A/N:

Merry Christmas! To celebrate the festive season in the nerdiest way possible, I'll be writing 12 chapters over the next 12 days, making a Doctor Who parody of the 12 Days of Christmas. I hope you all have a fantastic holiday, and enjoy this fic :)

P.S. I'm super excited for the DW special today, I hope you all enjoy that too! (I'm sure I will)

On the first day of Christmas, the TARDIS gave to me: Clara travelling with Me.

"Like I said, Gallifrey. The long way round." Clara stated mischievously, grinning at Ashildr as the time rotor in the centre of their new TARDIS began to rise and fall, signalling their first journey together through the time vortex. The impossible girl (quite literally, now, since she wasn't technically alive) had no idea where they would travel to first, she only knew she was going to stall for as long as possible before finally deciding to go back and face the raven. Of course, it was tragic that she could no longer travel with the Doctor, even more so that he could barely remember her, but that was the inevitability of travelling with him; one of them is always destined to die, or be trapped, or get left behind, or forget. Clara had just taken longer than most to accept this. And now she had the ability to avoid her fate for as long as she wished, she could live in denial or happy oblivion for this amount of time. At least, until she was ready to return.

"How are you feeling?" Ashildr spoke abruptly, interrupting Clara's pensive overview of recent events. Despite her usual apathy, Ashildr appeared sympathetic and genuinely concerned about Clara's current mood.

"Great. Yeah, really great. Brilliant, even." Acting nonchalant, Clara flashed Ashildr a superficial smile, but she could see beyond the apparently cheerful surface.

"It's okay, you know. You can mourn, you don't have to hide from me." Ashildr remarked softly.

Clara kept up her careless attitude. "Mourn? What do you mean? It's not like anyone's dead."

"Perhaps not, though you will grieve the Doctor's dead memories of you – is that not the same?"

At this point, Clara finally dropped the façade and turned to gaze directly at Ashildr while she spoke. "The Doctor might not remember who I am, but what happened was in his best interests. I couldn't let go of him until I literally died, and even then he didn't let go of me for over four and a half billion years. He would never have moved on from me if he didn't forget. Forgetting was the only way, and it was the best way."

The immortal girl nodded in understanding. After all, she had also loved, lost, and forgot. Instead of pursuing the subject of the Doctor, she addressed a different issue. "What about your death? You must still be fearful of that."

"I've got the whole universe ahead of me! All of time and space, in this TARDIS, before I even have to think about that." Clara had a point.

"But your death is a fixed point in time. It has to happen eventually, you can't avoid it forever-"

"Neither can anyone else!" Yelling in emphasis, Clara laughed a little before calming down and increasing the sincerity of her tone. "Look, everyone has to face death at some point. Knowing it's inevitable doesn't make it any less scary. But for most people, it's unexpected, unplanned. I have an advantage in that respect – I know exactly when, where, and how I'm going to die. Oh, and another advantage – I can run away. I can live my life to the absolute fullest, travel wherever and whenever I want, stall for as long as I want. Yeah, I have to face death someday, but I can choose when that day will be. I don't have to die until I'm ready. So I have no reason to be scared. Right now, I just want to bloody enjoy myself. Is that too much to ask?"

Ashildr was taken aback by Clara's speech, though not entirely surprised. It was only fitting that she would be brave, confident, and excited when considering her future, especially since she'd been given a second chance. Although Ashildr had not been a fan of her humanity back when she was fully mortal (and even less so now she was immortal), she could certainly admire the utter courage and resilience of humans. And she definitely couldn't argue with anything Clara had just said. Therefore, instead, Ashildr simply smiled to show her agreement and admiration, believing that words weren't necessary.

"And besides," Clara added with a grin. "I'm travelling with Me, what more could I want?"

Faking confusion, Ashildr replied. "What do you mean? I know you're travelling, but you're not on your own – I'm with you."

"Yes, I know, that's what I meant. I'm travelling with Me, as in you." Clara attempted to explain herself.

"But I'm not you, I'm Me."

"I know you're not me me, I mean Me me."

"Meme? Isn't that pronounced 'meem'?"

"Oh for God's sake – you are Me, as in 'me' with a capital 'M'. That's what you call yourself, don't you?" Clara was getting visibly frustrated now.

Unable to maintain her teasing, Ashildr giggled.

"Oh you – You're having me on, aren't you?" Realisation dawned on Clara, and she placed her hands on her hips while glaring at her companion.

"How about I just stick to 'Ashildr' from now on?" Ashildr concluded, chuckling. Clara was still vaguely irritated. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. You are cute when you're angry."

The corners of Clara's lips curled upwards in a smirk that said 'that compliment was super sweet and also you're cute but I'm still kind of annoyed with you'. "Oh stop it, you."

"'You'? But I'm Me-"

"Don't you dare start that again." Clara warned, but it was all in good humour. The two girls laughed together as their TARDIS flew through the time vortex like a house in a tornado – or rather, an American diner in a tornado. It wasn't long before the machine materialised in their first weird and wonderful location, and Clara and Me began their first proper joint adventure.