I'm so sorry this took so long! I've started uni so I was very busy packing and moving to a new city and making friends in a building of 400 strangers so unfortunately that all had to take priority.

But now you get the Daliya funtimes, and the chapter is nice and long to make up for the wait. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!

FLUFF WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER. Just saying. :D

Also a warning for strong sexual themes (though nothing explicit, because this IS a T rated fanfic, just) but I feel like most of you lot enjoy that so I'm not too concerned.

I have died every day waiting for you

Darling, don't be afraid I have loved you

For a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find you

Time has brought your heart to me

A Thousand Years - Christina Perri

This love is good, this love is bad, this love is alive back from the dead, oh,

These hands had to let it go free, and this love came back to me

This love left a permanent mark,

This love is glowing in the dark

This Love - Taylor Swift

The Doctor had never put a lot of stock in sleeping.

Sure, it had its merits, and obviously even he couldn't live without it, but he had travelled with humans for long enough that he had become almost disdainful of the activity, necessary or not. It hadn't been until he had shared beds with humanoids who required a lot of it that he had come to regard it a little differently. There was something so beautifully intimate about sleeping alongside someone, whether it was innocently beside someone you loved more than anything in the world (Rose), or with someone you cared about and had had certain relations with beforehand (Bernice, Fitz, and a few others).

River had been the first human where both applied, and he had spent more hours than he would likely admit just being content to be near her and watch her at her most peaceful.

Aliya had always been something a little different. Even from the first time, which they had thought would be their last, being with her so easily and being able to feel her mind so aligned with his had left a mark on him. One that had made it impossible for his hearts to entirely forget her, especially when they rekindled their relationship briefly in his fifth incarnation and once in his eighth.

He had forgotten just how much he loved sleeping next to her. By more literal definition, he had been doing so frequently in these last years, with their supposedly platonic arrangement on the couch behind them or the couch in the main living room. But sleeping with someone like this was different, and the lack of clothes was only part of it.

She wasn't yet awake, worn out by the energy it had taken to forge the mental link (though their more physical activities had probably played a small part as well). Due to being the mentally stronger of the two, the Doctor had recovered more quickly, and he was grateful because it gave him the chance to just look at her.

If he had thought that her bed hair was something to laugh at but secretly love, her post-sex-and-sleep hair was exponentially more satisfying. Probably because he had been fairly instrumental in getting it into the ridiculous and fluffy state it was in now. It tickled his chin where her smaller body was tucked into the curve of his, her back against his chest.

His hand trailed down her shoulder and the line of her arm, still trying to process everything that had happened to get them to the point where she was in his arms, bare in more ways than one. The idea that she had thought he had wanted her for sex and nothing else was so ridiculous that he would never understand how she could have conceivably believed it, but then he knew that she found it equally unbelievable that he thought she had stopped loving him.

In short, what they had learned over the last twenty four hours was that they were both idiots of the most impressive variety.

The Doctor let his head rest on the back of Aliya's neck and just let himself memorise everything, shutting his eyes and locking every detail away for a rainy day. The softness and smell of her hair and skin, the tiny breaths she released in her sleep that made her chest swell under his hand, her legs tangled up with his and her feet brushing his calves. The sensation of her mind in the background of his, quiet in its dreaming.

Eventually he felt a shift in her mind that told him she was waking up. He dropped a kiss onto the nape of her neck.

"Morning," he said, smiling widely even though she couldn't see it.

"We're in space, morning doesn't exist."

He rolled his eyes. "Trust you."

Aliya let her arms rest on top of where his were wrapped around her, and turned her head just enough that he could make out her grin. "Sorry. I'll pretend it's morning if it means I'll get pancakes out of it."

The Doctor snorted. "Pancakes are not quite what I had in mind."

"Well, then this is just shaping up to be a giant disappointment."

He gasped with mock offense. "You wound me, Miss Devoralundar. There's only one thing for it." He startled tickling her without abandon and she outright squealed, wriggling and thrashing against him in an attempt to escape from the torture. It was hard for her to get words out amidst her giggles and shrill screams.

"No, stop it! Please, stop it!"

When he didn't comply, she took a different approach, and rolled her hips against his strategically in an attempt to distract him. His hands faltered and before he could resume his work her body twisted and her leg slung around his waist while he was being pushed onto his back.

"That's cheating," the Doctor told the Time Lady who was now astride him and grinning down at him. She looked entirely too pleased with herself.

"Is it?"

"You know it is."

"Well, if you'd rather I leave-" She went to get up and he gripped her by the waist to keep her in place even as she burst out laughing. "No?"

"No," he said, his voice almost coming out like a growl, "Don't you dare move."

Aliya lifted an eyebrow and looked like she was fighting down a grin. "Don't move? That's going to make this awfully tricky-"

He rolled his eyes and used one hand to pull her head down for a heady kiss that quickly dissolved the need for banter and replaced it with the much more potent need for each other.

