Work Text:
A – Almirah
The Doctor sat bored on the bed in Clara’s bedroom, waiting for Clara to pick out clothes so they could go on an adventure together.
“Can’t you just pick one at random? They all look exactly the same.”
Clara turned her head speechlessly, pointed at her wardrobe stuffed full of clothes of completely different colors and styles suited for different situations, and replied to the Doctor, “Honestly, sometimes I wonder if your eyes didn’t grow properly when you regenerated.”
B – Beer
Clara had never seen the Doctor drink beer; he seemed completely uninterested in this “down-to-earth” kind of alcohol. So one time, while he wasn’t paying attention, Clara filled his cup with beer. Even though he quickly noticed, Clara still forced him to drink it and asked him to comment on it. The final result was that she was also made to drink a lot by the Doctor.
After that, neither of them knew what happened. When they woke up again, the two of them were lying sprawled on the floor of the TARDIS control room, surrounded by books that were usually neatly placed on shelves and a sofa chair that had been knocked over, and the TARDIS refused to show which planet they had gone to during that time.
C – Colourless
Clara and the Doctor once went to a colourless planet. Because of the ruler’s strange hobby, the planet was filled with color filters, and everyone could only see a black-and-white scene.
Clara thought the Doctor was unusually happy while exploring that planet, but she didn’t know why.
Only the Doctor knew that here, people wouldn’t immediately assume from the color of his hair that there was a generation gap between him and Clara, nor mistake them for father and daughter.
D – Dance
The Doctor didn’t understand why a boring teachers’ ball would make Clara refuse their usual trip next Wednesday, but he could only watch her wave her hand and then close the doors of the TARDIS.
But he could go spy on it… no, go find out what was special about this ball. So he used the TARDIS to jump directly to next Wednesday at Coal Hill School, found a perfectly angled window outside the hall, and immediately saw Clara in the crowd.
The Doctor hadn’t expected that Clara could dance, and very gracefully too—just like he used to.
It would be even better if the person beside her weren’t standing so close.
E – Echo
While traveling with Me, Clara for a period of time felt surrounded by the Doctor. They went to a planet full of libraries and found that the Doctor had been there; then they went to a planet called Midnight and found that the Doctor had also been there; they went to New New New New… Earth, and there were still legends about the Doctor!!!!
“Isn’t there anywhere without his echo, so I can at least forget him for a while?” Clara complained to Me in despair.
Me just sympathetically patted her shoulder and replied, “You’re not going to die now. One day you’ll live longer than him and see more than him.”
After hearing this, Clara felt even more that she had a long road ahead.
F – Firework
Clara had always wanted to see a different kind of firework. She liked things that were brilliant and full of vitality, even if they only lasted for a brief moment.
For a moment, the Doctor couldn’t think of anywhere to find a special fireworks display—the entire universe seemed to lack originality in this regard. So he decided to rummage through the TARDIS storage room to see if there were any leftover fireworks so they could set off one themselves.
Clara happened to pass by and noticed the Doctor sneaking around. He was startled when Clara suddenly appeared in front of him, his hand shook, and he accidentally lit the firework he had just found a few seconds earlier.
The firework exploded indoors.
There was no vast sky for it to soar into; sparks spread along the ceiling, and light and sound scattered and expanded within the confined space, instantly filling the entire room. The zero-distance contact made Clara feel as if she herself had become that ignited firework.
Through the colorful, rapidly falling sparks, the Doctor and Clara could only see each other’s faces flickering in and out of the light.
“You said you wanted to see a different kind of firework.”
“This is indeed… quite different.”
G – Ghost
“Do you think ghosts really exist in the universe?”
The Doctor didn’t know why Clara suddenly brought up this topic. They had clearly encountered two things that seemed like ghosts before, and both were ultimately proven to be just scientific illusions. But in the endless universe, there were always wonders they hadn’t yet witnessed, so the Doctor simply answered softly, “Perhaps.”
Clara rested her head on the Doctor’s shoulder, her tone carrying a trace of regret: “It would be nice if they did. Then after I die, I could become a ghost and linger on the TARDIS. There are still so many new things I haven’t seen.”
The Doctor didn’t like this assumption about death. He frowned and steered the conversation back to the present: “Want to go see a planet full of carnivorous roses? The only one in the entire universe.”
“Can ghosts be heard? I’d at least have to give my opinion about the places we go together.” Clara ignored what the Doctor said, fully absorbed in imagining possible future scenarios—after all, having a say was an important part.
