Who Fic - That Face
Title: That Face
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating/warnings: PG
Genre: fluff
Character/s: Ten/Rose
Spoilers: The Idiots Lantern
Summary: Episode tag to the Idiots Lantern in which the Doctor is doing some reminiscing and gets caught out staring, Rose teases him, there is some post match analysis and a quiet and undefinable moment.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all associated characters/situations etc do not belong to me, I’m just borrowing them. Lyrics in the cut are from “That Face” which is from The Producers.
~*~
The revelries begin to die down when the sun starts to set and the street becomes chilly in the early shadows of afternoon. There are still children playing here and there, adults chattering away to each other, teenagers canoodling awkwardly and all manner of other people picking at the remains of the feast. Meanwhile, somewhere on the sideline sits one Rose Tyler and her Doctor.
He’s doing his best to watch the celebrations but can’t seem to help himself from stealing surreptitious glances at his companion. She’s alive with easy smiles today and she keeps twisting her ring around her finger absently as she watches the residents of the neighbourhood with an utterly serene air.
She looks beautiful. Entrancing even. Not that he’s ever thought that she was anything but. Even with her terrible dye job and the ridiculous amounts of make up she insists on wearing Rose seems to have this amazing quality to her that seems to make her glow. Today however is the first time in a while that he’s really thought about how much he loves her smile.
She’s changed, he realises in amazement as he watches her watch the street. In even the short time since he’s known her she’s changed so much. He’d forgotten how much humans grew and changed - how they aged so quickly. This age suits Rose, he decides. Twenty. Twenty suits her very well, or at least it looks a little better on her than nineteen did.
That said, he might be just a little bit biased. His memories from this body are almost crystalline in their clarity but all the memories from his previous incarnations have a certain fuzziness to them, like an old film that gets more worn out with each use. Curious, he casts his mind back to his brief ninth life and focuses in particular on his early memories of Rose, comparing them with the woman who sits next to him now.
He notices firstly that her face doesn’t seem as soft now. The round fullness of childhood has nearly disappeared from her cheeks, replaced by elegant curves instead. Her body has changed in a similar fashion, filling out in some places and diminishing in others to create a pleasing aesthetic. Running has also tightened the muscles in her legs and made her strong, she stands taller now than she ever did before and her nervous habits have all but disappeared.
Like biting her nails - but she stopped that even before he regenerated and her hands are in better condition because of it. No more frayed cuticles and bitten down nails, she’s also recently taken to using a hand cream that Jackie gave her which leaves her skin soft against his and pleasantly fragranced.
Speaking of fragrances, he thinks she’s changed her shampoo recently - her scent has altered subtly and he can’t think of anything else that it could be. Her hair is shorter now too - brushing the tops of her shoulders instead of falling onto them. Still the terrible dye job of course but the blonde brings out the pink in her cheeks and the gold in her eyes and really, her eyes are the only things that haven’t changed a jot since he met her.
He has to be careful when he’s looking at her eyes because even though she’s lost in thought now she could notice him staring at any moment and if she does then she’ll turn her gaze straight into his. Not that it would be so terrible if she did - he likes her eyes, the amber-toffee-caramel colour irises, lids lined with carefully smudged kohl and her lashes clumpy with mascara.
Her profile hardly does them justice but just as he’s thinking exactly that, she notices his scrutiny and she turns to him instantly.
“What?” Rose touches her fingers to the corner of her mouth, immediately self conscious. “Have I got something on my face?”
“Oh. No, no. Nothing.” he says and then, inexplicably, he begins to babble. “There’s nothing on-and who says I was staring? I wasn’t staring at you, ask that gentlemen right over there and he’ll tell you that I most definitely, was not staring at you.”
“Then how come,” Rose says slowly, a grin spreading across her face. “You’re tryin’ to pretend like you weren’t?”
“I’m not staring.” he insists, cutting his eyes away, squinting out of the doorway in which they’re positioned. “I’m not.”