Well, partially dissolved. They were both too cheerful and of the tendency to be smart arses to stop completely. Needless to say, the Doctor couldn't remember ever laughing so much during sex before, and decided that he didn't know why the two didn't always go together.

"I feel like we should get up, but I don't want to," Aliya said.

They were still half wrapped around each other, her against his side and with a leg between his knees, while their arms were around shoulders and waists so that their heads were on the same level and only an inch apart.

Just as the Doctor couldn't stop his hand from tracing the length of her spine and hip, hers was sweeping his shoulders and neck to toy with the bottom of his hair.

"Nor me," he admitted eventually. "And we accuse humans of being ruled by their basic urges."

"This isn't a basic urge for Time Lords, though," she pointed out, "You couldn't get half of them to do this sort of thing once a century for the sake of reproduction, let alone….this."

"That's because only half the Houses thought it was necessary to conceive naturally, most people just preferred to take genetic samples and put them straight into the Loom."

"And just my luck to come from and marry into two that did the former."

"Can we not get onto the topic of your dead husband while we're naked please."

Aliya snorted. "Oh, I'm sorry, talk Looms to me, and of course I'll get in the mood a lot faster."

He blinked, and then laughed heartily, shaking his head for all he was worth. "Talk Looms to me," he repeated, nearly in tears because it was so absurd, "You're an idiot."

"But a cute idiot, right?" She asked, chuckling herself, and he was quick to kiss her. It was meant to be a quick peck but ended up lingering a good deal longer than he had planned.

"In my opinion, yes."

"Good enough for me."

Aliya kissed him, but just when he tried to pull her closer she wriggled out of his arms and actually starting getting up.

"Oi!" He exclaimed indignantly. "Where do you think you're going?"

"We need incentive to leave this room before we decide to nest in it," she said as she walked over to the door, picking up his discarded shirt on the way but not putting it on. While the more rational part of his brain knew she was right, that wasn't the part of his brain that spoke next.

"It would be a nice nest!"

She grinned. Which in itself wouldn't have been particularly distracting if she hadn't been leaning against the doorframe in the most 'come fuck me' pose he had ever seen (one hand up against the doorframe, the other on a cocked hip, one leg crossed behind the other).

"So you don't want to test the validity of all the surfaces from here to the kitchen?"

He got up so fast that he tripped over and face-planted into the rug.

After making stops at a study, two spare bedrooms, the billiards room and the library on the way, they finally made it to the kitchen. The Doctor had picked up a pair of pajama bottoms from one of the bedrooms, if only so that he had a legitimate reason to get her wearing his shirt that they had brought with them from the sitting room.

It looked good on her, barely covering her bum and complementing the sex-and-bed hair she still sported.

"So...pancakes," he said, just to be sure that was what they were doing in the kitchen. She nodded. "Alright. I can do that." He gathered the ingredients and began mixing them together while she watched. He was almost done when he felt her arms wrap around his waist from behind and her lips press a kiss between his shoulder blades.

"Thanks."

It was very difficult to not altogether forget about the batter he was making. "Er - Aliya," he said awkwardly, "While I appreciate the sentiment, pressing yourself against me is not going to get these pancakes to you any quicker. Sort of completely the opposite."

Aliya immediately let go of him, and he heard her chuckle from behind him. "Sorry. I've just spent so long wanting this. It's hard to keep my hands off you, given how many years of fantasies I have to go off."

The Doctor poured some batter into the pan and did his best to not let her words distract him enough to result in a spillage. "Fantasies?"

Her silence suggested that she was blushing, which he confirmed with a glance over his shoulder. "Maybe. I might have been trying to suppress any sorts of feelings for you, but things still slipped in."

He licked his lips and tried on the pancake he was cooking. "I think we might have to discuss those things. Soon. And in great detail."

"That depends….would you have any to offer me?"

"While bearing in mind that I've been conscious of my feelings for a much shorter period of time...yes. Now, seriously, can we change the subject before I abandon the pancakes completely and-" He decided against finishing that particular thought.

"And?"

"What are your thoughts on anti-gravity motorbikes? I was thinking of entering the anti-grav Olympics."

She burst out laughing at the abrupt subject change, actually physically clutching the counter with one hand. "Sorry," she managed to say after a few seconds, "Um, I'd say that certainly sounds interesting. I would hope that you know how to drive one."

"How hard could it be?"

The debate that followed kept them busy until the pancakes were done. The Doctor put custard on his, while Aliya put everything but custard on hers. They stood at the counter, happily eating their breakfast, when Aliya decided she wanted more maple syrup. When she tried to squeeze more out, the bottle slipped in her sticky hands and she ended up getting more on herself than she did on the plate.

"Fuck!"

