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The Doctor hadn’t been her usual, cheery self recently, but this was something else entirely.
Ryan looked at the custard cream machine as Yaz stared after the Doctor’s retreating back.
She hadn’t been unkind or even rude, she just hadn’t seemed capable of giving them more than a half smile as she carried along her way.
“She didn’t even touch it.”
Ryan looked at Yaz in disbelief. “She walked right past it, and didn’t pull the level to get a custard cream. Something is wrong, really, really wrong.”
Yaz worried her lip, folding her arms against her chest and thought aloud, “if she wanted to talk about it, wouldn’t she? How do we figure out what’s wrong so we can fix it, without prying?”
Ryan looked at her, “maybe we don’t need to. We just need to cheer her up..?”
Yaz nodded, “I have an idea.”
A little while later, Ryan wandered into one of the living rooms on his way to the kitchen to get a snack and found Yaz crouching over a machine, which promptly blew a flurry of white powder into her face.
“Blegh.” Yaz spat out the fake snow.
“A snow machine? You got us a snow machine?! Ah Yaz, I knew you were always my favourite.”
Yaz raised an eyebrow at him, “no, I got the Doctor a snow machine.” She emphasised her name. “It’s to cheer her up.”
“Right, right.” He paused, “but when she’s not using it…”
Yaz sighed, “if you can find me a screwdriver so I can get the damn thing to work, then maybe.”
“On it,” Ryan skipped out the room, all thoughts of crisps forgotten as he went to the main console room to find a screwdriver – the Doctor kept all her tinkering tools there, surely there would be a screwdriver amongst them?
He returned a few minutes later, to find Yaz with streaks of oil across her brow from where he guessed she’d attempted to get stray hairs out of her face. He handed her the screwdriver.
“Ah, you’re a gem mate,” Yaz fully unscrewed the base plate, reloaded the snow powder, and screwed it all back together again. It was the work of 5 minutes.
It might’ve been even quicker, if Ryan’s gleefully energy hadn’t distracted her and made her want to laugh every couple of minutes.
“Done. Would you like to do the honours?”
Ryan knelt down to the on switch without hesitation and flicked it as the Graham came into the room, just in time to be hit full frontal with a high-powered flurry of white fluff like a giant, clingy snowball. The stuff completely covered him from the tip of his ears to his slippers.
He looked like a yeti. Yaz bit her lip and Ryan pressed his fist to his mouth tightly, trying so hard to stifle the laughter that was bubbling up at the sight of Graham covered in large clumps fake snow, sticking to him, and making it look an awful lot like he’d just been dipped in marshmallow fluff, head first.
He paused, saying nothing as wiped the stuff away from his eyes and looked at them with a glare, before continuing on his way, leaving a trail of white specks drifting to the floor behind him. He’d only wanted a glass of water before bed.
As soon as he was out of sight, Yaz and Ryan burst out laughing. Ryan sat on the floor, clutching his stomach, tears in his eyes. Yaz leaned on the nearby wall, doubling over until her sides started to ache and the laughter dissolved into an ear splitting grin. She stood up and wiped the corner of her eyes. This snow machine was amazing.
~~~~~
Once Graham had returned to his room and been de-fluffed and looked a lot less like a yeti – thankfully it was the sort of stuff that dissolved in water, so it had pretty easy to get rid of – Yaz had kicked Ryan out and got to work, with instructions to text her if the Doctor went past his room and was on her way to the living room.
Yaz had transformed the room. With the help of the Tardis, she had changed the ceiling to show the night sky outside and all the stars, before covering the walls with large navy tapestries, simply woven with specks of silver amongst the darkness. It was the closest she could get to making the room into a giant fort, with probably the best view of any fort ever. She had covered the floor with fake snow, shaping it into piles and drifts, so it looked like they were on top of some snowy mountain, if you squinted. Yaz placed a blanket on the floor in one corner, along with a bunch of pillow, before setting up a projector with a screen. Finally, she had raided the kitchen and created a pillowcase (it was the only way she could carry it all) of her favourite snacks. The only thing missing was the Doctor.
Yaz treaded softly down the corridor to the Doctor’s room, pausing outside for a moment before knocking softly.
“Come in.”
The Doctor’s voice was quiet, which was not as unusual as finding her usually so exuberant self sitting in a muddle of blankets, looking fairly small as she poked her head up.
“Hey Yaz,” she gave her a soft smile.
“Doctor, could you come with me?”
A frown crossed her face and she emerged from the blankets a little more, “is something wrong, Yaz?”
Yaz stepped into the room and walked over to the bed.
Yaz shook her head, “just come with me?”
She held her hand out and the Doctor took it.
Yaz kept holding her hand as they walked down the corridors towards the living room in silence. She paused, took a breath and pushed the door open for the Doctor. The Doctor stepped in, gazing first up at the night sky above them, then at the walls and snow and finally catching sight of the blanket nest tucked away in the corner.
Yaz watched the Doctor’s face, pretty sure she’d like it, but nervously nevertheless.
“Oh Yaz.” She turned to look at her, “my Yaz. I love it.” She squeezed Yaz’s hand and Yaz grinned, before leading her over to the blanket corner.
“I figured, you spent a lot of time looking after us. I’m not sure how we can look after you, but we can try. You deserve to be looked after.”
A thin film of tears came over the Doctor’s eyes, before she took Yaz into a crushing bear hug.
“Thank you. I don’t know how to say- “ The Doctor stepped back and looked at Yaz. “Thank you.”
Yaz nodded, “I know.”
The Doctor didn’t quite seem to know what to do, so Yaz nudged her elbow softly and nodded her head towards the blanket and pillows.
“Tonight it’s time lord’s choice, film-wise.”
The Doctor’s lips curled into a small smile, “does that mean you’ll join me?”
“For as long as you want me here,” Yaz returned the smile.
The Doctor looked at her for a long moment, before settling down on the blankets.
“Singing in the Rain?”
Yaz laughed, “figures you’d go for an old movie.”
“Cheeky. Singing in the Rain is a classic!”
Yaz nodded, “oh yeah, it’s a classic. That’s what they call old movies…”
She grinned as the Doctor rolled her eyes, settling down next to her as the opening titles began to play.
It was the first time the Doctor had smiled in a while, and her heart felt lighter for it.