PSL: Eleven and Jack on Arcadia

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Arcadia: not a planet, but a habitable moon circling a gas giant of roiling purple and silver clouds. One of the most beautiful places in all of reality; a well-kept secret, so well-kept that most societies thought it nothing more than a legend

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The Doctor plucked his glass of the bartop and sauntered over to the table.

"Well, well," he said as he sat down, looking duly impressed. "'Ambassador' Harkness." Long way from 'Captain.' The Doctor tilted his glass in a toast.

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"Kind of fell into it," Jack said with a smile. It was a smile that even touched his eyes. Life had been very good for a long time now. He intended to enjoy it while it lasted.

He didn't raise his own glass at first, but instead nodded at the one in the doctor's hand. "You don't like that," he informed him, factual and perhaps the tiniest bit amused. "The texture is all right, but you think it's too bitter and the smell is distracting."

The waitress made another swing by their table, setting a glass that was basically a small bowl on a short stem in front of the Doctor. It was filled with a lightly carbonated and mildly alcoholic pale pink liquid. Clearly Jack had ordered it when he'd asked the girl to invite the Doctor to join him.

Still didn't account for the entire length of the exchange, though.

"You like this." Now Jack raised his glass in a toast, and his companion did the same.

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He looked at Jack skeptically. Clearly Jack had stopped treating time in a linear fashion somewhere along the line if he was here in the first place, but he was one of those people the Doctor had grown accustomed to meeting in the correct order. It was difficult not to be a little nonplussed.

He sniffed at the green drink and his nose wrinkled reflexively. "Ooh." It did smell odd.

Conceding with a shrug, he picked up the other glass instead and raised it. "Cheers." He gave a smile to both of them and drank.

Well - Jack was right. The drink had a bright, sweet flavour somewhere between fruit and mint, and the bubbles were nice. The Doctor gave the glass an appreciative look before turning to the green woman and nodding his head, acknowledging her. "Introductions. I'm the Doctor. Ambassador Harkness and I go back - further back than I know, apparently." There was still that tiny note of amusement on the word 'Ambassador.'

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When the wide eyes turned to Jack questioningly, he just gave her a smile and said "it's complicated" before dismissing the gaze entirely. She seemed content with this reply. Clearly they had a system.

"I am Nagmeh of Luesto. Pleased to become familiar with you." She smiled at the Doctor, then looked to Jack. "You and the Ambassador are friends, or lovers?" Neither option seemed like it would bother her at all. In fact, she was eying the Doctor up, trying to guess at what was hidden underneath that frumpy suit.

Jack just laughed. It probably wasn't too difficult to see why he liked this girl.

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The Doctor noticed her looking, and with the added context of her question it was an easy guess what she was looking for. He gave Jack a short, silent, wide-eyed smile: a 'Can you believe this?' sort of look.

The question was more difficult to answer than Nagmeh likely thought. Lovers, certainly not, but 'friends' seemed somehow a little too general.

"Former traveling companions," the Doctor settled on after a couple of seconds. His fingers curled gently around the stem of his glass as he looked back to the man across the table. "How've you been, Jack?"

His overall demeanour was casual, but there was at least a touch of concern there. At the very least, the amount you'd expect to hear from someone you hadn't seen in a long while.