The Doctor just laughed at her. Her annoyed expression was a lot more amusing than the misplaced syrup.

"Do you have a cloth or something?" She asked, frowning and putting the bottle back on the counter.

He eyed the stripe of shiny syrup that had coated her thigh and immediately got a much better idea. "Sorry, I don't think I have any. Anywhere. At all, really."

Aliya had noticed where he was looking and swallowed rather deliberately. "Oh."

When he dropped to his knees in front of her, pancakes were forgotten by Aliya for the first time as they found a much more entertaining use for the variety of syrups nearby.

"We need a shower."

The syrup, while fun and tasty, had predictably resulted in a sweet stickiness that was downright unpleasant when all was said and done. The Doctor and Aliya evaluated themselves and shared looks of agreement. Both still wore their singular articles of clothing but were in considerable disarray and in need of a wash.

Without a word they linked hands and left the kitchen in search of the nearest bathroom, which happened to contain a spacious and luxurious shower. Their near ruined clothing hit the tiled floor and they got into the instantly hot shower.

"Do you want me to wash your hair?" The Doctor asked, and she blinked at him with surprise. "You could do mine after."

The smile she gave him showed that she hadn't considered little things like them washing each other's hair being a part of this newness between them. "Yeah," she said, still smiling up at him, "Okay."

Her fluffy hair had instantly deflated and darkened under the powerful spray of the water. He grabbed shampoo and gently ran it through the short lengths, making sure to massage her scalp where possible and enjoying the pleased hums she made under his ministrations. Once he was sure he hadn't missed a spot and made sure to keep it out of her eyes, he gently pulled her back under the spray to rinse the shampoo out. His fingers combed through her hair where the water hit to ensure the rinsing was thorough and he gave lingering massages to her scalp as the last of the shampoo came out.

"There," the Doctor said quietly, smiling at her, "All clean."

"My turn?" Aliya asked, and he nodded. "You realise that since you're taller, I'll probably have an easier time of it if you turn around."

His mouth twitched. "Yes Ma'am." He rotated to face away from her and plant his hands on the tiled wall. She poured some shampoo on his head straight from the bottle and reached up to rub it through his hair. The feeling of her fingers against his scalp was heavenly because she followed his lead and did her best to massage the foam into his head.

"Let's just be thankful this regeneration is of a very reasonable height," Aliya said, "If I were any shorter this would be impossible."

"You being almost as tall as me definitely has its advantages."

She snorted. "Is that what we're calling it now?"

"Well, it's nice that I don't have to bend in half to hug you! Do you have any idea how small some women are? Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't put my back out from all the times I've hugged Sarah Jane, especially back when I was a good four inches taller than I am now."

"Your third and fourth were giants," she agreed, "But I wasn't trying to hug you back then."

"No but we nearly-"

"I remember."

He grinned. It wasn't likely that either of them could forget the potent sexual chemistry between his fourth and her third incarnation, where out of a heated argument had come one of the most intense physical experiences of their lives. It was actually a shame they hadn't gotten to experience the fullness of it before he had said something that irritated her too much and sent her storming off back to her own TARDIS.

"You really did like that shirt on me, didn't you?"

"It proved to be very distracting, yes. But by Rassilon I hated you for making me feel like that. It just proves that even when I despised you, I still wanted you."

To ring her words home, Aliya brought his head under the pounding water and let her hands sweep down his shoulders while the excess shampoo was rinsed out.

"All done?"

"All done."

The Doctor had barely turned around when Aliya's lips found his. The kiss was enthusiastic but surprisingly chaste. When they broke apart she just grinned at him, a happiness in her eyes so pure that it warmed his hearts.

"So, I was thinking that it's not just our hair that needs a wash," she said, with a mischievous grin. "And-"

He didn't let her finish.

Once they were dried and went to the wardrobe to get dressed, the Doctor came to realise that he had forgotten something rather important.

"Aliya?"

She didn't look up from the rack of jackets she was browsing through. "Hm?"

"My room."

That had Aliya looking at him quickly. "Yeah? What about it?"

"Well, I'd - I'd quite like to take you there. I mean, we've got to sleep somewhere, and if you'd rather we use your room then I'll understand but I thought that maybe you might-"

"I'd love to see your room," she said quietly, her eyes bright and warm as they regarded him.

The Doctor was more than a little relieved and smiled widely at her. "Good! Good…" He clasped his hands together. "Frankly, I'd have thought you would have asked me about it by now."

Aliya shrugged. "It seemed private."

He laughed, a little incredulously. "Private? Right, and what we've done and said in the last 24 hours is a regular Thursday for me. Aren't we a little past private?"

His blonde companion chuckled, and put her hand in his after coming around from the other side of the clothes rack. "Maybe." He frowned at her, and she just laughed again and touched her other hand to his face, eyeing him intently. "Doctor, I just figured that you'd show me when you were ready to. Far be it from me to assume I have a right to something that really isn't mine."

