The Doctor glanced down at his coat as if he had never seen it before, and then he walked very slowly over to Rose's bed and replied with his usual eloquence (or at least he hoped), "Yeah. Blood. Coat. Okay."
Okay, maybe not his usual eloquence.
Rose smiled slightly. "You tired? TARDIS drifting? Go to sleep, it's-um-"
"One in the morning?" suggested the Doctor jerkily, glancing towards the clock on Rose's dresser.
"Yeah. That. Here." Rose got out of bed and took off the Doctor's coat, grinning slightly when she saw that he was blushing a bit. "You all right? Slept at all? Why don't we stop in London and wash your coat at a laundromat or something?"
The Doctor nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on hers.
"Come on." Rose hung the coat over her chair and sat down on her bed. "Go to bed, Doctor. I completely forgot to get changed what with all the trying-to-save-Donna thing today. D'you mind?"
"Can I stay in here?" asked the Doctor a bit apprehensively, not wanting to leave Rose even for a second. Maybe it was because he was tired and maybe it was because he had missed her, seeing as they hadn't been separated for that long ever since she stepped into the TARDIS, but he was desperately afraid that if he looked away he would lose her again.
Rose's eyes widened slightly. "What? Y-you mean...here here?"
"Yeah," replied the Doctor. "I'll sleep in your chair."
Rose shrugged. "Works for me, this way I don't have to change and I can just go to sleep. Can't change with you in the room, can I?"
"Oh, no, never mind, if it's too-" began the Doctor with no ending to the sentence in mind at all, but thankfully Rose cut him off.
"It's fine, Doctor, you seem to be in a bit of a state, and I don't want you clattering about the TARDIS and finding something new and interesting, which you'll start to build and then wake me up with by accident."
The Doctor grinned. "Right! Good! I'll just-Oi! I do not clatter about!"
Rose waved her hand both dismissively and tiredly before collapsing back onto her bed. The Doctor looked at her tenderly for a moment before sitting down in Rose's very comfortable armchair. He'd found it at a yard sale on Raxacoricofallapatorius, and although it was a strange shade of reddish brown and it was sort of like sitting in a soft spiraled seashell, it was cheap and Rose adored it.
About two minutes later the only sounds in the room were Rose's soft snores and the Doctor's nearly inaudible breaths, both of them fast asleep, the Doctor with an exhilarated smile on his face.
He woke up at about nine in the morning. Not of his own volition, of course, because if it was of his own volition he'd probably have slept for a lot longer. No, this was because Rose was shaking him awake, her hands on his shoulders and a slightly annoyed expression on her face.
"Oi! Doctor! D'you mind waking up! I can't find the kitchen, I had to change my clothes in your wardrobe room seeing as you're in here and I didn't want you waking up while I'm dressing and-erm-seeing me-" The Doctor decided to avoid hearing the end of that sentence by jerking awake and blinking sleepily up at her. Rose looked relieved.
He yawned. "Whadizit?"
"Is there anything to eat on this ship?" replied Rose promptly. "The TARDIS got me lost."
"Yeah, she does that sometimes," said the Doctor sleepily. "Come on. I'll take you to the kitchen. I think I know where it is. I think. I should've slept more."
Rose smiled. "Getting up any time soon? I'm starving."
"Sorry," said the Doctor sheepishly, and then, "But I thought you knew where the kitchen was!"
"I did! The TARDIS is being impossible."
"Ah, yes," teased the Doctor. "Always the TARDIS' fault and never your fault."
Somehow it didn't seem as real now that he'd slept it off, Rose being lost for those hellish months. Somehow it seemed like a dream now that she was here and smiling playfully down at him. But then he remembered that feeling of horrible grief the moment before Donna had appeared, grief that had clawed at his heart, grief because he had lost the woman that he-
Instead of finishing the unsaid sentence, the Doctor stood up and pulled Rose into his arms, reveling in the feeling of her so close to him again. Rose gave a startled little gasp before resting her chin on his shoulder, and the Doctor grinned widely, happily, because she just sort of fit there, until Rose pulled away and said cheerfully, "Right. Good morning to you too. Now can we go down to the kitchen?"
"Up," corrected the Doctor. "Up to the kitchen."
"Is it up now? Yesterday it was down."
"Oh, hang on, it might be down. Damn it. I don't know. Let's check upstairs first."
Checking upstairs proved to be a failure. The kitchen had moved again in the short time Rose had been attempting to rouse the Doctor, and Rose complained about this for most of the time they spent walking around the TARDIS while the Doctor held her hand very tightly and grinned like an idiot.
"It's not fair of the TARDIS to-ouch, could you loosen your grip a bit? Thanks. Anyway, it's not fair of the TARDIS to move around a vital room, seeing as I am starving and I feel like I deserve something delicious. Like a poppy seed bagel. With cream cheese. D'you have cream cheese? I forget if we went grocery shopping for cream cheese. We have been on the TARDIS for three months, trying to find a hole in the repaired breach, so I guess I've probably eaten all of the cream cheese by now. This'll be annoying. Is the toaster working, or did you take it apart again?"
