The Teacher
Even as a young Time Lord, the Doctor had his crushes. Much to Missy's annoyance, the Doctor's latest one is no other than their beautiful Old High Gallifreyan teacher. Based on the Tumblr theory that one of Clara's echoes was his teacher.
P.s. I know it wasn't Twelve and Missy back on Gallifrey, but their chemistry is just too good to ignore. This fic is for Randomthunk cause she started the headcanon of Clara being one of the Doctor's teachers.
The classrooms inside the Academy of the Time Lords were always a peculiar sight to behold. The building stood tall on the edge of the dome and one could almost assume its tip pierced the translucent barrier that allowed enough of the sunlight inside the rooms to tinge them in an orange hue. Everything on Gallifrey seemed orange and at times, it even bothered the Doctor a little bit. One day, he would certainly grow tired of it, the orange fields, the orange rooms, the orange walls, orange blackboards, tabletops, orange everything. Today, however, was not one of those days the Doctor complained a lot. Instead, he sat down in his usual spot at the back of the room - he had wanted to sit in the front, but Missy, his desk neighbour, had protested - and watched the room fill until it could almost be considered crowded.
The Time Lords studying at the Academy were the truly peculiar sight. From his lessons, the Doctor knew that on every civilised planet, it was the children that went to school. The young adults would late go on to further their education at a university, but Time Lords were a bit different when it came to that. Not only did they have a much longer lifespan and therefore a much longer education, but since some of the students had already reached their second or even third regeneration, his class couldn't look crazier than it did. Here he was with the grey mop of hair on his head and a couple of lines on his forehead while in the row in front of him, the Corsair looked like he was in his twenties. The Doctor took a moment to admire the tattoo on his arm before his gaze trailed off towards the row of desks to his right. He had forgotten her name, but in some cultures, the people would have assumed her to be in a nursing home rather than a school when she was only just about a hundred years old. Time Lords were funny like that.
Just as the Doctor was about to get bored of watching his fellow students, the classroom door opened and his best friend stepped inside. Missy. The Mistress. The notorious troublemaker. Together, they had cooked up all sorts of mischief over their Academy years and the Doctor was sure that on her own, Missy had caused some more trouble that he didn't even want to know about. When she greeted him with her usual wicked grin, he thought that if they hadn't been best friends, they probably would have made great enemies as well, but luckily for him, Missy had never turned her wrath on him.
"Well, well, look at you," she said with a sneer, "all punctual and… prepared."
His friend nodded towards the notes the Doctor kept in front of him, notes he had taken during the last couple of Old High Gallifreyan classes that Missy would surely want to borrow at some point. He had never seen her pay attention in this particular class. No, Missy soon grew bored if new knowledge couldn't be used to wreak havoc. At that, however, she was excellent.
"One of us has to pay attention," he argued while she slipped into the seat next to his own. "Can hardly borrow your non-existent notes."
Even though the Doctor had his eyes fixed on the sheets of paper on his desk, he could feel Missy's eyes bore into him. Slowly, he turned his head and soon found his best friend staring at him, her head cocked and a smug smile playing around the corners of her lips.
"What?"
Missy shrugged. "Oh, nothing," she replied in a sing-song voice. "Just wondering whether your eagerness has something to do with your new-found interest in Old High Gallifreyan… or the Teacher."
The blood rose to his head and before he could stop it and the Doctor could feel himself blush. In a matter of seconds, Missy would figure him out.
"Don't play coy with me," Missy warned him and gave him a gentle slap across the back of the head. "Every year, you develop a crush on one of our teachers. I admit, it took me a while to figure out who it was this time, but I think I found her."
"I don't have a crush on her," the Doctor argued instantly, but his glowing cheeks were telling a different story altogether.
He did have a crush on her, but this time, it was different. The Teacher wasn't like any other Time Lord he had met so far, she was… special. His race was pompous and self-absorbed and vain and yes, the Doctor was probably guilty of being all of those as well. Yet the Teacher was different. She genuinely seemed to care about what her students thought and while she could probably be full of herself at times, the Doctor thought that it was justified. The Teacher was extremely clever and, not to mention, extremely pretty.
The Doctor always counted the days, the hours until his next Old High Gallifreyan class just to see the Teacher again and his friend was absolutely right - he had a massive crush on her. Not that he would ever admit that in front of Missy.
When the murmuring of students suddenly grew quiet, the Doctor's head shot up, knowing that the presence of a teacher must have compelled them to finally shut up and he was right. When the Teacher entered the room and walked up to the front of the class, she demanded their respect like no other and as if by instinct, everyone in the vicinity shut up. Everyone except for Missy.
"You have a cru-hush, you have a cru-hush," she hummed next to him and the Doctor could only just shush her before the Teacher turned her head in their direction.
Even when she glared at them, the Doctor thought she was beautiful and the red robes of the Prydonian Chapter really suited her well. The teacher kept her brown hair long so it still showed under the hood of the robe which framed her face perfectly. And her face, oh, her face. How often had the thought of that kept him awake at night? Her large, brown eyes, her perfectly shaped eyebrows, the cute, little nose and, of course, those lips that he sometimes imagined kissing - if he was brave enough to even imagine it because most of the time, the Doctor wasn't.
Suddenly, the Doctor was torn from his thoughts by a strange sound and after a while, he recognised it as the sound of someone clearing their throat. Finally coming back to his senses, he found the Teacher staring at him expectantly.
"Are you going to answer my question?" she demanded and the Doctor almost melted on the spot. Her voice sounded like a song to his ears.
"I, uh," he spluttered in response and then broke off, realising he had didn't even know what the question was. He had been too busy dreaming about the Teacher's lips.
"Alright, let's get started then," the Teacher announced before the Doctor could rack his brain for a solution to this problem.
However, when his heartbeats were just beginning to slow down, the Teacher turned towards him once more. He couldn't quite tell if there was anger or amusement in her expression and he was beginning to fear the worst. The last thing he wanted was to make a bad impression.
"Oh, and Doctor," the Teacher began, eyeing him curiously while the Doctor's hearts skipped a beat, "see me after a class."
The blood was rushing through his ears, making it entirely impossible for him to hear anything right now, but his hearts were certainly jumping with joy at the prospect of having the Teacher to himself for even just a moment. Maybe she would yell at him, maybe she would lecture him for not paying attention, none of it mattered because before she turned towards the blackboard, the Doctor was sure that he had seen her smirk.
Oh yes, Missy was right. He definitely had a crush.