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She'd been officially unemployed for nearly a week now. As had Rose.
Sarah Jane got up and put the kettle on while she dressed -- in glorious jeans and a blouse that Rose swore looked fine, not too young for her at all -- and padded in her socks out to the front room. Rose was still asleep on the couch. Sarah Jane shook her shoulder, just enough to rouse her, then went back to make two mugs of tea.
Rose really was adorable, waking up. She was all golden hair and pink skin, and looked about twelve years old. By breakfast, she'd have progressed to her stroppy teens, and by the time she left the flat to look for work, she'd look older than her scant 20s and very very competent. In Sarah Jane's experience, saving the world two or three times tended to give a person confidence that mere joblessness couldn't shake.
But just now, Sarah Jane needed to tackle Rose while she was still mentally adolescent. Sarah Jane sat directly across from her in the armchair. "We need to have a chat. Yesterday, Janet Derry had a heart-to-heart with me in which she very sincerely told me that menopause could be handled with dignity, and that while she was sure you were a sweet girl, you were much much too young for me."
Rose gawked.
"And I can see why she got that impression. You have, effectively, moved in with me. You sleep here most nights of the week. We grocery shop together. Your friends call here to find you. And as near as I can tell, your mother also thinks that we are a couple, but she accepts it since I'm not dragging you off to fight Daleks every other day."
"D'you want me to move out?"
"No." Sarah Jane was quite definite about that. "I enjoy you being here, really. I hadn't thought I would but it's very pleasant, and you're good company."
"D'you... want to be a couple, for real?" Rose wasn't grimacing, exactly, but she didn't sound thrilled by the idea, either.
"Thank you, Rose, but no. You really are too young for me. Although it has been a long, long time since I had a partner."
"So... what, then?"
"Well, you could start by paying something towards the rent."
"For just the couch?"
"Couch and board," Sarah Jane countered.
Rose thought about this for a moment. "Fiona downstairs said that there's a couple apartments coming available in the building. Maybe there's a small one with two bedrooms?"
Sarah Jane considered, then nodded. She hadn't thought that getting a roommate would be so simple. "But first... jobs."
A few minutes later, Rose towelled her hair dry as she came to breakfast. "Jobs. I'm hitting Marks&Sparks today," she rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I think I'm not fit to be a shop girl anymore."
"No. I can see that." Sarah Jane propped her chin in one hand. "I think you need a more adventurous job, now. More independence. Maybe you should be running an art gallery?"
Rose smiled. "Maybe I should be a bookie."
"Right. I'll take the art gallery, then," Sarah Jane said. "You be a tour guide to Nepal."
"Cat burglar."
"I had no idea you had such a larcenous streak. Have you ever done anything like that? I mean, not while you were travelling."
"Nah, not really, not after Jimmy Stones. He would hotwire a motorbike, and we'd joyride until it ran out of gas. It was... it made school and everything else okay, if we could just do that every now and then."
Sarah Jane nodded. "After I got home, I was angry for quite a while. I used to practice picking pockets, for the same reason."
"You didn't!" Rose was delighted.
"I never kept anything, of course, but I got quite good at it."
Rose laughed as she took the sinks to the plate and rinsed them. "And you talk about my larcenous streak!"