#also yaz deserves to have the doctor get all the difficult to reach parts on the back of your head

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

are diy bathroom haircuts queer tradition bc theyre never ever straight

[tardis-sapphics]

mistletoemistletoemistletoemistletoE but in all seriousness............... what about christmas gift exchange (THEN mistletoe)

i did it!!! before christmas ends!!!! yes!!!! this was a fab prompt, thanks pal.

also here’s the translator i used for this fic, if you want a visualisation.

merry christmas, happy hanukkah, and happy holidays to you all! i hope your day has been filled with love and joy (and if not, i’m more than happy to shower you in it myself)!

What do you get for the woman who wants for nothing?

This is Graham’s problem, currently. By finding the Doctor, he lost Grace but gained a family – and he loves travelling with them, it’s great, it’s fun, but it means he has to buy more presents for people he doesn’t know as well. Grace was so much easier to buy for. Not to mention she would’ve known exactly what to buy, and where.

(And. Well. That’s a reflection for another time.)

The others are easy to find gifts for. Graham bought Ryan’s and Yaz’s presents back in November. (Or was it forward into November?) But the Doctor… Doc is proving the most difficult one. Again.

Seriously, what do you get a 2000 year old alien? Another time-travelling box?

Christ alive, humans are so much easier to buy for.

He confides in the two youngest of the team about his gift-giving woes. He doesn’t have to be secretive – the Doctor’s off “quarking a micropoint bi-axial rotor” that had “gone a bit wobbly”, whatever the bleeding hell that means. It’s just the three of them around the console, the TARDIS’ gentle thrumming to offer sympathies at their brain-wracking.

But neither of them are any good.

It’s alright for some. Yaz has got the Doctor a present, already. Of course she found something. More often than not those two are joined at the hip, and Graham’s long suspected that something between them needs to be addressed.

And Christmas is tomorrow. (Tomorrow being no more than a construct at this point. Graham can’t remember the last time he saw the Earth at night. Oh, blimey, that’s a lot to think about.)

“Even you, Yaz?” he sighs, after a third round of hypothesising fizzles away into nothing. “You’ve got her something. Surely you have ideas, still?!”

Yaz shakes her head. “Only ‘cause the Doctor asked me to get it for her. She doesn’t have money and she gets too distracted if she goes into Earth shops. I’m sorry, Graham, you’ll have to ask her.”

In all honesty, he’s starting to feel a little bit betrayed by his luck.

Doc chooses this time to wander into the console room, heavy duty welding glasses over her eyes and a nasty pair of pliers in her hands.

“Yaz! I think I left the electromagnetic wave shifter pump by you, can you pass it over?”

Sure enough, there’s some sort of mechanical invention close to the police officer, hanging by a hook on the console. Yaz is immediately on the case - she grabs it from its resting place and zips over to the Doctor as if she was magnetised to the Time Lord. The Doctor watches her the entire time, her mouth turned up just slightly in expectation.

“They’re so not subtle,” Ryan sighs, a playful smile on his face. The noise diverts his attention for a second, but Graham turns his head back again and finds his grandson isn’t wrong at all.

Yaz gently pulls the welding glasses up onto the Doc’s forehead, sharing a quiet conversation and a giggle. Something deeply joyful has blossomed on the blonde woman’s face, wondrous and overwhelming. Her smile grows exponentially when Yaz gives her a kiss on the cheek, placing the pump into the Doctor’s free hand.

It’s a perfect image of the two of them, Graham thinks. But then he stops himself. No, it’s almost perfect. ‘Course, it’s Christmas; it’s a moment that deserves falling snow and mistletoe! Nothing less for the two women that deserve it most.

And, ooh, hey, that’s a good idea. That’s a good one an’ all.

Doc moves to disappear not long after - but not before watching Yasmin hop back over to Graham and Ryan. She always watches them go, Graham’s noticed, like she’s thankful for every second she’s able to see her. God knows she’s loved and lost more than anyone here, hundreds of times over if not more.

She does it for Graham and Ryan, she’s always watching out for them, but there’s a wistful edge to her loving gaze when she looks at Yaz.

