Donna was wrong. He was a coward. He was a coward who managed to fall in love with his flatmate and then accidentally agreed to remain just friends with her. He was tempted to return to the strategy of avoidance employed by both of them after their fight over Renée, but Rose seemed to consider the matter settled and was acting as if nothing had happened. He didn't want to offend her by becoming distant. Not that he really wanted to become distant anyway, given how absolutely head-over-heels he realized he was. He couldn't so much as think about her without smiling, which meant he looked like he was in an excellent mood all the time, despite the turmoil that kept him up at night and distracted at work.

He tried to act as unaffected as Rose, but found it rather difficult to not notice things like her tongue touching her teeth when she was teasing him, and how her shampoo smelled like lavender but her lotion smelled like coconut. It was also hard to ignore the way he reacted to her. His face heated up when she smiled at him for too long, and there was a pleasant swoopy feeling in his chest when she laughed.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on his state of mind), during the next week and a half they each spent relatively little time at the flat. The semester picked up at school and James stayed late most days holding extended office hours and tutoring sessions. Rose suddenly found herself struggling under the firm's pre-Valentine's day rush, working on designs for various print ads and holiday promotions. Even when they were both home, Rose was often in her bedroom on her laptop and James was marking assignments in the sitting room, the telly on low in front of him.

Sometimes Rose would wander through close to midnight for coffee if she was planning to stay up late. On February 12th, James was mostly ignoring the 11 o'clock news.

Tomorrow, London is expected to be hit with one of the biggest storm systems this year, with predictions as high as 40 centimeters in 24 hours. This would be a record amount of snow since– James rolled his eyes and muted the nightly news anchor.

Rose protested. "Wait, that could have been important."

James didn't look up from his students' latest lab reports. "It'll be fine. They always over-hype these things to drum up views. It's not like anyone actually watches it anymore, anything on telly you can get more conveniently on the internet. And please, 40 centimeters? I'll be surprised if there's 14."

Rose huffed. "Whatever. If the buses are stopped tomorrow and we can't get to work, I'm reserving the right to say I told you so."

"Go ahead," James said. "You're worrying over nothing." He never looked up from the lab reports, and if asked he would say it was because this particular student needed to spend some quality time with a dictionary. However, he knew that it was actually because he found the vest tops Rose wore to bed quite distracting and the way her hair tended to fall out of its loose bun when she was working then gently tease her neck and ears was really very–

He shook his head. This is what he meant. Distracting.

"I told you so."

James was rudely awoken the following morning to Rose tossing her mobile on his chest. He blinked groggily and squinted at the screen. London weather live update: Before 7am nearly 4 centimeters of snow have piled up on the streets of London with no signs of slowing down. Streets remain hazardous despite efforts to clear them. People are advised not to travel until the snow can be removed.

"The buses have stopped," Roes said. She plucked the mobile from his hands and performed a quick internet search. "And the academy is closed. Even the firm is letting me off because of the official travel advisory, so we're stuck here today."

She flounced out of his bedroom and James was tempted to roll over and scream into his pillow in frustration. He could not spend a full day trapped in the flat with Rose. He hadn't done so since that night. Not even on the weekend, when she'd gone into work to finish her projects. This was going to be the longest day of his life.

He decided to settle in for The Longest Day with cold cereal and the lab reports from the night before. Rose stayed in her bedroom for most of the morning on her laptop so he had the sitting room all to himself. He turned the telly on mute to the news and glanced up every once in awhile to marvel at the sheer amount of snow being dumped on the city. He wondered if they would even get to work tomorrow. This was looking like more snow than London usually got in a year.

Nonetheless, James passed the morning in a dull, bored haze. The flat was completely silent for a solid three and half hours save for the shuffling of papers and the occasional noise from Rose's bedroom. It wasn't until James was chewing on a lackluster lunch of canned tuna on toast that Rose emerged from her room.

"I'm bored," she announced. "I've done practically all the work I can from home, read and re-read my latest issue of Layers, caught up on all my favorite youtube channels and I'm going stir-crazy."

James blinked a couple of times. To be honest, he was feeling the cabin fever a bit himself but hadn't the slightest idea of how to alleviate it. And even if he did, he'd be rather hesitant to suggest it lest she think he was coming onto her again. Which he would never do intentionally, of course, but given recent realizations he didn't quite trust himself to maintain perfect control over what came out of his mouth.

Rose waited awhile for him to say something. When he didn't, she supplied, "Fancy a game of snap?"

"Sure."

Three games of snap later, Rose was the undeniable victor ("Ha! I win!" "Best two out of three." "Sore loser, I'll just beat you again." … "Best three out of five.") and they were yet again staring blankly at each other across the coffee table, James's mobile softly playing music between them. Well, James was doing his best to stare blankly. He was thinking that it was looking quite blustery outside and it would be quite nice to cuddle under the afghan with Rose tucked under his arm. He pressed his lips together, determined not to say anything. It was awkward. He hated feeling awkward with Rose.

