The Prettiest Rose on Prometheus (1/4)

[amberfocus]

A/N:  Pure and shameless Nine/Rose fluff.  Nine eavesdrops on Rose singing "Doctor" songs while planning to take her dancing and dining in the wild rose gardens of Prometheus as a surprise for her 20th birthday.  They both hope to take the relationship further, but will they both be too shy to actually make that first move?  Songs quoted from are Little Peggy March's "I Will Follow Him," Rober Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You," and "Doctor! Doctor!" by the Thompson Twins.  For you non-children of the 80's, or in the first case 60's, they are all available on youtube.

                                         Chapter One:  I Will Follow Him

“I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go,
And near him, I always will be,
For nothing can keep my away, he is my destiny.”

The lilting voice of Rose Tyler drifted to the Doctor in his place under the TARDIS console. He smiled. Rose had really enjoyed going to see Little Peggy March in the 1960’s. When she’d reluctantly admitted to a love of old pop ballads he’d taken her on a whirlwind tour of the best and the brightest of the era. Seemed like she’d been singing more or less ever since.

A spark hit his finger and the Doctor grumbled to himself and soldered one last piece of metal into place over his latest repair to the console. “Finally,” he said sucking on the burnt finger. Now he could take Rose to Prometheus. Life was pretty timeless in the TARDIS, but he was a Time Lord and well able to keep track of things and today marked her twentieth birthday. Normally he pretended not to notice such things, but this meant his precious girl was finally out of her teenage years, fully a woman, and he wanted to take her somewhere special to celebrate their…friendship.

Prometheus was beautiful this time of year. Well, the time of year he intended to take her to. Summer, when the wild rose gardens were in full bloom. He wanted to see his own wild Rose amidst the splendor. He bet the flowers didn’t hold a candle to her natural beauty. There was a restaurant there with outdoor tables tucked into the wild screens of flowers and a large courtyard for dancing. He’d promised her he’d dance with her again, but he’d never quite had the courage. Today though, tonight, they’d sway. If she still wanted to.

He climbed out from under the console and flipped on the view screen, trying to locate his lovely young friend. The TARDIS seemed to have no trouble piping the sound of her singing to him, but was being a bit stubborn about locating her. He’d caught her singing on numerous occasions lately, and loved watching her when she thought no one was looking at her. She was so unguarded and so adorable in these moments it simply made his hearts swell to catch a glimpse of her like that. His ship didn’t quite approve of this invasion of Rose’s privacy.

“I will follow him, ever since he touched my heart I knew,
There isn’t an ocean too deep,
A mountain so high it can keep,
Keep me away, away from his love.”

Finally, with a disapproving grinding of gears, the TARDIS allowed the image of Rose to appear on the monitor. She was in the ballroom of all places, dressed in a tank top and cut off denim shorts, a scarf wrapped around her hair and dancing with a broom. He grinned. “Silly girl,” he mumbled to himself.

“I love him, I love him, I love him,
And where he goes I’ll follow, I’ll follow, I’ll follow.”

Rose twirled and laughed and sang her little heart out. She was so appealing like this, hair mussed, no makeup, completely natural. He wondered if she knew. It wasn’t like he’d had the courage to tell her. Well, he’d told her she was beautiful once. For a human. She’d beamed on his first words, but then her face had fallen at his qualification, and he’d decided then and there to keep his big mouth shut with his compliments.

He’d meant she was one of the most beautiful humans he’d ever seen, and he’d seen a lot, thank you, but it hadn’t come out like that. Instead it had come out in a way that had sounded insulting to her and like he’d put his foot in it to himself. He sighed as the song wound down. He really shouldn’t be spying on her this way. She’d be mortified if she knew.

“He’ll always be my true love, my true love, my true love,
From now until forever, forever, forever…”

As the music finally ended Rose came to a stop and held the broom away from her in one hand and gave a deep curtsey to it. “Forever,” she told the broom. “Doctor, I’ll be yours forever. If you want me.”

