A/N: Hello, lovely readers, and a special hello to Sylvia, for whom this fic was written. It's the first of 24 fics that I'm going to write for the Gift-Giving Extravaganza of 2013! My prompt/pairing for this fic was 9/Rose.
Love,
Allie
The Doctor pulled a lever, and the TARDIS landed with its usual bangs and hisses. Rose grabbed onto the railing out of habit.
"Here we are!" he said, grinning. "The planet of Trellicanus, the year 2040. Quite a nice planet, but a few years back their climate got all rainy and hasn't stopped since. You'll need a rain jacket." He disappeared into the back of the TARDIS and quickly emerged with two raincoats, one blue for Rose and one black for him.
"Thanks," she said, putting it on. "Why are we here? Distress signal? Alien invasion?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
"No, I figured we could try to not encounter aliens here. Other than the ones living here. Oh, quick notice: they might look odd. Do not make any remarks about their appearances or we could be thrown in jail." He flung open the doors of the TARDIS to be greeted by a torrential rainstorm.
"Great, more rain. Just what I needed," Rose muttered.
They exited the TARDIS, closing the doors firmly behind them, and Rose yelped at the rain beating down on her head. The Doctor grabbed her hand and ran to the nearest building. Rose had trouble keeping up with him because of his long legs, but he pulled her along well enough and they entered the building laughing and out of breath.
"Why are you laughing?" A stern voice asked from a desk near the far end of the room. It was quiet inside as everyone turned to stare at them. "Do you find us funny?"
The Doctor straightened up and looked very serious as both of their laughs faded off to nothing. "No, not at all. We were laughing at ourselves, because…we weren't expecting the rain."
"Oh. Carry on." The lady said, and went back to reading her book.
They were in a library, and a very silent library, at that. And the first thing that Rose noticed about its patrons was that they all had very squishy faces. The second thing she noticed was their squishy arms. And then their squishy legs, torso, and feet. They were very squishy people. They were all covered in wrinkles, and some of their lips were indistinguishable from the rest of their face because of their rolls. They weren't necessarily fat. They were almost cute. But they were funny looking.
"Welcome to Trellicanus," The Doctor said, smiling as he whispered into Rose's ear. "It seems we've entered their library. They take their libraries very seriously, very silent. I saw a restaurant next door, perhaps it would be better if we went there?"
She nodded, and they took off, yelling and laughing and totally carefree.
As they sat down in their booth at the restaurant, Rose was taken aback by how similar Trellicanus was to Earth. "It's like the same planet, just different people."
"There were Trellicanians on your planet a long, long time ago, around the year 20. They followed roughly the same pattern of development that you did."
"Hello there," A Trellicanian waitress came to their table with a 60's poodle skirt and white shirt on, looking very human except for her skin. "My name is Carantha, what would you like to drink?" At least, Rose thought she said Carantha. It was more of a strange hissing and clicking that the TARDIS did its best to translate.
"Water, please." Rose said.
"I'll have the same, thanks." The Doctor smiled charmingly at the waitress and Rose felt a small twinge of jealousy, though it was completely irrational. It wasn't like they were dating, or anything.
"Sure thing, honey." Carantha gave the Doctor a flirty wink and left to get their waters.
"Oi, what was that?" Rose asked, joking around with him.
"What?"
"That, that flirty thing with the wrinkly girl."
"That was me, being polite." The Doctor made a face at her before looking down at his menu. "Ooh, Trellicanian cuisine, I haven't had any of this in years. Two hundred and four years, to be exact."
The menu wasn't exactly made up of conventional food. Rose guessed that when the Doctor meant they developed roughly the same, he meant that they developed the same in every way except for their food. They ate things like "skinned ant" and "roasted pig's feet." She must have been showing her disgust on her face, because the Doctor laughed.
"Try the 'cow in bread,'" he suggested. "It's a burger, in more literal terms. And I think they have chips, too, if you ask, for tourists."
"Mm, chips!" Rose laughed. "You still owe me a basket of chips, don't think I'm going to let you forget it."
Carantha came back over with no water and an angry look on her wrinkly face. "It's in your best interests to stay seated while you wait for the police to get here."
"The police?" Rose asked. "What did we do?"
"You insulted our race!"
"How did we do that?" The Doctor asked, incredulous.
"She did," Carantha pointed at Rose. "And you were an accomplice."
"What did she say?"
"Ahem, 'that wrinkly girl.'" She looked really quite miffed. "Stay seated. They'll be here in three minutes. You have the right to remain silent, you have committed an extremely serious crime punishable by death." She walked away haughtily.
The two traveling companions looked at each other. "Wanna run for it?" the Doctor asked her eagerly, with the same voice he always used.
Rose laughed. "Do I have to say yes?"
In the same motion, they got up out of their seats and sprinted to the door. In the haste, they had forgotten to grab their jackets, and so they got soaked all the way back to the TARDIS.
The Doctor slammed the door behind them and leaned against it. They both burst out laughing for the second time that day, utterly drunk on the moment. For what seemed like forever, they stayed like that, until Rose spoke up through her giggles.
"D'ya have a kitchen?" she asked.
