#smittens

Day 16 of 31 Days of Ficmas!  Mittens.  @doctorroseprompts

11xRose, Jenny.  Fic based on these.

For @timepetalsprompts Bingo - mum!Billie, MS falling, tenacious Jenny (knitting is hard)

Ficmas Masterlist 2017, Day 16

AO3

Let me tell you... this one was a pain - I could not come up with anything!  I knew I wanted to use the smittens, but that was all I had.  Hence it being so short.  Enjoy anyway!

“Open it, open it, open it,” Jenny chanted, bouncing in place.  Wearing snowman pajamas, a paper crown, and a beaming smile, she was every inch a child a Christmas.  Across from her, her parents exchanged looks as they eyed the box.

“Go ahead, darling,” the Doctor said, nudging it towards Rose.  She glared at him for a long moment.

“Oh, all right,” Rose relented, carefully unwrapping the paper to reveal a plain brown box.  “It’s not alive, right?” she verified, and her daughter rolled her eyes.

“No, it’s not alive.  You’ll love it.  Have a little faith, please.”  Jenny huffed, crossing her arms.  Ever since a minor misunderstanding her first Christmas, her parents had been suspicious of any and all gifts.

Still Rose hesitated, carefully inspecting the box.

“Aunt Sarah approved it, if that helps,” Jenny rolled her eyes as her mother’s dithering.

“Well, all right then,” the Doctor grabbed the box from his wife, whipping off the lid.  “Aha!”  Then he peered down into the box, puzzled.  “Uh…”

Jenny burst into giggles at the look on his face, delighted with his reaction.  “Take it out,” she encouraged, and he did.

The Doctor held up a set of gloves, and a large, slightly misshapen… thing.

“I love it,” he said entirely unconvincingly.  

Rose took the blob and carefully inspected it.  “Jenny?”

“It’s mittens,” the girl explained, crawling over to sit in front of her.  “For both of you.”

“Right.”  Her mother looked helplessly between the three items.  “I don’t understand, love.”

Jenny giggled, taking the larger piece.  “It’s for both of you.  You each wear one of the regular mittens, and then you both wear this.  It’s so you can still hold hands while wearing mittens! I knit these myself.”

Rose’s confusion cleared, and she immediately stuck her hand in one of the holes.  “Here, Doctor, put your hand in.”

Brow still furrowed he obeyed, hazel eyes widening when he linked fingers with his wife.  “This is spectacular!” he crowed, leaning forward to kiss his daughter’s cheek.

“So you like it?” she asked anxiously, watching as they fiddled with the shared mitten.

“I love it,” Rose promised genuinely, smiling at her.  “Even more so because you made it.  Where did you learn to knit?”

“Sarah,” came the unsurprising reply.  “I saw it in a market, and I thought it was perfect.  I wanted to make it for you myself, though,” the girl blushed, twisting her hands anxiously.

“You’re right, it is perfect,” Rose agreed, pulling her into a hug.  “And it’s the perfect color!”  The mittens were TARDIS blue with white trim.

“You know what?” the Doctor decided.  “These need to be tested.  Pronto.  Stat. Lol.  ASAP.  Woman Wept!” He leapt up, tripped over the box, and faceplanted on the floor as his girls giggled.  Quickly popping up, he dusted off his dressing gown and continued as if nothing had happened.

“Geronimo!”  He raced off towards the console, Rose and Jenny following behind at a more sedate pace.

“I didn’t think he could be any more hyper than his last self,” Jenny confided.

“Neither did I, but he never ceases to amaze,” Rose laughed, wrapping an arm around her.  "Should we tell him what ‘lol’ actually stands for?”

“Nah, that’s no fun.  You really like it?”

“I really love it,” Rose promised.  “And I love you.”

“Love you,” Jenny agreed as they walked into the console room to find the Doctor spinning around, setting coordinates and singing carols.

He is here! He has arrived! His name is Thomas (Tom or Tommy for short) and he is an almost-life-sized velociraptor plush.

Story: so I moved recently and got super depressed and anxious and then decided to make one of the biggest impulse buys of my life. I’m glad I did. 

Thomas here was custom made for me by the wonderfully talented amazing artist Smittensknuffels. Look her up, she has her own etsy shop and she’s absolutely phenomenal. She does all kinds of custom-order big stuffed animals, alive, extinct, fantasy or other. And she was super friendly and accommodating when it came to making sure I was happy with Thomas. And it only took her a few weeks to make him, too – the detail and care that went into him is just incredible! I really can’t thank her enough! (Here’s the original design I sent requesting a simplified version of design number 3, and a moodboard I made of the first pictures she sent to me for review when she was finished building – Thomas had black eyes at this stage, but even unfinished he looked amazing!)

So yeah. Ever since I was a little Jurassic-Park-obsessed kid I wanted my very own raptor friend – and now I finally have one! If my house burnt down and I could only run in and save one item this feathery fellow would be it! 

I’ll probably write more about him later, as he’s a big OC in my writing that I’ve recently been trying to resurrect/reinvent. But for now …