Day 1
He's counting for them, but she knows he won't tell her what day it is unless she asks. Because twenty four years, damn that's a long time, and she sure as hell doesn't want to waste it counting down. The first night at the restaurant they sit and enjoy each other's presence, then with the Doctor's charming smile and a flash of his old psychic paper the pair got a room at the hotel and enjoyed each other in a completely different way.
Towards the end, she noticed something. As she closed her eyes, or what he thought was her closing eyes, he watched her. He watched her as he crossed the room from the bed into the chair and he watched her as she pretended to sleep. And in a reversal of roles, she was the one afraid. How was he going to last twenty four years on Darillium, full of domestics and normality, two things he hated very much.
"A penny for your thoughts, dear?"His voice broke her from her thoughts. She turned her head to look at him. Of course he knew she wasn't actually asleep, this him didn't seem to be oblivious about her like the last one.
"You hate domestics." She sighed in a gasp.
"I don't hate them, I just find it easier and more fun to happily avoid them." He said, crossing the room to sit down next to her on the large king sized bed.
"How are you going to last twenty four years on Darillium with me?" She asked out loud, and he actually laughed. She furrowed her brows, her thin ones nothing compared to his Scottish ones, but she still managed to give him quite the glare.
"Well if I remember honey, you're not one to sit still either." He said, winking slightly, and she was taken aback by his actual out right flirt with her.
"You're Scottish, why aren't you complaining about you being stuck here with me for twenty four years?" River sighed in exasperation. Don't get her wrong, she loved the idea of all that time with the Doctor, but something about him seemed off.
"Twenty four years with you, River, I could never complain about that." The Doctor said, leaning forward to press his lips gently against hers. She breathed in as he did so, relaxing as he pulled away.
"Sweetie." Her gasp was a shaking whisper. After another round of showing her just how excited he was to spend all this time with her, the two fell asleep in each other's arms.
Day 2
The two woke to the sound of rumbling. The Doctor woke to more of a start than River did, and then he laughed at how nervous he had been. "What was that?"
"I am hungry. We did skip out on desert last night." River complained, sitting herself up onto the headboard. The pillows seemed to have been discarded for a much comfy pillow, meaning her Doctor.
"If I remember correctly, we decided to indulge in a different kind of desert." The Doctor leaned forward to kiss her lightly on the lips but she pulled back slightly. He seemed disappointed as she turned her head, and her whole body, away from him, and faced the door.
"I didn't-" The Doctor's two hearts almost cracked at the sight, he thought, or he assumed, that after all that they said all the things they should of a long time ago.
"While we were running, as we do-"She turned back to face him once more, she took his hand in hers and he didn't flinch surprisingly. "You didn't like the hand holding."
"No I meant, I like to do the hand pulling." He said, amazed and ashamed that he still hadn't yet proved to his River just how much she meant to him.
"So the romantics, because I know not all of your faces have been one for intimacy." She said, her voice almost cracking at the thought of it.
"It's never mattered when it came to you River. It's like you're an echo. Buried deep in the bottom of my two hearts, and the back of my mind. I can't get you out, but then again I don't want to. I've never been good with words or wooing, but with you it just feels-" He turned his head around the room as if to look for the word.
"Normal?" She suggested.
"Natural." He replied.
"Doctor I don't know what to say." River had never heard something so heartfelt, coming from him.
"Then don't." He smiled, something about this grin was much more contagious than any of his others, maybe coming from such a crass exterior it was surprising.
"Okay." She couldn't help but smile back.
Day 3
They had spent all of yesterday just staring at each other, holding the other in their arms, flipping through the channels on the telly arguing over what to watch, simple married life. Today, they woke up in each other's arms, and had spent the whole morning spending time alone together.
The two sat side by side, neither really dressed, on the bed. One of his legs hung over the side of the bed, while her knee was comfortably wrapped around the other. The Doctor was reading the paper, while River wrote in her diary.
"So where should we start? The paper, the internet isn't the most reliable it varies, maybe we could go out into town and just ask around-" She cut him off of his rambling.
"What are you talking about?" She laughed slightly.
"House listings." He said in the most serious tone she'd ever heard. Now it was her turn to laugh at him, he huffed in confusion.
"What's so funny?" He asked, his Scottish eyebrows nearly connecting at the bridge of his nose.
"Sorry dear, but the way you said that. There's no way we're buying a house." River laughed, shaking her head back and forth, her blonde curls bouncy in time with her.
"No?" His tone was concentrated with disappointment.
"You're serious?" She asked, turning her head to look at his eyes now. They seemed to have no doubt in them, no fear, not the slightest hesitation.
"Well we're not going to spend twenty four years in a hotel room." He said nodding his head in the most serious tone.
"So we're doing this." River said, looking into his eyes for confirmation. No more space between them and they had all this time to play with.
"We can make whatever kind of life we want." The Doctor said. This was him, offering all he had to give her, twenty four years of domestics, normality, and whatever else came with a simple life on Darillium.
"I'd like that." River smiled, licking her lips, and he held his hand out for her.
"Well then let's get out of bed and explore our new home." The Doctor said, lifting her from the bed, the sheets dropping at her feet, her just as he'd left her, naked and utterly beautiful. He pulled her closer to him, nearly slamming her against his chest with the force of it.
He kissed her passionately but slowly, letting his hands ghost of the skin he had just delicately burned into his memory forever. He knew that after all this was over, he would look back on these memories, ghost the air, as if she was still really there. But now, he just enjoyed tracing the lines of her beauty, every single dent and protruding bone there was to his River.
"Sh. Let's get dressed." She said, tapping her fingers melodically against his temple as if she could hear his thoughts.
The two eventually got dressed, and as they prepared to walk out the door, the Doctor couldn't help but smile as he watched his wife stick the little blue diary into her purse. She crossed in front of him out the door, but didn't step more than two feet in front of it waiting for him to link arms with her after shutting the door.
"Ready?" She asked, and he nodded. Making their way through the hotel down to the bottom floor, he nodded at the clerk at the desk as they passed through the front doors. They decided to stop for breakfast, well actually lunch since it was more around that time. Or at least that's what it felt like.
It was a sum of a whole ten minutes before the two started fighting. Over the color of the windows of all things. The Doctor would not even consider any houses until he looked at what color the lining of the windows were going to be.
"I absolutely refuse to buy a house and then have to look out a window with a musky green tint in the corner of my eye." The Doctor shook his head.
"We could always paint the windows!" River sighed in exhaustion, placing her head in her hands. It went silent for a moment, and then she heard the Doctor snicker. She lifted her head, and pushed against hiss shoulder.
"You're such an arse." She laughed, shaking her head back and forth. The two finished their lunch and decided to take a walk around the town. Maybe look at the houses, or the people, or each other. Either way they'll probably look at something.