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Holding onto the console of the TARDIS as it whirled through time and space, Clara smiled brightly at Ashildr who did not return the gesture, instead the girl looked like she was holding on for dear life. Hearing and feeling the TARDIS land. Clara clapped her hands together and began to read what was coming up on the monitor in front of her.
“Clara, where are we?” Ashildr sceptically asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the brown eyed woman.
“We are on a planet called Vermillion, I don’t exactly know where it is, all I know is that when The Doctor was younger, before he regenerated into who he is now, he mentioned this place to me, told me that it was uninhabited and a beautiful place to be during the day. It apparently has the most beautiful sunset which should be happening in about twenty minutes,” Clara replied, turning from the monitor and smiling at the younger looking girl.
“So we came here to watch the sun set?” Ashildr clarified, not understanding why Clara liked them so much, they were basically all the same to her, almost trivial.
“We definitely did and you are going to find it beautiful,” Clara responded, smiling as she grabbed a picnic blanket from under the console that she had placed there earlier.
“I doubt it’s a beautiful as you,” Ashildr quietly said to herself, looking down at the console in front of her, double checking that the air was safe to breathe.
“Did you say something?” Clara asked turning around, looking at her friend, positive she had faintly heard something.
“I said nothing,” Ashildr quickly responded, joining the taller woman as she walked with Clara through the diner and to the front door and opened it. “You forgot to mention that this planet has grass almost as tall as we are in some places and that it’s a mix of blue, green, and yellow.”
Looking over the long, thick, lush strands of grass, Clara wickedly smiled and threw the blanket over a patch of the shorter blue grass next to the TARDIS. “The grass here is only up to our knees, we should be fine.”
Watching as Clara sat down on the picnic blanket, she joined the older yet younger woman, still unsure if it was a good idea or not. “So what’s the plan for the next twenty minutes?”
“Well, we can talk. I would like to know why whenever The Doctor called you Ashildr you corrected him to Me but when I call you Ashildr you don’t seem to mind. We’ve been travelling for months and you haven’t corrected me once. Why is that? ” Clara asked, curious to know why she was allowed to use her friend’s given name.
“I allow you to call me Ashildr because you are special Clara. For most of my life I was alone, everyone around me died, everyone I knew is gone but here you are in between heartbeats, and until the day you decide to go back to Gallifrey and face the raven you are basically functionally immortal. It’s like you’re frozen just the way you are right now, just like I am and I know that we’ll be together for quite a while since we’re taking the long way back to Gallifrey. For however long that is I feel like I would like to be myself and not shut you out,” Ashildr responded, shivering slightly as the cool wind blew past her.
“I can promise you that you won’t be alone any time soon. I want to see every planet in the universe before we head back and at a guess that might take us a couple of hundred years. Like I said, the long way round; plenty of time for us to just be together and not alone,” Clara replied, giving Ashildr’s hand a quick squeeze as she smiled at the girl in front of her.
“I’m starting to like the long way round,” Ashildr smiled, moving closer to Clara as the wind blew again, the grass looking as if it was going between shades of blue, aqua, and turquoise as it moved gently with the flow of the air.
“I am too, I get to spend it with you, and come to think of it, totally off topic, this little area right here, it’s kind of like our own hiding spot for now. No one can see us unless they’re standing right next to us, it’s nice and private, isn’t the pretty neat?” Clara asked, getting up onto her knees for a brief moment to look around them, the wind blowing her hair back softly.
“And what shall we do with our new hiding spot Clara?” Feeling her shoulder brush against Clara’s as the woman sat back down, Ashildr let a small smile grace her face when she felt Clara move closer to her, the sides of their body touching.
“Well, we can do what I suggested earlier. We can tell each other secrets, talk about our past, things we find interesting, a lot of things really,” Clara replied, her hand gently resting against Ashildr’s thigh.
“I find you very interesting. You have so many tales to tell about all of your adventures that you’ve had,” Ashildr responded, not wanting to talk about herself any more than she already had.
