Title: Teasing
Rating: PG
Pairing: Rose/Ten (sort of)
Genre: Friendship/flirting
Warnings: None
Spoilers: If you've seen the series 2 Christmas special you're fine.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine however much I wish they might be and thus I make no money from them.
AN: First Doctor Who fic and it's a little odd so please be kind. Reviews are always greatly appreciated, especially as this is my first attempt in this area.
Rose woke with a start, coming wide awake as she thought she heard something echoing down the halls. After spending a considerable amount of time in the TARDIS she knew that it was generally a bad sign when strange, unidentifiable noises arose so she lay still for a few moments, trying to work out whether she'd actually heard something or whether it had been a remnant of a dream. All remained quiet though as a third possibility came to her, it could well have simply been the TARDIS itself having a reshuffle, not an uncommon occurrence.
"This mean it's going to take me half an hour to find the kitchen again?" She spoke to the ceiling but got no reply, not that she was expecting one.
Throwing back the covers she was pleased to find that the room was warm. Heating was something the Doctor tended to forget about given his alien nature and so there had been many a morning when Rose had begun the day dressed for the Arctic before he had remembered and she was able to shed most of the layers. Today though, it seemed that he had his 'thinking about others' cap on and Rose decided to go on her search for the kitchen dressed as she was. She wasn't likely to run into the Doctor on the way unless the TARDIS had made it so that you had to cross the control room to get a cup of tea again, and even if she did the very over-sized men's shirt she wore to sleep in didn't show anything but a bit of leg, and some of her skirts were barely longer anyway. Choice made she slipped out into the corridor and was relieved to find the kitchen in the same place she'd left it the day before. Humming quietly she made herself a cup of tea and headed back toward her room.
Halfway down a corridor she paused and moved to the opening on her left. There was that noise again, and from the look of things it wasn't the TARDIS. Actually, it sounded like … singing? She knew the Doctor liked music but he was a hummer not a singer. Intrigued she followed the noise but the closer she got to the source the more alarmed she became, for she realised that it was indeed the Doctor singing but that he must be under extreme duress from some alien menace because there was surely no way he'd be singing what she thought he was singing voluntarily.
She came to one of the doorways into the control room and considered her options. She had to admit that she wasn't going to be much use dressed as she was and with only a cup of tea for a weapon, but then the tea was hot, boiling even, so it might do enough damage that she could get the Doctor to safety. Well, so long as it wasn't some kind of alien that fed off heat or used tea as the source of life. Plan of action made Rose edged to the corner of the doorway, paused to take a deep breath and then flung herself into the control room, tea raised above her head ready for action.
"We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine."
Sang the Doctor, dancing around the panels as he did so, happily waving his mallet in time to the tune.
"And something, something all aboard,
More of them something, um, door,
And there's a band."
He continued, fudging some of the lines he'd forgotten, pressing buttons and pulling levers as he went, completely unaware of his stunned audience.
"Something and there's a something, what's it something, yeah."
He sang a line with no discernable lyrics and then launched back into a full voiced rendition of the chorus.
"We all live in a yellow submarine
yellow submarine, yellow submarine.
We all live in a yellow sub – Rose! Good morning!"
He shouted in delight, suddenly catching sight of her. Then subtly he moved his lower half behind a panel as he took in her appearance. For some reason she had one hand raised above her head, clutching a mug containing what he assumed was tea. Her other hand was pulling on the hem of the shirt she was wearing, presumably to make sure he didn't see anything he shouldn't. He felt like he was intruding anyway. What was it about human women? How was it fair that the shirts of the opposite sex always looked better on them? And how was it fair that they looked their most appealing when they should look least so, with messy hair and sleep creases and half lidded eyes? He shook himself slightly, aware that his thoughts were straying down a forbidden path and realised that Rose still hadn't moved. She was also dripping tea onto an area of floor very close to her bare feet.
"Um … Rose?" He began, trying to get her attention, and wondered if perhaps he had something disgusting on his face so horrified was the gaze she was levelling at him.
Rose had burst in, fully expecting to see the Doctor being coerced in some terrible way, but had frozen in shock when she realised that he really was singing Yellow Submarine of his own free will. Of all the places and times and people he knew he had chosen to sing quite possibly the cheesiest song ever written on Earth, and had clearly been greatly enjoying himself.
"Um … Rose?"
The words penetrated just as she'd finally come out of her daze enough to be both aware that he was looking at her with a very worried expression and to realise that the whole situation was actually extremely funny. Laughter began to bubble up inside her and she quickly lowered the arm still holding the tea before she started to laugh so hard she threw it all over herself. She only just managed it in time as the first giggles erupted from her just as she got her arm down to waist level. A glance at the Doctor only made her laugh harder as he was now regarding her with wary confusion, an adorable expression on him at any time but even more so when he was also anxiously twirling a mallet between his fingers, unaware that the movement made him look like a naughty child who had been caught doing something he shouldn't.
Clutching her side Rose made her way unsteadily to the control panel and put her mug down before throwing herself back into the chair behind her and giving in to the belly deep laughter.
The Doctor stood there utterly bemused, trying very hard not to notice the fact that Rose's shirt had slid up a fair way when she'd collapsed into the chair. Surprisingly he was succeeding, mainly due to the minor feelings of panic he had regarding this sudden descent into howling laughter. With no idea what could possibly have provoked it, he cautiously moved towards his possibly insane companion.
