Just the two of us

Written by Loverly Souris

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Key and kingfisher

Key

He finally gathered enough courage. "Clara!"

She turned back to him from the door. "Hm? Have you forgotten something?"

He smiled and reached into his pocket. "Almost. Come here, I have something for you."

She stepped to him and watched him pulling out a tiny object locked in his fist. "What's that?"

He let her grab his hand and pry open his fingers excitedly. "It's something I've been meaning to give you for a very long time."

She gasped when she saw the silver key in the middle of his palm. "Oh my stars, that's…"

He nodded. "Yes. It's a TARDIS key. For you. I want you to travel with me, Clara. Not just on Wednesdays, but every day, as long as we just can. Will you accept this key?"

She could feel the tears in her eyes. "I'm crying. Why am I crying, Chin?"

He brushed away a single tear that found its way from her lashes to her cheek, ignoring the pain in his chest as a memory swam up to the surface of his mind. "But these are happy tears, right?"

She chuckled. "Of course, they are. And they pretty much answer your question, don't they?"

He beamed at her as she took the key from his hand and he hugged her tightly. "Clara… my Clara."

She let out a teary laugh. "I'm so happy. I've been waiting for this for such a long time…"

He frowned. "Then why didn't you say anything?"

She dug her nails into his coat. "The more you wait for something, the more precious it'll become."

He buried his face into her chestnut hair. "That's very true."

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Kingfisher

At first glance, Alcedonia was nothing special. Sure, it was beautiful, like everything the Doctor had shown her so far – twin suns in the middle of the red sky, their light reflected by the enormous lake which dominated the majority of the planet aside from a few tiny islands in the distance –, but Clara could usually see the purpose of them being in a particular place and this time, it was just all… vague.

"Doctor, why are we here exactly?" she asked. They were sitting in the doorway of the TARDIS, their feet dangling over the lake, the Doctor's much longer ones almost skimming the surface.

"You wanted to have a relaxing trip, didn't you?"

Clara smiled. "Well, yeah. But I've never thought you might actually be able to fulfil that tiny request without getting us into trouble anyway."

The Doctor pouted and Clara chuckled, wrapping her arms around his waist and placing her head onto his shoulder. It all made sense now, and she started watching the waves and the fish with a newly found peace. She'd be content to just stay in this calm environment if it meant that they'd get to avoid being attacked by random aliens today.

Suddenly she noticed something flying up from the nearest island, hovering above the lake for a second, then plunging into the water, only to resurface immediately and soaring back to the sole tree on the land. It was soon followed by several other shadows and in a minute, there was a huge flock of them in the sky.

Clara squinted at them. "Those are birds, right?"

"Yes. Alcedonia is the planet of kingfishers. Those are kingfishers and it's their dinnertime."

As the cloud of birds was getting closer and closer, Clara could see them now, the small kingfishers with their colourful feathers – vivid blues, calming greens, fiery oranges, soft yellows. They looked like flying gemstones glinting in the suns and the sound of their rapidly flapping wings interrupted by the occasional splashes of the water somehow reminded her of heartbeats.

It was wonderful. Clara watched them in awe and her delight rose to the highest pitch when she reached out towards them and a kingfisher immediately landed on her hand. While it rested a bit, it was eyeing Clara with a wise, almost knowing gaze before it took off to continue hunting.

"Do you know what they say about the kingfisher?" she asked the Doctor quietly, never taking her eyes off her bird. "They say it's the symbol of peace and prosperity. Of diving into something that may change your life. Adventures, for example… or new love."

Had she looked up at that moment, she could have seen the Doctor staring at her with a mixture of gentle affection and passionate longing.

She could have seen that he clearly wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth instead and kept watching her.

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Thank you for reading! :)