#look at yaz's smile on the bottom there!

[swan2swan]

Some character studies from the latest production video of Chaos Theory.

Don't think there's anything new here that hasn't been online, but...

[fxlling13]

Spooky Season

Dh!Master x (fem)!reader

Wc:2.8k

Fluff fluff fluff.

Synopsis: The Doctor takes everyone to a cosy little pumpkin farm

“You make me laugh, (y/n).” Yaz scoffed as you walked into the console room. “It’s September the first, and you’re wearing a pumpkin sweater?” She laughed, leaning back on the console. You nod quickly, standing at the top of the steps.

“Of course! September first is the start of spooky season.” You explained, sitting a few stairs down. The pair of you giggled, she knew of your love for the ‘ber’ months. In fact, she helped you indulge in it, getting you a themed blanket the year prior.

“Do you think The Doctor will let me decorate my room here?”

“Oh yeah, she loves fun things. Not sure she’ll be a fan of all the black though.” Yaz realised, thinking for a moment. “It’s fine, you can bond with Mr Grumpy!” She beamed, making your brows crease.

“Mr Grumpy?” You asked with amusement, knowing full well who she was referring to.

“Well, he is moody.” Yaz chuckled. “But he loves dark and gloomy things. He dresses like a gothic vampire most days, in that Victorian coat.”

“It looks good though.” You mumbled and Yaz shook her head at you. Just then, The Doctor jogged into the room with a big smile on her face.

“Ah, you’re both here already!” She stood by Yaz, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Talking about anything interesting?”

“Just (y/n)’s love for autumn.” Humming in acknowledged, the blonde smiled at you.

”Yeah? Lots happen at the end of the year on earth, Halloween. Christmas.” She recalled, looking up at the ceiling in wonder.

“Halloween is the best!” You clarified, making the girls laugh a bit more. From nowhere, hands landed on your shoulders with a jolt.

“Boo.” A deep voice spoke loudly by your ear at the same time. You yelped, flinching violently. When you glanced back, you found The Master leering proudly.

“What? You just said you liked Halloween.” He shrugged, walking past you down the steps. Once at the bottom, he turned back to you and nod to himself slowly.

“Nice jumper.” He commented, your lips turning up again. You were wearing a black jumper, with different sized pumpkins sewn throughout. They were all odd styles and colours.

“Thank you.” For a minute, he froze, before pulling himself away and looking at the others.

“So what sappy place are you taking us today?” The Master asked, hoping no one had noticed his odd behaviour. The Doctor ran around the console.

“Well, considering the topic of this morning. How about a farm?” She suggested, already flicking buttons and other controls.

“A farm?” Yaz frowned.

“Yeah! With a pumpkin patch!” She boasted, making the girl smile again.

“Really?” You stood up hopefully.

“Yeah. It’ll be great. We can get as many as you guys want. Oh! And there’s a cafe there so we can get food!” Clearly, she was more excited about the idea than even you were. Still, you nod happily. The Tardis landed with a thud, sending everyone flying. You tumbled down the steps, The Master easily catching you. Holding under your arms, he smiled cockily.

“Falling for me?” You went red, pulling away fast.

“In your dreams.”

“Ok you two, stop flirting. Pumpkins to pick!” Yaz chortled, not helping your flushed state at all. Shaking her head, The Doctor pulled Yaz outside with a huff. The Master, still smiling, extended his hand towards you. You raised your eyebrows.

“Come on, you can at least hold my hand right? Or is that too much?” He joked, but you held his hand regardless, allowing him to guide you out of the tardis. It was sunny outside, but not too warm with a small breeze. Having landed in a woodland area, your small group walked for a few minutes before seeing the white farm building. The chipped walls were enough to tell you just how old it was, sat on vast, lush land. There were animals dotted around some of the fields, a path heading up a small hill. Upon getting to the farm, you were greeted by an old lady.

“Here for the pumpkin festival dears?” She inquired, face filled with joy. There were many others already there, mostly families and couples.

“Yep.” Yaz stepped forwards, pulling out her phone and paying for your tickets. Being let through, you walked by her side, tugging the male along.

“You didn’t have to pay for us all.”

“It’s fine. Lunch is on you.” She chuckled, nudging you playfully. But you smiled, happy with that arrangement. Traipsing up the shallow hill, you came to find the pumpkin patch. Surrounded by a worn, dark oak fence, it had a wooden arch as its entrance. On a big sign above, “pumpkins here” was written in cursive, expertly done. Rows of the root grown plant went on far and wide, people of all ages trying to find the perfect one.

“We’ll meet you down by the cafe.” Yaz said, hastily taking the Doctor off in a random direction.

“And then there were two.” The Master drawled, looking down at you.

“Awe don’t sound so happy. I know you love me really.” You elbowed him gently, walking ahead into the vast amounts of orange and green. He watched you for a minute, unaware that he was smiling. Turning back, you tilted your head. “Come on!” You reached out, the man chuckling and joining you swiftly. He followed behind you, your hair swishing with every step.

“We have to find the most round, most plump, most orange pumpkins to carve.” You said with certainty, scanning your surrounding area.

“Hm. If you say so.” The Master started walking by your side. “Why plump?”

“So I can use the innards to bake.” You clarified.

“You said that so…threateningly.” He laughed, placing a hand on your back as you both went along. Leaning closer to the man, you felt more relaxed that way.

“That one!” You almost yelled, carefully running between the vines. The Master observed you with fondness, going at a much more casual pace.

“This one?” He asked, standing opposite you. You nod, eyeing the large pumpkin. “It’s massive, (y/n).”

“Exactly. It’s perfect!” When you smiled at him, he was already doing the same. There was a look in his eye that you just couldn’t describe, almost like he was entranced. Trying not to get flustered from his intense gaze, you moved to pick the pumpkin up. In a flash, The Master was behind you, his hands on your waist and stopping you from bending. Your cheeks went red, looking back at him with a bashful confusion.

“You’re wearing a skirt.” He stated simply, not letting you go. “There’s lots of men around here.”

“There’s girls too.” You pointed out, a slight wobble in your inflection. Humming, he turned you to face him and brushed your hair back.

“Statistically, men are more likely to be predatory. And I don’t really want other men looking at you like that.” The Master spoke sternly, making your blush worsen.

“So you tell me what it is you’ll like, and I’ll do the lifting. Okay?” It was more of an instruction than a question, but you bobbed your head regardless. Grinning, he kissed your head sweetly, before bending down and cutting the stalk carefully. Still in shock, you just gawked at the noirette. Once the pumpkin was free, he lifted it with ease.

“Wait, other men?” You realised what he said, eyes shooting to him once again. He just shrugged nonchalantly.

“See any others you like, dear?” Your heart was hammering in your chest, all the while he seemed unfazed. Shaking your head, you started looking around once again. When your head was turned, you couldn’t hide your shy smile.

———

Three pumpkins and a wheelbarrow later, the two of you went to pay. There was a small gazebos at the top of the hill you had climbed. A man stood inside, with his cash box and weighing scale. The Master wheeled the pumpkins to him, greeting the man quietly. Going to pull out your phone, he stopped you quickly.

“I dropped something.”

“What?” You were perplexed.

“Outside, I’m pretty sure I did.” He said, hands searching his coat.

“What do you even own?” You asked and he just gave you a serious look. Realising it may have been some sort of weapon, you rolled your eyes before looking at the man. “I’ll be two seconds.” You apologised before heading back outside. After scouring the area nearby, you found nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing at all. Even with all the children around, the grass was clear. “Ready to meet the others?” You jumped, finding The Master, and wheelbarrow, now behind you.

“Hey I haven’t paid yet.”

“No. I did.” He shrugged, placing a hand on his hip. Your face softened, taking a few steps forwards.

“You did?” You asked bewildered, struggling to keep up as he made his way back down the hill.

“Yep. Do you think people will take them if we leave them out here?”

“Huh? Oh no. They have the red stickers on them.” You answered still confused, watching as he left them by the entrance to the cafe.

“Yes but humans are conniving and selfish.” He spat, earning a hurt look from you. Letting out a breath, The Master moved and cupped your cheeks. “You don’t count, obviously.” You couldn’t help your smile, leaning into his hand contently.

“Thank you, for buying them.”

“You’re welcome, sweets.” He laced your fingers together, guiding you into the cafe. It wasn’t a very big building, but spacious enough that it was cozy. With a cracking fire on the back wall, rustic brick walls and old wooden floors, you loved it. The Master took you to the table right by the fire, allowing you to sit closest to it. You smiled widely, shuffling closer to him once he sat too.

“How long do you think the others will be?” You pondered, admiring the paintings in the room.

“No idea, you know how The Doctor is. She’s like a magpie.” He muttered, picking up a menu and letting out a breath. After a moment of internal debating, you rested your head on his shoulder. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind at all, adjusting so you could see the menu too.

“I think you’ll want this page.” He flipped to the other side, showing you the different cakes, bakes, cookies and more. Pressing your cheek to his arm, you giggled quietly.

“You know me so well.” You commented, eyes flittering over all the options.

“Of course, I do notice these things.” The Master said, looking at you proudly. Pressing your lips together, you suppressed your happiness badly.

“You’re quite sweet. Even with all the evil plans you have.”

“Ah, but you’re always safe with me, are you not?” He pointed out, clearly smug.

“Of course I am.” Hugging onto his arm, you began to feel doubt and nerves creep into your mind. Even though he didn’t seem to mind, you found yourself asking, “Doesn’t it bother you?”

“What?”

“Well, I know you’re not a very touchy, affectionate person. And I am. So does it not bother you? That I’m like this?” You kept your eyes on the table as you spoke, on the different shades of wood-stain used. Tentatively, The Master tilted your chin up trying to meet your gaze.

“It’s different when it’s you.” He reassured, thumbing the apple of your cheek. “My emotional support human.” You blushed, lips twitching up slightly. “Plus, you’re different. You’re spooky. I like it.”

“Like a witch?” You beamed, back to your normal self.

“No, you’re far prettier than a witch.” He chuckled, causing you to cover your face in embarrassment.

“What have we walked in on then?” The Doctors voice came from nowhere, but you were unmoved. Huffing in annoyance, the male just looked at her bored.

“Nothing. Hurry up and look at the menu. We’re hungry.”

“Alright calm down.” Yaz laughed, looking along with the blonde. “Oh I don’t know.” She mumbled, rereading it again.

“You’ll get something warm, like soup.” Both women looked at him with surprise.

“Yeah you’re right I was going to. How did you know that?” Yaz almost laughed again, letting The Doctor take the menu for herself.

“Because you always do. Just Like The Doctor will get the custard tart.”

“Oh custard tart!” The Doctor beamed at the exact time The Master said it. She looked over at him with a faux glare. You giggled, watching them interact.

“See, I’m very attentive.” The Master boasted, subtly bringing you closer as he moved. Sadly, he had to stand up. “Shall we do the ordering?” He asked his old friend, to which she nod and got to her feet.

“Wait I didn’t even tell you what I picked.” You said quickly, sitting straight. Simpering, he just pat your head twice then went to the counter with The Doctor.

“He’s so into you.” Yaz spoke, gaining your full attention. You blushed, shrugging softly.

“You think so?”

“Even The Doctor knows, (y/n).” She pointed out, putting the sugar jar in front of her girlfriend’s place ready. You couldn’t help but smile to yourself. “Look at you. You’re lovesick.”

“Oh stop it.” You shot back weakly, earning a chortle from her. Turning around, you observed the aliens in such a human setting with fondness. “Can I be a bridesmaid?” She asked, resting her head on her hands. You just scoffed returning to face her.

“Only if I can be for you too.”

“Oh, of course. Who else would I pick?” The pair of you laughed together, unaware of the others coming back. The Doctor carefully placed a tray on the table, sliding it into the middle.

“What are you two giggling about?” She questioned, sitting once again.

“Nothing important.”

“Yeah nothing for you two to know about.” You confirmed, The Master taking his seat next to you.

“Yet.” Yaz finished, causing another fit of laughs. The time lords exchanged looks, as if speaking through osmosis. Humming, the man put a teapot in front of you, along with a mug and small pot of milk.

“Whatever you say.” He murmured, your eyes lighting up when you saw the brownie he had gotten you.

“Before you ask, yes it’s been warmed up. And-“ he took a small dish and sat it next to your cup. “-cream to your liking.”

“Thank you.” You smiled happily, making yourself a nice cup of tea. The Doctor did indeed have a custard tart, as Yaz had a bowl of steaming tomato soup.

“You three and your sweet tooth’s.” Yaz rolled her eyes, buttering her bread. Turning your head, you saw that The Master had gotten himself a slice of cake. With a cherry on top too. A glacier cherry.

“Do you want it?” He suddenly asked, making you jump a bit. You furrowed your brows, him putting the sugary ‘fruit’ onto your brownie before you could speak.

“They’re more sappy than us.” The Doctor commented, adding multiple sugars to her brew.

“I know. And they’re not even dating.” Yaz added with a grin. You busied yourself with adding a bit of cream and nibbling on your brownie.

“Give us time.” The Master casually said, causing you to choke. He was quick to pat your back. “Easy love, I need you alive for that to happen.”

“Leave the poor girl alone.” The Doctor laughed, handing you a napkin. Your cheeks were bright red, heart racing as you wiped your mouth. Still, you were smiling, gazing up at The Master shyly. He smiled back, giving your nose an affectionate tap before sipping his coffee.

“So after here, let’s watch horror movies while we carve them yeah?” Yaz was sounding more autumnal now, eagerly suggesting her idea.

“That sounds perfect, what film?” The Doctor glanced at everyone there.

“I say The Exorcist.” The Master added his input, the group collectively groaning.

“Maybe after, on the sofa where we can all huddle up?” The blonde prompted, earning a reluctant nod.

“How about scream?” You recommended, getting a more positive reaction.

“Then it’s settled, what a great day this is ‘ay?” Even The Doctor was getting giddier than usual.

“See? It’s good to start celebrating spooky season early.” There was a snarky tone in your inflection, proving your earlier point to Yaz. Unbeknownst to you, The Master stared at you proudly, loving your cockiness.

“Fine, you were right.” She agreed, putting her spoon down before stirring her iced latte. “You two are like The Addams Family.”

“Oh I like that.” The Master leered, putting an arm around your shoulders possessively. Bashful, you leant into his hold and nod in approval. The four of you sat in close comfort, eating your food and drinking your seasonal drinks. Outside the wind was blustering, amber leaves falling from trees and making footsteps crunch. It really was the best time of the year.

[iamnotoriginalphil]

Sweet Like Sugar (13th Doctor x f!Reader)

Synopsis: The Doctor is having a hard time concentrating around you.

Words: 4.6k

Warnings: mentions of alcohol

You giggled, leaning against Yaz’s shoulder as she guided you into the console room. The Doctor felt her hearts constrict just seeing you, the way you were smiling making her wonder if there was a way to capture it forever. You were so sparkly, in a dress that showed off so much bare skin on your legs, dipping dangerously low, making her mouth grow dry as you glittered in the soft light from the TARDIS. She’d never seen you wear heels before, but the strappy sandals you had on had you almost as tall as Yaz. You giggled again, making her hearts start to beat double time in her chest and a smile overtake her face.

“You lot ready then?” she asked, placing her hand on the lever to land.

“I have got my dancing shoes on,” Graham said, shuffling on the spot. He wiggled his hands as if he’d done something really impressive, but the Doctor knew impressive and he’d done something anyone with two feet could do.

“No one?” he asked when no one made a move to show how impressed they were.

You walked over to her, letting go of Yaz’s arm, and she had to work really hard not to stare at your legs. They seemed so long and she was sure your skin would be so soft under her fingertips. You lent your hip on the console, tilting your head and smiling at her. It was one of her favourite smiles from you, the one that said you were excited and she’d done well with her pick of location but also like you were about to share a secret with her. The kind of smile that made thoughts fly from her head.

“You sure this place is going to be normal?” you asked, “no evil bartender or someone hoping to control us through heavy bass?”

“Course I’m sure. Don’t you trust me?” She scrunched up her nose, playing at being offended. You took a half step closer and she froze. You smelt different, like a summer’s night, not like you usually did. Not that she didn’t like it. She did. But it was different. Not like the rainstorm you usually smelt like. But still good. You always smelt good.

“I’m just remembering last time you promised us a night off,” you said, lowering your voice as if your conversation was private.

“I did apologise for that,” she said, “how was I meant to know it was the night those giant squid were going to attack?”

“Maybe by checking your special time lord calendar?” you suggested, “I just sort of assume you have one of those. It’d make sense for a time traveler.”

“Alright, well, it doesn’t have everything on it,” she said.

You let out a soft chuckle, biting down on your bottom lip like you didn’t want her to hear. You looked at her from under lowered lashes, chin tipped down, and your eyes were almost sparkling. She had to blink to remind herself she wasn’t alone with you. Her hearts were loud in her ears.

“Are we going then or what?” Yaz asked, bounding over.

“Right, yes,” she said, pulling down the lever, not able to look at you.

The room lurched and your hand grasped onto her arm. She looked down at it, then at you, finding you looking back at her with an almost embarrassed smile on your face. You let go of her faster than she wanted, righting yourself on the edge of the console.

“Shoulda thought about that when I chose to wear heels,” you said, mostly to yourself.

“I think they were the right choice. They make your legs look all… leg… like,” she said, realising as she did that she was definitely saying something weird. Ignoring the odd look Yaz was giving her she spun away to hold the doors open onto a dank alleyway.

Walking around the corner, ignoring Ryan’s complaints about the smell, your fingers brushed against hers. It sent electricity running up her skin, but not in the uncomfortable way electricity usually did, but in a way that made her feel all tingly inside. Your arm brushed against hers, your footsteps bringing you closer to her. She could grab your hand, she could do it, it was right there, right next to her hand.

You slid your arm through hers, holding on as you stepped over the gutter. You gave her a self conscious smile, the kind you gave her whenever you did something you weren’t sure she’d like. This time she definitely liked it.

“Alright, now some ground rules,” she said as you all approached the entrance to the club, the thumping bass making the air vibrate, “don’t drink anything green, if someone offers you something white, say no, if you’re leaving let me know, the food here is overpriced, be careful of pickpockets.”

She turned towards the door, reaching into her pocket for her psychic paper. There was something else she meant to say. It was right there, tickling her brain. She was missing something. Too many thoughts. Your fingers brushed against hers again.

“Oh, right.” She spun towards you guys again, “don’t forget to have fun.”

She turned as they made it to the front of the line. The bouncer, a large red skinned man looking non too pleased with them, grunted.

“Hiya, me and my friends have a VIP pass,” she said, flashing the psychic paper at him, hoping it would show what she wanted it to, “VVVVVVIP really.”

The man grunted again, waving them into the dark doorway. She reached back for a hand, hoping she’d find yours and tugged whoever it was into the dark interior, knowing the others would follow. The music became loud in her ears, like when she could hear her heartbeat. She could already smell many bodies in the main room, the sting of alcohol ever present, a great chippy down the road doing good business by the smell of it.

The hand tugged out of hers and she turned, finding Yaz turning away from her. She grabbed your hand instead. Your eyes were wide and there was a sparkle to your eyes she wanted to stare at forever. She shook her head, turning away. Not the right time. Never the right time.

“We’re going to go dance,” Yaz called, before tugging you further into the club.

You gave a parting wave to her before you disappeared into the crowd. She kept watching, tracking your progress to the dance floor. She couldn’t bring herself to look away from you, watching the way you laughed. Your body was moving to the beat and it made her mouth feel dry. Undulating body, hips swaying, head tipped back exposing the long column of your neck. You had no idea what you did to her, the way her brain turned fuzzy around you. She wasn’t used to having a fuzzy brain.

She dragged her eyes away from you, finding herself alone. With a quick headcount she found Graham and Ryan at the bar, leaving her standing alone. Scrunching her nose she did her best to make her way over to the bar too, assuming a drink would help her not stare at you all night. It would distract her, and she needed a distraction. A distraction that wasn’t you. You were entirely too distracting.

The drink was cool in her hand, ice clinking against the glass. She licked at the sugar on the rim, realising she was still watching you absentmindedly. You were laughing, your arms around Yaz’s neck. Her tongue swept over the rim of the glass again, catching more sweetness on her tongue. There was a part of her wondering if you’d like a taste of the drink. Sharing with you was one of the best parts of life.

She was about to get up from her seat to offer you the drink when someone sat down beside her. A well muscled man had taken the seat beside her, arm brushing against hers. She wrinkled her nose, taking another sip of the drink. You were allowed to taste this one, it wasn’t green. Turning her eyes back to the dance floor she found Yaz leaning in towards Ryan but you’d gone missing. Her hearts plummeted and she began to search the crowd. She knew she’d be able to spot you if you were in sight. You were like the stars, bright and beautiful and the first thing her eyes were drawn to in every room.

“Hi,” she heard you say from the other side of the man sitting next to her, “could I have one of those blue drinks? They look really good.”

She smiled, her eyes turning towards you. It was hard to see past the man but your dress was sparkling under the lights and your skin was glowing and your smile was bright. She’d never seen anything quite so beautiful before, her chest aching at the sight. She could look at you forever and never get tired.

“Let me pay for it.” The deep rumbling voice came from the man between you.

You blinked, turning your attention to him. The Doctor was disappointed you hadn’t seemed to notice her, hearts clenching. You looked up at him, so tiny beside him, and a frown marred your features. She hated when you frowned. It wasn nothing like your smiles, lifting her up. She worked hard to have you smile at her whenever you were frowning.

“No thank you,” you said, “I can buy my own drinks.”

“Pretty girls like you shouldn’t have to,” the man said, leaning towards you. The Doctor’s fingers tightened around her glass.

“No, really, I’m okay,” you said, your voice turning firm.

“C’mon, lemme buy you a drink and then we can see where it goes from there,” he said. The Doctor struggled to stay in her seat and not interfere. She knew you were more than capable of handling yourself. She’d seen you stare down a Dalek without trembling.

“No, thank you,” you replied, turning your head away from him.

“Why not?” She didn’t like the note of anger in his voice.

“I already have someone and I’m not looking for anyone else.”

You turned your head, catching the Doctor’s eye. She didn’t know what made her do it, her brain seemingly disconnecting from the rest of her body as she stood, leaving her glass behind. Your jaw had been clenched and she’d seen the tremble in your hand as you’d taken the drink from the bartender. She wanted to put herself between you and the man, to remove you from the situation, to protect you.

Her arm slid around your shoulder, and you looked up, smiling at her as if she was sun. You lent into her body, your head resting against her shoulder, nose brushing against the skin of her neck. She shivered, tightening her hold on you instinctively.

“Hi, love,” you said, loud enough to be heard over the music, “I was just telling this nice man about you.”

“You were?” she asked, looking down at you.

