Chapter One
Rose smiled, as she finished pouring the can of salsa into a small bowl. She reached over into a bigger bowl and grabbed a nacho chip. Eating it, she walked over to the refrigerator in the TARDIS's kitchen, opened it, got out the bottles of Coke, Diet Coke, 7-UP, and Mountain Dew, and set them on the counter.
After their latest adventure, defeating the clockwork robots, the Doctor decided that they needed to take a break. Rose proposed a game night where she, him, and Mickey would just sit and play games, eat, and have fun. The Doctor and Mickey agreed. They were downstairs getting things ready in the game room while she was upstairs preparing the snacks.
As she went back to rummaging through the fridge, she felt a hand on her shoulder and smiled when she saw the Doctor behind her.
"How's it going?" he asked.
"It's going good. I'm just getting everything together," Rose said to him.
The Doctor smiled.
"Did you find the burgers and chips I ordered earlier?" he asked.
Rose pointed to three white sacks sitting over on the kitchen table.
"Good," the Doctor said, nodding.
He gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"This whole game night was a great idea," he said, as he walked over and picked up the sacks. "I have a bunch of games that I brought a long time ago, but I've never gotten to play any of them. They've just been sitting there in a closet gathering dust until tonight."
"You've never played any games before?" Rose asked.
"Oh, I played Gallifreyan games when I was a child, of course. But Earth games…no, this will be a whole new experience for me."
"So why did you get them then if you weren't gonna play them?" Rose asked.
"Oh, I always meant to play them at some point. It's just that I've always been so busy and whenever there was time to take a breather, I and my other companions would be so exhausted, we would forget they were there. If you hadn't found them and mentioned to me, I wouldn't have remembered they were there," he said. "I'm glad you did. I'm always up for a mental challenge…as long as I win of course."
"Of course," Rose said, rolling her eyes.
The Doctor chuckled and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Leave some of the drinks for me. I'll get them after I take these bags downstairs," he said, nodding at the bottles of soda.
Rose nodded.
He grinned at her.
"Blimey, with all this food, I'm gonna gain a ton of weight tonight," he said.
Rose shrugged.
"Well, you are kinda slim. I think you could do with a bit of beefing up," she said, winking at him.
The Doctor snorted.
"Um…There's a big difference between beefing up and pigging out to the point of looking like Shamu the killer whale," he said. "I would like to remain somewhat skinny, so I will be able to escape if a monster chases me."
"Well, you weren't quite so skinny in your last life, you know."
"Yes, but I wasn't obese either, if you remember," the Doctor replied.
"No, because most of the weight you had on ya was in your ears and nose."
Rose giggled, as the Doctor eyed her.
"N'yuk, N'yuk. Hardy har har," he muttered, rolling his eyes.
Rose giggled, as the Doctor shot her a look and left the kitchen, muttering under his breath.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Rose entered the game room and sat the last of the soda bottles down next to the other food on a small card table. Nearby another card table had been set up, and a stack of games sat near it.
"So what do we play first?" Mickey asked.
"Well, hold on, do we want to play a game or eat first?" Rose asked.
The Doctor shrugged.
"It's up to you. I can eat and play at the same time if that's what you want to do," he said. "And as for choice of games, I've never played any of them before, so I really don't care; whatever you guys want to play is fine with me."
Rose looked at Mickey.
"What do you want to do?"
"I'm the same way. I can eat and play something at the same time," he said shrugging.
Rose nodded.
"Me too."
"Well, then you go ahead and pick out a game and I'll start getting the food set up for us," the Doctor said.
Rose nodded, and she and Mickey walked over to the pile of games, while the Doctor got their food.
"What you wanna play first, Mickey?" Rose asked, looking at the choices.
"Doesn't matter, Rose, pick something."
Rose looked down the pile reading the game titles. She paused when she got halfway through the stack.
"Hang about."
Mickey looked at her.
"What?" he asked.
Rose spun around and walked over to the Doctor, as Mickey stared at her in confusion.
"Hey," she said, poking him in the arm.
The Doctor paused and looked at her.
"Yes?"
"Why in the world do you have Snakes and Ladders in your game collection?" she asked.
The Doctor stared at her.
"What? That isn't a good game?" he asked.
Rose giggled.
"What?"
"Doctor, that's for little kids," she said.
The Doctor shrugged.
"I didn't know that. I just brought it because it looked interesting."
"Well, didn't it look childish to you? The front of the game has cartoon snakes on it. Didn't that kinda clue you in that the game wasn't for adults?"
The Doctor shrugged.
"No, I just liked the name. I love snakes and I love ladders. They're fun," he said.
"Geez," Rose muttered, as she walked back to the stack of games.
"Well, I'm so sorry miss Tyler that I didn't have you around to help me pick out my games," the Doctor said to her. "I think the fact that I'm not even from your planet is a good enough reason to forgive me for making the grievous faux pas of buying a game intended for children. Now, hurry up and pick out a game, before I take these chips and cram them somewhere unpleasant on your person," he said.
"Mak Nabok," Rose spat out.
She giggled, as the Doctor turned and glared at her.
"Alright, that will be quite enough of your potty mouth, Ms. Tyler," he said, wagging a finger at her.
Mickey stared at Rose.
"What was that?" he asked.
Rose grinned at him.
"I just told the Doctor to go to hell in Gallifreyan," she said.
Mickey raised his eyebrows.
"You know his language?" he asked.
"Some of it. The Doctor has taught me a few words and phrases. Isn't that right, you big, ol' sheezak?"
The Doctor turned and eyed her, as Rose giggled insanely.
"I'm gonna go get some soap and wash your mouth out in a moment," he said to her.
"Aw, don't get upset. I can't help it if I'm good at remembering what you taught me," she said. "If you didn't want me to know your language, you shouldn't have taught me how to speak it, you big fat skok."
She laughed, as the Doctor sighed. He stared at her for a moment and then a smirk spread over his face.
"Na shamon cal amma shaltek," he said.
His smirked widened, as Rose stopped laughing and stared at him in shock.
"Oooo," the Doctor said gleefully. "That hit a nerve."
Rose folded her arms over her chest.
"Ne onma sheza taltros," she replied.
The Doctor put his hands on his hips and eyed her, as Rose gave him a triumphant grin. He smirked.
"Sha yunna zorab," he taunted.
Rose gasped.
"Oh yeah? Bok tantos nabok."
"Zo latara manos," the Doctor countered.
"She faltros zora cal shek."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows at that.
"Oh yeah?" he said. "Well…Bo shaka mala pak."
"Um…excuse me, but could you guys please go back to speaking English?"
Rose and the Doctor paused and looked over at Mickey who was staring at them with utter confusion. They looked at one another and fell over laughing.
"Um…sorry, Mickey forgot you were there for a moment," the Doctor said.
"Yeah, I'm getting that a lot lately," Mickey replied.
He rolled his eyes, as the Doctor and Rose looked at each other and burst out laughing.