Talk of Boyfriends and Skinny-Dipping

Part 2

It was a dark night. They'd landed on some sort of jetty, jutting out into the sea. But Rose knew this was nowhere on Earth, because the sky periodically lit up with a bright purple light, every ten seconds or so. She stepped forward and the wooden slacks creaked beneath her feet.

The ocean before her made her feel like a sense of weightlessness commanded her being. She felt so small, but in a good way, caught up in the magical feelings the ambience was conjuring.

She forgot about the tea in her hand, cooling in the breeze, and closed her eyes, smiling as the soft sounds of the atmosphere crackling around her met her ears.

It reminded her of the first time she'd been to a firework display, six years old and amazed; she'd just closed her eyes for a brief moment and listened, before opening them again to watch. Only this – this was so much better, so much more. She felt so alive, and yet, so enveloped in a gentle happiness that she reckoned she'd be content to stand here, still, forever.

To capture her attention, the Doctor stroked her wrist tenderly where it hung at her side, her mug loosely held in her hand, tea spilling onto the wood and soaking through, and in between, and out, to the sea beneath.

She looked up at him, saw him sipping nonchalantly from his own mug as he watched her carefully, and had the most overwhelming desire to wipe the smug, knowing smile off his face. Not in a cruel way, you understand. She just wanted to surprise him, give him a beautiful shock, like he so often did for her.

So she cocked an eyebrow, poked her tongue between her teeth impishly, and innocently suggested they go skinny dipping in the indigo waters.

The Doctor's mug fell from his hand and rolled along and into the sea with a splash. She had to squint in the sudden dim light, but nevertheless, she saw him swallow; hard.

She bent down and carefully placed her mug upright on the jetty. Then, she stared at the expanse of stunning water, or what she took to be water, anyway, as she slowly unzipped her hoodie.

"Rose," he rasped out hastily. "You, um...you'd better not..."

"Why? Is there something wrong with the water?" she asked, shrugging her hoodie off and pulling her t-shirt over her head.

She watched as he stumbled forward to her, grabbing her wrists. He kept his gaze level with hers and absolutely refused himself the opportunity to glance lower. "No, no, but listen. This place, it's got this...um, stuff, these chemical-thingies, in the air - in a nice way! - so you might be feeling a bit less...inhibited now, but when we go back to the TARDIS..."

"I might feel embarrassed?" she pre-empted.

"Mmm," he agreed, gulping.

Rose just shrugged. "Oh well. It's only you that'll see me," she said, glancing around them. "No one else is around."

His eyebrows drew together worriedly. "Rose, I really don't think - "

" – oh, come on!" she scoffed, grasping hold of his tie and deftly removing it from his neck as she continued, "You're the most adventurous, courageous man I've ever known; you're scared of a bit of naked swimming? Shame on you."

The Doctor took a step back and made a show of rolling his eyes, which she saw clearly as the purple light illuminated their surroundings again. "I'm not scared, I'm just...I'm thinking of you."

She raised an eyebrow, grinning wickedly.

"No!" he exclaimed, alarmed as he realised what she'd taken that to mean. Not again, blimey. Could he ever get his words right? "I meant, I'm just thinking of your...welfare! Yes, that's right. I'm concerned about your welfare. That's all I was thinking about. Honestly. Nothing...else." He was now lying, of course. He'd protested far too much for it to seem genuine.

Rose unbuttoned her jeans and quickly shimmied out of them. "Okay," she replied simply.

"Rose," he said emphatically, now concentrating on her mug on the jetty rather than staring at her half-naked body. "Don't..." he said then – but this time, he didn't sound as insistent.

"What, you're telling me this isn't the reason you brought us here?" she asked cheekily, unclasping her bra and adding it to the pile of clothing building between them.

He let out a strangled moan. "Don't be ridiculous," he murmured, trying to regain his composure. He had just wanted her to be in a better mood, like she had been before she'd gone all weird in the kitchen. He hadn't expected her to strip off right in front of him! Or at all, actually.

It was when she stepped up to him and started to push his jacket off his shoulders that he accidently raised his gaze in surprise - and consequently ended up getting an eyeful of her chest. He squeezed his eyes shut.

Then he realised, as he opened them again about twenty seconds later, that she'd unbuttoned his shirt most of the way down. He gasped, and tugged her hand away half-heartedly.

"You think you can manage the rest yourself?" Rose grinned, as she let go of him and watched his glazed over expression as she bent over slightly to take off her knickers.

"Hmmgh," he said ineffectually, trying with all his will not to let his eyes stray from hers. His hands unconsciously went to his shirt, and he undid the ones she had not, shrugging the garment off without a second thought. He even took off his converses without any prompting from her.

Seeing he was finally following her lead, Rose beamed at him. "Yay!" she laughed, trailing her hand down his chest. "You're really gonna - oomph!" she abruptly exclaimed, as she found herself being grasped roughly around the waist and pushed backwards – off the jetty and into the ocean.

After recovering herself from sinking under the water, she spluttered in the Doctor's face, astounded to see him grinning smugly at her as he held her afloat while he treaded water. "Alright?" he asked innocently, his hands each carefully placed at her waist and lower back.

"Alright?" she repeated loudly. "That scared the life out of me!"

"I know," he commented casually, pretending the feel of her pressed against him wasn't addling his mind and self-control. "I can feel your heart beating way too fast..."

She swallowed thickly, wondering how she could've thought she'd have the upper hand in this game of theirs when he still had his trousers on but she was completely sans clothing. Why had she taken everything off without him shedding his clothes first? Damn it, she hated hindsight. Unless her sight was viewing the Doctor's behind, of course; but that was beside the point.

