It's Different, With You
-x-
"Rose...can I ask you a few questions?" asked the Doctor, coming into the console room. He'd evidently just got out of the shower, as he was barefoot, towel-drying his hair, and clad only in his trousers and shirt, with no tie or jacket.
Rose looked up from her magazine and grinned at him, mainly because she always did, but partly because he looked absolutely adorable at that moment. He also looked very confused. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"
He gulped. "Okay. Well. I was just, let's say...pondering...in the shower, when - "
"Pondering in the shower?" she repeated, arching an eyebrow.
"Yes," he nodded quickly. "The shower is an excellent place to...ponder...Anyway! So there I was, pondering, when something suddenly occurred to me."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," he agreed. He cleared his throat and leant against the console in front of where she was lounging on the jumpseat. "See, the thing is, I've...um. Well, I've danced, in the past, yeah?" He gestured with a waggle of his eyebrows to make sure she gathered his meaning. She did. He meant sex. "I mean, not often, but...occasionally. I even got married, you know! Weeelll, to be fair, it was an arranged marriage, but still. Anyway...And I've certainly kissed or have been kissed by a fair few ladies in my life..."
Rose swallowed hard. "Right...?"
"For instance, there was Grace in San Francisco, that was quite nice, and...well, that recent event of which we do not talk about and pretend never happened because I'm still very sorry, Rose, for doing that..." he said hurriedly.
She waved away his apology and said, "Doctor, your point?"
"My point? Ah yes. Yes, I do have a point here somewhere. What I'm trying to say is...well. I've been in...situations...before wherein there's been an element of, uh..." he floundered for the right word.
Rose helped him out. "Attraction? Pleasure?" she prompted, stifling her giggles.
Catching her eye, her gleaming, mischievous gaze, he pulled a face at her and threw his towel in her direction. She did giggle then.
"Well anyway," he said, tugging on his ear. "My point is, you and I have never...danced...and we've never even kissed, not properly, not with...you know...intent."
Her eyes widened. "And...?"
"And, that's why I'm confused, that's why I'm asking for help, you see. Because even though we've never, ahem, gone further than the mostly platonic sort of hugging and hand-holding, I..."
"You...?" she urged, sitting up straight, her breath coming a little quicker in anticipation.
"I...ponder," he began thoughtfully. "About...about you. You and me. I..." he trailed off for a moment, feeling flustered under her questioning gaze. "I feel...I feel things." He winced. "Oh, I'm rubbish at this." He looked at her helplessly. "I feel things, Rose. You make me feel things. Things I probably shouldn't. Definitely shouldn't."
She raised her eyebrows. "What sort of things?"
"Well, I...don't think I should say out loud," he muttered.
Her breath hitched. "Why's that?"
"Because you might slap me," he retorted, as if it was obvious.
She frowned. "I might not." There was a pause. "I might be flattered," she suggested quietly.
"Flattered? To know that I can't get you out of my head?" he replied dubiously.
Rose rolled her eyes. He could be so thick sometimes. "Well, obviously. Any girl would be."
"Even if," he started, his voice dropping lower. "Even if the thoughts I think often become..." He paused, searching her eyes. He hoped he saw excitement in them, not revulsion, and continued, "Graphic."
She swallowed thickly and crossed her legs. "What sort of graphic?" she murmured huskily.
"Naked sort of graphic," he replied.
Their eyes were locked on one another's and she murmured, still a little disbelievingly, "You've imagined me naked."
His Adam's apple bobbed nervously as he swallowed. "Yes," he admitted, almost-silently.
Rose felt a bit light-headed, and rested her hands either side of her on the jumpseat to keep herself upright. "You...fantasise?"
Another swallow. A quiet, "Yes."
"Do you...do you..." she struggled to ask him her question, blushing bright red as she finally said, "Do you do anything else, while you're...fantasising?"
His eyes widened. His cheeks turned a bit pink. He hesitated, but didn't break her gaze. "Maybe," he squeaked out uncertainly.
"Oh my god," Rose mumbled. She pursed her lips to hold back her sudden compulsion to laugh.
He shifted awkwardly. "Look, I'm really...sorry, I..." He closed his eyes, feeling incredibly embarrassed, and scratched the back of his neck. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, I don't want to ruin things, I just...I just need to know why I feel like this, why I feel the need to...do that, why I'm so..."
"Doctor, it's alright," she reassured him. He opened his eyes and she saw his hopeful look. "I'm just surprised, that's all. Didn't think high and mighty Time Lords did that sort of thing..." She couldn't hold it in, then. She snorted in her amusement and collapsed into giggles.
He groaned. "Rose, please don't laugh!"
"Sorry," she giggled. "It's just...wait, how long have you felt like this? How long have you been...?"
