"A Human Reaction" - Doctor Who Fanfiction (NC-17)
Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC and all the grand high Mucky Mucks. No money was made from this. No copyright infringement is intended and any similarity to any story not my own is coincidence.
Title: A Human Reaction
Genre: Doctor Who; PWP; Rose/Ten II
Rating: NC-17
Timeline/Spoilers: After "Journey's End;" Rose and 10.2 in Pete's World
Warnings: Food Kink
Author's Notes: So this is a deep and profound exploration of what it means to be human Okay, okay, let's face it, this is just a chance for me to put food kink into Rose/Doctor smut. *grin* But it was fun gotta admit, since up 'til now my Doctor Who fic was either fluffy or painfully angsty.
Oh, and for this story, let's assume that Rose and Ten II aren't a "couple" before it. They're just flatmates.
Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin -
it's the triumphant twang of a bed-spring
-S.J. Perelman
“Ah... there you are,” he said in a quietly triumphant voice, casually pushing aside finely aged cartons of Cantonese take-out and a half empty tupperware of curry. With a deft hand, the Doctor liberated a small jar of marmalade from the shadowed recesses of the refrigerator. Eagerly, he twisted the cap free and instantly dipped a finger into the sticky sweet. His eyes closed in bliss, even as he shut the frig door with a small, 'snick.'
“Ah... fantastic,” he practically hummed before looking around guiltily, loathe to have Rose catch him out on his midnight kitchen raid. But even as he surveyed the dim confines of the flat, he felt his fingers itching to dip themselves back into the cool jar.
So instead, he tightened his grip on the smooth glass, reining in the impulse. Quickly, the Doctor determined that the safest place to indulge himself with the purloined treat was in the isolated quiet of his own bedroom. And with that in mind, he made his way to the shadowed hallway toward the back of the flat that he shared with Rose. He was halfway to his room when a small, low sound stopped him in his tracks.
“What's this then,” he murmured to himself, even as another arresting sound echoed softly from the direction of Rose's bedroom.
The Doctor tried to resist the almost too familiar compulsion to investigate before noticing the thin crack of light coming from the slightly open door of his flatmate's room. It was too tempting by half.
“What's this then,” he repeated under his breath, giving into impulse and pausing in the warm glow, tilting his head slightly. He reached out his hand to knock on her door when yet another soft sound tickled his ears, causing them to burn with a dawning awareness of what exactly he was hearing.
“Oh... oh... oh...” the Doctor mumbled beneath his breath, retreating the measure of a step; then another, and another...
He pressed his back against the smooth, patterned wallpaper behind him, a bit surprised by his own reaction.
“Oh...” he half sighed, nearly moaning himself as he closed his eyes, surprised by the unexpectedly primal way his normally reserved instincts seemed to suddenly hijack any higher brain functions and gleefully shove them out of the pilot's seat. He abruptly felt very human indeed.
“Doctor...”
Very, very human.
He slowly stepped back to the door and gently pushed at it with his fingertips, alternately pleased and terrified that it opened smoothly and soundlessly.
“Doctor...”
He remembered seeing stars born and galaxies dying. He could recall days when everybody lived and nobody died. He even remembered the blinding sight of the golden swirl of the time vortex glowing through his own eyes. But nothing... nothing he could remember ever having seen... could have prepared him for the sight of Rose... his Rose... laid out before his eyes in all her perfect, naked beauty.
The tangled ivory sheets beneath her were twisted, and for a moment, the Doctor was mesmerized by the sight of her left hand clutching them almost violently in its grip. Her other hand... her other hand moved... moved over herself in a way that made the Doctor even more viscerally aware of just how human they both were now.
He stepped forward. He couldn't help himself.
“Rose...”
She turned slightly unfocused eyes in his direction, and the Doctor was fascinated by the small beads of moisture that glittered like stars on her eyelashes. He had time to note too, that they glimmered over her body as well, dampness from her bath gilding her skin in a warm golden glow.
“Doctor!”
