Hey, folks! So a new chapter is up that makes it the second part of my three-part AU arc. Not sure if it's a good thing or not, but there's gonna be the third(the last part) still. With it, we'll be officially going to Season 3! This thing has become a lot bigger than I originally planned, but then again, I always wanted to write a vivid, throughout AU arc of my own. So your feedback on this is very much needed and appreciated!
Hugs and kisses coming your way, my dear readers. Thanks for being here with me! Cheers~
The Canine Kingdom Continuation
"Buzzed."
"Stoned."
"...wasted?"
"Three sheets to the wind."
"Uhh... under the influence!"
"Next," the Doctor sniffed. The smug look on his face was just the icing on the cake for her already frustrated mood. She should have known better than to start a Word War with a polyglot such as the Doctor himself.
"Ugh, seriously? I don't know any more words."
"Weell, if you want to surrender-" the Doctor started with a joyful tone in his voice that just asked to be silenced. Rose presented him with a hard look, showing him precisely what she thought of that. "I'm not surrendering. "
"Well, we're already at 51st synonym, so you might as well." The Doctor seemed to be unconcerned either way. Confident in his own win, he continued to walk with a casual pace in his steps.
"And how many are there?"
"Early 21st century? Uhh, around three thousand?" At Rose's groan, the Doctor gave her a side-way grin. "It's a real fact. Lists of synonyms for being tipsy has been a pursuit of the literary set since Benjamin Franklin first assembled his Drinker's Dictionary in 1735."
Rose blinked at that revelation, considering. "That's... a lot of words for just trying to say someone has taken the liking to hard liquor." She laughed a bit. "Mind you, can't say the same about this lot. They seem to have never even heard the word alcohol." Rose rotated her shoulders, leaning in towards the Doctor to whisper in a conspiring manner. "You think it's possible that under all that heavy armor, there's just a big fluffy teddy bear underneath?" she ended in a teasing tone, sharing a knowing look with the Doctor at which they both burst out into uncontrollable laughter.
"Quiet, you two."
The voice that grunted, or more likely barked at them belonged to the guard just in front of the duo, leading the path ahead. The Doctor and Rose had had been walking through the path deep into the mountains for the past couple of hours. Dehydrated and exhausted, sore and uncomfortable in their own shoes... well they have had worse. It would not have been so bad, if their company was on the more sociable side. As it was now, even the Doctor couldn't get more than a couple of words out of these two stuck ups. Yes, words - the one thing the Doctor was always good at.
"Always the grumpy ones," the Doctor grumbled sulkily while continuing to walk with Rose on his right side, "I wonder why can't we ever get guards who are actually nice. If we are going to be put down to prison," the Doctor put emphasis on the word are while contemplating the possibilities of them escaping before they even managed to reach the said prison, "We might as well have someone nice to escort us. Yeh? Yeh? Oh yeh." The Doctor nudged Rose with his hip to which she only awkwardly bounced towards the wall of the mountain before readjusting her stance by his side. Rose purposely ignored the non-impressed look from the guard behind them, shooting him a grin instead. She redirected her attention towards the Doctor before commenting, "Bit rich. Coming from you."
"Oi! What's that supposed to mean?"
Rose bit her lip in order to prevent it from trembling at the scandalized look the Doctor gave her in return of her remark. "Well, you're not exactly... nice," she told him in a teasing manner; batting her eyelashes and grinning with tongue-between-her-teeth smile while silently laughing at the Doctor's attempt to prove her wrong.
"I am nice! I'm very nice. I'm... oh all right, I'm not nice."
The Doctor rolled his eyes and walked past Rose, grumbling unhappily... that lasted a whole of four seconds when the guards finally announced the change in their scenery. At the far side of the mountain path, stood solid dark brown doors, piquing the Doctor's interest at once. He bounced the last remaining couple of steps with vigor.
"Ohh, it seems we have reached some kind of opening. Hardwood double-doors. Made from Oak, it seems." He swiped his tongue along the lines of the hard wood to further confirm the fact, satisfied by his successful deduction. By the time the two growling guards caught up with him, the Doctor had already measured the size, pattern and texture of the said doors. He barely gave them a second glance at being bodily shoved aside to stand and wait for their further instructions.
