His hands gripped the cold iron and he lifted his head into the breeze, feeling the cool wind whistle through his hair.

He closed his eyes and smiled broadly. He loved this, loved the dizzying heights.

Up here he really felt like a Lord and not just a Lord of Time. Up here he was king of all he surveyed; he was a prince of eagles and a master of the wind and a ruler of clouds.

He opened his eyes and pointed to a particularly fluffy cloud formation.

"You there," he said in his most stately voice, "become a banana."

The wind pushed at the edges of the cloud and a small tail broke off, looking very much like a banana.

The Doctor giggled and hooked his leg around the next piece of metal, pulling himself a little higher.

Another strip of metal emerged in front of him and he slunk towards it, sliding his hands along the smooth surface.

He was a panther, a jaguar, a sleek jungle cat on the prowl, searching for his prey. He arched his body and sniffed the air trying to scent his victim. On the air he could smell honey and fresh grass and strawberries.

"You all right up there?" Shouted a voice from the ground and he looked down to see Rose staring up at him in amusement.

"This is great, Rose. You have got to try this."

"No thanks." She rammed her hands into her pockets. "Did the whole Queen of the jungle gym thing back when I was at school."

He grinned down at her through the bars. "This is fun."

"Yeah, just don't fall, okay?" she said. "I don't think I could deal with a mini regeneration."

The Doctor nodded, understanding that. Rose had grown used to him being this size and finally stopped having to go off and burst into tears at random moments, the last thing he wanted to do was make it harder for her.

He liked Rose.

"'kay, Rose," the mini Time Lord trilled and clambered back up the jungle gym, scrambling higher over the ladder and swinging over the monkey bars, his brown coat trailing behind him.

As he swung upside down he saw another woman walk over and join Rose.

"Is he yours, dear?"

Rose started in surprise and some guilt. "Uh, yeah. I mean he's not my kid or anything but he is in my charge."

"I see," the woman said smugly. "Didn't really see a resemblance. Does he look like his dad?"

Rose stifled a giggle. "More than a little." She winked up at the Doctor and he beamed back.

The woman tried to engage Rose in conversation but the Doctor wanted her to pay attention to him.

"Rose, hey, Rose. Watch me do this with no hands." He swung by his legs and waved his hands at her.

"That's very dangerous!" the woman scolded slightly prompted him to stick his tongue out at the mean lady. "Should he be doing that?"

"Oh the Doctor loves getting into trouble."

"Doctor?" the woman gave her another odd look and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

She sure was stupid.

"He … uh wants to be a doctor when he grows up."

"I see and I suppose that's the reason for the suit." The lady giggled. "My Simon is convinced that he's going to be superman. He's forever wearing that cape."

She gestured over to the slide where a small human wearing a red cape was shoving handfuls of mud into his mouth.

"That dirt has no known nutritional value," the Doctor said in disgust, "a plethora of bugs and alternative bacteria to earthworms but no vitamins or even mineral content. His digestion will play havoc on him later."

"What did you say, honey?" the lady blinked at him and he smiled broadly. "Nothing."

The woman blinks. "Right. So, how old is he?"

"Seven."

"Oh, I remember Kevin at that age, he's my eldest. He was always on about—"

The Doctor filtered her out. If Rose wasn't going to pay attention to him he was going to play by himself. He'd be king of the jungle gym without his queen.

The Doctor pouted. That didn't sound like fun. He wanted Rose to clamber up the sides of the ladder and help him hang onto the monkey bars and jump through the tires and swing over the rope thing and do those balancing beams and instead she was talking with some stupid grown up.

Well, he wasn't having that.

The Doctor let go of the bars and hurtled towards the ground.

He hit the floor with a bump and heard two simultaneous gasps.

Rose reached him first and pulled him into her arms, which was warm and smelt nice.

"Doctor?"

"Ooh!" the lady squealed. "Is the ikkle boy all right? Did oo bang oo's head?"

Rose and the Doctor both looked up with identical expressions of horror.

"Thank you, madam," said the Doctor as he climbed to his feet and brushed off his dusty pin stripes. "But the agony has somewhat abated. In future I shall adjust my trajectory in tandem with the gravitation pull of the planets system and identify a much more malleable landing site rather than leave my descent to chance."

He rubbed his head and grabbed Rose's hand. "Can we go now, I'm boooored."

Rose bit her lip, ignoring the open mouthed gape of the woman as she tugged on the Doctor's hand and pulled him out of the playground.

They'd closed the gate and were headed back to the TARDIS when Rose finally met his mischievous eyes and started to giggle.

"That was mean!"

"She was mean!" he protested, knowing that she wasn't really mad at him. Her eyes sparkled too much for her to be annoyed with him.

"Her face!" Rose laughed so hard she had to stop, leaning against a wall to catch her breath. "I thought she was going to drop dead in shock. Oh, Doctor!"

The Doctor was laughing too hard to answer.

"Any age, any height," Rose said, "you are a terror! Oncoming Storm, menace of the playground."

"King of the jungle gym!" he crowed and she ruffled his hair.

"Daft as a brush."

"But you love me," he said expectantly and Rose softened with a smile.

"Course I do. Just wish I could fix you is all."

"You will," he maintained loyally and then decided to try his luck. "I could have fixed her if I'd had the sonic screwdriver."

"Sure you could."

He smiled hopefully. "When can I have it back?"

Rose just grinned. "When you grow up."