"...and," he continued ponderingly, as if he wasn't remotely affected by the following fact, "You're squeezing me rather tight."

Rose realised then that her arms were locked around his neck and her legs were both wrapped around one of his. "Well," she began, trying to steady her breathing. "What'd you expect, nearly drowning me like that!"

"I'd never let you drown," he countered softly.

She let out a shaky breath and let go of him slowly, putting some distance between them by beginning to backstroke away.

"Um, Rose..." he called out to her, his voice surprising her with its huskiness. "Can you please not swim like that?"

"Why?" she called back to him, now letting herself float at the surface.

"Because every time the sky lights up, I can see...everything..." he mumbled.

Rose lifted her head and mock-scowled at him. "And you don't like what you see?"

"What!" he exclaimed, eyes widening in horror at the thought that he might've upset her again. "No, did I say that? I didn't say that. Quite the contrary. You look, uh, lovely, very lovely and um...oh. You're teasing me."

She'd started to giggle, and he finally caught on.

"Rose," he whined, swimming away from her.

"Doctor," she called cheerfully, swimming back up to him. He tried to move away but she kept up. "I don't know why you're so reluctant to just relax. Seriously, it's such a beautiful place. Just chill."

"I can't!" he exclaimed in frustration, cross with himself more than her.

"Why not? I thought you said there's chemicals or whatever in the air. How come you aren't losing your inhibitions?" Rose teased, sneaking a hand to his ribs and tickling him underwater.

He leapt away from her best he could in the situation. "Superior biology," he grumbled.

"Oh," she realised.

He turned to face her, watching her carefully as he spoke. "Thing is, Rose, you still haven't let me kiss you, yet."

Her eyebrows rose. Finally. "Well, that's easily remedied," she smiled, edging closer to him.

He edged away just as quickly. "Yeah, but now you're naked," he said, sounding distressed.

"So?" she laughed.

"So?" he repeated sarcastically. "So, you're naked. That's explanation in itself."

"How is it?"

"Because. You. Are. Naked," he said slowly, as if it were obvious.

"I repeat: so?"

His jaw clenched in frustration. "Rose."

"What?" she grinned. "Look, so what if I've got no clothes on? We'd've ended up in that situation anyway."

"We...would?" he gulped.

"Yep."

He shivered despite the warmth of the water. "Right."

Rose bit her lip ponderingly. "Doctor, you do realise you were the one who pushed me in here, yeah?"

He sighed to himself. "A moment of impulsive madness. It was your fault. You've been teasing me all night. Anyway, you were planning on jumping in. I just sped up the process."

"By flinging yourself in with me," she pointed out, recalling the way he'd held onto her afterwards.

"Seizing an opportunity," he admitted. "Listen, Rose..."

"Yeah?"

"Maybe we should get out of here."

"Why?"

"The temperature's getting cooler, haven't you noticed?"

"Bit preoccupied," she grinned. "But yeah, now you mention it, the water's not as warm as it was."

The Doctor nodded, swimming over to the jetty and hoisting himself up. He sat on the edge and held out his hands. "Come on then; that's enough skinny dipping for one night."

"You say that with a promise in your voice that it'll happen again," Rose smirked.

"Maybe," he answered, shrugging. "Let me help you up."

"And you so don't have an ulterior motive here, do you?" she grinned, as he pulled her out of the water. The force of her weight sent him tilting backwards a bit, and then she sat on his lap to gain purchase, sufficiently surrendering his limbs useless; he flopped onto his back with a groan.

"Rose." Parts of him thought himself so incredibly lucky to have Naked Rose on his lap. Mostly, though, he was concentrating on not focusing on the issue, rather reluctant to relinquish control on top of an overstated piece of wood.

"Sorry," she said, muffling a laugh as she managed to scramble off him and stand up without losing her balance and falling into the sea again. Without a thought not to, Rose picked up his shirt and slipped it on.

The Doctor belatedly opened his eyes as he stood up too, and they widened theatrically at what they saw.

"What?" Rose said defensively. "At least it's long enough to cover me up. Can't put my jeans back on now I'm soaking wet, can I?"

He answered via shaking his head mutely.

She gathered up the rest of their clothes, and her mug, and started walking back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor stared after her, completely approving of her decision to wear his light blue shirt. His light blue shirt that was now wet from contact with her skin. His light blue shirt that was now transparently showing off Rose's curves, amidst the nice purple glow from the sky. He loved that purple glow. He loved that light blue shirt.

And also, the woman it contained, apparently, for he called out to her distractedly, "I love you, Rose."

She turned around, but he couldn't see her expression because unfortunately, the sky had gone dark again.

His hearts thumped nervously in his chest, and he longed for her to say something so that he could concentrate his hearing on that, rather than the blood rushing in his ears.

Resigned to her silence, he closed his eyes, wishing he'd kept quiet. But then, he felt her arms wrap around his neck, and then, he felt her lips on his, and then it occurred to him that she was kissing him, so he kissed her back. His hands came up to her hips and pulled her flush against him, just as purple lit up the sky once more.

He walked her backwards, feeling for the edge of the TARDIS, pushing her through the doors when he found it, forgetting about her recently-dropped clothing. They stumbled down the corridor together, him touching every bit of her he could reach.

"Are you...are you sure?" he gasped out against her neck as she tugged him through her bedroom door.

"Of course I am," she replied breathlessly.

"But," he began, pausing as she kissed him again. "The chemicals...?"

"I've wanted this for ages, it's got nothing to do with those bloody chemicals," she answered hastily. "I've changed my mind, by the way. I think you'd be a good boyfriend. Now stop not-kissing me."

He grinned, and playfully pushed her onto her bed before following her eagerly. "I'd be delighted to."

-x-

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it :) Let me know what you think x