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"Come on, you can do it! I know you’re a little shy, but I promise I’m not scary. Well, not-"
The Doctor abruptly stopped speaking to rotate her arms as she desperately tried to keep her balance, boots slipping on the bark as she perched six feet above Yaz's head.
"Doctor!" Yaz shouted in alarm. She held up her hands instinctively, as if she'd be able to break her fall with them.
"All good, Yaz!" the Doctor called out, confident as ever. "That balance beam practice certainly comes in handy."
She grinned beatifically down at her companion, apparently not remotely bothered by her precarious situation. "Shame my cat-speak is a bit rusty, I used to be fluent."
Yaz laughed nervously as the Doctor continued to inch along the tree branch, arms outstretched once more as she tried to entice the kitten into them.
"Doctor, perhaps you should focus on what you're doing rather than showing off?" Yaz pleaded, tense as the Doctor slipped once again. The young boy whose pet the Doctor was trying to retrieve squeezed Yaz's hand with a gasp as the Doctor inched ever closer.
"Just one...more...step," the Doctor muttered, tongue sticking out as she barely kept her balance.
There was an ominous crack as she took that step and Yaz could only watch as the branch gave way and the Doctor abruptly fell into some nearby bushes.
"Doctor!" she shouted as she ran over, gesturing for the boy to stay put. There was no sign of the kitten and she had no idea what she’d find. To her relief, there was movement.
"Success!"
The Doctor’s hand shot out of the foliage and gave Yaz the fright of her life. Within it was the ginger kitten, wriggling to get free of her careful grip. The boy ran over and with a hurried thank you, retrieved his precious pet and ran home. But the rest of the Doctor didn’t appear, and Yaz grew worried.
“You okay in there?” Yaz asked. After a beat, the Doctor’s head finally emerged, her hair full of leaves and in complete disarray.
“Smashing,” the Doctor replied, as if she hadn’t just fallen six feet out of a tree.
“Need a hand?”
Yaz offered hers and the Doctor took it gratefully, then started to brush herself down.
“You’ve got-”
Yaz passed her thumb over a smudge of dirt on the Doctor’s cheekbone, which she’d missed. The Doctor froze, barely breathing as Yaz started to fix her hair.
“There. Much better.”
The Doctor ducked her head as Yaz finished, apparently unused to such attention. Yaz had never seen her look so bashful.
“Thanks, Yaz,” she murmured as she inspected her boots. Her cheeks were pink and Yaz couldn’t resist. She leaned in to kiss one of them.
“My knight in shining armour.”
That got the Doctor’s attention and her head jerked up in surprise.
“That- well you know me, always keen to help,” she stammered, but her eyes kept drifting to Yaz’s lips and when she started rambling again, Yaz cut her off with a proper kiss.