The TARDIS lurched and flung the Doctor and Rose at the console as they rode through the time vortex. The Doctor danced around the console at he pushed buttons and flipped switches. Rose clung onto the ledge of the console as she watched him.
His moves were graceful and precise. It seemed that he was dancing to music that only he could hear. That was probably true as he was a bit of a nutter. Rose loved to watch him none the less, and the way he moved around the console was beautiful.
"There we are Rose Tyler." The Doctor's voice broke the spell that she was under. She looked up to see him grinning at her with excitement in his eyes. She returned the grin with a smile of her own as she straightened out her slouched posture.
"So, where are we?" Rose asked as she moved towards the doors. This was her favorite part. The possibility of being anywhere and anywhen was a felling she thought she would never forget and never tire of.
The excitement that rushed through her veins, the anticipation of finding out what lurked outside the TARDIS doors, the knowing that they will have run. This alone would be almost perfect. This alone could almost be the reason that Rose travelled.
It wasn't.
The reason that Rose traveled was because she had the Doctor. She had someone's hand to hold, someone to show her the joys the universe, someone to share life with her. This is why she traveled. She traveled because of the Doctor.
"Why don't you go see?" The Doctor responded as he stood behind her, putting his coat on. She turned around to give him a tongue toughed smile before she walked out the doors.
The planet before her was beautiful. The sky was a soft green color and the grass was a light blue. The trees were orange, and some were pink, scattered across the field. In a valley was a town. A rust red made most of the houses outside color, but there were still splashes of color.
Rose wandered further outside the TARDIS as the Doctor stepped out behind her. Rose took in a deep breath. The air was cool and crisp, but the temperature was perfect for a leisurely stroll. In the distance she could hear children playing in the valley, their laughter sounding like bells in the air.
"So… where are we?" Rose asked again as she turned to look at him.
"This is the planet Aklien!" The Doctor exclaimed with wide arms and a beaming smile. "This planet is known for its berries. Rose, you haven't lived until you have had a moon berry." The Doctor took Rose's hand in his own as they set of for the valley.
As they walked, the Doctor told her the history of the planet. "Aklien is in the constellation Straxon. Known for its various fruits and vegetables that can't be found anywhere else. Some of the best chefs come from here. Rose remind me to have you meet Lizona Ramkaferi. He can make anything."
As the Doctor continued to ramble about Aklien, Rose turned her attention to a couple. They would look completely human if it weren't for the cat ears and tails the people had. The woman looked to be comforting the man, and Rose thought she could hear him say 'dark' and 'cold'.
"Rose… Rose." The Doctor calling her name pulled her out of the thoughts. She quickly turned back to him as they came to a stop.
"Sorry, was jus' looking around. This place 's beautiful." The Doctor continued to stare at her, making her feel uneasy. "What?"
The Doctor blinked as he looked around. "Nothing. Ohh, Rose look! Moon berries!" With that, the Doctor dragged Rose to a little bakery.
The bakery was cozy inside, with a fireplace on the right side of the wall and the smell of treats giving off a tantalizing aroma. The walls were painted a soft yellow giving off a calming glow. Rose looked at all the treats set out. While they looked exotic at first glance, Rose could see that they looked like the treats she had seen in the cafes in London.
The Doctor walked over to the counter holding all the treats, Rose's hand still clasped tightly with the Doctors. As they approached the counter an older woman somewhere in her sixties came to take their order.
"Hello, I take it you're not from Aklien." The woman gave them a warm smile. "Since you're not from here you get a free sample of anything you like." The Doctor began to shake his head in protest, but the woman would have none of it. "I must offer the Aklien hospitality, especially to lovely couple"
The Doctor and Rose began to protest. "Oh no no no we're not together." The Doctor said at the same time as Rose said "We're not- we're- we're jus' friends."
The woman looked at them curiously, studying them closely. "Well that's a shame. Nikan and I were like you in our youth. I suppose it's only a matter of time.
"So, you and Nikan are married?" The Doctor asked, nodding to the complex bracelet on her tail.
"Yep, been married forty five years now. So! You two know what you want?"
"Yes! We will have two plates of moon berries and two cups of hot chocolate."
"Alright. I just need you to tell me your names." The woman said as she handed a piece of paper to another employee.
"The Doctor and Rose. May I ask what your name is?"