The Doctor titled his head to the side, changing the angle of observation as he let the guards work on opening the said doors. "The design is a bit old. Familiar. It's a bit... Earth-like, no? Don't you think it's a bit Earth-like?" He turned to Rose for help, grinning at the thoughtful look on her face.
"Like from um... middle-ages movies," she tried guessing to which the Doctor had to disapprove with a tilt of his head.
"Eh, close. Think more of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."
He only had to take one look at her before a light bulb flickered inside her mind.
"Oh, oh! The werewolf, Queen Victoria uh... 1879!"
The two high-fived before sobering up.
"But that's weird. Why would Barcelona have nineteenth century Earth stuff?" she wondered, furrowing her brows in a cute frown. The lines against her forehead indicated the depths of her efforts made by thinking. Always trying her full best at giving the situation at hand the attention it needed, Rose, more times than not, found those little clues for him to further work on the problem.
More times than not, he simply adored her.
More times than he could count, he lost himself in thinking about her. "Hmm," the Doctor hummed in thought, not quite sure what was he agreeing to. He did manage to pick on the word human in Rose's musings though, so used it to make a full length sentence. "You're not humans by any chance, are you?" the Doctor called out for the guards, gaining a hard look in return. "No? Oh okay, we'll take that growl as a no then."
Sparing them no more second looks, the guard went back to work his? Hers? Its? (you can't ever be too sure) insignia against the control lock. On the right side of the doors, stamped deeply inside the mountain's surface rested a metal control panel which seemed to be regulated simply by insignia of Barcelona. It was a matching imprint of the medallion. One of the guards pressed the said thing against the controls, which resulted in a short high pitched sound and then a click of something inside the wooden doors.
With a creak, the doors opened up.
They found themselves in a dark, cold and very humid place. Judging by the acoustics and smell the Doctor determined it to be a tunnel inside the mountain. They could only assume it would somehow lead them towards the prison which they were supposed to be prisoners of.
Rose found herself clutching onto the relatively thin fabric of her hoodie. She tried to look around her surroundings but to no vain. It was all just pitch black. At one point she barely kept herself from tripping and face-planting on the ground before a reassuring hand gripped hers tightly. She exhaled in relief, giving it a squeeze in gratitude.
The Doctor cleared his throat.
"So, what's it's gonna be now then? You taking us to court? Putting us on trial?" Anyone else might have felt intimidated by the eerie and awkward silence that followed, but the Doctor went on, nonplussed, "Who's gonna have the last word? Hmm, let me guess. The tribunal?" He then stopped, considering, "Although, this planet being a kingdom for centuries, the king would probably suffice more. I've been on trial once..." he added as an afterthought, "Well, I say once but what I mean is a few times... well, I say a few but it's actually a couple more. There's really no use for counting that."
And as always, there was no response to that. The Doctor sniffed.
"You don't speak much, do you? Never mind. I can speak for two. Unless it's an Earth thing? Is it? Should I talk about some other planet? What d'you think about Raxacoricofalapatorius? How about Clom? Still no? Then what d'yo-"
He was cut off abruptly by a sudden burst of light, blinding everyone inside the tunnel. The Doctor blinked a few times to adjust to the change of lighting and then was just about to take a step further. Before he could do that, he was blocked by a massive form of black clothed individual with a metal armor.
"Oh." He blinked a few times more before tilting his head upwards. Covered in black, with a metal mask that disguised most of their face except for the yellow eyes, nose and a hole for a mouth, the giant was posing what was probably the closest to a grin he could muster. Just more... feral... and dangerous. "Oh. Your teeth is uh... quite nicely done. Could you recommend me to your dentist? I'd like to sharpen mine also."
"Yeeh..." Rose cut in to pat the Doctor on the shoulder. "I think he's trying to intimidate you to shut up."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, not impressed in the least.
"Yeh? Well, that never stopped me. Oh, believe me - they tried." He chuckled at the hopeless shake of Rose's head, but they both knew – she was amused. That lasted another four seconds before the guards stepped aside to show them where had they been lead to.
They emerged into a clearing of the mountain - at least five hundred feet down, another hundred and fifty feet across towards the mountain on the other side, and bellow, the spindly suspension bridge that span the gap.
"Oh. Well, I think you've proven your point. This does make me speechless."
