A/N: Right now this is rated T, but I don't know if that will last. I haven't quite decided, but it is very possible this will evolve into a mature rating. You've been forewarned.

88888

The new Doctor was still fingering his hair and feeling reckless when he stumbled out of the tardis and into a spring afternoon of early 21st century. (Ginger, finally!) He fancied a meal of fish and chips. Good old London. He had always loved London. Loved its people, loved its food…he was so hungry…

He only had to walk a block before he found an open shop and ordered one of everything off the menu, sitting down in front of a tray of greasy goodness, prepared to ingest it all. He was only a few bites into his chips when the bell rang and he looked up to see a gaggle of teenaged girls enter the restaurant. It was probably a pervy new aspect of his personality (that's what comes of being a ginger) but he couldn't help but stare at them, all in school uniforms and still a ways away from eighteen. The lead girl was a beautiful, caramel skinned girl with a long black ponytail. He liked the look of her very much, but as the door shut it was unexpectedly thrown open again, the bell jangling loudly. "Oi, you three," a new young girl cried. "What'd you go and bugger off without me for?"

Before he could even get a good look at the girl a name entered his brain. Rose Tyler.

The memory of her smell came to him first, baby powder and human. And then the sound of her laugh and then everything else. His ginger self felt agonizing loneliness for the first time. That human smell of Rose was the smell of melancholy and lost chances. Of never saying what he wanted to say when he had the chance to say it. It wasn't a new smell that came with her, but one that was so prevalent in his 900 years. Forget being only a few hours old, he felt absolutely ancient.

He knew that he should leave-go back to the tardis so he could process these new feelings and hopefully come out of it all mentally intact-but here was his lost Rose right in front of him. Time lines be damned (he really _was_ being reckless)-he had to stay.

This school-age Rose had a navy uniform blazer thrown over one arm and a red satchel hanging off the opposite shoulder. Her plaid skirt was too short and one of her knee socks had fallen down, giving her both an air of youthful cuteness, and at the same time making her absolutely irresistible. (I really have turned into a perv…)

The four girls ordered and sat down at a booth a few meters away. Rose sat on the end opposite the pretty pony-tailed girl, who seemed to be the ring leader. He couldn't help but stare. She seemed happy, while the last time he had seen her he had been so sad. And that had been his fault. If she had never met him, if this had been her life-she would be happy.

"Who wants to come over to study for the GCSE's this weekend?" one girl, a brunette, asked. "My mum said we could make a night of it." Around her the others groaned.

"Like anyone cares about _studying_," Rose said. "So that dork Mickey's been making eyes at me again," Rose switched the topic away from school. The Doctor smiled.

"You only wish he'd been making eyes at you," a girl even blonder than Rose spoke up with a laugh that made Rose blush a little. (Irresistible.)

"Better you than me," said the brunette.

"Honestly, if that little twerp fancied me I would jump off a bridge," the pony-tail said. "You can jump off the Jericho Street bridge-you'll only break your leg."

Rose looked down at her plate of chips. "Yes, well, I like older men anyway." she did her best to smile, but the Doctor could tell that the teasing bothered her.

"Rosie darling, be a peach and get me the ketchup," the head girl said, even though she was sitting the closest to the condiment counter.

"Sure," Rose said with a weak smile and got up. She had to pass the Doctor's table to reach it.

"You're not going to put up with that are you?" the Doctor muttered. "My Rose wouldn't put up with that."

Rose turned abruptly. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"Who me? No, not me."

Rose gave him her dazzling Rose smile-which she had not used once on her friends. "All right then." She continued smiling. "See you later."

The girls all started giggling together when she returned to the table, Rose included. "Older men like that one?" the other blond teased. "Ugh. Ginger. Can't stand a ginger." (Well that was uncalled for.)

"I dunno," Rose said, giving him a sideways glance that he managed not to smile at. "I kind of like a guy with a little scruff to him."

