Title: Fruit Bears

Pairing: Rose/TenToo

Rating: K

Author's note: This is super fluff Rose/TenToo stuff. I haven't had time to write because I am busy working on my college degree (blah, who wants that?) so I had an hour before being called in for a show and wrote this up.

FRUIT BEARS

"I think I've done a bad thing," the voice was small and apologetic. Small hands wrung themselves together in anticipation as they waited for a wave of disapproval from the parental figures.

A flick of blond hair behind the ear, and suddenly she was kneeling next to her beloved daughter. She was a mother and a mother did things like that—kneeling comfortably at her child's side while rubbing the small of her daughter's back. They just did. Rose was never told to do motherly things; she just grew to know how to.

"What do you mean, 'bad thing'?" she nearly whispered. She was concerned. Their daughter had one hell of a conscience for being so young, sometimes it was overly active.

The child shied away from her mother's soft eyes and buried her face in her arm.

"What's gotten you so worried, sweetie?"

The once man of time—he never used to use such words as 'sweetie'. That was a term of endearment, something he never allowed himself to use. But now was different. Now was so different.

"Louise?" Rose ran her hand through her child's soft strawberry hair. She remembered his face of utter happiness when she was born with a soft downy hair of a reddish tint. He whooped into the air and told any able listener that his baby had ginger hair.

When his daughter started to silently cry child's tears, he was right there next to Rose, as he always was and always will be. He placed a finger under her chin and lifted her small face to look at him. Her soft eyes of brown were red with sadness and he felt it: that pain that came with parenthood; a pain that came with the laughter and love. He knew it was all worth it now—that pain, because his beautiful ginger haired Louise helped him feel a whole lot better.

"I've done a lot of bad things in my lifetime and I'm very sorry for them. Those bad things—whatever they are hurt our feelings, don't they?" he asked seriously with a touch of softness.

His daughter nodded and sniffled. Rose reached to him without a thought and gave his hand a squeeze. It was just something they did; a universal "I understand". He kept hold of it for he never wanted to really let it go.

"What happened, baby?"

"I'm sorry, mummy, but I couldn't stop them," she answered sadly.

John gently laid his hands on her small shoulders and looked into her eyes. They always shocked him with how soft and understanding they were. His were never so sweet.

Louise coughed, "They were picking on Robby and I let them do it. He cried a whole lot after they took his pack and I watched them be mean to him. I asked the other boys to stop and they didn't."

John relaxed. She was the tender age of six. She was not holding the existence of Time on her shoulders, she was small and new. He always feared the day she would walk in and tell him something he couldn't help her with. The day he will lose his answers for Louise will be the day he won't be looking forward to.

"Oh, I see," he ponders. "I bet that made you and Robby quite sad, yes?"

"Mhmmm."

"But you and Robby have each other. Like… when you play outside with your ball, you're happy. Sometimes… mean children feel sad because they don't have a Robby to play ball with. They think being mean will make them happy."

"Being mean doesn't make me happy!" she gasped and allowed her mother to wrap her arms around her.

John faintly smiled at how like Rose she could be. Some things truly were a wrong against humanity and his girls let everyone know.

"Exactly, because you're good. You've got the best mum in town who has taught you being mean is not a nice thing to do."

Louise tiled her head thoughtfully and nodded. "Yeah and also daddy… I shared my lunch pack with Robby and even gave him my fruit bears to have."

John slowly split into a large grin and grabbed her small hand to plant a sloppy kiss on.

"That's brilliant. Absolute-LY wonderful of you! You gave up your fruit bears and everything? That's incredible!"

Louise smiled a bit at her father's unmistakable pride.

"Really?" she sniffed.

"Oh, yeah! You love your fruit bears and you let Robby eat them. That's the nicest thing I've heard all year!" he threw his hands up in exclamation and Rose laughed.

"See, dad's all proud of you for what you did for your friend. I think you could even have a pack of fruit bears tonight if you'd like?" Rose asked.

Louise smiled with disbelief and as soon as Rose got up to pull down the box, the little girl grew frantic.

"Wait, mummy!"

Her small face was scrunched in thought.

"No bears tonight?" John asked, standing up from his kneeling position.

"No… tomorrow! Mummy can I have two tomorrow so I can give Robby one so he'll be happy again?"

Rose felt a smile spread along her face. "I think that's a great idea, sweetheart."

Louise wiped her cheeks dry and ran to Rose to hug her. She buried her face in her mother's abdomen and kissed as only a child could.

"Thank you, mummy. That's very nice of you."

John walked over with his certain proud swagger and kissed his Rose on the lips.

"Your mum is the greatest, isn't she?"

He felt her soft lips pull into a smile as he kissed her again. It was one thing to kiss Rose Tyler, but a whole other thing to kiss her at her happy moments like this.

"You're both the greatest," Louise concluded as she ignored her mum and dad kissing above her.

Hope you feel like a sugary fruit bear now!

Review if you want.

I'm off to Spring Awakening now!

x Cassie