Rose twirled around the control room. "I always wanted ballet lessons, you know, but Mum never let me."
"I wonder why," the Doctor grumbled, as Rose crashed into the part of the TARDIS he was working on. "Careful!"
"Someone's got their knickers in a twist!" Jack offered from the sidelines, where he was smoking a cigarette thoughtfully.
"Do you have to smoke that in here?" the Doctor demanded of him.
"It's a hard habit to break," Jack replied, stubbing it out.
"I'll get you patches."
Rose rolled her eyes. "You know, for someone who just saved the world, you're being very grumpy this morning."
"I was woken up at five a.m. by someone practising their fandango." The Doctor shot Jack a filthy look.
"What? I'm a morning person!" Jack defended his right to dance.
"I'll bet you are." Rose flashed him a cheeky grin. She turned back to the Doctor. "That's your problem, you need to dance. Let all that frustration out."
"I'm not in the mood."
"But I am!" Rose grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.
Just inches away from her, he wanted time to stop and Jack to go away so that they could stay like this forever. But instead he dropped her hand and turned away.
"I said I'm not in the mood. Dance with Jack. He's always in the mood."
"I want to dance with you!" Rose forced him to face her again. She glanced across at Jack. "No offence, Jack."
"None taken." He held his hands up. "I'll leave you two to your dancing." He sauntered away into the depths of the TARDIS.
"Rose, really, I don't have time for this." He tried to pull away again but she held on.
"Rubbish, you've got all the time you want." Rose put him in a position to dance. "Now, do you want a waltz or a tango?" She dragged him into a waltz. "You know, this would be a lot easier if you led."
And because she wanted him to, he did. She gave a yelp of surprise and then a broad grin as he whisked her into a fast waltz, putting in twists and turns when she wasn't expecting it. After several minutes, he tripped over her misplaced leg and they both tumbled to the ground laughing.
"That was… different," Rose gasped for breath.
"You said you wanted a dance. I gave you a dance." The Doctor sat up and brushed himself down. "You humans can never stand the pace. That's why I don't usually dance with you."
Rose arched an eyebrow. "So who do you usually dance with?"
He gave her a wry look. "You, Rose Tyler, need to learn to keep your nose out of some things."
"You love me for it," she said flippantly, but it was true, he did. He knew he complained about her always wandering off, but he loved that curious side of her. She was almost as good as getting herself into trouble as he was.
"But seriously," she spoke again. "Who would you like to dance with if you could?"
And because he was still on a high after yesterday's victory, he found himself confessing more than he intended to.
"You, Rose. I want to dance with you till the day I die," he admitted in such a low tone that she could hardly hear him over the hum of the TARDIS. She didn't reply but sat staring at him for several minutes. Finally he saw her begin to say something.
"The lights in the back corridor have gone out." Jack came up the corridor. "I think the old girl's got some power outage problems." He looked between the two of them, a suspicious smile spreading across his face. "Am I interrupting something? What happened to the dancing?"
"Just taking a rest," the Doctor scrambled to his feet. He checked a screen. "She needs to recharge. We'll drop into Cardiff for a bit, have a break ourselves while she charges up. Use that rift again. Remember the rift, Rose?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah." She sounded distracted. "I'm going to go and call Mickey. He could meet us there, couldn't he? It's been a while." She headed down the corridor to her room to pick her phone up.
"Mickey?" Jack turned to the Doctor for an explanation.
"Her boyfriend." The Doctor pulled a few levers more roughly than usual. That was what he needed to remember. Mickey the Idiot was her boyfriend. Not him.
