Who: Dorian Gray and Rose Tyler When: Backdated: Late June Where: A coffee shop What: Dorian thinks Rose is someone else Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly Status: Complete
Dorian liked to frequent coffee shops, mostly because he enjoyed people watching when he was bored. Other people could be extremely interesting when they didn’t know they were being watched and Dorian did it so discreetly that most people hardly realized he was even there unless he wanted them to know.
Today, he sat at a table in the back of the coffee shop, a book open on the table next to his coffee, his hazel eyes scanning the establishment every now and then as he watched the various patrons before returning them to his book.
Rose burst through the door in a flurry of color and movement, a wide smile on her face. It was nice to go out and not have to worry about what was waiting outside her front door. She had heard Disneyland was on the mend, which she was grateful for. She had felt bad that it was the place most of the activity had been; children didn’t have to realize that their nightmares were real and that the fairy tale characters they loved so much wouldn’t be able to protect them.
Still, it was always a call for celebration when they survived another round of bizarreness in the OC. She walked up the counter, a smile for the barista, placing an order for an iced chai this morning. She hadn’t been to this coffee shoppe before, but she always tipped, always waited and was polite; she remembered what it was like to work here.
As she waited for her drink, she pulled her phone out, scrolling through the text messages and sending one to John to see if she could pick anything up for him. She felt terrible for his friend and hoped that he was actually doing alright. He always had that tendency to make light of how he was actually doing.
As the door opened and closed, Dorian glanced up from his page only to find himself staring at the blond woman who just walked in. Normally he didn’t watch someone for more than a second or two, not wanting to creep anyone out, but he couldn’t help but watch the woman at the counter because he was almost positive that he had dreamt about her. He’d read about the dreams that people claimed to have on the Network, but hadn’t really thought too much into the dream he’d had a few nights earlier, because it certainly wasn’t the first sex dream he’d had, but when he thought about it, this dream had felt different somehow.
In the dream he’d hired a woman, a prostitute, to pose for some photographs and had found out that she was dying, which had aroused him and they’d ended up having sex. The part that had been strange about the dream though was that somehow he knew that the him in the dream was immortal. Now that he saw this woman though he wondered if it had been one of the dreams everyone talked about.
Never one to be shy, Dorian stood up from his table and walked towards the counter. Reaching the spot where the girl was waiting for her own drink, Dorian put on his most charming smile, “Excuse me, could you pass me two packets of sugar?” Sure he could have come up on her other side and gotten it himself, but what fun would that have been? Rose glanced up from her phone to find a rather attractive looking man trying to get something past her. She blinked, trying to take in what he said and by the time she finally had, it was a little embarrassing. “Oh...oh right! Sorry!” She smiled, turning to the side so she could grab them for him. “There ya go.” She beamed up at him, giving a small shrug of her shoulders, as if in apology.
Dorian’s smile was one of his most charming and he made sure that their skin touched as he took the packets of sugar from her. Her accent was different than in the dreams and she looked a little younger than in his dream, but it was uncanny, “Thank you. I hope it’s not too forward of me, but you have a lovely smile.” If there was one thing Dorian Gray had been told often, it was that he was a flirt and he embraced that.
Rose knew what he was doing as she felt him brush past her and couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t tried that technique in so long not after...well, not since she had met John. It had been a long time since someone had flirted with her and it was sweet. He certainly was easy on the eyes she had to admit.
“Not at all, thank you,” she said grinning. “Very flattering of you to say as well.” Her name was called for her drink and she thanked the barista, turning back to Dorian and holding out her hand. “Rose,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you…?”
Rose. Not Brona. The second difference between this girl and the one he had dreamt about. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rose. I’m Dorian.” He switched the sugar packets to his other hand and took Rose’s extended hand, but instead of shaking it, he brought it up to his lips and kissed the back of it. Sure, he could have just shook her hand, but that was so boring. “And it’s true, so why shouldn’t I comment on it?”
Rose smiled, a slight blush rising to her cheeks as he kissed her hand. Well, that was unexpected. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had done that and she looked at him, studying his face. Was he trying so hard to be charming or was this part of his personality? “It’s nice to meet you Dorian,” she said, taking her hand back. “And it’s just a nice thing to hear is all.” A shrug of the shoulders. “There aren’t many gentlemen like you that would make such a comment without wanting something in return.”
“No, there aren’t, are there?” Dorian didn’t always flirt to try and get something, but more often than not that was the whole reason he did it, but sometimes it was simply because he was bored. In this case it was because the girl, Rose, looked exactly like the girl he had just dreamt about. It couldn’t have simply been a coincidence, could it? “I’ll admit though, I didn’t come up here just for sugar. I saw you waiting here and I had to come introduce myself.”
Rose shook her head, bringing the cup up to her lips and blowing on it to cool it down. “Are you sitting somewhere already?” she asked, nodding her head to a nearby empty table. He seemed pleasant enough and Rose was always one to make a new friend, especially around here. “Oh? And what caught your eye to make you want to make an introduction?” She glanced at him over the rim of her cup, wondering what made her so special out of the rest of the patrons in the shoppe.
