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Rose burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you didn’t realise!”
His eyebrows jumped up his forehead. “Listen, I just thought she was being friendly - how was I supposed to know what she really meant?”
She bumped her shoulder into his, and they walked unsteadily in the direction of where they’d parked the TARDIS earlier in the evening. “She was pretty obvious about it, Doctor.”
“Not from where I was standing!”
“She literally asked us both back to her bedchamber.”
“Well, we’d just been talking about chess! I assumed she meant she wanted a match. Oh, I don’t know.” He glanced at her, saw her struggling to control her giggles, and elbowed her in the side. “Stop laughing at me.”
“My poor innocent Time Lord,” she sighed happily, looping her arm through his.
He sniffed, then glanced down at her again. “Yours, eh?”
“Well, you’re no one else’s.”
The Doctor stopped walking to reply, but she tugged him along the path anyway. He let her remark go without comment.
“You know, if I’d had just a little bit more to drink, I probably could’ve been persuaded,” she said, after giving a thoughtful hum.
His eyes widened, and he stumbled when she veered to the right in her drunken ambulation. “Really?”
Rose shrugged. “She was pretty…”
“Yes, but - really?” he asked, in disbelief.
She looked up at him and smiled sheepishly. “Probably not.”
He sighed in relief.
“I mean, theoretically it could’ve been a fun night.”
“Theoretically,” he nodded.
“But I’m not really interested in involving anyone else.”
The Doctor’s pulse quickened. “That, Rose Tyler, implies you are, at least, interested in something involving you and I.”
“Where did we park the TARDIS? We’ve been walking for ages, you sure it was around here?”
“We’ll find her in a minute,” he dismissed her concern, waving his hand about vaguely. “Now, back to what you were saying.” He drew her to a stop, unlinking their arms to turn and meet her gaze. She was biting her lip and blushing a bit, and he couldn’t resist leaning in to tease, “So it’s a no to the frankly rather presumptuous Queen Jaraplazi. Anyone else you’ve got your eye on?”
Rose reached between them to play with his jacket lapel, and shrugged one shoulder shyly. “Always got my eye on someone.”
“Lots of different someones or…someone specific?” He waggled his eyebrows.
She laughed. “You wouldn’t be asking this if you weren’t tipsy.”
“Maybe not,” he admitted, sliding his arm around her waist. “But I’d still want an answer.”
Her eyes flickered to his lips then back up. “You already know the answer.”
The Doctor smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Thing is, I’m not drunk enough to forget about this in the morning.”
“Me neither.”
She raised her chin, bringing her mouth closer to his. “And I won’t want to pretend this didn’t happen.”
“Me neither,” he whispered, closing his eyes.
“If we kiss right now, it’ll mean something,” she said, and it was a final warning, he could tell from the tone of her voice.
“Yes,” he agreed, and she gave in, closing the gap between them.
He could feel her bottom lip trembling in excitement as he took it between his own, and it sent a fluttering but otherwise indescribable feeling down to his stomach. Happiness, maybe, was part of it. Lust - obviously. Relief that it was finally happening, and that he didn’t feel guilty for it.
She made a small noise in her throat, winding her arms around his neck to pull him closer, and he tightened his hold on her waist. They were still minutes away from the TARDIS, he realised, when he broke the kiss to let her catch her breath. Better rectify that.
“We should head home,” he murmured, giving her waist a squeeze.
Rose beamed. “Nowhere I’d rather go.”
He smiled back at her as he took her hand. “We don’t need Queen Jaraplazi around to have a fun night.”
She giggled and leaned into him as they resumed their walk. “We really don’t.”