Beta: Miral-Romanov
The Best Laid Plans
"Rose…"
Rose scrunched up her nose, grumbling out an annoyed, semi-coherent, "G'way," and burrowing herself deeper into the covers.
She sighed pleasantly when a pair of fingertips trailed over her neck and down the slope of her shoulder, up until the Doctor's voice said, a bit too loudly for her level of consciousness, "Wake up, Rose Tyler!"
Rose frowned, trying to lift her head only to give up less than a second later when she found it was too heavy. "Doctor?" Was he the one who was just caressing her shoulder? She mentally rolled her eyes at herself, chalking it up to being half-asleep. "What're you doin'?"
"I've landed us in the most brilliant place!" he chirped, and when the mattress suddenly sank next to her she knew he'd wriggled his way onto her bed, which was confirmed when she opened her eyes and found him beaming down at her. "Are you awake yet?"
"No," she scowled at him.
He stuck out his lower lip in that head-spinning way that always made her want to reach over and capture it with her mouth. "But Rooose."
"Don't whine at me," Rose ordered, rolling over and flopping onto her side so her back was turned to him. "You're the one who kept me up all night with that mind-numbing marathon of that soap opera—"
"It's not mind-numbing!" the Doctor said indignantly.
"The whole thing was literally a bunch of aliens on a ship, in the middle of nowhere, all in relationships with someone on board and every single one of them was havin' an affair with someone else. And at one point, everyone had amnesia. God, it was worse than one of Mum's soaps." As the Doctor pouted again, Rose rolled over again and sat up, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Fine, 'm getting up." He let out a happy noise in the back of his throat that sounded less like himself and more like the Pillsbury Doughboy, making Rose giggle. "Go on, get out, Mister. 'Less you want to see me change."
"Weeell…" he drawled, wagging his eyebrows when Rose gaped at him.
"Out!" she insisted, whacking him in the head with her pillow.
He simply grinned at her crookedly, practically falling off of her bed before bouncing out of the room. Rose sent an odd look in his direction, getting up and shutting the door as she wondered what the hell had gotten into the Doctor.
Once she'd used the loo and changed from her jimjams into a soft cotton top and faded denim jeans, she pulled on her worn trainers, slapped her hair back into a loose ponytail and joined the Doctor in the kitchen. To her immense surprise he already had a stack of pancakes waiting for her, smeared with butter and drowned in syrup just the way she liked it. He was too busy pouring a cup of tea to notice her in the doorway, a look of surprise on her face.
"Ooh, hello!" he said when he noticed her, beaming at her again.
"Did you do something bad and I didn't notice?" Rose asked him with raised eyebrows, plopping down in front of her breakfast and accepting the cup of tea.
"Err, no." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Why would you say that?"
"'Cos you've only made me breakfast twice before, and both times it was 'cos I almost died," Rose noted, leaving out the fact that the last time had been the day after Reinette.
He scuffed at the floor with his chucks, mouth curved downward. "Right."
Guilt flooded her chest at making him feel bad when he'd tried to do something nice, and to cheer him up she said with a tongue-touched smile, "So then, what's the occasion?"
He smiled back, apparently mollified even though he still looked bashful. "No reason, really." Yet, when he turned on his heels to busy himself with the teakettle again, Rose managed to catch his mumbled, "S'a special day."
"Is it?" Rose said airily around a mouthful of pancake. When he glanced back at her, looking a little disappointed, she added on a moan, "These are brilliant."
He hummed again, looking adorably pleased. "I put cinnamon in the batter."
Licking syrup off her fingers, she asked, "So what exactly is so fantastic about wherever you've landed us?"
He sent her a coy look and a vague, "It's a secret."
She glanced at him with suspicion. "Last time you said that, we ended up on a moon filled with insane cannibals."
The Doctor, far from looking ashamed again, nodded enthusiastically. "It was just like meeting the Morlocks from The Time Machine! But, that experience aside, I double- and triple-checked where we are and this time, Rose Tyler, I landed us in the right place."
"Guess it's bound to happen sometimes," Rose said in a false airy voice, hiding a smile when the Doctor sent her a stern look. Picking up her syrup-covered plate, she placed it in the sink and gave the Doctor's arm a brief squeeze in thanks before saying, "Lead the way then, Sir Doctor."
"Right-o, Dame Rose," he said happily, looping their fingers together before practically skipping out of the room and into the console room, leading her the whole while. Pausing in front of the exit, he narrowed his eyes at her and said dramatically, "Ready?"
"Yes, let's go," Rose laughed, rolling her eyes.
He grinned before swinging the doors open, hopping outside and dragging Rose with him, grin only widening when Rose's jaw hit the ground for the second time that day. The sky was pale violet with fluffy pink clouds like it was close to sunset even though the tiny lavender-coloured sun was set high over the horizon; the grass underneath her trainers was pale blue and the trees that were apparently sheltering the TARDIS from view were sparkly and looked more like twisting blue, spiky vines growing from the ground than trees. Through the 'trees' she could see a crowd of people bustling around what looked like the streets of a town, with stalls set up full of alien fruit. The Doctor had taken her to all sorts of amazing places, but this definitely took the biscuit.