“I would never let a ghost influence my decisions,” the Doctor sighed, “so don’t reach that point, Clara. I have a responsibility to keep you alive and safe.”
H – Hologram（This takes place before the Orient Express incident）
The Doctor would sometimes take the TARDIS on personal adventures while Clara was asleep, and Clara had always known this. To get back at his “betrayal,” Clara decided to secretly try it herself.
She deliberately chose a night when the Doctor was so exhausted that he absolutely wouldn’t wake early, and tiptoed into the control room. Just as she touched a knob on the console, she was startled by a sudden voice.
“Don’t do that, Clara.”
Clara turned around in shock, only to see the Doctor fully dressed, trying to dissuade her. But she quickly calmed down and, upon closer inspection, realized it was just a hologram—she could even faintly see the railings and bookshelves behind the projection.
“TARDIS!” Clara steadied herself and said slightly annoyed, “Don’t suddenly scare me, especially using the Doctor’s voice.”
“What you are about to do may be dangerous. And data shows that when the persuader adopts the appearance of the person you love most, your rationality is more easily overridden by emotion, and the success rate of persuasion increases.” The TARDIS explained seriously, but hearing these words come from the Doctor’s mouth felt extremely strange—especially when mentioning “the person you love most.”
“The person I love most?” Clara, as if her secret had been exposed, hurried to cover it up. “That should at least be my parents. At worst, it should be Pink.”
The Doctor’s hologram suddenly felt alive, no longer rigid like a machine. His expression softened as he asked, “Really? The TARDIS doesn’t falsify data.”
Clara didn’t want to continue arguing about this, especially when she didn’t know how to refute it. She decided to pause tonight’s plan and privately study how to operate the TARDIS. Once she mastered it completely, she would amaze the TARDIS so thoroughly that it would have nothing left to say. By then, it would have no reason to stop her.
After Clara fled the control room as if escaping, the Doctor’s projection returned to its stiff manner: “Attempt successful. Event added to case database.” Then it disappeared.
I – Imprint
The Doctor had clearly been living alone in the TARDIS for a long time, yet he would always, unintentionally, notice traces of when the two of them had lived together.
For example, the two sofas in the living room placed side by side—one of them clearly didn’t match the surrounding décor, obviously dragged there on purpose to sit closer to the other. And when he stepped into the kitchen again after a long time, he suddenly realized the counter was much lower than the height he had been used to. Because someone, whose cooking skills were terrible, still kept wanting to bake cakes and thought that trying inside the TARDIS would at least be relatively safe. The Doctor didn’t remember her exact words, but the result before him told him that in the end, the TARDIS had agreed to her request and adjusted the kitchen facilities.
Even the table deliberately placed in the library. That wasn’t her request, but his own idea. He had once persuaded her that she could prepare lessons or work inside the TARDIS. If she missed a deadline, she could even adjust time slightly forward. She was quickly convinced.
The Doctor didn’t remember her exact reaction, only that he had indeed harbored a bit of selfishness at the time.
Clara. This was the only fact about her he could be certain of now.
She had only left him a name, and those silent imprints—imprints that constantly reminded him that those beautiful days had truly existed.
J – Just
“We’re just friends.”
The Doctor had emphasized this countless times, but in the whole world, only he believed it.
He had said it in the TARDIS, and Clara replied that she had never thought of anything more.
He had said it to Me in the last bubble of the universe, and Me simply rolled her eyes and listed the fact that he had once been willing to let the entire universe pay the price for Clara.
He never said it directly to Missy, but Missy still teasingly called Clara the chain that bound him.
When introducing her to others, he always said Clara was his friend, yet the universe defined them as a hybrid.
…
Even the Doctor himself was beginning to waver in his insistence.
K – Knowledge
The Doctor and Clara once tried to have a knowledge competition. Both firmly believed they had the upper hand in literature and history. Clara relied on her professional background as an English teacher, while the Doctor depended on his two thousand years of accumulated experience.
“You haven’t been everywhere or met everyone,” Clara firmly refused to admit she would lose in this regard.
But the competition never proceeded smoothly. They began arguing from the very first figure, neither convincing the other, so they went to 1593 to see Christopher Marlowe for themselves. After finally returning, they started the second round of argument and went to the 1470s to observe Sir Thomas Malory. After confirming the truth and moving on to the third person, the Doctor could finally state with certainty that Shakespeare was Shakespeare, not someone else’s pseudonym. But Clara brought up John Fletcher, wanting to know whether they had collaborated on Henry VIII. So the two of them went to find Shakespeare again.