His hearts stilled in his chest. Then the little dreamy smile fell off her face. “Not like he’ll ever notice,” she said softly to herself. Then she squared her shoulders and stood up straight. “Okay, Rose Tyler. You need to get over this,” she said sternly. “He’s never gonna feel that way about you and you can’t mope or he’s likely to dump you back home and find a companion who’s…better. And then you’d lose your best friend forever. And that’s not what you want.”

Did she really think that, that after a year of travelling with him, that he’d just dump her off? He needed Rose, a little too much if he was truthful.

“Why’d I have to go and fall in love with him for?” she asked herself in frustration. The TARDIS gave an angry blaring sound, her disapproval at his continued eavesdropping making itself known.

“Okay, enough of the sappy ballads,” Rose said speaking to the ceiling of the TARDIS. “I need to finish cleaning. Can you give me something I can move to? Dance pop from the ‘80’s maybe?” she asked. The Doctor knew she also had a bad case of enjoying 80’s techno/dance/pop as well, trending towards an irrational like of synthesizer music.

His eyes returned to her image as she burst out laughing at the TARDIS’s choice, told the ship, “That’s not going to make me forget how I feel,” but began singing anyway on the chorus as she worked the broom around the ballroom floor.

“Doctor, Doctor, give me the news, I got a bad case of loving you…”

That was followed by Doctor! Doctor! by the Thompson Twins and Rose glared at the ceiling. “You’re supposed to be helping me get over this!” she shouted. But a moment later she fell back into song. She was too beautiful, too appealing for him not to go try to see this in person.

It took him a bit to find the ballroom as the TARDIS was not being particularly helpful and if he didn’t know better he’d think she was deliberately hiding the room, which she could do from other people but not usually with him. However, he did find it and while Rose was still singing the song he’d last heard in the console room. Or maybe she’d put it on repeat.

The Doctor watched her from the shadow of the doorway. “I saw you there, just standing there and I thought I was only dreaming, yeah. I kissed you then, then once again. You said you would come and dance with me…” Rose spun and twirled. “Dance with me across the sea and we could feel the motion of a thousand dreams. Oh, Doctor, Doctor, can’t you see I’m burning, burning? Oh, Doctor, Doctor, is this love I’m feeling?”

Every particle in his being ached for him to step out onto that dance floor and take Rose Tyler into his arms. He had promised her he would come and dance with her after that first time, but he never had done. Jack had backed off after he’d clearly put a stamp of possession onto Rose. He’d backed off, too, though, too scared of the path he wanted to wander down with his young companion.

“Ships at night, give such delight. We all leave before the morning light. Please, don’t go, no please, don’t go, ’cause I don’t want to stay here on my own. Oh, Doctor, Doctor, can’t you see I’m burning, burning? Oh, Doctor, Doctor, is this love I’m feeling?”

He wanted to say yes, wanted to swoop in there and take her in his arms and sing some silly little song to her about roses, but the only one that came to his mind had the line every rose has it’s thorn in the chorus, and that wouldn’t do at all. Not that he’d truly want to inflict his singing on anyone, let alone Rose, but the romance of it… Not that that, well, maybe that, was his intention.

Oh, he was getting maudlin in his old age. No, he couldn’t do that, not any of it, but he could dance with her. Just not yet. He had a feeling if he burst in on her now he’d embarrass her badly and the hoped for evening with her wouldn’t turn out how he was planning. He hurried back down the corridor and then when he was at the far end he started yelling.

“Rose! Rose! Where are you?” By the time he got close to the ballroom Rose was poking her head out the door.

“Down here, Doctor.”

He gave her a beaming smile and noted the blush of pleasure that came to her face when he did. “What’re you doing?” he asked.

“Just cleaning,” she said holding up the broom. “Ballroom was a right tip and I was bored, so…” She shrugged.

“Ah. Well, you know the TARDIS will clean up a room if you ask her nicely,” he said.