It came almost as a surprised squeak as Rose scrambled up, reaching blindly for the flat sheet that had fallen to the floor.
“Doctor, what are you...this is my... what are you...” Rose sputtered wildly, unable to settle on any one question and thus complete it.
The Doctor held up the small jar of marmalade in his hand, as if it explained why he had stepped into her room without so much as a by-your-leave. When she continued to stare at him in shock, he finally said calmly, “Marmalade.”
Rose blinked.
“Marmalade,” he repeated. “Tastes even better now,” the Doctor added. “So... well... marmalade.”
He took another taste as if to demonstrate.
Rose tightened the sheet around herself.
“Marmalade?” She asked incredulously as he nodded.
“Marmalade he says,” she muttered quietly not quite to herself.
The Doctor made a small sound of agreement and stepped even further into the room. He settled himself almost nonchalantly on the bed, his hip bumping against Rose's bare leg.
“I thought I'd just enjoy it back in my room, when I heard... well when I heard...” He gestured a bit vaguely in her direction, his fingers waggling. “I didn't mean...” he said in a low voice. “But I didn't mean to...”
He didn't complete the statement, instead turning his gaze to her bare leg.
“You were saying... you said... Doctor,” he murmured, his attention still focused on Rose's warm skin though he risked once darting a glance up in the direction of her face. He watched her lick her lips and flush in embarrassment before flicking his gaze back down to her leg.
“You said it when...”
Slowly, ever so slowly, he reached his hand out. He set it on her warm skin.
“You said, Doctor,” he repeated in that same low voice.
He was almost certain that he could hear her swallow nervously.
“You said...”
The Doctor traced a slow, curving circle over her skin.
“You said it, and when I heard that...”
He looked up into her eyes finally.
“Well I had to come in... didn't I?”
After a heavy moment, Rose nodded slowly, though whether in answer, or simply in understanding of his words, the Doctor was uncertain. Slowly, he slid his hand up her leg, finally feeling it brush up against the gathered sheet. He waited.
“You've not said... not since that day at the beach... you've not...”
“Doctor,” Rose whispered, before licking her lips again.
He brushed his fingers against the sheet, gently sliding his hand just a little beneath it.
“Rose, I...”
She moved just as slowly has he had been, quietly lowering the sheet. He reached for it; dropped it to the floor. Rose lay back, shivering just a little.
“Doctor...” she whispered once more before letting her hands drift over her body laid out before him. For a few minutes, they seemed aimless, moving without direction or pattern, then quietly she dropped one hand down to the side of her hip. The other, she let rest against the hollow of her throat a moment before drawing it down to her breast.
The Doctor swallowed against the sudden dryness in his own throat. He dropped the marmalade jar in his hand and almost absently noted Rose's shiver as it made contact with her skin.
Then her dark eyes sought and found the Doctor's own. Making certain that she had his full attention, she brought her fingertips to her nipple with a soft sigh before reaching for the Doctor's hand with her free one. She guided it to a place above her breast and trapped it there between her own as she caressed herself.
“Rose...”
Still keeping his hand trapped between hers, she slid their joined hands slowly down her body.
“Doctor…” she murmured.
She slid her hand lower still.
“My only…” she whispered.
She slid her fingers through her soft curls and then into herself.
“Rose…”
She smiled when she saw the Doctor's eyes go dark and hooded. Then slowly, she began to pleasure herself, arching up into their joined hands and making all the small sounds that had drawn him into her room in the first place.
“Rose...” the Doctor half-growled, half-gasped. “Rose, what are you doing?”
She smiled quietly and pressed his hand more tightly on top of hers, forcing him to lace his fingers with her lower hand. Their joined hands moved together, his fingers sliding wetly against hers and brushing her curls.
“Dancing lessons,” Rose teased breathlessly before dropping her uppermost hand back to the sheets and tangling it in the ivory fabric. Then she drew her lower hand slowly out from beneath his and moaned when he slid his fingers into her.
