preserved_ginger

Title: Merry Christmas, Darling
Rating: 12
Beta:

glory_jean
Character(s): Ten, Rose
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Spoilers: None
Notes: Season’s Greetings to all of you, and a happy and peaceful New Year. The quote in the fic comes from the song Merry Christmas, Darling by the Carpenters. (Yes, this is AU post-Journey’s End Ten/Rose. No, I don’t care about canon.)
Summary: His face seems to light up from the inside

Every day’s a holiday
When I’m near to you

It’s Christmas Eve. It's been all of twenty minutes since he last saw her, but to look at the Doctor when Rose walks into the console room with a poinsettia in her hands, you’d have been forgiven for thinking it had been as many hours. His face seems to light up from the inside as he sets eyes on her, and he practically bounces across the room in his desperate eagerness to be close to her. When he reaches her, he throws his arms around her in an enthusiastic embrace that brings a beaming smile to Rose’s lips.

“Can I not even leave you on your own for twenty minutes?”

She looks up at him, with the tip of her tongue almost peeking through her teeth and a grin on her face that butter wouldn’t melt.

He doesn’t care that it’s only been twenty minutes. He doesn’t even want to think about letting her out of his sight for a — well, not until Christmas is over, at least.

“No,” he says simply, and that’s all there is to it.

She chuckles at him and he grins impishly back up at her. He takes the poinsettia from her, stowing it somewhere on the console where he thinks it won’t fall off, and then his full attention is again where he prefers it to be: on her.

He takes her hand in his and lifts it to his mouth, peppering tiny kisses all over it before turning it and planting an open-mouthed kiss directly into her palm. Then he uses the hand to pull her flush against him so he can kiss her properly. Things move swiftly from there, and it’s a long time before either of them are wanting to “just talk” again.

-oO-x-Oo-

“It’s Christmas,” Rose says sleepily from her position in the Doctor’s bed, lying nestled against his naked chest and playing with his chest hair.

“So it is,” he agrees, his voice low and his eyes barely able to keep themselves off her.

“Mmm,” she says, snuggling closer to him. “Merry Christmas, Doctor.”

He smiles, burying his head in the softness of her hair for a few seconds so he can drop a kiss to the top of her head.

“Merry Christmas, darling.”