BLUE

He watched the two of them together, frowning. The way their heads bent towards each other when they were speaking; the way he stood protectively close to her; the way her delighted laugh filled up the room when he teased her.

'Just friends', she had said.

Apparently their definition of 'friends' was totally different from his.

"We're just going to grab some parts for the TARDIS from the stock room," Rose called over to him. Adam nodded.

"I'll...find something to do..." he replied. Rose nodded, following the Doctor out the door of the control room.

Adam stood for a moment, taking in the colours of the room and thinking. His whole life had been dedicated to cataloguing aliens and artefacts – now here he was, in the company of an alien and its spaceship. Or time machine, to be pedantic.

There was a whirring noise from the main control column, and Adam looked around, expecting the Doctor to suddenly pop up from a hiding place to see what was wrong. Of course, that didn't happen, and Adam was left hoping that neither of them walked in at that point and accused him of breaking the TARDIS. So he moved quickly over to where he assumed the source of the noise was, and tapped the panel next to it.

No change.

So he bashed it harder.

A red light started flashing by his hand, and being too intelligent for his own good (and not having ever read a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), he overlooked the fact that it was actually the TARDIS' way of saying 'It would be advisable not to do that again'.

So he did.

The TARDIS clicked and whirred in anger, for once agreeing with the Doctor's sentiments about where the hell Rose picked up these 'strays' from. Adam was crying out in exasperation.

"Please, goddammit...shut up! He'll think I've done it!"

It didn't occur to him that maybe bashing the console had made it worse. But then that was the curse of being so intelligent and a pretty boy with it. There was no room for common sense.

"Shut up!" He banged the console once more for effect.

And received a squirt of oil in his eye for his efforts.

"Where the hell is that thing?" the Doctor grumbled, his head buried somewhere between the pile of boxes and the wall. Rose stood and looked on, her arms full of spare wires and parts, unable to help him.

"And you're supposed to be the one with super eyesight," she commented, snorting when he exclaimed "Aha!" and promptly banged his head on a shelf coming up. Staggering to his feet, he shook his head lightly a couple of times, then triumphantly showed Rose a small gadget, barely larger than his thumbnail.

"What is it?"

"Power source for the sonic screwdriver," he replied, picking up a couple of tools and leading her back into the corridor. "Come on, I don't like leaving pretty boy anywhere on his own for too long."

His inane grin was back, and Rose shook her head in amusement.

"What did you do that for?"

Another light, white this time, flashed a bit further along, and he was beginning to catch onto TARDIS-speak. He suspected that meant 'You deserved it'.

"I'm sorry...I'm still getting used to it all." Then he realised exactly what he was doing.

He was talking to a time machine.

Granted, it seemed to have a mind of its own – and hadn't particularly taken a shine to him – but still.

There was another whirring noise from the main console, and he stepped back nervously, wondering what the TARDIS was going to do this time.

But instead of squirts of oil, or flashing lights, a blue rose appeared in a 'tray' underneath the lip of the console.

And when Rose and the Doctor walked back in at that point in time, Adam knew exactly what to do.

"All right, pretty-boy?" the Doctor questioned, apparently in a rather good mood. Rose trailed behind him, dumping the selection of wires, gadgets and boxes she held in her arms on the floor by a pillar. Luckily, before Adam could find a suitable reply, the Doctor caught sight of the flashing light on the console and moved towards it. "You playin' up?" he asked the console, gaining an amused look from Rose.

"It just started flashing," Adam put in quickly. "I don't know why – I don't understand it."

The Doctor shrugged. "She gets a bit temperamental. Just have to give her a quick tap..."

He brought his hand down on the panel in exactly the same place that Adam had, and stepped to the side, grinning back at Adam, who stood as far away as possible.

The TARDIS aimed the jet of oil and released it, catching Adam directly in the face once again.

"Rose?"

She stopped and looked back at Adam, who was following her down the corridor. "Yeah?"

"I – uh – saw this and thought of you." He handed her a perfectly formed blue rose, and stood there, looking highly uncomfortable.

She grinned and raised her eyebrows at him. "Tell the TARDIS I said thanks, yeah?"

He suddenly looked put out. She was touched by the sentiment, but had a feeling the TARDIS had been leading him on. "What do you mean?" he asked.

She shook her head and carried on walking back to the control room. "You'd better find somewhere to go and sit – we're about to start travelling again."

Unperturbed, he followed her, watching as she stepped up to the console with ease and pressed a few buttons. The Doctor caught sight of the rose in her hand, and rolled his eyes. "She leave that for you?"

Rose shook her head. "Adam found it."

The older man grinned at Adam again. Adam found it highly disquieting – there was no warmth to it. Just mocking. "The TARDIS leading you on, mate?" When there was no reply, he carried on. "The TARDIS leaves her blue roses every so often – ever since she started learning how to drive it."

He let out a sigh, narrowing his eyes, and deftly changed the subject. "You can drive this thing?"

"Been having lessons," she said proudly. His eyes immediately focused on the Doctor, who put his hands up in an 'I surrender' motion.

"Don't look at me."

Then he realised. The TARDIS had been teaching her.

The Doctor's mocking stare was still unnerving him, and even Rose had a small smirk turning the corners of her mouth up as she focused on the dials, levers and buttons. The TARDIS whirred and clanked again, and as Adam mumbled something about leaving so he wouldn't get thrown around, the noises got louder.

The TARDIS was laughing at him.