“I have danced before, Rose,” he reminded her. “And I've wanted to dance with you for a long time,” he admitted quietly. “My, Rose... I've waited two and a half lifetimes to...”
With almost startlingly deft touches, he slowly but inexorably pushed her to the edge, but not quite over it.
“God... Doctor... please...”
“Two and a half lifetimes,” he reminded in a voice laced with enough heat to nearly send Rose over the edge with the mere sound of it brushing against her skin.
“Two and a half very long...”
“Oh God... please...” Rose interrupted, her own voice very nearly not her own, lost in an almost desperate need. She bucked her hips wildly beneath the Doctor's hand, suddenly knocking the small marmalade jar to the floor. It drew the Doctor's attention and even Rose's startled cry as she unexpectedly found herself bereft of his touch didn't stop him from reaching to the floor for it.
“Doctor...”
He popped his head back up, brandishing the jar with a mischievous and delightfully wicked grin.
“Doctor...”
“But maybe dancing lessons aren't such a bad idea,” he drawled in a tone of sinful inspiration.
Slowly he dipped a finger into the sweet and lifted it free to show Rose a small dollop of the treat clinging to the tip. He gave Rose only a moment to look in askance before reaching out to trace a slow circle around her breast. She gasped.
“Now that I'm human and all...”
Again, he dipped his finger in the marmalade and made a small show of having Rose see the golden orange sweet glimmer a bit in the light before bringing his fingertip to her skin.
“And we're finally... truly... dance partners... Rose...” he murmured in a tone of complete adoration as he traced a complicated Gallifreyan pattern within the circumference of the circle that he had already drawn upon her skin.
“Doctor...” Rose asked breathlessly. “What are you doing?”
“Dance steps,” he replied playfully, before retracing his pattern with the tip of his tongue, licking the sweet marmalade from her skin. Rose cried out, arching up into his caress when he finally reached her taut nipple.
“Figure two..” she gasped finally when he drew his mouth away and proceeded to repeat the whole process with her left breast.
“Precisely,” he praised, his tone echoing the one he had always used before when he thought her especially clever or brilliant.
“Precisely...” Rose gasped, somewhat dazed as the Doctor devoted all his attention to his next figure, this one traced on the smooth skin of her belly.
“This should be a bit of a slow dance I would think,” he murmured. “See figure three...”
The Doctor teased her with long, slow strokes of his tongue as he lingered over the pattern that he drawn on her skin.
“Yes...”
“Or figure four...” he drawled, gently pushing her legs apart so that he could trace out yet another Gallifreyan phrase on her inner thigh that almost, but not quite reached Rose's soft, tempting curls. Her moans were nearly desperate, and more than a little frustrated, when his tongue traced the twisting lines and spirals.
“Doctor...”
“Now Rose,” he chided. “You wouldn't want me to miss a step would you?”
He traced more swirling lines on her inner right thigh.
“Might step on someone's toe...” he added as he licked the marmalade with light flicks of his tongue before darting a glance upwards. He watched her with hooded eyes as he slowly made his way upward.
“Or forget to dip you at the right moment...” he whispered, his breath finally stirring soft curls.
“Oh God...” Rose cried out helplessly as the Doctor lowered his mouth to savor the taste of her.
“Sweeter than marmalade, Rose...” he murmured. “Sweeter than wine... than ambrosia... than...”
He ran out of words finally as Rose shuddered and shivered with release, he simply drank her all in, intoxicated by the pure sugar rush of her response.
“Rose?”
She opened heavy lidded eyes and looked down to where the Doctor still lingered.
“I need you,” she murmured with a soft smile.
He smiled in return and then divested himself of his clothes so quickly that Rose nearly laughed at his giddy eagerness. He grinned and then met her dark eyes. She reached for him and drew him up and into a breathless kiss that tasted of marmalade and their own tangled love.
“Dance with me...” she whispered against the Doctor's lips.
“All my days, Rose,” he promised as he slid slowly into her and she wrapped herself around him. “Everyday..."
