The Doctor wasn't really sure how he'd ended up in this department store. Rose had mentioned something about buying a gift for her Mum's birthday, and he'd pointed out that she had already bought her half the trinkets on Macoposium Eight, but apparently Jackie wanted a specific scarf from this specific shop in London, so here they were.

Or rather, here he was; Rose had wandered off, leaving him in the men's section all by himself, and wait, had that been a hint? Was she trying to get him to buy himself more clothes? Pffft. He didn't need anything else. He had this foxy suit, and a selection of blue shirts, and an extensive variety of floral ties - what else could he possibly require?

He glanced to his left, and saw that he was standing by the men's boxer-briefs display.

Oh, was she suggesting he -

His brow furrowed in thought, and he picked up a pack of dark blue pants. They were nice enough, but the Doctor tended to make do with white cotton briefs. Maybe Rose had spotted them in the laundry room. Maybe she didn't like them all that much. He peered closer at the selection before him. Maybe, he thought, Rose Tyler preferred her men in stuff like this.

Not that he was her man. Or her anything. Friend, he was her friend, of course, best mate, even, but -

Did best mates go underwear shopping with one another?

She had said to him, "Why don't you browse around here, see if there's anything you want?"

He should have asked her what she wanted. If they ever - not that they would, of course, no way, no sir, wasn't going to happen - but if they ever did get a little bit extra-friendly, would she be disappointed if he wasn't wearing these?

The Doctor put them back on the shelf, walked a few steps along, and then retreated. He picked the pack of boxer-briefs up again, and eyed the waistband. Calvin Klein. That sounded suitably posh. Suitably , maybe he'd - where was the harm in trying something new?

He picked up as many as he could carry and wandered over to the nearest sales desk, depositing them on the counter in front of a slightly bored-looking young lady with a cheery grin. Her mood seemed to pick up, once he did that, and she smiled back at him.

"Having a nice day, sir?"

"Marvellous, thank you," he said without thought. The truth was, it had been a bit uneventful, really, but the fact he'd spent almost the entire day holding Rose's hand as they walked around London did make the uneventfulness particularly pleasant. More than pleasant.

The sales lady began to ring up his purchase, and she looked quite amused at the number of pants he was buying. "Had a sort out of your knicker drawer?" she asked, laughing, eyebrows raised.

The Doctor shrugged. "Let's just say it's time for a change."

"Oh?" The woman tucked her hair behind her ear and shot him a flirty smile, which alarmed him just a little bit. "Have a girlfriend to impress, do you?" she asked coyly.

"No, no."

Her smile widened.

He cleared his throat and backtracked. "Well - yes, actually. Sort of."

The woman deflated. "Oh. Well, I'm sure she'll approve."

"Nice pants then, are they?" he asked, gesturing to the bag now full of his latest acquisitions.

"Very nice. You let me know if she doesn't appreciate them," she said, raising her eyebrows. "Or if they don't fit very well. I'd be happy to help you out."

"Ah," he said, laughing nervously. "Thanks. That's…kind of you."

She looked pleased. "That'll be - "

His gaze slipped over her shoulder and he saw Rose across the shop floor. Hurriedly, he paid for the pants, and then crept behind a clothes rail to shove the bag into his dimensionally-transcendental pocket. He didn't want Rose making fun of him. Especially as he'd sneaked a pair of Superman pants in there along with the more ordinary blue ones.

He followed the path around the men's section to catch up with Rose. "Did you get what you needed?" he asked her, and she jumped, a hand to her chest as she laughed.

"Blimey, don't sneak up on me like that!" She whacked his arm with her shopping bag playfully. "Yeah, got Mum a few bits. What about you?"

"Nah, I'm good," he sniffed. Her eyes wandered in the direction he'd just come from, a little bit longingly. Ha, so he had been right! She had been hinting that he needed some better underwear.

He felt inordinately clever for working that out for a moment, until he realised it was basically an insult. What was wrong with his current wardrobe -

Rose looped her arm around his and he promptly forgot to be mad. "So," she said, smiling up at him. "Do you mind if we make one last stop? I couldn't get something I wanted in here, so I was thinking we could pop along the street to one more shop before we go back to Mum's."

He huffed and sighed and made a show of being frustrated by the notion, but really, with the way her fluttering eyelashes worked so well on his defences, they both knew he was going to give in in less than thirty seconds.

"Go on then, where are we off to now?" he asked, as they exited the department store.

