A/N - Let's pretend that Danny is well and alive, and they can actually spend some nice time together - okay? Oh, there's also a few curve balls in here too ;) Happy Halloween!
This is also available on a03.
There was a gentle knock on the bedroom door. 'Clara, darling, can I come in?'
'Give me a minute!' She replied, fasting the buttons down the back of her dress; satisfied that all but one of her buttons were secure she headed to the door. 'If you're still there you can come in,' she said, smiling, knowing full well that Danny would still be waiting outside of her bedroom door.
'Hey,' Danny said sheepishly, a smile formed on his face. He was a lucky man, and boy did he know it. 'You look, like… I don't know,' He paused trying to collect his thoughts to create a sensical statement rather than something which would make him seem like an idiot. He half hoped that Clara would intervene and finish his sentence, but the other half of himself wanted him to finish it.
'A witch, Danny. I look like a witch.' Clara said this with a light laughter playing with her pointy hat in her hands. Danny just looked at her, taking in her sight, as she said this.
'Yes, a witch'. He repeated, closing the bedroom door, and then moving in closer to his girlfriend. 'But you're also my witch, and I love you for that.'
'Did I cast a spell on you?' Clara asked. She, too, moved in, biting down on her lower lip, and looking up into his eyes. She had mastered the doll eyes aesthetic with flying colours.
'Mm-uh,' he mumbled. It was a terrible joke, and he knew that the rest of the evening would be spent telling each other pathetic Halloween jokes, or trying to avoid them but accidentally saying them. For the time being, he'd try and ignore them, and also keep Clara off of the alcohol, which, for his plans for the evening, seemed do-able for the most part.
'Danny, can you do me a favour?' Clara asked, pulling slightly out of their embrace.
'What is it?'
'Can you do my top button, I can't reach to fasten it'. It was a blatant lie and they both knew it, but Clara loved the intimacy of being dressed by Danny, and Danny enjoyed the knowledge that he had helped dress his lover, not in a patronising way, but in a way where he felt part of Clara because he had help complete her look for the evening.
Clara turned around so that Danny could fasten the last button on the sweeping black dress. He did it elegantly, and once he had finished, he skimmed his fingertips first down the back of her neck, moving across her shoulders and then gently running his fingertips up and down her upper and lower arms causing the fine hair to stand up to the uninvited, yet much desired and electric intrusion on her skin. Bringing his fingertips up to Clara's shoulders, Danny rested his hands on her shoulders, and softly gave her a small kiss on the nape of her neck.
'Danny,' she moaned softly, arching her neck to reach his, 'Not here.'
'Clara, sweetie, I wasn't planning it,' he uttered back, a mischievous tone ran riot through his voice.
Clara turned into him, and placed her hands to her shoulders where his hands still remained. 'Good,' she said leaning in to give him a kiss.
'DANIEL!' A young girl's voice forced its way into the room, followed by the slamming of the bedroom door as it hit the wall. She exhaled deeply, a clear sign of annoyance from her calling him for five minutes with no reply (obviously not loud enough, no one had heard), having to run up the fifteen stairs to the first floor of the house where Danny was, and to make matters worse, to intrude on that.
Clara, was taken aback from the child, Danny's five year old niece, who had entered the room.
'Hey Melissa,' Clara said, looking from Danny to the young girl, who was also dressed as a witch, who was stood in the doorway to her bedroom, and then back again.
'Hi Clara,' Melissa said. She was, surprisingly, a quiet girl but knew how to demand attention.
'Is anything wrong Melissa?' Danny said, leading her out of Clara's bedroom.
'When are we leaving?' It was more of a moan than a question. There was only so much junk television a child could take.
'Two minutes, I promise. Go put your shoes on and we'll be down soon.' Melissa was about to turn and go down the stairs, but looked at him as if he was lying, deceitful. 'Pinky promise,' Danny added. It was the latest fad at Melissa's school, and she'd caught on to it.
'Good, you also know what happens if you break it?' She added, smiling. He knew.
Danny hadn't even shut the door before Clara had changed her tune. As much as she loved Melissa, it was the last thing she expected to pop up.
'What was that?' She asked, infuriated. They were meant to be going out, together, for once. No third parties.