And so, what should have taken ten minutes ended up lasting three weeks.
L – Letter
While exploring a planet, Clara and the Doctor discovered a cosmic post office. They claimed they could disguise information as letters and send it to any planet in the universe, it was only a matter of time.
“Can it reach Earth too?” Clara asked.
The person looked at her in surprise. “Of course. Otherwise, how would the species living in seclusion there send postcards to their friends? This is a very mature route.”
“Living in seclusion?”
“I told you long ago. Not all aliens want to conquer you,” the Doctor added calmly from behind.
Clara found it fascinating, so she sent a letter to her own address on Earth.
But when she received it, she could no longer return to that home.
She received the courier’s notification precisely through a modified interstellar phone, drove her own TARDIS, and quietly retrieved the letter from the doormat when no one was watching. She didn’t even need to open it to know what it said: “Even while traveling with the Doctor, don’t forget to go home and visit your parents and grandma. I know you definitely will forget.”
But now, she could do neither.
M – Magnet
The Doctor and Clara always felt there was a sense of destiny between them. No matter how long or how far they were separated by coincidence, they would be drawn back together again, like the two poles of a magnet.
For example, their meeting in a Victorian-era restaurant and their reunion during Christmas with the dream crabs.
Only later did they learn that it wasn’t that they themselves were magnetic—the magnet was called Missy.
N – Nocturne
The Doctor liking to play the guitar was fine; it being an electric guitar was also fine; electric guitars are usually connected to amplifiers, so the sound being a bit loud was still tolerable.
But what Clara really couldn’t tolerate was the Doctor playing his beloved electric guitar in his room—which was right next to her bedroom—in the middle of the night with the amplifier on, even if he was playing the piece he wrote for her.
With two large dark circles under her eyes, Clara angrily knocked on the door next door, and soon saw the Doctor open it with an innocent expression.
“Doctor!” Clara wanted to scold loudly, but she was too sleepy to muster the strength, “I really need proper rest. Continue your hobby during the day tomorrow.”
“But I’m really bored. Why do humans need to sleep for so long?”
Clara didn’t know why Time Lords were always so energetic. Her mind could barely function now, so she answered vaguely, “Because we only have one heart. If it gets stopped by you, it really won’t beat anymore!”
“But humans also invented something called nocturnes, which proves that nighttime is meant for playing music.”
“It’s called a nocturne to emphasize a calm listening experience, not that it has to be played at night… and it’s for piano, not electric guitar.”
…
“If you play one more note, don’t expect to see me next Wednesday. Good night!”
After saying that, Clara slammed the Doctor’s door shut with a bang, leaving him standing there awkwardly.
O – Oblivious
The Doctor had always felt that he didn’t deserve Clara. Even after seeing how extreme Clara could be when she was in despair, and realizing that they were equally flawed, he still didn’t think Clara could have any feelings for him beyond friendship.
Between the two of them, it was ultimately him who couldn’t control the quiet growth of his feelings.
To love someone meant giving her freedom, so the Doctor watched Clara get another boyfriend, watched her speak sweet words to that person, while he could do nothing. Even after everything they went through together afterward, the Doctor never changed this understanding.
Until he regenerated into a woman, and later had dark skin. One day, he suddenly realized:
Based on all of Clara’s behavior, she clearly had the same feelings for him.
So…
“That ‘I love you’ in the TARDIS was meant for me, was it?!”
P – Password
Clara always kept a diary in her own bedroom on the TARDIS, the kind with a password lock. The Doctor knew he shouldn’t pry into other people’s privacy, but he couldn’t resist wanting to know whether Clara actually liked traveling with him. So whenever Clara wasn’t around, he would sneak into her room and try to unlock the password.
The hint was simple: “I’m ___.” The Doctor tried “Clara”, “short”, “impossible”, and after hesitating for a long time even tried “beautiful”, but all failed.
When Clara discovered that the Doctor had sneaked into her room just to open the password book she had deliberately left, she couldn’t help but laugh at him wildly. Then she casually entered the password “The Doctor” and opened the diary. On the title page was written clearly: “Caught you, Doctor,” and the rest of the pages were completely blank.
“But I didn’t expect you couldn’t even crack the password, hahahahahahahaha!”
Q – Quietude
The Doctor and Clara’s adventures were always full of accidents; peaceful moments like this were extremely rare.
