A/N: This is written for anyone who's absolutely covered in snow the way my town is right now. Stay warm my friends!
Keeping Warm
Rose and the Doctor's limbs began to slow their quick pace, settling into the foot of snow beneath them. Rose was practically wheezing for breath, the look in her eyes begging her heart rate to slow.
"Running through a foot of snow… Definitely not the most simple get away we've had," the Doctor mused. Rose glared at him.
"It's fucking cold," Rose complained through chattering teeth, her arms clenched to the sides of her thick blue sweatshirt, as she tried to hold on to some resemblance of warmth.
"Language Rose," the Doctor scolded, the look on his face riding between amused and concerned.
"Why do you give a shit?" Rose said vehemently. She bit her lip. "Sorry, this weather makes me irritable. You said we were going to America and I thought like hot sunny California or something." She cracked a small smile to the Doctor.
"Yeeahhhh, I probably should have been more clear," the Doctor admitted, tugging at his ear awkwardly.
"Too late now," Rose reminded him. Her sneakers were waterlogged by melting snow, and her feet ached.
"I thought a ski trip would be fun… How was I supposed to know the owner's of the land were aliens!?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe because every bloody human being we seem to encounter is an alien!"
"Well, every human being I encounter is, in fact, an alien," the Doctor said matter of factly. His arm swung around Rose protectively, enjoying any physical contact he could achieve as they trudged through the snow.
"Fair point," Rose responded. Her body warmed at his touch slightly, and she leaned into him. "So what are we gonna do now then? Just keep walking 'till we find a lodge to sleep in so the Krumpstiaklakialalas don't eat us or whatever?"
"Krumpstickias. And they won't eat us. They have no physical form, and they feed on intense emotions, like the adrenaline rush that comes from downhill skiing. They need a blood sample to do it though, hence the pricking finger policy they fabricated. Time lord blood would be a feast for them though, with hundreds of years of intense emotions to feed on. Especially this body," the Doctor paused, looking at Rose's face, flushed from the cold. He felt so much just by looking at her…
"Anyway, they took one whiff of me and abandoned their host bodies, which is good, except now they're going to try to inhabit our bodies… Well the leader gets mine and everyone else has to share yours, which would be very uncomfortable for both of us."
"Yeah, I'm aware being possessed is no walk in the park Doctor," Rose quipped. "Fuck, fuck, I'm sorry, it's the cold, sorry ugh." Rose bit her tongue, frustrated at her own rudeness, the bone chilling winds getting under her skin.
The Doctor could not help but harbor a secretive smile, finding her swearing quite endearing. "Don't apologize Rose. It was irresponsible of me to let you go skiing in that.. You should be wearing many more layers, I forget how easy it is for you humans to get cold."
Rose shivered again, looking around. Each tree in her path looked identical to the trees she had seen only five minutes ago. They might as well have been moving in a circle.
"Anyway the good news is, without a host, these creatures cannot survive very long, and they can only inhabit a body that's adrenaline filled. They're betting on us being adrenaline filled due to running away from them, and we're really their only hope since we cleared off the ski slope. They travel by air, so they're not going to very fast right now due to the wind blowing them off course. All we have to do is spend the rest of the evening and the night avoiding them, and we should be fine."
"I'll bet you're wishing very badly right now you didn't park the TARDIS right out front of the ski lodge," Rose mumbled, clamping her firsts tightly to conserve heat.
"Yeah that was an oversight on my part," the Doctor replied.
"When will we be far enough away to stop walking?" Rose asked. She tried not to make the desperation evident in her voice, but she had lost the ability to tell if she even had toes anymore.
"I'd say a good twenty minutes and we should be safe. Our hour long sprint really bought us some time, your running has become even more brilliant Rose," the Doctor told her. His eyes met hers with a warm, prideful look as he squeezed her shoulder affectionately.
"B- b-been practicing a lot," she said, her teeth chattering. The Doctor looked at her, concerned.
"Rose," His voice coated with worry. "Your skin looks red, you should really take my jacket or something." He slipped his arms through the sleeves, removing the jacket and forcing it around her.
"Doctor, it's okay you don't need to do tha-" Rose's voice was cut off by the new found warmth she was experiencing from the extra layer. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, savoring the feeling. She knew it would only take a few moments for cold to encase her again.
"I'm not tall enough for your jacket," Rose realized, bunching up fabric in her hand to prevent herself from tripping. The Doctor laughed, finding the image slightly comical.
"I think it suits you," he told her.
"You just like the way anything looks if it resembles you, you self obsessed time lord," Rose insulted playfully, smacking his shoulder with her free arm.
