A/N: Just a short, 500-word (ish) drabble written for NaNoWriMo warm-ups on LJ.
And me and my friends actually have one of these, for much the same reason.
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"It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech." The Doctor's face was lofty, his chin lifted as if to deflect the sniggers of his companion.
"Really? So what was that back there?"
"That was…aggressive negations."
"What would they be?"
"Negations involving a hell of a lot of running." The Doctor refused to meet her eyes, wandering instead to the other side of the console and messing with a dial that he really shouldn't be touching… especially if he didn't want to put a huge dent in the politics of eastern Russia.
Again.
"Ha!" Rose was triumphant: she even jumped in the air. "That'll be a quid: cough up!"
"What?" The Doctor frowned, watching in a mix between confusion and slight fear as Rose proudly pulled a small Tupperware container from her jacket pocket and held it out towards him.
"Reference swear box; ever since that whole 'Lion King' bit at Christmas, I've been wondering how often you make an obscure reference to some old dead guy or long-forgotten movie that I don't necessarily pick up on. Well, now we'll see how often you actually do it."
"How often I do what?"
"How often you reference the late twentieth century or early twenty-first. Cause I reckon that you actually do it more that you think."
"Riiight, so what is it you want me to do?"
"Every time you make a reference to my time, or a time we've visited, out of context, you have to put money in the swear jar. The more random and obscure or geekish it is, the more you have to cough up."
"So why this time?" The Doctor was almost grinning now, the familiar tingle of a challenge dancing on his tongue.
"You just made a massive Star Wars quote, right there... and I only noticed cause Mickey made me watch them all over and over, so don't look at me like that!" She tried to deflect the Doctor's smirk.
"Well, you do know that my references are always culturally sound and relevant to the situation. Plus, I make them as noticeable as possible."
"Really? How come?"
"I try to leave out the parts that people skip. Like the huge expositions and descriptions in nineteenth century literature, the bits no one remembers. It's only fun to reference when you know that you may not be the only one who gets the joke."
"Oh, of course." Rose giggled a little, then shook the little box again, more insistently. "So, please, leave your contribution in the box."
"Ha!" The Doctor crowed, "You too!"
"What?" Rose frowned, scanning back through her last sentence. "What did I say?"
"Labyrinth, 1986, kids movie. You were only a baby then, but that's still a reference!"
"But… wait, I didn't realize I was doing it…"
"Really? You have to remember that movie, it had muppets! Muppets, Rose, pretending to be fairytale creatures that really resembled the denizens of the Olp'Labroooek empire. C'mon, you have to remember…"
Rose huffed, "Fine. A quid each then."
The Doctor beamed, then examined the two small, gold coins in the box. "Y'know, Rose, there's a couple of quid in there now…"
"Well done, the great Time Lord can count."
He continue don, ignoring her patronizing sarcasm, "And I'm really very hungry…reckon a couple of quid is enough for a portion of chips?"
