#remember and never speak about everything they know. they are clara if during deep breath clara reached back and truly didn’t expect. truly

[quietwingsinthesky]

there’s a progression in there, somewhere, of even going from ‘the master might kill me any day now :(‘ to ‘the master is going to kill me :) she’s not going to let someone else do it after all this time’

#i wouldn’t call it hubris exactly. more like this pretty secure surity that that’s how they’re going to die. #and to them that makes sense. they chose this. they keep choosing it after the doctor offers them a way out. #because this is. they understand this. and they feel safe in the reprieve before their death. #how do you control death? choose who kills you. the last defense of a prey animal. #something something dark mirror to clara’s ‘i am owed’ speech for even is if this ever. doesn’t work out the way they thought it would. #clara tried to threaten the doctor so that he’d reverse death for her. even would turn on the master if she tried to spare them. #i am owed better. i am owed the death you promised… i am owed the knowledge that you don’t care enough to save me… you know. something like #that. #even is. kind of. meant to mirror the doctor’s companions at the time. they are a martha who can’t leave him. they are a donna who has to #remember and never speak about everything they know. they are clara if during deep breath clara reached back and truly didn’t expect. truly #hoped. that no one would take her hand. because if they can be certain it will happen they can know never to reach again. #jesus christ. go to therapy boy. you have so many trust issues. #but that’s why they’re Like That with the master because at the end of the day. who is easier to rely on? the guy who comes in to put out #fires but only sometimes. or the guy who. really really fucking likes starting fires. #better to get burned hoping someone is coming or get burned knowing that’s what would happen. and even. chooses the latter. #AND ALL OF THIS. for me to say thats why i cant actually let the master ever kill them. #i think she needs to do something worse to even. i think she needs to abandon them. #and that will either set them free to go have healthy normal relationships or. lets be honest much more likely. completely fucking break #them. which would be fun :) for me. #dw oc

[httpiastri]

literally any driver: burying head in crook of neck, night kisses and shutting the other up with kisses

lacii my love <3<3 did this with lando, hope that's fine! merry christmas again, and i hope you enjoy this!! 😁

"lando, did i tell you about that time when i first met my friend clara?" the words are flowing out of your mouth like you're spitting bars. your boyfriend doesn't even get a chance to answer your question before you've started talking again. "oh my god, it's a great story. you'll love it. so, i was in a french class when my other friend, sarah-"

lando is smiling subconsciously as you ramble on about your adventures, just as you have ever since he picked you up from the club. his fingers help you slip out of your heels – not that you even seem to understand what's going on, way too focused on speaking – before one of his hands lands on your waist. he takes a deep breath to keep his composure and hold back the laughter threatening to burst from his chest at your continuous gibberish, before he guides you to his bedroom with soft touches. he chuckles quietly at the way you almost take the wrong turn and end up in his kitchen, too engaged in your storytelling to remember the layout of his apartment. he isn't surprised, though, because;

alcohol always makes you blabber.

in most situations, you're not the most talkative, preferring to choose your moments to speak with great care. but when you start to get tipsy, it is like you are the world's greatest extrovert. even after getting just a little alcohol in your system, you talk to anyone with ears, somehow assuming that they're really interested in whatever you're ranting about.

thankfully, if you have your friends around, they usually drag you away by your arm, apologizing to the poor stranger to whom you've over-explained the storyline of your favorite movie.

lando learned about this side effect of your drinking early on in your relationship. on your third date, after sharing a few drinks at a local bar, you wouldn't shut up for half an hour, not giving him a second to interject with anything. he'd been surprised, but mostly confused, until he got your text message the following morning: oh my god, i did it... didn't i?

he'd tried to pretend he didn't know what you meant, wanting to put it all behind you, but you'd persisted. i didn't shut up. i never do when i drink. i'm sorry :(

lando was always one to be quick to forgive and forget, not wanting you to feel too bad. everyone does some questionable things when drunk, and he'd seen tons of people act worse than you did. but after that date, there would be uncountably many more occasions of you not being able to hold back when booze was in the picture. award shows, drinking games at home with friends, podium celebrations. once, he even found you outside a club after a race, sitting on the curb with one of your hands petting a stray dog as your other helped you explain the meaning of life. safe to say, he is used to your habits by now.

so tonight, when he picked you up from your night out with a few of your friends, he wasn't surprised that your mouth didn't shut once during the trip back to his apartment. you were excitedly telling him about the people you'd met and the drinks you'd had, so eager to explain every detail to your boyfriend when you were getting into the car that you forgot about everything around you and he had to lean across the console to put on your seatbelt for you.

most of the time, he finds your habit endearing. but sometimes, like right now, it gets just a little tiresome.

"and then, when jamie came around, she was like, what are you doing?, and i was like, i'm just having some fun!"

you're both sitting on the edge of his bed by now, after lando's helped you change into something more comfortable for the night, your mouth still running like you're one of the gilmore girls. you don't even flinch when his hands reach for your cheeks and he stares intently in your eyes – but he can't do anything other than smile.

lando loves your voice. he loves it when you're whispering something in his ear when you're out with friends, when you're ranting to him about some stupid coworker, and maybe especially when you're moaning and whining his name.

but now, he reckons you've talked enough for today. your vocal cords must be sore, and his ears are about to fall off, so it's time to call it a night – and he only sees one way to shut you up.

mid-sentence, lando leans in, pressing his lips to yours. he swallows the yelp you let out in surprise, one of his hands gliding to the back of your neck to keep you close. it doesn't take long for you to relax into the kiss, your lips moving with his while your hands reach for the neckline of his hoodie.

it's so easy to get lost in kissing lando. when he parts the kiss, you find yourself wanting to seal your lips again, already missing the feeling. your mind is now completely blank; all you can think of is the kiss. the man beside you laughs at your hazy expression, utterly amused by how you're suddenly quiet for more than five seconds (something he's sure hasn't happened yet tonight).

when you slowly open your eyes, the very content look on lando's face makes something click in your mind. he sudden kiss, his big grin...

"was i rambling again?"

the silence that follows gives you your answer, and you throw your head back as you let out a little groan. "hey, don't worry about it."

"i really didn't mean to. you know how it is, it just happens, and i don't really feel it as it happens, you know? it's just, the alcohol, it's not my intention. i actually told sarah today that-"

and for the second time, lando pulls you into him, quieting you down with his own lips. this time, as you (for the most part) understand what he's doing, you can't help but giggle into the kiss. your boyfriend matches your smile, taking your bottom lip between his teeth as a joking warning. he lets it flop back against your teeth as he pulls away to look at you again, but you've already lunged forward, head resting against his shoulder.

"i'm sorry," you start, nuzzling your nose into the crook of his neck. "i really am."

his arms snake around your waist before he leans back against the bed, pulling you down with him and into his side. "don't be," he answers, one of his hands reaching up to the back of your head, stroking your hair. "it's cute. you're cute." you continue hiding in his skin and he makes himself more comfortable in bed, pulling the blanket over you both. "we'll talk more tomorrow, okay?"

he feels you shake your head. "i'm done talking. i've talked enough. you know those tiktok videos where you only have a certain amount of words you're allowed to say every year? that's me. i've run out of words, i used them all today."

"oh yeah, i can tell," lando chuckles, pressing his lips to the top of your head. "close your eyes, baby. tell me about those tiktok videos tomorrow."

"didn't you hear me? i said no more words. i won't talk tomorrow because-"

lando sighs. it's going to be a long night.

#lando norris #f1 #formula one #formula 1 #lando norris x reader #lando norris x you #lando norris x yn #lando norris x y/n #lando norris fluff #lando norris fanfic #f1 fluff #f1 x you #f1 x reader #f1 x y/n #f1 x yn #f1 fanfic #lando norris fic #mclaren #santa tell me! #jack's 1.5k celly!

[mxpseudonym]

Pairing: Tommy x Fem!Reader

Summary: The seeds Tommy has sowed are bearing fruit in your life and your relationship.

Length: 1797 words (allegedly)

Warnings: “18+”, NSFW, lite Dom/sub, Consensual as all hell, cursing, 

A/N: Surprise!

Part I | Part II

"Are you sure?" 

"I'm sure. Would you like to check?"

Your worried eyes shifted to the door of Tommy's office. You'd come to visit him after your shift at work, only to find that no one was there except Tommy, who was ruining his eyes by reading in the dim light of his office. You'd recently had a suspicion that Tommy was partial to your uniform that was a simple black dress, but intentionally a bit seductive with a cutout in the neckline and the above-the-knee hemline. It was a tactic to have happy customers and more tips, and now a way to have Tommy's hands on you as soon as possible. In this instance, you were pulled against him, your back to his chest while he caressed your neck and viewed your cleavage. 

"No, no, I suppose I did watch you do it. And no one's here," you reminded yourself. "Alright, you can undress me." 

"As you please, y/n." 

The soft fabric peeled off your shoulders, revealing your neutral-toned underwear beneath. Tommy watched as if it was the first time. It had been a few weeks since that first night in your room. He'd made friends with your limits and pushed them in little ways while watching you bloom from each new experience. You'd described it as building momentum like a snowball down a hill. You boldly conquered something new in the bedroom, which gave you the energy to conquer something new in your daily life. 

You finally signed up for bookkeeping classes, which Tommy would not by any means make you pay for. You would have fought him on it, but when Tommy told you it was because he took care of what belonged to him, you were too busy being weak in the knees. You'd also stopped taking shifts from the lush of a woman, Clara, who always wanted nights off to date the wealthy customers. She glared at first but then somehow deduced it was because you had a man of your own and consequently won't stop telling you about her adventures in hopes of swapping stories. You never would have thought that this, sex, would change you so much. But it was more than that.

Tommy led you to the couch, sitting you both down before having you straddle him. This was new. It wasn't that you opposed being on top, but Tommy always seemed to have a plan, and you enjoyed being obedient to a fault. 

"I think you'll like this," Tommy said. "You've been very strong lately." 

Strong. 

That was it. It was more than the sex that gave you the energy to do more. It was Tommy. It was everything about him- the way he handled business and fought for his family. But even more, it was the way that he saw you. He was forward and precise in the way he praised you. 

When you did something far out of your comfort zone and wanted to hide after, he praised your bravery and showed you there were other options other than embarrassment. When you felt awkward, he told you that you were sexy and how attracted to you he was. Even the smallest things like asking vaguely for "more" were praised, perhaps encouraging you to speak more during the act. Tommy's presence was more than enough to support you day in and day out. 

Tommy watched a small smile spread on your face, and his brow furrowed a bit, but he smiled as well. What were you thinking about? Was it because he reminded you that you were strong? His praises were never a lie or a new goal for you. He only mentioned what he already saw. 

"What is it?" You asked. 

"I want you to ride me, sweetheart. I want to see you while you do it," Tommy said with a gruff voice. There was no need for hiding his arousal; you liked it when you could tell he enjoyed it too. You nodded, your lip between your teeth as you shifted in his lap. Tommy kissed you and spoke filthy words in your ear about how good you were and how he couldn't wait to see your pretty face when you came.

Your hands clenched his shirt even before he reached down to tease you over your panties. When you felt the cotton provide just a bit of relief beneath Tommy's nimble fingers, you slumped forward. 

"You're so sensitive, sweetheart. Were you thinking about me at work today? Is that why you came over here to catch me when I'm alone?" He asked. Your eyes cast downward as your cheeks heated up. Tommy raised an eyebrow in surprise. Had you really? "Are you disappointed?" 

"Oh, no, I," you stammered, not expecting a real question while your mind was still on release. 

"I thought you'd be disappointed that no one's here. Wouldn't you like to let everyone know how good you can feel? How pretty you sound when you're begging?"

"Ah!" Your hips jerked at the thought of something so devious yet thrilling. Tommy paused for a moment. He thought you'd like this, but he didn't want to go too far. He supposed his encounters required bravery from him as well. 

"I thought you were somewhat innocent y/n, but you're a whore, aren't you?" He was about to ask how you were when you ground down on his hand. You liked that. 

"Tommy, I'm... I need permission." 

"Already? I've barely even done anything. Should whores be able to,"

"Please," you cut him off with a resounding plea. Your face was buried in his shoulder, and you were rocking against his hand. His fingers slid between your lips, teasing your entrance and circling your clit, never giving too much but not withholding the most gratifying friction. 

"No," he said, and you whined. "You're going to sit on my cock and show me how much you want it." 

"Fuck." 

You didn't swear often, so Tommy knew you were enjoying it. He tugged on your shorts. 

"Take these off." 

You stood to follow orders, and Tommy followed, ridding himself of his trousers as well. He sat first, pulling his hardened cock out of his boxers and stroking a few times before motioning for you to straddle again. You licked your lips unconsciously, and Tommy almost groaned as he motioned for you to return to your place. 

You were erotic in your obedience and how you moved when you finally let go. The way you call him "Sir" turned you on. When you couldn't control the bucking of your hips. The whimper when he pulled out of you, and you wanted to be full again. And now, the way your mouth dropped open when you sunk down onto him. 

"Just like dancing," he said, placing his hands on your waist. He guided you in rocking your hips forward and back, up and down, each time causing your breath to hitch. "Take the lead." 

Your eyes met his, and you nodded. Every movement made you feel so full, and even the slightest shift grazed your slick walls perfectly. You moved up and sat fully again. Your rhythm was off for a moment, but you soon found your groove, and you were moving at a slow but steady pace. Tommy's hands gripped your waist, not guiding you but grounding himself. The position, his words, or perhaps a combination of both was making you drip and clench around him. Your eagerness was turning needy right before his eyes. He didn't know how much more he could take.  

"Tommy, Sir, I'm so close. I want to come like this," you said quietly. Your eyes didn't leave him and your arms wrapped around his neck. 

"I'll let you come all over my cock. Is that what you want?" 

"Yes, I want to come all over your cock. I want to be a good girl, Tommy," you said. A thought flashed into your head and, before you could filter it, you were already saying, "Can't I be a good whore too? Just for you, Sir?" 

Tommy's hips bucked up against you, making you both swear. You groaned and attempted to get the same feeling. You moved faster but dropped yourself down just as hard. 

"Christ, love," Tommy groaned. "Say that again. Tell me what you want, and I'll let you have it." 

"I want to be a good whore for you, Sir. And I want to come on your cock, Sir. And if anyone were here, I would want them to hear how good you make me feel." 

Tommy wondered if you were trying to make him come first for a moment. What a naughty woman. Though the words still made your face hot, it was worth Tommy's permission to release and the feeling of him thrusting into you. 

"That's it, love, take it. Take what you need," Tommy growled as you tightened around him. A rough thumb to your clit send you falling off the edge, but it was Tommy's firm grip holding you down on him and providing deep, short thrusts that left you incoherent. "Now stay just like that so you can take my seed, sweetheart." 

You were sure he was saying words in your ear, but you couldn't hear them. You could only feel the second wave of pleasure coming towards you as Tommy milked you on his cock for his own satisfaction. This was the whore in you, you supposed. The enjoyment that came from feeling like you were used to meeting Tommy's needs. You wanted more of that. Could you ask for it? For Tommy to fuck you for his pleasure only, even leaving you with no release at all? The thought itself sent you crying out. 

Your second orgasm was more than enough for Tommy to find his own release. You're trembling above him, still sopping wet. When you sat back, Tommy raised an eyebrow. Your eyes were glossy as you panted, and your hair that had been styled neatly was now a mess. 

Tommy cleaned you both up, making sure to cover you in affection and remind you that the words said between you during play were for making you both feel good and nothing more. However, when you and Tommy got in his car so he could take you home, you took a tell-tale deep breath, letting Tommy know you had something to say. 

"I liked that," you said first, knowing he was going to ask. Your eyes lowered to your wringing hands, and you said one thing that opened a new door for you both. "I like it when you're a little mean." 

Tommy looked you over and smirked. He leaned over and kissed your temple before starting the engine. 

"Okay, sweetheart. I'll remember that." 

#As You Please Series #Tommy Shelby #Tommy Shelby Smut #Tommy Shelby Imagine #Tommy Shelby x Reader #Peaky Blinders Smut #Peaky Blinders Fanfic #Spicy Writing #Spicy Tommy

[riversofmars]

Before we launch into the final part, I just want to say a massive thank you to all of you! Thank your for joining me on this journey, it's been a wild ride and I'm so glad it all came together. 

2020 has been a tough year for all of us in many different ways but there are also things to be grateful for and remember at Christmas time. For me, getting back into writing and fandom has been the greatest blessing of 2020, it's given me so much joy during a very bleak time. So thank you to everyone that's read my stories and particularly to those that always comment and are here for a chat. In a time where social contacts are so limited, being able to connect and talk about your interests is very special. I really hope that I could give back some of that joy with this story.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time and that all your Christmas wishes and hopes for 2021 come true! This really has been an absolute pleasure. I'll miss doing this daily!

Lots of love! Jana

December 1st  December 2nd  December 3rd  December 4th  December 5th  December 6th  December 7th  December 8th  December 9th  December 10th  December 11th  December 12th  December 13th  December 14th  December 15th  December 16th  December 17th  December 18th  December 19th  December 20th  December 21st  December 22nd  December 23rd  Christmas Eve  Christmas Day

“River, hold up a second…“ Sandshoes caught up with her as they all made their way down main street. As predicted shoppers were returning to the streets bringing a sense of excitement and warm smiles. The fairy lights shone brightly as it had turned dark and snow had started falling more heavily now muffling their footsteps.

“Are you okay? You look a bit…“ River sensed that there was a seriousness about him and she stopped for a moment so they could fall back a bit for some privacy.

“Still trying to take it all in, it was a lot… probably best I won’t remember any of this.“ He chuckled as they started walking again.

“I’m sorry…“ She said automatically but he waved it off.

“Never mind, what’s life without surprises.“

“No, I mean… I’m sorry for everything that’s about to come. I didn’t know you had to live with this knowledge the whole time, that I… when you first met me…“ She couldn’t really find the right words so she broke off.

“You’re worth all the pain. I can see that.“ He looked to the other Doctors who were walking ahead, chatting, joking. “They come to love you somuch.“

“Yeah, you will.“ She looped her arm around his.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be the person you needed me to be that day, I should have…“ He didn’t look at her, he didn’t want to see that hurt in her eyes again.

“Oh Doctor.“ She stopped walking and held him back as well. “You have always been and will always be the person I need you to be.“ She cupped his cheek and forced him to look at her. “I have been all over your timeline, I have met every version of you, had mad adventures and now, hopefully, I get to spend the rest of time with you in a more linear fashion. And never, have you hurt, disappointed or let me down. And never have I not loved you.“

He took her hand off his cheek and pressed it to his lips. Yes, he would forget about this but she had told him everything he needed to hear.

“I think I’m starting to fall in love with you, River Song.“ He sighed with a little smile and she grinned.

“You better be.“ She leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss.

“Oi, you two, we all get equal time with the Mrs, no sneaking off!“ Bowtie called from up ahead and River giggled.

“Come along Doctor, we will be late for Christmas dinner.“

They found a restaurant big enough to accommodate for one very large table. They required three large turkeys and countless sides, it was a feast. They popped Christmas crackers, wore colourful hats and shared their stories. Even when they were all too full to move, Bowtie ordered another round of Christmas pudding with extra custard.

The Doctor looked around the table feeling her hearts swell. So much love around this table. So much joy. It blew away all the grief, the sorrow, the loss. It was as if time stood still and not for their crossing timelines but for the joy of the moment. In this moment, everything was perfect.

Donna was questioning Amy and Rory trying to figure out how exactly they were the Doctor’s in-laws.

Clara recounted tales of her travels with Eyebrows to Bill who listened with baited breath, as she always did when a pretty girl was talking.

River was negotiating life aboard the TARDIS with the Fam, setting down ground rules for her future life travelling with them, rejoicing at her new lease on life.

The Doctor looked to her former selves who still eyed her with mild amusement but it wasn’t unkind, it was admiring.

“So you did it, you brought her back.“ Bowtie smiled, saying what they were all thinking.

“We brought her back.“ The Doctor corrected him taking a sip of something very sweet and fizzy.

“It really has been a long time coming, hasn’t it.“ Eyebrows smiled.

“Home for Christmas.“ Sandshoes agreed, raising his glass in a congratulatory fashion.  

“How are you holding up, Doctor?“ Eyebrows asking, sensing a persistent thoughtfulness about her.

“Better now.“ She admitted with a small smile. “It’s not easy, it’s never been easy, so much of…“ She looked around the table and then back to them. “You all have so much ahead of you still but… you’ll get here, I know that because I have.“

“Well, I for one have the greatest confidence that we will be just fine.“ Bowtie announced.

“What are you lot chatting about.“ River stuck her nose in.

“You.“ The Doctor was quick to retort. “They’re all jealous that I get to take you home tonight.“

“Doctor, I hope you’ll be treating my daughter with respect and not…“ Rory piped up.

“I’m fairly certain the Doctor is in a lot more trouble here than the Professor is.“ Clara interjected with great amusement, getting rather tipsy on mulled wine.

“Oh, she certainly is.“ River smirked.

“I mean, it’s quite the change, isn’t it.“ Donna commented gesturing from Eyebrows to the Doctor.

“What they’re meaning to say is, do you swing both ways because I, for one, wouldn’t mind…“ Bill interrupted.

“Ah well, it seems going forward it’ll be the monogamous lifestyle for me.“ River sighed feigning disappointment. “No more back to front timelines, no more excuses.“

“Helps when that one person has like 14 versions.“ Clara giggled.

“We can’t chose who we fall in love with.“ River pointed out.

“Right, that’s enough.“ Rory put his foot down, he’d heard enough.

“A toast.“ Amy called, coming to her husband’s aid.

“What?“ The Doctor nearly chocked on her drink when Amy threw a biscuit at her across the table to make clear she meant her.

“C’mon, Doc, it’s not like we will be all sitting together like this again any time soon, say a few words!“ Graham encouraged her.

“Come on then.“ Eyebrows filled her drink up for her and Bowtie pulled her to her feet.

“Oh ahhh…“ The Doctor looked around confused not sure what to say, she took a deep breath gathering her thoughts but felt a little better for seeing the warmth and smiles on everyone’s faces as they looked up to her. “Remember you can’t tell them anything about this, they won’t remember but you will.“ She opened with the first thing that came her mind. She looked to the companions who all nodded. “And I’m sorry about that… I’m sorry you have to carry on for so much longer without knowing how things will turn out.“ She looked to River and gave her a little smile, and then to her former selves who also nodded. She retuned her attention to the companions: “Just look after them in the meantime…“

“You know we will, we have.“ Clara said softly, speaking for all of them.

“God, I miss you all.“ The Doctor averted her eyes, looking down at her plate as tears threatened to well up in her eyes. A lump formed in her throat, she couldn’t carry on, she was overcome with emotion.

“All the more important we enjoy our time together.“ Sandshoes stood placing his hand on the Doctor’s shoulder.

“Yes, because this has been the best time, another wonderful story.“ Bowtie stood as well, raising his glass.

“I think this may have been the best one yet.“ Eyebrows stood as well and gave his future self a reassuring smile. “It really was quite something.“

“Merry Christmas, Doctor.“ Amy grinned and jumped to her feet, pulling Rory with her and within seconds everyone was on their feet toasting each other.

“Merry Christmas.“ The Doctor found River’s eyes across the table who gave her the softest most loving smile.

“This really is the happiest season of all.“

#Merry Christmas #Final Part #Doctor Who #advent calendar #river x thirteen #river x the doctor #river song #thirteenth doctor #tenth doctor #eleventh doctor #twelfth doctor #amy pond #clara oswald #donna noble #Rory williams #river x ten #river x eleven #river x twelve #fix it #christmas #festive who #home for christmas #christmas special #fluff #fanfiction #femslash #space wives #yowzah #old married couple #husbands of river song

[sanderssidesfanfiction]

If There’s a Place I Could Be - Chapter Thirty

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

March 25th, 1999

Toby knocked on Remy’s bedroom door, but Remy just sat against it, not allowing him in. “Remy, come on, talk to me, please?” Toby all but begged.

Remy didn’t reply.

“Rem, please. I want to talk to you,” Toby said.

It took all the willpower Remy possessed, but he managed to keep the door closed. Toby had been his one positive influence from someone who could pass as an adult for...as long as Remy could remember, really. And then his parents had to screw that up, and lie about Remy, and make Toby write less and less until he didn’t write at all. To make matters worse, if he got Toby to write him again there was no doubt in his mind that their parents would rake Toby over the coals for it.

Just once, for once in his life, Remy wanted an adult to like him, to be proud of him, to trust him. He wanted respect. Not that he deserved any, but he wanted it anyway.

  May 26th, 2001

Remy played with his hands in the car, breathing very carefully so that he didn’t have a panic attack. Emile was constantly sending him glances, and even with music playing in the car, the atmosphere was tense. “You know, Rem, my parents are going to absolutely adore you,” he said.

“But what if they don’t?” Remy asked. “You’re not a mind-reader, you can’t just magically know if they’ll be okay with me dating you or not!”

“Maybe not,” Emile allowed. “But I do know that in everything I’ve done over the years, so long as it makes me happy and it’s not hurting anyone else, they’ll support it. And you make me... very happy.”

“But...but...I can’t even bring you home to my parents,” Remy said, cheeks flaring red. “Because I can’t even bring myself to tell them I’m gay.”

“That’s a safety issue, Rem. You’re not ashamed of being my boyfriend, are you?”

“Of course not!” Remy replied, hands balling into fists, ready to fight.

Emile slowly pried one of Remy’s fists open and Remy sighed, letting his grip go lax. “Then they’ll love you. Because you love me and I love you back, and you make me happy.”

Remy took a deep breath and let it out slowly, nodding. “All right,” he breathed.

Emile pulled to a stop at the curb and gave Remy’s hand a squeeze, stepping out of the car. Remy slowly opened his door and did the same, standing at the edge of a small lawn, while Emile spoke to a man and a woman who had to be his parents.

They turned to him, and he cleared his throat, scratching the back of his neck. “Nice to meet you, Mister and Misses Thomas...”

Misses Thomas stared at him for a few seconds, before turning to her son and asking, “Emile, when are you going to marry this young man?”

“Mom!” Emile exclaimed, going red as a tomato, and Remy wasn’t much better.

“Well, the way you speak about him, he clearly makes you happy,” she said. “When are you going to pop the question?”

Remy was torn between dying of laughter and embarrassment. Clearly, his fears about Emile’s parents not liking him were unfounded.

“Mom! I’m not proposing to him! We’ve been dating all of...like, a month!” Emile said.

“Never too early to start planning,” Misses Thomas said with an enigmatic smile.

“Yes, it is,” Emile said. He turned to Remy and said, “I’m so sorry.”

“Still not worse than my parents,” Remy choked out.

Emile choked on his laughter and Remy managed to crack a small smile. “You’re right, and I hate that you’re right,” Emile said.

“Your father and I made a whole plan to figure out whether or not we need to adopt your boyfriend and in two sentences you undo all our hard work!” Misses Thomas scolded Emile with no real heat behind the words. “Remy, we’re adopting you one way or another. If Emile doesn’t make you our son-in-law we are legally adopting you.”

