FIC: Sunday Domestics (1/1)
Title: Sunday Domestics
Genre: Doctor Who
Rating: T
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: He owed Donna a favor, so he had to find things on his own at the Tesco. On a Sunday. He was so not prepared for anything that happened. Prompt from tardis_mole, posted as a belated birthday present.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Else Santa Claus would've healed Donna and brought Handy back instead of bringing the Doctor back to young Clara. Just saying, for the record.
Dedication: The greatest beta anyone could ever have, the person who's challenged me to become a better writer and editor: tardis_mole. Happy belated birthday for this year.
Author's Note: Written during a NaNo write-in, trying to complete it in under an hour. Well, the hour part failed, but I still got it written. Somehow it seemed to happen in an AU where a certain someone was known to have lived. This is not the first time this someone has barged her way into a story, and it won't be the last. :D And this is how I kept it to the requirement that the story only have the Doctor and Donna in it.
Thanks to cassikat for betaing.
Sunday Domestics
Started November 17, 2015
Finished December 24, 2015
Donna had forgotten how much some peace and quiet was needed for her sanity whenever she was at home. That she had some then was all due to her mum not being there.
It was almost too quiet without her granddad to talk with, but if his taking her mum out allowed Donna to spend some moments to herself she would take it. It let her work on the laundry before she helped prepare dinner for them and their guests.
Frowning she looked at the clock. “He should've been back by now. 'I can handle a Human shop on my own.' Ha! That outer space dunce couldn't find his way out a paper bag sometimes, and yet he can solve all those awful situations by making it upn as he goes. How does he do it and still make it out alive?”
It might have been worse had their younger guest not gone out with her mum and granddad. Donna couldn't imagine both of the Gallifreyans going into a shop without her.
The door burst open and was shut just as rapidly.
“Donna!”
She sighed quietly. “At the risk of sounding like my mum, what time do you call this?”
The Doctor bounded his way into the kitchen. “Donna, how can you follow directions like you gave me? They were absolute rubbish!”
“They've worked for all of my friends and any stranger who needed to get to that Tesco. Are you telling me that you were lost?”
“Well... temporaraliy misplaced,” he muttered after he looked up, fixing his gaze on her lips.
“Please! Did you know where you were?”
“Um... no.” There was nothing like a Donna rebuke to deflate his ego or a rant, but there was something else distracting him.
She threw her hands up, glad that the laundry didn't need either hand at the moment. It was weird that he was having a Spaceman moment in the middle of a different Spaceman moment. “So you were lost. How did you manage to be unable to read my directions? Do you actually need those glasses after all?”
Her words managed to reach through to his brain, sparking a little fire back into his voice. “They have a use, for viewing things in sharper focus in parts of the spectrum where my vision is not as finely attuned. Even Time Lords have their limits!”
“Explain where you got lost.”
He knew better than to risk a slap. Twice was plenty, even if he had deserved both of them. He cleared his throat and pointedly looked away from her. “I made it to the third intersection you listed when I saw two different directions I could go in based on the directions.”
“How can you mistake 'turn right at the blue house'?”
“Because there's more than one blue house there!”
“One is too pale to be blue. The other is a proper blue.”
“Well, you didn't make that clear!”
She pursed her lips. “Fine, point to you. So how did you find your way?”
“There was an older lady I've seen walking around here. She recognised me as being around you, so she offered to guide me. I didn't want to keep you waiting and you always said to be nice to your granddad's neighbours, so I did.”
“That's an interesting shade of pink you're turning, Spaceman. What happened?”
“Well, it was all fine at first. She pointed me to each part of the shop where I needed to be, and suggested which ones would be best knowing your family.”
She took the bag at that point and inspected the contents. “Yeah, you got everything right. Just like the list said. But that doesn't explain why you're so tense.”
He flopped into one of the chairs. “I was thanking her for her help, and how did she repay me? She pinched me!”
Donna face-palmed herself. “Ooh, you met the Menace.”