Rose regards him sidelong for a moment, a small smile touching her lips before she turns her attention back to the street. After several minutes of silence she sees his eyes slide sideways and turns to him quickly. Caught out, he deliberately turns the other way and scratches his ear.
“You are!” she says, laughing. “You’re starin’ at me!”
He blusters and splutters then, somewhat incoherently; and she laughs loudly, riling him.
“Wasn’t!” he sulks.
“You so were.” she grins.
He knows he’s been caught out now and after a moment of neck scratching and some unnecessary hair smoothing (a coif like this doesn’t just stay there by itself after all) he offers her some mumbling, stuttered reasoning for staring so avidly at her. “Welll...it’s just...it’s nice to see your face back where it belongs.”
Rose softened at his words and then broke into a sweet smile.
“There y’are!” he said fondly, grinning back at her. “Tell you what, I missed that smile! Thought for a while there that I might never see it again.”
“Me too,” Rose admitted, wide eyed. “It was the weirdest thing. After the telly sucked my face off I could still sort of...feel and move around a bit but I couldn’t see a thing...” she shook her head in amazement, eyes faraway. “It was so weird, like bein’ blind an’ mute even though I felt like I was yellin’ the whole time...”
“Could you hear me?” the Doctor asked interestedly.
“Yeah,” Rose said, smile perking up again. “You sounded kinda funny - like I was underwater or somthin’ - but you were definitely yellin’ at somebody.”
“Well they left you out on the street!” the Doctor said, outraged. “Like a bit of old rubbish! And that is just not on. Nobody sucks off my companions faces and leaves them out in the street. Not unless they want me to come after them.”
Rose laughed, reached out her hand to him and their palms slipped into each other with familiar ease.
“Never mind,” she said. “Everythin’ turned out all right an’ my face is back where it’s meant to be.”
“Yes it is,” he returned her smile and to her great surprise, he then reached out his free hand to cup her cheek.
It was a gesture so tenderly reminiscent of his old self that Rose blinked in surprise and almost shied away from the cool pressure of his hand. It wasn’t that she felt uncomfortable at his touch, just uncertain as to what he meant by it. But when his thumb began to ghost along the apple of her cheek she found herself watching him as he watched her.
The moment stretched itself out between them as he studied her face with his quick brown eyes. His face had turned serious now as he catalogued the broad strokes of her eyebrows, the curve of her jaw, the delicate lids that protected her eyes. Rose sat very still as he moved to touch a lock of her hair, moving it from her face and curling the end delicately between his fingers.
Bemused, Rose let him continue with his exploration, curious to see what he would do next. His actions seemed very uncharacteristic of this incarnation - normally he’d be off on a manic tangent by now or babbling out a monologue of nonsense. But then he’d always been very good at surprising her.
As if in response to her thoughts, he reached up suddenly and ran his fingertips smoothly across her brow. Not expecting it, Rose’s breath hitched slightly and she closed her eyes, enjoying the coolness of his fingers as he traced her hairline. When her eyes finally fluttered open again, his hand had slid down to her cheek and he was studying her with a frankness that was as disarming as it was honest.
In that moment he was laid out bare to her, the look in his eyes belying something that neither of them had ever really put into words or actions. This meant something. They meant something.
“Doctor?” Rose said softly, hoping desperately that she wouldn’t break the spell that seemed to have fallen between them. When he blinked rapidly and snatched his hand away from her face abruptly however, she tried not to sigh but couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head as though to wake himself up. “I’m being...sentimental. Far too sentimental really when we could be off having an adventure! Shall we go?”
He sprang to his feet easily in his excitement and Rose used the hand he was still holding to jump up next to him.
“Absolutely,” she said with aplomb. “Got any ideas?”
“Oh just a few,” he winked at her and in the dull glow of the setting sun they began the long trek back to the TARDIS hand in hand.
And if the Doctor happened to let his gaze linger on her face a little longer than usual as he gestured her inside first, she didn’t mention it.