Yowzah Oneshot Collection (2)

10(G)

grace in your heart and flowers in your hair;

              areyoumarriedriver

Once she was safely back on board – after only a slight argument about the sanity of throwing oneself off of buildings in the hopes that he would be there to catch her – he followed her back down the hallway to the room she was occupying.

“It was completely reckless, River!”

“Well it would have been, if I didn’t know you wouldn’t let me fall.” She was maddeningly calm about the whole thing, and he ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“How can you be so certain of everything, River? How can you-” She turned to face him, stepping in closer until she was inches away from him.

“Experience. I know you’ll be there. Call it faith, if you’d like sweetie. I just... knew. I’m sorry if it frightened you.” Her hands rose between them and hovered uncertainly in the small space. It was something he’d noticed. He felt compelled to touch her more, more and more each time he saw her. But she always let him take the lead in that arena, and he wondered if he would be as patient when his time came. His hearts whispered to him, of course not.

His hands rose and he traced a fingertip down over her bare arm, watching as she repressed a shiver. As much as she tried not to, she always gave away how she felt whenever his skin came in contact with hers. Not through telepathy – her mind was closed tight, and it drove him mad. It looked like a blinding light behind steel shields – bleeding through here and there but nothing that he could read. No, she gave it away in the way she closed her eyes, or leaned into him, or the way she would smile. “I wasn’t frightened.” He whispered finally. “Not really. Of course I’d catch you. But the amount of trust – that frightens me a bit.”

“I know, dear.” She breathed the words out and his other hand traced the tally marks that were creeping up her neck.

“There’s so many more...” He sighed and she nodded.

“I’ll have to start marking my face soon enough.” She spoke seriously. “I’m going to run out of skin, unless I start wearing less.” She winked a bit at that and he smiled weakly.

“We have to figure this out.” Out of all of them, he had the fewest marks across his skin – Amy and Rory both had long since started inking tally marks across their faces, like small scars. It was disturbing to see, and he didn’t want to see the same images on River’s skin.

“I know. We’ll get there, sweetie, we always do.” She stepped in a fraction of an inch closer and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers.

“Isn’t that a spoiler?” He joked half-heartedly and she shook her head.

“No. A promise.” He breathed softly for a moment, one hand still cupping her elbow and the other resting on the back of her neck.

“Well let’s start counting. Compare the numbers.” He pulled back slightly and started concentrating on the task at hand, pulling her arms out and counting by fives. He circled around her, checking the back of her neck and shoulder blades, she lifted the hem of her dress somewhat so he could continue counting the marks that ran up her legs. It was a testament to his focus that he didn’t lose count on the delicate skin of her calves.

“Thirty-five more.” She mused aloud as he finally stopped counting and stood in front of her again. His hands reached up into her hair automatically, pulling pins out as he moved in so close he could feel her body heat seeping through the distance between them. “What are you doing?” She asked in amusement and his fingers continued to move through the soft curls, pulling pin after pin out.