My first ficlet - sorry, no title!
Rose watched wistfully as the Doctor wove his way through the audience, sometimes softly whispering in an ear, sometimes declaiming a speech loudly. She had never seen him like this before, so relaxed and happy. So this is what he’s like when he’s not saving the world, or talking down to some stupid ape, she thought sadly. And yet, she hardly dared to hope, but sometimes she almost thought his eyes flickered over to her quiet corner from time to time. He sat down next to one of the crowd, a pretty girl of course, and murmured something to her. As she giggled, he put an arm round her briefly and hugged her, then got up and moved on.
She wondered why the Doctor had insisted they come to this planet - for once, there did not seem to be any alien threats, no mad megalomaniacs, no weird monsters to defeat. Just these people, seemingly human, but clearly able to put the Doctor at his ease and bring a crowd-pleasing streak that she had hardly ever seen in him before. She didn’t even really know what was going on, it seemed to be a cross between a party and a performance. She huddled down in her seat, trying to ignore the slim suited figure moving lithely among the other bodies.
Then suddenly, he was there, right in front of her. As she looked up, startled, he sat down in the empty seat to her left. She looked into the warm brown eyes; eyes that she knew could show any emotion from intense joy to the most unbearable sadness. Physically, he looked to be in his mid-thirties, but at certain times, those beautiful eyes could turn the deepest shade of brown, virtually black, and she could feel how incredibly ancient he was, how much sadness and loss he had known in his life.
Taken up with these thoughts, she barely registered the soft words he was speaking, nothing important, just more of the pleasant babble with which he had been filling the quiet evening. Then, he leaned closer, and just for a moment, his warm soft lips pressed against hers. A shock went through her - it was such a loving and yet gentle gesture, almost like a benediction from a friend. At the same time it was so far removed from any kiss she had ever had that she could only stare speechlessly at him, hoping her eyes could convey some of the emotions she saw in his eyes. For a timeless moment, they stared at each other, brown eyes into brown. Then he smoothly rose from his seat to continue to thread his way around the room. She sat still, watching him go, but smiling now, knowing that although he seemed more relaxed with these beings than she had ever seen him, he had not forgotten her, and never would.