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There’s a knock on the door. Tony looks up from where he sits on his bedroom floor, building with legos. “Come in!”
“Tony! I need your help,” says the Doctor, bounding in. “Are you busy? I’ve got a problem, at my place, and I think you are the one to solve it.”
“Me?” Tony looks around. “Are you sure you really want me ?”
“Oh yes. Come on, Grab your shoes. Don’t worry about a coat, I’ve got the TARDIS parked downstairs. We’ll tell your mum and we’ll be off.”
Tony hastily shovels the legos back into their box, finds his shoes in his closet, and follows the Doctor into the hallway and down the stairs.
The TARDIS is parked at the bottom of the steps. Jackie’s waiting there, too.
“Mum, can I go to the Doctor and Rosie’s house to play? I’ll be good, and I’ll be a good listener, and I won’t touch any of the buttons or switches in the TARDIS.”
Jackie smiles at the boy. “Course you can! I’m sure you’ll be better behaved than this one,” she says, gesturing at the Doctor.
“Oi! I’m perfectly well-behaved! It’s not my fault if trouble follows me about sometimes. Well, mostly it’s not my fault. Well, sometimes it is, but those are special circumstances.”
“Right. Just have him back before bedtime. And in one piece, please.”
Tony runs to his mum for a hug and a kiss and then darts into the TARDIS.
“Right then. We’re off. Allons-y!” The Doctor gives Jackie a little wave and follows Tony into the timeship.
“So why are we here?” They are standing in the middle of Rose and the Doctor’s kitchen.
The Doctor grins. “I need you to help me make dinner for Rose!”
Tony laughs. “Doctor, I’m only seven. I can’t cook.”
The Doctor is unfazed. “Nonsense! I’m sure between the two of us we can figure it out!”
Tony starts to laugh again, but stops when he sees the genuine look on the Doctor’s face. “You mean it? Why ask me ?”
“If I asked your mum she’d just do it for me, or spend the whole time telling me she can’t believe I never learned how to cook. I did learn how to cook, actually, back on Gallifrey, but the food’s all different, and so is the kitchen. I mean, we have spoons, but you should see the ovens. They’d hurt your brain, those ovens. And they’re not really even ovens, they’re--”
Tony just stares at him.
“Right. Dinner.”
Looking around the kitchen, Tony asks, “What do you want to make?”
The Doctor perches on a stool and grins. “No idea. But we just went to the market yesterday, so the cupboards are full, full, full!” He gestures wildly and nearly falls off the stool, making a grab at the counter to keep himself from ending up on the floor. He looks up, as though he’s had a grand thought. “Hey! Rose fancies chips. Can you make chips?” He looks at Tony hopefully.
“Doctor, I don’t think either of us should be making chips.”
The Doctor’s face falls. “You’re probably right. Sharp objects, flying potato peels…”
“I was actually thinking fire hazard.”
“Ah. Right.”
Tony lights up. “I can make cereal!”
“Brilliant! Not really a dinner thing of course, cereal, but we’ll hold on to it if all else fails.” He waves Tony over toward the cupboards. “Come on, man! We can work this out!”
When Rose walks into the house that evening everything is a bit darker than usual. “Doctor,” she calls, “why are the lights ou--Oh! You startled me!”
The Doctor sits in the living room, which doesn’t look like the living room; the furniture has been pushed to the sides, and there’s a small round table and two chairs in the center of the room. The Doctor sits in one, and he gestures to the other, smiling. On the table are two lit candles and two empty champagne flutes.
“Surprise.” He doesn’t shout, just grins.
Rose smiles back, but it’s a confused smile. “What’s the occasion?”
“Well, that’s a bit complicated. Sit down, I’ll explain.” She sits. “See, we don’t have an anniversary.” When she starts to protest, he holds up his hands to stop her. “Okay, we do,” he says, pointing at the ring on his finger, “but I can’t really surprise you on that day, can I. Surprises are expected. What I meant was, really, we have too many anniversaries. There’s the day I first took your hand and said ‘run,’ the day you started traveling with me, our first kiss, the day I first took this face, the day you said you’d stay with me forever, the day I got this body and we decided to truly have our own forever. Which day is the most important? Which day do we celebrate?”
He looks at his Rose, so lovely in the candlelight, her eyes wet and shining with unshed tears. “I realized that every day is a day to celebrate. To celebrate us, to celebrate you. I love you, Rose Tyler. Every single day.”
“And I love you, my Doctor. Forever.”
They just sit in silence, lost in each other’s eyes, until they hear the shuffling of feet and a little cough and look up to see Tony standing in the doorway, a towel draped over his arm and a bottle in his hand.
“Tony!” Rose exclaims.
“Champagne for the lady?” he asks, nodding at the glass in front of Rose. He leans close to her and whispers, “It’s not really champagne, it’s only sparkling grape juice. But the Doctor said I should tell you that the real stuff is chilling for later.”
Rose looks at the Doctor, who winks. She grins, then looks at Tony, who waits expectantly. “I’d love a glass, thank you good sir.”
Tony nods seriously, then pours two glasses of the juice. “I’ll be right back with your salads.”
Before Rose can say anything, the Doctor says, “Yes, I recruited your brother to help me. You know I’m a bit of a menace in the kitchen.”
Rolling her eyes, Rose says, “Just a bit.”
Carefully placing bowls of salad and two forks on the table in front of them, Tony says, “Enjoy.”
When they’re alone again, Rose says, “He’s sure taking his job seriously. It’s adorable, actually.”
The Doctor smiles. “He loves you.”
“He’s a good kid. I have to admit, I’m curious to see what the two of you cooked up. What comes after the salad?”
The Doctor rubs the back of his neck. “Well...unfortunately we had a few minor difficulties. Well, I say minor, they were actually maybe a bit bigger than minor. Not disastrous, but certainly not leading toward a positive result for the dinner hour.”
“ Doctor .”
He finally looks her in the eye. “We have biscuits. Just biscuits. Biscuits we bought at the store yesterday, actually. Nothing we cooked was remotely edible, although Tony says he can make us some cereal in a pinch. Also, I think you should stay away from the kitchen for a bit. I haven’t had a chance to clean up.”
Rose nearly chokes on her salad. “Oh Doctor,” she says when she finally gets control of her laughter, “our forever is never, ever boring.”