Remy turned to Emile, squinting. “Did you tell them about my parents?”

“No details!” Emile rushed to assure. “But, they did sorta need to know why we were moving off campus, and over Christmas I mentioned that you were going solo...and they asked why...and...well, my parents know when I’m lying.”

“Everyone knows when you’re lying, honey, your poker face is terrible,” Remy said.

Emile sputtered and Remy’s smile grew into something more relaxed, more natural. “How dare you!” Emile exclaimed, putting a hand over his heart. “I’ll have you know that I have lied to you before and you haven’t known about it!”

“Okay, first of all, that’s not really something you should be admitting,” Remy said, holding up a single finger. “Second of all, I know you were lying about saying that blue shirt doesn’t make me look like a girl, I know you were lying about witnessing Theo and Clara’s drinking games, and I know you were lying all the way back on the day after Halloween when you said I didn’t say anything about liking anybody. Granted, the last one I realized looking back after learning your tells, but yeah, you suck at lying.”

Emile still looked offended and Remy just shrugged with a little smile. “Sorry, but it’s true.”

“You suck,” Emile said.

“I mean, if you ask nicely, but really? In front of your own parents?” Remy laughed.

“I—what? No! No, that is not what I—” Emile cut himself short as he blushed furiously while his parents both laughed.

Remy beamed proudly and Emile was both glaring daggers and blushing as red as Remy had ever seen him blush before. And he had to admit that making Emile blush was kind of fun. Not fun enough to torture him with it, but every once in a while he might make a jab.

When Mister Thomas finally came up for air, he put a hand on Remy’s shoulder and declared, “I like you already.”

Remy blinked in surprise and turned to Emile. Despite furious blushing, Emile said, “Yep, he really means that.”

“Oh. Okay,” Remy said. He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that. He had never met any of his boyfriends’ parents before in the capacity of being a boyfriend, but the parents he had met were fiercely protective of their sons from any girl coming within a ten mile radius. But to make his boyfriends’ parents laugh genuinely, and to have them like him, for real...he was getting a little choked up.

Emile walked closer, until they could almost touch foreheads if both of them moved a few inches. “You okay?” Emile asked in a low whisper.

“Not used to...positive attention from people older than me,” Remy said.

“Theo gives you positive attention.”

“Theo is also still in college, and therefore by most people’s standards still a kid,” Remy shot back. “I mean like. Actual adults who have done their taxes several years in a row.”

“So like...people you perceive as adults while still technically being an adult yourself,” Emile filled in.

“I guess,” Remy agreed. “Regardless of semantics, I’m still surprised.”

“I said my parents would adore you, I’m not sure why you’re so shocked,” Emile teased.

Remy shrugged. “Uh...trauma? Or something?” he asked.

Emile sobered and nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. You saying stuff like that makes me want to hug you, though, I’ll warn you.”

“I won’t object to hugs from you...right now, at any rate.”

No sooner had he said that than Emile wrapped his arms around Remy and held him tightly. Remy offered a light hug back, knowing it paled in comparison to Emile’s hugs, but feeling like that was all he could give in the moment.

It felt like a scene from a rom-com, almost overused and most definitely too common for most people’s tastes, but to a select few, it meant the world. And to Remy, having a select few moments where he was allowed to take in Emile’s warmth, his scent, his everything in unfamiliar territory, well...he hadn’t felt this safe since before Toby went off to college.

That revelation made Remy stiffen minutely. He felt just as safe with Emile as he had with Toby, possibly more so. How was he supposed to understand that? How was he supposed to share that? Emile pulled away as Remy stiffened and Remy moved his hand down Emile’s back until he could grab Emile’s hand and interlace their fingers. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“You okay?” Emile asked again.

“Um. Yeah.” Remy scratched the back of his neck. “I’m fine since you’re here.”

That seemed to have a semi-successful message, because Emile gave Remy’s hand a squeeze with a warm, knowing smile, and Emile dragged him to the trunk, where their stuff was. “We can both share my old room, Mom,” Emile said. “Provided that’s okay with you, Rem?”

“Would we be...sharing a bed?” Remy asked.

“No, I had a bed I used for sleeping and then I had another one for guests, and to stuff massive amounts of pillows on,” Emile said. “We probably wouldn’t fit on one bed. We’re both pretty tall.”

Remy snorted. “True.” He took the suitcase Emile passed him, which he recognized as his by the distinct lack of cartoon-y stickers covering it. During this, Emile never let go of his hand, which Remy appreciated. Emile grabbed his own suitcase and closed the trunk, before taking a breath and saying, “Shall we go inside? At least long enough to put our suitcases in my room?”

“Oh, of course, sweetheart. Do you need any help with your bags?” Misses Thomas asked.

“I think we’ve got it, Mom,” Emile said with a small smile. He didn’t let go of Remy’s hand until they were in his room.

Remy wasn’t sure what he expected to see with Emile’s room. There was a stuffed animal or two, and pillows on two perfectly-made beds, but the paint was fading in different patches all over the walls, patches where posters must have been. The closet was open and empty, and there wasn’t anything on the desk in the room that screamed “Emile lived here.” It was...too bare-bones for him to really understand that Emile grew up in this house, slept in this room. It felt...wrong.

“Hey, Rem?” Emile asked softly.

Remy hummed.

“Can we talk a little bit about what you said?”

Remy turned to look at Emile, who had sat down on one of the beds, looking like he saw a ghost. “Yeah. Though I have to say, this room doesn’t look like an Emile Thomas room, not without cartoon posters and figurines and stuffed animals everywhere.”

Emile smiled, but it was strained. “You said you felt safe since I was here. What does that mean?”

Remy swallowed. He still wasn’t sure how he was supposed to share that. “It means...it means that you feel safe, in my head. Toby was the same way, when we were kids.” Remy began to pace, hands flying around his face as he tried to explain. “Toby was the one who made sure I was okay when Mom and Dad fought. Vanessa never did it, for one reason or another, but Toby would help me calm down and stay quiet and out of the way. So Toby grew to represent safety. He’s...yeah. He’s still safe, wherever he is, and the reason it was a sucker-punch when I lost him wasn’t just because I lost him, but I lost that safety too. But...but when you hugged me today, I realized that I get the same kind of comfort from you now. You just...you feel safe. I can’t describe all that entails or why you feel that way, but you do.”

Emile took a breath, and let it out slowly. “Oh...okay.”

“Is that bad?” Remy asked.

“No! No, it’s not bad,” Emile rushed to assure, standing up and walking over to Remy, taking his hands. “I’m honored to be your safe space. I just...I didn’t realize I was. I didn’t realize...that you trusted me that much. I guess that’s my bad for assuming, huh?”

Remy shrugged. “It’s whatever, don’t worry about it. I didn’t realize that I did that either, until like five minutes ago. And your parents seem really sweet, but I’m still lowkey terrified.”

“Oh, I know what will change that,” Emile said with a grin.

“What?” Remy asked.

Emile bounced to his bedroom door and hollered through the house, “Hey, Dad! Can Remy and I help with lunch?!”

There was a faint, “Sure!” from somewhere inside, and Remy blinked.

“Well, I didn’t expect him to agree that fast!” Emile laughed. “My dad loves to cook, and the more you cook with him, the more you get to know him. He’ll make sure you feel right at ease while you work. I’ve been learning how to make stuff from him, although I use shortcuts when I can. You might enjoy helping him cook from scratch.”

“Sounds fun,” Remy admitted.

“It is fun! Do you want to head down now and help figure out what we’ll be eating?” Emile asked.

Remy offered a small smile and a nod. “Sure, why not?”

#if there's a place i could be #sanders sides fanfiction #remile #emile picani #ts sleep

[2manyfandoms2count]

#LadynoirJuly Day 22

Slowly but surely making it through the prompts, and trying to end everything as a continuous fic! We’ll see how it goes :D Thanks for the comments on the previous part, it really motivated me to keep doing @ladynoirjuly2020 instead of putting it on hold!

Hope you enjoy this part! xxx

Previous | Next

---

Day 22: Realisation

Ladybug walked slowly towards her Home via the rooftops, hands tucked behind her back. The rain was still pouring around her, drops trickling down on her face from her bangs, but she was too deep in thought to pay it any heed. Who cared about potentially catching a cold when you’d just been hit with such crucial information?

She blamed her obliviousness on Chat’s hair. Of course she knew how much a haircut could change someone’s face, the hair length somehow emphasising or toning down one’s facial features, but this was such a wild change. If she ever had an essay to write on the topic (you never knew), Chat would definitely be her exhibit A: heads, Adrien Agreste, model extraordinaire, a teenage heartthrob down to his boy band side part; tails, Chat Noir, Paris’ superhero, his blond mane as unkempt as his manners. Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir. Two sides of the same coin. 

It seemed so stupid that she’d never noticed, when there’d been many signs pointing to that conclusion. How Adrien would always disappear during Akuma attacks. She’d always assumed he was just very good at finding hiding places, but thinking back, his excuses often seemed as questionable as her own. How Chat seemed to know the name of her classmates when they were akumatized, although he claimed not to know the Collège Françoise Dupond. How he was very quick to arrive there when it was the scene of an akumatisation. How, everytime she saved Adrien, Chat somehow failed to show up, or did so after she’d made sure the model was well protected. How, thinking about it, she’d never actually seen both Chat Noir and Adrien together in the same place. She’d seen someone wearing an opaque helmet and dressed like Adrien standing behind Chat Noir, but it really could have been any boy their age.

So Chat Noir was Adrien. And Adrien was Chat Noir. Which meant… 

Oh for Kwami’s sake. She stopped in her tracks and brought her hands to her face, trying very hard to control her breathing. She was tempted to detransform, so she could talk to Tikki instead of just monologue internally, but she also didn’t feel like walking home in her sundress under the rain. Her costume had the significant asset of being waterproof.

All the time she’d pursued the so-called love of her life by day, she’d been rejecting him by night. She screamed in frustration in her hands. How could she claim to know Adrien, when she hadn’t been able to recognise him when he’d been right by her side all along?

She’d have to step it up if she wanted the feeling of not deserving him that was emerging in her chest to fly away. She knew Chat Noir enough to know he wasn’t kidding around when he said the mask didn’t matter, that he loved her with or without it. Her heart fluttered at the thought that that had been Adrien speaking. He loved her. 

She smiled as she wrung the water out of her pigtails on her balcony. She still had a lot of things she’d have to figure out, like how she’d explain how drenched she was to her parents, and how on Earth she was going to face her partner tomorrow because… Well, surprise, surprise, if Chat Noir was Adrien, it meant she would be seeing him a lot sooner than she felt was enough to prepare their next encounter. 

Because although there was a chance that the fact Adrien was Chat Noir meant that she might be able to hold a normal conversation with him from now on, she didn’t completely trust herself to make the difference. Worse; there was a chance she’d start stammering every time she hung out with him, even as Chat Noir. Would she even be able to protect Paris in her love struck state? 

Boy did she have a long night of overthinking ahead of her.

---

A couple of blocks away from her inner turmoil, Adrien was having the best dinner of his life. For once, he was perfectly content sitting in silence across from his father, eating food that was way too fancy and in portions too small to feed a growing boy. Where he normally would have tried to engage in small talk in yet another attempt to connect with the stern figure who sitting on the other side of the long dining table, tonight his thoughts were elsewhere. He’d even managed to ignore his father’s jab at his lack of punctuality, when he usually would have taken it personally.

He’d figured it out. On his own, without cheating. And it seemed like the best piece of news he’d received since… He tried to remember something that had made him feel this happy, internally jumping up and down, for want of physically doing so. He could think of two: his father letting him go to public school, and knowing he’d righted things with Marinette, that they would be friends. 

Marinette… His smile grew larger as he thought about his pigtailed friend. Lovely, kind, amazing Marinette. Thinking about it, it made so much sense that she was Ladybug. The only times his partner had failed to show up in a year had been when he’d helped Marinette with Evillustator, and when she’d been trapped by Weredad. No wonder Marinette was always hanging around close to where they had fought. And hadn’t he once called her their everyday Ladybug? He refrained from laughing at the irony, as his father was already giving him odd looks. He should have thought twice about his choice of words then; he’d really been onto something. Just like Clara Nightingale had been. He couldn’t believe how on point the singer had been. No wonder Marinette had been reticent to take the role, and had ended up finding a solution to avoid appearing in the video as Ladybug.

And if Marinette was Ladybug, no wonder he’d been so lucky at school; he’d had a living and breathing Lucky Charm sitting behind him all along! Not to mention the actual one he carried everywhere, which turned out to have been blessed by his Lady Luck herself.

But if Ladybug was Marinette, then it meant he’d been friendzoning her ever since their first real conversation. It was a word Nino used a lot, and Adrien had only recently discovered what it actually meant. He’d always felt quite curious about Marinette, who could go from a cute shy state to passionately and eloquently standing up for herself or her friends in a matter of seconds. Truth be told, he’d always admired her, and felt something indescifrable when it came to her. He’d been so convinced about his feelings for Ladybug -which still stood- that he’d never bothered untangling his relationship with the other bluenette in his life. 

She held a special place in his heart. If he compared her to his closest girl friends, he considered her to be closer than Alya, with whom he spent as much time, if he didn’t count their escapades as Ladybug and Chat Noir. There was something more, a sort of spark, which he guessed he’d sort of felt with Kagami when they’d first met. That had turned out to be a connection due to their similar lifestyles. His link with Marinette felt a lot deeper. Like the one he had with Chloé, despite having interacted a lot less with her and only having known her for a year.

Then again, she was Ladybug; they actually knew each other a lot better than they could have thought, both in and out of costume.

One thing he didn’t know about her, though, was who she liked. He raked his mind for any conversation with anyone that could give him the missing piece of information, but nothing particularly came to mind aside from the fact she liked a boy. It gave him a chance. He’d have to investigate the matter further to measure up the opposition. 

For now, though, he thought as he climbed the stairs to his room, he’d just enjoy knowing he’d spend a lot more time with her.

Boy, morning wouldn’t come soon enough.

#ladynoirjuly2020 #ladynoirjuly #ladynoir #ladybug #chat noir #lovesquare #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfic #miraculous fanfiction #realisation #realization #elle writes

[randomfandomimagine]

Not Enough (Eleventh Doctor Oneshot)

Character: Eleventh Doctor Fandom: Doctor Who Categories: Female Reader, Daughter Reader, Time Lady Reader Warnings: Sligth angst, especially at the end Word Count: 2,8k words Request by anon: Could u do an imagine with reader being the 11th doctors daughter so he's overprotective with her? Tysm :)) Hi, for the 11th doctor request maybe they're both going on an adventure and it's pretty dangerous so he's keeping her in his sight at all times and she's kind of annoyed but he still does it anyway, idk lol // Requested by undercover_Fangirl97 on Wattpad: Since I met the 11 Doctor my life gets better. I always travel with him and love it. As he travel with me and Clara it feels, like I am the third wheel.  Notes: I was inspired to write this by the short book ‘The Sontaran Games’, but I still may have made some mistakes. So sorry if something in this imagine doesn’t fit in with the Doctor Who lore. Hope you enjoy it anyway! :)

Remember that requests for oneshots are currently closed!!

I smiled and put my hair behind my ear, flirtatiously looking at him through my eyelashes.

“Thanks for walking me home” I said, stopping before my doorstep.

“My pleasure” My date replied, smiling back in a timid pause. “I had a great time”

“Yeah, me too!” I felt awkward, wishing that I was better at these kind of things.

Normal everyday things were never my forte, but that was precisely what I was trying to achieve. I was done being an expert on strange things, on time travel and space. So I was making an effort to have a normal life.

Dating happened to be the first way I thought of doing so. But this being my fifth date, I wasn’t sure I was doing all that well. I never quite connected with anyone, and when I did, it went wrong anyway because I was so out of touch.

“Well…” He said with a shy chuckle, casually leaning closer to me.

“Yeah” I awkwardly replied, even if closing the distance a bit too.

He showed me a sweet smile before he closed his eyes and made to kiss me. I felt my hearts starting to race as I closed my eyes and prepared for the exchange.

A vaguely familiar sound made me gasp and I hurriedly took a step back on an instinct. My companion squeezed my arm, startled by my reaction.

“Everything okay?” He kindly asked me, even if my dazed brain took a few seconds to comprehend his words.

“Y-Yeah!” I told him, trying to forget about it. It was probably my imagination. “Sorry, I’m a bit nervous”

“That’s fine” Honestly, he was the sweetest. “I am too”

I chuckled, endeared by his lovely manners, and made a second attempt to kiss him. I could already feel his lips brushing against mine when a second interruption avoided the kiss.

“Oi, hang on a minute!” A male voice exclaimed. “What’s happening here?”

“I cannot believe it” I muttered under my breath, reluctantly stepping away from my date knowing that the moment was completely ruined.

“What…?” The aforementioned uttered in confusion. “Who… is he?”

I looked over my shoulder to a man rushing to arrive by our side. A man that I knew far too well. The so called ‘Doctor’.

“That’s…” I heaved a resigned sigh. “My father”

“Is he now?” The young man watched the Doctor as he ran to us like a mad man. “He looks… um… young?”

“You’d be surprised by his age” I sarcastically told him.

“Y/N!” My father gasped for air because of the dash once he finally stood by us.

“Is something wrong?” The other man watched in concern, probably thinking that there was some sort of family emergency.

“Not at all” I rolled my eyes, forcing a smile. “He was just leaving”

“Actually” The Doctor paused, firstly dedicating my date a glance and a polite head nod. “I need your help, dear”

“Do you now?” I was so frustrated that I couldn’t help myself, even in front of my lovely date. “I thought you had help already”

“I’m terribly sorry” My father ignored me, instead talking to my date. “I’m afraid Y/N needs to come with me”

When he took ahold of my arm and dragged me with him and away from my date, I reluctantly waved goodbye at him, knowing how pigheaded my father was.

“Perfect timing, dad” I bitterly said, tearing my arm away from hsi grasp. “Just when I found a lovely man who was willing to go out with me”

“Sorry, darling” He was still upbeat as usual as we walked through the streets. “I truly need your help”

“What is it?”

“I’m… a bit overwhelmed”

“You, overwhelmed? That’s a first”

“Oi” My father finally stopped, and I noticed the blue police box before us. “If you could drop the attitude and be helpful, that would be delightful”

“Why do you need me?” To show my reluctance, I crossed my arms over my chest. He smirked, already holding on to the door handle.

“Because I need another Time Lord” His smirk widened. “And I only know one”

“Time Lady” I begrudgingly corrected him, hating to use my title.

“Geronimo!” He exclaimed, excited as a child, opening the door.

“Who is with you, the redhead and her…?” I came in, noticing a figure inside the TARDIS. “Boyfriend…”

However, the couple I had known during our previous travels wasn’t there. I didn’t know how long it was since I refused to accompany my father anymore, but he was travelling with someone else now.

“Hello!” A friendly looking girl jumped from her seat and walked over to me, holding her hand out. “You must be Y/N, pleasure to meet you!”

“The one and only…” I shook her hand, even if eyeing my father with the corner of my eye.

“I’m Clara” The young woman introduced herself. “The Doctor has told me all about you”

“Has he?” I repressed the urge to say he didn’t know that much about me.

He glared at me, silently telling me to tone down the sarcasm and behave.

“Of course!” She cheerfully replied, not bothered by my aptitude.

“Well” I muttered, turning back to my father with my hands on my hips. “What’s the mission, Doctor?”

“You see, I wanted to take Clara here to this lovely little planet” He replied, focusing on the TARDIS controls. “There’s a itsy bitsy tiny problem, though”

“Which is…?” I tiredly replied, sticking my hip out now.

“There may be Sontaran on it, that’s why I need backup” When he looked at me, he noticed I was about to speak and interrupted me. “Don’t worry, though, might only be rumors, probably are”

I scowled and crossed my arms over my chest. I wondered if after all this time my father didn’t realize that, out of all the creatures we had encountered during our travels, the Sontaran were the ones I was most terrified of.

-

It seemed like my travelling companions weren’t as cautious as I was. The three of us exited the TARDIS, but my eyes carefully studied every centimeter around me. 

“Ah” My father sighed in delight. “Beautiful, is it not?” 

Clara grinned, excitedly walking around. She hung on to his arm, and I rolled my eyes. It made no sense. Why would he need me? He had her. 

Certainly, my presence could be useful in the case that Sontaran were indeed there. Perhaps during one of their... disagreements with the Rutan. But if there was a slight chance that this was true, why not choose another planet, a safer one? There were many options. If he really wanted to impress her, I was not needed there. I might be his daughter, but that meant nothing. He was always more interested in the humans. Always the humans, even before this new face of his. 

“See, Y/N?” He said with a big grin. It felt almost like he read my thoughts and was gloating over it. “It’s alright, nothing to worry ab-” 

I hadn’t been paying attention to him, but when he interrupted himself so abruptly, I did. My eyes fell over him to see what happened. A gun had been pointed at his head before he could react. My father’s hand quickly moved to wrap around my wrist, softly shoving me behind him.

“Identify yourselves” The Sontaran said, firmly holding the gun.

“I’m The Doctor” He said calmly.

“Who are they?” The Sontaran asked, pointing to Clara and me.

“Them two? Oh, no one” His voice sounded far too carefree to be genuine. “Just humans, they’re of no interest to you” 

The creature’s eyes, however, were focused on us. I felt my father tensing up in front of me.

“I’m the Time Lord, I’m the one you should worry about” His words gathered the Sontaran’s attention back.

“Gallifreyan” Came its deep voice. “What is your purpose on this planet?” 

“Oh, well, you know” His hand, which had been around my wrist now rested outside of his pocket. “The usual, a bit of exploring here and there” 

I noticed his hand tapped his pocket, and I immediately knew what was on his mind. I looked at Clara, who was oblivious to all this. Her brown eyes were focused on the menacing Sontaran instead. 

I took a small step forward, positioning myself next to my father. The creature didn’t seem to notice the change, eyeing The Doctor as carefully as it was.

“How about you, are you alone?” My father continued speaking, surely to distract it. “We’ll leave you right to it then, of course. Don’t mind us, we’ll walk right back where we came from” 

The Sontaran growled in disagreement. I took advantage of his focus on my father and slowly shoved my hand in the pocket of the Doctor’s jacket. My fingers soon found the sonic screwdriver. 

“Sure!” Clara’s sudden voice made me jump, nearly dropping the sonic as I was about to grab it. “We wouldn’t want to bother” 

Assuming she must have noticed my endeavor, I continued. Tightly holding on to the sonic screwdriver, I took my hand out of the pocket. Then, moving quickly, I shoved both my hands behind my back in what I hoped was a casual gesture. 

“Come forth, humans” The Sontaran waved its gun so we would obey. “You first, Time Lord”

I mentally cursed my father for going to a random planet on a whim. Especially if he had reasons to believe it was currently occupied by Sontaran. I prayed that it was only one and prepared for the attack. 

The three of us took one step after another, distancing ourselves further from the TARDIS. I wished the Sontaran faced its back to us, but it didn’t want to be vulnerable. Instead, he walked beside us, gun in hand.

I suddenly felt glad that I had accompanied them. Clara wouldn’t have known what to do in this situation, lacking the knowledge I possessed. And my father could trully use my help as he made himself the target.

‘Go for the neck’ I told myself as I had countless times before. Like when I woke from a nightmare involving these very creatures. Like when I went through various scenarious in my head to remind myself that I wasn’t completely defenseless.

And I certainly wasn’t. I clung on to the sonic screwdriver like it was a dagger. I knew where their weak spot was. I just had to be accurate on my aim.

In what seemed like a nonchalant gesture, the Doctor linked his arm with Clara’s. I knew it was the signal I needed. I took action.

My hearts were already racing, but I moved. Shoving all his weight against the big mass that was the Sontaran, my father momentarily threw it slightly off balance. The gun went off into the distance, away from us. Knowing he would look after Clara, I went for my target. 

“Run!” I yelled as I stabbed the sonic screwdriver against the Sontaran’s neck.

Before I could determinte if the hit on the probic vent was well-aimed, I made for my own escape. Even if that one was taken care of, there might be others.

Running at top speed, we headed back to the safety of the spaceship.

-

The three of us rushed into the TARDIS, as my father slammed the door behind us. I on turn moved to the controls and quickly pressed buttons to bring us back. I pulled the required lever, causing the time machine to make its characteristic noise, while I turned to the Doctor.

“That was a close one, wasn’t it?” He grinned in spite of it all, making me roll my eyes at him.

“We made it, though!” Clara smiled back, though I ignored her when her kind brown eyes fell on me.

I averted my gaze, noticing myself shaking from head to toe. I still clutched the sonic screwdriver so tightly that my knuckles turned white and my fingers hutrt.

As the TARDIS slightly moved, its owner approached me and rested a hand on my arm. I tried to hide the fact that I was breathing heavily.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” His eyes briefly moved to the other girl, then returning to me when he confirmed that Clara was unharmed.

“Am I alright?” I shook him off me and sighed to calm myself. “You know nothing about me, do you, dad?”

I could feel the tension that arose in the tight space, and I could fell all eyes on me as well. However, I ignored Clara’s presence and defiantly held the Doctor’s glance.

“What’s the problem, Y/N?”

“What’s the problem?” I repeated in outrage. “Are you taking the piss?”

He glared at me with the disapproving glance of a father. I was honestly surprised he didn’t lecture me for my language.

“I’m going to get some fresh air” Clara awkwardly muttered as she left the TARDIS once we were back home.

“The problem is that nothing has changed!” I replied, not paying attention to the girl leaving. “How could it?”

“Honestly, I don’t understand…” My father seemed utterly oblivious.

“Why am I here? You’re doing fine on your own with all these human companions!”

“While I enjoy their company, I’m with them because you left!”

“I left because you didn’t want me here, dad!!”

“That’s not true! You didn’t enjoy travelling with me!”

“No, I wasn’t good enough for you! I wasn’t as brave or smart as you, I never was!” I lowered my loud voice until it was barely a whisper. “I just was not… enough”

“Why would you ever think that?” My dad frowned sadly, his voice dripping with regret.

“Because… why else would you push me away like that? Every time I tried to help, to do anything…” I was honestly surprised that he had allowed me to attack that Sontaran. Even if he didn’t really have much of a choice.

“I… I thought it was obvious, Y/N…” His hands fell on my arms, but this time I didn’t push him away since I was too busy trying not to cry. “Because I care about you!”

“What?” I let out a sarcastic chuckle, averting my gaze. “That doesn’t make any sense, genius…”

“I never thought you weren’t enough! I was scared that I might lose you” To ensure I was listening, he gently shook me.

“But you were always telling me off, stepping in and…” I frowned, shaking my head as I tried to wrap my head around it.

“I only ever wanted to protect you, darling… The thought of any harm coming to you broke my heart” My father let out a soft chuckle. “Well, hearts”

He grinned, quite possibly in a peace offering. The corners of my lips twitched, but I didn’t allow myself to smile. 

