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There were certain responsibilities that the Doctor couldn’t delegate, as the last of the Time Lords. Certain tasks that he and he alone had the ability, and therefore the duty, to perform. He had scoured the universe, checking stellar timelines, finding two stars with nearly identical sizes, colors, and brightnesses which had no measurable effect on the timeline. A Herculean effort, to be sure, but what had he but time?
It was then a relatively simple matter to construct a pair of transparent, dimensionally transcendent containment spheres, and, with the TARDIS’s help, encase said stars in said spheres. He was quite proud of the effort, really, the way they sparkled with a blue-white intensity, conveying all the majesty of the original while still being light enough to wear.
Speaking of which! He ever so carefully affixed a pair of dwarf star alloy studs to the containment spheres; even the TARDIS would have a hard time coming back from having two stars suddenly explode within her.
“Happy Christmas, Clara!” The Doctor presented his gift - a simple white box with a bit of red ribbon to hold it in place. “I do hope you like them,” he continued, voice low.
“Didn’t take you for the earrings sort of chap,” Clara teased. “But they are quite lovely. Don’t recognize the stones, though–” Her eyes widened. “Doctor! You didn’t get me space earrings, did you? If you did, my gift is going to look dreadful in comparison.”
“It’s not a competition,” the Doctor reminded her, kissing away her pout, then coughed. “But I did get you space earrings. Made with actual stars.”
“No,” Clara gasped. “You didn’t - you did! Like Galadriel,” she breathed. “A phial of starlight. What? Why? How…?”
“You remember that night on Talamir Nine, when you wore starlight and nothing else?” He answered his question with a shrug. “It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”
“Dirty yet poetic,” Clara noted approvingly. “Well,” she countered, swapping out the earrings she had been wearing for the new gift, “let me know if you ever want an encore performance.”
