December 25th

He wasn't sure whether or not he should answer it. Who knew who it could be. Anything from some assistance needed at that pitiful school of hers to just some nosy parker wanting money for a fake cause. It could be something important. It could be something completely unimportant, too. He shouldn't answer it. He wouldn't answer it.

"Clara's phone." He said with a wide grin with the mobile pressed against his ear. He risked a wary glance behind him at the woman's sleeping form, and slowly slipped out of her room without waking her.

"Can I speak with Miss Oswald, please?" A male voice came from the other end.

"She's not awake. Who is this?"

Five minutes later, the Doctor's hearts were fluttering with excitement. Maybe this Christmas wouldn't turn out quite so boring.

Clara was roughly awoken by a cold hand gripping her shoulder and rocking her back and forth. Someone was shouting her name, and she could feel a simultaneously increasing and decreasing pressure on the edge of her bed. With a little groan of annoyance she slowly cracked open her eyes, frowning at the Doctor who was bouncing at her side like an energetic child.

"Clara, get up!" He howled into her ear, his face dangerously close to hers. "Right now. Come on, you. Up up up!"

"Doctor." She winced against the bright light in the room, and closed her eyes again. How long had she been asleep, anyways? "Go away." She muttered, rolling over onto her side and burying her face into the mass of pillows.

"But Clara, its Christmas." He argued.

"Yes it is." Her voice was barely recognizable due to the muffled sound her pillow offered. "Which means I get to sleep in."

"Oh, no it doesn't!" He howled, laughing in such a cheery way that Clara was drawn out of her pretend coma by curiosity alone. She let out a sort of yelp of surprise as she was brutally attacked, the Doctor bunching the duvet up around her and lifting her up into his arms.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked groggily, but feisty all the same.

"Bit of a surprise for you, Miss Oswald!" He grinned wildly, spinning a full circle before depositing her on the living room sofa. "And you can't be in bed if you want the full experience."

"Doctor, what's gotten into you?" Clara tilted her head in suspicion and lifted herself back to her feet, slowly walking in his direction with a bit of a cautious stare. "Are you okay?"

"Clara Oswald." The Doctor shook his head with closed eyes and a wide, toothy smile. "I am most definitely okay." He put both hands on either side of her face and crouched until they were eye level. "And so are you."

"Of course I'm okay." Her laugh was a bit more of a nervous one, one of her hands coming up to cover his. "Doctor, you're acting like..." She shrugged. "Well, him."

"Who, you mean Bow Tie?" He asked with raised eyebrows, twiddling his fingers in front of his neck like he used to when straightening the little purple tie. "Suppose I am." He said thoughtfully, but still seemed wholeheartedly unfazed.

"Doctor." Clara approached him again with slightly raised hands and narrowed eyes. She gripped his shoulders to hold him in place, relieved when his relentless pacing came to an end. "Tell me what's going on."

"Oh, you'll find out in," He knocked her hands away and glanced at the clock. "Oh, ten minutes or so."

"Okay." She sighed, nodding slowly but giving up on any attempt to draw information out of him. "Alright."

"Now, in those ten minutes, there's something we need to do." The Doctor informed her, withdrawing a considerably large tree-top star from his large pockets. "I notice your lack of Christmas Tree topping. Let me guess. Another tradition? Or are you just lazy?"

"Yes, actually." She noted. "Mum and I used to wait until Christmas Day to put the topper on."

"I'm not going to bother asking why, since that is of course an absurd idea." He shook his head relentlessly. "But, alas! Christmas Day." He tossed it to her, chuckling when it nearly fell out of her grasp. "Ready?"

Clara was still very much confused. Not only was the Doctor acting completely out of character, and quite frankly making her a tad nervous, she was almost dreading what 'surprise' he had in store. That man could be quite unpredictable. For all she knew, he could have gotten her a dinosaur egg as a gift. But nonetheless, she just shrugged it off. If the Doctor was managing to get this excited over to what she assumed he saw as a pointless holiday, she was going to savor every minute. "Okay, then." She nodded with a little laugh, crossing the room to the fairly large tree her dad had gotten her when she'd first moved in. "Um." Clara tilted her head, staring at the top of the tree and extending her arms as high as she could. "I can't reach." Once again, she was squealing in surprise. The Doctor placed his hands on her hips and lifted her straight up, just long enough for her to properly place the star before he hastily lowered her back down.

"My god." She giggled, leaning back against him with a little friendly nudge in his side. "Well, there we go."

"Not bad." He mused. "Not bad at all."

They played around like that for a while. Chasing each other back and forth, collapsing onto the sofa for a giggly breath before jumping up and goofing off again, just acting like complete kids. When around ten minutes had passed, Clara stopped him, hand in his, and looked directly into his eyes.

"Doctor." She sighed, giving his hand a brief pat. "The anticipation is killing me. What's going on?"

The Doctor didn't reply at first, just grinned wildly. "I'll let the adrenaline drive you mad first." He smirked, he himself desperately ready for the arrival of what was coming.

When there was finally a knocking on the door, both companions shot a wary look in its direction.

"Go on." The Doctor encouraged. "Its for you."

"Should I be nervous?" Clara asked warily, slowly backpedaling towards the door and only earning a shrug in reply. "Here goes nothing." With a preparing intake of breath, she slowly turned the door handle and swung the door open. "Er, hi." She furrowed her brow in confusion. In her doorway, was in fact a policeman.

"Ah, Clara Oswald I presume?"

"Yeah." She nodded slowly, scowling and casting a glance over her shoulder. "Doctor, what did you get in to?!"

