Moments in Time (Doctor Who, 13th Doctor, F)

[SexyGodlikeHair]

It’s a well known motif in entertainment that if a character sneezes, it’s either as a joke, or a plot device: but in real life, they’re far more frequent, random, and often, inconsequential. And just because we’ll probably never see a mundane sneeze on screen in Dr. Who, doesn’t mean that (statistically speaking!) they probably would happen.

 

Tl;dr: 13th doctor sneezing without plot

 

Oh yeah, and there’s a fair bit of ‘subtext’, if you know what I mean. Aka, some crushing and light flirting.

 

 First

 

The first time it happens is on Desolation.

 

The boys have fallen asleep, and the two competitors have taken to napping and brooding, respectively. Yaz and the Doctor are on the other end of the boat, barely under the awning, sat with their backs against the wall as they talk. The Doctor was in the middle of explaining what exactly a sonic screwdriver actually is when she trailed off mid-sentence, and turns towards the sun. Yaz immediately tensed, fearing the worst: she grips the edges of the barrel on which she’s perched and prepares to jump to her feet when she hears the Doctor’s sharp intake, watching her look away. She’s seconds from leaping on her feet when the Doctor jerked forward, almost falling off the crate on which she herself had been perched.

 

“heh-ACTHSHIEUHH!”   

 

The Doctor’s outburst was immediately followed by a loud, satisfied moan. Yaz immediately forgets her shock at the first sudden outburst and turned bright red at the second. She barely had a chance to get her bearings before the Doctor whirled back around to face her, looking deeply satisfied as well as incredibly excited.

 

“Oh wow, that’s the first time that’s happened in this body! That feels GREAT!” 

 

She sniffled excitedly (which Yaz had never thought possible until now), and looked at Yaz, who’s started sputtering almost incoherently.

 

“Doctor!”

 

Yaz wasn’t entirely sure she was in any proper position to be scolding anybody, being completely out of her depth on an alien planet facing an alien who could apparently traverse time and space and had yanked them out of Sheffield into some fantastical adventure. Yet, almost petulantly, she hissed at the Doctor with bright red cheeks as if the blonde woman were Sonya and she’d just made a lewd comment in front of company.

 

For her measure, the timeless alien with seemingly unknown depths only cocked her head to the side like a confused puppy.

 

“What? Did I do something wrong?”

 

Yaz sighed frustratedly and looked down. Of course she could draft a multipurpose alien scanning device and traverse an unknown planet with ease, but didn’t know what was wrong with making such explicit moans. Yaz briefly considered letting it go and pretending it didn’t happen, but the side of her who’d always been a bit of a ‘prude’ (as Sonya would say) or ‘polite’, (as she herself would say) mentally dug in its heels. Another voice piped up at the unfairness of it all. What right did this woman have to pop into her life out of nowhere, whisk her off to hostile alien planet  (called Desolation, for God’s sake!) and...wind her up, without even meaning to! 

 

No, Yaz decided; (again, a bit petulantly) she had no right.

 

“You can’t just...”

 

All of her bluster and self righteous momentum failed to translate into words, and Yaz instead found herself gesturing vaguely with her right hand.

 

The doctor remained perplexed.

 

“Can’t what? Sneeze? I mean, I didn’t exactly MEAN to, but I can’t promise it won’t happen again-“

 

“No! Not sneeze!” 

 

Yaz interrupted, getting more flustered by the second. For some reason, referencing the doctor’s sneeze out loud felt almost as lewd as the actual transgression in question. She took a moment to compose herself before looking up and attempting to level her tone.

 

“You can sneeze, obviously-“

 

Yaz cringed at having to mention it again, before carrying on.

 

“Just don’t...try not to get so...excited. About it. It’s uh, it’s not—it’s not considered proper, on Earth.”

 

The last bit was added almost as an afterthought, as Yaz remembered that she wasn’t just reminding a socially awkward acquaintance of a social cue. Instead, she was speaking to an alien whose faux pas could be attributed to not being human at all.

 

“But we’re not exactly on Earth, are we?”

 

The doctor replied, almost cocky. Having realized she hadn’t inadvertently done something absolutely terrible put the Doctor at ease; after all, if Yaz was stumbling through an explanation (albeit a confusing one) then that meant she still wanted the Doctor around, right?

 

Yaz shared no such serenity, instead huffing and retaining a blush even as she gained her verbal footing.

 

“well, not on Earth, but...to humans. It’s uh, not proper to...get that sort of excited, make those noises—around humans. Makes them-us-rather uncomfortable.”

 

The look of partial understanding in the Doctor’s eyes was immeasurably relieving to Yaz.

 

“Oh-oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize! Well, I still don’t fully understand, but I’ll try not to do it again! If you don’t mind though, do you think you could explain why-“

 

The boat thumped to the end of the river bank, indicating their arrival.

 

“-oh! Nevermind, I suppose we’re here! Next time, Yaz, yeah?” 

 

Yaz heaved a sigh of relief. 

 

Hopefully there never is a next time.

 

 Sunshine 

 

[set during “Rosa”]

 

Yaz was surprised to see the Doctor right next to her on the musty double bed they were (apparently) sharing. Graham and Ryan and begrudgingly agreed to share the other, and the Doctor had assured Yaz that she probably wouldn’t need to share at all, since the Doctor had no expectation of needing to sleep. At first Yaz had shrugged this off, chalking it up to hyperbole. However, after waking up at 3 AM and stumbling to bathroom, passing the Doctor still fiddling away at the desk with no sign of stopping, she had come to the conclusion that she would indeed be sleeping alone. 

