[ O1 / ? ] prompt: 9th meets Donna and gets odd future - vibes from her.

way to start a 10th / Donna NaNo with someone that ISN'T 10th, but okay. I really liked this prompt, except it turned out to be harder to write than I thought. 9th is an absolute HORROR to characterize for me and I feel I keep getting Donna a little mixed up with another sassy ginger I've been acquainting myself with for several years now ...
not proofread, so if you spot any [ glaring ] spelling / grammar mistakes, please let me know! opinions on characterization and general concrit would be appreciated as well. hope you enjoy! ; v;

IT WASN'T THE TWIX.
[ ninth / donna / mentions of rose ]

Most of the time, things are okay. Walking, okay. Breathing, okay. Heartbeat, okay, except when out of unison as it gets a little noisy between all non – linear thinking. People, okay, or sometimes bad, and sometimes good.

Rose was good – verygood – though sometimes ( like now ) he wonders how and why because now he is a Timelord in a grocery store challenged off to finding a snack to her liking as they apparently never have such a thing inside his spaceship.

He thought he spoiled her good enough when landed, but apparently not. Wimenly – wohmenly wiles ( a rhyme he'd better remember, because, he notes, easy sounding rhyme is good for teaching idiots ).

So he's on Earth, okay.
It's a store, okay.

But this woman, she is not.
He doesn't even know why. He doesn't need a screwdriver or any bleeping to tell that she's not alien, not special, not clever, not important or powerful or anything. She's just some woman comparing the level of saturated fats in two different types of dietary cookies – not exactly someone he should have to feel uneasy about.
And still he does.

Normally, anxiety would be the trigger for a good sprint back to the exit.
It's just that he's the Doctor, and he already does enough running in his own time. This trip out to get a candybar is asking for some danger.

" Hello! " Suddenly he's next to her, and he's grinning widely, hands in his pockets. " I got a question. "
The redhead swings her chin up, attention irritably torn away from the two rolls in her hands, and sends him a glower. " I'm sorry mister, but I don't recall you asking if you could actually throw me one? "
Being used to Rose's mumbling style of speech, her biting down nearly every syllable is almost like having to acquaint yourself again with a foreign language you have no spoken in ages. " Oh, sorry, didn't mean to throw you off there! " He holds the cheeky face. " It's really urgent, though. Can I ask it? "
She looks at him like he's mad – a look he's seen oftentimes before. He can just feel the radars ticking: if it really was so urgent, why didn't he ask right away?

He doesn't really care about her answer, though. It was simply that, should he only have asked for the lane with the chocolate, she'd point him and be off. There would be the option of lingering, but it would look quite creepy, and with the odd vibe she's giving off, he's not sure what will happen if she starts to think he's getting creepy.
It could actually be fantastic, but after a bumpy day involving three elephants and an alien cellar only about 4 hours behind him, a chase isn't exactly on his most wanted list.

And yet it's fascinating, the alarm she's setting off. Everything slows and curls in his head, swirling across that one thin speeding line of thought that's flashing too fast for him to read it. It's him – but not I – and he thinks it's her and the rest is unclear but it involves more running than half his adventures with Rose were demanding, so there's something – something – and he just doesn't know what.
Not knowing is frustrating.

Apparently he knit his brow too deep.
" You okay there? " She has her hand still on the roll of cookies she decided to put back ( and decided badly for her diet, he sees in a blink ) and she's eyeing him as if he's about to have a stroke.
Or more like he's about to puke and she'll run off at that point, he figures at second glance.
He makes his own look shining bright again. " Fantastic! So, say, do you happen to know where they got the candy stocked? I'm not from around here and there happens to be a case of trouble that needs to be solved – urgently, as I said. Not my trouble though. Trouble with someone else. " He smiles. " Woman – trouble. Very urgent. "
While obviously still thinking him a weirdo, the indirect desperate cry for help against cramps of her kin seems to soften her a little. " You should just have ought to say so, you know?! " She yaps, blaming her former unwillingness to help on him. " Look, it's right over there. "
He follows her point half a second sharp and then snaps back to her. " Great! Helps a bunch. You're from here, then? "
" Look, stud, " She gives, doing a little sway with her head yet again, " If you're trying to hit on me, it's not gonna work this way, and it's not working to begin with, because I'll have you know I got the sweetest boyfriend. "
" I'm very sweet too, though! " He's not exactly bent on becoming her new boyfriend ( he isn't one for that kind of relationships but lovers aren't supposed to induce pits in stomachs ) but he'd rather not leave before he figures out what's up with her and his head. " Getting candy for my friend, no? " He does a little headshake too, still grinning.
" Your friend? " She fires back. " Oh really, just look at your face. That's really not gonna work on me, pimp-o. Now get your Snickers, and get out. "
He's half tempted to make a ' knickers ' comment, but then she might just actually get angry, compared to the faux coy – petulant face she has now.

That's what he thought she was, at least, but suddenly she's walking off.

He has half a mind ( half mind that slowly reboots to normal now she's out of the vicinity ) to give her chase. Rose has just been waiting for a while now, though, and he'd rather not let her get in trouble without him – something she is awfully good at. So he strides after her slowly, and gives another hopeful try: " Can't pick! What's your favourite, then? "
" Next to the Bounty, Adonis! " She doesn't even turn around: she just yells back.
Last chance. " Left or right?! "
She stops dead in her tracks halfway her rounding the corner, and he sees the little smile. " Give it your best shot. "
Then she's gone.

Women.
The Bounty takes some searching, but he finds it in the end. It isn't until he's almost at the register that he sees her again, tiptoeing for spaghetti.
He reaches, placing his palm on it.
When she spins, he smilingly presses the candy in her open hand. " The left one, is it? "
She looks both incredulous and amused – especially when he then hands her the uncooked dinner, and then totters off with a grin and a wave. " Hope he's tall, then! "

Right before he moves past the cashier, she suddenly bobs out of the pasta lane. " Hope she's pretty, Mars - man! "

When he walks out, he still doesn't know just why that hurt.