You nodded. She couldn’t stop herself, fingers tucking some hair behind your ear, almost lingering on your jawline. Touching you sent electricity through her body, making her nerve endings pay attention. She felt jittery, looking down at you as you gazed up at her like she was the universe. She wanted you to always look at her like that. Your arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer until her body was pressed against you. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to receive such a reward but whatever it was she wanted to do again.

“What were you telling him?” she asked, wondering if she’d missed something. Last she’d heard you hadn’t said anything about her.

“Just that I’m very happily in a relationship already with the most amazing woman in the universe,” you replied, nose scrunching up as you smiled at her. Her double hearts missed a beat.

“You were?”

“Of course,” you laughed, “you make me so happy.”

The press of your lips against her cheek had her hearts fluttering. She could realise what you were doing, putting her in the place of your girlfriend to ward off the man. She wanted to help you, she always wanted to help you. You looked at her with wide eyes, a small smile curling to corners of your lips and all she could do was beam down at you in return. The double thump of her heartbeat sped up, drowning out whatever the man might be saying to you. You were the only important thing in the room.

“Come on,” you said, sliding off the stool, your drink left behind, “I want to dance.”

You threaded your fingers through her’s and the feeling should have grown boring to her, but it still sent a shock through her system every time. You tugged on her until she followed behind, letting you lead her onto the dance floor.

“I’m not sure I’m going to be good at this,” she said, drawing closer to you in a bid to be heard over the music, “I haven’t danced in this body yet.”

“You’ll be fine,” you called back, taking both her hands.

You began to move your hips, swaying her hands back and forwards. She did her best to follow along, wanting to impress you. If she could dance like Yaz, maybe you’d ask her to dance with you again. You were smiling at her, eyes locked on her. She felt heat climbing in her cheeks, the way you slowly moved closer to her.

Disappointment curled in her stomach as you let her hands go, until you wrapped your arms around her neck. She hesitated, not sure what she was meant to do, overwhelmed as your body brushed against hers. Her hands fluttered either side of you.

You laughed, gently grasping them, putting them on your waist. Your arms around her neck pulled her half a step closer until the warmth of your body spread to her. Your hips were swaying and she wasn’t quite sure of herself, feeling her hearts pumping fast. You leant into her, your breath ghosting over the skin of her neck. She shivered in your arms, hoping you wouldn’t notice.

“Loosen up, Doc,” you said, your lips brushing against the shell of her ear, “you’re dancing like a wooden plank.”

Part of her wanted to draw away, to fall back through the crowd and return to the TARDIS to calm down. She felt as if she was going to explode with every brush of your skin against hers. Her hands slipped down to your hips without her permission. The way you looked at her had her cheeks aflame and her mouth growing dry.

You pressed closer to her, tightening your arms around her. There was no space anymore, nothing but you invading every sense she had. Your cheek was pressed against hers and she could feel every breath you took. Focusing on you, on the way her body felt, it made it easier to dance with you, the less she focused on it.

And then your lips brushed against the skin of her neck.

Her pulse jumped and she froze in the middle of the floor. You drew back, your eyebrows drawing together, stopping dancing as well. She tugged out of your hold, stumbling back from you. Your hand shot out, grasping for her, but the sleeve of her coat slipped through your fingers.

“Doctor?” She barely heard you over the thumping music.

She turned on her heels and disappeared in the crowd, not able to look at you any longer. Your wide eyed confusion stayed in her mind as she pushed past people, looking for space away from you. She couldn’t think clearly when you were there. She needed to think clearly.

The cool air of the evening smacked her in the face as she stumbled out of the door. She waved off the bouncer’s helping hand, shoving her hands deep in her pockets as she walked down the street, back towards her TARDIS. She needed a moment to clear her head, to push you out of it so she could go back to normal.

She placed both hands on the stone wall, rough against the skin of her palms, leaning against it with all her weight. She let out a long breath, still able to feel the ghost of your lips on her throat, burning into her skin. Her eyes slipped closed. She couldn’t shake you out of her brain. You consumed every corner.

“Doctor?”

She jumped, turning towards you. She hadn’t heard you following her, so focused on clearing you from her mind she hadn’t been paying attention. She cursed herself in every single language she knew for not keeping a better ear out.

You stood a little bit behind her, arms curled loosely around your waist. Without the flashing lights and the shadows it was much harder to ignore how much skin was on display. She was used to you in jeans and shirts, body hidden away where it wouldn’t distract her. It almost hurt trying to keep her eyes off you.

“Are you okay?” you asked, keeping your distance from her.

“Fine. I’m brilliant. Always brilliant. Why? Do I seem not brilliant? I’m totally brilliant. There is no one more brilliant than me. Except maybe you. You’re brilliant. I don’t tell you that enough. Absolutely fantastic,” she said.

“Thank you,” you said, “but you practically ran out of there. I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

“You never make me feel uncomfortable.” She tripped over her words, hasty in her need to reassure you.

“Then what happened?” you asked, arms dropping to your side.

Her gaze bounced around the alley, not wanting to look at you. If she did, all thoughts would fly out of her brain and she’d say the truth, and she needed you to think she always had control of her thoughts. If she didn’t then you’d stop trusting her. You trusted her to always be in control.

She finally let herself look at you as she heard you take a step forward. She watched as you stumbled, your ankle crumpling under you. Rushing forward, she caught you, arms around your waist, holding you up.

“Ow,” you mumbled.

She brushed your hair back from your face, hating herself for enjoying the feel of you in her arms. You looked up at her. You were close enough for her to see every single colour in your eyes, to count your eyelashes. Your hands grasped her shoulders, keeping you steady. Your lower lip caught between your teeth, eyes widening.

Just like that all her thoughts were gone, an empty mind staring down at you.

“Doctor?”

She couldn’t stop staring at your lips. It was making her feel hot all over. Too many thoughts about what they’d feel like, what they’d taste like. She lent forward and she felt you stop breathing. All self control had left her body.

The first touch of her lips to yours had you gasping. She couldn’t tell if the sweetness on her tongue was left over from her drink or if it was you. Your fingers tightened on her shoulders, pulling her closer and she groaned into your mouth.

She pushed you back a step until her hand landed on the wall behind you. She felt your breath hitch in your chest but she was so busy tasting you she could only focus on the way you sighed into her mouth. Your fingers buried themselves in her hair and her hearts thudded hard. She pressed harder against you, needing to feel every inch of your body against her.

Hooking her hands under your thighs, she lifted you. You yelped, your mouth no longer on hers. Not wanting to stop, she pressed kisses along the column of your neck. Your head fell back and your fingers tightened in her hair, an interesting noise falling from your lips. She wondered if she could make you make it again.

She pressed against you more insistently. Your warmth was seeping into her and you kept making those small noises she wanted to hear more of. She’d never heard you make them before. If she had the choice, she’d keep hearing those noises for the rest of her life. It was making her feel hot all over.

“Doctor,” you sighed.

Her tongue swept over your skin, tasting salt and sweet mixing together. She couldn’t stop herself from sinking her teeth in, just for a moment. The noise you made was more intoxicating than any drink they could serve her in the bar. She wanted more, ever more, of you.

“Oi, you two.”

The Doctor ignored it, kissing you again, swallowing every gasp and moan. You were kissing her back with the same kind of abandon you used during every adventure. It was making her skin spark and she wondered what it would be like to touch every inch of you. So many possibilities, and she wanted to explore them all.

“Oi!”

A hand grasped her shoulder, different from yours, and nowhere near as welcome. You tugged on her hair again and any thought beyond kissing you so thoroughly you wouldn’t be able to remember your own name flew from her head. Her fingertips skimmed the hemline of your dress. And then you whined.

No one had a chance of stopping her after that.

She pushed her fingers past the point of your hemline. Just barely under your skirt, she dragged her fingertips up, keeping you up by pressing you harder against the wall. Your hands slipped out of her hair, cupping her face with both hands, holding her close. She couldn’t get enough, needing you closer, needing to feel every inch of you. There was nothing more beautiful than you in the entire universe.

She was dragged back by the hand still on her shoulder. You yelped, beginning to fall. Quick as possible she grabbed you again, keeping you held aloft. You looked dazed, kiss swollen lips and glazed eyes. You blinked, looking down at her, hands still on her face. She lent forward, wanting to taste you again.

“Oh no you don’t.”

She was pulled back again. You finally looked over her shoulder at whoever was behind her. You ducked your head, pressing it into her neck, giggling, but the heat of your skin was undeniable. She turned her head, looking over her shoulder.

Ryan had his hand on her shoulder, Yaz and Graham standing behind them. Yaz had her arms crossed, eyebrow raised. Graham looked very unimpressed.

“You left us in there to go get it on in some alley?” Ryan asked, “really?”

“We didn’t,” she said.

“You did,” Graham argued back, “we caught you red handed.”

“We didn’t come out here to get it on,” she said, trying to clear her mind. It was so hard with you wrapped around her, your breath hitting the skin of her neck. There was still a part of her wanting to ignore the rest of the Fam and go back to kissing you. It was much more interesting than the conversation they were trying to have with her.

“Sure you didn’t,” Ryan said, finally letting her go.

“Care to explain yourselves then?” Yaz asked.

“We were talking,” she said.

“We don’t have to explain ourselves to them,” you said, emerging from your hiding place, “they’re not our parents.”

The Doctor slowly let you go, regretting it the moment she felt you slip out from between her and the wall. You put your hands on your hips, glaring at the rest of the Fam. Her hearts thudded in her chest irregularly. How had she managed to go that long without kissing you?

“What we get up to is none of your business,” you told them, “we have every right to snog in an alleyway if we want. It’s not as if you didn’t know where we parked.”

“We didn’t know if you’d been kidnapped or something,” Ryan said.

“That was one time, and it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t pointed me out to him,” you said.

“I did apologise for that,” he said, looking abashed.

“Right, well, the Doctor offered us a fun night, and I would like to continue that,” you said, grabbing the Doctor’s hand. You marched past the Fam, pushing the doors open to the TARDIS, pulling her along behind you. She grinned, excited to get back to the kissing.

She let her gaze wander over you as you led her through the halls. She was itching to get her hands on your legs again, to continue her exploration of your skin. She wanted to see how many more noises you could make. She planned on cataloguing them all.

She wasn’t expecting you to shove her down on your bed. You climbed onto her lap, threading your hands through the hair at the nape of her neck. She lent forward, eager to begin the kissing again. You tugged on her hair, pulling her back before her lips could get anywhere near you.

“I think you need to do some explaining,” you said with the lips that should have been on hers.

“About what?” she asked, resting her hands on your hips. She loved touching you like this now she was allowed to.

“About what was going on tonight,” you said, “you were acting weird almost the entire night, you ran off on me, then you kissed me when I tried to ask you what was going on.”

“And?”

“Do you want to explain what any of that meant?” you asked.

“Not particularly.” She lent forward again, determined to get her kiss. You tugged on her hair again, leaning away from her.

“I would,” you said, “please?”

She found it so difficult to say no to you, not when you were looking at her like that. You were irresistible to her, straddling her lap, wide eyes staring down at her.

“I suppose I could explain,” she said, preening as you smiled at her, “see, the thing is, you’re brilliant. Proper brilliant. Super brilliant. The brilliantest.”

She lent forward again, determined to get a kiss this time. She’d explained herself really well, she deserved a reward. Something sweeter than a custard cream and better than a package from the Kerblam man. You kissed her softly but then you were drawing back again. She tried to follow you, wanting to keep kissing you until the universe exploded. You put your hands on her face, holding her back, one thumb running along her cheekbone. It made her feel warm all over just looking at you.

“Keep going,” you said, “I need more explanation.”

“I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable because I think you’re specially brilliant. Proper specially brilliant. So much more specially brilliant than other people,” she said, “I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable but then you needed me to help you out and it became really difficult not to show you how specially brilliant I think you are, and you were touching me which makes its hard to think and I needed some air to think because if I can’t think then I can’t do anything but then you were right there looking all you like but more and then you hurt yourself and I was touching you and I couldn’t think anymore and you looked at me and I couldn’t stop myself because kissing is ace and it’s the most ace with you.”

“Lucky for you, you had nothing to worry about,” you said, leaning in towards her, “I’ve been thinking kissing you could be ace for some time now.”

You kissed her and kissed her and maybe she’d made the right decision by bringing you to that club.

[regenderate-fic]

Drabble Bingo

These are from the Doctor Who Creators server Drabble Bingo event that happened in July. I'm posting them all at once because they are 100 words each. The prompts and characters/ships are as follows:

Dan - Dan & Yaz Rory - Rory Ocean - Thasmin Rose - Rose Unsexy Mattress Fic - Thasmin

Read on AO3

Petty Revenge (Dan)

“Here, try this.” Yaz tossed a bundle of clothing at Dan.

Dan shook it out, revealing a frilly shirt, red-and-white striped waistcoat, and loose brown trousers. A three-cornered pirate hat fell to the floor, along with— was that a hook?

He eyed Yaz’s elegant blouse and skirt. 

“You’re sure I’ll fit in?”

Yaz nodded, grinning widely. It wasn’t reassuring.

Dan narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t payback for me making you talk about your feelings?”

Yaz raised her eyebrows, her smile becoming sharklike.

“Do I look like someone who would do that to you, Scouse?”

Yes, Dan thought. She rather did. 

Living Legend (Rory)

He’s become a myth.

He hears the stories, whispered on the wind: the lone centurion, guarding a mysterious box. They get some of it right— he’s been around for years, steady, unchanging. He is, usually, dressed as a Roman centurion. And he’s always with the box.

They get some of it wrong. He’s not guarding gold, or poison, or a curse. He isn’t a god.

Rory doesn’t correct them. He doesn’t sit around the campfire, whispering the truth.

They wouldn’t understand it, after all. Not here, not now.

Besides, if he tried to sit around a campfire— he’d surely melt.

Unprecedented (Ocean)

Yaz couldn't stop thinking about that moment. 

After the conversation on the beach, disappointment sinking in her chest, Yaz’s mind was at the bottom of the ocean, staring at unprecedented beauty, reliving that moment of panicked hope.

Not a bad date, am I?

No.

The hope had been dashed, of course. It was lying in little shards, tearing at Yaz’s lungs, grinding in her stomach. 

She should’ve reacted faster, back at the bottom of the ocean. She should’ve gotten over her shock. She should’ve turned to the Doctor, should’ve smiled—

She should’ve kissed her.

Before she ran out of time.

Reinvented, Rewritten (Rose)

She stared into the TARDIS, transfixed, rooted to the spot as golden light entered her, filled her, created her. 

She saw everything.

Time, tinged with gold, shining before her.

The TARDIS moved— she barely felt it. She was part of it. She was part of the universe. Part of time.

The Bad Wolf.

Somewhere, she could feel her body— seething with time’s ravages. The TARDIS was roiling in her, reinventing her. Her every cell was changing.

She waved a hand. Life and death— what were they to the big bad wolf?

What were they—

Except—

Reinvention came with a price.

A Little Off (Unsexy Mattress Fic)

Yaz usually likes sitting on the mattress in the console room when the Doctor works on the TARDIS. But tonight, something’s off.

They agreed, earlier— things would stay the same. Or, the Doctor said it, and Yaz swallowed her disappointment.

Things aren’t the same. The disappointment is still sinking in her stomach. Even the Doctor’s tinkering seems subdued. 

Finally, the Doctor emerges. Sits next to Yaz. Their shoulders touch.

Her words fly out on a whisper.

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” It comes out bitter.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Yaz looks at her, tears in both their eyes. “Too late.”

[rupphiremoyo]

Some More Soft Yasammy Headcanons 

Yaz loves lying on top of Sammy when they cuddle. The feeling of Sammy's fingers combing through her hair and one arm slung protectively around her waist? Amazing. Combine that with the sound of Sammy's heartbeat lulling her into a light sleep and Yaz absolutely melts.

When the girls feel overwhelmed and lost in her memories of Isla Nublar, they'll stop what they're doing and just hold each other. Yaz will rub soothing circles on Sammy's scars from the Scorpios Rex attack and Sammy will kiss every inch of Yaz's face until they both feel safe and secure again.

Sammy once stumbled upon one of Yaz's old sketchbooks and found several drawings of herself in it. When she brought it up to her girlfriend, Sammy shyly said, "You made me look so pretty." To which Yaz replied, "You are so beautiful, I could never do you justice."

Yaz casually mentioned that she was running out of good songs to listen to while she runs, so Sammy spent hours making the perfect playlist for her girlfriend. Not only does Yaz listen to it every time she works out, but she'll have the biggest lovesick grin on her face as she listens to it.

Sammy is notorious when it comes to falling asleep on the couch. The girls could be watching a movie or having an Esther Stone marathon and it won't take long for Sammy to fall asleep on Yaz's shoulder or in her arms. Yaz finds it incredibly cute and will usher her sleepy Sammy to their bedroom for a good night's sleep.

These two will never shut up over the fact that they're dating. Like they will take any opportunity that is given to them to mention that they're girlfriends.

Sammy: "Have you met my amazing girlfriend, Yaz? Hold on one moment while I tell you all about my super talented and insanely pretty girlfriend—"

Yaz: "You see that stunning girl over there? The one who looks like the physical embodiment of sunshine? That's Sammy. My girlfriend."

Sometimes Yaz will pretend that she can't open jars and will hand them to Sammy just to see her open them with ease then immediately turn to brag and flex her arms. Does Yaz do this because she loves Sammy's smile? Yes. Does she also do this because she's obsessed with Sammy's country strong muscles? YES.

Sammy makes amazing hot chocolates. When the weather gets cooler or the girls have a late night sugar craving, Sammy will head to their kitchen to whip up some hot chocolate. All the while Yaz will be hugging her from behind and watching her girlfriend work her magic. (And if Yaz manages to sneak a few marshmallows, that's her business.)

These girls melt when they kiss. Like when their lips caress they'll feel warm all over and full of giddy excitement. They'll find any excuse under the sun to kiss each other and show how much they mean to each other.

When Yaz wraps her arms around Sammy's waist and pulls her in close for a tender kiss? Sammy is a goner. When Sammy traces the bottom of Yaz's lips with her fingers before gently tipping her chin up so she can lock their lips together? It's a TKO for Yaz.

At the end of the day, Yaz and Sammy are each other's favorite person. And despite the insane, dino-related circumstances that brought them together, they couldn't imagine their lives without each other in it. 🧡💜

[poppiesforthirteen]

air of the now and gone

yaz has been so strong. she can’t stay strong forever.

tags: post-legend of the sea devils, dan & yaz Talk About It, hurt/comfort, expressing love for someone by making them tea

—

"Yaz! You'll never guess who—" Dan stops smiling when he sees Yaz's face. The Doctor isn't with her; Dan thinks he can catch her sitting by the beach, and Yaz looks like she's seen a ghost. (Maybe she has; it's been a weird day and they were separated for most of it.) "Sheffield," he says softly, "what happened?"

"I—" She doesn't look at him, staring past him into the open TARDIS. "I think she told me she loves me." And then, with no warning, Yaz bursts out crying.

"Oh, oh no." Carefully, Dan takes her arm—Yaz hides her face in his shoulder, shaking, barely relaxing when Dan hugs her. He doesn't know what to say. Doesn't know what he was expecting; not this. He struggles for a moment in the silence of a dam breaking, of some tragedy he can't grasp yet.

"I'll put the kettle on."

—

Yaz's grip is white-knuckled around a mug advertising something called Hedgewick's World of Wonders as her tea goes cold. She's stopped crying, but her eyes are still red, her breathing slow and shaky. Dan is doing his best to look sympathetic, understanding, though if he's honest he hasn't grasped it at all.

The Doctor isn't back yet.

"She—" Yaz takes a sip of tea as her voice dies. "She talked about dating, and how she—I—" Dan puts his hand on hers, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles affectionately. Yaz takes a deep breath. "She said she can't fix herself to anything, and it sounds like she's leaving and..." Her voice trails off. Dan stays quiet.

"What does it mean when she asks to live in the present?" asks Yaz, and it's the first time she's looked at Dan since they were outside the TARDIS.

Dan tries for a smile. "You'd know better than I do."

Nodding, Yaz bites her lip. Takes another sip of tea. Thinks.

"I don't know if I trust her anymore."

"Oh, Sheffield—"

"No, I mean, I do! Just can't help feeling like I'm just waiting for another secret to come up, like there's something more she's not telling me, or that she'll—" Yaz presses her lips together, her hands wrapping around the mug again. It's nearly empty, the bottom a puddle of sugar and bits of tea that slipped from the bag.

"Yeah?"

"She'll change her mind about me. Decide I'm not worth it." She's stone faced, and Dan feels the block they've reached. That fear of rejection that goes so deep she can't even be honest with herself.

I've never told anyone.

"You don't have to be scared—"

"I'm not scared!" snaps Yaz. "I'm not. Just realistic." Dan sighs. "What?"

"Yaz, she really likes you." He smiles and Yaz looks away. "I see the way she acts around you; she wants to make it work. If you can't trust the Doctor, trust me."

Finally, she returns a shadow of his smile. "I think we nearly kissed."

"What?" Dan laughs; he can't help it. Yaz squirms, but her expression doesn't fade.

"Few times, actually."

"What?" He takes her hand again, shaking her lightly. "And you think she doesn't like you? When have you ever seen the Doctor do that?"

"And she told me"—Yaz's eyes are wet again, just enough that Dan can see it this close—"that I'm one of the greatest people she's ever known."

Dan softens.

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Did you know she's married?" Tight-lipped, stone. Dan can't quite put his finger on what she's shutting down, if she's closing a clean wound or hiding an infection. A single tear trails down her cheek. "Because I didn't."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Emptying the kettle, Dan refills both their mugs—he takes care to give Yaz a bit more of the remaining water, leaving just enough for him that it's worth putting a tea bag in. He offers her the sugar and she drops a cube in, stirring mindlessly.

"I don't know what to do," says Yaz quietly. "I can't keep chasing after her."

"Then don't"—confused, Yaz meets his eyes, and Dan nods to her—"let her come to you. She's already done it, right? She'll do it again."

"Suppose." She sighs. "I'll—" The TARDIS door opens loudly and for a second, Yaz is alight with hope. Dan doesn't laugh at her, but it's close. She frowns at him.

"What is it with you?" asks the Doctor from the console room, her voice muffled as she shuts the door with a soft click. "Dan?" she calls into the open TARDIS.

Before he can respond, Yaz steps out, and the Doctor beams before dimming down her smile and not entirely succeeding. Dan can't hold back a chuckle at that; he can already see himself teasing Yaz with it—how either of them could doubt for the second that the other is completely smitten is beyond him.

"Both here! Good. Gold stars all around." Immediately, the Doctor is messing with the console (Dan suspects she's not actually setting coordinates or anything, just mashing buttons to occupy her hands). "Where to?"

"You two decide; I'll clean up in the meantime." Dan means to go back into the TARDIS and, considering the energy between Yaz and the Doctor right now, not return for a long while when Yaz grabs his wrist.

"Thank you," she says softly.

