Rose Tyler is all pink and yellow (withyouforever) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-06-19 15:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, frodo baggins, rose tyler |
Who: Rose Tyler and Frodo Baggins
What: Rose is telling him the man from her dreams
When: Sunday night.
Where: Rose's tiny apartment
Status: Complete!
Rating: PG for intense talk, light makeouts and sexual frustration.
Rose had been staying with Bob since all this happened, but this was already awkward enough, wasn’t it? She dragged Bob back to her place, tiny as it was. She joked that she wasn’t sure four people would fit in her apartment. “We might be breaking a fire code,” she warned her guest. Her neighbor was a nice little old lady who would be happy to serve them tea, if it came to needing more space.
Her apartment was just one room. The bed was far enough away from the kitchen, and she’d done her best to make the whole place cozy. She’d divided her space in such a way that the ‘bedroom’ seemed distinct from the rest of the living area. It was nice; the sort of place you could tell the person liked living in, despite the small size. There were photos up on the walls of her family and friends from back home. She obviously didn’t entertain much, because some of the pictures were on the embarrassing side.
Frodo and Coulson climbed the steps, the former taking them a little more quickly than he ought to have. He’d explained that he and Rose needed to have a private conversation and left it at that, but he also made sure Coulson understood that nothing was wrong, per say. He didn’t bring up anything concerning dreams or visiting other men in LA. Luckily for Frodo, Coulson seemed to understand him perfectly.
The apartment building was a little rough around the edges, which Frodo noted but didn’t mind. He knew he was the odd one when it came to living arrangements. Had he ever been left to his own devices, he would have chosen a hole far smaller and much more cozy, though he did love living by the ocean.
He knocked on Rose’s door.
Rose answered the door with a sheepish smile. “Hey,” she said, trying not to think about how someone with money might view her place. “Come in,” she stepped back. “If you can fit,” she joked. Humor as a defense mechanism, what could you expect from someone that worked in a comedy club?
“There’s coffee,” she offered. “And the TV, hope you boys don’t mind cuddling.” The loveseat was small, but it could fit two. Maybe a little awkward for two men who barely knew each other, but maybe they’d bonded a little the other night over pizza and beers. “Oh, yeah, there’s beer in the fridge.”
On the way over, Frodo had tried to imagine how hiding in a closet had been Rose’s first suggestion. Now that he saw that the bed was in what was essentially the only room in the apartment, he understood. Also, he was slightly relieved. The bathroom would have been somehow more awkward. After all, where would they have sat down?
He kissed her on the cheek as he passed through the doorway. Despite his anxiety getting in the way, he found the place rather charming. She had certainly made the most of the little space.
“No coffee for me,” he said, as Coulson and Bob helped themselves. (He really couldn’t thank Coulson enough for being so obliging.) Then, he turned to Rose. “Where’s the closet?”
Rose had to laugh a little at the absurdity of it all when he asked the question. She knew it was her suggestion, and wasn’t laughing at him. Still, it really was ridiculous. “This way,” she said, leading him to the little door past the bed. It was about as far away as they could get from the TV while still being in the same apartment.
The amenities of the apartment hadn’t included ‘large walk-in closet space’, but at least there was a light inside. They wouldn’t be sitting in the dark. “Oh, I probably should’ve... Sorry, I was trying to straighten everything else up,” she said, reaching into the closet and grabbing a handful of shirts and dresses and dumping them onto the bed. That would give them a little more space, at least. “I don’t normally entertain in here,” she joked.
Frodo finally cracked a smile, and realized just how long he’d gone without one. He was nervous. Nervous about what she was about to tell him. Nervous that if it went badly, it might mean what they had would be over before it even truly began; and nervous that if it went well, then they were still hidden in a closet. His stomach was in knots.
But he very calmly gestured that they enter and closed the doors behind them.
Rose had been hoping for a while to get trapped in a closet with Frodo, for very different reasons. Thinking about when he’d spun her against his tree at Disneyland still made her a little hot and bothered. But Frodo was a take-it-slow-as-molasses sort of guy, and Rose was respecting that, really. Sadly, none of that had been on her mind when she’d suggested the closet.
“So, um. The dreams.” They hadn’t talked much about them. She’d mentioned the scary dead boy, mainly because she was worried he’d have her committed if she didn’t explain her reaction. “There’s this man, and he has this time-traveling box.” She shook her head. “I’m going to sound crazy.” There wasn’t really a way around that.
