Title: Guardian Angel
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ross Jenkins
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 4, 50ficlets
Prompt: 39, Angel
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Ross Jenkins, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Ross raised his glass in toast to the Doctor, smiling at the Time Lord across the table they were seated at. He wasn't used to dressing up and going out to a candlelit dinner, but the Doctor had insisted that they spend some time visiting a pleasure planet.

If he was honest, he had to admit that he was thoroughly enjoying the experience, Ross thought, taking a sip of the bubbly champagne without taking his gaze from the Doctor. It was an incredibly beautiful place, with so much to see and do.

But the best part of it was seeing the Doctor so relaxed and happy. Not that the Time Lord wasn't relaxed a lot of the time when they were on the Tardis, he told himself -- but this was different. All of the worries that plagued him at times seemed to have slipped away.

He wasn't thinking about the Master, or about any place that might be in trouble and need his help. He wasn't thinking about the past, or regrets that he might have hidden away in his private thoughts. He was simply enjoying himself, just as Ross was.

"Do you know how gorgeous you look in a tux?" he said softly, his gaze taking in the Time Lord's body appreciatively. Nobody should look that good in formal evening dress, he thought with an inward smile. The Doctor was so beautiful it was almost sinful.

"You don't look so bad yourself, love," the Doctor answered, his smile and his gaze taking in Ross just as appreciatively. The young man blushed under the Time Lord's scrutiny; he was sure that he knew exactly what his lover was thinking at the moment.

"You look like an angel," Ross said, speaking before he thought about the words. But once they were said, he didn't want to take them back. They were the truth, at least in his eyes. The Doctor was his angel, in so many ways.

This man had saved him from certain death, from a future that would have ended all too abruptly without his intervention. He'd saved Ross' life many times since then -- he'd been a lover, a mentor, a companion, and a guardian angel, all wrapped up into one wonderful person.

"You're an angel of mercy for me, did you know that?" he continued, leaning slightly forward across the table to peer even more intently into the Time Lord's face. "If it wasn't for you, I'd have died without ever really knowing you. That would have been a tragedy."

The Doctor nodded, smiling and raising his glass to his young lover again. "I'll second that," he said softly, his gaze not leaving Ross' face. "If I'd never been able to know you, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. I made the right decision when I took you away with me."

"And I made the right decision when I made up my mind to come with you," Ross told him, taking another sip of his champagne."I didn't know then that you'd end up being the love of my life, but I was so attracted to you that I couldn't have said no."

"If you'd said no, I would have tried my best to convince you to come along with me anyway," the Doctor said with a smile. "I knew that there was a spark between the two of us that was much more than just you being a companion to me, Ross."

"You wouldn't have had to do much convincing," Ross said softly, thinking back to the first time he could remember seeing the Doctor. "I'd heard so many stories about you that I might have already been halfway to falling in love with you before we even met."

"Ah, but you didn't know that I'd be your guardian angel then, did you?" the Doctor asked with raised brows, laughing softly. "For a while, you didn't even believe that I was a real person! That almost hurts my vanity, you know."

"But I found out soon enough that not only are you real, but that you're the most important person in my life," Ross said, refusing to be led away from his praise of the Time Lord. "You are my angel, Doctor. You always will be."

"You're my angel, too," the Doctor told him, his voice softening on the words. "You've helped me rid myself of thoughts from the past that have held me back in some ways, Ross. I can't thank you enough for that. I can't even begin to put into words what you've done for me."

"So, now that we've agreed that we're both angels, don't you think it's time for us to fly up to our room and spend the rest of the night in bed?" Ross asked, his voice low and husky, his eyes on the Doctor's lips. "That might not be what angels do, but I'm willing to break the rules."

"Rules are meant to be broken!" the Doctor agreed with a laugh, setting his empty glass down on the table and getting to his feet. The two of them left the dining room, heading towards the elevator with eager footsteps, both of them anticipating the pleasures of the night to come.

***