Yowzah Oneshot Collection (2)

30(M)

and if i get burned, at least we were electrified

      mygalfriday (BrinneyFriday)

When he stops shaving, she’s certain she’ll hate it. She remembers all too well the scraggly beard his younger self had sported after being held in Area 51 by the Americans. She remembers his squeak of protest when she cornered him in the TARDIS afterward with a blade and shaving cream, eager to get rid of the thing as soon as possible. It hadn’t suited him then, with his young face and gangly body.

The memory of it is fresh in her mind when she looks up one morning and spots the stubble growing along the Doctor’s jaw. She sets aside her tea and studies him as he peruses Darillium’s morning paper in his robe, toast crumbs on his sleeve and hair in wonderful disarray. He looks so terribly domesticated that she can’t quite stifle a smile.

The five o’clock shadow creeps up his neck and covers his jaw, chin, and upper lip. River stares at it, biting her lip. “Darling,” she begins hesitantly, waiting for him to glance up. He does so instantly, tearing his eyes away from the page in front of him to give her his full attention. She does so love the piercing focus of those blue eyes. “Are you… growing a beard?”

His eyes crinkle like he can hear the disapproval she’d been trying oh so carefully not to give voice to. “Thinking about it,” he says, shrugging. “I am in retirement right now, after all.”

To her embarrassment, she swoons a little at the reminder and promptly loses all will to ask him to shave. Besides, she reasons with herself, even the slight stubble he’s sporting now suits him a great deal more than his last self. He’s more grown up now and the facial hair only highlights how much more mature this Doctor is. Still, she isn’t entirely on board with the idea of a bearded Doctor until he leans in to kiss her after breakfast.

He smells of tea and toast, bending to drop a casual, soft kiss to her cheek. His stubble scratches against her skin and as he wanders away to get dressed, River feels her stomach drop. Kissing the Doctor has always been her favorite thing in the universe but she can’t deny she’s grown rather accustomed to his kisses. They’re warm and familiar and still make her weak in the knees but they no longer surprise her. He’s spoiled her far too much for that.

His kisses are in turn comforting or passionate and sometimes even absent-minded in their domesticity and River treasures each and every one of them but the Doctor’s kisses are no longer the hearts-stopping adventure they’d been when she was young. At least, they hadn’t been before he brushed his lips against her cheek and left a stinging sensation behind.

From that moment on, his mouth on hers is nearly all she thinks about. She feels like she’s in University all over again, scheming to get him to kiss her when he drops by to visit. The obsession only grows with the length of his beard. His kisses burn her cheeks and leave her with a rather uncomfortable rash when he’s particularly thorough but the discomfort doesn’t stop her from wondering how that newly scruffy face would feel between her thighs.

By the time the Doctor’s stubble has grown into a full beard, River is nearly going mad with the possibilities. It grows in patches of different shades of white and dark gray and it somehow softens his sharp features just a bit. When combined with the wildness of his gray curls, those menacing brows, and cutting blue eyes, it’s enough to make her legs turn to jelly. She stares at him when he isn’t paying attention, fantasizing about that damn beard that has suddenly become the most erotic thing in the known universe.

The Doctor, bless him, is entirely oblivious.

They’re lying in bed one night, curled around each other while he tells her – between distracting kisses – the story of the time he met Robin Hood. He stops midsentence and frowns at her neck. His fingers follow his troubled gaze, stroking carefully at her throat, and she realizes he’s spotted the beard burn he’d given her this morning. He’d been particularly amorous, nuzzling into her lazily as they’d woken, and she’d enjoyed every delicious second of it.