Beta: Miral-Romanov
The Aftermath of War
One year.
One year with Rose. One year of her brilliant presence, clever quips, sideways glances and tongue-touched smiles. An entire year filled with her laughter and warm hugs, with her gentle touches and head-spinning scent enveloping him like an occasionally suffocating blanket and gestures that left him almost insane with sexual frustration some nights. To a Time Lord, a year was nothing— the life of a fruit fly, in retrospect.
But he'd been happy, unbelievably so, every day of that year and he'd basked in it, savoured every second of it, clung to it like the rest of the world was falling into oblivion and it was his only ground. He'd known nothing but pain and darkness for so long, and then she'd drifted into his life as bright as a small sun, lighting up as much as she could and settling right between his hearts. He was lost the second he'd grabbed her hand and told her to run.
As much as the Doctor would have liked to spend their one year anniversary — as friends and travelling companions, of course — with Rose alone, they'd unfortunately picked up Captain Jack Harkness, and he couldn't just dump the stray on the nearest asteroid like he wanted to. Well, he could, but Rose wouldn't approve and the last thing he wanted on this day was for Rose to be upset with him.
For weeks leading up to the anniversary date — as friends — he debated a billion billion special places to take her, most of which he ended up ruling out because they were either too romantic and she'd get the wrong idea (or the right one) or there was even the smallest possibility of something going wrong and landing them in danger. As much as he loved having adventures with her, this was not a day that he wanted to have one. He was certain Rose didn't even know about the anniversary— so, to be safe, he let the TARDIS choose the destination.
Now he was standing calf-deep in snow, not even bothering to hide the grumpy expression on his face and pretending he wasn't shivering underneath his jacket from the bitter cold. Why the hellthe TARDIS had chosen here, of all places, was beyond him. It wasn't all bad— Jack was trumping hilariously through the snowy hills some feet away, falling every six seconds due to the depth of the snow, and Rose was spread out deliciously on the bank making a snow angel a few metres from the TARDIS.
Stuffing his frozen fingers into his pockets, he leaned against the doors of the TARDIS, ignoring his ship's mental nudges to go and join them. Namely Rose. He was so busy glaring at the frozen waves and mentally hating himself he didn't realise Rose had trumped over to him until she wrapped her hands around his arm, her warmth soaking through his jacket.
"This is brilliant," she breathed, hugging his arm tightly and beaming up at him. He smiled back reluctantly at the sight of her, cheeks flushed pink from the cold, eyelashes sparkling with snow dust and voice breathless in a way that had him thinking wrong thoughts despite the situation. "What's it called again?"
"Woman Wept," he replied, wincing at the apathetic tone in his voice.
He felt worse when it made her smile disappear. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," he lied, face breaking out into his usual deflective, goofy smile.
She obviously didn't buy it, but when she opened her mouth to argue Jack tumbled into between them, covered from head to toe in snow and looking very much like the abominable snowman. "I think I'm gonna go back inside," came Jack's voice from somewhere underneath the snow.
"You think?" snorted the Doctor, grinning for real as Rose collapsed into giggles, leaning against him for leverage.
"Shut up," said snowman Jack happily, scooping some caked snow from his thigh and dumping it on Rose's head, making her shriek.
As Jack trumped past them, leaving a trail of snow in his wake, Rose brushed the snow off of her hair before bumping her hip against the Doctor's. "So. How'd it just freeze like this, with all the waves an' stuff?"
The Doctor's jaw hardened again, unknown to Rose since her head was leaning against his shoulder snugly. "The sun went supernova in a single second. The er, planet froze in an instant."
"What caused the supernova?" she asked.
"Me," he admitted stonily.
She pulled her head away to frown at him, and he missed the warmth immediately. "You?"
"The Time War." He positively scowled at the nearest frozen wave. "When I kill— when I ended it, it caused a temporal shockwave that destroyed several other planets in different ways. The shockwave triggered the sun into nova and froze the planet."
