The Doctor nervously fished for the small velvet box. Curse these transdimensional pockets, he thought.
The Doctor and Rose had been together for a little over six months after their first day in Bad Wolf Bay. They'd had sufficient time to rekindle their love, to relearn one another. And now they were happy together, living a life day to day. It was time to cement the inevitable.
The Doctor suggested they go for a weekend of viewing a meteor shower. He booked a room at a local inn and they drove to their favorite place for stargazing, the cliffs in Dorset.
As Rose walked ahead of him from the car to their spot, he watched to make sure she wouldn't turn to see his fumbling.
The ring was missing. Gods, no, he thought, horrified. This ruins everything. Wasn't the ring necessary for this? How could he possibly present himself to her and ask for her hand without the ring?
"Doctor, are you coming?" Rose called.
He remembered their short time after check-in at the inn, how he'd left his jacket and trousers out on a chair while he showered and freshened up for the evening. Rose hung his suit up in the small closet, and in his anxiousness he must've mixed it up with his second suit. ("Always bring a spare," was his motto. "You never know what mayhem may ensue.")
"Stupid, stupid, I can't believe I didn't check—"
"Didn't check what, Doctor?" he was cut off by Rose's arms around him from behind.
He yelped in surprise.
"Doctor, what's wrong?" she poked her head around his side.
"Erm—" he struggled for words, mind racing, calculating how to recover. "I, erm, had a surprise for this evening, and I left it back at the inn." Might as well come out with it as honestly as he could, since he was rubbish at hiding things from her.
She grinned at him and circled around to face him. She wrapped an arm around his waist and cupped his neck with her other hand, running her thumb down his sideburn. "Maybe you can surprise me when we go back to our room."
He leaned into her touch and his tension melted away.
"For now, let's go curl up in this blanket and watch the stars, yeah?"
He finally smiled. "Yeah." Maybe tonight wouldn't be a total failure.
Rose carried their blanket in one arm and took his hand in the other, and their arms swung together as they walked to their favorite spot near the cliff's edge.
He sat in the grass and wrapped the blanket around himself. Once he was settled, Rose nestled between his legs, her back on his chest. The Doctor wrapped his arms around her, and she wrapped the blanket around her front.
With limited light pollution from the nearby town, they were able to see the stars so clearly, and soon, the meteor shower began.
"Oh, I miss all that up there. I miss traveling in the stars with you," Rose said. "I'm sorry the TARDIS hasn't fully grown yet. I know staying here in one place hasn't been easy for you."
"Nah, you know I was confined to Earth once before. I made do then." But that wasn't how he felt in his current life. He needed her to know that. "Rose, you don't think I'm just making do now, do you?" he asked, resting his chin on her shoulder and pressing his ear to hers. He was wrapped up in his love for her as much as she was currently wrapped in him.
She shuddered at the sensation of his breath on her cheek and the vibration of his chest as he spoke. "I think you're adjusting well to your part human life. You were a part of my family before I came over here, me, Mum, and Mickey. And we were all happy together before you came over here, but we're all even happier with you here now. Jackie would never tell you to your face, but she missed you terribly, and now Mum can't imagine Sunday dinners without you. Tony is sad every time I come over and you're not with me. He loves you." She felt him smile.
He hummed. "I love him."
"I probably would have missed him more than anyone if I hadn't stayed. Mum, I'd had a life with her, and I had a life without Pete for the longest time, and they would have had each other without me, but Tony…I would have missed watching him grow up. I'm so grateful," she laced her fingers with his, resting on her stomach, "that I didn't have to leave him."
They sat in silence for a moment.
The Doctor took a deep breath. "Rose, I need you to know something."
Rose shifted so she was sitting perpendicular to him between his legs. She wanted to see him as he spoke. She drew her knees up and he shifted his leg between her feet and her bum. Her hands gripped lazily around her knees and he gripped around her waist again.
