Half an hour later, he finally stirred, and looked up to see Rose's glaring face looking back at him from several feet away. He grimaced.
"Ah. Slept longer than I planned to, did I?" the Doctor said sheepishly.
"Well, let's just say that I could've counted all the trees on the island in the time I've been waiting for you," Rose replied shortly. It was a slight exaggeration, but her glee at finding out the Doctor was ticklish had quickly evaporated as the pain in her head grew in intensity. She didn't know what was wrong with her. Was this the beginning of regular migraines, or something? Rose didn't like to mention it to the Doctor – she had already complained of this twice yesterday, and she felt like she was doing nothing but moaning on this trip. So she kept it to herself and just focused on looking annoyed at the Doctor.
"Up for another long day of walking?" the Doctor asked cheerfully a few minutes later, pulling on his shoes. Rose's heart sank. In truth, all she felt like doing was climbing into a warm soft bed and staying there until tea time. But she nodded, playing along. Maybe it would pass. "Let's be off, then," the Doctor continued, walking over to where she was still sitting on the rock. He held out a hand to her and she stood up to take it, but suddenly white hot pain shot through her head, her legs buckled underneath her, and once again she saw the flash of a yellow building in her mind's eye. She would have collapsed to the floor but the Doctor's reflexes were much quicker than humans, and Rose felt his arms wrap around her waist, holding her steady.
"You still with me?" The Doctor's calm voice cut through the haze in her head.
"I… yeah." Rose gripped onto the Doctor's coat to keep her upright, as her knees seemed to have completely given up. She put her head against his chest and felt his two hearts thumping, slightly faster than she would have expected.
"Look at me," the Doctor told her gently. Rose tried to focus on his voice and ignore the images filtering through her mind. A building. What was so significant about it? She forced herself to look up into the deep brown eyes gazing back at her, and as she did, the images flickered and died.
"Sorry," Rose muttered, feeling slightly less foggy.
"What's going on with you?" the Doctor asked rhetorically. "Here, sit back down again." He took his hands from round her waist and lowered her back onto the rock gently. Rose suddenly desperately needed the physical contact she had just lost when he released her, and she pulled the Doctor by his shirt tails onto the rock beside her. He looked at her, startled. "Rose?"
"My mind feels… battered, or fragile, or something, I just need…" She grabbed the Doctor in a hug and he went willingly, still looking bemused. Rose was holding him as tightly as she could, and they stayed that way for over a minute. The Doctor didn't try to pull away, and Rose was so grateful for that. She didn't feel right, and she needed this. Eventually these feelings of desperation subsided, and she released her grip on the Doctor somewhat. She absent-mindedly fiddled with his shirt collar and the Doctor made a small noise in his throat when she brushed her fingers against his neck accidentally.
"Oops, sorry," Rose giggled, pulling away completely. "I forgot about that."
The Doctor grinned at her. "I'm not going to pretend I don't enjoy it," he said jokingly. "Do you… I mean, do you feel any better? What was that about?"
Rose glanced at her lap. "I dunno. I'm sorry. I keep getting headaches and I don't feel right. Suddenly I felt the need to have a physical connection with someone…" She paused, looking concerned. "I don't like what's going on with my mind."
The Doctor looked worried too, and couldn't offer any solution. "Well, we're not going anywhere until you feel 100% OK. We can just chill out, play things by ear. Sound alright?"
"Better than alright." Rose beamed at the Doctor. He always knew how to make her feel better.
"Does your head still hurt?" he asked.
Rose grunted. "Unfortunately, yeah – but not nearly as bad as it did." The Doctor shifted to sit behind her on the rock, and she was startled when his slender hands moved to her head and began gently massaging her temples. Rose let her head drop back and she looked at him upside down. "What are you doing?" she asked, nervously.
"Um… helping with your headache?" the Doctor said, as if this was obvious. "Tell me if it's making it worse," he said, as he continued rotating his fingers.
Rose let out a long relaxed sigh. "It's really not. We should spend all day doing this," she added, and then wished she hadn't at the pause that followed. It was better than any Spa she had been to (granted, only a few), and as the Doctor's thumbs began to stroke her forehead, Rose had to fight hard not to let out a noise of someone who was very much turned on. How could he so easily reduce her to such a puddle of goo?
"I'll have to return the favour, you know," Rose said teasingly, when the Doctor finally finished giving Rose infinite pleasure and began flexing his fingers. Her head felt miles better and she almost felt normal again.
The Doctor grinned. "I would like that very much. Now?" he asked, slightly eagerly.
Rose smirked. "If you want. I won't be as good as you but I've had a bit of practice." A sudden evil thought struck her. "I'm best with foot massages, though."
"Feet? No, its ok, my feet are fine." The Doctor's eyes widened slightly.
"I bet they're not! You've been walking for days in those converse, they're bound to be aching," Rose commented, fighting to keep a straight face.
The Doctor searched for a reply. "They stink!" he said, looking relieved that he had come up with that. "I'm not putting you through that."
