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"Would you stop doing that?!"
From behind the TARDIS console, Kitty Pryde looked up, hands poised over one of the control panels. Over, not touching. "Stop doing what?"
The Doctor pointed at her hand. "That. Stop doing that."
She wiggled her fingers. "That?"
"No."
In a few short steps he'd covered the distance between them, and guided her gently away from the console. The last time he'd caught her playing with the TARDIS they'd ended up in the middle of a future war, stranded while he tried to figure out exactly what she'd done. He hadn't quite lived down the fact that after fourteen hours watching an intergalactic battle unfold through the door of the TARDIS, Kitty had moved him aside and reversed what she'd done originally.
He'd threatened to take her home right then, ending their travels.
She'd smiled and told him he wouldn't.
He hadn't, and now he was wondering exactly why he hadn't done as he'd originally planned. It would certainly save him a lot of headaches.
"I was just looking," she told him, amusement twinkling in her brown eyes as she smiled up at him. He deposited her in a corner, as far from the console as he could get her without moving her to another room. "I promise."
"That's what you said last time," he reminded her.
She had the good grace to look somewhat bashful. "It was only a little meteor storm."
"And the time before that?"
"That was an accident!"
"I will forever be terrified of those giant circus people."
She crossed her arms. "The Aphrisians? Oh, but they loved you."
"Just a little too much, if I recall."
He glared down at her through his glasses and she had to resist the urge to poke his nose.
She opened her mouth to start an old argument. "If you'd just-"
He held up one finger, silencing her. "Not this again."
"But-!"
"No."
She crossed her arms and frowned. "You're absolutely no fun at all."
He pretended to look hurt; that he was a tiny bit, deep down, surprised him. Travelling with his companions, showing them the treasures of the universe, allowed him a measure of pride and enjoying, living vicariously through their wide-eyed wonder. Even if said in jest, he didn't want to be thought of as 'not fun.'
"Take me home," she told him, and he looked up startled.
"Excuse me?"
"Take me home?"
For a moment then, he panicked. "But what about the moon landing. I promised you that. It's brilliant, Martha and I went back all the time. And the first time your people made peaceful alien contact, and when they settled on other planets." He'd already turned back to the TARDIS console, his back to her, not noticing that she was barely holding back a fit of laughter.
He spun, grinning like a child with a new toy. "Oh, I know! The first designer planet. That's always fun. No, maybe we should visit the tenth - they'd worked out most of the bugs by then."
He'd already programmed in their next destination when she joined him, dragging an arm loosely around his shoulders, watching him work.