Someone To Watch Over Me
Here's a prompt filled for the doctor_rose_fix 2012 Autumn Fixathon, requested by shelwass
Prompt: 9/Rose or 10/Rose (or both!). Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU wherein Rose is a slayer and the Doctor is a vampire with a soul and/or a chip in his head.
Pairing: 10th Doctor/Rose
Rating: All Ages (for once!)
Author's Note: I'm a huge freaking fan of Buffy, having only just watched the series earlier last year when I was supposed to be studying. Finally, my love of Buffy and Who unite!
Rose stood on the edge of the graveyard, her chest heaving hard with exertion. She wiped the sweat from her brow and lowered the stake she was holding in her hand so hard that it had bruised the soft skin of her palm. It was then that she glanced up, her slayer instincts kicking in as her eyes trained on one of the towering oak trees nearby. Slowly, a dark figure stepped out from behind it, and the mysterious stranger appeared with a grimace on his face.
“That was close,” he said unhappily. “Almost too close.”
Rose sighed and stuffed her stake back into her bag.
“You again,” she exhaled with relief, and then looked up sharply. “Thanks for all your help,” she added sarcastically.
“I would never interfere unless you really needed me,” he replied, his brown bangs blowing over his face in the autumn wind. “But I will always be there if you do.”
Rose frowned before approaching him, still uncertain what his angle was.
“And why is that, exactly?” she challenged. “Why are you always following me around? I have a perfectly good watcher, you know.”
“Then where is he now?” the man shot back. “That vampire nearly ripped you apart. I thought watchers were supposed to…I don’t know…watch their young protégés for just such an occasion!”
“I gave him the night off,” Rose countered. “Believe me, he needed it. And I’ve been training as a slayer for the last three months. I don’t need a babysitter anymore.”
The man shifted in the shadows and disappeared before Rose could react. The next thing she knew he had reappeared behind her, draping his arms around her waist and hovering his mouth just above her neck.
“Are you sure?” he asked silkily. “This world is a very, very dangerous place.”
Rose closed her eyes as the man’s breath drifted over her bare shoulder, and for one moment, she forgot that she knew almost nothing about him, including his name. But she rounded in the next second, and pinned him against the closest headstone.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
The man’s brown eyes flashed in the moonlight as he stared up at her intently.
“Some call me the lonely angel,” he replied, “but all you need to know is that I’m here to watch over you.”
“Sound like a stalker to me,” Rose said threateningly.
To her surprise, the man laughed and the sound of it made her heart flip.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had that accusation before,” he smiled easily, “but there’s a first time for everything. I know what your life is like Rose, and I just want to help.”
Rose released her hold on him and backed away.
“Nobody understands what my life is like,” she said bitterly. “The weight of my obligations has changed everything about me. It’s made me distant from my friends and family, it’s messed up everything I’ve worked for in school. I was born and bred for responsibilities that no one should have to bear.”
“I know what it’s like to be alone even when you’re surrounded by people,” he said with haunted eyes. “I know how it feels to be in between two worlds because you don’t belong to either. I don’t know you Rose, not as much as I’d like. But I know what it’s like to be you.”
Rose’s eyes softened as she stared into his, so full of sorrow and longing.
“You’re not human,” Rose observed. “I’ve known that from the start, but there’s something else you’re not telling me, and I need to know the truth if you’re going to keep hanging around.”
The man dug his hands into his pockets and stared at the ground.
“I’m a vampire,” he offered quietly.
Rose flinched, but something kept her from reaching for her stake.
“You’ve never attacked me,” she comprehended aloud. “Why?”
“I’m not like the others,” he revealed as he moved closer to her once more. “I fell under a curse long ago that restored my soul. I still have all the desires of a vampire, but I choose not to act on them. I could never…not after realizing all of the horrible things I’ve done in the past.”
He came to stand in front of her and lifted his hand to draw a strand of her yellow hair away from her face.
“That’s why I want to protect you,” he continued. “Rose the vampire slayer. It’s not just a name. You are what stands between innocence and evil… like me.”
Rose felt her heartbeat race when the lonely angel stared down at her intently as if she were the most precious thing in the world.
“Well,” she said lightly, breaking the tension. “That must get awkward. I take it you don’t get out much since you’d probably want to eat most of the people you’d hang out with.”
The man’s smile broke out again, revealing his unusually sharp incisors.
“Some more than others,” he said suggestively.
Rose felt a hot flash flare in her stomach and run lightly down her spine at the same time. In that brief moment, she knew she’d never been more attracted to any man in her life.
“I should probably be concerned about that,” Rose said breathlessly. “Why am I not concerned about that?”
The man leaned down and brushed the back of his hand down her cheek until he reached her neck. He was so close that Rose could see the light freckled dusted over his pale skin.
“You’re so young,” he whispered. “You still need protection…even from me.”
Rose glanced down at the sound of tinkling metal, and realized he’d fastened a small cross necklace around her neck. When she looked up, she saw his eyes sharpen at the sight of it, and he stepped back quickly, replacing his hands within his pockets and turning around into the wind to hide his agony.
“One day you might be ready for me,” he called over his shoulder. “And I look forward to that day, slayer. In fact, it’s all I’m going to think about.”
Rose shivered from his recent proximity and mourned the loss of his touch as he receded into the distance.
“Goodnight angel,” she sighed to herself. “I’ll see you soon.”