Glasses
What kind of regeneration does this to me
The Doctor had been annoyed all morning. Her goggles would fog up every other minute, sparks were flying everywhere, the TARDIS kept throwing new wires at her, and she couldn't see the damned labels.
It was ironic really, her previous regeneration had been far older, and yet he didn't need glasses! Granted, he wore them… but they weren't for seeing. And she had tried to replicate the sonics, even if just momentarily, and that had sparked in her face too.
So here she was, head to toe tied up in wires, and the glasses the TARDIS had gifted her when it realized she couldn't see were really far from reach. To top it all off, the blasted machine was humming mockingly, in an "I told you so" manner that was definitely not helping.
"Uh… Guys!?" foot caught in a raised shelf, the blonde woman was able to reach out enough to open the trap door that lead to her engineering cubby of sorts. Her friends knew where it was, but they tended to stray away when she went in. For the past few months, she would go in there to clear her mind after a taxing adventure, and they would hop off to one of the many rooms in the time machine of hers "Ryan? Graham?".
The clunk-clunk of boots on metal made the Time Lord's breath catch, someone was coming to help her out of this little issue.
"not quite the guys" Yasmin stuck her head down the hole, smiling widely for a second before breaking into laughter "what the hell happened to you?"
"the TARDIS, life, the fates, whatever humans blame for things going wrong?" the Doctor couldn't let her bad humor affect the wide smile that would come to her when Yaz was around. This regeneration was warmer, more willing to welcome emotion, and unluckily it was also more transparent about those emotions. It seemed though, Yasmin was either clueless about that, or she didn't see her like that.
"what can I do you for, chief" the blush on the Doctor's face grew, and she hoped Yaz would think it was the strain of being in an awkward tangled up position.
"there's a pair of reading glasses on that hole there" the Doctor used her chin to point at something a little too far from her. Yasmin turned her head and spied a pair of round black glasses, sitting innocently, almost forgotten "think you can pass them over?"
"all your magical alien powers, and no telepathy, what a shame"
"you mean telekinesis" she couldn't help herself, or the wider smile when Yaz climbed down the ladder.
"what?" careful to avoid the wired mess everywhere, and hoping no sparks would come out from the mess the Doctor had made, she reached out towards the glasses.
"telepathy is mind reading. Telekinesis is control of things"
"whatever Doc. You can rebuild yourself from the brink of death but can't reach your glasses" the young woman pointed the frames towards the light, checking for smudges in the lenses. Carefully she used her undershirt to give them a wipe, not noticing, or ignoring, the sharp intake of breath from the otherwise occupied alien woman when her midriff was slightly exposed "come to think of it. Your new body is pretty new, why the glasses?"
"beats me" the Doctor whispered softly, senses overwhelmed by Yasmin's presence in the small private space her friends usually avoided.
Yasmin turned, sliding the round frames on the older woman's face, fingers brushing her fringe away, and softly cupping her face for a second. "here you go"
"th-" the Gallifreyan's voice came out slightly hoarse, so she coughed to clear it "thank you luv. Don't know what I would've done without you"
Yasmin begged to all the gods in the universe the Doctor wouldn't realize she was blushing. At first she thought it was on purpose, but eventually she realized the Doctor's accent would get thicker just because. When they talked it would hike up especially when she used an endearment. Yasmin had had her life's share of "luv" "sweetheart" and "darling'" and yet every time the Doctor would use them, she couldn't help but smile and want to treasure the moment.
"might have hung there for awhile, Ryan is somewhere in the library and Graham is napping"
"thank the gods for you then"
Yaz winked at the woman who had begun untangling herself, the room suddenly seemed to become smaller, and when the Doctor thunked down after cutting one of the wires, she realized if she didn't leave now bad things would happen.
"I'll leave you be, shout out if you need help again"
"you don't have to"
"sorry?"
"I like having you around" the blonde pushed the frames back up her face, and Yaz couldn't help the beat skip of her heart. Anyone with eyes could tell you that the Time Lord was very attractive, but the glasses gave her an added… Something, she couldn't quite describe it "and I could use your hands for holding all these wires. It's a lot of work for one person and all" the TARDIS sparked something near, causing the doctor to scrunch her nose up, pushing the glasses slightly up her face. She's such a dork. Shit.
"if you're sure you'd like some company?" Yaz wanted the Doctor to rethink it. Tell her she wanted to be alone, or that there wasn't enough space for her. Anything to get her out of that little room, with the incredibly attractive dorky glasses wearing alien.
"I always love your company Yaz" the smile on the blonde's face grew wide when Yasmin turned away, probably embarrassed at the display of affection "and I'd love your help darlin'"
It's going to be a long afternoon
-oOoOo-
Yasmin was sweaty and tired, her mind was overworked and her eyes stung from looking at small letters through smoke. But she wasn't complaining, not entirely. The rookie police officer from Sheffield, who couldn't stand small talk and wore her heart on her sleeve, had spent the whole day in close quarters with the blonde alien that had knocked her socks off from the get go. And frankly, Yaz was going to give herself credit for not putting her foot in it.
