1.4-1.5 Aliens of London/World War Three
Rose hung up her clothes in the wardrobe next to the basics the TARDIS has provided while processing her more official move to the ship. The fact that she'd made the decision to stay on longer-term in the immediate aftermath of yet another near death experience had not failed to escape her notice, and she couldn't help but be slightly concerned about what that said about her. She wasn't entirely sure that her decision to sign on for real wasn't an excuse to escape from the awkward reality of having abandoned her boyfriend and mother without a second thought. When she'd first run on to the Doctor's ship, she hadn't even pondered what it would mean for her relationship with Mickey. They hadn't even discussed it. Accidentally returning after a year away had been a bucket of cold water over her head as to the repercussions of her actions, and she hadn't felt prepared to handle it. So here she was, back on the TARDIS, leaving behind the two people who had until recently been the most important in her life rather than sorting out how her traveling with the Doctor affected them.
She also wasn't prepared to think about the fact that the Doctor had so quickly moved up to, if not the first spot on her "most important people" list, certainly the second. Which was to say, he had displaced Mickey, who she had honestly more or less forgotten she was dating until she was face to face with him again. Bit awkward, that. Especially in light of the fact that her mum had accused him of murdering her. They'd only shared one chaste kiss before she ran off again, and they hadn't discussed what her departure meant for them even a little bit, other than Mickey's plaintive "you're never going to stay, are you?" as she boarded the TARDIS. He'd certainly made it clear that he thought she was "with" the Doctor, but they hadn't addressed it one way or the other.
It was hard not to compare her relationship with Mickey with her relationship with the Doctor, even aside from Mickey and the police's assumptions. She and Mickey had been dating for a couple years now, but it had never been intense or passionate. They were mates more than anything else, really; company for lunch breaks and telly, someone to cuddle, a default plus one. They didn't even have much of a sex life, when it came down to it—they slept together from time to time, but it always felt like it was more because they felt they were supposed to than because they were terribly attracted to one another. Rose thought perhaps that their relationship had continued for this long mostly because they enjoyed each other's company and neither of them felt strongly enough about it to end things.
The Doctor and Rose were not even remotely physically or romantically involved (well okay, except for a bit of cuddling in the library the other night and the occasional hand holding), and yet somehow their relationship had become much more integral to Rose's life. It wasn't surprising, given the intensity of the time they spent together—everything was life or death. Being dependent on someone for survival made it a bit inevitable that Rose would become attached to them, she surmised. Although, she pondered, the attachment did seem to go both ways. The Doctor's "I could save the world, but lose you" had taken her off guard, if she was being honest. That he should care enough about her to even have any hesitation around whether he could sacrifice her safety for the good of the world was… unexpected. Especially in lieu of his admission that he was over 900 years old. That little revelation had certainly clarified for her his lack of initial concern about Mickey's potential death when they'd first met; the lives of humans must seem so tiny to him. She'd resigned herself to the fact that the electricity she felt with him must be one sided. And yet.
Tucking her now empty bag into the bottom of the wardrobe, Rose wandered off to find the Doctor. She found him in the console room, poking around under the console as he had been when she'd found him after changing into her dress on their Cardiff trip. She blushed a bit, remembering his reaction to that outfit, and then kicked herself mentally. Her growing crush on the Doctor felt increasingly inappropriate given the developments of the past couple days. The reminder of her technically being in a relationship, as well as the Doctor's age (she'd known he was older, but the fifteen to twenty years she'd guessed was slightly off from the centuries actually involved). She couldn't help it though; she was inexorably drawn to him. Shaking her head at herself, Rose settled down to sit on the grating, dangling her legs into the open space near the Doctor's head.
"Rose Tyler!" he greeted her cheerfully. "All settled in, then?"
"Yup!" she answered, swinging her legs. "Stuck with me now!"
The Doctor smiled up at her and boosted himself out of the space between the console, climbing to stand and reaching out a hand to pull her up. "Not so bad, that," he answered. "Gets a bit echoey in here all on me own. Good to have some company."
Rose gave him a tongue touched grin. "So where to next?" she asked.
"Thought you could use a bit of a rest," he told her, "given the amount of sleep you humans need. But then I thought perhaps Snood. It's a good starter planet for a new traveler; uninhabited by any developed lifeforms. It's atmosphere is constantly shrouded in mist, and the shape of its orbit around its sun means that there are shifting rainbows all day, over the entire sky."
"Sounds beautiful," Rose agreed readily, squeezing his hand, which was somehow still wrapped around hers. "Thank you." She was excited about the prospect of finally visiting another planet. So far, she'd only been to a space station and another time in Earth's history. She couldn't wait to explore a new world, and the thought of it pushed her trepidation about how she'd left things back in London out of her mind. How could she possibly have stayed when she had access to this?
"Least I can do after almost blowing you up," the Doctor quipped, dropping her hand and turning toward the console. His voice was light but his shoulders had tensed slightly. Rose frowned slightly and put a hand of his arm.
"Hey," she told him, trying to catch his eye, "it's fine. I'm fine."
"You might not have been," he answered, the forced cheer gone from his voice. "Your mum was right, it's not safe, this life. I can't promise you'll be okay."
"I never asked you to," Rose stated firmly. "I'm nineteen, I'm not a child. I know the risks. But it's worth it. We saved the world today!'
The Doctor relaxed slightly and looked back at her. "Yeah, we did."
Rose grinned at him again, and then on impulse used her hand on his forearm as leverage, pushing herself up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. "I'm going to go have a bath and then go to bed," she told him, dropping back on her heels. "Goodnight, Doctor."
"Goodnight, Rose," the Doctor responded with a soft smile. As she walked away, she didn't see him raise his hand to his cheek and touch the place she'd kissed with a look of wonder on his face.