"Well, what do you think?" the Doctor said with delight, already knowing the answer as he drank in Rose's look of astonishment.
"S'gorgeous!" Rose said, beaming back at him. "What is this place?"
"Kishan, the third planet from the sun in the Varillion Cluster," the Doctor immediately explained, leading Rose away from the ship and into the crowd of aliens, all of which looked almost identically save for the occasional difference in skin colour, ranging from an unnatural pale pink to a bright violet dotted with blue.
"Why is it all sparkly?" Rose asked, noticing the odd shimmer of the alien fruit she'd spotted before.
"Well, I could go into detail all of the chemical compounds and elements that make things sparkle on this planet, but I have better plans in mind," the Doctor said idly.
"Plans, huh?" Rose said with interest. "Like what?"
"I told you, it's a secret," the Doctor said, averting his eyes, the corners of his mouth quirking up slightly.
"Are we on vacation?" Rose theorised.
"Sort of," he replied vaguely, craning his neck to try and see over everyone's heads. "Ah, there we are!"
The Doctor tugged her excitedly past a blue-skinned couple haggling over the price of a weird spotty bread, towards a pink marble building. She found herself dragged up the steps and into a busy lobby, the ceiling draped with delicate pink strings that seemed to work like a chandelier, and the Doctor made a beeline towards a lavender woman with sparkly antlers sitting behind a marble desk.
"Hello there!" the Doctor said, so cheerfully it made the woman raise her nonexistent eyebrows at him. "We'd like a cabin, please. Preferably one near the schimbare flori."
As the woman turned away to rummage around in a drawer, Rose whispered to the Doctor with excitement in her voice, "Are we goin' camping?"
"What makes you say that?" the Doctor replied, a silly grin on his face.
"You said we're getting a cabin," Rose said. "Isn't that like camping? When you go in the woods in a cabin and roast marshmallows outside and stuff?"
"I thought camping involved tents and blonde co-eds getting murdered in horror films," the Doctor said, and Rose shot him an amused look. "In any case, we won't be roasting marshmallows— the Kishan are very adamant about preserving plant life and setting the ground on fire would probably upset them."
"There you are," the woman said as she handed them a gold key with a weird symbol shaped like a warped potato on the tag. Her voice was oddly breathy and sounded almost electronic.
"Thank you…" The Doctor paused, reading her nametag. "Nimiri!" Not letting Nimiri answer, the Doctor stuffed the key into his pocket and practically fled the building, nearly tearing Rose's arm out of its socket. Before she could tell him off, the Doctor led her back into the crowd and swept his arm out. "So, Rose Tyler! Ready to peruse?"
"Thought we were goin' to a cabin." Rose frowned confusedly.
"We'll get to it later," the Doctor said. "Right now, pick out anything you like! The Kishan people are known throughout this quadrant and four others as having the best wares!"
"You're volunteering to go shopping?" Rose barked out an amused laugh. "What about all the times I had to ask, beg and sometimes threaten to get you to take me?"
"I can assure you I have no qualms about taking you," the Doctor said with darkened eyes, and Rose felt her face flush when her mind flitted to somewhere inappropriate and decidedly dangerous.
"Good, then you'll keep your trap shut and not complain a single time if I decide to try on a dress for thirty minutes," Rose said, and the Doctor made a face but obediently kept his trap shut.
He steered her towards the stalls that advertised trinkets and such, rather than foods and compulsory goods. The vendors were all a little too ecstatic about their wares, chattering excitedly about all the perks of this ornament or that piece of cloth, all in voices that sounded like they were processed by computers. The upside was that, despite the Doctor's unlimited amount of Kishan currency at Rose's disposal, they all seemed to have no qualms about lowering their prices to the point where she felt she was almost stealing from them.
Two hours of shopping yielded a lovely scarf made of fabric that was so soft it felt like touching water; a new tie for the Doctor, which she'd managed to buy and sneak into her bag when a shiny technological thing had captured the Doctor's attention, something for next Christmas perhaps; a couple of makeup products that swore they didn't run when exposed to water but came off easily with simple tissue and a lovely little jewelled bracelet for Jackie.
"So," said the Doctor idly, one hand clasped around hers and the other graciously carrying her bag full of things. "Happy?"
"Yeah," Rose hummed, leaning her head against his shoulder in a way that made him grin a bit goofily. "Can't wait to wear that scarf."
"Well then, later we'll go to a winter planet or something so you'll have a reason to," the Doctor said, before letting out a loud, "Ooh!"
"What?" Rose asked, grinning with amusement at him.
The Doctor pointed enthusiastically to a stand advertising something called 'pallah'. "Want some?"
"What's a pallah?" Rose frowned, watching the vendor hand over to an excited horned child something that looked a lot like—
"Ice cream, Rose Tyler! Or rather, the Kishan equivalent of it. It's a bit different— this stuff doesn't melt in the sun. You'll love it, it's brilliant."
