"Step lively, Miss Tyler," the Doctor said enthusiastically as he grabbed her hand practically yanking her out of the TARDIS door.
"Alright, alright. 'M comin'," Rose giggled, "Where exactly am I coming to, Doc- Doctor?" Rose was finally out of the TARDIS after struggling with the rather large overnight pack the Doctor told her to pack, but to her dismay, her companion was nowhere in sight. All she saw was jungle canopy.
"If you would turn to your right, Miss Tyler, you wi-" he paused ever so amused, "Uh, your other right Rose." The Doctor watched her wade through the thick jungle foliage in a pair of loose fitting tan hiking pants, a black tank top, and hiking boots. Her hair was pulled back in some sort of French-braid-thingy (to be honest, he forgot what she had called it) that framed her face, so when the random beams of light that broke through the trees hit her face, they fanned out to her collarbone and shoulders forming a halo of iridescence. He would normally try to ignore the way she looked, but today was not that kind of day. He could barely try to hold in his excitement for this trip. He wasn't going to try to. "There we are," he continued. When she reached him, he grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face the one break in the trees. Pointing through the gap to a large plateaued mountain, he continued, "That, Rose, is Mt. Aberdonia, and that is where we are going."
"Yep." The Doctor looked to see her reaction, but found that she wasn't paying attention at all. Instead, she was busying herself with trying to adjust the strap on the backpack she was carrying to fit around her chest. Her sounds of dismay at realizing that the strap was going to be too small no matter what she did made the Doctor laugh. Finally, she forced the strap under her breasts rather uncomfortably.
"There we go. I jus' won't breathe," she gasped as she looked up and laughed. Suddenly, her face changed into a look of realization. "Oi! Why 'm I carryin' this thing," she exclaimed as she laid a smack to his chest. He couldn't hold back the laughter anymore and doubled over at the look on her face. Once he had composed himself, he gave his trademark smirk.
"You just look so good in it," he replied sarcastically. He giggled again when she rolled her eyes.
"Alright show me again where we're goin'," she said.
He pointed again through the gap in the trees. "Mt. Aberdonia." He looked again to her face and braced himself for what he knew she was going to say. Exasperated, she raised her eyebrows and glared at him. He smirked again.
"Why didn't we just land the TARDIS up there," she asked sarcastically.
"Because, Rose Tyler, the trip up there is half the fun," he said as he sprang forward and began running through the brush towards the opening.
"Oi! No you don't mister," she yelled after him, "we go together." She began wading forward as he stopped and turned, waiting for her.
"Keep up then," he smiled and bounced forward.
"You're not the one carryin' a bloody... whatever the hell this is on your back," she said practically to herself as she rolled her eyes. Still she trudged on after him.
When the pair finally reached the top of the plateau, the Doctor ran forward, hands in his coat pockets, taking in the surrounding scenery. Several seconds later, he was followed by Rose who pulled herself onto the top of the cliff face. Once by the Doctor's side, she immediately dropped the pack, which incidentally landed on his toe. Rose was too tired to even claim it was an accident. Despite her tiredness, she gave him her best tongue-in-teeth smile as an apology, which he graciously accepted.
"There's nothing up here," she commented as she looked around. They were standing on the top of the mountain which was a circle about 60 meters in diameter, and despite the occasional rock, she was right. There was nothing of any interest atop that particular mountain.
"Tha's the point," the Doctor proclaimed as he began rifling through the pack to set up their camp for the night. Rose didn't question his reasoning. She had learned it was pointless. Though it was not yet dark, it was getting there. It was probably only about and hour and a half until it was dark.
"I'm surprised we didn't run into any trouble on the way up," Rose prodded as she plopped herself onto the ground where the Doctor was working.
"What would make you say that," he said with a confused look. Rose shared his look of confusion, but hers was due to his confusion. Have you seen the way our lives work? "The planet's not inhabited," he said matter-of-factly.
" 'S never stopped 'em before," Rose laughed. The Doctor's laugh showed his agreement.
"Why would a planet this lush and beautiful be uninhabited," she continued. The whole landscape was covered in a thick jungle canopy and mountains. The dirt was a dark black and seemed to shimmer when the light hit a certain way.
The Doctor merely looked up and smirked. "You'll see." Rose gave up figuring out what they were doing camping on top of a mountain with nothing on it on a planet with no life. Instead she pulled herself up and began helping to set up what little camping gear they had.
It was past dark now on the strange planet and the only light available was given off by the large fire the Doctor had managed to start for their campsite. It was no ordinary campsite however. There was no tent, only several blankets set out overlapping each other. Kicked back on the blankets were Rose and the Doctor and nothing else. Their conversation was all they would need to keep them occupied for years. During a lull in their conversation, however, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began fiddling intently.
"What'cha doin'," Rose asked keenly.
"Oh, nothing. Jus' messin, I suppose," he stated.
"Oh." Rose continued to watch as his nimble fingers tinkered with the object, pulling parts off and then putting them back on, rubbing off scratches, and all around handling of his possession. She mused at the thought of how elegant and intimate his hands seemed. After a few minutes of him tinkering, he gently placed the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket and propped himself up on his elbows, legs stretched out in front of him. Rose didn't know what made her do it, simple human curiosity she guessed, but she heaved herself into a sitting position and scooted closer to the Doctor. Reacting to her movement, he too sat up and looked at her inquisitively, but said nothing.
