It started out with an old polaroid camera Rose found in a forgotten corner of the TARDIS. She used it to collect the letters of her name from the next four places they visited.

An "R" photographed on the floating world because their symbol for seafood happened to be shaped just like one.

An "O" easily snapped from the beautifully round stone garden window on the green moon of Elandro Twelve.

An "S" drawn in the sand on the tiny beach world he took her to when she asked nicely and made her best "Please please please?" eyes.

An "E" that was the adorable hand of a child on Trylo Five where everyone had three fingers.

She taped them to the wall of the TARDIS with a very pleased smile and when a flyer hit him on the next world with a big letter "T" (well upside down it was anyway) he began spelling out her last name.

Next up was D-O-C-T-O-R and pretty soon they were collecting letters everywhere they went. Photos, papers, little canvases. Every coincidence in favour of looking like an English earth later made it into the pile.

WHERE ARE WE GOING NEXT? she spelled out one day, taking up half the ship and laughing when he came out and read it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSE TYLER! made an appearance and he got a kiss on the cheek for it.

A series of particularly bad knock knock jokes followed. The TARDIS seemed to suddenly dissolve any sticky powers the tape had on the punchlines it found particularly bad.

KNOCK KNOCK

WHO'S THERE?

DOCTOR

The TARDIS incinerated a few letters for that particular offense before the punchline even made an appearance.

Like many of their games it gradually faded and the letters lay forgotten on the floor. Until one night when Rose took a particularly long time getting ready. She was dressing up, something she hadn't done save for that victorian gown for the old Doctor. The poodle skirt had been fun but this dress was svelte and intimidating and a little low in the front for her liking. The TARDIS however, proved stubborn and opinionated in the wardrobe it provided her.

She walked out expecting to find him looking impatient and eager to leave. Instead she caught him hastily pinning up the last of several letters, clearly not expecting her for another few minutes. He huffed and finished and stood aside rather clumsily.

Her heart hitched a little in her chest as she read it.

You're a bit beautiful.

He had turned a little red and was tugging at his ear trying to laugh at himself over it.

"Knew you'd ask how you looked," he stuttered, "Figured I'd...wellll...I already knew how you'd look."

For a moment she simply stared at him and he froze. A tiny fear crept into the corners of his eyes and she felt another hitch in her chest at the idea that she could put it there. That he cared enough to worry about her feelings.

Then she broke into a wide, happy smile, tongue tucked between her teeth. A bit of a laugh bubbled over and she walked down to meet him, traced a hand over the letters then turned to him.

"Do I get flowers too?" she teased then leaned up and kissed him, just to the left of his mouth. Not quite his cheek. A little closer to a real kiss than she'd ever dared before.

He went quite still as he registered that fact. She walked past him to the door.

"You comin'?" she asked, holding out her hand.

He smiled back and took that hand. Later, as the music played and they sat side by side listening to it, he gently took her hand and slowly traced out the letters of her name across her palm.

She remembered that night forever.

She remembered it when the human Doctor used scrabble letters to propose.

She remembered it and wrote the names of their children in photographs across their doors.