Guest: Clara falls and bruises her face, but the doctor thinks Danny's hitting her and Danny thinks the doctor put her in a harmful situation. The boys fight over her injuries until Clara proves she really did fall

Unique

Her concealer is just not cutting it.

She groans in frustration, dropping the makeup brush and shoving her head into her hands. Then she winces, retracting her palms and looking back into her mirror.

A large, purple bruise that covers most of the area surrounding her left eye is still completely obvious, no matter how much product she layers on.

It was a complete mistake, one of those unavoidable little things. Walking into her dark apartment the night before, tripping over the ottoman and completely smacking the side of her face on her coffee table was not in her plans for a Friday night.

And now she has this huge shiner, as Danny would say. She would hit herself again for being so stupid if it wasn't the cause of her current cosmetic imperfection. She's never had a black eye before, not even in childhood. So the swelling, the slight sting every time she blinks, is completely new, and absolutely not something that she wants to repeat.

She stands up and exhales, attempting to relieve some of the tension that's been building as her frustration had been bubbling.

It's just then when she hears the familiar wheezing and moaning, and she swears, running a hand through her hair. She's not even changed, still in her threadbare tank top and pajama pants, and her only makeup she has on is the failure to conceal her bruises.

She moves to the doorframe, peers out into the living room. Sure enough, the blue telephone box is materializing right next to her refrigerator. Groaning, she grabs a cardigan from the floor and leans against the doorframe, crossing her arms.

The door opens and he steps out, taking in his surroundings before his eyes stop on her.

"Clara!" His exclamation is cut off as she holds up one finger, which shuts him up completely.

"What have I told you?" She doesn't move towards him, and he stays where he is. Perfect. She does not need him prying to figure out what happened to her eye. "You don't park the TARDIS in here, and you need to call before you just show up. I do have a life, you know."

"PE isn't here, is he?" The Doctor suddenly grows wide-eyed, obviously concerned that he's intruded on some sort of frivolity. "Not in the...bedroom?"

"No, Doctor." She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "What do you want?"

"Just thought you might enjoy a day out." Then his face changes, eyebrows furrowing, and she knows he's noticed. "Did you do something new to your face?"

"No." She responds quickly, too quickly, and he's moved up to stand next to her. His hand, incredibly tender, brush a strand of her hair away from the marked side of her face, and the other cups underneath her chin. His thumb hovers over the swelling, over the bruising, and she suddenly knows exactly what he's going to say just before he says it.

"Did he do this to you?" There's built up fury behind his words. He's angry, become very angry very quickly, and she's experienced it before. She knows how dangerous he can become. "Clara, if he did this, if he hurt you, I need you to tell me."

"No, Doctor." She shrugs away from him, looks down at her feet. "It's really my fault, a stupid-"

"Him hitting you is not your fault."

"This wasn't Danny, Doctor. This has absolutely nothing to do with him."

"What exactly did I have nothing to with?"

And then Danny appears, stepping around from behind the living room door.

This, this bloody situation, is exactly what she pictured as a worst case scenario.

"Just let myself in with my key, I hope you don't mind." Then he looks at her, takes in the Doctor standing in close proximity to her, her appearance. She sees his gaze move back up to her face, sees his expression change from confusion to worry.

"What happened to your eye?" He walks over to her, puts on hand on her shoulder and the other, very softly, above her bruise.

She suddenly finds it rather astonishing how similar the two men standing in her living room can be.

"It's nothing, really." The Doctor tenses behind the two, and she knows the inevitable explosion won't be contained for much longer. "It was an accident, Danny. Completely my fault."

But Danny's gone quiet, and he's turned around, looking back and forth from the TARDIS and the Doctor, and she can nearly taste what's coming next.

"Were you just out with him?" He says, his voice low. "Did this happen then? Did he put you in danger?" The word 'he' is nearly spat out, and the Doctor looks at him, fire burning in his eyes.

"Oh, I put her in danger? That's definitely what happened, PE, well done." Danny turns completely around, and moves to stand mere inches away from the timelord.

"Well, I don't see anyone else standing around here with a time traveling box now, do I?"

"Maybe you're just trying to hide the fact that you did it."

"Stop it, both of you!"

Clara's shrill exclamation makes them both pause, and look at her, Danny turning back around. She takes a breath, raises an eyebrow on her good side and frowns.

"I did this to myself. Me. I fell over and hit myself on a table last night." Both of their faces suddenly gain an expression of 'oh god, we really are stupid', and frankly she can't agree more. "So next time before you go blaming each other, you should let me explain everything, yeah?"

They're silent for a moment, completely quiet until the Doctor lets out a snort, and Danny follows suit.

"What?"

"How on earth do you hit your eye on a table?" Danny laughs, moving to put an arm around her and kiss her on the cheek. "You, Clara Oswald, are a rather unique case."

"Maybe you should sit out traveling today." The Doctor adds, moving back to the time machine and attempting to hide his smirk. "You might scare the aliens." She laughs at that, leaning into Danny's welcoming chest.

"Watch it." He smiles, then climbs back into the police box. In a minute, it's disappeared from the room, leaving a couple floating papers fluttering to the floor. Danny turns to face her again, inspecting her eye more carefully.

"You should be sure you didn't get a concussion." He says, then he leans back and takes in her whole face. "That's a rather large bruise, you know."

"I know." Clara smiles, and he pulls her into his arms, resting his lips on the crown of her head. "What a stupid mistake. I mean, honestly. Who's ever given themselves a black eye?"

"Only you, Clara." He responds. "But you are a truly unique woman."

AN: I don't even know how I feel about this. Ah well, it's fairly fluffy.

Let me know what you all thought, reviews make me so very happy and they do inspire me to write more.

xoxo,

J