“Then why take me with you?” I thought back to all those times we had travelled together when I was younger, where I had learned everything that I knew. Because he taught me. “Why not leave me on Earth, where I would be safe?” 

“I couldn’t simply abandon you, dear” Although hesitantly, his hand held my own. “And to be honest, I couldn’t stay away from you” 

I sniffed when tears gathered in my eyes. The look of utter love he dedicated me moved me to my core. His eyes were drenched in concern, protectiveness and fondness. And of the pride a father felt for a daughter. 

“Dad...” I uttered, even if my voice sounded hoarse. 

“I must confess, I did not go to that planet for Clara” He gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “I was just looking for an excuse to see you and bring you along” 

I suddenly chuckled myself, earnign a confused look from him.

“That sounds like you” I rubbed my eye to wipe my tears. “Go on a little adventure, while you’re at it?” 

“Well, yeah...” My father smiled saddly. “Perhaps that too” 

I suddenly felt a pang of pain in my chest. But how was I to know what was on his complicated mind? How could I see on my own that he was always trying to protect me? That he missed me despite my bitterness? 

“I’m sorry...” It didn’t fix all the years I refused to talk to him, but I supposed it was a start. “I didn’t know, I just...” 

“I know” His arms wrapped around me, and I let him. “I’m sorry too” 

We hugged each other, feeling like, for the first time in years, we understood one another. He had just been scared, but wasn’t good at saying it. And I was enough, I just didn’t realize. In fact, I had been more than enough for him all along.

Tag list: @ace-cream-in-a-cone / @of-stardust-and-dreams / @agent-prophecy / @snowfire71 / @fortheloveofbenyandtom / @wherearethedemons / @dragonprincesswitchtribute / @wherearethedemons / @timeladygallifrey // If you want to be added or taken off the tag list for these fandoms or characters, let me know!!

#imagine #oneshot #text imagine #doctor who #doctor who imagine #doctor who oneshot #dw #dw imagine #dw oneshot #eleventh doctor #eleventh doctor imagine #eleventh doctor oneshot #reader insert #requested

[blueboxesandtrafficcones]

The Nuptial Necessity - Chapter 7

A 12xRose Human AU

Despite an unglamorous job description, Rose loves the work she does with The Thistle Foundation, a charity founded by her best friend’s great-uncle.  It doesn’t hurt that her boss, her friend’s father, is easy on the eyes.  With a great job, wonderful friends and a loving family, life couldn’t be better – except for having someone to share it with.

All of that is threatened, though, when the great-uncle dies – and sets a strange condition for his nephew to inherit, jeopardizing the Foundation and Rose’s future, sparking a chain of events that might just get her everything she dreamed of and more.

Chapters will be posted on Saturdays and Tuesdays.  Many thanks to my beta, @stupidsatsuma

Rated: Explicit, for eventual smut

@doctorroseprompts

AO3  |  Masterlist

—

Sunday

Turning her car off, Rose leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes, breathing deeply in preparation.  Things in the office had only grown more awkward and tense as they danced around each other, the uncomfortableness spilling over into her relationship with Clara, which only made her feel worse.

It’s a yes or no question, she reminded herself once again.  Just make a decision and stick to it – put all of us out of our misery, so the weirdness can stop and we can start making our plans.

The sound of another engine made her eyes open, and she climbed out as Malcolm pulled in next to her.  Locking her car she waited while he, Clara, and Danny emerged, mustering a wan smile for them all.  “Hey.”

“Hi.”  Malcolm nodded, grabbing a bottle from the backseat as Clara gave her a hug.

“Hey,” her bestie whispered in her ear, “how are you?”

Rose shrugged, holding her a little tighter.  “In knots,” she said honestly. “I still don’t know what to do.”

“There you are,” her father called, and they all turned to find him at the front door.  “C’mon in.”

They followed him through the house and out onto the patio, where everything was set up.  Tony was playing in the shallow end of the pool under their mother’s watchful eye from a nearby lounge chair, while the grill was ready to go off to the side.  Two long tables groaned under the food already out, with a few designated spaces for what Rose and the Tuckers had brought. Rose’s contribution was a bottle of white wine and a baked mac’n’cheese recipe Tony loved, while Malcolm had brought the whisky, Clara some cut up fruit, and Danny the brownies.

“Looks great, Mum,” Rose greeted Jackie, hugging her.

“Thanks, sweetheart.  Oi, Tony, out of the water!”  Releasing her eldest she turned to Clara, greeting her in much the same way.  “So nice to have all of you here, come, put your things down.”

“Thanks for having us, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler,” Danny said politely, making Pete chuckle and wave his hand.

“Very pleased to have you join us.  Really.  And it’s Pete and Jackie – I insist.”

As everyone greeted each other and began chatting, Rose smiled and watched.

This is my family.

-

Standing next to the grill on a warm, sunny day, holding a beer, was pretty much exactly Malcolm’s ideal way to spend an afternoon.  His daughter sat nearby, the occasional tinkle of her laughter music to his ears as she talked to Danny and Jackie, but in truth, nearly all of his attention was on Rose.

She’d changed into a swimsuit, a one-piece that was fairly modest for what it was, and was in the shallow end splashing with her brother.  It didn’t take his imagination much effort to picture her in the pool at the townhouse – in fact, it was too easy to see her with a toddler of their own, teaching their son (or daughter, he wasn’t picky) how to swim.

In fact, he didn’t just want it; he craved it, ached for it, sometimes dreamed of it so vividly he would wake reaching for her, expecting her next to him, confused and heartbroken when she wasn’t there until reality seeped back in.

Sometimes he didn’t want to wake up.

“Oi.”

A nudge startled Malcolm from his daydream, and he turned Pete, blinking in surprise.  “What?”

“D’you mind not ogling my daughter right in front of me while we’re trying to have a conversation?  When you’re not glaring at Danny for doing just the same, that is.”

His jaw dropped, trying to come with an answer.  “I wasn’t- that’s not- I-”

After a moment Pete laughed, waving a hand.  “Relax, I’m just messing with you,” his friend said easily.  “How are plans for the Gala going?”

Malcolm just blinked, trying to reboot his brain and cursing his overactive imagination.  It had been one thing, when his dreams were just that, but the intrusion into his waking life was bound to get him in trouble sooner or later.

And, strictly speaking, he hadn’t been ogling Rose.  Yes, okay, he might have been staring in her general direction, but he wasn’t picturing her naked – it’s early yet; how long is she going to stay in the pool? – though somehow he didn’t think Pete would appreciate what he was thinking any more than what he assumed.

Did he ask a question?

“The Gala’s going fine,” he finally answered, taking a long pull off his bottle and turning his back firmly on his assistant to focus on her father.  Her FATHER.  If Danny were looking at Clara the way I am Rose, I’d thump him – and he’s neither too old for her or a friend of mine, both of which I am.  Pull your shit together, Tucker.  “Rose is, of course, an incredible help.  No surprise she’s what makes the event what it is.”

“I would expect nothing less.”  Pete was still smirking, though, a look Malcolm didn’t appreciate.  “My daughter’s one of a kind.”

“That she is.”  Casting about for a change of subject, he asked, “Tony’s starting school this year, isn’t he?”

The other man didn’t seem fooled in the least, but went along with it.  “Reception.  Hard to believe.  Honestly, I’m not looking forward to his school years.  Well, the other parents, really. When Rosie was little we got looked down on for being so young, and I’m sure now we’ll be judged for being too old.  I don’t particularly care myself, but Jacks has been going on about it all summer and nothing’s even happened yet.”

“I know that feeling,” Malcolm agreed, smiling at the memory of Clara’s first day of school.  “It was the same for us – always judged and excluded for our ages.  Not that Missy or I particularly cared, but they tended to treat Clara as a pariah as well, and you can imagine how well I took that.  How do you judge a child for their parents’ decisions?  Unbelievable. Thankfully things were better once we moved to London, but still.  Judgemental pricks.”

They toasted, draining their bottles as one, and Malcolm didn’t hesitate to take the empties and exchange them for new, easily removing the lids.

“To tell the truth, I’m just glad to have the second chance,” Pete murmured, eyes flickering over to his wife to ensure she couldn’t hear.  “We’d long accepted she would be it when he came along, but I’m so glad he did.  I think I did well with Rose, but this time around I can really appreciate it, you know?  I was so focused when she was young on Vitex, on getting us out of the Estate that I missed things.”

Malcolm hummed but didn’t respond; they’d covered all of this before, and he knew his friend sometimes just felt the need to ‘speak it to the universe’, to quote Jackie.

“D’you think you’ll ever have another?”

Startled, Malcolm choked on his beer, going into a coughing fit that lasted long enough for Rose and Clara to shout in unison, “Stop it!”

“Your concern is overwhelming,” he wheezed, making his daughter roll her eyes and earning himself a rude gesture from Rose.  “I’m fine, thanks.”

When he straightened up Pete was waiting patiently with a napkin, arching an eyebrow when he took it.  “Not sure that qualifies as an answer.”

Wiping his mouth, Malcolm bought himself a few seconds to think before sighing.  “In theory, yes, I’d like another.  But practically… it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards.  And I don’t think Clara would take it with the grace that Rose did.”  He smiled wryly, remembering her reaction to the announcement – it had been at a Sunday dinner so similar to this one, and she had been so overwhelmed with joy that she was still bouncing off the walls the next day in the office, right up until they’d been mid-conversation and her face had contorted in horror.

“What’s wrong?”

Rose stared at him, gagging slightly.  “I just realized that if this baby was unplanned, my parents are having more sex than I am, and I’m the one in my mid-twenties.”

The memory made him chuckle, as had how she would periodically break out in full-body shivers every so often during the months of her mother’s pregnancy.  “She loved him from the first moment.”

“She did take it well,” Pete agreed, “and she’s such a help.  There’s nothing like a reliable, free childminder you can trust without hesitation.  She’ll be a spectacular Mum, when the time comes.”

Malcolm wholeheartedly agreed, but decided a neutral mhmm was the safer response, lest he let slip the secrets buried deep in his heart.  Things are weird enough right now, no need to make it worse.  Still, he couldn’t help but turn enough that he could watch Rose out of the corner of his eye.

A spectacular Mum indeed.

-

“So-”

Rose’s eyes fluttered closed as she fought back a groan at her mother’s would-be casual tone, not fooled for a moment.  Despite her best efforts she’d gotten caught alone with her in the kitchen, and it had been two agonizing minutes of idle chit chat as Jackie built up to her favorite topic of conversation, as if Rose didn’t know where it was headed.

The same place it always is, lately.

“Are you seeing anyone?”

There it is.

“Yes, only he’s an alien, see, and off travelling the universe and saving alien planets, which is why I never bring ‘im around.”  She rolled her eyes, turning around to face her mother, unsurprised at the death glare she was receiving.  “You know I’m not.  It’s just been too busy lately.”

“But, Rose, you’ve been saying that for years.  It was one thing when you were young, but you’re thirty now.  You’re running out of time.”

“Oh my God.”  Wanting to physically run from the conversation she settled for the mature thing of picking up a platter of food and heading for the door.  “I am not having this conversation with you.  Is it really so hard to accept that I’m happy with my life?”

Not one to let anyone else have the last word Jackie followed hot on her heels with the other tray.  “How could you be!  No husband, no children… and while it might seem like it at the moment, a vibrator and your brother are not satisfying substitutes!”

Rose stopped dead, staring in dismay at the four horrified faces looking back at her.  Though she was still a few steps from the table and her mother behind her, they’d all clearly heard her, the whole fucking country probably had, and her eyes darted between them all gauging their reactions.  Her father was disgusted, poor Danny uncomfortable and now staring at his hands, Clara’s eyes were very wide and her jaw open, and Malcolm… Malcolm looked ready to bust a gut laughing, leaning forward on the table, and despite both hands clasped over his mouth, was unable to hide the smile in his twinkling eyes, and when their eyes met, he winked.

Her eyes darted to the pool and for one wild moment she seriously considered throwing herself into it before slowly spinning around.  “Shut.  Up.”

-

Malcolm stuffed a forkful of lettuce in his mouth, glancing idly around the silent table as almost everyone else ate.  While Jackie sat very stiffly across from him glaring at her daughter and not moving, Rose was on his left and bouncing her leg like her life depended on it as she looked everywhere but at Jackie.

For the third time in as many minutes her knee bumped the table, jostling it, and on instinct Malcolm settled his hand on it to calm her.  It worked almost too well as she froze, and their eyes met for only a moment before his gaze skittered away.  He thought about moving it, but rather than being tense at his touch she let out a deep breath and almost seemed to relax, and just because he’d always wanted to and couldn’t help himself, he slowly rubbed his thumb against the side of her knee.  It was as soft as he’d always imagined, smooth, and she didn’t seem to mind given she hadn’t swatted his hand away.  Did she just sigh?

“You know, there’s a nice young man working for your father,” Jackie started abruptly, Rose’s aggravation returning as quickly it had dissipated, based on how her leg tensed beneath his hand.

For fuck’s sake, doesn’t she ever stop?

The answer was no, apparently, as she continued to chatter, oblivious to their audience or her daughter’s humiliation.  “He’s looking for a girl to marry.  Maybe I should invite him to lunch next week.  Or!  Mickey says he’s got a friend you’d get on well with, you should ask him about that.  I know you think you’ve got all the time in the world, but really, it would take a least a year to plan the wedding, and thirty-two sounds young but you might be surprised how long it takes you to get pregnant, and your body won’t bounce back as quickly as you’d like- we can’t all be like those celebrities, back to looking like sticks six weeks after giving birth.  You know, this might be an idea- start planning your wedding now, you should book two years out anyway- then just find your groom along the way!  You can’t afford to lose any time, and really, by now all the decent men are probably married, if not in committed relationships.  The longer you wait the more likely you are to have an ex-wife to deal with, maybe even step-children, and God help you then.  And if there are, then the ex will probably be a total nightmare, ‘cause if she wasn’t they’d still be married, wouldn’t they?  And I don’t mean an annoyance like you complain about Missy, I mean a real pain in the ass.  Though you may get lucky and find a nice widower- come to think of it, maybe you should go to Tony’s school events once he starts, you might meet some single fathers-”

Doesn’t this woman ever breathe? Malcolm rolled his eyes, glancing over at Rose to see metaphorical steam coming out of her ears; the one time he’d screwed up badly enough to earn that stink eye himself it had been enough to scare him straight.  At least for a little while.

Even as he watched her he saw the final straw break her back, uncertain of what it was having tuned Jackie out, but nothing could have prepared him for how Rose interrupted her mother.

“Malcolm and I are getting married.”

#bbatcfic #ficandchips #Doctor Who #doctorroseprompts #Human!12xRose #Human!Twelfth Doctor #Rose Tyler #Human AU #AU #The Nuptial Necessity

[blueyesandleatherjacket]

Ghost of you, 20/21

Volume: 1.

Number of parts: 20/21.

Pairings: Human!Nine x Rose; Human!Ten x Jack; Clara Oswald x Olivia Baxter (OC).

Synopsis: “The pain was another factor. It was the main factor. Since his brain had restarted from his cerebral attack earlier, all of his pain sensors seemed to be on fire. It was as if he had been in a car accident and all his bones were broken.”

A/N: I've started writing this fiction last year after I had a particularly weird dream (as usual) and after I wrote the prologue, I've put it aside to work on other stuff. I've gone back to it not so long ago and decided that it would be the fiction I would post next, after not posting anything for a while. I must have watched I am legend and Game of thrones way too much to come out with something like this but I hope you will like it. I am not a scientist, nor did I have a particular knowledge of sciences. I do my researches on the internet like everyone to make sure everything is as close to the reality as possible. I have a literature degree only. Writing is what I do and it makes me explore next fields, and learn new things.

“In an emergency, one often learns that one's companions can be of even less help in extraordinary circumstances than they are during an average evening.” - Lemony Snicket.

CHAPTER 20:

Maxence was suffocating. It wasn’t only because of the suit that was depriving him from the precious air they were giving him earlier. Now oxygen was having a hard time reaching his lungs and feeding his organs for him to function normally. A thin thread of air was finding its way through his dry lips but didn’t seem to go farther than there. This simple attempt of breathing rarefied air sounded more like a wheeze or a whistle and gave him intense dizziness. The plastic window of his helmet was covered with steam and trickles of cold were running down his neck and wetting his whole back. It was caused by the hot flushes he was suffering from. Hot flushes given to him by the anxiety and pain and fever eating him out like a carnivorous animal would devour its prey. It was unbearable and he couldn’t handle this anymore. He needed fresh air, he needed medicine. He needed it all to stop. The pain was another factor. It was the main factor. Since his brain had restarted from his cerebral attack earlier, all of his pain sensors seemed to be on fire. It was as if he had been in a car accident and all his bones were broken. He was still in the car. No, he was under this wrecked car that was crushing him under its heavy metallic and plastic carcass. When Rose has caught him earlier, when she had moved him from his bed and deprived him from air, she would have cried out if it could have been a relief instead of adding more pain to his poor shattered self. He had made no effort to move more, just let her drag his body to this room where he was now dying alone. Black dots filled his field of vision recovering the mask of opaque steam on his helmet window. It was the lack of oxygen that was killing him. That, and the fact he was fighting a virus ruining his DNA. He had to get rid of this prison of plastic. Those people were always keeping him in locked areas. He was getting claustrophobic. With an immeasurable effort, he raised his hands to his head. The pain was making them stiff and the inability to fold his fingers made it hard to catch the opening system of this suit. He struggled with the zip, managed to stick his fingers inside and finally pushed the helmet away from his head. The fresh non-asepticised air stroked the bit of skin he had managed to free from the suit. He gasped for air. He had hoped it would be easier now. He was regretting the concentrated oxygen they were sending straight into his lungs until recently. He was in a desperate need for it at the moment. Why had he been deprived from air already? Why was no one noticing his struggle? There were noises on his left. Sucking, quick breathing, sound of flesh colliding against another flesh, whines, struggling noises. His hazed mind took a moment to remember who he was with and understand what those sounds meant. He tried speaking but only a gurgling escaped his dry lips. Rose. Her name was Rose and she was his wife; and right now, she needed him. These thoughts sent a shot of adrenaline through his body and made him oblivious of his own pain. He forced himself to his feet, dragged his body to his wife. She was being attacked by a savage with terrible manners, a slob. This sight, even blurred, infuriated him. He jumped on the man’s back. He was just as tall as him, but clearly used to work out. His only chance was the surprise. He was at his advantage at the moment and he did the first that came to his mind: he dug his teeth deep in the man’s throat. The taste of blood stroke his tongue indicating to his dying brain that he had pierced all the layers of flesh. He felt the man’s roar of pain vibrate in his mouth before he was brutally shaken off the intruder’s back. All of this only lasted a minute or two but it was enough. Enough for Rose to pull herself together and knock the man out by banging his head against the hyperbaric chamber, enough for her to catch her husband. The adrenaline and rage were still running in his veins. It pushed him to attack Rose. They rolled on the floor; Rose was barely defending herself, too afraid to hurt him more. He was trying to get rid of her helmet, their eyes met and for a second, everything stopped around them: Rose was crying, devastated by what her husband had become because of this virus, and she was saying his name, again and again. Maxence was struck by this sight that made his way through his blurred mind and forcing him to stop what he was doing. She would never lay a harmful hand on him. Never. She was Rose. His Rose. And no matter what virus was influencing his actions, he couldn’t hurt her. Just like she would never hurt him. The anger burning inside him disappeared as fast as a fire down into water and he rolled by her side. Rose was relieved to see that her husband was still able to recognise her. She closed her eyes and sobbed, forgetting for a moment that they were in the middle of an alert that could cost Maxence his life. If they found him, they found execute him coldly for being a nightwalker. As if he looked any harmful laying in the ground and struggling to breathe. Even with the blood colouring his face and chin, he just looked like a sick man. They were still in this position when Tegan ran back to them with a bottle of oxygen and a mask. He asked no questions, didn’t have the time to and the body on the ground was self-explanatory. He unlocked the chamber and helped Rose to carry Maxence inside. They settled him down and Tegan put Maxence back under oxygen, which was a great relief for the man. Rose didn’t want to leave her husband but Tegan convinced her to go with everyone. Maxence would be safe in there. He locked the door but didn’t activate the chamber. It could end Maxence’s life. It was just the safest place to keep him until things were back to normal. They couldn’t take any risk with him. He was their masterpiece and their friend. They wouldn’t let him  down. He saved them all once, they were gonna return the favour. Rose had expected Tegan to follow her but he just accompanied her to the nearest safety room and pushed her inside. Everyone was wearing suit so it wouldn’t be a problem to have been in contact with infected and non-protected people. She was very shaken and had to sit down on the ground. She wished she could take off her helmet to breathe better but it would have to wait until the end of the alert, until she could have a decontamination shower. She hoped the invasion would be stopped very soon.

x

Allegro had never seen before. Last time he was in service there were tensions in the building but they were pretty calm outside. He had gone in the town often enough to know how was the situation outside these walls. Contrarily to what you could see in movies, not all viruses were viral. Not all of them spread like wildfire. The noctiagus had spread rather slowly and it had taken years to evolve the way it did. That explained why it was easy to get food and electricity in here. His last mission outside showed him that this situation wouldn’t last for too long anymore. This invasion was just another proof, and it was sad that it was happening so close to the solution. It wasn’t hard to understand this reaction from the outside people though. Five years of watching the world falling into chaos was slightly worrying and infuriating when nothing good was coming out of it all. Rory had briefly informed him about the situation before they parted ways to work in their own sections. Allegro didn’t know Rory very well. He just knew that he was the chief of the team responsible of supplies. Since he was one of their best elements, he had been named as Allegro’s replacement until he could come back. He was back but it wasn’t official yet. Rory hadn’t quibbled about the titles. Him and Allegro were working hand in hand to stop this invasion and protect all the scientists present in this lab. They wouldn’t let them win. If they did, all their efforts would be ruined. Allegro spotted a first non authorised individual in the open space where Camden and Donna were working earlier. Thankfully they had been evacuated with their researches. Allegro told the woman to stop and turn around but she threw a chair at him, chair that he easily avoided, and  ran faster toward Maxence’s unit space of work. Allegro immensely chased her down the corridor. There was no way he would let her escape him. She was passing by Tegan’s office, he jumped and pinned her to the ground. She groaned and struggled but he was holding her tight and ignoring her insults. He used a sleeve clamp to tie her hands behind her back and led her back to the open space. He forced her to sit down on a chair and pulled one for himself. He sat down face to her while she was sending him dirty looks. “I’m not gonna lecture you. I know why you’ve done this.” “Penpusher,” she replied, spitting on his feet. “Hidden in this high security building, how can you how it is outside?” “I don’t stay inside this building. If my boss goes out, I follow him. And he’s not the kind to stay behind his desk.” “When was the last time you went out?” “Last week. And I stayed out for two days.” “So you saw what the world has become.” “Sadly, yes.” “Where’s your boss now?” He had expected the question but he didn’t know how to answer. What was he supposed to say? Maxence wasn’t only his boss, he was also his friend and this friend was dying. Or dead already for all he knew with all this mess. Ever since he had been infected, Allegro had kept that hope that Maxence would get better… but what if they didn’t find the cure in time? There wasn’t much chance for Maxence to survive. “Have you lost someone?” “What?” “The virus. Did it infect someone of your family? A friend?” “Not exactly. But these creatures are dangerous, I saw them rip my brother to pieces!” The rage was clear in her voice and the trauma was swirling in the bottom of her grey eyes. She hated the nightwalkers because of this and no one could blame her. The violence of the disease’s mutation was making more victims than the virus in itself. The nightwalkers weren’t considered as humans anymore for many. They could still be saved though, unlike their victims. “My boss… he was also my friend. He trusted me with his life but I couldn’t protect him when this kid came out of nowhere. He was kindhearted. He couldn’t leave a child out there. He had to save him.” “But the kid was infected.” “He wasn’t showing any symptoms, but the moment my friend picked him up, a group of nightwalkers surrounded him. Everyone in our group ran away. It was his last order to us. But I couldn’t leave him there. I saved him but it was too late.” “He was infected.” “And he fought the virus. That killed him.” “At least, your friend took a good decision before dying.” Maxence wasn’t technically dead but Allegro had the feeling that he couldn’t tell this information to this woman. If she knew that Maxence was alive somewhere in this building, she would hunt him down and execute him to be sure he wouldn’t hurt anyone. And Allegro was one of the few persons that wanted him to stay alive. “They deserve to die. They’re not human anymore.” “Listen to this.” The throbbing music of the alarm suddenly was suddenly shut off. “This means that all of your little comrades have been caught.” “What now? Is your boss gonna throw us out and sentence us to death? Oh, I forgot. He’s dead.” She gave him a smile that was supposed to be mean and make him explode but Allegro had expériences with torture methods. She was trying to destabilise him, to get a proper reaction by pressing in his weak point. But that wasn’t gonna work. “We’ve got a new boss. But too gentle. He’s not gonna sentence you to death. Probably gonna ask one of us to do that. Good thing my friend didn’t name the doctor Appleton. He would have asked to fire on sight. None of you would have survived. But you’re probably all condemned anyway.” “So are you. You’re not wearing a cosmonaut suit.” “That’s because I don’t need one. I am infected.” Allegro was half lying. He had been infected but not really. It was just a reaction to his body being too exposed to the virus and once he had been isolated and taken care of, his immune system had naturally chased the virus away. But he wasn’t gonna tell her. It was one of his own tricks. “You’re kidding. They wouldn’t have let you wander around so freely.” “This building isn’t as secured as you think it is. It used to, when the world was a better place, but it isn’t anymore.” “So what? You’re gonna infect me?” “Who says you’re not already? We’re all meant to die one day. What if this virus was our end to us all?” Before the woman could bring an answer to his question, Rory and a couple of other security guards came in the open space and forced all their prisoners to sit in silence. There were twenty or so. Not a huge band but it was enough to create chaos in this building. Thankfully it was over. Allegro got up and put his chair back in place under the table. He walked to Rory. The decisions were his to make at the moment. Allegro hadn’t officially returned to his functions. “I want them all to be locked in separate rooms. Find an empty floor. Throw them all upstairs until further notice.” Everyone obeyed but when Allegro was about to leave the room, Rory asked him to stay. He waited until they were all out and made sure they were alone before speaking. “What you’ve said… about being infected, about the virus…” “I’m clean. My body rejected the virus. Liv wouldn’t have let me out if it hadn’t been the case.” “But you think we’re all doomed.” “Might be,” shrugged Allegro. “But I believe that Rose will find the cure. She’s not Maxence’s wife for nothing.” “I hope so.” “Just a matter of matter now.” Rory really hoped that Allegro’s faith in the Doctor Rose Spitz would be enough to save them all or they would indeed be doomed and dead.