"I think I just adore the way anything looks on you," the Doctor countered. Rose's entire face flushed as she tried to keep her speech unaffected.
"Oh really? I could say the same, but you only have one outfit." She shrugged defiantly, smirking in the direction of the Doctor.
"Humans, you complicate everything. I like this suit, that coat, these mess with it?!"
Rose rolled her eyes, the only motion that did not cause her physical pain. Her fingertips were numb. She reached for the Doctor's hand to hold her own, praying he would fail to notice the frozen sensation her finger's harbored.
Twenty minutes of brisk trudging through snow later, the two travelers found themselves ready to settle down. Night was heading in and it was becoming more and more difficult to see through the thick gnarly trees twisting around each other, snow frosting their branches. Rose was shivering profusely, trying not to allow the Doctor to catch on to how utterly freezing she felt.
"Should we build a fire or something?" Rose asked, hope evident in her speech. The Doctor shook his head, frowning sympathetically.
"Best not," he replied. "The fire would let off smoke. It would be a dead giveaway to our location."
Rose could feel nothing but the cold slicing at her skin. She had to keep busy, get warm somehow. Blood was rushing through her veins erratically, her heart attempting to keep her body from experiencing frostbite of any sort.
"So we build a shelter!" She was almost yelling, extremely overenthusiastic. "Out of snow or something like in films… And we settle down the the night till it's safe."
"I second that… Wish we had Elsa's ice powers right about now," The Doctor joked, glancing at the unperturbed snow in front of them.
"What?" Rose said, perplexed.
"Right, sorry. Wait a few years. Alright how should we go about this?"
"I reckon we just…. Pile up a lot of snow and dig a hole in it or s-s-something," Rose said, shrugging.
"Yeah," the Doctor agreed, noticing that even with his coat on, Rose's entire body seemed to be shaking. "Best not over complicate things. Are you okay Rose?"
"Me!? Yeah, tip-top shape Doctor!" Rose laughed awkwardly, leaning into the Doctor's chest, subtly trying to flirt while also keeping warm.
"Right, okay." The Doctor's voice came off as very distracted by her touch, and he wrapped his arms around her body unthinkingly. She savored the feeling. She always tried to remember the moments when he let his guard down with her.
He released her, of course, and knelt to the ground, beginning to pile up snow. Rose joined him, her hands not much use due to having lost most of their sense of touch.
"You ever slept in a s-s-snow fort before?" Rose wondered, trying to keep up a conversation to distract herself. Their snow tower was growing steadily in height.
"Yeah, better with two I'm sure though," he winked. "Warmer."
"Hopefully," Rose nodded.
Silence arose between the two, working diligently to create shelter before all the light leaking through the trees dwindled away. Their pile of snow had multiplied in size, and the Doctor was calculating how to use the sonic screwdriver to melt a hole big enough for the two of them to be marginally comfortable.
Rose stared at the Doctor. His glasses were perched on the edge of his nose. He looked extremely intelligent, not really her type at all except for the fact that she was undeniably in love with him. She giggled loudly, showing off the flat white teeth in the front of her mouth. Her heart rate was so quickened that she could hear it beating within her ear drums.
Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum
She laughed again. Her shivering had stopped, thank God. The whole shaking constantly ordeal had been quite distracting.
The Doctor's focus shifted to Rose, his eyebrows furrowed. "What's so funny?" He asked curiously. Rose just laughed in response.
"You're blurry!" She said, as if it the most hysterical sight she had ever witnessed. Her tone turned to one of confusion. "Wait," she paused. "You're not anymore… Oh, yes you are!" She flashed the Doctor her signature smile. "Fucckkk," she groaned in annoyance. She knelt down in the snow, untying her shoelaces, sliding her shoes off her feet. "My toes are all wet, Doctor!"
"Agh stupid stupid me," the Doctor yelled at himself, placing a hand to his forehead, overwhelmed. "Stupid, stupid Doctor."
"I think you're smart, especially with your glasses on." Rose shrugged, her words slurring over top of one another, letting both her now bare feet sink into the snow. "Shh-shiiitt that's f-f-fucking cold Doctor."
"Smarter with my glasses on?" The Doctor question, finding the right setting on the sonic and melting the innards of their snow fort. Worry coursed through his veins as he knelt down to attend to Rose. He cursed himself for not having seen this coming. The last thing he needed while hiding out in the middle of the forest was a delirious Rose who seemed to be coming down with a case of hypothermia.
"Shelter!" Rose exclaimed, her words sounding like she was severely out of breath. She commenced crawling towards the fort of snow on both her hands and knees, but her efforts were futile as she collapsed against the powder beneath her.
