Title: A Rather Inelegant Fall
Summary: Fluffy goodness that comes out of Rose falling in a swamp. A shot of what happens when Rose and Ten war. Romance.
Characters/Pairing: Rose/Ten
Rating: K+/PG, there's just kissing...
Disclaimer: If I owned it, d'you really think I'd be sat around struggling to pass difficult exams for my future? I thought not. Courtesy goes to the Beeb for letting me steal their characters.
Author'sNote: Okay, so this scene popped into my head randomly last night just before I went to sleep. There was more of it, but it mostly ended with Rose and Ten talking about his alien sexual habits so I thought it best to leave that one out. Enjoy the fluffiness that is the Doctor and Rose!

-I-

A Rather Inelegant Fall

"Rose, what did I tell you about leaving the TARDIS before letting me explain where we were?"

The Doctor grimaced distastefully as he helped his rather soggy, rather irritated, companion back on board. She was covered from head to foot (she hadn't quite managed to fall completely, there were still patches of dry skin) in horrible green gunge, and he was trying very hard to touch as little of her as possible. Even after giving her a hand-up he had to wipe his palm on his trousers.

She stalked into the TARDIS then wheeled around at him, anger blazing in her eyes.

"You could have told me we'd landed in a swamp!" she raged at him, pointing.

"I did try – "

"No, you said we're visiting somewhere that has swamps. You didn't say you'd actually landed right in the middle of one!"

He sighed, pulling the TARDIS doors shut. The marsh was looking quite unsettled, now, since having a human fall rather inelegantly into it, assuming it was dry land she was walking out on.

"All right," the Doctor conceded. "I'm sorry, I got the flight a bit wrong – "

"A bit wrong?" Rose cried, staring at him and ignoring a horrible trickling sensation that was oozing down her back. "You call this a bit wrong?"

She shook a goop-covered arm at him pointedly. To her utter dismay, the Doctor bit back a snort of laughter and was left with the corners of his mouth twitching violently. She glared at him.

"Think it's funny, do you? Think Rose falling in a great big swamp is a laugh?"

The Doctor snorted further, but stepped towards here nonetheless. Rose backed away a little, but at the amused look on his face she stopped.

"Of course I don't," he said with a smirk. "It's just incredibly difficult to take you seriously when you're..." He reached up and slid a strand of soaked hair behind her ear. Rose felt trickle down her cheek where the slime started to ooze. "... Dripping," the Doctor finished. He sniffed his fingers, then recoiled. "Blimey, that stuff smells. You should have a shower, you know."

She glared at him. "I'll give you 'shower'," she hissed vehemently.

With a yelp he launched backwards as she made a grab for him.

"Now, Rose, there's no need for that – you're quite endearing, really, especially when you're angry – "

She let out a bark of outrage then as she lunged towards him, smearing her sleeves down the sides of his face and leaving a trail of glistening, green slime. She stood back, admiring her work.

The Doctor, in total disgust, ran his hand over his cheek. He then looked to Rose, whose gaze seemed to twinkle with daring adventure.

"Right..." he said slowly, wiggling his fingers. "This means war."

In a smooth stride he was at her side, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards the door.

"No!" Rose shrieked, laughter at the edges of her voice while she tried to fight him off.

"Oh, yes! You're going back in that swamp, young lady."

"And I'm taking you down with me," she warned while they neared the door. The Doctor hesitated – it was all the time she needed. She scooped up two handfuls of slime from her clothes and plastered it over as much of the Doctor as she could reach. He blinked back at her, outraged, and she used his shock to slip away from him and back away to the corridor.

"Okay, that's it! Come here, you little minx!" the Doctor shouted and all at once it turned into some sort of childish game, Rose running through the corridors with the Doctor chasing her. She threw looks back over her shoulder every now and then, hearing his footsteps but seeing him nowhere. The corridor seemed to be getting narrower, and she really did have no idea where she was going.

Then the next thing she knew she was skidding past a corner and slamming straight into the Doctor himself. He grabbed her arms and wiggled his eyebrows daringly.

"Got you," he growled and Rose, through a fit of helpless giggles, tried to smear as much of herself as she could against him, while he wiped grunge across her face and down the back of her top and everywhere he could reach. The laughter of both of them echoed down the corridor as he pinned her to the wall, removing as much muck from his face as he could and depositing it in her hair.

Rose was laughing so much she could barely even concentrate and the Doctor was grinning like an absolute loony. The corridor was small, about a metre in diameter, giving them only just enough space as they warred with each other, the best of friends.

The kiss came out of nowhere.

It was impossible to tell who had insinuated it, as it was more of an accident than anything else. A brief touch of lips as they each tried to get one up on the other, a connection that passed gently and chastely and an evident surprise to them both. It only lasted a moment or two, but it was enough.

