"You kissed me." The Doctor remarks somewhat idly as they sit lounging opposite one another in the library much later on. Cassandra's passing now just a memory as they wind down from the days adventure. A lazy fire crackling away in the grate as the ancient time ship they call home hums contentedly around them.
"Did I?" Rose peers over the pages of her novel, seemingly ignorant despite her vividly thorough recollection of the abovementioned snog. "You sure it wasn't-?"
"Nope." He replies with a pop and a rather unconvincing attempt at nonchalance himself she can't quite help but roll her eyes at, "Well, actually now that you mention it-"
"Just seems like something worth rememberin' is all," She muses thoughtfully, "Now that I think about it though, probably lucky she went in for a snog with these lips rather than the back end she were talking out of before the psychograft."
She laughs uproariously at the visible shudder that passes through the Doctor and the abject horror upon his face as he tries to rid himself of the phantom taste of Cassandra.
"Oh Rose Tyler, that's- that's disgusting that's what that is."
"You know I thought you would've realised sooner it weren't me," She ventures, adding insult to injury, "After all it's not the first time you an me have at it, is it?"
"Well, no." He concedes with a somewhat petulant sigh, "But that was ages ago. I was a different man then. I didn't even think you'd want to-"
"What? Snog you proper now? Seriously, are you daft?" She gapes at him as if he's suddenly grown a second head before returning to her book to hide her vibrant blush behind the pages.
"See now I knew she was right," He preened, "Rose Tyler, you sly dog."
"I'm not blind or stupid, Doctor. O' course, I looked," She scoffed, ignoring the blush still flaming her throat as she rolls her eyes, "I fancied the last you too ya daft old man, in case it'd escaped your notice."
"You're not the only one who's neither blind nor stupid you know," He replies somewhat petulantly, "No accounting for taste there, mind."
"Oi!"
"What?"
"You leave 'im alone," She warns, seemingly suddenly reminded of how ridiculous a concept it is essentially defending the Doctor from himself as he lifts a far too amused brow in her direction and she scowls, "Urgh, you know wha' I mean."
"I do, and I'm glad." He admits with a nod, his Adams apple bobbing as he swallows when she tilts her book once again to gaze at him questionably over the pages. "That you don't mind…um...you know…me…"
"You sure?" She ventures curiously, "Not too domestic for ya, is it?"
Automatically his eyes roll at the remark and she bites back yet another snort.
"You know even on my world it was considered bad form to slag off the dead quite so soon after the poor sods bit the dust."
"Lucky you're not dead then init," She retorts with an amused curl of her lip, "Point still stands though."
"No, of course it's not," He replies definitively, "And you should have told me off far sooner for acting like a twat too you know."
"And what, risk upsetting the designated driver?" She remarks dryly, "Yea, no ta very much."
"I would never leave you behind, Rose." He replies seriously, "This me or the last."
"Never said you would," She replies, leveling her gaze, "Besides, we both know that if you did I'd just come after ya again. Or worse yet, send Mum."
"Duly noted," He shudders and rubs his cheek in remembrance, "Though I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't rather face off with the entire Dalek fleet again now you mention it."
"Hmm, I'll tell her you said that."
"You wouldn't." She laughs as he chortles at her teasing and immediately hurtles a cushion across the room in retaliation.
"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be, is it?" She grins, rising to her feet in challenge. Her own book discarded in favour of his which she deftly plucks from his long fingers to hold just out of reach from his reclined position as she skirts the sofa.
"Oi, stop that," He whines, "Rose."
"Urgh, just how old are you again?" She remarks, returning his book with a snort before sliding into the space he makes for beside him. His head coming to rest against her shoulder as he replies.
"Old enough to know better but too young to care?"
"Yea alright Mister I've-got-at-least-three-five-hundred-year-diaries-stashed-beneath-the-console," She scoffs, "Blimey, talk about a cradle snatcher."
He laughs at that and shifts his incredulous gaze to meet hers, "What did you just call me?"
"Nine hundred plus years of time and space and who bought the chips on our first date?" She retorts, tongue poking teasingly through her teeth as she grins at him, "A cradle snatcher and a tight-wad. Gods I can't half pick em, can I-"
"Oh, is that that, Missus that's that?" He mutters somewhat in objection.
"Don't worry, old boy," She mock consoles him, nudging him with her shoulder, "Your secrets safe with me."
"You do realise your mother already think's we're shagging our way across the universe." He remarks idly, turning a curious frown upon her clearly flummoxed gaze.
"Really?" She replies, pondering the thought a while before she speaks again, "Then why aren't we?"
"Why aren't we what?"
"Shagging our way across the universe."
"Um.. well, did you- do you want to?" He asks, tugging nervously at his ear.
"Wouldn't say no," She shrugs, "Not interested in all and sundry like Jack, mind. Just to be clear. Just you."
"Just me?"
"Yea," She replies, her cheeks pink and her mouth dry as she confirms it, "Just you."
"Kay."
"What seriously?" She balks.
"Yea of course," He frowns, "Why, don't you want to?"
"I never said that," She's quick to correct him, "It's just that-"
"What?"
"Well, it's just you never seemed interested is all," She muses with a frown, "In dancin' or well me…for that matter."
"I'm always interested in you." He objects with an incensed scowl.
"The same way you were interest in Lynda with a Y?" She objects with somewhat of a bitter scoff, "Or Jabe?"
He chortles at that, "Rose Tyler, are you jealous?"
"You're a flirt, Doctor, is what I'm saying," She rolls her eyes, "This you and the last, so it stands to reason that all that effort might have been for nought but shits an' giggles for all you've ever followed through on anything."
"Well, I might have done sooner without all the mixed signals." He huffs.
"Mixed signals?"
"You ask me to dance only to run off with Mickey the Idiot and Captain Cheesecake-"
"I never shagged Jack, or Adam for that matter," She laughs somewhat incredulously, "And Micks and I were over long before either of them came along-"
"You were listing off past indiscretions," He muttered sulkily, "I thought it only fair to take a shot at yours. And besides that, you heard what Cassandra said - all those parts and barely-"
"…Used, yea, I was there." She agrees, swallowing over the lump in her throat. Her eyes rolling when she lifts her gaze to his smirking face.
"God, you're such a child sometimes."
He only strengthens her argument by poking his tongue at her in response and she laughs.
"Feel better now?"
"You started it." He laughs as she swats him. The Doctor shifting to catch her wrists and she falls across him with a glare at his still grinning face.
"You're not funny, you know."
"Now you know that just isn't true," He goads gently, their faces so very close now her breath breaks across his face in little pants, "You should also know that while my previous self found both Lynda and Jabe intriguing at best, they weren't you, Rose."
"Doctor?" She murmurs so close to his lips now she can practically taste him.
"Hmmm?"
"If you don't kiss me right now I'm tellin' Mum 'bout that time we got married on-"