Title: Can't Run (I Can't Hide From You Any Longer)
Author: wavingkilts
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: G
Length: 510
Characters/Pairings: The Doctor (12th), Clara
Warnings/Spoilers: None!
Author notes: This is for the prompt: Locked from fan_flashworks! My first attempt at Twelve! The title is some song lyrics from a song by Reaktion (ft. The Eden Project)
Summary: “You can’t see me, can you? Have you any idea what that’s like?”
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who! Belongs to the BBC!

“She can't see you...”

He knows that. She sees another version of him, looming behind him like an irritating ghost. She looks at him with those eyes. Those big and beautiful eyes yet she's not looking into his. She's looking into his; the man's eyes she wishes and longs to see once more.

“Never yours...”

He knows that now. Or he leads himself to believe such things. He's a fool no less because she can't see him.

“What do you mean? You're here... you're right-” then she would reach out her hand, those fingers never touching him, just hovering, fingertips just barely touching the material of his jacket, over one beating heart. She would hesitate before the words slipped through her lips in nothing but a whisper, “here. What do you mean I can't see you?”

“You can't see me though can you? You see the man you first ran into. Have you any idea what that's like?”

She would stand there, her fingertips still hovering there above one heart, the softest of breezes brushing through her hair and jacket. He watched her, her hand raising, those fingers curling delicately in the air.

So close...

“She will never look at you the same way... you aren't him any more.”

He knew that. He did. She wanted him. His lips would form a line, his head raising, leaning just slightly away from her hand. It burns when she touches me...

“I do... because the same thing happened to me. This man... he was brilliant but he was so blind and so... stupid that he never saw what was right in front of him. I loved him... I did, but he looked right through me, he never looked at me the way I wished he would, but now I know, I was running after the wrong man.”

“Clara-”

“Don't close yourself away from me Doctor. I'm still waiting for the time you,” she always prodded him in the chest when it came to something about him. He winced, taking that one step back he had been wanting to take. His eyes locked with hers just for a brief second. She was smiling again. That smile... torn between two emotions; sadness and happiness. His hearts ached in his chest as she finished her sentence. “will let me unlock the cage you've stumbled into.”

There was an air around them. Silence filling the bubble that had sucked them in tightly... so close together that it hurt them both to stand so close. Clara watched him... she always did. Her eyes never seeing him as he struggled to breath. Struggled to carry on hiding himself away from her, because like he said,

“You can’t see me, can you? Have you any idea what that’s like?”

Never seeing him. A ghost before her.

Maybe he was right...

She can't see him, but she still wants to save him. Unlock the cage he has stumbled apon.

“You're still my Doctor. No matter what face you have.”

~fin~