And then they were pushing and pulling and racing together to the edge of some golden precipice.
“For all of our forever...” the Doctor vowed breathlessly, losing himself in the glow between them.
“Forever...” Rose moaned as they came together with an almost unbelievable perfection.
“I can give you that now,” he whispered kissing her nose lightly before moving to settle next to her on the bed. Rose smiled in response, still shivering a little in the aftermath. Then slowly, she reached a hand out and began to trace invisible patterns over the Doctor's skin.
“What does it mean?” She asked softly, surprisingly accurate in her memory of the Gallifreyan script. The Doctor took a moment to be surprised at that before answering.
“Love...” he replied finally.
“And this?” Rose asked, tracing out another of the swirling designs with her fingertips.
“Love...”
“And this one?”
“Love...”
Rose arched a golden eyebrow.
“They all mean love?”
The Doctor nodded silently, waiting...
Rose gave him a brilliant smile in reply and traced another of the symbols over his single heartbeat before laying her hand flat to his chest to feel it thrum beneath her palm.
“Thing is...” the Doctor said after a few moments of peaceful silence. “Thing is, I had to borrow the word. The Time Lords never had a word for love.”
Rose met his eyes quietly.
“I had to find it, out there... and...”
He ran a hand soft through her hair.
“And here,” he whispered.
“It's always been here,” Rose replied just as quietly before kissing him softly and snuggling a bit closer only to pull back, making a small face.
The Doctor gave her a questioning sort of look.
“Not that this wasn't fun, but I think next time maybe we could do without the marmalade, ya?”
“Next time?” He asked, giving her a disarmingly hopeful look full of promise and love.
Rose couldn't help it, she laughed, overwhelmed with the simple joy of the moment.
“Well, you did just promise me forever.”
“I did...”
“Well then, next time, no marmalade, ya?” Rose repeated, slipping out of bed and offering him her hand. He took it as she lead them both toward the bathroom.
“No marmalade,” he agreed. “Banana whipped cream could be good though,” he suggested, surprising another giddy laugh from Rose.
“Doctor...”
Title: A Human Reaction
Genre: Doctor Who; PWP; Rose/Ten II
Rating: NC-17
Timeline/Spoilers: After "Journey's End;" Rose and 10.2 in Pete's World
Warnings: Food Kink
Author's Notes: So this is a deep and profound exploration of what it means to be human Okay, okay, let's face it, this is just a chance for me to put food kink into Rose/Doctor smut. *grin* But it was fun gotta admit, since up 'til now my Doctor Who fic was either fluffy or painfully angsty.
Oh, and for this story, let's assume that Rose and Ten II aren't a "couple" before it. They're just flatmates.
Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin -
it's the triumphant twang of a bed-spring
-S.J. Perelman
“Ah... there you are,” he said in a quietly triumphant voice, casually pushing aside finely aged cartons of Cantonese take-out and a half empty tupperware of curry. With a deft hand, the Doctor liberated a small jar of marmalade from the shadowed recesses of the refrigerator. Eagerly, he twisted the cap free and instantly dipped a finger into the sticky sweet. His eyes closed in bliss, even as he shut the frig door with a small, 'snick.'
“Ah... fantastic,” he practically hummed before looking around guiltily, loathe to have Rose catch him out on his midnight kitchen raid. But even as he surveyed the dim confines of the flat, he felt his fingers itching to dip themselves back into the cool jar.
So instead, he tightened his grip on the smooth glass, reining in the impulse. Quickly, the Doctor determined that the safest place to indulge himself with the purloined treat was in the isolated quiet of his own bedroom. And with that in mind, he made his way to the shadowed hallway toward the back of the flat that he shared with Rose. He was halfway to his room when a small, low sound stopped him in his tracks.
“What's this then,” he murmured to himself, even as another arresting sound echoed softly from the direction of Rose's bedroom.
The Doctor tried to resist the almost too familiar compulsion to investigate before noticing the thin crack of light coming from the slightly open door of his flatmate's room. It was too tempting by half.
