tampered | closed: motives and with-actions can within

closed: motives and with-actions can within

When: Boxing Day eveningish. Right after the best display of literal self-loathing any curse has yet been able to produce.
Rating: S for Scolding, with an occasional pSH for post-Scolding Hug.
Characters: The Doctor (with the hair)

am_i_being_rude and Rose Tyler

iam_thebadwolf
Summary: Ten ran into the kitchen to get ice for Rose's face and didn't come back.
Log:

Jumping on the excuse to leave the room, he'd all but bolted into the kitchen entirely under the presumption that he was really going to get some ice and then go back out there. A few minutes later now, and all he had was some melting ice in a bit of square cloth he couldn't identify as either a dishrag or a washcloth, supposing there even was a difference. The entire sequence of events was still playing out repeatedly in his mind, mostly out of sheer disbelief, as though going back through it enough would show him the point where it didn't actually happen. And it wasn't really so much just this single incident. Things had been building to a head like this for a while now, and now that they were here, he found he really wasn't very sure what to do about them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She just relaxes more and more as he works his way up her leg. She shifts a little so she's sort of against the bed a bit more just because she is relaxing. She reaches over and grabs several pillows though to prop herself up so she can still watch him.

"Ought to add some of those benefits to your time and space spiel. You'd have a line forming." She says it teasingly because she wouldn't want there to be anymore special ones. She has told him several different ways and times by now. She figures repetition is the best way to get a point across to him.

He pretends to consider that as he works around to the top of her thigh and then shakes his head as if dismissing the thought.

'Nah, bit of false advertising, isn't it? I'm not sure how many people consider running, hopping, or whathaveyouing for their lives to be that much of a bonus.' Then, a couple of moments later as an afterthought, 'Start to feel a bit like a travel agent, too.' He's not sure how much he'd like that, even if it effectively is in some definitions exactly what he is. Travel agent or a tour guide, even if one with a somewhat pronounced penchant for peril. At this point, he blames the sheer amount of knowledge he already possesses to be the reason it takes so much repetition to get some things to stick; it takes a while to cram anything new into that brain of his, being so crowded as it is already. That's his excuse, anyway.

"Good point. Really better the way you do it anyhow. I'm not much for standin' in lines anyhow. Or sharin' you." She gives a dramatic sigh, grinning at him and resting her other foot against his thigh. "Looks like you're stuck with me in that case."

It makes a bit of sense. Really she chalks it up more to habit than anything. Habit and being alone too much, too long.

He's looking down at what he's doing but he does grin at her comment, looking sideways at her when she continues. 'I'll just have to learn to cope with it. What a difficult task ahead of me.' He punctuates this with a pat to her leg. Also because he's moving to the other one, reaching over the one closest to him to start in on the muscles in that calf.

That's probably a far more accurate reasoning, but not one he'd ever admit to, obviously.

She grins back at him, shifting her legs to make it easier on him. "M'sure you'll rise to the occasion. Sorta always do. I'll try to make sure I don't get too borin' for you. Could try different colors on my hair if you want some variety." It's teasing really. She thinks the blonde suits her too much to change it.

Obviously. She knows. That's what counts, as she's going to be the one dealing with it.

'I think,' he starts seriously, 'That as long as you keep doing two or three fairly easy things that you won't lose my attention.' He's still looking down for the most part, for a couple of reasons, but at each one of these things he glances over at her again.

'Talking, for starters. Very basic. Breathing, even more basic. And... being here. Considering it's hard to do the first without the last and that two out of three depend quite squarely on the other third, they don't seem like unreasonable stipulations.'

Which is clearly... He knows she's playing, and he's meant to be playing back, although she's doing a bit better at it for the moment. This is more along the tones that hers had been in. 'You'd do something other than blonde? I'd lose one of my three base descriptions of you.'

"The talkin' bit might be difficult but I think I can manage those three." Because the only way she could ever be considered quiet is in comparison to him during a particularly intense rambling session and as mentioned a time or two, her rambling, both internally and externally, seems to be getting worse the more time she spends with him.

She tilts her head, furrowing her brow a bit at him. "You've got more descriptors of me than pink and yellow? Could just go all pink, you know. Didn't seem to mind that one day." Nah, she wouldn't, not for more than a wig and a gag.

He has a tendency to impact and influence the people around him like that, for better or worse, or just louder, in this case. Personally he'd explain it away as sheer magnetism and charisma, or perhaps dominant Time Lordiness being dominant and lordly, but sometimes he's really not sure what it is that makes people pay so much attention to him; frequently simultaneously listening intently while managing to not actually hear a single thing he's trying to tell them. Or what's more fun, clearly actually hearing him because it's nearly impossible to do the exact opposite of what someone's just said without knowing what the original meaning was.

He takes a moment to hold up one hand and tick these off as he says them. 'Blonde, girl, about this high, and sometimes I ask if you came running through. Or if they've seen a Union Jack fly past, but that's on very specific occasions.' They're quite basic descriptors by the normal Earth standards, but out and about the universe actually can narrow things down well enough. Somehow the blonde thing is quite helpful. 'You go all one colour and then you can blend in like a chameleon or one of those octopuses if you ever find yourself standing in front of a pink wall. Could be useful.'

