He’s counting for them, but she knows he won’t tell her what day it is unless she asks. Because twenty four years, damn that’s a long time, and she sure as hell doesn’t want to waste it counting down. The first night at the restaurant they sit and enjoy each other’s presence, then with the Doctor’s charming smile and a flash of his old psychic paper the pair got a room at the hotel and enjoyed each other in a completely different way.
Towards the end, she noticed something. As she closed her eyes, or what he thought was her closing eyes, he watched her. He watched her as he crossed the room from the bed into the chair and he watched her as she pretended to sleep. And in a reversal of roles, she was the one afraid. How was he going to last twenty four years on Darillium, full of domestics and normality, two things he hated very much.
“A penny for your thoughts, dear?”His voice broke her from her thoughts. She turned her head to look at him. Of course he knew she wasn’t actually asleep, this him didn’t seem to be oblivious about her like the last one.
“You hate domestics.” She sighed in a gasp.
“I don’t hate them, I just find it easier and more fun to happily avoid them.” He said, crossing the room to sit down next to her on the large king sized bed.
“How are you going to last twenty four years on Darillium with me?” She asked out loud, and he actually laughed. She furrowed her brows, her thin ones nothing compared to his Scottish ones, but she still managed to give him quite the glare.
“Well if I remember honey, you’re not one to sit still either.” He said, winking slightly, and she was taken aback by his actual out right flirt with her.
“You’re Scottish, why aren’t you complaining about you being stuck here with me for twenty four years?” River sighed in exasperation. Don’t get her wrong, she loved the idea of all that time with the Doctor, but something about him seemed off.
“Twenty four years with you, River, I could never complain about that.” The Doctor said, leaning forward to press his lips gently against hers. She breathed in as he did so, relaxing as he pulled away.
“Sweetie.” Her gasp was a shaking whisper. After another round of showing her just how excited he was to spend all this time with her, the two fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Day 2
The two woke to the sound of rumbling. The Doctor woke to more of a start than River did, and then he laughed at how nervous he had been. “What was that?”
“I am hungry. We did skip out on desert last night.” River complained, sitting herself up onto the headboard. The pillows seemed to have been discarded for a much comfy pillow, meaning her Doctor.
“If I remember correctly, we decided to indulge in a different kind of desert.” The Doctor leaned forward to kiss her lightly on the lips but she pulled back slightly. He seemed disappointed as she turned her head, and her whole body, away from him, and faced the door.
“I didn’t-” The Doctor’s two hearts almost cracked at the sight, he thought, or he assumed, that after all that they said all the things they should of a long time ago.
“While we were running, as we do-”She turned back to face him once more, she took his hand in hers and he didn’t flinch surprisingly. “You didn’t like the hand holding.”
“No I meant, I like to do the hand pulling.” He said, amazed and ashamed that he still hadn’t yet proved to his River just how much she meant to him.
“So the romantics, because I know not all of your faces have been one for intimacy.” She said, her voice almost cracking at the thought of it.
“It’s never mattered when it came to you River. It’s like you’re an echo. Buried deep in the bottom of my two hearts, and the back of my mind. I can’t get you out, but then again I don’t want to. I’ve never been good with words or wooing, but with you it just feels-” He turned his head around the room as if to look for the word.
“Normal?” She suggested.
“Natural.” He replied.
“Doctor I don’t know what to say.” River had never h