Yowzah Oneshot Collection (3)

78(G)

                A Sort of Kindness

                        turtlebook

"So, Doctor, you were saying?"

He opened an eye and looked at her. River was draped over his chest, her chin planted on the back of her hand, and she was staring at him.

He closed the eye. "Can't you see I'm busy? Don't ask silly questions. Or any questions, but definitely not silly ones." That bought him a minute or two of silence. He smoothed a calming hand up and down her back.

He heard her sigh, and she started drawing idly on his chest with the tip of her finger.

Or not so idly:

I'm bored, it said, in lazy, swirling Gallifreyan.

This time, just for variety, he opened the other eye.

"Sorry, are you trying to sleep?" she asked innocently, as the scrawling on his skin, conversely, became very rude indeed.

She was young, that was the problem.

River Song later in her timeline quite liked a cuddle - though you wouldn't catch her admitting it. This River hadn't been in prison long enough to develop the ability to sit still for more than two minutes at a stretch, let alone an appreciation for the quiet moments of intimacy he occasionally liked to share with his wife. That was all still to come, for her; he tried not to begrudge her it. Till then:

"All right, what was I saying?" He smiled up at her as her eyes lifted from his sternum to meet his gaze. "Well? I hope you know, because I haven't the foggiest."

Her lips twitched as she tried to hide an answering smile. "Oh, I don't know, something like, 'no, River, not this time, I've got a lovely trip planned and you're always trying to distract me like this but it's not going to work this time I'm determined -' and then you had your face down the front of my top so I didn't catch the rest."

"You are always trying to distract me."

"Trying, you say."

"But I - oh!" He surged up, toppling her off him as he remembered: "The thing! Plans! Yes, that's what I was saying before you went and got all..." He trailed off with a gesture.

"Distracting."

"Very, yes." He bounced the mattress beneath them and leaned over to press a noisy kiss against her cheek. He stayed there propped on his side, looking fondly down at her, so glad that, this young, he still had half a shot at impressing her. She snorted and pushed past him to sit up. "I've got big plans for today, River, really, you're gonna love it. Whatever did you go and distract me like that for, anyway? Got much better things to do today that lay around in bed."

"Heaven only knows," she said as she sat, stretching her arms over her head, curls falling down her gracefully arching back.

His eyes travelled up the line of her body, from bare hip to bare - everything else - and found himself getting very distracted all over again. "No, stop that," he said. "We've got big plans, to go and do a - a thing - big, amazing, very cool, very big thing, and we're going now, so stop it."

"Are you talking to me, or the very big thing?" She drawled that last part suggestively.

He had no idea to what she was so suggestively referring. "You stop it, too, or you can jolly well stay right here," he told her firmly.

"What, with a whole TARDIS all to myself? Promises, promises, Doctor." She turned and laughed at the look on his face. "So where are we going and what are we doing?"