Prompter: DominusTempori

Prompt: Time Twin shenanigans, preferably at younger ages and involving their semi-childlike Dad

Originally posted: 26 June 2016

Notes: 1411 words; just to note, I only take prompts on my writing tumblr (nehswritesstuffs) on Saturdays, just so I have a centralized location for all of them, not because I have anything against anyone (and anon is turned on, so you don't even need a tumblr account to send something in); I kept on thinking of James and Alison sleeping atop Totoro like Mei, but I did the next best thing instead; I get the feeling that there's plenty of times when Clara turns her back and then suddenly everything's in chaos because she has two three-year-olds and her intergalactic stick insect whom isn't much help

"Daddy? Why Mummy have to leave Auntie Idris?" Alison wondered. She was sitting at the kitchen table, very sad that there was one less person at the table than normal as she played with her breakfast cereal. Fishing out some marshmallow bits, she ate them pensively while her father came up with an answer.

"Mam has some very important business to take care of outside of Auntie Idris," the Doctor half-lied. In reality it was merely her visiting her dad and other Earth-related contacts, pretending that she was on a break from the job that kept her away from England. Clara had wanted to bring her children with her for a split moment, but it would be a huge surprise to spring on her father and she wasn't sure he could take it. Instead it was the Daddy and the kids for a whole week, one that was beginning to start off smoothly.

"Is she on her home planet?" James asked. "I want to go!"

"Not until you're old enough," his father said.

"When's that?"

"When we don't need to hold hands in the markets and you can drive Auntie Idris." Okay, that was a full lie, but the kids didn't need to know that. "Don't worry though! We're going to have loads of fun!"

"Are you sure?" Alison added. "Mummy's the one good at picking out what's fun."

"That's true, but sometimes Mam isn't and then we go to places like the intergalactic petting zoo." The children both shuddered; that had been a bad experience, with them nearly being eaten and all. "In fact, in order to have fun, we don't even need to leave Auntie Idris!" The kitchen lights buzzed at him chidingly, causing the twins to giggle and the Doctor to frown. "Yes, yes, I know, they probably wouldn't approve of the bouncy castle room…"

"BOUNCY CASTLE ROOM?!" the kids gasped.

"…oh? Is that something you nips think you might like?" the Doctor asked, attempting to hold back his grin. "That is, unless you didn't want to go to the ice cream parlor, or the room that's filled with wading pools and things that spit water, or…" As he continued, his children's eyes kept getting wider and wider—just like their mother there were when it came to their eyes: large and round and so very, very brown. "…would you like to do it all?"

"Yes please!" they shrieked before inhaling the remainder of their breakfast. Within a minute their cereal was gone, excess milk drunk, and the bowls and spoons hastily placed in the dishwasher on their way out the door.

"That was simple enough," the Doctor shrugged. He sipped his coffee as he flipped through his book, absentmindedly wondering how long it would take them to return.

It took seven minutes and fifty-three seconds before they came sliding back into the kitchen, dressed ready to go. While both siblings wore sandals, James had his swim trunks on and a t-shirt, while Alison presumably had her bathing suit under her clothes and her hair was now in pigtails. They had a beach ball and a tote filled with other inflatable things, and stared at their father, bouncing impatiently.

"Oh," he said, feigning surprise, "are you two ready to go?"

"Yes!" they screeched. The Doctor finished off his mug of coffee and stood up, following his cheering children into the TARDIS corridor. On the way he grabbed a cooler filled with drinks and snacks, as well as a takeaway cup of coffee that the ship courteously provided him with. He hadn't always been a big coffee drinker, but with the preschoolers running about, he needed it more than ever. Walking down the corridors, he didn't even bother to tell the kids to slow down—the floor lighting was guiding the way, after all.

By the time the Doctor caught up, James and Alison had already found the wading room. The kids were sitting down on lounge chairs, working hard at making sure their water wings and inner tubes were fully inflated. The entire room was huge, with a high ceiling that simulated sunlight through a "glass" ceiling, and many different pools scattered throughout the place, including a couple with slides. There was a changing screen in the corner of the room, which the Doctor went behind and found a pair of swim trunks for himself. While normally at the beach or a waterpark, places where there were potential hordes of pudding-brains and worse, he kept all his top layers on despite being in a place where he was going to get sopping wet. For his children though, he was willing to go all-out. When he stepped back out from behind the screen, he stood there in all his pasty, sparse glory, only the swim trunks and glad neither James nor Alison were the type to tease him. Yet.

"Are you ready, Daddy?" Alison asked. She had taken off her t-shirt and shorts and was now standing in her purple bathing suit, water wings on and an inner tube around her middle. James was next to her, also standing there having shed his non-swimwear and donning arm-floaties.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he said. "Now let's see… you just ate breakfast, so we can't have you swimming just yet, but... hey!" The Doctor watched in horror as his kids ran straight for the one wave pool, jumping in with large splashes. "What did I just tell you?!"

"We're not swimming, Daddy! We're floating!" Alison protested. She splashed about, scooting her way towards the middle of the pool, giggling each time a gentle wave passed by and lifted her up with its crest. "This is fun!"

"Aly, get back here," James frowned. "Daddy says we can't swim yet!"

"Just know I'm going to be watching you two closely," the Doctor said in resignation. He sat down at the edge of the pool and put his feet in, glad that the water only came about midway up his thigh if he actually went all the way into the water. It was a sight to see as his daughter paddled her way back to the pool's edge, looking up at him curiously.

"Da, are you sure?" she asked.

"Of course I'm sure," he replied. He patted her head and slipped all the way into the pool. "Come on, kids; let's play in the waves!"

The twins cheered happily—they not only lived in the best auntie in the universe, but they also had the best daddy. Things were great.

"Doctor? Kids? I'm back," Clara called out, setting her suitcase down in the console room. She had gone on enough holidays to her original place in the space-time continuum enough to know that by the end, her husband and children would be awaiting her arrival nearly at the door, ready to attack her with hugs and kisses and an affectionate grope. They were not immediately showering her in attention though, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was an odd thing for sure.

Carefully, Clara searched the console room, checking to make sure they hadn't decided to play hide-and-seek on her instead. When all the usual hiding places proved empty, she glanced over at the console and had an idea.

"Could you please tell me where they are?" she asked. An image popped up on a viewscreen and she walked over to it, checking to see what was there. First there was a chaotic mess in the room with the wading pools, inflatables and drink containers everywhere. Then in the ice cream parlor there were three empty sundae glasses and another mess all along the vintage 1950s diner counter…

…but then came the important part: her family, laying cuddled together in the bouncy castle room, the twins sleeping on their father's chest as he was spread out in some monstrosity that was part bounce-house, part plastic ball pit. They were all still in swimwear, looking tousle-haired, ice-cream covered, and completely pooped out.

"Thanks," Clara chuckled, turning back towards her suitcase. "Just let me unpack and I'll get on having them clean up after themselves." The TARDIS whirred and beeped, eliciting another laugh. "I know—a bunch of slobs, the three of them. Now you know why I go on these quick holidays, and not purely to see Dad."

Yes, the TARDIS definitely approved. She loved her thief and his family, though they still had a bit of growing up to do.