Title: Marriages of Convenience
Rating: G
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 67: Reputation. Set during Season 2.
The Doctor and Rose have been married several times already throughout time and space, usually to free one of them from prison or slavery. This is the first time it's happened on Earth.
Somehow that makes it seem more real.
They've been stuck in early 19th century England for three weeks now, and he's frankly sick of Rose being treated like a leper because living alone with a man who's not her husband has damaged her reputation.
They stand side by side and swear forever, and the Doctor tries to convince himself he's just doing it to make things easier.
Title: In the Candlelight
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 136: Candle. Set sometime during Season 2.
Rose complains that if she doesn't get some salad or vegetables soon, she'll end up with scurvy. Scurvy. On his TARDIS. The Doctor thinks that he should be insulted that she believes he'll ever allow that to happen.
Regardless, they eat out properly for once, instead of just heading for a chippy.
They sit down at a table for two, and the waiter discretely places a single candle between them. Rose rolls her eyes, remarking that yet again they've been mistaken for a couple.
The Doctor watches the play of the firelight across her features and decides he doesn't mind.
Title: Not-So-Accidental Snogging Sessions
Author: Queen of the Castle
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose, Ten/Reinette
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 1: Accidents. Set during 'The Girl in the Fireplace'.
Humans who'd cheated on their significant others often claimed afterwards that it was an accident. Accidents, the Doctor always thought, included car wrecks and broken glass, not full-on snogging sessions.
Now the Doctor found himself wondering whether he could use that line on Rose. Reinette had sort of launched herself at him, and he'd had no choice but to catch her. However, he hadn't had to return her kiss, caressing her around the waist. Nor did he have to let her turn his head.
He'd kissed another woman, and it wasn't an accident, but how could he tell Rose that?
Title: Breakable
Author: Queen of the Castle
Rating: G
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 5: Love. Set during 'Journey's End'.
They never seem to realise that having two hearts means that he's twice as breakable.
His companions never understand that just because he doesn't want to fully uncover his hearts by fully expressing his feelings, that doesn't mean that he doesn't put those hearts on the line each and every time. He's loved them all, in different ways.
He asks Rose whether it needs saying, knowing that she believes it does. It's tragic that she doesn't know that those words are as close as he's ever been to saying 'I love you' aloud to a companion and truly meaning it.
Title: Out of Character
Author: Queen of the Castle
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 12: Out of Character. Set during 'New Earth'.
He tries to be casual about the fact that Rose has just snogged the life out of him (he's surprised he didn't regenerate again). He tries to pretend, even to himself, that it means nothing to him.
But after the last time they kissed, it can't mean nothing. It means everything.
Until, of course, he's told it wasn't even her.
He tries not to admit that it hurts that apparently Rose kissing him was a sign that she was acting out of character. But it does. Because it means that she probably won't do it again. And that kills him.
Title: Interesting Fixations
Author: Queen of the Castle
Rating: Adult
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 18: Favourite. Set during Season 2.
It's really difficult to compare this new Doctor to the one Rose first met. She tries not to think of it as him being 'better' or 'worse' in certain respects, but rather just different. There is, however, one thing that she can't help but think is better.
His tongue finds just the right spot and Rose nearly bucks him off in response. She's barely in control of her own body when he's doing that to her, but she's hardly complaining. She whimpers, wanting more, and he happily complies.
His new oral fixation is her favourite part of this regeneration thing.
Title: A Lifetime of Exploration
Author: Queen of the Castle
Rating: Adult
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 26: Worry. Set during Season 2.
Rose raked her nails down the Doctor's back and he groaned, a guttural sound.
He'd never get tired of this. All of time and space at his fingertips, and he'd rather spend his whole existence exploring this.
That was why he worried, no matter how often she said 'forever', that one day she would leave him, one way or another. How could he live through the loss of this closeness?
So he clung to her now, and touched her just the way she liked most, and gave her reasons to hold on to him for as long as she could.
Title: Fading Before His Eyes
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose, Donna
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 51: Mirage. Set during 'The Stolen Earth'.
Donna's intimated that she can see the woman down the street. The Doctor's even been sort of expecting her since the overabundance of Bad Wolf references. Still, it'd seemed like false hope. This, right now, finally seeing Rose, feels like a mirage. An oasis in the desert, with the Doctor being a man dying of thirst.
He runs faster than he ever has in his life, knowing he needs to touch Rose to accept she's real. However, like a mirage fading on closer inspection, he's denied that. He's cut down, and the moment is lost.
Damn the Daleks to hell.
Title: Never Quite the Fantasy
Rating: PG-13
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 57: Dream. Set during 'Doomsday'.
"Rose," he'd breathed into her ear.