The Doctor stood blinking at Rose, his hand holding her wrist to the wall while hers rested against his chest; his other was sandwiched between her back and the wall and couldn't have moved it if he'd tried. Both were still and silent now, as though somebody had frozen the pair in time. Both of their faces read equal shock and as each of their grips relaxed, the Doctor found his hearts racing unnaturally. He cleared his throat, eyes staring wide into Rose's.

"Uhm, Rose..." he started, but didn't get any further than that. The next thing he knew her lips were on his as she closed the gap between them, pushing into him as her hands wound in his hair. He was vaguely reminded of when Cassandra-Rose had kissed him in New, New York, but this felt a lot less violent and a lot more... something else. He staggered backwards a little, bracing his hand on the wall behind him as he registered just exactly what it was his nimble-handed companion was doing. His eyes were closed, but his eyebrows were lost somewhere in the lining of his hair and for a moment there was just Rose and kissing and him very much not sure what to do.

Then, suddenly, instinct began to sweep through his body and he found his mouth massaging hers gently, quite by its own accord. The hand he had used to brace himself against the wall moved to cup her cheek as he held her close. His tongue was careful to dart out, but he found her lips parted easily under the silent request. Tongue dipped against tongue as they teased each other, slowly and gently, full of absolute passion. The kiss seemed so perfect that it felt more like a natural progression in their friendship than anything else.

The Doctor was the sort of kisser, Rose found, whom she could probably kiss for hours. He wasn't overbearing with the use of his tongue, managing just enough to make her insides tingle but not actually suffocate her to death. They moulded around each other quite perfectly, and even he had to admit – in the silence of his mind – that he could get quite used to this kissing lark. With the right woman it seemed that he never wanted it to stop.

When they finally did pull away from each other, both were left feeling rather breathless. Rose was certainly extremely flushed and the Doctor felt a little like he was living in someone else's skin.

Her eyes raised slowly to his hair, which was sticking up at every angle thanks to her hands, and she snorted. Lines of green gunge were everywhere, and now the front of his pinstripe suit was well and truly painted as well.

The Doctor arched an eyebrow.

"You'd better not be laughing at me, Rose Tyler."

"Sorry," she mumbled. She then let out a happy sigh through her nose as what they had just done caught up with her. Leaning back against the wall she let her eyes survey the man who had, well and truly, just snogged her senseless. "You're a good kisser," she said before she could stop the words coming out of her mouth.

He actually flushed. It was a sexy colour, a pink tinge to his normal cool exterior. Rose couldn't stop herself smiling, or her tongue from darting between her teeth.

"Well, good to take pride in these things, I suppose," the Doctor reasoned, attempting to gain back some form of dignity. "Can't say you were too shabby yourself."

"Thanks. I think."

He grinned at her. Then, surprising both of them slightly, he lowered his lips to hers again for a gentle touch.

"Okay, I could so get used to this," Rose murmured when he pulled away a second time.

"You and me both."

She sighed happily. Then, as the Doctor's hand coasted her cheek, she remembered that she was, in fact, rather smile covered.

"I think a shower would be a good idea."

The Doctor noticeably stilled, his eyes and features becoming strong. "Dangerous grounds, Rose Tyler..." he told her in a growl. "Very, very dangerous grounds."

She chuckled.

"I didn't mean together," Rose replied earnestly in a teasing voice. "But it's nice t'know that's what you thought of first."

"Oh." He coughed nervously and then, as if realising just how wrapped around one Rose Tyler he was, the Doctor stepped backwards slightly. He ruffled his hair up with his hands and coughed again. "Yes. Shower. Good idea, right. We'll just be doing that, then. Separately, that is. Different rooms. I'll... go to mine and you can... well, there's one in your room? Isn't there? I distinctly remember there being one in your room. Not that I've been in there, or anything, just that – well – it is my TARDIS, and I have a habit to know the rooms. I'll just be... being quiet now."

Rose snorted. "You could talk for the whole bloody world, you could."

"And damn proud of it, too," he grinned.

"Look, I'm going for a shower... and you, you'd better be around when I get out."

"Where would I go?" he asked, honestly bemused. "Given the choice I think I'd want to continue with the kissing, so I'm not exactly going to go anywhere."

"Bit cocky, aren't you?" Rose countered, raising an eyebrow.

The Doctor looked sheepish. "Sorry. Um, yes, you go shower. I'll... Blimey, I'll get out of these clothes."

Rose laughed, then squelched off down the corridor feeling a lot happier now about falling in a swamp than she ever thought was possible. As she discarded her clothes on the bathroom floor and stepped into the shower, steam everywhere, she decided that maybe the Doctor could be forgiven for his bad landing. Maybe. If he made up for it.