“How about instead you tell me what your earliest memory is. It’s still painful for me to talk about my adventures with him,” Clara said, being honest while hoping to learn more about the girl she was travelling with.
Taking a deep breath in and out Ashildr hung her head for a moment before looking up at the sky taking in the gorgeous shades of pink that were dotted with baby blue clouds. “To be perfectly honest, you are one of my earliest memories. I know I said on Trap Street that I didn’t remember you but I did, I was just trying to keep a neutral ground with him. It’s how I had a few photos of you I had gotten over the years, I remembered you. Back in my village, my last day of being mortal, you were so kind to me, so nice to me, and when we got transported to Odin’s ship the only reason I wasn’t scared was because you were there with me, holding my hand, acting like everything would be okay. That was the first time that someone who wasn’t my father cared about me. All the other people in the village thought I was a nuisance, that I was in the way, just a child, and that I was weird. You showed me how to be brave and you talked to me like I was a real person and not just some stupid child.” Playing with the hem of her shirt, she didn’t risk looking up to see what Clara’s expression was.
“That day that I met you, I literally thought you were the cutest person I had ever seen. There is something about you I’m drawn to and I still don’t know what it is. I can tell deep down that you only want the best for me and you showed me that on Trap Street just through your body language. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to talk to you much then and didn’t take you into consideration when making the trade with Rigsy,” Clara replied, gently placing a finger under Ashildr’s chin and lifting her head up to look her in the eyes.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to help,” Ashildr responded, trying to look anywhere that wasn’t Clara’s beautiful face.
“It’s not your fault, don’t ever think that, I was the stupid one; you have me now and we have all the time in the world together. One thing I’m curious about though, how old are you?” Clara asked, wondering if it was too private to ask.
“Well, the years I’ve been alive, you’d be looking past a million. Biologically, when the Mire chip was inserted into my head I had just turned eighteen, my birthday was the day before,” Ashildr answered, feeling comfortable enough to answer Clara. “How old are you?”
“Biologically, twenty eight, almost twenty nine, but with the time spent in the TARDIS and going back and forth through time I don’t really know,” Clara replied, suddenly feeling older than she looked.
“No matter how old you are you are still very beautiful,” Ashildr said, feeling a blush creep into her cheeks.
“Why thank you, you’re pretty damn beautiful yourself,” Clara smiled, laying down on the picnic blanket, feeling half of her body react weirdly at the lack of contact.
“The sun should be setting soon, shouldn’t it?” Ashildr double checked, lying down next to Clara. Feeling the warmth back against her side, Ashildr subconsciously linked her hand with Clara’s, intertwining their fingers together.
“I think it’s starting now.” Looking up at the sky as they lay on their backs, the two girls watched as the bubblegum pink coloured sky started to get darker, turning indigo, then violet. The few sparse light blue clouds that lingered above let the sunrays shine through them for only a few minutes before they disappeared, the sky turning royal purple.
Absentmindedly running her thumb over the back of Ashildr’s hand, Clara moved her head to the side and studied the girl’s face. She watched as Ashildr’s gorgeous blue grey eyes watched the sunset in wonder, her thin lips slightly parted and the perfect small curve of her nose casting a small shadow over her cheeks.
“Clara, why aren’t you watching the sky?” Ashildr asked, watching wide eyed as the planet’s twin moons began to rise in the night sky, turning the night sky around them a shade lighter.
“I wanted to see your face while you were watching your first alien sunset, it didn’t disappoint at all, you really are gorgeous especially in the moonlight,” Clara answered softly, feeling her cheeks blush slightly as she gently caressed the back of Ashildr’s hand with her own.
“It was a very beautiful sunset, the colours were beyond imaginable,” Ashildr replied, turning onto her side, letting Clara’s words sink in, feeling slightly giddy.
“It was,” Clara agreed, running her free hand through her hair. Looking around her, she noticed that the sun had fully set; she could barely see anything more than a few meters in front of her. The light which came from the TARDIS was only visible around the front door, helping them to locate their spaceship.
