Work Text:
The Doctor exhausted. Completely and utterly exhausted. Weariness has seeped into every one of his bones and soaks through his mind. His nerve ends feel electrified and his joints feel weak.
Clara leads him carefully over to their sofa. The one that's deep in the library, the one with just enough squish to it to be comfortable and all the blankets and cushions they could ever need to burry themselves in.
The one that they always sit on together.
She guides him with slow movements before kicking off her shoes as he just stands, swaying slightly, then she slips his jacket off his shoulders with gentle hands and drops it neatly over the arm of a nearby chair.
Keeping their hands tightly linked, she sinks back into the sofa and without her arms holding him up anymore, he drops down heavily next to her. His head flops back under the weight of itself and she lifts a hand to his cheek to check that he can still breath, caressing it gently for a moment when she realises that he can before reaching down to untying his shoelaces.
His throat moves as if to make a distressed noise at the loss contact from their hands. Nothing comes out but she sees; she croons softly to sooth him and leans a little of her weight against his leg to assure him that she’s still there. That she’s not leaving him.
A little gentle manoeuvring and both shoes are discarded next to her own; she sits back with slow movements then takes his hand again and tugs it lightly, causing him to slump against her shoulder.
They can both feel the trembles moving through his body now; the tremors in his hands, the shivers in his shoulders and taught tension she can sense in his knees from where they are pressed against her own.
Pulling him closer still, she tucks one hand around his face which is now pressed against her chest where he can feel the steady empty and filling of her lungs and hear the peacefully rhythmic beating of her heart.
Her scent fills his nostrils; it’s an indescribable smell that doesn’t equate to one specific fragrance but it’s undeniably her.
Calming. Profound. A tiny sample of home.
Her fingers interlock with the wispy hair at the back of his neck to create a pleasant pressure on his scalp while the other arm tucks around his shoulder and gently caresses his back over the soft material of his sweater.
Carefully, she buries her nose in the back of his neck, her face fitting perfectly into the gap between his head and his shoulders. His scent fills her nose and she inhales deeply a few times. He can feel her breath on the back of her neck, light and mildly ticklish but soothing.
It provides a solacing reminder of her presence every few seconds.
A few more tremors rip through him and she finds her hand moving through his soft waves of hair of their own accord, reassuring him.
Time loses all meaning as they just sit, together.
Just steady heartbeats and low breaths wrapped in smooth silence.
The whole universe shrunk to just this moment, or just this moment expanding to fill everything that ever was or ever will be.
Gradually the trembles throughout his body cease and sleep begins to claim him until he's hardly aware of what is happening, although he does feel it as she moves away slightly, letting out a low whine in protest at the loss of contact and comfort.
What can only be moments later, she's back and he feels the light pressure of blanket being wrapped around them as arms encircle him from behind and lay them down.
She's pressed to the back of the sofa, one arm securely around him to protect him from everything out there and the other massaging through his hair to protect him from everything in here, nails scraping lightly against his scalp in a way that would have him pressing up into her hand if he had the energy.
Anything to keep this moment for just a little longer.
He uses the last of his consciousness to cup her hand in his and pull her even closer behind him, feeling the comforting pressure of her weight on his back as a warm sleep finally overcomes him.
She watches over him, keeping him safe for a while longer before she too succumbs to the pull of a peaceful slumber.