"No, miss, nothing like that." The officer laughed.

"Well then what's this all about?"

"Well." He just shrugged, laughing continuing. "Merry Christmas, Clara Oswald." He looked to his left and extended a hand, whispering something Clara couldn't quite catch.

Next thing she knew, she couldn't breathe. Clara took a few steps backward, one hand over her mouth and the other on her chest. Her eyes were wide. She couldn't believe what she was staring at.

The current things she was feeling felt familiar. She wasn't sure if this was an actual reality. If she was actually staring into the face that she thought she was.

But... it was real. He was there. He'd come home.

"Oh my god." Clara flung herself forward and wrapped her arms around the boy, tugging him to her and laughing in relief when his own small arms wrapped around whatever part of her he could reach. "Oh my god, I though you were dead."

He still didn't speak, and she wasn't entirely sure why, but when he pulled back he had such a bright smile on his face that Clara's heart felt like it was actually melting. "I can't believe this." She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see the smiling face that only belonged to one man. "What did you do?"

"Pulled a few strings." He shrugged, then tilted her head when several moments passed that she didn't say anything. "You will find your mouth beneath your nose." He joked. "You may care to use it."

Clara started laughing uncontrollably. Adrenaline surging, the impossible happening, it only seemed natural for her to grab the Doctor's jacket and pull him in for a kiss right then and there.

"I didn't mean like that!"

When she pulled back, she giggled at his awed expression, but drew her attention back to the child. She and the officer exchanged a few words before he bid he farewell and walked off, leaving the trio with much catching up to do, and an elephant in the room they needed to tame.

It was late at night, at that point. Clara had the boy, who's name she still couldn't figure out, tucked lovingly into the comfortable bed she made the sofa to be. He still wouldn't talk, but that was okay. She didn't need words to tell what was going through his mind. He was happy to be back in a safe place. Clara didn't know if he regretted leaving in the first place, but that didn't matter. He was back, and that was what was important. "Goodnight." She smiled, turning off the light before departing to her bedroom.

"Well, would you look at that." The Doctor's musing voice came from the corner of the room, where he was staring at the doors to the TARDIS and had his hand lightly running across the wood. "She's awake."

"How d'you mean, she's awake?" Clara questioned, crossing her arms and leaning against the box at his side.

"And," He went on, unfazed by her comment, and drew his attention slightly upward. "She's turned out to be a bit more festive than I realized."

Clara's eyes went wide as she caught sight of the mistletoe dangling from the top edge of the TARDIS. Bells seemed to jingle in the distance and the green leaves shone. She eyed the Doctor curiously, but he just shrugged.

"Seems like we're not gonna be let in unless-" He broke off, but Clara didn't need words to know what he was going to say. He changed the subject somewhat, but the elephant in the room was unavoidable. "Why did you kiss me?"

She solely shrugged, confidently meeting his gaze. "I just did."

"Well you shouldn't have."

"And why do you say that?"

"You just shouldn't have, alright?" He growled, and Clara raised her hands slightly in surrender.

"But it appears," She smirked, looking up and running her fingers over every detail of the mistletoe. "We have to do it again."

"Of course we don't." The Doctor scoffed, shaking his head vigorously. "I'll figure something else out."

"You've not been able to figure anything else out all month." She pointed out.

Well, I wasn't exactly trying too hard, you do realize. "Well I'll figure it."

I see right through you, you know. "What are you thinking about?"

The Doctor just shrugged. The forbidden. "How to get inside this bloody thing."

"But, we both know, there's a way to." Just kiss me you idiot.

"But that can't happen." No matter how much I admit I enjoyed it the first time.

"Would you rather be trapped here with me forever? Because that looks to be your only option." You're so slow.

I wouldn't say rather, but I certainly wouldn't mind. "I'll figure it out."

Clara watched him for a moment. She could read his expression better than he himself could, probably. That man was so readable, even in the most unreadable of moments. She could see it in his eyes. She could almost hear how fast his hearts were racing. She knew what he was thinking. And the thing was, she was thinking the exact same thing.

She dared to take a step closer, frowning in sympathy at the war that was probably swarming through the Doctor's mind. But she managed to bring it all to an end, with just a single string of words.

It wasn't an I love you. It wasn't cliche. It wasn't a large declaration of love, or a promise of commitment, or even more than what it appeared to be. It was just a simple few words. A simple string of words. But it definitely did the trick.

"You will find your mouth beneath your nose." Clara whispered, already rising on her tiptoes and raising a hand to palm his cheek. "You may care to use it."

And with that, the Doctor broke every rule in the book. Every rule from his planet, every rule he'd had with previous companions, even those recent personal rules of his when it came to close contact. He broke them all, because he simply couldn't resist. Because in those past twenty-five days, he'd realized something.

The Doctor raised both hands to Clara's face and crashed his lips against hers. Bells chimed in the distance, the TARDIS doors swung open, but neither of them moved. What was the point in moving?

Because, that was what he'd learned. Maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe being domestic, being human, being normal wasn't so bad

Maybe falling in love wasn't so bad.

So long as he was with the right person.

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you enjoyed this little Whouffaldi version of an advent calendar. This was really enjoyable to write, and I think many of us will need it with the Christmas Special tonight.

Being American, I haven't had the luxury of seeing it at the same time as some of you Brits. All I know is, I re-watched Dark Water and Death in Heaven today, watched the Fault in Our Stars with my family, and now tonight I'm gonna have my heart broken by Steven Moffat.

A teenager can't candle this much trauma. I'm just saying.