'Well, everyone was going out, and I was asked to babysit last minute so I thought,-'
'Danny!' she hissed, exasperated. 'No, Danny, please. One night, that's all I ask for. I haven't gone to the Doctor tonight, I wanted to spent it with you.'
It was true, Danny had been begging Clara to have one night where they could have spent it together, sans the Doctor, aliens or anything actually from outer-space. Just the two of them.
'I thought we could go trick or treating,' Danny tried to make it seem like a good plan, his toothy smile failed to secure it.
'I… Fine.' Clara said, without a fight. It was bitter, but the situation could have been worse, she could have been at the school's Halloween Disco Party. Secretly, she was excited.
'30 seconds,' a voice shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
'Looks like we're going then,' Clara said, looking at Danny. She was annoyed, absolutely. He had, apparently, planned their entire evening. Dinner, a dance, and then a cuddle on the sofa. It was near military precision. But apparently not.
'What are you wearing?' Clara asked, she had completely forgotten that Danny was still in normal clothes.
'Give me a minute, it's downstairs'. He said, running down the stairs to quickly change, and ensure Melissa had everything on correctly.
'Ten (elephants), nine (elephants), eig-'
'Eight and a half! Lemme get my shoes on!' Clara shouted down. Knowing that they would be walking a fair distance she ditched her heels, and put on a black pair of flats. They were comfy, and on a night like tonight that was what she needed.
Clara heard Danny and Melissa laugh from the bottom on the stairs.
'Coming!' Clara shouted down as she shut her bedroom door.
'Shh!' Clara heard running down the stairs, it was followed by a small childlike giggle. Clara chose to ignore it. Reaching the bottom step she looked around, and failed to see anyone.
'Oh no! Melissa and Danny have disappeared, I wonder what I should do?' She purposefully omitted looking at them, choosing to look past them. 'I can't see them. I know, if I go out all by myself into the dark night maybe I'd find them.' Clara said, heading to the front door, picking up the house keys from the side table. She waited a second before going to open the door.
'BOO!' Melissa and Danny shouted.
Clara gasped and turned around. 'Where did you to come from? I've been looking for you two! Where were you hiding?'
Melissa stood their laughing, 'We were stood there, silly!'
'Didn't you see us? Honestly, we were stood there!' Danny added, winking, trying to be more convincing. He had changed into tuxedo style suit, with a dabbing of fake blood here and there.
'Come on, let's go,' Clara said, bending down to zip up Melissa's coat.
'Have you got your pumpkin bucket Melissa?' Danny asked.
Melissa looked down into her empty hands, 'No,' she said, running into the front room and picked it up where she had left it.
'All ready?' Clara asked opening the front door, 'Let's go!'
They stood in front of one houses a few streets away from Clara's house.
'Is this house okay?' Danny asked Melissa. So far they had walked past every single house and Melissa had refused to go to any of them.
'It's okay,' Clara reassured. 'We're not going into the house, and we'll be stood behind you.'
Melissa, and her primary school, had failed to tell the parents that they had had a guest in for assembly the week before they broken up for the October half-term. It was all about safety, and stranger danger, apart from the men leading the assembly took it a little too far, scaring the children, failing to get age appropriate material.
Taking the hands of both Clara and Danny, the three walked up to the front door of the first house.
'Do you want to ring the doorbell or knock?' Clara asked.
'Knock,' Melissa asserted. Letting go of Clara's hand she knocked on the wooden door. 'I did it!' She exclaimed quietly, but did so loud enough for Clara and Danny to hear her. Danny gently squeezed her hand in reassurance, Clara looked down and smiled at her.
To their right, the curtains fluttered and a face peered out which quickly disappeared. After a couple of heartbeats a woman opened the door, her hands were behind her back.
'Trick or Treat!' The trio exclaimed, Melissa had no consideration for anyone's eardrums and bellowed it, partly out of excitement, partly out of fear.
'Treat's this year, love,' the woman said, bending down to Melissa's level with a wooden bowl full of sweets, toys and fruit.
'Take one,' Danny warned.
'It's okay, we don't get many, you can take a couple if you'd like,' the woman said grinning.
