A/N: So, I lied. One more today and then, I really need some sleep. Thanks to a fun conversation I had with the lovely DragonRose4, this plot bunny was born. A Time Lord (specifically the 10th Doctor), would really be the absolute worst opponent to face in Scrabble, don't you think? This is also a response to the Doctor/Rose 100 themes challenge on devaintArt. A link is in my profile.
Disclaimer: In my world, Rose is still traveling in the Doctor. Last time, I checked, that definitely wasn't cannon (unless you count Handy, then I guess it could be considered cannon). What I should say is that Rose would still be traveling with the fully Time Lord Doctor. In other words, I don't own. Anything you recognize isn't mine. I am just borrowing the characters. I promise.
It was a slow day in The TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose were floating through the vortex in The TARDIS. The Doctor had recently performed some repairs which needed calibration. It would be a day or so before they could travel anywhere.
Rose was sitting in her room reading the final Harry Potter book when The Doctor came bounding through the door. "Rose! What are you reading? Oh, Deathly Hallows, the ending made me bawl. It's brilliant though. Anyway, I'm bored." He sat himself on the edge of her bed and pouted for full effect. "Do you want to play a game? Please Rose!"
Reflecting on how much fun she had during a time when she was sick and they played Guess Who (year 10,082 edition), Rose agreed. Besides, she knew she couldn't resist him when he put on that face.
"Brilliant!" The Doctor exclaimed hopping up excitedly.
Rose felt her heart swell slightly at his actions. For a 900 some odd year old alien, he sure could act like an eight year old on a sugar rush at times.
She followed him through the TARDIS to a room she had only had an opportunity to peek into before. It was a game room in the fullest sense of the word. It was a huge room with shelves stuffed full of games lining every wall. She could see things from the familiar (Monopoly), to the downright bizarre (Shave the Varga Plant). The center of the room was covered in area rugs with tables with chairs on either side, couches and couch cushions lying freely on the floor spread throughout. It was the perfect game room.
The Doctor was already rummaging through one of the shelves.
"No, no, no, no, no…" The Doctor repeated as he rejected boxes one by one as he saw them. Finally, he grabbed one with a loud "aha!"
Not bothering to return the other boxes to the shelf, The Doctor nimbly stepped over the piles he had created, carrying his prize with him.
Rose was expecting some exciting, creatively brilliant futuristic game based on his triumphant expression. What he set on the table was a game of Scrabble, looking to have been bought during her century.
"That's it?" Rose found herself letting out before she thought the better of it.
"Oh Rose, this game is brilliant. I love words! Words can describe anything. Almost every species, at one time or another, develops a written language, and every species with vocal chords of some sort has a spoken language! This game celebrates communication at its finest!" He had a wide grin across his face at this point. "But, if you want to play something else…" his voice trailed off as he let the grin slip off his face.
His excitement with words should have been Rose's first clue that maybe a game of Scrabble wasn't the best idea with The Doctor, but as Rose didn't want to be the one to kill his excitement she replied, "Okay, we can play Scrabble Doctor."
His eyes lit up and in a flash, he had whipped out the board, two letter racks and the draw bag. "Brilliant! I love this game!"
Rose drew out seven letters. She got A, D, R P, T, E & O. The Doctor allowed her to go first and she played 'Drape.'
The Doctor then played 'Doodlers' off her 'Drapes,' scoring a bingo. Rose groaned. She should have known better than to play The Doctor in a word game.
Rose kept playing though, and unfortunately for her, things didn't get better on her end.
At one point, towards the end of the game, she thought she had him cornered. She knew he must have mostly vowels, due to her hand of mostly consonants. She raised an eyebrow in challenge to him.
Ever confidently, The Doctor played, "Aeiaeio" on the board.
Rose felt incredulity rise within her. "Doctor, that word is all vowels. That isn't a word. You can't make a word that long with all vowels."
"Well actually in the Ouiai culture they speak in vowels! Only in vowels! 'Aeiaeio' is actually their word for 'banana,' and you can't argue with bananas Rose." He gave her a pleading look, as though the idea of arguing with bananas was actually a quite ridiculous idea.
"Doctor, as much as I hate to argue with bananas, I thought we were playing in, you know, English."
"Ah, just in English is so boring Rose. Did you know that there are billions upon billions of languages out there? English is just one of quadrillions of languages! It's so limited! "
She rolled her eyes, "Fine. We will make the game less boring, but this means I can use my French skills! I took a year of French in school, you know." A grin spread across her face, just for him. The Doctor murmured, "My brilliant Rose Tyler."
While The Doctor's antics might have annoyed some, she realized that she should have known not to try to best a Time Lord in scrabble. Unfortunately, Rose only had a couple of hands left to play after their language battle and the game ended with a final score of 1028 to 115.
When The Doctor wanted another round, Rose drew the line. "No, this time I get to choose the game."
This time, she found a game which was a variant of the Earth game 'Trouble.' It was a game much more based on luck, and less on thousands of years of knowledge.
Rose and The Doctor laughed their way through the game. The Doctor kept on getting stuck rolling ones and Rose had half of her figures 'safe' before he even got one out. Towards the end of the game, they were neck and neck. Both only had one figure left to get 'safe.' Finally, Rose rolled the number she needed to get her figure in.
"Yes!" she exclaimed in triumph! She danced around slightly beside the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed The Doctor's eyes darken slightly at the skin that peeked out from under her shirt while she was dancing around. Her breath slightly caught. Did he feel like that about her? Could he?
The moment was broken when The Doctor, shaking himself out of his train of thought challenged her to another round.
Rose, quite won the second round as well before The Doctor put it away pleading "enough, enough!". It also was getting late and it was time for them to make some dinner.
As The Doctor walked back past the table where they had been sitting on his way to the door, he reached out a hand to Rose which she grasped happily. Repressing the chill that threatened to flood through her at the contact, she let him lead her across the room and out the door. Hand in hand, they walked down the hall to the kitchen.
Every once in a while after that, Rose and The Doctor would take time to rest between adventures and play board games. Sometimes, The Doctor left Rose in the dust score wise, and other times, the opposite happened. Each time, however, they found that they valued these (mostly) quiet moments together.
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