"Rose? Are you alright?" He asked, placing a hand gently on her shaking shoulder.
Rose meanwhile was starting to regain some control. The deep laughs were subsiding into giggles and the tears that had run down her face were not being followed by any more. Still, she wasn't yet sufficiently recovered to manage speech, though she did try.
"It was – " She broke off into more helpless giggles. "You were - " She shook her head and held a hand up, asking him to wait. With no other option the Doctor stood by her side, fidgeting impatiently. Finally Rose got her laughter under control and managed a full sentence only broken up by hiccups.
"I went to get tea … and I heard you singing. I thought there was something wrong but I jump in and you're … you're dancing and getting into it and it was just so -"
"So what?"
"Funny!" Rose said, bursting into laughter again as the image came back to her. "You were dancing with a mallet and you didn't actually know any of the words and you were obviously having such a good time but it's such a bad song!"
"Oy!" The Doctor interrupted. "I'll have you know I can sing all the words to that song and it is not 'bad', it's just misunderstood."
"Oh yeah? Then how come one line apparently goes 'and something, something all aboard'? Far as I know that's not a real line."
"I was distracted." The Doctor said blithely.
"By what!" Rose argued. "Figuring out how hard you need to hit the TARDIS before she'll bump and grind in time to the music?"
The Doctor glared at her, but couldn't keep it up for long as she dissolved into giggles again and pointed at his hand. Looking down he realised that he was still clutching his trusty mallet and was pointing it at her in an attempt at a threatening manner. Even he had to admit that it wasn't really working though, and he flung it down onto the floor.
"Anyway." He said loudly, cutting through Rose's laughter and the amused hum of the TARDIS. "What do you mean you thought there was something wrong?"
"Like I said, you were singing that song. No one sings that song unless they're drunk, it's some kind of game or they've been made to. I thought some alien had got on board and was threatening you with, I don't know, being made to 'do domestic' unless you sang it."
The Doctor stared at her. He had been ready to defend his actions to the end if her leaping in as she did was just for ridiculous reasons, but he realised that she was actually serious. She really had thought he was in trouble.
"Can I ask?" He said, running a hand through his hair. "What exactly were you going to do if there was a threat on board? Was throwing tea over yourself the plan?"
"Not over me, over it, or them, whatever. Only reason it was hitting me was 'cause I was so amazed by what was really going on I froze. And hey, at least I had a plan, right?"
The Doctor just shook his head; a grin making it's way on to his face for the first time since she'd made him jump.
"What?" Rose demanded as he just stared at her with a smile. "What's that look for?"
"Oh, nothing." The Doctor replied in his infuriating 'I know more than you do' way.
"Well it's obviously something. Come on!" She heaved herself up in the chair and sat in the way she'd learnt to for school photos, ankles crossed and hands in her lap. She was trying for innocent and eager to learn, but her flushed face and somewhat dishevelled attire had the Doctor thinking of pretty much the opposite. Annoyed at his own lack of control he tried a different tactic.
"How about you go and get dressed and I'll finish off the repairs I was doing and then we can decide on a planet to visit. How about Argeron III? Or the Grendle cluster? Oooh or – "
"Yeah, any of those sound great but first you can tell me why you were staring at me." Rose replied, firmly folding her arms and fixing the Doctor with a look that reminded him all too much of her mother and told him that she would not be letting this go. Sighing he gave in.
"Oh alright. I was just thinking that, even though you only had a cup of tea, and really not a brilliant plan," he paused in case she wanted to argue, but she accepted the slight easily, wanting to hear the rest, "the fact that you were willing to face some potential threat despite those limitations, it just reminded me of … well, me. It reminded me again why I wanted you to travel with me. Not that I forgot, just that every now and then you still surprise me."
There was a short pause as Rose cleared her throat, having been caught by surprise by the unexpected compliment delivered with such genuine admiration.
"Well," she said after a few seconds, "always heard you should keep some mystery in a relationship."
"Quite right." The Doctor replied. "Which is why you need to get dressed."
Rose looked up at him and saw his eyes twinkling. Following his gaze she blushed as she saw just how high the hem of the shirt had ridden and quickly hopped off the seat, tugging it down as she went. Now it was the Doctor's turn to laugh as she waved a hand at him threateningly while carefully making her way out of the room, avoiding spilt tea and his gaze. At the doorway, however, she paused and looked back, locking eyes with him.
"Laugh all you like," She said, the glint in her eyes letting him know she wasn't offended but nor was she going to take this lying down, "but just ask yourself one question."
"Oh? What's that?"
"Who do you think got you out of your past self's stuff and into those pyjamas last Christmas?"
And with that she disappeared back down a corridor, leaving a stunned Doctor behind her.
"No." He said to himself, moving toward the control panel. "She's joking, there's no way …" He stood for a few moments, calling up the few memories he had of that time before he'd woken up on the Sycorax ship, and was alarmed to find that he couldn't be sure one way or the other.
"Right." He stated firmly, throwing a switch on the panel before him. "This calls for drastic measures." The TARDIS hummed questioningly as he quickly patched up the repairs he would otherwise have spent hours on. 'Where are we going now?' She seemed to inquire of him and, with features set in preparation for a potentially explosive situation, he replied.
"The Powell Estate. Jackie Tyler has the answers to some very important questions."
And he pulled the lever.