Work Text:
Alex always liked space, even as a young boy.
He would always stay outside just staring at the bright and shining stars in the dark blue sky, even if it was the freezing cold of January in the middle of America. The cold air that always blew though his short red hair during that weather made him feel safe, even when home wasn't the same.
He grew up near a small planetarium, and would sneak out at night during boring and stressful high school to look through the large telescope for hours and hours at a time.
Now that he was with the Doctor, he could explore all the shining stars and big colorful planets he looked at when he was younger in his home country.
While the Doctor takes Amy and Rory, Amy's shy husband, on adventures, Alex would explore the planets they were on and learn about the worlds from the alien looking people living on said planets.
It's boring sometimes without the Doctor, yes, but at least Alex could be like his younger self again.
~~
The Doctor wakes up to the console room's light on.
'Weird,' he thinks, 'I turned the light off before going to sleep, didn't I?'
The Doctor walks into the console room to turn the lights off to see Alex sitting on the floor looking outside, with the doors open.
'Alex? What are you doing?' The Doctor asks the sitting boy.
He turns his head to look at the Doctor.
'Just looking outside,' the man turns his head back to the colorful galaxy in front of him, 'This galaxy is really pretty isn't it, Doctor?'
The Doctor looks out the blue Tardis doors to see the swirly and colorful galaxy in front of them.
'Yeah,' the Doctor sits down beside Alex on the gray metal floor, 'I guess it is'.
The Doctor and Alex just sit there for the rest of the "night" (who knows what night is in the Tardis anymore), staring at the galaxy in awe while they talk about stories from their (very different) pasts, and only stop when Amy wakes up and finds them, leading to her telling them to shut the doors.
It was a nice moment for Alex, just being with the Doctor and not having to worry about saving him and the Ponds from genocidal and ruthless alien species.
However, this would be the last moment Alex feels peace, for a very long while.