Meanwhile, the streets of Barcelona were full of clatter; the merchants having finished their work day, were busy folding up their business. There were still quite a few lingering folks, trying to get the last of the sales, so a few lower rank guards were put to regulate 'the traffic', also to take action if a sudden fight would ensue. After his failure in collecting the insignia that he needed, Alec was back in the streets, looking for his new victim. Just as he was about to follow one middle-aged blue-skinned citizen, rounding the corner, Alec nearly collided with a pair of guards near by the local dinner. Cursing his luck, he meant to just go his own way when something the two guards were talking about caught his attention. Well, more like one was hyper actively telling it to the other one who couldn't seem to be bothered.
"This is an opportunity! You know how much they pay you in the underground prisons? I hear it's an amount you can't dream up with your imagination alone. And all because they need more force in relocating a single prisoner," the hyper one continued to speak while the other one just grunted, either in agreement or not.
"That-that's a good one. You already sound like them! All you need now is the armor and you'd fit right in." He laughed at his own joke. The other sighed and then turned to spare one last look at his colleague. "And you don't look or sound like any of them." Surprisingly that was followed by a mocking grin, leaving the hyper one sputtering behind.
"O-oi! Do you think I'm not getting the promotion, then?" He flailed, but the other one already left him, disappearing in the crowd. Which was all the opportunity Alec needed. Lower ranking guards were easy prey not only because of their lack of armor but also for their poor sense of danger. He never saw it coming until a pricking needle was held against his throat. "Don't move. There's a poisonous needle against your neck. I stop the blood flow of your carotid artery and you die within minutes," Alec whispered in his prey's ear threateningly. The guard jumped, startled, nearly pinching himself in the process and only the good reflexes of Alec managed to avoid that. He pressed a grounding hand against the hyper one's shoulder, willing him to stay still.
Instead, he started sputtering. "Look, I just got promoted- Okay, okay. Oh my god. What do you want? I'll speak, okay! Ju-just don't kill me."
Alec had to sigh. "No one is killing you." Then after a pause. "If you cooperate."
"I will I will!" the guard reassured him, his whole body vibrating.
"Good. Now tell me everything you know about the prisoner that's being relocated."
Back on the expanses of the clearing of the mountains, the Doctor and Rose stood with dumbstruck faces, watching the barely-holding-it-together bridge swinging from one side to the other. It was a rope bridge made of wooden planks held together by rope. The gaps between the planks were at least half the width of the wooden planks itself, stealing any kind of sense of safety from the already dangerous-looking bridge.
Rose flinched at the sound of wood against wood.
The Doctor took it upon himself to inspect the bridge with a closer look; he took a hold of the rope that held the bridge together - rubbing it against his fingers, tugging on it, until he was shooed away by one of the guards.
Rose would have been impressed by how the Doctor got away with half the stuff he did to get on the last nerves of those guards, if she wasn't still pretty much in shock at the sorry excuse of a passing bridge ahead.
"Umm… I'm just going to say the obvious and ask," the Doctor started, tugging on his ear, a sure sign of his discomfort. "You're not actually trying to make us cross this bridge, are you?" He pursued his lips at the blank looks on their faces. "Because if you are, and that's a bit if because that would imply that you had serious problems in various subjects at school; starting with math and ending with physics," he said it with a short laugh, that nearly made him loose an ear by a sudden swing of a fist, which he barely dodged. "Woah! Easy there." Holding up his hands in defense and walking backwards, he continued, "My point being – that bridge is not able to hold the mass of four people. Especially not those giant chunks of metal you got yourselves on." He then tilted his head in casual consideration. "Well, I suppose you could always strip down naked but still, then we'd have to call Jack Harkness here and I feel like a Tuesday evening is too early for a swingers party, so." He shrugged casually, gaining a low growl coming from one of the guards. The Doctor gave him a wink. Just for the sake of it.
"Unauthorised people with criminal record are to go first," another guard grunted. It seemed like it physically pained him to have any kind of conversation with the Doctor.
"Oh yeh?" the Doctor asked nonchalantly before Rose cut in, "So what you're saying is, we're the guinea pigs. If we don't fall, you get to follow. Pretty smart. And try inhumane," she ended with a whisper under her breath, only the Doctor hearing the last part. He looked at her in amusement before something else previously said caught his attention.
