Note: Written for Kazza, aka Tali (yes, she is the OC in this fic), aka tallulah-llulah over on tumblr. I love you, Kazza!
~X~
"Doctor," Amy called from the second level of the TARDIS. "Where are we?" Her voice was one part whining and two parts curious. Tali turned away as soon as the redhead came into view, rolling her eyes so that only the Doctor could see her.
"Space," The Doctor replied with a smirk, messing with some of the console controls.
"You know what I mean," Amy insisted, sparking another eye roll from Tali.
"I don't know…" The Time Lord told her, sounding like he was focused on something else. "I think something's wrong with her sensors. She probably just needs to reset for a while. She'll be fine in a day, maybe less."
"Are we going to do anything?" Amy inquired. Her voice probably didn't sound quite as petulant as it seemed to Tali, but whatever.
"Can't, sorry," he said, sounding again like he wasn't focusing on the conversation. He messed with another knob and moved to the next panel, studying one of the monitors.
Tali could imagine the look on Amy's face. She was probably scowling, or rolling her eyes. Something annoying. She heard the redhead's footsteps recede down a hallway, leaving her alone with the Doctor. The only sound was the buzzing of the console and the constant pulsing hum from the heart of the TARDIS.
She stared at the Doctor while he worked, silently vying for his attention. She sighed once, making it a bit more obvious. Finally he looked up, a small smile on his lips. "What?"
"You know what."
"Is this about Amy again?" he inquired, releasing the controls and coming to stand before Tali, still smiling.
"She always bosses you around!" Tali exclaimed, trying to use her tone of voice to soften the accusation. "You're like 900; she's what, twenty four?"
"She does not!" The Doctor insisted.
"Does too," Tali replied, forcing herself not to stick her tongue out like a four year old. And she would, she totally would. She just figured she should try not to look childish if she wanted to win this.
"Maybe a little…"
Tali laughed and wrapped her arms around the Doctor's waist. She tilted her head up and the Doctor pressed his lips against hers softly. She parted her lips, pressing for more, but the Doctor pulled away with a slightly chastising murmur of, "Tali…"
Tali rolled her eyes, pressing her lips against the Doctor's again, quickly, before pulling away and walking around the console. "Why do you put up with he-" she tripped, letting out an awkward yelp as she hit the ground. In an instant, the Doctor is at her side, offering his hand and helping her to her feet.
"Are you alright?" he asked, concern mixing with humor in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm alright, I'm fine!" she replied, but she sat down in a nearby chair to take a look at the knee she banged on the way down. She glanced over to the spot where she'd fallen. "I just tripped on a…vine?" She cocked her head to the side curiously, staring at the object on the ground. "Doctor? Please tell me that's just a weird timey-wimey wire."
The Doctor was already crouching next to it, examining it with the sonic. He let out a bewildered noise as the warbling sound of the screwdriver cut out, giving him the results. "No, it's a vine! A real, living, vine, from a plant. It must be somewhere in the TARDIS!" He rose, looking up at the ceiling, then back down at the vine. It ran across the glass floor, then under the platform. Through the clear surface, they could see it running towards the column of the console beneath.
The Doctor practically flew down the stairs to investigate, Tali following quickly behind. The vine ran into the wall, disappearing behind a panel. The Doctor removed the panel silently, cautiously glancing behind.
What should have been an organized, if not hectic, bunch of wires and lights was turned into a mess of tangled wires and vines, some error lights blinking, and some kind of goo dripping from the top of the panel. A bit of the good dropped onto one of the wires, sizzling as it dissolved through the rubber coating to expose the inside of the wire.
The Doctor stared, eyes flicking around impossibly fast, trying to take in everything at once. He could have passed as a statue; he wasn't moving a muscle, standing absolutely still. Without warning, he started moving again, waving around the sonic screwdriver like a magic wand, pointing it at the vines and good. A strange, muffled shrieking sounded and the vines started moving of their own accord, receding.
One vine, however, whipped out, wrapping around Tali's ankle. She was pulled to the ground, her head colliding with a crack as she cried out, in shock, fear, and pain. "Doctor!"
The Time Lord grabbed the vine, tugging at it in an attempt to break it, only to feel it pull back harder, almost pulling him off his feet. He dropped the vine, using his sonic again, cycling through the frequencies as whatever stemmed the vine shrieked from somewhere unseen. Tali let out a cry as well, as the vine thrashed, squeezing her ankle tighter and tighter. The sound filling the space rose, both in volume and frequency, bringing Amy running, confusion and concern covering her face.
At that moment, the vine released Tali's ankle, disappearing within the console with the rest of the vines. They all stood there in silence, looking around to each other for a moment before the Doctor leaned down to help Tali up once more. She rose onto one foot, unable to put pressure on the other. The Doctor carried her up the stairs and set her in the chair again to examine her ankle.
"It's just badly bruised," he finally told her, smiling in relief. "It'll be good as new in a couple weeks." Tali smiled back, glad to hear that it wasn't anything worse. Somewhere along the way, Amy had drifted away, leaving the two alone.
"So do you know what it was?" Tali asked, looking at him curiously.
"Dionaea muscipula," he replied, settling in next to her. "Sort of like a venus flytrap. But a lot bigger. It uses the vines to grab its prey, and bring it to the main mouth. That would be, you." Tali shuddered. "No worries, though. The TARDIS's internal defense mechanism has already taken care of it."
"So, it's dead?" Tali inquired, looking at him seriously and gesturing to her ankle, quickly turning purple.
"Yeah, it is."
The fell silent. Tali looked up to him, staring into his eyes. Suddenly, she started laughing. She tried to control it, but she just ended up laughing harder. The Doctor soon joined in. There was no reason for it, nothing particularly funny had happened, they were just sitting there together, laughing as hard as they could at absolutely nothing.
The Doctor laced his fingers through Tali's, leaning in and pressing their lips together again.
"What would I do without you, Doctor?"