Yes, I'm jumping on the #timepetalsprompts bandwagon. Normally, I just read the prompts and then read the ficlets that people post for them, but this week's prompt immediately created this random fluffy plot bunny who demanded to be written.

Prompt: Fall Weather

Bonus Prompt: Surprise

I do not own Doctor Who... or TimePetalsPrompts. Just having a bit of fun with their property.

It was a brisk autumn day like most other autumn days in rural Ohio, USA in 2015. There was a slight chill in the air, and the leaves were just beginning to change colors and fall to the ground. Indeed, it was as if their entire palette had changed overnight. Trees that were once green now exploded with colors of sunny yellows, burning oranges, and bold firey reds. It was if the entire landscape was ablaze! But there, in the middle of the forest, something odd appeared. It was a blue box, its contrasting color transforming the firey scenery into a rainbow of color.

From the box, a thin man with great hair and in a brown pinstriped suit emerged. He was closely followed by a young blonde, comfortably clad in a shocking pink hoodie, jeans, and trainers. If there were any other humans nearby, they would have found this to be the most peculiar thing they have ever witnessed, and the conversation between the two would have been even more so. But, as it was, only the woodland creatures bore witness, and they couldn't much be bothered by these events.

"Oh, Doctor!" the blonde cooed. "This place is gorgeous! When and where are we?"

The Doctor licked his finger and held it in the air. "I'd say just a little bit in your future, Rose. 2015 most likely, sometime in mid-October."

"Wow, so I'm like, 30 now. That's so weird. I'm old!" she laughed.

He looked at her. "30 is not old. Not even by human standards, Rose. Don't make your lifespan any shorter than it already is! Anyway... We are most definitely on Earth, for no other planet produces such a glorious display of color this time of year. I'd say we're in the United States, in a state forest in Ohio. I believe that there are a lot of caves around here. Could hold some great adventures, no alien invasion required!"

"Except I'm here with you!"

"Oi! I'm not invading!"

"Yeah, but if we're here, there's probably some hostile alien lurking around here somewhere," Rose teased, grinning with her tongue poking between her teeth.

"Nah, the running's only the bits in between. Isn't that what you told your Mum?" He grinned at her manically before extending his hand to her and wiggling his fingers. She took it gladly.

They walked down a woodsy trail in silence both enjoying the fall weather and the company of the other. To a casual observer, they seemed every bit the definition of a couple madly in love, but if you told them that, they'd just deny it. Though if you pushed them harder when they were alone, each would admit that they were secretly in love with the other, but for various reasons were too afraid to do anything about it.

"This is one of the things that I love most about your planet, Rose," the Doctor finally spoke, eyes shining down at her as they walked.

She beamed at him. "What's that, exactly?"

"The leaves, Rose. THE LEAVES! I am not aware of any other planet where the leaves change color in such a glorious manner!"

"It is pretty," Rose agreed.

Suddenly, the Doctor gripped her arm and spun her around to face him so fast that she felt dizzy. He looked at her with all the wonder and joy of a toddler discovering a candy store. "Can we, Rose?"

Uh oh. This can't be good. Play it casual, Rose. "Can we, what, Doctor?"

"Can we keep em?"

"Keep what? The leaves?"

"Yes, the leaves!"

"On the TARDIS? How many you thinking?"

"Oh, not too many. Just a couple thousand."

"A couple thousand?"

"Oi! Rose, they're small and light and don't take up much room."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Why you asking me? Seems you have your mind made up! She's your ship, Doctor."

"Not just mine," he mumbled, but Rose heard every word.

"You saying she's my ship, too?"

"No! I mean, yes! I mean, if you want her to be."

"You're impossible!"

"So can we take the leaves?"

"Fine, we can take some leaves. Just as long as nobody misses them when they're gone."

The Doctor gave a rather unmanly shriek of delight and Rose somehow managed to stifle a giggle. For an alien who was over 900 years old, he sure could act like a child sometimes.

Several hours of raking later, Three very large piles of leaves had been moved into a new room at the beginning of the corridor that they dubbed the leaf room. The TARDIS would keep them in a kind of stasis so that they would never dry out, never get moldy, and retain their gorgeous colors forever.

Exhausted by all of the raking (all the technology of time and space at his fingertips, and he chooses a rake!), Rose collapsed in a heap on the outdoor lounge chair that the TARDIS materialized in the room, spent. She turned to tease the Doctor, only to find that he was nowhere to be seen. Slowly, with muscles complaining, she rose from her chair and began searching the rather cavernous room.

"Doctor? Doctor? Okay, come out. Okay, this really isn't funny. Doc- AAAAH!"

"SURPRISE!" The Doctor sprang up from underneath one of the leaf piles, laughing at her scream.

"Oh, it's so on!" Rose howled back as she chased him out of the room and down one of the corridors, laughing all the way.