"Hold on a minute. Criminal record? There hasn't even been a trial yet!" he cried out, closing in on the guard, staring it down. "Innocent until proven guilty. That's an universal law, not just Earth's."
A vein ticked inside the guard's temple, pulsing. "Barcelona's law is separate from those of other planets," he told them in a low rumble.
The Doctor raised his both eyebrows in question. "So you're what, an autonomous planet, unbound by the Shadow Proclamation, is that it?
"Yes."
"Oh really? I wonder why that doesn't surprise me." The Doctor nodded, running his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "And if I said… no?" he asked, but before the two could round on him, stopped them with a finger. "No no no no. What if…. What if the bridge disappeared, eh? You wouldn't have a way to transport us to the other mountain then."
In a few strides he was back by the main rope of the bridge, holding it in his grip. "Rope this thick, I wonder if it would survive my karate chop… probably not," he popped the p, sounding amused if anything. "We should find out."
"Defiance. Threats of destruction," the guard barked the words out at him, his eyes shinning bright yellow. The other seemed to be… writing it all down on some sort of white surface.
The Doctor frowned. "Did you… did you just put more charges on my case?"
"Uh, Doctor?" Rose called out, bringing his attention to her. "Listen to this - "If any property is destroyed by or while escorting the prisoners to the prison, they are held fully responsible. Punishable by death," she read aloud, holding out a piece of colorful paper in her hands.
"What!? Where did you get that from?"
"Um… they gave me this uh… pamphlet to read." She waved the thing in her hand. "It says "The basic laws of Barcelona. Dedicated to foreigners."
The Doctor blinked. "Oh." Then after a few seconds, "Why didn't I get a pamphlet?"
Rose rolled her eyes at him, then tried to communicate with the Doctor to cooperate with her. The guards were starting to get more and more restless and she could have sworn she saw something silver glistening in the light (possibly a weapon to restrain them?) Yeh, she wondered why that didn't happen yet. She heaved a sigh. "Whatever the case, I think we're gonna need to cross that bridge. "
The Doctor glanced at the absolutely murderous looks the two guards were now shooting at him and decided it was just not worth getting killed for. He inhaled a big amount of air, turning his back to the guards. "Well then. It would put a shame on my reputation to not take the odds. This sheer vertigo inducing straight drop down is just my kind of medicine for adrenaline stimulation." He made sure to say the last bit a bit louder, for the guards to hear and then addressed Rose more gently, "Come on."
The Doctor and Rose stood hand in hand at the start of the bridge, seconds ticking by and the growls behind their backs increasing. With his resolve made, the Doctor said he'd be going first and turned to Rose to add, "Button up. Tightly. The weather is not gonna be kind out there."
As the Doctor took his first steps onto the bridge, it didn't seem too bad. The bridge sagged a little, but otherwise remained steady. He steadily and precisely made sure for his steps to fit in the middle of the wooden planks, avoiding the gaps in between. The wind was strong and distracting, but Rose was slowly starting to get used to this planet's environment.
With a deep breath, she put her own weight against the wood, gripping tightly onto the poorly maintained guardrails. They had holes... big ones. And with no second protective guardrail. Of course not. Why would there be anything invented for safety here, right?
As she went further, watching her steps, they soon reached the point where the bridge started to sag more and more with each step they took. The wind also took a turn to worse – messing her hair, which sometimes obscured her view. It was also starting to get really chilly when it blew through her thin rich pink hoodie and straight to her bones. The only reassuring thought was being able to see the Doctor's back ahead through her peripheral vision.
Sometimes a violent gust of wind would make the whole bridge sway from one side to the other, freezing them on the spot to wait it out. The Doctor tried to reassure her by talking but most of the things would be left unheard; him walking ahead of her, the sound of his voice would echo straight ahead and there would be nothing left to reach her, who was walking behind. He then would try to change his tactic by calling out over his shoulder and Rose would yell out to him to watch his steps. He would only chuckle at her.
"What d'you say, Rose Tyler? A bit of humanly experience."
"Brilliant, yeh. It would be more fun if it didn't swing and bounce by each step we took."
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Eh. Suspension bridges are inherently a bit wobbly."