"Well. Well, um. Well, it hasn't been - "
"Do you reckon it's some sort of...I dunno, maybe you've inhaled some alien aphrodisiac?" she suggested, thinking it over, assuming there had to be some sort of ulterior explanation for this. "Anywhere we've visited recently with plants or such that make you go a bit...randy?"
"Ah."
"What? There is?"
"No, no. No. That was just an 'ah' as in, 'ah, she doesn't get it."
"What do you mean?"
"You. You don't get it." He sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily. "Thing is Rose, what I was going to say before you interrupted me with your theorising, was it hasn't been just recently."
"Oh." She bit her lip thoughtfully.
The Doctor suppressed the urge to help her out with that.
"Well, maybe...is it since you regenerated? Maybe, because you kissed the vortex out of me, it left an imprint or something on the new you -"
"Rose."
"What?"
"I've felt this way for a very long time."
She couldn't help but grin. "Right. So this is just...you, then? No outside force involved?"
"I would hope not," he retorted indignantly.
"Well then."
He swallowed. "Well then what?"
"Sounds like you're attracted to me." Her eyes twinkled dangerously at him.
"Well, obviously. Who wouldn't be?"
She smiled. "You don't usually..."
"Voice my compliments to you? You're right, I don't. But I can assure you, I compliment you rather a lot."
"In your head?"
"Yep."
"Like what?"
He sniffed nonchalantly. "Stuff that's either too romantic or too...private...to say out loud in polite conversation."
"Nice to know."
"Is it?"
"Yes," she assured him. "Very nice to know."
"Right." He paused. "So...what do you propose I do about this problem, then?"
"What problem?"
"My problem of thinking about you in a variety of inappropriate ways?"
"You think it's a problem?"
"Don't you?"
"Doesn't have to be."
"Doesn't it?"
"Nope."
His hearts beat fiercely against his chest. "So...you ever felt like this?"
"Like...?"
"Like you could just...do unspeakable things to another person anywhere, anywhen, damn the consequences, damn all the people around."
"Oh. Well. Yes."
"And what did you do about it?"
"Haven't done anything about it yet," she replied steadily.
He gulped. "No?"
"Nope."
"May I ask...who, exactly, is the...object of your..."
"Fantasies?"
"Mmm."
"Well, I'd've thought that would be easy to guess."
"I hope...I hope that who I want you to be thinking about...in that way...is who you actually do think about...in that way...but..." He squinted at her, evidently assessing the probability of his hopes coming to fruition. "If you still, well, if you've ever, at all...done so...I'm not...certain."
"I always have and always will," she answered simply.
"Hmm?"
"I always have," she repeated slowly, uncrossing her legs and standing up. "And I always will. Whatever he looks like. Because though he's changed, he's still the same man, right? Just like I've changed, but I'm still Rose Tyler." She paused, and took a step closer to him, giving him a cheeky grin. "I'm still the girl you fancy. Although maybe not so much a girl now, more of a - "
"Woman," the Doctor finished for her, his voice low and dark and absolutely gorgeous.
"Yeah," she breathed out roughly, stepping even closer to him. There was barely an inch between them now. His head was tilted down to face hers, their hot breath mingling.
His eyes travelled down from hers and he first looked at her body, then the space between hers and his. "Rose," he murmured.
"Doctor," she shot back, in the same tempting, admiring tone.
"I've never even touched you," he whispered, marvelling at their situation. "Not like I want to. Not like I've dreamt of doing. But you make me feel...so..." he trailed off, unable to vocalise it sufficiently.
Rose didn't answer this time, but she placed her hand over his, where it was hovering over her waist, and pressed downwards so that he had his palm to her hip. He instantly tightened his hold, pulling her slightly towards him without even realising. They stared into each other's eyes, somehow daring each other to be the next one to do something, to make a move. Rose took up the challenge once more and grabbed his other hand, guiding it to the hem of her shirt. His fingertips caressed her stomach beneath it gently, before journeying further up, skirting just short of the underwire of her bra.
"Doctor," she prompted, raising herself up on tiptoes, trying to entice him into kissing her.
"One more thing," he whispered. "Then I'll kiss you, I promise." His eyes twinkled at her merrily and she nodded, impatient. "All this," he started. "All this feeling and wanting and dreaming...it's so much more, it's so...intense. I've never felt anything like it...so...is that because..."
"Because what?" she asked.
He swallowed hard, then let out a shaky breath. "Rose."
"Yeah?"
"Are we in love with each other?" he asked her softly.
She smiled slowly. "Course we are."
He smiled back and let out a sigh of relief. "Thought so." And then he kept his promise and let his lips descend on hers.