“Should we head back inside?” Ashildr asked, feeling a chill running through her body as the wind slightly picked up, wanting to cuddle into Clara but refraining.
“We can... Ow! Something just bit me,” Clara loudly exclaimed, jumping up from the picnic blanket, batting at her side as she raised her shirt and knocked a bright orange bug half the size of her hand off her body, watching as it ran into the grass.
“Are you okay? Let’s get inside before another one of those creatures appear,” Ashildr said, grabbing hold of Clara and the picnic blanket, moving as quickly as she could to the front door and opening it up, entering the diner part of the TARDIS.
Closing the door behind her, Clara held onto her side, hissing in pain as she tried to view the wound. “Is it bad?” Looking to Ashildr, she had a look of worry on her face.
Moving to Clara’s side, Ashildr gently lifted Clara’s shirt and examined the area. “It’s raised up and there is a little blood where the puncture wound is. I think we should go clean it up just in case there was any venom in the creature’s fangs.” Gently touching Clara’s soft skin, Ashildr gulped at the contact, slightly pressing under the wound to see if anything would escape the punctured area.
“It stings when you do that,” Clara said, biting her bottom lip as she watched the younger girl examine her side.
“I’m sorry, I just wanted to see how bad it is and if any venom would ooze out,” Ashildr replied, taking hold of Clara’s hand and leading them to the bathroom.
“How far up is the bite?” Clara asked, trying to view it in the mirror once they entered the room.
“You need to raise your shirt more, it’s about four fingers down from where your bra sits,” Ashildr replied, grabbing the first aid kit from under the sink. Watching as Clara viewed her wound, Ashildr realised that to clean it properly she would need better access to Clara’s side and her clothing was in the way. No matter how good she thought she was, there was no way she would be able to hold up Clara’s shirt and clean the area at the same time. “Umm, I think to clean it you may need to take off your shirt, I don’t have three arms.”
Feeling herself blush at the comment, Clara nodded her head once and took her shirt off allowing Ashildr to easily reach the wound as she stood there in her plain black bra. Soft fingers gently caressed her side sending a chill down her spine, Clara could feel herself blushing and she tried to suppress it, concentrating on what Ashildr was doing.
Hissing in pain, Clara kept as still as she could while Ashildr cleaned the wound with some antiseptic topical solution. Clara had no idea if she could heal or if her body would stay frozen how it currently was. She was now certain that she could feel pain and she just hoped that it would fade pretty soon. Feeling a hand on her lower back, Clara blinked and looked at Ashildr, noticing how young she still looked.
“I’ve cleaned it and put a dressing over it just in case. I’m going to go to the console room and get a scan of that creature thing,” Ashildr said, unable to meet Clara’s eyes as she left the bathroom, trying to hide how flushed in the face she felt.
Smiling to herself, Clara noticed how pink the other girl’s cheeks were before she walked away. “I may just have a chance,” she softly told herself as she slipped her shirt back on and went to join Ashildr.
In the console room, Ashildr stood in front of the monitor, hitting a few buttons to her right, figuring out how to scan the creatures. Getting frustrated with the lack of anything on the screen, she whacked her hand down on the console and cheered because she had somehow finally managed to operate the scanner and she scanned for the creatures outside. Ashildr quickly read the information that was in front of her, realising that they were just really big ants with a liking for humanoid blood. Making sure it wasn’t venomous to humans she relaxed a little and looked down at her hands which were only on Clara’s smooth skin a few moments ago.
Thinking back to when she was mortal, they day she met Clara and The Doctor, she remembered seeing the most beautiful woman ever walk into her small village in chains. The moment her eyes first landed on Clara she felt something for her and when Clara touched her hand, asking her to use the broken sonic sunglasses to undo her chains, she felt her heart flutter at the contact. Here she was over a million years later and the touch of Clara’s skin against hers still made her feel all giddy inside.