"Sure, why not?" Rose said animatedly, sending him a tongue-touched smile.
"That's the spirit!" He hoisted the bag onto his shoulder before dragging her through the crowd towards the stall, nearly knocking aside several children in his haste. Taking a moment to look sheepish and apologise when Rose swatted him over the head and hissed, "Doctor!" he then ordered two 'raya-nut' pallah cones.
Licking his scoop of alien ice cream with an exaggerated movement, the Doctor sent Rose an expectant look and said, "Go on then, Rose!"
She rolled her eyes and obediently gave her ice cream an experimental lick, leaving unnoticed the way his eyes locked on her tongue. She immediately wrinkled her nose when the sensations of tiny bubbles erupting over her taste buds made her mouth tingle.
"What the heck is that?" Rose said, sticking out her tongue.
The Doctor giggled. "I told you pallah was different!"
The sensation subsiding, Rose was left with the tangy taste of pleasant berry. "I like it," she decided, going in for another lick, and he beamed, tucking into his own treat.
Twin frowns graced both of their faces when the sounds of angry shouting suddenly permeated the blissful chatter, and they immediately headed towards the source of the commotion. In the square of the market were four angry male Kishan wearing torn clothing and yelling at each other, surrounded by gawking people in a circle, and the Doctor and Rose pushed their way to the front to see two of the men throw punches at each other.
"All right, all right," shouted the Doctor cheerfully, stuffing the rest of his pallah into his mouth and wiping his hand on his trousers before striding towards the group. They all paused their fighting to stare at him incredulously, and Rose didn't blame them in the least. "Let's settle this like adults, shall we? What exactly—?"
Apparently deaf to the Doctor's attempts to mediate, the Kishan men immediately resumed their fight, a poorly aimed punch clocking the Doctor in the jaw and sending him and her shopping bag crashing to the ground. Rose dropped her unfinished pallah and made a beeline for him, but was instantly yanked to the side by a rough hand and pinned to someone's chest, the barrel of a gun pressing against her head.
"Keep still or your woman dies," snapped the man's electronic voice when the Doctor attempted to scramble off the cobblestone and leap to her rescue.
"Let go of her," the Doctor said, voice full of warning and eyes promising death.
Rose felt the man tense, grip loosening on her arm ever so slightly, the gun on her temple starting to tremble. She took that as the perfect opportunity to duck out of his hold, elbowing him in the groin and waiting until he doubled over before kicking the gun out of his hand. The Doctor launched himself forward, yanking Rose to safety just as a group of armoured policemen practically tossed themselves onto the four renegades, attempting to subdue them.
"Are you all right, Rose?" the Doctor said over the sounds of shouting, pulling her away from the scuffle and brushing his thumb tenderly over the spot where the gun had been pressed.
"Yeah." She glanced at the bruise blooming on his jaw, only half-registering her hand's action of reaching up and touching it gently with her fingertips. "Are you?"
The tiniest blossom of pink tinged his cheeks, to her surprise. "Takes more than that to faze me," he sniffed, shrugging nonchalantly even though a smile was playing at the corners of his mouth. "Besides, feel kind of cool."
Rose grinned, tongue at the corner of her mouth again. "You think so, Mr. Bond?"
He sent her a look without any edge to it, just as the police or guards or whatever they were managed to wrestle the men into submission. One of them eventually lumbered over, looking winded, and to the annoyance of both of them they were seized by the arms and escorted into another large marble building. They were both dragged into separate rooms, which prompted a significant amount of shouting on the Doctor's part, and questioned repeatedly about their supposed 'involvement' in what had apparently been a street gang on the run from the Azil-Nar'jen (which Rose managed to figure out, after twenty minutes of confusion, was the name for the police force in that district) who had decided to get into an argument and hit each other, alerting nearby officers. A full two hours later of repeating over and over that she was not involved in gang violence, organized crime or fey poaching — whatever the hell that meant — the Doctor stormed in looking thoroughly annoyed, holding her confiscated shopping bag on his arm, flashing his psychic paper and granting Rose's interrogator the briefest of grunts before dragging her out of the room.
"Well that was an ordeal," Rose groaned, leaning her head on the Doctor's arm as he escorted her quickly from the building, as though expecting them to be dragged back in.
"Sorry it took so long for me to intervene," he said, actually sounding guilty. "Took me forever to convince him to give me back the psychic paper so I could show him my 'I.D.'"
"It's fine," she assured him, patting his shoulder. "Does this mean we're gonna leave?"
"No," he said, a little too abruptly. He backtracked at once, saying hastily, "Unless you want to, of course…"
"No way," she grinned at him, and he visibly deflated with relief. "Let's not let this spoil our day." He beamed at her so brightly it almost shocked her. "So, what's next on the list?"
"Oh, Rose Tyler, you're going to love this," he said excitedly.
