#idek why i just had to use a Noun and i'm suffering

[sonickedtrowel]

oh.. River/Eleven with 25 - things you said in the back seat of a cab. If it sparks anything for you that'd be amazing, in my head it's at least a little steamy

Hey, so I write very very slow!  But I wrote this!!  I went back and forth over how horny on main I wanted to be, deleting and rewriting the steamy part, and decided I’ll just put part of it here and link to ao3 for anyone who wants to read the rest  😂 Tbh it might be pushing explicit a tiny bit more than I normally do even though it’s brief so I had to put it behind a link lol.  

Somebody say old Eleven young River?  Just me?  Oh well! Thank you for the prompt!!! 

the whole thing on ao3

“Oh, here,” River said, waving to an approaching car on the street, “let’s catch a cab.”

“Don’t you want to walk?” asked the Doctor, sliding his arm around her back.  “It’s a beautiful night!”

It was a lovely evening.  Spring on Luna always was; it helped that the weather was engineered.  It was breezy and warm, the air sweet with the scent of blossoming trees.  But after dinner at the sort of restaurant that essentially required time travel to get a booking, River found walking back to the hall of residence a much less appealing proposition.

“I’ve got two hearts, sweetie, not two stomachs.  If you want to walk home, you can pick a place with fewer courses next time.”

The Doctor amiably relented, dropping a kiss on her head as he turned to the cab, which had paused on the side of the street.  In the 51st century they were sleek, shiny things, all black with tinted glass and a domed roof.  “What is that one, a Lunar Link?” he asked.  “They’re all autopilot in this decade, aren’t they?”

“All the ones I’ve seen.  Why?”

“No reason.”  He cleared his throat, opening the door for her to step inside.  As he clambered in after her, he quickly produced the sonic from his pocket and aimed it at the control panel.

“Dodging the fare?” River asked as he shut the door.  “That’s usually my area.”

“Um, no.  Scrambling the CC feed and facial recognition.”  She raised an eyebrow expectantly, and he sighed.  “Let’s just say we’re… no longer welcome in several of these companies’ cabs.”

She let out a burst of delighted laughter.  “And you’re always telling me to keep out of trouble!”

“Because I’ve seen the trouble first-hand!”

“Sounds like you were more participating than observing.”

“Yes, well.  You’re a terrible influence,” he grumbled, with poorly disguised fondness.

“In that case,” she said, grasping him by the lapel, “far be it from me to break with tradition.”

“See?”  The Doctor smiled as she tugged him closer.  “Terrible.”

He hummed contentedly as his lips met hers, and a shiver went through River’s body.  She’d just about gotten over being embarrassed by how easily he could disarm her.  Imagine, if she’d killed him with just one fleeting brush of her lips, a mockery of a kiss, and never experienced the real thing.  What a dreadful waste that would have been.

They were interrupted all too soon by a series of chirping beeps and a polite, slightly robotic voice requesting, “Please input your destination.”  They breathlessly broke apart, and the Doctor fumbled for his sonic, buzzed it at the control panel once more, and was already turning back to her as the cab pulled into the street.  Their smiling mouths crashed together somewhat messily in their eagerness, and then his arms were around her, his hand under her hip, pulling her to him.  River went along gladly, throwing her leg over his hip and settling in his lap.

“Destination?” she asked, brushing a kiss at the corner of his mouth.

“Taking the long way round.”  He lifted his hand to her face, tipping her chin up to kiss her properly.

She sighed happily.  “Have you always been this agreeable?”

“No,” the Doctor said, his laughing breath fanning over her cheek and sending another shiver down her spine.  “And if— god forbid— you run into me when I’m young anytime soon, I’d appreciate it if you tried not to give me any heart attacks.”

“Mmm.  I bet you’d like it.”

“Well, yeah, but don’t tell me that.”

She laughed against his lips as he kissed her again, winding her arms around his neck.  His hand splayed over her back, keeping her close, while the other lingered against her jaw, his thumb brushing gently over her cheek.  He always touched her with a tenderness that seemed tinged with desperation; as though she might disappear if he dared to let go.  He hardly had to worry.  She didn’t want to be anywhere else.