"He's calling me," she'd told her small family later. If she told them the rest, they'd think it was just a fantasy. They'd never up and leave in the middle of the night chasing the Doctor's voice if they thought it was just a sex dream.
She remembered the way he'd touched her in her dream just as clearly as she'd remembered the frantic look on his face as she'd fallen towards the void. It had felt real.
She'd find him again, now. Maybe then she could compare that dream to the real thing.
Title: Unconventional Hiding Techniques
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 134: Hunting. An AU set during Season 2.
They're being tracked, and Rose's loud breathing is going to give them away. He can't tell her to hush, because speaking out loud would defeat the purpose. It's too dark for him even to just gesture for quiet.
He thinks about placing his hand over her mouth. Then he thinks about how loudly she'll protest.
Instead, he presses his lips to hers and cups the back of her head gently in his palm. She returns his kiss hesitantly, shocked.
When they pull away from each other, she's much too surprised to breathe at all until the creature is long gone.
Title: Panorama
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 141: Opulence. Set during 'Army of Ghosts'.
He's brought her halfway across the universe to find the most beautiful sunset imaginable, blending colours providing a backdrop to stingray-like creatures drifting above the foreign landscape. He tries not to see it as seeking out the perfect moment to remember her, because that would suggest that he might lose her.
Storms approaching or no, he refuses to consider that possibility.
He asks her a question he'd never have contemplated broaching if he hadn't already known the answer. And when she says, "Forever," with the stretching panorama around them reflecting the brilliance of that moment, he can almost believe it.
Title: Hearts Beating Faster
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 160: Twitterpated. Set during Season 2.
His hearts beat faster every time their hands touch. It's such a human sort of reaction, but it's too much effort to consciously control it. It doesn't matter, because she mirrors it. He can feel the increase in her pulse through his wrist pressed against hers. Neither of them mentions it.
It's more difficult to tell if he makes her stomach drop, or whether her head swims a little when they get close enough that she can feel his breath against her skin. He might be alone there. Still, she does always return his stupid grins. He thinks that's enough.
Title: At the Verge of Crossing Boundaries
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 171: Terminus. Set during Season 2.
The hugs the Doctor shares with Rose often last a long time. This one, however, seems to somehow sort of linger.
Their relationship has been in a sort of stalemate for so long that he knows exactly where the boundary is. And this, right here, is at the verge of crossing it. He knows he shouldn't do that. Once he steps over that line, there's no going back, and no staying still. They'll follow the track to its inevitable conclusion. He just doesn't do that with companions.
He has to pull away from her now.
And yet he clings on.
Title: Fishes Wearing Clown Shoes
Rating: G
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 210: Susurration. Set during Season 2.
Rose was one of the most fascinating humans the Doctor had ever met, particularly when she slept. He'd tired of being separated from her for hours every night, so he'd started staying with her. He'd been rewarded by hearing numerous odd phrases murmured under her breath as she dreamed.
"Why's the jelly in the beard?"
"Undo the pterodactyl."
"Footprints on his underwear."
"Fishes wearing clown shoes."
He found it completely charming, and wished he could see those dreams more closely.
When she woke up and asked him why he was smiling, he just kissed her forehead and kept on grinning.
Title: Testing Her Limits
Rating: Adult
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 211: Acme. Set during Season 2.
There was something remarkable, the Doctor thought, about the way the human body was constantly straining for more.
Rose would draw his fingertips gently to her temple and suddenly he'd be right there, feeling what she felt, knowing what would make everything coalesce for her and using his free hand and his mouth and other body parts to bring that about. Then just when he thought she'd reached her peak, he'd see with sudden clarity what could send her even higher.
Afterwards she'd lie gasping, exhausted. But he knew that Rose enjoyed testing her limits as much as he did.
Title: The World Through Red-and-Blue-Tinted Glasses
Rating: G
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 215: Red / Blue. Set during 'Doomsday'.
They're so simple, these cheap human 3D glasses. Red and blue plastic, surrounded by flimsy white cardboard. Yet they provide the solution for a seemingly hopeless situation. Unfortunately, they also tell him quite clearly that he's about to lose yet another person who has become essential to his existence.
He has to choose whether to send Rose away, or selfishly keep her with him and take the chance that the void stuff revealed by the red and blue plastic will suck her into hell. And he loves her, though he's never said it, so the choice is really already made.
Title: Treading Unfamiliar Paths
Rating: PG-13
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 221: Entwine. Set sometime during Season 2.
Fingers creep around each other almost tentatively, even though they've tread this same path many times before. It feels unfamiliar this time. It isn't so they can keep a grip while they flee for their lives from aliens, or even just swing their arms cheerfully between them.
Their fingers don't just interlace casually, but entwine. The back of her hand is pressed against the pillow by his as he covers her, while his other hand traces over the curve of her hip.