"An' that's why you've been actin' weird," Rose said. She plopped her head back onto his shoulder, sighing. "S'not your fault."
He frowned down at her despite the warmth blossoming in his chest at her words. "How is it not?"
"Well, it is," she said with a shrug, "but is it really such a bad thing?"
"I destroyed the planet," he said shortly, "and a lot of other planets, Rose."
"Doesn't look destroyed," Rose said, giving his arm a squeeze. "Looks pretty cool, actually."
"Rose," he sighed.
"Doctor," she replied with irony, before rolling her eyes. "As I've been told, if you hadn't done what you did, time as we all know it would've ceased to exist, yeah?"
His frown deepened. "How'd you know that?"
"The TARDIS and I bonded a bit," she said lightly, leaving unnoticed the Doctor's sudden loving look in her direction. "S'not the point though."
"What is, then?"
"'Cos of what you did, this place is gorgeous," said Rose, facing him earnestly. "When all's said an' done, the aftermath of every war ends up beautiful."
She'd only just finished her sentence when the Doctor dipped his head down, fitting his cool mouth against hers so quickly Rose stumbled, her back pressing against the TARDIS. Almost instantly her arms hurled around his neck and dragged him down lower, spurring him on at once; his own arms hooked around her waist and pressed her front against his, snogging her good and proper against the ship.
When he pulled away after an unknown amount of minutes, Rose gasped for breath, her lungs seizing up from the bitter cold air. "Not—" she breathed, "— not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"
He examined her closely through half-closed eyes, an earnest expression on his face. "How long are you going to stay with me?" he said instead of answering her.
"Forever," she said just as earnestly.
The most beautiful smile broke out over his face, lighting up his eyes and making him look years younger. She mirrored his expression, and they spent a full minute beaming at each other before the doors of the TARDIS burst open, making them both jump. Jack stuck his no longer snow-covered head out, saying with mirth, "Are you guys gonna keep grinning at each other like idiots, or are you gonna make out again?"
"Harkness," said the Doctor in a forewarning tone, smile gone even as Rose hid her flushed face in his neck.
"Okay fine, I actually came out here to ask if you wanted any cocoa," Jack said innocently.
"God yeah," Rose groaned, shivering underneath her coat. "And chips. Let's get chips. S'not funny," she added, when the Doctor chuckled.
Jack ducked back inside, but when the Doctor tried ushering her towards the warmth of the TARDIS, Rose said, "Wait," before peeling out of his grip and bouncing towards an untouched bit of snow.
"What're you doin'?" he said as she bent over the snow, though he couldn't bring himself to frown since she was giving him a great view of her bottom.
"We've been travellin' together for a year, y'know," she told him, missing his shocked expression. "Thought maybe we'd leave a memento, yeah?"
She straightened up and strode back over to him, snuggling into his side and allowing him to see the message she'd scrawled into the snow with her finger— The Doctor and Rose were here.
He grinned despite himself, nudging his nose into her hairline. "What about Jack?"
"Let's leave Jack out of it," Rose grimaced, and he chuckled again.
"I heard that," Jack's voice came through the TARDIS doors, and Rose giggled. "Cocoa's ready."
Rose gave the Doctor's torso one last squeeze before hurrying into the TARDIS. He watched her until she disappeared, before turning back to the message she'd written. Glancing at the TARDIS one last time, he pulled out his sonic and ran it over the snow a couple of times, erasing the words 'were here' and replacing it with 'forever' before standing up and striding back into the TARDIS, eager to snog her again and see if her mouth now tasted like cocoa.
The Doctor and Rose forever.
A/N: Just a little story written for the fact that it's been exactly one year since I posted my first whofic, 'This Cursed Sixth Sense' :3 Since then I've published 38 stories (39 if you count this one) and a total of 52 chapters in all and I just want to say a big, gigantic thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed and favourited! THANK YOU!