Perfume
Chapter Four: Spark
By Rhondda Lake
The Doctor wasn't surprised to see a fire already blazing cosily on the beach by the time he re-emerged from the TARDIS. Night had fallen, and Jack had declared that they were going to eat on the beach, under the night sky. At the time of said announcement the Doctor was striving to not focus on the way Rose was gleaming wetly; tiny mineral deposits sparkling like diamonds on her skin and in her hair.
The three of them had played in the singing sea for an hour or so, and had emerged sore and tired. The heavy water gave quite a bit of resistance against movement. When they had returned to the purple sand, both the Doctor and Rose left Jack to seek out their respective showers. The mineral rich water left build up where it could, and hair and swimsuits were soon itchy and chafing.
Dressed in more customary and comfortable attire, the Doctor moved to Jack's crackling fire and sat down on one of the array of blankets his companion had drug out. Jack had also brought out a basket of food and was busy whittling several long sticks into a point. The fire crackled and threw up sparks that danced in the breeze before them.
"You are just full of surprises, Doctor. I would have bet against you joining us for a swim. You just don't strike me as a beach blanket bingo type." Jack winked at the older man and stuck the pointed end of his stick into the fire to harden.
"Oh, I have a type? Nice to know I'm all categorized and labelled." The Doctor looked over the drink selections in a bucket of ice.
"So defensive," Jack teased as he shook his head. "Don't worry. You're still beyond classification. The enigma of the ages. The unknown variable in life. The…"
"Oh, do shut up." The Doctor selected a bottle of lemonade and tossed the cap at Jack's head.
"You know, you could have put my eye out with that." Jack pointed at the Doctor with his sharpened stick.
Both men dissolved into laughter.
"Can't leave you two alone for one minute," Rose sat between the two men, claiming a Fuller's from the drink selection as she did.
She had changed back into jeans and a hoodie. The Doctor also noticed she had reapplied her new perfume. He leaned a bit closer to the fire, taking in the scent of woodsmoke.
Jack spent the next half hour spitting sausages and roasting them over the flames for their dinner.
"Will you look at that," Rose had her head tilted up and was looking at the triple moon formation in the sky. The moonlight and firelight were painting her face in soft hues, the breeze from the sea ruffling her hair. She looked as beautiful as anything this world had to offer. The doctor followed her gaze to the moons. All of them had an orange tint, and one was totally full, while the other two were in stages of waning.
"Kinda looks like Mickey Mouse, if one ear was a bit bigger than the other," Rose announced.
"I show you some of the most spectacular views in the universe and you compare them to an animated rodent?" The Doctor looked appalled.
"Well you getting all huffy doesn't change the fact that it does." Her eyes were full of mischief. Oh, she was baiting him, he realized.
Jack passed them each a stick with a marshmallow stuck on the pointed end. "As stimulating as this conversation is, you'll have to pay attention to your marshmallows to get the S'mores right," Jack interrupted.
"The what?" Rose looked at him as if he had grown a new head.
Jack sighed. "It's an American thing, but it's an ancient tradition not to be broken..." He held his marshmallow over the fire, toasting all sides evenly before sticking it into a lick of flame to watch it burn. The smell of charred sugar joined the odour of woodsmoke and Rose's perfume. Jack grinned and pulled the burning fluffball closer to blow it out. He gingerly peeled the black coating off in one pull. "Now you break off a piece of Cadbury bar and put it on the graham cracker, like so," He demonstrated as if showing a class of simpletons. "You put the gooey hot marshmallow in the chocolate and cap it off with another cracker. Then eat." He passed his over to Rose.
Rose looked at it like it might bite her before taking a tentative bite into the sandwiched confection. Her eyes shot open and then rolled back, her face becoming a mask of rapture. It was discomforting. The Doctor was pretty sure he was sitting too close to the fire because he was getting a bit too warm.
"This is brilliant." Rose wiped some chocolate off her chin. The hot marshmallow had melted the chocolate bar.
"Yup. Best thing since sliced bread." Jack gestured to the sticks he had handed each of them. "Now get roasting, because that's the only one I'm handing over." He tossed a Cadbury bar between them and a box of graham crackers.
The confection was delicious and very sweet, but one was enough for the Doctor. There was such a thing as too much of a good thing, especially when that much sugar was involved.
Instead he surreptitiously watched Rose nibble at her second S'more. She was apparently savouring each bit. Jack was watching her much more openly. But he looked a bit more amused than titillated.
In no time the Doctor saw Rose lean towards him and the warm weight of her head settling on his shoulder. The sensual cocoon of her perfume washed over him. It filled his lungs and a languid warmth seemed to spread through him. His hearts stuttered, then resumed their normal rhythm. He felt settled and uncomfortable all at once. Maybe it was the setting, the fire, or just her warmth pressed against his arm and shoulder, but an empty, black ache reared up in him. A yearning he ruthlessly shoved down even as it pushed forward.
He had always been aware of Rose as a beautiful young woman. And if he had to work a little harder to ignore that than he had in the past with former lovely female companions, what of it? And if her spirit and courage drew him, well that was why he'd asked her to come with him, wasn't it? And if she trusted him implicitly, even when he knew he didn't deserve that trust? And if they could communicate with their eyes alone from across the room, that was just familiarity. He might have the stray thought, any male of similarly built species would. That was normal. He could suppress such distracting thoughts easily enough.
Except right now those thought were winding their way through his mind, like tendrils of smoke.
He stared resolutely into the dying fire. He had to get a hold of this dangerous and foolish reaction. He was not some primitive little species ruled by biological imperatives, he was a Time Lord. The mind ruled the body, not the other way around.
"Awww, she's out like a light. Too much fun for our girl, eh?" Jack grinned as he started to collect the debris of their meal, careful to leave nothing behind except the blankets and the fire.
Our girl? The Doctor looked at the golden hair draped over his leather jacket. She didn't belong to either of them. So why didn't he feel like sharing?