licked its tongue into the corners of the evening

After he declares that they need to get 'down there' he looks at her and immediately sets to scanning the area surrounding the rock that covers the entrance to the underhenge. River watches him idly, pulling various tools out of her belt, lights and grav locks. She's fairly certain if they reverse the polarity they can somehow turn those into less locks and more... pushers.

"River," his voice is a gasp and she glances up to see him hunched by the back of the rock, "could you come here a moment?" River shoots Amy a shrug and a smile, tossing her the mobile lights before she walks around the large rock and crouches down by the Doctor. Of course she knows what he wants.

His hand is flat against the surface of the rock, his sonic scanning the symbols burned into the rock there. "Yes sweetie?" She kneels beside him in the damp grass and he glares at her, jabbing his sonic at the symbols.

"What is that?" he hisses in a low voice and she leans past him to observe the small graffiti, her chest brushing against the arm he has braced against the stone.

"I believe that's Gallifreyan, honey." She keeps her own voice lowered, turning her head to murmur in his ear and a flush crawls up the back of his neck in the rapidly darkening evening.

"Thank you, River, it is my language I am perfectly aware that it is Gallifreyan."

"Then why are you asking me what it is?" She tilts her head and looks at him in confusion and he rolls his eyes, sighing.

"You can read it."

"Of course I can, sweetie." She nods calmly and the flush is now spreading across his cheeks, bless. She bites her lip to keep from smirking, looking instead at the spot where his hand was pressing into the ancient stone.

She remembers the feel of it well.

"Why would you write that?" he splutters, looking at her for explanation. She arches a brow and shakes her head.

"I didn't."

"Of course you did."

"But I didn't."

"It has your name on it, River."

"Yes, but I didn't write it, Doctor." He huffs in frustration and glares at the words, as if they could have changed in the five seconds he's been arguing foolishly with her.

"It must've been. It says 'River Song was here' though your conjugation of was is terrible, it reads more like 'came'." He is whispering even lower now, his face right by hers as he hisses the words out. She stares at him, barely managing to keep her laughter in, and good lord, she loves this man, she thinks. She loves that he wrote that there, ages ago for her, and ages hence for him. She loves that he did it simply to give her this gift of levity in the middle of an adventure that is proving to be difficult for her. Her first time seeing him since their last kiss. His first. She says none of this to him though, because he's got no clue really. "Well if you didn't write it," he scoffs, clearly not believing that one bit, "who did?"

"Spoilers." He chokes on air at her response, staring from her to the words, laser burned into the ancient stone.

"Spoilers?"

"Yeah, spoilers. Sweetie, we really don't exactly have the time to waste arguing about this, I've got a plan to get down to the underhenge." She stands without waiting for his reply, moving over to the grav locks, lying where she'd left them. She does glance back though, just in time to see his gaze on the words, repeating the phrase over and over again until his eyes open wide and he gapes at the stone in front of him, his eyes lifting to look at the fairly flat surface of the rock. He is just leaning in closer, sniffing lightly when she speaks, "Sweetie?"

He starts, leaping back as though burned, his cheeks fully red now as he avoids her gaze. "Right. Right. Coming." He mutters before stopping and gasping, his face going even redder if possible. "I mean I'm coming to you. Over there. I'll be with you. Not – not with you but I'll be there. I am walking."

She simply laughs and tells herself if she ever sees older him again, she is going to give him a proper thank you.

Bless.

River Song came here.

xx

Sometimes, she thinks as the electricity and Vortex energy crackle and sizzle around her, she really really wishes he would include some sort of dress code on his letters.

It is always a date. A time. A map reference. And his scrawl on the back-

I'll try to be on time, dear x – D

He never ever is on time, but generally he makes it within a few minutes. Sometimes it is longer – she once had to wait in 22nd century Paris for three weeks. He'd apologized profusely for that one, she remembered with a smile.