“What's this then,” he repeated under his breath, giving into impulse and pausing in the warm glow, tilting his head slightly. He reached out his hand to knock on her door when yet another soft sound tickled his ears, causing them to burn with a dawning awareness of what exactly he was hearing.
“Oh... oh... oh...” the Doctor mumbled beneath his breath, retreating the measure of a step; then another, and another...
He pressed his back against the smooth, patterned wallpaper behind him, a bit surprised by his own reaction.
“Oh...” he half sighed, nearly moaning himself as he closed his eyes, surprised by the unexpectedly primal way his normally reserved instincts seemed to suddenly hijack any higher brain functions and gleefully shove them out of the pilot's seat. He abruptly felt very human indeed.
“Doctor...”
Very, very human.
He slowly stepped back to the door and gently pushed at it with his fingertips, alternately pleased and terrified that it opened smoothly and soundlessly.
“Doctor...”
He remembered seeing stars born and galaxies dying. He could recall days when everybody lived and nobody died. He even remembered the blinding sight of the golden swirl of the time vortex glowing through his own eyes. But nothing... nothing he could remember ever having seen... could have prepared him for the sight of Rose... his Rose... laid out before his eyes in all her perfect, naked beauty.
The tangled ivory sheets beneath her were twisted, and for a moment, the Doctor was mesmerized by the sight of her left hand clutching them almost violently in its grip. Her other hand... her other hand moved... moved over herself in a way that made the Doctor even more viscerally aware of just how human they both were now.
He stepped forward. He couldn't help himself.
“Rose...”
She turned slightly unfocused eyes in his direction, and the Doctor was fascinated by the small beads of moisture that glittered like stars on her eyelashes. He had time to note too, that they glimmered over her body as well, dampness from her bath gilding her skin in a warm golden glow.
“Doctor!”
It came almost as a surprised squeak as Rose scrambled up, reaching blindly for the flat sheet that had fallen to the floor.
“Doctor, what are you...this is my... what are you...” Rose sputtered wildly, unable to settle on any one question and thus complete it.
The Doctor held up the small jar of marmalade in his hand, as if it explained why he had stepped into her room without so much as a by-your-leave. When she continued to stare at him in shock, he finally said calmly, “Marmalade.”
Rose blinked.
“Marmalade,” he repeated. “Tastes even better now,” the Doctor added. “So... well... marmalade.”
He took another taste as if to demonstrate.
Rose tightened the sheet around herself.
“Marmalade?” She asked incredulously as he nodded.
“Marmalade he says,” she muttered quietly not quite to herself.
The Doctor made a small sound of agreement and stepped even further into the room. He settled himself almost nonchalantly on the bed, his hip bumping against Rose's bare leg.
“I thought I'd just enjoy it back in my room, when I heard... well when I heard...” He gestured a bit vaguely in her direction, his fingers waggling. “I didn't mean...” he said in a low voice. “But I didn't mean to...”
He didn't complete the statement, instead turning his gaze to her bare leg.
“You were saying... you said... Doctor,” he murmured, his attention still focused on Rose's warm skin though he risked once darting a glance up in the direction of her face. He watched her lick her lips and flush in embarrassment before flicking his gaze back down to her leg.
“You said it when...”
Slowly, ever so slowly, he reached his hand out. He set it on her warm skin.
“You said, Doctor,” he repeated in that same low voice.
He was almost certain that he could hear her swallow nervously.
“You said...”
The Doctor traced a slow, curving circle over her skin.
“You said it, and when I heard that...”
He looked up into her eyes finally.
“Well I had to come in... didn't I?”
After a heavy moment, Rose nodded slowly, though whether in answer, or simply in understanding of his words, the Doctor was uncertain. Slowly, he slid his hand up her leg, finally feeling it brush up against the gathered sheet. He waited.
“You've not said... not since that day at the beach... you've not...”
“Doctor,” Rose whispered, before licking her lips again.
