A/N: Another instalment of Ten/Rose oneshot happiness :D x
Denial
"What I don't understand, right, is how you managed to get over the other side of the river – naked, I may add, and amongst crocodiles and hippos at that - break out of your handcuffs without your sonic screwdriver, hobble back to the tomb with a sprained ankle, eat one of those poisonous berries and somehow survive, defeat the Arusians with a bag of flour and a torch, and come and rescue me – once you'd found your clothes, obviously – in the pyramid furthest away from the TARDIS, and still get us back in here before you got sunburnt?" she asked, a bit breathless by the end of her question, it had to be said.
He beamed at her. "Ah, you see, that's what I love about you, Rose. Always asking the right questions, you are. Always curious, always nosy. It's good, being nosy. Weeelll, not if you're a Eifhian, 'cos the prefer the whole 'ignorance is bliss' thing. It's actually an illegal offence on the planet Eifhi to ask a question. Can you imagine that? You wouldn't last five minutes there. Remind me, if I ever decide to take you – 'cos I might, you know, 'cos they have beautiful suns-sets that I know you'd just love – so if I do, remind me to take you to an uninhabited bit. You know what I'm like; I'll probably neglect to remember the other stuff and go blundering in. I do that a lot, don't I? Which is odd, considering I'm always going on at you humans about it. But I do, really. I mean, we both know that I'm the most intelligent being in the universe, but even I forget the boring stuff when I'm eager to show off and wait, you're staring at me...?"
He thought she'd been a bit quiet. He'd expected a scoff at the nosy stuff, maybe a snort at the big-headedness. But she'd been silent throughout his ramble, and now she was staring at him with a glazed over expression. Ah. She probably wasn't even listening to a word of that; away with the fairies most likely, in her own little world, in a bubble, in a daydream, 'the lights are on but no one's home' sort of thing. Probably lost in a memory, or thinking about where they were yet to go. Considering a particular time, or place or...or maybe she was simply trying to formulate another question for him. Maybe she was trying to follow his trail of thought. Or maybe she was just fantasising about him grabbing her by the shoulders and snogging her senseless...ah. No. Wait. That was his thought. She wouldn't be thinking that. Couldn't possibly be thinking that...could she? Nah. Course not. Not Rose. She'd just zoned out.
"What are you thinking about, Rose Tyler?"
She snapped back to reality at the sound of her name. "Nothing," she answered quickly.
"No, go on. Tell me," he insisted.
"It's nothing. Really. I just lost track of what you were saying. Sorry."
"Well, what was the last thing I said?"
Right, she thought. He wants to know, I'll just come out and say it.
She cleared her throat. "Well...um... 'That's what I love about you.'"
"Blimey, you missed my whole speech about Eifhi. Well, if we ever end up there and you break the law, then it's your own fault for not listening to my warnings Rose Tyler!" He leant over to flick a switch on the console, then settled down into the seat more fully.
Rose, meanwhile, was confused. Didn't he realise what he'd said? Didn't he realise what she would be thinking now he'd said that? Didn't he –
"Bugger," she heard him mutter, and she quickly glanced at him. He'd gone terribly pale, and his eyes were currently bugging out of head, his mouth hanging open, and his hand halfway to his neck...a moment of shock and realisation-is-dawning-of-monumental-proportions...
- yep. He'd just realised.
She walked slowly over to him, taking tentative steps to the chair before sitting down next to him gently.
"Yeah," she murmured. "Bugger."
Rose turned her head to look at him, and he broke out of his trance to move likewise. They sat there, silently staring at each other for what seemed like forever, but was realistically only a few minutes. The tension between them was palpable, but neither could utter a word to break it.
He sort of wanted to kiss her, but he didn't think that would help matters, so he didn't.
Eventually, the Doctor cleared his throat. "Rose," he croaked out harshly, his throat dry. "I..."
"It's okay," she interrupted hurriedly. "It was just a slip of the tongue, right? No harm done."
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. "Right. Yes. Yes, of course. Just a slip of the..." His gaze dropped to her lips, her gently, encouragingly smiling lips, a hint of her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth. "...tongue," he finished, slightly high-pitched. He quickly met her eyes again, praying she hadn't noticed that other slip-up.
"Didn't...didn't mean anything," she added.
"Nope. No, definitely not. Didn't mean anything! Just...a...a turn of phrase," he elaborated.
"A mistake anyone could make," Rose offered, shrugging nonchalantly.
"Exactly. Weeelll, not exactly."
"What do you mean?" she asked innocently, her fingers playing with the button on his jacket without her mind giving them permission. Her mind was busy with trying to construe sentences - feed the Doctor justifications - though, so it didn't realise her disobedient digits' behaviour.
"Weeelll, it wouldn't be anyone who could make that mistake. Because it couldn't be a stranger, could it? They'd have to know you. Quite well. It would be a bit over-friendly for just an acquaintance to say it, don't you think?" he babbled.
"Yeah..." she said slowly. "Well, then. A mistake that anyone who knows me quite well could make," she amended.
He nodded. "Yeah. That's...better," he approved, his eyes darting to her mouth again when she wet her lips thoughtfully. He took some deep breaths and tried to think of what to say next.
"And...and really, I mean...well, we are friends, so..." she began again.
