Cupid's Downfall
By Hazelmist
Pairing: Ten x Rose
A/N: This was an old Tumblr prompt I debated turning into a longer fic, but it probably won't happen. Utopian/Dystopian AU. Slight "Matched" (Ally Condie) / "The Giver" (Lois Lowry) Crossover? This idea was inspired by those and many more utopian/dystopian young adult series I read or read about years ago. I don't know who did it first, they all blur together. I'm sure someone's already done this in fanfiction too. I apologize if I'm not crediting any of those brilliant authors that might've gotten into my head.
He is a Time Lord. He does not have hormones, or desires, or any of those base human urges. They call him "Cupid" because of a myth about a cherub with arrows who wielded the power of love. He has weapons at his disposal and power, but they're not tangible and it's not love. On the first day of every year, any human twenty-one years of age is paired off with a companion that is genetically compatible. He does the final analyzation of the research, he makes the decisions, he signs off on the pairings, and he oversees the bonding ceremony.
Time Lords have ruled humanity for over two hundred years; protecting and nurturing them until they can recover from the deadly plague that wiped out ninety percent of Earth's population. The human race on Earth would've gone extinct if it hadn't been for the Time Lords who took over in the midst of chaos. After two centuries, the human race has grown exponentially and into a people who are no longer shell-shocked, weak or afraid. And he's noticed.
He's taken an interest in them that goes well beyond their DNA. It's abnormal and abhorrent for a Time Lord, but when he regenerates for the tenth time, something goes very wrong. He's one of the most intelligent beings in the universe, and yet suddenly he finds himself distracted; obsessively studying and seeing these stupid apes in a very different light.
The humans are getting restless. They now outnumber their rulers and claim that they deserve the right to make their own decisions. Time Lords are not ruthlessly cruel tyrants, but they're superior in every way. Those "unjust" laws are meant to save humans, and the Time Lords will stubbornly enforce them until their population goals are met, and humanity's future is fully secured.
But one day, a Time Lord breaks the rules for one brave pink and yellow human.
And everything changes.
He is a Timelord. He does not have hormones, or desires, or any of those base human urges; but the first time he sees her, he feels… something.
He spots her in the crowd and hones in on her with tunnel-vision. Everyone else fades away, and he flips through his data bank until he's got her on his radar.
Rose Marion Tyler.
It's not the first time he's taken an unusual amount of interest in a particular human, he's been feeling a lot more in this new over-sensitive body that he's still struggling to understand and control. But Rose Tyler is different.
Powell Estates, London. Shop Girl.
There's nothing spectacular or unique about her or her DNA, but he can't tear his eyes away from her blonde hair, her brown eyes, her grin and a fleeting laugh that's a form of music he's never heard. He watches her as she comes closer to the front of the line and her fate; toying with the earrings that mark her as a human, chewing on her lip. Her forced smile fades and is replaced with creases in her brow, a frown, the abrupt change in her posture, and a spark of something in her eyes he's wholly unfamiliar with.
She's angry. Not just angry. She's furious, and she's looking straight at him.
He can't possibly comprehend why she's upset with him, but he wants to. He wants to know what's going on behind those blazing eyes. Curiosity's always been his downfall. Today it destroys him and an entire infrastructure built on the misguided hopes and misunderstood statistics of two hundred years.
He swears it's an accident. She catches him staring and holds her head high; completely missing the fact that the male in front of her stopped short in terror. It happens in slow motion, she slips and falls, and he's standing and catching her before he's even aware of what he's done.
He touches her with his bare hands, a forbidden act for a Time Lord. She automatically grabs onto him, gazing up at him in shock. He brushes her hair from her wide eyes to calm her, and his fingers instinctively stray to her temple so that he can see her. It lasts no more than a second, but he sees more than he should.
She's stunned. The picture she projects of him is a terrible one. "Cupid" is an unfeeling heartless robot made of ice; a being who doesn't care that he's ruined the happiness of thousands of people including her own, by ripping away a choice that should've been theirs. He's unsurprised she views him that way, what surprises him is that it hurts. In a flash he sees her timeline, and how much she'll hate it.
Jimmy Stone. Failed Musician. Prone to fits of anger and indulging in black marketed liquor.
She'll work hard to keep a roof over her head and food on the table for the four healthy children she'll birth. Her progeny will excel, live long lives and help advance the human race, because she'll push them harder to have the life she always wanted. "Cupid" and a bloody computer stole her freedom to choose from her.
Wrenching herself from his arms, she draws herself up to her full height. She's not afraid of him, but he's terrified of her and everything that she made him feel.
For the first time in his life, he finally understands his own hearts. He immediately halts the ceremony before she gets her assignment and smashes the databank.
Chaos erupts.
He lets it happen.
He can see it now; a brave new world on the horizon.
He leaves "Cupid" behind on planet Earth, amongst the Time Lords who are relinquishing control to a pink and yellow race who were always strong and brilliant enough to survive and flourish on their own. They only have one heart, but it's a fiercely powerful one capable of more than a Time Lord could ever imagine, and that until now no Time Lord had ever understood.
He steals a ship from the junk yard, an old "useless" TARDIS that he's always loved. The moment he fires up the TARDIS, he lays down his weapons and rids himself of his terrible power.
He surrenders and lets his hearts reign over him.
And when Rose Tyler hunts him down and comes banging on his door, demanding to know who the bloody hell he thinks he is, he's so surprised that he asks her to come with him.
He has to ask her twice.
(She hits him the first time.)
But when he comes back to tell her it travels in time…
She agrees; but only if he shows her the stars and the universe, and a life she never dared to dream of.
He keeps his promise.
After they save each other on their first disastrous adventure, he removes all the hideous earrings in her ears that distinctly marked her as someone who he wrongly thought had been beneath him. He silently tells her that she's his equal now, and for the first time she gives him a warm smile and a new name.
Doctor.
The months pass, he starts to feel and allows himself to be more human. He wonders if the legend of Cupid might be true, because she hits him like an arrow straight to his hearts. She slowly opens herself up to him like the flower she's named for. She makes him smile, he makes her laugh, and he falls in love with her.
And one day, two years after she's forgiven him, while they're patching each other up after saving another world, she stuns him again.
"I love you, Doctor," she confesses.
He breaks every last rule in the law book of the Time Lords, when he kisses her and breathlessly tells her:
"Rose Tyler, I love you too."
A/N: Thank you for reading! :)