#valueturtle

[oodlyenough]

I'm distracting myself from the fall of western democracy by moving away from a big city and learning all I can about woodwork and gardening. I will be an asset to the post-civilised world!

wise tbh!! i am concerned my post-apocalyptic videogame skills will not transfer into real life, where i probably can’t make a nail bomb by grabbing a handful of broken scissors and some fertilizer

[galiifreywolf]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 7/7 Fandom: Doctor Who (2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Characters: Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler Additional Tags: Fluff, Romance Summary:

It's weightless, on the cusp; thrilling, too, waiting for gravity to take effect and fall, fall, fall.

[thedalektables]

«'You should have a banana.'

Rose tipped her head back, making it rest on the sofa behind her. 'You an' bananas...'

'Me and potassium,' the Doctor corrected, obviously enthused. 'Bananas are a great source of it. I'm sure I've told you that. At least once or twice.' When she only rolled her eyes, he sighed and leaned over to pick one up from the fruit bowl. 'You had a muscle cramp. Earlier. On the sofa — well, I thought you did, I might have misinterpreted the electrical signals. I was a bit distracted. Anyway, it could be from low potassium.'

'An' bananas are high in potassium,' Rose concluded, trying to keep some of the exasperation out of her voice. 'Right. Makes sense. As much as it ever does with you.'

He tossed the banana in the air and caught it again, flashing her a grin as he handed it over. She took it and began to eat it dutifully, though she'd have much preferred the nice chocolates he'd bought, or even a Jaffa Cake. The Doctor had made himself a sandwich; the way he was chewing on it (purposefully, huge bites) made him seem ravenous.

'Sex,' he said around the last mouthful of raspberry jam and white bread, as if that was some sort of answer. 'Are you going to finish that?' Rose mutely shook her head, handing back her half-finished banana. The Doctor began to eat it. 'Always get hungry after sex,' he explained further, quite happily. He took a swig of champagne to wash down the food, and Rose could imagine more than one wine buff staring on in horror at his disregard for the vintage. 'All that movement,' his hands made a vaguely obscene gesture in the air, 'and the heat, Rose — takes a lot of energy, producing heat like that.'»

- Cusp, by @valueturtle (Chap.6)

[thedalektables]

«'Wait, what d'you — oh God, do that again,' (he did), 'what d'you mean I'm “sorted”?'

[The Doctor] made a strangled noise, lifting his hips from [Rose's] leg. 'Just sorted,' the Doctor muttered, looking pained. 'The patch. The one I gave you for Adam. It's hormonal, s'got three months left.' He took in a shuddering breath. 'Rose,' he began again, 'my brain is receiving, per second, two-thousand-and-ninety-seven messages. And over two-thousand of them are about how I want to f[***]k you.'

'Oh,' she managed. Then she broke into a grin and framed his face so she could kiss him. 'I think we probably should, then, yeah?'

The Doctor beamed, eyes crinkling with the strength of it. 'Yeah.'»

- Cusp, by @valueturtle (Chap.5)

[thedalektables]

«Rose became hyper-aware of her skin, the prickling sensation rushing to her fingers, the way her palm, damp with sweat, stuck to the white vinyl of the couch. Out of the corner of her eye she made sure the Doctor was thoroughly absorbed (as much as he ever was) with what was happening on the screen, and slowly, achingly slowly, she inched her hand closer.

Under her fingertips vinyl met soft cotton — the back of his shirt - and then met a starchy collar. She paused, keeping her eyes locked on the Doctor's face; he seemed unaware, but she couldn't believe that, not from him of all people. Deciding that he, at the very least, was unopposed to her crossing into his personal space, Rose gathered her courage and moved her fingers forward once more, stopping only when she reached his neck. His leg twitched, a faint jolt she felt where she was leaning into him, and the next breath he took seemed larger than the one before; he remained staring at the television set with a single-mindedness that made a rush of warmth go to the pool in her belly, and she suppressed a smile (a rather triumphant one, at that).

