A/N: First published story! Please let me know what you think, I accept all constructive criticism. Characters may be a little OOC.
"Clara, pass me the magnetic field accelerators," he said, gesturing wildly in the vague direction of said instrument.
"What, where? You're not exactly pointing in any one direction right now." She sounded tired and fed up. The Doctor had been working on the TARDIS for hours now, and nothing appeared to have improved. Clara suspected that the TARDIS was only being difficult because the Doctor had asked her to help him.
"Sort of… over there. Behind you a little." The Doctor pushed his arm back slightly to demonstrate, until it came into contact with something rather soft and warm and… attached to Clara. He dropped his arm stiffly to his side as she turned away to look where he had indicated.
"Doctor, I don't see them – are you alright?" Clara had turned back towards the Doctor to find him standing rigidly, arms still pressed to his sides and bright red in the face.
"Look harder" was the only reply.
Confused, but not in the mood to press him about it any further, Clara turned back around to resume her search. Finally locating the magnetic field accelerators hidden under the console (she just knew that the TARDIS had something to do with it), she turned around to find the Doctor still frozen in his stiff position. She hesitated before saying "I found them."
"Put them on the console"
"But wouldn't it be easier if – "
"I said, put them on the console."
Confused, Clara did as he asked. The Doctor waited for her to take a step back before finally raising his arms to pick up the instrument. He worked in complete silence for a few minutes before the TARDIS finally gave up protesting.
"Doctor?" Clara finally dared to break the silence that hung over them like a heavy cloud just before the storm breaks out. "Is something wrong?"
"Aren't you cross?"
"No," she searched her brain for anything that the Doctor might have done to make her so, but she came up blank. "But I will be if you keep refusing to come within four feet of me."
"But you're a female."
"Excuse me?" If he was wanting her to be cross, he was certainly going about it the right way. "This is the 21st century; you can't just go around saying things like that."
Now he looked thoroughly confused. Good, that makes two of us, thought Clara.
"Well? Are you going to explain yourself any further, or am I going to have to educate you on gender equality?"
That shocked the Doctor back into thinking logically. No, that wasn't what he meant at all, and he could really do without Clara trying to teach him about something he already knew far more than her about. That definitely wouldn't do.
"I touched you, Clara, and I'm very sorry. It was an accident."
Of the many things that Clara was prepared to hear, that was not one of them. "What do you mean? You've touched me before without any problem. In fact, I remember some very definite hand-holding as we were chased by some rather angry 64th century scientists yesterday." She asked, taking a step towards him to get a better view of his face. Was he planning something?
"I touched you. Human females tend to find that offensive, or so I've been lead to believe. The hand holding was simply because I was worried that your short legs wouldn't be able to keep up. Am I wrong? No, of course I'm not wrong, I'm never wrong. You must be – "
"Stop, you're rambling." Clara thought back to what they were doing before the Doctor suddenly gained the communication skills of a very, very red rock. She knew it had started with the magnetic field accelerators, and he was trying to show her where they were, and – "Oh, Doctor."
And without any more warning, she suddenly launched forward and grabbed him around the waist. "You really are Doctor Idiot sometimes."
The Doctor looked down at the top of Clara's head, unable to understand what could possibly be going on in there. Humans were highly unpredictable sometimes. "Clara? I'm still not sure I'm a hugging person."
"Yeah, you still don't get a choice."