Title: Crescent Moon
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Peter Carlisle
Fandom: Doctor Who/Blackpool
Rating: R
Table: Cadenza challenge, 5_prompts
Prompt: Bridge -- Beneath the rising moon
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 moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it?" the Doctor asked, making conversation as he and Peter ambled along the wooded path, looking up at the sky. "It's not all the way up yet, but I think it's going to light up this place as brightly as day when it is."

"It looks like we're going to have a crescent moon tonight," Peter answered him, his voice carefully bland. Glancing over at his lover, the Doctor could see a small smile hovering around the corners of Peter's lips, and he couldn't help but wonder what his lover was thinking about.

He'd long since learned the folly of putting that question to Peter; if he was planning something, he would play it close to the vest until he was ready to spring some surprise on the Time Lord. Peter's surprises were always good ones, however, so he didn't mind them.

Besides, it was exciting to go through life with a man at his side who had such a wonderful sense of playfulness, someone who could see new places with all the delight of a child. In many ways, Peter was like he had been when he first began traveling through time and space.

Since Peter had been with him, he'd managed to recapture that old magic of seeing new places -- Peter had given him a new lease on life, a new way of seeing everything he'd viewed so many times before and had started to take for granted.

This man had changed his life for the better, in so many ways, the Doctor thought as he surreptitiously watched his lover walk along beside him. There was nothing that he would change about their time with each other; he didn't regret one moment they'd spent together.

And their time was far from over, he told himself, feeling contented and happy. Peter wasn't going to leave him like so many other companions had done; this man wasn't just his companion, but his lover as well, and they had a bond unlike any he'd had with other companions.

Jack was the only other companion who he'd actually taken to his bed -- but then, his relationship with Jack had been unusual from the beginning. And they had both known that their time was limited, and that they would walk away from each other without looking back.

He'd wondered at the beginning if Peter might be jealous of Jack -- which was why he hadn't allowed the two men to meet yet. He knew that introducing the current boyfriend to the former one, given Jack's tendency to try to seduce anything that drew breath, wasn't a good idea.

The last thing he wanted was for Jack to decide that he had some sort of right to antagonize Peter, simply because the two of them had been lovers first. And knowing Peter's quickly-igniting temper, that was a powder keg waiting for a match.

"What are you thinking about?" Peter asked softly, taking the Doctor's hand in his own and raising it to his lips, kissing the tips of the Time Lord's fingers. "You looked so serious for a moment, I wondered if you'd rather be somewhere else."

The Doctor was quick to shake his head in negation, smiling at his lover. "No, love, there's nowhere else I'd rather be than right here," he said, his voice soft and husky. "And there's no one I'd rather be with. I'm exactly where I belong, and I'm happy to be here."

Peter pointed up at the moon again; it had risen higher in the sky, shining down on the two of them. "See? It's a crescent," he said softly, his voice holding the satisfaction of having been right. "There's a lot of history behind a crescent moon, you know."

"Really?" The Doctor was always interested in finding out new facts about Earth that he hadn't known before; whatever Peter was going to say sounded as though it might be something he'd like to know. "Tell me about it, sweetheart."

"Well ...." Peter tilted his head back, studying the crescent moon as it rose higher into a velvety indigo sky that was pinpricked with stars. "Did you know that centuries ago, humans thought that making love under a crescent moon with the person you love brought good luck?"

"Oh?" The Doctor was already certain that Peter was making this up; he could tell from the laughter that was barely hidden under Peter's serious words. He had long ago learned to tell when his lover was playing, and when he meant was he was saying.

"Yes -- making love to your heart's desire under the crescent moon could bring you good luck for the next year. Or was it for the rest of your life?" Peter said, his brow furrowing as he pretended to think. "I can't quite remember. I should look that up sometime."

"Yes, you should do that," the Doctor agreed, unable to keep back his own smile as he saw the dimples at either side of Peter's mouth become more pronounced. That always happened whenever his lover was trying to hold back a smirk.

"What do you say we test that theory?" Peter asked him, stopping in his tracks and raising an eyebrow. He tilted his head to the side, his hands on his narrow hips, facing the Doctor. "I think this is as good a place as any to find out if that old Indian superstition is true or not."

"There's no one around to see," the Doctor said thoughtfully, glancing up at the thin slice of crescent moon that was rising ever higher overhead, lighting up the night nearly as bnightly as daylight. "Only the moon -- and I doubt she would mind watching."

"I'm sure that she's smiled on many lovers before us -- and that she'll do the same for others in the future," Peter said softly, moving closer to him and reaching up to begin unbuttoning his shirt with one hand. "She probably likes to watch."

"Oh, so do you think that the moon is a bit kinky, then?" the Doctor asked, laughter tinging his voice. It was getting harder for him to keep a straight face; he was going to burst out laughing at any moment, and ruin the seductive mood that was starting to build.

"I don't see why not." Peter stepped back slightly, considering, glancing up at the sky. "She doesn't look as though she disapproves, so I think she'd actually like to get a bit of a show. That is, if you don't mind making love on top of your coat," he added with a laugh.

"Not at all," the Doctor whispered, sliding his arms around Peter's waist and drawing the other man close against his body. "It's not as though I haven't done that before -- and this is a rather romantic setting, in a forest glade with the moon shining down on us, isn't it?"

"I thought so," Peter answered, his words a bit breathless. He leaned forward to brush his lips against the Doctor's mouth, gently at first, then with an increasing ardor that couldn't be denied. Within seconds, the two men were in each other's arms, frantically working to remove their clothes.

As they fell to the ground on top of the Doctor's trench coat, their naked bodies exposed to the gleam of moonlight overhead, the crescent moon seemed to shine even more brightly, as if she was indeed watching them -- and thoroughly enjoying what she saw.

***