Title: Effects of the Sun
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Mick St. John
Fandom: Doctor Who/Moonlight
Rating: PG-13
Table: doctorwho_100
Prompt: 44, Sun
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Tenth Doctor or Mick St. John, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

"It's a good thing that all of the old myths about vampires aren't true," the Doctor murmured as he leaned back into Mick's arms, closing his eyes and raising his face to the sun that burned in the sky above them, a bright orange ball that blazed in a purple sky.

"What, you mean about vampires being burned to ashes in the sun?" Mick asked with a laugh, shaking his head. "That was my biggest fear when I first found out what I'd become, on my wedding night. I thought I'd never be able to see the sun again."

"Even on a distant planet like this one?" the Doctor inquired, opening his eyes again. "I wonder if the sun here would affect you if those myths were actually true?" he mused, without waiting for Mick to speak again. "I wouldn't want to take the chance."

"Neither would I!" Mick said, laughing ruefully. "Once I'd gone out into the sun, it'd be too late for me to go back. That is, if all the old stories are true about the sun burning vampires to dust immediately. I don't think I'd like to go that way."

"I wouldn't let you," the Doctor declared, shifting his position in his lover's arms and placing a hand over Mick's at his waist. "There's no way I'd let you go out into the sun anywhere if those old stories were true. I'm very glad they're not."

"So am I," Mick told him, nodding in agreement. "Think of everything I'd miss if I couldn't be in the sun. Even though I'm sure there are a lot of planets where the sun doesn't shine -- aren't there?" he asked, his tone curious. "If there are, you've never shown them to me."

"Is that so important?" the Doctor asked, turning his head slightly to look up at Mick. "We have eternity to discover all the planets I've never been to yet. Though I have to admit, there aren't many. I think I've seen nearly every place in every galaxy, at this point."

"Have you?" Mick didn't sound as though he was convinced of that fact. "I know you're over nine hundred years old, Doctor, but I don't think you've seen every place -- or even nearly every place -- in the entire galaxy, past and present. There have to be places you haven't been in yet."

"I suppose you're right about that," the Doctor conceded with a soft laugh. "I'm exaggerating when I say that I've seen every place in the universe. Before I met you, I suppose that I was getting a little jaded. I felt that I'd have to see all of those new places alone."

"You don't have to worry about being alone any more," Mick said softly, bowing his head to brush his lips across the Doctor's forehead. "I'll be with you for the rest of eternity -- however long that might end up being. I don't have anything to go back home for."

"I hope you always feel that way," the Doctor told him, his voice serious. "I lost one person who could have stayed with me forever, Mick. I don't want to lose you, too. Though if you ever feel that you want to leave and go back to your life on Earth, I won't force you to stay with me."

"Do you honestly think I could ever leave you?" Mick asked him, a frown furrowing his brow. "Don't think like that, Doctor. I'm here for the duration. I don't care how many centuries we both live -- I could never get tired of being with you. I don't want to be anywhere else."

"Will you still feel the same way after the next few hundred years, when you've seen me every day and woken up next to me every morning?" the Doctor asked, a hint of a smile playing around the corners of his lips. "You may get tired of me long before then."

"Never," Mick whispered, bowing his head again to kiss the Doctor, their lips meeting and clinging. When they finally pulled away from the kiss, both men were panting slightly, their bodies eager for more of the quick and easy intimacy.

How was it possible to feel this way about anyone? Mick asked himself, tightening his arms around the Doctor to pull the Time Lord closer against him. Even Josef had never made him feel this fierce love, this protectiveness. No one had ever aroused such emotions in him.

Beth had tried, but he had never felt much of anything for her, even though he had tried. He didn't know why he'd wasted so much time with someone who hadn't been worth the trouble; fortunately, Josef had shown him the error of moving further in that direction.

Thanks to Josef, he had discovered that there was no reason for him to pretend any longer that he was exclusively attracted to women -- and since Josef had been in his life, he never had been. It was as if being involved with one man had made him exclusively homosexual.

And at this point, he didn't want to be with anyone but the Doctor. He wasn't homosexual, Mick thought with a soft smile. He was Doctor-sexual. There was no one else in the universe that he could see himself with now; he was spoiled for any other being.

"If you really could be burnt to a crisp by the sun, then I'd have to be much more careful with you," the Doctor mused, his words bringing Mick back to the present moment. "It's a good thing that isn't true. How many more myths about vampires are just myth, I wonder?"

"A lot of them," Mick told him, shaking his head. "All that crap about sleeping in coffins, and looking like Nosferatu, and being evil. Some of us are -- but that's true of any species. There are bad seeds wherever you look, not just in the vamp community."

"I know that the sun has long-term effects on you -- but I'm not sure that I want to know what they are," the Doctor murmured, shifting slightly in Mick's arms and leaning back against him more heavily. "I have a feeling that they wouldn't be pretty."

"The sun can kill us, if we're exposed to it long enough," Mick said with a sigh. "I've been in that position before, and I had to do something I didn't want to do. At the time, I thought it was because I cared for the person, but I realized a lot later that I didn't."

"You didn't have to .... turn them, did you?" the Doctor asked, his voice shaking a little. Mick quickly shook his head, wanting to disabuse the Time Lord of that notion before it could take root in his mind. He had never done that -- and he didn't want to.

"I've never turned anybody," he said, taking a deep breath. "I drank some of her blood. I had to -- or the sun could have turned me feral before it killed me. I would have ended up draining her and not giving a damn, in the state I'd have been in. I had to avoid that."

The Time Lord nodded, though he didn't seem completely satisfied with Mick's answer. "If you had been out in the sun for longer than you had to be, what would have happened to you?" he murmured, his voice hushed and quiet, almost as if he was holding his breath in anticipation.

"I don't really know," Mick told him honestly, squinting up at the sun high above them. "I doubt that I'd have burst into flame, like all the old fairy tales claim, though. I'd probably have just gone feral, and then started to blister if I couldn't get any blood."

"And the sun would eventually have killed you," the Doctor finished for him, shuddering and moving closer to Mick. "I can't even begin to put into words how glad I am that you got out of that situation. And how thankful I am that we found each other."

"Neither can I," Mick said, his voice soft and husky as he bowed his head to caress the Doctor's throat with his lips. "I think you would be nervous about me doing this if you didn't know me as well as you do," he teased, lifting his head to gave into those fathomless dark eyes.

"At least the sun of this planet doesn't seem to be bothering you -- but we'd better make sure that you always have a supply of blood handy," the Doctor told him, smiling as their gazes met. "I wouldn't want to find out just what not having it could do to you."

"And we still don't know what a Time Lord's blood might do to me," Mick added, wishing immediately that he hadn't mentioned that subject. It was something they hadn't discussed, and he didn't really want to get into it now. This wasn't the time.

This was time that they took for themselves, to enjoy the pleasures of being together, not to talk about the risks that they could be taking at times. There was time enough for that later, when they were focusing on the problems that could come into their lives.

For now, he just wanted to enjoy his time with the Doctor, here under the sun of a planet he had never been to before, to enjoy the wonder of being in a relationship with someone that he had never dreamed could exist, much less have fallen in love with him.

"This sun is getting a bit hot," the Doctor murmured, raising a hand to push his hair back from his eyes. "What do you say to going back into the Tardis where it's cooler and .... finding something else to do?" His voice was full of insinuation; Mick could guess what was on his mind.

He laughed, waiting as the Doctor got to his feet and then taking the hand that the Time Lord offered him to get to his feet. "Full speed ahead, Doctor," he said with a laugh, following the Time Lord back into the ship with eager steps and closing the door on the sun and any effects it might have.

***