"Opium. The dried and condensed juice of a poppy, known as Papaver Somniferum, that has a narcotic, analgesic effect. It's soporific, astringent, and narcotic. Those are all words that describe opium- well, the effects of opium. It contains codeine, morphine, papaverine, and other alkaloids used in medicine in their isolated or derive forms. It's a narcotic substance- have I said that already? Narcotic. It's got narcotic properties. Isn't that great?"
The Doctor was currently immobile on a bed in the TARDIS medical bay. A jungle planet exploration plan went a bit awry when Rose discovered that those pretty, brightly-coloured flowers scattered around the foliage were actually opiate-filled, dart-shooting, evil flowers that fired at trespassers.
Rose sighed and pulled the cool, moist washcloth from the Doctor's slightly sweat-soaked forehead and let it soak in a bowl of ice water that sat on the counter next to the bed.
"Did you hear me Rose? Opium. The word originated sometime around the late fourteenth century. Derived from the Greek word ópion, meaning poppy juice." Rose made a noncommittal sounding hm noise as she adjusted the wash rag to wring out the extra water.
"Unfortunately it's lethal in large doses." That got Rose's attention.
"What? Doctor, are you gonna be alright?" The Doctor grinned lazily.
"Knew that would get your attention. Nah, I'm fine. Sup-" "Superior Time Lord biology and all that, yeah, I've heard. You're a nutter, gettin' yourself shot in the bum with a drug-filled dart from a bloody flower!"
"Oi! You love my bum." He was starting to slur his words together- a fact that worried Rose greatly. A gentle hum in the back of her mind reassured her that it was nothing serious.
"It's nothing, just working it out of my system. Time Lord biology Rose! Rose, Rosie, Rose Tyler…" The Doctor's rambling was getting progressively more jumbled and slurred. Rose placed the cold rag back on his forehead, gently swiping the fringe off of his face. The Doctor grinned when Rose pushed the rag over his eyes as well.
"I think you need to sleep this off, you're getting a little loopy, yeah?"
As she turned to leave, the Doctor's hand shot out from its place by his side so it could latch onto hers- preventing her from walking away.
"You're fantastic, you know that?" Rose blushed and stifled a giggle.
"Well, it doesn't hurt to hear it every once in a while, but yeah, I know I'm pretty great." She eased her hand out of his so she could carefully fold the cloth so it was no longer covering his eyes, and was startled by the serious expression that was found upon his normally amicable face.
"I don't tell you often enough how amazing you are." Rose's eyes widened.
"Uh, well, you don't have to. I already know." The Doctor closed his eyes, cringing against the sudden barrage of memories. Tell her… Oh, She knows
Rose gasped as he attempted to pull himself up into a sitting position.
"Hey! What do you think you're doin'? Gonna get yourself a concussion if you fall on your face from that height." Ignoring her warning, he grabbed her upper arms and rested his head against her collarbone. She heard the wash cloth fall from his head onto the floor with a splat.
"Rose, I need to tell you s-" "I think the drugs in your system are messin' around with that big Time Lord brain of yours, Doctor. It's making you say things… that you wouldn't normally say." Rose felt the Doctor sigh against her neck- which caused another blush to bloom across her cheeks.
"Of course I wouldn't normally say this! The opium is making it harder for me to control my impulses and motor functions. Mostly my rambling, see? I'm rambling. I could never control my rambling though, could I? My point though," he emphasised when she tried to pull away, "is that I don't want to hide how I feel about you, Rose Tyler." He sat up slowly to look her in the eyes.
"On Gallifrey… We don't… there isn't… How I feel about you doesn't translate into English. It's… deeper, I suppose, than any word you might know of, like love. So, I never really told you how I feel about you, I couldn't, but I want you to know for certain. You mean everything to me. You're my pink and yellow human." There were tears in Rose's eyes by the time he finished his small speech, and he wiped them away with the pads of his thumbs.
After she took a deep breath, Rose grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head, and proceeded to snog him within an inch of his ten lives. If his respiratory bypass hadn't kicked in, it would have taken his breath away. Rose Tyler was snogging him-quite thoroughly too. And also very passionately he'd like to add. It was all lips, and teeth, and tongue- her wonderful, fantastic tongue. The same tongue that had been torturing him throughout this regeneration and the one before it. Before this generation that was made specifically for her. Oh, how he'd dreamt of his moment. Sure, he'd fantasized about what it would be like to finally be allowed to kiss Rose Tyler, but everything paled in comparison to this. His fantastic Rose Tyler. A cool palm on the side of his face made him let out a noise between a moan and a sigh. Rose's responding moan was more than enough to send heat coursing throughout his entire body.
When those amazingly wonderful lips that had been attached to his began to pull away, he followed them with his own, not wanting the moment to end. He heard a giggle as the soft hands in his hair and on his face moved to press firmly over his hearts. No doubt she could feel how much she was affecting him. The image of a flushed and smug Rose Tyler, with her parted lips- red and glossy from their kiss- and eyes that were bright and pupils dilated from arousal (the thought sent shivers down his spine), would be one he never forgot for the rest of his lives.
"Doctor," her breathless tone made him grin, "you're burning up."
He frowned as she began to ease him back onto the medical bed. She retrieved the still-damp wash rag from where it had dropped on the floor, rinsed it off, and placed it back onto the Doctor's forehead like how it was before.
She leaned down to whisper in his ear, "You better not forget about that when you recover tomorrow." She placed a soft kiss on his cheek and dimmed the lights as she left the room, only the sound of the TARDIS humming, amused, was left in her wake.
"Oh, there is no way I am going to forget this, my precious little human. And neither will you."