The Queen and the Rose

Chapter 5

It wasn't terribly hard to sleep after the Doctor had gotten the quilts out of his bigger on the inside pockets.  Rose kicked the blanket down to her waist to keep herself cool.  It was clear that even though the desert was supposed to be cool at night time, whatever the palace was made out of was keeping the interior more cool than usually.

She woke up twice over the night, flipping over and trying not to wake up the Doctor with her restlessness.  She was beginning to understand why the people who lived here were used to sleeping without blankets or pillows.  Although, there was something to be said for the bar-like 'pillows' that she'd been taught about in school.

"Rose," she heard him mumble next to her, "Are you alright?"

Rose stilled instantly, on her side, facing away from him.  "Yeah."

"Having trouble sleeping?"

"No, I'm just trying to get comfortable."

The Doctor sighted.  "Okay.  You'll want your sleep, Rose, be still."

"You planning on doing a lot of running tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I might, actually, we never seem to know," The Doctor replied smartly.  "I only need about two hours tonight and because of all this.. Maneuvering you're doing, I can't seem to."

Rose shifted, not really sure that she was doing it.  His hand shot out and grabbed her hip, stilling her. 

"You really have to stop moving," he said, and before she could so much as blink, he dragged her so her back was pressed to his front, their bodies lined up from chest to knees.  "Stay still."  

He really didn't have to tell her.  She was frozen to the spot as his arm snaked around her waist over the quilt.  His face pressed into her hair and he sighed softly.  "Go to sleep, Rose."

That was going to be quite a feat with her heart hammering in her chest.  She'd shared a bed with the Doctor before, but that was without being tangled together.  It was even harder to wrap her mind around the fact that the Doctor was the one who'd initiated the cuddling.  That was quite a lot from him.  

He hummed quietly and cuddled closer to her, throwing his leg over hers.  "Goodnight, Rose," he said, now trying to coax her to sleep.

She blew out a little sigh and cuddled back into him, allowing her eyes to drift shut.  She fell asleep with his warmth surrounding her and his breath ruffling her hair.

***

When Rose woke up, she had somehow turned around in the Doctor's arm, though she was still on her side, and had her face burrowed into his chest.  His arms were wrapped securely around her and she found herself panicking.  He'd barely been awake last night when he'd pulled her to him.  He'd probably wake up and sputter and rumble out an explanation before shooting out of the room and getting lost down a corridor. 

She felt him rub her back with one hand.  "Are you awake?" He whispered.  His voice wasn't heavy with sleep, as she assumed hers would be.  Of course, he'd said he'd only needed two hours of sleep, so he would be awake by now.

"Yeah," she replied, clearing her throat when her voice came out gravelly, "Yeah, I'm awake."

"Oh, good," he pulled away from her a bit to look down at her.  "Hello."

Rose's lip twitched.  "Hello."  She furrowed her brows at him.  "Didn't you get bored, being awake when I'm sleeping?"

"No, I can doze for a bit here and there while you're getting rest.  And I wasn't too intent on moving, once you'd finally fallen asleep."

She felt heat creep into her cheeks.  "Yeah, well, I usually don't have trouble falling asleep in a new place."

"It's probably the heat," The Doctor said simply.  "Think her Majesty is rustling up breakfast?"

Rose giggled and the Doctor grinned in response.  She shook her head.  "No, probably not, but somebody's made it, seeing as it's light out, so I say we go get some ourselves."

"Alright," he nodded, and pressed a kiss to her forehead before rolling away from her, leaving her feeling very cold as she got out of the bed and started folding up one of the quilts.  She set it on the end of the 'bed' and started folding the second as he put on the clothes he'd taken off last night.  

"Put these back in your fancy pockets," Rose said, pointing at the quilts and pillows before pulling on her bolero and boots.  What she didn't notice was the Doctor eyeing up her legs as she got to her feet. 

He cleared his throat softly as he shoved the bed linens into his pockets.  "Yeah, well, they're not fancy, they're trans-dimensional."

"Tit for tat," Rose replied.

"Oi, it's the technical term, Rose, and you should really respect it."

"I respect it just fine, it's just an awful one."

"It's a compound, if we're being specific."

Rose snorted. "Alright, then.  Let's go, shall we?"

"I believe we shall, Rose Tyler."  He reached a hand out and she took it before he led them from the room.  

Rose glanced both ways down the wide hallway they found themselves in.  "No one's up but us," she said thoughtfully.  "Is that...  Is that odd, for this time period?"

The Doctor made a noise in the back of his throat and pulled her down the right side of the hallway.  "Good question.  Depends on the class they're in.  This lot probably won't be up for another hour, but you and I are so used to rising early that it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"No, I suppose an hour wouldn't have made a difference," Rose agreed, looking around and taking in the hieroglyphs and vivid colors of the palace.  She didn't think she'd anything so beautiful, and Rose had seen a lot of beautiful things since travelling with the Doctor. 

He watched her as her eyes skirted the pillars and walls and smiled softly.  This was one of the bits he loved so much, watching her take in new things, in a way, living through her.  Somehow, he knew it was deeper than that, that there was more than a few reasons he loved watching her in the experiences they shared.  They weren't reasons he was willing to admit just yet, however, or fully understood, really, but there it was, right in his face all the time.  

If he griped a little harder on her hand when he thought about it, then who was to know?  The universe couldn't stop him from holding her hand.  

"Well, I dunno about you, Doctor, but I'm getting a bit peaky from being hungry."

"We can't have that."

"Not if you want to live to see your next regeneration," She replied, turning to him a grinning.

He made a disgusted sound and wrinkled his nose.  "That didn't make any sense and you know that perfectly well."

"I thought we might take our morning meal as we walked," a voice said from in front of them.  Both of them turned to see the Queen standing before them, her hands clasped in front of her and two guards behind her.  She was covered in what Rose knew was Egypt's finest at the time, and Rose shifted uncomfortably at her plain garments.

"And where are we walking to?" The Doctor asked casually.

The Queen cocked an eyebrow and grinned at them.  "I thought you wanted to see my magic."