Work Text:
Present Day
John and Rose stopped by the guesthouse for a drink with the scientists on John’s team. They had to drop off the team’s rental car now that they had acquired their own—a little blue convertible—and, of course, Donna and crew wanted to see Rose’s ring and celebrate with them. They didn’t stay long, but while they were there, they sat out on the veranda enjoying a perfect late afternoon cocktail on a perfect Hawaiian beach. But things hadn’t always come so easily for John and Rose.
“How did you two get together, anyway?” Donna asked from under her wide-brimmed straw sunhat and oversized sunglasses.
“Ooo, yes!” The rest of the team leaned in, eager to hear how one of their kind had landed such a beautiful, free-spirited artist.
“Oh, well, we’d been best mates for years,” John started, puffing out a breath and exchanging glances with Rose.
“We had mutual friends in uni and we were together all of the time,” Rose explained.
“But we just assumed, of course, that anything we had wouldn’t last after graduation if we went our separate ways. I didn’t want to keep Rose from pursuing any opportunities she might have by tying her down with my feelings for her…”
“So he never said anything!” Rose laughed. “And so I didn’t either, thinking he was far more into his work in the lab than he was into me. And he was getting his masters, but I was only finishing my bachelors.”
“Then, after graduation…” John moved the story along, eager to get past the embarrassing part where he threw himself into his work to avoid confronting his feelings for Rose but just missed her even more every second they were apart. “We both got teaching jobs in the same part of London. I started my PhD.”
“And I took over the fine arts program at St. Tardis’s Academy.”
“Soooo?” Donna prompted, waving her drink at them to get to the good part.
John cleared his throat. “Oh, alright. So we’d been best mates but both wanting more, then we’re in this new part of the city without our other friends, yeah?”
“So we’re spending all this time alone together, like almost every day,” Rose interjected. “And then one day, we’re going to meet up at this bookstore…”
Two Years Earlier
Rose browsed the shelves as she waited for John. He was running late, as usual, but she didn’t mind. It gave her time to prepare herself. She had to remember not to slip and kiss him again. She had accidentally pecked a kiss to his cheek when leaving his place last weekend and she had burned in embarrassment all the way home.
Just as she found the section with biographies of famous painters, she spotted a young man out of the corner of her eye. She decided to pretend she didn’t see him, guessing he’d try to sneak up and surprise her.
However, once the young man got closer, she saw it wasn’t the one she was hoping for.
“Finding everything okay?” he asked. Rose glanced down to the nametag and shop’s logo on his shirt.
“Yeah, ‘m fine.”
“My name’s Adam.” He rested his arm on the shelf in what he probably thought was a suave pose. And he clearly wasn’t leaving.
“I can see that,” Rose replied but felt rude. “Sorry, my name’s Rose.”
“Very… floral.” Adam winked at her.
Rose just gave him a tight-lipped smile and nodded. She grabbed the book she had been looking for and started to walk away, but he followed, of course.
“You know, if you’re interested in art, there’s a show in the park going on next weekend.”
Rose marveled at his boldness. She’d barely given him her name and here he was inviting her to her own art show.
“Yeah, I heard about that. Supposed to be several local painters. Know any of their work?” She couldn’t resist asking, as ready as she was to be rid of him.
“Nah. Probably shit,” he laughed. “But you never know. Maybe we could go together and find out.”
The bell at the front door of the shop announced a new customer, for which Rose let out a sigh of relief. Adam would have to go help them, and she could wait for John in peace.
“Or it doesn’t have to be that,” Adam continued. “It could be, I don’t know, the observatory on campus? Bet you’ve never been. People don’t think to go, but it’s amazing. And I know all about the constellations, stuff they don’t tell you in the textbooks. What do you say, let me show you the stars?”
Rose couldn’t help but laugh at that one. That’s where John worked and picturing the scrunch of his nose and the furrow of his brow at such a pick-up line was too much.
In her amusement, she hadn’t noticed Adam moving closer. He had misinterpreted her reaction as flattered acceptance, judging from the smug smile on his lips.
“Actually,” Rose spoke louder and backed away toward the front of the shop, “I have a boyfriend.”
“Oh, c’mon.” Adam smirked. “He doesn’t have to know. And I don’t mind. Wouldn’t be the first.” He winked and ran his eyes over her body, not even trying to hide his intentions.
Rose gaped and struggled to find a comeback for a moment. “Well, I mind! And for the record, my boyfriend will be here any minute and then you’ll see how much he minds too.”
“Hallo, love!” John seemed to appear out of nowhere. He greeted her with a kiss to her cheek and slipped a hand around her waist, startling Rose for many reasons, namely that he had certainly never touched her like that before. “Did I hear you talking about me? All good things, I hope?”
Adam went pale. Rose realized he hadn’t actually believed her. He thought she was only making excuses to make him chase her. She marveled anew at his boldness. John pulled her closer, sensing her discomfort and growing anger.
