"Oi! Where do you think you're headed off to?"
Rose skidded to an abrupt hault just past the TARDIS console. A frown crossed her face, her soft brown eyes staring at him in confusion. She looked almost accusatory.
"But you said..."
"I asked if you wanted to see the rest of the TARDIS." The Doctor was smiling at her, his expression expectant, one arm held out slightly towards her. "Of course, you could always go barreling through the halls until you get yourself lost instead." She was scowling even as she stomped her way over to him to shove her arm beligerently into the space at the crook of his elbow.
"I was NOT going to get myself lost." The Doctor simply rolled his eyes while Rose continued to sulk at his side. He wasn't planning on letting her stay like that all night, though. Though he was a Time Lord and their time while in the time vortex was technically limitless, he found himself oddly impatient, almost urgently wanting to show her the innermost secrets of the only thing he had left of his home planet Gallifrey.
"Oh, come on." His expression now almost matched her own, though there was a sort of wild light flaring in his fathomless blue eyes. His mood was infectious, too. He very nearly had to bodily drag her down the first hallway, but soon, she was stumblingly running beside him, laughing, and that was really infectious.
"WAIT!" The Doctor put on a sudden burst of speed, lunging forward so he could spin around to face Rose, blocking her path with arms outstretched. She barely stopped in time. Once she'd recovered from the utterly unexpected abrupt stop, however, she was angry once again.
"Doctor, what-"
"You can't go in here." His voice and expression both spoke of grave severity.
A hint of what could have been pain flared in the human girl's eyes at those words, before anger flickered and abruptly flared to life. She took a step towards him, fists clenched, an angry retort already on her lips. But before she could even get the words out, his finger was on her lips, that same wild, almost boyish light returning to his eyes.
"You can't go in here unless you close your eyes first."
Rose colored slightly, a faint but distinct shade of pink creeping across her face. It was obvious she was thinking about giving him a piece of her mind all the same. The Doctor waited until the moment passed and she'd taken a slow, deep breath and stepped back, away from his silencing finger.
"Okay, okay," she sighed, her tone exasperated and every bit of her body language suggesting she was merely humoring him. Her eyes closed, her arms folding impatiently in front of her chest. "There, see? They're closed."
Unconvinced, the Doctor took a step closer, peering up, down, and all around her face until he was quite certain she wasn't peeking. Then, he took her hand, very slowly leading her towards the double doors at the end of the hallway.
"Keep them closed," he cautioned her, his eyes glued to her face. Even then, he had only minimal difficulty turning the handle to push first one, then the other door open. Still facing Rose and still holding her hand, he led her one slow, and on her part cautious, step into the room at a time. Rose could tell only that she had entered somewhere very airy, and that the floor beneath her was smoother, perhaps marble? And there, in the air around her, a tantalizingly familiar smell, something homey and on the tip of her tongue.
The Doctor released her hand and took a step back.
"You can open your eyes."
When her eyes first opened, Rose could only draw in her breath sharply and quickly, eyes widening in absolute awe and disbelief, and her mouth falling open. Almost unconsciously, she took first one, then two, then three steps further into the absolutely gargantuan room. It could have easily been the foyer in some long-since-perished noble court. Instead, the room was lined with what must have beenthousands upon thousands of bookshelves, each one full to the brim with books in every language in the galaxy. Chandeliers gleamed high overhead, while in the center of the impossibly big room, a small fountain rested, some sort of unfamiliar sea creature spouting water into the massive pool of which it was the centerpiece.
"It's... beautiful," she breathed, trying desperately to take it all in with her eyes, but unsure where to look first. Only after another ten seconds had passed did she realize the Doctor was being strangely silent, and the room felt strangely empty.
"Doctor?" She couldn't quite keep the note of fear out of her voice. If he could keep a single room this massive in the TARDIS, she really could easily get lost in the ship's halls for all eternity and never find him again. "Doctor?" Her voice crept up about half an octave. Where on earth could he have gone! He was just here! Rose whirled around, desperate now, frantic, and spotted him closing a door behind him, wearing...
"Fancy a swim?" he asked brightly, holding up two towels and positively beaming at her. Rose could only stare, though, until that same pink tint from earlier began to creep across her face. She fought the urge to giggle, her facial muscles twitching with the effort. His smile abruptly dropped into a frown. "What?" Rose simply shook her head, one hand covering her mouth as she fought to contain her fit of giggles. But her gaze traveled to his new attire, making his own eyes do the same.
"What? This is what humans wear to swim!" He frowned down at the skin-tight piece of nylon and spandex that covered, well, very little of him. When he looked up again, Rose was shaking with silent mirth. The Doctor threw up his hands, tossing the towels over a nearby statue. "Suit yourself! I'm going for a swim." And without another word, he closed the remaining distance between himself and the pool, launching himself smoothly from the edge to slice cleanly into the water with a graceful dive. When he came back up to the surface a moment later, Rose was just staring at him. He barely suppressed the urge to comment on her species, though he was by this point quite exasperated with the human he'd so impulsively invited on board the TARDIS.
