Hello there readers! Sorry for such a long wait! I actually posted this on Ao3 ages ago but forgot to put it up here. I hope you like the chapter.

Disclaimer: Hang up on your lawyer and don't sue me just yet. Doctor Who belongs to the BBC and this work is purely a fanwork. Don't sue me.


Clara ran her fingers through her hair as she sighed in frustration. "Ashildr… you have got to take off those clothes."

"Clara, I'm shocked! I mean, I know we've grown close, but I didn't think you'd be the one saying that." She smiled coyly, raising an eyebrow. "...at least not anytime soon."

Clara tried and failed to suppress a laugh. "Shut up!" She stammered, blushing furiously. "You know what I meant!"

Ashildr smirked, perhaps a little too proud that she'd made Clara blush. "Actually, I don't know what you mean. And for the record, I'm quite curious to find out."

"It's simple. We're going to an ancient festival of joy. You're still wearing that leather jacket.."

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"Well… Could you try maybe wearing a dress instead of your jacket?"

"Hm…" Ashildr paused, contemplating Clara's proposition. "Could I wear a leather dress?"

For an instantaneous moment, Clara pictured her dearest friend in a skin-tight leather dress. Pushing that thought out of her mind, she responded. "No way."

"Why not? It'd be a fair compromise!"

"Just find a nice dress in a light color, that's all I ask." She gestured to the knee length lavender dress she was wearing. "Something that looks like… Well.. Joy."

"How can something look like joy? Joy is an abstract concept, and therefore cannot have a distinct visual representation."

"This isn't the time for your commentary. Go pick out something that looks good."


"Is this better?" Ashildr asked, stepping out of the infinite wardrobe in a pure white dress made out of a soft, smooth alien material. The skirt looked like flower petals, soft and fragile. "How do I look?" She twirled, causing the skirt to swirl in layers of white on white.

"You look…" Clara searched for the right word. Pretty? No. Gorgeous? No. "You're beautiful."

"You actually think so?" Ashildr smiled, brushing a stray wisp of hair behind her ear. No one had said that to her for billions of years.

"Of course." Clara replied as the two made their way to the console room.

"I can say the same about you. You look lovely."

"Thank you." Clara laughed."Now how about we land this ship and experience our first Festivus of Daemyton?"

"Only if I get to help land her!"

"I dunno, Ash, I think she's still mad from when you yelled at her earlier."

"She is not!" Ashildr retorted as she reached for the main power switch. The TARDIS responded by sending out a shower of orange sparks. "Stupid time machine!"

"See, she's not going to like you if you keep calling her stupid…" Clara stated matter-of-factly as she started the TARDIS engines, piloting the ship through the time vortex.

"I know." The other girl responded. "She should know by now that I'm not the nicest person out there."

"We've only been traveling for a couple weeks."

"Have we?" Ashildr asked. "How do you do it? Jumping around time like this, how can you keep track?"

"I've gotten used to it, I guess." Clara answered. "I always forget you're new to time travel." She pressed a button on the console, landing the TARDIS. "I'll change the chameleon circuit to something that blends in… Like a tree or whatever, and then we'll be all set!"

The dull sound of the Time Rotor echoed and faded away into silence. Clara offered a hand, which Ashildr didn't hesitate to accept. The door opened and immediately the environment switched from the silence of the TARDIS to the busy streets of Arawath Prime. The streets were lined with little shops, run by what the two girls guessed were Arawathians. They were tall, vaguely humanoid creatures with long tails, scaly skin, and long hair, both in a range of colors. Other aliens and a few humans were mixed in with the Arawathians. Two humans passed by, a man with spiky hair and a trenchcoat, and a blonde girl who clung to his arm, clearly in love.

"I swear I've seen that man once before…" Clara noted. "It doesn't matter, though. What does matter is that we're finally here!"

"It's so beautiful!" Ashildr gazed at her surroundings in awe. The blue sky was filled with sparkling clouds and flower petals carried on the breeze. Just down the street, the path opened up into a large clearing where a small band played and Arawathians danced an unfamiliar traditional dance. "It's even more amazing than people described it!"