A new flare of affection warmed his hearts. He gave her hand a squeeze and began to pull her from the room without another word. After a few minutes of walking, they finally came to the TARDIS blue door that he knew she would never have seen before. The TARDIS kept anyone from finding it by accident. He pushed the door open to reveal his room and made sure to watch Aliya's face as she took it in.

She breathed in just a little more quickly than normal. Her eyes flicked over the bed that was round like hers, and encased by walls of bookshelves and a floor at least half covered with various piles of junk and clutter (some of it far more useful than it looked, and some not). It wasn't a large room - hers was about twice the size. But when she finally looked back to him, she smiled and the warmth in her eyes put to rest any doubt in his hearts.

"It's not so different from what I remember, just less white," she said, because of course she had been a guest in a version of this room in her fourth incarnation. But aside from some of the physical alterations, it was different this time. This was the room as it had always been after the Time War, where he had sheltered for days on end just to scream and cry for all that he had lost and the emptiness that had overtaken him.

It seemed right to now share it with the person who took the emptiness away. Someone he thought he had lost like all the others only to have her returned to him like a second chance or some true miracle.

"...but it's perfect," Aliya said, and the Doctor had to wonder if she had been saying other things and he had just been too caught up in his thoughts to notice. She inhaled deeply. The strange smile that sat on her face after she did so confused him.

"What?" He asked, and she immediately flushed.

"It, um...it smells like you."

"Good smell?"

"Very good smell."

He kissed her then, but she quickly took charge and marched him backwards towards the bed until the back of his knees hit it. Thanks to her his jacket was already on the floor by the time he was sitting on the edge of the bed. Aliya, who back in the wardrobe had dressed in a blouse and skirt, pulled the former over her head and cast it away before straddling his hips and leaning in to kiss the corner of his mouth.

"If you mean for this to be ours, I think there's a few things we need to do before it will be," she said, grinning wickedly at him. The Doctor had briefly been distracted by the white lace trim on her bra but looked up just in time to be completely disarmed by her words and smile.

"Right, those things," he agreed, almost absently, his gaze on her lips instead of her eyes, "Good plan."

She made a pleased humming noise while removing his bowtie and undoing his shirt buttons. Her hands roamed across his chest while his ran up her back and then back down to the hemline of her skirt.

"Yes, this will definitely need to go," he said with complete seriousness. Thankfully it had a zipper across the entire length which meant he was able to unzip it and have the garment just fall away. "You've made better clothing choices this time around."

"I know."

"...did you pick clothes based on-"

"Yes. Partially."

The Doctor grinned at her and pulled her down for a kiss that he deepened with his hold on her face until it was the sort of kiss that small children should never be allowed to see under any circumstances. When they finally broke apart for much needed oxygen, the blonde in undergarments got rid of the Doctor's shirt before pressing herself against him, something he augmented by crushing her form to his with his large hands that were splayed across her back and hip.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this," Aliya murmured, her breath hitting his lips. "But then I never want to."

"I am many things, Aliyanadevoralundar, but boring isn't one of them."

"Prove it."

The mental connection was everything they had once learned it would be and more. Being able to be only physically touching at their hands or chest but being as intimately entangled as when they were touching everywhere...it was incomparable. To be able to feel her mind in his and his in hers was beautiful and restful in a way that was completely new but something the Doctor knew he already would not ever want to go without.

"I think I'm hungry," Aliya said, breaking his state of reverie, "How long have we been doing this?"

He frowned, and because their foreheads were pressed together he felt his eyebrows brushing her skin. "I...I'm not sure. I lost track."

She laughed a little. "Me too. But my brain has still barely managed to accept all of this and it's going to take a while for me to not get lost in the evidence."

The Doctor broke their point of contact, a little too quickly, only to cup her face in his hands with the utmost gentleness. They were sitting facing each other on his bed with the covers thrown back which meant that their eyes were almost perfectly level.

"Why has it been so hard for you to accept that I think you're amazing?"

"I don't know," she said sheepishly, and he knew she wasn't lying. "I guess when it comes down to it, I'm just this girl who you met by coincidence in a library. I'm a mechanic who isn't even a mechanic anymore, who has screwed you over more times than-" She trailed off under his pointed look.

"Aliya, I won't have any more of this," he said, his voice firm, "You are so, so important to me, and not because of what you are but because of who you are. My best friend, the woman who will fight to her last breath for those she cares about no matter the odds, the woman who helped me in one of my darkest times and stopped me from tearing the universe apart for someone I was too selfish to lose gracefully."

Aliya bit her lip and let out a long breath. "I know. It just...it still feels too good to be true."