"Of course, Sheffield," says Dan, and hopes all the affection in his words reaches Yaz, no matter what she thinks of herself right now. "Take care of yourself."

In turning, he catches Yaz approaching the Doctor at the console, and the Doctor moves close to her, their hands meeting. Dan smiles.

Really, what does he have to worry about?

—

inspired by a post from @/rowanthestrange ; title is from thank you by ross gay - these and the ao3 link will be in the notes

please reblog if you can!

[dragoneyes618]

Here's another glimpse into the Badun Detective Agency.

Badun Detective Agency: Death Report.

Name of Detective: Yzla Sorcerer.

Age of Detective: 17 years old.

Date of Report: January 6th, 2017.

Name of the deceased: Lil' Yaz.

Age of the deceased: 19 years old.

File number: 0210.

Report: The Desceased (19, Male. Child of Yzma) appears to have died from an untreated and unexpected case of something called 'Apendictist'.

The Desceased reported feeling an unexplainable sharp pain in his chest two days before he passed-- On Today, January 6th, 2017.

The pain reliever his mother, Yzma gave him didn't appear to do anything to alivate the pain.

He was able to keep anything down and was running a fever, so his mother sent him to bed to rest.

His condition only continued to deteriorate until he was found without a pulse at 5 am by his mother.

His family wasn't able to revive him and none of the medics on the isle nor Yen Sid were able to either.

His employer and friends have been notified.

A death certificate is being issued and no foul play can be detected so he will be put to rest via pyre at the end of the week.

Yzla signing out.

[At the top of the report, a picture can be found paper clipped to the page. In the picture, 5 people can be seen.

Two identical men around 26 with short black hair and ocean blue eyes. Both Dressed in Chippers boy scout uniforms, grinning widely.

in front of them, there was a beaming boy around nineteen with tan skin, dark eyes, and short, curly purple hair that was partly hidden under a golden hat that matched the golden jacket and purple v-neck he was wearing.

One of his arms was draped over as scowling boy in black. his hair was short and black with a faint blue stripe, and the same dark eyes as the first. Looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.

and the other was draped over the last person in the picture. A girl with

thick black hair that was up in an uneven ponytail and dark soft eyes. She wore a magenta off shoulder shirt and had light, almost lavender skin. She was rolling her eyes to the side, but still smiling.

Written at the bottom of the photo were the names 'Lil' Yaz, Yzla, Zam, Zevon, and Zim. January 1st, 2017.']

Yzla chronicling the death of her own older brother.....that's so sad...

Now, this isn't an investigation. Yaz's death isn't a mystery. He wasn't murdered. She knows how he died: of illness. But she doesn't know exactly what illness.

This is the equivalent of an autopsy. But she's not going to cut open her own brother to look for the cause of his death. She doesn't know how to, she doesn't know what to look for. She's not a doctor. And they don't have proper doctors on the Isle. So all she can do is chronicle his symptoms and put the paper with all the other files.

And the photograph....it's not just an impersonal file, written by someone who's seen too much and is jaded, not just clerical paperwork. The writer is a human. The person who died is also a human. Real live people with a real live family who loved each other...until one died, leaving the other to write down what had happened. With the picture in the file, as a reminder to Yzla, a remembrance of her brother.

[730hcck]

bringing the now empty bottle down from his lips, tyler crushed it and set it amongst the large pile of other empty water bottles. he held the camera up to his face, burping loudly before mumbling, “damn that was a good one. sorry, where are my manners. excuse me, princess.”

he reached for another bottle, simply because she asked him to drink another bottle. “you’re gonna leave the call?” he pouted. tyler stared into the camera with wide eyes, pouting out his bottom lip and giving the best puppy-dog expression he could without being able to physically feel his face. “what if my uber driver tries to touch me? i need you.” he paused before breaking out in a wide smile, as if to let her know he was simply joking. “kidding, princess. i’ll text you so you can go back to sleep.”

he opened up his bottle, taking a small sip from it before beginning to walk back to the other room. “looking for my hat.” he once again let her know immediately of his game plan. they seemed to have quieted down in the time tyler was gone, and he assumes the crash was just finally starting to hit everyone else. stepping over various bodies already sleeping soundly on the floor and using various objects as a blanket (tyler nearly wanted to laugh after seeing his friend use a pillow as a blanket), tyler eventually spotted his hat on a table. tyler turned the camera around on the call, so that yaz could see the exact view that tyler had.

“it’s like a college party.”

[ @itsyazmin ]

what started as a little fun challenge for austin’s youtube channel turned into tyler unable to even pick himself off of the floor of his friend’s apartment. him and his friends had learned a lot that night. brita filters were magical and removed most, if not all, of the horrible burn of alcohol. so much so that some of the drinks went down as if they were water. that was the fatal mistake.

sat up in a corner of his friend’s bedroom, tyler could quite literally not feel any part of his body. but he could feel the way he was desperately missing yaz. so while his friends continued to fool around in their drunken mess, tyler fished out his phone from his pocket and the wired earbuds he always kept on him. plugging the earbuds in and shoving them into his ears, he quickly pulled up yaz’s contact.

he pressed the facetime icon, listening to the phone ring and adjusting the volume as needed until she eventually picked up. “princess~” he slurred, holding the mic up to his lips so she could hear him over the background noise.

taking a look at his reflection on the phone screen, tyler noted the mess he was. his hair messier than usual, the obvious red tint on his cheeks, the lopsided smile that made it evident he drank far too much than he should have, and his bloodshot eyes from taking a few hits of the za.

[yazthebookish]

YAZ! What do you think about this comment?

"I’m pretty sure it’s Elain. Compared to Azriel she’s gotten the most foreshadowing in ACOSF, she was also talked about the most in that book. The fourth dread trove? Come on that’s Elain whose gonna find that. The people behind the wall? The person who claimed they wanna do greater? The person in both endchapters? Not one. Both. Rhys saying we gotta help one sister before the other? I do not wanna read about Gwyn training again it’ll be ACOSF part 2 especially since she hasn’t left the library at. They had two scenes together and Azriel sitting by being Cassian’s wing man. He clearly is still trying to discover who he’s gonna love due to him being confused right now but is that enough for a full blown story?"

My heart needs to calm down

I'm calm I wonder why you aren't 😂

Let's speak facts here:

• Elain had no dialogue after Solstice and was a background character in the two scenes she showed up by the end of the book. Sarah said by the end of the book, she thought it was obvious who the next book is about and in the SAME line she says Azriel's journey is one she's very excited to write about. Here is my post analyzing the ending of ACOSF and Sarah's words.

• So, what foreshadowing for Elain? We know she is likely up to something in the background but... did she get actual development compared to others? Not really. Showing some backbone is a small development for someone like Elain but she isn't set up as a protagonist yet. Look at the number of times she was mentioned compared to others.

And why does she need a book now? She didn't hit rock bottom like her sisters. Nesta didn't get her book until she hit rock bottom, and who is hitting rock bottom now? Azriel.

• You know Anon? I love it when they bring up the "Gwyn did not leave the library" point because they contradict what the canon text says.

“You’re the one who’s been in a library for two years,” Emerie said.”

“Gwyn didn’t flinch. “I have. And I am tired of it.” She surveyed the blood-soaked leather along her thigh.”

And what happened at the end of the book?

“Gwyn, despite the Rite, had returned to living in the library.”

Gwyn wants to leave the library. Why do you think SJM had to mention she returned to the library at the end of the book? Because if she didn't you'd assume she did leave the library. That is literally setting up her journey.

• Elain will find the Fourth Trove? Elain will free the people behind the Wall? And... Koschei? You really think SJM won't make an Archeron play a role in defeating Koschei? Especially Elain who is the one that had the visions about him, the Firebird and the Swans at the lake? Do you think SJM would write a book half would be Lucien's POV and the other half... a Firebird's? And if they're not happy with that answer they'll push for Multipov which we know won't happen because... SJM... confirmed... each... book... is... about... a... couple... getting... together...? She might play a role with the fourth trove or the other plots but it's unlikely that it would happen in the next book.

• What's also funny is SJM's editor asked SJM to pull out the Feysand's POVs since they added nothing to the story and add one of them as a bonus. Both bonus chapter were advertised as Feysand and Azriel bonus chapters, not "Elain-focused exclusive chapters". The Feysand chapter spoke of the sisters for like one to two pages because it happens right after Elain and Nesta's confrontation. They mentioned Lucien's gloves too, oh my Elucien confirmed??😂 and on the other hand, Azriel's chapter features four charcaters and ended with Azriel thinking of another female's smile that isn't Elain.

• And let's look at the other things SJM said about the next book and Azriel:

• They don't want another book about Azriel training Gwyn, sorry but canonically the end of ACOSF mentions that. However, they don't mind Azriel training Elain to become a spy and create their own "totally spies" circle with Nuala and Cerridwen. They don't want any training stories unless it revolves around Elr*el Lol.

• I know SJM said Nesta will still play a big role in the spin off books and she is the one that can control the Trove. Let's not forget that the series is about the secondary characters from ACOTAR as SJM said. She never specified it was about Archeron sisters. She said she was excited to write Nesta's journey, she happens to say the same thing about Azriel.

• Illyria will be clearly involved in the next book especially with the mysteries under Ramiel. This is something Azriel will have to deal with since ACOSF did present Azriel's hatred of Illyria as an issue. The Valkyries are involved because they won the Blood Rite. Gwyn is a Carynthian so she will be connected (also because Emerie is an Illyrian so Nesta and Gwyn will be there for her). And the Autumn Court no doubt will be a big part of the next book, so how do you connect the two plots in one book? By having one of the characters connected to Autumn and that's likely Gwyn.

It's crystal clear Azriel is next with Gwyn as his supporting protagonist and love interest. It's not Elain's turn to shine yet. Let's hope she gets some development to set her up as a protagonist for book 6, but ACOSF didn't add much to her character. I honestly expected her to be heavily involved in Nesta's book but she was gone 80% of the time.

[fxlling13]

Can you do a Doctor 13th fic with prompts 34,8, and 9. I was hoping to see a jealous reader fic that is jealous of Yaz and the doctor makes a promise to take the reader to Venice but instead the doctor breaks the promise on the day they agree and starts hanging out with yaz which makes the reader jealous and upset. Your fics are great btw keep up the great work.

Hey, sorry this took so long. It's been busy recently. I know this isn't my best work but I really needed to get it out. Again I apologise.

Warning: none

Plot: ^^^^

13th doctor x reader

They were doing it again. I watched from the steps of the console room, as the doctor and Yaz stood there laughing. It almost physically hurt to watch them be so friendly. Hands touching, falling into each other. What I'd give to be Yaz, just for one day. To have the doctors attention. Then again, she wasn't mine so my jealousy was utterly stupid.

"Oh (y/n), how long have you been there?" Looking up, yaz smiled at me, coming to stand at the bottom of the steps. I just shrugged, redirecting my attention to one of the pillars. Taken aback by my response, the doctor whispered to her and she ran off quickly.

"What's wrong?" She asked, taking a seat beside me. There was no way to word it without being obviously.

"Just, feels like you spend more time with yaz than me." I told her honestly, playing with my fingers. The blonde shifted slightly, nodding her head.

"Feels like I'm not needed at times."

"Hey! No. That's not true at all. You know what? We're gonna go on a trip tomorrow. Just the two of us." Eyes lighting up, I turned to her with a grin on my face.

"Really?" She jumped up and smiled down at me.

"I'll take you to Venice in the late twentieth century. Beautiful little city, you'll love it." Now extremely excited, I bobbed my head and stood myself up. Maybe I'd been worrying for nothing?

"Go get some rest, alright?" I agreed and bid her goodnight, before heading off to my room. A new hope was there for me now.

When I say I made myself dizzy with how fast I got ready, I'm not lying. Tying up my shoes, I grabbed my jacket and head for the console room. No one was there, that was odd. The doctor was always there, so where was she? Dropping my coat to the side, I began to wander through the corridors in search of the blonde. She wasn't in the kitchen, or pool room, or the trampoline room. Eventually, I found myself at the library and pushed thr door open. Of course, I found them, both. The doctor and yaz were sat on the sofa, laughing again. The younger had her head on the others shouting. The doctor was holding her arm. When the door creaked, they snapped their heads towards me, still smiling. Thinking that the doc would see me, get up and do as she'd promised; it hurt in my heart when she looked confused.

"You look nice, going somewhere?" Digging my nails into my palms, I pressed my lips together and shook my head.

"No." With that, I turned on my heel and ran for my room. I slammed my door shut and sat on the bed. Why was I still here at this point? It was clear, I was the third wheel.

"Hey, why did you run off?" The doctor burst in without knocking, just irking me more.

"Doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. You look really upset. Have I done something?" Slowly, I turned my head towards her and scoffed. Standing up, I stalked over and glared up at the blonde.

"Have you done something? Seriously?" She just blinked at me, not knowing what to sat.

"That's what I asked, yeah." My jaw shook, how could she be this oblivious? That forgetful? Was I really that unimportant?

"Does twentieth century Venice ring a bell doctor?" Her face drained of colour as she slowly came to the realisation.

"Oh. I'm sorry (y/n). We can still go if you like?" Shaking my head, I turned away from her. I couldn't do this anymore.

"No. You go have your little play dates with yaz. I'm sure she's missing you." I spat, probably too aggressive but I didn't care at this point.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard! Go away!" For a second, she was silent and I thought she'd actually listened. Until her hand landed on my shoulder to spin me back round.

"Why are you so upset?" Tears rolled down my cheeks, it hurt even seeing her.

"You promised me! And you forgot. Because of her." I stuttered out, rubbing my face harshly. The doctor shook her head, trying to find the right words to say. But I doubted there was any at this point.

"Do you trust me?" Eyes trailing over her face, she was looking at me desperately and I just shrugged.

"I dont know anymore." I could practically see her whole demeanor change, she bowed her head in shame. What worried me is when her shoulders began shaking.

"Doctor?"

"I can never do anything right, can I? I don't know how to handle these emotions. So what do I do? Ask yaz. Where does that land me? With me hurting you! I can't..." she trailed off, biting down on her lips to supress her sadness. The doctor sat on my bed, putting her head in her hands.

"The last person I let myself love was...and I got her stuck on some parallel world. Now I've driven you away." Taking a seat beside her, I placed my hand on her back.

"What?"

"I just wanted advice. I didn't want to mess it up." The doctor croaked out, tears dripping onto her lap. Nothing she was saying made sense though, but it hurt to see her so sad. Even if I felt forgotten, I didn't want to see her like this.

"Advice on what?"

"You! How to ask you out. How to be romantic. What you like. What you want. All I wanted from yaz, was how to get you to be mine." Her outburst caught me off guard and I found myself blushing at her words.

"This morning I went to her, asking how to impress you on our trip to Venice. She started teasing me about my feelings and I got distracted." Looking up at me slowly, she smiled sadly.

"I didn't forget. I promise. I could never forget about you." More tears rolled down her cheeks, breaking my heart in the process. Lifting my hand, I wiped them away carefully.

"Doctor. All you ever had to do was be yourself."

"Really?" She stuttered, hope hidden in her eyes. Humming, I gave her a small smile. I shuffled closer and cupped her cheeks.

"All I ever want is to spend time with you. I want to be with you and it always felt like you wanted yaz." Immediately, the doctor frowned, not liking what she was hearing. Casting my eyes down, I let out a breath.

"I understood, why would you want me over her?" She gripped my shirt in her fists, tugging me closer, which caught me off guard.

"You're brilliant. The most amazing human I've met."

"You mean that?"

"I can prove it." The doctor mumbled, pulling me in and placing her lips against mine. After the initial shock subsided, I kissed back; srns finding their way around her neck.

"You see?" She mumbled against my lips, hands moving to cup my cheeks. Nodding, I smipered and pecked her lips repeatedly until she began laughing.

"Alright you. I do believe I owe you a trip?"

"Indeed. I was quite looking forward to Venice." The doctor beamed, grabbing my hand and my coat with the other.

"Oh and (y/n)?" Looking at her in question, she gave me a genuine smile.

"Know that yaz will never get in the way of us okay?" Placing a kiss to her cheek, I grinned.

"I know, doctor. I trust you."

[iamnotoriginalphil]

Win/Win (13th Doctor x f!Reader)

Synopsis: The Doctor isn't a fan of your new friend.

Words: 2.7k

Warnings: none

You bent your head, murmuring something to your companion. They murmured something in return and you tipped your head back, laughing. It was one of the best sounds in the universe. The Doctor was sure it was.

You smiled, the soft one you usually directed at the Doctor and both her hearts clenched because someone else was on the receiving end. Someone else who was leaning towards you. She watched as their hand landed on your knee and you did nothing to remove it.

You took a long sip from the drink in your hand, lips wrapping around the straw as your eyes sparkled at your companion. The Doctor watched their gaze dip to your lips. Your tongue ran along your bottom lip, she assumed unconsciously as you were gazing down into the glass. A slow smile spread over your lips and she wanted to know what you were thinking with a burning intensity.

Your companion asked you something, regaining your attention. Your nose did that scrunchy thing that always made her lose her train of thought. You always seemed to do it right before offering her a bright smile which was one of the best sights in the universe. Your companion turned their head, their nose almost brushing against your cheek and the Doctor had no idea when the two of you had gotten so close together.

You giggled, the kind that the Doctor had grown used to hearing when it was just the two of you, usually late at night or early in the morning. Sometimes she worked hard to make you giggle like that. It always filled her chest with warmth.

Evidently it was doing the same to your companion if the way they were looking at you was any indication. They were leaning towards you, close enough to whisper in your ear, your hair brushing against their cheek. Their hand landed on your knee again and your teeth sunk into your bottom lip. When had she started looking at your lips?

The Doctor stood, her chair toppling over backwards. She ignored the odd look Graham gave her and stomped up to the bar, passing by close enough to you to hear the murmur of your voice with your new friend. She loved your voice. It was always so warm when you spoke to her. Like a really good pie. Or bread fresh out the oven. Or a stew. A good hearty stew.

You didn’t seem to notice her as she passed by and that made her want to keep doing it until you did. She had grown used to your gaze following her around a room, had grown used to the way you’d look up and immediately find her. Now it was like she was a piece of the scenery and she was so much more interesting than the scenery.

The Doctor lent against the bar, one elbow resting as she turned her body to face you again. Your cheeks were pink and you were looking up from under your eyelashes. She’d never seen you do that before. Why hadn’t she ever seen you do that before? She thought she’d seen you do everything. This was new, and she didn’t like new.

Okay, that was a lie. The Doctor bloody loved new. But not when it was like this. She wanted to be on the receiving end of new, not watching it like it was a play. She wanted to be in amongst the new.

“I hope there’s dancing.”

She hadn’t even noticed Yaz sidling up beside her at the bar. She was looking wistfully at the band but no one had made their way to the sandy dance floor yet. Her gaze was drawn back to you as green fingers tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear. They lingered on your jaw and it was as if the Doctor could feel the ghost of it on her own fingertips. She bristled at it being a stranger’s fingers getting to do it.

“You should ask her to dance,” Yay said, nudging her shoulder.

“I’m a brilliant dancer, me,” she said.

“So you’re going to ask her?” she asked.

There was something in that idea. She liked the thought of dancing with you, holding you close in her arms, being close enough to see how your eyes sparkled when you laughed. She loved making you laugh. Top ten experience. It was just as good as watching a supernova. Better even.

Your companion stood, holding a hand out to you. You smiled, taking it and letting them lead you towards the dance floor, the first couple to do so. She couldn’t look away as a hand was pressed to your lower back, the other holding yours. You were smiling at them in that special way again. She didn’t notice how tightly she was clenching her fists as she watched you be swept along to the music.

“Come on,” she said, grabbing Yaz’s hand, “looks fun.”

Other couples were joining you on the dance floor with you in the centre. The Doctor tugged Yaz into her arms, placing one hand on her waist, assuming she would be able to get closer to you and your companion before exchanging partners.

That was the moment you noticed her for the first time all evening. She might not have noticed if she hadn’t already been looking at you, brain creating and discarding plans in quick succession. Your eyes moved past your companion, resting on her long enough for your tongue to dart out and wet your lips. It rested heavy on her, the way the sparkle in your eye seemed to dim at the sight of her. Then you were looking back at your companion, laughing at something they had said.

“Doctor,” Yaz said, breaking through her thoughts.

“Hm?” She didn’t know why it was hard for to look away from you.

“You’re holding on too tight.”

“Oh.”

She immediately let go of Yaz, stepping back to give her space. She rubbed her hand, flexing fingers as she stared at the Doctor with a confused look on her face.

“Sorry,” the Doctor said.

“Just go ask her to dance,” she said, “stop torturing yourself.”

“Maybe later,” she said, “she seems busy.”

Her eyes landed on you again. Your companion was leaning into you, drawing closer and closer and you weren’t doing anything to stop it. Their hand had slipped lower and your fingers were resting against the side of their neck. You made a handsome couple. The Doctor’s stomach was beginning to feel tight and uncomfortable.

She stumbled through the crowd, pushing a few people out of her way as she did her best to get to you, Yaz already forgotten. She loved love but the thought of seeing you kiss someone else was making her want to run into an army of Daleks.

She tapped your companion on the shoulder, bouncing on her feet until they turned around to look at her, a disgruntled look passing over their face. Your own eyes were trained on her, your bottom lip between your teeth again. She couldn’t figure out what you were feeling.

“Sorry, can I cut in?” she asked your companion.

They turned their head to look at you. You gently disentangled yourself from their grip, giving her a small smile. The Doctor swooped in, sliding an arm around your waist and taking your hand in her own. She twirled you away from your companion left standing alone on the dance floor. A laugh bubbled over your lips and her hearts skipped a beat, all that tension softening with you in her arms.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” she asked, worried that perhaps she was interrupting your happiness.

“I am. This planet is beautiful,” you replied, your fingers tightening around her hand. She couldn’t help but wonder if you were thinking about your abandoned companion.

“We could stay to see the sunrise,” she said, trying to drown out the thought, “the sky is green and the ocean glows when the sunlight hits it. It’s one of the most beautiful views in the galaxy. A lot of people come to see it. We should see it.”

“Sounds like a wonderful idea, Doctor,” you said. Just like that your eyes were sparkling again. She felt chuffed that she could do that all on her own.

Your thumb brushed over her pulse point. She held her breath, turning her eyes down to you again. You were smiling at her in that way you seemed to only late at night when it was the two of you. It brought to mind images of your curled up under blanket, head resting on her shoulder, soft voice murmuring in her ear. You shifted closer to her, body brushing against hers, thumb brushing against her bare skin again.

“Thank you for bringing us here,” you said, your voice growing lower as if you and she were in your own private bubble. Now there was an idea. There was a planet where you could float in a bubble. She was sure you’d love it.

“Doctor?”

Her eyes snapped back to you. You were looking at her from under your eyelashes and you were worrying your lower lip between your teeth again. Suddenly she wished she wasn’t on the receiving end of new. You were no longer sparkling. Worry filled her.