“That’s okay,” he said, urging her to continue and he slid down to take a seat. He pulled his knees close to his chest. “I dream about fairytale creatures and places that don’t exist. There’s no way you could sound crazy.”
Frodo realized it was the first time he’d volunteered information about his dream experiences. He was glad it was Rose who was there to hear them.
Rose followed his lead, sitting down. She smiled. “Sounds kind of nice.” Elves and princesses and things? A lot less horrifying than the things she’d seen. “He takes me places... Well, times, I guess. Like the Blitz. And the end of the world.” Not really fun, happy places. Rose frowned. “Oh, I met Charles Dickens! Almost got him killed, but..” she shrugged.
“I was angry at first,” she said, frowning. “I yelled at him. When I was awake, I mean.” She felt like she was talking in circles.
So, this man from her dreams was an upsetting figure then. Frodo felt something like relief, but it was short lived. The account of her experiences was all over the map. “So you travel from place to place, with him?”
He adjusted the position he was sitting in, first attempting to sit crossed-legged and, and ultimately electing to cross to the other side of the closet where he could sit down next to her and take her hand. The other positions he attempted would be too difficult to describe here. The point was, there was just enough room for them to sit beside one another. And if this man was any threat to their relationship, Frodo wanted her to know it mattered to him.
Rose nodded, trying to stay out of his way through all the changing positions, then smiling over at him a little when he took her hand. “I, um. I had another dream, though, and felt bad for yelling. He isn’t really as awful as I thought.” She wasn’t sure how to put that all in words, and wasn’t sure how much she felt right about telling him. It wasn’t really hers to say.
“So I went to apologize.” She was leaving out the part about how strongly the need to apologize had been. She’d left work, which really wasn’t like her.
“And that’s when you drove to LA?” he asked. He was running his thumb across her hand, and there was something forlorn about the motion.
Rose nodded again. “We only talked for about ten minutes,” she said. She and the Doctor had shut themselves off in a small room for that talk, a lot like this. It was bigger than the closet, but it had felt this small. “I think I understand, sort of. Why he did that.” Why he needed her. This was incredibly awkward, she realized. Why couldn’t she and Frodo be more like normal people and just start making out?
if Frodo wasn’t so nervous about this other man entering the picture, he would have been thinking the same thing. Well, actually, he sort of was, but he couldn’t figure out a reasonable segway line. He was the opposite of smooth.
“Is there... I mean, is it... is he more than just a guy from a dream, to you?” he asked.
Why were people always asking if they were a couple? In her dreams, anyway. They were just friends! The guy ontop of Big Ben, on the other hand.. No. She was definitely not going there. That was completely beside the point.
“No. I don’t think so..” Why was there doubt there? “We just talked.” It had been intense, though. She’d practically run away when he touched her shoulder. “I don’t know,” she admitted, frowning. There certainly was a connection. “I just.. I don’t want to hide anything from you. I don’t even know, right now. I’m sorry.” She was as confused as he was, maybe moreso.
Well, what Frodo lacked in being smooth, he made up for in his unfailing ingenuous impulses. He wanted kiss Rose to shut her up about all this, and so that’s what he did. He kept her with him for a good, long while. And when he pulled away, he held her in his guileless gaze. “Just keep in mind, that I’m very real.”
Did he even know the things he did to her? She fell easily into the kiss, trying not to think about Merry’s warnings about Frodo having a big heart. Trying to push away the sinking feeling that she was going to break this man. She kissed him back, ignoring the two men in her apartment and the fact that there was a tennis shoe under her leg. The phrase ‘reckless abandon’ would have come to mind, if her brain had been working.
When he pulled away, Rose whimpered a bit. So very unfair.
“What?” Frodo asked, somewhat--okay, almost completely--breathless.
“You,” she said, her cheeks flushed and her heart slamming in her chest. “You’re going to be the death of me, I swear.” She’d been trying so hard to be good, then he had to go and do that.. She leaned in, kissing him hungrily. Very real, indeed.
He forced back the wave of, honestly fear, that washed over him. It’s wasn’t that he’d never been kissed before, or kissed hungrily. He clearly had some idea of how to handle himself. But while he responded in kind, his heart was giving him a fit.
But then he reminded himself that he was safe. It wasn’t going to happen right now, even if they had to acknowledge the possibility of limited time. There were people only a few feet away. And the closet was just too small for it.
But that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a little fun, in the small space. And time was of the essence.