"Where would you like to go today, Rose?" They'd just left ancient Rome behind, along with the statue of Rose. After months in Florence with Michelangelo working on said statue, the Doctor was eager for an adventure with the real Rose.
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and the Doctor's eyes were drawn to the tiny callus she'd gnawed into the tender skin there. He easily remembered the hours he'd spent tracing out the fullness of that lip, then etching the callus into it.
And now he could also remember how that lip had felt, caught between his own. Their victory kiss the day before had been far more… involved than either of their previous two kisses.
The Doctor adjusted the knot on his tie. Kissing Rose had been… well, it was brilliant. It always was. That was the problem, actually. Because each brilliant kiss he shared with Rose made it harder to remember why they couldn't have more than just a handful of brilliant kisses, and blimey, he needed to stop thinking about how brilliant it was to kiss Rose, or he would do it again.
Thankfully, Rose interrupted his musings.
"Can we just hit the randomiser?" she asked, holding her hand over the button on the console. "I know it's only been a week and a bit since we went someplace, but somehow, it just feels like way longer. I want her to take us where we need to go today."
The Doctor tried not to stare at Rose like a besotted schoolboy, but he was pretty certain he failed, miserably. The way Rose talked about the TARDIS, like she were another person involved in their travels… it was one of the many things he adored about her.
He shoved his hands into his pockets and nodded at the button. "Well then, Rose Tyler, what are you waiting for?"
She grinned at him and pressed the button (which was red, but not big or threatening), setting their coordinates to random. The TARDIS sang and hummed around them, letting them both know she appreciated their trust.
The Doctor laughed and spun around the console, releasing the handbrake and finally, throwing the dematerialisation lever. Rose's laughter joined his as the time rotor started moving, and she collapsed into the jump seat.
It was a short flight, and when they landed, the Doctor did a cursory check of their surroundings—nothing that would give away their location, just enough to prepare them for the climate and environment.
He raised his eyebrows when he saw the temperature. "Brrr!" he exclaimed. "You'd better put a coat on, Rose. Full winter gear, actually—it's snowing out there."
The TARDIS hummed again, and a moment later, a coat, hat, and mittens appeared on the console, while boots materialised on the grating at Rose's feet. "Thank you, dear," she murmured as she changed into the fleece lined boots. "I know I can trust you to take care of me."
The ship's whistle turned smug, and the Doctor had to remind himself that it was ridiculous to feel jealous of a sentient time ship. And besides, the TARDIS did take care of Rose, in a way that she rarely had anyone but him. An image from his memory crept forward, of Rose standing in the TARDIS doors, surrounded by the golden light of time. As quickly as the memory invaded, the Doctor forced it back. Even if that was why the ship wanted to take care of Rose, her stint as Bad Wolf was in her past.
The sound of someone clearing her throat pulled him out of his private thoughts, and the Doctor felt his ears turn red when he realised Rose was dressed and waiting for him by the door. "Are you just planning to stand there staring at the time rotor all day," she teased, her cheeky little tongue peeking out from behind her teeth, "or are we going to see where our lovely ship took us today?"
The Doctor laughed and jogged up the ramp to the door. "Oh, I suppose we could go outside, if you really wanted," he returned. "After you, Rose."
Stepping out of the TARDIS was like walking into a winter wonderland. They'd landed in the middle of a meadow surrounded by trees. A pristine blanket of snow covered the ground, coming up to Rose's ankle, and like the Doctor had promised, more snow was falling.
Rose tilted her head back and stuck her tongue out to catch a snowflake. They landed on her eyelashes instead, and the tiny ice crystals had rainbows dancing at the edge of her field of vision before they melted.
The hard thump of something hitting her shoulder took her off guard, and Rose straightened to stare at the Doctor. He was already making another snowball, and an unrepentant grin lit up his face.
"You snooze, you lose," he taunted. "Come on, Rose. No time for staring at the sky!" He tossed the snowball up in the air and caught it. "Or are you going to forfeit this war before it's even begun?"
"Oh, you are so gonna get it for that," Rose growled.
The Doctor laughed and threw his snowball, but Rose dodged out of the way. She dove behind a snowbank and quickly packed a handful of snow into her own weapon, then jumped to her feet and threw it in his direction, aiming for slightly ahead of where he was running towards the trees.