“If you want to go back to your friend, you can do that,” she said, “they’re just over there watching us. I think they’d like to dance with you again. I understand why. It’s good fun, isn’t it? I’m having a good time. But you should be having fun too. That’s very important.”

Her eyes snagged on your companion again. They were watching the two of you like a hawk, looking annoyed. The Doctor was sure that look would disappear if you went back over to them and asked them to dance.

“I’m having fun right now,” you said, catching her attention again, “I always have fun with you.”

“But maybe you’d have more fun with someone else,” she said.

Your nose scrunched up but now in the way that made her feel warm. Your eyebrows drew together and although your thumb was still brushing against the bare skin of her neck you weren’t looking at her with the usual softness, but rather the way you looked at her when she wasn’t explaining herself very well.

“What?” she asked, “have I said something wrong again? I keep doing that.”

“No, it’s just…” Your face smoothed out as you gave her a soft smile, almost conspiratorial, and while she didn’t like conspiracies, there was something nice about being in one with you, “Doctor, are you jealous?”

“What?”

You were staring at her, that sparkle back in your eye, your entire face lighting up. The way you were looking at her made her want to grin back at you but your accusation was ricocheting around her brain. You were making it impossible to think clearly with your thumb still brushing against her pulse point.

“Well, ever since I starting talking to Daeyis you’ve been avoiding me, then you barged over when we started dancing and now you’re suggesting that I might prefer to dance with someone else. I know I’m not a super genius like you but I can put two and two together,” you said.

“I wasn’t avoiding you. I’d never avoid you,” she said, “you’re the one who wasn’t noticing me all evening.”

“Doctor.” Your voice turned all melty, soft and sweet and she wondered if she could bottle it and save it for later, “I always notice you.”

Her hearts stuttered in her chest and she was worried she was staring at you like a gormless idiot. You ducked your head, a pretty flush climbing up your cheeks as you avoided looking at her. She paused in the dancing, wanting to see your face, wanting to know if the joy coursing through her veins was mirrored in you. She’d never wanted anything as desperately as that.

You glanced up, your tongue darting out to wet your lips. She was surprised how intensely she could focus on it, a matching flush rising in her cheeks.

“Doctor,” you said again, but this time like a caress.

Your hand moved from her shoulder, sliding up her neck until you were cupping her cheek. She stilled, frozen under your touch, worried if she’d move you’d stop. You stepped towards her, so close to her now.

“Were you jealous?” you asked, quiet so only she could hear.

“Yes,” she breathed.

Your breath ghosted over her face. You looked determined, just like you usually did before doing something that would impress her. With your joined hands you tugged her forward, pressing your lips to hers.

She hadn’t gotten around to kissing in this body yet, but she could still remember how it was done. She pressed her hand against the small of your back until she could feel every part of you against every part of her. You let her hand go, threading it through the hair at the nape of her neck and she didn’t know she could feel this lightheaded without someone tampering with her biology.

You nipped at her lower lip and it was like she’d forgotten any information that wasn’t about you. She’d forgotten about how good tongues were. Why had she waited this long to kiss you?

Her other hand landed on your hip and she wondered if it was possible to pull you closer. You tugged on her hair and she surprised herself with the noise she made. All your soft curves were pressing against her and she wanted to spend the rest of forever right there, wrapped up in you.

You drew away, just far enough to be able to look at her. Your lips were kiss swollen and your eyes were glazed over. You smiled, looking dazed. She couldn’t help it, she kissed you again. You gasped into her mouth and it was like you’d lit a fire within her. She’d wasted so much time not kissing you. It was time to make up for it.

“Doctor,” you murmured against her lips.

She kissed you again, single minded in her mission. All her brain was focused on you and the way you responded to her. Your fingers tightened in her hair as her tongue swept into your mouth. She’d have to remember that for next time.

You drew back again, blinking your eyes open. She ran her thumb along your swollen bottom lip until you nipped at it. She laughed as you began to giggle, looking so proud of yourself. The warmth in her chest was only growing the longer she watched you. This was a top three view. Definitely.

“I can’t believe you were jealous,” you giggled as she began to dance again.

“You were flirting,” she said, more an accusation, “you never flirt with anyone.”

“I flirt with you,” you replied, tugging on the end of her hair.

“No, I would have noticed,” she said, absolutely sure of herself.

You gave her that fond smile she loved so much and shook your head. She paused in the dance again, wondering if now was the right time for another kiss. She hoped so.

“Doctor, I’ve been flirting with you since practically the moment we met,” you said, “the only person who never noticed was you.”

“No, I definitely would have noticed. I’m ace at noticing things,” she said.

“Like me flirting with someone else,” you laughed.

“Yes.” She didn’t mean to pout but it was hard to get her face to do what she wanted around you.

“How about we make a deal,” you said, that twinkle back in your eye.

“I love deals,” she said, “I’m brilliant at making deals.”

“Alright then,” you said, taking a step back and holding your hand out to her, “I won’t flirt with anyone but you if you kiss me again.”

She grabbed your hand and pulled you in. She really was brilliant at deals because that one had been a win/win for her. Flirting and kissing. She could get used to that.

[riversofmars]

i wonder if you might do a story on river/13 going to a gay bar in space and they meet a bunch of previous companions/friends there too? (definitely jack for sure!) thanks

Okay first off, I love this prompt!! And it’s perfect for Pride month! I may, however, have taken some liberties and gone a bit bigger than a simple gay bar.... anyway :D I set out to write the gayest thing you’ll read all month... I hope I’ve succeeded! Happy Pride!

Invitation With A Kiss

“So what is this place, Doc?“ Graham asked as they made their way to the door of the TARDIS.

“Had an invitation!“ The Doctor retorted with a grin double-checking her psychic paper to make sure she had the right place and time.

“Who from?“ Yaz asked curiously.

“Ah, well, you know…“ The Doctor tried to wave it off but Yaz was quick enough to snatch the psychic paper from her fingers before she could try to hide it.

“Signed with a kiss?“ Yaz gaped and a wide grin spread across her features. Finally something to truly wind their friend up with and Ryan smirked as well:

“You sure you want us to tag along?“

“Oh, shut up, it’s not exactly a private party.“ The Doctor huffed trying to hide the blush that crept onto her cheeks. Quickly, she opened the door before any of her friends could comment and stepped outside.

“Oh wow, I don’t think I have words for this…“ Yaz started laughing as she joined the Doctor. They found themselves at the side of a most colourful parade. There were rainbows EVERYWHERE! Balloons, confetti, flags, people were dancing, hugging, kissing, having the time of their lives. “Please tell me this is…“

“Planet Pride.“ The Doctor grinned and put her hands on her hips as she took in the atmosphere. It was elating. There was a mild breeze that carried music and exotic smells, the sun was blazing down but not unpleasantly and the joy surrounding them was almost palpable. “Think of your 21st century Pride celebrations, multiply it by, I don’t know, a whole galaxy celebrating togetherness and inclusivity, and you get the greatest queer party this side of the universe.“ The Doctor turned to her friends who were still in awe.

“Isn’t this like… the future?“ Yaz finally found her voice and looked to the Doctor who was surprised to find concern in her eyes: “Is there a need for Pride still? Like I would have thought the issue would long be resolved and…“

“Oh it is, don’t worry!“ The Doctor grinned as she understood what she was getting at. “Doesn’t erase the past though. It’s part of the history of humankind… very sad, pointless, stupid part, but history nonetheless. Can’t and shouldn’t erase history, else you can’t learn from past mistakes… But let’s face it, Pride is brilliant. By this point it’s just an excuse to have one hell of a party.“ She pushed her hands into her pockets and they started walking down the street.

“This is brilliant.“ The Fam quickly found themselves accessorised by strangers, flower garlands and all sorts of amusing party hats were being passed out.

“Who’s the invite from, then?“ Ryan asked as they quickly caught up with the Doctor who was looking around the sea of people, clearly searching for someone.

“My wife.“ The Doctor answered knowing full well that there was no way she could keep it from them. She stopped and gnawed her bottom lip as she scanned the crowd. Where was she? Like she stood a chance of finding her amongst all these people…

“Your what now?“ Graham’s face fell and he nearly ran into her.

“Wife.“ The Doctor retorted matter-of-factly looking back to her friends. “We’re here to celebrate Pride, remember?“

“Yes but… you’re married?!“ Yaz exclaimed and carried on teasingly: “Who would agree to that?!“

“Well, we have always wondered that at one point or another…“ A voice sounded behind them and they all whirled around.

“Jack!“ The Fam exclaimed in unison as Captain Jack Harkness saluted with a grin.

“Hello, Doctor.“ He scooped the Doctor up in a tight hug who squeaked as the air was pushed from her lungs. “Fancy seeing you here! Are you ready for a party?“

“Hello Jack.“ She managed as she tried to extricate herself from his arms. “Bit too much to drink already?“ Jack ignored her comment and turned to the Fam, extending his arms.

“Ryan. Yaz. … Graham.“ He winked at Graham who blushed a little. Jack’s flirting was not lost on him or anyone else for that matter. “Missed me?“ He grinned. “Did you come here to see me?“

“While I knew you’d be here, no, not exactly.“ The Doctor retorted, trying to let him down gently.

“Well, that’s just as well.“ Jack huffed, trying not to look too offended. “I’m here with a Doctor of my own anyway. Though I seem to have lost him… and Donna just keeps trying to pass me drink after drink so…“

“You’re here with me? And Donna?“ The Doctor’s eyes widened in shock.

“There’s another version of you here?“ Yaz asked, utterly confused. The Doctor had told them plenty of times about how she had been a different person before and how Time Lords could regenerate their body, but they had never actually seen proof of it.

“And I don’t remember it… timelines crossing…“ The Doctor realised running her hands through her hair nervously. There was potential for disastrous chaos here.

“Doctor?“ A voice called and they all looked around. The girl that had called out wasn’t looking at them though, she was scanning the crowd and turned to another girl whose hand she was holding. “He must be here somewhere, that’s his TARDIS over there.“ They were searching for the Doctor too.

“Well, I’ve got a Doctor here if you’re looking for one!“ Jack called out without thinking. He didn't know the girls but the look on the Doctor’s face revealed that she did. She was simply too stunned to respond just yet. The girls looked at Jack who waved with a wide grin. “I think you mean to say: Her TARDIS. Times change!“

“Bill…“ The Doctor finally found her voice again as she stared at her long lost friend. There she was. Brilliant, beautiful Bill Potts. Cyberman no longer, holding on to her girlfriend’s hand and shock painted all over her face as the realisation hit her.

“Oh my GOD!“ Bill exclaimed, frozen to the spot.

“And Heather.“ The Doctor was beginning to grin now and hurried over.

“You have to be joking!“ Bill was still in shock, she shook her head to herself as the Doctor came to a halt in front of her with the Fam and Jack following close behind.

“Hello Bill!“ The Doctor smirked, amused by how her brain was reeling. “What? Not even a hug?“ She chuckled as Bill was finally pulled from her stupor.

“I really don't think I should hug you…“ Bill found her voice at last as she looked her up and down. “Cause you’re like… dead hot right now…“ She glanced at Heather who just laughed. “But also, you’re my weird space grandpa! So come here!“ She pulled the Doctor in a tight hug laughing.

“Fam, this is my friend Bill and her girlfriend Heather.“ The Doctor introduced them all.

“Lovely to meet you.“ Heather smiled. “I have a feeling you will be seeing quite a few familiar faces.“ She told the Doctor with a knowing smile.

“Yeah, it’ll get complicated when you run into yourself…“ Bill grinned, amused at the very prospect of it.

“He’s here, too?“ The Doctor’s face fell. Things were bound to get even more complicated with two of her former regenerations around!

“Well yeah, we were looking for him, lost him somewhere along the way…“ Bill explained. “Oh God…“

“What?“ The Doctor frowned, alarmed at the dread in her friend’s voice.

“Quickly, hide!“ She pulled the Doctor and Heather behind a make-shift beach bar that served all sorts of colourful cocktails. The other’s mirrored their actions. While they didn’t know what was going on, it seemed like the right course of action.

“Bill, what…“ The Doctor started to protest but forgot where she was going with it when her eyes fell on two very familiar people, making their way towards the bar.

“I really don’t know why you insisted on coming here.“ Missy gave a huff as they came within earshot.

“Why not? It’s fun.“ Clara retorted, amused at the displeasure on the Time Lady’s face.

“I don’t see what’s so exciting about drawing rainbows on your face and parading around the street.“ Missy rather stood out in her almost completely black outfit.

“Humour me.“ Clara retorted, who - in her colourful waitress uniform - looked the complete opposite. “I’ll make it worth your while.“ She looped her arm around Missy’s.

“You better.“ Missy pursed her lips, looking to the girl at her side, then continued to scan the crowd.

“If you didn’t want to come, why did you?“ Clara asked and scoffed as Missy paid her little attention and kept looking around: “You’re hoping the Doctor will be here, aren’t you. And here I was thinking you actually wanted to spend time with me.“

“Doctor, who are they?“ Yaz whispered to the Doctor, struggling to follow what was going on. Those two women clearly knew her and the Doctor seemed to know them too as all colour had drained from her face.

“Doctor, what do you want to do?“ Bill whispered to her but she didn’t respond, she was transfixed.

“Don’t get me wrong, Clara, dear, I enjoy a booty call as much as the next Time Lady.“ Missy smirked, looking back to Clara. “Particularly one where my sweet little plaything is intoxicated on sweet drinks and self righteousness but if I just happen to run into the Doctor and get the opportunity to kill him, that would be a two birds one stone kind of scenario. Particularly if I get to mortally embarrass him by putting you in a rather compromising position first.“ Missy ran her fingertips along Clara’s jaw, pushing her head up a little.

“Right, that’s it!“ The Doctor exclaimed. “Clara!“ She called, marching out of their hiding place.

“Huh?“ Clara and Missy looked around confused, annoyed at the moment being so rudely interrupted.

“Oh God…“ Bill groaned and they all rushed after the Doctor.

“Sorry dear, this is a private conversation, pick a number and I’ll get to you in a sec.“ Missy gave a dismissive wave of her hand, refocusing her attention on Clara but the Doctor wouldn’t have it.

“Missy, get your hands off her right now!“ The Doctor threatened.

“Who’s this, Doctor?“ Yaz asked, hoping for an explanation.

“Doctor?“ Missy raised her eyebrows, her lips pulling into a smirk.

“Doctor?“ Clara echoed, surprised, excited and embarrassed in equal measures.

“What are you doing with her??“ The Doctor demanded to know off Clara as she wildly gestured at her nemesis.

“My my my, isn’t this some sight. Finally had the upgrade as well?“ Missy ignored the comment as she regarded her childhood friend’s new body. She snaked her arm around Clara and pulled her close to her side.

“Missy!“ The Doctor growled. “Get away from her!“

“Why?“ Missy feigned innocence and hurt. “She asked me here? She wants me here. You could even say she wants me .“ She gave a triumphant smirk and the Doctor flushed scarlet with embarrassment and anger.

“Clara, is that…“

“Uhhh…“ Clara blushed even more deeply than the Doctor herself.

“Does anyone else feel like they're slightly out of the loop?“ Ryan piped up, trying to make sense of the situation in front of them. For whatever reason, the Doctor was interrupting what looked like a perfectly consensual, happy date…

“This is the Master.“ The Doctor spat angrily. “Earlier version… don’t let the lipstick fool you, just as deadly.“

“Lipstick makes for a wonderful weapon, particularly in the right hands. Just ask your lovely wife.“ Missy retorted with a smile. “Where is she, by the way? You’re not here single , are you?“ She tightened the grip on Clara for emphasis.

“Missy!“ Clara slapped the Time Lady’s shoulder. “Come on, we’re all here to have some fun, can’t we just do that.“

“I can have fun with you anywhere I like.“ Missy smirked, moving her hand lower to the hem of her skirt, just enough to make the Doctor nearly lose it. “Fine. Alright.“ She let go of her. “Be a good little puppy now and fetch me a drink then.“ She smirked at the Doctor who balled her hands to tight fits, looking like she was about to burst. Missy laying her hands on one of her friends like that was just too much.

“Anyone else for a cocktail?“ Clara turned back to the group, hoping to move to conversation along to where she wouldn’t be mortally embarrassed in front of her best friend.

“I’ll help you carry.“ Heather volunteered quickly following Clara to the bar.

“So the Master used to be a woman?“ Graham exclaimed at last, when the situation seemed to have defused a little.

“Spoilers.“ Missy tutted at him.

“This is going to get very complicated with everyone here.“ The Doctor had to agree. “You can’t reveal anything about anyone’s future or we could be ripping space and time apart.“

“Yes, this is quite the explosive combination.“ Missy had to concede as she regarded the Doctor’s entourage. “Which begs the question, Doctor, what brings you here? Other than the rainbow candy floss?“

“River invited me.“ The Doctor shot back, almost too quickly, as if to make the point that Missy didn’t have one over in her.

“Well, she’s here somewhere…“ Missy smirked, delighting in the fact that she knew something the Doctor didn’t. “Busy though, really busy…“

“Busy?“ The Doctor frowned. She didn’t like the way Missy was saying that but she couldn’t help her hearts somersaulting just a little bit at the confirmation that her wife was here somewhere. She would get to see her again. It had been such a long time.

“Your bride dances at numerous weddings, as usual.“ Missy hummed just as Clara and Heather returned with colourful cocktails. “Thank you dear.“ She took a bright red drink that was unsettlingly reminiscent of blood and took the opportunity to press a firm kiss to Clara’s lips. “Oh I should start doing this to all your companions, the look on your face!“ Missy laughed at the Doctor’s expression. She looked like she was about to throw a punch. “Or, you know, your wife… now that would be fun.“

“Watch it!“ The Doctor growled threateningly.

“Wherever is Professor Song?“ Missy hummed in a sing-song voice and sip her drink in delight.  

“Clara!“ Everyone looked around as two female voices chanted in unison.

“Oh hello!“ Clara recognised Vastra and Jenny immediately as they were heading straight towards them.

“More old friends?“ Ryan asked and the Doctor’s face brightened. It was hard to worry about the timeline when it was so nice to see so many of her friends.

“Vastra! Jenny!“ She grinned at them in greeting and while Jenny frowned, confused, her wife’s superior senses helped her recognise her immediately.

“Doctor!“ The lizard woman looked at her in shock. “Now that makes a change.“ She looked her up and down, surprised, but not unpleasantly. Jenny must have noticed the look on her face as she gave Vastra’s arm a playful slap.

“Oi! Married!“ She reminded her. “Hello Doctor.“ She carried on cheerfully and gave a wave to everyone else, who, with the exception of Clara, they didn’t know yet.

“It’s getting rather crowded, isn’t it.“ Missy pursed her lips shooting Clara a glance with the intention of getting out of there soon but her companion was more concerned with meeting the Doctor’s other friends, past and present. “Oi!“ She shot Jack a glare who was just putting his arm around Clara all too familiarly.

“Sorry, dear.“ Vastra gave her wife an appeasing smile and turned back to the Doctor. “We didn’t expect to see you, Doctor. At least not like this.“

“Don’t tell me.“ The Doctor groaned, sensing where this was going.

“We didn’t mean to interrupt, we just thought, when we saw Miss Oswald, perhaps she’d know where the Doctor was, a younger one, that is. Suspenders too, but bow tie…“ Vastra explained apologetically. They had lost the Doctor they had arrived with quite a while ago.

“Is that who you’re here with?“ The Doctor asked, wincing at the prospect of yet another version of hers running around this place.

“Following an invitation from your wife, as I understand it. He didn’t want to go alone.“ Jenny added.

“Where is he now?“ The Doctor asked, sensing where all this was going.

“That is a very good question.“ Vastra agreed and they all looked around, everyone scanning the crowd for their particular Doctors.

“I already have a very bad feeling about this…“ The Doctor sighed.

“Are you sure you want to find your wife?“ Missy snickered, highly amused.

“I would if I knew how.“ The Doctor huffed, as a cheerful voice carried over from the other side of the cocktail bar:

“That River Song really is something, isn’t she.“ Everyone looked around and saw a blonde pulling herself onto a bar stool, setting down a nearly empty glass.

“Don’t say it like that.“ A second woman, brunette with shoulder length hair, huffed as she climbed onto a stool beside her. The Doctor looked around to her friends, none of whom recognised the two women, with the exception of herself and Missy who pursed her lips with intrigue. Now there were two people she hadn't seen in quite some time.

“Like what?“ Helen laughed, twirling the straw of her drink between her fingers.

“Like you admire the woman…“ Liv answered, clearly not enjoying the conversation.

“You’re just jealous.“ Helen retorted playfully.

“Jealous? Of what? Don’t be ridiculous.“ Liv shot back a little too quickly.

“Then stop sulking!“ Helen grinned. “The Doctor is having fun, leave him to it. And let’s have some fun too! These cocktails are really good…“ She waved at the bar keep for another.

“And really strong, you sure you want another one.“ Liv couldn’t help but point out.

“Most definitely.“ Helen nodded full of enthusiasm and nearly fell off her stool. Perhaps she had had a little bit too much after all. Liv was quick to hold her up. “Thank you Liv, you’re the best you know that?“ Helen smiled happily and reached out to stroke her friend’s cheek.

“I try.“ Liv replied, blushing at the gesture and her friend pulled her forward into a tight hug.

“No really, you are…“ Helen held her tightly, nuzzling into the crook of her neck and Liv didn’t know what to do with her hands. She nearly fell off her stool herself but she didn’t want to pull back either, so she wrapped her arms around Helen’s shoulders, glad she wouldn’t be able to see her blush. Helen was completely oblivious to her discomfort, she just carried on mumbling: “You’re so kind and clever and brave and… so pretty…“

“I think you’ve had enough to drink…“ Liv pulled away, momentarily worried for her friend’s state but Helen wouldn’t let her go. Instead she grabbed Liv’s head and kissed her.

“I had money on that, you know.“ Missy smirked as the Doctor just watched, delighted and confused in equal measures. How had she never picked up on this when they were travelling together?

“Oh God…“ Helen pulled away when she realised what she was doing. But only after thoroughly snogging her best friend’s face off. She blushed deeply, her intoxication seemingly gone in an instant as sobering reality hit her. Liv blinked overwhelmed still, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest. “Sorry, I was just… getting carried away and…“ Helen stammered, letting go of her but this time it was Liv that wouldn’t let go.

“You can do it again… you know in the spirit of… or just because you want to…“ Liv bit her bottom lip nervously.

“I don’t know why I did that…“ Helen carried on stuttering until Liv’s words sunk in: “What?“

“Oh Helen… my beautiful, clueless friend…“ Liv shook her head and laughed.

“Sorry, I have no idea what I’m doing.“ Helen admitted, blushing scarlet.

“I do.“ Liv assured her more confidently and leaned in to kiss her again when Helen stopped her.