x

The alert was over and the security rooms were unlocked. Everyone was moving out of these overcrowded and unbreathable places they had been prisoner of in the last few hours, or what had felt like hours. Yet, Rose didn’t move. Curled up in a corner with her knees against her chest, she was softly rocking herself and thinking about what had happened earlier. This man… Her Maxence… She had almost been raped by this man. For a second, for a tiny little second, her husband had woken up and come to save her like many years ago, but then… She knew about his past, knew what his father had done. She also knew that Maxence would never be like this monster. He was a good man; his heart hadn’t been corrupted by this darkness. What if that virus had brought out the worst in this man she loved so much? She closed her eyes and she saw his teeth in the neck of this man, the blood flowing, and Maxence not letting go. If the man hadn’t fought back, what would he have done? Would he have killed the man? And she, had she killed the man by knocking his head so violently on the chamber? The adrenaline and the fear had made her totally oblivious of this fact. She was the one who completely knocked that man out. His blood was on her hands as much as they were on Maxence’s. How was she supposed to live with that? Hadn’t she had through enough when she was younger? Her frail body trembled. It never ended. The wheel never turned. Or it did, and it came back to square one, back to the bad days. Without Maxence, without friends, without hope. She was left with nothing but the sad thought that there was no one to save her this time. If she wanted to be saved, she had to be her own hero, and she didn’t have the strength for that right now. Everyone had left the secure room now. In their relief, they hadn’t seen the poor woman in her corner, suffering in silence. They had just left her there, alone, and it reminded her so much of all the times she had hidden in a corner to cry when she was in that orphanage where she grew up. She had Liv back then, but now, where was she? Where was her beloved knight? “Rose?” She jumped at the voice. A man with a pronounced American accent. Jack. It could only be Jack. He didn’t touch her, sensing that it wouldn’t help her. He was just calling her name softly to bring her attention on him. She slowly raised her head. Not much, just enough for her eyes to meet Jack’s. He was crouching before her, his face twisted by the worry he was feeling for her. “Rory has stopped the invasion. The electricity is back. Maxence is his cage, he’s okay. All cleaned up.” All cleaned up from the blood, certainly. Liv wouldn’t have let him like this. His grey pyjamas must have been changed and he was connected to all those machines that were keeping him alive. Okay. What a great euphemism it was for a dying man. “He asked for you.” “He doesn’t even remember who I am.” “I wouldn’t say that.” Rose didn’t care what Jack thought at this moment. She couldn’t control the trembling of her body and the voices screaming in her head were driving her mad. She wasn’t fine, she wasn’t in the condition to work, and Maxence needed her. Her priority was to save him but what would happen after? Would he be the same man she had always known? Or would it be different? She was scared to know the answers to those questions, afraid of a future she hadn’t thought of at first. “I’ve watched the CCTV. He shouldn’t have been able to move but he forced himself to his feet when he heard that you were in danger. What he did, he did it for you, and not because the virus was telling him to.” “No. That wasn’t my husband up there.” “It was him, and he wants you.” “I can’t.” Rose appreciated the fact that he wasn’t touching her but she was ashamed that he had seen the videos, that he had seen that she was totally paralysed by the terror, by the ghosts of her past, and Maxence had given in to his own demons and become the monster he was so afraid of. “You need time. Okay.” Jack sat down on the ground. “I’m staying.” She needed time and they had everything but time. She didn’t move, didn’t push Jack away when he wrapped his arms around her. It was there, in his warm and comforting embrace that something broke in her. She sobbed all her fears and doubts on the shoulder of the former soldier.

x

Maxence was unhappy with his situation. He had been disturbed during the sort of nap he was taking in his new chamber and been forced to take a decontamination shower with a couple of other males before they helped him in another of these horrible grey pyjamas that were irritating his skin and been settled back down in this cage. None of this had happened painlessly of course. Each step of this come back had been a physical torture. There was a drip of morphine on his hand and it was pleasurably relieving his pain. It was strong enough to make it bearable. It wasn’t gone completely but it was gone enough for him to feel better than earlier. He had thought he was gonna die in that chamber. Having extra oxygen was nice, but that wasn’t the only thing he was in need of. Thankfully, he was back here. Only one thing was missing: the blonde woman that was with him in this room. His wife. His fingers closed around the remote that had been left close to his hand. It was the remote of the interactive wall. He looked for the picture of her, of this woman he wanted to see by his side right now. He had seen a lot of people in a very short amount of time but none of these persons was Rose. That was her name. She was Rose. Rose Spitz. His wife. He found the picture, displayed it on the screen and used the help button to draw everyone’s attention on what he wanted. However, they thought he was in pain and just entered a command in the computer for him to have an extra dose of morphine. Sure it felt nice to be completely numbed to the point of forgetting you were even in pain in the first place but it didn’t respond his need to have Rose by his side. He played with the remote control, trying to find a way to contact her through this ingenious machine they were lucky to work with but the numbness had reached the point where moving and thinking were getting quite difficult. If he didn’t want the haze to win, he had to move. He gathered all his will and moved one muscle, one limb at a time. All eyes were on him, humans and numeric, he was very aware of that. What he was doing in his condition was a miracle. He should be lying in bed and agonising instead of standing up and walking to the interactive wall, dangerously reeling, gripping the pole of his drip to stay on his feet. He made it to the wall, put his hand on the pixelated face of his wife. How did this work already? How could he contact Rose and make her come here as soon as possible? “You want her to come?” It took him a couple seconds to understand what the voice had told him. His blood was rushing in his ears which was surprising given that his heart was beating as slow as a horse’s heart, if not slower. He nodded to whoever had spoken. Yes. That’s what he wanted. “I’m gonna get her for you.” He would have thanked the voice if he could have spoken. Even when he tried, nothing was coming out of his mouth. It was only irritating his throat. He focused on the wall again. Pressing the screen that much with his hand had messed it up. It had frozen on the page of the latest results of their researches. He frowned so hard he ended up squinting to be able to read what was before him. Even with his glasses, he couldn’t see much anymore. It was as frustrating as being unable to speak. But once he read that one particular line, his brain seemed to woken up from the drugged haze causing him to drift off, causing his muscles to protest at the extra efforts he was making. He needed his felt pen. He rushed to his bed; fought to open the box he was putting his belongings but only managed to make him fall. It broke and everything was strewed. He growled his annoyance and slowly dropped to his knees and looked for his pen by hand since he couldn’t see much of anything. “On your left.” He moved to the left, groped around the ground to catch that precious pen he needed to write his idea down before it went away. The morphine added to the noctiagus was making him lose his composure. Many times he nearly fell to the ground because his body couldn’t handle his weight anymore. “Do you want me to get in to help you.” No. He didn’t want help. He wanted to figure this out on his own and he would manage to. He stopped looking for his pen, scratched his hand and got rid of the drip. Never mind the pain, he needed all his abilities to work on this. The voice was guiding him to find his pen and he was following the instructions but he was disturbed by his throat itching. He coughed. Once, twice. It got better. He found his pen and started writing on the floor. The last line of their results. His corrected version. He didn’t have the courage or the strength to get up and had no idea if what he was writing was readable but he wrote his idea. His pen died in the process. He coughed again. Something was wrong. “I’m calling Liv.” She wouldn’t get here in time. That was a certainty for him. He was spitting out blood now. It would be his end and he would go on a good note. He would give them the answer they had all been looking for during the last five years. He used his own blood to keep writing. His hand was shaking badly and he was dizzy, consequences of the coughing fit and lack of oxygen. He was losing it, wrote faster, coughed harder and when he reached the final point of his formula, collapsed in a puddle of his own blood…

To be continued...

Ghost of you © | 2017 - 2019 | Tous droits réservés.

×××

In the next chapter:

Maxence wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t alive either. When she had felt better, Jack had taken her to the cages only to find Liv with all the doctors she had by hand at the moment inside Maxence’s cage. They were all around him and Zach explained them that he had had another fit while he was trying to get their attention on what he wanted. That had been shortly after Jack left. After that, he had been looking for his pen and writing a formula as if his life depended on it. Which was the case if they had to be honest with themselves. Jack had expected Rose to be staring at Maxence while the medical team was trying to keep him alive but her eyes were riveted on the pictures of the formula. Zach had screened it and printed it and Rose was fixing it, oblivious of everything around her. She grabbed the pictures, reread them.

×××

← Last || Next →

English version:

AO3 || FF || TS || Wattpad.

#doctor who #ninth doctor #rose tyler #tenth doctor #jack harkness #doctor x rose #dwfic #dwau #ghost of you

[thoughtsofdarc]

The Butterfly Effect - Part 6 - The 3 little words

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 1505

A/N: This might very well be my favorite chapter so far! :D i ‘d’aaaaw’ed myself. 

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 

It's Friday, the sun is out, I just got off from work and I am so very ready to kick start this weekend, I've been looking forward to it all week.

Natasha and I are going dress hunting for her wedding tomorrow, and she has asked me to be her maid of honor. Dress, shoes, jewelry... we're going all in for the both of us. It's been a long time since we've had a proper shopping spree and to be honest, this is just what I need.

After the shopping both Clint and Bucky are meeting us for dinner and the guys officially meeting for the first time.

It's a bit nerve wrecking, since Clint has become like my big brother, overprotective and a smartass. But I've already warned Bucky and Nat promised to have a talk with Clint, asking him to behave.

Which, now when I think about it, might very well be like putting fuel on the fire...? Damn.

"Oh Y/N? Wait up!" a cheery voice call after me. The hairs on my neck stand up, as I recognize the voice as Clara's, the office gossip and prom queen.

I pretend I didn't hear her and push the elevator button, hoping it will somehow magically be there and take me away. But of cause it's not...

 Clara and her entourage catch up. I don't know how or why these 5 people are always together...

I swear, they synchronize their watches and have secret intercoms to communicate when one of them leaves, so the rest can follow.

 "Ready for the weekend Y/N? Do you have any big plans?" Clara's eyes shine bright with that evil queen bee look. She's always had it out for me, if only I knew why?

 "Yeah... Dress shopping with the bride to be, and then hanging with Bucky I think" I'm not really in the mood for chatting, but I've come to learn that if I ignore her, she just becomes even more stubborn and hard to get rid of.

 "Oh, the mystery boyfriend" She says and the girls following her around giggle. What are we? 12?

"You know, Bucky does sound like a made up name" she starts and I can't help but to roll my eyes... yes, definitely 12.

 "It's a nickname, Clara... His real name is James" I say dryly.

 "Mmmhmm... and this James, do you happen to have a picture of him?" Her voice is challenging.

Does she really believe that I've made up a boyfriend?

 It's not like I owe her to prove his existence, but knowing how good-looking Bucky is, I kind of want to shove it in her face.

"Yeah, in my phone... hang on" I dig through my bag, cursing myself for being so messy.

Mascara, lip-gloss, 3 pens, a bag of hard candy... I feel Clara look to her girls, probably rolling her eyes and they snicker again.

 "Ah! Here it is!" I say triumphantly, but the joy is short lived "Oh... The battery is empty"

I try several times to turn on the screen, but it does not react and deep down in my mind, I remember that I noticed it to be half empty this morning, making a mental note to charge it during the day.

Yeah... mental notes, not so helpful!! "It's okay Y/N... I'm sure you have a very sweet, sexy and imaginary boyfriend" Clara says as the elevator doors open and lets us out in to the great hall.

I curse my phone for betraying me, I curse myself for being so stupid to forget to charge it and I curse Clara for being such a...

 I push myself away from them and walk towards the big glass doors, but even if I do walk fast I hear their heels clicking close behind me.

The joy of finally having finished the workweek is suddenly clouded by the women behind me.

 I push the revolving doors making me get in there before them, hopefully giving me time to get away. But just as I step out on the street I hear a familiar and welcoming voice

 "Hi Doll! Over here!" I look over and to my joy and happiness I see Bucky, sitting on his parked Bike, one hand casually on the handlebar, his helmet casually hanging on the grip. Making everything even better, I see my helmet on the other side and also Bucky who is now standing up and walking over to me.

My smile might just outshine the sun, because when he comes over to me and wrap his arms around my waist, his blue eyes and cocky smile show amusement, and his words before he press his lips to mine would have made me chuckle if it wasn't for the fact, that the kiss takes my breath away.

 "Someone seems happy to see me, Snow White!" I wrap my arms around his neck and let my fingers run though his hair. God I love when he has his hair loose...

 "Eh... Y/N?" I hear a surprised Clara behind me, and I can't help but to get that 'I-told-you-so' smirk when I turn around and look at her.

 "Clara... This is my boyfriend Bucky. Bucky, this is some of the women from work" I notice that the girls are very quiet and wide eyed. Clara and one of the other girls clearly check him out, like he was a piece of meat. I press myself closer to Bucky's side and he returns the gesture by tightening his arm around my waist.

 He smiles to them, a beautiful smile that would make any girl weak in her knees, but one I've come to know isn't quite genuine, since it doesn't reach the ocean blue eyes of his.

"Hi!" He says and nods his head once, as a hello. He doesn't extend his hand or in any other way indicating that he wants to talk further with them. And for that I like him just a little bit more.

 "I was thinking I would surprise you and give you a ride home. I've missed you badly, and I got off from work a but earlier than expected..." He says, his focus now completely back on me, his eyes search mine, his lips curl up at the sides, the way that I love so much.

It's not really a smile, it's just his relaxed happy face and it's adorable "...So, what do you say?"

 "I say YES! Do you even have to ask?" I beam up at him. And he shakes his head like he can't really believe what he is seeing, looking ever so lovingly down at me.

 At the bike he helps me with my helmet and swiftly press yet another kiss to my lips

"Let's get out of here... your friends are staring at me" he watch the group of stunned women from the corner of his eye and when he kick start the bike and steer it out onto the road, I wave at them before I wrap my arms around Bucky's waist to hang on.

 The ride home becomes a trip to the park, dinner at a restaurant and a ride along the waterfront.

 Bucky finds a quiet spot with a beautiful view over the water. A ship with its sails raised, is slowly making its way towards the horizon as the sun is setting, making everything shine a mix between purple, orange and pink. The last rays of the sun glisten in the water and everything is bathed in the warm glow.

 Bucky is sitting sideways on his parked bike, me between his legs with my back up against his chest. His arms are wrapped around my waist, resting on my stomach, our fingers intertwined.

None of us speaks, we just admire the sunset and each other.

 Bucky leans his chin on my shoulder and his stubbles scratch my bare skin on my neck. It's a good feeling though, and I sigh content, loving every second of this.

 Bucky gently tighten his arms around me and whisper "Look"

 In front of us flies a butterfly, blue like a glacier lake. It swivels around in the orange golden light, playing catch with an invisible friend.

 I don't know how long we stand here. Probably longer than it feels, since I never want this moment to end, when Bucky suddenly speaks.

His voice is low and husky and even a bit shaky

 "Snow White..." He begins and I turn enough to look at him. His large hand seeks my face, and his thumb lightly brushes my cheekbone.

"...God, you are beautiful!" he whispers.

 Suddenly I get shy, I don't know what to say, so I just lean in to his touch and look up to him.

I see the golden light shine in his blue orbs, making his normally beautiful eyes seem somewhat magical. I can't help the smile on my lips... He really is magical, isn't he?

 His eyes search mine, full of love, full of promise...

 "Y/N, I love you!"

Part 7

@fangirling-all-the-way-tbh​ @owhatshername1 @sinceimetyou @alextittle @todorath @tbetz0341 @fortheloveoflamp @hippie-taco-lady @buckysjuicyplums @mynameisreallycoolbutitstoolong @kalisaysfuck @shitmymomsay @mjgonzalez-01 @projectxhappiness @kuollut-talven @lol-haha-joke @caplansteverogers @loki7ms @who-cares-rn @bexboo616 @cc8302 @buckysarm4 @altyex @happylittlethingsss @mizzzpink @silver-starburst

#The Butterfly Effect #Bucky #Bucky Barnes #Bucky x you #Bucky Barnes x you #Bucky x reader #Bucky Barnes x reader #Bucky Fluff #Bucky Barnes fluff #bucky imagine #Bucky Barnes Imagine #Bucky fanfic #Bucky Barnes Fanfiction #bucky fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic

[upslapmeal]

Twice Upon a Time

Right so I’m going to start off with a lot of Doctor-y stuff before I get to my usual yelling about the episode. Also surprise surprise it got a lil bit long so the yelling will be under a cut

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d say: I’m glad Moffat was given one extra last episode to do. Why? Bombastic Moffat really isn’t my thing. At all. And so The Doctor Falls was....fine? But I’m glad it wasn’t Twelve’s swansong. Moffat does held-back a lot better, at least to me. And so I’m glad we got this quieter ep, Twelve dealing with his future while being presented with his past, and then dealing with the Captain and Testimony. There wasn’t much to it but I much preferred it that way. I also really liked that it wasn’t an Evil Villain™, I think Twelve was disappointed that he couldn’t keep the distraction up, putting off dealing with his future (#relatable) and I love how we see at the end Twelve makes a change to help save one extra person. It’s what I would expect from the Doctor but it does show how far he’s come since s8. He’s openly kinder and softer and he’d not keeping up a facade any more. This change was pretty much established by s9 but it was still nice to see, especially with the direct connection to Into the Dalek we got this episode.

Now since we’re talking about the Doctor, I have to talk about One, one of my favourite Doctors who I truly adore. And I’m going to try not to make this about...........The Problem. I’ve talked about the ~casual chauvinism~ and why it wasn’t One already (here and here and here and here) and @thefirstintimeandspace​ has said a lot more that is much better written so I don’t want everything I say about One here to be about that but just know I’m Mightily Annoyed And Unhappy and think the decision was really lazy writing. THAT BEING SAID, David Bradley did a wonderful job with what he was given. In terms of being a note-for-note imitation it wasn’t perfect, definitely could have done with a few twinkly Hartnell chuckles in my book, but the vast majority of the time the heart(s) in the acting was right. I liked how we saw the First Doctor scared of this first change. I mean the whole idea of it must have been terrifying! I felt devastated when he saw what Testimony showed about his future and then his final conversation with Twelve almost made me tear up. And his talk with Bill about looking for the truth in the stars, trying to find how goodness prevails, was absolutely wonderful. That’s not to say it made up for the character disservice and it makes me sad there may be people put off watching his era because of that, but there was a lot of good.

And now Peter. Oh Peter. The first episode I ever watched live was The Time of the Doctor. I thought it was an awful episode and so in my heart the first live episode I saw was Deep Breath but Twelve has been the only Doctor I’ve followed from week to week. So not only will I miss the character I love and Peter’s consistently superb acting but it’s the end of an era for me. I’m so excited for Thirteen (she’s keeping her accent we’re getting another Northern Doctor!!) but there there is definitely a Twelve-shaped hole in my heart. “Doctor, I let you go”. What perfect final lines. After he said this I had to pause the ep just to give myself a couple of minutes to let go too. In fact, the whole final speech (though Moff dude why are you so obsessed with the Doctor’s name) was wonderful. I’m just really going to miss him. A lot. Thanks Peter.

Ok general yelling below the cut:

actual clips from The Tenth Planet!!

LOVE! HATE! HAVE YOU NO EMOTIONS?

lol though surely they could have found someone shorter than Polly to play Ben? 

and got a wig for Polly that didn’t look like it was from poundland?

oh well it was only brief

‘your face it’s all over the place’

the this is my nurse joke would have worked so much better if the hadn’t continued

'obviously polly isn’t around any more’ 'in dire need of a good spring clean’ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

(ok that’s it just assume my angry screaming applied to every sexist First Doctor moment)

One: *mentions the french*    me: nice reign of terror reference!!!!

THE DOCTOR’S THEME!!

also I’ve been listening to the unreleased soundtrack for this ep while writing this (thank you magic music people) and there’s All The Strange Strange Creatures! Doomsday! Eleven’s Theme!

a farewell tour of sorts for Murray Gold I suppose :(

BILL MY LOVE!!!!!!

I’m so happy we get to see her one last time!! 

(even if it’s not QUITE her)

Bill and Pearl were so wonderful and deserved to be in the show for longer but alas

I’ll really miss Bill she and Twelve made such a fantastic team

yes One! notice that asymmetry!

why didn’t Testimony just tell the Doctors that they collect memories? 

I mean that would have just got rid of the plot and Twelve probably wouldn’t have believed them I suppose

MARY BERRY!

ONE’S TARDIS!! complete with assorted furniture and ornaments :’)

I like how one wall was still different but not just a flat wall with roundels printed on lol

(shoutout to one of my posts I linked to earlier)

CORPORAL JONES! 

glad to know Twelve has watched Dad’s Army

lol well I can’t say I had expected Rusty to be back for Twelve’s final ep but I’m not complaining

'you’re the first Dalek to ever get naked for me’ was NOT something I needed to hear

so if Bill is part of Testimony then there are two Bills? 

and actual non-memory Bill doesn’t know that Twelve’s alive?

also does this mean that Testimony can just.....reconstruct literally anyone who has died?

also speaking of extraction at the moment of death I wonder how this worked for Clara?

was her Testimony extraction before or after Twelve extracted her?

we can just add this to Metacrisis Ten and the gangers in the whole ‘this is the real me! I remember everything!’ theme

Lethbridge-Stewart!!

the moustache should have been a giveaway

also this is extra nice since I’ve now finally met the Brig in my Classic Who watch

I love stories about the Christmas truce it’s one of my favourite historical things

‘impeccable dress sense’

(I actually have a post somewhere in my drafts where I was attempting to humourously document Twelve’s range of outfits lol I should find that)

CLARA!!!!

I WAS ALREADY EMOTIONAL FROM TWELVE AND ONE’S CONVERSATION THIS TIPPED ME OVER THE EDGE

AND THEN NARDOLE ROCKS UP AND TWELVE COMPLAINS ABOUT IT BEING WORSE THAN DYING WHATTA MOOD I’M LAUGHING

(I was actually surprised that I was happy to see Nardole again and then he had to ruin it by talking about nipples thanks I really didn’t need that)

'invisible hair’ was that from the fan show or had it been something in s10??? I can’t remember

just one more life won’t hurt, Twelve, and it’ll do the universe a world of good

the score during Twelve’s final speech is Breaking the Wall which is one of my absolute favourites and jUST MAKING IT MORE EMOTIONAL

THIRTEEN IS HERE AND THE TARDIS IS ON FIRE AND CRASHING AND IT’S BRILLIANT

Doctor, I let you go. And I can’t wait to see what your next self brings.

#twelfth doctor #first doctor #bill potts #twice upon a time #doctor who #ramblings

[gemvictorfromtheponyverse]

Love at First Lizard Chapter 2

Finally! Chapter 2 of mine and wonderful @green-love-paternoster gay masterpiece!

Chapter 1 of this Vastra/Jenny Vet AU can be found here: https://gemvictorfromtheponyverse.tumblr.com/post/159010298794/love-at-first-lizard-chapter-one

Credit goes to always lovely @kelticscribe for helping with the Scottish translations in this chapter! ❤

And as promised, here is Chapter 2:

The clock on the kitchen wall indicated that it was currently 8:30 in the morning. Vastra stood there leaning forward on the kitchen counter, already dressed in her regular casual weekend attire, consisting of a simple short-sleeved white button-up shirt, faded gray skinny jeans that accentuated the fine shapely curves of her legs, and black calf-length leather boots. Her favorite studded black leather jacket and plaid scarf were both hung on the back of a nearby chair.

A cold, half-empty cup of green tea was laid on the table beside Vastra’s green, purple, and yellow motorcycle helmet, adorned with three large reptilian-like crests that protruded from the surface. The cup was labeled with the words, “Looney Lizard Lady”, written in a swirly childish font; It had been a gift from her friend and fellow veterinarian, John Smith, at a company Christmas party two years ago. While Vastra had outwardly rolled her eyes at his constant teasing about her so-called affinity with reptiles, she was nonetheless genuinely grateful for his friendship.

It was an extremely rare phenomenon to see the anti-morning Scottish woman awake so early on a Sunday morning when she had no work, yet here she was anyway, nervously fumbling with her phone as she stared at a certain number glowing on her contact list. Strangely enough, she hasn’t been able to sleep properly within the past five days and deep down inside her mind, she knew that it had something to do with a particular young girl whose pet lizard she helped to treat several days prior that week. Watching the girl–Jenny–leave the clinic, Vastra felt as if the whole weight of the world had come crashing down upon her, and she had to resist the urge to go running out after her. Ever since that fateful Wednesday, Vastra has found it to be utterly impossible to focus on anything else because of this accursed beautiful girl, who seemed to haunt her mind without any rest during her every waking hour. The powerful tingling sensation she had felt that day still lingered on her hand where Jenny touched it, an enduring reminder of the profound connection they had shared together. Vastra would mentally replay the episode of Jenny’s visit over and over again, allowing her to fully memorize all of Jenny’s physical details including her enchanting brown eyes, her blindingly bright smile, the little beauty mark located near her left upper lip, the lovely roundness of her face, and the way the light reflected brilliantly off of her dark brown hair. Never in her life did she thought that a creature so divinely magnificent and perfect could even exist on earth.To make matters worse, her infatuation with Jenny was actually the worst kept secret among her other co-workers at the clinic, who would often catch her daydreaming in her office with a spaced-out expression on her face. Whenever she heard someone come in through the front door, Vastra would immediately rush into the reception room with the hope that it was Jenny, only to be severely disappointed each time. It was as if the girl had somehow cast a spell on her, effectively captivating her entire body, heart, and soul, from which Vastra struggled strenuously to break free.Vastra tried her damn hardest to hide her feelings and act like everything was normal by being her usual condescendingly grumpy self, but she knew that it was a completely futile effort on her part. Nothing she do or say could stop John and Clara from continuing their bets and whispering gossips behind her back; For once, however, John and Clara also expressed a benign sense of pity towards Vastra, because they could clearly see just how much Jenny means to her. Although the two of them might be total assholes and drive Vastra crazy sometimes, they were still able to rally at their friend’s side whenever she needed some extra support.

The only small consolation was that Vastra had fortunately managed to get Jenny’s phone number before she left. She honestly had no idea what to do next with that information, which now led her to this present situation of contemplating the pros and cons of calling Jenny that Sunday. A flurry of doubts and contradictions swirled around in her mind: What if she’s busy? What if she doesn’t pick up? What if she thinks I’m a stalker? What if she secretly hates my guts? What if she changed her identity and fled the country???

Suddenly overwhelmed by all the negatively discouraging voices in her head, Vastra angrily shoved her phone away across the table before hiding her face behind her hands in utter exasperation. Vastra felt like a coward and a fool to think that she could just talk to Jenny when even the mere sound of her name was enough to give her a goddamn heart attack. The chances that Jenny would view Vastra as anything more than “the looney veterinarian lady who looked at my lizard”, nevermind sharing the same romantic feelings for her, was far less than one in a billion. Bloody hell, she doesn’t even know if Jenny swings that way for God’s sake! Therefore, it soon dawned on Vastra that perhaps she had made a terribly grave mistake in regards to this whole Jenny debacle.

Then unexpectedly, there was another voice that called out to Vastra from the very deep recesses of her subconsciousness. It sounded rather familiar, and as Vastra continued to concentrate on the voice, she eventually recognized it to be her father’s voice! Her father’s voice was trying to remind her of an important piece of advice that he once gave her long ago, when she was just a wee lass back in Scotland: Love works in mysterious ways, my darling daughter. The best thing to do is simply follow your heart and seize the opportunity right in front of you, lest you miss out on something that can grant you a lifetime of happiness.