"Well? Are you planning on joining me or not?" There was no denying the irritation creeping into his voice now as he tread water, waiting for her to find her tongue again. At last, she cleared her throat, seemingly giving herself a bit of a mental shake.
"I... Uh... I don't have a swimsuit with me." The words were almost a mumble, almost inaudible from the distance at which she stood. The Doctor simply sighed, loudly enough for her to here.
"And where do you think this thing came from? Go on then!" He impatiently gestured off towards the door he'd closed behind him just a few minutes prior. Rose hesitated only long enough for the Doctor to start to get completely exasperated and turn away before she gave a quick, nervous sort of nod and turned the way he'd been gesturing.
"A... Alright. I'll be back in a sec, then."
Of course, "a sec" turned out to be much, much longer. The Doctor actually had to forcibly remind himself that time was relative and that they were still simply drifting aimlessly in the time vortex. Even then, he had to occupy himself by swimming a few laps while he waited. Finally, he heard the sound of the wardrobe door closing.
"About bloody time," he muttered, diving beneath the surface to swim right up to the edge of the pool. A few seconds later, he popped up there. And stared.
Rose cleared her throat, very obviously staring at the little area of marble flooring between herself and the Doctor, rather than at the Doctor himself. In contrast, he couldn't quite seem to look away. Rose was dressed in nothing more than a pale gray bikini, accented with large flowers with flowing pale pink petals. "Well, what do you think? I could change into something else..."
"No!" He was as startled as she was by his exclamation. He hastily continued. "You look... well, you look fantastic." Rose responded with a shy sort of smile, finally managing to meet his eyes again, if only for a few seconds before she glanced away again, biting her lip.
The Doctor swallowed once, suddenly nervous for reasons he couldn't fathom. He still managed to hold a hand out to her, which she took with only about half a second's hesitation. Rose held her breath as she stepped foot into the shallow end of the massive pool, but she found the water pleasantly warm.
"Oh, that feels wonderful," she breathed as she finally made her way into the pool completely, wading out into the deeper water. She smiled as she moved her fingers, then arms through the water, simply turning a few slow rotations. Finally she stopped to turn towards the Doctor, who was watching her with a slightly bemused expression, almost a smirk. That prompted a slow, sly sort of smile of Rose's own. "Bet you can't catch me." Before the words had even totally sunk in, she was off!
"Oi!" she heard faintly behind her before she plunged her head beneath the water's surface, taking full advantage of all the swimming experience she'd picked up as a child. She and Mickey had spent more time in the water than most fish as kids. Surely she could handle one little alien.
Rose swam with her eyes closed, unwilling to expose them to the burn of whatever alien chemicals the Doctor used in place of chlorine. Besides, there was no way she was hitting the other side anytime soon, and she'd made her course was set from somewhere far away from the central fountain. So when she opened her eyes, it was triumphantly, to see just how much further she had until she reached the other side. And then, suddenly, he was there. Rose tried to backpedal, difficult as that might have been in water. She kicked desperately off the bottom of the pool but only succeeded in shooting up towards the surface. Arms closed around her like an iron prison. She glared up at her captor, her soaking wet blonde hair clinging pitifully to her face.
"Gotcha." His voice was triumphant, his expression a playful grin. But suddenly, Rose became all too aware of just how closely their bodies were pressed, and just how little both were wearing. And just how damn tempting he looked all soaking wet like that. Before the message to her muscles had even finished fully processing in her mind, Rose was throwing herself at him, arms around his neck and lips crushing his. The Doctor froze, and Rose automatically did the same. As his arms dropped, she stumbled back through the water as quickly as was possible while moving through, well, water.
"I- I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I don't... I... I really..." Rose couldn't even bring herself to look at him as the mortified words tumbled from her lips. Her hands moved up to clutch her damp locks desperately, the motion mercilessly sparing her from being able to even glance his way. "God, I don't know what I was thinking. I..."
Only the sudden motion of the water before her gave her any warning what was coming. His hands were closing on her wrists suddenly like manacles, pulling her arms down. She had no choice but to release her hair, unless she wanted to end up with about as much as he had. Before she could even begin to imagine with horror the kind of choice words he must have for her, though, his lips were on hers. Rose gasped, disbelief, then arousal flaring within her in quick succession. His hands never once loosened their grip on her wrists, so it was all she could do to kiss him back with just as much fervor as he was giving her. Finally, as her head began to swim, he released her. Gasping, she wobbled, and had she not been in the water, she would have sunk to her knees. Even with the water supporting her, she still saw stars.
"So, how about the rest of that tour?" There was a different light in his eyes now, one she found infinitely more irresistible. Rose Tyler gave him a slow, sly smile once more.
"After you, Doctor."