"Well, you'll just have to realise that I'm going to spend centuries making you get used to it if I have to. Because you are- " He bent down and kissed one eyelid and then the other, "Wonderful, and the only one I want with me right now."

She giggled under his touch. "Yeah? Well, good. Same here." Her hand covered one of his as she opened her eyes to stare at him with so much love that it staggered him.

He kissed the knuckles of her other hand. "So, food?"

"Yes please."

They were browsing the library when the Doctor came to realise that Aliya was staring at him, her eyes softer than he could ever remember them being. An easy but by no means small smile graced her face as she leaned against a bookshelf a few metres away and just watched him examining the books.

"What?" He asked eventually, because he was unable to look away from her for more than a few seconds at a time. She was far more distracting than any person ought to be when she was wearing a smile like that.

The smile widened a fraction. "It's nothing," she said, but he found that he didn't believe her.

"No, what is it?"

"I'm just…" She gave a large shrug of her shoulders but never took her eyes from his. "I'm just so happy. Happier than I can ever remember being."

The Doctor's hearts skipped a beat as he realised her unrestrainable grin was just because she was legitimately happier being like this with him than she had been in a long while. To know that he was the reason behind the smile made it infinitely more precious.

"...uh," he managed to say, "Right. Good. Excellent. Well, why wouldn't you be? You're in the library of the greatest ship in the universe, the possibilities really are endless."

She chuckled, shaking her head with what he had come to be able to recognise as great fondness. "I suppose given that we met in one, I'll always have a soft spot for libraries."

"My feelings towards libraries will always be, well, mixed," he admitted, pushing unpleasant thoughts of River Song aside, "But right now I'm definitely a big fan." He eyed her curiously. "Are you really though?"

"A fan of libraries?"

"No," he said, scratching his cheek awkwardly, "Happy. Happier than you can remember being."

She didn't even falter for a moment. "Yes."

The Doctor smiled back at her, now feeling the same quiet contentment he could see in her. "Good. That's...good." Then he frowned. "But you are entirely too far away."

"I'm right here."

"Exactly, you're not even in arm's reach, what kind of rubbish distance is that?"

Aliya laughed again, but immediately crossed to him and put her arms around his middle. "Is this better?"

He sniffed. "I suppose." When she cocked an eyebrow at him, he grinned and put an arm around her before dropping a kiss onto her head. "Yes. It'll do for now."

She smiled up at him. "I love you."

He nuzzled her neck gently, thinking that she fit in his arms perfectly and by that logic it meant it was probably best if she remained there whenever possible. "I know."

"Good."

"It's funny, but I think from the moment I met you in that library I was half gone."

"Really?"

"You were so...pure. You had been raised in our world but not tainted by it. Not yet, anyway. I knew I had to keep that from happening, it would have been a crime to let you become like all the others, which you would have."

"You were the pure one. No one had helped you, you just were unique, you saw the entire universe differently. I was half gone when I met you."

"Nice to know everything worked out in the end. That we came full circle," he said thoughtfully, "You were the first. My first."

Aliya smiled at him and let one of her hands lift to touch his arm. "I know. Your hands shook when you touched me."

The Doctor remembered it all too well, and found his grip on her instinctively tightened when he remembered that his hands had also shaken the first time he had touched this body of hers, because like their very first time, it had been surreal and all consuming and terrifying all at once.

"Yeah, they did, didn't they?" He murmured into her hair. "I guess they knew they were onto something good."

She grinned into his shirt and hugged him tighter.

"Okay, Doctor, important question."

The Doctor and Aliya were on the jump seat, having finally decided to christen the console room after trying to fly the TARDIS together had proven too much for their currently abysmal concentration.

At her statement, the Doctor lifted his head from where it had been resting on her shoulder. "Alright. Is it really an important question or is it just-"

"What do you think is the longest time since this started that we've been able to go without, well…" Aliya turned a delicate shade of pink, which he could only find ironic under the circumstances.

"Given the nature of your question, you should really be able to say it, Aliya."

"You're one to talk!" She retorted, hopping off his lap and yanking her skirt down from where it had been hitched up around her waist. "It's like these regenerations have faults! We're over a thousand years old and get embarrassed talking about things that human sixteen year olds get up to! Which is ridiculous because I can't remember the last time I wore underwear, because currently there's no point!" He smirked, and adjusted his own clothes, rather smug because of the spectacular shade of red she had turned due to her own words. "But even just talking about it to you makes me feel mortified!"

He just eyed her for a moment, and said, "I think about four hours."

She blinked. "What?"

"The longest we've gone without doing…" He paused and she lifted an eyebrow at him, so he finished with, "...the wild thing." He immediately cringed. "Oh, no, I am never saying that again."

Aliya's eyes crinkled at the edges as her entire body shook with silent laughter. Her hand clapped over her mouth and soon he was joining her in laughing at the utter ridiculousness of the whole situation.