"Oi!" he hollered when it hit him in the back.
"There's no mercy in a snowball fight, Doctor!" Rose cried out. "If you can't take it, you shouldn't dish it out."
"Oh, I can take it," he retorted from the tree line. "And there will be no quarter given!"
Rose barely saw the snowball flying towards her in time to duck. In the end, it only grazed her thigh as she raced for the safety of some bushes.
Rose could have happily played in the snow with the Doctor all afternoon long, but after about an hour, her fingers started to go numb in the mittens the TARDIS had given her. She glanced towards the ship, then towards where she knew the Doctor was hiding.
It's risky, but it might work, she told herself as she slowly crept in his direction. She kept her body low to the ground and hopefully out of sight.
She managed to circle around the Doctor until she was ten feet directly behind him. He was still looking in the direction of the last snowball she'd thrown, and judging by the tension in his shoulders, he was trying to figure out what she had planned next.
Rose bit her lip to hold back her laughter. Then she stood up and started running for him, heedless of the noise now that she was close enough to maintain the element of surprise.
The Doctor spun around, and his eyes widened when he realised Rose was racing across the snow to tackle him. In the split second before she reached him, he knew there was no way to avoid her attack, so he relaxed his body and went down with her.
For just a moment, Rose grinned down at him. "Gotcha!"
The Doctor used the momentum of the fall to roll over on top of her. "Gotcha!" he crowed as he braced his weight over her.
But looking down at her, rosy cheeked and panting, the Doctor suddenly wondered if she hadn't gotten him after all. He shifted slightly, without even realising it, the way he hovered over her changing from a tackle hold to an embrace.
Rose's eyes widened, and the Doctor had to swallow a groan when he saw her gaze dart down to his mouth for just a second. "Doctor?" she whispered.
He thought about getting up. He meant to get up. But then her tongue swiped against her bottom lip, and he gave in.
"Rose," he murmured, then he slowly leaned down. He watched in fascination as her eyes fluttered shut, then all he was aware of was the cool pressure of her lips beneath his.
He'd thrown the first snowball earlier because the urge to sweep Rose up in his arms and kiss her had suddenly been almost overwhelming. The entire time they'd played in the snow, he'd told himself he wasn't ready for this yet, for what he could feel coming in their future.
Rose was human. She would wither and die, and leave him alone—only she would take his hearts with her.
When she sighed into his mouth and parted her lips beneath his, the Doctor finally accepted what he'd known for a very long time. Rose already held his hearts in her hand. They would break when he lost her, no matter how intimate their relationship became.
But in the meantime, they could have this.
Rose slid her hands up over the Doctor's shoulders and latched her mittened hands together behind his neck, holding him close. He didn't feel like he was going anywhere, but she'd learned not to count on anything when it came to the Doctor and their relationship.
Still, there was something different in the lazy he was he was kissing her now, sliding his lips over hers, nipping at her bottom lip and humming in satisfaction when she gasped into his mouth. She could almost believe he'd finally let go of whatever it was that had always held him back.
His teeth scraped against her lip, sending a shiver through Rose. But a moment later, she felt him pull out of the kiss, releasing her lips with a soft pop. He sighed her name against her mouth, then gently bumped his nose against hers and rocked back to sit on his heels.
His naturally full lips looked kiss-swollen. Rose itched to pull him back down, to bring back the magic of the moment, but she was afraid it had already been lost—and if it had, she wouldn't try to cling to it.
"Come on," he said, offering her a hand as he stood up. "You were already cold, and you're getting soaked through, lying in the snow."
As he pulled her to her feet, Rose gathered her courage. "Doctor…"
He smiled and cupped her jaw in his hand. "We're not going to pretend this didn't happen, Rose."
The quiet conviction in his voice lit a spark of joy in Rose's heart. "We're not?" she said breathlessly.
"No, we aren't." He brushed his thumb over her lip, and Rose kissed it. "But you're freezing, so let's go sit in front of a fire while we talk."
Rose cast him a sidelong glance as they started back for the TARDIS. "You know," she said casually. "Cuddling in front of the fire while we talk about our relationship sounds pretty romantic for people who are just friends."
The Doctor's hum sounded contemplative. "It does, doesn't it?" He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "I guess it's a good thing we've never been just friends."