The woman looked at them for a moment before smiling. "Lilen. My name is Lilen." With that, Lilen went to the back room.
The Doctor and Rose took a seat by the windows as they waited for their orders. "So, tell me more about the Aklin people." Rose said as she sat back in her seat.
"Aklien" The Doctor corrected with a small grin. "The people evolved from a species much like the common house cat, hence the ears and the tail. They have the flexibility of a cat, the hearing of the cat, the sight of a cat, and the smell of a cat."
"What abou' touch?"
"Weeel…" The Doctor looked at the ceiling, noticing the many patterns. "they don't exactly have whiskers so they can't have the touch of a cat." The Doctor looked back at her. "They are telepathic though."
"What? Like you?" Rose leaned forward as the Doctor looked for an explanation.
"Their telepathy isn't as strong as gallifreyans. I can't feel them in here" the Doctor pointed to his head. "because they aren't strong enough. The link they have with each other allows them to feel their family and their bond mate."
Their names were called from the counter and the Doctor went to get their orders. Because of the Aklien hospitality, the food and drinks were half off (two for one basically). As the Doctor set the plate down on the table, Rose studied the moon berries.
They were a deep blue color with white dots on them, making them look like stars. Rose took a tentative bite from one and was surprised at the flavor. It was like no berry she had ever had. The taste couldn't be described. It was one of those were you're sure you've had this somewhere else but you can't remember. Rose only knew that they were delicious.
Rose tried the hot chocolate next. It was the perfect temperature and it tasted like "Peppermint?"
The Doctor looked at her from stirring his hot chocolate around. "What?"
"The hot chocolate tastes like peppermint." Rose said as she took another sip.
"The ingredients they use make it taste that way since most of those ingredients just so happen to make peppermints. Plus they always had peppermints into the hot chocolate." The Doctor ate another moon berry as Rose thought this over in her head.
"So… where you planning on doing something or were we jus' gonna eat moon berries all day?" Rose teased as she gave him a tongue touched smile.
The Doctor grinned as he leaned back in his chair, staring intently at her. Rose started to shift under the scrutiny. "Is there something on my face?"
"No." The Doctor replied as he looked out the window. "I was just wondering how long it would take you to notice."
"Notice what?" The Doctor nodded his head towards the window. Rose looked at curiously while she slowly turned her towards the window. Out in the distance, Rose could make out the shape of a carnival.
It was too far to make out anything clear. It was almost hidden by all the trees in front but some rides were tall enough to be seen over the tops. In between the tress it looked like their games to play.
"So Rose Tyler, what do you say to a day at the carnival?" Rose turned back to the Doctor with a smile.
"I think it's brilliant." With that she leapt out of her seat, grabbed the Doctor's hand, and dragged him out of the bakery.
It took about fifteen minutes to get to the carnival. As they got closer, Rose could see that there were rides for all ages. The kiddie rides had little cars that bounced up and down, bees that could 'fly'. The other rides included one that was in the shape of a circle the spun around quickly. There were also rollercoasters that would make anyone scream.
The Doctor and Rose got in line to get tickets. As they were waiting Rose saw the couple from earlier. She didn't mean to eavesdrop, she really didn't, but something strange was going on their lives, the kind of strange than she and the Doctor dealt with.
"Are you sure you're alright to be here?"
"Yes, Amia, I'm fine."
"You didn't sleep well last night. Rion… I don't think you should be here."
"There were just nightmares. I'm fine."
"But that was the fourth time, and you didn't wake up. I'm just worried about you."
"I know. I promise, I'm fine. Come on… let's have a good day at the carnival, yeah?"
"Yeah… that sounds good."
"Well that's strange." The Doctor said as he pulled out his physic paper. He opened it and gave it to the man in the booth. When he returned he the physic paper, he also gave the Doctor and Rose each one hundred tickets.
"What was strange?" Rose asked as she passed the gate, pondering witch ride she should do first.
"Rose, there aren't a lot of things you can hide from me. Plus, you are a really bad liar." He walked past her towards as she shouted "Oi!" at him and ran to catch up.
"So do you think it's something that's doing it?" They waited in line for a rollercoaster as the Doctor thought about it.
"I don't think we have to worry about it yet. It could be stress that's giving him nightmares, and, if you're exhausted enough, you won't wake up until your body feels that you've had the proper amount of sleep."