“I have a table right over there.” Dorian gestured towards the table where his coffee and book were, “Would you care to join me?” Dorian might have come to the coffee shop to people watch, but he found that he was enjoying talking to Rose, probably because she reminded him of Brona in a way and not just because of their resemblance, “I’ll be honest and I’m sure it’s going to sound like a line, but when I saw you, you reminded me of someone I’d dreamt about.”
“I’d love to,” she said with a smile, cupping her drink and shrugging her purse back onto her shoulder. She followed him over to the table, taking a seat across from him, tilting her head to see what book he was reading. His mention of dreams had her looking back up at him however, smiling as she wondered if he was already on the Valarnet.
“Really? How so?”
Once seated, Dorian moved his book aside and tested his coffee, which was still warm, before answering Rose’s question, “I had a dream about a woman called Brona Croft. She looked very similar to you except that her hair was a little darker. For a moment, I thought you were her.” Dorian didn’t know if the dream he’d had was like the ones he’d read about, but it had definitely felt different than his usual dreams.
Brona Croft. The name didn’t sound familiar to Rose, but maybe she just hadn’t dreamt about it yet? She would need to ask John, maybe he would know. “I don’t recognize the name,” she said slowly, looking at him and studying his face. He didn’t look familiar either. “What is it that you dream of? If you don’t mind my asking.” She knew some people were very open about their dreams, happy to express their happiness, confusion, or anger out in public with everyone else, but others like to keep it to themselves. Having just met Dorian, she didn’t want to assume he was as comfortable sharing his dreams as others.
There was very little that Dorian didn’t feel comfortable talking about in public, so he had no qualms about answering Rose’s question, “Somehow I knew that in my dream, it was the late eighteen hundreds and I was in London. I was wealthy and I did pretty much whatever I wanted, when I wanted. I hired a woman, Brona, to pose for some photographs.” He took a sip of his coffee, “Risque photographs.”
She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t make an outburst about what he might have done. They were dreams after all and she had definitely heard of worse. Still, it didn’t sound like anything she would consider and think about doing, but who knew? She had gone back in time with the Doctor, even back to that sort of time. “Have you just started dreaming?” she asked, looking at him.
“I don’t think it’s me though,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I mean, I guess it might be? But I don’t see myself or my dream self doing something like that. Still, strange to think that there might be someone out there that looks like me!”
“I’m assuming your dreams are the kind I read about on that network.” Dorian was a little surprised that he’d met someone from Valarnet so quickly and as usual it intrigued him, “I hope you don’t take offense to my next question but, are you a prostitute in your dreams?” It really was the only way to find out for sure if she was Brona from his dream just with a different name in real life.
Rose blinked, knowing that anything was possible in the dream world, yet it was enough to make her laugh out loud, shaking her head, reaching out across the table. “No, no I’m not a prostitute.” She flashed him a smile, taking a sip of her drink. “And there’s no offense taken. Dreams can be...interesting.” She set her cup back down, propping her head up with her hand. “I dream of traveling through time and space with an alien. A very handsome alien actually.”
Dorian’s brows rose, clearly interested, “An alien? I haven’t heard that one before, but that must be interesting.” Dorian had read about other people’s dreams on Valarnet, but this was the first time he’d actually spoken face to face with anyone about them and he was intrigued. “You like him, don’t you?” It was obvious in the way that Rose spoke about this handsome alien that she liked him.
Rose hadn’t known that her clear affection for John was so apparent when she talked about him and blushed slightly, taking another sip of her drink. “We’re...close,” she said, deciding that was the best way to explain it. “I look up to him and I’m grateful that he gave me the chance to travel with him. It’s amazing!” It was true, she wouldn’t have traded her time with the Doctor for anything.
“What are your dreams like?” she asked, holding her cup in both hands, looking over at him. “If you don’t mind my asking.”
“Your dreams certainly do sound intriguing. I can only imagine what sort of things you’ve seen in them,” Dorian took another sip of his coffee, which was almost gone, “So far I’ve only had the one dream, but if the rest are like that first one then my dreams will be rather entertaining as well.” Sex and debauchery would certainly make for interesting dreams.
“Welcome to the club then,” she said with a smile. “Hopefully it was alright? For a first dream.” Rose knew what it was like, had read so many different stories on the Valarnet that they could really go any which way. “You’re online, yeah? On the Valarnet? Let me know when you start to dream more, I’d be interested in hearing about them.” She smiled, hoping she could help a new dreamer through everything that was going on. Plus, it seemed that they had started out on the right foot.
“It was alright,” Dorian smiled and nodded, “And I am. I’ll be sure to let you know when I have more.” Dorian would have liked to have stayed there with Rose longer, but at that moment his phone buzzed in his pocket. He was tempted to ignore it, but in the end took the phone out to read the display, “It looks like I have to take this, but it was a pleasure to meet you, Rose Tyler.” Smiling again, Dorian gathered his book and empty cup as he stood, “I’ll be in touch.” With that, he pressed the answer button on his phone’s display and put it to his ear, “This is Dorian.” With a final wink to Rose, he turned and headed out of the coffee shop.