"... And that, Rose Tyler, is why you never hold down the second lever to the right for any amount of time exceeding 22.36547 Earth seconds."

"Fascinating Doctor, really, but d'you think I needed a half-hour lesson on it?"

Rose was teasing, and he knew it, but the Doctor flashed her his Why-would-you-even-say-that-I'm-incredibly-offended-and-you've-bruised-my-ego look from across the kitchen table anyway.

Fortunately, Rose knew just how to fix it.

She leaned across the table and kissed the Doctor on the cheek.

"Don't look so down. I love it when you get excited about stuff. But, since you seem to be done, a deal's a deal. You have to do what you promised."

Another look. His puppy dog face.

"No, no, you're not getting out of this. Come with me, we are folding laundry. I'm not doin' it by myself for once."

Rose got out of her seat, linked her hand with his and pulled him towards the wardrobe room. He resisted initially but they both knew he was going to do it, no matter how much the Doctor complained. Although he might have it in him to pout during. She was as much his weakness as he was hers. Honestly, she would've walked away from anyone else about 30 seconds into that lecture. Sometimes it was soothing just to hear him talk, even if she didn't understand what he was saying.

"But Rooooose I don't want to fold laundry! I want to do something more exciting!"

He swung her around into his arms, throwing her off balance. The Doctor backed Rose to the wall, clearly trying his best to distract her. Oh, the lengths he would go to just to get out of chores! Once, he'd "gone out for jam" and came back four hours later, jamless and acting surprised that Rose hadn't waited for him to start cleaning.

"Stop it."

She tried to giving him a stern look but it was stifled by her laughter.

"Never."

He strategically placed a kiss where her neck met her shoulder before whispering into her ear, "We could go to a new planet, have a new adventure."

In the blink of an eye, Rose shifted her weight and suddenly the Doctor was against the wall, confused at the turn of events. Rose brought her face as close as she possibly could to his without making any contact. She felt his heartbeats increase, as they often did when things didn't go as he planned.

"Or you could do as you promised."

Before the words made their way to his brain, Rose has disappeared. Presumably into the wardrobe room. With a defeated look on his face, the Doctor thrust his hands in his pockets and begrudgingly followed her path. The Doctor opened the door and leaned against the frame, eyes wide at the sight before him. Rose was sitting on the floor surrounded by socks. High socks, low socks, black socks, white socks, his socks, her socks. The word had lost all meaning to him. But that happened with a lot of words, didn't it? Kiwi, physics. Why was that? Maybe there was a book in the TARDIS library about it. All about words that lose meaning when said too often. Even 'word' was a weird word. Word, word, word ...

"Doctor? Are you okay?"

Oh. Apparently he'd been lost in his thoughts again.

"What? Oh yeah. Fine!"

Back to the matter at hand. She expected him to sort socks. A Time Lord reduced to doing the most domestic of all domestic tasks. Time Lords didn't do domestic. They did, however, try to charm their way out of things.

"Rose?"

No answer, but she started to hum a tune.

"Roooose?"

"Hmm?" She answered but refused to look at him. Rose just continued paring socks, if she looked at him now it was all over. He'd be putting on his best face. It was a battle of wills.

"Have you given any more thought to my earlier proposal?"

"Oh about leaving this here for later while we traverse about the galaxy having the time of our lives?"

"Yes!"

"'Course I have. And you know what?"

"What?"

"I think the laundry needs doing."

"Hmph."

The Doctor sat next to her on the and began halfheartedly sorting socks and tossing the paired ones behind him. Rose went back to humming her song, trying to ignore the overgrown five year old sitting next to her.

"You thought they came out of the washer this way, did you?"

"No. I guess not. It's just so boring, can't we do something more fun?"

"Well how can I make it more fun for you? Because it needs doing."

"I can think of one way ..."

He leaned over, cupped her cheek in his hand, and kissed her with purpose. She returned his kiss enthusiastically but broke it shortly after, much to the Doctor's disappointment.

"Hang on, your not gettin' out of this by snogging me until I forget what we were doin'. But how about this," she threw a pair of socks at him, "as soon as we finish we'll throw the TARDIS on random, land in some seemingly innocent place and you can tell me all about the planet's history, people, and anything else you've ever wanted to tell me. Deal?"

She put some emphasis on anything. The Doctor found it intriguing, but let it pass. Just for that moment. Although he was reasonably sure what she meant.

He smiled. With those beautiful brown eyes staring into his, how could the Doctor refuse?

"Deal."