Vastra couldn’t help the small, bittersweet smile that crept upon her lips; Good old Papa was still looking out for her even after all these years, she mused. Vastra’s father had always been an incredibly wise man, and she really didn’t want to disappoint him by letting this golden opportunity slip away so easily. Fueled by a newfound surge of fearlessness, Vastra quickly retrieved her phone and proceeded to hit the call button on her phone.This was it, there was no going back from here. The shallow rhythm of her breathing and incessant pounding of her heart filled Vastra’s ears, as she anxiously waited for Jenny to answer at any second. Her foot tapped vigorously along to the ringing tune playing on the other side of the line.

“Hello? Who am I talking to? Hold on” After a few moments, a tired sounding voice spoke up on the other side, falling quiet for a little while before picking up once more. “Sorry Miss McIntosh. Had to check the caller ID. So, how can I help you?” Vastra could almost hear Jenny smiling on the other line, waiting for an answer.

Vastra really hoped that the heavy, relieved sigh that escaped from between her lips wasn’t noticeable to Jenny on the other end of the line. Step one accomplished! God, how absolutely wonderful did it felt to finally hear the sweetly angelic music that was Jenny’s voice again.

The sheer fact that Jenny even picked up momentarily stunned Vastra, who started to speak but hesitated. Vastra had to rack her brain to find a valid response, and uncharacteristically stammered when she said, “Uhh…err…um….H-Hello, Miss Flint, yes it is I, Miss McIntosh, the vet from the clinic in case you don’t remember me. I was just calling you to ask if um….if you’re having a good morning today?”

Vastra’s entire face cringed as soon as she uttered those words. Ugh, you stupid, stupid idiot! Are you trying to make it sound so bloody fucking obvious?!

“Oh. Yes I am having a good morning. I’m sorry I was a little slow earlier, I’m normally an earlier riser. Unfortunately I have not been sleeping very well lately, so I’ve been trying to catch up on lost sleep when I’m not working weekends.” There was a short pause, and then Jenny spoke once more. “And you ? Are you having a good morning?”

“Splendid!” Replied Vastra, sounding a little too enthusiastic than she intended, causing her to wince yet again. Bloody hell, woman, pull yourself together already! “Errr, what I mean,um, is that it’s truly splendid to hear you are doing well this morning. Despite the fact that you’ve been unable to sleep much lately, of course, which I am sincerely sorry about. Although, I do appreciate your kindness in asking me how I am….my morning is also good, thank you. Dare I say, maybe even better now that I’ve finally managed to make your acquaintance.” Vastra unconsciously bit her lip, though she was barely able to prevent a silly, indulgent schoolgirl smile from breaking out across her face. She then realized that she had been rambling unnecessarily, and decided to quickly get on with business by saying, “Well then, Miss Flint, perhaps it would be best if I get straight to the point with you. It was my intention to call you this weekend to ask about Greeny, and I just wanted to be sure that I got the right number. So, how is Greeny faring since your visit to the clinic?”

“Oh, Greeny. Yes…my pet lizard…” Once more Jenny trailed off, before quickly picking up again. “Yes. Sorry, tired. Me brain is being stupid. Greeny is doing better than ever. Your tips about the heat lamp was just what Greeny needed, it seems. I haven’t had time to pick up any more plants for him but it’s definitely on my to-do list. If you want to….and only if you want to….then maybe you could come over and see for yourself?”

Vastra very nearly dropped her phone when Jenny said that, and her hand instinctively tightened its grip on the phone with enough force to break it in half.

“P-Pardon?” Gasped a highly bewildered Vastra, who felt her pulse rate increased dramatically due to the shock caused by Jenny’s words. “Can you repeat that, please?”

Vastra was entirely convinced that her ears must be deceiving her, as she believed that there was no possible way Jenny could have mean what she thought she meant.

“Uh…I just…maybe it was stupid. I understand if you’re too busy and everything, but I just thought maybe you’d like to come over and see how Greeny is doing?” Jenny stumbled over her words and Vastra couldn’t help but think she sounded almost hopeful.

It took a while for Jenny’s words to sink into Vastra’s brain, leading her to reply with,“Oh….Oh! Please forgive my uh confusion, Miss Flint, it’s just that no client has ever invited me to their home like that before. Though if you insist, I suppose that I can make time in my schedule to come over and check on Greeny. You’re lucky that I don’t have to work on Sundays.” Vastra silently pumped her fist in the air at how well she handled that response. Her glee was short lived, nonetheless, for she then realized that she have absolutely no knowledge about Jenny’s place of residence. “Err….however, I’m afraid that I don’t have a single idea as to where you live. An address would be most helpful, if you are willing to provide me with one.”

“Oh…uh…yes I’m sorry if it’s a bother. I normally work on Sundays, but today I don’t, so I thought it’d be a good idea. Greeny could benefit from it, and I’d know that he really is doing better.” She paused to catch her breath.. “Oh! And my address, it’s 222 Great Portland Street, the Armitage Apartment buildings. It’s close to Hyde Park near the River Thames.”

Meanwhile, Vastra had ran to her bedroom drawer and frantically searched around for a notepad and pen. She carefully wrote down the address as Jenny spoke before reassuring her,“Trust me, Miss Flint, this is honestly no trouble to me at all whatsoever. In fact…,”Vastra paused to consult the watch on her wrist, “…would it be okay with you if I come over now, since I am free this morning?”

“Oh yes…absolutely.” Jenny sounded just the tiniest bit hesitant as she spoke. “I’m just fixing some things in my apartment, but you can come over whenever.”

“Excellent! I shall indeed be there shortly, Miss Flint. It’s been a real pleasure talking to you again….goodbye for now!” Thus, with that final farewell, Vastra abruptly hung up the call.

Vastra tucked her phone away into her jean pocket and leaned heavily against the drawer at her back as she tried to regain her breath after talking with Jenny. That phone call could have been a huge utter disaster, but miraculously she was somehow able to pull it off…..albeit barely. God knows that every inch of her body was on fire the entire time, and she felt as though her heart was going to burst out of her chest just from that one simple interaction. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever expected Jenny to suggest that she make a personal visit to her actual home . Damn it, if she can’t even handle a little phone call with Jenny, then how the hell will she be capable of physically seeing the girl face-to-face at her home without totally self destructing on the spot! She was going to fuck up so badly in front of Jenny for sure, and the thought of that really frightened her more than anything. Vastra was beginning to consider potential excuses that she can use in order to not go, but all of them instantly disappeared when she caught sight of Jenny’s address that she had written on a notepad. Her eyebrows became scrunched upon her forehead and she bit her lip, a wave of guilt washing over her as she knew that Jenny was looking forward to their meeting later. Vastra soon found herself painfully torn between growing a spine and going to Jenny’s home anyways despite the risks, or breaking her promise to Jenny like a lily-livered chicken; She wanted to cry out in frustration due to the raging internal conflict that was threatening to effectively tear her apart. Why must this godforsaken girl suddenly walk into her life and completely complicate everything! It was during this dark hour, that salvation then came to Vastra in the form of her father’s disembodied voice once again.

…..Follow your heart and seize the opportunity right in front of you…..

Those words ignited a fiery spark of courage within Vastra’s heart, as she became firmly determined to seize the opportunity right in front of her, just like her father had taught her. Life was too short to waste on worrying over frivolous doubts, and this could be her only chance of at least starting something deeper with Jenny. She would never be able to forgive herself if she had simply let her fears scare her out of pursuing a relationship that could change her life forever. Deciding that there was no time to lose, Vastra immediately went to grab her leather jacket, scarf, motorcycle helmet, and keys, before exiting her house to approach the motorcycle parked beside the sidewalk. Her resolve was strong as steel and absolutely nothing could break it now. The Scottish woman could soon be seen zooming down the street, as she was embarked on a personally sacred mission to heal a lizard and get the girl.

—-

Hanging up the phone, Jenny felt as though she could hardly breath. She couldn’t believe that she just had invited her pet lizard’s extremely hot veterinarian to come into her home and take a look at said lizard. In her home , where she could observe all of her attractive Scottish glory. Even though she hoped she had sounded collected on the phone, calm and collected was the last thing she was feeling, and she was quite sure that she would explode from pure, untempered desire lest she moved right that minute. She had to get her apartment ready and properly presentable for Vastra, because a good first impression was extremely crucial in this situation.

Quickly, she got up on her feet, trying to gather everything that was out of place and putting them back as sufficiently as she could while still keeping some efficiency. She had been meaning to spend the day cleaning up the apartment anyway, because she hated when it got too dirty, but now she only had an hour, two at most, to do a day’s worth of work. Fortunately, if there was anything Jenny could do adequately, it was cleaning. Her first priority were the tea cups;She searched out all the abandoned tea cups in the house, picking them up from bookshelves and the coffee table and the floor, everywhere she’d abandoned them, before carrying them to the dishwasher, and putting them in there until it was filled.

When she was done with the cups, the books came next. As much as Jenny liked to drink tea, she also enjoyed reading, and therefor, there were books laying everywhere as well. With the speed of a seasoned professional, she picked up one paperback after another, gathering them in her arms and lining them back in the bookshelves. She made sure they were put back in a correctly organized order, and once she was done, she smiled at her handiwork.

Cleaning her apartment always felt great, and it was even better now that she’d done it in record time, too. More importantly, it felt reassuring to know that Vastra would be coming into a clean, neatly organised apartment. Standing there, looking at her beautifully spotless apartment, she suddenly wondered what she should do next. Lifting her arm a little, she caught onto how much her armpit smelled, and decided that she definitely need to take a shower next. Just like her apartment couldn’t be dirty, she herself couldn’t be smelling like a trash can.

Swiftly, she made a beeline for the bathroom, plucking some new clothes out of the drawer with care as she once more thought about Vastra, the gorgeous veterinarian visiting her apartment later. Still completely immersed in her romantic daydreaming, she retrieved a short black skirt and cute white top that might be slightly too tight, before popping into the shower to make herself as clean and sweet smelling as possible.Ten minutes later, Jenny came out of the shower, a towel wrapped tightly around her freshly moist body as she made her way over to her bedroom to get dressed.

Passing by the window, she suddenly caught sight of someone coming down the road on a motorbike. The person driving the vehicle was wearing a frankly ridiculous looking helmet with some kind of lizard-like crests on the top in the most obtrusive colours. Jenny was absolutely positive that such a helmet could even be seen from all the way up in outer space!

Jenny was still laughing about the truly quite flamboyant headgear, when the mysterious rider, to Jenny’s great surprise, stopped outside her apartment. More interested than before, Jenny kept looking as the rider jumped off the motorcycle and removed the helmet and goggles, and….Jenny almost fainted dead in her towel as she then saw that it was Vastra who was the unknown rider. For God’s sake, why can’t this woman just give her a fucking break for once already!

Feeling suddenly panicked, heart caught in her throat as she tried to process the fact that Vastra had a motorcycle and a leather jacket, and was on her way up to her apartment, Jenny rushed to find her clothes and put them on. After blindly fumbling around, entirely unfocused, for at least five minutesl she finally got hold of the skirt and top and put them on, getting dressed just in time to hear the doorbell ringing out in the hallway. Not thinking about anything else but Vastra standing in a leather jacket outside her door, Jenny hurriedly ran across the apartment, almost ripping the door off its hinges in her rush to open it, just a little too excited finally see Vastra again.

Vastra stood in the hallway, hand raised as if she was about to knock on the door, and carrying a small plastic bag in her other hand. All of her earlier bravado seemingly vanished into thin air when she caught sight of Jenny after she had opened the door. She suddenly couldn’t breath as her eyes tried to refocus themselves on the mind-boggling vision that was Jenny, dressed in a form-fitting white tank top that revealed just the right amount of cleavage, a black mini skirt, and thick strands of dripping wet hair hanging down her head. Vastra could feel the lingering steam of the shower practically radiating off of Jenny’s body, which now floated towards her face, hitting her head-on like a sensually humid tropical breeze. Her lips were impossibly dry, prompting her to quickly lavish them with her tongue. Even though the temperature outside had been rather chilly, Vastra found herself getting increasingly hotter with every passing second that she remained staring at Jenny, and she was certain that she was going to end up spontaneously combusting anytime soon. Vastra also noticed the innocently welcoming smile that appeared on Jenny’s face, causing her to wonder if Jenny was somehow aware of the bewitching effects she had on her by wearing such an outfit. Her hair, her cleavage, her curves, her legs…..Jenny was clearly a walking embodiment of lustful temptation and poor, gay Vastra didn’t stood a chance against her. Goddamn it, just when she thought that she had everything under control, Jenny had to come along and throw one hell of a curveball at her! So utterly dumbstruck was Vastra, that she even forgot the words to speak and the ability to move her body. The only thing that her brain could think about was Jenny, who definitely was going to be the death of her as she knew it. Oh, what a strangely idyllic way to die that would be.

Jenny watched as Vastra stood before her, a tingling sensation gathering in her stomach as she admired the smooth, shiny leather encasing Vastra’s upper body. It was so different from what she had worn at the clinic, and Jenny found herself to be intrigued by this new side of Vastra that she wasn’t previously familiar with. She also had never seen anyone who looked that ravishing in a leather jacket, making the normal appeal of leather clothing even stronger. Still, she couldn’t help but let her mind wander a bit trying to imagine what she would look like underneath the smooth, shiny leather. She imagined hard muscles first, then she imagined spider thin, delicate limbs, and lastly she imagined what it might feel like to cup her hands around Vastra’s full round breasts, carefully squeezing the smooth flesh in her hands and enjoying Vastra’s reaction. Quickly dragging herself out of her fantasy, she realised that Vastra was still waiting for her to say something.

“Miss McIntosh!” She smiled, stepping out of the way so that Vastra could come inside. “Come in. It’s good to see that you could come so soon. I do hope it’s not a bother.”

There was no response from Vastra, who merely continued to stand there with a faraway expression fixed on her face.

“Uh, Miss McIntosh? Ma’am?” Carefully, Jenny prodded a finger into Vastra’s side, in an attempt to get her attention. “Are you alright?”

Her prodding seemed to work a little too well, as it startled Vastra and she began to blurt out, “I LOVE YO….oouuuuur wallpaper….that you have here, in your home!” Very narrowly dodging a bullet there, Vastra finally managed to reboot her legs and swiftly stepped into Jenny’s main living room.

Giving Vastra a slightly odd look, Jenny allowed herself to look at her dark blue wallpapers, too. She’d never given them much thought, but she supposed they could be worse. “Thanks. Though honestly, they’ve looked like that since I moved in. I meant to maybe change them someday, but they don’t really bother me and…well, I haven’t had enough time, I suppose.” She shrugged. She really did not care much about her wallpapers.

“They look perfectly fine to me, and this particular shade of blue does seem to bring everything together….,” remarked Vastra, observing the wallpaper for a while longer before ultimately forcing herself to turn back towards Jenny. Trying to ignore the deafening sound of her inner terrified screaming, Vastra flashed Jenny her most genial smile and said, “Well then, aren’t you looking rather properly rested this morning, Miss Flint. I can clearly see that you have quite an attractive, sunny complexion about you.”

Hearing the compliment, Jenny’s entire being lit up like a christmas tree, a big smile on her face as she followed Vastra inside, closing the door behind her. “Thank you! It is very nice of you to say that. Really, I’m glad you think I look better than I actually feel. So…um, what should we do now? Want some tea or coffee? You can put away your jacket if you want to.” She continued to smile, still entirely smittened by Vastra complimenting her complexion and feeling extremely happy as she gestured to the coat rack.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious about her appearance, Vastra nervously tugged at the collar of her leather jacket while switching her gaze in between Jenny and the coat rack. Although she was genuinely flattered by Jenny’s warm hospitality, Vastra couldn’t help but be afraid of what she might think about the tattoos on her arms. Vastra knew that tattoos were a huge turn off for some people, and she wasn’t willing to take that risk just yet, in case Jenny was one of them.

Vastra mentally concluded that the only logical thing for her to do in this situation, was to remain calm, check on Greeny, and leave as quickly as possible to help minimize the probability of her potentially embarrassing herself in front of Jenny. “Err, no thank you, Miss Flint, I’m actually not that thirsty at the moment,”declined Vastra graciously, despite her mouth being noticeably parched as a sun baked dessert in the middle of summer whenever she looked at Jenny. “I assume that you have many plans that you’d want to fulfill this Sunday, yes? Therefore, would you be so kind as to show me where Greeny is? I certainly do not wish to take up too much of your time with this visit today.”

Jenny tried not to show how disappointed she felt as Vastra brushed aside her suggestions, before affirmatively nodding. “Of course. I…ah, yes,Greeny is over here.” Deliberately, she crossed the living room until she was standing by the wall, bending down to retrieve greeny’s cage from the floor. “Where do you want me to put him? Somewhere here or in the kitchen?”

Vastra then peered into Jenny’s kitchen through the entrance located on the left side of the room, and was able to catch a glimpse of a pristine marble countertop. That instantly triggered a series of remarkably vivid images to flick across Vastra’s eyes; Coincidentally, all of them appeared to feature the same marble countertop upon which Jenny was sitting, still wearing her tank top and skirt, her legs wrapped tightly around Vastra’s waist as the two of them ravished each other’s mouths in a sexually passionate embrace. Witnessing those explicitly carnal visual representations of her own deepest, secretive, forbidden desires towards a particular female client was a profoundly alarming experience for Vastra, who felt as though her whole body was being consumed by a ruthless whirlwind of pure hellfire. This was definitely not the appropriate time, or place to be fantasizing about jumping your client’s bones, especially if said client is standing directly in front of you, which only makes it a thousand times worse! Vastra was at least fortunate that Jenny wasn’t a professional psychic mind reader or anything, because she would totally die from mortification if she could somehow see the things that are happening inside her head. Vastra was desperate to find some kind of cerebral off switch that could stop these unwanted thoughts from invading her psyche, but there seemed to be absolutely no end in sight to this annoyingly persistent problem. She remained determined anyways, however, and continued to push herself until she was finally able to break free of that accursed illusion using sheer willpower.

Praying fervently that her inner shame wasn’t too visible, Vastra returned her full attention back onto Jenny and answered with, “The living room is fine, we don’t have to go anywhere else. There is already a table in here and that’s all I really need to be able to work with Greeny.”

Vastra had, indeed, made it a main priority to stay far away from the kitchen as possible, in order to prevent herself from getting entangled among such troublesome hallucinations like that ever again.

“Oh, good. Yes, that sounds good indeed.” Smiling, Jenny quickly put the cage down on the table, opening the door. “And again, thank you for taking time to come by and check on Greeny, Miss McIntosh. It really is awfully nice of you.”

“Really, Miss Flint, you don’t have to keep thanking me for simply doing my job. I am merely following the ancient sacred Veterinarian’s Code of Honor to always help an animal in pain, wherever they may be,” Vastra joked lightheartedly as she approached the coffee table, carefully making sure that there was an ample amount of space in between Jenny and herself. “Additionally, I must also admit that have been missing yo…. Greeny an awful lot lately. I’m truly delighted to be here in your humble abode, so that I can see how my special little green boy is recovering.” She abruptly diverted her gaze towards Greeny’s cage, utterly relieved to have something else to look at instead of Jenny.

“Great! I’m sure Greeny missed you too…Uh…” Jenny’s eyes moved around the room, searching for something to focus on that was not Vastra’s stunningly attractive face and lethal smile. “What’s in the plastic bag?” She gestured to the generic plastic bag she just noticed that Vastra was carrying.

Vastra merely blinked and tilted her head to the side.“What plastic bag?” She asked, momentarily confused before remembering the thing she was holding in her hand, “Oh….yes, of course, it’s uhh….just a little gift that I picked up on my way here.” Vastra was smiling rather bashfully as she proceeded to reveal the content of her bag with great flourish. “It’s a traditional mini Japanese bonsai tree, for Greeny. I have one of my own at home, and thought that maybe you’d like to put it in his cage as decoration.” Even then, Vastra still kept her eyes on the tree and nervously bit her lip while she anticipated Jenny’s reaction.

Jenny nodded slowly, smiling. “Oh. Yes, uh….thanks! I had meant to buy some new plants but I haven’t really had any time…or money…to do it yet. Thanks.” She blushed, ducking her head and looking away.

Glancing at Jenny, Vastra was able to catch a brief glimpse of Jenny’s pretty, cute blushing face, which was more than enough to make her heart stop altogether for several dreamlike seconds. At this particular point, Vastra was almost entirely convinced that Jenny was no ordinary human girl, but must really be a divine angel who had somehow fallen down to earth. There was simply no other explanation as to how someone could ever be so beautiful, pure, and marvelous as Jenny is in her eyes.

“You’re, uhh, very welcome, Miss Flint. Do you want to take the tree yourself, or should I put it down somewhere?” Questioned Vastra, sounding slightly uncertain with the bonsai tree still in her hands.

Smiling and feeling acutely embarrassed, Jenny immediately reached out for the plant. “I suppose I don’t mind taking it off your hands for you. I’ll just…” Carefully, she went in to grab it, but at the same time Vastra suddenly moved slightly to the side and instead of taking the tree, she hit Vastra squarely in the face with her hand, barely catching the tree as Vastra dropped it before stumbling backwards, clutching her face with her hands while her glasses were sent flying to the floor by the accidental punch.

“Oh my god! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just…oh my god!” Jenny couldn’t even process what she’d done, backing away slowly with the tree clutched in her hands, eyes wide in horror. She could barely believe that her chronically clumsy tendencies had caused her to K.O. the most sexy person in existence by mistake.

The Scottish woman kept reeling backwards until she hit a wall, causing several of the hung paintings to rattle a bit. Vastra released a rather snake-like hiss as she felt the stinging pain spreading across her face from where Jenny had smacked her. Though as tremendously embarrassing as that may be, Vastra still couldn’t bear to hear Jenny blaming herself for something that was truly an accident.

Putting on a brave front, Vastra gradually lowered her hands away from her face and tried to re-establish a stable, composed demeanor. “Oh dear….hehe, that’s quite a strong right hook you got there, Miss Flint,” Spoke Vastra with a humorous tone in an attempt to make light of the situation, while completely disregarding the blood that is oozing out of her nose. “I think I understand why Scotland Yard hired you now…..such bountiful raw power, contained within such a small person. It’s fine, Miss Flint, I’m OK, really, I forgive you.” Vastra gave Jenny her best and most reassuring smile to show her that everything was alright.

Looking doubtfully at Vastra, Jenny said nothing but quickly pulled out a tissue from the box she kept on the coffee table and gave it to Vastra. As soon as Vastra accepted the offered tissue, Jenny then went for the glasses next. She had noticed them falling off Vastra’s face, and now she went to retrieve them, bending over to pick them off the floor.

Having a perfectly good view from where she stood, Vastra’s eyes practically popped of their sockets and her jaw very nearly dropped to the floor at the sight of Jenny’s skirt riding up her rear to reveal a rather provocative glimpse of her silk panties underneath.

As Jenny stretched out to grab them, she noticed to her amusement that there were tiny lizards printed on the glasses. Smiling to herself, she quickly picked them up and stood upright again. “Right. I got your glasses, and I really am so sorry . I can’t even hit that hard!”

“Well considering that my nose is now bleeding, I’d beg to differ on that” replied Vastra without the slightest hint of anger, as she tore off the tissue into smaller pieces and stuffed them up into her nostrils. She was absolutely certain that she was going to die of blood loss by the end of that visit.

“Right. Again, I’m very sorry.” Stepping forward, Jenny carefully tried to put the glasses back on Vastra’s face, her breath catching as she saw the brilliant blue eyes looking directly back at her. They were incredibly beautiful, deep puddles of glittering oceans bringing to life an equally brilliant mind. God, she could easily get lost in them forever and never come back, thought Jenny. As she finished putting the glasses in place, Jenny put her arms back at her sides, carefully taking a step back and suddenly realising how extremely close she had been - and still were - to Vastra.That the Scottish woman had even let her in that close surprised her, and she couldn’t help the blush tinging her cheeks as she realised that she had in fact, invaded the woman’s personal space without even asking for permission.

Taking another step back, her blush deepened, and so did the embarrassment. “I’m sorry. Again. I….you…your eyes are…blue. I like blue. Not blue like my walls but, better blue. Perfect blue . Amazing ocean blue. Really, really blue of the prettiest blue kind.”

Vastra swore that the entire world had stopped spinning in that moment, freezing time in place as Jenny slid her glasses back onto her face with such genuine care and tenderness. Her eyes briefly fluttered shut and she allowed herself to inhale a whiff of Jenny’s sweet smelling peach shampoo that sent all of her senses into overdrive with euphoria. A very small, inappropriate part of her even wondered whether or not Jenny would taste as delicious as she smells. Alas, Vastra had to keep her utter disappointment hidden when Jenny abruptly moved away from her area of range, appearing immensely apologetic for some reason which she couldn’t figure out. Vastra missed being so close in proximity with Jenny, but her dismay was instantly replaced by surprise when Jenny complimented her eyes, albeit in a fairly awkward and drawn out way.

Now it was Vastra’s turn to blush as she nervously adjusted her glasses, scrunched her nose, and bowed her head to avoid the other woman’s gaze. “I….uhh…thank you, how very kind of you to say that,” said a highly flustered Vastra, a shy elated smile forming upon her lips. “Yes, my eyes are indeed blue. I’ve had them since I was born….but nobody has ever seemed to appreciate them like you do.”

“Nobody has ever appreciated me like you do.” Jenny replied, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them, regardlessly not being able to hold back her smile.

“Excuse my forwardness, but I do find that hard to believe,” Vastra responded softly, lifting her head up to lock shining blue eyes with Jenny’s chocolate brown ones. There was a period of inaction where the two of them merely smiled at each other in a sort of intimate silence, before Vastra decided to break it by saying, “Well then, let not this minor setback prevent us from getting on with the task at hand, shall we?”

Thus pushing aside that trivial incident of unintentional violence, Vastra promptly approached the front of Greeny’s cage and proceeded to gently coax him out of his home. As soon as Vastra first saw that little scaly lizard’s head peeking out from the cage, she could already tell that Greeny had been recovering far better than when she examined him at the clinic. His scales appeared to be more colorful, his movements more fluid, his eyes wide open, and there was even a tiny contented smile on his face. Vastra’s smile grew wider when she heard Greeny emit a high-pitched crooning noise as a way of greeting her. Apparently, there wasn’t going to be much that Vastra will have to check on Greeny and she was glad for it.

Jenny watched Vastra tending to Greeny intently, praying that her little lizard was doing alright. Careful not to come too close, she approached the both of them slowly. “I do think he should be doing quite fine now, seeing as I took your advise. He’s seemed to be more energetic lately, but I don’t really know. What do you think? Is there something else I should do?” She bit her lip a little, trying not to sound all worried, thought to be honest, she feared what Vastra might say.