Rose couldn't help laughing. He just had that effect on her. Making everything seem less grave than it was, reassuring her.
Only this time it was a mistake on her part.
About two-thirds of the way across they realised that at one point the bridge broke (or was about to break) and has since been haphazardly fixed with a mixture of wooden planks and plastic plumbing pipes. But as with all their inventions, the job was not quite finished well.
Still chuckling with mirth, Rose miscalculated the width of the gap between the planks and put her whole weight on the edge of one such not-quite-fixed wooden plank. Unable to hold such weight, the wood snapped in two, opening a gap where it broke. Rose unbalanced, her foot going in the hole.
It was so sudden that even her scream got caught in her throat as her whole body froze in that position; half crouching, her whole weight on one foot, the other knee-deep into the freshly made hole and gripping the guardrails with white knuckles.
Her pulse quickened to the speed of a racing car as she stayed frozen in that moment. Rose had seen many things in her twenty-something years. Ghosts that were not quite ghosts, her planet being invaded by aliens (actually more than once). She also had a bronze in gymnastics (which was probably one of the reasons she could still hold her balance now) but that one moment when your grip loosens and you fall... she had too many to count but too little to ever get used to them.
She breathed in and out to calm herself and felt her hearing come back to her.
"Rose..."
She blinked at hearing the Doctor's voice so near. Glancing up, she found the Doctor staring at her, a worried look on his face which he desperately tried to conceal. He swallowed a few times before he found his voice again. "Can you get up? I'll hold the bridge's balance for you."
Rose frowned at him before she turned to look at the still slightly swaying bridge. It lost its equilibrium when Rose quite literally dove through that hole. She swallowed and nodded at first slowly then with more reassurance. "Yeh... um... I can do that, yeh."
She closed her eyes to get herself under control and only opened them when she was confident she could do it. Putting equal weight on the guardrails on either side, she slowly pulled herself up in a standing position. She stood very steadily on her one foot which held her whole weight until the other foot was out of the gaping hole. With a held breath she put her other foot on another, more sturdy plank and finally found her balance back. There was a deep sigh of relief coming from somewhere ahead and Rose looked up at the Doctor with a small grin. "Still got that bronze in gymnastics," she quipped to which the Doctor exhaled a breathy laugh.
After the incident, the two continued their path through the Shady Bridge (the Doctor christened it with a name), without any further concerns.
By the time Rose's feet reached the ground's surface, it seemed they both had aged a few years. But ultimately, what mattered, was that they did. The jump in the Doctor's arms was totally long time coming – both of them laughing happily at being safe and together. The matching grins was the bonus only the two of them shared.
"See? Wasn't so bad, was it?" the Doctor teased her with a smirk, Rose returning one in favour, "Easy as pie. Can't wait to see them crossing that thing." She shook her head in amusement, the Doctor soon following. He turned to watch the two left behind guards, giving them a slight mocking wave while they patiently waited for the show to start.
Only it never happened.
What started as a beginning of an amusing story, quickly disappeared before even giving fruit. The guards shifted around with their clothing and then seemed to press on something on their wrists. The next moment the duo of giants covered in the same metal armors as before, appeared in a flash of light, just a few steps ahead.
"Congratulations on passing the primary elimination round," one of them grunted. It didn't sound too happy, but not too concerned either. "Now move it."
The Doctor and Rose once again found themselves gobsmacked, watching their retreating backs. "You gotta be kidding me," Rose breathed out, incredulous. The Doctor watched the whole scene in pure horror, still not quite believing. The audacity of them!
"That's just... That's just not fair. I want my lawyer!"
Weaving through the crowd, Alec managed to sneak into a narrow alley which led to an abandoned bar. Having gotten all the information he needed, Alec left the guard where he found him (mind you, alive). Now all he needed was to get his equipment and leave for the mission. He ducked through the gap between two split wooden boards and found himself inside a dark, semi-dusty bar.
Grabbing for the drawer by the entrance, he opened it and took out a torch, giving himself a minimal sense of lighting. He then went towards the bar table and dropped the brown trench coat he had accidentally picked up by the photo boot(though, he had his suspicions about it belonging to that man who volunteered in getting arrested). He didn't want to think about it, but he felt guilty for getting those foreigners in trouble. That wasn't part of the plan. Maybe that was why he grabbed for the thing – saving at least one piece of them.