"A kitchen?" The Doctor looked at Rose strangely. "Maybe, why do you wanna know?"
"To make hot chocolate, stupid. It's cold out." Rose punched his arm and ran to the back of the TARDIS. "Bet I can find it!" She took off laughing, getting lost in a corridor, but always hearing the Doctor three steps behind her. She abruptly stopped, and he ran into her.
"Oof!"
"You could've just told me where the kitchen was," she said, turning around.
"It's over there," He pointed to the left. "Now go forth and make hot chocolate, so you stay out of my hair. I've got some TARDIS repairs to work on."
"Alright," Rose said, stepping into the TARDIS's kitchen for the first time. It was simple enough, yet functional, just the way she'd expected it to be.
She rummaged through the cabinets and the fridge, finding exactly what she needed. She grinned and got to work.
Fifteen minutes later, she emerged into the console room to find the Doctor on the floor, looking at a wrench as though it had just murdered everyone he loved. "What's wrong?" she asked, sitting in her favorite chair.
"This wrench!" he answered, as if offended. "It's not working!"
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to unscrew this bolt!"
Rose tried not to laugh, she really did, but then she set the hot chocolate down and went over to look at the evil bolt that was giving her Doctor so much trouble. She lay down next to him and looked up at the underside of the console. "That's a screw." she said.
"Yeah, so?"
"So, you use a screwdriver. I'm rubbish with tools, but even I know that."
"Well, I don't have a screwdriver."
"Why not?"
"Threw all of them out with the manual."
"There's a TARDIS manual? What did you do that for?"
"It was annoying me! Why does everyone ask? It told me to unscrew the screw and I couldn't so I threw the screwdriver set out with the manual."
"Well, you never take out the trash; I bet it's around here somewhere."
"No, Rose." The Doctor sat up, almost hitting his head but deftly sliding away before he sat up entirely. "I quite literally threw it out."
"Out?" She asked, going back to her chair for the hot chocolate. She picked up one of the mugs and gave it to the Doctor.
He looked at it with disgust. "Yes, out. Out of the TARDIS, while I happened to be traveling by a supernova. What is this?"
"It's hot chocolate, don't change the subject. Why would you do that?"
"It annoyed me!" He pouted and leaned back against the railing, still sitting on the floor. Tentatively, he took a sip of the hot chocolate and swallowed.
"D'you like it?" Rose asked, sitting and scooting herself closer to him.
The Doctor took another sip. "I think so, yeah. What's in it?"
"Nutella and milk and a bit of cinnamon."
"Oh good, I like cinnamon."
There was silence as the two sat, drinking hot chocolate, listening to the TARDIS whir and the very faint sound of rain. On an impulse, Rose gently took the Doctor's hand. He flinched, and she pulled away. "Sorry."
He took her hand back and began to play with her fingers. "No, it's okay."
Rose finished her hot chocolate and slowly broke the hand hold to stand up. "I'm taking my mug back to the kitchen, want me to take yours?"
"Sure, thanks." the Doctor gave Rose his mug as he smiled up at her.
A few minutes later, as Rose was putting the mugs into the TARDIS dishwasher and thinking about how she would have to make dinner a few times now, she heard a noise behind her. The Doctor was standing in the doorway. He stuck out his hand.
"Come with me."
Rose Tyler had never before in her life ignored the Doctor when he said those words, and she didn't plan to now. She found herself leaving whatever it was she was doing—she couldn't remember now—and grabbed his hand for the millionth time that day. He pulled her along down the hallway for what seemed like hours, but it could have been seconds, or minutes, or days, or months.
They rounded a corner and all of the sudden were in a large room that Rose had never seen before. It contained wall-to-wall shelves of books, and nothing else. There was a blanket in the middle of the room, and the Doctor led her over to it and lay down.
Rose lay down next to him, confused for a minute, but then she realized that the ceiling was entirely made out of windows.
"How is that possible?" she asked quietly. It was still raining outside, but it was beginning to grow stronger.
"Extra-magnetic force that's protected by the external barriers and hidden by multiplying the view of the paned windows by 62 and expanding it to fit the parameters of the room."
"It's bigger on the inside," Rose said, grinning.
"Oi! That's my favorite line!" the Doctor said, acting offended.
"Oh, you'll get over it. Here, you can say it again. Doctor, how is this possible?"
"It's bigger on the inside!" He answered, smiling from ear to ear in a way Rose had come to know and love.
They lay there and stared up at the impossible window, now able to hear the rain much more clearly. The Doctor leaned over Rose, and before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her and she was kissing him and they were kissing each other.
It wasn't an urgent kiss, it was a real kiss, the kind that makes you want to smile and feel all warm inside and go around proclaiming to the whole world that you were in love. Because Rose Tyler was in love with her Doctor, and the Doctor was in love with Rose Tyler, and they were in impossible love underneath an impossible window in an impossible machine.
When they broke apart, there was breathy laughter. "I love you." Rose said.
"I love you." the Doctor replied.
Yet there they were, being impossible together. For the first time in a long time on that rainy planet, it stopped raining. And there was a rainbow, if only for a little while.