Rose thought about this. The Doctor was probably right. They don't have to worry about it yet. It was only one person and that doesn't make it dangerous. The Doctor would know if something was wrong and wouldn't hesitate to fix it.
With this in mind, Rose and the Doctor took their seats on the rollercoaster. The Doctor gave her a smile as they lurched forward, going up into the sky. She smiled back and looked forward. Today would be a good day. If anything happens, they'll face it together.
J.S.
The Doctor and Rose explored. Aklien carnivals were not like Earth carnivals oh no! They had water balloon toss, paintball guns, obstacle course, picnics, you name it. It was, unfortunately, too much to do in one day.
For now, though, they would do as much as they could.
They wandered around a bit until they found a bouncy house. Not any old bouncy house though, an obstacle course bouncy house.
The Doctor smiled at the thought of two mature grown adults acting like children. Those people don't know what they're missing.
"Rose, we should do that." The Doctor pulled at Rose's shirt as she was about to walk past. She turned to look at him then looked at the bouncy house.
She turned back to him with a tongue touched smile and mischievous glint in her eyes. "Race ya!" Roes took off, leaving the Doctor standing and staring at where she had been standing. The Doctor smiled to himself as he ran after her.
The bouncy house was bigger than any one the Doctor had seen. It was the size of a building, and had three levels to it. The Doctor and Rose gave their tickets to the person at the bouncy house.
"Good luck!" She said to them as they took off their shoes and climbed into the house.
There were already several people inside. Some were just beginning like they were; others were making their way to the second level. The Doctor bounced over to the first obstacle.
The goal was to jump on the stands without falling into the foam pit. It looked easy enough, of course it did, but he knew better. He smiled to himself as he scanned the other obstacles. Each on of course got harder to achieve. This would be fun.
"Ladies first, Rose Tyler." He made a grand gesture of showing that she should go first.
"Oh, how kind of you sir Doctor." Rose said with her tongue sticking out in a teasing grin. The Doctor shook his head as he looked away from the tempting object.
"What else would a gentleman do?" He raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest as he leaned closer to her. Really though, what else would a gentleman do? He thought as Rose leaned back from him.
Rose seemed to think on this for a moment. Turning her head to the ceiling and tapping a finger on her chin, she started to walk in a circle around him.
"Hmm, I don't know. I think a gentleman would take a girl to a pretty place then somehow get her thrown in jail."
The Doctor smiled as Rose came to a stop in front of him, her arms crossed as she gave him a tongue touched smile. Weeel… if that was what a gentleman was supposed to do, then… "I guess I'm doing it correctly." He smiled at her as he said this.
"I guess so." Rose agreed. She gave him a warm smile and his hearts skipped a beat.
It never failed to amaze him how he reacted to Rose. One smile from her made his hearts stop. One touch made his breath hitch. One hug made him think that he should never let her again. This female human could do anything and he would always be there for her. She could make him do anything, and that was terrifying. She had stolen his hearts. There was no question about it. Rose Marion Tyler held both of his hearts in the palm of her hand. He wouldn't want it any other way. Why? This answer was hard to find, but when he did find it, it seemed so simple. He loved her. He loved her with all his hearts. He loved her that sometimes it was hard to breathe. He loved her that so much that it ached. He loves her.
The Doctor shook himself out of his thoughts as he pointed to the obstacle again. "Ladies first."
Rose rolled her eyes as she turned back to the obstacle. The Doctor watched as she took a few steps back, getting ready to jump.
Rose sprang forward. She jumped as she got to the end of the platform. She landed on the stand and it moved back and forth due to her weight not being balanced. She tried to get her balance, waving her arms back and forth. She almost had it, it looked like she found her balance…
She feel.
Now keep in mind that the Doctor really, really tried, to not laugh as Rose plummeted into the foam pit.
He failed.
The Doctor started laughing, doubling over as he clutched his middle due to his laughter. Rose glared at him as she sat up in the foam pit. She started to throw some of the foam blocks at him, causing him to laugh harder. "You try it then!" she yelled as she threw another block at his face. The Doctor instantly stopped laughing as it hit his face. Rose slowly crawled out of the foam pit and pointed to it when she was out.