And then, quite suddenly, it wasn't awkward. And James would be forever grateful to Slash and Axl Rose for the opening riff of Sweet Child O' Mine. In perfect synchronicity, as if they'd planned it, he and Rose began nodding their heads in time to the music. Then singing along. Then they were both standing on the coffee table holding fake microphones (him a screwdriver and her a hairbrush) and belting out the chorus for all they were worth.

They were flushed and panting when it was over and James felt so happy in that moment he could have kissed Rose, standing close in front of him on the coffee table, chest heaving and beaming at him. But she quickly turned and picked up his mobile, typing in his passcode because of course she knew it as well as her own and picked another song. James groaned when he heard the opening, but he didn't stop smiling. He didn't think that was possible at this point.

"Come on, Jack heard it. It's only fair," Rose said. She hopped off the coffee table and held out her hand. "When I wake up–"

James took it. "Well, I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you." He did his best Scottish accent, just to see if it would make her smile wider.

It did. "When I go out,"

"Yeah, I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you." He never let go of her hand and started marching in time to the beat.

They traded lines until the chorus, which they sang together, "But would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the man who'd walk 1000 miles to fall down at your door!"

And I would, James thought. He gripped her hand tighter, thinking he might fly off this earth if he let go, that she was the only thing keeping him on the ground. I would do nearly anything for you.

Their march led them several times around the sitting room and eventually through every room in the flat, but they ended on Rose's bed, which had a box spring, and their marching devolved into jumping up and down on it like children as the last lines of the song faded on James's mobile. They collapsed breathless onto the bed next to each other.

"Jack undersold you," Rose said, tongue in her teeth. "You're a rather brilliant singer."

"Nonsense," he said. "You're an absolutely brilliant singer."

She blushed.

"No really," he said. "Have you ever heard yourself? You could make a career out of that. Ever talked to any major record labels? I really think–"

Then she kissed him, and he was breathless all over again for a totally different reason. All other thoughts fled his mind and he wrapped his arms around to pull her closer. A thrill when through him when he felt her arms around him as well, and he was pretty sure he would be happy if they stayed like that forever. London could completely buried in snow and he wouldn't care.

He was deathly afraid she would push him away again when they finally came up for air but to his relief she tightened her grip and buried her face in his shoulder. "Has anyone ever told you," he murmured in her ear, "That you're also an absolutely brilliant kisser."

"I'm so sorry for what I said last week," she said. "I'm sorry I was scared. I'm sorry I didn't see that you're worth it."

"I wasn't," he said. "You were right. I was sad and scared and lonely. Both times. And I didn't consider your feelings before, I just did what I wanted so I could feel better." He kissed her again. "But this is different, because I know that you're happy, and you want this too." He looked at her hopefully for confirmation.

She kissed him back. "I am happy. Very happy."

"Good." He paused. "Purely out of curiosity, you don't have to answer if you don't want– but what changed your mind?" He couldn't help but wonder what changed in that week and a half.

Rose gave a small shrug. "I missed you."

Her hand found his face and he held it there. "I didn't go anywhere."

Her thumb brushed his cheek. "I know. But we were working so much. And every time I stayed late at the office, or when I went in on the weekend, all I could think about was running back to the flat so I could see you before you went to bed. Because any day where I don't get to see you, spend time with you is– is a bad day. Even if it's a good day otherwise."

She was looking sad again, so he kissed her again. "Well, Rose Tyler," he said. He loved saying her name, loved the way it rolled off his tongue. "I promise that you'll never have a bad day again as long as I'm around."

There was a lot more kissing after that, and James knew that this was different. He had never felt like this before, not with Astrid, not with Joan, not with Renée. For the next twenty-four hours, every time he saw her, every time they touched, every time they kissed, he could feel the serotonin lighting up his brain, a ridiculous grin spreading across his face. He could imagine traveling the universe with Rose, just them with all of space and time at their fingertips. He could imagine forever with her.

Eighteen months later, James was dancing to the Beatles' In My Life at his wedding, and he remembered Martha and Mickey's first dance, and Donna and Lee's. And he believed he finally understood the looks on their faces. They were in a room full of people– all their friends and family and the people they cared about most. But it hardly mattered, because he had just married Rose, his flatmate and best friend and companion, and all he could look at or think about was her. The flowers in her hair were wilting in the August heat, and her makeup was a bit runny because she'd cried during the ceremony, but her smile filled her whole face and with her arms around him he felt like he could never be lost.

He leaned down, brushed his lips across her cheek, and whispered, "Rose Tyler, I know we've just been married, but please tell me again– how long are you going to stay with me?"

"Forever." She kissed his cheek in return and he could feel her breath on his ear.

He kissed her lips, heard the snap of the photographer in the background, and then whispered in return, "Forever."

The End

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited, and even if you did none of those things but stuck with it to the end. Your support means so much and really kept me focused and motivated, so I hope you all enjoyed the result. I definitely enjoyed writing it.

A playlist of songs I used as inspiration for this piece has been posted on my profile if you're interested.

If you liked this Doctor Who AU, check out my other one, To Get Across this Universe