The English teacher reached the end of the line where the two Daughters of the Woven Fates stood, holding their arms out in preparation to be freed. The taller of the two met her eyes and shot her a grin of thanks, even as she watched the beautiful face twisted into something frightful, and the woman turned to pounce on the guard who had slapped her in the ship, the sound of flesh being torn from bone by those rows of terrible teeth was unmistakable, however alien he was.

The Doctor reached his companion, and grabbed her hand with his, while he held the other out for the screwdriver which she tossed to him. They began the sprint back towards the platform and the TARDIS, dodging past fleeing victims and those taking on the oversized, intergalactic thugs. The hostages refused to relinquish their freedom now they'd got it, and the Pirates certainly had their hands full; the TARDIS was getting closer and closer, she was almost to the door when an arm as thick as a tree trunk swung out in front of her and snatched her away from the blue doors.

The captain held the squirming human high above the ground, whooping triumphantly at his prize.

"You'll regret this little stunt," he grunted at her, putting his mouth to her ear and threatening with nauseatingly hot, wet breath, "I'll make you regret this for the rest of your very short life, physical incompatibilities be damned." Clara felt her stomach drop, sure she'd suddenly had all her blood replaced with liquid nitrogen.

Her fear was interrupted, however, when a mad man on a hover scooter rammed into the back of the captains legs at full speed, and she fell to the street with a thump. Clara grabbed the hand that was offered to her, and he swung her up onto the scooter with surprising strength. With a click of his fingers, the TARDIS doors swing wide open, and in they zoomed through on the scooter. The Doctor turned sharply, and they both tumbled off onto the floor, laughing as the doors swung shut behind them.

Clara was browsing the books in the cozy little library, planning to read by the fire as her hair dried. She didn't hear him come in, starting a little when she turned to find him leaning against the bookcase, staring at her.

"How are you?" He asked, "have you slept?"

"I'm alright, I just needed something to eat," she nodded at her empty plate on the coffee table, beside the crackling stone fireplace, "and a shower."

"You should get some sleep, you didn't sleep well on that ship-" he paused realising he'd stumbled into the subject of their slightly intimate, if short, night in bed together.

"And how would you know that, Doctor?" The vixen rose her eyebrows at him, "watching me, were you?"

The Time Lord struggled with talking his way out of trouble when someone noticed that he wasn't quite as passionless as he pretended to be. It being Clara who's X-ray eyes were upon him, smirking like she'd already analysed the scan of his insides and knew all about his desire and his darkness, only served to make him all the more certain he couldn't bullshit his way through. He opted for charm, instead,

"You're hard not to watch."

Clara was a little surprised at the boldness of his statement, and the low tone to his voice. If she didn't know any better, she'd say the Doctor was wooing her.

"Did you need something?" She asked, keeping her tone light and casual, testing the waters after their close encounter the night before.

"I wanted to know if you were okay. You hit the pavement pretty hard in the market place."

"Minor bruising, but I'll live."

"Can I see?" He held the sonic up, and she recalled that he had a setting that did something to bruises, sped through the healing process or some such thing. She went a little pink in the cheeks, but the opportunity to make her best friend blush was too good to miss,

"Well, they're mostly on my backside, but you're welcome to, if you'd like." She turned her back to him, and grinned over her shoulder like an imp. The last thing she expected was him to step forward and stand close behind her, looking down into her eyes and the smile on her face transforming into a stunned expression. His fingertips brushed against the skin just below where her skirt hit the back of her thighs. It was the slightest hint of contact, but it sent tingles running across her body in waves that made her feel a little faint. The Doctor lifted the short garment slightly further up her thigh, and touched his fingers to the warm skin there. Her intake of air made him smirk a little, which he hid a quickly as it happened; he hadn't forgotten this after all.

"Does it hurt there?" He said, softly.

"I-I-no." She whispered up at him, sure she'd seen him look a little smug at her gasp at such a minor touch. Clara was unable to meet his eyes any longer, he could read too much on her face, so she turned her head away from him and shut her eyes, biting down on her bottom lip hard.

"Here?" His fingertips were dangerously close to her backside, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to control a situation like this with the Doctor. Clara Oswald prided herself on being more than able to handle any man and and his ego, but the Doctor surprised her at every turn. She'd gotten a little bored of human men, until Danny. They couldn't shake her up like her Doctor could, and sometimes the control freak needed to loosen her grip on everything a little, and trust that he wouldn't let it fall apart.

"Hmm..." She murmured, it wasn't an answer, but he didn't push her further. The companion had to admit that his touch was causing desire to criss cross its way down her spine and across her skin. It burned so hot it took her a moment to register the heat, and by then it was too late, and the flames had claimed her.

Clara was revelling in the intensity of the passion her life had been so lacking as of late when his featherlight touch was interrupted by the whining of the sonic. She wondered if he'd let his thoughts wander when choosing the bruising setting on the device, because it was giving her goosebumps in a way it just hadn't when she'd had him fix the nasty, tae kwan do related, purpling of her upper arm a few weeks back. His fingers traced across her thigh, then moved to give her other leg the same soft treatment, the sonic following his fingers and fixing the broken blood vessels twisting together like streams and rivers beneath her skin.

The Time Lord didn't need his acute senses to know he was having an effect on her, and he was rather worried by how much of an effect she was having on him. He could practically see the lust exploding in deep violet sparks of energy around her, an ache had begun somewhere within, and he couldn't tell if it were hers or his own. The Doctor didn't trust himself to keep his hands on her any longer and not give in to either of carnal cravings.

So he took his touch away as quickly as he'd offered it, leaving her weak in the knees and turning towards him, in a slight panic, to see why he had stopped. He took a step backwards towards the door, and said as if he had no idea what he'd just done, as if to say: "ha, gotcha, knew it..."

"Get some sleep, the TARDIS has designed you a whole new bedroom just down the end of the corridor, to the left."

Clara watched him leave in silence, momentarily stupefied by what was either his boldness or his idiocy. She decided all at once that it was both, and that if he could play it cool so could she. Two could play at this game.

A/N: There! I said we'd get to the juicy stuff soon, didn't I? It's all to come! Let me know what you think so far? Thanks!