"All these alien markets remind me of the Rings of Akhaten." Clara said as she picked up a bracelet from a stall. "We'll have to go there sometime. That was the first planet I visited with the Doctor…"

"Clara, look at this!" Ashildr said, gesturing to a diamond encrusted flower she had found at a shop. Clara noticed how happy she was. For just a moment she looked much more like the sweet, young Viking girl she had once been rather than an immortal who had seen the death of the Universe.

"This one?" The Arawathian male said, stroking his blue beard as he contemplated the price. "Let's say 350 credit."

"No, I'm not paying 350 credits for this!" Ashildr continued. "It's literally just a flower with obviously fake diamonds on it! Come to think of it, I prefer real flowers anyway! Let's go, Clara."

"Wait!" The salesperson shouted. "You drive a hard bargain. I'll give you two diamond roses, 400 credit."

"Why would I need two?"

"One for you, one for your pretty girlfriend."

"Her?" Ashildr asked, glancing at Clara. "No, you must be mistaken- I mean, yes, she's pretty. But she's not my, I mean, we're not-" She stammered, trying to get a grasp on her thoughts. "Ugh, let's get out of here, Clara." She took Clara's hand and walked away.

"So I'm pretty, huh?" Clara asked after they had walked away.

"Yeah." Ashildr blushed. There wasn't much to be said on the topic, it was just a well known fact that Clara was beautiful.

The pair reached what they assumed was the city center, a large circular area where people were dancing and laughing and listening to the jubilant tune that a small band played.

The song had ended and the dancing had paused, allowing an opportunity for new members to join.

"We should go dance!" Clara suggested as she made her way through the crowd.

"Wait, Clara-" Ashildr was about to object, as she had never been one for dancing, but by then, the music had already started, a fast waltz. "We don't even know what dance this is, how are we going to do it?"

"Just do what everyone else is doing, I guess."

The pair attempted to dance, trying to at least stay in time with the quick music. By the end of the song, they had stepped on each other's feet too many times to count, as well as accidentally bumping into other couples dancing as well.

"That was a disaster." Clara laughed as she brushed some dust off the skirt of her lilac dress. "But it was pretty fun."

"I agree." Ashildr said. "Although I wouldn't do it again if I had the choice. I've never really liked dancing."

A shorter Arawathian with pink skin and purple hair jumped out in front of the pair. "You ladies look hungry! Free sample, just for you!" She picked up a plate of what appeared to be bread and jam.

"Thank you." Clara said as she picked up a piece.

"It's my specialty. Sweet bread and Larfulberry jelly. The larfulberries grow during the daylight months, so I must harvest them in the darkness and cook the jelly. It really is tedious, but it is a labor of love."

"It's really good." Ashildr commented.

"Would you be so kind as to buy some? A loaf of bread and a jar of jelly, 25 credits."

"I'm sorry, but we haven't got any money." Clara smiled apologetically. "We'll try to be back another time when we've got some money."

"What do you mean, we haven't got any money?" Ashildr asked as they walked away. "Traveling the universe without a credit to our names wouldn't be a great idea."

"The Doctor always used to store credits in his sonic screwdriver."

"Storing currency in a screwdriver? How would that even work?"

"Well, it was sort of like an intergalactic credit card, in a sense. If we needed to pay for anything, just a quick blip of the sonic would do. There was one planet where instead of credits, you'd pay with an item of sentimental value, that sure was a weird day. I wound up paying with an old leaf."

"A leaf? How could a leaf be so important?

"I'll have to tell you the story sometime…"

"Now's as good of a time as any, why not now?"

"It's quite a long story, why don't we find somewhere to sit down?"

"Sure, but can I get my jacket from the TARDIS? It's getting a bit cold."

"That's just because the sun is behind a cloud."

"Still, it'd be better to have it and not need it than the other way around."

"Fair point." Clara nodded. "Let's hurry, though."

"Why should we hurry?" Ashildr asked, putting on her leather jacket.

"I'm fairly certain that this is the last day of the festival. Tonight, the sun will set, and the dark months will begin again. We should find a nice place to watch the sunset."


Some time later, the two girls found themselves on the top of a hill overlooking the village and the ocean in the distance, the sun growing closer to the horizon with each passing minute. They sat next to each other, leaning against a flowery tree, pink petals fluttering in the gentle breeze.

