Author's Note: This is a little AU, with human!TARDIS as well as box!TARDIS. Hope you enjoy!
She stumbled down her own corridors, wondering if she'd ever get the hang of this human body. She couldn't help thinking it was odd that she didn't seem to know where she was going. Who would know her floorplan better than, well, her?
Taking a right, she found herself in a larger hallway that she could sense was somewhere near the control room. She could feel it. If she could control the connection from this body to the piece of her still in the box, she'd look it up, but things were never that easy. Even though the Doctor had found a way to disperse just enough of her energy into a human so that she could enjoy the form once more, allowing her full access to the connection between the two versions of her would be far too dangerous. Not as if he were any less reckless.
This door looks promising, she thought to herself, pushing open a heavy door. Inside was a bright room, filled with as many colours imaginable; she rolled her eyes and stepped in. All of the clothes before her were draped awkwardly across pillars or, for the lucky few, hung from them. After seven hundred years, the man had still not learned any sense of organization.
Still, she smiled, stepping among centuries worth of clothing, each one bringing back some memory of a far off planet they had traveled to or some long forgotten time, both past and future. She could remember faint traces of her travels, but most were blocked out by the limitations of her new, frail body.
She stopped in front of a long scarf, weary not to trip over it. It was as if the memories surrounding it popped back into place, likely swapping themselves with some others.
As she wrapped the worn scarf around her neck – which took a considerable amount of time for the length of it – and side stepped to a mirror close by. She looked utterly ridiculous, but it wasn't as if there was anyone else there to see.
Hanging from the corner of the mirror was another relic from days gone by; it was faded and simple, but she liked it. She pushed her brown curls out of her face, settling the hat on her head. In all honesty, it flattered the Doctor far more than her, but it was comfortable.
At least it's nowhere near as bad as this, she giggled pulling at an eccentrically coloured coat. She remembered that the day he'd chosen this outfit for his sixth regeneration, she'd dropped him on a barren planet for a day or two. Apparently it hadn't changed his mind though; he was hell bent on making a fool of himself. She loved her madman more than anything in all of time and space, but he sure was an odd one sometimes. Well, most times.
She let it fall to the floor, not far from where she had pulled it from. It didn't matter that no one was around; she had the common sense not to want to wear something so hideous.
However next to it was a much better coat. It was heavy and leather, not quite the black it used to be. She had never realized until she put it on just how large it was. All of a sudden, it was like she was drowning in it. Was it even possible for Time Lords to have such large bodies? She doubted it, but could see the appeal in something ten sizes too big for them; something about it just made her want to snuggle up and fall asleep in it. Of course, it looked a bit intimidating, but was much softer than it seemed (much like her Doctor, she mused.)
The last thing she stumbled upon was a pair of funny glasses. She didn't quite understand what use having one side red and one side blue was, but she put them on all the same. Giggling, she spun around in a few circles, taking in the newly coloured room around her.
She fell, dizzy, landing on the now slightly less obnoxiously coloured coat she had tossed there before; at least it made for a better cushion than it did an outfit. Leaning back on the piles of clothes behind her, the TARDIS rested her head on something particularly fluffy. She didn't dare look up, knowing that generally, the softer, the more eccentric. Couldn't have everything, she supposed.
Before long, the red and blue shapes faded and she was fast asleep.
And that's precisely how he found her lying there—his not-so-boxy-box, all snuggled up in his old clothing. His leather jacket was falling from her shoulders, his hat hiding her likely very sleepy visage, and his scarf all bunched up on her lap. She looked almost like a child, one that would have been well camouflaged well into the piles behind her if she weren't so... so human shaped.
But something was missing from the picture; she was there, all dressed in things from days gone by with nothing from their present time together, and he knew the perfect thing to add.
With a grin the size of Gallifrey, the Doctor quietly made his way over, sitting himself down next to her and resting his head on her shoulder. He thought he'd successfully cuddled beside her without waking her.
That was, he'd thought so until he heard the faintest giggle coming from under the mass of curls and hat laying next to him.