"Little place called Ann Summers," she said, with a smirk that he didn't quite know how to interpret - that was, until they reached said shop.

Full to the brim with ladies' underthings, lace and satin and mostly garishly pink; he didn't know where to look.

"Rose, maybe I should wait outside," he suggested, tugging on his earlobe.

"Come on, don't be a baby, I'll just be a sec." She grabbed his hand and dragged him in after her, then let go to wander over to a rack of brassieres. He stood awkwardly in the middle of the shop for a moment, blushing when he realised the sales people were looking at him strangely, then gravitated towards a relatively tame display of nightwear. He glanced in Rose's direction, wondering whether she was going to head into the section of the shop that was quite clearly somewhere he absolutely didn't need his mind to wander, given the…adult nature of the items therein. Thankfully for his pulse rate, she remained in this half of the shop, quickly skimming through a selection of push-up bras. He hurriedly looked back at the clothes he was standing in front of.

Curiosity inevitably took him over, at that point, and he slid his glasses on as he perused what had been labelled as a 'babydoll.' He didn't quite get that, nor did he understand why such an alarming lack of fabric could possibly be worth such a high price tag. It would barely cover her! Rose would be freezing in that thing. Not to mention uncomfortable. And this was for sleeping in?

He caught himself, then, and tried to shake the fact he'd inadvertently imagined Rose wearing it out of his mind. He looked at a different garment and swallowed hard. That one didn't even have - didn't have - cups for the - ahem. Blimey.

It occurred to him, then, that people wearing these sorts of things probably weren't actually going to fall asleep still wearing them. He abruptly took his glasses off and shoved them into his pocket, feeling ridiculous. His eyes still wandered, though, and so did his feet, and he found himself standing in front of a dusky pink thing called a 'chemise.' He felt himself flush, and scratched at the back of his neck, wondering why he couldn't stop looking at it, couldn't stop wishing he could ask Rose if she'd maybe like to buy it.

That would be out of order, wouldn't it? A bit rude. To request such a thing of someone he wasn't even -

"That's nice," said Rose's voice, and he nearly stumbled over his own feet, just keeping himself upright by darting out his hands to grab whatever he could. One had, unfortunately, grabbed the chemise and accidentally pulled it off the hanger. The other hand had, even more unfortunately, grabbed Rose's jacket.

He dropped the chemise and let go of her, holding his palms up. "Sorry!"

"It's all right," Rose laughed, crouching to pick up the thing he still couldn't stop thinking about. When she straightened her posture, he watched her feel the fabric between her thumb and forefinger. "Isn't this lovely?" she said, as though he were expected to answer her. He didn't, and she carried on, "Not as garish or as…see-through as some of the others." She held it up to herself and turned to him with a smile, tongue poking out of the side of her mouth. "What do you think? Could I pull it off?"

He could think of several things she could pull off, and several things he could pull off, and all the very different connotations of that phrase.

"Don't worry," she giggled, nudging him with her elbow. "I'm just teasing you. Don't have to look so terrified." She put it back on its hanger, and gave a wistful sigh. "Not like I've got any reason to wear it, anyway."

"Why not?" he found himself asking, then shut his mouth with a click.

She gave him a funny look. "Well." She shrugged a shoulder. "No point in wearing it by myself, is there? Bit impractical."

"Ah. Right. Also, you might get chilly." He eyed the length of it, considered where it would come down to on Rose and thought maybe mid-thigh at the most. Probably only just enough to cover -

He coughed.

"Yeah," she laughed. "Still, better than that one." She pointed at the one he'd noticed earlier, the black sheer thing that didn't have anything to cover her breasts. She leant closer to it, and giggled again, a naughty sound that completely arrested him.

He leant towards her. "What?" he asked.

"Look, look what it comes with," she said, and pointed to the tiny things she was looking at.

"I don't get it," he said.

"Bless," she murmured, then whispered in his ear, "They're nipple covers, Doctor."

"Oh. Right." He cleared his throat. "Rose, are you done in here, or -"

She took pity on him, patting his arm, looking a bit chastened. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

"You didn't," he assured her, putting his hand over hers, giving it a squeeze. "Honestly. It's just…I feel a bit out of place." He nodded his head towards the sales people. "They keep looking at me."

"Probably wondered if you were gonna ask for advice, or something."

"Advice?"

