"Can we Clara? Can we, can we, can we?!" Artie asked, incessantly, blocking Clara's view of the telly. She sighed, looking up at the two kids, holding their scarfs and coats hopefully.
"Uh, fine! We can go out in it, but only for an hour." She told them sternly. She had dinner in the oven and she was determined not to burn it this time. The kids whooped in delight, running off to find their wellies and gloves that were hidden deep in the cupboard under the stairs from last winter.
Clara stood, leaving her cup of coffee that she was rather looking forward to on the side table, and went to pull on a coat and her wellies too. They were all stood, bundled up in five layers of jumpers, scarves and coats, ready to go into the back garden, when the doorbell rang out.
"Go on then! I'll just go and see who this is." Clara pushed the two kids out of the backdoor into the garden, before sliding the door closed and walking into the hall. She pressed the button on the intercom, smiling as the face of the Doctor appeared.
"Hello Clara! Look," he grinned as he span around. "It's snowing!" He exclaimed gleefully.
"I know," Clara laughed. "Me and the kids are going to out in it. D'you want to come in?" She spoke into the microphone. The Doctor gave a big thumbs up to the machine and moved across to the frosted glass front door. Clara swung it open to reveal a pink cheeked Doctor, snowflakes clinging to his hair and ridiculous multicoloured scarf draped around his neck. Clara reached over instinctively for a hug, but he moved quickly past her into the house. She shrugged, muttering a sarcastic, "Alright then." As she closed the door. She turned to follow the time lord, rolling her eyes at the trail of snow he'd left after himself. He was stood in the living room, looking around.
"Angie and Artie are already outside." Clara pointed out, knowing that he was looking for his new friends.
"Oh, OK," he smiled, turning to run out of the door.
"Oh, Doctor be careful. The door's not open!" She tried to warn him, but it was too late. He ran head first into the glass door and ricocheted off, landing in a heap on the floor.
Clara gasped and ran over to him, kneeling down at his head and scowling at the kids through the door, who were also in a heap on the floor, because they were laughing at the Doctor. The Doctor let out a groan as he sat up slowly, Clara holding his shoulders for support.
"You alright?" She asked him, checking his head for any signs of a bruise. Yep, that'll be a nice one, just there.
"Yeah. Yep, yes, yes! Now come on- snow!" He jumped to his feet and pulled Clara with him, recovering quickly. He moved towards the door again, but luckily Clara put a hand on his chest and stopped him. He looked down at her, as she slid the door open.
"Now we can go." She pushed him forward, both of them stepping onto the crisp, white snow.
She had barely closed the back door, before a snowball hit Clara, right on her left shoulder. She span around, which proved to be a mistake as a bombardment of snowballs rained down on her, making her scream and run for cover behind the corner of the house.
Angie and Artie laughed at her, rolling up more snowballs and planning their next move. The Doctor however, ran over to the wall that she was now stood behind and devised a plan with her.
A minute passed and the Doctor and Clara ran out, huge piles of snow in their arms, and Angie and Artie ran towards them, piles of snowballs in their arsenal. The battle commenced and didn't cease until twenty minutes later, when both parties were thoroughly soaked with snow and slightly shivering.
"Right that's it. No more snowballs," Clara told the group, them all agreeing. "Let's make a snowman or something instead." She proposed.
"Even better," the Doctor said, clapping his hands. "Let's have a snowman building competition!" He yelled, which the kids agreed to excitedly. Each member of the group claimed a different corner of the garden, planning what sort of snow creation they'd build.
Half an hour passed in relative silence, each person scrutinising their creations and adding chunks of ice here and there. Clara looked up from her snowman, who she was adding pebbles for eyes to, and caught the time from the clock that was hanging inside.
"Oh, God! The dinner!" She exclaimed, abandoning her snowman and running inside, tearing off her gloves and pulling off her coat as she went.
The Doctor added the finishing touch to his creation and then wandered over to hers. It was rather boring, just a man of ice and snow, with pebbles for eyes and sticks for arms. He glanced over at his own- an ice warrior made of actual ice- and smirked proudly.