"Hold on, that's unfair!" said the Doctor, annoyed but still smiling widely. "I told you, it was a scientific experiment!"
Rose smirked up at him, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth. "Oh really? Then why did you spend the rest of the day etching a drawing into the wall of the TARDIS with a wire from the toaster? I would've thought that the wire would be an important part of your experiment, Doctor."
"It-I-there were extra wires!"
"Right. Extra wires. You do realize that the toaster doesn't pop anymore and you have to do it manually, right? Last time all I had for breakfast was a piece of charcoal shaped like bread."
The Doctor laughed. "I surrender. We should probably pop in to London and get a new toaster while we wash my coat."
"You mean while you wash your coat. I'm not trusting you to buy a toaster."
"Why not?"
"Because you always get the one that you think looks the most interesting!"
"Ah. True. By the way, how do you work a washing machine?" The Doctor knew, of course, but he really didn't want to leave Rose. Knowing their luck, if they split up, there would be some sort of alien invasion and he and Rose would get caught in the mix.
Or that's what he was telling himself, anyway.
Rose groaned. "Fine. I'll chaperone you."
"You'll chaperone me? If anything, I'll be chaperoning y-Oh look, there's the kitchen!"
Rose let go of the Doctor's hand and hurried into the TARDIS kitchen, opening the refrigerator door and bending down to take out a banana and a package of bagels. "I'm really hungry. Do we have any cream cheese?"
"You already asked that. Let me see." The Doctor walked over to the refrigerator and scanned the contents. "Hang on-you reorganized it!"
"Yeah, I think it was yesterday, remember?" Rose was looking slightly amused now. "Yesterday-that was the day you went out to eat and I stayed home-I mean, I stayed here so I could reorganize. You did say it was all right."
"Yeah, sorry, it just sort of makes it difficult to find cream cheese," replied the Doctor. "Ah-there it is! Ooh, and Rose, is that a banana on the table? D'you mind if I eat the banana? Or were you planning to-"
"It's fine!" giggled Rose. "I got it out for you anyway."
"Aah, thanks. Here, I'll cut it up, and you can make us bagels. And I'll pour us some juice or milk or something of the sort. We're going to have a nice breakfast, Rose Tyler, how does that sound?"
"Sounds like what we usually do every morning," responded Rose. "I mean, usually we get up at different times, but still. I'm no stranger to nice breakfasts."
"That's the spirit!" said the Doctor happily, and took out a knife from the knife holder to cut the banana with.
However, he had literally no experience with slicing things. He'd never been that much of a cook, as when one is running for one's life most of the time it's simpler to buy snacks and microwave meals. So when the Doctor tried to slice the banana, he ended up cutting his hand instead.
Rose gasped and dropped the package of bagels on the floor. "Oh my god, you're bleeding! Here, let me get a napkin-"
"Not one of the cloth ones, if you don't mind!" replied the Doctor through gritted teeth. "Takes ages to wash out the stain."
"Doctor, you're bleeding. The last thing I care about is which napkin I get for you." Rose hurried to him, holding a paper napkin in one hand, and gently wrapped it around the Doctor's hand. "There. I'll slice your banana, yeah?"
"Yeah, sorry. I'll pour us some juice, like I said earlier, yeah, okay, would you like orange or apple?"
"Ooh, let's have apple," replied Rose eagerly, letting go of the Doctor's hand and hurrying to spread cream cheese on his bagel.
The Doctor talked to Rose over bagels and apple juice. He'd missed her sorely, and so he talked to her eagerly.
"I never asked," he said cheerfully, "what do you think is your favorite-"
"Chips," replied Rose promptly.
"I don't mean food, Rose, I mean your favorite-"
"Pink."
"Not color."
"Sunny."
"Not weather."
"Raxacoricofallapatorius," said Rose proudly.
"What the hell would that be your favorite anything for?" demanded the Doctor happily.
"Planet name."
The Doctor leaned across the table, almost spontaneously kissing Rose on the mouth just because of that adorable smile on her face, but instead he wiped a smear of cream cheese off her cheek when his nerves got the better of him. "That was getting a bit annoying, sorry."
Rose had a furious blush on her face, but she managed to squeak out, "Okay, so finish your question."
"What is your favorite song?"
Rose smiled a little dreamily, and then she replied, "Moonlight Serenade."
Damnit, is she in love with Jack? "Why, exactly?"
"Because that was the day that everyone lived, and that was also the day that you proved to me that you couldn't dance at all."
The Doctor grinned broadly, because that was the reason that he had least expected, not to mention it involved Rose connecting him with his other incarnation. Few humans he had met ever did something as wonderful and wise as that, even if it had taken Rose a little bit to figure it out. "Yeah. You know, I think that would be my favorite song too."
Rose blushed and took a bite of her bagel. "That's really, really lovely."
And the Doctor decided not to tell her how he felt about her quite yet. Because he was going to have the perfect setting and the perfect timing and the perfect everything, and eating bagels in the TARDIS didn't seem nearly romantic enough.
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-The Eclectic Bookworm