InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "JESUS CHRIST, IT'S A LION!"

Rose Tyler (by_any_other) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2015-06-22 22:49:00

Entry tags:

matt murdock, rose tyler, zz:status complete

Afterimage (Matt)
There was no excuse for it.

Rose knew better, and was trying to hide it from everyone, even from herself. But today...

The sun was bright, the air was clean, and there was something about the City streets today that made her want to run -- run, the way she used to run, hand clasped in long fingers, laughing all the way (even when there was something chasing them). She missed it. She couldn't bring herself to even think the rest of the thought (she missed him), because missing the running was quite enough.

It could have been the season. The body kept a time all on its own. This would have been around the time of year when she'd last seen The Doctor. Not his copy, and not the older one that came after him, but her Doctor. She didn't want to miss him. She didn't want to even think about him. So she thought about the running, when she admitted to thinking about anything other than the work in front of her at all. She thought about the running.

And that's why she'd frozen between file cabinets, her hands full of hanging manilla folders, as if she'd forgotten why she was standing there at all. How long? She shook herself and opened the file cabinet, riffling through the listings with an elbow.

"One of these days, we should move all these paper files into an electronic format," she said, trying to be cheerful. Her voice was too bright. She screwed on a smile and nudged the first file cabinet closed, then moved to the second to finish filing what was in her arms.

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ablinddevil
2015-07-09 02:05 am UTC (link)

Matt smiled warmly at Rose as she stumbled through her words.

The fact that she hesitated, the times she never told him how she was feeling...he picked up on it. It wasn't that she couldn't hide from him, she could and she did; the details all were up to her to divulge when she was ready and for him not to press her about, but he could hear her heart pick up in rhythm during those moments. Something about the way her breath caught in her lungs and throat...

He was a smart man indeed.

"I like that you're messy," Matt replied, turning his hazy eyes on her patiently.

"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't completely sure." He lifted a hand into the pocket of his coat, and fumbled about for a moment. Licking over his lips, Matt's eyes fell just a touch as he prodded about in his pocket. When he had what he wanted, he smiled and pulled out the spare to his place. He offered it to Rose, "Here. When you're ready to bring the essentials I'll have a place ready for them." She could bring as much or as little as she wanted. He wanted it to be their place, not his and hers.

Maybe after a while they could find a new place that truly could be their own, a co-mingling of both of their things. But that seemed like too much just now. This would work for the time being, and now she was free to persue other things, other opportunities to be happy. And still be able to see him regularly.

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by_any_other
2015-07-13 01:52 am UTC (link)

Her heart staggered and skipped as he extended his hand to give her a key. She remembered the last time someone gave her a key. Then, like now, he'd searched his pocket briefly, eyes cast down as if solving a puzzle, and then the smile as he held out his hand. Only Matt hadn't given it to her as if it were an afterthought. Her heart ached, though she couldn't have said right then if it were a good or a bad thing. Setting her salad aside she half-stood from her chair and reached over his desk to take the key.

When she settled back down into her chair again, both sets of fingertips holding onto the sides of this simple apartment key, she remembered to breathe again. A breath gusted out of her and back in again. "Right," she said. Then, as if to herself, she said the word again.

The next minute, she leaned forward and set the key carefully on the edge of the desk. Ducking her head a little, she pulled the chain from around her neck and unfastened the clasp. There was another key, a key that had stopped growing warm some time ago. She un-threaded it and traded Matt's key into its place. It hurt. It really hurt to do that. Shoving the TARDIS key into her front jeans pocket, she stood from the chair again.

"How about I see you there tonight?" she asked him.

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ablinddevil
2015-07-13 03:20 am UTC (link)

Every palpation of her heart he could hear, each rhythmic pulse and quiver. Matt couldn't place exactly what she was feeling, it could really have gone either way but he knew she wouldn't have accepted the key if she truly hadn't wanted it. So when he felt the if of her fingers against the small scrap of metal, he let it go and settled easily in to the chair.

The shuffle, the rustle of her clothes and the faint clip of the metallic key being pressed against the wood of his desk...

All such strange sounds. He could see every motion of her fingers, and the key that came from beneath the collar of her shirt. The key Matt had noticed before and had never asked about. When she stood, he nodded and smiled, "I'll be waiting patiently." It was a promise he intended to keep.

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by_any_other
2015-07-14 04:02 am UTC (link)

Before she left, she walked around to where he sat and kissed his forehead, threading her fingers in his hair.

"I..."

She took a breath and kissed his forehead quickly. Then the whisper came - a confession, in words too fragile to speak out loud. "I love you."

And without waiting for an answer, she hurried out. A new life was waiting, and she had determined to seize it. To hold on tightly.

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