They made a quick pit stop at the TARDIS to drop off her shopping bag — and so Rose could change her clothes, since the interrogation room had been filthy — before the Doctor reclaimed her hand and led her, to her surprise, right back into the woods again.
"Where are we going?" Rose asked him, scowling when one of the spikes on the vine trees snagged her shirt.
"You'll see," he said mysteriously, prompting another eye roll.
She held onto his hand for dear life, the uneven ground and upturned roots making her stumble even with her trusty trainers, and despite the clear expression of excitement on the Doctor's face she was growing more annoyed each time she almost tripped.
"Is it far?" Rose asked after a bit.
Before the Doctor could answer she felt something brush against her arm, and she half-gasped half-screamed when she turned to see what it was, jumping into the Doctor's hold. She scowled at the Doctor's amused chuckle, but her expression softened into shock when she finally took a good look at the creature— it was a kitten-sized, sparkly dragon-looking thing with rainbow-coloured wings, a blue body and giant shiny eyes.
"It won't hurt you," the Doctor assured her, reaching out towards it. It gave his fingers a brief sniff before spreading out its wings and letting out a squeaky-sounding purr.
"Is this what you wanted to show me?" Rose said, a smile gracing her mouth when the little dragon-thing hopped into his palm and he brought his hand close to her so she could see it.
"Weeell, sort of," the Doctor said, beaming as she tentatively reached forward and pet the top of its head. "More like a whole pack of them. They're called fey draegyns. Strange that this little one's all by himself— children usually never leave their group. Wonder where the others are." He lifted the draegyn closer to his face, cooing to it, "Where's your mummy, hm?" A larger version of the creature fluttered out from behind a tree, parking itself right next to the Doctor's ear and squawking indignantly, so loudly it nearly made him jump out of his chucks. He sent her a stern look when she giggled. "Very funny, Rose Tyler."
Reclaiming her hand again, the Doctor followed the bigger draegyn around the bend and into a large, brightly lit clearing filled with at least a couple dozen of the creatures. The ground was littered with shiny pink eggs and little baby draegyns with underdeveloped wings, and Rose squealed at them when they all turned their giant glassy eyes to blink at her.
"There's so cute!" she beamed, sinking down onto her knees at once and watching as they waddled towards her on unstable legs.
"You like them?" he asked hopefully, plopping down onto his rear next to her.
"I love them," Rose said happily, squealing again as the baby draegyns hoisted themselves into her lap, one of them nibbling gently on her fingertip. She was so caught up in the little creatures that she completely missed the Doctor's lengthy look of adoration sent sideways in her direction. "Tell me about them?"
"Right," he said abruptly, schooling his face back into a neutral expression. "Well, they're the ancestors of prehistoric raptors that used to live underground. The natives used to think they were the ghosts of those raptors and made sure they were kept untouched in the woods, undisturbed."
Rose stopped petting them abruptly, glancing around as if waiting for someone to jump out of the bushes. "Are we allowed to be here?"
He smiled at her. "Rose, this was all hundreds of years ago. Trust me, nobody's going to arrest us."
Just after the words left his mouth a group of ten people dressed in pale blue camo jumped out of the bushes, and they found themselves once again on the wrong end of several guns. Both of them raised their hands in the air at once, flinching as the shouting from the group of Kishan startled the draegyns and made them shriek loudly.
Before the Doctor could so much as open his mouth to try and diffuse the situation, the man nearest to him brought back his arm and walloped him over the head with the butt of the gun, knocking him out cold. Rose managed to let out a terrified scream before she received the same treatment, metal connecting with the back of her skull and whacking her to the ground, where she fell unconscious.
Her head was throbbing and the jerking of the TARDIS wasn't helping. She tried to tell the Doctor to steady his piloting, but all that came out was a garbled grumbling noise. A pair of slender hands cradled her face and the back of her head.
"Rose?"
"Doctor?" She frowned, forcing her eyes open and using the Doctor's arm to sit up, blinking haze from her vision. "Where are we?"
"I dunno. Inside some kind of truck."
He encouraged her to lean heavily against him, and she gladly burrowed her pounding head into the crook of his neck. Her new angle gave her ample opportunity to see the barely lit interior of a dusty grey truck, filled with caged draegyns whimpering pitifully.
"Were we kidnapped?"
"Think so," the Doctor said, sounding thoroughly put out. "By poachers, by the looks of the cages."
"People poach those dragon things?"
He nodded, a sour look on his face. "For their wings. It makes a really expensive cloth somewhat like silk."
Horror flooded her chest at the prospect of anyone hurting creatures so lovely, and she sat up a little straighter, intent on wrestling the cages open. "We've got to help them."
"We will," he assured her, adoration resonating in his voice. "First we have to figure out how to get out."
"Use your sonic," Rose told him, crawling over to the nearest cage holding one of the larger draegyns and examining the lock.
"I already tried— it's a deadlock," the Doctor grimaced. "Sonic-proof."
"Should we wait until they open the door and then ambush them?" she suggested.
"They've got guns, I've got a screwdriver," the Doctor reminded her. "The best I can do as a defence is assemble a shelf at them."