Her lack of complete horror threw him for six. “Who?”
“Minnie Manton. She's a member of Granddad's Silver Cloak friends, known him for years, and he thinks she's got her eye on him. She's a flirt, and I... I think she's just being playful.”
Donna was not going to admit that Minnie had pinched a number of her exes bums. The Menace had claimed that anyone who stuck around after an old lady pinched them was worthy of Donna.
No one had. Which had her nervous about what her friend was about to say.
“Donna! Time lords shouldn't be getting their bums pinched! We're beyond that!”
“So you'd also be beyond wanting anyone to admire you, make you think you're the most incredible thing that the universe has ever known and basically a Human with special powers?”
He opened his mouth, and then snapped it shut. His brain worked for a few seconds and then he groaned, dropping his face into his hands.
“What did I say?” Donna asked, pausing in putting away the groceries.
The Doctor just barely lfted his head so his words were clear. “I just realised that your description perfectly described how Rose looked upon me. And it hurt.”
She stepped closer. “So... she loved her image of you, but not you?”
“And I was blind to it the whole time.”
Donna looked at his frame and touched his shoulders. “How about I help my friend a little?”
“How?”
“Do you trust me?”
He reflexively looked up at her in confusion, again becoming a little unfocused on seeing her lips. “Yes...”
“What? You've never seen a woman wearing cherry lip gloss before?”
“Not you.”
“Then what's the great fascination?”
“It... it smells good on you.”
“Okay,” Donna muttered as she thought about how to react to that. “Well, how far unalike are Humans and Time Lords?”
“Gallifreyans, Donna. If I hadn't shared my mind so much with Jenny she would still be a Gallifreyan, plain and simple. Training and a little more is what it took to turn me into a Time Lord.”
“Yes, but my question stands.”
“Um... the msucle groups are the same types. Just made a little differently.”
“Then... can your species take massages?”
“What's a massage?”
Donna smiled at his confusion. “I'll show you. But it'd help if you took off that coat and suit jacket.”
He frowned, wondering what that had to do with anything, but he removed both. “Now what?”
She stepped fully behind him. “Trust me. And tell me if anything hurts."
Her hands applied gentle pressure to the muscles between his shoulders, and he sucked in a sharp breath.
“Doctor?”
“I... I was just surprised. So you're working on my muscle tension.”
“Yes. Where do you carry your tension?”
“Um... mostly the lower back. It's never been quite the same since my regeneration into this body.”
“Then let me see what I can do.”
He was uncertain whether he should trust her, given the things her simple touch was doing to his insides. It should have been complete torture to feel like his body was melting from the inside, but it seemed nothing she did bothered him. Yet.
“Let's see what you've got, Earthgirl.”
Donna liked the challenge and smirked. “Hope you don't regret that answer.”
He had no chance to reply, because she slid her hands slowly down his back, feeling for tight spots and anywhere that did not produce a pleased reaction in the Doctor. She felt for tensing up whether it felt like a reflex or not.
The Doctor avoided letting people touch him except for holding hands or hugging him. Partly a holdover from his people's aviding contact with what they called the 'lesser species', and also partly from the Time Lords' insistence that distance be kept between every last Gallifreyan as they were above all of the emotional entanglements of the Dark Times. But even those things were supposed to be beneath even an ordinary Gallifreyan. He found the older he got, and especially after the Time War, the more he envied the Humans he had fallen in with or chose for how easily they formed attachments.
So it was a shock to his system that Donna's hands were practically like magic on his body. His muscles, which had been carrying tension since he was still the him he would not speak of, felt like they were melting under her touch. Even when she ran into a spot that was so tight that he nearly cried out in pain she softened her touch until it warmed under her hands and softened till a firmer touch could make it go away. It made things easier to breathe through and yet increased his respiration.
“Doctor, you've gone awfully quiet. Are you okay?”
“Yeah...” he moaned.
She stilled. That was a sound she had never imagined he would or could make.