Several long, agonizing minutes passed before Vastra turned to look at Jenny and said,”Congratulations, Miss Flint, your pet lizard here does appear to be in excellent shape from what I can see. I hope that my diagnostic will help to put your mind at ease about Greeny’s wellbeing. Trust me, he is perfectly healthy and lizardy as ever, so I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you.” With that final verdict, Vastra then returned Greeny back into the safe, warm, cozy vicinity of his cage and recast her gaze over to Jenny. “Any more questions that you want to ask me?”

Upon hearing Vastra’s question, Jenny had to bite her lip hard to not let something lewd, or incredibly inappropriate, out of her mouth. Finally, after standing around and chewing her lip longer than she ought to, she then asked, “Can you stay for some coffee, or tea if you prefer, and pastries? I’ve got some cookies I baked just the other week in the kitchen. It could be my way of thanking you for coming here and looking at Greeny.” She smiled, and before Vastra could protest, she added. “Please? I would feel so much better if I gave something in return.” She made puppy dog eyes, and hoped so badly that Vastra would not go. She was not ready to let this goddess of a woman walk out of her apartment just yet.

Those accursed puppy dog eyes seemed to have put a dent in Vastra’s initial plan for a hasty escape out of the apartment. Any argument against Jenny’s invitation to stay that Vastra possessed instantly melted away into those enticingly warm brown eyes that look as though they could pierce right through her very soul. Secretly, though, Vastra’s heart was deeply touched by the fact that Jenny actually desired her company, and was fighting so hard for the chance to show Vastra her gratitude. It was exactly this type of caring nature and moxy that kept pulling Vastra further and further in love towards this utterly majestic young woman. How could she possibly bring herself to deny Jenny this one innocent request, when she knew that it would certainly break the poor girl’s heart if she said no? What’s the harm in hanging around for a little bit of complimentary coffee and cookies? Just play it cool and everything will be fine, right?

Feeling all of her resolve rapidly slipping from her grasp, Vastra finally managed to crack open a slight friendly smile and nodded in agreement. “Fine, you win! But only because I’m feeling rather famished, and your offer of cookies does sound simply too good to refuse,”spoke Vastra cheerfully, even topping it off with a fairly flirtatious wink to boot.

Vastra then walked around the coffee table in order to reach the sofa, where she began to remove her leather jacket and scarf. Vastra didn’t really thought much about what she was doing, until she heard an audibly shocked gasp coming from Jenny. That alone was enough to make Vastra stop, her entire body becoming tense, as she squeezed her eyes shut and mentally reprimanded herself for acting so carelessly in Jenny’s home.

As Vastra sat down on the couch, she finally pulled off her scarf and that incredible, sexy leather jacket that she had arrived in. Taking almost too much pleasure in watching her pull off the smooth leather from her shoulders and sliding her well-toned arms out of the sleeves, Jenny simply couldn’t withhold her gasp as she saw what Vastra was hiding underneath. The entire length of Vastra’s gorgeous , breathtakingly lean and slender arms were covered in stylistic black and green snake tattoos. Jenny followed them with her eyes, greedily taking in every little detail of the extensive, beautifully designed snake tattoo. It went all the way up to Vastra’s firm shoulders, some of her brown hair just barely reaching down long enough to lay across the very top of it, before mysteriously disappearing into her shirt and perhaps continuing underneath. While Jenny did not envision Vastra to be the kind of person to be covered in tattoos, she could not say that she disliked what she was seeing, and she kept smiling as Vastra made herself comfortable on the couch.

This woman was not only hot, she was on goddamn scorching fire!

Suddenly feeling terribly naked without her jacket and with her ink clad arms now on full display for Jenny to see, Vastra blushed bright tomato red as she shifted quite uneasily in her seat. Not wanting Jenny to think that there was anything wrong, however, Vastra then implemented a deliberate demonstration of swagger by stretching her muscular arms high above her head, before bringing them down to rest upon her neatly crossed legs. Hands clasped deftly against her knee, Vastra couldn’t resist leaning slightly forward so that she could hungrily devour Jenny’s most peculiarly risque attire with her keen eyes once again.

“Well then….is the lovely hostess not going to provide the promised coffee and cookies for her guest?” Inquired Vastra with a thickly alluring Scottish accent seeping through her tone, and one dark eyebrow raised elegantly on her forehead.

Jenny truly thought that she would faint on the spot. For a moment, she felt everything swim before her eyes and it felt as though all the air had left her lungs, but thankfully she soon managed to collect herself. It would have been terribly embarrassing if she did pass out, just because this goddess of a woman removed her jacket. Nodding, she quickly set off towards the kitchen, disappearing through the doorway before Vastra could say anything.

“Coming right up! Do you want sugar or cream?” She called out once she’d reached the kitchen, thankful to be out of sight as her cheeks kept heating up like two buns fresh out of the oven. “Also, are you allergic to nuts?” The last thing was an afterthought, because as she reached for the cookie jar she realised, she didn’t know and she always used nuts in her cookies, because she liked it that way herself. Almost frantically, she tried to look for something else to server her guest as she waited for the answer, preparing for the worst.

“Just a dash of sugar and cream is how I usually prefer my coffee,” responded Vastra, who could hear Jenny moving around inside the kitchen due to her rather abnormally sharp sense of hearing. “I am not allergic to any nuts, but my body is badly affected by chocolate!”

Vastra truly didn’t mind waiting for Jenny, and she was able to occupy herself with observing the surrounding area that was Jenny’s living room. The room was considerably smaller than your average house, yet still relatively comfortable, noted Vastra as her eyes swept across the modest sized television set, framed paintings, bookshelves ladened with an impressive quantity of reading material, and a few colorful priceless vases among other things. What really struck Vastra the most was how impeccably clean and well-kept everything was, as far as she could see at least; It was such a stark contrast when compared to Vastra’s own junkyard of a house, which made it nearly impossible to tell where clutter ends and civilization begins. As domestically challenged as Vastra was, she would always attribute it to her busy working schedule at the clinic which left her with very little time to get her home in order. The best that she could do was a little dusting here, a bit of sweeping there, and a whole lot of shoving things into a closet to be forgotten about forever. Though to be honest, it never actually bothered Vastra as much as it would other people knowing that her house will never be as neat as Jenny’s, mainly because she’s already gotten so used to its constantly chaotic state by now.

“Coffee’s here!” Jenny announced cheerfully as she came out the kitchen with the tray, coffee, cookies, sugar and cream loaded onto it, as well as a cup of tea for herself. “I hope they will be satisfactory.” She bit her lip, hoping Vastra would be satisfied by the coffee and cookies. She could already feel her cheeks heating from the disappointment and embarrassment if Vastra were to dislike any of the food or beverages.

Little did Jenny know, however, that the tray of freshly baked treats and coffee weren’t the only things that Vastra was drooling over.

Vastra watched with substantial interest as Jenny placed the tray of refreshments down on the table in front of her, and uplifted her face to smile graciously at her generous hostess. The Scottish woman had always possessed an uncanny ability to accurately detect even the slightest quirk in someone’s body language, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that she was able to pick up on Jenny’s nervously restless aura. Vastra was intensely curious as to the reason for Jenny’s apparent anxiousness, but figured that would be best if she didn’t say anything about it.

Instead, Vastra simply went ahead and picked up a delectable looking cookie from the tray, before taking a tentative bite off of it. “Mmmm…..how exquisitely scrumptious, and I especially liked the delightful crunch of the nuts you added,”commented Vastra, seemingly pleased, whose tongue then briefly flicked out to wipe some crumbs off her lip. “You really ought to consider becoming a baker, because I can happily eat these for the rest of my life.”

That was soon followed by Vastra picking up the cup of coffee, it’s powerfully rich aroma filling her nostrils despite being clogged with blood, and bringing it towards her mouth for a sip, which also elicited the same positive reaction from Vastra.

Jenny watched attentively as Vastra tried the cookies and coffee. To her utter delight, the woman seemed to enjoy both of them, even going as far as to compliment her cookies. Once she felt safe that everything was satisfactory, she carefully sat down on the other end of the sofa, grabbing her cup of tea in both hands and trying to think up something to say. Her eyes scanned Vastra’s body, her gaze continuously being drawn to the green and black tattoos on her arms, still as fascinating as the first time she saw them. “So…” She said tentatively, pausing to sip on her tea. “It is some very nice tattoos you got on your arms. I like the design.”

Vastra abruptly stopped and instantly swiveled her head to look at Jenny, being utterly astonished that Jenny just actually complimented her tattoos.

Gradually, her face then lit up with a brilliantly bright smile, as she could hardly contain her excitement, and said, “Oh thank you, Miss Flint, how very kind of you to say so! I chose this particular design, because I wanted something to help me remember my ancestral Celtic roots while I’m down here in London.” Vastra’s smile continued to broaden even more when a most splendid idea struck her mind. “Also, if you like what you’re seeing on my arms, I have another tattoo on my back which I am especially proud of. Here…I‘ll show you!”

Without giving Jenny a chance to reply, Vastra eagerly pulled out her phone from her pocket and found a picture of herself flexing shirtless while facing away from the camera to showcase the large, intricately detailed tattoo that occupied nearly her entire backside.

The tattoo was absolutely stunning, as it depicts two swords crossing a shield bearing the noble McIntosh clan name, and strewn with vines of wildflowers.

Jenny started at the photo, politely trying to focus on the beautiful, intricate tattoo rather than the amount of bare skin Vastra was revealing in the photo and her strong, flexing arms. “That’s an absolutely amazing tattoo.” Jenny said softly. She didn’t know much about tattooing, but with a highly detailed and creative design being worn by such a gorgeous Scottish woman, Jenny truly felt like she’d fallen in love with the tattoo.

Now suddenly aware of the fact that she has just showed Jenny a very personal and half naked picture out of sheer impulsiveness, Vastra could feel her face blushing a fiery crimson for what would be the billionth time in that day alone. “Err…thank you, I’m really glad that you think so,”replied Vastra, who couldn’t help sounding somewhat bashful. “Yes, my tattoos are amazing indeed, because they hold such a great amount of personal significance to me. They’re a permanently important part of who I am, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”

Jenny merely nodded and smiled understandably at Vastra, trying to absorb every single one of Vastra’s words as the Scottish woman was practically baring her soul to her.

It was in that moment that Vastra’s phone suddenly started ringing, which caused the both of them to jump a little in surprise.

“Oh God, it’s my sister calling me,” muttered Vastra as she checked the caller ID before returning her attention back to Jenny. “I’m so sorry if this might be an inconvenience, but um….would you mind if I answer this call real quick?”

Jenny smiled reassuringly, nodding. “If you need to, then sure go ahead.” She thought of her own family, and how she’d never in a million years would have answered a single call from any of them. Ever. But, she guessed not everyone’s situation looked like hers.

Giving Jenny one quick grateful glance, Vastra then pressed the button to answer the call and brought her phone up against her ear. “Hello, Lanah? What are you calling me for this time? Is it your dog, did he eat one of your earrings again?” It was hard for Vastra to keep her tone free of any annoyance that she felt at being interrupted in the middle of her meeting with Jenny.

“Hello to you too, dear sister. How nice to hear you think I only call if something has happened, it does make me feel so very appreciated.” Lanah mocked, her voice overly happy as she spoke.

The Scottish woman groaned internally, but was also secretly excited to talk to her beloved sister again. Resuming with their naturally well rehearsed banter, Vastra said, “So I’m assuming that your dog is OK then? I still remember how poor Capaldi couldn’t eat for a month because of that stupid diamond earing tearing through his digestive intestines. I swear, your insatiable appetite for fine precious jewelry is going to be the death of him!”

“Yes, he is perfectly diamond-free, for your your information. Jesus Christ, that was ONE time! Besides, I do recall you letting your friend feed Billy chocolate last time I let you babysit him!”

“Well, do you think that I don’t regret making that mistake,” snapped Vastra in response, before speaking more collectedly, “ Ahem, anyway…..the past is in the past, so I suggest that you just get straight to the point already.”

“Fine. I can tell you what I want, and I assure you, I will be much straighter than you.” She paused, letting Vastra realise what she just said, before continuing. “Billy wanted to talk to his favourite aunt, who ironically nearly killed him.”

From the sidelines, Jenny watched anxiously as Vastra spoke to her sister on the phone, always ready to come to her help if she looked as though she needed support. At one point, Vastra snapped, the conversation seemingly having turned south, and Jenny was very close to asking if she wanted her to give her an excuse to hang up, but the situation calmed down and Jenny stepped back. Still, as she saw Vastra glance in her direction, she couldn’t help but whisper, ‘Is everything okay?’, worried that Vastra might be caught up in a situation she found uncomfortable.

Vastra could only smile lightly at Jenny to indicate that there was nothing to worry about, and proceeded to reply with, “I can’t say that I’m the least bit surprised, since it’s a scientifically proven fact that every family should have a cool lesbian aunt to keep things interesting.”

At hearing Vastra openly admit that she was a lesbian, Jenny almost couldn’t hold back a gasp that threatened to escape her lips. Of course, she did have her ideas and suspicions, and she had been desperately hoping that it would be the case, but to actually hear it being confirmed took her completely by surprise.

“As long as ‘interesting’ doesn’t mean deadly, I can possibly agree.” Lanah said fondly. “Either way, I’m putting on Billy now. He’s been tugging at my dress for the past half-hour and it’s getting a bit annoying.”

Immediately after she said that, the line went momentarily silent as Lanah passed on the phone to Billy, and before Vastra could even prepare herself, her ears were suddenly bombarded by the voice of a highly overenthusiastic four year old boy.

“Aunty Vasha! Aunty Vasha! It’s me, Billy!” Shouted Billy from the other side of the line without any repercussions whatsoever. “I wanted Mommy to call you because I love the toy racecar you sent me for my birthday! I like to play with it because it’s super fast and it goes zoom zoom and sometimes Capaldi will chase it! When I grow up I will have a real racecar and we will go on awesome adventures together! Maybe I’ll have a flying car that can take us up to the moon!”

There was a broad doting smile spread across Vastra’s face as she happily listened to her adorable nephew’s passionate gushing about his new toy racecar. It was then that she fully realized just how much she missed her family back home in Scotland, who she would see only a few times each year for holidays and whatnot. Since she clearly lacked any children of her own, Vastra was able to compensate for it by loving all of her sibling’s children and spoiling them rotten, including Billy. Billy’s rapidly spoken words helped to draw out old distant memories from the very deep recesses of Vastra’s mind, allowing her to relive all those wonderful times that they had together. Vastra was immensely thankful to at least have this one little connection with her family, and she hoped that it would never end.

When Billy finally paused to take a breath, Vastra promptly took advantage of it to say, “Ah, yes hello there, Silly Billy, nothing ever makes me happier than getting a call from my most favorite nephew! I’m so glad to hear that your crazy wild imagination still hasn’t changed. It sure seems like you were able to put it to good use while playing with your race car.”

“Thank you a lot, Aunty Vasha! I don’t care what Mommy says, you are the greatest, awesomest aunty ever!” Proclaimed Billy zealously, which touched Vastra’s heart in a profoundly meaningful way.

From the couch, Jenny kept observing Vastra in curious silence. She’d said she was fine, but it didn’t help Jenny’s worries much. What did, however, was when she saw Vastra breaking into a huge grin, her whole face practically glowing as she listened to someone chatting energetically on the other end. Seeing Vastra so happy and at ease made Jenny happy, too, and she couldn’t help the small smile resting upon her lips. It was wonderful and amazing to see someone so joyful and content and absolutely at ease in a conversation with family. For Vastra, family was clearly people she cared for and loved, and somehow that made Jenny feel both glad and also sad, because while it felt blissful watching someone else experiencing it this way, it was not something she would ever have.

As soon as Billy was done talking, the line went quiet for a moment, and then the voice of Vastra’s sister picked up once more. “That’s enough Billy, time for us grown-ups to talk again. Thanks for listening to him, Vastra. He’s been going on and on about how he wanted to talk to you all morning, and you know he gets cranky when he wants something.”

“Hmmm….well, I do certainly wonder who he got that from,” Vastra mockingly questioned while stroking her chin, a massive smile still plastered onto her face. “It’s really no problem, Lanah, because I find it quite sweet that Billy wanted to call and thank me for his present. Honestly, I was beginning to worry that he had forgotten all about me. So just out of curiosity….how is the rest of the family doing,” Vastra asked carefully as she bit her lip, craving for more information regarding her the status of her family.

Most importantly, she needed to know if they had been able to recover from her father’s tragic death due to cancer five years ago, because God knows she definitely hasn’t.

After Vastra’s question, there was a short pause on the other end, and she could hear her sister saying something to her son, before she began to reply with, “Well…I guess it’s okay overall. Most of us are doing pretty well, some are in a bit of a low period at the moment but hopefully they’ll be feeling better soon. We miss you, though. Honestly, it would be so nice if we could see you a little more often.”

A biting sensation of guilt stung within Vastra’s heart upon hearing her sister’s downhearted statement, and she shakily spoke, “You know very well I that want that more than anything…. and I would do so, in a heartbeat, if only my schedule would allow it. It’s just that….it’s hard, you know, going back there….and remembering all those things.” Vastra’s voice was barely above a whisper by the time she finished speaking, a tell-tale sign that her emotions were threatening to overwhelm her.

The day that Vastra’s father died was not something she liked to think about often, even going so far as to block it out of her mind completely. His untimely death dealt an enormously heavy blow on everyone in the family, and each of them had their own ways of coping with the aftermath of that terrible event. Immediately after graduating from vet school, Vastra moved down to London because she simply couldn’t bear to stay in Scotland any longer. Really, she was trying to run away from the past where her father still dwelled while his spirit continued to haunt her in the present. A small part of Vastra always knew that it was selfish and cowardly of her to leave her grieving family behind instead of remaining with them during their darkest hour. She never had much trouble suppressing those echoing doubts in the back of her head until now, as talking to Lanah for the last thirty minutes was causing all of her old, painstakingly hidden grief and regret to resurface again. Vastra’s entire body was trembling at this point, and she could feel herself being dangerously close to bursting out in tears, though Jenny’s presence was the only thing that encouraged Vastra to maintain her composure, because it would be most utterly lame if she randomly started crying in front of her crush. No, there will be enough time to have an emotional breakdown later, but in this current moment she must put on a brave face for Jenny.

On the other end of the phone, a deep sigh could be heard, and then Vastra’s sister said,. “I know, Vastra. I’m not accusing you of anything, Little Extra. I’m just saying we miss you, that’s all.”

Still sitting and waiting for the call to end, Jenny could tell that things were getting tense as Vastra suddenly started shuddering, and she decided that perhaps it would be best if she gave her some time alone.

With the efficiency of someone who had their fair share of working in coffee shops, Jenny quickly started gathering the cups and half empty plate of biscuits, piling them up atop each other on the tray that she’d brought with her to the living room.Once she was done, she stood up, taking the tray in her arms and began setting off towards the kitchen. However, as she left, she took one last glance over her shoulder at Vastra, thus neglecting to see where she was going, and tripped on the threshold.Feet hitting against solid wood, Jenny’s entire body was sent crashing to the floor, the tray flying out of her hands, porcelain breaking into a million pieces as they landed upon the floor along with Jenny.

“Fucking bloody hell!” The swear words slipped past her lips as she tried desperately to readjust her bruised and aching body, swearing even more as she realised how much ruined china there was spread out everywhere. “Fucking shit!”

The collective commotion of shattering china and an angrily cursing Cockney woman instantly pulled Vastra away from the phone call, her eyes growing wide with shocked concern at the sight of Jenny’s disastrous wipeout. “Oh dear Lord….are you alright, Jenny?” Blurted Vastra, momentarily forgetting that her sister was also listening on the line.

“ Jenny ? Who are you calling Jenny ?!” Lanah hadn’t been aware that someone else was in the room with Vastra, but then something clicked in her mind and she sang, “Vaaaastra, are you at your girlfriend’s house? Someone named Jenny? Why didn’t you tell me! Finally, someone to take care of your sorry, egotistical arse!” Her voice was gleeful and humorous, and Vastra could imagine her smug smile as she spoke.

Vastra hissed sharply into the phone in retaliation before abandoning her phone altogether on the sofa as she quickly ran to Jenny’s side. “Jenny, oh my God, are you hurt anywhere? Bloody Christ, there’s a lot of broken china over here! Let me uhh help you uhh…..”

It was then that Vastra’s eyes made the mistake of landing on Jenny’s enticing cleavage visibly peeking through her shirt, with only a few inches in between the two of them, and that caused her to swallow hard as her entire bodily system effectively malfunctioned.

“Excuse me.” Jenny said, slightly embarrassed as she caught on to Vastra’s sideway glance down at her cleavage. “Can you please help me up a little? I’d really like to get away from this spot without cutting my hands and feet on all this china.”

“Huh? Oh, yes….the china, of course….sorry,” Vastra rapidly blinked, summoning all of her willpower in order to tear her gaze away from Jenny’s bosom, and generously stretched out her hand for Jenny to take. There was no way to prevent the deep embarrassment that she felt at being caught ogling by the other woman from exploding into varying shades of red across her face. “Pray tell, how in the world did this happen anyway?”

At this, Jenny blushed and immediately became red in the face, awkwardly trying to form a coherent reply that wouldn’t directly reveal she’d been listening in on the phone call. “I…well, you seemed a little upset so I thought I’d….I’d take out the dishes and give you some time to yourself. But then I just…..I looked back at you as I left and hit the threshold.” Finishing her explanation, Jenny held tightly onto Vastra’s offered hand as she ungracefully jumped over the broken porcelain, landing on the floor next to Vastra.

As soon as she did that, Vastra instinctively scooted a few inches away from Jenny, in an attempt to prevent herself from getting too lightheaded while in Jenny’s intoxicating presence. She could have sworn that that she felt an invisible electricity crackling in the air between their hands as she hastily retracted her own, just like when they first met at the clinic. A faint, yet hopeful voice in the back of Vastra’s mind told her that it might be a sign from the universe, that perhaps she might actually have a chance with Jenny who was totally far out of her league. Sobering up again, Vastra immediately dismissed those thoughts as mere wishful thinking, and tilted her head slightly aside while her eyes fixed themselves upon Jenny with the suspicion that she had been eavesdropping on her private conversation. Not that Vastra could hardly hold her at fault, of course.

So without any hint of accusation in her tone, and a gentle smile forming on her lips, Vastra responded with, “You really ought to be more careful, Miss Flint. Although, I can honestly say that this isn’t the very first time somebody had an accident due to my rather distracting tattoos.” Her gaze then flicked over to all the fractured pieces of china, causing her expression to grimace as she spoke, “I’m awfully sorry about your china….I truly am. Will you allow me to assist you in cleaning up this mess? It’s the least I can do, after you’ve shown me such a generous amount to hospitality.”

Upon hearing her first remark, Jenny blushed even more, the redness on her cheeks deepening. As she came to the second part of the sentence, Jenny felt so embarrassed and uncomfortable that she wanted nothing more than for Vastra to leave, to take her things and walk away and never come back so that maybe Jenny could just forget her and move on. Her heart obviously disagreed, however and instead of telling her to go, she found herself nodding in acceptance to her offer. “Yes, please, hat would be very welcomed.” She said, biting her lip hard at how much of an idiot she must look like, and quickly started gathering shards, just to have something - anything - to do.

Vastra’s brows furrowed in confusion, as something about what Jenny said felt kind of…. forced to her, but it wasn’t long before she, too, dropped down onto her knees and began to carefully collect the sharp fragments into her hand. There was only a cold and empty silence as the two of them continued to clear the floor of broken china for what seemed like an entire eternity, each trying desperately to avoid looking at the other. Then by accident, while they were both too deeply caught up within their own contemplation, their hands touched yet again on the last piece of china. That simple incident served as a catalyst that sent powerful trails of sparks burning up the length of their arms until they ultimately reached their hearts and set them aflame with the intensity of a thousand blazing suns. Neither Jenny nor Vastra could comprehend why it must always happen this way, but at the same time it was also getting increasingly more difficult for them to ignore their passionate mutual attraction to each other. Completely aware of all the risks that came with it, both Jenny and Vastra simultaneously lifted their heads so that their eyes became firmly locked, bright blue staring into rich brown. Every single trace of the outside world gradually faded away until nothing else remained except for the two of them, utterly alone with the deafening sound of their seismic heartbeats. Vastra subconsciously licked her lips and stole a tentatively quick glimpse of Jenny’s perfectly kissable mouth, a sudden erotic shiver shooting up her spine when she noticed Jenny mirroring her actions as well. There was a distinctly apparent change among the atmosphere that surrounded them, filling it to the very brim with a heavy and undeniable sexual tension which radiated off of Jenny and Vastra themselves. Slowly, their faces started moving forward inch by inch in order to close the gap between them, though neither was fully capable of registering it, as if there was some unseen mystical power that was pulling them together, whether they knew it or not.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, Vastra’s ears perked up to an all too familiar voice that started shouting from the sofa. “Vastra? Extra, where the hell did you go?! Don’t tell me you seriously dropped the phone without hanging up to go get some from that girl of yours!” Lanah called out from the phone speaker, utter amusement and irritation mixing within her tone.

Thus, the mysterious trance that was holding Vastra and Jenny captive had been broken. They blinked rather absentmindedly, as if just waking up from a long slumber, both entirely unsure about what was happening in that particular moment. Then witnessing that their hands were still in the same position, they immediately separated them with impossibly lightning quick reflexes, the final china piece being claimed by Vastra. Nonetheless, the overwhelming heat of the carnal fire that had consumed them earlier refused to go away, but continued to rage within them ever so strongly. Their eyes strictly fixated onto the floor, neither of them could find any words to say, for fear of escalating the already stressful situation even more. Therefore, they decided to simply keep their mouths shut, and wordlessly rose up from the floor before walking over to the trashcan in Jenny’s kitchen where they cautiously disposed all of the damaged china fragments.

Once that was taken care of, Vastra immediately sprinted back into the living room to pick up her phone, and resumed the call saying, “ Ha ha ha ….very funny, Lanah. If you really must know, I’m with a client right now, another lizard case as you can probably guess. So I would highly appreciate it if you can kindly stop spouting shit out of your ass hole, and let me do my job.” Vastra was definitely in no mood to tolerate her older sister’s inappropriate remarks, but she also knew that Lanah was fully capable of enduring her verbal abuses after all those years.

“Well, excuse me! You’re not exactly notoriously known for going out of your way to visit patients in their homes, especially not on weekends! On the other hand, what you are notoriously known for is being insanely, ridiculously, EXTRA gay ! But whatever, blame a woman for trying to make some logical conclusions, it’s fine I don’t care. Either way, I don’t have time to stay talking to you much longer so I’m hanging up now. Goodbye, Vastra!” Immediately, the line went dead as Lanah hung up.

Inwardly relieved that the call was finally over with, Vastra sighed deeply as she placed her phone back into her pocket.

“Hey, Vastra. Are you…are you okay?” Carefully, Jenny approached Vastra, putting a hand on her arm. It was quite obvious that the lengthy phone call had drained Vastra, and she wanted to make sure that she was okay. “I’m here for you if…if you need to talk.”

