6.2

Once inside, the Doctor sat down at a booth with a table and dumped all the shopping on the seating opposite him, whilst Rose bought their drinks and chips. Therefore, when she brought them over, she had to sit right next to the Doctor.

Realistically, they could have had inches of space between them; the seat was built to comfortably fit three. But they were the Doctor and Rose, Usually But Not Today Mistaken For a Couple When They Aren't One Officially But Secretly Want To Be, thus their personal space was eagerly forgotten and they sat thigh to thigh, shoulder to shoulder, sharing two bowls of chips and swapping turns at sipping their differently-flavoured milkshakes. Well, they weren't really milkshakes. Rose wasn't quite sure what they were, but they had a similar texture on the tongue and his one tasted of bananas, so she assumed they were this planet's equivalent. She still wasn't over the fact that nearly everywhere in the universe sold chips. It was kind of brilliant.

She glanced across the table at their stack of shopping. "So, do you reckon we've got enough for today, then?" she asked him.

"Oh yes," he nodded, popping a chip into his mouth.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes or so, eating and drinking, Rose resting her head lightly against his shoulder. "Will you remember?" she said then, abruptly.

"Remember what?" he asked, casually wrapping his arm around her shoulders to secure her closely to his side.

She tilted her head to look at him. "In years and years and years, when you look at that snowglobe thingy, or the countless other things we've bought here and there, things that are scattered all over the TARDIS; will you remember that I was with you when you got them? Will you remember each little story they have behind them, what each special thing meant to us?"

He looked astounded that she'd even have to ask those things, and she watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed thickly. He glanced down at the chips and answered, "Don't ask such stupid questions."

He sounded upset. Rose bit her lip hesitantly and tried to cheer him up by letting her fingers fight his for the last chip in his bowl. She heard him murmur, "Aha!" as he seized it from her, then brought his hand to his mouth to eat the chip. But Rose intercepted its path, and ate it from between his finger and thumb with a cheeky grin on her face. The Doctor blinked down at her in surprise, then tickled her ribs, causing her to giggle loudly before trying to muffle her laughter into his shoulder, grabbing his hands to still them.

They were leaning so close together at the time that really, it was inevitable that his lips would accidently brush her temple. Rose was still giggling against him when it happened, and he thought perhaps she hadn't noticed, and for some reason, this did not make him feel relieved; rather, it made him want to repeat the action so that she would notice. He leant closer to do so, but she suddenly tilted her head slightly and his lips landed on her cheek instead. She giggled again, sounding a little giddier this time, and whispered, "What was that for?"

The Doctor drew back the tiniest amount so that his mouth ended up hovering over hers as he answered. "Just...just because," he whispered.

"Okay," she exhaled roughly. Her eyes flickered down to his mouth and she bit her bottom lip shyly. "You know, I think I like your 'just because.'"

"Yeah?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"Yes," she assured him, meeting his intense gaze again.

The rest of the noises in the café, the people talking and the frying of chips and the collecting of glasses; it all seemed to them as if it were drowned out by the sound of their shaky breathing as they stared at one another. The Doctor's hands were practically trembling with anticipation as he rested them on her waist, moving impossibly closer to her on their shared seat. He forgot the time, date, and location of his own existence and simply memorised the expression on her face, the feel of her beneath his hands, and the exquisite taste of Rose, as without further hesitation he let his lips descend on hers.

She quickly looped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with equal longing, opening her mouth beneath his to snog him properly. The Doctor pulled her tighter against him, so that as much of their bodies as possible were touching in their awkward position.

They broke apart as a waitress cleared her throat sharply. The Doctor looked up, tugging on his ear, slightly embarrassed. "Um," he mumbled. Rose hid her grin behind her hand.

"I'm really sorry," the waitress said earnestly. "But I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. Some of our other customers are a bit offended by your...amorous display."

Rose snorted, trying to hold back giggles. "Yeah, we'll go," she replied, sliding out from the booth.

The Doctor looked affronted at her leaving her place pressed up against him, but was soon satisfied when Rose grabbed his hand and tugged him out after her. Weelll, maybe not satisfied, but certainly very happy. He coughed awkwardly and gathered up her shopping bags, before turning to the waitress. "We'll be off then," he smiled cheerfully. If he'd hand a free hand, he would have waved to the offended patrons. And he let a giggling Rose lead him out of the cafe.

Once outside, he let out a long breath. "Sooooo," he drawled casually. "Fancy going back to the TARDIS?"

Rose met his gaze. "What a silly question," she smiled, squeezing his hand. They shared out the load of carrier bags between them and raced each other back home.

::

They stumbled into the console room, out of breath and laughing, dropping the bags of shopping carelessly to the floor as they gravitated towards one another again. After they'd caught their breath, they went from standing close and staring at each other to diving in for a series of heated kisses, the Doctor backing up the ramp and through the room towards the corridor, his hands on her hips pulling her with him.

"You remember that artist, on the beach that day?" she murmured to him, between kisses.

"Rose, I don't particularly want to talk about someone who so obviously wanted to do more than paint a portrait of you," he retorted, tugging his tie off as he briefly pressed her against the corridor wall to bestow kisses to her neck.

She started unbuttoning his shirt for him so that he could concentrate on nibbling her throat and collar bone. "I'm only mentioning it because he said, once you'd left to get those drinks, just after I'd told him that you weren't my boyfriend, he said that he thought, that he thought..."

"Rose," the Doctor murmured impatiently against her skin. "This going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I just...your teeth and tongue are very distracting."

She felt him grin into her neck before he pulled back. Cupping her cheeks softly in his hands, he said, "Go on. Tell me whatever it is quickly, so that I can go back to distracting you as soon as possible."

She smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I just thought you should know that he said that he'd been watching us for a while - "

The Doctor snorted. "Watching you, more like," he muttered.

" – no," she corrected. "Us. He said that he'd seen you rub sun tan oil into my skin, and, nearly naked as I was, he thought the gesture too intimate to be just between friends, hence his assumption that we were together."

He trailed his hands down her back. "I think that sums us up," he remarked.

"What's that?"

"Too intimate to just be friends," he smiled. His hands continued their path downwards until they gripped her bottom and firmly tugged her against him. "That's why we're giving up on all that nonsense now," he continued to inform her wisely.

Rose grinned and slipped her hands into his hair. "I think, one day, we should go back to that B&B. You remember, the one with the - "

"Mirror," he nodded eagerly. "Yes. Excellent idea, Rose Tyler. I'll set the coordinates for there in the morning. For now, though..." He leant in to kiss her again.