{david tennant character oneshots}

Alec Hardy ~ To Successful First Dates

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Alec's nerves were a complicated jumble he'd been trying to unravel for almost an hour. Then he'd looked at the time, realized he had ten minutes, and everything knotted back up again.

It never got easier. Alec had been on dates with three women already, but the nervousness never went away. (And the dates never went well.)

The doorbell chimed again, and Alec looked up like he had been, checking to see who walked through the door. This time, it was her. Alec stood up and she spotted him across the small restaurant as he walked toward her. 

"Alec?" she asked, though it wasn't phrased like a question. It was more of a warm greeting. 

"You must be Laura," he said, guiding her back to the table. 

"It's wonderful to finally meet you," she said, smiling at him as if he were the only thing in existence. Alec shyly met her gaze and felt his cheeks grow warm. 

"Erm...yes. Hello. Sorry, I'm still not...used to this."

Laura laughed. "Don't worry, I don't know what I'm doing half the time either. I just...say what comes to mind."

Alec frowned. "And people like that? They don't...leave instantly?"

She shrugged. "Quite a few have, actually. I've just learned not to sugarcoat who I am. It doesn't make matters better when I finally come clean about who I am to them."

"Huh," Alec said, beginning to smile. "I, uh, I think I like that. Both the idea...and about you."

Her smile came back in full force. "See, that's the honesty I'm talking about."

One thing led to another. That first date became two. Two became five. (That's when Miller found out and started teasing him relentlessly.) Five became ten. Ten became twelve. 

Alec liked Laura. She understood him, listened, comforted. There was something about the way she wove flowers into caramel braids, about the way he'd catch her staring at him with her lips just starting to twitch into a smile. Laura knew just when he needed space or when he needed the comfort of a soft touch. 

It was just that sort of touch—a soft hug, a kiss on the cheek, the brush of fingers over skin—that Alec needed one evening as their date was drawing to what should have been its close. It always had been its close before when they walked along the cliffs. They'd come back to Alec's house and he would drive her home and kiss her cheek goodbye when he dropped her off. But as they neared his house, Alec slipped his hand into Laura's.

"Will, uhm... Will you stay? For a little bit. If you want. If you're busy, that's fine—"

"Alec." Laura always said his name with this warm, soft intonation that made Alec hate his name just a little bit less every time. "I've wanted to ask to stay for the past four dates."

Surprise fluttered and stretched in Alec's stomach. "Why didn't you say?"

"You've been working cases, difficult cases," Laura said. "I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Intrude? You wouldn't be intruding—"

"I would." Laura gave him a soft smile that always made his stomach do flips. "Focused as you are when you're working, I know I wouldn't be able to keep myself away from you if I was in the same room as you for more than an hour. I'd distract you as much as you distract me."

Another nervous flutter brushed through Alec. "And...if you stay tonight...you won't keep yourself away from me?"

"So long as you don't want me to," she promised.