“I had some…energy I needed to work off,” she said. This time her blush had nothing to do with pleasure. Or at least not the pleasure brought from seeing him smile at her.

“Oh, yeah?” he said dropping his voice into a husky whisper.

She swallowed hard, but then gave him a challenging look. “Yeah. Lots of…tension round the place lately. Just needed to burn some of it off. Cleaning helps with that.”

He nodded. “Got a surprise for you today,” he told her with a smile.

“Yeah?”

He knew he was grinning like a little boy. “Yeah. Come on.” He held out his hand for hers and she placed it in his.

“Where we going?” she asked.

“To the wardrobe room.” He tugged her along the hall at top speed and then up some stairs to the massive room. The TARDIS was kind enough to place what he requested on the main floor and they didn’t have to venture in very far to find it. “Here we are,” said the Doctor.

He gestured to a gorgeous sundress that had Rose gasping at its simple beauty. The dress was white with wide shoulder straps, a scoop neckline, fitted bodice and wide swirling skirt that would flare out marvelously if she were to spin. Black vining flowers traced their way across the dress in patches. “It’s lovely,” she said.

The Doctor beamed at her before reaching around to a shelf behind the dress. “And the shoes.” She took the shoes from his hands and kind of looked at him as if he were crazy when she saw how high they were. “And they’re specially engineered on the inside so that it won’t feel like you’re walking about on four inch stiletto heels. Those walking on air people have nothing on me.” 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

He handed her the black and grey open-toed shoes with the little bow at the end and she stared at them in wonder. He could see what she was thinking. Pretty shoes that didn’t hurt. Jack might have picked them out for him, but he’d rejiggered them himself so he felt he could take full credit. And the dress had been all him. She threw her arms around him. “Oh, I love you!” she told him exuberantly. Then she hastily backed away from him, trying to cover up for her exuberant slip up. “You know what I mean. The dress, the shoes--.”

“Of course,” he replied keeping his voice carefully neutral, not wanting her to see, yet, what the effect of those words were on him.

“So is this just a general surprise, a here, Rose, have some nice new clothes, or are you taking me somewhere?”

“Yep. Taking you somewhere special. Think you’ll like it. Hope so, anyway,” he said. He reached up and brushed a stray lock of her hair behind her ear, then turned away quickly at her startled look. “Just need to find…ah, there it is…knew it was kicking around somewhere up here.”

He went to a nearby rack and retrieved a suit. “You’re wearing a suit?” she asked in surprise.

He shrugged. “That kind of place. They don’t let you in without.”

“I’ve never seen you out of your clothes before,” Rose said and then realizing what she’d just said turned a brilliant shade of scarlet.

He chose to play oblivious to it, but he made the innuendo even worse by blithely saying, “Well, by the end of the night that’s precisely how you’ll see me.” He hurried on as the flush moved from her face to the skin just above the neckline of her tank top. “Hope I don’t disappoint you. It’s been years since I’ve worn a suit.”

“You could never disappoint me, Doctor,” she said softly. “Not ever.” She reached out and squeezed his hand gently. “So,” she said with a heavy sigh, “what’s Jack wearing?”

“Jack’s not coming. He asked to be dropped off on Setai Olgoshiquan for a week this morning.”

“He didn’t even come in and say good-bye,” Rose said with a frown.

“You were still sleeping,” the Doctor said with a little disgust. Rose well knew how much he disliked the fact that she slept so much even though he knew she couldn’t help it. Even Jack didn’t have the sleep needs that Rose did, needing only five hours a night, what with some of the modifications that were made at birth in 51st century humans.

“Well, you know, need my beauty rest and all that,” she said. “I don’t do it just to bug you, you know.”

“I know,” he admitted sheepishly. “I just…miss having you about when you’re sleeping, that’s all. Jack’s a poor substitute for you.”

Rose smiled at him then. “Don’t let him hear you say that. You’ll crush him.”

