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Clara Oswald woke up to the smell of chocolate soufflé coming from the Tardis kitchen. More specifically the smell of burnt chocolate soufflé coming from the Tardis kitchen.
She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep, it could be half an hour, or it could be days, both options seemed equally likely, the Doctor hadn't said much on the way back to the Tardis, he had just put his arm around her shoulders and had murmured half to himself and half to her how sorry he was for everything she had been through, and after entering the Tardis he went towards his room while he typed in the coordinates of somewhere far away from that planet.
She walked cautiously to the kitchen and found the Doctor there surrounded by ingredients.
"Oh Clara! I can't tell you how nice it is to see you awake, I'm making us a snack. I had a hunch you'd like soufflés, but unfortunately the preparation of this recipe turned out to be a bit more chaotic than I had anticipated."
"Thanks for trying to do it. But I don't think it counts as a guess if I was the one who told you, twice in fact, I mentioned it when we spoke on the communicator on the planet of the daleks, and in Victorian London."
His expression became serious.
"Do you remember that?"
"Yes."
"So you really remember everything?"
"Sort of, the most recent ones a little better than the others."
"What was the last one?"
"The one in London, in London, it was in the Victorian era, and I was a governess again, I met you, there was a snowman, I kissed you, you blushed, in fact you seem to be blushing a little now again, later we went to your Tardis, you gave me the key and I cried without understanding why it had affected me so much, and then I fell and then I died and I was sure that this time everything would end forever, but you told me found it again, and here we are."
"Do you want me to take you home?"
"Eventually, but not now, why are you trying to get rid of me?"
"No, it's just that I understand if you don't want to see me again."
"Why wouldn't I want to see you?"
"Because it's my fault, you made this huge sacrifice and I can't even repay you."
"You saved my life this time, that's already a great retribution. It wasn't a sacrifice, not just at least... you know I was born more than a thousand times on so many planets and so many different times, even different species I know what it's like to fly by the sky and having two hearts under my chest, I had so many mothers and fathers, friends, boyfriends and children, there was pain sometimes of course, as there is in everyone's life, but I learned and saw much more than I could to even imagine, it was a sacrifice but also a privilege. And I didn't do it just for you, you know? The galaxies were disappearing, Jenny had died, so had Strax. If you had the chance to save everyone, wouldn't you do it? Don’t try to deny it."
"I won't deny it. Clara Oswald you are..."
"Impossible ?"
"I was going to say incredible, but impossible is still an adjective that applies to you, although it still doesn't include exactly everything I want to express, nor does incredible do that, it's quite strange actually, language doesn't tend to fail me very often, but I can't think of any adjective that encompasses exactly everything you are."
"That already sounds like a great compliment to me, I think we can leave it at that."
He smiled and her heart seemed to have skipped a beat, not falling in love with that smile was increasingly becoming a very difficult trick to pull off. From twice a day it seemed to have gone to twice a minute.
"So do you want help with your soufflé? I have a few millennia of experience in making them and I can give you some great tips, actually thinking about it I think there's a good chance I invented soufflés to begin with."
"Fun, the same thing happened to me about banana daiquiris. But I'm afraid I ran out of all the ingredients needed to make soufflés on my last try."
"How many attempts were there?"
"More attempts than I'm proud of, Clara. But you know, I know a great restaurant at the end of the universe, would you like to join me for a meal, Miss Oswald?" He said, extending his arm.
"I would love to."
She took his arm and the two walked together towards the Tardis console.