He then turned his attention back to Clara's and realised what was missing. He reached deep into his jacket pocket and drew out his emergency bow tie. He tied it around the snowman's neck, before he drew out a small fez from his pocket too (they were bigger on the inside) and popped it atop the iceman's head.
He stood back and admired his handiwork. 'Much better. Much cooler." He laughed at his own pun, before he felt his hand being pulled by Artie.
"Hey, look. Doctor look at mine!" He urged, tugging the older man over to his snowman.
"It's a... A..." The Doctor faltered, tilting his head and squinting to see if he could decipher what the 11 year old was going for.
"It's Clara!" He grinned up at the Doctor. Obviously, it wasn't very good, being the craftsmanship of a child, but the Doctor humoured him.
"Oh, yeah! I see, is that her head?" He pointed at the chunk of ice that was sat on top of the mound of snow. Artie nodded.
"Yeah, and that," he pointed to a lump of snow that was placed in the snow Clara's 'hand' (which in reality was a twig), "that's one of her soufflés she makes. Have you tried one?" Artie asked, releasing the Doctor's hand, to adjust said 'soufflé'.
"I have, they're... Quite something." The Doctor put it as politely as he could.
"I like them. Especially her chocolate one that she makes. She made me one for my birthday." Artie chatted away as he patted snow down over the sculpture of his nanny.
"I prefer her cake that she makes." A voice off to the right spoke up. The Doctor walked over to Angie, who was scooping up snow from the ground.
"She makes cake?" The Doctor asked Angie, who nodded.
"Yeah, she makes loads of stuff. Soufflés are her favourite though." She told him, as she added more snow to her sculpture.
"What's this then?" The Doctor gestured to the teenagers project with gloved hands.
"It's an igloo. Duh." She rolled her eyes at the man, before she added another block of snow to the structure.
"Oh, cool! Igloos are cool!" The Doctor grinned, making Angie smile back- before she caught herself doing it and forced a scowl back on her face.
"Doctor?" Artie asked from the other side of the garden, making the Doctor trudge back through the snow over to him. He stepped in the footprints he'd made minutes previous and smiled at doing so.
"Yes, Artie?" He asked, ruffling the hair of the boy.
"I'm done. But it needs something to make sure she's not cold." Artie informed the Doctor. The Doctor thought for a second, before coming up with an idea.
"Hey, Angie, c'mere! I've got a plan..." He knelt down and drew the kids into a huddle, telling them his ingenious scheme.
Four minutes after she'd dished up the shepherds pie she'd made for dinner, Clara opened the backdoor and went to call out for the kids to come in.
Instead, she was met with an empty back garden, with the exception of a half-finished igloo, an ice warrior, a mound of snow that she couldn't quite work out and her snowman- now wearing some very Doctor-esque clothing. Frowning slightly, she pulled on her shoes and coat to go and see if they were out in the front garden with the Doctor. Before she checked the front, she walked into the back garden just to check for the three children- because the Doctor definitely counted as a child in this situation. She stood in the centre of the garden, arms folded for warmth as she observed Angie and Artie's snow creations up close. She was just starting to make out what looked like a head on Artie's snowman, when she heard cries to the left of her.
By the time she turned to see what the cause of the noise was, it was too late.
She screamed as the Doctor hoisted her over his shoulder, laughing and telling the kids to take her hat and scarf from off of her. Clara gripped onto the Doctor for dear life, whilst the Maitland children put Clara's accessories on Artie's snow Clara.
"Done!" The kids yelled, making the Doctor cheer.
"Well, that's great! Put me down- now!" Clara told the Doctor sternly, whose eyes widened in panic at his angry friend.
He tried to set her down, but she became tangled in his far-too-long scarf and they both fell in a heap into the snow with a yelp. Their faces were not even an inch apart and they could feel, and see in the cold air, their breath mingling in the tiny space that was between them. The Doctor looked down at her with a small smile, which grew at the sight of the minuscule snowflakes that rested in amongst her eyelashes and her nose that was tinged pink. Clara looked back up, smiling back at the sight of his now rather damp hair flopping down and covering his light green eyes, as he searched her brown ones. Clara could've sworn that he lowered his head toward hers, before Angie interrupted.
"Eurgh, you're like animals, prepared to do it in the garden!" She cried out in disgust, making both the Doctor and Clara jump apart and up. It also left a very confused Artie.
