed backward in the corridor and headed for his room. He didn't want to interrupt.

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