Despite the situation Rose snorted at the quip, but sobered when she noticed that the lock was one of those cheap combination ones, but instead of numbers there were symbols. "Well, at least we can open the cages."
"Can we?"
He joined her by the cage, and she showed him the lock. "If you can guess the combination," Rose said.
"Never mind that— combination locks aren't sonic-proof," he said triumphantly, pulling it out and starting to program it. "And they might be able to help us escape."
"How?" Rose frowned.
"I was able to push the door open a little bit to see the lock," the Doctor said, lowering the sonic from his face before aiming it at the cage. "Thankfully fey draegyns are also known for being able to bite through metal, so with a little convincing—"
"— we could get one to bite through the lock," Rose finished for him, grinning.
"Exactly, Rose Tyler." The lock clicked and the cage swung open, allowing the draegyn to scamper out quickly, letting out a grateful squawk and licking up the Doctor's face with a long butterfly-like tongue, leaving a sparkly trail. "You're welcome," he beamed, wiping away the dragon spit with his sleeve.
He went around unlocking all of the cages, and soon the truck was filled with at least fifty draegyns— evidently the poachers hadn't only plundered the spot they'd been in. With little coaxing they managed to get one of the smaller ones through the crack and nibble straight through the lock, and the Doctor let out a triumphant whoop when they were able to push the doors open. The fey draegyns immediately flocked out with loud screeches, and the two of them grasped hands before jumping out of the still moving truck, landing hard on the uneven ground.
Rubbing her back, Rose watched the opened truck drive off, unaware that anything was wrong. Turning to the Doctor with a bright smile on her face, she was about to comment on their fortune at being kidnapped alongside metal-eating dragons but faltered when she saw his upset expression. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," he muttered, getting up before helping her up with care. "We should go back to the TARDIS and check out your head wound."
"We're leaving?" Rose frowned, grabbing his hand before he could do what he did best and run. "How come?"
"You want to stay?" he said incredulously.
"So we got arrested and kidnapped in the same hour," Rose said, grinning. "S'not like it's anything unusual. Besides, you said we were going camping and I want to see the cabin," she added, sticking out her chin stubbornly.
He smiled at her, looking both reverent and unconvinced but still said, "All right, then."
"Good," she replied firmly, tongue in teeth again. "So, what's next?"
He blew out a lungful of air through puffed cheeks. "Well, if you insist on staying—"
"I do."
"— I suppose now would be a good time to go to the cabin. We could grab something to eat there— it's nearly dinner time anyway and you, Rose Tyler, missed your lunch."
"Okay!" she chirped excitedly, already picturing a nighttime snuggle over cups of tea and in front of a roaring fire.
He beamed and made a happy noise, before grabbing her hand and exclaiming, "Allons-y, then!"
To her surprise, instead of turning back towards the town, the Doctor led her deeper into the woods. "Is this the way to the cabin?" she asked, stumbling slightly over the uneven terrain.
"Yep," the Doctor answered cheerfully, carefully helping her over a fallen vine. "There's a spread-out little settlement of cabins in the forest."
"We're gonna walk there?"
"It's not far," he assured her.
True to his word, they only walked a couple of minutes before it loomed into view. When the Doctor had said 'cabin' she'd held the image in her mind of a standard log cabin like she'd seen on the television, but it'd been foolish to imagine it made of regular wood, since all the trees on this planet looked like vines. The cabin in turn looked like it was made of tightly coiled vines wrapped around each other in a box shape, stark black in colour against the blue of the rest of the plants.
"Isn't it brilliant?" the Doctor said happily.
It didn't exactly look brilliant — Rose wondered if the inside also had spikes — but she refrained from telling him so. "Looks like something out of Hansel and Gretel."
"Does it?" He tugged at his ear, regarding the cabin. "Nah, you're thinking of the gingerbread house."
"Whatever— still looks weird," Rose said, hopping over another log.
"Wait 'til you see the inside, Rose Tyler," the Doctor said knowingly, making a beeline for the fairytale-like door with the iron handle and, upon pulling out the key, sticking it into the lock.
To her slight relief, the inside did not have the same needle-sharp spikes as the outside; instead the walls were smooth and rounded, just like a log cabin, except instead of carefully stacked logs the pattern was curvy and gave the impression of sparkly black ocean waves. There were exotic wall hangings draping the walls and the cabin's furnishings were generous and posh-looking, complete with a fluffy red loveseat and armchair set in front of a brass fireplace. There were two doors, one connecting to what Rose suspected was a closet and, to her slight embarrassment, a single bedroom with a king-sized bed.
"Wow, this is posh," Rose exclaimed, hopping into the room and reaching out to feel the sofa. The fabric had looked like leather but, to her surprise, felt like soft velvet.
"Told you!" He grinned cheerfully, sticking his hands in his pockets and watching her explore. "All of the cabins are top of the line— and stocked with supplies, so we won't need to go out to get dinner."