The Docxtor froze when it hit him what he sounded like. It was a sound he knew he had not made since Reinette. He flushed. “Um... I mean, I'm just relaxed.”
“You mean part of you is?”
He risked looking over his shoulder. “You don't sound as angry as I feared.”
She shrugged. “I mean, you might be an alien but you must have needs. We all do. I figure they're just different from ours.”
“I wouldn't know. My people were Cursed.”
“What? Like witchcraft?”
“You would think of it as such. The truth is that sometimes words are extremely powerful, and ability to name something can give you power of it.”
She thought a moment. “Is that why you won't tell me your real name?”
He stiffened briefly, but then relaxed with a smile. “Perceptive. Well, yes and no. There's only a particular time when I could. It's a safety means built into our species' ability to form pair bonds that lasted for life.”
“Long life and life-long marriages? Blimey, I hope they were more compatible than some of the matches I've seen.”
“Some were very bad ideas, Donna. All because someone in their respective families decided that political ties were more important than any thought to personal compatibility. Not that it was thought that such things needed to be concerning subjects given how we were supposed to be unable to feel anything like love or affection thanks to the Curse.”
“The Curse?” she repeated. “Who did this to you?”
“To all our people, long before I was born. There was a war between two factions of Gallifreyans, and the side of the Time Lords won. But not before the leader of the Magic Lords, the Pythia, sent herself into the Void after condemning us all to be unable to procreate naturally or to feel proper emotions.”
“But... without emotions, how can anyone make a decision? Or is that just a Human thing?”
“Ah, I know which medical case directly or indirectly influenced that question. Poor man. Yes, it seemed that a more accurate description of what the Pythia did was remove our ability to know what emotion we were feeling. Except for disdain and pride. Those we had in abundance. And I know it made life not so much fun for my former assistants and companions. I could be really insufferable in my past incarnations.”
Donna stopped and sat beside him. “So you've basically been starving for love and affection, no matter how you thought about it or let others think. No wonder you didn't want to let a girl like Rose go. You must've been in bad shape after the Time War.”
He thought and slowly nodded. “You have no idea.”
“I think I do. I've gone through so many boyfriends, but none wanted more than a roll in the hay. Well, and were going to suit me. I've been dumped for someone younger, blonder, prettier, and some combo thereof so many times I could've easily lost count. I didn't because I'm too good at numbers, and I remember every pain. I bet you do, too.”
The Doctor pouted. “I can't see how you could possibly be mistreated.”
“Well, you've met my mum. I don't exactly inspire a lot of confidence since I'm so far behind what she thought my life would be like.”
“Remind me to snap at her if she starts on you.”
“I think she won't. Not while Jenny's around. Somehow she's wormed her way into my mum's heart. Guess her puppy eyes work better than yours.”
“Oi, I've never tried to use them on your mum.”
“And I'm glad.”
“Maybe I should, if it'd make life easier for you and for Wilfred.”
Donna blush. “Please, don't.”
“Why?” His embarrassment faded as his nose picked up one something that he had not recognized before. Not from her. “Do you just not like the idea of me flirting with someone so close to you?”
“Don't! Don't go there, Doctor!” she snapped, flushing harder and standing.
Only he grabbed her hands, pleading with his eyes to stay. “Donna, I think you've either changed your mind about that 'skinny streak' comment or you were hiding behind that to keep me from knowing.”
Her eyes flashed. 'Well, what's a girl supposed to think? You talked about how you ruined Martha's life and how things got complicated between you. And you were moping so much over Rose that I can only assume that you were in love with her. I didn't want you thinking that all I wanted was you for that! I wanted adventure, to feel needed, useful! I also didn't want you to have the wrong idea that I was up for any of that fancying nonsense.”
“You talked like love was nonsense.”
“How did you think that? I meant fancying, which is the word you used for Martha's feeling for you. And I hope that she'd not on the rebound with this Tom bloke because of it.”
