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“I can’t believe it! It’s actually snowing! Real, proper snow!” she exclaimed, as they left the TARDIS.
The Doctor regarded her with an expression of puzzlement, whilst delving into his pockets to find her some gloves. “Rose, we were plunged into the midst of a snowstorm when we visited Dex Seven just last week.”
Rose rolled her eyes, and linked her arm through his, tugging him across the park impatiently. “Yes. But that was there. It almost never snows this deep at home. Come on, let’s go build a snowman.”
He let her drag him forwards, away from all the kids playing on the swings and sliding down the snowy banks of the park on baking trays. He’d assumed they’d head to Jackie’s first, to have a nice cuppa and some of those biscuits she gets with the jam in the middle, but apparently Rose was a big kid when it came to snow and wanted to play rather than visit her mother. He shook his head at her fondly as she let go of him to drop to her knees.
“You gonna help, or what?” she demanded.
“I’ll ruin my trousers,” he protested, and held his ground for approximately four seconds before he sighed, caving in at the sight of her eyelashes fluttering up at him.
::
Twenty minutes later, Rose stood up, brushed some snow off her jeans, and looked at their somewhat wonky creation with an assessing gaze.
“It doesn’t look as good as theirs,” she muttered, shooting a look at the snowman some children had built several feet away. She folded her arms, looking quite peeved about it.
The Doctor stood beside her, and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “There are more of them,” he reasoned. “The more creative brains involved, the greater the outcome of your snowy endeavors.”
“But they’re like, seven!” she exclaimed, and he burst out laughing at the way she was taking this so seriously.
“I wasn’t aware there was a competition, Rose.”
“They’re laughing at us. That makes it a competition.” She shivered, and he wrapped an arm around her, drawing her against him for warmth. Her head tilted, resting at his shoulder. “I need to get a life,” she remarked, and started to giggle.
“I’m glad you’ve realised the absurdity of getting irritated at children purely because they’re better at building snowmen than you. But I can assure you, you already have a life. A rather brilliant one, actually. With me.”
Her arm sneaked inside his coat, wrapping around his waist in such a comfortable, comforting way that it made his pulse quicken a little.
“Shall we destroy it?” he whispered, after a few moments.
“It would be a mercy, wouldn’t it?” she whispered back.
“Oh, yes.”
Laughing, they went about wrecking the poor, distorted snow creature they’d built, and a new competition came about once the first snowball was thrown.
“Rose! You’ll pay for that,” he muttered, dusting the snow from his hair. He charged after her, snowball carefully crafted in his hands, as she dashed across the park, using the climbing frame and several kids as a shield whilst she gathered some snowballs of her own.
When she emerged briefly, he managed to get one right where her scarf looped round her neck, no doubt sending snow flying down into her coat, which he was rather pleased about. He followed this up with one that hit her in the hip. Her payback, however, was swift and unrelenting.
Resorting to tactics of which the Doctor absolutely did not approve, Rose soon had a veritable army throwing snowballs at him, enlisting the very children whose artistic merit she’d been complaining about just minutes ago.
“All right, all right, I give up!” he exclaimed, covered in the stuff and freezing to boot.
Rose called a halt to the seige and rushed over, flushed and giggling. “Sorry, couldn’t resist,” she said, panting when she reached him.
He leant in, close to her ear, hearing her breath quicken as he did. “Rose,” he whispered.
“Yeah?”
Ghosting his hand up her arm, he felt her shiver. “As you should know by now,” he continued, letting his nose graze her cheek. “If I’m going down, I’ll take you down with me.” With that, he grabbed her by the waist and sent them both flying backwards into a heap of snow - which had looked softer than it felt, he had to admit.
“You bastard,” she gasped in surprise, laughing and whacking his arm. “I thought you were gonna say something sweet.”
“After that attack?” he retorted, raising his eyebrows. “You don’t deserve such a thing.”