It required every bit of Vastra’s willpower not to jump off the sofa when she felt Jenny’s delicate hand on her arm. Eventually turning around to face Jenny directly, Vastra tried to act like nothing was wrong as she said, “Thank you, Je–Miss Flint– but I assure you, everything is perfectly well with me. It’s just that, my sister….she enjoys pushing my buttons way too much sometimes.” Vastra chuckled nervously, a wry smile gracing her countenance. “Yes, she can often be a royal pain in the neck, but I still love her anyway.”

Vastra had intentionally stopped herself from addressing Jenny by her first name, because the phone call with Lanah made her self-conscious of the fact that she was getting a little too friendly with Jenny, and that she needed to reestablish some kind of professional formality asap.

While Jenny felt a bit hurt that Vastra refused to use her first name, she kept smiling peacefully, squeezing Vastras arm. “I understand. You are very lucky to have people who do care for you, even if they sometimes drive you crazy. They still love you.” Her smile felt less real with every passing second because seeing the way Vastra and her family worked, made Jenny’s heart ache. She badly longed to have a life and a family like that herself, too, but it was and always will be an unreachable dream, and she knew that. It had never been a possibility. “A lot of people have it much worse.”

Vastra was able to detect a trace of bitter melancholy in Jenny’s tone, which led her to gently lay her hand on Jenny’s knee and asked, “Pardon me if this sounds intrusive, but I’m under the impression that perhaps you don’t get along with your family?”

That was an extremely risky move on Vastra’s part and she mentally kicked herself for prying into the personal life of this woman who she barely even knows. On the other hand, however, Jenny seemed to be so sad and miserable that Vastra just couldn’t help giving her heart out to her in sympathy. There was really nothing that she could do except waiting anxiously with bated breath for Jenny’s response

Upon hearing Vastra’s inquiry, Jenny almost dissolved straight into tears. Her arms wrapped tightly around her own shivering body and she nodded. “My mom is dead. My siblings are God knows where, I haven’t heard from any of them in years, and my dad would probably try to kill me if I ever got close to him again.” At the end she was openly sobbing, unable to keep it all back as it came rushing out against her will, hot tears splattered on her cheeks. “There is not a single person who cares about me. I don’t have anyone who I can truly call ‘my family’ in this world” She knew it sounded pathetic and attention seeking from her side, but Jenny couldn’t help it. Once the dam had been breached, the flood of emotions could not be stopped no matter how hard she tried.

Oh dear….Oh God….Why is this happening….I shouldn’t have done that….Bloody hell I am such a fucking idiot!

Needless to say, Vastra was in full blown panic mode as she realized that she had unwittingly opened Pandora’s box. It’s rather obvious that she has brought this upon herself, because she just had to cross the line and make Jenny talk about a severely sensitive topic instead of minding her own damn business. So as a result of that, Vastra was now absolutely stuck in a most awkward situation with Jenny literally crying an entire river beside her, and there seemed to be nothing she could do to fix it. The real truth is that Vastra has always been the worst at trying to comfort people, especially when they are leaking an excessive amount of salty liquid out of their eyeballs, and would be more likely to distance herself away from them. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that her heart wasn’t actually breaking into a million pieces with every single choking sob that escaped from Jenny’s lips before falling on her ears. Vastra seriously hated seeing Jenny in so much pain and suffering, which she had ultimately concluded as somehow being caused by Jenny’s family. It was strikingly clear to Vastra that Jenny was carrying a lot of heavy, unresolved emotional baggage, and she very desperately wanted to help Jenny in any way she can, but her whole body was currently in a state of complete shock. Vastra was immensely determined to do at least something–anything–and began summoning all of her energy in order to regain her physical functionality.

Miraculously, Vastra’s efforts soon paid off as she was then able to slowly stretch her arm out towards Jenny and started to lightly pat her on the shoulder.

“Err there, there, Miss Flint….everything is going to be alright,”Vastra reassured fumblingly, wincing at how weak that sounded while trying to wrack her brain for more things to say. When she couldn’t find anything that she considered to be adequate enough, Vastra merely sighed and said, “Oh, who am I bloody kidding? Nothing is right about this whatsoever, and it’s all my damn fault! It was a stupid mistake on my part to just drop that question onto you out of nowhere. I really should have stayed in my lane. God, I’m such a fucking daft, insensitive fool!” There was a prolonged pause as Vastra suddenly fell silent, guilt and remorse weighing down heavily against her heart like lead. “I am so, so terribly sorry, Miss Flint….I now realize that it was inexcusable of me to overstepped my boundaries….and I completely understand if you want me to leave.”

Somehow, the thought of Vastra leaving, of Jenny having chased her away because she could not keep her damn mouth shut about things she knew no one cared about, felt even worse to Jenny than the agonizing torment of her mortal soul. Her stomach twisted,and even more tears came pouring down her face, and before she knew what she was doing, she wrapped her arms tightly around Vastra, hugging her and sobbing into her firmly solid chest. “No, please don’t go….I’m…I’m sorry. I…I know I shouldn’t….I’m sorry for being like this.” There was not much else that Jenny could say, still shamelessly clinging onto Vastra for dear life and crying her eyes out.

Vastra was caught completely by surprise when the woman of her dreams suddenly threw herself at her, for lack of a better term, and was refusing to let her go anytime soon. While Vastra was utterly afraid that she might mess things up even more if she made just one wrong move, she also felt a sort of newfound maternal instinct kicking into her system as she simply couldn’t bear to hear Jenny apologizing for something that wasn’t her fault. Eventually deciding to throw all caution into the wind, Vastra carefully encircled her own arms around Jenny’s small trembling frame, propriety be damned! She then proceeded to rub soothing circles upon Jenny’s back, while quietly whispering sweet words of comfort into her ear, because God knows the poor girl definitely deserved nothing less than to be treated with utmost compassion and kindness as she continued to thoroughly soak Vastra’s shirt with her tears of anguish. They remained together in that position for an indefinite amount of time, which didn’t really bother Vastra one bit because she was perfectly willing to wait for as long as Jenny needed.

Finally, Jenny’s tears started to abate after she had all but cried herself dry, embarrassment quickly claiming her and putting her cheeks on fire as she separated from Vastra, scooting to the other end of the sofa and giving her some extra space after having clung to her shamelessly for what felt like hours. Carefully, she dabbed the edge of her tank top against her cheeks, trying to remove the leftover tears and attempting a wobbly smile. “Sorry.” She said, her voice not quite as steady as she’d like it to be. “I don’t talk about my family often, for obvious reasons. I prefer to just bury it all in the back of my head and forget.” She gave a shallow laughter, but it was lifeless and not particularly funny and she decided to just shut up instead.

Vastra would have pouted in disappointment when Jenny abruptly broke their tight embrace, and hastily retreated back to the other side of the couch, but luckily she was able to school her features into appearing strictly normal. Already did she missed the warm weight of Jenny’s body pressed against her own and the special intimacy of having her arms wrapped around the petite woman; It was as if a large piece of her heart had been taken away along with Jenny, which left her feeling utterly hollow and incomplete.

Vastra’s eyes simply couldn’t resist dropping down to look at the exposed skin on Jenny’s stomach as she lifted up the fringe of her tank top, but she still made sure to instantly revert her gaze so that she wouldn’t be caught like last time.

“It would seem that is much easier said than done, I’m afraid,” replied Vastra wistfully, returning with a rather strained smile of her own. She could sense that the atmosphere of the room has changed drastically yet again, and she didn’t like the way it somehow made all of her hair stand up on end. There was a tense pause before she continued to speak, “That was quite an impressive emotional catharsis you had, Miss Flint. How are you feeling now?”

Wincing a little at the thought if what she had just done, Jenny nodded. “A bit better, thanks. Actually, a lot better. Don’t think I’ve told anyone that much about my family since I was a teenager. Hope it wasn’t too embarrassing for you.” She purposely looked away from Vastra as she said the last part, but she didn’t feel quite as ashamed as earlier.

A wave of regret washed over Vastra when she saw Jenny did that, as she had to fight the persistent urge to grab Jenny’s face and force her to look directly at her. “Believe me, Miss Flint, I did not find it to be the least bit embarrassing….as long as it doesn’t bother you to disclose the private details of your life to a foolish, meddlesome stranger, of course, “Vastra responded reassuringly, while also including a sharp jab at herself for starting this in the first place.

Jenny frowned a little at this, and quickly shook her head. “You’re not a meddlesome stranger. You’re someone I trust.” She said sincerely, looking up at Vastra, their eyes meeting. “Besides, maybe it isn’t so healthy to hide your problems and wish they’ll go away for most of your adult life. It certainly doesn’t seem to have done me any good.” She frowned again, uncertain. She thought of the phone call with Vastra and her sister she listened in on, and knew that Vastra was trying to forget things as well.

“Mmmm well, I actually have several people in mine who would love to disagree with you on that,” Vastra responded in a more lighthearted tone, desperately attempting to decrease the negative aura that was surrounding them. Then thoughtfully stroking her chin out of habit, she asked, “Have you ever considered keeping a diary or journal, Miss Flint? You are absolutely right about it not being healthy to permanently suppress your feelings, but perhaps it would be helpful for you to write them down somewhere? Get them off of your chest?”

Oh, there was actually so much more that Vastra wanted to get off Jenny’s chest.

Vastra could still remember all the diaries she had kept when she was younger, and the freedom that they gave her to express herself without any restrictions within those countless blank pages.

Jenny giggled. She didn’t quite know why, but she definitely giggled. “That might have been a good idea.” She admitted slowly, the ‘but’ resting at the tip of her tongue. “But I’m rather daft. Never really thought I was very good with words, and reading,and writing. I can, of course, especially if I take lots of time like I do at work, but it’s a slow process. I really don’t think it’d be helpful, in my case..” She gave Vastra a sheepish look, feeling a little mean for turning down her advice. She did like the idea, but it didn’t feel quite right for her.

Vastra only nodded understandably, an objectively cordial smile plastered on her face as she said, “Ah, yes, I should have known that it wouldn’t necessarily work for everybody. It was just a suggestion, however, and there’s nothing that says you have to abide by it.” Biting her lip, Vastra lowered her gaze down to the floor, as she was struggling to contain this one particular question that’s been bugging her brain during the past hour. That proved to be too difficult though, and Vastra couldn’t stop her mouth from suddenly uttering, “Why do you think that your father is going to kill you?”

Ughh, what is fucking wrong with you?! When will you ever learn from your mistakes, for God’s sake! Vastra was very angry at herself for lacking better self-control, and blurting out yet another absurdly intrusive question. Although she was genuinely concerned and intrigued when Jenny mentioned something about her father killing her, Vastra had vowed to try her damn hardest not to let it escape from the mental confines of her mind. Therefore, having totally failed in that, Vastra immediately braced herself in anticipation for what she thought would be a repeat of Jenny’s earlier reaction.

“Oh” It was the first thing that came to mind as Jenny heard Vastra’s question, a simple ‘oh’ of surprise. Surprise that Vastra had actually noticed her quite offhanded comment about her father, and surprise that Vastra cared to investigate it further. As the surprise passed, Jenny felt as though there was not much left to say at all. Had she been asked earlier she might have cried, or screamed or even run for it, but now, she felt as stoic and gray as a stone, entirely void of all emotional attachment to the question. “Well, my father, he’s…he doesn’t like people who don’t obey the Bible. Who, for example, are attracted to the same sex. It’s a sin and I…well…I’m a sinner. He caught me kissing a girl and after that I didn’t have much of a choice. If they’re sinners, killing one’s child is entirely justified.” It was honestly unbelieveable that , Vastra had managed squeezed out yet another thing Jenny never talked about. It wasn’t that she was ashamed that her family for being extremely conservative, but it felt wrong to mention it when she herself couldn’t fill their standards of decency.

At first, there appeared to be no hint of a visible reaction from Vastra, because she had been struck absolutely speechless after listening to Jenny’s heartbreaking testimony. It was the same old story that she had heard from many other people in the LGBT social circles that she usually hung around, but this time with Jenny it’s somehow different because within seconds, a mighty and overwhelming inferno of righteous fury was ignited in Vastra. While she herself was fortunate enough to come out to a remarkably supportive family, just the thought of there being parents who, for some bullshit reason or another, simply cannot accept the fact that their children love the same gender, and would even go so far as to kill them, never failed to make Vastra’s blood boil hotly with anger. The way Jenny had described her father, how he had abused her solely for her sexual orientation sounded utterly barbaric to Vastra, as she found herself becoming increasingly protective of Jenny. She also imagined what it would be like to run down that bloody homophobic bastard with her motorcycle as a rightful punishment for all the damage he had inflicted against Jenny. No doubt she would have derived a most immense amount of satisfaction from it.

Vastra soon pulled herself out of her revenge fantasies, and impulsively reached over to hold Jenny’s hand in hers, before speaking bluntly, “No, don’t you ever berate yourself as a sinner like that again! I won’t stand for it! Forget everything that your asshole father said because you are definitely not a sinner! You, Miss Flint, are such a kind, beautiful, intelligent, honest, diligent, strong, and overall extraordinary individual as I have come to known throughout the course of my visit here. Your sexual preference for the fairer sex should not negate all of these positive qualities, nor should you be ashamed of being the way you are. So if your despicable bigot of a father refuse to understand that, then you might as well consider him dead to you, because I would bury him twenty feet underground if given the chance.” Vastra paused to catch her breath, her serious demeanor melting away to offer Jenny a softly compassionate smile as she concluded with, “Please trust me when I say, that even though your family may have forsaken you, I myself will always believe in you no matter what. You are worth so much more than you realize, Jenny Flint.”

The doubtless sincerity of Vastra’s words seemed to drip thick from her lips like luscious honey, which Jenny desperately longed to taste.

Jenny was entirely floored.

The effort of Vastra to show her love and appreciation and try to make up for the heaviness of her past had her stunned, shocked and overwhelmed with pure joy at the tremendous amount of care that Vastra dedicated to her. Even when young and still with a family, she hadn’t been very noticeable. A middle child among eight - too many mouths to be fed and too many expenses to be payed in the eyes of her parents - Jenny had been used to nearly not existing in the eyes of most. She was just another one , another student at the same school as four siblings before her and another pair of shoes that needed replacing when her father hadn’t had a job for weeks. Another young woman with lacking education searching for any job she could get in an effort to survive. The kind of care and kindness and love Vastra offered was something totally new. With Vastra, Jenny felt like the star of a play standing on a stage, everyone’s eyes focused solely on her. It made her heart soar and she lit up like a christmas tree at the thought.

“Thank you. Really, thank you. I…there has never been anyone showing me this much attention before, if I am to be honest. As a middle kid among eight, I….I’ve always been used to being forgotten. Well, until I do something wrong, that is, but that’s not the kind of attention you want.” She smiled, her broadest and happiest. “Thanks for caring, Vastra. For making me feel so very appreciated. You are special, too, and I’m so happy that I met you.”

Vastra couldn’t bring herself to say anything, because there was no words that could adequately describe Jenny’s radiant beauty in that moment when she is smiling and gay. It was a thrilling sensation for Vastra to be the one who could turn Jenny’s entire perspective around and help her to see the light that shines within her. There was truly nothing that she desired more than for Jenny to find the courage to love herself as perfect as she already was. She didn’t care about Jenny’s shitty childhood or her terrible abusive father, because none of that mattered anymore as she was determined to guide Jenny in moving forward from her unhappy past. Vastra’s heart was practically overflowing with pure, unconditional love towards Jenny, and even though it seemed highly unlikely that she would ever share her same romantic feelings, Vastra will never stop wanting the best of everything for Jenny.

Once she was able to recover her tongue again, Vastra gently squeezed Jenny’s hand and began to say, “Well, who else is going to to care for you if I don’’t? Really, Jenny, I promise that you will have a family of your own someday, a new and even better one. You already have Greeny….and I….I lo-”

Just as vastra was about to utter some of the most important words in her entire life, the sound of police sirens interrupted her, the noise coming from the kitchen and making itself heard all the way to the living room.

As if on cue, Jenny jumped up from her seat and ran off to the kitchen. After a while, the noise died out and she came back into the living room, her phone pressed to her ear, urgently talking to someone.

Glancing at Vastra, she whispered. “It is from work.” Before going back to talking to the person on the other end. “You know I don’t have weekend shifts this month, Jack! And yes, I am in the middle of something, too! So I’m not going to just give it up unless…wait, seriously? Oh my god! Why didn’t you say so? I’ll be there soon, bye.” Jenny hung up the phone, stress and mild panic clear on her face.

Whatever that was said in the conversation between that person and Jenny made Vastra considerably concerned, but also slightly piqued her curiosity.

“Jenny, you don’t look so well….what’s wrong? Who was that calling you?” Inquired Vastra eagerly, as she began to stand up with the intention of walking over to Jenny.

Glancing over at Vastra, and almost looking as though she just noticed she was there, Jenny frowned. “That was Jack, from work. He’s in charge of arranging all of our schedules and…he needs me to come in and work extra today. A sort of… thing happened and they need everyone they can get as soon as possible.”

Vastra arched an inquisitive eyebrow at that and said, “ Oh ….yes, I figured that it must be something serious if Scotland Yard is calling you on your day off.” She awkwardly fidgeted in her seat, uncertain on what to do next. “Anyway….I would seem that I’ve overstayed my welcome in your home. Perhaps you’d like me to leave now, so that you can get ready for work?”

An unspoken question hung in the air as Vastra and Jenny merely gazed at each other from across the room. Vastra really didn’t want to leave Jenny, who she’d fallen so incredibly hard for, or the enchantingly serene paradise consisting of just the two of them inside her apartment together. Being with Jenny had made her forget that all good things must come to an end eventually, and that she was completely powerless to prevent it.

Jenny glanced between the phone still in her hand and Vastra, a slightly guilty look on her face. She didn’t want this to end, but she felt as though she didn’t have a choice. It was extremely urgent, and she had promised Jack to come as soon as possible. “Look, I’m really sorry to have to throw you out like this, but there’s sort of a crisis going on, and I really need to get changed and get there! But we can still see each other at another time, yes?” Jenny smiled, nearly bursting at the seams with hopefulness.

Afraid that her voice might crack if she gave a verbal response, Vastra simply opted for a wry, bittersweet smile and nodded in understanding. She wordlessly retrieved her leather jacket to put it back on, hiding away her glorious arm tattoos from the view of mortal eyes once again. She then stood up before proceeding to swiftly walk towards the door, and Jenny followed suit to see her out. Jenny reached the door first and politely held it open for Vastra to go through. The Scottish woman already had one foot out the doorway when she suddenly paused, standing there like a statue as she contemplated something.

Then catching Jenny off guard, Vastra turned around and used one hand to cradle Jenny’s chin as she leaned over to plant a softly chaste kiss atop her forehead. “ Ceòthach mhadainn dh'fhaodadh a bhith latha soilleir….that’s Scottish for, ‘a misty morning may become a clear day’,” whispered Vastra as she slowly pulled away, capturing Jenny’s eyes with her own, which were full of undisclosed desires and passion. “Farewell, dear Jenny Flint, and thank you for a most splendidly memorable afternoon.”

Vastra allowed her hand to linger underneath Jenny’s chin in a rather seductive manner for several more tantalizing moments, before she abruptly spun around on her heel and marched right out of the apartment without so much as a backwards glance.

Jenny stood where Vastra left her, frozen in place, her eyes fixed on the doorway through which the unbelievably remarkable woman had just departed. Slowly, her eyes closed, her hand travelling all the way to her forehead and touching the spot where Vastra’s lips had touched it. Before her mind’s eye, Jenny could see Vastra’s beautiful lips resting on her pale skin, cool and slightly moist against her heated skin. She imagined those sweet lips traveling down her body and touching all of her. She wished to have her own lips on Vastra’s body, too, and though she knew it would probably never come true she couldn’t help but let herself get caught up in that dream for a while. A pleasant tingly warmth spread throughout her body and she smiled.

When she opened her eyes again, Jenny realised that she had spent all too much time dreaming about the most lovely scenarios with Vastra’s beautiful lips grazing her skin and her own lips kissing Vastra’s perfect face, and she quickly decided that she needed to get moving. The smile, however stayed on her face, just as the warm feeling in her chest remained there, and she kept the fantasies of her and Vastra and all that she could be with that gorgeous woman in the back of her mind for her to continue enjoying while she got dressed for work.

A misty morning may indeed become a clear day.

The golden sun hung high in the sky when Vastra emerged from the apartment complex, casting its far reaching rays upon her entire body as a kind of purifying blessing. She took several steps outside until she was approximately three feet away from the building, and only then did she finally permit herself to look back up at Jenny’s window. Vastra couldn’t resist reminiscing about the countless blissful hours that she had spent with Jenny; What had originally started as a simple veterinarian house visit to examine a client’s pet lizard, somehow gradually turned into one hell of a roller coaster ride with its numerous dramatic up and down points. Indeed, it was quite a perplexing paradox, because while Vastra found it considerably difficult to be confined in the same general area as Jenny due to her severe infatuation with the girl, she was also able to genuinely enjoy Jenny’s hospitable company nonetheless. Vastra thanked God that she was fortunate enough to bask in the magnificent aura of Jenny’s divine presence, witness her uniquely striking beauty up close with her own eyes, and engage in sociable conversation with Jenny as if they were old friends, rather than formal strangers. By the end of her tenure in Jenny’s home, Vastra truly felt like the two of them have learned so much about each other after sharing very intimate things from the deepest bottom of their souls, which helped them to form an even stronger and more meaningful connection than ever before. Never in her life did Vastra predict that she would be able to fully open herself to someone, or that a single person could have such a profound impact on her heart. Out of all the people in the world, Jenny was like a precious diamond among the rough, a cool oasis in the middle of a desert, a miraculous breeze of fresh air flowing into her lungs. Nobody else was even remotely worthy of being compared to Jenny, whose extraordinary celestial status uplifted her high above the rest of mankind in Vastra’s eyes.Everything that happened in the apartment served to confirm Vastra’s underlying belief that the feelings she harbored for Jenny weren’t just a mere crush, but undeniably true and honest love that consumed her entire being. Whether Jenny would ever reciprocate her romantic inclinations was a whole different matter, however, and there seemed to be little that Vastra could do to soothe the unbearable pain of falling for a perfect girl who she can never have. At least she could still find slight comfort in the fact that she actually got to hold Jenny in her arms, and earned her invaluable trust as a friend, which she concluded was better than nothing. Vastra’s mind continued to wander further as she remembered how conflicted she had been at the beginning, trying to decide between bravery and cowardice when Jenny first asked her to come over. Ultimately, Vastra was glad that she chose to follow her heart, because it had led her to the possibility of obtaining something much greater with Jenny.

Finally pulling herself out of her inner musings, Vastra glanced down to look at her watch.

The time was just nearing 12 PM.

Therefore, the day was still young, leaving plenty of room for an impromptu Sunday adventure. A delighted smile unconsciously spread across Vastra’s face, as she stuffed her hands into her pockets and leisurely walked the rest of the way towards her motorcycle. Once clad in her protective helmet and goggles, Vastra didn’t hesitate to rev up the motorcycle before it launched itself roaring down the road at maximum hyperspeed.

———————————————————————–

Tag/Update list (DM me to be added):

@kelticscribe @zaridaxe @antiveninn @dorvanie

#vastra and jenny #dw femslash #madame vastra #jenny flint #paternoster gang

[ddrkirbyisq]

Apparently I'm not quite so great at doing a post on VBall every year (unlike with, say, Fanime).  The last time I wrote about a VBall was from 2015 -- you can find that post here.  I tried looking for a post from 2016 and I found one that referenced VBall, but afterwards there were a bunch of very angsty and depressed entries so apparently I wasn't in a very great place.  Thinking back to it, I actually sort of =do= remember last year's vball and it was a strange mix of emotions, mostly due to certain circumstances.  But that is neither here nor there, as they say...

Viennese Ball, for me, is different than Fanime in the sense that VBall isn't quite wholly different from year to year.  With Fanime so much can happen and I feel like the range of experience is sort of all over the place depending on what ends up happening to me, but with VBall there's only so much that can change from year to year; we usually have more or less the same things happening over the course of the night, after all.

Probably the most notable thing about VBall this year was that it was up in the Palace Hotel in SF again, instead of the Santa Clara Marriot (as it was last year) or the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame (as it was the year before, and a bunch of years besides that).  The Burlingame location is by far the most "familiar" by now, with the Santa Clara one being the most low-stress (so close by!).  I work up in the city now, so it was semi (?) convenient for me being able to drive to work in the morning, then repark my car (paying for parking twice in a day, booo) near the hotel.  That being said I was still (to my dismay) pretty stressed out before the event, though I didn't want to be.  Part of that was just being in an unfamiliar place and situation (always the bane of us ISFJs), trying to make sure that I was able to set aside time to do makeup, fix up my Journey dress, park my car, etc.  In the end it wasn't that big of a deal, but I DID end up having to find a corner of the hotel with a power outlet and pulling out my clothing iron because one of the triangular pieces of my dress was peeling off (didn't get attached securely when I first ironed it on, apparently).  So while everybody was milling around waiting for the ball to start I was off in this random corner near an elevator ironing my dress...

On the plus side everything went AOK in the end and I actually didn't end up having any issues with my costume, though there were a few moments when my scarf was trailing behind me and I was super worried that it would get in someone's way and get destroyed or something.  Sigh.  But enough about all that.

The ball itself was pretty wonderful!  I always say that VBall is really great just by virtue of being an event where you get to see so many people from the community, even those who don't come out much and are essentially in hiding.  The dancing itself at Vball is.....an interesting mixed bag, as there's usually no space on the floor and a bunch of beginners that you really have to watch out for not to run into, but everyone looks really amazing in their fancy clothes and everything.  But just walking around and saying hi to everyone is always great times.

I didn't actually end up being able to catch all of the performances and such that went on during the evening, unfortunately, including some that I would have really liked to, but somehow I was just caught up between dancing, catching up with people, etc.  Whoops.  I was also unreasonably stressed about the waltz competitions (much to my dismay).  I didn't want to admit it but I actually REALLY wanted to do well, not just because I had taken a year off and withheld from joining last year, but because I really do care a LOT about social waltz and have been dedicating quite a lot of effort to improving through the last several months.

In the end I couldn't really have asked for much better.  Me and Talia were tapped out in the cross-step waltz preliminary rounds but only after dancing really hard and putting everything I knew out there.  This is something that I really like about performances and competitions that makes me wish there was more of this in our waltz scene -- the fact that something about performing in front of people really makes you give it your all.  I know from first-hand experience that an atmosphere of constant competition and attention-seeking can be unhealthy, grating even, but I think there is really something to be said about having an opportunity to come together with a partner and really try to put your best foot forward.  As those of us who dance a lot may know, being given that opportunity that doesn't necessarily mean that things end up working out -- sometimes you fall completely flat of your own expectations, but it's difficult to really reach a pinnacle of expression if you don't have a reason to push yourself.