Seems the woman does want for something after all. Luckily, Graham’s got just the idea for her.

He catches sight of her fluttering coattails. “Hey, Doc, can we make a quick stop at a Tesco?”

Ryan looks like he’s just been struck like lightning. “Wait, wait, make that IKEA!”

Christmas isn’t feeling like it should.

He can’t help but feel out of sorts today. Like he’s been dropped into an alternate universe, but instead of that Solitary thing trying to tempt them to stay or whatever that… thing was called, he’s just been left without Grace.

He doesn’t know if that’s worse. He’s picturing it all, when everything was right, as he moves through Christmas morning. He should be in the kitchen, he thinks, with her, as they cook a turkey for the two of them. Their Christmas dinner is mournful and it’s too quiet without her cracking jokes. They’ve got Michael Bublé playing but he should be hearing her singing; he should be hearing her soul jumping out every time she opens her mouth to croon along.

She’s walking past in the corner of her eye but he’s expecting her to be sat down in the living room every time he enters and she’s not.

This is the worst he’s been in a while, he knows. Grief’s a monster he wishes he wasn’t personally acquainted with, and it really bites the most when you should be celebrating with family.

Christmas is lonely without her. Life is lonely without Grace.

Despite all that, despite the heaviness crushing his chest and the smile he can see never quite reaching Ryan’s eyes, he’s still glad he’s here. He’s glad he’s continuing with Christmas even if part of him just wants to go to bed and do away with the whole bleeding holiday.

Because Doc and Yaz have joined them for the afternoon, and it means the world to both of the men.

Neither of the girls are tiptoeing around the subject, but they’re not making it their priority either. They’re just existing alongside their friends; pulling crackers; asking questions and finding out about each other’s traditions. What do Ryan and Graham usually do at Christmas? What was the best Christmas present they ever got each other? What was Grace’s favourite thing to do? He answers best he can, trying his hardest to make light of it all.

And it works. Conversation quickly dissolves into Yaz and Ryan having a food fight with the Quality Street sweets so the Doctor, lying horizontally on the lounge chair with her legs dangling over the side, launches into telling Graham about the time she almost got Oliver Cromwell to reinstate Christmas during his rule. It’s about as close to ‘tradition’ as Doc gets - keeping in with the rest of the year. Adventuring and trying to help however she can.

But now it’s his turn to help the Doctor, this Christmas, and he’s a little anxious about it.

He and Ryan have already opened their presents to each other. The scarf Ryan got him is pretty decent quality, he’s surprised - and Ryan’s already buzzing about his Red Red Exemption 2 game. If that’s what it’s called. But with the Doctor and Yaz here, the gift exchange can continue. When Doc finally finishes her story, he beckons everyone together and collects the remaining gifts from under the tinsel-drowned tree.

“Ooh! The gifts! I forgot about the gifts!” the Doctor grins, jumping up in her seat giddily.

Graham just hopes his gift can live up to her excitement.

For sake of the presents’ safety, Yaz has been the one to transport her and the Doc’s presents in her bag; after she adds to the pile, they all dive in. There’s no organisation, no rhyme, no reason. It’s every person for themselves. Ryan and the Doctor tear into the carefully wrapped gifts with gleeful abandon. Graham and Yaz share a look and laugh.

Ryan sighs in relief when he unwraps the Apple Airpods Yaz got him - his broke the day earlier. Graham is touched, frankly, by Yaz’s frog doorstop, another bit of Grace he can keep for himself. Yaz is already leafing through the baking recipe book Graham got her, but her eyes keep flickering over to the Cards Against Humanity set she received from Ryan. Meanwhile, the Doctor is delighted by Ryan’s toothbrush holder (Yaz seems to have an uncomfortable memory springing to the surface; Graham thinks it best not to ask). She’s holding the ABBA Gold CD from Yaz close to her chest, too. Poor TARDIS, Graham thinks, forced to play that again and again.