“Can’t help it if you’re my favorite,” he told her.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to play favorites,” she teased.

“That’s mums and dads and I most definitely am not your father, Rose Tyler,” he said emphatically his voice heavy with meaning.

“No,” she agreed forcefully, “you are not. I don’t need a father figure. I just need…you.” She grabbed the dress off the hanger and shifted it against her. “I’ll just go and get ready then.”

“Think you can do it in under an hour?” he asked hopefully.

“I need a shower, Doctor. I’ve been playing in the dust,” she said a bit sternly, “if you hadn’t noticed. Give me an hour and a half. I have to make myself look all pretty for you, after all.”

“You’re already--.” He stopped himself, remembering his promise not to make compliments to her that she might find a way to take wrong.

“I’m already what?” she asked puzzled.

“Nothing.”

“No, what?” she persisted.

“Dirt smudges and everything, you’re already pretty,” he told her. She looked like she was waiting to hear the qualification. “What?” he asked.

“Guess I’ll just have to up it to beautiful then,” she replied finally.

“Impossible,” he said without thinking. Rose’s face fell and he inwardly cursed himself for his very bad way with words. Quickly he added, “Nature did that for you.” Her face softened back into a smile.

“I still want an hour and a half. Meet you in the console room then,” Rose said on her way out the door.

“It’s a date,” the Doctor called after her.

Her footsteps faltered and she froze for a moment before heading on her way. “It’s a date,” he heard her say softly with something very near to glee when she thought he was out of earshot. “Oh, Doctor, I really hope it is.”

Ch. 2:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/154790.html 

Comments

[crimedoc1.livejournal.com]

Awww...... fluffy fluffy happy-fic. ;-)

[crimedoc1.livejournal.com]

Squeee!!! I'm finally first!

So..... where's my prize?

*hopes for a new chapter of Zeppelins*

Me? One track mind? Nope, absolutely not.

*whistles innocently while sending many smut bunnies hopping your way*

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

Hooray for lovely, lovely fluff!!!!! Thank you!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I needed something really sweet to boost my spirits.

[othermewriter.livejournal.com]

Yep good to your word LOVELY 9/Rose fluff. *secretly hopes it turns out naughty Lovely in the end*

As always enjoying.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

You know, I haven't quite decided. It might just be fluffy, sweet, romantic and then have a follow up smut piece, or it might not. I'll have to see which way the wind blows. Jonathon and Rose are keeping the smut bunnies pretty busy at present.

[corusca.livejournal.com]

I might be (mostly) a child of the 90s...but luckily my parents had awesome taste in music so those songs are all permanently entrenched in my memory :)

I love the pictures btw; they save me the trouble of trying to get a good mental image (which always takes me a second, even with detailed descriptions, haha)

Anyway, yay for fluff! :) Rose/Nine is so very much my OTP.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I like finding good pictures for that very reason. The visual helps to inspire me in writing the description. Thanks. Nine and Rose are very dear to my heart, too. We did not get enough time with them. Even if they'd done five seasons together I don't think it would have been enough, though.

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

“I’ve never seen you out of your clothes before,” Rose said

I laughed so hard at that little slip-up. And the Doctor's so cute, trying so hard to give a decent compliment and to make it a nice night. Yay for the TARDIS, though, trying to protect her privacy. I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

Loving it.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Those little slips are so telling, aren't they? And so much fun. Nine is just rubbish at compliments, but he'll get there eventually. *grins* Thanks.

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Love love love!!!!!!!

Being one of those folks who sings to themselves, I love the idea of Rose warbling away while doing house...er...TARDISwork.

And I'm with crimedoc1...smut, please. *makes Stephen Colbert grabbie hands*

[10-rose.livejournal.com]

I LOVE that avatar!