It had been a few months now of settling into life on Luna, settling into being River Song, and beginning to learn her way around their life together, such as it was.  Months of leaving her last lecture each Friday afternoon to find him waiting with flowers and dinner plans or an exploding planet they just couldn’t miss.  It was good to escape into the wider universe, chasing some danger and excitement after a long week of lectures and essays and pretending to tolerate undergraduates.  But this was better.  

River wondered if the novelty of being wildly in love would ever wear off.  It was her first time with anything like this, after all, and she felt a little at sea sometimes, unsure of what she should expect.  If it would ever stop being so intoxicatingly good, and just be… normally pleasant.  But the Doctor was much older.  And judging by the way her insides melted at the pressure of his hands gripping her hips, the warmth of his breathing over her skin, the soft curve of his tongue behind her teeth— well, it seemed the honeymoon period wasn’t about to end anytime soon.

And that was another thing, she reflected as she fumbled blindly with the buttons on his trousers.  There was something very settled about him, too.  Something that was just solid: comfortable and trusting and content with her.  She couldn’t seem to stop wondering, particularly after her latest bit of research, exactly what the nature of that settledness was.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of her.  She’d barely broken away from his lips when she blurted, “Are we married?”

“What?”  The Doctor blinked at her, dazed.  In his defence, she did have her hand in his pants.  

“Are we married?” she repeated.  “I think it’s a reasonable question, in the circumstances.”

His eyebrows lifted and he shook his head slightly, huffing out a breath as he pushed his hair out of his face.  “River, you know I can’t tell you.”

“I found a book that says we’re married.”  

He groaned, his head collapsing back onto the seat.  “I’m sure I’ve told you not to do that.”

“Also found a book that says I’ve killed you,” she added thoughtfully.  “Which, in fairness, I did.  But the place and the date are wrong.”

“See?  A whole lot of nonsense, so no point in filling your head with it.”

“But once you’ve read your own personal future— once you’ve been told what it is, doesn’t it have to happen?”

“Only if it’s true.  We’re not all beholden to the prophecies of gossip magazines.”  He sat up again, wrapping his arms around her as he began to press warm, lingering kisses to her face, her neck, her shoulder.  River stifled a whimper as his parted lips lingered on her throat, sending a ripple of want throbbing through her body as her mind filled with everywhere else she’d like him to put that sweet, soft mouth.  Oh, he was far too good at distracting her.  Well, she supposed technically she was the one distracting them this time; they’d been busy when she was overcome with the need to question him.

“And is it true?” she stubbornly persisted.

The Doctor lifted his head and watched her silently for a moment, rubbing his hands soothingly up and down her back.  “I asked you, once,” he said at last.  “Well, I asked if you were married.  May have sort of accidentally proposed in the process.”

“Accidentally?”

“I was young.”

“And what did I tell you?”

“The truth,” he laughed, shaking his head and looking at her with such aching affection.  “You really shouldn’t have done that.”

“Because once you knew, it had to happen that way?”

“No, not quite.  River, the important things—  they’re up to us.  We always have a choice.”

She looked him over consideringly.  “You don’t have a wedding ring.”

“No,” he agreed after a moment, fiddling with his bow tie as he glanced out the window. 

“But you could just take it off when you come to see me, since it would be a bit of a giveaway.”

“River,” the Doctor said wearily, “you really need to stop.  It’s all spoilers.”  When she didn’t object, he pulled her closer, his hand cradling the back of her head.

“Would you even want to be married?” she asked, just before he could kiss her.

He exhaled, patiently studying her face.  “Generally speaking, or to you specifically?”

“Is the answer different?”

“Yes.”  

River swallowed, her hearts nervously fluttering.  “Either I should be insulted, or you’re showing your hand a bit, Doctor,” she said softly.

“Well, I’ll leave that to your judgement, dear,” he murmured, and she finally stopped interrogating him long enough for him to kiss her.