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Star Kiss

Chapter Text

The Doctor had stopped the Tardis in the middle of space, somewhere in the Taurus constellation, at a time when he knew there wouldn’t be any space ship to crash on his own. He needed to recalibrate things, and had decided to take a break, hide himself in a part of the universe where and when he would be safe, for a little while.

He had almost finished when a wave of energy crossed the ship, and he raised his head from his work. He was about to look for the reason for it but Sexy sent him some comforting feelings. “Are you sure?” he asked her and she hummed reassuringly.

He had completely forgotten about the incident when there was a bang on the door. He didn’t pay attention to the first one -it surely was a piece of rock lost in the universe which had hit the Tardis during its random wandering. But then there was another one and maybe he was trapped in some asteroid belt he didn’t know about... Except that the clacks had been precise and not random at all and it was like... it was like something or someone was knocking at the door.

He left what he had been doing and looked suspiciously at the door. Last time something like that happened, it had been a fake emergency cube from the Snake, and he had found himself and his friends on a living planet that had tried to kill them all. Of course, there had not been only bad things, he had met his Tardis, in the flesh, and at the end he had succeeded in saving his friends and House wouldn’t hurt anything anymore. It could have been worse.

He didn’t know what was behind that door today, if it was a friend or an enemy, a distress call or maybe nothing, but it was mysterious and he couldn’t stand there not knowing, it was unbearable. By the way he had done everything he needed to do and he wouldn’t mind to run a bit now.

There was another knock and this time he couldn’t resist, he almost ran the door and opened it.

“Hello Sweetie.”

He had thought about many things, he had prepared himself to find all the possible people and aliens and spaceships and weapons of the universe, but he hadn’t thought about his wife, not at all. He was amazed that she could still surprise him like she did -but, who else could have it been, knocking on his door in the middle of nowhere?

She was there, in front of him, surrounded by all the stars of the universe, her hair floating around her, smiling; and she could have run to any of those beautiful stars, anywhere else in the universe, but she had chosen to come to him. Like each time she did this, coming to him unexpectedly instead of going elsewhere, he could feel a warm feeling growing up between his hearts for her and he smiled back at her.

“River...”

He looked carefully at her, around her, above her, beneath her, trying to understand how she had arrived, how she could stand in front of the Tardis without being taken by the void of space -and how could she even breathe ? He stuck his head out of the ship and looked around.
“You extended the atmosphere from the Tardis, very clever. How did you do that from outside?”
“I’m the child of the Tardis, I just have to ask.” she said like it was obvious, and he couldn’t help but feel jealous for a second -his ship never did what he asked, but always did River’s will. She began to laugh and he realized he must have said that out loud.

“She likes you.” River said to comfort him, and he mumbled something incomprehensible about women and how they always proved their care in the weirdest way, which made River laugh louder.

“Can I come in?” she finally asked when she stopped giggling and he groaned a yes, still pouting. He held his hand out to her to help her and she took it, but instead of coming inside she reached for him and kissed him. In a second he forgot everything about his stubborn ship, losing himself in the feeling of his wife and her lips against his. She was still floating into space and he snaked a safe arm around her, holding her next to him. His was wife kissing him in the vastness of space, millions of stars shining around her, the Tardis humming protectively behind them, and he wished that moment could be endless. It was gorgeous.

Chapter Text

When the Doctor stepped into the console room he knew something was wrong. It took him a few seconds to realize was it was: the door of the Tardis was opened to the void and River was standing outside. His heartbeat raced for a second, before he saw the comforting flashing light of the atmosphere being extended, and he breathed easier.

River turned back and smiled, waving at him before focusing on the starry space again. He walked carefully in her direction and stopped when he reached the doorway. River was a few inches in front of him, her feet floating into space, standing into the void like it was the most natural thing for her. She was looking at the stars around her with a look of concentration on her face. He could name all of those stars, he had landed at least on the half of them, knew their histories and their people, had saved some of them and could not help the others, they were all strong and old, they were there before him and would still live after he was gone. He should feel small, he should feel impressed, he should doubt his ability to take care of all of them, but somehow he felt more safe and more powerful than ever, because there was his wife with him, facing those shining lights like they were hers, like they were home and it was where she belonged.

“How many do you think there are?” she asked.

He scanned the space around him for a few seconds. “One hundred twenty-eight --”

She laughed, cutting him. “It was rhetorical.” she added and he frowned. “Not knowing is even better. The exact number is... I don’t know, it’s like it makes it concrete and touchable but it isn’t. For normal people at least.” she turned back and winked at him. “Do you think you could forget you’re a Time Lord for a minute and just see how mysterious and big and beautiful is it?”

He smiled. He didn’t need to make any effort to understand all of that: sometimes he listened to her and looked at her and felt like he was facing the biggest secret of the universe, and none of his Time lord-y skills could help him.

They stayed silent for a while, her lost in the contemplation of the universe, and him of her.

“Do you think we could visit one of them?” she finally asked.

“Of course, choose the one you want.” She pointed out one of the stars in front of them and he nodded.

She turned back then, reaching out to come back in the Tardis, but he grabbed and kissed her while she was still floating in space. Maybe sometimes he couldn’t understand her and maybe sometimes he was completely lost with her, but she was his wife, he was hers and she was his, and when they kissed, all the stars of the whole universe were theirs.