“Everything alright here?” John asked. His stare directly into Adam’s eyes betrayed his friendly tone. Possessiveness radiated off him with no doubt about whose territory the shop boy was stepping into.
“Yeah,” Adam answered hoarsely, unsure of how to escape the situation.
Rose kicked into character, picking up on the game.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she said to John in her best breathy girlfriend voice, as if she’d forgotten Adam was there. “I found a book already.”
John took the book from her and lead her by the hand up to the counter. He pulled out his wallet and handed his credit card to the still-shocked Adam, who ran the card in silence.
“Thank you for shopping with us today.” Adam handed him the receipt.
“Thanks,” mumbled Rose, though it was unclear who she was thanking.
“Of course. Only the best for my girl,” John answered, presumably to Rose, but without taking his eyes off of Adam. He settled his hand on her lower back as they left, finishing off their act with a grand finale.
They waited to break character until they were down the street and around the corner from the shop. Then they burst out laughing.
“Did you see his face?” Rose gasped. “I thought he was going to be sick!”
“Oh, I hope that knob learns his lesson, but I’m afraid it will be a lot more painful for him if he doesn’t. I’m not the worst that could come his way if he keeps that up.”
“So, my knight in shining armor…” Rose teased, laying her free hand on his shoulder and resting her chin on it. “Think it’s time for some ice cream?”
“Oi, I just bought you a book!” He protested. She bit her lip in the way she knew was irresistible to him and fluttered her eyelashes. “Oh, alright.”
She lifted her head and giggled in victory as they set off across the city park, the shortest route to the ice cream shop. “’S alright, I can pay. I just wanted to see what kind of date you’d be.”
He slipped his hand into hers, intertwining their fingers. “A cheap one. But I already get you into the observatory any time you like, so that’s a plus.”
Rose narrowed her eyes. “How much of that did you hear, anyway?”
“Well, enough to know my knightly duties.”
“Sorry ‘bout that.” She grimaced. “I didn’t mean to make you—”
“Rose,” he cut off her apology. “It was my honor.”
She realized they had stopped on the park path, but besides that, their surroundings were a blur. The sincerity in his eyes took her breath away.
“John…” She swallowed and looked down at their interlocked hands, unable to endure the intensity of his gaze.
“I think there’s something we’ve both known for a long time that we need to address.” He rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand and she found she couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding and when she turned her face up to read his expression, it was with eyes wide with fear and hope.
“It’s alright, really. I know you want to stay focused on your work, your dream…” she began, hesitating. She wet her lips to buy time. After so long spent building barriers between their attraction to each other, how could they dismantle them?
Apparently by crashing through them.
He slid his hand around her waist for the second time ever. His other hand lightly caressed her cheek. He leaned down, but just before his lips met hers, he whispered, “Rose. You are my dream.”
What followed was the greatest snog Rose Tyler had experienced in her life thus far.
She lost herself in their embrace, never wanting it to end (or for her to wake up, as she feared she was about to do). It did end eventually, however, when a trio of bicyclists rang their bells for pedestrians to clear the path. They realized they were blocking the way and jumped to the grass just in time. They giggled at their near-collision-experience and that they were so close together, hands around each other in a comfortable intimacy that they had never dared attempt until today. The excitement calmed, but still they remained beneath the boughs of a blossoming tree, full of tiny spring flowers. She relaxed against him in happiness.
“John?”
“Mmhm?” He was already eyeing her lips for another encounter.
“Are you ever going to ask me to be your girlfriend?” She was terrified to ask, so she figured the best way to do it would be to come right out and say it. There was no going back now, either way.
John laughed in delight at her forwardness. “Do you want me to be your boyfriend?”
“I think you know I do.” She blushed and looked up at him through demure lashes.
“Then that makes you my girlfriend by default.” He waggled his eyebrows at his own cleverness. She shoved at his chest and he pulled her in closer.
“It’s official then? We’re in a relationship?”
“I think we’ve been in a sort of relationship for a while now, but if you’d like an official start date, yes.”
She grinned up at him. “We have, haven’t we? Have we been dating all this time and not known it?”
“I’m afraid so,” he sighed dramatically. “It would explain a lot.” He nodded to the ice cream shop and they set off down the path again, hand in hand.
“Like how everyone thinks we’re a couple, and how we are each other’s plus-ones so often…”
“And we always sit together even when we’re in a group of friends. And we’re constantly at each other’s flats.”
“And we hold hands everywhere we go… oh my god, we’ve been together for years!”
They laughed and practically skipped down the path.
“John?” she said later, once again in the park, but this time with a mouth covered in ice cream. “I think I’m going to like being your girlfriend very much.”
“Yeah?” he asked, but before she had a chance to respond, he took care of cleaning the ice cream off her lips for her. They stayed in the park until sunset, watching the sky celebrate their happiness.