They lay there in the snow for a few seconds, glaring at each other playfully, and then Rose spread out on her back and started to move her arms.
“What are you doing?” he asked in confusion.
“Well, I’m down here anyway so I might as well get completely soaked and make a snow angel.”
“A snow angel?”
“Yeah.” She sat up, and pointed at the imprints she’d left in the snow. “See? Angel’s wings.”
“You don’t half come out with some nonsense, Rose Tyler.”
“Hey! It’s a thing people do, I didn’t just make it up!”
“Whatever you say,” he chuckled, reaching out to straighten her jacket, where it had ridden up and exposed a glimpse of her belly. “You must be freezing.”
“I am, yeah. But - ” Rose bit her lip, looking at him strangely.
“What?”
“Dunno. It’s just.” She hesitated. “This was fun.”
He held her gaze, wondering what it was she really wanted to say. “It was, yeah.”
The moment was broken when a snowball hit Rose in the back, causing her to lose her balance. It sent her sprawling over him with an “Oof!”
He looked over her shoulder and saw a little boy looking a bit sheepish, mouthing ‘Sorry!’
“I think he meant to hit his mate over there, and you got in the crossfire,” the Doctor murmured into her hair, which was now plastered over his chin. She propped herself up on hands either side of his head, tugging the strands away with a wince. Her body, however, remained pressed all along his, which he couldn’t say he was alarmed about. Really, if she wasn’t so cold, he’d suggest they could stay here all day.
“Needs better aim, then, don’t he,” she retorted, then softened, looking into his eyes.
He cleared his throat. “How do I do this snow angel thing, then?” he asked, moving one of her hands so that he could grip it in his own as she guided him. She picked up on it immediately, and she showed him what to do, though of course, he needed no instruction. Anything to prolong their innocent but much-appreciated physical contact, and it appeared as though they were both on the same page about that.
“Oi! Get a room!” shouted an unknown male voice, and the Doctor looked up to see a bloke towering over them, shielding the eyes of the toddler he had in his arms.
Rose looked up too and blushed, scrambling up and off him.
The Doctor stood up, but, irritated with the man’s interruption, couldn’t resist muttering, “We weren’t doing anything untoward.”
“Sure, rolling about in the snow with your girlfriend, that’s an appropriate thing to do in a park,” the man snapped, and stormed off.
Sniffing and adjusting his tie, the Doctor turned to Rose, who was shivering again. “Come on, let’s go home, get warmed up.”
She glanced towards the estate. “Aren’t we gonna see Mum?”
“I think we ought to get out of these clothes first.” At her look, he hurried to add, “To put different ones on! Before visiting Jackie. Obviously.” Grabbing her hand, he made for the TARDIS, ignoring the “Ooohs!” of the older children as they walked back through the park. Hopefully seeing them go into a small wooden box together for half hour would shut them up. Or make them worse - yes, better they park the TARDIS closer to Jackie’s, before coming out again.
Once inside, the Doctor was just about to voice these plans to Rose when she started stripping off, right there on the ramp in the console room.
“Rose…”
“The thing is, Doctor,” she started, throwing her coat over a coral strut like he usually did. Her scarf and jumper followed suit. “I haven’t even rung to see if Mum’s in today, yet.” Her top dropped to the floor, and he averted his eyes from her chest, not quite ready to risk glimpsing her in her bra. “We’ve got plenty of time to warm up properly. So you’re right.” Her hand went to the button of her jeans. “I do think we should get out of these clothes.”
Listening to her jeans hit the floor, he fixed his eyes somewhere over her shoulder, vaguely staring at the jumpseat, until even that gave him Ideas.
“Do you wanna join in?”
He finally met her gaze again. She looked so hopeful. She looked - his eyes irresistibly trailed down her body, admiring her mismatched underwear and all that - all that skin now on display.
“Yes,” he said, nodding quite definitively. He began loosening his tie. “Yes, I most certainly do.”