SMILE
It was a coffee morning.
Ten hours of sleep should've been enough. But Rose still felt a bit like a train wreck. Slightly hung over from the Fernoian liquor she had consumed a bit more quickly than she probably should have, bleary eyed and still in the oversized T-shirt that served as pajamas, she'd nearly tripped over her own two feet on her way to the coffee pot which, to her unhappy surprise, was covered in dust from disuse. She cleaned it up only as much as she had to in order to get it functioning, then flopped down at the table to wait, head on her arms as she listened to it percolating. One minute... two minutes... was it done yet? She looked up and pushed her messy hair back from her face. Nope. Still waiting.
She heard the whistling before the Doctor came into view. Turning to glance at the doorway, she gave a yawn just as he stepped into the room. He smiled at her, stopped whistling, and crossed to the table, flopping down across from her with his hands on either side of his face. It took her a moment of staring at him before her brow furrowed. Was he smiling or frowning? She couldn't quite tell.
Her eyes narrowed slightly, more to try to focus them better than anything else. She shot a quick glance at the coffee pot - just how long did that thing take, anyway? - before looking back at the man sitting across from her, painfully raising one brow.
"Morning?"
"Is it?" he asked, his tone just as unreadable as his expression. "You tell me."
He was smiling at her. She was almost sure of it. She frowned again. "You're the Time Lord. Shouldn't you know?"
He let his hands drop. Yep. He was smiling. "It's morning outside, if that's what you're asking. But if you'd rather it be night, I can arrange that."
As if by some magical internal trigger that suddenly knew that the coffee pot was in its final stages, he bounced up and over to the counter, poured a cup, and made it up the way she liked it before bringing it back and setting it in front of her. She stared at the steaming cup, blinking, as he lingered just a bit longer than necessary, leaning over her shoulder. As she wrapped her hands around the warm mug, willing them to lift it to her mouth, she heard him inhale deeply, just a hairs breadth from nuzzling the side of her neck. But then he was gone, on the other side of the table again.
Slowly and not quite surely, her hands facilitated her efforts, allowing her to finally take a life-saving sip of the hot liquid. She couldn't remember the last time it had taken this much effort to drink coffee. Sighing as she set it down, she looked back up at the Doctor, who was once again sitting across from her with what she had determined was his ridiculous (albeit adorable) lopsided grin.
"Don't care whether it's night or day," she finally answered with a shrug. "Just as long as I don't have to go out into any bright sunlight anytime soon."
"I did warn you that three was too much," he said smugly.
She took another sip of coffee and contemplated dumping it on him. But no, not only did she not have the energy for that, it would be a waste of perfectly good coffee.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's rude to say 'I told you so'?"
"Really? Am I rude?" He grinned. "Have to work on that."
Reluctantly releasing the warm mug, she pulled her knees up, stretching the t-shirt over them. "Cold in here," she muttered under her breath as she wrapped her hands around the cup again.
"You'll want to dress warm. Bit chillier outside."
"You assume I want to go outside."
"Of course you want to go outside! What's the point of traveling through all of time and space if you never go outside!"
Wherever his ridiculously good mood had come from, she wasn't shaking it. Luckily, the caffeine had started to do its job, reducing the pounding in her head to a dull throb. She couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips as she took another drink. His chipper tone and smile - while annoying in situations like this - were always infectious.
"I go outside all the time," she reminded him. "Went outside last night and look what happened?"
"Would it help if I told you there was no liquor outside?"
"There's always liquor outside."
"Then I promise I won't let you drink it."
She threw back the last of her coffee and stared into the empty cup for a moment, contemplating whether or not to get up and get more. Sighing, she set it down on the table. "Fine," she resigned. "But before I do venture out there, you need to answer one incredibly important and vital question for me."
He raised a brow, curiously. "What's that?"
She put her feet back on the cold floor and leaned forward, meeting and holding his gaze. "Will there be breakfast?"
His curious expression turned to a grin. "What did you have in mind?"
"I don't care as long as it's something greasy and there are eggs involved. And ham. Oh, and of course chips."
He chuckled. "Wrong galaxy for any of that."
Her eyes narrowed. "Does this galaxy have an equivalent?"
He considered, tipping his head back and forth. "More or less."
He didn't sound so sure. She raised a brow. "Doctor, it is vital that I have something closely resembling a proper fry up right now, so unless you plan on making it for me in here, you better be damn sure it's out there if you even want me to consider leaving the confines of the Tardis."
"Oh, come on! Where's your sense of adventure!" He stood again and came closer to her, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. "You've had eggs and ham and chips plenty of times! Try something new!"
She narrowed her eyes, but didn't pull away. "Does this galaxy have its own hangover cure? Something that's not completely vile?"
"One way to find out." He slid a hand around her waist and laced the fingers of the other with hers, pulling her close. "If nothing else, I can distract you. Beautiful sky out there. Three moons - two of them you can see even in the middle of the day..."
She smiled in spite of herself and instinctively leaned into him, her free hand resting on his chest. "Three moons, hmm?"
His eyes were bright. "Mmm hmm."
She nodded and drummed on his chest, chewing the corner of her lip as she thought. "I do like moons."
"I know you do."
She raised a brow and looked back up at him. "And it's not terribly warm?"
"Terribly cool, actually. You'll be needing some warmer clothes."
She tilted her head and smirked. "Well I'm hardly going out in this, no matter the temperature."
"Well. Some cultures you'd be quite decently dressed in that." A slow grin crept across his face. "Some cultures you'd be better dressed wearing nothing at all. Thankfully, those cultures aren't usually built up somewhere cold."
She chuckled. "Yes, quite."
He'd done it. He'd finally managed to get a smile out of her. She leaned up and kissed him softly, closed mouthed, and lingered for a moment before she pulled away, tongue between her teeth.
"Right, well, I'm off to get properly dressed. You work on figuring out where to take me for breakfast."
He smirked as he watched her go, grabbing her coffee cup off the table as she exited the room.