"About the leaf…" Clara began. "I like to think that I blew into this world on a leaf. That sounds a bit weird, I know. But one day, a man was walking across the street. A leaf blew from a tree and into his face. He would've been hit by a car if not for a woman pulling him onto the sidewalk, back to safety. That's how my mum and dad first met. If not for that leaf, I might not be here right now."

"You think it was destined to happen, or just pure luck?"

"I couldn't say. Things tend to happen for a reason, and initially my reason for existing was to save the Doctor."

"And how many times have you done that?

"More than I can count, and that's just this lifetime."

"That implies that you're aware you've lived other lives."

"Which brings me to my next point. The most important time I saved the Doctor was when he was forced into his own timeline. I had to save him, so I followed him. I literally was shattered into fragments, scattered throughout his timeline. One incarnation of me worked on a starliner before being captured by Daleks, another was a part-time barmaid, part-time governess in Victorian London."

"The girl from the starliner, what was her name?"

"The Doctor said her name was… Oswin? Yes, I think it was Oswin."

"Oswin! I remember her, and I knew the face was familiar!"

"What do you mean?"

"I knew Oswin before she worked on the Starship Alaska. I think I was going by the name Nina at that time… Anyway, I know for a fact that she fancied me. Her mum knew, too. She told her to get over it and that it was just a phase. But anyway, I knew her face was so familiar, and I can't believe I'm just figuring it out now! I'd never forget your face, Clara, but how did I not make that connection?"

"Wait, you said you'd never forget my face. You're billions of years old, you've got a finite memory. Why did I stay with you that whole time?"

There was silence as the flower petals fell. The air grew warmer, and Ashildr let her dark jacket slip over her shoulders. She sighed, her eyes glistening with tears. "It's damn near impossible to forget the face of the girl I killed."

"Ashildr, it wasn't your fault. I took the chronolock, I faced the raven, it was my choice. I haven't even died yet, I've still got the space between heartbeats."

"To me, you've been dead for billions and billions of years. You can take the blame for it as much as you'd like, but there's no way to stop me from feeling guilty about this. No amount of forgiveness will fix what I did. I am directly responsible for your death, and when you kill someone that you… Someone that matters, you tend to remember them for the rest of your life, so in my case, forever." She picked up a rosy flower petal. "There's only a few faces I've remembered all these years: my children, my father, the Doctor, and you. I have vague memories of a few others, but aside from that, everyone I've ever known is… They- They're all gone, Clara." She let go of the flower petal, watching it drift away on the breeze. "I've outlived everyone I know, and I can't even remember most of them and there's nothing I can do about it! Everybody dies and it's taken me 500 billion years to accept it!" She grew silent and wiped a tear from her face. "Sorry… Immortality has its downsides."

"You don't have to apologize, it's okay."

"I used to be so lost, Clara. I was sitting alone, on the last glowing embers of the dying Universe." She relaxed, her head coming to rest on the other girl's shoulder. "I'm so glad we both have a second chance at the life we've always wanted. Now that I have you by my side… I honestly have never been happier."

The sun sank into the ocean in the distance as the sky turned from a powdery blue to a dazzling orange that faded into gray. One by one, stars lit up the ever-darkening sky as the moon rose in the East. The village below grew quiet as the last rays of sun vanished from the horizon, marking the beginning of the dark months.

Each girl had considered saying something at some point during the evening, but there was nothing to be said.

Ashildr found herself almost falling asleep after a while. "Hey Clara…" She yawned.

"Yeah?" Clara responded, clearly drowsy as well.

"How long has it been since we've slept?"

"At least a few days, I haven't really been keeping track."

"We should go back to the TARDIS, then." Ashildr stood up, and Clara followed suit, pausing for a moment.

She tried not to stare, but she couldn't help it. Ashildr stood a few feet away, her brown hair, dotted with stray flower petals, tumbling over her shoulders. Glowing in soft, milky moonlight, she looked like something out of a dream.

That's the precise moment that Clara knew that not falling in love would be much more of a challenge than she'd initially thought.

"Hello? Earth to Clara…" Ashildr said, snapping Clara out of her trance.

"Sorry, what did you say? I zoned out for a minute there…"

"I said we should get going."

"You're right, we should." Clara took her hand and the two headed for their TARDIS, walking a little closer to each other than they had been earlier that day.


Thanks for taking the time to read this, it means a lot to me!