A/N: Complete drabble, just something soft for the Doctor for a change.
Some nights were long, and some nights were short, and that's just the way things were. For a man who doesn't sleep, like the doctor, it didn't mater either way. They passed in much the same way as days, except that during the day he had companions and adventures, and at night he only has himself.
Usually, he spends his time tinkering on the mechanisms of the TARDIS, or rearranging the bedrooms of his old companions so his current ones won't find them next time they decide to go exploring.
Tonight, however, as the TARDIS drifted through the Medusa Cascade and he fiddled with the audio system wiring, he considered the first time he'd been here- "I was just a kid"- and the more recent time, with Donna Noble and all those other lovely people, helping him tow Earth and twenty-seven other planets back home.
After several hours listening to the TARDIS's companionable hum in his ear, like an affectionate hand on his shoulder, he dusted off his trousers, tugged off his goggles, and went over to the double doors.
He flung them open, and after the initial suction and freezing blast of not-air, the TARIDS wrapped a protective bubble around itself and chilly oxygenated air flowed around his limbs. The Doctor smiled and patted the TARDIS's walls affectionately, then settled down, feet dangling, on the edge of the TARDIS.
Brian Pond had done this once, he remembered, with tea and sandwiches, and before that, Donna, and before that… for a few minutes he was lost in memories, smiling. He let his eyes drift over the brightly-colored nebulous clouds of toxic gas through which the TARDIS floated. At some point he closed his eyes and simply let himself experience, for a change.
"Doctor?" A sweet, sleepy Scottish voice interrupted his thoughts, and he turned, or started to. Something in the weight on his head- which he didn't remember being there- poked into his scalp, and he winced as he turned to see Amy and Rory, looking down at him, sleep in their eyes and amusement on their faces.
"Yes?" The Doctor reached up carefully to feel the top of his head, just as Amy burst into giggles and Rory began to smile- he recognized the white ball of fur who was making himself comfy on the alien's head as one of the neighbors'.
"Doctor, there's a cat on your head!"