 

Hence, the surprise of seeing the blonde woman — practically a stranger, if not for the cold connotation of the word that did not at all match Yaz’s inexplicable affinity for the odd woman—inches away from her, dozing away.

 

Other than her ‘nap’ at Graham’s house that first day, she had never seen the Doctor look quite so at peace. And at the time, the Doctor truly has been a veritable stranger, and seeing her so content hadn’t brought Yaz the same soft smile and unwelcome fondness that it did at the moment. She shifted slightly, considering whether or not she should wake the Doctor immediately. The Doctor stirred, ending Yaz’s conundrum as she sleepily opened her eyes and sent Yaz a lazy smile. Yaz stifled the urge to laugh at her dopey countenance, pushing down the dangerous feeling she got at the intimacy of the moment. 

 

“Mornin’ Yaz”

 

The Doctor slurred, making no move to rise. Yaz smiled back and pushed down the sudden urge to softly brush a few locks of tousled blonde hair away from the Doctor’s barely-open eyes. 

 

“Morning, Doctor.”  Yaz whispered in response. 

 

The doctor made a few noises of sleepy contentment and Yaz tried to ignore how adorable she suddenly found this strange woman who had fallen from the sky and into her life. Stop it, Yaz. She scolded herself internally. Pulling herself out of her self-admonishment, she saw the Doctor nuzzle into the old pillow and inhale deeply before she could warn her. Yaz watched in what felt like slow-motion as the dust from the pillow was illuminated by the rays of the morning sun.

 

“HeH—heshUMFf! hehhPSHUH! HipSHUH! The Doctor inelegantly jerked her hands to her face and pressed her face further into the offending pillow in an attempt to muffle the sound. She let out a quiet puff of air afterwards, and looked at Yaz for confirmation. She raised a thumbs up tentatively,  as if to ask “did I do it right this time?”, and now it was Yaz who was pressing her face into her pillow. Her laughter was muffled only slightly more successfully than the Doctor’s sleepy sneezes and following exhale. She turned to face the Doctor, shaking with repressed laughter, and brought up a thumbs up in response. The Doctor grinned broadly and launched herself out of bed. 

 

“Alright, gang! Ready to save history?”

 

 

Tone 

 

[Set during “Arachnids in the UK]

 

[I hadn’t initially planned to write one of these for each episode, but that’s how it’s turned out so far.]

 

They—Yaz, the Doctor, and Najia—we’re making their way towards a room in the massive, ominous hotel. The dark hallways and foreboding corners were intimidating, sure—especially with the giant spiders that were apparently running about—but Yaz found it hard to focus on that when the door to one of the bedrooms swung open and a cloud of dust was unleashed. A mental countdown began...

 

3...2...1...

 

“Hehh..HETSCHIEw! hESSHUH! HeRSHIEW! heh...hetsCHUH! HEPTCHUH!!” The Doctor stifled a groan and cut a look at Yaz, like a child being scolded. Yaz ignored the look and tried to push down the memory of their discussion on Desolation in favor of walking forward and placing a hand on the Doctor’s upper arm. She’d never seen the Doctor sneeze that much, and they seemed to take a fair bit of energy out of the typically near-manic woman. The blonde woman was rubbing her nose and nodded her head, answering a question Yaz hadn’t asked, her eyes closing again.

 

“Yeah, hih...not-quite...” she scrubbed her nose with her hand, trying to finish her sentence as her eyes narrowed and nostrils widened. 

 

“qui...hih..finished...heh! haTSHIIEW! Huh....huurshSHUH! hah...” she jerked away from Yaz, who didn’t move away but continued to watch her attentively.

 

From across the room, Yaz and the Doctor’s interaction did not go unnoticed to Najia. She watched as her daughter looked at this strange woman with something between fondness and concern, and filed it away for later. She had the distinct feeling that her daughter was hiding something from her. 

 

Meanwhile, the Doctor stalled, slack jawed, clearly not finished but  unable to satisfy the final tickle. Yaz gently pivoted her using the hand still resting on her right forearm, and used her other arm to point toward the hall light. 

 

“Look at the light, it helps.” 

 

Najia noted her daughter’s soft tone with interest. She must really feel comfortable with this woman. And fond. Fond of this strange woman to whom Najia had not been yet introduced. Are they together? She’s not sure why else her daughter would look so fondly at this eccentric woman, or practically hold her hand while she was in the throes of a prolonged sneezing fit.

 

The Doctor heeded Yaz’s advice, Najia noticed, and pitched toward with a final “HAAATSHIEWWW!” and sighed (almost happily? What an odd woman, Najia pondered) afterward. 

 

“Thanks Yaz, that really did the trick!”

 

She responded jovially, before making her way into the room and continuing their investigation. Najia’s daughter only chuckled and rolled her eyes, following her without any hesitation and gesturing for her mother to do the same.

 

Interesting indeed. 

Edited July 8, 2019 by SexyGodlikeHair

[MeForever]

YAY! I freaking love the 13th doctor and this fic is really adorible, thank you!

[SexyGodlikeHair]

On 7/9/2019 at 3:26 AM, MeForever said:

YAY! I freaking love the 13th doctor and this fic is really adorible, thank you!

Thank you so much, that’s so good to hear! Hopefully I’ll be adding more soon!

[Rock And Roll Boy]

As a huge Doctor Who fan, I really liked this. I also love how you incorporated these scenarios into each episode.

[TheCakeIsAlive]

You write the Doctor immensely spot on. Loving it.  And that they are in the episodes makes it even better. I do hope you continue these delicious snippets!