They were sitting on the edge of a cliff, their lower legs hanging in the air, dozens of meters below them were surging waves, but neither cared—they were simply focused on the sunrise before them.
“I’ve always liked sunrise more than sunset.” Clara enjoyed the feeling of sunlight gradually falling on her face. She tilted her head slightly and leaned on the Doctor’s shoulder.
“I thought that became obvious after we watched 73 sunrises in a row.”
Clara chuckled softly, ignoring his remark, and continued, “It always makes me feel like there’s still plenty of time to do what I want.”
“Me too,” the Doctor agreed quietly, making Clara look up at him, waiting for what came next. “I don’t like sunsets… just like I hate partings.”
Clara hugged him. Turning sideways to embrace him made it a bit difficult, but she still tightened her arms as much as she could.
Morning mist surrounded them, pale golden sunlight refracted through it, shining into every gap. In the distance, seagulls skimmed over the sea in groups, their clear cries faint against the wind and waves.
“I’m always here.”
R – Recognize
The Doctor once believed that even if he lost his memory, he would recognize Clara the moment he saw her. But this belief quickly collapsed in the face of reality.
When he saw the American diner gradually disappear with the TARDIS’s distinctive sound, revealing his blue box behind it, he instinctively sensed that the people in the diner were someone he had known.
And the sentence on the blackboard inside the TARDIS further confirmed his guess. It must have been left by someone he knew. And the familiar tone made him almost certain—it could only have been Clara.
A thought surfaced that made him, for the first time, hate the way he treated people: the person who had just spoken to him in the diner was Clara. And he, because he couldn’t be bothered to remember strangers’ faces, didn’t remember what she looked like at all.
S – Swimming Pool
Clara liked swimming in the pool inside the TARDIS. It ensured clean water and avoided sharing the pool with strangers—the entire pool belonged to her alone.
Originally, the Doctor should also have been in the pool, but after regenerating, he seemed very concerned about maintaining his clothing style. Even in the hot summer, he would still dress in layers of his signature suit, not to mention appearing in the pool wearing only swim trunks.
Clara felt very regretful about this.
Although the pool belonged to her, the room did not. The Doctor would always pass by unintentionally and then stop to ask if she needed anything.
“A clean towel?”
“I have one.”
“Want some water?”
“I brought it.”
When the Doctor tried to speak a third time, Clara interrupted him first: “Do you want to come in and sit for a while?”
“Why?” The Doctor tilted his head slightly in confusion.
Because you look like you really want to come in, Clara thought.
“Because I’m a bit bored by myself.”
The Doctor went along with it and walked in, sitting on a lounge chair by the pool.
Clara was immersed in the water, her arms resting on the edge, her chin on her folded hands, watching him approach, then suddenly reached out with mischievous hands.
It turned out that people have unlimited potential when doing something bad. Clara didn’t know how she suddenly became so strong, but that day she finally saw the Doctor completely soaked.
T – Tomb
Clara had seen her own grave—this wasn’t something everyone experienced. At first she thought it was just someone with the same name, but after going to Trenzalore, she realized that what lay beneath was one of her echoes.
Stranger still, but it made her more curious.
Sometimes she would place a flower at her own gravestone and sit beside it, imagining what that version of herself had been like. The fragments she could remember were too scattered and numerous to piece together one life, but those versions had truly lived entire lives.
Would she have been a teacher like herself? Or a noble lady of that era?
Clara didn’t expect that she would learn about that Clara from the Doctor.
The TARDIS materialized beside the grave, and the Doctor stepped out. The only two people there were both shocked by the unexpected encounter.
That day, Clara learned that the Clara buried beneath her feet had been a Victorian governess who died young because of the Doctor.
“Was she happy?”
“I hope she was happy,” the Doctor replied.
No one knew how strange this scene was. The two standing side by side were actually mourning a love that had once died—part of one of them buried underground, part of the other erased by regeneration.
U – Underestimate
Clara wasn’t just saying she wanted to secretly learn how to pilot the TARDIS. She really did rummage through the library and found a dusty TARDIS manual that the Doctor clearly had never opened. Following its instructions, she completely mastered how to pilot a TARDIS—especially how to do it correctly. Only after learning did she realize that the Doctor often didn’t follow proper procedures. Poor TARDIS could only rely on its understanding of him, interpret his intentions, and correct things itself to bring him to the right destination.