"That's good," Rose said absently, as she dipped her head to peek in the fireplace. "Already got firewood in there."
"Yep! More in the closet too, I'm sure— gets chilly here at night. We're probably gonna need it when we come back."
"What are we coming back from?" she asked.
"It's a surprise," he said, winking.
She rolled her eyes, before something else occurred to her. "Wait, we're staying?" He nodded cheerfully, and she glanced at the bedroom again, cheeks heating up. "Like, all night?"
"Yep!" he repeated, oblivious to her embarrassment.
"But…" His face fell at her hesitation, so she instead said, "I haven't got any jimjams."
"Oh, that's all right," the Doctor said, hiding a look of relief. "Like I said, all stocked with supplies— clothes and all."
She wrinkled her nose. "And they'll fit?"
He nodded again, grinning from ear to ear. "Self-fitting fabric. Comes in handy, in a pinch."
Rose grinned back, commenting, "That sounds brilliant!"
"It is! Now, Rose Tyler, sit yourself down right here—" He led her over to the sofa and gave her a gentle push so she'd sit down on it, face in her personal space all the while, "and I will get you a drink."
She beamed at him, as he hopped over to the icebox and bent over to rummage through it. "How thoughtful of you!"
"I'm always thoughtful," he boasted, pulling out a bottle.
Grabbing an extra-long flute glass, he poured her a generous helping of something blue and handed it to her with an exaggerated bow. She took it with a smirk and a nod of thanks, sipping it and humming pleasantly when she found it to be delicious. "So what's next?"
"Next I'll start on dinner, because I'm not letting you anywhere near the stove."
"Oi," she exclaimed with little edge to it, too busy admiring his backside as he began digging through the icebox again. "Just because I burnt eggs one time—"
The Doctor scoffed and threw over his shoulder, "It was not one time, Rose. I'll have you know I remember each and every time you butchered a meal. Why, it was just a couple of weeks ago that—"
Rose set her glass down on the armrest and glared at him, effectively silencing him. "Are you askin' for a smack?"
"Nope, never mind," he said quickly, an innocent smile on his face.
"S'what I thought," Rose said pointedly, taking another sip of blue stuff.
Two hours later, the lavender sun was inching downward, the delicious fry-up the Doctor had made with the alien ingredients had been long eaten and the fire was just starting to spark up in the hearth. The two of them sat on the rug in front of the hearth, both holding cups of tea and both pretending not to notice when their legs brushed, as the Doctor explained to her at last why the planet sparkled.
"… and during the day, the sunlight hits the vegetation and makes it look like everything's dusted with glitter," the Doctor finished, "but when it sets, it goes away. Sort of like snow, where it sparkles in the day time, except at night there's no moon."
"That's cool," Rose declared happily. "Must get a bit annoying to look at, after a bit."
"Weeell, that's just 'cos you're not used to it," the Doctor sniffed, waving his hand. He perked up when he noticed Rose snuggle deeper against her warm cup. "Cold?"
"Just a bit." He hopped up almost immediately, grabbing a soft blanket draped over the arm of the chair and gently tucking her into it. "Better?"
She hummed gratefully and smiled at him, but it quickly dropped when he didn't lean back, instead continuing to smooth out the blanket over her shoulders, watching her with an indiscernible expression on his face, eyes glittering from the firelight. Rose swallowed, unable to tear her eyes away, and waited for him to pull away and start babbling cheerful nonsense to get rid of the awkwardness, but he didn't move. Unable to help herself, her eyes flicked down to his mouth for the briefest of seconds, and he let out a quiet exhale and seemed to start to lean forward, eyes hooded.
At that exact moment, there was a tentative knock at the door, making the both of them jump. Cheeks on fire, Rose ducked her head and asked him nervously, "Did you order something?"
The Doctor frowned and looked at the door, looking completely unaffected by whatever the hell had just happened, the smug git. "No, and there's no reason for anyone to be at the door."
Getting up and leaving Rose to pull herself together, the Doctor strode over to the door and opened it, only to be met with the sight of a gun being pointed at his face and a breathy, processed voice saying in a shaky tone, "Get back in the cabin." Rose gasped out in alarm as a Kishan man, with his pale blue skin splattered with what looked horribly like blood, backed the Doctor carefully into the cabin, shutting the door with the back of his boot.
"What is it you want?" the Doctor said calmly and carefully, shifting himself so that he was shielding Rose.
"Want?" exclaimed the Kishan man in astonishment, still holding the gun in his face. His hand was shaking, and now that he was properly inside the cabin Rose could see tear tracks in the blood on his face. "I don't want anything, I don't—" He paused for a moment, looking near to bursting into tears. "I hoped no one was in here," he whispered finally.
Sensing this was her cue, Rose stood up from the rug and carefully made her way around the sofa, ignoring the Doctor's desperate glances. "What's the matter?" she asked kindly, approaching him.