She really doesn't mind being impacted primarily because it means he's around to do it. Of course. Dominant Time Lordiness being dominant and lordly, that would get one of those snort laughs out of her. For her part, she listens, quite well thank you very much. She just doesn't always choose to heed his advice.

"Guess I'll have to keep the blonde. Don't mind anyway. S'what m'used to." The blonde thing can be ridiculously helpful. She usually uses tall, thin, great hair. The great hair bit, not as helpful as the blonde thing; apparently, it's subjective.

"If m'blendin' in, how would you find me then?"

Secretly knowing she'd laugh at it might be why he doesn't say it that often aloud. Sort of. Not constantly, anyway. Well. The important thing is that he's aware of the probable reaction. He does, however, consider listening and not hearing and listening and not heeding to be only very slimly divided.

'Me too.' He's quite attached to how she looks now. 'Used to your blonde, I mean.' Maybe saying something about a man in a suit would be more helpful, even if the great-hair adjective is far more accurate in his own opinion.

'I'm me. I was mostly thinking about how it would be fun though.'

And yet, it's one of those things he keeps constantly running into with his companions. Coincidence? Probably not, Doctor. You wouldn't have anything to do if your companions listened and heeded.

Now see, if he told her that, there'd be no chance of ever being anything except blonde and yes, man in a suit would be infinitely more helpful however it's not one of those things she automatically jumps to when she thinks about him. The great hair and the tall both take precedent over the suit. She'll have to work on giving a more general description of him, one that the average by-stander would recognise.

"Complicated game of hide and seek, yeah?"

The introduction of this idea will end well.

It's clearly because he's just got a face nobody listens to rather than any sort of being-wrong on his part. Or possibly it's a defining human racial characteristic to require learning absolutely everything through personal experience rather than being able to gain knowledge second-hand. Although, yes, the constant having to rescue companions does account for quite a bit of his usual schedule.

Has he not? He'd assumed it was inherent in the telling her she was beautiful; which come to think of it might have itself been somewhat inherent in the telling her she was brilliant... Grow up in a culture of people who change their face a dozen times, commenting on individual beauty might fall a little by the wayside. And also he's just very crap about assuming things are apparent or understood through actions.

'Professional hide and seek. Challenging hide and seek. The sort of hide and seek where you actually get to use all of your physical senses instead of just the basic five.'

Yes, totally.

And the face before this one was the same kind of face, despite being a very different face. Right. Of course. Although, really the defining characteristic might be true as well.

She's a young human woman in love with someone she is often absolutely in awe of. It's one of those things that she's never going to completely get on some level probably, even as she gets more confident both in herself and in them as a couple. She does like when he compliments her, regardless of whether it's by telling her she's brilliant or beautiful. It makes her preen a bit. That kind of culture really isn't so bad. Most of the time, she gets the apparent and the understood through actions sorts of things. He's quite lucky in that respect because she does know.

Sometimes he forgets, she only has the five but she'll gladly indulge his other ones while flying blindly with her five. "Yeah? Ought to get a game goin' sometime."

Already put it on the list. She will make the rules up as they go since she's the one at the disadvantage.

Very lucky in that respect. He seems to consistently run across people who, while perhaps not always having the best self-confidence or esteem, still manage to not require constant verbal reassurance. He's all for the being there and the actions, mostly because it makes more sense personally. He's constantly looking up to make sure she's watching before he does something impressive or starts talking in earnest about something interesting. But yes, very much quite lucky.

Someday he'll show her how to be more aware of the minor senses she's got that most humans don't consider senses. There's not a whole lot to be done about not noticing most of them - there's a reason most people don't consider them as such - but maybe a little. For the most part it is just forgetting you're not how everybody who looks like you is sometimes.

'Yeah, we should. Proper, full city game. Hide anywhere. Bit of a small playing field, but we're both very clever.' At this point, he's mostly just resting his hands on her leg, having gotten to both of them in fairly equal measures. Also his hands are a little tired and one's sore from beating himself up, and no I will not get tired of pronoun fun.

That is just cheating off the get-go, even if he does have unfair natural advantages.

It took her a little while to realise what those things meant but eventually she worked out that it's the Doctor's version of a note passed in class: Do you like me, check yes or no. Noticing all of those things was obviously checking yes.

She'd apply herself to those lessons as much as she does all of the things he teaches her which is to say, she'd learn fairly well. Not that she'd ever be any competition for him in hide and seek but she'd get better.

Just resting his hands on her leg is allowed, encouraged even. She's just glad he's touching her instead of shying away or closing up. She'd really like to ice that hand. She reaches out to pick up one of his hands in hers, rubbing at the knuckles lightly.

"Ought to be fun for a coupla hours at least. Might even find something new in the City."

Psh that's what makes it interesting. He's going to cheat to find her when---never mind. Suffice to say the cheating on both sides will be beneficial.

Effectively, yeah. A very roundabout way of being very direct. Which just entirely seems to sum the pair of them up in several different little ways.

