Chapter One: Bahl

"Oritorious!" The Doctor shouted as he flung open the doors to the Tardis with Clara in tow. "What a marvelous planet!"
"That has to be one of my favorites," Clara added, smacking her lips. "Why is it the alien planet has the best chocolate?"
"Do you not listen to a word I say?"
"'Fraid not, I was too busy eating chocolate," Clara grinned, sucking the remaining chocolate from her fingers. "Tell me again."
The Doctor huffed, a child-like pout drawn on his lips. "Of all the life forms I have encountered, you humans have the worst attention spans. Apart from the Calmanine, they can barely carry on breathing let alone a conversation. Lovely species though, they have this acute sense of smell that could sniff out different cheeses from miles away—"
"Doctor," Clara interrupted. The Doctor stopped, looking at Clara expectedly. "Chocolate?"
"Ah," He smiled. "Right. The Oritorians were the original creators of chocolate!" He explained, hopping up to the console and circling it, pulling various levers as he danced about. "They began making chocolate millions of years back when the earth was nothing but a big glow-y ball of molten rock and elements floating about in space. Chocolate is their main resource, their food source, and they take it wherever they go in the Universe. Five and a half a million years go by, the Earth begins crawling with new life forms, and one of the Oritorian ships crash landed in South America full of cocoa beans. Entirely my fault really, lost control of the Tardis. I did apologize." He wrinkled his brow, placing his hands on the console and leaning on it. "The Natives were pretty angry though. Anyway, as it turns out the soil on earth is similar to the soil on Oritorious, so the Oritorians decided to use earth as a sort of growing planet. They planted the cocoa in case anything happened to the supply on Oritorious."
"So if you're the reason the ship crashed here, then essentially you're the reason Earth has chocolate?" Clara smirked as she leaned against the console, pressing forward as the Doctor was. The Doctor straightened with a prideful grin, adjusting his bow tie as he often did when he was showing off.
"Yes, I am the reason the Earth has chocolate."
"Don't look so proud of yourself," Clara laughed, her lips quirked into the most playful of smirks. The Doctor grinned back before stepping around the console, standing close to Clara with his hands together. "So, Clara Oswald," his grin widened. "Where to next?"
Clara cupped her chin in her hand, tapping one slender finger against her cheek. "Take me somewhere new—"
"I always take you somewhere new."
"Somewhere exciting—"
"Everywhere we go is exciting!"
"Take me to a party."
The Doctor stopped, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "A party?" His lips curled into a childish grin. "Clara Oswald, I will take you to the party capital of the Nu galaxy!"

"Bahl has the most elaborate celebrations in the galaxy," The Doctor explained as he looped around the controls, pressing buttons and inputting their destination. "Parades, food, dancing, lights, all of the goodies that you could possibly think of! Every day is a celebration on Bahl."
"Why is that?" Clara inquired, following the Doctor around the console.
"The Niscorites believe—"
"Niscorites? Not Bahlians or something?"
The Doctor stopped, spinning to look at Clara in confusion. "Bahlians? No, that just sounds silly. The Niscorites are the residents of Bahl. They have an express belief that every day is a gift that should be celebrated in the most extravagant way possible. Ironically," he continued, resuming his previous dance around the Tardis. "they are also the cleanest planet in the entire Nu galaxy! The Niscorites believe longevity can be achieved through cleanliness. Can't really say they're wrong, the oldest living Niscorite is well over six thousand years old. Think about all the parties he's been to!" He clapped his hands together, his smile unwavering, as though it had been glued to his face.

As the Doctor pulled the last lever, the Tardis lurched. She gurgled unhappily before stalling, sitting right where she was. The Doctor's lips twisted into a taught frown.
"Come on old girl, what's the matter?"
The Doctor stroked the center console lovingly and for a moment Clara thought perhaps he wanted a moment alone.
"What happened? Why aren't we moving?"
"She's unhappy." The Doctor's eyes were locked on his Tardis, brow drawn worriedly before he jogged down below the console, looking for the problem. Clara followed, wiping a finger over the metallic surface of the railing. Her finger came up with a fair clumping of dust.
"Maybe she just needs a bath." She hinted, showing the Doctor the dust on her finger. "She's dusty. When was the last time you cleaned in here?"
The Doctor's frown deepened and he swiped his finger over the Tardis as well, rubbing the dust between his fingers.
"Perhaps it is time for a cleaning." He mused, placing one hand over his nose and mouth so he could clear the dust without breathing it in. "We can take her to one of the cleaning stations on Bahl, I'm sure they would be happy to assist us."
The Doctor tapped a few of the wires to make sure they were stable before he darted back to the console, pulling the lever again and grinning when the Tardis roared back to life.
"Ah-ha! There's my beautiful girl! Just needed a little attention!" He held onto the control panel to steady himself as the Tardis shook.
"A little attention?" Clara shouted over the sound of the Tardis, one eyebrow quirked. "Beautiful girl?"
"Oi!" The Doctor looked insulted, even as he swayed back and forth with the movement of the Tardis. "She is beautiful! And you wonder why she doesn't like you!"
The Doctor grinned as Clara leaned her head back and laughed.

When the Tardis finally came to a halt, the Doctor had already begun rummaging through a large chest below the main controls. He tossed out suit jackets, mismatched socks, hats of all sorts (save one fez, which he placed on his head before continuing his digging,) striped pants, cotton blouses, and several different gloves before he finally found what he was looking for.
"Ha!" He exclaimed, taking off his bow tie and replacing it with an even more ridiculous looking bow tie; this one was covered in what looked to be small balloons and party poppers. He turned to Clara with such prideful enthusiasm that she had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing.
"Well," He said, adjusting his bow tie before smoothing back his hair. "How do I look?"
Clara laughed. "Ridiculous. Where did you get that bow tie? I haven't seen that one before."
The Doctor smile broadened simply because he had made her laugh.
"A peddler sold it to me on Fedorian Rex; he said I looked rather dashing."
"It looks absurd!"
"I like absurd, absurd is good, absurd is…well," He stepped up to her, flashing Clara his brightest smile. "Absurd."
Clara rolled her eyes, reaching up to take the fez off his head and place it on her own. "Let's go party with the Niscorites, shall we?"
"Let's." The Doctor tapped her nose playfully before opening the Tardis doors.

When the Doctor and Clara stepped out of the Tardis, there was no celebration. There were no parades, no dancing, and no happy citizens laughing in the streets. In fact, there were no signs of Niscorites anywhere.
"Doctor…?" Clara said slowly, glancing up and down the bare street. "If this is a party it sure is a very dull one."
"Yes…" The Doctor's brow was furrowed with concern as he removed his sonic from his jacket pocket. "It is rather…dull."
The Doctor pointed his sonic in random directions, his expression becoming more confused as he glanced at it. "There are Niscorites around here. The question is," He began fidgeting with his sonic. "Where?"

Author's Notes:

There will be several chapters to this story (and by several I mean many.) I'm sorry it's moving slowly at first, but I promise it's about to get very interesting. This is the first fanfic I have written in a few years, so I urge you to please give constructive criticism, your opinion, or a review!