The Doctor had never touched Rose this way before and he felt the miniscule changes in her body as he did so. Her skin heated .62 degrees, her heartbeat sped up by 10.3 beats per minute. He could feel her warm human skin and smell that she was utterly female. He could measure the widening of her irises, the increase in her respiration. He knew that she couldn't sense or know the same of him.

Stupid ape.

Beautiful woman.

"Doctor?" She whispered. Her voice was husky. She turned her face toward his hand, dragging his fingertips across her face to rest at the corner of her full, petal-soft lips.

He could feel the moistness of her breath against his hand and smell the banana she just ate. His mouth watered for her. He pulled his hand away. "You had a smudge. We need to move to a higher point if we want to see the suns set." He said briskly, congratulating himself on his normal tone of voice. Rose's face fell slightly in disappointment but she bucked up quickly. She always did, his Rose. He felt a mixture of pride and frustration about that, in this instance. Maybe if she'd just make an overture, he could pretend to forget his scruples and touch her. Coward.

The Doctor hauled Rose to her feet and busied himself taking down his ill-gotten Starbucks umbrella. Rose tidied up the basket. They didn't carry it between them as they headed up the dunes, away from the sea, toward the pale-yellow brushland up the slope.

"The smaller of the suns is Lesath. It'll set first, followed by Ras in just twenty Kratosian minutes. About...er...thirty-one Earth minutes." The Doctor said. "The twin suns of Lesath and Ras have burned for forty-three million years and will burn for twenty-seven million more." He said dreamily as they settled side-by-side onto the top of the slope on the springy lemon-colored grass.

"And then?" Rose asked.

The Doctor eyes shut briefly. "Time War." He said into the brilliant, dying light of Lesath.

"Oh." Rose breathed softly. She touched him then, leaning against his side and holding his left hand. She dropped her blonde head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Me too." He said briefly. For a moment he bent and touched his cheek lightly to the top of her head. Human hair was so baby fine, he thought, or maybe it was just Rose. He hadn't had many occasions to touch human hair. "You smell like bananas." He said, sitting up again, but keeping her against his side.

"So do you." Rose grinned. "And you've got a sunburn."

"Have I?" The Doctor felt his face with his free hand. "So I have! Oh, look!" He exclaimed, suddenly pointing out to sea. "Proto-Kratosians!"

"Proto-Kratosians?" Rose repeated.

"Proto-Kratosians, Proto-Kratosians!" The Doctor said gleefully, enjoying the cadence of the words greatly. "They descended from dolphin-like mammals. Look at them dance in the sea."

Rose laughed in delight as she spied the sleek peachy creatures playfully jumping into the air below them and splashing back into the sea. The first of the suns had nearly set and the light grew brilliantly orange as the giant Ras dipped into the horizon, setting the clouds and sky ablaze with gold. "Oh!" Rose laughed breathlessly. "Oh, it's so beautiful!"

The Doctor released her hand and wrapped his arm around her, as if trying to bundle her joy up in his arms to hold. She fit herself against his side and tilted her head back against his shoulder, still gazing into the burning sky.

"Binary suns rarely set anywhere near the same time." The Doctor said. "On Gallifrey..." He stopped himself, cleared his throat, and continued in a slightly rough voice, "on Gallifrey...the twin suns set simultaneously in the south and the north and the sky...at night...looks almost, almost like this." He finished at a whisper. Rose quietly settled more fully against him, her warm human body heating his left side, her soft female form fitting itself against his body.

"It must have been lovely." She murmured gently to him, as they both fixed their eyes on the horizon.

He was silent for a long moment. "It was glorious." He said.

The air grew cool as Ras fell from the sky and an etherial, ancient sound rose on the wind and filled the air.

"What..?" Rose said.

"Listen!" The Doctor insisted. "They're singing."

The creatures in the ocean leapt toward the sky. Exquisite individual peals of sound blended into a deep chorus of harmony as the great star Ras sank below the line of the distant sea. Rose sighed into the golden gloaming light as the Kratosians fell silent one by one and returned to the depths of the sea until there was no sound but the gentle swell of the ocean, the whip of the wind, and the breaths of the two huddled travelers on the hill.

For a long, long while they sat silently, the Doctor still holding Rose against his side, until the sky darkened and the wind grew cold. "Come on." The Doctor said, his voice a little rusty from disuse. He helped her up and let out a little puff of breath when she came to her feet and went straight into his arms. He wrapped her tight against him and heard her muffled voice against his chest.

"Thank you." She said, holding him fast. "It was the most beautiful afternoon I've ever had."

He dropped his cheek down to rest on the top of her head and, heedless of the turmoil in his mind, allowed one hand to stroke her back lightly in a small circle. She lifted her face up and stood on tiptoe to press a warm, soft kiss to his cheek. He swallowed hard and his eyes closed tight, memorizing the moment so that he could remember it when this fragile human girl he loved was gone. Hoping that the day was far off yet.

The embrace ended softly. They gathered the basket and the parasol and walked to the TARDIS. The door closed behind them with a sound of finality.

"Tomorrow I'm going to take you to the bazaar on Alrai Six." The Doctor said, hearing distantly how cheerful his voice sounded in his ears. He grinned lopsidedly at her. "It's horrible. Your mum would love it."

Rose chuckled, her eyes sparkling. "I'll buy her a present." She hesitated. "Good night, Doctor."

"Goodnight." He replied with a smile. She smiled in return and walked down the hallway toward her bedroom. "My Rose." He murmured to himself, and, with a sigh of joy and sadness, stepped onto the TARDIS platform to tinker another lonely night away as she slept.