So this one's a few days late but whatever, it's my favourite one so far so it took a bit longer to write. Hope you like it.
Rose happened to have an afternoon off the next day (though to be honest she would probably have called in sick if she had been working) and as the Doctor worked from home and whenever he felt like it, they arranged to spend Rose's afternoon off doing something exciting.
Exactly quite what the Doctor had meant by "exciting" remained to be seen.
Rose could never recall when she had enjoyed a freezing cold evening sitting on a bench eating chips with an almost complete stranger more than she had last night. Their conversation had ranged over a hundred and one topics – it had become clear very quickly that the Doctor was extremely intelligent, to the point where she wondered if there was anything he didn't know. In another person this might have been incredibly annoying, but Rose had been surprised by how funny and engaging and genuinely nice he had turned out to be. She had also been surprised by how easily she had slipped into calling him by his nickname. He had still not told her why he was called "the Doctor" – every time she had asked he had changed the subject, skilfully it had to be said. Rose was beginning to think that he didn't really know why.
She was looking forward to the day when he had to admit that one of the only things he didn't know was the reason behind his own nickname with great anticipation.
Rose knocked in his dark blue front door – he had told her his address the day before. He didn't come to the door for a few seconds, and for a moment she wondered if she had made a mistake. Of course, as soon as the Doctor opened the door with a delighted cry of "Rose!" and a warm, welcoming hug, any thoughts of being mistaken went right out of her head.
"Come in, come in, I've figured out something we can do!"
A few suggestions of things they could do flashed through Rose's head, none of them appropriate to voice at this particular time. "Go on then, what?"
He grinned gleefully, grabbing her hand and practically dragging her around the side of the house. "This way!"
"Isn't it a bit late to be carving pumpkins?" Rose asked doubtfully as she shifted the orange vegetable in her arms, determined not to drop it and embarrass herself. The Doctor had given her a quick tour around his garden before quickly going into a little shed and reappearing with two pumpkins, the last of his stock left over from Halloween. "I mean, it's November, you're two days late."
The Doctor cocked an eyebrow at her, throwing his own pumpkin in the air and catching it with precision that was almost annoyingly perfect. "Well, I've got spare pumpkins, I love Halloween, and we have to find something fun to do together today – I think pumpkin carving encompasses all those three things rather nicely, don't you think?"
"Fine then. I was only really asking because I don't trust you to use a knife safely." She grinned at the outraged look on his face.
"Oi! That's not fair." He nudged her playfully with his hip – it wasn't as bony as his skinny frame would have her believe. "I'll have you know that at least part of my profession involves being good with knives."
Rose pushed the kitchen door open with her elbow and placed her pumpkin on the wooden table before turning 'round to face him. "I'm expecting something impressive from you then."
He pushed the door shut with his foot and grinned at her. "Oh Rose, I'm always impressive."
They settled themselves at the table with knives and spoons and a bowl before proceeding to scoop out the pumpkin innards, Rose keeping her eye out for any signs that the Doctor might be thinking about starting a food fight. To be quite honest, it was exactly the sort of thing she expected him to do – there was no way she was believing his assertion that he was "too mature for anything like that, I'll have you know, Rose Tyler."
She decided on a classic pumpkin – smiling face, evil eyebrows, triangular nose. Nothing too elaborate. The Doctor on the other hand seemed to be holding to his word, though he wouldn't let her see what he was carving. After a few attempts to peek at his work, the Doctor warned her that he would stop carving and just shove the pumpkin on her head if she continued to try and spoil the surprise, with a face that was just the right balance between stern and amused.
Rose grinned and quickly looked back to her pumpkin, inwardly reminding herself sternly that she was holding a knife, and it was therefore unwise to become distracted by the Doctor and his face. This thought was enough to force her to concentrate on her carving for about the next 30 seconds, until she looked up and saw him staring at her, highly amused about something.
"What?" He continued to stare, a delighted grin covering his face. "Seriously, what is it?"
"When you're concentrating, your tongue pokes out the corner of your mouth," he told her, leaning his chin on his hand.
Rose rolled her eyes, pretending that she wasn't beginning to blush. "And what's wrong with that?"
"Nothing." The Doctor grinned and picked up his knife again, cutting smoothly with the artistic ease of a person who had done this a thousand times before, eyes continuing to smile long after the grin had faded from his lips.
Sitting at the wooden table, cutting out chunks of pumpkin and exchanging snippets of conversation, Rose found it strange to consider that she had only met this man the day before yesterday. She didn't know much about him, but he made it so easy to be comfortable around him that being awkward would have been a real effort. She watched him as he worked. He might not stick his tongue out while he concentrated, but he did look very cute. A few errant strands of hair had broken away from the rest of his gravity-defying mop and fallen over his forehead. He was staring intently at the pumpkin as he worked, a little line appearing between his eyes.
The sun was beginning to disappear from the sky by the time they had finished. The Doctor got up from the table and crossed the gloomy kitchen with his pumpkin covered hands held out in front of him like a zombie, adding a bit of groaning for comic effect. He flicked the light switch with his elbow, and it was only then that Rose realised how dark it had become. She sighed and examined her hands, flicking a few pumpkin seeds from her fingers.
"We might need these." The Doctor had appeared beside her, holding a couple of candles and a box of matches. He lifted the lid from his own pumpkin, careful not to let Rose see what he had carved into it.
Once both candles were lit and concealed inside the pumpkins, the Doctor nipped across the room to get the light switch before returning to Rose's side.
"Alright, you can look now."
Rose shifted around to the other side of the table and gasped. He had said it would be impressive, but she was still shocked. In beautiful curling script were written the words "The Doctor and Rose Tyler," and next to them was carved the silhouettes of two people, one tall and thin with an insane shock of hair, the other shorter with longer hair. The two figures were holding hands.
"That's incredible," Rose breathed, leaning closer to take a look. Each intricate detail was perfect. "Mine's a bit rubbish compared to yours."
"Oh I don't know," the Doctor replied, "I think carving something that was nothing to do with Halloween kind of takes a few points off mine, especially after I ranted at you about how much I love it last night."
Rose smiled, looking up at him - his face was half in shadow, the orange light flickering over his features. In the half light it was hard to read his expression. "So they're about equal then?"
He put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him as he surveyed the afternoon's work. "I'd say so." Rose rested her head on his shoulder, more out of instinct than anything else. All coherent thought had gone from her head, all she could think of was how warm he was and how good he smelled, and whether or not the candles would set fire to the pumpkins if the Doctor forgot to extinguish them because he was too busy snogging the life out of her.
In the end, the Doctor didn't snog Rose Tyler. At least, not that day.
This fic is pretty much my love letter to Autumn - I love it so much, it's my favourite time of year. The next chapter's sort of carrying on that theme. Review if you feel the urge, hope you enjoyed it :)