“Liv…“

“What?“ Liv’s heart sank, wondering if Helen had thought better of it but she realised her friend was stopped for another reason. She was looking past her and Liv noticed they had an audience.

“Oh, don’t stop on my account.“ Missy gave a wave of her hand when she realised she had been spotted. Of course, she was the only one Helen Sinclair and Liv Chenka would recognise. “Wasn’t sure where we were, timelines and all!“

“You again!“ Helen exclaimed and Missy sighed. Why were the Doctor’s friends always so stuck up on the past? So what if she had kidnapped and nearly killed her?

“I was hoping we would bump into you again, now I can finally…“ Liv was about to go for Missy but the Doctor quickly intervened.

“No, no, no, none of that!“ She held Liv back and Missy chuckled.

“Come on, Doctor, if Miss Chenka wasn’t to play, that can be arranged.“ Her eyes flashed dangerously.

“Missy! Timelines!“ The Doctor scolded. The time lines were already all messed up, without anyone losing their life before their time. Missy gave a shrug.

“Doctor?“ Liv echoed, looking at the blonde in front of her bewildered. She took a step back, accepting that maybe violence was not the right course of action right now.

“While I’m sure the Doctor is elated to see you two finally stopped doing that silly little I don’t know how she’s feeling about me - but what if she doesn’t like me - but she’s from the past - but she’s from the future - I can’t ruin our friendship dance of yours, she’d rather like to know where her wife is and you seem to know.“ Missy sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“The Doctor?“ Helen repeated incredulously.

“Wow…“ Was all Liv could manage staring at the blonde and Helen, gripped by a wave of jealousy, hit her arm:

“Liv!“

“Not to interrupt the happy reunion or whatever but I think your search is over, Doctor.“ Jack announced and everyone looked around to where he was pointing.

“She didn’t just invite you, did she…“ Missy chuckled as they watched River push through the crowd accompanied by no less than thirteen Doctors, all of them competing for her attention and affection.

“She invited all of us, didn’t she…“ The Doctor sighed, realising that the same message she had received would have popped up on every other Doctor’s psychic paper as well.

“Go on then, Doctor.“ Jack put his arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her along. “Because if you don’t go over there, I might.“ He smirked. “Professor Song!“ He called before the Doctor could protest. River looked over to them, grinning, as she recognised Jack.

“Captain.“ She smirked flirtily as she sauntered over, while the other Doctors shot Jack annoyed glances.

“Think this is who you were looking for.“ Jack gave the Doctor a shove forward and decided that for once, he should be the wing man instead of going for the prize himself.

“Hello River.“ The Doctor managed a half smile and her feelings were incredibly conflicting. She was thrilled to see her wife; who looked beautiful in a flowing dress with the sun dancing in her curls. She was jealous that the other Doctor’s got there before her. And most importantly, she was annoyed: How could she have been so irresponsible?! All of space and time could rip apart if they put a foot wrong!

“My my my, now that makes a change.“ River smirked as she only took a moment to realise who she was. She stepped closer, looking her up and down far more obviously would have been necessary. The Doctor blushed and decided to go on the offensive to get herself out of the awkward situation:

“You know you will have to make them forget!“ She pointed to all her other selves. “This could end so badly!“

“Timelines will do that. Relax, Sweetie. None of you will remember a thing after crossing your own time stream. I can’t believe I’ve had to have this conversation fourteen times.“ River sighed but the expression on her face indicated that she had no problem repeating herself with her spouses. “Now, less sulking, how about a kiss for your old wife, hm?“ She smirked, grabbed the Doctor by the collar of her coat. She pulled her in for a kiss that quickly muted any sort of protest.

Just then, a confetti cannon went off, dousing the group in a rainbow of colours.

“Sorry, couldn’t help it.“ Missy grinned as the Doctor’s friends shot her accusing glances and she hid her sonic umbrella behind her back. “Anyway, I wonder if there are more versions of me about…“

The Doctor didn’t even notice. She was too occupied kissing her wife to the chorus of jealous calls from several of her past selves. She had missed her so much .

[regenderate-fic]

Coming Back for You

Fandom: Doctor Who Ships: Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan Characters: Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan, Dan Lewis Rating: General Word Count: 11,681 Other Tags: Episode: Legend of the Sea Devils, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending

Read on AO3

Summary: The Doctor goes down with the Sea Devils-- but Yaz will never give up on her.

(Piece for the 2022 Thasmin Big Bang!)

NOTES: this is my piece for the thasmin big bang! check out the podfic by ari @pro-daydreamer :) it was so much fun to write this with the knowledge that it would be read out loud, it added a really interesting dimension to the writing.

“Yaz, you have to go. Get the others out. I’ll keep this in place.” The Doctor was jamming two cables together, looking from them to Yaz, her hair flying everywhere.

Yaz stared at her. “What?”

The Doctor jerked her head towards the door. Her eyes were wide with urgency. “Go! I’ll be fine.”

“No, you won’t!” Yaz looked around wildly. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Yaz.” The Doctor’s voice was low and serious. “You’re the only one who can pilot the TARDIS. If you don’t go now, Dan and Ji-Hun will never get back home.” And then she faltered, her voice breaking as she spoke. “I need to know you’re safe.”

Yaz held the Doctor’s gaze. The Doctor could see the moment understanding set in. 

“Fine,” she said. “But I’m coming back for you.”

“Yaz—” The Doctor cut off. There were so many things she wanted to say to Yaz, and none of them were small enough to be put into words. But— she and Yaz were likely never going to see each other again. 

The Doctor had nothing left to lose.

She leaned forward, teetering awkwardly over the cables, and pressed a swift, desperate kiss to Yaz’s lips. Yaz stumbled back, staring in shock, and the Doctor jerked her head towards the door again. “Go. You don’t have much time.”

“I will come back for you,” Yaz promised. And then she was gone, out the door, leaving the Doctor alone at the bottom of the ship, her eyes screwed shut, Yaz’s sweet-smelling breath still on her lips as she watched her death approach.

—

Yaz burst into the room with the TARDIS. It was still there, lying on its side in the dark little room. The ship lurched, and Yaz scrambled, launching herself towards the TARDIS. She clambered through the doors, falling to the TARDIS floor as the TARDIS’s interior gravity kicked in. Only slightly disoriented, she picked herself up, looking around. She breathed a sigh of relief: everyone was there. Dan. Ji-Hun. Madam Ching. Ying Ki. 

“Thanks,” she said to Dan.

“Glad you’re okay.” His eyes darted to the space behind her. “Where’s the Doctor?”

Yaz shook her head. “No time. We’ve got to get out of here.” She ran to the console. There was an emergency sequence the Doctor had shown her— with three quick jabs at a big red button and a quick flip of a lever, the TARDIS began to move. 

—

Time exploded in the Doctor’s mind. Pastpresentfuture all converged. And she, at the center of the blast, was still.

—

Yaz managed to keep herself steady long enough to get everyone home without a hitch, keeping a friendly smile on her face as she dropped off Madame Ching, Ying Ki, and Ji-Hun in their respective time periods. The Doctor had taught her well: even with just the ten percent of her brain that hadn’t shut down the second the Doctor had kissed her and told her to go, she was still able to go through the motions of piloting the TARDIS, darting around the console and saying cheery good-byes. 

Just like the Doctor would have.

She kept it up all the way until she landed in Liverpool, 2022. Finally, with just Dan to witness, she deflated, clutching at the console for support as the fight went out of her body.

The Doctor was gone.

Dead, probably, although Yaz wasn’t sure the Doctor could die.

Yaz took a deep breath. If the Doctor could die, she was probably dead. But— if there was any chance the Doctor couldn’t die— or if there was any chance she hadn’t died— well, then, she would be needing a rescue.

Her thoughts raced. In the space of a second, she was already coming up with a million different plans, different ways to get the Doctor back. Until, somewhere in her haze, she was aware of a hand on her shoulder. 

Right. Dan was still here.

“You all right?” he asked.

Yaz turned to face him. The words I’m fine were on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t say them: not to Dan, not after everything that had happened. She shook her head, opening her mouth in an attempt at speech. Nothing came out.

Dan understood, though. He always did. He knew Yaz better than she knew herself, at this point. He swept her into a hug, surrounding her in his friendly warmth, and she fell into it, finally letting herself cry big, ugly sobs into the shoulder of his pirate outfit.

They stood there for a long time, in the center of the console room, Yaz falling apart, Dan holding her together. It felt like hours before Yaz’s tears began to subside. She stepped back, wiping at her eyes.

���Sorry,” she said weakly.

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Dan said, his hands still on Yaz’s shoulders. He was looking at her with pride spilling out of his eyes. “You did brilliantly back there.”

Yaz managed a teary smile.

“What happened?” Dan added. “I mean, with the Doctor—”

“She—” Yaz swallowed. “She had to stay back. To save Earth.” She lifted her chin, her jaw set. “And I’ve got to find her.”

“Yaz—”

Yaz shook her head, fixing her gaze on Dan’s. “If there’s any chance she’s still alive,” she said, “I’ve got to go back for her.”

Dan sighed. “I worry about you, you know. You put so much of yourself into her.”

“I—” Yaz faltered, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. “Dan, I’ve got to.”

“I know.” Dan was giving her that look he always gave her, the kind eyes he’d turned on her so many times over the past few years. “And if you’re going to go running after her, I’m coming with you.”

Yaz glanced at the TARDIS doors. “Your home is right out there. You’re sure you want to leave again?” 

“We’ve got a time machine,” Dan replied. “Home will be here whenever.” He nodded his head towards Yaz. “You’re the one I’m worried about right now.” 

Yaz hesitated, hovering in the space between responsible loneliness and reckless companionship. She was starting to understand the Doctor from a whole new point of view. 

“All right, then,” she finally said. “Glad to have you on board.” 

Dan gave her a lazy mock-salute. “Where to first, Captain?”

Yaz turned to the console, gesturing as she spoke. “I’ll have to find the coordinates for where we were last. And we ought to be careful about when we show up. We want to time it so we’re just after the explosion, but not so early we cross our own timeline. Don’t want to mess with that.” 

She reached for the controls. If they started now, they could get to the Doctor by— well, time was a nebulous concept, inside the TARDIS, but they could get to her soon. Probably. But the second Yaz touched the metal of the console, Dan tapped her shoulder again. Yaz turned around, pushing down a flare of irritation.

“Yaz,” he said. “When’s the last time you slept?”

Yaz blinked. “What?”

“I think we’ve got time for a rest,” Dan said. 

Yaz stared at the TARDIS console, the Doctor’s last words playing in her mind on repeat. “I don’t know if I can rest,” she said.

“You’ll be no good to the Doctor if you collapse of exhaustion,” Dan chided. “Come on, Yaz, we can find the right moment tomorrow just the same as we can today.”

For a long moment, Yaz didn’t say anything. She just looked from the console to Dan, feeling increasingly helpless. 

But she was tired.

“Yeah,” she finally said. “Fine. I’ll take a rest.” The minute she said it, the full weight of her exhaustion hit her, dragging at her limbs. She took a step, and her head spun: the last few days were catching up to her. 

Fortunately, Dan was there. Dan was always there, a steady presence in Yaz’s worst moments, lending her a little bit of strength, a little bit of warmth, and now was no exception. Before Yaz could take another step (or fall trying), he came up next to her and tugged one of her arms around his shoulder, letting her lean on him as they walked into the TARDIS corridor.

“Why aren’t you more tired?” Yaz asked. “You’ve had the same few days I have.”

“You and I both know that’s not true. No one I’ve been pining after for seven years just got stuck at the bottom of the ocean.”

Yaz breathed out a laugh. “Maybe not.” 

“Anyway,” Dan added, “I’m plenty tired. Just not to the wobbly-when-I-walk stage yet.”

“Guess maybe I have been running pretty ragged.”

Dan chortled. “You don’t say?”

They came to the door of Yaz’s room. It slid open, and Yaz stumbled away from Dan.

“Night, Scouse,” she said, her eyes watering with the effort of keeping them open.

“Night, Sheffield.” 

Yaz hovered by the open door. Dan waited. 

“I just wanted to say,” she said, her fingers twisting together. “Thanks for being there.”

“Anytime, Sheffield.” Dan smiled. “Good night.”

“Night.” Yaz held his eyes for another moment before she backed away, falling towards her bed. The door to her room slid shut, and then she was alone, nothing but the faint gurgles of the TARDIS to keep her company. 

She collapsed onto her bed, not even bothering to change out of her long skirt. She was sure, despite all her exhaustion, that she would lie awake for hours, worrying about the Doctor, but she was wrong: the second her head hit the pillow, she felt herself start to slip away.

The last thing in her mind was the Doctor’s lips, burning on hers, a too-quick kiss in the depths of a doomed ship.

—

Was she regenerating? The Doctor couldn’t tell. She hurt, all over: every cell, every part of her self.

And she was stuck. She couldn’t move, in time or in space. If she was regenerating, she would never finish. The ship was in smithereens around her, fragments of wood hovering in midair: she would regenerate, if she got out of this moment: she’d drown before she could reach the ocean’s surface, and then, in the vulnerable moments immediately after, she would drown again.

There was no hope for her. 

— 

Yaz only slept a couple hours before all the stress and worry boiled over in her chest and woke her up. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, feeling decidedly unrested. But anxiety was grinding away in her bones, overriding her exhaustion entirely, and besides— she had work to do.

She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and got up, changing into dark jeans and a blue-and-red striped blouse. She pulled her favorite brown leather jacket on over it, and then she went out into the corridors. 

It was strange, being in the TARDIS without the Doctor. It wasn’t uncomfortable, really— Yaz had long since begun to consider the TARDIS a home, Doctor or no— but it was empty. Lacking. Yaz often wandered the corridors alone, usually when she couldn’t sleep, but it felt different knowing the Doctor wasn’t there to jump out at her as she turned a corner, wouldn’t be hanging out by happenstance in the swimming pool or the library. 

Still, Yaz wasn’t wandering for long. She found the console room quickly and took up her position at the controls. She had a lot of work to do: she’d been too busy getting the TARDIS off the Sea Devil ship to take note of its coordinates in time and space, and she was still a little shaky on the TARDIS’s “history” function. 

The real problem was that she didn’t have a telepathic connection to the TARDIS, like the Doctor did: she had to rely on manual controls and her own memory and basic instincts. It had made it hard, at the beginning, for the Doctor to explain the controls. Eventually, she’d had to sever her own telepathic connection to force herself to remember what each individual button and lever did, and in that way she and Yaz had learned together, laughing when they opened the doors to wildly incorrect places, fumbling to hit six buttons at once. 

But now the Doctor was gone, and it was just Yaz, who didn’t even have the memory of a telepathic connection, who had no choice but to fiddle with dials until she got the right one. She felt the Doctor’s absence keenly, a ghost at her side. She could pilot the TARDIS alone: she knew she could. It was just that… she didn’t want to. She wanted to feel the Doctor’s body heat next to her, wanted the Doctor’s chipper voice dancing through the air. 

She wanted the Doctor. 

She closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. The Doctor wasn’t there— it was all up to Yaz.

Years ago, she would’ve asked herself what the Doctor would do. She would’ve written it on her palm, a constant reminder. But four years away had changed her, given her her own strategies, given her the confidence to stop asking what the Doctor would do and instead do what Yaz would do. 

Today, she decided, Yaz would overcome the overwhelming urge to collapse on the floor in tears, and she’d try a set of coordinates, and if those were wrong she’d try another, and she’d keep doing that until she found the Doctor. Yaz would persevere, no matter what, because she’d spent too long missing the Doctor to ever accept her absence. 

So she set some coordinates. Threw a lever. The TARDIS began its whir. Yaz hit the buttons for the oxygen bubble and the aquashield, made sure to set the ship’s internal pressure, fiddled with the stabilizers. 

The TARDIS’s wheezing died down, and Yaz stepped to the door, steeling herself for what she would find. She hoped, desperately, that it would be the Doctor, but—

Nothing. Just the ocean floor. It was just as breathtaking as the last time Yaz had been here, but she felt none of the thrill or awe she’d felt then. 

It wasn’t the same, after all, without the Doctor. 

Yaz closed the doors and went back to the console, plugging in another set of coordinates. Same time, different place. She ran back out to the doors, hoping against hope— and— 

Nothing.

She didn’t linger this time. She just went right back to the console and tried again. This time, she barely poked her head out the doors long enough to see what she wasn’t seeing. She ran back to the console and tried again— and again— and again— running back and forth across the console room.

Until finally, on what had to have been her fiftieth attempt, she stared out at an abyss of blue as all the fight went out of her. She fell to the ground, her head slumped against the doorframe, staring blankly out at reefs and fish and seaweed. She reached out a hand. An electric tingle tickled her skin as it passed through the shields, and then she felt the cold weight of the ocean water. She moved her hand back and forth through the water, her mind blank. A red fish came up to her hand, bumping its forehead against her palm, and Yaz almost managed a smile. She pulled her hand back in. It was completely dry: the aquashield was doing its job.

Her eyes slipped closed. She couldn’t stop thinking about being in much the same position with the Doctor: standing under the ocean, the mix of confusion and painful, breathless hope, on the threshold of acknowledgment.

There were footsteps behind her. 

“Hiya,” Yaz said. She opened her eyes, but she didn’t turn around.

“Nice view.” Dan’s voice came from just behind her: if she looked up, she was sure she’d see him looming over her. And then he dropped down next to her, cross-legged in the doorway. “You all right there, Sheffield?”

“What do you think?” Yaz said, and winced at the sharp edge that had appeared, unbidden, in her tone.

Dan understood, though. He knew her too well not to. “We were in Liverpool, last I checked. Either Liverpool looks very different now, or—”

“I was looking for the shipwreck,” Yaz said. “I know it’s here somewhere. I just can’t remember the coordinates.” She shook her head. “I should’ve been paying more attention.”

“You had a lot going on, back there,” Dan said mildly. 

Yaz sighed. “I guess so.”

“You never did tell me, you know,” Dan said. “What the Doctor said to you.”

“You never told me what you said to her,” Yaz replied. Again, it came out sharper than intended— and again, Dan brushed it off. 

“All I said was that you liked her,” Dan said. “She tried to tell me she didn’t know what I was talking about, and I told her she definitely did, even if she was lying about it.”

Yaz managed half a laugh, shaking her head at the ocean in front of her. “Yeah,” she said. “That sounds about right.” She paused. “Yesterday, with the Sea Devils— she kept flirting with me. It was proper weird. Like, it was definitely different to how she talks to me normally.” She sighed. “And then she said she doesn’t date, but if she were going to, it’d be me.”

“That’s a step,” Dan said.

“Yeah.” Yaz still felt empty inside. “But it was—” She let out her air in a long sigh, tilting her head back. “A lot, all at once.” She took another deep breath. “And there’s more.”

She could feel Dan’s eyes on her. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Yaz’s own eyes were fixed on the scene in front of her, following fish as they swam across her field of vision. She didn’t think she could bear Dan’s kind eyes right now: he always saw her, all of her, and she wasn’t sure she could handle that. “There were these wires, yeah? The whole ship was about to explode, and she had to stay to hold them together. I—” Her voice broke. “I didn’t want to leave her again. I almost didn’t. But she— she reminded me that if I didn’t go, you and the others would never get back home. And then—” Yaz choked on the words. “Dan, she— she kissed me.”

Dan’s reaction was immediate. Yaz felt him shift, angle his body towards her, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw his mouth open, wide eyes fixed on her. “No way.”

Yaz nodded. She watched a blue fish make its way over to the reef. “And then she told me to go.”

“Wow.” Dan bumped his shoulder against hers. “Big day.”

“So I’ve got to get her back.” It was almost a whisper. “I told her I’d come back for her. What happened to the ship, it— the Doctor said it would make that spot the densest place on Earth, and no one would leave for a very long time. And that implies—”

“They could leave eventually,” Dan finished, sudden understanding coloring his tone. 

“Exactly.” Yaz took a deep breath. “But I’ve tried so many coordinates, and they’ve all been totally empty.”

There was a moment’s pause.

“Hang on a second, though,” Dan said. “If she made it the densest place on Earth— isn’t that the sort of thing the TARDIS could track?”

Yaz finally turned to look at him. “How do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Dan said, shrugging. “You’re the one who knows how to pilot this thing. I just know that back there—” he jerked his head towards the console— “there are millions of little devices and sensors, and I’ll bet anything one of them could trace your shipwreck.”

“I don’t know what they all do,” Yaz said. “The Doctor was teaching me, but—” She spread her hands, helpless.

Dan nudged her. “Now, I know you’re more resourceful than that. Didn’t you get us around the world three times over?”

“I don’t know,” Yaz said. “The TARDIS isn’t exactly easy to read.” She sighed. “But I suppose I’ve got to try.” She pushed herself to her feet, holding out a hand for Dan. Already, her mask was coming up— her competent and good-natured captain’s persona, the one that had gotten her across oceans and over mountains. “You ready to help, Scouse?”

“About time I earned my keep around here,” Dan joked.

Yaz walked over to the console, Dan at her heels. She was moving a little more slowly now: less frantic, more methodical. She inspected the controls, trying to remember everything the Doctor had ever told her about the TARDIS: the offhand comments on the way out the door, the instruments she’d checked every now and then. Why hadn’t she been paying closer attention? 

“Wish this thing had a manual I could look up,” Yaz said. 

“It doesn’t have one?” Dan asked.

Yaz shook her head. “I asked the Doctor once. She said she threw it out.”

Dan barked out a laugh. “‘Course she did.”

“I know, right?” Yaz shook her head. “I’ve got some notes, but only the things she showed me. Nothing like a full manual.”

“To be fair,” Dan said, “a manual for this thing’s got to be huge.”

“Wouldn’t that just make it harder to throw out?” Yaz sighed. “I guess I’ll have to find my notes. There’s plenty I might’ve forgotten, with four years away.” She stared up at the ceiling, the shining, impenetrable chrome. “Wish I could communicate with it properly.”

“How d’you mean?” 

Yaz looked at him. They’d spent so much time together in the past that she forgot, sometimes, how little he really knew of the Doctor or the TARDIS.

“It’s telepathic,” she said. “The Doctor’s got a telepathic link to it.”

“No.” Dan raised his eyebrows, staring open-mouthed at Yaz.

Yaz nodded.

“Really?” He shook his head. “Just when I think I’ve gotten used to being on a bigger-on-the-inside seemingly infinite timeship, I find out it’s also got telepathy.”

Yaz laughed. Thank goodness for Dan, really— he always managed to bring good humor to even the direst of situations. Just when she was sure there was nothing left in the universe to be happy about, Dan would remind her that life’s simple joys were still available: laughter. Friendship. Warmth, although that one was often only there in the metaphorical sense.

“She told me, right when she started teaching me to fly it,” Yaz said, “that TARDISes are grown, not made. This ship— I know I sound daft. But it’s alive.” She trailed an affectionate hand over the console before she’d thought twice about it. 

“Now you mention it,” Dan said, “there is a sort of personality to it. I could swear some of these gurgles are laughing at us.”

