Credit to heavenisalibrary
The accommodations in the Gamma Forest were somewhat lacking, truth be told. There were barely a dozen hotels amongst the trees, only a third of which were anywhere near the military base he was supposed to be assisting at, and with nearly one hundred other independent contractors and mercenaries of various origins also staying in the area, finding a room was nearly impossible. Amy, being Amy, had no qualms about snatching the key to the single room with the twin bed for herself even as he reached for it, dangling it tauntingly over her head as she sauntered off towards the elevators.
“Amy,” he said, exasperated, and a tiny bit terrified as his eyes darted to River, smirking at his side, and then back to his companion. “I thought — you know — the women could share the double bed. It’s…” he trailed off, fumbling for an actual explanation. In addition to the fact that he knew he wasn’t going to have any luck appealing to Amy or River’s nigh nonexistent modesty, he also suspected that River knew his feints at innocence and propriety were mostly an act. “It just makes sense, is all.”
“You were a woman once, too, Doctor,” River said, “or a little girl, at any rate.”
“That’s — how do you even — spoil —”
“I can’t spoil you on your own past, you barmy old man,” River said with a roll of her eyes, grabbing her bag and his and slinging them over her shoulder as she grabbed the second key, to the room with the double bed, and went to catch up with Amy at the elevators. The Doctor gulped. He tugged at his collar, and thought of about four hundred and eleven ways to get out of this situation. Unfortunately, he didn’t think River or Amy would let him get away with any of them, and even more unfortunately, most of him didn’t want to. Still, River didn’t need to know that.
He continued to grumble all the way up the elevator, pausing only when they stopped on Amy’s floor to puff up his cheeks in the best approximation of a smile he could manage while his palms were sweating so badly and give her a silly salute. She rolled her eyes at him, but winked at River.
“Have fun, lovebirds,” she cooed over her shoulder as she walked away down the hall. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“That’s not a whole lot,” River said, sounding like she knew what she was talking about. The Doctor wondered, not for the first time, how often River had run into Amy in her past. River seemed to be more than casually familiar with Amy, though she was good at hiding it — he wondered briefly, and with rising horror, if they spent time together without him. Now that was a terrifying thought.
“Exactly,” Amy called back.
The Doctor sighed, exasperated beyond his wildest imaginings. River just stepped over next to him, wrapping her arm around his and giving his forearm and incredibly patronizing pat as the elevator doors closed. His irritation with how she sometimes treated him like some sort of grievously stupid and untrainable dog bloomed into the forefront of his mind with that, and he encouraged it, because being annoyed with River was far preferable to the way the thought of spending the night with her made his hearts pound in his throat.
He just didn’t sleep much, which was sometimes awkward to explain. And he didn’t — or wasn’t lately accustomed to — sleeping with anybody else in his bed, when he did sleep, and that seemed like an even deeper source of awkwardness… and also not, which sent him into an even greater spiral of worry and speculation, because River was already dead, and it had been his fault, and here he was, fluttering about on the inside like a Time Lord barely past his bicentennial at the prospect of spending the night with her, and he wasn’t equipped to handle any of that at the moment. Or probably, ever. So he just deepened his frown as the elevator doors opened and River walked toward their door, only dropping his arm to fumble with the and unlock it. He steadfastly ignored the way his newly free arm immediately made to rest his hand on the small of her back as he followed her into the room.
