Rose woke up one morning. After she had regained her sense of reality (which, let's face it, was something that she never got right, now that she was with the Doctor). Her dream had been about her playing Dorothy in The wizard of Oz.
She checked her watch to see the time. It was 7:30. She had woken up a bit too early. She cursed herself for that. As she looked at it again, she saw the date. It was February the 14th. This was going to be hard. Mickey wasn't with her this time. He had buggered off home, after that run-in with a few Sycorax's. It was a bit too much for him, so he went back to London. This meant that Rose was now left with the Doctor, on Valentine's Day, in the Tardis, with nowhere to run. No, it wouldn't be as if she would run, just… keep her mouth shut about what day it was. Yes, that was what she was going to do. With any luck, he would still be asleep, anyway.
After she had showered and dressed, she went into the kitchen to start making breakfast. It wasn't like there was a law against it, was there? The Doctor had offered to do it lots of times, but she just carried on. It gave her a sort of buzz, like she was his wife or something. She walked through the door, opened the cutlery draw, and got out a knife and a spoon. As she turned to the table, she noticed that they were already out. As was the entire breakfast. Instead of her usual corn flakes, there seemed to be pancakes in their place.
'I told you I could make breakfast…' the Doctor said from the doorway, shooting her that smile.
'Yeah, well…' Rose stuttered. She was speechless. It wasn't due to the fact that he had made it, as such, but because it was that time of the year. Of all the days to pick, why today? Little did she know as that that was only the first weird thing to happen that day?
The rest of the day seemed normal; save a few universes, meet new people (or creatures, for that matter), that sort of stuff. And all before lunch. The afternoon was pretty much the same; she would make goo-goo eyes at him when he wasn't looking, he would do the same, yadda yadda. When it was getting late, however, another thing happened. Something a little different from her now- day-to-day routine. No, it wasn't the Doctor losing his glasses again, but it did concern him.
She was sitting on the sofa, reading one of her magazines that she had picked up back on Earth. He was finishing something or other. When he was done (which seemed a little too soon, in Rose's eyes), he came to check on her. He watched her for a moment, and then plucked up his courage to speak:
'Fancy going out tonight?' he asked, in what came out as something like a fast whimper.
'Sorry, what?' she asked, clearly not paying attention the first time.
'Don't you think things get a little, I don't know, boring?' he said.
'Sometimes…' she replied.
'Well, how about I take you to Venus? It's not far…'
'Venus? As in the one in my Solar system?'
'Yep…'
She thought about it for a moment. It seemed like something nice to do. So she accepted.
'Here we are' he announced, helping her out of the Tardis.
'Wow' she stuttered. Everywhere she looked, there were strange flowers, every single one of them unique and beautiful. As she walked up to a bunch of them, the Doctor followed her. He didn't actually look at her; rather he was looking for one of the flowers in particular. When he found it, he picked it from its bed and ran up to her again. When he was close enough, he held her still for a moment, as he put it in her hair. The flower looked like a star. It sparkled like a jewel, had red petals and a blue stem, and gave off the prettiest scent that she had ever smelled in her entire life. Even without his reason for taking her here, he had to admit; she looked really nice with it in her hair.
'Thanks' she said, timidly.
Soon, Venus's sun had set and Rose and the Doctor were in some sort of city. It had to be a city because it was so big. They were in a nice little restaurant that he said that he liked. She happily obliged and they stayed there for most of the evening. When they were finished with the food (a lot better than the stuff that she had had on Earth, she had to admit), they were both sipping their coffee's. Rose had a typical Irish cram and the Doctor had something that she couldn't figure out (the name was in a different language).
'So what do you think?' he asked.
'About what?'
'Everything'
'Different…' she mused. She had a sort of smile on her face, indicating that it was a good sort of 'different'.
'You haven't been here before, have you?' he asked, knowing full well what the answer was.
'Nope…'
'Really? I thought I showed you it a little while back…' he asked, giving her the impression that he took her here because of it.
'No. You said that we should come here some time, but we hadn't yet'
'Oh…' he said, going back his drink.
They stayed silent for a few minutes, just taking in the atmosphere a bit more.
'So, why Venus anyway?' she asked.
'No reason…' he said, trying to cover his reason up.
'No, something's up…' she smirked suspiciously.
'Nothing…' he replied. Now was not the best time for him to tell her.
'Come on, I'll keep asking if you don't tell me…'
Oh, what the hell…
'You really want to know?' he asked.
'Yep'
'Really really?'
'Yes…'
If he didn't get this thing over with soon, it would be a waste of a trip to Venus. Besides, they already had the right mood going.
He got up briefly, and then went back down again, this time in front of her. Rose really didn't know what to say (or do, for that matter). He took her hands in his own and said that one thing that every person on Earth dreamed of having said to them form the day that they first found out about it:
'Rose Tyler, will you marry me?'