It is cold and dark but she knows exactly where he meant for her to be. She can see them, on the plains in front of her. The standing stones. Stonehenge. She slips her high heels off, holding them in one hand as she navigates through the slick grass in bare feet. Her dress flutters in the breeze and she shivers as she walks into the circle. It feels hushed within there. Sacred. She runs her hands along the stones, dropping her shoes and pulling her scanner out of her bag. It can't even carbon date them; even though it is 104AD, they are still ancient. She trails a hand along from stone to stone, and she feels like she can sense the history, all within that one place.

Rituals and burials, murders and sacrifices. Perhaps, she thinks fancifully, it was built by giants or magic or aliens.

"Hi, honey." She has somehow missed the sound of the TARDIS landing and she whirls to see him grinning and leaning against the north east stones.

"Hello, sweetie." Just beyond him is the TARDIS and she smiles, all but skipping across the dewy grass toward him. He wraps his arms around her and she stands on tiptoe to press a kiss to his mouth, a softer greeting. "So, Stonehenge?" She pulls back and smiles up at him and he glances around with a nod.

"It's old. You like old things," he starts and she runs her hands along his chest underneath his tweed.

"Yes, I do." She hums in appreciation and he smirks down at her. "I've missed you."

"Have you not seen me for a while?"

She shrugs in response, stepping in closer to wrap her arms around his waist, under his coat. "Two nights ago, but I still miss you when you're gone."

"Oh River, you're freezing. Why on earth are you wearing a dress?" He frowns down at her, pulling her closer and wrapping his coat around her as best he can while still wearing it.

"Well someone didn't point out any expected weather conditions or dress code, how was I to know where I was going? It's what I had on." She shrugs again, burrowing into him and wrapping her arms around him tightly.

"Oh, wait – I can fix that, just – just give me a moment, you stay right here." He releases her and moves toward the TARDIS before whirling again and coming back. "Wait here, have this." He pulls off his green greatcoat and helps her into it, pausing to press a kiss to the tip of her nose as she smiles up at him in thanks. "Be right back." He dashes off into the TARDIS, and she turns to admire how the golden light from within the TARDIS spills out into the night, illuminating the stones, causing them to cast great shadows on each other.

It's beautiful.

She smiles and leans where he was leaning, her arms wrapped around herself, hands tucked into his too-long for her sleeves. After a moment warmth envelopes her and she turns to watch him trip out of the TARDIS with a grin. "Just extended the air shell and adjusted the environmental controls." He grins and runs his hands down his braces as he reaches her.

"Feels much better, sweetie. I think I can give you back your-"

"No, no, I like it on you. It's rather adorable." He tugs on the lapels of his coat, pulling her closer and kissing her more thoroughly. She sways into him, her mouth opening under his with a moan. His hands move to her waist and she wraps her arms around him, pressing her frame into his. She is breathless when they part, a smile on her face and gladness in her heart.

"So, you just brought me here to see the 'old things'?" she teases him and he bites back a grin.

"Not like that," he scolds her, and she laughs in response, her brows rising suggestively. "Well, maybe a bit like that, oh stop it. We're here because-"

There is a low scraping noise behind them and they turn in surprise to see one of the flat stones in the center of the circle moving aside. "Oh bloody hell, not celts, us. Run!" He grabs her hand and they run behind the standing stones as a cyberman emerges from...

"What's down there?" River asks breathlessly and he rolls his eyes as the Cyberman shoots darts that embed in the stone by their heads.

"Spoilers."

"Really?" She looks at him with delight and he shakes his head.

"Not the time, River. Tell me you've got a gun."

"But you hate guns and always insist that I never carry them on dates," she teases him and he glares at her.

"Which means you should have at least three. Where River?" His hands start running over her dress under his coat and the heavy footfalls of the Cyberman come closer, this time accompanied by shots from his weapon.

"You have been scanned and found incompatible. You will be eliminated."

"Not the time to feel me up, honey!" River grabs his hand and starts pulling him in and around the stones, amidst blasts from its energy weapon, hitting and scorching stones. River struggles out of his coat –she can't move in the thing – and hands it back to him. "My purse is over there, I'm going to have to run for it."

"River,"

"I'll be fine. Come on, it's just one cyberman, sweetie." She smiles reassuringly and he shakes his head, pressing a quick kiss to her lips, his hands cradling her face.