He shook his head. No point in thinking about it now. Rounding the bar, Alec crouched by the old squeaky mattress, pushing it slightly to the side until he found a loose wooden board on the floor. He pulled on it until it got detached from the ground and dug his hand in the hole. He took out his rucksack, pulling the zipper to rummage inside it, in search for tools he would need later on. He pulled out an axe, a few meters of rope and took an extra pack of medical needles. Observing his things, Alec wondered how was he going to bring an axe with him, without getting noticed.
Sighing, he stood up, poured himself a glass of water and took a seat by the bar. His eyes wandered towards the brown trench coat. Maybe he would find something in the pockets he could use?
After a few minutes of drawing out things that should have been physically impossible to fit there, Alec just sat there gobsmacked. "What on Barcelona?"
Well, at least he found a way to bring the axe with him without getting noticed.
Somewhere underneath the civilization of the planet Barcelona, surrounded by darkness and stuffy smells, a group of four was marching throughout the dim-lit halls. The place reeked of something dead and long since forgotten. It didn't seem to concern the two guards in the least, though. When one of them finally lit up a torch, the view didn't seem any better. The whole place was divided into two sides of holding cells. The bars were rusty and mossy. Rose wrinkled her nose, knowing they would be put in one of those.
The guards came to a stop by one of such prison cages, and as before, lifted the insignia against the controls. The doors clicked open and the Doctor and Rose were shoved inside. Well… calling it shoving would be an understatement… throwing, maybe. They seemed to possess an incredible amount of strength and easily lifted the two in air; the Doctor went flying towards a stack of... hay, while Rose stumbled on the ground on all fours. She hissed at the impact, turning to glare at them.
Her complaint went unheard and with a click the doors were locked, the guards grunting a short command before leaving, "Your trial is at four. Be ready."
Rose scoffed, "Yeh, I'll pad my nose, ta."
Patting her dirty and mostly ruined jeans, Rose gingerly stood up. The Doctor was soon at her side, looking her over and offering her a hand. "Okey dokey?"
She answered him with a smile, "Yeh." She then narrowed her eyes, observing the place. "Where are we?" she asked while holding onto the Doctor's hand for support in standing up. The Doctor sniffed, shrugging slightly. "Some kind of underground holding cell. Probably private."
"What makes you say that?"
"It's mostly secluded. And you can't see any other prisoners in the near vicinity." His gaze traveled towards the entrance of their cell. The dim lighting that they were provided with showed the empty cages across of their own. "We should search this place. See if there's anything you can find. Take the left corner."
That's how Rose found herself rummaging through stacks of hay to find anything resembling anything but hay. Among her searches she found some old wet rags that she deducted were probably the cause of the deathly smell in this place. Also some food. She also found a dead rat, which made her wonder if Krillitanes weren't part of this shady underground business. She could hear the Doctor poking at the things on the other side, before he called out, "Anything?"
Rose swallowed, deciding that a single pink flip-flop wasn't much of a finding. "No… uh it's mostly just old clothes…" She picked onto them with a thin metal rod she found somewhere in the corner. "Old bloody clothes. Doctor, I think someone's been tortured here before."
The Doctor heaved a sigh. "Wouldn't put it past it those two. Anything else?" he asked, hopeful.
Rose shook her head, then remembered he wouldn't see it and cleared her throat. "No, um… no. It's just crumbs of old bread and hay. Lot's of hay. Did you find anything?"
Having had enough, Rose stood up, leaving her findings alone. The Doctor seemed to pose a similarly disappointed face as he turned away from his side of the cell.
"No. "
Rose walked over to a more secure-looking packed pile of hay and made herself comfortable there. "All right then. We should come up with a plan. See what we've got." She picked onto the reasonably dry hay, attempting to cover herself up a bit. This humid environment wasn't too kind.
"Right. Assets." The Doctor ran his tongue inside his mouth, before casually leaning against the metal bars, hands crossed. "What do we know about this place?"
Rose gave him a pointed look. "Well, we know that we still haven't seen a single dog without nose despite coming to this planet for this reason alone. Suppose they've gone extinct by now," she sang under her breath, not really impressed by the Doctor's flailings.