Rose laughed. She knew exactly why he was fighting. "Doctor, they don't smell. I slept next to them last night, I would have noticed. Feet up on my lap, now."
The Doctor looked nervous. "I… erm… really? No, I really don't think that –" Rose interrupted him by grabbing his right foot and placing it on her lap. The Doctor started and almost overbalanced, grabbing the rock. Rose began untying his laces. He gave up resisting after a few moments and leant back.
"Fine," he said, opting for a casual tone and hoping it sounded convincing. There were a few moments of silence whilst Rose concentrated removing his shoe and the Doctor made himself more comfortable on the rock, slightly worried about what was coming. He was about to have a brave attempt at distracting Rose when she spoke.
"So I'm guessing you don't have a clue where we're going, yeah?"
"You mean in life?" the Doctor ventured. Rose rolled her eyes.
"No, idiot, on this planet."
"Ahh. Um… not a clue, if I'm going to be really honest." He broke off as Rose took his heel between her hands and began gently rotating with her fingers. He leaned back against the rock slightly, and as she continued to move round his foot slowly, he felt himself relax. Whatever he had told Rose, his feet were sore, and Rose's small but deft hands were certainly doing the trick. So long as she avoided… certain areas. As she gradually worked through the kinks in his feet, he let out a contented sigh which made Rose look up, smiling as she noticed that his eyes were closed. Maybe now would be the time, she thought to herself, while he wasn't paying attention. Maybe if she just ran her fingers along the arch in his foot again –
Just as violently as he had reacted in his sleep, the Doctor instantly jerked his foot out of Rose's grasp and stared at her, eyes wide. Rose feigned surprise.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Um… sorry, just a reflex," he assured her, but seemed anxious to keep his foot out of her reach. Rose had to bite back a smirk. Oh, he wasn't getting away that easily. In one quick motion she leaned forward and claimed back his foot. He looked affronted.
"I thought you were done!"
"Course not! I haven't even started on the arch of your foot yet." She saw a brief frown cross the Doctor's face. Placing his foot on her lap again, she held it down tightly with one hand, and began smoothing across the skin underneath his foot, as gently as she could manage.
The Doctor was tense. Why had Rose offered to massage his feet, of all things? This particular regeneration just happened to be very ticklish, particularly in that area. It was almost like she knew. But there was no way she could know that. He thought the fact that he was wearing socks might help slightly. Either way, the Doctor was determined not to let on how torturous this whole thing was. But as soon as her smooth hands touched the arch of his foot, he knew it was going to be nigh on impossible. He bit his lip and concentrated on thinking of other things. He could do it. Think of… a bowl of baked beans. That was normal enough. He liked baked beans. This was a good distraction. It worked for a few moments, until Rose spoke to him and he regretfully had to tune back into the conversation.
"So are we just gonna walk for days and days, or do you actually have some kind of plan?" she asked, slightly sceptically.
"Um… I can tell we're nearing somewhere. Next couple of days, tops." Having been caught unawares, the Doctor suddenly felt the extreme feeling of ticklishness return, spreading intense tingles all through his body, and he couldn't help but begin squirming slightly, trying to get his foot from her grasp. She suddenly stopped and he exhaled in relief.
"Something the matter?" Rose asked, unable to keep the grin from her face, and suddenly the Doctor realised.
"You already know, don't you?" he said slowly, raising an eyebrow.
Rose nodded and giggled, before suddenly abandoning all pretence and engaging in a furious tickle attack, her nimble fingers moving all around the underside of his foot. The Doctor let out what could only be described as an unmanly squeak, and tried desperately to free himself, but Rose had a good firm grip. "Rose, stop!" he managed to splutter. He didn't remember being properly tickled before, in any body, and it was the most insane feeling in the world, neither good nor bad, just an absolute loss of control. He bit into his fist and tried very hard not to laugh, but it seemed the natural uncontrollable reaction and before long they were both laughing as hard as each other, as the Doctor's protests became weaker and weaker.
Suddenly Rose stopped, and it was as though someone had turned off the tap, the noise vanishing instantly. All that could be heard was the Doctor's heavy breathing as he finally wrenched his foot from her grasp and tried to regain some self control. He noticed that Rose was rather closer to him on the rock than she had been, and his mind tried vaguely to work out when that might have happened. She was just gazing at him steadily, and because he had nothing to say, nor no breath to say it with, he looked back at her. Somehow the barriers between them were down. Rose's hand found her way into the Doctor's hair and she trailed her nails gently along his scalp, biting her lip when he let out a soft, deep noise. She moved towards him a fraction, and the Doctor noticed, suddenly realising things were going too far. So without warning he moved his hands to her sides and began tickling her, to distract her and also for payback. Rose gasped as soon as he touched her, caught off guard, and she squirmed and tried weakly to bat his hand away, but only succeeded in shifting sideways on the rock and flopping off onto the grass with a loud "Oof!".
"You ok?" The Doctor asked, peering down at her in her rather ungainly position.
"Oops," she said matter of factly, before bursting out laughing.