"Be careful."

"So dull though, honey." She winks before peeling across the wet grass, her focus intent on her purse. She hears shots, hears the sonic whirring, she feels a brief burst of pain but she reaches her bag and reaches in, pulling out her gun and flicking the safety off even as she turns around, aiming for the cyberman's head and firing rapidly.

The head flies off the body, landing in the grass, still smoking and rolling some distance away. The body fires at her again and she ducks behind the stone she is standing by, glancing over her shoulder to see the Doctor struggling with the head, sonic pressed against it and wires wrapped around his arms. She shoots at the body again, hitting it in several spots, sparks flying as it walked backwards before finally toppling down the hole it had emerged from, the stone sliding shut once more behind it.

"Doctor?" River runs over to him, where the head's cables are trying to wrap around his throat. He is holding it back, his arms shaking and she reaches for the sonic he'd dropped to the ground, pressing the tip to the neural circuits at the base of the severed head, deactivating it. The Doctor gasps as the cables loosen and the head drops to the ground, inactive. "Sweetie, are you okay?" She is pressing her hands to his throat, and he nods.

"Yes, yes, just – got me by surprise there for a moment. You're fine?" His eyes flick over her and he reaches out, fingers brushing against her arm and she hisses, drawing back and glancing down. There was a burn there, her flesh red and raw. "River." He takes his sonic from her hand, pushing her over to the rock that had just closed and sitting her down on it before adjusting the settings and scanning the burn.

"Must have caught me at the end of my run, sweetie, I didn't notice." Her hearts are still beating hard in her chest and she watches his brow furrow as he heals the surface wound until it is gone, replaced by new, pink skin. "You take me to all the best places, honey." There is laughter in her voice and he rolls his eyes, looking up at her. "So what's down there?" Her smile is bright and he laughs, shaking his head.

"I can't tell you."

"But I'll see one day? With you? You really are a nostalgic idiot, you know that?"

"Some things are worth doing twice," he murmurs and she slides to the edge of the rock, her hands running up his thighs, nails scratching lightly. "River."

"Doctor," she responds in kind, pressing her face by his hip, her hands reaching up to unclip his braces so she can tug his shirt from the waist of his trousers, her head tilting back to look up at him as her hands slide against the skin of his chest. His hearts are pounding too and she grins, because she knows he loves it all just as much as she does.

His hand buries itself in her hair as he moans slightly. "This is a terrible idea."

"This is exactly the idea you had in mind, you bad man, don't even try to deny it. A sacred unsolved mystery," she breathes the words out, hooking fingers in his waist band and tugging him close enough that she can push his shirt up and press kisses along the skin there. "Ancient stones, history crawling around this place, time and space – tell me it doesn't turn you on." Her hand drops to trace along the noticeable bulge in his trousers and his hand tightens in her hair.

"River," he groans, dragging her name out and she smiles, undoing the button and zip of his trousers before reaching in and pushing his pants down to release his erection. She presses a soft kiss to the tip and he hisses, "You don't even know when we are yet."

"At least post Area 52 for you, sweetie – you always sign with an 'x' after that." She doesn't wait for a response, instead choosing to grasp his erection in hand and run her tongue along it, root to tip. She wraps her lips around him, relaxing her throat and pushing her tongue against the underside as she slides him in and out of her mouth with a moan. Her legs part and she moves to the edge of the rock, feeling a building pressure within her own core as she licks and sucks.

He drops the sonic, both hands buried in her hair now, guiding her and urging her to go faster as his hips rock forward. She wraps her tongue around him, swirling it over and around, down and up and she tongues at the slit as her hands grip his hips. "Good – oh – River." He pulls back, breathing heavily before he drops to his knees in the damp grass in front of her. His hands are still in her hair as he hauls her toward him, kissing her. It is all teeth and tongues, he bites at her lower lip and then licks at it as she moans, wrapping her tongue around his. His hands finally disentangle from her hair and drop, smoothing down over her dress before he starts pushing the skirt up frantically. His mouth moves along her jaw and neck, shoulders and chest, kissing and nipping and licking at her skin.

