Inspired by a post I saw on tumblr: date someone you could have fun at a grocery store with

Clean-Up in Aisle Ten (Doctor/Donna)

"What is this!?"

The Doctor turned. Donna had stopped right in the middle of the entrance way. Several beings, humans and otherwise, glared as they walked around her. "What?" he asked.

Donna peeled her gaze from the display before her to him. "This!?"

Genuinely confused, the Doctor frowned. "You said you wanted to go shopping."

"This is a supermarket," Donna returned.

"Oh, but not just any old supermarket!" the Doctor declared and stepped away. "It's on the lovely and bustling planet of Calden in the Twenty-Fifth Century!"

Donna stared.

"Sorry, twenty-sixth century."

"You find it amusing to go walkin' around an alien Marks and Spencer's?" Donna asked, her alarm morphing into amusement. Of course he would find this fun.

"Well yes! Best place to meet the locals is a supermarket!" the Doctor declared. "Don't you like to go visit common places while on holiday?"

"I never thought of anything other than full service," Donna admitted and shrugged. "Guess that's why I never went anywhere. Couldn't afford it." She searched around. The spacious store was brightly lit with fluorescent lights, and it was about ten degrees cooler than outside. Faintly, Donna heard a few beats of mellow music and a soothing voice singing that annoyed her more than anything else.

"Are you sure we're not really in twentieth century Cheswick…" Her quip faded as she saw a creature with bright blue skin and four items of from the shelves simultaneously with its four arms. "Oh."

The Doctor made a funny sound that could have been a giggle. He was positively tickled at exploring a grocery store. "Let's go and see what's in aisle five."

Finding herself oddly intrigued, Donna soon fell in step with her guide. She had to admit, it was certainly refreshing to do something so…ordinary for a change.

They approached the first aisle where stacks of boxes lined up ahead of them. Donna reached over and picked one up. "Cereal," she read and snorted at the young alien's face. It had pale purple skin, three yellow eyes, and an odd sort of sucker-shaped mouth. She guessed it was smiling. "Made of waxy oats and freeze-dried berries." She grimaced. "Waxy oats?"

The Doctor seemed to share her reservation.

"I'm surprised there are supermarkets in the future," Donna commented as they walked over to the canned vegetables. A label showing something slimy and orange made her stomach lurch. "I would think people just swallowed pills."

"Where the fun in that?" the Doctor asked.

"That's what I say," Donna agreed. "Although I bet it would help you lose weight."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Don't go thinking you're not perfect the way you are."

Donna was glad he was staring ahead so he didn't see her cheeks turn red. She grabbed one of the cans. "Think the TARDIS would object to us cooking with this stuff?"

The Doctor turned and his face twisted. "Those look like pears."

"Oh! You're no fun!" Donna declared and practically tossed the can back onto the shelf. They continued to walk, making each other laugh with recipe ideas. They both recoiled at the pet food aisle. "I can just imagine what sort of things are kept as pets in the future," Donna had commented. "Something spiked with fangs."

"Sounds lovely," the Doctor had insisted.

Donna had wanted to pick up some super future dust spray, saying the TARDIS could use a good cleaning, which the Doctor found highly offensive. Donna just insisted that the TARDIS could use some TLC, and the Doctor commented that he was very TLC-y to her.

The meat and seafood sections made Donna's stomach recoil, and she threatened the Doctor with pear stew for a week if he bought something. The produce section didn't look much better, despite the Doctor insisting that Donna's fellow humans were buying all sorts of things. Donna reasoned it was because they'd had centuries to build up a tolerance for it. Surprisingly, the Doctor couldn't object to that logic.

The bakery, however, was more promising. They both reached for the same package of freshly-made cookies. The Doctor also selected a bottle of some sort of fruity-looking juice that Donna insisted he sample first.

Before they knew it, they were nearing the registers. Donna snorted. "I usually hate grocery shopping." She allowed a small smile. "But this was…not a bad way to spend an afternoon."

The Doctor beamed. "I had fun too!"

Donna smiled; he really was like a big kid.

"And nothing tried to kill us this time," he added.

Donna's eyebrow arched as she held up the can the waxy-oats cereal they'd decided to buy anyway. "I don't know that just yet," she commented and tossed it onto the conveyor belt. "We could be poisoned."

The Doctor actually seemed excited about the idea as he greeted the teen-aged alien working the cashier. Donna felt a flicker of fear but then just smiled as they concluded their rather adventurous journey to a supermarket.