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“Oh my god, it’s us,” Rose said faintly.
She and the Doctor had stiffened instantly when they heard the familiar wheeze of the TARDIS materializing, and the two of them were currently ducked behind a few shipping crates as they watched another Doctor and another Rose step out of the ship, beaming at each other.
“Hard to say if it’s past or future, really,” the Doctor frowned. “Neither of us are wearing anything particularly distinctive and you look roughly the same age.”
They watched curiously as the other Doctor leaned down and pecked his Rose on the forehead before the two split up, heading to different stalls in the marketplace.
“Wouldn’t we remember coming here if it were past?” Rose asked curiously, and the Doctor shook his head.
“Not if we met our future selves,” he explained quickly. “If they find out that we come in the future and don’t remember our first visit--which, if this is the current case, we don’t--then they’ll have to suppress the memories until they get to live through this day as us.”
“Travelling with you’s not half a headache sometimes,” Rose muttered. “Alright, so either they’re our future selves or they’re our past and we had to forget. What about reapers though, and paradoxes?” she realized worriedly. “Doctor, what if it’s like--”
“It’s not,” he assured her, reaching down to squeeze her hand comfortingly. “That day--what you tried to do changed time,” he said as gently as possible. “That’s why the reapers showed up and why we had to be more careful than usual. It’s like pulling two of the bottom pieces of a Jenga tower out first,” he grinned, and despite her shame she couldn’t help but chuckle in response to his childish analogy. “It forced us to be more careful because every action after had a lot more consequence.”
“Right,” she said, unconscious of the fact that her grip on his hand had tightened as he continued, and the Doctor wracked his brain for a way to--
“C’mon, we’re fine. I’ll prove it,” he said, and the gleam in his eyes instantly told Rose that he was plotting trouble. She wished it surprised her in the least, but other than the racing of her heart she could barely find it in herself to react.
“You’ll prove it?” she repeated doubtfully, and he beamed at her.
“We’ll go talk to ourselves!” he said, and Rose winced. “C’mon, that way you’ll see--the world doesn’t end, the universe doesn’t collapse. We’re both still fine. No harm done!”
“All I heard was a load of jinxes in one go,” Rose muttered dryly, and the Doctor rolled his eyes and tugged her out from their hiding place.
“C’mon, allons-y, Rose Tyler,” he crowed, giving her a lopsided grin. “You go that way and follow my other self, and I’ll go this way and find the other you. In, oh, I dunno--thirty minutes? Make an excuse, and we’ll meet at our TARDIS. I’m sure those two can find each other.”
“Doctor, I have a bad feeling about this,” Rose tried one last time, and he simply pulled her in for a tight, reassuring hug.
“Trust me, I meet myself all the time,” he told her. “It’s always fine. Well, usually, but when it’s not, it’s not because there’s two of us. Well, it is, sometimes, or, well, most of the time, but not because we’re ripping apart time, just because we both attract danger. But we’re not meeting ourselves! You’re meeting another me, and I’m meeting another you.”
“Yeah, I suppose a Rose Tyler in each pair lessens the danger,” she joked, and he grimaced.
“Doubles it, probably,” he snorted. “Thirty minutes, okay? And make sure you go to our TARDIS, not theirs.”
“Will do,” she said, turning to follow his other self, but to her surprise she found herself being tugged back by the hand.
In an imitation of their other selves, the Doctor leaned forward quickly and gave her a chaste kiss to the forehead.
“Be careful,” he implored gently, and took off after the other Rose.
“I thought it was going to be fine,” Rose commented in amusement to the now empty space in front of her before turning and trotting off after the other Doctor.
“Doctor!” Rose called cheerfully as she approached the other Doctor, hoping the trepidation wasn’t audible in her voice. She had to admit that the sight of him still eased her nerves even if she knew, technically, that this wasn’t the Doctor she’d arrived here with. He still wore his favorite Janice Joplin coat and the pinstriped suit that she’d grown to love, and when he turned to face her he still wore an absolutely adoring smile on his face.