He brushed his fingers against the sheet, gently sliding his hand just a little beneath it.
“Rose, I...”
She moved just as slowly has he had been, quietly lowering the sheet. He reached for it; dropped it to the floor. Rose lay back, shivering just a little.
“Doctor...” she whispered once more before letting her hands drift over her body laid out before him. For a few minutes, they seemed aimless, moving without direction or pattern, then quietly she dropped one hand down to the side of her hip. The other, she let rest against the hollow of her throat a moment before drawing it down to her breast.
The Doctor swallowed against the sudden dryness in his own throat. He dropped the marmalade jar in his hand and almost absently noted Rose's shiver as it made contact with her skin.
Then her dark eyes sought and found the Doctor's own. Making certain that she had his full attention, she brought her fingertips to her nipple with a soft sigh before reaching for the Doctor's hand with her free one. She guided it to a place above her breast and trapped it there between her own as she caressed herself.
“Rose...”
Still keeping his hand trapped between hers, she slid their joined hands slowly down her body.
“Doctor…” she murmured.
She slid her hand lower still.
“My only…” she whispered.
She slid her fingers through her soft curls and then into herself.
“Rose…”
She smiled when she saw the Doctor's eyes go dark and hooded. Then slowly, she began to pleasure herself, arching up into their joined hands and making all the small sounds that had drawn him into her room in the first place.
“Rose...” the Doctor half-growled, half-gasped. “Rose, what are you doing?”
She smiled quietly and pressed his hand more tightly on top of hers, forcing him to lace his fingers with her lower hand. Their joined hands moved together, his fingers sliding wetly against hers and brushing her curls.
“Dancing lessons,” Rose teased breathlessly before dropping her uppermost hand back to the sheets and tangling it in the ivory fabric. Then she drew her lower hand slowly out from beneath his and moaned when he slid his fingers into her.
“I have danced before, Rose,” he reminded her. “And I've wanted to dance with you for a long time,” he admitted quietly. “My, Rose... I've waited two and a half lifetimes to...”
With almost startlingly deft touches, he slowly but inexorably pushed her to the edge, but not quite over it.
“God... Doctor... please...”
“Two and a half lifetimes,” he reminded in a voice laced with enough heat to nearly send Rose over the edge with the mere sound of it brushing against her skin.
“Two and a half very long...”
“Oh God... please...” Rose interrupted, her own voice very nearly not her own, lost in an almost desperate need. She bucked her hips wildly beneath the Doctor's hand, suddenly knocking the small marmalade jar to the floor. It drew the Doctor's attention and even Rose's startled cry as she unexpectedly found herself bereft of his touch didn't stop him from reaching to the floor for it.
“Doctor...”
He popped his head back up, brandishing the jar with a mischievous and delightfully wicked grin.
“Doctor...”
“But maybe dancing lessons aren't such a bad idea,” he drawled in a tone of sinful inspiration.
Slowly he dipped a finger into the sweet and lifted it free to show Rose a small dollop of the treat clinging to the tip. He gave Rose only a moment to look in askance before reaching out to trace a slow circle around her breast. She gasped.
“Now that I'm human and all...”
Again, he dipped his finger in the marmalade and made a small show of having Rose see the golden orange sweet glimmer a bit in the light before bringing his fingertip to her skin.
“And we're finally... truly... dance partners... Rose...” he murmured in a tone of complete adoration as he traced a complicated Gallifreyan pattern within the circumference of the circle that he had already drawn upon her skin.
“Doctor...” Rose asked breathlessly. “What are you doing?”
“Dance steps,” he replied playfully, before retracing his pattern with the tip of his tongue, licking the sweet marmalade from her skin. Rose cried out, arching up into his caress when he finally reached her taut nipple.
“Figure two..” she gasped finally when he drew his mouth away and proceeded to repeat the whole process with her left breast.
“Precisely,” he praised, his tone echoing the one he had always used before when he thought her especially clever or brilliant.
