Yowzah Oneshot Collection (3)

108(G)

                  You're Still Here

                 RiverAmeliaSong

River slowly opened her eyes, groggily blinking away the sleepiness that still clung to her, but started at the sight of a man's bare chest and the feel of arms tightening around her. Jerking away, she felt the arms tighten about her again as though they felt a sense of loss at the slight distance and River looked up at the face lying not an inch from her own.

The Doctor blinked his eyes open as he woke and a contented smile pulled at his lips when he met her analytical gaze and he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.

River wracked her brains and her brows furrowed in confusion and thoughtfulness as she held his gaze, trying to figure it out. She did not return his smile and a part of her mind realized that she was probably scowling up at him, though she did not particularly mean to.

"What's the matter?" the Doctor asked, his grin pulling up more on one side and he studied her face searchingly.

"You're still here," River stated matter-of-factly—no nonsense.

"Of course I am," the Doctor replied, his own thin brows furrowing slightly and his grin faltered ever so slightly.

"Why?" River asked, genuinely curious and a nagging in the back of her mind told her that she should probably stop glaring at him and smile or…something. Wasn't that what people were supposed to do the morning after?

"Why wouldn't I be?" the Doctor countered, his smile fading away completely and River was surprised to find that she felt a loss as his smile turned to a grimace to match her own.

"Why would you?" River questioned again in return, unable to find an answer for his. She would let him handle this one.

"Well," the Doctor floundered and she could feel the hands that were wrapped around the small of her back shifting around uncomfortably and his expression told her that she should already know the answer. "I—I-I wouldn't want you to wake up alone in the morning after we…uh…you know. It would make you feel bad. And…well…because…well—I, uh…well, because I love you, River."

River simply stared back at him, her expression unchanging despite the fact that his words had set her mind into a whirlwind. He loved her? Well—that was certainly something new to hear. She'd never heard anyone tell her that they loved her before. Well, except for that one time when he whispered in her ear and told her to tell her future self that…but that wasn't really a direct statement. This was something completely beyond anything that she'd ever heard before. It was—strange.

"I…," River began, her brows furrowing even deeper as his deep green eyes bore into her light ones probingly. She didn't know what to say. Was she supposed to know what to say? She inwardly raged against herself for dithering around stupidly. "I'm hungry."

Well, they were not exactly the words that she had expected to finally find their way out of her mouth, but she could work with them.

"Yes," the Doctor answered after a beat, his hands pulling away from her back and leaving the spot where they had rested suddenly cold. He pulled a light grin but River could tell without a thought that it was false and there was an undeniable look of disappointment and sadness in his eyes that she suspected not just anyone would have been able to detect. "You always are in the mornings."

The Doctor untangled his limbs from hers and River watched him with the same analytical and curious expression as he sat up—waist and below completely covered by the duvet, but the rest of him bare to the universe—and rubbed the sleep from his eyes and ran a hand though his mussed hair to push it out of his eyes. There was a strange familiarity in his actions that baffled her. Yes, he had explained to her a while ago when she had first found him after beginning her attendance at Luna University that he was from her future and that, from his perspective, he had known her for a very long time. But, did he have to seem so…comfortable? She had never given a second thought to nudity or shyness, but the Doctor had shyness and awkwardness written all over him from the first moment that she had laid eyes on him.