'Thank you,' Melissa said unprompted. She was in awe of the amount of sugar in front of her. At her house she had a sweetie jar, but nothing as big as this. She didn't even think that a person could own this amount of sweets. Putting her hand into the bowl she picked out a rubber football, and a small packet of gummy sweets. She then beckoned Danny for her bucket and dropped the first hoard into it. Danny offered to take it back, but she refused. It had her things in it now, and adults couldn't be trusted with sweets. Anyway, they have loads of them, the woman at the door had proved such.
'Thank you,' Clara and Danny said as they turned to go.
'See you around,' she said, closing the door.
'This is your last house Melissa,' Clara said. They felt like they had knocked on everybody's door in the entire county. 'Do you want us to go with you?' For the last few houses Melissa had gone up to the house and knocked all by herself, whilst Clara and Danny had watched from the street.
'You wait outside,' Melissa said, pointing to the street opposite the door to the house. This house looked exciting. It had props in the garden, noise, music, flashing lights. Danny and Clara had tried, in vain, to go with her and stand on the doorstep, but Melissa had refused. It was the type of house where someone would jump out, just for the sadistic thrill of scaring a child, and the couple didn't want that to happen to Melissa as she had only just got over the scare from her assembly. As she was about to knock on the door, Melissa turned around to ensure that her Uncle and his girlfriend were still there and hadn't played any tricks on her by running away. They hadn't, they were still there, participating in adult things.
Turning back to the door she knocked.
Clara and Danny watched from across the street.
'Hey,' Clara said gently pushing Danny in the side.
'Evening,' he said back giving her a hug, and a kiss on the forehead.
'This was your plan all along, wasn't it?' Clara said, looking from Danny to the door where Melissa had just knocked.
'Might've been,' Danny said, smirking.
'Well, thank you,' Clara said, leaning up to kiss him. Although the apparent original first plan of a fancy dinner sounded amazing, standing in the cold, dressed up and looking after Danny's niece was, in fact, nice. And to think about it, she was probably enjoying this more than she would do the dinner.
Watching on, they saw Melissa put her hand into the sweetie bowl and then quickly withdraw it, her hand empty.
'What's she?' Danny said, confused.
'Just watch, she'll be fine.'
Melissa put her hand in again, and pulled something out putting it into her bucket which was now full to the brim, so she stuffed it into her coat pocket, to save her from losing it.
'Uncle Danny! Clara!' Melissa shrilled running out of the front garden, 'Look what I've got!' pulling the thing out of her pocket. It was a small plastic toy spider.
'Oh my goodness!' Clara exclaimed, taking a step back, as Melissa lunged at her with it in her hand.
'It looked really cool, so I got it,' she said in a matter of fact manner.
Danny noticed Melissa had begun to yawn, and suggested going home. It had been a long evening, and the fresh air and exercise had gotten to everyone.
'Do I have to walk?' Melissa asked. Her little legs had walked round the entire village, and it was past her bedtime anyway.
'No, come here you,' Clara said, picking her up. Melissa rested her head on Clara's shoulder and closed her eyes.
Danny reached for Clara's free hand, and took it. It should have only been a small walk home, but they decided that a little diversion wouldn't hurt.
'Right,' Clara said entering the front room. 'Melissa is in bed, asleep, and we finally have some time together.' She finished the sentence collapsing into Danny's open arms on the sofa.
Both Danny and Clara had changed into their pyjamas, it was only nine at night but it felt much later, and they were both tired.
'You okay?' Danny asked, playing with her hair. The smell of coconut drifted into his senses as he played with it.
'Tired, but okay. You?' Clara replied.
'Same.'
'Good,' she mumbled back.
'Pass us the remote,' she uttered, bending her arm backwards. 'Ghostbusters is on.'
Danny passed her the remote and she changed the channel accordingly.
'Are you sure tonight was okay?' Danny asked, he wanted to double check that Clara wasn't annoyed for the night's plans.
'Danny, darling, this evening was great. Honestly. It's not something you get to do every day, and… Yes the meal would have been nice, but this has been much better. Just, in the future, please pre-warn me so I can get things ready, I was looking forward to wearing those heels.'
'I will do,' Danny promised, grinning. 'Just,'
'Just what?' Clara queried, turning around to face him.
Danny lowered his head down to meet hers, they locked lips.