katherine_b: (DW - Doctor/Donna shazam slap (animated))
katherine_b ([personal profile] katherine_b) wrote2011-08-07 12:04 pm
Entry tags:

Wanting To Know

Title: Wanting To Know
Author: [livejournal.com profile] katherine_b
Characters/Pairing: The Doctor (Ten) and Donna
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,035 words
Summary: Donna has a question.
A/N: Written for the eighth Travellers Tale with the prompt ‘lie’.

“Well, that’s a lie to start with,” Donna complains, placing her knife and fork neatly on her empty plate. “It can’t possibly.”

“It does though,” the Doctor contradicts her, pushing his own cleared plate away. “Everything.”

“It can’t,” she tells him. “Not even the TARDIS can have everything.”

“Does,” he declares, folding his arms across his chest and pouting.

“God, you’re like a kid sometimes,” she objects, rolling her eyes.

“Donna, I’m a Time Lord,” he reminds her impatiently. “I command respect and admiration and deference and reverence and... and... and...”

“You’re dribbling on your tie.”

Startled, he looks down to see his tie neatly tucked away under his jacket, returning his eyes gaze to her face in time to see her smirk.

“Made you look.”

“That’s it!”

The Doctor leaps to his feet, towering over Donna, and moves to grab her arm. He distinctly sees her cringe away and suddenly realises how threatening his position must seem. After all, she’s only been back with him for a few hours, and the last time they met, she did admit to being afraid of him. And now he’s looming over her...

He instantly rocks back on his heels, seeing as she relaxes, and grins in his most persuasive manner, holding out his hand and wriggling his fingers in an inviting gesture.

“Come on!” he says cheerfully.

Donna eyes him in a way that reminds him of the moment when, after he had regenerated, he said something similar to Rose.

“I want to show you,” he explains rather more quietly. “You name it, we’ll find it.”

“Is that a promise?” she demands, standing up and taking his hand.

“Yup!” He beams, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze. “What will it be first?”

“Hmm.” She thinks for a moment. “I reckon you’ll have all the normal rooms – bedrooms and dining room and whatnot.”

“’Course,” he agrees with a nod, hoping she won’t want to see the dining room since it was a bit of a mess last time he looked.

“And you claim to be a Doctor,” she adds, casting a teasing look in his direction, “so I suppose you’ll have a laboratory or something to show off your skills.”

“Actually, I do,” he agrees. “Want to see?”

“Oh, go on then!”

The Doctor is relieved to find that the laboratory is much as he left it last time he saw it – which he thinks might have been back in his second incarnation actually. Good to know he hadn’t left the Bunsen burner on during that last visit. He did have moments of being a bit absent-minded back then, or so he liked people to believe.

“What else do you want to see?” he asks once she’s satisfied.

Donna rolls her eyes. “Well, despite being alien, you’re still just a bloke,” she tells him, hurrying on before he can get indignant, “so I’d guess you’ve got somewhere to do all that tinkering – apart from the console room, I mean. Putting stuff together. You’d want a room for that.”

“Of course,” he agrees, deciding not to take issue just yet with her accusation about being ‘just a bloke.’ Instead he finds the tool-room and shows his companion around, just as he did last time he was here, about three incarnations ago.

“Tell you what I bet you don’t have,” Donna declares almost triumphantly once she has seen all there is to see in that room. “A pool!”

“Aha!” He knows she’ll be impressed by this one.

It takes them twenty minutes, but they find it in the end. He’d always thought it was next to the library, but apparently the TARDIS has decided to move it around. The room’s not white, like it was the last time he saw it, but the pool itself is still there.

“Voila,” he announces, his arms wide, gesturing at the pool. “Told you…”

“Don’t you dare!” She points an accusing finger at him. “There is no way I’m letting the words ‘I told you so’ cross those lips of yours, mate. Not until I actually agree that this TARDIS really does have everything.”

“Hmph,” he grumbles. “Get on with it then.”

She reels off a list of unlikely rooms – unlikely to her anyway – beginning with a greenhouse and ending with a boot-cupboard. He proudly shows them all to her, trying not to look too smug at the disappointment on Donna’s face each time one of her suggestions is met with success.

“Tell you what,” he says when she seems to run out of ideas, at the same time as a rather naughty thought occurs to him, “I’ll show you some things you probably haven’t even thought of yet. Sound good?”

“Yeah, go on then,” she agrees, looking rather more cheerful.

“Hmm.” He looks up and down the hallway and finds what he’s looking for – a non-descript door that most people pass without even noticing it. “Aha, yes, that one!”

“What is it?” Donna asks as they stop in front of it.

“Take a look,” he tells her obligingly.

Donna unsuspiciously pokes her head into the dark space.

“I don’t see anything,” she complains, and then, as the Doctor had always known she would, sneezes violently.

And then again.

And again.

He’s getting worried by the eighth sneeze.

And by the twelfth, he’s no longer amused at having asked her to look in the cupboard where the TARDIS hides the dust bunnies.

In fact, he’s more than worried as he sees that her face is as red as her hair.

She slaps him in between the sixteenth and seventeenth sneeze.

