AN: Even though I'm a fairly big fan of 5/Nyssa, I kinda like the idea of 5/Peri, too. I also figured, hey, there's not a whole lot of 5/Peri fanfiction, so, voila, this happened. I don't own any of these characters.

Two weeks.

Oh my goodness, Peri thought, I've been travelling with this man for two weeks. How had it happened? She had been in Lanzarote one minute, and, before she knew it, she had encountered aliens and androids and, whoosh, she was travelling through time and space with the strangest alien of them all, the Doctor. How much vacation time she had left didn't even matter, because she was in a time machine. A time machine, of all things! She still had trouble believing it.

It was all so foreign to her. She was going through space and time in a blue box that was bigger on the inside, with a man who honestly seemed to think that celery was an acceptable accessory.

Peri laughed to herself. If celery was the worst he was wearing, she could deal with that. She'd dated men more questionable than him; that was for sure.

Not that she wanted to date the Doctor, Peri told herself. She couldn't possibly want to. He was an alien, for crying out loud!

But he looked so human. Not just any human, either: he certainly qualified as an attractive one. And he was smart, and good, and funny…

Don't be ridiculous, Peri thought, shaking her head. He was quick tempered, and silly, and he wore the most ridiculous clothes.

Which, as the other side of Peri's mind pointed out, looked fantastic on him. Despite his temper, he would never hurt anyone, and, as for the silliness, what was wrong with being a little bit silly now and then?

Surely, she thought, there must be something wrong with him. Cricket! He played cricket! Could she really stand that?

Oh, of course she could.

Peri sighed, slumping down into a chair in the library. She covered her face with her hands as she tried to clear her mind. If she was going to be travelling alone with him, she had to stop thinking about these sorts of things. She certainly didn't want to have to leave the TARDIS any time soon, a consequence that was a definite possibility if she tried to make a move on him.

She picked up a book without even looking to see what it was about and simply started reading. It turned out the book was on interspecies mating. She sighed. Of course it was.

She got up and wandered about for a bit, looking for something, anything, to distract her. Surely this had to be just a passing thought that would soon go away if she found something different enough. Maybe some food, or a fresh change of clothes, or…

Or, she thought, standing in a doorway to a new room, a nice dip in the pool might do just the trick.

Peri quickly ran to her room and changed into a swimsuit. She picked up a towel, leaving her other outfit on the floor, and headed straight back towards the swimming pool. On the way there, she ran smack into the Doctor, much to her chagrin.

"Ah," he said, smiling, "going for a swim, I see."

"Yes, Doctor. Care to join me?" Why, oh, why did she have to ask that?

"Well…" The Doctor frowned. "I'm not much of a swimmer myself, but I suppose I could give it a go." The frown quickly left his face as the corners of his mouth turned upwards once more.

Great, Peri thought. Exactly what she needed to distract her: the man she was thinking of already, only wearing fewer articles of clothing. "I'll see you at the pool, then." She gave a small grin before dashing off.

She sat on the edge of the pool once she reached it. Testing the waters, she slowly dipped in one foot, then the other, until her calves were entirely immersed. She got lost in thought, her mind wandering off into how old the Doctor was, exactly, and how many people had been on this ship before her. She knew of at least one other, a ginger boy around her age, and he had made mention of some others who had left the ship long before. But certainly there couldn't have been more than just those.

Peri was suddenly awoken from her derailed train of thought when the Doctor walked in, a towel over his shoulder. She laughed when she saw his swim trunks: they were pale pink, with light orange question marks. "That's a wonderful bathing suit you've got there, Doctor."

The Doctor smiled. "Thank you. As is yours." He sat down beside her, plunging his legs into the water. "I thought you were going to swim?"

"Oh, yes. I will soon. I just wanted to get used to the temperature first."

"What better way to get used to the water than by jumping in?" the Doctor asked, shrugging.

Peri giggled as a devilish thought ran through her mind. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" And, with that question, she gave the Doctor a nice shove, sending him straight into the pool in front of her.

As she looked down, she could see that he adapted quickly to the shock. He was soon swimming around. Liar, she thought. Not much of a swimmer? Baloney. He was a regular fish.

She didn't have much time to think of that, however, as the Doctor popped back up directly in front of her, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her into the pool with him. She gasped at the chill of the water surrounding the rest of her body.

Playfully and quickly, Peri swam away from him. As soon as she got a few feet away, she sent a splash of water directly towards his face. The Doctor retaliated, sending an even larger wave over to her, drenching the top of her head. "Gosh, Doctor. That was a regular tidal wave."

He swam over towards her, chuckling. Although she feigned swimming away, Peri gave up quickly, letting him catch her. As he grabbed her by the waist, he turned her towards him. "Gotcha."

Peri smiled. His face was only inches from hers; unsurprisingly, she suddenly found it difficult to breathe. Had his eyes always been that blue? She could no longer contain herself. Grabbing the Doctor by his straw blond hair (which, she marveled, was quite soft to the touch), she pulled him in for a kiss.

She could tell that he hadn't been expecting it. She almost thought he would push her away, tell her that was unsuitable behavior for someone on his ship, kick her out altogether. Her fears were allayed quickly, however, as he responded with enthusiasm.

This nearly caused the pair to fall over backwards, forcing them both underwater. Fortunately, the Doctor caught Peri and himself quickly enough to keep them from getting more soaked than they already were. Peri gave a light laugh out of surprise and happiness. Her laugh was soon cut off, however, by another kiss from the Doctor.

Two weeks, Peri thought. Two weeks, and she already knew she'd made the best decision of her life.