They had joked about the Doctor getting older, and the TARDIS purposely being a bit of an ass (with the occasional snarky hum from the machine, who Yasmin knew was listening to their conversation), of how the wonderful machine worked, and how much the Doctor could use a hand when fixing her. The alien had asked about her life, before the Doctor that is, her childhood and her family. And Yasmin had asked about hers, and the apparent other 12 or 13 faces she had lived in her 2000+ years (Yasmin was still getting accustomed that her massive crush wasn't on a 20 something year old, but a 2000 year old alien from space).
The Doctor learnt that Yasmin was a bit of a tomboy in grammar school, that she had taken up swimming and tennis and tae-kwon-do. That despite her outlook on life she still went to mosque with her family, and prayed almost every day if she wasn't running through some alien planet away from some alien monsters (the Doctor pointed out that might be the best time to pray, and Yaz tentatively agreed to try it out next time).
Yasmin learnt that the Doctor's planet was gorgeous, red and gold and twin sunned, and all beautiful things that may exist only in stories. That the names of the people who had traveled with the doctor across the years were carved in circular Gallifreyan—they had been displayed across the console before (when she was her old angry Scotsman self), but were now on the walls of the Doctor's cubby, because she liked to see them when she needed to decompress. The Doctor promised to teach Yasmin how to write in Gallifreyan, if Yaz would teach her how to write in Arabic (even if Yasmin had the sneaking suspicion the Doctor knew how to, and that she wasn't exactly a master and only knew enough to read the Quran).
They spent a whole day learning about each other, the TARDIS reigning in her cheekier joking ways, to let her thief connect to the young human girl that had caught her attention. Eventually, when all the wires were connected and put away, and the smoke in the room had cleared, the two were sitting on the floor. Backs to the wall, knees tucked in and rubbing with each other, hips and elbows and shoulders touching. And if one were quiet enough, three loud heartbeats could almost be thought of as one.
"thank you again, this would've taken me an eternity to finish on my own" Yaz smiled, slowly leaning her head against the Doctor's shoulder, slow like one would approach a scared animal, giving her the chance to stop her if she wanted.
"and after 2000+ years I doubt you even have an eternity, you old bag" the Doctor laughed, genuinely and much harder than she had in awhile. It was refreshing to be this genuine to one of her human friends. When she reached to take off the glassed from her face Yasmin grabbed her hand, not quite intertwining their fingers "don't. I like how they look"
"I like that I can see with them" the Doctor scrunched up her nose in that adorable way she did when a thought escaped her, and Yasmin frankly swooned "but if you like them sweetheart I'll keep them"
"I like when you call me that. Your accent gets heavier"
"things a Scotsman would never hear" Yasmin smirked, the Doctor's jokes on her previous regeneration were nonstop when things like that came up.
"you're a dork"
"So you've told me. I also recall you saying you love it"
"I love you"
The room stilled, and even the TARDIS quieted down her humming. Yaz froze in her spot, the air around them heavy with the words she had just let slip.
"you-you… What?"
"wow, wow, wait" Yaz sprung from the floor, trying to create some separation from the blonde, who was a bit shell shocked "I wasn't supposed to say that"
"you love me?"
"please don't let that make us weird. Oh my God" Yasmin covered her face with her hands, feeling the blush rise and probably spread across her body, her heart hammering out of her chest "I swear I didn't meant to say that outloud. I am so sorry, can we just forget that happened?"
"Yaz–"
"I'm serious, it's nothing, I promise. Just can we go back to before I put my foot in it"
"Yasmin—"
"oh my God please don't send me home. I swear it's not what it seems like, I'm not creeping in you or anything, it's not like that, Doctor please"
Yasmin found herself engulfed in a pair of arms whose owner was trying to exude comfort as much as possible. She was in the verge of some very real tears, she was doing so well, and then her dumb mouth had to go and forget the plan.
"better?"
The young girl dug her face in the Doctor's shoulder, the smell of wood and books and home hit her like a ton of bricks, and tears threatened to spill. A muffled "no" was the only answer she could really give.
"are you going to pretend I cut you off before you could say "I love you with those glasses"—because I've tried that, it doesn't work"
Yasmin's laugh got caught in her throat, and came out as a muffled groan "I was thinking about it"
"I love me with the glasses too" the Time Lord tightened her hold on the girl, bringing her closer to her own body, she could almost feel her heartbeat, which probably meant that Yasmin could hear her hearts beating out if her chest.
"dork"
"but you love me"
"yes I do"
"it's okay, I think I love you too?"
"you do?"
"well I can't say I love you with the glasses on" Yasmin could almost feel the smirking smile, she could bet that, if anyone could see the Doctor's face, the glasses would've gone up as her cheekbones rose with the smile "you could try the goggles? I'm sure that could cover me?"
"dork"
Hey guys! I love writing this and can't stop. Self confessed Thasmin trash. The next chapter of Fire and Iron should be up in the next week or two, if anyone still cares about that because hiatus is a thing, and so is writers block, sorry.
I refuse to apologize for ending my stories with a dialogue. It's open ended BEAUTIFULNESS.
ALSO ALSO, I'M TAKING REQUESTS IF ANYONE HAS ANY FOR THESE DORKS.
Double also, this story and Home are on Archive of Our Own, if you like that better.