:D So he's finally asked her. It's about time, right? :D But there were others who had a date night that night. Shall we eavesdrop? More fluffy fluff! I love fluff! It's so easy to write fluff! I can't stop! So I'm a posting maniac today. :D

Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. No I don't own Doctor Who, but I wish I did, okay? Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. I'm writing this just for fun! (All right, stop singing!) Okay! :D

CHAPTER 38

Nine felt like a fish out of water. He was supposed to be Dr. No Nonsense, keep it simple, stick to the rules. Why was he standing in the console room in a suit? Was he really about to go buy flowers? Such nonsense. Yet, here he was. It was obvious that his future selves were used to this sort of thing. Nine just considered himself lucky if he returned Rose alive.

"You all look like sissies in your monkey suits." he had said. He secretly was jealous of both of his future selves' elegance and finesse. How did they do it? Then the male companions arrived, sans Jack. Danny looked good in his suit, and the husbands all looked completely at home romancing their wives. Even Mickey the Idiot had more class than he. "Who's the Idiot now?" He wondered. Whatever possessed him to ask Rose Tyler on a date?

It had started innocently enough.

"We should do something fun tonight, just the two of us" Rose had suggested as they rested together on the sofa. "It'd be a great way to relax after everything that's happened."

"You mean, like a date?" He queried.

"Well, if you want to call it that, I won't object" she smiled cheekily at him. He and his big mouth.

"Very well, then Rose Tyler." He said, grinning to hide his sudden nervousness. "Where shall we go on our date?"

"You're the man. How about you decide." She and the Doctor were actually flirting? This was new and certainly welcome! Rose wondered if their future selves were finally starting to rub off on them.

"I know just the place" the Doctor replied. Why don't you go put something pretty on, and I'll pick you up at, say, 6:15?" He had heard Ten telepathically ask his Rose for 6:00, and wanted to avoid them if possible.

He stared at the clothes in his wardrobe. Dark jeans, dark jumpers, leather jacket. He really was monotone, wasn't he? He asked the TARDIS for assistance. She provided him his simple suit: black jacket, white shirt, black pants, red tie. He looked pretty good even if he did think so himself. At least until he saw the others. Then he just felt under dressed.

At the flower shop, he was completely out of his depth. "She likes roses" Mickey whispered, trying to be helpful. Instead, the Doctor just felt even more of a fool.

He settled on one red rose which he presented to her at 6:15 sharp. She thanked him and smiled, taking his hand the way they did when they would run. She was wearing a classic little black dress that ended just below her knees. She had left her hair down with a small sprig of holly in it to make it look festive. "How do I look?" She asked.

"Blimey!" he replied. "You look beautiful!"

"For a human, right?" She teased, her tongue sticking out between her teeth in a grin.

He felt heat rush to his face. What was he doing? Time lords don't blush! "For anyone." He was sure that his face just got darker.

Rose pretended not to notice. "You're looking fantastic yourself!" She said. "Really, I like the suit."

He had finally taken her to Barcelona, not the city, but the planet. The one with dogs with no noses. They were sitting together on a park bench sharing a bag of chips and watching the sun set. Of course, they were dressed for something much more formal, but this simple dinner suited then much better. Together they laughed and talked about memories of their travels together, crazy things that Jack had done, and what they really thought about their future selves.

After the sun set behind the horizon and the chips were gone, the Doctor took off his jacket and laid out on the ground like a blanket. Together they laid down on it and gazed up at the stars, their fingers intertwined. Neither of them spoke, they were so content. Finally the Doctor's nerves began to calm. It was just him and his Rose. Nothing could be better. For the first time since the Time War, he was truly happy. He was home. His home had no address or coordinates to which he could fix the TARDIS, nor was it the TARDIS herself. Home was lying next to him. Home had a name, and it was Rose Tyler.

Unbeknownst to the Doctor, Rose was having very similar thoughts. When she had first run away with him, she had gone for the adventure and thrill. Soon, however, it became more than that. Somewhere along the way, the adventure had taken a backseat to the joy of just being with him. If she had to pinpoint a time when the shift happened, she supposed that it happened at 10 Downing Street when he looked at her and said, "I could save the world but lose you." Her heart still melted with the memory. Before the Doctor, she was Rose Tyler the shop girl: taken for granted by her boyfriend and her own mother, invisible and unimportant to practically everyone else, and likely to remain that way forever. Then she met the Doctor and everything changed. Suddenly she was Rose Tyler the time traveler and companion of the greatest man in the universe! Someone saw her as beautiful (even if it was just for a human), and that someone saw her as so special and important that he would let the world be destroyed if it meant that she'd be safe. To this day, she wondered what he'd seen in her that compelled him to ask her not once, but twice, to travel with him. But she sure was glad that he had!

The Doctor was the first one to break the silence. "Rose, are you happy here with me? Truly happy?"

Her initial reaction was to want to blurt out something like, "Why would you go and ask a thing like that?!" But she had heard the sincerity in his tone and stopped herself. Instead, she looked him squarely in the eye before saying, "Yes. Yes, Doctor. I am!"

"Why? I mean how could you be? I've taken you away from your home and everything and everyone you've ever known. And you've seen the future. Your life is irrevocably changed because of me! You're not even human anymore!"

Rose was appalled! Where was this coming from? "Last time I checked, I chose to run away with you. You didn't take me away from my life. You gave me my life! No. More than that. You've become my life! And as far as changing goes, everyone changes when they grow up. Granted, I've changed a bit more than most, and more changes still lie ahead, but I don't mind. Not one bit. You hear me? Not one bit!"

Their eyes met. His blue eyes were clouded over with an intense look that she had never seen before. Before she could process what was happening, his lips suddenly meet hers with a passion that surprised even him. She gasped with the shock and he pulled away, afraid that he'd gone too far. But in less than a second, her lips were on his with a fiery passion that set his soul ablaze. And in that moment, their minds touched. Rose jerked away at the sensation.

"What was that?!" she gasped.

"Our minds reached out to each other. They want us to bond."

"Bond?"

"Time Lords. We're telepathic, you know. We make love with our minds and souls, not just our bodies. Sometimes a link is made when things get a little... heated."

"Oh..." She blushed. It wasn't a bad sensation. Quite the opposite, actually. But it felt extremely intimate. It was definitely too intimate for this stage of their newfound relationship.

The Doctor was equally embarrassed. "Right. So..."

"Let's just take it slow, yeah?" She smiled at him.

"Yeah." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. She sighed and snuggled into his embrace, resting her head on his chest, right between his two hearts. Completely content, she fell asleep in his arms.

The Doctor didn't feel like a fish out of water anymore. In fact, he felt more like a bird freed from its cage and soaring high in the sky. "I could get used to this" he thought.