Rec: Here's Another Lost Weekend
Phew! My final rec. I hope people have enjoyed reading this week’s recs and that everyone’s managed to find at least one new story that you’ve loved between the recs made by eve11, lizbee and myself. Thanks to calapine for giving me the opportunity to be a guest reccer for a week; thanks to everyone who’s given me feedback on my recs; thanks, too, to eve11 and lizbee for their recs this week. And again, profuse apologies for getting my dates muddled and starting late.
Story: Here’s Another Lost Weekend
Author: Lydia Hunter
Rated: Teen
Author’s Summary: They’ve missed New York for the second time, and they’re snowbound in an isolated cabin in the woods. Sounds like a perfect, romantic weekend? Yeah, right!
Characters/Pairings: Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor
Warnings: None
Recced because: Most shipper fics, for any Doctor or any companion (except perhaps Romana) tend to be fantasy wish-fulfilment, portraying a relationship we like to imagine but which we know would never actually happen. The Doctor just doesn’t do that type of thing - and I don’t mean the sex, but the relationship around the sex. This story, though, is the way I really could picture things being if there were shagging in the TARDIS. This is a Doctor who isn’t human, who doesn’t do - or even really understand - human relationships. He’s not a boyfriend. He may have a pretty good idea of what a human expects from a relationship (cuddling, being romantic, saying I love you, being ‘couply’), but the very thought of it is... well, a bit like being expected to share a mortgage. And the very thought of planning a romantic weekend is enough to bring him out in hives. And Rose, no matter how well she knows the Doctor isn’t human, is still 21st-century human female enough to want some of that. This is a snapshot of life within that relationship, a very different couple adapting to being a couple, with Rose learning to accept and be happy with what they have, while the Doctor also tries to come to terms with what making love with his companion might imply. In the end, declarations of love will never be made, but they save the universe together and are in “more-than-like” with each other, and that’s good enough.
Selected quote:
“One thing you have to remember about cocoa,” said the Doctor reminiscently, “is don’t ever drink it with an Aztec. Very important, that. So, you know, ’f we ever meet up with some ancient Aztecs, consider yourself forewarned.”
“Why? What’ll they do to me?”
“Dunno, really. But it’s sort of a … betrothal ritual … thing.” He flipped his hand vaguely. “Share a cuppa cocoa, get engaged.”
Rose grinned sleepily at him. “We’re sharin’ cocoa, Doctor. That mean we’re engaged?”
The offhand joke fell between them like a lead weight. The sudden, awkward silence was palpable, and even the room itself felt noticeably colder. Neither of them dared meet the other’s gaze.
Finally the Doctor cleared his throat. “Right, time we were off to clear the TARDIS, don’t you think?” His voice came out sounding perfectly natural, but he still didn’t look at her.