She hands out her presents to the rest of the team herself. They’re all small, and, as they unwrap them at the same time, the same idea. A pendant - “lovingly crafted from Sheffield steel,” the Doctor grins - with a Gallifreyan word stamped in.

“What’ve I got?” Ryan wonders, his mouth full of a toffee fudge stick as he squints at the foreign circles. It’s made up of little circles and semi-circles, a satisfying little pattern.

“Trailblazer,” Doc answers, and her smile is an answer to Ryan’s proud little beam. “You’re amazing, Ryan! And we wouldn’t even be a fam without you.”

Graham’s Gallifreyan word is more simple, like a moon and a sunbeam on opposite sides of the circle. “And me?” He takes his turn.

“Reason.” It’s pointed - a reminder, Graham realises, of how he close he was to straying from his de facto role in that heart-stopping face-off on Ranskoor av Kolos. And in that way he’s even more grateful for it. “You’ve been the voice of it more times than I can count. Sometimes we need grounding.”

Yaz takes in every detail of the meticulously carved metal of her necklace. Hers is like a sun on its side, a great cone of light emanating across the middle.

“Let me guess, mine says ‘stubborn’,” she quips, and they all laugh.

“Ey, that should be Graham’s,” Ryan jokes, and Graham nudges his knee lightly.

The Doctor only speaks after the laughter has died down. “It says ‘rapture’,” she explains, and her eyes can’t leave Yaz’s. “It’s great how much you love every moment.”

Ryan sends a pointed look at his granddad, a single eyebrow not-so-unsubtly raised. Graham can’t suppress his chuckle.

There’s one present left to open, one terribly wrapped little present. As soon as the Doctor alights on it, the nervousness jumps back into his body and his chuckle subsides.

It’s the last present. That’s even worse. The wrapping is off in a second. The Doctor holds aloft a little green plant, tongue out as she peers at it. Then sniffs.

“Yep, definitely real mistletoe!” she exclaims. “Awesome. Thanks, Graham, I actually really wanted one of these!”

She’s smiling, and every word is genuine, but it’s moments like these when he’s reminded just how much more intelligent and older she is than all of them, by far. In a moment she’s taken stock of every thought that could have been going through his head to make him buy it. She’s sussed him out in a second, and he knows it.

But the contemplative look on her face tells him he pulled it off. Not to mention, Yaz’s staring at it, too, as if it wasn’t bleedin’ obvious why the Doctor would want mistletoe.

“You said you didn’t have these lying around in your TARDIS, you know,” he whittles on. She never said that. Improvisation was never his strong suit. He clears his throat. “It’s Christmas tradition, you see.”

“I really love it, Graham, thank you,” she smiles sweetly.

It’s later, much later, when it finally happens. Ryan has fallen asleep under the blanket to the sound of Call the Midwife playing on the TV. Graham’s too engrossed to fall asleep, full of Christmas pudding as he is, but there’s a birth happening and he’d rather not watch that, thanks.

And he’s thirsty. Yaz offered to fetch drinks a couple of minutes later, and the Doctor disappeared not long after. He’d go to investigate but he’s comfy and he doesn’t want to wake Ryan.

In the end, he doesn’t have to get up at all. Haloed by the kitchen light, the Doctor and Yaz stand underneath the mistletoe fixed to the door frame. There are two full glasses of water at Yaz’s feet, and another in Doc’s hand. But they’re forgotten now. The two women only have eyes for each other, and they share a quiet laugh before leaning in for the kiss they’ve both been wanting for a while now.

Merry Christmas, girls, Graham thinks. Took you long enough.

He leaves them to it and turns his head back to grandson. It’s a nice moment to just pause, to reflect on what he still has. He watches Ryan as his snores start to increase in volume, and smiles to himself.

He has a family, still. He doesn’t have Grace anymore, but he’s part of a family that love each other to bits.

It’ll do for him. It’ll do just fine.

