Hello! I couldn't decide whether to make the girl an oc, me, or an actual character, so I made it a 10th Doctor x Reader fanfic. Enjoy!
I do not own Doctor Who.
The strange couple burst into the TARDIS doors, slammed them shut, and pressed their backs against it, gasping for breath.
Angry snarling and scratching noises came from the outside, pounding against the trusty door.
They grinned at one another triumphantly, then burst into hysterical laughter. The girl jumped into his arms, wrapping her own tightly around his neck. He swung her around twice, which didn't exactly help her breathe, but who cares, breathing was boring.
"So where to next?" She asked, when he finally set her down, finally able to catch her breath and pulsing with excitement.
The Doctor's face brightened. "You like dangling in front of death, don't you? I like you." She laughed, the faintest tinge of pink forming on her face. He sighed, ruffling his hair.
"We deserve a vacation." The Doctor said abruptly.
She looked surprised.
"Do you know how to ice skate?" He asked.
"Not really. Why? Are we going somewhere requiring that?" She asked, tilting her head. He looked at her with a shocking expression, as though ice skating was as easy as walking. "Do you know how to skate?" She asked.
"You think I've lived nine hundred years without knowing how to skate?" He said, raising his eyebrows and giving her a look.
She shrugged.
"Alright it's settled then. I'm teaching you how to skate. It might save your life sometime in the past or future." The Doctor said, reaching for the console.
"Aye aye, Captain." She said with a chuckle and went to hold on for dear life.
She watched him intently as his hands were almost a blur, turning buttons and knobs and switching levers.
The Doctor grinned, crinkling his eyes as she looked at him with a smile of amazment and adoration every time he worked with the console like that.
He winked as the TARDIS spun through the endless vortex of space.
The time machine jerked to a stop. "Ahh, perfect landing." He said, patting the TARDIS console.
"So where are we?" She asked, brushing off her coat. "See for yourself," The Doctor smiled and nodded toward the door.
She opened the door and stepped out. They were on a small hill, over a bumpy landscape consisting of snow, scattered foreign trees, a single completely frozen lake, with jagged mountains in the distance. But the strange thing was, despite the snow, it was quite warm.
The Doctor stepped out behind her, 2 pairs of ice skates swinging from his hand. "It's beautiful," She said in awe. "Where are we?"
"Planet Mars, year 28 billion after the Big Bang." He said, his breath forming clouds. "Were there Martians?" She asked curiously, throwing her head back to look at him upside down.
He smiled. "Maybe. Anyway, enough questions. Allons-y!" He shouted, stepping and sliding down the hill as though it were a grand staircase.
They laced up the non-earthly looking skates and stepped on to the lake holding on to each other's arms, _ perhaps more tightly than The Doctor.
"Alright, now, show me what you can do." He said, steadying her.
"I can't do much. Except stay on my feet." She said, trying to balance on the metal blades.
"Oh c'mon, you won't learn anything with that attitude!" The Doctor said lightheartedly. "Just let me see you try, I promise I won't laugh." He added, grinning.
She couldn't say no to that grin, who could?
"Cross your heart? Both of them?" She said, trying and failing to be stern.
The Doctor let go of one of her arms to cross both hearts. "Okay."
She laughed. He gave her shoulder a pat as she awkwardly teetered her way out onto the ice.
"Bloody h- ouch!" She said aloud, falling on her backside.
The Doctor burst into silent laughter, then quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.
"Oh dear." He said, still chuckling. "Hold on a moment!"
He slid and skid toward her, tall and rather gangling, his brown tench coat trailing out being him. The obvious idea was that he was skating to her, but he was either not very apt on his skates or he was just out of practice and ended up sliding right past her.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, hold on~!" He yelled hopelessly, waving his arms to maintain balance, looking like a oddly struggling bird.
This time she burst into laughter, which quickly faded as she tried to stand up and fell down again.
The Doctor was finally able to turn around and glide toward her, slightly more graceful than his last attempt.
He pulled her up in her mid attempt to get up again, and tried to suppress a snort of laughter when he remembered her falling minutes ago.
She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling.
"Blimey, you're horrible," He said, stilling chuckling. "Didn't think we'd have to start from scratch."
"You're one to talk," She said, red in the face. "You looked like a brown bat."
"Yeah, yeah, so I'm a little out of practice, so what." He said, dismissing the topic with a hand.
She giggled.
The Doctor cupped his hands on her elbows, skating backward and slowing pulling her along, while she held on to his forearms and awkwardly skidded forward.
"Alright, so first, you give yourself a push start with your right foot, unless you're left handed, which you aren't, right? Right. Haha. And once you're going, you do kind of a funny walk gait... Yes, that's it! You've got it! That's my girl- Whoops! Hang in there, woah, steady..."
About 20 minutes passed, which consisted of 60 percent of nearly falling, 20 percent of skidding awkwardly but at least moving, 10 percent of successful skating with The Doctor's help, and 10 percent of successful skating on her own.
"By now I'm convinced that you're more of a life saver than skating is..." She said wearily, after 6th particularly close save from The Doctor.
He made a now-that-I-think-about-it-you're-quite-right face.
"Yeahhh. But skating saved my life once. Well, under very strange circumstances that were way, way, way~ beyond my control, so something like that isn't likely to happen again...but still,"
As usual, he sounded more like he was talking to himself.
"Remember in the 2nd book of Harry Potter when Fred and George were picking the lock of the closet that the Dursley's had locked Harry's wizard supplies in?" The Doctor said, thinking of a reference.
"Yes, of course, I've read all of the books at least 8 times."
"They said that some wizards thought that learning muggle tricks were a waste of time but they might come in handy. Ah, the wisdom of the Weasley twins." He said solemnly.