"Prepared to do what? What's it?" He asked innocently, tugging at Clara's sleeve. In a second, the Doctor looked at Clara in panic, Angie looked at the Doctor humorously, Clara looked at Angie sternly and Clara looked at the Doctor in apology.
"Urm... Well.." Clara stuttered, before the Doctor slung an arm around Angie and the other around Artie.
"Eat dinner! Isn't that right Clara?" He nodded as he gave her a way out of a conversation she didn't want to particularly have.
"Yes, dinner!" Clara smiled, silently thanking him for the escape.
"Everyone inside," she ordered. "Coats and the like on the radiator!" She instructed, pushing the three inside.
Dinner was eaten at the table, with discussion being centred around school, what was on telly last night and why Artie wasn't friends with Dylan anymore (turns out it was Dylan who stole Artie's best pencil in Maths). Humany Wumany stuff.
After the dishes from dinner had been washed, dried and put away, Angie had disappeared into her room to talk to Nina and Artie had gone off to play with the LEGO set his aunt had bought him for Christmas. This left Clara and the Doctor sat on the sofa in the chilly living room, scrolling through the TV channels. They eventually settled upon a cookery show, where someone was taking a loaf of bread out of the oven and sharing it with their obviously fake party guests.
Clara turned in her seat to face the Doctor, who looked on in confusion at the TV and the extremely fake chef.
"Don't you have to get back," the Doctor turned his head to look at her, her hair falling in front of her face, just asking for him to sweep it back.
"Y'know, to the TARDIS?" She continued, moving her own hair back, which made him almost disappointed.
"Do you want me to go back?" He asked.
"No." She replied, almost too quickly.
"Oh."
"I mean," she struggled to regain some dignity, "not if you don't want to. You could stay here. If you wanted." She stumbled. He grinned.
"Alright then." She smiled back.
They went back to watching (but not really) the TV, both thinking of other things- namely, the person sat next to them. Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor caught Clara tucking her legs under herself for warmth.
"Are you cold?" He asked, relaxing into the sofa cushions as he did.
Clara shrugged, even though she was in fact freezing. The Doctor wanted nothing more to gather her small form up into his arms and stay there for the entire night- but he thought that might come off as a bit too strong. So, they stayed at their respective ends of the sofa, both too anxious to move up.
Eventually, the cooking show came to end and Clara began to flick through the channels again, this time settling on one of her favourite films. To her delight, it was still relatively near the beginning, so the Doctor should get it too.
He didn't. He hadn't a clue what was going on, but that was mainly because he wasn't paying attention to the film. He was paying attention to the other person watching the film. He studied the way that she sat- legs tucked under, her hand propping her head up, as she leant against the arm of the sofa. He listened as she hummed along with the soundtrack absentmindedly. He memorised the way she would laugh at the, apparently, funny moments- which of course he didn't get, as he wasn't watching.
It was around halfway through the film and the Doctor and Clara were sprawled out on their respective halves of the sofa. Tired out from running around in the snow, Clara felt her eyelids become heavy and before she knew it, she was asleep.
The Doctor looked over and saw that she was sleeping and smiled. He watched her for a few seconds before telling himself to stop, in case she woke up and caught him gawking at her. He instead pulled the blanket that lay across the back of the sofa for the cold off and went to cover her with it. As he tucked the blanket around her, she leant in and snuggled into his chest. He froze. He floundered over what to do with his arms, but settled for wrapping them around her slightly cold body and settling into the sofa.
They stayed like that, her head on his chest and his resting atop hers, for the rest of the film (which the Doctor still didn't understand). Eventually, the Doctor drifted off too, feeling completely at peace with Clara in his arms, feeling her heartbeat against him. That was how they spent the night.
But they were woken by Artie the next morning, who had made them both a cup of tea. They thanked him, the Doctor keeping an arm slung over Clara's shoulder as he took the mug from the boy.
"You're welcome Clara and Clara's boyfriend!" He called as he ran off to make himself some toast. The pair awkwardly chuckled, but didn't make any attempt to move from each others arms.
Because, the Doctor decided, maybe being 'Clara's boyfriend' wasn't too bad after all.