The TARDIS's gears whooped as it landed and the Doctor zipped to the door to peep out. "Same bat channel." He announced. "No missiles this time." He turned a pleased expression toward Rose, who had followed behind him, and waited to be admired. She obliged.
"Lovely, beachy holiday!" She chirruped with shining eyes and a fast squeeze 'round his middle. "Shall I find my bathing suit?"
The Doctor's eyebrows drew together and he examined her jeans and sweatshirt. Clearly he hadn't considered beach attire. "Probably need something to protect you from the suns too." He said thoughtfully.
"Suns?" Rose parroted happily. It wasn't really a question. She was already off down a corridor to hunt for beachwear and sunblock.
The Doctor was left standing at the slightly-ajar door of the TARDIS, casting a deliberating eye over his own buttoned-down brown suit and greatcoat and wondering for the first time whether this body had the legs for shorts. He shut the TARDIS door and strode off down another corridor to his wardrobe.
Because Rose needed a few more moments after the Doctor had changed his clothes, he piled bread, jam, a different kind of jam, and a bottle of grape-flavored fizzy drink into a basket before considering Rose's health and adding three bananas. He had chosen to wear brown swimming trunks and a blue Guayabara shirt. One definite pro of being reborn handsome was that dressing himself had become a snap. Oh, perhaps he was a little vain, he supposed, but he recognized the advantages that youthful looks and a great head of hair afforded him. Mostly he got away with a lot more, which he liked. And Rose, well...Rose thought he was foxy now, which he really liked. He gave himself a brisk mental shake and applied himself to finding out where she had hidden her stash of jelly beans from him.
"Ready!" Rose announced, coming into the galley in a sort-of floaty yellow beach thingy with the pink straps of a bathing suit peeping out around her neck. She wore a floppy woven hat, flippy sandals, and a big white blob of zinc on the tip of her pert nose. The Doctor wheezed with laughter at her. She pulled a face at him, swept her gaze over his holiday clothes with a blush and a grin, and said, "Jelly beans are in the Weetabix box." Before turning and breezing out the door toward the console room.
She was already out of the TARDIS, kicking happily around in the pink sand, when the Doctor emerged with the basket and a green, dusty sun parasol over his shoulder. Rose trotted over, took one end of the basket handle and they swung it between them as they strolled over the sparkling sand toward the glittering sea. She held her hat atop her head with her other hand and sighed with pleasure into the sea breeze. "This is lovely, Doctor, thank you." She said. He smiled down into her face, Rose's dark eyes shone up at him and she looked like an extension of the beautiful world around them. The living embodiment of the Doctor's ideal, restful, happy place. He looked quickly down at his bare feet in the sand. These thoughts were coming with alarming frequency since his regeneration.
They had never spoken of that kiss in the hospital, though the Doctor was sure Rose remembered it as surely as he couldn't forget it, and he never told her about that last kiss before his regeneration on Satellite 5. Truth be told, he wasn't sure why he had done it at the time. There were certainly other ways he could've absorbed the energy of the time vortex. But she had been willing to die for him that day and, somehow, when he instead died to save her, it seemed right that he should kiss away the energy that was consuming her. And she had been so achingly lovely standing there bathed in the glorious light of the time vortex. Pink and gold. Weeping because her head ached, weeping because she didn't want to lose him.
He had loved her for it. All of it. And when he died from the energy he took from her lips, he was reborn loving Rose.
He sighed, his hearts feeling both very full and very heavy. Of all the loves in all his lives, Rose worried him the most. It was all, all...worryingly different.
"Doctor?" Rose broke into his moody contemplations. He grinned down at her immediately, his burden lightening.
"Fancy a grape pop?" He asked.
"I fancy a spash in the ocean." Rose replied brightly. They had arrived at a large dune at the very edge of the sea. Rose let go of the basket handle and kicked off her sandals, digging her pink toes into the pink sand. "Oooh!" She exclaimed. "It's soft!"
"It's talc!" The Doctor said importantly. He put the basket down and, with a swift downward stroke, jammed the parasol upright in the sand. He opened it up and caught Rose raising an eyebrow at the "Starbucks" emblazoned across one side. "I borrowed it." He said defensively.
Rose laughed. She dropped her hat on top of the basket and peeled the yellow floaty thing over her head, revealing a sporty pink bikini. Without a pause, she dashed down the sand dune and into the sea, shrieking at the cool water.
Dear Lord. A pink bikini. The Doctor briefly regretted the beach holiday. Maybe skiing next time.