Wait, what--
“Rose!” he greeted happily, sliding his hands out of his pockets and stepping forward to pull her into a long, languid kiss.
Rose was only a tiny bit embarrassed to admit that most of her brain went offline the moment their lips touched. She suspected if more of her brain was functioning, she would’ve been mortified, but as it was she couldn’t manage much beyond melting into the Doctor’s tight embrace and trying not to moan when his tongue swiped across her bottom lip.
When the back corners of her mind idly began to wonder if she was going to pass out from oxygen deprivation (so worth it, though, she had absolutely no regrets), he released her, and she self-consciously tried to will down the red flush on her cheeks as she panted for air. She whimpered slightly when the Doctor simply trailed his lips up the edge of her jaw until he reached the shell of her ear, hands stroking down her back softly as he waited for her to catch her breath as though he did this all the time. As though they did this all the time.
“Oh,” she managed weakly, her pleasure evident in her voice. “Hello.”
“Hello,” he grinned back. “Thought you were going to take longer.”
“Oh, you know,” Rose said with a chuckle that she hoped didn’t sound as panicked as it felt. “Just missed you.”
The Doctor beamed at that, seemingly unaware that Rose’s mind was racing at about a hundred miles a minute.
What on Earth had just happened?
“Rose!” the Doctor crowed, hands shoved into his pockets as he spotted her flash of bleach blonde hair at one of the stalls.
“Doctor?” she called back tentatively, and he smiled as he watched her look back around in confusion for a moment before her eyes locked onto his. “Doctor!”
“Caught up to ya,” he said pleasantly as she moved to meet him. “Just took a mo’ to find you.”
To his utter shock, she grabbed his lapels when they finally met and pulled him down for a rather enthusiastic snog.
He swore both of his hearts stopped for a moment, and his hands fumbled for a moment before finally, finally finding a place to rest on her hips.
Rose was kissing him. Rose was kissing him. Rose was kissing him.
Kiss her back, idiot!
Despite his best efforts, his delayed reaction was apparently a bit too slow to evade suspicion. Rose immediately released him and stepped back, much to his disappointment.
“Doctor?” Rose asked quizzically, drawing back to frown at him with furrowed brows. The Doctor did his best to look confident and charming, but to his unease her eyes grew dark.
“Who are you?” she demanded, fists clenching even tighter in his suit jacket.
“It’s me, I swear it,” he said, eyes wide. Thinking quickly, he slid his hands over hers and gently tugged them into a more flat position until they each rested over one of his hearts. “It’s me. Your Doctor. Just, er, possibly not the one you were expecting.”
Rose’s breath hitched when she finally registered the double heartbeat beneath her palms. An almost clouded expression crossed her face for the briefest moment before she pursed her lips and swatted him lightly in the chest.
“You said it would be fine!” she accused, and the Doctor flinched slightly at the confirmation. Memories had unlocked for her; this Rose was from his future.
A future that, he had to say, he was definitely… excited for.
“It is fine!” he argued, before hesitating. “It is fine, right? The other you, you’re okay, right?”
Rose snorted. “More than,” she chuckled, eyebrows raised in amusement as she thought about what exactly her younger self was thinking at the moment. She couldn’t remember everything of course, but the rather passionate greeting she’d received was now fresh in her mind. Speaking of…
“Sorry, though,” she added with a wince. “Practically assaulted you there.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” he assured her quickly--too quickly, and Rose had to bite back her smile as an embarrassed flush darkened his cheeks.
“Still, I didn’t realize I caught you too early. Won’t do it again,” she promised, and tried not to snicker when he looked crestfallen.
“Oh, well, that’s--that is, I mean... it would be…” he trailed off, and she giggled and took his hand.
“Behave, and we’ll see,” she teased him, and he beamed at her and then down at their intertwined hands. “Now, if you’re gonna follow me around for another twenty five minutes, I suppose you may as well help me with what I’m doing.”
“So did you get mine already?” the Doctor asked curiously, and Rose tried not to blanch too obviously as she tried to figure out which lie was safer.
