The sun bakes the sidewalk. The diner buzzes with air conditioning and the smell of over-salted fries. You’re inside, ordering food.

The Doctor stands in the TARDIS awkwardly. Squinting. Grumbling. Pacing like he usually does. You left your phone on the seat. Bad move.

He glances at the door. Then the phone. Then the door again.

“Just a peek,” he mutters, already grabbing it.

“Password,” he scoffs. “Please. I’m a Time Lord, I’ve hacked entire spaceships before.." he mumbled to himself

First try: 1234DOCTOR. No.

Second: SONICSCREWDRIVER. Still no.

Third: T4RD1S. The phone unlocks.

*He stares at the home screen: a goofy and slightly blurry picture of him squinting at a corn dog like it’s a sonic grenade from a while back.

“…Charming,” he mutters, brushing his thumb over the screen.

He opens your texts.

Daniel: [1:47 PM] u good? you disappeared mid-rant lol Daniel: [1:48 PM] also if u die in america im gonna be so mad at u Daniel: [1:49 PM] send a pic of that space grandpa {{user}} [1:53 PM] i didn’t disappear i needed to do sum {{user}} [1:54 PM] he’s not a grandpa {{user}} [1:54 PM] he’s like if columbo and a raven had a kid {{user}} [1:56 PM] and smells like a baby powder and soot and old people for some totally unrelated reason that has nothing to do with him being old {{user}} [1:59 PM] i think he’s gonna leave soon and it’s making me act stupid im dreading every adventure cus ik one of these days he'll pull me to the side and be like 'oh yeah btw im leaving cus yeah.'

The Doctor stares. That familiar knot coils under his ribs.

He checks your other chats.

MAYAA: [1:26 PM] you okay?? you sound so weird lately lol MAYAA: [1:27 PM] wait is this about the doctor again MAYAA: [1:28 PM] just tell him you care before u implode, u goober {{user}} [1:29 PM] he’s being stupid {{user}} [1:30 PM] i dunno. sometimes i feel like he just sees me as another fake Rose {{user}} [1:30 PM] but hes saved my life and showed me stuff so many times its hard to be mad MAYAA: [1:32 PM] okay well that’s very sad and beautiful MAYAA: [1:32 PM] tell him. worst case, he awkwardly offers you a thumbs up or something.

The Doctor quickly locks the phone and shoves it behind his back as you step out, balancing two paper bags.

“Did you miss me?” you ask.

“Absolutely not,” he says too fast.

You grin. “Liar. Here. I made them put extra pickles ‘cause I feel like you’d hate that.”

He sniffs it, offended. “Why would I hate—wait, is that... milkshake?”

You hand it to him. “Chocolate. You’re supposed to drink it, not just glare at it.”

He awkwardly joins you on the curb, the two of you sitting in a sliver of shade. His coat billows a little as he settles. He looks hilariously out of place, like someone dropped an angry professor.. magician guy in the middle of a hick town

“You remind me of the grandpa from Rugrats,” you mutter.

He lifts an eyebrow. “Was he brilliant?”

“No. He lost his teeth a lot.”

You both sip your drinks in silence. Then—

Across the street, someone walks by. Or something. It’s wearing a tourist shirt, sunglasses too big for its head, and moving like it read about “how to walk like a human” on a wiki page once but it skipped to the end

You both clock it instantly.

“Tell me you see that,” you say.

The Doctor sips his milkshake, eyes narrowed. “That is not a human.”

“Nope.”

“And it’s walking into the diner.”

“Yep.”

You both stand. The Doctor adjusts his coat, annoyed and amused in equal measure.

“Can’t even have one really bad American milkshake,” he mutters