[10-rose.livejournal.com]

Awwww!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[ehmi.livejournal.com]

*does happy dance for 9/rose squishiness*

Thanks! :D :D :D

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

And this was off your prompt, too! *grins*

[soniced-up.livejournal.com]

Oh this is fluffy and gooey and quite possible cavity inducing.

I LOVE IT!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I needed something to lift away the angst bunnies and this did the trick.

[apurplepatch.livejournal.com]

Cute. Love how Jack "helped" with the shoes and "asked to be dropped off for a week". Looking forward to seeing what develops because it's certainly an interesting beginning.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Weelll, the Doctor may have exaggerated the part where Jack asked to be dropped off for a week. He may have "very strongly encouraged" Jack to make himself scarce. Hee. Thank you.

[kk-animation.livejournal.com]

awww... yay for Fluff! And Nine in a suit *sighs* You know it would have been great if we had the chance to see Nine wear one.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, CE wears a suit very well...*grins*

[azriona.livejournal.com]

I remember reading somewhere that Billie Piper actually does like to clean; did you read that too? Or did it just work out that way?

Shameless fluff indeed. And such innuendo! Tsk tsk, Doctor, playing with a girl's heart and hopes like that. You better make good on it, or wiggiemomsi is going to take back her smut bunnies.

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

Just replying to compliment you on one of the scariest icons I've ever seen.

*in tiny voice* Now please take it away.

It's so horrible. I can't stand it.... but I can't stop looking at it. *shudders*

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

Love it :)



I don't know if you're looking for one, but if you need a Rose song for the Doctor to sing, I don't think you'll find much better than this:

Roses, by Poets of the Fall (http:// http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/poetsofthefall/roses.html)

Now available on iTunes and other online retailers.

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

Aah! Link failage.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/poetsofthefall/roses.html

[starrynights24.livejournal.com]

*happy sigh*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

Awww!!!! So sweet!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[salimali.livejournal.com]

Cute fluffy stuff :)


Bt you know my passion by now- Zeppelins?!?! please x x x *g*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Thanks. I sent it to Amy to beta. I hope to have it up by midnight PDT. That's less than three hours now. *grins*

[sammie28.livejournal.com]

AWESOME choice of dress, and loved the fluff! Also enjoyed the reinterpretation of the Doctor's beautiful-for-a-human comment. Very nice!

Loved the use of "Doctor! Doctor!" Of course, when I think of it, I think of Jonathan Ross' Friday Night (male) band with sky blue shirts with CE's face on them...hehe.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked that dress, it just really appealed to me. I love your icon by the way.

[jellybean728.livejournal.com]

Oh that was adorable, and some innuendo that Jack would have been proud of.

JB

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*grins* Thank you. Glad you liked the fluffies.

[yummytimelord.livejournal.com]

*cough* dear lord *splutter* being smothered by fluff! But don't I love it :) So cute, love a bit of nine/rose fluff almost as much as I love nine/rose smut... ten/rose smut... or any doctor smut... well any 4,5,8,9,10 and 10.5 smut... Smut! Sorry just needed to get that out of my system... oh look more dots........ I may have gotten all giggly and caffeinated while reading this lovely shameless fluff, I apologise now. Sorry.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, death by cotton candy isn't a bad way to go is it? *grins*

[angel932.livejournal.com]

Nine/Rose fluff - my favorite flavor!

I love the beginning of this!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*grins* Thank you.

[lostwolfchats.livejournal.com]

Ah, bless!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[doctorsdiva.livejournal.com]

AWWW. *hugs*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[pncwho.livejournal.com]

Yay! Nine/Rose fluff! I love Nine/Rose, wish Chris Eccleston had done at least one more series.

Am looking forward to the next chapter! :D

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Me, too. One just wasn't enough. I know he quit for his health, but I desperately want more of Nine. *sighs* Thank you.

brilliant

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

as always... but (hopefully) Zepplins?? :)

Susan

Re: brilliant

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It should be up by midnight PDT.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

How cute! Can't wait to see what happens next.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Nice to see you have internet again.