“Me, too.” He cleared his throat. “But I mean it, I wasn't telling the truth. I wanted you to stay and I was afraid of what you might be expecting. I've lately seen mostly people who wanted more from me than I was able to give them ever. I just wanted someone who wanted me for me, but I wasn't willing to ask for anything. I've never been able to hang on to something I wanted.”
“Is that part of why you wouldn't accept Jenny at first? Aside from the whole... cloning implications?”
The Doctor flinched but nodded. “It feels like the universe hates me.”
“Sound like how I feel about myself.”
He laughed mirthlessly. “What a pair we make.”
“So... you weren't feeling... too relaxed by what I did?”
“Well, I was. I'm more relaxed than I've been for about a thousand years. I'm not exactly the easiest person to get along with, as far as most of the universe is concerned.”
“You mean, those dictators and other egomaniacs? How can they count?”
He smiled at her words. “I like that. You've always been both the person who keeps my ego in check or the person who keeps others from really making serious attacks on my person or character.”
“You have one?” she joked.
“Oi!”
She giggled. “Doctor, you set yourself up for that one.”
He exhaled sharply. “Fine. But I'll only allow that maybe things aren't so bad if you'll accept that not everyone hates gingers. Some of the universe loves them!”
She stilled. 'You included?”
He hesitated, but there was never a look of untruth in his eyes. “Me most of all, I think.”
She blushed. Then cleared her throat. “Feeling better?”
“Loads. And ready for more of the day. Even the week. Maybe the month.”
“Oi, you'll need fluids. Clear, like water. Massage releases a lot of tension that stores things you didn't need in your muscles.”
“I think you Humans have a few things to learn about how your own bodies work.”
“Like you knew how yours would react to a massage?”
“Well, I didn't know what one was.”
“Now you do. What do you think?”
“I liked your hands on me.”
Both of them blushed.
Then the wash stopped.
Donna cleared her throat. “Help me get these hanging up to dry and maybe I'll do a little more work on your back. We've got about twenty minutes before my family and yours return. It wouldn't do for Jenny to come in and find your moaning under my hands. We still haven't had a proper birds and bees talk.”
“What do you mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “Sex, Dumbo!” she hissed. “Mum and Granddad will think it, especially Mum. And you know how curious Jenny is. You weren't there to hear her asking my mum which part of the female anatomy is her modesty.”
He paled. “Oh, Rassilon.” He face-palmed himself. “This will be trouble.”
“I hope Time Ladies don't get periods. Because she's in for a rude awakening if you have anything like what we do.”
“Donna... will you please handle those talks?”
“I don't know about the differences between Humans and Gallifreyans!”
“I could enlighten you.”
Her hand readied for a slap.
“No, not without something more serious! Donna, I don't engage in simple slap-and-tickle without any attachment! It prevented anything from really happening back in France, even though Rose was sure that I had done something more than snogging.”
“I'm not going to ask who it was. Not right now. But... I do need to know what you have in mind.”
He flushed. “Well... don't these massages work best where there's no clothing in the way?”
Donna flushed. “You want my hands on your bare, cooler skin.”
“Yes.”
She sighed. “We'd better get on with it. But first let's get this already dried laundry taken care of. Mum will know we were up to something naughty if she comes home to find this undone. And Jenny will focus her questions on you if we let anything slip.”
He was not sure when he last had to fold his own laundry, but he followed her example. He was impatient for her to let him see if he couldn't impress her with his body. Maybe whatever it was that caught Rose's eye would also work on Donna, only to much more flattering effect. And she would be mature enough to handle the implications. Never mind the other details that would be different than a Human's, which he knew he was right to hide from Rose.
Lucky him that the perception filter worked even despite her absorbing the Vortex even briefly.
And of course they had to be dressed in time to make sure that no one was any the wiser. Sylvia's words were even more unwanted than Jenny's innocent comments and questions. Wilfred would just smile, but it was better to have things move at a pace not dictated by others or by circumstances. He had had enough of that over his entire life, and would not wish it on his Donna.
Given that no questions happened, they succeeded. And it made him determined to repay the favor to Donna.
THE END