Hey :) Do you take fic requests? If yes. Could you maybe write a fic right after Last Christmas where the doctor and clara go back to akathen just to watch the golden pyramid and to celebrate their "first date"? That would be so amazing

Clara's heart pounded in her chest, as she rested her hands on the console, to the sound of the TARDIS taking off.

Yes, she tried to convince herself, you're back, you're really back.

Danny was still dead and she and the Doctor still had their problems to deal with, but, all the same, everything felt different. She felt light, for the first time in a very long while, as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

The future didn't look so scary any more.

She took a deep breath and smiled at the Doctor, who smiled back at her from the opposite side of the console.

"Where are we going, Doctor?"

"You'll see."

His eyes burnt of an unusual excitement and determination that made her stop questioning him. After all, she didn't care. Wherever he wanted to take her would be fine with her.

What mattered to her, right there and then, was that they were together again. The Doctor and Clara, in the TARDIS, all of time and space to chose from - next stop, everywhere and always.

This thought had a familiar taste to her, and she rolled it in her mind like the lyrics of a song, so to make herself believe that all of that was real.

She still had trouble acknowledging to herself that she was back, and yet she couldn't help but keep on smiling. The smile only degenerated to a wide grin when the TARDIS landed with her usual - and painfully familiar - groan.

The Doctor crossed the room and opened the doors. Then, he turned expectantly towards her.

"Come," he said. "I have something to show you."

Clara started moving slowly, calculating meticulously every step she took toward him.

"What?" She couldn't help but ask, even though the answer to her question lied a mere few feet away, just on the other side of those blue doors.

The expression of content he gave her told her he had been hoping she would ask.

"Something awesome."

Her heart skipped a beat and her mind immediately raced to a memory from what felt like a very long time ago.

She stared at him with wide eyes and understood from the way he was looking back at her that she hadn't misunderstood where they were.

He offered her his hand and she accepted it gladly, thinking back at when he had just regenerated and at how much he had changed since then.

He led her outside and, even though she was expecting it, she sighed in amazement at the sight of the golden pyramid.

It felt like stepping into the past - her own past, her own timeline. She had to be precise when speaking of time travel.

She glanced at the Doctor, without saying a word but holding back another smile she felt growing by biting her lower lip. He wasn't looking at her. His eyes were fixed on the pyramid, but she could tell his attention wasn't. His mind was obviously a long way away and she wondered what he was thinking.

They moved forwards and sat at the edge of the asteroid they had landed on, so to take as much advantage they could from that beautiful view.

They let their legs hang into nothingness, and Clara let them both appreciate that silence - a silence made of warmth and comfort - before she spoke.

"So," she started, looking up at him and waiting for him to look back. "Akathen."

"Yep."

She grinned and and her eyes shined maliciously, before continuing.

"I didn't know you were such a romantic."

His eyes widened, making him look like a big, confused, owl.

"What?" He spat, in a defense. "Me? What? No! Why would you say something like that-"

She watched him gasping like a fish out of water, and this sight made her laugh.

"Well this was our first date, after all."

His response was immediate and it was just as Clara had imagined it would be.

"Our first dat- oh, shut up!"

She could see him blushing against the light of the glowing pyramid, and tat was all the reward she was looking for.

Clara loved teasing him, and she loved the way he reacted. She had always had.

She swung to her left, right against him, pushing him affectionately on his side. He reciprocated, just as gently.

Then, the Doctor turned to stare at her and Clara did the same, so that they were looking in each other's eyes while smiling like perfect idiots.

The silence which fell between them - a comforting silence, the mythical silence that doesn't require words and is often fuller of meaning - this time was broken by the Doctor.

"Last time we came here…"

He left the words hang in the air, because he knew she would understand without further explanation, before continuing: "It felt like a lifetime ago."

"Well, wasn't it, in a way, for you?"

He shrugged. "I suppose so."

"I feel the same way you know?" She said. "I feel like there was a different version of me, that day, even without the regeneration part."

He looked at her, thoughtfully. "Our experiences forge us. We are like hot metal and everything that happens to us, everyday, shapes us in a different person - a little bit at the time. And since millions of thing happen to us everyday you can imagine the consequences."

It wasn't a very optimistic speech, and Clara didn't want that kind of attitude. Not from the Doctor, not there and then. She needed happiness, and hope. Reality isn't an easy place to live in, but means of happiness and hope can always be found - if someone knows how to find them.

"Yes, but even though we change our 'form', it doesn't meant the substance, the true essence, is lost. That one doesn't change."

"Clever clocks," he smiled at her.

She curled her lips in a shy smile. It was quite uncharacteristic of her, but she was still feeling vulnerable. And truth was, she didn't mind to remain like that just a little longer and let someone else take care of her.

"And anyway," she added. "People who stay the same are boring. I like people who change so much they also change their face and personality and yet remain the same in what really counts - their mind and their hearts. Those people are my favorite."

That said, she leaned to her left and rested her head on his shoulder.

The Doctor slid his arm behind her and used it to embrace her. As he held her, she snuggled even more comfortably against his side and sighed, happily.

The way he was wrapping his arm around her made Clara feel perfectly safe and wonderfully content. She knew there wasn't some romantic meaning behind his gesture. She knew it was so much more, because they had always been so much more.

Clara had a vague memory from her astronomy studies back when she was in high school, about the Andromeda-Milky Way collision. The teacher had told them that their galaxy, the Milky Way, and Andromeda were going to meet, in four billions years time, but there would not be one big crash, like you would expect with two cars colliding. The two galaxies would sort of fit together, and form one bigger galaxy.

She was probably getting all the physics wrong. Her memory might had been faulting, it had been a long time ago after all and she had never been great at science at school.

The point was - that was exactly how she felt about her and the Doctor. They were two souls who had met and, against all the odds, together they created something better.

And she promised to herself that, because of all of this, she would never lose him again.