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The Doctor had taken them to a ‘surprise’ planet, for a ‘surprise’ that they were sure Harry would enjoy. Sarah (probably correctly) thought that it was to apologise for putting Harry’s life in danger, again. Shame that Harry didn't get it, though. He never seemed to get the Doctor’s displays of affection, the gestures they would make. Harry understood words and (very forward) actions, though, and unluckily for them, the Doctor did almost everything except words and bold actions.
(Lucky thing that Sarah did both.)
They had taken them to a planet at night, and they had told them to sit down in the grass, somewhere that looked almost identical to a nice picnic spot, and wait, with an impossibly wide grin on their face.
So they waited, sitting down on the grass side-by-side, shoulders touching. She sat on the Doctor’s right, Harry sat to their left.
Around half an hour in of just sitting in the dark and chatting, Sarah leaned against the Doctor’s side.
(Her plan to form a triad had been to slowly test how comfortable the Doctor would be with either of them. So far, she’d figured out that they would happily let Sarah fiddle with their scarf or mess with their hair, provided that she could reach it. And so far, Harry'd gotten nowhere, except fumbling over his words while talking to the Doctor sometimes.
She sighed. Harry was sweet, really, but far too passive. He would've just pined away for them if she hadn’t made her move first.
So she would make a move first, but she’d also try to encourage him to talk more openly and fearlessly. A little bit of social courage never did anyone any harm.)
Sarah smiled to herself as the Doctor put an arm around her, babbling about the planet’s inhabitants’ biology to a very interested Harry.
She caught his eye, and tilted her head towards the Doctor.
He shot her a polite, curious look.
She resisted the urge to groan loudly and roll her eyes.
Before she could say anything else, the Doctor spoke up.
“Now,” they said, with a dramatic flourish of their hands, one around Sarah’s shoulders, and the other around Harry’s (nice!), “Look!”
She turned her gaze towards the skyline, towards where the Doctor was staring intently at.
The inky black sky was slowly changing to purple, then blue, ultramarine, aquamarine, cyan, giving way to leaf-greens and pale yellows, then a sunset hue of orange she had never seen before in her life. The colours spread through the black sky like that highschool chemistry experiment where they separated the colours of ink. A tinge of pink after the orange, which spread, like all the colours did, overshadowing the dark sky and lighting it up purple-blues-green-yellow-orange-pink.
She heard Harry suck in a breath beside her, while she stared wide-eyed at the sky, all the while the Doctor was radiating smug happiness.
After the pink, the sun emerged, a blindingly bright white, which left imprints on her eyelids when she closed her eyes.
The Doctor nudged her and grinned, then turned to Harry.
She found them all smiling together, watching the impossibly beautiful sunrise, and decided that her plan could be set to the side, while taking in the moment with the pair of them gained more importance in her head.