When the Sun Sets ☼ Eleven x Reader

XIII - Mysterious Faces

'Sorry, how do you expect me to save Christmas?' you question.

'Easily,' the Doctor replies. 'You help me do the bit I can't do. Together, we save Christmas, and ideally the lives of the people on that starliner.'

'Ideally‽'

'Well, sometimes there's issues. But I have every faith in you, [Y/N]. Yes!' he finishes in response to the calling voice in front of him. You found it funny how he managed to skip over the compliment so quickly after he'd said it so sincerely. But, to you, a lot of the things he did were funny.

'I've never seen anyone stand up to Mr Sardick like that,' the man- who you recognised as the boy's father from upstairs- says cheerily, taking the Doctor's hand in his and shaking it. 'Bless you, sir. And Merry Christmas.'

'Merry Christmas.' the Doctor replies hurriedly. 'Sorry, bit busy.'

'You'd better get inside, miss,' the man turns to you. 'The fog's thick tonight and there's a fish warning.'

'Alright, yes. Of course. Wait, sorry, did you say fish?'

'Yeah, you know what they're like when they get a bit hungry.'

'Yeah, fish. I know fish. Fish?' the Doctor questions again, looking down on you with a look of pure confusion plastered across his face.

'It's all Mr Sardick's fault, I reckon.' the man explains. 'He always lets a few fish through the cloud layer when he's in a bad mood.' He spoke as if fish in the clouds was a completely normal thing to hear of. You nod in oblivious agreement, trying to make sense of his words as you listen back to them in your head. 'Bless you once again sir.' he finishes, seemingly unaware of the discombobulated state he'd left the two of you in.

'Fish?' the Doctor asks once again.

'That is what he said. Oh, Doctor? Amy's beeping again.' you comment, noticing the red pulsating light on the side of the device.

'Doctor, the Captain says we've got less than an hour.' Amy says. 'What should we be doing?'

Looking up at a lamppost ahead of you and immediately getting distracted, you finally understood what the man was talking about. 'Fish.' you say lightly, and the Doctor diverts his attention away from the calls for help on the starliner and towards the small shoals of fish surrounding the light. Like moths to a flame, they swam- if you could call it swimming- around the lamp, reflecting a rainbow of colours from their scales.

'Sorry, what?'

'Fish that can swim in fog,' the Doctor answers Amy's question with a childish grin. 'I love new planets.'

'Doctor, Doctor please, don't get distracted.' Amy pleads.

'Now, why would people be frightened of you tiny, little fellas?' the Doctor says, holding his hand up towards the fish and very much getting distracted. 'Look at you, sweet, little fishy-wishies. Mind you, fish in the fog, so the cloud cover- ooh, careful up there.' he shouts a little, as if the phone wasn't there and Amy couldn't hear him perfectly fine before. You roll your eyes at him, and extend your hand towards the fish. They nibble gently at your fingers and you giggle as their fins swipe your skin.

'I know!' you hear the Doctor shout in retaliation to whatever Amy said, just as the speakers around the lamp began to screech into life. The familiar sound of 'Ding Dong Merrily on High' filled the air, and you were forced to step back as the volume was louder than you expected.

'Oh, just give me a minute!' he says in response to whatever Amy had said. You realised at this point that you had been so entranced with the fish that you hadn't been keeping track of any of the Doctor's conversation with Amy and the starliner. You could tell he was starting to panic as he began pacing up and down the empty streets.