"Anyway," she finally managed to say, though still giggled a bit, "That's kind of my whole point. Four hours? It's pathetic! We are going to need to develop some sort of self control if we're going to be leaving this TARDIS any time soon."

The Doctor sighed. "You have a point. That could get inconvenient. Any thoughts on how to achieve this?"

"Maybe." Aliya twisted her hands together. "I was thinking, we could make it a game or something. We're so competitive with each other that then it might actually work."

"A game? How is not doing naked things a game?"

"Because we could see who caves first," she said, grinning, and he began to see the merit in her idea, "Small touches are allowed, but whoever makes the first blatant advance loses."

"Blatant advances being?" He got up from the jump seat.

"Kissing or any removal of the other person's clothing."

"And what does the winner get?"

Aliya's grin turned positively wicked. "Well, that's the real question isn't it? I think probably the loser then has to do whatever they say, for a whole day."

He grinned back. "I'm going to have fun bossing you around, I think."

She crossed her arms. "It's cute that you think you're going to win."

"It's cute that you think you have a chance." When she just shot him a disbelieving look, the Doctor leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Knowing exactly what you like aside, Aliya, you forget...I learned from the best. I learned from River Song."

By the time he pulled away, she had muttered 'fuck' under her breath crossly, no doubt at how she had made that particular oversight.

"So," he said confidently, clapping his hands together, "Let the game begin?"

"Bring it on," Aliya replied, a new determination in her eye. With that she left the console room.

The Doctor decided to start off by going easy on her, just to test the waters. He kept his jacket off and rolled his sleeves up, just how he knew she liked, ruffled his hair a bit, and headed up the corridor to see what she had gone off to do.

"Aliya?"

"In here!"

He followed her voice and ended up in the swimming pool room. He saw her swimming through the water and smiling at him.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey." She bit her lip in the way that he had come to know meant she liked what she saw, and he knew he had done well so far. "You coming in?"

"No, I was going to ask if you wanted to play chess. Or something."

He expected her to say no, since she can't have been in the pool more than five minutes, but she beamed and nodded. "Sure!"

It was when she got out of the pool that he realised he had just made his first mistake. She wasn't wearing her usual one piece but a blue bikini, and he knew that his mouth was hanging open a bit as she came to stand in front of him with her hip cocked and her hair slicked back to emphasise her face.

I might have been taught by River Song, but she was friends with her. I have severely underestimated my advantage, he thought, quickly averting his gaze and ignoring her smug chuckle, I'm going to need to reevaluate my game plan.

"Problem, Doctor?" Aliya asked, with a grin he could hear.

"Not at all," he said mildly, still not looking at her, "But you might drip on the chessboard if you don't get changed."

"Fair point."

He thought that was going to be the end of it, but he looked back at her just in time to see that she had the nerve to strip off from the bikini then and there and make her way off down the hall stark naked.

It took all his self control to not run after her. He was going to win, but there was apparently no time for warm ups.

Aliya had met him in the library for chess in tiny denim shorts and an oversized sweater, and the Doctor cursed the fact that their periods of mental connection had resulted in her knowing what he liked just as much as the reverse. The way the sweater hung off her shoulder distracted him slightly during the game and she won, but he was about to stop playing nice, if only because her smugness was getting insufferable.

They walked down the library aisles, the Doctor subtly taking charge of the direction and leading them into the section that River had made sure he knew the location of. It was odd for them to walk so close and not touch, but at the same time it wasn't because it had been their usual way before.

"Are we going somewhere?" Aliya asked. "Because for someone who seemed so sure he was going to win this game, you've been pretty disappointing so far."

Before she could even blink he spun and took a step forward so that she had no choice but to back up against the bookshelf and let his hands plant themselves either side of her head. "Is that an invitation?"

Her eyes were wide - her guard had been down and she hadn't been expecting any kind of move from him. "Sure," she said a little breathlessly, "It won't be any fun to win if you don't even make an effort."

"I was going to go easy on you," he told her, being sure to properly get into her personal space by leaning in so that his nose nearly brushed hers, "I didn't think you'd start off by playing so...dirty."

Aliya swallowed. "It wasn't anything you hadn't already seen."

"No, that's true," he said, pretending to sound thoughtful, "Seen, or touched…" To ring his words home, he let one of his hands brush down the column of her neck. After all, as long as he didn't kiss her or try to take any of her clothes off, it was fair game.

Her eyes fell shut, both due to the feel of his touch and he suspected to cut off one of the senses that might betray her. "I expected more from River Song's husband," she murmured. Just for that, he pushed against her so that she was entirely pressed between his body and the bookshelf. Her sharp inhale alerted him to his partial success in affecting her, but he was just getting started.

"I'd watch your overconfidence, my lady," he whispered in her ear, "You're in the presence of an Oncoming Storm."