The rotary waltz preliminaries started and I decided that I wouldn't really hold anything back, as who could really say what would happen?  I could try and put odds on whether we would make the finals but would that really help me, or should I just put 100% into it regardless?  So we danced our hearts out and MAN.  The thing is, I've been focusing quite a lot of cross-step waltz lately, but rotary has this super driving energy and when you are really in the zone, good rotary waltz songs just somehow propel you forward and around in this certain unique way.  It's that reason that made me fall in love with rotary waltz in the first place.  So there I was getting super into the first song of the preliminary round and then that song ends and......on comes another good song.  And I'm like, ok, here we go...so I start putting what felt like 120% of my energy into this new song and wow, we are zooming across the floor and around each other and I feel like I'm flying...  I don't really remember for sure, but I think it was at that point that I was actually able to just let go of my own expectations and pressure and just live purely in the moment.  It is the magic of music and motion that lets this special thing happen to us, where nothing else really matters, just you and your partner and the dance and the music, and flying along, and as that song ended I realize that I don't think I've ever really put this much into a dance before.

...and like that, the preliminary round was over and I was.....not just happy, but more importantly, NEEDED WATER.  Holy crap do you have any idea how tiring it is to dance two rotary waltzes one after another while pulling out all the stops, while wearing a big fancy dress and petticoat?  So just as I did two years ago, the first thing I did was go off to get some water.........sheesh!

Fast forward to our turn -- we were the last couple to perform.  And as I walk forward I'm thinking of how I've prepared and waited for this moment, a chance to show everyone what waltz can be, what it can really be, and how many possibilities there are.  And as I'm thinking this, the opening notes "Time" come on and at that moment I sort of just melted a bit.  And I think my thoughts at that point were basically just "oh....oh MAN.....here we go....wow" and at that point I knew that everything was going to be amazing no matter what.  Not only is Time one of my all-time favorite waltzes, with a gosh-darn GREAT musical structure, but has this unique repeating motif throughout the song that I can't help but feel inspired by.  It's a song that I liked so much that I even wrote my own version of it!

I have often said about my composing process that it is not about me forming melodies on my own, but rather about finding the "flow" of a song and allowing it to write itself, allowing it to speak for itself, through my hand.  It's similar to the concept of the Greek Muses, in this way, in that I'm serving more as a conduit through which the song comes through, and I've found that being able to let my brain's creative half function naturally is key in writing good music, as whenever I try to stop and think or reason about what I'm doing it tends to lead to trouble.  Dance is much the same way for me, which I think is why I feed off of and depend so heavily on the music that is being played, as it compels me in a way that I would never be able to replicate otherwise.  I've been asked before how I am able to be so "musical" while dancing and it's an odd question for me to attempt to answer because I can't really imagine being any other way.  I of course have come up with more structured responses about aligning figures to phrases and all that, and logically that all makes sense, but really at the heart of it I feel such a strong connection to the music that it's very difficult for me to dance in a way that doesn't line up properly, especially as a leader.  It's funny if you think about it -- really the leader is playing "follow" to the music...

All that said, I knew exactly what I was going to start the dance off with because I really wanted to show leading from the follower's position.  It's my specialty and there is really so much you can do with it.  Role switching in dance has been a passion of mine for several years now and I really wish we could have more of it!  The rest of the dance went by in what seemed like a flash and somehow, guided by the music, we managed to fit in almost (almost =P) everything I wanted to show.  And then it was over.  I took a deep breath and felt this huge wave of catharsis (and exhaustion, lol!).

I've already said it before, but it meant so much to me hearing everyone's words of encouragement and congratulations for us, and even more to hear that people were inspired by our performance.  I actually had a conversation with a close friend just the day before the ball about why the heck I was so invested in this whole waltz competition thing, and why I even cared so much.  And it was at that time, after our performance, when people were giving us hugs and high-fives, that I found the answer that I was looking for.  I really did think for a second that I was going to start crying.

I can't thank everyone enough.

I've mentioned in the past wanting to start some sort of regular practicing or waltz-lab-like thing for people to come together and work on improving their waltz and learning new things from each other (and also just having fun dancing together!), and I'm finally putting my words to action!  I'll be at Dancebreak at 10PM tomorrow night and would love to work on stuff with other people there.  I don't know what will happen in the future but everything's gotta start from somewhere!

#Blogger

[alka-di-kijarr]

Disclaimer. The following part of the hunters journey was connected to my #CallOfThePharah on deviantArt in april2021. English is still not my native language, but I wish you a lot of fun reading the next adventure of Nero, Vaas and all the other hunters.

Vazemi species is a closed species. If you want to get your own, please contact me.

The winner of this design - and so the new owner is - TwistedLunatic

Hunters Journey - 019

It was the sound of a violent crack, which caught Vaas’ attention, while he was screening the surrounding area carefully. His view focused on Nero, who was riding on an ostrich-like creature.

"By the gods, ya shoulder sounds terrible."

Nero, actually trying to do some stretching exercises, just gave him a dull smile.

"Is this still from the accident with Pisces?"

"I guess so. Since the invasion I can't sleep for long or deep any more and often wake up with sore joints and muscles. But it gets better during the day, most of the time at least."

Vaas lowered his eyebrows, in grim recollection of the day when they encountered the Pisces in the iced sea of the north. And every event that followed until the very day. Being the old hunter he was, Vaas straightened his back and lifted his chin. This was not the time to fall back into this deep hole he climbed out so laborious over the past weeks. But he had to admit that he could only hope for calm winds during their expedition to the borderlands of Padunay.

The group which was following him and Nero was formed by "anyone they could spare" and unlike other expeditions, those were not the glorious heroes, the old hunters or the veteran seekers. It was a small group of 15 people, most of them were young blooded and without any experience in combating creatures. Vaas rubbed his temporal muscle.

Concerns sprouted deep inside him. It was the first time in all those years he was part of the BlackBestia-HuntingGuild, that he was unsure about which place would be safer. Inside the HQ, or on an expedition. Whatever they would find out here, it better be useful for the problems they had to fix. And Seth should get his hands on a solution to prepare for another invasion. The retired knight was sure there would follow another attack. It was just a question of time.

Behind Vaas a chattering talk became louder and louder, so the old man tilted his head in interest.

"No way! Are you telling me there were books in our own library about this dimensional thing?!"

"E-eh, yes?" Lauriel raised her arms in disbelief and the poor young man next to her lifted his hands in defence.

"How can it be we never talked about that in the tutorials? Or during the preparation meetings?"

"Nobody of you guys ever came to the lib and asked for one of those books...I guess."

The young huntress was filled with so much anger, it really surprised Vaas seeing her in this condition.

"Seth excluded those things...sometimes."

"Sometimes? How about we never had this topic on the table?!"

Vaas sighed and a few of the other new hunters joined the talk. Clara, a huntress from a small village, checked on her dual blades, while a hunter with a double-bladed axe made a grim impression.

"Maybe they did not want to make it more complicated?"

"Or they are scared." Clara raised her right eyebrow and Vaas felt as if everyone's eyes were resting on him, waiting for an answer.

The old man let his view roam the landscape they were passing through. Sand. Sand everywhere. Rock formations, huge and spiky violet-blue crystals and the burning sun above them. His ostrich companion walked relaxed, saving energy for the upcoming part of their journey.

"I don't know what ya guys want to hear from me, really..."

"The reason." For sure, the reason. He knew that. But speaking about this made it hard to even breathe.

"Please Master Vaas, tell us what happened, so we can understand and maybe help in making things better." The axe hunter caught up to Vaas and Nero, while most of the group was coming closer, so everyone could hear the retired knight.

"You must promise to me, that you won't storm Seth's office and pinpoint him after what I will tell you now." Agreeing mumbling was heard.

"It happened many, many years ago. Seth, Tahorn and I were ordered to work together. I was still a kings guard at this time, but a gigantic beast was causing a lot of trouble in the kingsland and many people lost their lives due to it. The crown of Camulada ordered us to work with the hunters, and also Tahorn, part of the crown of Peara, joined in.

It was a huge squad with over fifty hunters, swordsmen, knights and every person you could imagine that was dumb enough to confront this beast. We searched for weeks, following one track after another, but we were always behind.

It took us two months to catch the monster in the act.” Monster? No word Nero was used to hear from Vaas very often.

It was a preposterous creature, sitting on the roof of a house, which belonged to some farmers, munching on a cow between its skull-like jaws.

It was a chilling sound, you could already hear from afar. We moved closer and I spotted that another cow right-wingwas caught between his right wing claws, and one under his left foot. It was still in the middle of its lunch, not noticing us getting closer and closer, through a forest part. Seth and Tahorn were in disagreement about the further steps, but I told them, that we needed to act now, before it would finish its meal and fly off again.”

Nero could see how Vaas mimik was freezing. His mind was there, back at this place all the years ago. When another hunter wanted to raise his voice and tell Vaas to continue, Nero threw a hell of an angry view to the guy. He silenced immediately.

"What...happened then, Vaas?"

“Since our two leading stubborn kids couldn’t figure out a better plan in time, we went with a simple surrounding tactic. We spread in a circle, ready to attack from all sides at once. The basilisks (hunters with huge crossbows and shrouds) tried to fixate the monster, pinning it down and dragging it off the roof. It worked for the first part, and we could land some painful strikes. I cut both hamstrings of the creature deeply, believing it would make it hard for it to stand and fight in this condition, but…

The very moment when everyone gathered around the beast and Tahorn was ready to land a fatal blow on the head,...well, I should have listened to my guts. It hadn’t fought back at all. And I asked myself why.”

"Was it waiting for help?" Clara asked carefully from the side.

"Pff, no. This monster would not need help, even if we would be more than those fifty lost souls we were at that time. We were just so blind. But this was the moment Seth broke with everything that contains weavers and magic potential. The creature lifted its head, and you could see how its body was breaking the light, as if the dimensions were scattering right in front of us. There were other heads, screaming in anger and pain, yet the ‘real head’ remained in silence.

The heads appeared and disappeared as if it was made from aetheric fog. The legs, the back, the wings, everything transformed back and forth, back and forth, and green gas was flowing out of its jaws and its entire body, crawling over the grass. I tried to walk away, but it felt as if someone was grabbing my heart, holding me close to the scenery. One of the hunters right next to me said one word. One atrocious word….yperite.

I felt as if a lightning struck my spine. I swiftly ran towards Seth and Tahorn, grabbing the back of their coats and dragging them away as far as possible, but it was too late. I saw this….I saw this ugly grin on the face of this monster, before I heard whispering words rushing through my mind.”

Vaas fell into silence, and Nero straightened his back just realizing how silent and tense the group was right now.

“What...what did it say?”

"Burn."

"...It opened its jaws and released a giant fireball hitting the ground right in front of Tahorn and Seth, luckily its force thrust us away. Seth and Tahorn both lost their eyesight on one eye, caused by the gas they landed in with their faces. I grabbed them yet again and dragged them deeper into the woods. I..I couldn’t watch back. I couldn’t take care of those poor souls I left behind. I did as my order had been. I protected the brothers. The next thing I remembered was the moment I heard the scream of the creature while it was flying away, high above us. Trying to ease the burns I threw both of the brothers into a small creek. Ripping off my own leg pieces I kneeled beside them. We had more luck than anything else this day.

Just the sheer pressure of the fireblast was the reason why we were not burned by all the gas around us. The first explosion rapidly threw us far away, so that the exploding gas on the ground only touched us shortly. I still don’t know how we managed to survive and find a way home. I…..I should have done more. I should have gone back to the others. I heard their screams every night, for years. Melting and burning in their of armours, unable to rip them off fast enough.”

Neros heart was sinking, heavy like a shipwreck. He placed his hand on Vaas shoulder, seeing this good friend of him as old and weak as never before.

"Vass, we are with you. You are not alone. And you have done everything that was in your power at this moment." Lauriel caught up and placed her hand on Vaas hands.

"Without you, they would have been dead. And none of us would be on this trip." Vaas remained silent, his view empty, laying on the sand in front of them.

"We never caught this monster. But it got a name." he snorted. The group listened up.

"Rangakai, the Artefact." The young archivist behind them gasped, but Nero shook his head and signalled them to back off and remain silent for now. Vaas was drained and deep in his thoughts. Nero wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first time he ever had talked about this.

~

The group followed the lead and by the end of the day they reached a stone formation and Nero decided to stay here for the night. Vaas was still in his thoughts, but at least he tried to organize everything and everyone. Work seemed to bring him down into reality again, yet Nero could see how the shadow of grief, despair and anger was hovering above him.

A while later the group had fed the ostrich, built up sleeping places and over a fire several small animals were cooked.

Lauriel left the ostriches after checking for any wounds or problems they might have after this long trip, but there was no way she could go to sleep or eat now. Questions were racing in her mind and there was only one person she believed could have an answer. The young man, son of a tea merchant and now the keeper of the archives, had made his place on top of the stone formation, the view fixated on the stars above them.

"May I take a seat?" the young man nearly jumped off the stone plate, before he nodded fast.

"You...the moment Vaas called us the name of the beast. Ranga…."

"Rangakai."

"Yes. You seemed as if you would know more about this creature. Can you share your knowledge with me?"

The young man seemed to hesitate, but she used her best smile on him.

"I just want to understand what made this creature so special."

"Creatures."

"Pardon?"

"Rangakai is not only one creature." He sighed and closed his notebook, causing Lauriel to feel a bit bad about asking for his time, now that he was right into crafting a new star map.

"The old,...the forbidden books,...tell that were weavers back in the old days, the days of the mad fireking, who were so eager to rise from their unpopular social standing, that they started to experiment. In this time golemantic magicians were the top tier of arcane masters, but weavers were frown upon. Y-you see, the work of a golemantic can be seen by everyone.

Some of our best weapons are a masterpiece between blacksmiths, rune smiths and golemantics. But the work of a weaver can only be seen by people who can see into the Kahoré or have a weaver potential themselves.  Both nothing you would want to tell someone back in that time. The results are intensive and often blew up the horizon of many people, leaving them in fear and despair for the works of the weaver."

The young man started to nibble on a part of his scarf. Lauriel remained silent.

"Rangakai is the product of many,...dozens of failed experiments before. They robbed children who had a beast potential and ripped them apart, just in hope to try and combine their ‘beast souls’ with the ‘soul of a human’."

"A chimaera, you mean?"

"Y-yes, basically. Or more like an abomination, conjoined with parts of other living beings who needed to die for these cruel experiments.”

"What made them fail in the first place?"

"According to a book with a title I cannot tell you - or else I might lose my own head - they failed because the emotional parts of all creatures AND the one living, which they tried to weave them onto, collapsed. Causing outbursts of anger, uncontrollable behaviour and sudden deaths."

"Unstable…"

"Exactly. Like a glass of wine, with the thinnest layer of glass you can imagine. And Gemini standing on it."

"So there was no chance this could work, and still they...made it work?"

"Sadly, yes. Many centuries later the crown of Camulada found a hidden village in the middle of the mountains, during their patrols. The village was filled with children, but not a single one was able to speak, nor did they express any feelings. The notes I found describe them as puppets. Hollow inside. To the shame of the crown, one of their own great weavers had become schismatic, joined the cult and planned to attack Camulada with this army of...beasts."

"They all were already...manipulated?" Lauriel felt a stone in her chest, her throat was dry and her hands shaky. Those things were humans? Her mind couldn’t process this.

"What did they do with the children?" The young man kept silent for a while.

"There were...rehabilitation programs, in different kinds and manners. Some tried to unweave the beasts, some tried to teach them normal human behaviour. But nothing worked. Sometimes, all out of a sudden, the kids turned into their beast-forms and went on a rampage. At the end the crown ordered to execute all of them.”

Lauriel had tears in her eyes. How could someone be so cruel? The weavers in first place. Both hunters fell into silence, before Lauriel decided to leave and see for Vaas.

"Before I go. Tell me, how did they first find out about the chimaera aspects. The dimension cracking also could be a hallucination.”

"The yperite gas. This attribute belongs to only one known creature. A Methabran-Dragon, who can only be found at the very last spot of the world. No other creature can use it, and we would know if a creature would use it anywhere on Saigon, because of its disastrous impact on the environment and people." Lauriel nodded, before she left in silence.

The young hunter stayed at his place for a little longer, watching and studying the stars.

// Holrun, the Pharaoh of the black sand. What a wonderful star formation… What a tragic story. // Now that he came to think about the pharaoh, who was killed by his own right hand, at a very young age, a very bad feeling invaded his heart. He remembered....

//… And so I - Kladan the magician - imprison you, Holrun, son of the pharaoh Nuftep -thief of the throne - into this statue.

As that no god of the underworld will ever be able to welcome your soul to the afterlife, as long as you are captured inside the beast, which I have mummified, as your grave….

A soul, weaved into the body of a creature you shall be.

Mummified for eternity.

Garnished with gold, and in the colours of the kingdom, so every mortal soul can prey to you, but nobody will ever know your real fate.

The cruel fate I have chosen for you. Chosen for the son of a throne thief.

May your suffer last eternally. //

The young man gulped, closed his notebook and laid down on the stone.

The stars remained silent.

#daily story #magical stories #story writing #story telling #story idea #story of the day #storrytelling #story of tumblr #worldbulding #dragons #demons #rangakai #alka #hunters journey #fantasy #dark

[theroseandcrown]

The Rose & Crown: Chapter Twenty-Two (Part Four)

Rating: M Chapters: 22/24

Summary: The Doctor finds himself unable to decide which future he should choose.

Read this story on another platform: Archive of Our Own Fan Fiction WattPad

Clara caught herself staring at the shadows draped across her ceiling as if she had never seen them before. Her arm was loosely wrapped around her lover’s head as she absent-mindedly ran her fingers through the strands of his silver hair. His head rested against her chest as he listened to the calming sound of her heart beating beneath him. Her thoughts teetered between the events of the evening and the soothing sensation of his thumb stroking the surface of her middle. “I’ve missed this,” she finally spoke, breaking the silence in the room.

“Me too,” he admitted, taking in her scent as his glance drifted towards the sight of his hand resting low on her belly.

“It smells so different in here. I almost forgot what the rest of the world smelled like beyond metal consoles and chalk dust.”

“Now that you mention it, there does seem to be a particular Clara-esque aroma floating around in here,” he noted.

“If that’s code for I could do with a wash, I’m going to smack you,” she threatened playfully.

“I’m glad you brought that up. I was worried I would have to break it to you,” he teased her.

“Shut up,” she hushed him, covering his mouth with her hand. She felt him quietly laugh against her and attempted to ignore his humour. Taking a look around the room, she tried to remember how it felt to have lived and breathed a normal life within those walls. “It’s so strange being back here again,” she continued. “I wonder how long I’ve been gone.”

Lifting her hand from his face, he kissed it tenderly and held it in his grasp as he removed himself from under her arm. “Well, that depends,” he started, shifting to her side and supporting his head with his other arm as he looked to her. “Technically speaking, I’d say about four months, give or take a day or two. Realistically, a few hours.”

She tried to wrap her thoughts around his words, finding it difficult to grasp the fact that so little time had passed by on Earth when so much had happened to her since she had last been seen by another human being. As far as anyone else was concerned, she was still grieving over the loss of her recently departed boyfriend while her body continued to expand with the growth of another man’s child. As much as she wanted to see her friends and family again, even if only to hear their voice, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what to tell them. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that the Doctor was right. They shouldn’t have come back there. The memories were far too painful. Distracting herself, she took a moment to look around the room as if searching for anything out of the ordinary. “Should we even be here? Won’t that like, I dunno, implode the universe or something?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffed. “It’s a bedroom, not a black hole.” His eyes scanned the room as if taking into consideration that they had crossed beyond the threshold of safety by leaving the TARDIS and were currently vulnerable to the outside world. “But, just to be safe, perhaps it would be best if we didn’t extend our stay any longer than we have to.”

“Is there time to put the kettle on?” she asked with a bit of excitement. “I haven’t had a decent cup in ages.”

“What are you suggesting, that the TARDIS isn’t capable of making tea?” he eyed her playfully. “You two have never gotten on, have you?”

“Or maybe she just never liked sharing,” she countered with a smile. “Can’t say I blame her though. You’re quite the catch.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Miss Oswald,” he smiled back.

“Good, I’ll only be a minute then,” she assured him. She placed her hand on his cheek and leaned in to kiss him. Rolling to the side, she removed herself from the bed and rummaged around the floor for something a bit more than her nudity to wear. Finding his buttoned shirt, she placed it on and flipped her hair from under the collar. “I hope you don’t mind. Mine seems to be, um, misplaced at the moment.”

“It looks better on you anyway,” he stated, admiring her from the bed.

“A compliment? That’s new. Someone’s being naughty,” she grinned.

“I wouldn’t dare,” he replied with a smirk.

Returning to the bed, she braced her hands on the surface and leaned down to kiss his cheek before taking her leave of the room. Heading towards the kitchen, she passed through the hall and entered the small space. She quickly located the kettle sitting idly atop the counter and began to prep it. As she waited for the water to boil, she took a moment to look around the familiar place as if peering into a part of her past. She ran her hand across the utensils and appliances as if trying to remember how it felt to have utilized the space for its intended purpose. She recalled every unsuccessful attempt at making her mother’s soufflé, the countless number of good times with her closest friends, the laughs she had laughed and the tears she had cried. All the memories of her previous life were there waiting for her return.

After a moment, she sensed the Doctor’s presence approaching her from behind and assumed he was there to check on her. Leave it to him to worry about the potential danger lurking in the cupboards. She felt the warm sensation of his hands reaching around her waist to caress her bare middle as he pulled her closer to him. She leaned herself against him and allowed him to explore every bit of how different she must feel in his grasp now that she was no longer expanding with his child. “Did you miss me being so small in your arms?” she asked coyly.

“You’ve always been desirable to me. Even more so when you’re carrying,” he answered, breathing her in.

She lowered her glance to where his hands were protectively pressed over the place their child once flourished and smiled fondly. “Are you so eager to see me like that again?”

His lips found their way to her cheek and kissed her tenderly. “As many times as you wish,” he whispered, stroking her between her hips as if encouraging her body to embrace the essence of life he had placed inside of it. His paternal desire to ignite the spark of motherhood within her was far too enticing. His powers of persuasion were desperate to feel the electricity and warmth emanating from within her once more, knowing it would only be a matter of time before she’d start to swell for him again. The part of him that should have been ashamed for putting her at risk of another pregnancy during this dangerous time was greatly outweighed by his eagerness to share this life with her. To be able to care for her and their children. To protect them.

The sensation of his hands on her body attempting to lure her in awakened the arousal within her. Placing a gentle hand over his, she took a deep breath and cleared her mind hoping to take command over her diminishing willpower. “Well, Doctor Careful. If you keep that up, it may happen sooner than we expected,” she replied, softly reminding him of his warning against her carrying another child for him while they were still at war.

“Yes, well, maybe the next one won’t grow up trying to discover the best way to kill us,” he added.

“The next one?” she asked, turning towards him to read his expression carefully. “You actually sound as if you want this to be a thing. Do you?”

He inhaled a deep breath and thought for a moment about his answer. She hadn’t made his decision to choose between their two possible futures any easier on him, but he couldn’t deny the fact that one was far more desirable over the other. “Maybe so.”

She smiled and felt her cheeks flush brightly as his intimate confession became the headline of her thoughts. “Are you trying to charm me into having another baby with you, or is your nostalgia from the last time you pollinated me speaking for you?”

Grinning sheepishly at the question, he removed his hands from her middle and gently turned her around to face him. His arm wrapped around the small of her back as his other hand tenderly lifted her head by her chin to meet his gaze. “Perhaps it’s both,” he admitted sincerely, matching her wide smile with his own.

“What about Missy?” she asked, raising her brow.

“What about her?”

“Aren’t we still at war? Don’t we still have a mission to complete?”

“That could be ages from now!” he exclaimed childishly. “There’s no telling what we could accomplish before then. Who knows. By the time we finally get around to it, perhaps we’ll have created an entire army together,” he grinned, holding her tightly against him.

“You seem pretty sure of yourself,” she noted with a laugh. “A Time Lord with baby fever. Now there’s something you don’t see every day. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were under a spell,” she implied harmlessly.

He felt his smile quickly fade away as his guilt of keeping her in the dark about their illness returned to the surface of his mind. He could not nor wished to fault her for her accusation in this matter. She was purely innocent. It was the virus’ control over them that deserved the full force of his rage. As he peered down at her brightly lit expression, he realized he no longer recognized who he was anymore nor could recall what his old self would have done in this situation. Perhaps he would have already chosen the path to save them from the grip of their altered reality at the cost of their relationship by now. But now that everything had been left up to this version of himself, being forced to choose between their two futures was tearing him apart. The Clara he knew never would have allowed him to become so selfish. The moment she would have discovered the existence of their illness, she’d have found a way to do away with herself to save them long ago. She was so much stronger than him in nearly every way. Which was the main reason he knew he’d never be able to bring himself to tell her the truth.

Willing a small smile to his face, he leaned down and lovingly kissed her forehead. “Don’t be long,” he finally replied. Looking to her one last time, he reluctantly released his hold on her then took his leave of the room before he had fallen apart in front of her any further.

Clara tried to determine what she’d said that suddenly darkened his mood but was easily distracted by the sound of the kettle whistling beside her. She took the time to prepare her cup then exited the small space. Returning to the hallway, her feet were comfortably reacquainted with the vibrant red carpet guiding the way in either direction. A rather nice change from the cold metallic flooring she was used to. Her attention was pulled towards the portraits of her family hanging on the wall. She smiled as she approached them. Her fingers grazed along the surface of their frames as if she hadn’t taken the time to look at them before. Finding her way to the living room, she leaned against the threshold and casually sipped her tea. As she glanced around the tiny room, her focus was drawn towards the coffee table in the middle of the floor. Atop its surface sat a singular chess piece, one she had never seen before. “Doctor?” she instinctively called to him from the doorway.

After a moment, he approached from the bedroom. His hands worked to fasten his belt and trousers around his waist as he returned to her. “What’s wrong?” he asked, taking notice of the worried expression on her face.

“Was that there before?” she inquired, gesturing towards the unfamiliar game piece.

Following her gaze, he felt his face frown as his eyes met with the object in question. “Seriously? Have you seen this place?” he asked, raising his arms to call attention to the mess around him. “Frankly, I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a body buried somewhere in here. Let alone a chessboard.”

“Very funny,” she replied, frowning at his humour. “Except, I don’t own a chessboard.”

“Are you sure? Perhaps you just never noticed it under all the clutter,” he suggested.

Annoyed by the accusation, she squinted her eyes in his direction. “I’m sure.”

His brows furrowed suspiciously as his interest became piqued by the apparent mystery unravelling before them. Entering the room, he headed towards the object and reached for it cautiously as if it might explode upon contact. Assuring himself that it was not a danger to them, he picked it up and brought it closer for inspection. Twirling the piece in his hand, he quickly identified it as a pawn. A smile spread across his face as he suddenly realized who had left the mysterious gift there for them to find.

#dr who #dr who fan fiction #dr who fanfiction #12th doctor #doctor who #doctor who fanfiction #twelfth doctor #the doctor #twelve/clara #clara oswald #whouffaldi