He continued. "I need you to know that I'm not just making do in this universe. I'm happy here with you. I don't need to be out amongst the stars to feel like I'm on a grand adventure. And as much as I miss her, I don't need the TARDIS to finish growing tomorrow. I don't need to find planets with apple grass to feel like my life has any meaning or worth.
"When I lost you the first time, I said to you, 'Here you are, living your life day to day. The one adventure I can never have.' Rose, in that moment it was the one adventure I wanted more than anything, and more than anything ever since. I would have given anything to be stuck with you on a planet somewhere, having to get a mortgage and a job." He paused for a moment to kiss her neck just below her ear. "Because a life without you…I'm not saying that Martha wasn't a suitable companion. Martha was more than capable. She was a star. And Donna. Donna brought me back from the ledge after I'd lost you. I lost myself. She helped me find myself again."
She smiled softly at him. She understood the importance of those two women who kept him going. She remembered seeing his body beneath a white sheet when Donna wasn't there to save him from himself. She reached out a hand to cup his neck and began rubbing his sideburn again.
Ring or no ring, he couldn't wait until they were back at the inn, not when they were like this, just existing together under a night sky full of stars. Not when she held him like this, and not just physically. She held his one human heart in her hands. "Rose, I'm sorry that I'm not doing this according to proper human customs—"
"Doing what, Doctor?" She smiled softly again, searching his eyes. "Nothing about our life is according to proper human customs. Never has been. And I love it."
He smiled. "Me, too."
In one swift move, Rose shifted to straddle his legs and settled in his lap. She gripped his shoulders. The Doctor took in a sharp breath in surprise, but instinctively gripped her hips in his hands. She slid her hands down his chest to his lapels and his heart raced. Rose gently met his lips. They explored each other lazily, but it wasn't long before Rose rocked her hips against him, minx that she was, and he reacted with another sharp breath. She giggled against his lips, and he pulled back suddenly.
"Rose, I am putty in your hands, but—"
"Yeah, I'll be putting something else in my hand in a minute," she grinned and he made a frustrated groan.
"Wait, Rose, I've been trying to say something."
"Well, just say it then, Doctor."
"Rose, I love you, and I'm so happy with you. Happier than I've ever been, and I want to continue building a life with you." He stroked a knuckle down her jaw line. "Rose Tyler, would you marry me?"
Her face softened. She had the same look on her face that she had at the beach, when he, the Doctor, was finally able to tell her the words she had longed to hear for so long, when he could finally tell her he loved her.
She then pulled him into an intense, urgent kiss, her tongue searching out his depths, and he returned in kind.
When she peppered kisses on his jaw line, he took the opportunity to ask, "So is that a yes, then?"
Their eyes met and she looked incredulous. "Yes, you git!"
He laughed, and recaptured her lips. His arm held around her waist, and he placed his other hand on the ground to gently lean them back, their blanket providing a comfortable cushion. She was on her back, and he leaned over her on one elbow, one leg between hers. He drew up her thigh with his other hand.
He pulled back again and smiled.
"What now?" Rose asked, to which he chuckled. Now she was the one being teased.
But then his face grew more serious. "Does that 'yes' count if I left the ring back in the room?"
"Is that what you were upset about earlier?"
"Yeah, I mixed up my two suits. I was mad I didn't check to make sure I put on the right one. I was so nervous about tonight."
"Doctor, the ring is merely a symbol of our love. It doesn't define it. I mean, I can't wait to see it, but that's not important right now. What's important is I love you and yes, I want to be your wife. And what's also important is that I want to shag your brains out right now, so can you please stop interrupting and take me, Time Lord?"
"Ha!" He laughed. "Gladly." He began stroking her thigh. "Absolutely. Molto bene. Anyway you like, Rose Tyler." He spoke agonizingly slow with a wicked look in his eyes.
"Doctor!" she giggled.
Yes, the Doctor considered the night a success. They completely forgot about watching the meteor shower. And they didn't need to see the stars, because they had each other seeing stars of their own.