She giggled.
"What's so funny?" The Doctor asked, frowning.
"You're comparing my lousy skating skills to helping the greatest wizard of all time get out of captivity," She said. "A bit daft."
"Well, you'll never know when muggle skills will come in handy, will you? Even I know how to pick a lock." He said frivolously.
"Can't you teach me something else then? I'm hopeless at s- gah!"
She suddenly tripped over her own skates and fell forward, too suddenly, causing The Doctor to lose his balance.
They toppled over, The Doctor falling flat on his back on the ice, not having the wind knocked out of him until she fell on top of his chest.
"Oof!"
"I'm hopeless at skating." She said, finishing the sentence.
"Quite right." The Doctor groaned.
Then they both laughed, the sound echoing around the once quiet landscape. The Doctor stood, almost jumped, to his feet again, and swiftly pulled her to her own.
"Let's have a break. Or call it a day?" He asked.
"Let's call it a day." She agreed.
The Doctor pulled out a small park bench from the TARDIS as the smaller than usual sun sank low on the planet.
The Martian evening sky turned deep red, almost maroon.
They changed out their skates, and as she was pulling on her boots, she stared at his footwear.
"What's wrong?" He said. "Don't you wear converse too?"
"Yes, sometimes, but not with a suit." She chuckled.
"What's wrong with that?" The Doctor huffed indignantly.
"It's not normal. Or proper." She said. "But then again, you're not exactly normal." She added.
"Who cares about proper.." He scoffed.
He sat down lazily, cross legged with his arms spread in opposite directions on the top of the bench.
She plot down next to him
"Oh, it's okay. You can pull it off." She said reassuringly, resting her head on his shoulder and slipping her hand into his.
The Doctor looked at her face smiling up at him from his shoulder and returned it with the grin that crinkled his eyes.
There was a long silence, the only faint light coming from the stars and Phobos and Deimos, Mars' two and weirdly deformed moons.
"What's your name?" She asked abruptly. "No, not that name," she added quickly before he could say what she knew he would say.
"Your birth name. Before you became The Doctor." She said quietly.
The Doctor hesitated. "It's a long story that I cannot tell you safely." He finally said seriously.
She snorted. "Who are you, Voldemort?"
He laughed. "It's actually quite like like that."
She sat up and looked at him.
"You're kidding," She said in awe and amusement. "So people would die if your name was uttered?"
"Mmm... Something like that, yeah." The Doctor's eyes twinkled with fondness of surprising her and smiled.
There was a minute of silence, she just stared at him in surprise and he stared back in amusement.
"So.. What's your name, He-who-must-not-be-named?" She said mockingly, resting her head back on his shoulder but still looking into his eyes. The humor slowly faded as he looked at her more seriously than before.
"I'll show you before I tell you." The Doctor said quietly.
He shifted on the bench so that they were sitting facing each other, gently pressed his fingers on her temples and touched his forehead to hers.
The things that filled her head were terrifying.
Suns and stars exploded, some turning into massive black holes that swallowed entire galaxies, others burning and swelling so hot that they destroyed everything around it. Various life forms screamed in pain and ran.
Then she saw the Earth.
It exploded, and she felt as though she saw it slow motion.
The Earth was blown apart before her eyes, even the core shattered.
Billions of flailing figures blown off it as well, many were aflame, being flung out into space; The humans.
More images of death, explosions, fire, and war flashed by in a blur, almost making her forget where she was.
She gasped and pulled away, scrambling away from The Doctor and falling over the end of the wooden bench that she forgot she was on.
"_..!" The Doctor yelled.
His voice brought her back to reality, and suddenly the images vanished, but still vivid in her memory. She felt the snow she was on, and remembered she was in Mars some billion years ago with the Doctor. She looked up and around, and saw the TARDIS a few paces behind them. That's right, she's here with the Doctor.
Just as she thought of The Doctor it was like wish granted and his hand suddenly appeared and took hold of hers.
He gathered her into his arms, cradling her head and shoulders against his chest.
Comforted by the calming sound of his double heartbeats, The Doctor felt her breathing even out.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry you had to see that. But you had to know what could happen." He whispered.
He slowly parted with her, but still held on to both of her hands with his own, warming them.
"It's okay. It won't happen unless you use my name." The Doctor said reassuringly.
Her eyes traveled up his slender form as she slowly raised her head and stopped at his deep, dark eyes, locking their gaze.
She nodded, the last few tremors in her hands smoothed out as he brushed the top of her hands with his thumbs.
"I don't even know your name yet." She reminded him, her cheer coming back.
"Aohhh, that's right!" The Doctor said, grinning as she returned to her old self.
She smiled.
He pulled her close once again, lifting her hair behind her ear, his warm breath against it making her heart flutter.
And he said his name, barely a whisper, in her ear.
It was simple, only a couple syllables. It was beautiful and foreign. But of course she didn't dare repeat it aloud, after what she had seen.
Then he planted a soft kiss on her ear, jolting her out of her wonder and nearly making her heart stop.
She stared at him in even greater surprise, feeling both her ears go warm.
He grinned the widest and most charming grin yet, staring deep into her eyes once more, and watching the realization come to her.
She took hold of his tie and gently pulled his head down for a real kiss.
It was wonderful.
The Doctor's lips were as warm as her ears and as sweet as ever.
"That was my lesson to you." She said smiling, as they pulled apart.
"At least you're better at it than skating." He returned her smile.
"Quite right." She said, mocking his accent.
They settled back down on the bench, going back to gazing at the moons and stars. And for the rest of all the time desired, The Doctor pointed out each and every star in the sky and asked her which one she wanted to visit.
She answered, "All of them."