The Doctor wrapped his arms around her torso, praying to Rassilon that she was still conscious. His hearts nearly stopped until her eyes slid open.
She was looking straight at him, but he did not feel her light hearted gaze into his eyes the way he usually did.
"I should have seen this coming, I can't-" his voice cracked. He cursed at himself. He had to keep it together. He just had to get Rose warm. She began wriggling in his arms, trying to escape.
"Doctor, I'm fine," she promised him. Her breathing was labored.
The Doctor ignored her, dragging her along with them into their newly built fort. The breath he had been holding within him came out in a long slow whistle, relieved that the fort blocked the harsh winds with fairly good precision.
His time lord brain was whirring as fast as possible, trying to think up millions of different ways to keep Rose warm for the night. The Doctor's dark eyes stared down at her. Rose's features were all a bright crimson, her short blond hair the only thing separating her frozen ears from the cold. She looked like a delicate flower, wilting right there within his arms. His hearts ached. This girl had faced the Dalek emperor and won. Her fate could not be determined by a bit of chilly weather.
Something that he could have prevented, if he had reminded her to wear a heavier jacket.
God, he hated himself sometimes.
The Doctor knew that for Rose to feel any resemblance of warmth again, he would have to remove any wet clothes from her body. He rubbed his own two hands together briskly, attempting to restore every single nerve to it's fullest potential using friction. His hands patted Rose's clothes, starting from her blue jeans and moving upwards to her blue sweater.
"Doctorrr," her tired voice resembled a conflicted moan. "Why are you doing that, I'm okay I swear…"
He lifted his hands from her, noting that her jeans were soaked from snow up to the knees and her blue sweater was damp. His coat was wearable though.
"You didn't have to stop though," Rose said with a lazy smile. Giggling when the Doctor placed his hands on her again. "Your touch is all I can feel Doctor." In her delirious frozen state, the heat that rushed through her body when the Doctor's hands were on her felt intensely pleasurable.
"Well if you want to feel flustered Rose, you're definitely going to like this," the Doctor remarked, noting how her cheeks got even redder and an insane looking smile etched it's way into her face when ever he touched her. His finger bounced off her button like nose playfully.
Working as quickly as he could so she wouldn't be exposed to the elements for longer than she had to be, the Doctor took his own coat from Rose's body so that he could have access to removing the moist cotton cloth infiltrating her sides. He practically ripped it off, his hands patting at Rose's light yellow tank top underneath to check if that was damp as well.
"Shit," he swore quietly, pulling the tank top over her head.
"Language, Doctor," Rose mocked, her voice teasing, and much too happy for the given situation. "You're swearing would probably turn me on though, if I could feel anything," she muttered, assuming her couldn't hear her. The Doctor couldn't help but smirk at her comment.
Her bra was a pale pink color, decorated by a floral yellow pattern. He chose, despite some selfish desires, to barely glance at it, pulling his trench coat around her torso and buttoning it downwards.
Despite his only fleeting glance, the image would be imprinted forever in his mind. His beautiful Rose Tyler, lying beneath him in almost no clothes at all, a lazy smile imprinted on her confused pinkened face. She was always breath taking.
Despite that image's beauty, it missed the too many important things about Rose for him to waste too much time recalling it. Normally, Rose was never powerless. One the contrary, she was unstoppable. Rose Tyler had saved entire civilizations. She was all the Doctor believed in, and more.
The Doctor ripped himself away from his thoughts. He unbuttoned Rose's jeans and slid them off her body, he yanked them from her feet, throwing them to the side of the fort uncaring.
"Are you taking my jeans off?" Rose's voice was dazed, completely perplexed. "I must have died of something… You know," Rose said sleepily. "I've dreamed about you doing that, it usually ends differently though."
"Shut up, you," He said, his voice flirtatious, trying to pretend like nothing was wrong. Of course he would never admit to Rose that he had absolutely dreamed of doing that to her too, with different intentions obviously.
The Doctor could tell Rose was very confused as to why he had just stripped her down to knickers and a bra and then wrapped her up in his coat like it was some sort of cocoon. He also knew that in her out-of-it state, she wouldn't exactly believe him if he explained.
The Doctor removed his own shoes, the spikes of his chocolate colored hair smashing against the roof of the snow fort. He slipped his own warm socks and shoes on to Rose's pink feet, giving a half hearted smile when he realized that her skin color now matched her toe nail polish.
"Doctor," Rose's voice was so small. "Do you t-think you can make me warm again? I can't feel anything.." Her eyes were struggling to keep themselves open, all the light inside them frozen away.
