timelord1

Here's 8. Technically, as I read this, it could have been part of chapter 7. But, if the worst thing I do all day is split up my chapters wonky, then I'll be ahead of the game. Ha.

Rose awoke to the sound of someone snoring softly in her ear. The Doctor had his arms around her, his head resting on her shoulder, every hair on his head standing at haphazard attention. She shifted to pull out of his embrace and his eyelids slowly opened. He squinted a smile at her as he let her go and stretched, rubbing his face with both hands.

“Well, I won’t need to sleep again for a week and a half,” he said through a yawn. With a jerk of his shoulders he cracked his back and hopped to his feet, shaking himself off like a dog. Rose laughed and burrowed back under the covers, but the Doctor pulled the blankets off with a flourish. She groaned and reached for them, but he was already folding them up and putting them away. When he’d finished, he knelt on the mattress and kissed her on the cheek.

“Good morning,” he whispered. “You slept well.”

“So did you,” Rose said. She put her hand on his face to cradle his smile and he kissed her palm.

“Oh, that was nice,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I never sleep like that. You’re going to turn me human before you’re done with me, Rose Tyler.”

“Would that be so bad?” she asked.

“Not at all,” he answered. “Especially if it means sleeping like that every night.”

She got off the mattress and he rolled it up, stuffing it into a corner for the day. When he was done, they stood and faced each other. There was a newness in the way he looked at her that she wanted to hang onto for the rest of her life. When he drew his next breath, his eyes began to shine.

“Do you smell that?” he asked. “Breakfast. Are you starving?” He pulled on his dressing gown and, taking her hand, led them to the dining room where Sumiko was just finishing setting out the breakfast spread; rice, soup, more fish, a bowl of goopy-looking beans, a plate with what looked like sheets of paper made out of pressed grass, and a plate of what looked like omelet rolled up and sliced into sushi-sized rolls. Ichisumi and some of the other geisha were already seated, waiting for them to arrive.

“Good morning,” the Doctor said with a bow. Rose copied him as closely as she could and the women at the table smiled and said their good-mornings. They sat close to Ichisumi, who eyed the Doctor’s hair with some amusement. The Doctor only shrugged and gave her a wink.

“Rose-san,” Ichisumi said, “Are you ready to embark upon your lessons?”

“Oh, very much,” Rose replied. “I’m excited to get started.”

“You’re going to be brilliant,” the Doctor said, filling his mouth so full with food the other geisha at the table stared at him. “Ichisumi is a genius with a fan. She’ll be able to teach you in no time. I’ll show you this one trick she taught me –“

“You are not invited,” Ichisumi said with a small smile.

The Doctor’s face fell so fast Rose almost felt sorry for him. “Why not?” he asked.

“Do you plan on wearing the kimono and the katsura? Will you be painting your face white and dancing for the teahouse guests?” Ichisumi asked. The women at the table, Rose included, began giggling. The Doctor puffed himself up a bit and took another bite of breakfast.

“Maybe I will,” he said with a sniff and a shake of his head. His hair, still standing straight up after hours smashed against a pillow, shook like porcupine quills.

“Oh, you would be kawaii as geisha,” Ichisumi teased. The giggling at the table turned to outright laughter when the Doctor simpered at Rose and fluttered his eyelashes at her. She was so used to the way he carried himself that she didn’t realize until that moment, when he was so giddy and relaxed, that he was normally almost rigid with tension in comparison.

“So, what am I supposed to do with myself all day?” he asked.

Rose shrugged. “Time-travel to the end of the day and meet us there?”

“I could do that, couldn’t I?” he said.

“Of course, if you miss with the TARDIS, you could strand me here for a hundred years,” she said, not looking at him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw his wide-eyed look of realization.

He sighed. “I’ll have to stay, then.”

“I think it’s safe to say that while Rose-san discovers the world of the geisha, you will also be experiencing a new world, Abunai-san,” Ichisumi said. “The world of boredom.”

He shrugged, but Rose could see the tension creeping back into his neck. “Can’t be that bad. I’ll manage.”

Rose and Ichisumi exchanged sideways glances. “We shall see,” Ichisumi said.

********

After breakfast, Rose and Ichisumi went to the guest room for privacy. The Doctor followed them, until Ichisumi stopped him at the doorway.

“Do you need something from this room, Abunai-san?” she asked.

He looked at Rose with the expression of a puppy who fully expects to be let up on the couch despite being told no for the past fifteen minutes. “I just wanted to be sure Rose was comfortable,” he said.

Rose smiled at him. “I am. Thank you. Now, go away.”

“Erm,” he said, sighing. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Are you six?” Rose asked. “You want me to get you a coloring book? The TARDIS has a couple of pools, an arcade, a waterslide, antigravity gym, regular gym, library, movie theater, multiple laboratories if you want to get scientific and a sauna. Go play.”

“I don’t play,” he muttered. “Those are there purely for the enjoyment of my companions.”

“Fix the chameleon circuit,” Rose said, giving him a push out of the doorway. “Maybe you can make the TARDIS look like one of those little trees in the garden.”

“They’re called bonsai!” the Doctor cried as Ichisumi slid the doors closed.

“This door is mainly paper,” the Doctor said from the other side. Ichisumi and Rose grinned at each other and waited until they heard him stomp away, grumbling to himself, before they laughed aloud.

“He is a caution, isn’t he?” Ichisumi said.

Rose chuckled. “That’s one word for him.”

“I was in love with him once,” Ichisumi said, without an ounce of bitterness in her voice. “For a short time. He was softspoken, genteel and so unsure of himself, and I was swept away by his exotic looks and his charm. Strange how a man can change completely and yet remain utterly the same.”

“He’s done that more than once since you saw him last,” Rose said. “When I met him, he was very serious and sort of gloomy, but sweet underneath. He had the best smile, when he would smile. I loved his eyes.”

“And now?” Ichisumi asked.

The way that Rose sighed made both women laugh. “I’d never tell him that, though.”

“Oh no, you mustn’t. In fact, you and I are going to initiate a second, more devious plan while you learn the art of geisha,” Ichisumi said, a wicked twinkle in her eye as she started setting out things for Rose’s first lesson.

“What’s that?” Rose asked.

Ichisumi picked up a fan, snapped it open, twirled it in the air, tossed it and caught it, then snapped it closed and handed it to Rose. “We are going to make Abunai-san go mad with jealousy.”