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The Doctor had tried to put off this for as long as they could. But Donna had seen through all of their attempts after just two weeks. ‘This’ being going shopping for more clothes.
Donna had put her foot down and declared that she would be taking them clothes shopping the next day. And that she would drag them over there herself if it came down to that.
So here the two of them were, crossing the street and heading towards a second hand shop. Thankfully, no dragging had been needed. Although the Doctor had protested nearly all the way there.
“I know that Shaun and grandad said they don’t mind you borrowing their clothes but you can’t keep doing that forever, and you need ones that actually fit you properly,” Donna commented as she pushed open the door to the shop. “And either way, I know you probably want shoes that aren’t those,” she added with a glance at the shoes that, like most of the clothes that the Doctor was currently wearing, had been borrowed from Shaun.
“Yeah, but I don’t need more clothes, the ones I have now fit me fine,” they protested, echoing the conversation that they had the night before.
“Doctor, you have barely two full outfits and a set of pyjamas. A person needs at least three of each. And that does not fit you properly,” she turned back to face them just as she had reached the clothes racks.
The two of them spent the next fifteen minutes looking through the racks. The Doctor had grabbed a basket at some point.
To no one’s surprise, it got filled with a lot of tartan.
Primarily tartan.
“So definitely no pinstripes this time around?” the redhead asked when she had drifted over to the table of shoes not too far from the clothes racks.
“Nope. Tartan is just…better this time around,” the Doctor told her. Donna nodded.
“You know, I’ve come to this shop dozens of times and I don’t think I’ve ever had as much luck as you have had today—“ Donna cut herself off. “Hey, look at this!” She called out, holding up a pair of red converse. “Brand new and look like they’re your size,”
“Oh, that’s brilliant!”
The shoes go in the basket too.
Once there were enough pieces of clothing in the basket to satisfy Donna, she wandered off towards the table that held jewellery; which left the Doctor to their own devices. They approached a rack that had caught their eye nearly as soon as they had entered the shop. One that held skirts.
There was one in particular: knee-length, pleated and in a tartan pattern. In colours that were not too dissimilar to their regeneration-made vest.
It was far softer than they had anticipated it to be. The Doctor rubbed it against their face impulsively. It felt amazing.
They looked at it properly. Much like the shoes that Donna had found earlier, it was in their size.
There was a nagging desire in the back of their mind to get this skirt. It was just so Nice.
They hadn’t been so invested in getting a skirt like this ever. Or any time that they could remember, at least.
The Doctor had been so absorbed in marvelling at the Goodness of the skirt that they were holding that they didn’t notice Donna approaching them.
“You going to get that one?” she asked.
The sound of her voice suddenly so close to them made them jump. The skirt fell from their hands into a heap on the floor.
For some reason, both nervousness and embarrassment flooded them, despite how badly they wanted that piece of clothing.
“What? Oh. No, no — I’m not,” With heat dusting their cheeks, the Doctor picked the hanger up and shoved it back on the rack.
Donna frowned.
Why was she frowning? Had they said something wrong?
“You want it, don’t you?” she asked, instead of commenting on what they had just said.
The Doctor found themself no longer able to keep looking at their best friend, instead finding the old and very worn concrete to be much more interesting.
“Yeah, I do,” they heard themself say quietly.
“Then you should get it,” Donna told them before she moved forward to pluck the skirt off of the rack again and offered it back to them.
“Isn’t it…wrong?” the Doctor asked tentatively, before they took it from her.
“Wrong? No, it’s not wrong,”
The two of them went to pay and left the shop soon after that. The Doctor stopped on the sidewalk outside the thrift shop to change their shoes from the ones that they had borrowed from Shaun to the red converse they had just bought.
A week later, they were wearing the skirt when they got pulled into a situation that involved them, Rose, and their future self.
“Nice skirt,” their older self complimented as they and Rose were leaving his TARDIS.
Compared to the skirt, he was more shocked to see that their hair was now ginger two weeks later.