Once Upon A Time Chapter Two
After three (three!) failed attempts including posting to my own journal, posting one sentance here and posting the entire fic without a cut here, I've actually got this up. Sorry if it clogged your flist for the breif moment it was up. I'm ill and am supposed to be resting in bed, so of course I'm at the computer writing fic. I dunno if it's as good as the first part or not. I blame all grammar mistakes on illness, and I'll probably correct them once I'm better.
Title: Once Upon A Time
Chapter: 2
Genre: General
Characters: The Tenth Doctor, little!Rose
Length: 765 words
It wasn’t long after their first meeting (or perhaps it was) that they next met. This time it was a Monday, and Rose still wasn’t at school because of the holidays. She was up the park again, supposed to be meeting Mickey but he hadn’t turned up, so she was sitting on a swing and eating an ice-cream she’d bought with the last of her pocket money.
"That nice?" asked a not unfamiliar voice from behind her, and Rose jumped, dropping her ice cream. She narrowed her eyes, staring down at it and then giving the Doctor a hurt look.
"You made me drop my ice cream!" she cried accusingly, pointing at it, and he chuckled. "And you aren’t supposed to be here!" added she, looking outraged.
"Who says that, then?" he asks, frowning as he moves to sit on the swing next to her.
"Mum does. Says I’m not meant to talk to you. Say’s you’re a pervert!" Rose said the last bit with feeling, even though she isn’t quite sure what it means.
"Times haven’t changed much, then," the Doctor grinned, swinging himself back and forth idly. "Tell you what. I’ll buy you another ice cream and then I’ll tell you why you’re allowed to talk to me."
This seemed a good enough deal for Rose, and she grinned, nodding. "I want a big one!" she warned him, grinning. "With a flake! And the strawberry stuff!"
"Pig," the Doctor reprimanded with a grin, but trotted off to buy her it anyway. From what Rose could see of him at the ice cream vendor, there seemed to be a bit of trouble with him buying it, and she heard someone talking about an eleven pound coin, but eventually he strolled back over, an enormous ice cream in each hand.
"Here you go, then," he said, handing over one cone and sitting back down next to her. "Right. Now, little Miss Tyler-"
"How d’you know my last name?" asked Rose, frowning at him. There was ice cream on her nose.
"Magic. Anyway, you shouldn’t talk to strangers, but I’m not a stranger anyway, am I?"
"You were, and I still talked to you!"
"Well, don’t talk to any other strangers, then. But never mind that now. Why’re you here all alone?"
"I’m meeting Mickey!"
"Where is he, then?"
"I dunno. Just not here yet."
"Your mother," said the Doctor, wrinkling his nose up, "Will be worried."
"’S not like I’m alone. You’re here."
"Exactly. Don’t tell her you’ve been talkin’ to me, will you? She’ll beat me up."
Rose giggled. She certainly could imagine mum chasing after him with a handbag and screaming bloody murder. "She don’t even know your name, she can’t find you."
"I said I was the Doctor, didn’t I?" He asked, frowning as he stuffed a whole flake into his mouth at once.
"Well, yeah, but you didn’t tell her your name."
"That is my name," he said, looking slightly offended.
"Oh," said Rose. "All right."
The Doctor smiled. The trust of children was always nice. He was used to getting into arguments over what his real name was. It wasn’t like they’d be able to pronounce it, anyway. "D’you want to hear the end of that story, then?"
"No," said Rose, painfully bluntly. "You’re rubbish at stories. I’ll tell you one, though."
"Go on, then."
Rose started talking. She told him about wonderful things and horrible things- of things that he knew about, the monsters at the end of the universe, the rock at the edge of the world, of horrible monsters who could only be killed by gold, of whole planets devoted to being prisons, of slaves. She also told him of a robotic dog, and a beautiful woman who had two faces, of a woman with blonde hair who saves the world from a bit of meat hanging on the ceiling, and when she was finished both of their ice creams had long gone.
"Where’d you learn about all that?" Asked the Doctor, quietly.
"I dunno. I dreamt some of it. My mum told me some of it. She said when she was a kid this bloke with curly hair and a mile-long scarf told her stories, until her mum found out."
"That was her?" The Doctor asked, incredulously, but Rose took no notice, because she'd stood up.
"I’m going home. It’s tea time."
With that, the Doctor was left quite alone, swinging until all of the children and irritating mothers had gone home, and when the sky was dark and full of stars, he went home himself.