Her face gave away nothing as she gently picked up on of his hands and turned it over in her own. Shocked, the Doctor did not pull back, but let her inspect his hand, the whole time staring at the way the light from the fire danced on her skin and hair. Rose looked his hand over intently, as if it was like nothing she had ever seen. She gently traced the lines and creases that led to his fingers, each time causing his hand to react and flinch from anticipation. She then rubbed her thumb along the callouses that plagued his palm and mused over the stories that came with each mark. She turned his hand over and brushed her fingers across his knuckles, like a paintbrush leaving paint along a canvas. After she finished her inspection of his left hand, she placed it palm down on his thigh as if it was its own entity, and without looking up or speaking, she promptly picked up his other hand and conducted the same inspection. This time she looked over his wrist and a small smile came to her lips as she remembered how much this hand freaked her out a year ago. Moving on, she splayed his fingers out flat and lined her own hand up with his, taking in the size difference and how perfectly her own hand fit into his. When she had finished, she nonchalantly gave up his hand back to him and laid back down, propped up on her hip facing him, but staring at the fire.
When he had been given possession of his hands back, the Doctor silently looked his own hands over as if she had done something to change them. He thought surely if he looked close enough, he would spot a difference, but there was none. He glanced at Rose's face in confusion and rubbed his hands hoping for the sensation of her touch to linger.
Feeling his gaze on her, she looked at him briefly and smiled. "You have nice hands," she stated simply. She continued to smile as he smirked and replied, "Really? Hm..." he looked off into the fire and seemed to think on the topic until Rose's random giggle stopped him.
"What," he amusingly prodded.
"Why are we up here, Doctor? You still haven't told me," she got out between laughs. His eyes grew big and bright as he jumped up and offered out his hand to help her up.
"Right then, Rose Tyler, I thought you'd never ask. If you would just hold these," he said as he plucked two wine glasses from the overnight pack.
"Where were you hiding those-"
"Time Lord." He raised his eyebrows in amusement and dove back into the pack.
" 'Course. Bigger on the inside," she explained to herself.
"Ah! Here we are," he proclaimed suddenly, "a nice bottle of French Rosè..." he paused as she rolled her eyes at the thought of sharing a name with a flower and a bottle of wine. It was too cliche.
"...I'm just kidding," he said finally. She exhaled gratefully. "It's your favorite," he smiled as he pulled out a bottle red Grenache. Her eyes glowed, not only at the wine, but at the fact that he knew her favorite wine. She loved red Grenache because of its spiced fruit flavor.
"Come on," he stated as he offered her his arm. When she took it, he led her away from the fire and over to the farthest side of the mountain top, which wasn't all that far. It was almost completely dark even though the fire was not far away.
"Now Miss Tyler, if you will turn slightly to your right," he emphasized as he opened the bottle and began to pour the wine into the glasses, "in approximately two- no, wait for it- one minute, you will see what we came all the way up here for." He smiled and relished in the fact that he knew something that she didn't, even though he knew something she didn't majority of the time.
"Doctor, what on Earth-" she questioned, but he cut her off.
"Ssshhhh... just watch." She stood in silence, filled wine glass in hand, and followed his finger to the horizon where she stared contently.
"Alright... Three... Two... One..." he whispered with anticipation. This was the moment he had been waiting for since Rose first decided to stay. He had just been waiting for the right time, ironically.
Suddenly, the black expanse of sky that the pair were staring at began to glow a fiery orange as a large group of clouds seemed to catch fire. What seemed like rain began to fall from the clouds, but it wasn't quite rain. Rose couldn't figure it out, but the rain fell like sparks from a welding torch and then left colorful streaks of light as the drops descended down to the ground below. Once they hit the jungle canopy below, the trees and foliage began to glow, too. Rose finally realized they had caught fire. Confused and mesmerized, she turned to the Doctor for an explanation, which he was quick to give.
"Glass... It's raining glass, Rose." He smiled a different smile than one she had ever seen before. He was completely and utterly in love with the sight of the liquid glass falling from the alien sky. She then realized why he traveled. It was for times like this when he finally found something he had never seen before. She glanced back at the illuminated sky as he continued to ramble.
"That's why the dirt is so black. It's burnt trees and foliage, the best kind of fertilizer there is. The shimmering? See, that's the glass. Sometimes you get lucky and come across bigger chunks, but most of it's jus' specks. Tha's why we came to this mountain. There's nothin' up here because it has already rained here recently. I knew it would be safer 'nd less likely for us to get rained on," he finished with a small chuckle. He glanced back at his companion and became lost in her wonderment. Sure, he was missing the raining glass, but he was willing to trade one beautiful sight for another.
"What d'ya think," he asked hopefully.
" 'S beautiful," she said breathlessly, never letting her eyes leave that one spot in the sky.
"Beautiful," he affirmed. If she knew he was looking at her and not the rain, she didn't show it. When she turned to look at him, she flashed her tongue-in-teeth smile that he was sure she saved only for him. His wine glass was to his lips but he had not drank from it yet. Suddenly, Rose remembered her wine glass.
"To glass rainstorms," the Doctor said as he raised his glass to her.
"And nice hands," she added mischievously, returning the gesture. The Doctor couldn't help but shake his head and smile. Only her, he thought.
"To glass rainstorms and nice hands," he reaffirmed with a laugh as their glasses clinked. Off in the distance, the falling glass slowly dwindled leaving the burning trees and plants to outline the darkening sky with the same soft orange as the fire keeping the Doctor and Rose warm.
Author's note- I thought this was a nice, fluffy little story. Please read and review!