Elements of Rose (1 through 11)

[amberfocus]

                                              Elements of Rose

A/N:  This is a set of eleven vignettes, not drabbles.  Just little glimpes of how the Doctor views his Rose.  It starts with Nine and switches over to Ten at the seventh element.  It's been sitting on Teaspoon with just ten little chappies for ages, but I finished it today with the eleventh.  It's all posted here in one fell swoop for the sake of the f-list.

 

                                                                                  Air

She lays there next to him and he watches the rise and fall of her chest, the intake of breath into her body. He hears the sound as it wooshes in through her lungs and back out again, breathes in the scent of her, fragrant and floral. He feels each exhalation puff against the skin of his chest as he holds her. It comforts him to know she breathes, simply breathes, for it means she is there with him for the next little while. And if it is only for a heartbeat, this life of hers, then he would still have this moment to cling to, this moment to know how much he loves her, how precious she is. And he realizes he has been holding his breath, for watching her sleep takes his breath away, and he inhales deeply again the scent of honeysuckle and roses. He buries his face in her hair. She is like air to him. She gives him life.

                                                                                 Water

As they walk beneath the waterfall, he looks at her, watches the spray as it leaves droplets upon her skin. He watches one slide from her shoulder, around her collar bone, down to the curve of her breast before it disappears. It glistens on her skin and he wants to wipe it away. She smiles at him and reaches up, stroking his hair, still wet from their earlier swim, and he cannot help himself, he leans into her touch. It makes him feel like he is drowning in her when she touches him that way. Her hand slides from his hair, down the side of his face and lingers as it crosses from his neck to his shoulder, where she pretends to wipe water away. Her hands move slickly across his damp skin and he closes his eyes. Yes, he would happily drown for more touches like these. 

                                                                                     Fire

The flames crackle against the darkness of the night, casting a glow against her skin, lighting her up so beautifully. He watches as the shadow of the fire dances across her body so freely and wishes he could dance that way across her skin. He thinks she might let him slowly stoke the fire, raise the temperature, increase the burn. Yes, he burns for her. He is ever aware of this as she reaches back for his hand, holds it, says nothing, just looks into the fire for minutes before she turns to look at him and he can see the heat reflected in her eyes. But he is too afraid of getting burned or of burning her to reach for her body. He’s tried not to spark and kindle the fire, but it rages despite his best efforts. She yearns for him to singe her with his flame. But he holds himself back, in check, lets the fire simply smolder instead, but he can't stop it flashing in his eyes. 

                                                                                         Earth

She has been laying in the grass again. He can smell it on her hair as she rests her head against his shoulder. Grass and wind. He reaches for her hair, picking out a leaf, then stroking strands gently from her face. He tilts her chin and looks into her eyes, and he thinks of taking her down against the earth and loving her freely, tumbling in dirt and leaves and little stones. She is like the freshness of springtime. But he doesn’t. He never does. He just holds her and breathes in deep the scent of her again. She wants him to let go, he knows this. But he doesn’t, he stops, he always stops. Too much self-control and he will die alone. He will lose her. But it is almost enough anyway, just to hold her hand and know the love is there, even if he can’t tell her this truth. Almost. 

                                                                                     Copper

Molten, her eyes are melted copper. They shine brighter than any newly minted coin. Everything in her heart is reflected in those deep windows to her soul. So lovely they are. He can swim in them for hours. It’s hard to look away, to concentrate on anything less important. It’s all less important than seeing those eyes. They say so much with so little. She melts him, just like copper. She says she loves him with those eyes. She says he is the most important thing in her universe with those eyes. She says forever with those eyes. 

                                                                                      Platinum

Her hair is fanned across the pillow, shining strands bright against the stark white of the bed linens. His hand reaches out, his fingers spread to lift it from underneath and let it fall between them, like silk the color of platinum and more precious. She shifts in her sleep, turns toward him, seeking his meager warmth; the fine strands of platinum now spread across his chest as she snuggles into him and sighs. So much strength in its fragile beauty, so much strength in her. Stronger sometimes than he is, when just touching it can bring him to his knees. 

                                                                                        Golden

In his dreams he remembers her golden, lit by the power of the Vortex. The glow about her; of her hair, her skin, her eyes. That day he saw her as she truly was. It could not be hidden as it flowed through her veins. Everything within her in the universe and yet she was everything before that moment. It took only that kiss to see it, a radiance she had until then kept hidden, but she shone with it ever after. She was light. She was life. She was love. She was his. She was golden. 

                                                                                          Mercury

She runs through his veins rapid as quicksilver, moving through him, showing just how fast his temperature can rise. Soaring high, showing every indication of a fever, a heat, a burning that can’t, won’t subside no matter how hard he tries to pretend it isn’t there. Because she is different, mercurial at times, but always steadfast in her feelings for him. She is the messenger, and into his hearts she pounds the message. Yours. Yours. Forever. 

                                                                                           Carbon

It was close. Entirely too close, he thinks as he holds her tight within the safety of his arms. Tears have left tracks in the soot on both their faces, the remnants of their escape from something that nearly took her from him. The explosion had sucked all oxygen from the room leaving behind it only the devastating char of burnt carbon-based life. Her own building blocks of life, six little electrons, six little neutrons, and six little protons, could have been all so easily broken down in the face of that disaster. But she’d listened, grabbed his hand and got out of there with him, only just in time. But in time. And they the only ones. He didn’t think for a moment that he could ever let her go again, but then she was pulling back from him, wiping the tears away, smearing the mess on her face in a way that still didn’t detract from her beauty if anything ever could. She reaches up and puts her hands on either side of his head and pulls it downward, placing a kiss on his forehead, showing all of her gratitude. And he’s almost ready in that moment to forget every rule he’s ever made to move that kiss to his waiting lips. 

                                                                                                 Neon

She glows in the brilliant hot pink neon jacket that fits so tightly against her skin. It lights up her face, adds sparkles to her eyes, and adds an extra blush to the natural rosiness of her cheeks. His eyes travel over the way it snuggles up against her skin, hugging every curve, every line. Lines and curves he’s memorized long before this moment and still he cannot tear his eyes from them. He thinks how perfectly his hands would fit around her waist, how that bright neon coat would rise as she put her hands around his neck, revealing skin at her stomach as she stretchesto hold him. How that patch of skin would tempt him to place his fingers beneath the hem and raise his hands upward underneath. It would change everything, that step and he wonders if she’ll be frightened by this, or welcome it, or run. He rather thinks she will not run without his hand in hers. How long, he wonders, will it take to make her lips match her coat? A single bruising kiss? A steady, lasting one? He gathers up his courage and finds out. 

                                                                                                   Silver

He leads her outside the TARDIS doors onto the surface of a planet no one has set foot on before. Her body is bathed in moonlight, her skin aglow in the faint silver light. She is beautiful, so beautiful, and his hearts ache at the very sight of her. She bites her lip and stares at him, uncertain, hesitant. He pulls her to him then, the Storm in his eyes as he takes her mouth. It is nothing to the storm he unleashes in her as she responds with a ferocity beyond his wildest hopes. Later, as they lay together, bodies intertwined, both awash in the shining silver afterglow, and he traces a moonbeam across her skin, he wonders how it is that he was ever afraid to take this risk as joy suffuses his soul.