"There's a stiff breeze joke in there somewhere."

The Doctor's serious demeanour of seduction briefly snapped as he started laughing into her neck, but he managed to compose himself quickly. "Jokes won't get you anywhere, Miss Lundar."

"Miss Lundar? That's pretty formal for someone who a few hours ago was-"

His hand covered her mouth and her eyes opened to stare at him, dark and shining with the new challenge of it all. "I haven't forgotten. Quite the opposite." He gave her the cheeky smile he knew she loved. "You think I didn't learn something every time River pulled me in with only a twist of her little finger? I know you just like listening to me talk. We could stay like this for hours while I just tell you all the things we could be doing if you let me win."

Her breathing had definitely gotten shallower. Whether she believed he could do such a thing without dying from embarrassment - and hell, he wasn't even sure himself, but he didn't need to be - remained to be seen, but the possibility was enough.

"Sounds good to me," she breathed, "Why would I want to be anywhere else?" With a grin against his hand, she wriggled her hips just enough for him to need to still them with his free hand.

"Oi!" He exclaimed, frowning at her. "You're ruining it. This is my move, not yours."

"Says who? Shouldn't make moves that can be turned against you."

"Ah, but I know your secret."

Aliya snorted. "I don't have a secret."

"Not anymore you don't. I've been in your mind, Aliya, or have you forgotten?" The Doctor revelled in her weighted gaze as her silence and tightening grip on his waist conveyed the obvious, that she had not forgotten for a single moment.

"How could I?" Sincerity crept into her voice, more sincerity than had been in there since the game had began. "This right now might be about sex, Doctor, but it's nothing compared to that."

He lifted an eyebrow. "Nothing?" Her eyes rolled, though only a little. "It's hardly nothing when if I were to touch your mind right now, I could expect to find thoughts only of me touching you in rather more, well, physical places. Or am I wrong?"

When she stubbornly refused to answer and instead narrowed her eyes at him, he pressed his hips more firmly against hers until an embarrassingly needy noise escaped her and made him grin with satisfaction.

"That's the beauty of the secret, Aliya," he whispered, leaning in to do so until his lips grazed the shell of her ear, "I know that really, deep down, way past that competitive streak of yours...you want to lose."

"And why the hell would I want to do that?" Aliya growled. Her feigned disbelief was almost convincing. But he knew better.

"Because as I said, I've been in your mind. I've seen almost every single fantasy, every little hidden thing you might have not even known yourself." His hands massaged tiny circles at her waist ever so slowly, but his mind was focused on her reactions to his touch and words. Especially since he was about to call her out on the thing that would either make her give in immediately or knee him in the crotch.

"Prove it."

It was somehow so much more satisfying now that she had said that. The Doctor grinned, even though she couldn't see because his mouth was still at her ear. "I know that deep down, you want to see what it's like with me in control in that situation. For some reason, there's a part of you that wants to see that side of me and be subject to it."

He had expected some sort of fervent denial - instead he received a stunned silence. Then, finally, she spoke very quietly.

"So that side of you does exist?" The hesitance in her voice made him pull back so that they were eye to eye again.

"Yes," he said with a gentleness he hadn't planned when he approached the topic, and then frowned. "I mean, only like that and if I'm sure the other person has an aspect to them that enjoys the opposite." Very abruptly he felt awkward. He didn't think he was wrong about the submissive curiosity he had sensed in her, but the indecision in her eyes caused doubt to start nudging at his mind. "Aliya, if I'm wrong, tell me. It's been very...equal between us so far and I've - I've loved that. Really. That's what makes this special, that you match me, in everything, or if you don't you pass me in other areas to make up for it."

That playful fondness had taken up again in Aliya's eyes, and she grinned at him. "You're not wrong," she said, rather quietly, her face showing her amusement, "I don't think so anyway, I've just not been sure what to think about it."

The Doctor's relief was so potent he was sure he could almost physically taste it. "Good," he said, letting out a long breath, "Good." He smiled and let his nose brush hers in an odd reassurance that was as much for himself as it was for her. Of course, she had to then ruin the moment by keeping that giant grin on her face and moving one of her legs so that it wrapped around the back of his. Given how tightly he had her trapped against the bookshelf, he felt every inch of the movement more or less everywhere. "Aliya, stop wriggling!"

Her laughter, of course, only made it worse. Of course, the fact that her laughter turned him on was one that he actually liked. It was just, for want of a better word, inconvenient at times.

He sighed, and thought of a new approach quickly. "So, kiss me if I'm right...but you would be interested in that."

Aliya's grin widened and she leaned in to do as suggested. But right before her lips touched his she drew back at lightning speed. "You bastard!" She cried, with some strange mix of anger and amusement. "I almost fell for that! Your fucking distractions worked, I almost forgot!"