“Probably.” Yaz shrugged. “I would think it was funny, too, if I were thousands of years old and could see all of time and space and suddenly a couple humans started trying to tell me where to go.”

“Point taken.”

“On the other hand,” Yaz added, “the Doctor and the TARDIS— they’re sort of inseparable. Which is another reason we have to find her.” She patted the console. “Would be cruel, to keep the TARDIS and the Doctor apart.”

There was an emphatic gurgle from the TARDIS. Yaz looked up again. 

“Don’t worry,” she said, quiet, intense. “We’ll get her back.”

The lights flashed blue.

“Come on, Dan,” Yaz said. “Let’s go find my notes.”

—

But then again, the Doctor thought, there was always hope.

Wasn’t there?

It was hard to see, through the pain. Hard to even imagine.

But— somewhere in the Doctor’s mind, somewhere deep in the fog, there it was.

The TARDIS. Yaz’s last words. 

I will come back for you.

The Doctor had never been one for prayer. What was a god, after all, to someone who’d been alive thousands of years, who’d seen the birth of stars, who’d seen planets form and fall apart? 

But now—

Now she prayed.

—

Yaz’s notes were all in her room, filed in a neat red binder, still lying open on her desk. She hadn’t studied it in four years now— the instincts had stuck with her, and anything she didn’t remember was likely obscure and seldom-used.

Which, of course, was exactly what she needed right now.

She tucked the binder under her arm and joined Dan in the doorway. Together, they set off through the corridors again until they reached the console room. Yaz propped the binder up against the biscuit dispenser— the one mechanism she was absolutely sure had nothing to do with a successful landing. 

“Right,” she said. “Tracking the shipwreck. Densest thing on Earth.” She took a deep breath. “I can do this.”

“You definitely can.” Dan flipped open the binder, staring at the first page of notes— a labeled diagram of the TARDIS console, drawn by the Doctor, labeled by Yaz. “If you can understand— any of this.”

“It’s not so hard,” Yaz said. “Not once you get the hang of it.” She glanced at Dan. “I’d offer to teach you, but I don’t know if the Doctor would like it.”

“Nah, that’s all right,” Dan said, stepping back. “Too much responsibility.”

Yaz shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She turned to the next page of notes. Most of the early ones were just the basics: page one explained, in detail, how to get back to Sheffield, and after that were explanations of each instrument used in takeoff and landing— just the bare bones of what a novice pilot would need. Yaz had memorized all of it years ago— she didn’t need it now.

She kept flipping through. Words jumped out at her, some written in the Doctor’s slanted handwriting, some written by her 21-year-old self: “temporal fission,” “probability factor,” “interior warp shield.” 

None of it was what she was looking for, though. She scoured each page, searching for something: some sensor, some tool she could use. Until finally—

Her head snapped up. “I’ve got it.”

Dan raised his eyebrows.

“It might still take a while,” she warned. She was already circling the console, her focus entirely on the controls. “I’m going to set it to drift. If I do it right, we’ll move through time and space, and I’ll be able to program it to scan for the shipwreck.” She paused, looking back at Dan. “And if I don’t do it right, we’ll be drifting for no reason, but—” She shrugged. “Could be worse.”

Dan nodded. “You’ll do it right,” he said.

“I hope so.” Yaz pressed her lips together, trying not to think about what would happen if she didn’t. Sure, she wouldn’t get hurt— but the Doctor would still be trapped below the ocean’s surface, stuck without hope. The one thing Yaz never wanted her to be. 

She returned to her work, programming the sensors, setting a range of dates. It was lucky density was an easy thing to scan for: Yaz didn’t know what she would’ve done if she’d needed to find Artron energy or evidence of temporal displacement. Finally, she had it all set up, and she let her hand hover over the final lever. She caught Dan’s eye.

“Ready?” she asked.

“I’m always ready,” he said, puffing out his chest.

Yaz almost laughed.

“All right, then,” she said. “Bon voyage.” And with a decisive push, the lever went down, and the TARDIS began its whirring. The trademark wheeze was quiet now, in the background, and it didn’t end after a few seconds: it continued on.

“We’re traveling now,” Yaz said to Dan. “I’ve set it to alert us if it finds anything.”

“Okay,” Dan said. “So… what do we do now?”

A sigh pushed through Yaz’s throat, and she shook her head. “Nothing to do but wait,” she said. “No telling how long it’ll take.” She paused. “‘Course, we can always stop partway, if you want to go home or anything.”

“Nah,” Dan said. He rested a warm hand on Yaz’s shoulder. “I told you. Someone’s got to make sure you’re not worrying yourself to death.”

Yaz breathed out half a smile. “Thanks,” she said. “You’re a good mate.” 

“Oh, you know.” Dan smiled down at her. “I do what I can.” 

Yaz turned, collapsing into him. He wrapped his arms around her in a solid and reassuring hug— and they stayed like that, standing together in the empty TARDIS, for a long time.

—

Something was different. It was in the air— in time. Even suspended like this, even at the bottom of the ocean, the Doctor could feel it all: the turn of the Earth, the stars spinning above. Time, positioned around her, threatening to close in.

And there had been a shift. Something was interfering— the fabric of time was changing, ever so slightly. If she’d had breath, it would have caught in her throat, trapped in the place between hope and despair.

Very few things could manipulate time like that.

But— the Doctor remembered, again, Yaz’s last words. And she hoped, desperately she hoped, that what she was sensing—

She could barely allow herself the thought. Optimism did not come as naturally to her as she liked to pretend. 

But all her faith, if there was any to be had— it was all in Yaz. Yaz, and the TARDIS, and the tiniest of shifts in the fabric of time.

—

Hours passed, and then days. Yaz tried to pretend everything was normal— she and the Doctor had spent multiple consecutive days on the TARDIS before, on the few occasions Yaz had begged for a rest. Yaz tried to convince herself this was just like that— she was relaxing, and the Doctor was around the corner, or in her study, or banging around in the console room.

It wasn’t like that, of course.

Yaz couldn’t relax, for one thing. She tried to distract herself, mostly by showing Dan around the TARDIS— the library, the swimming pool, the game room. They explored together, sometimes coming across a room Yaz had never seen before— the high ropes course, for example, was new— and sometimes stumbling upon her old favorites, like the gardens where she and Graham used to have picnics sometimes. Dan took it all in with the appropriate awe, and Yaz got as much enjoyment as she could, under the circumstances, from seeing the familiar magic through Dan’s eyes.

But then, every night, Dan would go to bed, and Yaz wouldn't be able to sleep. She reverted to her old habits: wandering the corridors, staying up in the console room, studying her notes and drawing up plans she knew she’d never put to use. 

She started playing the Doctor’s hologram again, too, the one she’d half worn out back in the 20th century. The metal of the projector was scratched and tarnished by now, but the Doctor’s image still came through, fizzy and tinged with golden yellow. Most of it was no longer relevant— the Flux was history, and Yaz no longer had any need to travel the world for signs of it— but she had never been watching the hologram to remember her mission. No, it was always for the look in the Doctor’s eyes as she said the words Yaz had never expected to hear.

I’m sure I miss you.

“I miss you too,” Yaz still murmured, every time she heard it. She did: she missed the Doctor like a hole in her chest. It ached, it burned. The hologram would end, the Doctor’s image hovering frozen a few feet away, and Yaz would close her eyes, imagining the Doctor next to her, the ghost of a kiss— it was unbearable, getting the Doctor back just to lose her two days later. Unbearable, having the hole in her chest sealed up, finally healed, only for it to be immediately ripped open again, gaping wider than before. 

Yaz didn’t know how long she and Dan spent in the TARDIS, waiting. She’d stopped counting the days: it all blurred together, morning after evening, meal after meal mechanically made and eaten. Dan seemed to be seeing the whole thing as a sort of vacation— which it was, compared to their time in the 1900’s. But even when she was in the swimming pool or the gardens or the spa, Yaz just felt like she was half-asleep, pushing herself through each day, wishing she could do something, anything, other than wait. 

And then the alarm sounded.

Yaz was asleep, until she wasn’t: the shrill shriek was echoing off the walls, forcing itself into her ears, startling her awake. She jumped out of bed, stopping only long enough to pull on a pair of jeans before running to the console room. The alarm was still going off, bright lights flashing, and Yaz hurried to the console, turning them off, checking the monitor. It displayed a cube, floating in the screen’s blackness, rotating in space: this, Yaz knew, was the map of the area they’d been scanning, in both space and time. In the middle of the cube, there was a dot, labeled with Gallifreyan Yaz didn't need a translation for. You are here. 

There were footsteps from the console room entrance. Yaz turned her head to see Dan, coming down the stairs in his flannel pajama set, his hair flat on one side, sticking up on the other. 

“Is this it, then?” he asked.

Yaz nodded, her breath caught in her throat. “I think so.”

Dan broke into a grin. “I knew we could do it.”

“Yeah.” Yaz allowed herself just the barest hint of a smile— but it didn’t last. She looked back at the monitor, her brow furrowed. “But it’s not that easy. Densest place on the planet— she’s probably been— shrunk down, or something. We’re going to have to figure out how to get to her.” She hit a few buttons, and a view of the ocean floor outside appeared on one wall, sand and fish and water all dancing through the sun’s rays. But—

In the distance, brightly visible between the schools of fish, was a tiny and blinding pinprick of light. 

“Is that her?” Dan asked.

“It’s got to be,” Yaz said. “Her, and the Sea Devils, and the ship.” She took a deep breath. “Which means I was right about her being shrunk down. We've got to figure out how to get in there.” She walked around the console, inspecting the controls. “Maybe we can find a way to reverse the physics of it, make everything big again. Except then we’re back to having the Sea Devils to deal with.”

“I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you,” Dan said.

“Yeah,” Yaz said. “Me too.” She closed her eyes, trying to visualize the situation. The ship, trapped in its pocket of density— and the TARDIS, capable of going just about anywhere. “The TARDIS is bigger on the inside,” she said slowly. “What if we found a way to make the outside much, much smaller?”

Dan frowned. “What do you mean?”

Yaz was already pressing buttons: she’d spent the last two weeks channeling her nervous energy into in-depth study of the TARDIS, and it was paying off.

“If I’m right,” she said, “I can compress the police box outside, and we can get into the wreck.” She glanced at Dan. “The police box is like— it’s like a door into this extra dimension. In theory, can look like anything. Except this one can’t, because the thing that changes it is stuck on police box.” She was flipping switches, turning dials. It was a delicate dance, getting the TARDIS to do just what she wanted, and she was still a beginner. But— “I think, if I get the settings just right, I can compress it. Make it smaller. And then we can get into the shipwreck and pull out the Doctor.”

“Yaz, I’ve got to be honest with you,” Dan said, somewhere to Yaz’s right. “None of this is making any sense.”

Yaz didn’t look up from the console. “I’m not sure I get it either,” she said, fiddling with the stabilizers. “Honestly, it might not work. But I’ve got to try.” It was complicated— in addition to its density, the shipwreck was frozen in time, so Yaz was trying to break into that frozen moment while shrinking the outside of the TARDIS, and she was trying to do all of it without allowing the Sea Devils to escape. Strictly speaking, she wasn’t entirely sure it was possible, but if she’d learned anything in her last seven years of travels, it was that if she pretended she thought she could do something, she very often could.

“Dan, come here,” she said. 

Dan was at her side in a second.

“Can you hold that button?” Yaz asked, pointing.

“‘Course.” Dan obliged, leaning easily against the console. 

“Great.” Yaz twiddled a couple more dials. “And this one?” She pointed at another button about a quarter of the way around the console from the first. 

“No problem.” Dan took a few steps, stretching both his arms to reach the two buttons.

“Thanks.” Yaz looked at the console. “All right,” she said. “Remember that storm we had in the Atlantic, the one that lasted almost a week?” 

“‘Course I do,” Dan said. “Took me the full week to stop falling over all the time. No thanks to you, mind.”

Yaz suppressed a smirk— she had adjusted quickly to the constantly rolling deck and unexpected shifts in motion, and if she were being honest she would have to admit she’d been a little smug about it to Dan and Jericho. 

“Yeah, well,” she said, “I’ve got a feeling you’re going to need that skill again in a second. Ready?”

“What?”

“Stay steady!” Yaz leapt from one side of the console to the other, performing a complicated tangle of actions along the way. It was all in the timing, was the thing— a button here, another button there, exactly three seconds later. Yaz had learned to listen to the TARDIS, get her cues from the lights and sounds around her, and it was starting to come easy as breathing, even a complicated task like this. The floor pitched to the side, like she’d warned Dan, and she bent her knees, determined not to fall over. A quick glance at Dan told her he was holding his own, braced against the console, still managing to keep his hands on those buttons— Yaz gave him a quick, wild grin, and then the floor pitched the other way, and Yaz scrambled around the console, glancing at the monitor, getting everything set up just right.

And then— it was just right.

Her stomach fluttered. If all went well— if she’d done everything the way she'd meant to—

She was about to see the Doctor again.

But there was no time for nerves, no time for sentimentality. There was only time for Yaz to hit the console with a mallet, for the TARDIS to tilt again, and then for Yaz to run up the incline to the doors. She took a breath.

“Here’s hoping I haven’t killed us both!” she called back to Dan, amid the sounds of sparks and banging from the console.

She barely heard his responding “What?” She was busy with the doors, unlocking, pushing open— 

And there she was.

The Doctor.

Still holding the two cables together, light spilling out from where they met. Her eyes were shut, her hair all in her face, unmoving— she was frozen, Yaz realized. Frozen in time, frozen in the moment.

Well. Yaz would just have to unfreeze her. 

She reached out.

—

The Doctor was only vaguely aware of what was going on.

She’d felt the changes, of course. The TARDIS, coming closer and closer until it was half on top of her. She’d felt warm arms around the waist, felt herself unstick as she tumbled, entangled in someone else’s warmth, onto cold metal, sliding down a slope until the floor moved underneath her, evening out, and she could open her eyes long enough to process that it was Yaz, holding her, her eyes only a few centimeters from the Doctor’s, wide and worried. The Doctor felt a rush of— something—

She was too tired to lie to herself. It was love, was what it was, pure and simple: love for Yaz, who’d commandeered the TARDIS just to get to her. She fell against Yaz, burying her head against a leather-clad shoulder, her arms tightening around a warm and solid waist. For a moment, she felt Yaz pull her closer, cheek pressed against her hair, but then—

“D’you still need me pressing these buttons?” 

It was Dan’s voice, some part of the Doctor’s addled brain registered. Dan had come too, then. 

“Good for him,” she mumbled, unable to put up her usual barrier between thoughts and speech.

“I've got to let go,” Yaz said softly, and the arms around the Doctor’s waist loosened, the pressure of Yaz’s cheek on her hair gone. Yaz was pulling away, in fact, saying, “Doctor, I’ve still got to get us out of here.”

The Doctor managed a nod, and Yaz stood, going to the console. Slowly, the Doctor got to her feet, wobbling a bit, stumbling towards the console— and then Dan’s hand was on her arm.

“Let Yaz do it,” he said. “You look knackered.”

“Think I am, a bit,” the Doctor said vaguely. She let Dan guide her over to the steps, where she sat down, trying to get her bearings. The TARDIS’s telepathic link washed over her, bringing a little bit of vitality with it— the Doctor never felt like herself without that echo of the TARDIS in the back of her head. It kept her stable, kept her steady, reminded her she was never alone. 

She let her eyes slip closed for a long moment. She would need to sleep soon, and quite a lot, too— technically, no time had passed in that shipwreck, but also technically, that sort of thing was really very taxing for the Doctor, and it came after a very taxing day, which came after a very taxing week, which came after— well, the Doctor wasn’t exactly one to rest.

She would have to rest soon.

For now, she leaned back against one of the steps and watched Yaz at the console, braid flicking behind her as she piloted them away. She really was beautiful, the Doctor thought, as she’d thought many times before. But this time, she didn’t shove the thought back down— she wouldn’t have had the energy even if their last conversation hadn’t bordered on a love confession, even if she hadn’t kissed Yaz in a moment of desperation. But it was all out in the open now, more or less— Yaz knew how she felt, she knew how Yaz felt, and that kiss, still etched on the Doctor’s lips, meant they wouldn't be able to sidestep the issue. 

The TARDIS’s wheezing started up, and the Doctor felt a tear roll down her cheek. She couldn’t help it— she was so tired, and it was so nice to be back here, to have the TARDIS, and Yaz running around the console, and even Dan sitting next to her, a steady, solid presence. 

And then the wheezing faded away, and Yaz was there, holding out a hand to help the Doctor up, and the Doctor took it, lurching to her feet. Immediately, Yaz’s arm was around her waist, supporting her, and the Doctor sagged against Yaz’s side.

“You all right?” Yaz asked, barely above a whisper.

“Just tired,” the Doctor replied. 

“Right,” Yaz said. “Let’s get you to bed. Can you get up the stairs?”

The Doctor nodded. Dan got out of the way, and Yaz helped the Doctor up the stairs, every step feeling like a mountain.

“I swear these steps weren’t so high before,” the Doctor said, her words slurring with exhaustion. 

“You weren’t so tired before,” Yaz said, guiding the Doctor onto the top step. “But we’re up them now, and if the TARDIS knows what’s good for her, she’ll have moved the bedrooms a little closer to the console room.”

The Doctor managed a smile. “Thanks, Yaz.” She waved an arm. “For all of it.”

“I told you I’d come and get you, Doctor.” They were moving into the corridor now, Yaz’s arm still solid around the Doctor’s waist. “Couldn’t just leave you there.”

“You could’ve,” the Doctor replied. “Maybe even should’ve. Would’ve been safer.”

Yaz laughed, a soft, affectionate laugh. “If I was trying to do the safer thing,” she said, “I never would’ve come with you to begin with.” She kicked at a big metal door, and it slid open, revealing an unfamiliar bedroom— full size bed with a dark blue blanket, dark wooden nightstand and desk, wardrobe and dresser in one corner. There was a fuzzy red rug on the ground, the Doctor noticed, and little fairy lights along the top corners of the room, and pictures on the nightstand— she could just make out one of her and Ryan and Graham in front of the Eiffel tower, and another of Yaz and her sister. 

So this was what Yaz’s room looked like.

“Right,” Yaz said, leading the Doctor over to the bed and letting her go so she could sink down onto the edge of the mattress. “Let's get you out of those clothes.”

—

Yaz had brought the Doctor to her room for one simple reason: she didn't know where the Doctor's room was. She was sure it existed, somewhere on this ship, but she'd never heard the Doctor mention it, never seen the Doctor enter it, and honestly, odds were it was so cluttered as to be unlivable, even if Yaz could find it. Yaz's room was neatly kept, and it was comfortable, and it would be a fine place for the Doctor to rest and recover. 

So Yaz had brought her there, and now the Doctor was sitting on Yaz's bed, looking… a bit worse for the wear, really. She was slumped over, her hair a mess, her face stained by tracks of glistening tears. And she was still wearing that red-and-blue top over obstinately cropped trousers.

“You all right wearing some of my pajamas?” Yaz asked as she made her way to the wardrobe.

“What's wrong with what I've got?” the Doctor asked. All the usual energy was drained from her voice, leaving her sounding bewildered. 

“Nothing,” Yaz said, pulling a hoodie and flannel pajama bottoms out of a drawer. It was the closest she had to something the Doctor might wear normally. “Just thought you might want to be a little more comfortable.” 

“Oh. Suppose that's all right.”

Yaz brought the bundle of fabric over to the Doctor, who'd started fumbling with the ties that were holding her top shut. Her fingers kept slipping, and without thinking, Yaz reached forward, her deft fingers brushing against the Doctor’s chest as she picked at the ribbons, undoing the knots. She was careful not to let the shirt fall open, careful not to let the moment become any more vulnerable than it already was. She already couldn’t look the Doctor in the eyes: she kept herself focused entirely on the bits of black fabric, keeping her breaths as even as she could as she worked them loose. Finally, the last tie dropped, and Yaz stepped back, turning away for privacy’s sake. 

“Can you get the rest yourself?” she asked.

“Think so,” the Doctor said.

“Right.” Yaz walked over to the other side of the room. She hadn’t thought this whole thing through— namely, she hadn’t thought about where she was going to sleep, if the Doctor slept in her room. She’d have to grab her own pajamas and go to one of the libraries, maybe, where the sofas were certainly long and soft enough to make a comfortable bed— she’d had worse, after all, back in the 1900’s.

“All right,” the Doctor said quietly, and Yaz turned around to see her drowning in Yaz’s own oversized hoodie. It was just a plain gray hoodie with the name of Yaz’s secondary school across the front— she’d gotten it from some school event or another, and now she wore it to sleep when it was cold enough. The trick of the TARDIS, of course, was that it was always exactly the right temperature for whatever you were wearing, so Yaz found herself wearing the hoodie fairly often. But now it was on the Doctor, dwarfing her exhausted face, softening her around the edges, and Yaz smiled, just a little.

“Comfy?” she asked.

The Doctor nodded. She took half a breath, but it caught in her throat— Yaz waited, her own breath similarly stuck. 

Back by Park Hill, when Yaz was a kid, there’d been seesaws outside her flat, proper seesaws that would launch you up in the air, and if you got someone about your same size, you could balance it so that both of you were hovering about halfway to the top. It was a tenuous balance: the slightest shift would send one or the other of you shooting up or crashing down. Somehow, this moment reminded Yaz of that. It felt so delicate, so careful— and whatever she happened next could shift the balance one way or another, for better or for worse.

Finally, the Doctor took another breath and used it to ask, “Are you going to stay here tonight?” Her voice was more fragile, more exhausted, than Yaz had ever heard. She chewed the inside of her bottom lip, trying to figure out how to respond.

“I don’t have to,” she said finally. “If you want space.” She took a deep breath, steeling her courage. “But I can. If you want me to.”

The Doctor nodded. There was something distant in her eyes— she wasn’t all there. It was like she was focused on something Yaz couldn’t see. “I want you to,” she said. “I want—” She broke off. Yaz waited another moment, but the Doctor didn’t continue.

“Keep your back turned while I change, then,” Yaz said.

The Doctor turned around, and Yaz pulled a long-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of loose shorts out of the dresser. She changed quickly, a little too conscious of the Doctor’s patient presence behind her, and then she sat down on the bed, leaning against the headboard. The Doctor moved herself to sit next to Yaz, her head dipping low.

“We’ll have to talk tomorrow,” Yaz said. “About— everything.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor breathed. “Yaz— I’m sorry.”

“It’s—” Yaz cut off. It wasn’t all right, not really. But it would be, maybe. It could be, if she could have a real conversation with the Doctor. “It doesn’t matter right now,” she finally said. “You’ve got to get some sleep. We can deal with everything else tomorrow. Okay?”

The Doctor nodded. 

“I just— I didn’t want to hurt you,” she said.

