#Hope you enjoy it too even if it might be unnecessarily confusing 😅

[capybaraonabicycle]

If I could make a request for the Kiss writing ask, how about Fugitive!Doctor/River (or Mels, your choice), with number 18. For encouragement! Thank youuuu <3

Thank you for the prompt dear! An excellent choice in my totally unbiased opinion :)

I'm feeling slightly guilty because I should have

A) finished the Osgate kiss before this one and

B) reblogged your beautiful piece before answering this ask.

But I need to get this out before I can continue with anything else so here we go. I hope you like it!

Some things first however:

Despite there technically not being any need for them specifically in the scene, I would still like to apologise for sidelining the Paternoster Gang here. I would have liked to focus more on them but this is already too long. Plus, like, my general inability to nicely include 5 people in a scene.

(Also, I think this is the first time you're reading me writing the Paternoster Gang and I am accordingly very nervous.)

(However, I did need another couple to be with Doctorriver here and my first instinct was to choose Bill and Jenny - because this Doctor should meet her daughter and granddaughter and so should River. But then I thought you would prefer the other Jenny plus Vastra and I came up with a nice role for Strax, too, so the scene changed marginally)

Also, this snippet is more 'a lot of encouragement with a kiss hidden somewhere' than 'a kiss for encouragement' but I hope you don't mind?

And, finally, just to reassure you: this may initially read like angst, but it's pure fluff. I promise <3

Rating: Teen

Defeat and Encouragement (Fugitive Doctor x River with a side of Jenny x Vastra)

The Doctor was lying on the floor, defeated. Her eyes were closed, all tension gone from her body. She suddenly looked the millenia old that the man River had once married had possessed despite his childlike face. Neither her nor the Doctor were sure how many millenia this incarnation had lived and forgotten about but they had surely added to his already impressive number and right now the Doctor seemed to have fast forwarded to that point.

Half of her body lay draped over the plastic canvas, her left arm resting on top of a red spot, the other limbs had rolled off onto the wooden floor of the Victorian sitting room.

"Is she -"

There was honest concern in Jenny's voice, but she broke off when River's gaze shot her way. Even Vastra had a noticable tension to the way she held onto her wife as they helped each other into an upright position. But there was also an amused smile tugging at her lips and River wasn't certain that she found it more aggravating than contagious.

The Doctor let out a soft groan, almost a whine, as if to prove she was still alive.

"Shall I shoot him?" Strax asked eagerly, lowering down the tablet he was holding. "Put him out of his misery?"

"That's alright, dear" River held him back, "Let me talk to her."

She crouched down next to the Doctor and reached out for the hand on the canvas - not quite touching but hovering close.

"Sweetie?" she asked gently. "Are you getting up?"

There was a miniscule shake of the Doctor's head, barely visible.

"We've lost" she managed quietly. That was all she seemed willing to contribute.

"We've lost the battle" River argued with a smirk. "We can still win the war."

The Doctor finally turned her head to squint up at her.

"When you've lost 6 out of 6 battles" she muttered, "there comes a point where you have to ask yourself whether you aren't losing the war, too."

Now River tapped their fingers together and immediately, the Doctor complied, grasping her hand. River leant closer, whispering:

"When you've lost six battles, you'll have your wife telling you to get up and win the seventh with her."

The Doctor glowered. "That's what you told me the last five times."

River smiled.

"And I will tell you again a seventh time" she promised.

"If Gat could see me now" the Doctor groaned, closing her eyes again. "Decades of Division training, superior timelord reflexes and all that. And then I get beaten by a couple of Earthlings."

At the last sentence, there was a smile tugging at her lips however, as if the irony and ridiculousness of the situation started seeping through the fog of her mortification.

"If Gat could see you now, she would tell you the same as I do" River said. "To get up and fight."

"Wrong" the Doctor let out a dry laugh. "She would tell Strax to go ahead and shoot me."

"Come on now." River pulled at her hand and reluctantly, under groans of pain, the Doctor followed her into a sitting position. River cupped her cheek and she leant into the touch, looking up at her through her lashes.

"We're not giving up now, are we?" River whispered.

She lead their faces together and pressed a gentle, encouraging kiss to the Doctor's lips. It was merely a peck, short and sweet, but the effect was stunning. The Doctor chased after her lips, sat up straighter and her expression brightened visibly. She was not the only one: Even after all these years and different incarnations, the smallest exchanges of affections with her spouse never failed to give River butterflies.