“Precisely...” Rose gasped, somewhat dazed as the Doctor devoted all his attention to his next figure, this one traced on the smooth skin of her belly.
“This should be a bit of a slow dance I would think,” he murmured. “See figure three...”
The Doctor teased her with long, slow strokes of his tongue as he lingered over the pattern that he drawn on her skin.
“Yes...”
“Or figure four...” he drawled, gently pushing her legs apart so that he could trace out yet another Gallifreyan phrase on her inner thigh that almost, but not quite reached Rose's soft, tempting curls. Her moans were nearly desperate, and more than a little frustrated, when his tongue traced the twisting lines and spirals.
“Doctor...”
“Now Rose,” he chided. “You wouldn't want me to miss a step would you?”
He traced more swirling lines on her inner right thigh.
“Might step on someone's toe...” he added as he licked the marmalade with light flicks of his tongue before darting a glance upwards. He watched her with hooded eyes as he slowly made his way upward.
“Or forget to dip you at the right moment...” he whispered, his breath finally stirring soft curls.
“Oh God...” Rose cried out helplessly as the Doctor lowered his mouth to savor the taste of her.
“Sweeter than marmalade, Rose...” he murmured. “Sweeter than wine... than ambrosia... than...”
He ran out of words finally as Rose shuddered and shivered with release, he simply drank her all in, intoxicated by the pure sugar rush of her response.
“Rose?”
She opened heavy lidded eyes and looked down to where the Doctor still lingered.
“I need you,” she murmured with a soft smile.
He smiled in return and then divested himself of his clothes so quickly that Rose nearly laughed at his giddy eagerness. He grinned and then met her dark eyes. She reached for him and drew him up and into a breathless kiss that tasted of marmalade and their own tangled love.
“Dance with me...” she whispered against the Doctor's lips.
“All my days, Rose,” he promised as he slid slowly into her and she wrapped herself around him. “Everyday..."
And then they were pushing and pulling and racing together to the edge of some golden precipice.
“For all of our forever...” the Doctor vowed breathlessly, losing himself in the glow between them.
“Forever...” Rose moaned as they came together with an almost unbelievable perfection.
“I can give you that now,” he whispered kissing her nose lightly before moving to settle next to her on the bed. Rose smiled in response, still shivering a little in the aftermath. Then slowly, she reached a hand out and began to trace invisible patterns over the Doctor's skin.
“What does it mean?” She asked softly, surprisingly accurate in her memory of the Gallifreyan script. The Doctor took a moment to be surprised at that before answering.
“Love...” he replied finally.
“And this?” Rose asked, tracing out another of the swirling designs with her fingertips.
“Love...”
“And this one?”
“Love...”
Rose arched a golden eyebrow.
“They all mean love?”
The Doctor nodded silently, waiting...
Rose gave him a brilliant smile in reply and traced another of the symbols over his single heartbeat before laying her hand flat to his chest to feel it thrum beneath her palm.
“Thing is...” the Doctor said after a few moments of peaceful silence. “Thing is, I had to borrow the word. The Time Lords never had a word for love.”
Rose met his eyes quietly.
“I had to find it, out there... and...”
He ran a hand soft through her hair.
“And here,” he whispered.
“It's always been here,” Rose replied just as quietly before kissing him softly and snuggling a bit closer only to pull back, making a small face.
The Doctor gave her a questioning sort of look.
“Not that this wasn't fun, but I think next time maybe we could do without the marmalade, ya?”
“Next time?” He asked, giving her a disarmingly hopeful look full of promise and love.
Rose couldn't help it, she laughed, overwhelmed with the simple joy of the moment.
“Well, you did just promise me forever.”
“I did...”
“Well then, next time, no marmalade, ya?” Rose repeated, slipping out of bed and offering him her hand. He took it as she lead them both toward the bathroom.
“No marmalade,” he agreed. “Banana whipped cream could be good though,” he suggested, surprising another giddy laugh from Rose.
“Doctor...”