The Doctor asks permission one last time with his eyes. Rose just tells him aloud to hurry up.
Title: A New TARDIS Rule
Rating: PG-13
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 235: Lace. Set during Season 2.
"Uhhh," the Doctor said eloquently.
"I'll take it from that shining compliment that you like them," Rose said.
He might be able to actually confirm that if his mouth wasn't drier than the surface of the planet Kosperus.
"If I take them off, are you more or less likely to be able to speak?" Rose asked.
The Doctor pried the small scraps of black lacy material carefully off her body. For once, he thought speech was overrated.
The Doctor decided that it was a new TARDIS rule that Rose Tyler was never allowed to wear anything other than lace underwear.
Title: Other Ideas
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 236: Greetings. Set during 'The Stolen Earth'.
He hadn't been able to finish his sentence the last time he saw her. He certainly hadn't had the chance to kiss her goodbye, as he might have liked, the way his last incarnation had been able to do. Well, really he would have liked to have never been separated from her in the first place, but since when did he ever get things just the way he wanted?
This right now was a case in point. Because he'd fully intended to kiss her hello. Really he had. It was just too damn bad that the Daleks had other ideas.
Title: Signs of Onset
Rating: PG-13
Character/s: Rose/Ten
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 269: Pollen. Set during Season 2.
"Now, Rose," the Doctor entreated, holding a hand out to ward her off.
Contact was getting harder to avoid by the second. If the Doctor could just get out of the console room, he might be able to lock a door between them until this wore off.
Except right then her hand suddenly rested on his arm, spreading spores onto his skin. So much for his reflexes.
He felt his eyes dilating and his mouth going dry. Classic signs of onset.
He really hoped Rose would accept 'alien sex pollen' as an excuse after he'd bent her over the console.
Title: Everyone But Her
Rating: G
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 276: Admission. Set during 'The Satan Pit'.
As the Doctor admits how much he believes in Rose, he muses that everyone and everything through all of time and space seems to know precisely how he feels about her. Except, perhaps, Rose herself. These moments when he expresses it so clearly never seem to happen when she's nearby.
Reinette knew it wasn't just the stars he was missing. Mickey knew he'd always be second-best. The crew of the Sanctuary Base immediately labelled them a couple. Even this nameless, speechless beast is well aware.
If he lives through this, he swears he'll tell her.
He knows it's a lie.
Title: Everything is Doubled
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 283: Capacity. Set during Season 2.
"Two hearts. Everthing is doubled," Rose said softly, tracing her fingertips across the Doctor's chest from right to left and back again.
"What?" the Doctor asked.
"I once thought that maybe you could never love some stupid little human like me," Rose said.
"You're not stupid," the Doctor chastised.
Rose smiled. "That's my point. You would say that. You don't just love one stupid human; you love us all. Your hearts have a greater capacity for it, I think."
The Doctor caught Rose's wandering hand in his.
"And they're doubly breakable," she added.
The Doctor squeezed her hand in agreement.
Title: Never Settling Down
Rating: G
Character/s: Rose/Ten, Jackie
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 284: Settle. Set during 'Army of Ghosts'.
Jackie asks whether Rose is ever going to settle down. Rose barely hesitates over the answer.
She can't imagine the Doctor in a house filled with several small children, with a big lollopping dog tethered in the backyard. The fantasy (is it a fantasy or a nightmare for her?) doesn't quite make it beyond the look of disgust and terror that he'd clearly displayed when they'd had to talk about mortgages on Krop Tor.
She doesn't even know if she wants to settle down herself, but she never will regardless. She loves him too much to do that to him.
Title: Marks and Claims
Rating: PG-13
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 302: Mine. Set during Season 2.
He claims her with caressing hands and sharp teeth, leaving a mixture of aching marks and fading pleasure in his wake.
The strange pleasure/pain juxtaposition perfectly represents his feelings for her, though it's obvious that she doesn't even realise that there's anything but happiness to be had here. He tries to show her the darkness and ultimate futility inherent in his need for her. But, in the end, it's not something she can really understand. She's only human.
He claims Rose now because one day she'll no longer be his. All he can do is cling on while he can.
Title: Knowledge of Cataclysms
Rating: PG
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Author's Notes: Written for Challenge 304: Fourth Doctor Titles, using 'The Seeds of Doom'. Set between 'Fear Her' and 'Army of Ghosts'.
The Doctor had been getting the feeling for a while now that something terrible was coming. As a Time Lord, he never ignored premonitions of that kind. Not when they were his own foresight, at least. He knew how knowledge of cataclysms could echo back through time.
It all converged on Rose.
The Doctor might not want to think about it, or admit it, but he'd been seeing the signs for a while now. The Beast in the Pit had only been the most outright expression of it. His time with Rose was ending.
He held onto her even tighter.