"Best friends," he interjected.
"Exactly," she said, nodding enthusiastically. "And best friends would sometimes, probably, say stuff like that, right?"
"Right. Yeah, course they do. We're just over-analysing it," he insisted, rolling his eyes as if laughing at their behaviour.
"We are, yeah. Over-analyse everything, you do," she laughed softly. Kind of nervously.
"Well, you started it."
"How did I start it?"
"Well, you could have just let it go. Ignored it. I didn't even realise I'd said it until you brought it up, so..."
"Oh. Right. Oh well. Never mind, at least it's all cleared up now."
"Yep, yes, of course. Water under the bridge."
"We won't dwell on the past."
"Nope. No regrets."
"Right."
"Good."
"Good."
Silence. An awkward, awkward silence.
And then:
The Doctor chuckled, and then Rose joined in, and soon, the pair of them were leaning into each other giggling hysterically.
Rose turned her head, and as she did, her forehead brushed against the Doctor's chin and he stopped laughing, instead choosing to watch her giggle into his neck. He shivered involuntarily, and prayed to all the gods he didn't believe in that she wouldn't notice. She didn't make any comment about it, so he reckoned his prayers had been answered by someone. His arm wrapped around her waist and held her to him; anchored her to him even, and he didn't want to let go of his laughing, beautiful Rose. Not ever.
Her laughter faded out and she brought her head up, wiping her eyes. "Oh god, what're we like?" she mumbled.
"What indeed," he replied, his eyes fixated on her happy face.
They were both silent for a few moments again, staring into each other's eyes. And yet, this time, it wasn't awkward.
Indeed, some unspoken declarations seemed to pass between them.
Rose's eyes widened slightly, and she bit her bottom lip, and the Doctor's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly. Simultaneously, he leaned downwards as she leaned upwards, and then –
"When do you suppose it happened?" the Doctor whispered, his words ghosting over her lips; the place where she thought his lips were going to land.
She blinked quickly, dismissing those disallowed thoughts from her mind. "What's that?" she asked hesitantly.
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear affectionately, and inhaled a deep breath, before letting it out just as quickly so that it whooshed across her mouth and cheeks.
Rose laid her hand just below his jaw line, resting against his neck as she prompted him to answer her. "Doctor? When did what happen?"
He gave a shaky laugh. "Just...er, just...weelll...um..." Another deep breath, and then... "When did we fall in love?" he asked her softly.
Startled, and with no protestations or denials ready this time, Rose gaped at him.
He intertwined his right hand with her left, and brought their joined hands to rest against his chest in the small gap between their bodies.
After a few minutes, Rose recovered herself, finally realising the answer to his question. "Doctor?"
"Yeah?" he responded, smiling happily that she wasn't squirming away from him and in actual fact was possibly about to answer his question.
"I think we've been a bit stupid," she replied carefully.
He frowned uneasily. "What do you mean?"
"Why did we even bother denying it before?" she mused, and he grinned.
"Exactly!"
"We've been in denial for months," she informed him seriously.
"Oh yes," he agreed.
"We've been in love with each other for months," she added.
"Oh yes," he said again.
"I don't think we should deny it anymore," she improvised.
"Oh, me neither," he replied.
"I think we should accept it."
"Me too. Nothing we can do about it really, is there? Not our fault."
"Course it isn't. It's...it's the universe's fault."
"Precisely," he grinned.
"But it'll be your fault that you get a whack on the head in thirty seconds," she said gravely.
"What? What? Why?" he asked, puzzled, and a little fearful.
"Because if you don't kiss me soon I'm going to force myself on you with such a...er, force...that I'll end up shoving you in the chest, thus shoving you off the chair and onto the floor, and then splat, bang, your head hits the - "
He kissed her then, partly to shut her up. Mostly because he loved her, and really, really, really wanted to kiss her, though.
She pulled back, breathless. " – grating," she wheezed out, finishing her sentence, before inhaling quickly then sealing her lips to his again.
...
Later. A lot later. And by 'a lot,' we are talking several hours.
"Rose," he whispered into her ear, a hint of amusement heavy in his quiet voice. "Guess what?"
"What?" she mumbled sleepily.
"Da Nile's not just a river in Egypt," he joked, before chuckling to himself.
Rose groaned and rolled over, mumbling, "I can't believe you just said that."
He reached his arm out to drag her back against him, beaming into the darkness. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. "Sorry. Wanted to say that all night, but was a bit too busy to bring it up."
She couldn't help but laugh. "You're an idiot."
"So are you," he retorted, nuzzling her neck with his nose.
"Are you going to let me sleep?"
"Are you going to let us do what we just did again when you wake up?" he asked, feeling some negotiating was in order.
She giggled. "I plan on letting us do nothing else but that for the whole of tomorrow," she informed him. "As long as I'm not too tired," she added as an afterthought.
"Nighty night then. Get some sleep. Big day ahead," he whispered, kissing her temple.
Rose giggled again, and shortly dozed off.
"Love you, Rose Tyler," he mumbled into her hair, hugging her close.
Even in her sleep, Rose Tyler smiled.
...
A/N: Hi everyone :) Hope you liked this oneshot. Thanks to all yous who keep reviewing, I love you muchly :D xxx