“Ashildr? Ashi? Ash? Beautiful lady?” Clara tried as she waved her hand in front of Ashildr’s face trying to get her attention.
Feeling someone poke her side, Ashildr snapped out of her memories and offered Clara a small smile. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”
“Thinking about what?” Clara enquired, knowing it was something as the shorter girl went beet red.
“It was nothing really.” Turning away from Clara and back to the screen, she tried to regain her composure. “The ant things aren’t venomous to humans, it can sting up to an hour but after that it usually goes away.”
“That’s good to know. Now we need to see if I heal like you, well, maybe not as fast as you. How long does it take you to heal?” Clara asked, curious as she hadn’t asked yet.
“It depends, if it’s a simple cold or the flu usually two to three days, the plague took four to five days to be mostly gone. If it’s a broken bone, the bone will mend itself within four to five days but will be tender and sore for up to two weeks. The Mire chip will usually heal scrapes and bruises pretty quickly though, usually about two to ten hours. If it’s a deep cut, if I butterfly stitch it closed usually a day at most. I can still be injured, get sick, and feel pain like a normal person, I’m only functionally immortal, a shot to the heart or brain and I’m dead for good,” Ashildr answered, thankful for the distraction.
“That is actually very useful to know, so back to my original question, what were you thinking about, you zoned out completely, should I be concerned?” Tapping her fingers on the console, Clara raised an eyebrow at the shorter girl.
“It was nothing, there is no need to be concerned,” Ashildr replied, picking up the TARDIS manual and flipping to a random page, hoping for a distraction.
Taking the three steps over to Ashildr and stopping directly in front of the shorter girl, Clara closed the manual and placed it onto the console. “Ashildr, please tell me, I want to know what was going through that pretty little head of yours.”
Looking down at the white floor of the TARDIS, Ashildr closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. She tried to find the courage inside of her to at least hint that she was thinking of the taller woman but no words would leave her mouth, she felt like her throat was closing every time she tried to say how she was feeling, like it was a reflex her body had developed over her many decades. She could once again feel herself blushing as her heart began to race, thinking of Clara and how beautiful her eyes and, well, everything were.
“Ashildr, hello,” Clara said, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “If it makes you go this quiet you don’t have to tell me, I’m sure you will in time, I’m not going to force you to tell me. Would you like to go somewhere else as a distraction? We do have all the time in the world after all.”
Swallowing, Ashildr looked up into the gorgeous brown eyes she had just been thinking of. Clara’s hand was still on her shoulder and it made her feel something deep down inside. “I wouldn’t mind taking the night off and then going somewhere tomorrow.”
“If I have done something, please let me know,” Clara replied, thinking she had done something wrong by how quiet the girl in front of her was being, not used to Ashildr acting this way.
“Clara, you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, I’m just not feeling like myself tonight. You are perfect Clara Oswald, don’t forget that,” Ashildr responded, taking Clara’s hands in her own, truly meaning what she had said.
“You think I’m perfect?” Clara asked, feeling a flutter in her chest as she stood there in the control room of the TARDIS. She knew that Ashildr had called her that before but this time something felt different about it, the tone of her voice was more intense and the small squeeze to her hands made her feel wanted.
“I know you are perfect, there isn’t anything about you that isn’t. I think I’m going to head to bed soon to get some sleep. It’s been a long day.” Letting go of the taller woman’s hands, Ashildr tried to change the subject, feeling like she had already said too much and revealed what she tried to keep hidden away inside.
Raising her eyebrow slightly, Clara let it slide and checked the screen in front of her. Pressing a few buttons and pulling down her favourite lever, she moved them off the planet and back into space, making sure to turn the brakes off to make the transition smooth for them. “We are now happily travelling through the time vortex so you might be able to get a few hours. Have you been exploring yet?”
“I haven’t had time to go exploring yet, I know we’ve been travelling for the last three months but I’ve been occupied reading the TARDIS manual, it just doesn’t end,” Ashildr replied, motioning over to the large book sitting on the console.