The man flinched away from her but didn't turn his gun on her. "What's the matter?" Once again he echoed her words like he couldn't believe the question. After a beat he regained his terrified, heartbroken expression. "My husband's dead," he breathed, sounding like he had to force the words out through a lump in his throat. Her eyes darted to the blood all over him, and though she didn't ask the question, the man answered it anyway. "I didn't mean to!" he burst out, a fresh wave of tears washing away more of the blood. "I found out he was sleeping with someone else and we were arguing and he just kept shouting and threatening to kill me and he wouldn't stop waving around the stupid gun and—"
"Hey, relax," Rose said quietly, and he obediently silenced himself with one last sob. "Was self-defence, yeah? You'll be fine."
"You're not gonna be if you hurt Rose," the Doctor promised in a deadly calm voice, and she shot him a look just in case his words undid what little progress she'd made. "That's not gonna be self-defence. Just put down the gun." The man gasped for air between sobs, staring down at the gun like it was talking to him and trying to convince him otherwise. "Now," the Doctor snapped, and the man obediently dropped the gun like a hotplate, backing away and sliding down the wall, hugging himself for comfort.
As the Doctor hurriedly grabbed the gun and shoved it into his pockets, Rose stepped over to the man to sit next to him and pat his arm comfortingly while the Doctor called the authorities. They watched the still-sobbing man get hauled out of their cabin by the Azil-Nar'jen, and Rose commented, "Poor bloke. Hope he's gonna be okay."
"He'll be fine," said the Doctor stonily.
Rose frowned at his tone, turning to see his expression matched it perfectly. "What's the matter?" He stayed quiet and grumpy, and Rose's frown deepened, wondering if perhaps he was still upset about being taken hostage. "Look, I know we had a gun in our faces, but s'not a big deal."
"It is a big deal!" the Doctor burst out, looking furious. When Rose cocked an eyebrow, waiting for him to elaborate, he mumbled, "S'not important."
"It is important," Rose said indignantly, crossing her arms. "How come you've been acting so weird all day?"
"We got arrested, kidnapped and held hostage in the same twelve-hour time span," the Doctor said grumpily.
"No more than usual," Rose pointed out.
He fell silent for a bit, kicking at some spiky twigs with his chucks. "Just wanted today to be different," he said, so quietly she almost didn't hear.
"Why? What's so special about today?"
Lower lip stuck out in a bad-tempered pout, he muttered, "Nothing. Let's just go back to the TARDIS."
"No way, we're staying," Rose said firmly. At his incredulous look, she added, "Yes I do still want to stay. This is a cool cabin and I'm not gonna let a bloke who killed his husband in a lover's quarrel and your grumpy arse ruin it." The corners of his mouth lifted up a bit in spite of his mood. Sensing she'd almost won, she pressed on. "And besides, didn't you say you had one more thing planned?"
"Might've done," he said dismissively, smile growing.
"Well then, I wanna do it." Hooking her arm around the Doctor's, she led him back into the cabin's warmth and said finally, "But first I'm finishing that tea."
A little while later, the two of them were hiking up a steep hill deep in the forest. The Doctor had thrown together a supply bag for them, which was hanging off his arm, and his hand was tightly grasped around Rose's fingers.
"Here we are, then!" the Doctor exclaimed happily, when he reached the top, Rose lagging slightly a few feet behind him.
Chest heaving, Rose dragged herself up the last bit of hill and gasped for a different reason than exhaustion. In front of them, the hill dropped off into a steep downward dive, changing from a grassless forest floor into a field completely covered with sparkling blue flowers. The wind whistled through the trees, but the flowers only swayed lazily, looking like they were shifting from side to side.
"Well Rose Tyler?" the Doctor said, beaming at her when her jaw dropped. "What d'you think?"
"It's so lovely, Doctor!" she squealed, grabbing his arm.
"Glad you think so," he said, sounding smug, "'cos we're havin' a picnic here."
"We are?" He nodded gleefully, lifting up his supply bag in emphasis. "In the flowers?"
"Yep!"
"But won't we squish them if we start walkin' through them?"
"Nah," he said, patting her hand warmly. "Watch."
The Doctor leaned over and, using their clasped hands, nudged the flower closest to them. It let out a quiet 'hmm' sound and, to Rose's surprise, shifted itself to the side to avoid their combined touch, getting into its neighbour's personal space without any complaint.
"Isn't that brilliant?" the Doctor beamed, even though her awestruck expression already confirmed it.
Without letting her answer, he squeezed their clasped hands and tugged her into the field, giggling aloud when Rose nearly tripped over herself in an effort to watch all the little blue flowers hum and shift away from their feet. The Doctor paused in the middle of the field and, with a swift movement, pulled out a pink silk sheet and laid it over the now bare ground so they hand themselves a comfortable little nook in the flowers.
"Venusian blanket," the Doctor explained when Rose cocked an eyebrow at his odd choice of a picnic blanket. "Thicker than it looks." He patted it when it was straightened out. "Go on, try it out."
"Ooh," she exclaimed, when she gingerly sat down on the blanket and found that it felt much like sitting on a pillow.