“I know,” Yaz said quietly. “Doctor, you can’t— you can’t undo anything that’s happened. But you can move forward.” She rethought. “We can move forward. Okay? It’s—” She floundered, searching for the words. “I still want to be here with you,” she finally said. “All right? Everything else, we can talk about tomorrow.” 

“Yeah,” the Doctor said. “Okay.” She nodded, half to herself, and slumped down, curling up on top of the blankets and facing away from Yaz.

“D’you want to get under the covers?” Yaz asked. She lifted the blankets, tucking her own legs underneath in demonstration.

“Oh. Okay.” The Doctor awkwardly pulled the blankets over her body. Her hair fell across her face, and before Yaz could think about it, she brushed it away. In a flash, the Doctor’s hand was wrapped around her wrist— Yaz froze. 

“D’you not like that?” she asked.

“No, I—” The Doctor tugged at Yaz’s wrist. “Come here.”

Gingerly, Yaz laid down all the way. The Doctor let go of her wrist long enough to roll over to face her, her eyes already half-closed. She wrapped an arm around Yaz’s waist, and Yaz held completely still, terrified that if she so much as moved, she’d scare the Doctor away. 

“I missed you,” the Doctor mumbled.

“Yeah,” Yaz whispered. “I missed you too.”

“Maybe we should stop getting lost, after this,” the Doctor added. “Stick together, or something.”

Yaz let a smile curve across her face. “Yeah,” she said. “I’d like that.”

The Doctor nestled herself closer, and Yaz finally let herself move, wrapping her arm around the Doctor, holding her close, letting her hand filter through the Doctor’s hair. It was funny— Yaz had fallen in love with a Doctor who seemed larger than life, beyond human, bigger and better than Yaz could ever hope to be, but tonight the Doctor just seemed like… a person, really. A brilliant, wonderful, amazing person, but a person nonetheless, tangible, complicated, vulnerable. 

And Yaz liked that better. She preferred this new Doctor, the Doctor who looked too small in her hoodie and clung to her at night. There was a novel sort of domesticity to it— the Doctor Yaz had first fallen for never would have done this, and Yaz always would have longed for it. 

The Doctor’s breaths were slowing, evening out, but her grip on Yaz didn’t loosen. And Yaz didn't want it to. She gathered the Doctor close, her chin resting in the Doctor's hair. Feeling a bit bold, she pressed a soft kiss to the top of the Doctor’s head— and then she closed her eyes. The adrenaline from earlier was fully out of her system, leaving a dull exhaustion behind, and Yaz succumbed: there was nothing she needed to be awake for now. 

When she woke up, the Doctor was snoring softly. Her grip on Yaz had loosened, but when Yaz let her fingers drift through her hair, the Doctor moved closer, nestling against Yaz's chest. Yaz closed her eyes. She dozed for a while, drifting in and out of wakefulness— every time she woke, she had to remind herself where she was, that not only was she back in the TARDIS, but she was back in the TARDIS with the Doctor, and the Doctor was sleeping in her bed with her, snoring into her T-shirt. 

Finally, though, Yaz was awake enough that she didn't want to doze anymore. The Doctor was still completely out, her chest slowly rising and falling, hair everywhere, so Yaz carefully extricated herself, shoving her feet into a pair of slippers before stepping out the door and into the hallway. The Doctor would wake up soon, she figured, and when she did, she'd need food. 

Dan was in the kitchen, sipping a mug of black tea and reading a book. He looked up when Yaz came in. 

“How's she doing?”

“All right.” Yaz moved into the kitchen and started filling the kettle— the first step to a good breakfast. “She's asleep now.”

“That's good,” Dan said. “She needed it.” 

“Yeah.” Yaz placed the kettle on the stove and turned on the burner before pulling a skillet out of a cupboard. She'd make eggs. That seemed like a good filling meal for the morning after being pulled out of some kind of temporal prison. She started grabbing things out of the fridge. 

—

The Doctor woke up to an emptiness next to her. This was entirely usual—although generally speaking she woke up on the floor somewhere, or a sofa: wherever she'd finally become so exhausted she couldn't help but sleep. Today she was in a bed, which was unusual. A soft, comfortable bed, with blankets pulled up around her, no less, and— this was the really unusual part— there was a warm spot next to her where someone else had been sleeping. 

Yaz. Yaz had been sleeping here. The Doctor shot straight up. Where was Yaz? A slew of nightmare scenarios hit her, too fast for her usual calm logic to kick in. Yaz could've been captured in the middle of the night— could've fallen somewhere and need help— could've disappeared entirely, fizzling out like a dream. 

The Doctor got out of bed. Still on a groggy autopilot, she went out into the corridor— Yaz wasn't there. The Doctor started walking, her footsteps coming faster and faster until she was on the verge of a run. 

She’d only been running for a minute, though, before her brain caught up with her, reminding her how silly it was to be this worried when she and Yaz had fallen asleep in the TARDIS, arguably the safest place in the universe. Her steps slowed. She pushed her hair out of her face and took a deep breath. Yaz was surely around here somewhere. Surely she’d just popped out for a walk, or to find a book to read, or—

The Doctor rounded a corner, and there she was, her hair still in its messy braid from the night before, holding a tray full of breakfast. The Doctor screeched to a halt just short of a collision.

“Doctor,” Yaz said. “I was just on my way back.”

“I thought—” The words died on the Doctor’s tongue. “I was wondering where you went.”

Yaz held up the tray. “Figured you’d be hungry when you woke up.”

“Oh.” The Doctor swallowed. She really felt silly now. “That was very thoughtful of you.” Her eyes met Yaz’s, and they held each other’s gaze. The Doctor forced herself not to look away. “I am hungry, as it happens,” she said. “Maybe we can find someplace on the TARDIS to have breakfast? Like a picnic, sort of. Except it’s not outside. Technically.”

“Yeah, all right,” Yaz said. There was so much potential in the softness of her smile. “Got a place in mind?”

The Doctor considered, then nodded. “I think so.”

“Right, then,” Yaz said, still smiling. Lead the way.”

—

Yaz followed the Doctor through the corridors, keeping the tray carefully balanced. They stopped along the way to pick up blankets— it wasn’t a picnic without a blanket, the Doctor said, and loaded her arms with way more than they needed. And then, after another minute or so of walking through the halls, the Doctor stopped at a metal door, completely identical to every other— the only thing distinguishing it was a wave shape engraved in the metal roughly at eye level. 

“Think this is it,” she said. She tapped at the doorframe, and the door slid open. A gray sort of light hit Yaz, and a salty breeze— the Doctor stepped forward, and Yaz followed. The second she crossed the threshold, sand filled her slippers, and she toed them off.

“Doctor,” she said, halfway to a laugh as she took in the scene before her. “Have you had a beach on the TARDIS this whole time?”

“I’ve got loads of things on the TARDIS,” the Doctor said over her shoulder. “Forgot this was here, honestly, except I was thinking about how we were supposed to go to a beach, and this popped right into my head.”

It was an impressive scene, even for the TARDIS: the waves lapping against the sand, the rocky shore, the half-clouded sky. Yaz glanced around and saw the door they’d come through was set into a gray cliff face. It was familiar, a perfect facsimile of the early morning in the sort of place Yaz’s family would’ve gone over the summer holidays— she kept reminding herself this was still the TARDIS, even if there were sounds of seagulls in the background.

The Doctor laid out one of her blankets, and Yaz set down the tray before sitting down herself. The Doctor sat next to her. 

“Did you sleep all right?” Yaz asked, fiddling with the plates.

“Better than I have in ages,” the Doctor said.

Yaz glanced at her. Her hair was blowing in the breeze, flicking itself around her face. She was still wearing Yaz’s hoodie, but she didn’t look quite as dwarfed by it now.

Yaz picked up one of the mugs of tea, inspected it, and handed it to the Doctor.

“This one’s yours,” she said. She picked up the other one— more milk, no sugar— and took a sip. 

“Thanks,” the Doctor said. She held the mug in both hands, staring out at the waves. For a long moment, neither one of them said anything, both sipping at their tea and not looking at each other. 

Finally, Yaz tried a question. “How long were you trapped there?” 

“Technically, no time at all,” the Doctor said. “Was suspended inside a fraction of a second.” She glanced at Yaz. “Felt longer, though. How long did it take you to get to me?”

“Few weeks,” Yaz said. “I forgot to make note of the coordinates. Was too busy getting everyone home.”

“But they all got home?” the Doctor checked.

“Yeah,” Yaz said. “Safe and sound. Even got Dan back to Liverpool, before he insisted on coming with me.”

The Doctor laughed. “He’s a good one.”

“Yeah.” Yaz let out a breath. “He helped a lot.” 

The Doctor nodded, still staring out at the ocean. “Thanks,” she said. The word came out barely above a whisper, a fleeting puff of air. “For rescuing me, I mean. I didn’t know if it would be possible.”

“Wouldn’t have been, if you hadn’t shown me how to pilot the TARDIS.” Yaz looked down at the sand, idly etching circles with her free hand. “So, you know. It was really a team effort.”

She heard the smile in the Doctor’s voice. “Glad you’re on my team, then.”

Yaz smiled back at her. For a moment, her eyes were caught in the Doctor’s, and her breath caught. 

She snapped her gaze down to the tray. “D’you want your food?” she asked.

There was a pause. “Oh. Right.” The Doctor picked up one of the plates. “Breakfast with Yaz. Brilliant.”

“And if you land right, we can even do tea at Yaz’s tonight,” Yaz teased. 

“Oi, we’re copilots now,” the Doctor said, her mouth full of egg. “If we land wrong, it’s at least half your fault.”

“It’s still your ship,” Yaz protested. “I’m not the one with the telepathic link.”

“If you say so,” the Doctor said. She crammed a sausage into her mouth. “She likes you, though.” 

Yaz shook her head. “Still not the same as being telepathically linked.”

“If you say so.”

“Think I do, yeah.”   

They ate in silence for a little longer, watching the artificial sun grow higher in the sky. Yaz was itching to start a real conversation, something about the kiss, or maybe the talk she was sure the Doctor had had with Dan, or something, but she couldn’t figure out how to say it. 

Finally, though, the Doctor set down her empty plate, leaned back on her hands, and said, “Suppose we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“Suppose so,” Yaz said, eyeing her profile.

“I thought I was going to die,” the Doctor said. She was looking up now, up at the false sky, streaked with the golden reds and pinks of sunrise. “My last moments, ever. The end of a universe, Yasmin Khan, and I kissed you.”

“Yeah,” Yaz said. “You did.”

The Doctor nodded. “That— that means something,” she said. “Doesn’t it?”

“I—” Yaz swallowed. “I’d like it to.” 

“Yeah.” There was a long pause. “I’m not— historically, I mean, I don’t do very well in relationships.” Her words came slowly, carefully. “They don’t… work, for me. Or… they work too well, sometimes, but the other person dies, and I’ve got to live thousands more years.” She glanced at Yaz. “It’s good when I’m in them. Lots of pain later.”

“What are you saying?” Yaz asked. A lump was rising in her throat. She pushed it back down, desperately hoping her tears wouldn't fall. 

“I’m not sure,” the Doctor admitted. “I want—” She shook her head. “I want so much. Too much. I want us to be— I don’t want to be separated from you anymore.”

The tears were just behind Yaz's eyes, waiting for their opportunity to fall. “Me either.”

“It’s just hard,” the Doctor continued. “I’d do anything to protect the people I’m close to. But I can’t seem to stop them from dying, and then I’m alone again. So I try so hard not to get close, not to get so attached, because they die for me, protecting me, helping me, trying to stay with me.” She glanced at Yaz. “So if I don’t get attached, if I don’t let you get attached, it’s safer. ‘Cause I’m not a stable person to be attached to.”

“If you didn’t want me to be attached,” Yaz said, “you should’ve kicked me out the second I said you were the most amazing person I’d ever met.”

The Doctor managed a weak laugh. “Suppose you’re right about that.” She took a deep breath, the air flowing through her and back out onto the wind. “It gets hard to deny myself, sometimes.” Tears were running silently down her face, and something in Yaz broke to see it. She slid a little closer to the Doctor, holding out an arm, and the Doctor didn't protest, didn't hesitate. She just fell into Yaz, curling against her chest. Yaz felt hot damp tears against her T-shirt, and she pulled the Doctor closer, stroking her hair, ignoring the tears making their way down her own cheeks.

They sat that way for a while, not saying much. It was a long time before Yaz’s thoughts cohered enough to speak. 

“Doctor,” she said, each word coming slowly, “I’m here now. Even if I disappear tomorrow, I’m here with you today. But—” She took a deep breath. “If you’re going to deny yourself, you’ve got to deny yourself everything. You’ve got to send me home.” Her words came out more forcefully than she expected, but— well, it was about time.

“I don’t want to do that,” the Doctor said into Yaz’s shirt. “I like having you here. With me.”

“Exactly,” Yaz said. She was still stroking the Doctor’s hair, rubbing circles into her back, staring out at the water. “I get it if you’re worried about me getting hurt, Doctor. But if what you’re afraid of is your own pain—” She took a deep breath. “It sounds like it's too late.”

She felt the Doctor’s body go limp in her arms. She waited, and after a moment, the Doctor sat up, pushing hair out of her eyes and looking at Yaz. 

“Yeah,” she breathed. “It's too late.”

Yaz glanced down and took the Doctor's hand, surrounding it with both of her own. 

“I can't promise forever,” she said, “but I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Right now, I'm here.”

“Maybe we can stay in the TARDIS for today?” The Doctor’s eyes were plaintive, her voice so very fragile. 

“After we take Dan home,” Yaz replied. “If he wants to go home. He might not.” 

“We'll ask,” the Doctor said. “But other than that—”

Yaz squeezed her hand. “We can stay here. Okay?”

“Yeah.” The Doctor let her head rest against Yaz's shoulder. “I'm so tired, Yaz.”

“I know.” Yaz turned her head just enough to press her lips to the Doctor's hair. “It's okay. You can rest.”

“I've got more to tell you,” the Doctor added. “Division. Gallifrey.”

“We can take it slow,” Yaz said. “I don't have to hear everything right away.” She paused. “I mean, I want to hear it. But— it's not worth you burning out on it.”

The Doctor lifted her head, looking at Yaz. “I will tell you.”

“I know.” Yaz reached up to push a bit of hair behind the Doctor’s ear. She let her hand linger there, just at the top of the   Doctor's neck. “I just— I don't know. I sort of want a quiet moment.” Her voice was soft. “Before we have to deal with the big stuff.”

The Doctor closed her eyes. She nodded, taking a shaky breath. “Yeah,” she said. “That sounds nice.”

Yaz smiled. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” The word was little more than an exhale from tired lungs. 

The Doctor was looking at Yaz with such a soft, sad smile, and Yaz couldn't stop herself, at this point, from leaning forward, or from letting her hand drift down to cup the Doctor's neck, or from brushing her lips, ever so gently, against the Doctor's. When she pulled away, the Doctor's eyes were closed, her lips parted, with that little dimple in her forehead she got when she was trying to figure something out. 

“That all right?” Yaz asked, just to be sure. 

The Doctor opened her eyes, a smile curling on her lips as her forehead smoothed over. “Yasmin Khan,” she breathed. “It's brilliant.”

It felt like a bright light was expanding in Yaz's chest, lifting her up, widening her smile. She leaned in to kiss the Doctor again, and this time the Doctor kissed her back, slowly, brilliantly. 

They pulled apart, and the Doctor laid back on the blanket, extending an arm for Yaz. Yaz moved the tray, now laden with empty dishes, and laid down next to the Doctor, resting her head on the Doctor's chest. Right away, there was a hand in her hair, fiddling with her braid, scratching at her scalp. She felt the Doctor’s chest rising and falling underneath her, heard the too-quick double heartbeat. She felt a contented sigh escape her: she'd never let herself even dream of having this moment, and now she had it, and it was better than she could have imagined. 

“Yaz?” the Doctor asked, and Yaz felt the word in the rise and fall of her chest. 

“Yeah?” Yaz was absently fiddling with the fingers on the Doctor’s free hand, her eyes drifting shut every few seconds  only to open again.

“I wish we could just stay here,” the Doctor breathed. “Forever.”

Yaz smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “Me too.”

They both knew they couldn't have forever. But maybe this moment could be enough. 

[timespacegirls]

THE PLANETS AND THE FATES AND ALL THE STARS ALIGN 🪐

Read on AO3 // Read on Wattpad // Playlist // Buy me a cup of tea ☕

Chapter Two:

Yaz squares her shoulders. She rushed to land the TARDIS here, placing all her faith in her inadequate skills to fly it 106 years into the past and halfway across Earth, but now she has arrived, she hesitates. The Master had complete confidence in his plan. What if she is strolling into the same trap the Doctor succumbed to?

Lifting her chin, she grabs the door handle. She's being ridiculous. The Doctor has never thought twice about walking into danger to save Yaz, so it's about time she returns the favour.

The door creaks as it opens. Yaz pauses to collect herself before stepping into the light, her shoes squeaking on the bone-white marble floor. The Winter Palace has been abandoned, except for two figures lying still on the bottom of glass cages. Yaz glances up at the foreign contraption above their heads; it definitely isn't from this period, but if it's a booby trap, it's unlike any she has ever encountered.

"Yasmin," the Doctor hisses.

Yaz balks at the use of her full name, her gaze snapping to her friend. She's crumpled on the floor, one hand pressed against the glass. "Are you alright? How do I get you out of here?"

She looks up at Yaz, her eyes desperate and crocodile-green in the harsh light. "The Master—"

"It's alright," Yaz shushes, her eyes flicking over to the twin container while she rummages around in her jacket pocket for the sonic. "I think he's out cold for now, but we should get you out of here before he wakes up."

"Good plan." The Doctor smiles through the glass, and Yaz matches the expression, despite the circumstances.

Yaz uses the sonic to unlock the door, pulling it open and leaning down to offer the Doctor her hand. Her palm is clammy in Yaz's solid grip as she hauls her to her feet.

"Are you alright?" she asks again, when the Doctor wavers on her feet and has to rest her shoulder on the glass for support. "I know we're in a bit of a rush, but... what did he do to you?"

The Doctor turns so her back is leaning against the cell, burying her face in her hands for a few seconds. She drags them down her face, letting out a deep sigh, before looking over at the Master's unconscious form.

"He tried to force me to regenerate into him," she says, and Yaz has never heard her voice so bitter. "But the Daleks and CyberMasters turned on him — tampered with the machine and left before he could wake up."

"Forced regeneration..." Yaz says, wringing her hands together. The Master wanted to take her Doctor away from her forever, and he would have succeeded if it weren't for two of the most dangerous species in the universe.

"I'm fine," the Doctor says, reaching over to squeeze Yaz's hand. "Just a bit wobbly."

"So the Daleks and Cybermen just... left?"

The Doctor doesn't let go of Yaz's hand. "They despise each other. They're probably competing to see who can take over the planet faster."

"The volcanoes." Yaz licks her cracked lips, trying to finish her thought. It's hard to concentrate with the Doctor's hand in hers.

"Come on," the Doctor says, leading her towards the TARDIS. "Loads to do."

Yaz follows her through the doors without remembering to look back. The way space unfolds behind those unassuming wooden doors never fails to make her heart race. "The Daleks in Bolivia — they were trying to set off the volcano, I think."

"Not just one," the Doctor corrects, dropping Yaz's hand and striding towards the console. "All of them." She hesitates for a second when she spots Yaz's post-it notes, an amused smile creeping onto her lips.

Before Yaz can explain, the TARDIS screen lights up with a yellow-tinged hologram. "This is Inston-Vee Vinder saying if you need my help... I could certainly do with yours."

"Vinder!" Yaz exclaims, stepping closer to the console so she can see his face more clearly. "I didn't think we'd see him again."

The Doctor studies the hologram for a minute before locking the TARDIS onto his coordinates. "Bit of a coincidence. How'd he end up on the Master's Death Star?"

"Let's go ask him," Yaz says, grinning. With Vinder added to the extended fam, the Daleks and Cybermen don't stand a chance.

"Why don't we split up?" the Doctor suggests. "If we pick up Tegan and Ace, then we can tackle both problems at once."

"Good idea." As long as Yaz is paired with the Doctor, she doesn't care what the plan is. "What about the Master? We can't leave him there."

The TARDIS monitor lights up in answer. It takes both of them a few seconds to realise what it is showing them.

"A bunker." The Doctor's voice is grave. "Somewhere safe to store him until we can figure out what to do with him. We can pick him up once we're done."

"He escaped the UNIT one," Yaz says. From the handful of times their paths have crossed, he's proven to be a slippery bugger. "How do you know it will work this time?"

The Doctor's eyes skim over the Gallifreyan on the screen, her face tight. "Because it has worked before."

Continue reading on AO3!

[jurrasicworldcc]

JWCC OC Fanfic

Title: Childhood Memories

Setting: Namely in Season 2, a few days before “The Watering Hole” but after “The Art of Chill.”

Day ????: Well, we’ve officially finished making our little shelter. It’s…Judging by the Moon’s current position, it’s around 7:45 at night. Yaz finally learned to take it easy on her ankle or in Kenji’s words, “Give the macho-woman act a rest.” Meanwhile, Brooklynn says that she saw some frozen flowers but I don’t see any…she must’ve wandered off pretty far that time. I really hope someone got that beacon message. - Casey

Casey finally wrote his name in his journal entry and sighed in relief. He looked around to see that Brooklynn just changed out her swimsuit after taking a shower. Casey blushed a tiny bit but Brooklynn didn’t really seem to notice. He then heard Sammy’s laugh.

“Sammy!” Yasmina’s voice called out.

“Sorry, Yaz!” Sammy said to her friend.

“Well, it was a draft of my mom that I was practicing before the whole Indominus attack.” Yasmina smiled and brushed a loose part of her hair by her ear. “I miss her…”

“It’s alright. I bet she’s a pretty strict one.” Kenji chuckled.

Yasmina glared at him. “It may seem like that but…she’s actually really nice. We do everything together.”

Brooklynn sighed as she sat down and put her jacket back on. “I wish I had a mom to know what that’s like. I’m raised by two dads in London.”

Casey smirked. “Well, then…”

He then immediately did a English accent impression. “Ello, governor! What’s all this then? Top of the morning to ya! Double, double, toil and trouble! Mind the gap!! Beware Jack the Ripper! BLOODY HELL!!! Pip, pip. Cheerio!”

Brooklynn cringed. “Don’t ever do that again…Anyways, I grew up with two dads and pretty much learned how to fix things like the family radio and car. It was so fun when I became a vlogger at ten…”

She giggled a little. “…It did make me a jerk like what you guys saw in me back when we first got to Camp Cretaceous.”

Casey put a hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t see you as a jerk. It sounds like you had a fun childhood.”

“You’re just saying that ‘cause you’re three years old than me.” Then, an idea hit Brooklynn’s head. “How about we all tell childhood memories or secrets?”

“Seems a little personal but let’s do it.” Casey smiled. “You’re a genius, you know that?”