"Yeah, Shareen used to work in one of these stores, said guys would come in asking for help all the time. About what they should get their girlfriends for Valentine's Day, stuff like that."

"Oh, I see."

"Or sometimes asking about what would suit them." She gave him an assessing look, then picked up his favourite one again. "Do you want this chemise for yourself?"

He shook his head. "I don't think it'd suit me."

She smiled. "Yeah, you'd look good in many things, Doctor, but I'm not sure pink is your colour. Well, not this shade of pink." She glanced around, and then pointed out a pair of fluffy handcuffs. "Maybe baby pink like those, though."

He rolled his eyes, but she didn't notice. She pushed the chemise into his hands and wandered over to the handcuffs she'd just discovered, biting her lip.

"Rose?" he said quietly, coming up beside her.

"Sorry," she said, then blushed, and laughed to try to cover it. "Right, got the bra I came for, shall we go?"

"No, no, hold on." He took the handcuffs off the shelf and waved them at her. "You seem very interested in these."

Her blush deepened. She was almost the colour of the chemise he was still holding. He wondered if she was blushing all the way down her chest. Wondered if it matched the colour of her -

His eyes widened, and he cursed himself internally for even thinking of such a thing, let alone thinking of such a thing in her presence. He tried to focus on what she was saying.

"All right, look, sorry for teasing you, but come on, let's just go - " she said.

He suddenly wasn't ready to leave this shop, and all the wonderful opportunities it contained. "Just one more minute," he requested, and she shifted awkwardly, fiddling with her earring.

"Fine. What?"

Letting out a whoosh of breath, telling himself to just go for it, he said, "You ever used these before?"

"We got handcuffed on Saos just last week - "

He smiled. "I meant in a sexy way, Rose." She avoided his gaze and he continued, "Besides, pretty sure the ones on Saos didn't have fluffy pink bits attached for our comfort."

"No," she said, her lips twitching. "S'pose not."

"Is that a smile?"

"No." But she was. She was smiling, and she was beautiful, and he'd happily wear the metal and fluff contraption he was dangling in front of her if she'd even consider buying the chemise that he was almost certain would match the colour of her nipples and damn, he'd gone there, his thoughts had gone there and now there was no turning back. Couldn't unthink a thought like that.

"I dare you to buy these." He handed her the handcuffs. Then, he held out the chemise. "This too. If you want."

"Doctor…"

"Or, alternatively, since I missed Valentine's Day, I can buy them for you."

She pressed her lips together, universal Rose Tyler code for trying not to laugh or squeal. "You aren't my boyfriend."

"No, all right," he conceded, tilting his head to the side. "Although I did get asked today if I had a girlfriend to impress."

"And what did you say?" she murmured.

"I said that I sort of did." He took a step closer to her. "'Cos I sort of do."

Rose stroked his arm with her free hand, looking up at him shyly. "You really want us to buy this stuff?"

"Yes," he breathed out roughly, unable to take his eyes off her. "If that's…"

She nibbled on her bottom lip, considering that for a moment.

Impatiently, he continued, "I mean, if it's my underpants you're not fond of, if that's putting you off, then you should know that I'm gonna replace them with the dark blue boxer-briefs I bought today."

Rose burst out laughing, and suddenly she was flinging her arms around him. He caught her in a warm hug, and inadvertently met the gaze of the people on the tills over her shoulder, who were smiling at them and watching with keen interest.

"Think we've got an audience," he whispered, turning his face into her neck. He pressed a kiss there and felt her shiver in his arms.

She pulled back. "Probably shouldn't snog your face off right now, then."

He chuckled, knowing he sounded dreadfully smug and dreadfully pleased. "No, probably not."

"Later, though?" she murmured, looking at him hopefully, as though checking for clarification.

The Doctor grinned. "Absolutely."

She beamed, and took both the handcuffs and the chemise up to the till. He stood and watched her, hands in his pockets, cheeks aching he was smiling so hard.

As she handed over her debit card, she glanced over to him. "Sure there's nothing else you want, while we're here?"

He hadn't even thought of that, too preoccupied by the things they'd both chosen already. But, now she happened to mention it, this was a shop full of possibilities, and he'd only explored one tiny corner of it.

Still, he reasoned. They could always come back later.

"For now, yeah," he replied nonchalantly, and when she looked at him with raised eyebrows, he winked at her.

Today, he considered, as they linked hands a minute later to walk out of the shop, had been rather eventful after all.