Title: Afterglow
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Peter Carlisle
Fandom: Doctor Who/Blackpool
Rating: R
Table: smut_69
Prompt: 36, Afterglow
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 Peter Carlisle. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor gasped for breath as Peter rolled off him, looking at his lover as they both lay on their backs, panting. Their lovemaking had been more physical than usual; for some reason, the two of them had been hungry for each other.

Was that because they were growing closer? the Doctor asked himself, turning the thought around in his head. They hadn't had any trouble coming their way recently, and they'd had time to spend with each other, both here on the Tardis and exploring new planets.

Instead of getting intro trouble, as he seemed so well able to do when he was alone, he and Peter had been able to spend their time discovering new places, and cementing their relationship. He'd never been as happy with any other companion as he was with this man.

And Peter wasn't only his companion -- this man was his lover, the person he wanted to spend eternity with, the man he intended to bond with. It might seem strange to any other Gallifreyan, but a human had captured his hearts and soul completely.

Was this the sort of thing that most people thought about in the afterglow of absolutely incredible lovemaking? the Doctor asked himself, glancing over at Peter. HIs lover seemed lost in his own thoughts, his eyes closed, a beatific smile on his lips.

The Doctor propped himself up on one elbow, studying the man beside him. How could it be that a human had captured his hearts? He would have never thought that could happen; with all of the humans he'd had as companions and friends, no one had ever managed that before.

Of course, there had been Jack -- but that relationship had been doomed to failure from the start. He and Jack had been far too different; they'd wanted opposite things out of life, and out of their relationships. The two of them would never have worked out.

But Peter was completely different from Jack. He was the faithful type, whereas Jack would scoff at the mere concept of two people being with each other for all of eternity. Peter was exactly what he wanted, in ways that Jack could never have been.

He and Peter belonged to each other in a way that would never have been possible with any other man. The two of them had connected on some primal level, each satisfying a need in the other that neither of them had been aware that they'd had.

And somehow, they were managing to make it work. Even with their differences, the fact that Peter was human and that the Doctor literally couldn't spend the rest of his life with the man he loved, they were taking things one day at at time, and enjoying the time they had together.

"What are you thinking about?" Peter's voice came out of the blue, startling the Doctor from his private thoughts and back into the moment. His gaze focused on his lover, lying there with his hands behind his head, looking up at him with a smile on his handsome features.

"I was .... thinking of us, of how we're making our relationship work in spite of our differences," he said softly, deciding to tell Peter the truth of his musings. "And thinking that this probably isn't what most people would have in their minds after such wonderful lovemaking."

"The only thing that's on my mind --" Peter rolled over, pinning the Doctor under him and smiling down at the Time Lord -- "is making love to you again. That is, as soon as we both recover from that last round. Rather intense, wasn't it?"

The Doctor nodded, a smile spreading over his face as he mock-struggled to move from under Peter's body. "Intense is hardly the word, love. I almost felt like you were taking me over. I didn't think I'd be able to catch my breath after we were done."

"We should be lying next to each other, relaxing and enjoying our afterglow, shouldn't we?" Peter asked, his eyes sparkling with laughter. "And instead, here we are, thinking about things that have absolutely nothing to do with what we just shared."

The Doctor shook his head, placing a finger against Peter's lips. "No, love," he whispered, his tone going husky. "What I was thinking has everything to do with what we've just shared. Not only that, but it has everything to do with our life together."

"I don't think there's anything better to think of during your afterglow than the two of us together," Peter told him, his tone soft and loving. "Before I met you, I'd think about things like what I'd just done, and if I could go again before too long. That was it."

"You and I are different from the relationships you've had before, Peter," the Doctor murmured, feeling that he had to be serious for at least a few minutes. "That's another thing that I was thinking about. All of our differences -- and how we're managing to overcome them."

"I didn't think we had that many differences," Peter whispered, sliding his arms around the Doctor's slim waist and pulling him close. "I mean, after all, we both love each other ...." He punctuated his words with a kiss. "And we both love making love ...."

The Doctor almost wanted to laugh, but he couldn't deny the truth of those words. Peter was right; their likenesses far outweighed their differences. What did it matter that Peter was human, or what the rest of his race might have thought of a Time Lord mating with a human?

Nothing mattered but what the two of them thought and felt. They were leading their lives as they saw fit, and they were happy. In the end, their own happiness was what should matter. What other people might think of their relationship had no bearing.

"What are you looking so serious about?" Peter whispered, raising a hand to brush an errant strand of damp hair back from the Doctor's forehead. "You're not supposed to be thinking serious thoughts during your afterglow, love. Only lustful ones."

The Doctor couldn't help but laugh at those words; he firmly pushed his more serious thoughts to the back of his mind and turned his attention to the man embracing him. Peter was right -- he shouldn't be thinking about anything serious after they'd just made love.

Well, he wasn't so sure about that. Was thinking about how much he loved Peter and wanted them to spend as much of their lives as possible together an overly serious thought? He didn't think so -- though it didn't qualify as lustful, either.

"No more serious thoughts, love," he said, pulling Peter down to him and nibbling at his lover's earlobe. "I promise. Only lustful thoughts from now on -- and one little question that I'd like an answer to, if you please," he added with a soft laugh.

Peter quirked an eyebrow, an answering smile on his own face. "That depends on what the question is," he said softly, bending down to brush his lips against the Doctor's. "If it's about how much I love you, then the answer would have to be .... infinity."

The Doctor shook his head, trying not to laugh. "No, I already knew the answer to that one," he answered, keeping a straight face with an effort. "My question is -- how soon do you think you can be ready to have another go, hmmm?"

He wasn't able to keep himself from laughing as he spoke; but the laughter seemed to be catching. Peter laughed along with him, tightening his arms around the Doctor's waist and bowing his head to kiss the Time Lord again, longer and harder this time.

"I think that can happen in just a few minutes," he breathed, when they finally broke the kiss. "And after we make love, do you think that we're going to have a more conventional afterglow this time? Or are we going to have more odd thoughts?"

"Since when were the two of us anything approaching conventional?" the Doctor murmured as his lover's mouth descended to his once again. If the next round of lovemaking was anything like the last one, he reflected with an inward smile, then the afterglow might be much more quiet.

***