Well she's the closest interesting thing and quite touchable anyway to boot. This body is very much about the tactile in nearly every form, for all its intellectualism and ethereal/ephemeral/effervescent thought processes. He looks down to watch her take his hand and continues watching for a few more moments afterward.

'Bonus points if it's dangerous. And we offend it by accident. Extra bonus points if it's dangerous, inanimate, and we offend it by accident.'

I have the feeling they have quite a bit of mutually beneficial but playful cheating in various places for various reasons.

It's appropriate for them and really, as long as it works fairly well for them, there's no sense in changing it. Although the bit where he let her feel what he's feeling did go a very long way toward making her feel more secure in his emotions where she's concerned.

She really likes that he's so tactile as well. It's made an impact on nearly every aspect of her life as well. She's turned into someone who's entirely too touchy for most people, not inappropriately touchy just...touchy, hands on arms and running across shoulders or down lapels. She wears fabrics that are more tactile: satin, particularly soft cottons and wools, lace, that sort of thing.

"Extra extra bonus points if we end up runnin'." She bites her bottom lip, watching him as she massages his hand, probably not as effectively as he did her feet and legs. "What we usin' our points for?"

Good point and agreed.

Yeah, if he ever picks up on precisely how helpful that actually was, there's a decent chance he'll try and do it a bit more regularly. Like he's recharging her awareness as to how he actually feels about her, periodically.

That's one of the few things he does enjoy about her working at Cinna's shop. Some of her clothes are so soft or slick or just sheer fun to slide his fingers across now. It's brilliant.

He blinks. 'Not sure. What do you want to use them for? Hadn't thought that far ahead.' Maybe not as effectively but he still appreciates it.

She'd appreciate it simply because affirmation is nice. And fair is fair, he gets a good dose of her feelings on a regular basis. Replaces the 'I love yous' quite well; better really when she thinks about it. I love comes with a memory of a cold beach and the worst day of her life. Getting a dose of his feelings brings exactly the opposite because the memory of the first time he shared that with her is one of the best days of her life.

She does bring home some brilliant things in amazing fabrics working for him. There are times she would swear she's functioning as Cinna's life-sized Barbie doll but she can't bring herself to complain. Also, she'd be lying if she said she didn't pick her clothes with the Doctor's tactile nature in mind.

Well she has to think about that one. "Most points gets out of dish duty for a week?"

Edited 2012-01-11 18:46 (UTC)

That'll work out well once he works out that he ought to do it a little more often, since somehow the mind sharing is much easier and natural than saying the words. That whole thing about the words being too breakable, like they'll hit the air and stay there for a moment and everything's okay, and then suddenly they fall and crumble and shatter and what was the point in saying them when it was obvious anyway.

Best not ever tell him she feels like Cinna's Barbie doll. He probably hangs around and bothers the poor man enough as it is.

'That's a bit... high stakes.' There is a very considering look on his face. 'Done.'

Maybe at some point she'll suggest it or ask why he hasn't or some sort of awkward discussion that will prompt the whole discussion and suggestion. She understands about the words. People lie with words. They can't lie with their feelings.

Oooh jealous, Doctor? She's pretty sure Cinna doesn't look at her that way. Besides, it's obvious to everyone that she's absolutely head over heels for the Doctor.

"Yeah. A bit." So much taunting grinning going on here. She knows she's probably going to end up doing dishes for a week.

Only to themselves.

He probably doesn't but that means fairly little when you're jealous. They've been doing quite well at not noticing things that seem obvious to nearly everybody else when it comes to each other so far; why ruin a near perfect record?

The best part is that whichever one offends or first runs into whatever this thing is, is a bit more likely to be injured and wind up not having to do the dishes anyway. 'So you like playing dangerous games then, do you? It sounds like the perfect time to cook whatever it is I can think of that uses all the pots and pans.' All.. maybe four of them. They can't have accumulated that many yet. Although, Christmas supper. Maybe a bit more.

And not very good at that. There's always that itch in the back of the mind that lets them know they're lying.

Hmmm good point. Jealousy isn't the most rational of emotions. In this case, the near perfect record should probably stay.

Hadn't thought about that but yes. It's hard to make injured people do chores around the house. You end up feeling a bit guilty. She elbows him lightly, teasingly. "Oi! Already countin' me out. Know what happens when you do that, yeah?"

Yes but probably far from a full set at this point; so yes, enough to make a mess but not enough to be truly horrible.

She's going to get a very playful reaction to that.

'Yes. Things go according to plan.'

They're not ever actually allowed to have a full set. It's far too domestic. Any time they start getting close to one, he'll suddenly 'need' to borrow some of the things for something he's making, since they're quick conductors of heat, or because he doesn't see the need to go get another when there's one right there anyway and then cunningly it will just never be returned to its proper purpose. Or it will melt because it wasn't made to the standards he was expecting.

She likes the playful reaction though. She smirks and sticks her chin out a bit.

"Fine. Go ahead. Underestimates me. I'll get sticky jam on the dishes you're gonna have to do."

That works for her because she doesn't cook. As long as they've got a tea kettle, she's happy with their cookware. She might wonder why he's melting pots though.

closed: motives and with-actions can within

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