A/N: Writing this made me feel a lot better about what happened in "Face the Raven," and I hope it helps you too. Reviews are much appreciated and warm this writer's heart! :)
He was there, waiting for her, on the other side. He watched with tears in his eyes as she repeated the words, "Let me be brave." He caught her in his arms as the raven tore her soul from her body and sped it to the afterlife, to him.
Opening her eyes, Clara blinked up at him, confused. "Danny?" she whispered, amazed at the sight of his face, the curve of his lips, the tears pooled in his eyes.
"Yes, Clara?" he responded, lifting her to a standing position.
Clara took a breath, placing her hands on his shoulders to steady herself. "You're... you're alive."
He smiled a little, shaking his head. Newcomers were always a little disoriented. "No, Clara. I'm not. And neither are you," Danny said, sighing. "I wanted you to live. I wanted it to be seventy years before I held you in my arms again."
Clara nodded, listening to him as the memory of the raven racing towards her chest came back, the memory of the Doctor's distraught eyes, begging her to stay with him. She stared into Danny's eyes, so scared. "What's he going to do without me? What's he going to do with all that rage towards Ashildr that I made him promise to stop up?"
Danny shrugged. "I don't know Clara. You know the Doctor better than I do."
She nodded, closing her eyes. "He'll get through it. He always does. I just wish I could help him in some way."
"I understand. I felt the same about leaving you behind."
"That dream, that last Christmas. It helped," she told him. "Was it you? Or was it just a manifestation of my mind?"
This time Danny couldn't hold back his grin. "Yeah, yeah, it was me. I loved our last Christmas."
Clara found herself grinning as well, and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "I missed you so much, Danny."
He held her tightly. "Did you really? Even with all that running around with the Doctor, seeing the wonders of the universe?"
She nodded against his chest. "Yeah, I did. It was amazing, but there wasn't a day that went by I didn't think of you."
Danny kissed her on the top of her head. "You have no idea how happy that makes me feel."
Clara giggled, and then became silent. After a spell, she spoke again. "I... I do have a confession to make though. I told you that you were the last person I would ever tell "I love you." And I didn't say it in that many words but... I love him. I always was in love with the Doctor. I think you should know that."
Danny nodded, chuckling a little bit. "I know, Clara. Watching you two fly around in that TARDIS, anyone can see that that the both of you were in love. It used to make me jealous, back when I was alive. But Heaven gives you a different perspective. Real Heaven I mean, not Missy's faux Heaven that entirely fails to compare."
Clara smiled, still wrapped up in his arms. "Different perspective? Tell me about it."
"I realized that you being in love with the Doctor doesn't mean you loved me any less. It doesn't negate or prove worthless our love. It just is, and I was happy that you had someone to make you happy in my absence," Danny told her, lifting her chin to look at him.
Clara looked into his eyes, her eyes shining. "I love you, Danny Pink. Always and forever."
"And I love you."
Their lips met in a kiss, the first of many that Heaven and its choirs of angels would lay witness to. Their joy radiated throughout the City of God, and no earthly kiss ever did compare.