Her voice slightly hoarse, she continued: "You and me? We can do this. We've fought loads of tougher battles before."

"I don't know about that." The Doctor's gaze flitted towards Jenny and Vastra, but River called her back to attention.

"Are you seriously ready to give up, Doctor?"

She hadn't meant for it to sound that mocking, not with this Doctor. In an older regeneration the comment would have fueled ambition, the need to prove themself. But her wife took the stubbornness in the opposite direction.

She jutted her chin out provocatively, fixating River. "What if I am?"

River relented. "Is there really nothing I can do to persuade you?"

She brushed her thumb against the Doctor's lip suggestively, but naturally, the Doctor's brain jumped away the very second she promised gifts.

"You could let me have the last piece of the chocolate cake Jenny made?" she said hopefully, glancing between their friends.

"If that's what it takes for you to get off the floor" Jenny said and now amusement was apperent in her voice as well.

The Doctor weighed the offer thoughtfully for a moment, then she nodded resolutely.

"Alright" she agreed, "let's do this!"

She let River pull her to her feet and righted her waistcoat with emphasis. "I'm ready."

"Ready to eat dust for the seventh time?" Vastra teased and Jenny playfully hit her shoulder.

"Be nice" she scolded her, before turning and smirking at River. "It's not their fault they're hopeless at their game."

River looked at the Doctor, curious whether her battered pride would make her bristle, but the encouragement seemed to have worked as she was looking back calmly.

"On the contrary" she said cheerfully. "We're ready to make you eat your words. Aren't we, love?"

She leant against River conspiringly who grinned up at her.

"Seventh time's the charm?" she offered and the Doctor's mouth twitched merrily.

"Obviously" she agreed, definitely as aware as River that they were about to go down against their friends yet another time.Apparently excellent martial arts and sword skills trumped timelord biology when it came to human party games. "And anyway I've already been promised a piece of cake, so who's winning in the grand scheme of things?"

'Won a cake for putting on a show' River thought fondly, and she had to lean in to kiss that smug smile off her face. They really were the same dramatic idiot in every one of their bodies.

"Can we continue now?" Strax raised the tablet with an air of importance.

"I believe we can" Vastra assured him, offering her hand to Jenny to lead her to their side of the canvas. "Shall we, my dear?"

"Of course, my darling" Jenny agreed readily.

River raised to her tiptoes, whispering into the Doctor's ear: "Let them laugh, we'll laugh later."

"Yes, when we'll share my cake" the Doctor whispered back and River let out a surprised snort.

"Were you playing the long game after all, Sweetie?" she hummed. "Are you actually really good at this?"

"Prepare to be amazed, love" the Doctor boasted, full of false bravado that River was sure she would regret in an instance.

"Positions!" Strax ordered sharply, turning the arrow on the tablet with enthusiasm. He looked up, smirked devilishly and pronounced loudly: "Left hand: Green. I hope you'll enjoy getting twisted in excruciating pain!"

[ID: gif of a spinning twister tablet. end ID]

I hope it got clear what is happening here? It seems very clear in my head but I am not sure that it translates to the outside. Maybe it's a good idea to read it twice if it's a little confusing at first.

In case it doesn't become clear, here's what happened in my head up until this point:

The Doctor and River visited their friends

The Doctor proposed a game of Twister

Strax was delighted because that sounded refreshingly violent

Strax is an excellent strategist and very strong but agility is not his forte so he very quickly lost interest when he kept failing after one or two spins

He did delight in being referee though, spin the arrow and watch the others struggle

To make matters more interesting, someone (maybe River?) proposed to make it a couple's game one couple against the other

From that point on the Doctor and River have lost every single game and the Doctor is done by now - hence staying on the floor after falling from a failed reach for a spot with some limb

Oh yeah, also, please don't ask me how this fits into canon. I have no idea.

#Idk I think I'm hilarious #Hope you enjoy it too even if it might be unnecessarily confusing 😅 #they (the Doctor mostly) are overly dramatic and so am I #I had an absolute blast writing it at least - so sorry Osgood and Kate </3 #Thank you so much for the prompt!! #I haven't actually written much fluffy fugitive Doctor so this was extra nice for that reason too #doctor who #River Song #Fugitive Doctor #Jenny Flint #Madame Vastra #Strax #doctor who fanfic #doctor x river #yowzah #the paternoster gang #jenny x vastra