Clara’s secret efforts allowed her to quietly take the TARDIS to places she wanted while the Doctor was resting. He never noticed—not even once—nor did he ever realize her talent in this.
Until one day, when the Doctor woke from a nightmare, her secret was exposed.
Leaning against the control room door, he said slowly, “Clara Oswald, I really underestimated you.”
Clara showed no panic at being discovered; instead, she was pleased by his praise. “You only realized now?”
From then on, they secretly competed—whoever rested less would gain extra adventure time. This silent war continued until they both began yawning during the day and dozing off, at which point it quietly ended.
V – Volcano
After lying to Clara that he had found Gallifrey, the Doctor didn’t go on any other travels. He simply came to the volcano Clara had wanted to visit and sat beside the TARDIS, lost in thought, replaying Clara’s image in his mind again and again. He no longer had the motivation to explore the outside world alone, but Clara had already found her own place.
A lonely, stagnant old man—that was what he was.
This continued until, half a year later, a dream crab found him.
W – Wake
Clara didn’t want to wake up.
People were gradually remembering who they were, and she was the same. It turned out she was already an elderly woman with white hair.
The 62 years without the Doctor had been as calm as stagnant water. Even after trying the most exciting activities and traveling all over Earth, none of it compared to the sights aboard the TARDIS. In others’ eyes, she had lived a wonderful life; only she knew she could have experienced more.
She deserved more.
Every second on Santa’s sleigh was what she had longed for during those 62 years. She wrapped her arms around the Doctor, using her restored youthful face to feel his breath so close—just like countless times before.
Clara didn’t want to wake up.
X – X marks the spot
The Doctor always parked the TARDIS in extremely inconvenient positions in Clara’s home. Sometimes it blocked the bedroom door; sometimes it swallowed the entire dressing table, forcing Clara to go inside to remove her makeup—or make the TARDIS spit it back out.
So Clara cleared a corner of the living room and drew a large X on the floor, telling the Doctor to park on it next time. That way she wouldn’t find the bookshelf gone when she wanted a book.
“X marks the spot!” Clara dragged the Doctor over to test whether it was big enough to fit the TARDIS. “Reserved parking space.”
…
Bill ran forward with all her strength, trying to escape the pursuit behind her. She had no idea how she had ended up in this situation.
“Why did you land in the middle of them?!”
“There was an X!” the Doctor dodged a laser beam. “Aren’t you supposed to land on X?”
Bill nearly broke down: “Who told you that???”
“I don’t know! Turn right!”
Y – Youthful
Although the Doctor was much older than her, Clara felt he was the more youthful one between them.
For example, right now, the Doctor was arguing with a chameleon.
With a chameleon.
The chameleon had slowly climbed onto his shoulder while they were observing a Sontaran legion, gradually matching the color of his clothes. Then the Doctor was startled by a pair of shiny black eyes when he turned his head.
Calling it an argument, it was actually the Doctor lecturing the chameleon. If the situation weren’t so tense, Clara would have applauded his eloquence.
But the Sontarans noticed the disturbance and began approaching. Clara tried to stop him, but he was already immersed. She had no choice but to knock the chameleon off his shoulder and drag him away.
Youthful? More like childish.
Z – Zucchetto
Clara was trying to place a small white zucchetto on the Doctor’s head, but it kept slipping off every time she let go.
“It really won’t work,” Clara gave up after the 36th attempt and slumped back into the chair, leaving the hat to fall lonely to the ground. “Logically, it should just stay on?”
“We don’t have to go to San Mill after all,” the Doctor said, slightly irritated, rubbing his hair that had been fiddled with for so long.
“But I want to go.”
…
The Doctor didn’t answer, but silently straightened his posture, waiting for Clara’s next attempt. Clara picked up the hat, dusted it off, and pressed it firmly onto the back of his head. The Doctor instinctively lowered his head from the push, but immediately stiffened his neck to resist her force. The hat left a ring-shaped mark in his hair, outlining the shape of his skull in a somewhat comical way.
Clara held her position and said, “Isn’t there anything in the TARDIS that can fix it in place?”
“The TARDIS has technology, not magic.”
“Fine,” Clara let go. His hair bounced back instantly, and the hat flew off again. “Then there’s only one last method.”
“What?”
Clara opened a drawer, took out what was inside, and waved it at him: “Tape!”
The Doctor jumped up immediately. “I object.”
“Objection overruled.” Clara pressed down on his shoulders and pushed him back into the chair.