The Water of Life
By Hazelmist
A/N: Ten x Rose drabble I wrote for Time Petal's prompt "rain". 300 words.
The Doctor's seen countless wonders in his centuries, but nothing like this. It's raining. For the first time in five hundred and thirty seven years, it's raining in the barren wasteland. This lifeless planet had been abandoned centuries ago, left to an exiled, forsaken and dying race, but now…
The cracks fill with water, the baked desert land softens to muddy clay, and the ground shifts beneath them. The grateful blue skinned Elder bows down to them, as his people feel relief from the heat for the first time in their lives. They're smiling, laughing, spinning and dancing, stripping their protective layers off, crying, and kneeling to kiss the damp, moist ground at their feet.
And suddenly the Doctor can envision it in a golden shimmering timeline of possibility; one day in the future this planet could be a thriving popular tourist attraction known for the loveliest gardens in the galaxy. But what will draw him back here over and over again is the exquisitely beautiful rose bush that'll be planted beneath their feet in her honor, and will survive centuries aftershe's gone…
"Rose."
She turns to him, grinning with her eyes alight with the same spark of life that she gave back to this world. Her hair's wet and her clothes are filthy from running and digging. He marvels at her youth, her size, her fragility, and yet, she's so incredibly strong, brave and brilliant. She's his perfect companion. He needs her and he wants her. He opens his mouth to say something, but three desperate words surface instead.
"Stay with me."
"Forever," she promises.
Their eyes lock. The floodgates open; the dam breaks.
She leans in and he finally lets go.
He kisses her in the pouring rain as a whole world bursts into life around them.