Brooklynn blushed and played with her hair a little. Kenji smirked and said, “Let’s get to the bottom of Kenji! I’m a rich boy with a rich dad. I pretty much grew up on Nublar similar to Casey here. It was just my dad and the staff…my mom died when I was two…”

“Oh, Kenj…I’m sorry.” Brooklynn hugged him.

“But it’s alright since my dad got me here and I met you guys.”

Darius chuckled and Casey said, “Seems you were living in the fast lane prior to getting stuck on Murder-Dino-Island.”

Yaz chuckled at the name she gave Nublar and Darius said, “Okay. Here’s my story, not like the one from weeks ago. I was born and raised in North Carolina, I have a brother. Brand…Man, he was a complete prankster. There was this time, I jump scared him and pretended to be a raptor. He got back at me for that. I did tell you about my dad back on the monorail back when Ben…”

The campers fell silent at the mention of Ben and Casey sighed while looking like he was about to cry. He did hear screams that sounded like Ben’s for a few days and Toro has been a bit agitated since the campers scarred him back at the tunnel.

Yasmina cleared her throat. “Maybe we should move on to me. I was born in Spokane, Washington. I did take eight years of diving lessons outside of my running thing. I never really knew my dad and it was just me and my mom. I do remember the day I won my first international meet. I got the gold and then a woman offered me and my mom a sponsorship for Jurassic World. I couldn’t say no! And that was when I decided to dedicate my life to sports.”

Casey smiled. “And if it weren’t for that woman, you wouldn’t be here.”

Yaz smirked and laughed. Sammy giggled and then said, “Alright, here’s my life as a youngin’. I’m obviously from Texas where I live with my mama, daddy, two sisters, Abuela, and favorite cow, Bessie. When I was around six, Mama taught me how to ride a horse and I kinda fell off and hurt my arm. I was really sad about that and Mama and Daddy healed me. They weren’t angry but they did tell me to be more careful.”

“Wow. That’s a really nice one.” Darius said.

“Thanks, Darius.” Sammy chuckled.

“Hey, Casey!” Yasmina said. “What about your childhood? OUTSIDE the genetics lab.”

“Come to think of it, you’ve been pretty silent about Sammy’s family. Also, you’ve never really told us anything about your past except that The Fifth Element is your favorite movie.” Brooklynn added.

Casey smiled kindly. “Well, that’s easy. It all started when…When…It all started…I…”

His expression turned into one with concern. “I…don’t remember…”

Sammy nearly choked and the other campers quickly turned to face Casey in shock.

“Bro, do you have amnesia or something?” Kenji asked.

“No! I remember something.” Casey answered. “When we fell off the zip lines when the Indominus Rex attacked, my life kinda flashed before my eyes. In the memory, I saw this woman, probably my mother, handing me over to what appeared to be Dr. Wu…but anything before that is a blur…”

“Oh, gosh! You don’t even remember your parents??” Sammy asked.

“N-No…” Casey stammered. He had lots of questions. “W-W-Where am I from? Who’s my mom? Who am I?! WHAT AM I?!?!?”

“You’re…adopted!” Kenji answered smugly.

With that, Casey released a loud scream that echoed through the island and probably reached the far end of the Galaxy.

[sunfleurry]

III. 360˚

Part 1

Part 2

Warnings: Sexual assault

Disclaimer: I write stories and use Harry Styles as a face claim. In no way shape or form does my writing reflect how I perceive the actual Harry to be. These are my characters, the face is just a bonus!

A week later, Eden was getting the hang of her workouts, feeling stronger as the days go by. Yaz was pretty happy with her, telling her that as a beginner, she’s showing the right amount of progress. Eden even started going to the gym by herself sometimes, outside of her sessions with Yaz. She found the gym to be an amazing stress-reliever from school and other aspects of her life, and made it her mission to go workout whenever she needed it. She’d never felt happier with herself than she did after an intense workout. 

Harry and Luca still entertain her with their banter at the front desk as she waits for Yaz, she almost looks forward to their chats. The day after their almost-kiss, Eden entered the gym feeling a little anxious with what to expect from Harry. As always, she greeted Luca and asked him about his day before Harry made his way over from finishing with one of his clients. He looked good in this track pants and work shirt, Eden noted. It was almost annoying how he could pull off the most casual outfits. She held her breath as she watched him walk towards them but then he looked at her and flashed her a heart-stopping smile. He greeted her like he always did, enthusiastically, then leaned his side on the desk and asked her and Luca what they were talking about. She sagged in relief with a smile, and from then on, they both acted like nothing happened.

***

“Good, now keep your chest up and keep your weight off your toes, I want you to drive your heels into the ground when you—yes!” Yaz clapped as Eden performed her first weighted squats with perfected technique. “Now give me nine more, don’t mess this up or else we’re adding two more sets.”

If Eden wasn’t already exhausted, she would’ve groaned at the mere thought of working out even longer. Instead, she sucked it up and focused on her technique as she finished her current set, encouraged by Yaz’s cheering.

When she finished, Yaz wrapped her fingers around the bar resting on Eden’s back and helped her rack it. She held up her hand and Eden gave her a high five, feeling proud of her progress.

“Good job, girl! Let’s go stretch on the turf.”

Eden didn’t feel as worn out as she thought she’d be as she followed Yaz, phone and water bottle in hand. As they walked across the gym, Eden heard a familiar deep voice near the mats area. Recognizing who it was, she tried convincing herself not to look, but it was too tempting.

Harry was helping a young expensive-looking woman–like most gym-goers at this five star facility do–with core exercises. The woman was on her back, gazing at Harry in a way that told Eden she wasn’t listening to a word he was saying. Harry pressed three fingers on the woman’s bare stomach. “You need to engage your abs,” he said, then brought his hands to her sides to push her down, “and make sure your lower back keeps touching the floor instead of arching.” The woman blushed at the way Harry touched her despite his intentions being completely professional. He didn’t notice, but Eden did.

Yaz sat on the fake grass, and Eden did the same, proceeding to do her regular lower body stretches the trainer taught her.

“You good?”

Eden’s face snapped towards Yaz. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know, unclench your jaw.”

Eden didn’t realize how tense she was and did as her trainer said.

Yaz raised an eyebrow, looking between her friend and Harry, who was handing his client her water bottle before he made his way to the front desk, done for the day.

“I’m fine,” Eden snapped, immediately feeling bad then relieved when Yaz laughed.

“Whatever you say,” she singsonged, looking at Harry again then back to her, giving her a look that told her she’d be bringing up the topic again.

Eden didn’t realize how tense she got seeing another woman flush at the way Harry touched her, no matter how innocent his intent was. It never occurred to her that other people at the gym would find him attractive, and that his clients were close enough to him to bask in his attention.

Switching legs and leaning over to grab her foot to stretch her other hamstring, she watched Harry’s client exiting the change rooms and walking to the front of the gym. Her red hair swayed in perfect curls behind her back, her simple but clearly expensive outfit hugging her body in a way Eden found herself envying. Eden was rarely insecure about the way she looked and she taught herself to never compare herself to other people, but she couldn’t help comparing herself to this woman who was now enthusiastically chatting with Harry at the bottom of the staircase. She didn’t like the feelings that bubbled up at the sight of the woman standing so close to him. When Harry’s client finally said her goodbyes and squeezed his bicep on her way out, Eden glowered at her figure climbing the stairs to the parking lot.

Yaz’s laughter cut into the silence of their bubble. “You couldn’t be obvious even if you tried. You and Harry?”

Eden frowned. “Me and Harry what?”

Yaz narrowed her eyes, moving to a new stretch and gesturing for Eden to do the same. “Don’t play stupid with me.”

“Nothing’s going on.”

“With the way you looked like you wanted to murder that woman, I wouldn’t say that was nothing,” Yaz chuckled.

“I don’t want to murder anyone.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Eden huffed. “I’m not paying you to tease me.”

“Last time I checked, you’re not paying for this at all,” Yaz smirked. “So I’m free to tease you about your little crush on Harry as much as I want.”

Eden’s eyes comically widened. “Keep your voice down!” She whisper-yelled, quickly looking at the front desk to see if Harry or Luca heard anything. They didn’t, thankfully.

Yaz seemed way too amused at Eden’s expense. “Yeah, yeah,” she teased a blushing Eden. “Now give me more depth, girl. I thought you were supposed to be a dancer.”

Eden groaned when her trainer pushed her back to the ground to better stretch her muscles, thoughts of Harry forgotten as she focused on not pulling anything.

***

Yaz pocketed her phone. “He said he’s on his way.”

Eden nodded and went back to swiping through the array of dresses on the clothing rack. She was happy to be hanging out with Yaz outside of the gym. She came to care for her trainer and knew that they could be friends for a long time with the way they got along so well.

The girls were at the mall, waiting for Yaz’s boyfriend to drop off some coffee as they rifled through dresses for a wedding the personal trainer would attend in a week to come. 

“Oh! You would look gorgeous in this.” Eden grabbed a light blue A-line dress that ended above the knee and held it in front of Yaz who looked at it curiously.

“I don’t know…”

Eden whacked her friend with the hanger and held out the dress again. “Try it on! The colour would look amazing on you.”

Yaz sighed and accepted it just as Luca appeared behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She looked down and seemed to recognize who it was because she only closed her eyes with a smile and melted into him. “Hi.”

Eden’s jaw dropped. “Wait– “

“Hi, Eden,” Luca grinned.

She gasped. “You…?”

“Yeah,” Yaz giggled, meeting her boyfriend’s gaze with a loved-up smile.

“Well it’s a little too soon to tell me don’t you think?” Eden huffed.

Before the couple could reply, Eden only walked over and hugged them both at the same time. “I’m happy for you,” she pulled away beaming. “Didn’t see it coming,” she added, as she pretended to assess them like a science experiment, “but I approve.”

Luca rolled his eyes and leaned down to peck Yaz on the lips. “Didn’t get the coffee yet, I just couldn’t wait to see you. I’ll be right back,” he kissed her again before leaving the store.

Eden cooed but a blushing Yaz glared at her. “Oh, shut up.”

She only laughed and pushed her friend towards the fitting room. “Let’s go, Cinderella. I want to see you in that dress.”

Ten minutes later, Eden had flooded Yaz’s change room with dresses. She loved to play stylist when going out with friends and unfortunately for Yaz, she was Eden’s subject of the day.

Yaz opened the door for the fifth time that day with a scowl on her face. Eden looked at the dress and matched her expression. 

“No,” the two girls said simultaneously, then giggled. 

Yaz closed the door and Eden leaned against the wall, patiently waiting to see the next dress. A moment later, out of habit, she turned towards the full-length mirror in the stall across Yaz’s and started fixing her already tamed hair when in a flash, a man walked in behind her and closed the door, trapping them both in the room. The girl only caught a peek of his face before he grabbed her by the waist and pressed his lips to hers. She gasped, trying to shove him off and after a second too long, he detached himself from her yet kept a hand on her waist. 

“What the fuck?!” Her eyes were wide, chest heaving as she took in the man who took up so much of her space. “What are you doing?”

“I missed you,” he said, his hazel eyes roaming over her chest before leaning forward to kiss her again, but she turned her face, his lips landing on her cheek. “I’ve been waiting for you to get rid of your friend so I can come over.”

Eden felt like throwing up. She tried slapping his hand away from her waist but he wouldn’t relent. “Get off me!” 

He frowned. “No.”

“We’re not together anymore, Will! You don’t get to do this.” Eden wanted to slap herself when her voice cracked. This was the first time she’d seen him up close in months and being this close to him brought up emotions she’d been storing away for a year. Her eyes burned with tears as she recalled what he’d done to her and how she let him mistreat her for so long. He made her happy and miserable all at once. She would never let herself go down that road again.

“But, baby—”

“Don’t. Don’t call me that,” she said, angry tears welling up in her eyes. She tried to push her way around him, but he held his ground. “Move, Will.”

His eyes darkened. “You’re mine, Eden. I’ll always be around to remind you that.”

“I haven’t been yours in a long time,” she spat, somehow looking down on him despite being much shorter. “Leave me alone.”

She tried shoving his chest, but Will caught her hand and trapped it against the wall behind her. Chest to chest, he leaned down and kissed her again, ignoring her squirming body. She was stiff, unrelenting, until she did something she knew she would hate herself for. She melted into him, and kissed him back. He tasted the way she remembered and for a moment, she pretended like nothing was wrong, like they were still together and this was one of those moments when they’d sneak off in public.

But it wasn't real. No, the reality was that she was kissing a man who she swore she would never again give the time of day. She came to her senses and pulled away but Will only followed her, reattaching their lips. Her frustration got the best of her and she did the one thing she knew would get him off her. She shoved her knee into his crotch as hard as she could.

He immediately let go as he doubled over with a loud and painful groan, hands flying to his front. “You bitch!”

Eden watched him, eyes wide like saucers as she braced herself for what he might do or say in retaliation. His hulking form was still blocking the door. Then, Yaz’s voice snapped her out of her fear.

“Eden?”

She sighed in relief. “I’m in here!”

“What is going on? Are you okay?”

Will growled, still doubled over. “She’s fine!”

“No, I’m not,” she cried out, begging Will with her eyes to let her out. 

“Is that Eden?” Luca’s voice was like music to her ears. “Hey man, let her out or I’m calling security.

“Please,” she whispered but Will was already standing back up to tower over her, still wincing, and reached for the door knob. Worry was the first thing she saw in Luca’s face as Will opened the door, then recognition. 

Luca’s eyes shot daggers at him. “What were you doing with her in there?” He ground out.

With the brute finally distracted, Eden shoved her way out of the stall and Yaz immediately went up to her to ask if she was okay. 

Will rolled his eyes. “We were just having a little fun.”

Eden was beyond angry at that moment as she regarded the man who she thought loved her once upon a time. How dare he?

Luca shoved his finger in Will’s chest, causing her ex to stand taller but Luca was not intimidated. “If I ever see you around her—”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s nothing I haven’t heard before.” Will’s entitlement radiated off him as he walked out of the fitting rooms, eyes locking with Eden’s and giving her a warning look before he disappeared around the corner.

“Who is that?” Yaz asked, dumbfounded.

“A prick, that’s what he is,” Luca said, annoyance lacing his voice.

Eden sighed, and sat on a chair against the wall. “That charming guy is my ex.”

Luca scoffed. “Charming my ass.”

“Luca!”

The man sighed, successfully scolded by his girlfriend then turned to Eden to ask softly, “Are you okay?”

Eden didn’t realize her hands were shaking until Yaz grabbed her left one, giving it a supportive squeeze. “He just ambushed me.” Her dark eyes watered as she recalled the events, suddenly being hit with what exactly had just happened.”Oh, God,” she groaned, facing away from her friends to wipe away the stubborn tears. 

Yaz hugged her friend, giving her all the comfort she can. 

“Do you want to go home?” Luca’s sympathetic voice asked.

Eden turned her face up to the ceiling, blinking back her tears, and exhaled loudly. She smiled at her friends. “Yes. But you two stay here, okay? Have a cute little shopping date.” She looked at her friend clad in the light blue dress she’d previously picked out. “That dress looks beautiful on you, Yaz.”

Yaz blushed, and Luca looked at his girlfriend with nothing but love. 

“Are you sure you don’t want us to drive you?”

Eden shook her head. “I just want to be alone for a bit.”

The couple walked Eden to her car and hugged her before she drove to her building. 

***

The drive home left her in her thoughts and it only reignited the anger she felt towards Will. The quiet of her room and her running mind did nothing to subside her emotions. Having had enough, Eden marched to her dresser and slammed open her drawer, pulling out a pair of leggings and a t-shirt. 

She barely remembered the drive to the gym until she cut the engine. The lot was empty save for two cars. The stairs seemed to shine under the artificial light as she jogged down to the ladies’ room to drop off her bag. Phone, earphones, and bottle in hand, Eden was on her way to warm up on a treadmill when a sight she was not prepared for stopped her in her tracks.

Harry’s brown hair was pushed back with a few fallen strands sticking to his sweaty forehead. The sheen of sweat seemed to cover his whole body, she noticed, as her eyes landed on his bulging biceps that contracted with every EZ bar curl he did. His shirt strained against the flexing muscles, the face of sheer concentration and determination had her bring her hand to her mouth to make sure no drool had escaped, because frankly, she’d never witnessed something so erotic. She debated whether she should go up to him and say 'hi’ but decided she didn’t want to interrupt his workout.

After wiping down the treadmill, Eden walked over to the barbell area, and loaded up her weight. The first set went smoothly, and as she dropped the bar to catch her breath, she jumped at the sight of Harry’s reflection standing behind her. “Were you enjoying the view?”

He flushed. “No.”

She bit her lip, eyes fixated on his adorable dimple. “Hi, Harry.”

“Hey,” he smiled.

She looked at him expectantly and he seemed to remember where he was. He rubbed the back of his neck. ���I, uh, was going to ask if I can give you some pointers.”

She felt a blush creep up her neck and he quickly clarified. “Your technique is good. I just think a little adjustment can allow you to benefit more. Deadlifts can be a little complex.”

Never one to miss out on a learning opportunity, Eden nodded. “Sure.”

He pointed at the bar. “May I?”

She stepped back, allowing him to take her place in front of the weight. She couldn’t resist dropping her gaze to his ass for a second as he bent forward to grab the bar.

“So, when you bend down, I want you to bring your hips further back. Like this.” He proceeded to execute a perfect deadlift, leaning forward with just the right precision and driving his feet into the ground as he went back up. “You’re working more your quads than your glutes when you bring you bum lower than it should be.”

Eden nodded, and Harry moved out of the way to let her practice. After watching her do a few repetitions he stepped forward. Eden was not expecting him to touch her, but when his hands landed on her hips, she felt all the blood rush to her face. She stopped at the top, barbell still in her sweaty palms, wanting to ask what he was doing. It was quite a bold move to make without asking her first, and had any other guy done that, she would have given him an earful. But it was Harry, and this was his job. 

“Keep going,” he encouraged her.

Wordlessly, Eden started bending back down and with the pressure of Harry’s hands on her hips, he guided them to make sure she was executing the move well. He led her with the next couple repetitions, until the pressure of his hands started easing up as she got the hang of the movements.

Finally, she dropped the bar a little too ungracefully. “Like that?” She breathed.

Harry gulped and reluctantly removed his hands off her body. “Yeah. You got it.”

She made eye contact with his mirror reflection. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” He cleared his throat, suddenly finding his Nikes very interesting. 

“I’m just…”

“Oh, um, yeah. Of course, I’ll uh–I’ll let you finish. I’ll just be over there if you need anything.”

She couldn’t help but giggle. He was being cute and bashful, a side of him she hadn’t seen in the past weeks they’d known each other. Seeing her laugh made him smile. “Have a good workout, Eden.”

She watched him walk away, lips twitching, and as he started setting up the cable machine for whatever exercise he was going to do next, he looked at her and winked when he noticed her staring. Her smile only grew.

An hour later, Eden was stretching out her sore legs on the mats, wincing every time she tested her flexibility’s limits. Her olive skin was flushed with sweat from the brutal workout she put herself through, but it seemed to do the trick because Will wasn’t even on her mind anymore. Instead, a certain green-eyed man had taken his place and she only wanted to roll her eyes at herself every time she blushed just from looking at him. At one point, he’d almost dropped a dumbbell on his feet when he caught her staring. The memory made her laugh softly to herself.

“What are you laughing at?”

She watched him drop down to sit next to her. “Nothing,” she smiled, eyes unwillingly dropping to his swollen chest.

“So why are you here? It’s the first time I see you working out so late.”

Her smile disappeared as the memory of Will flew to the front of her mind. “Just stressed out, I guess.”

“Is that so?”

She looked up at him and nodded.

“Are you still stressed?”

Eden’s eyes hadn’t left his as she thought about the question. Was she still stressed? Yes. But the workout had worked away her anger and his presence seemed to calm her. 

“I…I don’t know.”

Harry scanned her face, not liking the sight of the lines between her eyebrows or the downturn of her lips. “Are you okay?” He asked quietly.

Eden’s heart began to pound. Every emotion she’d suppressed, not only from the day, but from the previous year which consisted of her trying to get over her heartbreak, started to resurface. She was confused and panicked but tried not to show it. Instead, as she watched him–the compassionate look in his eyes, his hair pushed back with a red bandana, and the array of random tattoos that seemed to flow together–she felt like she didn’t deserve the open look on his face and the kindness that flowed out of him and his desire to make sure she was alright. She didn’t know how overwhelmed she’d truly been until all inhibitions left her body as she surged forward and connected their lips in a slow kiss.

Harry’s hand immediately flew up to cup her cheek, angling her head in order to kiss her properly, the way he’d been wanting to since the first day she’d walked into that gym. She tasted like the watermelon energy drink she’d been carrying around the past hour and he decided it was his favourite drink as she teased his lip with her tongue, wanting to deepen the kiss. He wanted to, he really did, but this wasn’t how he wanted it to happen.

He pulled back. “Stop.”

“Harry, I… I’m so sorry.” Tears lined her eyes as shame coursed through her full-force. What the hell was she thinking?

He quickly shook his head and cupped her face in his hands, looking into her eyes. “I want to, God do I want to. But I really like you,” he admitted.

She inhaled sharply. “Harry—”

“I want to do this the right way. I want to take you out, get to know you. I want to see where this could go. You and I.”

Eden’s first thought was yes. She wanted to kiss him again, to feel his lips on hers again. He made her feel on fire in the best way possible every time he touched her, she’d never felt more herself than when she was around Harry and she wanted nothing more than to tell him. But then she thought over today’s events and the horrible relationship with Will that led up to it. He was still in the picture in ways she didn’t have a choice in. She’d noticed him around a few times, wether it was a few tables down from where she studied at the library or across the hall as she left her classes. She was never too alarmed at the fact that he seemed to be everywhere but today’s events made her keep her guard up a little higher. Will’s possessive words ‘You’re mine, Eden. I’ll always be around to remind you that’ rang in her head over and over again, she didn’t know what he was capable of. How would he react if he found out that she one day belonged to someone else? That she had moved on and was giving herself to someone that wasn’t him. Eden didn’t want to think of the consequences this could have on her or on Harry.

She looked down at her hands. “I can’t.”

The look of hurt that crossed his face made Eden want to hide forever. “What do you mean you can’t?

“I mean… I’m not ready. I just can’t right now. Please, you have to understand.”

“I don’t get it. The looks you give me, the flirting… What was all that?”

Her eyes burned. Eden never meant to lead him on the way she did. In fact, she knew she wouldn’t be ready for a relationship any time soon, but out of pure selfishness, she let herself become fond of Harry. And now, not only was she denying him, but she was also denying herself any sort of potential they’d have together. She never hated Will more than she did at this moment.

“I’m sorry.”

Harry sighed and reached over and squeezed her hand in understanding. She savoured the feeling of his touch before he abruptly stood up and walked away.

***

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