Although it was irritating to come so close to victory, he had to smirk at how much he'd ruffled her. When she wrestled out of his grip, he let her and took a step back to give her space.

"I don't see why you didn't just do it and let me win," he said casually, shrugging at her and moving to lean against the opposite bookshelf. "Given what we just established."

She looked outraged at the very thought. "This isn't about the power play! This is about winning! All that can come later! I'm not letting you win, I'm going to beat you!"

By the Other, she was beautiful when she was a flurry of determination, indignation and badly disguised lust. He couldn't help but briefly stop and notice, though his own competitive streak kicked in a moment later.

"Well, I'm going to win," he said, rather pettily, and crossed his arms.

"No, you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

Aliya then stormed off with an annoyed huff. The Doctor was left to realise that his plan for leading her into the erotic fiction section (which he kept well hidden from his human companions lest they ask why he had one) and reading her naughty books to get her hot and bothered had gone rather astray.

Not that it hadn't been fun having her wriggle against him and the bookshelf, but it had failed to win him a victory, so it was time to return to the original idea.

With a cheery whistle, he plucked a book from the shelf and slowly made his way out of the library in search of the blonde woman who had fled it half a minute before.

The Doctor descended the steps of the console room with the book open in his hand, and was surprised to see Aliya's legs sticking out from underneath the console.

"What are you doing?"

"Winning."

"Aliya, while your legs are impressive and your mechanical skills are even more so, they aren't going to win you this competition."

She laughed and slid out to smirk at him. "I know." She got to her feet, took the book from his hands, threw it behind her in a high arc over the railing. Then she hit a button on the console. The Doctor had enough time to notice the deep pink in her cheeks as she did so, but when he threw her a questioning look, she just moved past him to head up the stairs.

That was when he saw what had come up on the scanner display on the wall. A scene, so oddly framed and blush inducing that it had to be one of a fantastical nature, was playing out silently on it. The Doctor's jaw dropped.

"One of yours?" He managed to ask Aliya, who had stopped at the top of the stairs and turned back to face him. "Telepathic upload?"

Aliya, who despite her lingering smugness was as red as he was, just nodded.

It had never occurred to the Doctor to use the TARDIS's telepathic circuits in such a way, and he had to admit that he was impressed from a scientific point of view as well as mesmerised from a decidedly non-scientific point of view.

He tugged at his shirt collar and found he was unable to take his eyes off the display, though he noted in his peripheral vision that Aliya was watching it now too and had her hands fisted in her large jumper.

"Hold on, is that the Panopticon?" He cried after finally taking notice of the setting of the R-rated fantasy. That time he was able to look away and at her, and when he did she was grinning in a very self satisfied sort of way. For which he couldn't blame her, because she had managed to create a visual of them tarnishing the most official and public area in the whole Gallifreyan capitol.

Then she bit her lip and gave him a cheeky sort of shrug, and the Doctor felt his mouth go entirely dry as he stared at her and realised that he was prepared to lose the game if it meant that he could go up there right that moment and be able to touch her in the way her uploaded thoughts were projecting.

Except...her smugness had faltered in the second he had accepted his imminent defeat. She was staring at him with much the same need as he currently felt. It would seem the intensity of his gaze had swayed her mood.

"Truce?" She asked, breathlessly.

He let out a tiny sigh of sheer bloody relief. "Truce."

With that he dashed up the stairs, and in their haste she had half jumped on him before he reached the top. If he hadn't been able to grab the railing with the hand that wasn't supporting her, they would have gone toppling down the steps and potentially injured themselves quite badly. As it was, they laughed against each other at their luck as he managed to stumble to the top of the steps with her legs around his waist, and then he firmly pressed her to the wall of the corridor.

"I think we managed to abstain longer before we tried this game," he said, and she grinned.

"Yeah, but this was fun."

"Yeah, it was. Even if no one won."

That was when the jumper went over her head and the bowtie went over his shoulder. Her hands were busy undoing his shirt buttons but his were struggling to get her tank top over her head. Thankfully that was when she kissed him, rather forcefully, and the sheer bliss after coming so close so many times in the previous hours distracted him from the clothing dilemma.

"Have I ever mentioned that kissing you is probably in my top five favourite things to do in the universe?" He told her when they broke apart to properly rid each other of their shirts.

"Is it really?" Aliya asked, her hands working on undoing his belt as fast as she could without tearing her eyes from his. "Fantastic."

He grinned and kissed her before she could add any smart-mouthed comment. Luckily, that was absolutely fine by her.

Hope that was worth the wait! Writing these two like this is my favourite thing ever and it is still fairly surreal, I feel like this kind of happiness and fluff just isn't allowed! XD

Let me know what you thought in a review, it would be much appreciated, thanks!

Love you guys, and hopefully see you soon with the next chapter which will be...my AU of Curse of the Black Spot! :D

-MayFairy :)