“Not yet,” she decided, knowing she’d be in deep trouble if he asked to see whatever it was. “Was browsing, but then I just--I dunno,” she said with a shrug, trying to sound genuine. “Felt like I’d rather be with you, I guess.”
He smiled brightly down at her and pressed another soft kiss to her lips, effectively stealing all of her breath and brainpower for the next few moments.
“Brilliant,” he told her earnestly. “I know we agreed to do this separately, but--I think you’re right, we might be being silly,” he admitted. “I think it’d be nice for us to do this together.”
“Better with two,” she quipped, and, quick as a flash, he stole another affectionate kiss.
“Better with two,” he repeated, sliding his hand through hers and lacing their fingers together. “C’mon, I’ll show you the one I was looking at for you.”
The one…?
Rose let the Doctor tug her along, unaccountably anxious about wherever he was dragging her off to. It sounded like this was an activity that he thought was important for the two of them to do together, and here she was, robbing her future self of the experience of seeing whatever it was he was so excited about--
“There,” the Doctor said proudly, pulling her to a stop alongside him, and Rose’s jaw dropped.
At the sight of what could only be a wedding band on the table before her. Surrounded by a bunch of other wedding bands, and jewelry, and other things sold by vendors who sold wedding bands.
“I know we hadn’t decided yet when we last talked, but I think the gold will look nicer than a silver or platinum,” the Doctor was saying. “Well, not that it’s actual Earth gold, per se--it’s an alloy of Dwarf Star alloy and Enamour, which is rather appropriate for a wedding ring. Enamour is a bit of what it sounds like--a metal that looks gold but also acts as an emotional amplifier, a psychic-power amplifier. When… when I put this ring on you,” he cut off, swallowing hard and leaning the side of his head against hers. Rose tried hard to remember how to breathe, but inhaling was getting rather difficult. “When I put this ring on you, I’ll be able to feel what you do, just a bit. Almost like a telepathic bond,” he said, voice soft.
He cleared his throat roughly, squeezing her hand and straightening up before continuing on at his usual rapid-fire pace. “Of course, you can’t go 'round having rings completely made of Enamour,” he prattled on anxiously. “People have gone to war over stuff like that. Side-effect of having an emotional amplifier, people feel that love and possessiveness and try to steal it. Often. They can’t even help themselves, the subconscious kleptomania just builds until it drives them mad, and then the next person tries to steal it, and the cycle continues. Hence the alloy, and, well, it makes for a bit of a joke. Maybe a slightly dark one,” he frowned. “Dwarf Star alloy, the only material that can hold time-sensitive species,” he explained. “Just--well, seemed to fit,” he said helplessly, waving his free hand around in nonverbal explanation. “I’m... quite time-sensitive. The rings. Well. They represent. It’s just. You’ve got me.”
“And you’ve got me,” Rose said hoarsely, trying desperately not to cry. She never thought she could be so jealous of herself, of all people. “‘S perfect, Doctor. There a matching one for you?”
“Yeah, I asked earlier,” he said, beaming. “You… you really like it, then? Because I would understand, you know, if you wanted something--prettier, or something from Earth, or--”
“Doctor,” she said, halting him in his tracks and tugging him round to meet her eyes. “It’s perfect. Anything from you would be perfect.”
His answering smile could’ve powered a whole solar system, and when he kissed her this time, Rose was ready for it.
“I can’t find a good one,” Rose admitted with a sigh, ignoring the fact that the Time Lord at her side was only going through the motions as his superior brain tried to process the utter bombshell she’d just dumped on him.
They were here for wedding rings.
The Doctor was extremely tempted to run off and find his own Rose, thirty minute timer be damned, and drag her off towards their TARDIS as fast as he could so they could hurry the hell up and come back as their future selves.
“The thing is, you’re great at this stuff,” Rose moaned. “Blokes are supposed to be disasters at the shops, Mum always said. But you always find the most perfect gifts,” she said wistfully. “Watch. You’ll find the most wonderful ring with like…. I dunno, symbolic meaning and a bunch of alien components I won’t have a hope of understanding,” she sighed. “And I’m just staring at 'em not noticing anything beside the color.”