He thinks he probably deserved it.

She calls him an idiot – breathlessly – after the nineteenth one.

He certainly deserves that.

And there’s an awfully long moment of silence after the twenty-third sneeze. He stares at the floor and she glares at him as she recovers her breath.

“Well, I know one thing the TARDIS doesn’t have,” she exclaims at last in an air of triumph, wiping her streaming eyes with the handkerchief he has sheepishly offered her.

“Oh?” The Doctor leans against the nearby wall, his arms folded over his chest, trying and failing to look innocent. “And what’s that then?”

She pokes him in the chest. “A vacuum cleaner!”
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
*g* Maybe that was one of the rooms she assumed he wouldn't have. I'm sure he was very proud to show her though... ;-)

[identity profile] time-converges.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
Ha! I love this! I love him showing off a bit for her, and her trying to outthink him. :D

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
Them one-upping each other is so much fun!

[identity profile] beautifulntime.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
Lol! *dies of giggles and sneezes* Love it, doll!
Edited 2011-08-07 02:25 (UTC)

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
Aw, thanks!

*offers you a tissue*
Edited 2011-08-07 02:36 (UTC)

[identity profile] thenoblethang.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
LOL. And this would be an example of some of his ideas not being so bright...

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
*g* Er, yes, I would imagine so...

[identity profile] tkel-paris.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
He has to have some bad ones. Of course, I'd add certain things that connect with a certain companion to that list...

[identity profile] tkel-paris.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
And why some of these comments are posting twice, I don't know!

Did I mention I have another plot bunny, but this one I'm not posting as a prompt? I want to tackle this one myself! (Of course, I have to get through my Shakespearean ideas and finish "Ashes" first...)

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
It clearly wanted to make sure I noticed it. *g*

Ooh, yay for you having another bunny! Can't wait to see what it is!

[identity profile] tkel-paris.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
He has to have some bad ones. Of course, I'd add certain things that connect with a certain companion to that list...

[identity profile] doctorsgirl26.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
Do you think the TARDIS would mind if I put some of my dust bunnies in that room? I need a place to put them.
I love this! Brilliant work!

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
*g* I'm sure the TARDIS would be very happy to help. So glad you enjoyed this!

[identity profile] tkel-paris.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
As someone who has dust allergies, I'm completely with Donna on that one. And I don't believe in hitting people!

She should've asked about a nursery. Just to see if he flinched... That could've been interesting... ;D

Have you thought about doing a sequel, focusing on the Doctor realizing that maybe he needs to think a little more often...? Or Donna telling him off properly? Even if not, I'm grinning widely at this after-work treat!

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
You have my sympathies on the allergy issue! And Donna did have a habit of treating the Doctor as her own personal slapping bag at times.

0_o I never even thought of a nursery. You are making me wonder now though...

And yay for you grinning!

[identity profile] tkel-paris.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh! Maybe the sequel will be about her asking about a nursery...? How about a child's playroom? Oh, wait, we're talking about the universe's biggest kid. Never mind... ;D

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sure there would be a playroom of sorts in there. And you are very evil to give me so many ideas! ;-)

[identity profile] tkel-paris.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Not evil. Just someone whose muse gets too many ideas and wants to share the wealth! ;D

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-08 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
Heh, maybe only a bit evil...

[identity profile] noblegirl91.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:34 am (UTC)(link)
Out-smarted again! Clever Donna!

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
*lol* Isn't she though?

[identity profile] sczep84.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
LMAO, a dustbunnies room, that's adorable. Love that Donna, as it should be, has the last word, heee. The Doctor just can't win *g* Thanks for sharing!

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, yes, Donna should always have the last word! But one does have moments of feeling sorry for the Doctor...

[identity profile] ziggychaos.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
A room with dust bunnies! Love it!

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, you know she has to have one! ;-)

[identity profile] angel-b33.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent! hahaha. surely there's an anti-histamine room though Doctor? I'm sure he'll collect those brownie points later!

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
*g* I think, after what Donna went through, she might just need one!
ext_830458: (Doctor/Donna)

[identity profile] numbuh12.livejournal.com 2011-08-07 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
This is fantastic^_^ I can see this so clearly, Donna sneezing continuously and getting more and more pissed off, and the Doctor looking both apologetic and smug at the same time. The two of them really are great for each other.

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-08 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
So glad you enjoyed it! And I'm sure the Doctor would be unable to help being a wee bit smug, even if he knew he was in trouble. They are indeed a great partnership!

[identity profile] lemony69.livejournal.com 2011-08-08 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Poor Donna. The Doctor really needs a slap sometimes. Good thing he has Donna for that. ;)
Love the you're dribbling on your tie line. She surely knows how to take him a peg down. He needs that as well. So, Donna is absolutely perfect for him. But we all know that anyway. ♥

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-08 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, he certainly does, which is why they are so good together. She puts him into his place on any and all occasions. ;-)

[identity profile] gorengal.livejournal.com 2011-08-13 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
ROFL!!!

[identity profile] katherine-b.livejournal.com 2011-08-13 10:04 pm (UTC)(link)
*g* Glad it amused you!