He let out another pleased noise, plunking himself down and starting to rummage through the bag, and Rose watched him without him noticing with a curious look on her face. The entire day seemed incredibly planned out, if she were to forget all of the little roadblocks they'd encountered, and while the Doctor could sometimes (rarely) be thoughtful and do something nice for her, it was never to the extent of this. She would have called him out on it earlier, but he'd looked so pleased with himself she couldn't bring herself to break whatever spell he was under. Her expression changed from curiosity to a smile when he looked up, proudly presenting a basketful of alien fruits and cheese and crackers.
They nibbled on the Doctor's prepared snacks in companionable silence, Rose snuggling into the Doctor's side underneath his trench coat and cradling a thermos full of warm tea. Neither of them spoke but the Doctor occasionally sighed, and the noise sounded so comfortable and happy it made her beam into his side. She was so warm and content that she was just about to drift off against his side, but the Doctor nudged her gently away and, with his mouth incredibly close to her ear, murmured, "Look."
She sleepily lifted her head, only to spot was looked like a sparkly blanket drifting from the setting sun and heading towards them. Rose frowned at it, up until it swept over them in a pleasantly warm, glittering breeze and made her skin tingle pleasantly. She gasped at the sensation, hearing the Doctor's low chuckle, and rubbed at her arms despite herself. The glittering wave disappeared, continuing its journey behind them, leaving Rose awestruck.
"What was that?" she asked, staring at her arm, which was now sparkle-free.
"They call it then vânt vesel here," he said quietly. "Comes at every sunset, sort of like a daily warm front."
"S'lovely," Rose sighed, already missing the warmth it had brought. He hummed in response, and she turned to him with the warmest smile she could muster up. "Thank you so much, Doctor. Today's been… the best."
"Even after we were arrested for gang connections, kidnapped by poachers and held hostage by a murderer?" the Doctor asked, sounding joking and irritated at the same time.
Rose grinned and said, "Yeah, even after that." He let out a pleased noise, sitting back and basking in the cool air. It made her wrinkle her forehead and, deciding to just go for it, she asked, "What exactly prompted all of it, Doctor? I mean, don't get me wrong, 'm really thankful, but it's sort of… unexpected."
For a moment he merely sent her a sideways smile, like the ones he sent her when he was proud of her for asking the right questions, and, to her utter astonishment, answered it by dipping forward and capturing her lips for an incredibly slow, sweet kiss. She let out a startled noise but, when she got her bearings together, pushed away her thermos to plunge her fingers into his hair, angling his head better. He responded with a pleased hum, one hand gently cupping her jaw and cradling it so reverently it overwhelmed her for a moment.
Pulling back and taking in his ridiculously calm expression, she licked her lips and stammered, "Wh-what exactly was that for?"
"Today's Valentine's Day," the Doctor answered with a smile, eyes already darting back down to her lips as though anticipating the next kiss.
"Is it?" she blinked.
He nodded, and said with delight and a little bit of exasperation, "Yes it is, and I, Rose Tyler, have been trying to seduce you all day."
"You have?!" she exclaimed, eyes round as coins. She'd known something was up with him, but could he have really been trying to make a move on her all day? How the hellhad she missed that?
He nodded yet again, now looking a tad grumpy. "Hasn't exactly worked out very well," he groused, lower lip sticking out.
"That's a matter of opinion," Rose said, taking a moment to suck on his pouting lip until he whimpered. Pulling away again, she told him straight-forwardly, "Doctor, either you're too subtle or I'm an idiot, 'cos I didn't notice at all."
"Oh," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Erm, well I did a bit of research beforehand and it's been said that humans prefer subtlety instead of blatant declarations of 'want to snog?'. S'pose I took it a bit too far."
"Next time, just go with 'want to snog?', 'cos I'll have no complaints," Rose grinned, and he grinned back before diving back in for another kiss. After thoroughly snogging for several minutes, Rose finding her way on top of him, she pulled away to ask slyly, "Are you gonna spend another day or two takin' me on vacations whenever you want a shag? Or are you gonna take my advice and just ask?"
"Weeell… which would you prefer?"
"Not sure," she said airily. "Could do with a few more vacations. Then again, there's something to be said for askin'."
"Hmm." With a swift movement, he flipped them over so that he was the one on top, nose pressed against Rose's. He grinned down at her, eyes darkened in a way that made her stomach flip. "Rose Tyler. Want to shag?"
A/N: This was a story I'd planned for last year's Valentine's Day, but I'd thought it was boring. I re-examined it a few months later and decided to finish it, which is why I'm posting at all- it and its April Fool's counterpart 'Joke's On You' have been completed for months. My hiatus is not even close to over, unfortunately :( However you CAN look forward to the next and last Who Holidays story in April :)
A bit of info: my beta, Lucien, is from Romania and submitted these little ditties into the story :) schimbare flori roughly means 'changing flowers' in Romanian, and vânt vesel means 'cheerful winds'. There's also a homage to an old Rointheta fic in here; bonus points if you can find it (not that it's well hidden...)