"But it can't be!" he cried out in protest. "It's five thousand and six. Maybe you just didn't see it," he tried, sheepishly.
"You said I couldn't miss them. Clearly there're many things here – a herd of elephants for one - but no dogs without noses."
The Doctor frowned at that possibility. "A planet that was once famous for their dogs with no noses are suddenly infested with elephants? Could this be the direct cause of this New World?" he mussed to himself.
Rose sniffed, pulling down the sleeves of her hoodie. "Then there's also the whole classification system into natives and foreigners. Mind you, it's a bit extreme. Doesn't feel much like a tourist-friendly planet to me. They even had accessories sorted by rubies and emeralds. Like that ring I took-" As she was adjusting her sleeves, something got caught in the stich. Rolling up her sleeve, Rose saw the emerald ring still on her finger. "Oh! I still have it," she breathed out in wonder.
"Hold on."
Before she could further inspect the ring on a closer look, she found her hand in one of the Doctor's, turning it over for him to see. Rose tried to stay still, as she asked, "What is it?"
The Doctor had a worry line on his forehead as he observed the ring. "Why haven't they taken it? If they arrested you for it, why haven't they taken it back?"
"Maybe… the ring wasn't enough to get me arrested. I mean, it seemed to be happening a lot out there. People didn't even bat an eye," she said in a silent observation and took a string of hair between her ear. "They sounded pretty tough when I said my identification was stolen, though." She breathed out a laugh. "What d'you think is going on?"
The Doctor inhaled deeply. "I haven't the foggiest. We should find out." He winked at her, gaining a chuckle from her in return.
"So what's the plan?" she asked, watching how the Doctor got himself settled beside her on the haystack.
"For starters, we wait. They took my sonic screwdriver so we can't get out of here." He turned his head to both sides to check his surroundings before deciding to lean on his elbows. "But when they come back here, that might change."
They shared a meaningful look which got interrupted by a sudden sneeze coming from Rose. She apologized and went to gather up more hay to cover herself up. The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Cold?"
Rose sniffled a bit, nodding. "A bit, yeh. The climate is just… it's freezing on the mountains, then it's stuffy in the market and humid inside the mountains. Can't catch up." She chuckled good naturedly. The Doctor shook his head at her, a fond smile on his face.
"Humans and their poor excuse of thermoregulation, " he went to tease her.
"Still human, then?" she asked casually, biting her lip. The Doctor picked up on her worried look, turning his body more towards her. "Rose. You're always going to be human. An ounce of Time Vortex is not going to change that," he said softly and then reached out to cover her hand with his, giving it a squeeze. Rose followed the gesture with her eyes, smiling at their interlocked fingers. The Doctor then cleared his throat. "And it's physically impossible to overwrite your whole DNA into something inhuman."
"Okay." Rose nodded.
"Come here." The Doctor reached out for her, wrapping his hand around her shoulders to bring her into an embrace. Settling both of his arms around her back, he put his chin against her head. Little by little Rose could feel the warmth seeping through, warming up her chilled body. She interlocked her fingers against the Doctor's back where she had her arms wound up against his torso. She nuzzled against his rib cage, exhaling a content sigh.
"Better?" the Doctor asked in a quiet whisper.
Rose hummed before answering sleepily, "Yeh. I always wondered, though. How comes you're so warm to cuddle?" She could feel the vibrations of the Doctor's laughter against her ear, provoking a smile of her. "But seriously, though. I mean, your body temperature is like what, ten Celsius lower than human's? But when I hug you, you're very warm. How come?"
The Doctor shifted a little, rearranging their position to entwine their legs also. For better heat conservation. "Twenty one Celsius lower to be exact. And, well, I can manually regulate the speed of sugars in my body being converted into heat."
Rose blinked at that. Seemed pretty obvious and predictable. Why didn't she think of that? "Oh. So you do this all the time or..?"
"What? No, not all the time. That would be terribly exhausting if I did." He laughed a little, squeezing her closer to him before he realized what he was doing and settled to rubbing absent circles against her back. "When hugging, there's an exchange of body heat between the two individuals. The energy is being channeled from the warmer body to the colder one. Your body heat travels to my colder body, thus making it seem less cold to you."
"So I'm like a free heating pad to you," she purred into his chest, exhaling a warm poof of air.
