Title: Rewind
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Peter Carlisle
Fandom: Doctor Who/Blackpool
Rating: PG-13
Table: VRD challenge - Red, 5_prompts
Prompt: Red-light district
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.

***

"It's strange to be back here, isn't it?" the Doctor told Peter as the two of them strolled down a garishly lit Las Vegas boulevard. "This is the place where it all started -- and we're still together. Who would have thought when we first met that we'd fall in love?"

"I doubt anyone thought we would even speak to each other again if they'd seen us that night!" Peter said with a laugh. He reached over to take the Doctor's hand in his own, twining their fingers together. "I was so drunk that it's a miracle I could talk coherently."

"You weren't that drunk," the Doctor objected, shaking his head. "You were making perfect sense to me, once I found out why you were here in Vegas. I'm just glad that I could distract you from the purpose you were here for."

"If you hadn't, I don't know what I would have done," Peter told him, feeling grateful that he'd met the Time Lord when he had. "I would have been rejected, I know that. And I'd probably have ended up trying to do something incredibly stupid."

"Well, that time is behind you now," the Doctor laughed, moving closer to Peter as they moved into a more crowded street. "What do you want to do now that we're here in Las Vegas again? Is there any particular place you'd most like to go?"

Peter shook his head, looking up at all of the garish neon signs around them. "If I wasn't with you, I would probably go see a show and try to seduce a showgirl," he admitted with an embarrassed glance at the Doctor. "But not any more."

The Time Lord raised an eyebrow, casting Peter a mock glare. "Peter, that's the sort of thing you do when you're in a red-light district. Maybe I should have taken you to Amsterdam instead. Not that I would let you seduce anyone there, mind you."

"I wouldn't want to!" Peter hastened to assure him. "You know perfectly well that I don't want anyone but you. I haven't since the first time we met. And anyway, Vegas is more or less the red-light district of the States, isn't it? I've always thought of it that way."

The Doctor looked thoughtful, glancing around him as they walked down the street. "I suppose that's so," he murmured. "I'd never thought of it that way. But you're right." He looked over at his lover again with a cheeky smile. "So we don't have to go to Amsterdam, after all."

"There's nothing I want in Amsterdam," Peter told him firmly, releasing his hand and moving closer to slip an arm around the Time Lord's waist. "I have all I want right here. I don't need anyone else. I wouldn't even want to look at anyone else."

"Then we're just here on something of a sentimental journey?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that you wanted to look around, but now I don't think that's the case. So maybe we should just go to the hotel and settle in."

Peter nodded, scowling at a man who seemed to be ogling the Doctor far too intently for his comfort. "We could do that. And I want to go back to that restaurant that we were at the first night we met. I want to sit at the same table, and remember that night."

"It's not really much to remember, is it?" the Doctor said with a soft laugh. "Well, not until we got back to your hotel room, anyway. I seem to remember that all we did in the restaurant was dance around each other without really saying what we wanted."

"I couldn't stop looking at you," Peter murmured, his arm tightening around the Doctor's slender waist. "I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea of being with a man. But I knew that I wanted you, even if it felt a little strange to me to feel that way at the time."

"And now?" the Doctor asked, his voice soft. Peter almost had to lean close to him to hear the softly whispered words. "It certainly can't feel strange to you any more, not after we've been together this long. Would you want to rewind back to the beginning and change anything?"

"Not a thing," Peter told him, his eyes on an open door only a short way ahead of them. "There's the place, Doctor. That's where we spent our first evening together. And that's where I first realised that I wanted to be with you."

"I think I was already falling in love with you when we were sitting there talking," the Doctor murmured, his tone sounding dreamy and faraway. "I couldn't take my eyes off you. I thought you were the most gorgeous man I'd ever met."

"And the most drunk, I don't doubt!" Peter said with a laugh, guiding the Time Lord into the restaurant and nodding to the hostess. Within moments, they were sliding into chairs at the very table they had sat at the first night they'd met.

"Let's not have a repeat of that first night, shall we?" the Doctor said, leaning forward and fixing his dark, intent gaze on his lover. "I don't want to have to walk a drunken man back to our hotel room. Not that you weren't an absolutely adorable drunk," he added with a smile.

"No drinking tonight. I promise," Peter told him, reaching across the table to take his hand. "That's the main thing that's changed since the last time we were here. I don't have any sorrows that need drowning. Not any more. I'm happier than I've ever been."

"And so am I," the Doctor whispered, his eyes never leaving Peter's face. "Now, what do you say that we have our journey down memory lane for a bit, and then go back to our hotel room? I'm sure that we could show the populace of the red-light district a thing or two."

"Are you suggesting that we open our window to voyeurs?" Peter asked, holding back his laughter. He knew very well that wasn't what his lover meant, but he couldn't resist teasing the Time Lord. After all, they were in a fairly decadent place.

The Doctor looked started for a moment; then he leaned back in his chair with a laugh. "No, I don't think we should go that far," he told Peter, a smile lingering on his lips. "But I think there are some things we said we wanted to try that we haven't gotten around to yet."

Peter looked up as the waitress approached, a shiver of anticipation moving down his spine. This seemed to be turning into a more interesting evening than he'd anticipated -- and he was already looking forward to heading back to their hotel room for the rest of the night.

***