Day One: Domestic
The Doctor never was one for settling down in a proper house with an actual job. Used to make him shiver. He'd never forget the time he almost went insane when he spent 4 days in Amy and Rory's lounge staring at that damn cube that was doing absolutely nothing at all. However, with Clara things were a bit different. Circumstances and everything told them that it was best they leave the travelling. For a while anyway. But there was no chance the Doctor was going to drop her home and pop back when it was convenient for him. No, he didn't hesitate to see that he and Clara were going to have to move into a proper house and be a proper humany couple who did humany things.
He had temporarily moved into Clara's flat but they finally found a house of their own a month back and moved in a week ago. The Doctor had even gotten a job! He, the Doctor had gotten a job! And it wasn't in a toyshop either. He didn't mind not working in a cool place with mini helicopters and robot dogs and teddy bears that sang...okay he did a little bit. However, the stuffed toys were a tiny sacrifice to make for where he was working instead.
Once they'd decided they would have to settle the Doctor scavenged London for an appropriate job that actually paid enough to support them. He'd searched for another job in a cool shop but none of them had paid remotely enough according to Clara - the Doctor still wasn't very good with money - and other cool jobs were considered too dangerous or inconvenient. He'd almost given up hope, suggesting he could sonic ATMs again. Clara objected, telling him that they had to be properly normal. If he used the TARDIS or sonic outside/too often then bad things were bound to happen. He didn't need telling twice to put that idea to rest. However he'd had an ingenious idea after that.
"I could work with you!"
"Work with me?"
"Yeah I could be a teacher. I'd be brilliant as a teacher - I was a teacher."
Clara laughed at that. "What you were a teacher? As in on Earth?"
"Don't sound so surprised. Yes, I was a physics teacher back when I was all sticky up-y hair and sandshoes."
She smirked. "I bet you were the teacher all the girls used to swoon over and do their homework really well for," she teased.
"You mean the male version of you, then?" He grinned, impressed with himself that he hadn't fumbled over that sentence. He knew it was probably true though. It would be as impossible as her for everyone else to not have noticed how beautiful she was. It annoyed him at times that so many people seemed to be interested - that time they bumped into Jack, God that made him nervous - but then she would smile at him and he'd simply forget, remembering that she was his Clara and that she was happy with that. Of course, he handled it a lot better since they had gotten married. He highly doubted Clara would have done that for the hell of it.
Clara's jaw dropped open slightly and she let out a giggle. "That was very smooth, Chinboy!"
He beamed, "I know."
She rolled her eyes. Why did she love this idiot so bloody much? Clara cupped his face and leant forward on the comfortably small sofa, brushing her lips against his softly as though they may brake. The Doctor reciprocated, placing a gentle hand around her cheek and deepening the kiss.
Clara pulled away just soon enough not to need to gasp for air. "So, where you any good?" she asked, getting back to the topic of the Doctor being a teacher.
"Yes," he lied. "The kids were all geniuses." Not a lie. "Very advanced school, very private."
"But you need a degree and things-"
"Or I need to kidnap the Head," he interrupted. He was smiling from ear to ear but really he wasn't remotely prepared for speaking to Ian Chesterton again.
Clara's eyes popped open. "That's not funny!" she whined, coming to the conclusion that he was joking and smacking him in the arm. "I'm being serious - you need a job."
"No I mean it," he began. "I kidnapped the Head once a long time ago - I had my reasons don't worry and we made up in the end. He was just a humble teacher back then. I can talk to him. I'm sure he'll be happy to give me the job." It had been so long, and so much had happened. When the Doctor and Chesterton had first met; the Doctor had been a grumpy, arrogant and bitter old - but younger - man. It was partly thanks to he and Barbara that the Doctor had found the goodness, beauty and greatness of humanity. Without that he may have never found Clara. He had no idea how he would begin that conversation.
"Seriously? You never said."
The Doctor looked down, playing with her hands out of habit. "Ah well...you know me. I don't like looking back too much."
Clara nodded in understanding, smiling encouragingly at him. Not encouraging him to talk about his past; but the Doctor completely understood every word the glance said. "Well, I'm getting a job then," he proclaimed. "A proper job. Never thought I'd say that again," he chuckled, reaching over to kiss his impossible girl.
"Honey, I'm home!" the Doctor announced, throwing the front door of their new house open wide.
Clara chuckled and pulled herself up from the sofa with a great deal of effort. She'd had no classes all afternoon, opting to head home early rather than stay in the staff room for two hours while she waited for the Doctor to finish. Clara had noticed a lot of history themes popping up in essays in the nine months the Doctor had started teaching. She should have guessed he would be able to teach that. She just hoped he didn't correct text books suspiciously often.