[carol-thirteen]

Hi, could I request a yaz x male reader where they argue becuase the reader is insecure with her constantly travelling (often missing their anniversaries and dates) and how she always talks about the doctor and the others but never asks about his day. So yaz plans a special night at home between the two of them where she makes up all of the times she's neglected their relationship

Sorry this took a little while. If you have any ideas for the “special night”, let me know. I’m thinking of doing a part two to this. Hope you enjoy. Also I wrote the reader gender neutral. *Reader is 18+*

You were tired. Tired of feeling like you were being pushed aside, like this normal life you lived wasn’t good enough for her. It was difficult, you wanted her to be happy, and you could tell she was but you finally realized that you deserved to be happy too.

You loved Yaz and you didn’t want to lose her, so you wanted to try your best to be honest and gentle with what you were going to say. Though it didn’t quite go as planned.

“So you just want me to leave? You want me to abandon my friends and stop traveling?”

“No, Yaz listen, I just-“

“Y/N, you can’t ask me to do that. It’s not fair.”

You desperately wanted to keep a cool head but you were losing it. It had been months since you’d had a proper conversation about anything other than planets and aliens with Yaz since she had been away.

“No Yaz, leaving me to my boring life,” using air quotes for emphasis. “and going off on adventures god knows where, then coming back days later and not stopping to ask me how I’m doing, missing dates I had planned, anniversaries? that’s not fair.”

You watched Yaz take a step back, seeing her blink a few times trying to process what you had said. You put your hand to your forehead and sighed, brushing your fingers through your hair.

“I can’t go on like this much longer.” You stared at her, standing firmly on your feet with a couch between you. “I don’t want to make you choose between me or that life. That’s not what I want. I want you to be happy.”

You waited a moment before continuing. “But I miss you Yaz,” you breathed. “And I’m starting to think you don’t miss me.” Leaving Yaz with those words, you spent the rest of the night in your bedroom.

You switched on the TV, in an attempt to drown out your thoughts. You hated that you’d made Yaz upset, it was obvious by the glisten in her eyes. Curled up in your blankets, you tried to sleep.

The door creaked open, the sound bringing you out of a deep sleep and back to consciousness. Though your eyes were closed, you could tell it was daytime.

“Y/N?” Her voice was soft but raspy. She’s been crying.

You hummed, allowing her to step forward into the room, the door closing behind her. The mattress moved as she perched on the edge of the bed. You moved to the side a few moments later opening your eyes a little, giving her space. She lifted her legs up, and shifted so her back was resting on the wall, her legs out in front of her. She looked down at you and you caught sight of the puffiness in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” She admitted. “You were right, none of it was fair on you. But there was one thing you were wrong about.”

Curious, you moved the duvet from the side of your face and lifted yourself up, resting on your arm.

Yaz continued, looking into your eyes. “Thinking that I don’t miss you when I go off traveling. You were wrong about that.”

You felt your face soften, your eyebrows furrowing and your head tilt slightly. You sat up, crossing your legs. You tentatively grabbed her hands.

She gave you a small smile before talking again. “Of course I miss you. I miss you so much. And I think about you all the time. You’re not forgotten. Life with The Doctor, it’s busy. It’s constantly distracting. But I’ll do better, I’m going to do better at balancing it. I don’t want to lose you.” She breathed gently, shakily as if she was almost nervous to continue. “You’re worth more to me than the entire universe, I can’t lose you.”

You shuffled closer to her keeping her hands in yours. Once you reached her side, you brought her hands to your lips and rested your head on her shoulder.

“I love you Yaz,”

“I love you too, and I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” You laid together for a while, eventually bringing the duvet across your legs. It felt like it had been months since you’d been this close to her.

Yaz turned her wrist over whilst pushing up her pyjama top’s sleeve, revealing a watch. She placed her hand gently on yours.

She whispered to you, “It’s almost noon,”

“Hmm, 5 more minutes,” you tucked yourself into her, which earned a soft laugh.

“I’ve planned something for us to do later,” she said. “so we should get dressed.”

You perked up a little, intrigued. “What do you have planned?”

“It’s a surprise,” she lent over and kissed you, before getting out of bed and out of the room.

Maybe things will get better, you thought as you got out of bed as well and picked out some clothes for the day. A smile on your face because of your Yasmin. For the first time in a long time, you were happy.