“Well,” the Doctor began, unsure just how involved he should be getting. “You could always go a different route, you know.”
“How do you mean, ‘different’?” Rose asked hesitantly, eyes narrowed. “Because usually when you say ‘different’--”
“Culturally,” he said, trying to sound casual. “He… you… we are using rings because they’re a human custom,” he presumed, trying to push down the thrum of excitement and adrenaline that coursed through him when he got to use the plural pronoun. “Well, Time Lords did it a bit differently. We used bonding pendants, not rings. You could get him--me--one of those. I know I’d love it,” he assured her gently.
Rose’s eyes widened. “And I can get those here?”
“Not a true Gallifreyan one,” he said, trying hard to swallow the lump in his throat as she looked at him earnestly. His hearts ached at how hopeful she seemed, at how clearly she wanted to pick out something that would make him happy, as though the mere idea of marrying her wasn’t enough to put him over the moon and then some. “But others that were more generically created for telepathic species, yes. And even if the materials aren’t quite the same, we can try to find one that looks close,” he promised.
“Please,” she whispered, and he leaned in slowly to fondly kiss her nose, both cheeks, and the corner of her mouth.
“Your wish is my command,” he told her with a soft sigh, hearts nearly stumbling over each other in his desperation to become his future self as fast as possible. “Let’s go check out the stand at the end.”
Exactly thirty three minutes and fifty seven seconds after they’d originally parted, Rose and her Doctor found themselves staring at each other nervously in the console room of their proper TARDIS.
“So, how’d it go?” the Doctor asked casually, offering her a disarming grin. “Told you it would be fine! No reapers or anything.”
“Well, low bar,” she quipped, trying not to blush at just how fine it had been. “But… an’ I hate sayin’ this,” she muttered, purposefully ignoring his smug grin. “You were right.”
“Time Lord,” he boasted proudly, flipping the switches on the console to initiate the dematerialization process. “We’ll have to erase the memories, since they were our future selves.”
Neither of them saw the disappointment in each other’s face; Rose looked straight to the floor as the Doctor’s eyes wandered up to the ceiling.
“How’d it go for you, then?” Rose asked casually, not really wanting to lose the giddy feeling in her chest just yet. “All good on your end, with, erm, future me?”
“Oh, yes, good. Great, yes, perfect, molto bene,” the Doctor said hastily, and her eyes narrowed.
If the future Doctor had kissed her, then had the future Rose…
“Oh my god,” Rose muttered, and the Doctor actually blushed.
“If that went for you anything like how it went for me, I hardly think you’re one to talk,” he said defensively, and Rose just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Why do we have to forget?” Rose asked despondently. “We could just--pretend, when we come back,” she begged, and the Doctor shook his head sadly.
“I don’t know about you,” he said carefully, hope and yearning twisting through his voice. “But that future I just saw? I don’t want to risk altering a single moment of it.”
Rose’s heart soared at his words, and impulsively she leaned forward and kissed him tenderly. It was nothing like the heated, breathless, lingering kisses from his future self, but it was them, it was her and her Doctor, her linear one, and she wished she could freeze them in time forever.
Except… no, she rather didn’t. She was quite looking forward to their future, after all.
“Hurry up and erase them, then,” she said, blinking back tears of happiness and helplessness and love and longing. “Sooner we forget, sooner we get there.”
“Not how time works,” the Doctor argued pointlessly, ignoring the fact that he had thought much the same thing when he’d been back with her future self. Shakily, he raised his hand to her temple. “I’ll do both of us at the same time,” he told her, trying to sound reassuring. “We won’t remember anything, but from the position we’re standing in, I’ll know I had to erase something. It won’t hurt a bit.”
“I trust you,” Rose assured him, and he smiled and moved to clasped her free hand with his.
“Brilliant,” he grinned, closing his eyes and concentrating hard. “To days to come. Allons-y, Rose Tyler!”