Happy Unbirthday
Disclaimer: All rights of Doctor Who belong to BBC.
A/N: Got this idea while I was reading "Stone Rose". Anyway, first time writing Nine. Hope it's not all bad. Enjoy!(:
It started on a day just like any other day on the TARDIS; the Doctor was under the metal grating of the console tinkering with the TARDIS while Rose sat on the seat right above reading a magazine.
"Doctor?" Rose spoke up from her magazine. The Doctor responded with a non-verbal "hmm" as he still had his sonic screwdriver gripped between his teeth.
"You mentioned you are nearly nine hundred years old yeah? How exactly do you keep track of that?" Rose wondered aloud.
The Doctor connected the two cable sockets he was holding on to and took the sonic screwdriver out of his mouth. "Well, I am a Time Lord. I have an excellent Time Sense, it just comes to me naturally."
"Well yeah. But don't you ever just lose count?"
"It may be difficult for you apes to keep track of days and weeks and months but for a Time Lord, it is second nature."
"So how do you know when you've gotten a year older? I mean, you don't have a birthday so do you just wake up one morning and go "Yep, I am now nine hundred and one"?"
"It's not exactly like that."
"Oh my god! It is exactly like that. You just pick out any random day to get a year older!"
"I'm a time traveller, Rose. I have no need for a birthday." The Doctor paused for a while before grinning. "Any day is my birthday!"
Rose, somewhat satisfied with that answer, then changed the topic and thus began another discussion. After the Doctor finished tinkering, they visited another world which naturally meant they were running for their lives in an hour. By the end of the day, that whole conversation was left forgotten. Well, mostly forgotten.
The Doctor was sitting in the TARDIS library reading Charles Dickens when he picked up a faint distress signal coming from the TARDIS. Immediately abandoning his novel, he got up to track the source of the distress signal. In absolutely no time, he found himself in front of the galley. Frowning slightly, he turned the door knob to open the door. Instantly, his numerous senses were assaulted by a strong burnt smell and a thick smoke.
"Rassilon." The Doctor muttered under his breath and brought up one hand to cover his nose and mouth with one leather sleeve. "Rose? Rose! Are you in here?!" He shouted into the almost entirely opaque smoke. To his immense relief, Rose soon emerged out of the thick smoke coughing into her shirt.
"What in Rassilon's name were you trying to do Rose!" The Doctor asked incredulously.
"I was baking something but I couldn't figure out the temperature settings on the oven!" Rose cried out.
"You were baking? Oh never mind! Let's just hurry get out of here. The TARDIS will be able to clear all the smoke on her own." The Doctor said, quickly ushering Rose out of the door. Once the smoke and smell has been cleared from the galley, the Doctor brought Rose back to the galley to explain to her the numerous functions of a 25th century oven. Just to make sure to avoid such an incident from ever occurring again. With that crisis averted, the Doctor retreated back to his spot in the library to finish his reading.
Exactly two and a half hours later, Rose burst into the library excitedly. Her clothes were stained with cake dough and chocolate and her hair was pulled back into the messiest bun the Doctor has ever seen but she had a ridiculous proud beam on her face. Excitedly, she pulled the Doctor out of the library and once again into the galley.
"TA-DA!" She announced happily. Sat in the middle of the table, was a small but proud rectangular cake. The entire surface of the cake was covered with dark blue and white Marzipan. One end of the cake was a small square. Just under the little square was the white chocolate lettering "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX".
The Doctor gave her a bemused look which made Rose hastily said, "It's the TARDIS."
The Doctor laughed, "Yes, I can see that. But what is this for?"
Rose instantly looked much more relieved and quickly explained, "Well, you said the last time that you didn't really have a fixed birthday. I just thought a simpler way would be to just celebrate unbirthday. So, here we are. Happy Unbirthday!"
When the Doctor did not reply, Rose waited with bated breath, worried that she may have accidently offended him somehow. Maybe Time Lords just found the whole idea of birthdays foolish? When the Doctor finally broke out into a large smile, he enveloped her into a tight hug and muttered into her hair, "Oh, that's just fantastic." She then found piercing, icy blue eyes boring into hers, "Thank you."
"Oh but it gets better. Try it!" Rose insisted, cutting out a slice for him. Complying, the Doctor took the cake and took a bite. Rose just looked at him smiling with her tongue touching her teeth.
"It is banana flavoured!" The Doctor cried in delight. "Oh, Rose. This is really good."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
A few days later, the Doctor led a blindfolded Rose out of the TARDIS doors. Once safely out of the doors, the Doctor untied the blindfold. Rose was about to speak when she felt her breath get caught in her throat. Their entire surroundings were in all shades of pink. She stood on top of a small hill and she could see the skyline of a nearby city where all the skyscrapers were built from pink crystals, glistening in the warm gentle sunlight. Everything was gorgeous.
"Happy Unbirthday, Rose." The Doctor wished her.
From then on, the Doctor and Rose will pick random days to celebrate unbirthdays. Some days it was a random trinket, some days it was an elaborate trip, they celebrated whenever they saw fit as they danced their way through the universe.
The Doctor dematerialised the TARDIS and began the sequence to launch them back into the vortex. It has been barely a week since he has regenerated and he and Rose have just began to start travelling again. Wanting to take things slow since New Earth, they just returned from a market bazaar from a neighbouring galaxy. While he knows that Rose is slowly getting used to the new him but he still feels the distance between the two of them. The Doctor then shook his head and berated himself. It has only been a week! He should be thanking the universe that she still wants to travel with him!
At that moment, Rose walked into the console and sheepishly handed him a small paper bag. Curious, the Doctor opened it and pulled out the enclosed item. It was a banana shaped spectacles case.
"I've realised that this body uses spectacles and I just happened to saw it at the bazaar just now. So yeah. Happy Unbirthday." Rose finished with a small shy smile.
The Doctor then smiled widely and thought maybe everything will turn out just fine.
End