I know it has been done before but this just wanted to be written. Maybe you will still like it though.

Burning stars

Inspired by: Rule the World by Take That

Time Frame: early to mid NewWho Season One

A thousand stars sparkle in the hazel of her eyes, a blinding sun burns brightly in the silken colour that is made of earth and warmth and whiskey.

They sit at the edge of the grating, the TARDIS humming gently from behind while in front the universe revolves in all its majesty.

His ship has opened her doors wide for them, extended the atmosphere and gravity field so that they can stay between the worlds, secure - watch galaxies be born to form the future and fade to give out second chances. Swirling, shifting these fantastic structures form brittle, fleeting patterns as millennia pass by but just for once time seems insubstantial.
Even to the Doctor.

With him next to her, Rose watches the spectacle in awe – blonde hair cascading down his shoulder and slender fingers laced through his. She holds his hand, as if afraid he might let go at any moment until unconsciously he shifts so that she can lean on him a little more. Like in reply she turns her head, just slightly, her breath a ghost across his skin and he sighs mutely for he almost has forgotten how beautiful the universe can be.

Together with this pink and yellow human, though, he finally remembers.

This ever changing entity, a cauldron of immeasurable possibilities, the home of light and hope and everything he is protecting - it lies before him and hardly has he ever felt so small.

"This is amazing." Rose's voice is very much a whisper, and- can it be she cries?

Worried, he glances down at her only to see a smile through silent tears. Air escapes her lungs in tiny sniffs, quiet but they are overwhelming because like nothing else they make him feel alive.

Gently squeezing her small hand he notes his hearts beat faster when just a second later she returns the look, studies the infinity that lies beyond a pale blue gaze before her nose is disappearing in soft wool.

She hums into his jumper, contentedly for all that he can tell. "Thank you."

Instantly he tenses, starts and asks "What for?", not bothering to even think it through.

Sometimes he is slow like that.

She simply chuckles in response, a watery sound but it is happy.
"Everything. For this. For showing me what's out here," she pauses, bites her lower lip while her cheeks surrender to a blush, "for putting up with me."

The very second that is out he almost scoffs, fights the urge to point it out to her that if any of the two is bearing with somebody then it is clearly she who is a hero: tolerating every of his moods and his considerable temper when others would have long since given up on him.

But he can't say that just yet, coward that he has been ever since the War.

A Time Lord knows when he is changing, and he is. Inevitably, thanks to her. Even after so short a time and there are days when he is scared of that. Scared of what it means for him when in the end he will be forced to let her go. Because nothing lasts forever.

But right now, right here he doesn't want to care about what is to come - just revels in her presence and in what she is teaching him. Each and every moment.
He decides to let her steal a glimpse on that at least.

"Anytime, Rose."

His lips quirk, the darkness in his mind grows weaker as he confesses everything with just one word, hopes that somehow she will find the hidden meaning while in front of them an infant star bursts into golden flames to shine.

If not for all eternity, then at least as long as he and she remember.

"Anytime."