“Let’s go exploring then, even if it’s only for a couple of minutes,” Clara smiled, taking hold of the shorter girl’s hand and dragging her over to the door leading to the rest of the TARDIS, knowing that Ashildr really wasn’t tired at all.
Entering the pure white hallway that led to the rest of the TARDIS they passed by their bedrooms which were next to one another, their large bathroom, the kitchen which was fully decked out with everything imaginable, and the wardrobe room which gave them unlimited clothing options. The hallway appeared to continue on forever with no end in sight, spending ten minutes walking past nothing but wall, they finally came across a plain white door on the left. Pushing it open they entered the room and looked around.
Dim lighting filled the room, in the middle was a large black couch and on the wall near the door a large flat screen television. Underneath sat a unit with multiple game consoles, game controllers, and a wide range of games to be played. A large glass coffee table sat in front of the couch, waiting to be used.
“We are going to be spending so much time in here,” Clara said, flopping down on the couch and stretching out.
“Are we?” Ashildr asked, sitting down next to Clara, feeling the comfort the couch offered.
“There are game consoles and lots of multiplayer games, are you up for some friendly competition later?” Raising an eyebrow at the shorter girl, Clara smirked.
“I spent a fair amount of time playing some of those games, what will you do if I win?” Feeling sure she could beat Clara, Ashildr smiled and turned to face the other girl.
“I also spent a lot of time playing almost all of those games; I was very good at beating children so I doubt I’d lose to an immortal eighteen year old. And if you do start to beat me I have a few tactics I could use, they used to work on all of my competitors.”
“And what tactics would they be exactly? A demonstration would be acceptable so I know what to ignore,” Ashildr said, having a feeling she knew what Clara would do.
“Well, you see, if I told you or did any demonstration they wouldn’t be effective.” Moving closer to Ashildr, Clara watched as the girl’s cheeks turned pink. “But, I have realised that no matter what, one thing always works.” Pushing Ashildr onto her back, Clara leaned over her, supporting her weight on her elbows, and looked into the girl’s blue grey eyes, their faces inches apart. “See, you’re pinned down now, can’t move, can you?”
Feeling flushed, Ashildr looked around her to try to find a way to move without hurting Clara but could see no option. Gulping, she looked into brown eyes and realised how much she really wanted to kiss the woman above her. Her heart was fluttering and she felt butterflies in her stomach. She knew then and there that she had fallen hard for the woman, breaking one of her own rules of not getting attached to anyone.
“So, what was on your mind earlier?” Clara asked, feeling her stomach pressed against Ashildr’s.
Deciding to take a risk, Ashildr swallowed and looked into Clara’s big brown eyes, finding the courage from somewhere deep inside, surprising herself. “I was thinking about how lucky I am to get to travel the universe with someone as beautiful, perfect, and as kind as you are.”
“I think I’m also pretty damn lucky myself, I have you by my side and every time we’re together I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach, kind of like butterflies, and I feel giddy and just want to hold you, touch you.” Softly stroking Ashildr’s cheek with her thumb, Clara quickly licked her lips. “To kiss you.”
Leaning down Clara’s lips met Ashildr’s in a soft kiss which quickly deepened. Clara could feel herself smiling into the kiss as the butterflies in her stomach danced around happily. Ashildr’s hands gently rested on her waist as she kissed back.
Breaking the kiss for some much needed oxygen, Ashildr smiled up at Clara, “I’ve been waiting almost my entire life to kiss you; you’re so beautiful.” Brushing a piece of Clara’s hair back behind her ear, Ashildr cupped Clara’s cheek in her hand, feeling Clara place a small kiss against her palm. She knew deep down that no matter Clara would be good to her and she’d be good to Clara.
“All you would have had to do was ask beautiful,” Clara replied, her face only a few inches away from Ashildr’s.
“Kiss me,” Ashildr softly said, feeling Clara’s lips back on her own as she snaked her arms around Clara’s neck and pulled her closer.