The Doctor suddenly went stiff for a moment, but before she could ask, he exhaled a shaky breath and relaxed back into their embrace. "Close enough," he said quietly, his voice sounding a little bit husky. "But, now you need to conserve that heat. Not getting it taken out of you."
They found themselves tightly wrapped against each other in a somewhat cocoon. The haystack was low and semi-even so it was easy for them to find themselves laying horizontally on it. The Doctor's breath against her neck sent a series of pleasant shivers against her spine. A sound of something akin to a breathy sigh escaped her. "Mm. You're nice."
The Doctor chuckled, his voice sounding strangled. "Careful. Don't let this confuse you."
Laying side by side with Rose, the Doctor had more mobility with his hands. His fingers reached out to twirl inside Rose's blonde locks, brushing them. He pulled a string of hair that was stuck between her eyelashes out of her face just to find her staring intently at him. His fingers froze against the side of her face, just gazing at her hazel orbs in wonder, before settling to cup her cheek. He brushed his thumb against her rosy cheek, reveling in the softness of it. His eyes followed the movement, making him exhale in exhilaration at having this treasured moment for himself. Something inside his throat blocked the air intake for him, water glistening in his eyes. He could only be glad that air wasn't a necessity for him.
He startled slightly, refocusing, when he felt Rose's hand, mirroring his, settling against his check… then against his sideburns. Her hazel eyes seemed intent on burning the image of him into the deep roots of her memory. Just like a mirror of his own.
His hearts beat wildly inside his chest, nearly squeezing the life out of him when Rose whispered to him in a tender voice, "I love you, you know?" and then balancing on her elbow alone, leaned up to kiss the tip of his nose with tenderness. His whole body shivered from the shaky breath he exhaled and he found himself whispering her name, filled with raw want, "Rose…"
His brain barely registered how his body took charge of him and rolled them over – Rose on her back while the Doctor stayed above, trapping her with the balance of his forearms. Their eyes locked together, shining with equal passion and need for each other. Agonizingly slow, the Doctor started to lean in, followed by a series of urgings coming from Rose in the form of tugging on his great big hair. He chuckled warmly at her impatience to which she huffed.
She soon forgot what she was even mad about, though, when the Doctor bumped their noses together, nuzzling - like imitating a pair of Eskimos. Outstretching her fingers in his hair, she gave it a slight scrape, eliciting a deep groan from the Doctor as it went straight to the nerves of his spine. The puff of hot air that the Doctor exhaled, sent her lips tingling in anticipation, making them fall apart. One more shaky breath escaped the Doctor before he started to dip his head with intent, both of their eyes dazzled and shutting close. His upper lip brushed against Rose's upper one, ready to take her mouth in his-
-when a loud bang on the other side of the bars split the two apart, startling them.
They both looked up at the sound of heavy boots against the floor, scrambling back onto their feet. A bit shakily at that. Rose smoothed her clothes to regain a sense of reality rather than a single thought of tackling the Doctor to the ground and finishing what they had started, consequences be damned.
The Doctor cleared his throat a few times, a faint pink of blush still marking his cheeks, just in time for a couple of guards to shuffle outside their cell. He narrowed his eyes at them.
The doors opened up noisily and one of the guards stepped in, looking them over. Rose shifted on another foot, somehow feeling exposed. She knew it was irrational but her heart still thudded wildly against her rib cage. The Doctor seeing this, chided the guard, "Oi! Eyes off from her."
The guard exhaled noisily from his nose, looking straight at the Doctor. "You'll be coming with us. We need to analyze your mutations' level."
"What?" the Doctor cried out, confused. Rose made her way to stand by the Doctor, looking over the guards suspiciously. "What d'you mean mutations?" she asked, still a bit shaken. Of course, she wasn't answered and soon the Doctor was being bodily dragged out from the cell. When the Doctor tried to resist, he was passed to the other guard like a rag doll while another pushed Rose's protests aside, locking her back, alone, inside the holding cell. She gripped onto the rusty bars tightly, calling out to the guard. "Oi, where're you taking him?"
"It's none of your concern. We'll get back to you next," he told her in a gruff voice and Rose could do nothing more but watch their retreating backs disappearing into the darkness of the shadows.
to be continued...
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