"Yes, Rose, yes," He repeated the words over and over again. "You're going to be okay Rose," he promised her, trying to believe those words himself.
He shut his eyes for a moment, concentrating on raising his body temperature a significant ten degrees. Hopefully, his superior time lord biology that Rose loved to mock, would save her life tonight.
He lay himself next to Rose so their noses just barely touched. He pulled his close to his chest and she nestled in compliantly, enamored by his new furnace like quality. Her labored breaths grew steady as she attempted to match them with his own. He wrapped one leg around her, trying to make sure her lower body warmed up as well.
"MMmmmmph," Rose moaned adorably, consuming the new found heat like a drug. She flexed her hands against the Doctor's stomach, trying hard to regain feeling in her fingertips.
A relaxed smile emerged on the Doctor's face, fairly certain they were out of the woods now, metaphorically speaking. The sounds she was making due to her relief was indescribably cute, causing his hearts' beating to quicken in the best way possible.
"Can you make me all warm all over again Doctor?" Rose wondered, her cute voice still drowning in fatigue despite her improvements. The Doctor laughed at her innocent voice, running a hand through her soft bleach blonde hair.
"Mmmhmmm," he replied, leaning a few centimeters inwards, his hot breath ghosting over top of her face. He captured her raw lips with his own tender ones, transferring much needed heat to her cheeks and mouth. Their closeness allowed him to observe in great detail the way her slowing heartbeat picked up it's pace once again due to his touch, and the way she involuntarily was running her hands through his hair, massaging his scalp.
The kiss lasted until Rose's lungs couldn't take it anymore and he pulled back to allow her to breath. This happened much too soon for either of their likings, partially because they wanted their lips to be in close contact for the rest of eternity, and partially because Rose was still recovering from nearly freezing to death.
Rose inhaled deeply, the Doctor's smell filling her nostrils. He smelled sitting in a comfortable arm chair in a library, surrounded by books, your favorite one in hand; like home, the time vortex. The comfort of his arm crushing her against his body, protecting her from the elements, was enough to allow Rose to drift away into a relaxing sleep.
Waking up in her undergarments and the Doctor's lengthy coat was definitely not the weirdest thing that had ever occurred to Rose Tyler, but it was up there. As she drifted into consciousness, their closeness became evident and Rose felt her cheeks heat up. There was no possible way they could contort their bodies to be any closer, and Rose hoped that she had not initiated this to the Doctor's reluctance.
Attempting to remember the night prior was something she was failing at considerably, remembering only fragments of various events. She recalled feeling extremely cold, shivering a lot, and the Doctor giving her his coat.
Fuck I must have suffered like hypothermia or something for him to have been undressing me and cuddling and such, Rose realized. She was unsure as to whether she would rather the undresser have been her or him, as both were fairly awkward options. Her removing her clothes meant she had been so delirious she was coming on to him, which, to be fair, would explain their current position. Him removing her clothes would definitely be a medical thing, which was probably the more plausible of the two.
Nonetheless, Rose was pretty glad her memory of the last night was so foggy. It was less to be embarrassed about, and extremely fun to wake up to in the morning.
Rose's entire body stiffened slightly, sensing the Doctor's gaze upon her. He pressed a kiss to her temple sweetly, and she relaxed against his chest. Her breathing was steady now, the night against the Doctor had thawed her body quite efficiently.
Rose kept her eyelids drawn closed as the Doctor's warm lips touched themselves to her cheek. Their presence made her fall in love with him all over again. After he had saved her life, presumably, and woken her up by kissing her, it would be difficult to even imagine a world where she did not love him.
"You know I'm awake, right?" Rose spoke, a lazy smile appearing across her lips.
"Truthfully, that doesn't exactly matter," the Doctor whispered. "But good morning," he told her, the arm of his touching her shoulder pressed against her even more intensely.
"Mmm," Rose affirmed, breathing in again. "Is it?" She teased, flashing a tongue-in-teeth grin.
The Doctor rolled his eyes, lowering his head so his lips just grazed her's.
"You tell me," he whispered. His lips met hers momentarily. She tasted of sugar and honey. Rose shut her eyes again and felt as if she was dreaming.
His touch lifted. All she was able to do was gaze up at him, her words stolen right out of her mouth before she could even begin to imagine them. The Doctor knew what she wanted to say though, from the sparkle in her hazel eyes and the permanent happiness she adorned.
"I'll take that as a yes," he inferred.
He was right.
A/N: Ah well, this is definitely not my best work. I'm not too pleased with it and would love to hear your thoughts!