"Alright, I will try it!" He started to bounce as he examined the obstacle closely. You had to land perfectly on the stand, your weight equally distributed on the stands. He calculated how much power it would take to make the land, and took three steps back when he did. He ran, jumped, and landed in the exact center of the stand. "There, you see, Rose Tyler! I did it!"
"Show off. Now shift! I wanna try again."
"The rest of the obstacles on level one went well. That didn't mean that they didn't have plenty of failures. Still, they made it to the end of level one and went to make their way to the second floor. The Doctor was delighted to find out that the only way to get to the second floor was to climb up a rock wall.
While they were climbing, Rose asked how they could have so much stuff in a bouncy house. The Doctor explained that the materiel was stronger than the one on earth, and due to its flexibility, it was able to be punctured by items and keep the air in.
When they made it to the second level, the Doctor was surprised to see that the entire second and third level was one jungle gym. There were lots of people in this one. Children were running and jumping while parents watched. Teenagers were doing stunts that the children tried to copy.
The Doctor looked around some more and found an area where a game was taking place. The area involved the two levels, and the game that was taking place was to hit as much people as possible with the plastic balls.
"We should do that." He said as he continued to study it.
"What?" Rose asked, her mind lost in all the chaos of the jungle gym.
"That." He pointed to the area. "Has all the plastic balls. People are hitting each other with them. You have to run away or hit someone. It's kinda like dodge ball."
Rose looked at him with a tongue touched smile and a mischievous look in her eyes. "Race ya!"
With that, Rose took off to the area with the 'kinda dodgeball'. The Doctor laughed as he and Rose ran to the area, dodging children that were running around and jumping over tunnels. They reached the area out of breath with laughter.
Now that they were closer, they could see all the details of the area.
The second floor was most like the jungle gym, with slides and things that you could climb on. The third was more of just a floor with a hole in the middle, looking down at the second floor. There were still things to do in the third floor like climb through tunnels and slides and things to get rid of people if you're being chased.
"Well, come on. What you waiting for?" With that, the Doctor ran to the third floor.
On the way to the third floor, there were bags that you could fill with the plastic balls. Rose grabbed one as she followed the Doctor.
The 'dodge ball' area had mostly teens and young adults. The plastic balls were being thrown everywhere. People from the top were aiming at the people down below… and that included the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor took Rose's hand as they ran to the entrance for the third level. It was one of those tunnels were you weave back and forth to get to the top. It would have been simple if the Doctor were shorter. Rose got through it no problems at all. Bloody gymnast.
There weren't as many people on the third level as on the second. There were probably a total of three people, not including the Doctor and Rose.
These three people were also on the other side as them. They hadn't noticed them yet, as they were busy aiming at people on the floor below.
The Doctor looked over the ledge of the gate. While they were still in a bouncy house, the third floor had a fence over the hole. Safety precaution for the children below.
Rose came up behind him to look over the ledge. From this height, not many could hit them from down below. The occasional object was thrown up, but was easy to catch. The Doctor stood back a bit as Rose stayed leaning over the side.
"This can't be hard." Rose said as she stood straight up, still looking over the side. The Doctor didn't hear her though. He was too busy watching the teens on the other side.
They had finally noticed them. One boy, two girls. They seemed to be discussing something, but the place was too loud for the Doctor to hear them. The boy was tossing a ball in his hand and he continued talking. One of the girls looked over at them and said something to the boy. The boy turned around with a smirk on his face. This was not good.
"Rose… we have to get down."
"Why?"
Before she knew what was happening, the Doctor had grabbed her waist and pushed her to the ground. A ball hit the wall behind them, and they could hear laughter in the background, but they weren't paying attention.
Rose was on top of the Doctor. Her right knee was between his legs and Rassilon, Rose Tyler was on top of him. Their faces were close enough that their breath mingled with the others. Their faces were close enough that the Doctor would have had to put on his glasses to see every detail of Rose Tyler. Her hip bones dug into him, and her weight was comforting, solid. Her body added heat to his cooler one, making him want to get closer to her.
They stared at each other for an unknown amount of time. The Doctor heard people coming, but didn't care. Do you know why?
Rose Tyler was on top of him.
Rose began to move as the voices grew louder. As Rose moved off of him, the Doctor couldn't help but be disappointed at the loss of heat.
The Doctor soon followed Rose, and pointed to the exit. "Should we go do something else?"
"Yeah… think we've had enough time in here." Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand as they walked out of the bouncy house.