His hair, thick and curling down from the back of his head, brushed her knuckles and Rose gave into the temptation that had been brewing since she saw him wear the ridiculous pink paper Christmas hat: she threaded her fingers through the strands. It was soft and longer than before, obviously, enough that she'd be able to actually grip locks of it, if she wanted to — and her cheeks flamed at the idea of how much she wanted to. There was still the almost static-y feeling she remembered from when his hair was as bristly as he was; Rose liked to imagine it was because he had too much energy for his body alone to contain. She spent some time combing his hair in unhurried sweeps of her hand, moving from the base of his neck to the top of his head, as if she had every right in the world to enjoy such an intimate gesture.

Act like you belong, and people'll believe it, she thought, amused, remembering the advice he'd given her countless times before. I wonder if that works on Time Lords as well.»

- Cusp, by @valueturtle (Chap.4)

[thedalektables]

«When [Rose] raised her eyes the Doctor had the worst expression on his face, amused and conceited and she could practically hear the teasing already.

‘Shut up,’ Rose said, lifting her gaze to the ceiling.

‘I wasn’t going to say anything,’ he lied, the bastard, his voice all charm. He made it better by settling between her legs,[…] his hands smoothing over her thighs. 'You’re right to be curious, though. I am an alien, Rose.’ His eyebrows wriggled, and he lowered his head to kiss her. 'You’re an alien, too, you know. Maybe I should be the one on the look out for, I don’t know, tentacles. Spikes. Corrosive acids.’

Rose smacked his shoulder, but she couldn’t help laughing. 'Oh, that’s the worst dirty talk I’ve ever heard!’

He chuckled, too, and his chest rumbled on top of her. 'Mmm, not a bad idea, dirty talk. Next time, eh?’ Her breath hitched, then, at the idea that there would be a next time.»

- Cusp, by @valueturtle (Chap.5)

[thedalektables]

«'You were right,' the Doctor said, the words muffled by how he was trying to burrow his way into [Rose's] chest. 'Practice. That's all we needed. Good, old fashioned practice.' She made a noise she hoped meant she agreed, too tired to come up with something witty. He curled his fingers around, stroking the skin of her belly, idly. 'Rose...do you think the universe would believe it if I said I regenerated into your mother?'

That made her take notice. 'What?

'I was just thinking that if they did believe it — that Jackie was the Last of the Time Lords, I mean — then I could stay here. Right here. About two centimetres from your left breast.'

'What about all those creatures an' planets an' horizons you haven't seen yet?' Rose asked, amused by his take on after-sex conversation.

'Well, I'd certainly get there. Eventually. But first I'd have to explore you. And I'd be very thorough.'

'Of course,' she agreed, trying not to laugh.»

- Cusp, by @valueturtle (Chap.7)

[thedalektables]

«Rose shook her head in disbelief. 'I can't believe we got caught in a paradox where we had to vandalise Mickey's car.'

'Well, he did want to play with the race car,' the Doctor commented mildly. He fished around in his coat pocket and pulled out a handful of small stones. 'Right, if I've timed this correctly — and I have — he should be just about to take of Trisha Delaney's bra.'

'Oh, my God,' Rose moaned, covering her face with her hands. 'Is that what this was about? Mickey... cockblocking you earlier?' She smacked him in the arm.

'Ow! No, no, no, no, this is about saving the universe, Rose! Or do you want a hole in time and space centred over London?' he asked her sternly. 'Because we can just go now, if you want.' The Doctor sniffed, and she could tell he was preparing for a really good spiel. 'That's right, we'll go off and let England's capital get torn apart, eh? Good bye, Trafalgar Square! Whoops, there goes the British Museum! Sorry about the corgis, Lizzy, but I'm afraid Buckingham Palace's been wiped out of existence, and all because Rose Tyler wanted to have chips.'

'Oh, shut up,' she said, finally. 'And throw that bloody rock already.'

He did.

A shirtless and very irate Mickey Smith appeared at the third-floor window. His eyes bulged as he saw a giant Monopoly playing piece right where he'd parked his car, and then bulged out even further when he saw the two figures — one dressed in a long brown coat, the other in a pink hoodie, her hair, yellow in the light of a street lamp, spilling out of a lumpy knitted, hat — standing next to it.

Rose exchanged a look with the Doctor. She held out her hand, her fingers already wiggling, and said: 'Run!'»

- Cusp, by @valueturtle (Chap.7)