The Doctor ran his hand over the goatee he was sporting…and he'd been thinking of shaving it off. Well then.

"Go talk to him," the alpha girl said. "I dare you."

"Don't be ridiculous," Rose said.

"Go on-anything's better than Mickey Smith," Blondie said.

A brief storm passed over Rose's face, and she got up abruptly. "Fine-watch me."

The Doctor scrambled to get up, to flee this place because it was a terrible mistake, but when pushing himself up, his palm slipped on a bit of grease on the table and he fell back in his seat (clumsy, pervy, what else is wrong with this body?). Rose slipped into opposite seat of the booth. "My friends dared me to come talk to you," she said, biting her lip in a shy gesture.

"I heard," he answered, because now he was stuck. "Have a chip?"

"Thanks." She reached over and took a chip from the plate in front of him. "What's with all this food?" she asked.

"I'm hungry," he answered matter-of-factly.

"You must be."

"So…Rosie…that's a good name."

"Just Rose, actually," she said. "Jess just calls me that to be cheeky. I hate it."

"Rose. Great name, I love it."

"Me too." Her smile was cautious. "What's your name?"

"Joh-" he stopped himself. Had he used the John Smith name in front of Rose before? He wasn't sure…better safe than sorry. "Jimmy Stone," he finished lamely, looking at the fake rocks molded in plastic along the walls of the shop. "Is my name." (Jimmy…I don't feel like a Jimmy, do I?)

"Jimmy, huh?" she said. "So Jimmy, my friends and I like older men-" she said that as slow and sultry as her youthful experience allowed. She was _flirting_ with _him._ "How old are you, Jimmy?" Why did she keep saying that name-he hated it already.

"How old do I look?" he asked.

"Oh, I'd say no more than twenty-not that much older than me…but old enough."

Twenty. Twenty? He hadn't looked twenty since he _was_ twenty. No alien force was going to take him seriously if he looked barely older than a child. "Spot on, Rose," he said. "Aren't you clever."

"Not really," she said. "I've got GCSEs coming up and I sooo don't care. I'm only sixteen. Is that too young?"

The Doctor gulped. "It's a very good age to be," he said finally. "Enjoying it much?"

"Not so far," she answered, giving her friends a fast glance. "Look, I know I'm too young for you and I'm probably not your type, but it would give my friends such a shock if I left with you right now, and that would _really_ make my day. We could just walk around the bend and go our separate ways-"

"Uh, sure," he said, standing up without falling this time. He looked at his pile of food, but suddenly wasn't so hungry after all.

Rose's face spread into another real grin. "You are brilliant Jimmy, just brilliant."

"Can I carry your bag?" he asked, gesturing towards the heavy looking satchel.

"Oh, a gentleman are we?" she cooed, and handed it over, linking her elbow with his as they walked out of the shop together. She turned to give her slack-jawed friends a knowing wink.

The Doctor was very aware of Rose hanging on to him. It had been so long since they had touched, he was afraid the emotion of it was going to split him in half. He was really good at holding things in usually, but this body was too young, both in a chronological sense (ha, that's a funny one) and in the sense that he was twenty-flippin'-years old. He was not prepared to deal with being so young-no wonder he was a perv.

They walked around the corner and Rose took her school bag back from him. "Thanks a lot. That was kind of fun."

"Any time," he answered.

She lingered in front of him. "You really are kind of cute," she offered, and reached up and touched the goatee with one finger. "I've never been a fan of red hair before…but I think its growing on me."

There was nothing else he could do, circumstances being as they were. He leaned forward and kissed her. It was supposed to be brief and friendly, at least, that's how he justified it, but after five seconds they did not separate, or ten, and he raised his hands to cup her face and when they separated he very nearly told her how much he loved her. But the damage he could cause by doing that….

She moaned a little when they separated and she looked up at him with her face still in his hands and the expression in her eyes told him all he needed to know. He had already caused too much damage.