* Hello fellow Whovians! Welcome to my first Doctor Who fiction. I'm only asking one thing: Don't go easy on me. I want constructive criticism. I plan for this story to be a compilation of drabbles, therefore, I wish to improve as I go along. I love it when people tell me if they like my story, but I love constructive criticism more.

I've been wanting to write for this fandom for a while, and I hope you guys enjoy it!

I referenced the mini-sode: Children in Need: Born Again. I also referenced a deleted scene from Christmas Invasion.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who at all.

Something New

"Further than we've ever gone before!"

She watched as the Doctor skipped this way and that, flicking toggles and smacking various buttons along the way. As he prattled on about their next adventure, Rose couldn't help but stare. The brusque and cheeky personality wearing a leather jacket was replaced with a light-hearted gob in a pinstripe suit. Her Doctor no longer sprinted around the TARDIS console, no longer asked where she wanted to go next.

Her Doctor was gone.

Sighing through her nose, Rose stepped back a few paces to lean against a coral strut near the jump seat. Her memories were fuzzy. She certainly remembered looking into the heart of the TARDIS, but beyond that… The Doctor had said that his regeneration was the only way to save her, but she didn't care. Rose knew the risk of looking into the heart and she took it, knowing that the Doctor would survive even if she perished. She hadn't even considered that the Doctor would be able to-

"Rose." Her gaze snapped to the owner of the soft, yet strong voice that she was still getting used to. The Doctor's excited grin slipped slightly upon meeting his companion's gaze. "Watcha think?"

"Sorry," Rose shook her head, faintly embarrassed at her inattentiveness. "'Bout what?"

"Well," he stretched out the word as he spun a dial, stepping closer to Rose at the same time. "I wanted to take you to Barcelona, but that's not exactly far enough." He pulled a lever and they both took in the familiar wheezing of the TARDIS landing in a new time, a new place.

"If not Barcelona," Rose asked. "Then where?"

The Doctor nodded towards the TARDIS doors. "See for yourself."

Regardless if she still felt cautious around this Doctor, she didn't need telling twice. She spun around and dashed forward, reaching for the doorknob.

"Right, then," the Doctor exclaimed with a wide grin, tossing on his trench coat. "Allons-y!" Rose turned to face him bemusedly. "What," he asked. "I told you. 'Fantastic' doesn't fit the teeth anymore, had to find something different to say, didn't I? Don't you like it?"

"I do," Rose nodded, but her gaze shifted to the floor. After a pause, she said, "I guess I'm still getting used to…well…" She finally looked the Doctor in the eye. His eyebrows came together before he suddenly smacked his own forehead in realization.

"It's the hair, isn't it? Full head of hair!" His hands came up to rifle through the brown mess of locks. "No," he asked after Rose gave him a funny look. "I would say it's the mole, but you can't really feel the mole." Rose chuckled lightly as he hunched a bit and rolled his shoulders. Then, the Doctor tugged at his cloak. "Unless you were talking about the trench coat. Bit too much?" He spread his arms out for dramatic effect.

"No, no. I wasn't talking about the way you look, I…" Rose looked to the floor again, trying to find the words to sum up how she felt about this new Doctor, this new man she'd be seeing every day. She quickly realized, though, that her search wouldn't take long, for the answer was right in front of her. Literally.

"Although," she started, not looking up. "The sand shoes could use a bit of work." Rose then gave him her famous tongue-in-teeth smile.

"Oi," the Doctor said with a frown, leaning his head back as if whiplashed. "At least I'm not the one who insists on being pink and yellow every day! Ooh, rude," the Doctor suddenly started murmuring to himself. "Still a bit rude."

Rose chuckled, and then exhaled. "Just give me some time, yeah?" Her eyes flashed back to the shoes. When she leaned herself against the handrails leading down to the TARDIS doors, she finally looked back up to make more solid eye contact with the Doctor.

Trying to finish her sentence, she felt her mouth gaping slightly like a fish. Though she did deeply miss the Doctor's blue eyes, she was somehow unable to look away from the dark brown orbs staring back at her.

Since his regeneration, being bed-ridden, and battling the Sycorax leader, neither of them had had a decent amount of time to exactly take in each other's company. Of course, Rose had hardly left the Doctor's side while he was ill, but even then, she felt like she couldn't get a good look at him. Now she knew why.

This Doctor was new. New hair, new face, new eyes. And she assumed she would feel out of place or even intimidated under his stare. Instead she felt a gentle warmth as they firmly held each other's gaze.

Not breaking eye contact at all, Rose inhaled before finishing her statement. "You never know," she said, pursing her lips. "Maybe I'll get used to the...sand shoes." The two travelers smiled at the very same time, and Rose quickly stifled a gasp.

There it was, that exuberance. There was a child-like spark that the Doctor always had in his eyes, and here it remained, with the new Doctor.

Her new Doctor.

"Well, lucky for you, Miss Tyler," her Doctor said, patting a coral strut affectionately. "I just so happen to have a time machine." He reached over and turned the doorknob with a flick of the wrist, allowing the door to swing open just a crack. A thin band of sunlight filtered in. "And these shoes need breaking in."

"Expect more running this time?" Rose playfully quirked an eyebrow.

"Rose Tyler and the Doctor running for their lives everywhere they go?" The Doctor hummed, trying to hide a smile. "Completely unheard of."

Rose's tongue poked between her teeth again as her feet started guiding her out the door, the Doctor following close behind. She thought she would need some time to get used to this Doctor. Even if she didn't need it, they both lived in a time machine.

They had all the time in the universe.

* Yes, I know that the Doctor doesn't say Allons-y quite yet, but I needed something to work with right there.

Hey, just letting you folks know, I take requests. Something I did in a previous story that I wrote were one-word one-shots. In a nutshell, if you guys give me just one word, I'll write a one-shot around that word. Even if you don't have just one word, I'll try and take any request(s) you may have, even AU's.