"Clara was still half asleep in the staffroom when Danny walked in. Since the Doctor had dropped her off, she'd been trying to stay awake on coffee and adrenaline. Normally, she wasn't so tired. But normally the Doctor brought her home early enough to get a full night's sleep. So when Danny walked in and dumped his bag loudly on the table, Clara let out a groan as she jolted back into a semi-conscious state, which took the man by surprise. Clara sat up from the chairs she'd been lounging on and looked over to him.
"Why're you here?" She asked, her words slurring together enough to make the man laugh. Danny shook his head, crossing the staffroom to make himself a mug of coffee.
"I work here, Miss Oswald. And in case you haven't noticed, I always arrive early; get some marking done in peace. Of course, that's a bit harder when a co-worker is trying to nap in my spot." He teased her. "You look awful, Clara."
She sat up properly now, resting her chin on the top of one of the chairs and watching him from across the room. "Yeah, well, you look awful-er." She smirked, proud of her comeback (even though it was terrible). Danny simply shook his head and laughed, pouring the hot water into his mug and starting to stir in the milk.
"I meant, you look tired, hurt." He said softly, a little more caring than it had seemed in the first place. "Is something going on? What happened last night, I've never seen you more injured in my life." Danny said, taking his mug and going to sit beside her, when he finally saw the true extent of the damage done to her. The mug was soon on the table and Danny was looking her over properly, concern plastered on his face like she'd never seen in before. "What've you been doing, Clara? I know I said you looked awful, but this is worse than I thought." He began, frowning a little further when he took her arm, turning it over to examine yet more wounds. "Clara, you're still bleeding." Danny told her, looking up at her. Clara was now fully awake, and trying to pull her arm away from him, which only made Danny more concerned. He didn't know what she was hiding from him, and he wanted to know. They were the only two people in the staffroom, he had to get her to confide in him soon.
"Don't pretend I don't see, Clara. Every Thursday you come in with a new injury and pretend it's nothing, and everyone else believes you. I'm not asking for you to tell me everything, just tell me enough to keep you safe." He said, standing up and pulling her with him gently. "If nothing else, let me clean the wound on your arm properly."
Clara stood up reluctantly, wondering if she should tell Danny. Of all the teachers, he was the one she was closest too, and he was looking after her now. Her still sleepy mind got the better of her though, and instead of making some sort of rational decision, she just started talking.
"I travel with a man called the Doctor, he's an alien from space, and he takes me all over the Universe, in a ship called the TARDIS. I've been all over the world, all through time and space. I've saved so many people with that man, and defeated all sorts of evil trying to kill Humanity, but I get hurt sometimes. This is one of those times." She told him, staring at him and watching Danny stare back. He said nothing, not sure if he believed her or not. Instead, he simply wrapped an arm around her to help her walk, even though it was her arm that was badly injured. He took her to the nurses room, just the other side of the corridor, and sat her down. She stayed where she was and watched him, cleaning her wound quickly with an antiseptic wipe and bandaging up her arm loosely. He wasn't sure what else to do, so he just ended up taking her back to the staffroom in silence and giving her a cup of coffee, sitting beside her and watching her carefully.
The more he thought about it, the more her story seemed to make sense. Even if aliens and time travelling sounded bizarre beyond anything else, it would explain why Thursday's left Clara so tired and so broken, and never much like her usual, chatty, self. Danny had an arm around her comfortingly for several minutes, before Clara looked over to him.
"You don't believe me." She whispered gently, to which Danny shook his head. His free hand came round to take Clara's cheek, gently stroking her soft skin, sighing softly at the pain it appeared to cause her.
"Clara, I believe you. I don't like it though. You should've told me sooner. Starting next week, I'm going to come with you. If I knew I could do something about your injuries, stop you from getting so hurt, I'd have done it sooner. You know I care about you. If I'm by your side, I've got your back, and you'll be safe." Danny smiled at her gently, watching Clara's eyes light up a little. She knew they were friends, but she didn't know he'd cared about her that much. He hesitated for a short second, before bringing his face closer to Clara's, closing his eyes as she did the same. Just before their lips brushed together, there was the sound of the door opening and a gaggle of teacher's entering the staffroom, causing Danny to slowly pull away from Clara and have the two laughing to themselves, thankful that neither of them had been caught as they picked up their mugs of coffee and smiled at each other, knowing that their secrets were safe with each other, and that the fun was just beginning.
AN: (Hey there! I uploaded this fic a few months ago but I've decided to have a bit of a "fic reshuffle" and organise my profile a little better. So this is going to be my collection of one-shots for Danny and Clara. If you have any ideas for future one-shots, send a message or leave a review and I'll try to use them all! Hope you all enjoy!)