They met halfway down the hall, the Doctor having to crouch at an awkward angle to give her a greeting kiss. The sooner she could digest that planet the better, he thought jokingly. In truth, he was really just looking forward to being a dad again. Though, this time he would get it completely right. He couldn't allow himself to loose either of them; he knew that wouldn't happen. Not with Clara and the little one.
The Doctor put his hands on her enormous stomach and grinned. "How's this one been?" he asked.
"Hungry," Clara answered, patting the Doctor's cheeks and turning on her heel into the kitchen. "Reckon you could make some fish custard? And quickly." Since the cravings had started to kick in she'd taken a liking to odd food combinations - naturally, the Doctor jumped at the chance to shove a bowl of fish fingers and custard in front of her. As expected, she'd loved them but could never get them quite right. The Doctor thought it was the souffles all over again but Clara was really just too lazy to make anything herself unless she had to. In her opinion, having the Doctor cook 95% of the time was a tiny price to pay for her giving birth. And he didn't seem to mind either.
"Of course I can! You are talking to the Kitchen King, Clara."
"I would argue but I'm starving," she said, taking a seat at the counter.
He rolled his eyes. "I'll choose to ignore that then, shall I?"
Clara grinned. "I love you," she said, trying to sound as cheesy as she could. Cheese..."Would cheese and bananas be a good combination?" she asked seriously, eyeing the food bowl with great interest as the Doctor had just pulled the box of fish fingers from the freezer.
"Bananas are good with everything!" he beamed, dropping the fingers on the counter and hastily moving to the metallic red bowl. He eagerly pulled two bananas from the bundle, tossing one to Clara. "Now cheese," he raised a finger as if just remembering it and twirled on his heel, striding back to the fridge and taking out slices of cheap processed cheese."These'll have to do," he sneered.
Clara looked at the banana with great interest, her eyes switching between the pale orange and yellow. "The question is how do we eat it? Melt the cheese?"
The Doctor shook his head, almost expecting that question and leaned over on the opposite side of the counter she was sitting at. "Of course not Clara, that would be silly." He took her banana and merrily peeled it and pulled off the top of the fruit. She raised an eyebrow questioningly but didn't speak. He halved the cheese slice and shoved it in between where the banana split. "A banana and cheese sandwich!" he said proudly, handing his demonstration back to Clara carefully, not wanting his masterpiece to tip over.
She inched her nose close, sniffing it like a dog. It didn't look or smell appealing in the slightest but she supposed fish fingers and custard didn't really look it at first either. The Doctor stared at her encouragingly, anticipating the first reaction to the snack. This could be he and Clara's greatest invention - well, second greatest.
Clara squinted, the unappealing appearance blurring which helped her get over the smell at least a little and bravely took a bite, turning her head sideways. It was surprisingly tasty. "Mm," she hummed satisfactorily, giving the Doctor a thumbs up as she chewed.
He grinned proudly. "We make an excellent team!" he proclaimed. They simultaneously raised their hands and hi-5ed as soon as Clara swallowed. The Doctor chuckled and started preparing the same for himself.
"Oh and we need to look at these," Clara remembered suddenly, awkwardly reaching around her stomach into her pocket and pulling out a slightly worn sheet with paint colours on it. Realising what it was the Doctor snatched it excitedly as she slid it across the counter. He held it up at eye level, scanning it with a determined expression. "I like this one!" he shouted immediately.
"We're not painting the baby's room TARDIS blue, Doctor," she sighed, knowing he would have picked that.
The Doctor's mouth dropped open in offence. "And why not? TARDIS blue is a great colour - you know, in all my years of time and space I have never ever found a better colour?"
"No," she argued plainly, wincing.
He huffed and went back to the cheese banana. "Fine, we can argue- I mean choose later. We really shouldn't have waited this long." He wasn't used to time being a problem. Well, at least not in the mundane sense. His face lit up as the taste reached his tongue. "This is magnificent! Good call on the cheese and banana, Clara."
Clara giggled, ignoring that her stomach still didn't feel satisfied. "You're welcome." She was used to not feeling well so much so that she'd gotten very good at hiding it. According to the Doctor the baby was human - even if it would be a bit more clever than most - but that bigger-on-the-inside-brain was an extra inconvenient strain on her body to deal with.
The Doctor leaned in to give her a friendly peck but Clara pulled away first. "That's pretty disgusting," she confessed, bursting into gentle giggles. He rolled his eyes just as she leaned forward again. This kiss didn't last much longer than the last, Clara pulling back in a loud groan.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked, his eyes widened with concern. Surely his breath couldn't be that bad already.
"I think it's coming."
*A/N: I thought now would be a good time to mention my new whouffle blog notaxghoststory*tumblr*com (hence my new penname) and you should definitely follow that. I'll be updating and doing it properly soon I hope but there's no harm in gaining a few more followers until then x
Day two prompt: First time