She tugs his bowtie undone, her hands unbuttoning his shirt rapidly so she can run her palms across the skin of his chest, feeling his hearts beating thunderously. Her nails bite into the skin stretched tight over his ribs. She hums in delight, because there is something about the soft skin of his abdomen that she delights in. It is so vulnerable, she thinks, as she presses kisses against his chest and tickles her fingers across the delicate skin there.

His hands drag along her inner thighs and when his fingers brush against slick wetness he groans, dropping his forehead to her shoulder. "Oh my bad girl." he whispers against the skin there, groaning with her as he slides two fingers within her with expertise. Her legs spread further apart and she grips at his shoulders as he pulls those fingers out and pushes them in, his thumb flicking across her clit in rapid little strokes. His lifts his head, pushing her back with his other hand until she is lying against the rock, stone biting into the skin on her shoulders and back.

He bends his head between her thighs, murmuring about how beautiful she looks right this second, spread out before him, and how fierce she is with her weapon and how he shouldn't like it but, oh, oh, how he does. His mouth closes over her clit as his hands works furiously within her, pushing and mapping while he sucks harder and harder on the sensitized flesh in his mouth. She can feel herself swelling, flush with the rush of an oncoming orgasm. Her vaginal walls swell and clamp around his fingers, the pressure between her legs building and building as she writhes and moans beneath him. His teeth scrape over her clit and it is all she needs to push her over the edge and she comes, shouting his name to the star-filled sky above them and feeling the ancient stone below her scrape against her skin.

He slips his hand from her, pressing soft kisses to her inner thighs. He moves back and the night air swirls over her heated flesh. He stands, his trousers and pants dropping to the ground and he looms over her, laid out on the stone beneath him. His erection nudges at her thighs and she moans, wrapping her legs around his waist, eager for more. "Doctor, now, please."

He sinks into her with a groan, his face burying itself into her hair and her hands slide along his ribs and back, clutching him against her as he moves over her. He gets just enough depth to grind against her overly-sensitive clit with each downward stroke and she arches into his thrusts, her legs hitching higher on his waist and the stone pressing into her back as he moves over her, his eyes on hers and his hips snapping between her thighs as the pressure begins to wrap around her again.

She clutches at him, pressing her face into his shoulder and kissing him there as she feels the crash of her second orgasm, and his pace increases, driving her higher even as she rides it out before his hips finally meet hers and he presses his face into her neck, panting her name over and over again as he comes.

They lay there, breathless for a moment and she can feel the stone biting into her back as she laughs softly. "Did we seriously just shag on top of Stonehenge?"

His laugher is muffled and he pulls back to kiss her softly. "Well history is our playground, dear."

"Mmm, habit forming then? What can we do next?" She laughs as he eases off of her, lifting her from the rock and sliding them both into a tangle of limbs in the wet grass beside it. "Pyramids? You know, it'd be oddly apropos considering our wedding. Oh! The great wall! Hanging gardens – I've always wanted to see those."

"I give you all of time and space and you want to go shag on all the wonders of the world?" He chuckles into her hair and she laughs.

"Well we're wonders ourselves, aren't we sweetie?" She winks up at him and he pushes her hair back, kissing her softly.

"I'd take you anywhere in the universe, River Song."

"You've taken me in quite a few spots already, my love." She grins and he smiles, reaching for his sonic and adjusting the settings. "What are you doing?" She frowns and he shakes his head, sitting her on the grass and moving over by the stone. He begins burning something there and she gasps. "Are you defacing history, sweetie?"

He grins at her over his shoulder, "Just leaving a message." She reads over his shoulder and slaps his arm once he's finished.

"That is terrible." She gasps, laughing and her turns, pulling her into his arms and kissing her soundly.

"You love it. And you'll thank me for it one day." he points out with a smug grin.

"Why will I thank you for it?" she asks with a frown and he nuzzles his face into hers, his nose brushing against her own.

"Spoilers."

"Oh I hate you." She breathes the words out and he chuckles, pressing a tiny kiss to the corner of her mouth.

"No, you don't."