Better With Two (10th Doctor x Rose)

Superior Senses - Chapter Two

"So I did..." He appears to consider that for a second. She's unaware what he's thinking. Which is probably a good thing. Because he's thinking something along the lines of: 'Why don't I show her?' Which is wrong and highly inappropriate.

He clears his throat and looks back at the article.

"So, now you've had your ego boosted, can I have it back?" she asks him, tugging his arm.

"Why are you even reading this?" he asks, before cursing his own voice for sounding so tetchy about it.

"I dunno, it's just an article," she pauses thoughtfully. "Hang on, what? You get to censor my reading material or something?"

He tugs his ear with his free hand. "Nooo, I was just...wondering why you'd...need..."

"...Why I'd need to read it?"

He nods, barely. He shifts and looks down at the console so that she can't see his face and the gentle blush that's most definitely not sweeping over his cheeks. Because Time Lords don't blush. Not for anyone. Certainly not for Rose.

(Liar.)

"I don't need to. Where would I get the opportunity for that sort of thing when I'm in here with you all the time?" she says, giggling lightly. His head snaps up at that, and she's surprised at the strange Look he gives her. She's not sure what that Look means; she's never seen it before. But it deserves a capital letter. Nevertheless, she takes this opportunity with the Doctor being baffled and motionless; she steps closer to him and takes the magazine out of his hands.

He narrows his eyes at her actions, then folds his arms and leans back against the console. In a way that he hopes appears casual.

"What exactly were you even talking about, anyway?" Rose mutters, scanning the page.

He grins mischievously. "Wouldn't you like to know..."

Rose is ignoring that. Really ignoring it.

Well. She would be. If he wasn't stepping towards her right now.

He still has his arms crossed, and he's watching her intently, a gentle frown upon his face as if he is contemplating something.

"Doctor?" Rose murmurs tentatively.

"Huh? Right. Yes?" he replies, a smile covering his face. The frown has gone. He's obviously decided what to say or something.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Humans."

"Humans?"

"Yeah. Humans," he repeats, walking past her and sitting on the captain's chair.

"Anything I can help you with?" she asks harmlessly.

He raises an eyebrow. "Weeelll," he murmurs.

Rose sits down next to him and crosses her legs, the magazine in her lap.

"Why," he begins, motioning to the magazine, "Does half your species not understand what the other half wants? Come to think of it, why do people feel the need to make articles directed at women, talking about what women want themselves? Don't you even know?"

"When you say 'you' - " she starts, worried he's going to try and get her to tell him exactly what she likes or something. That would be a really awkward conversation to have with her best friend. Who's an alien.

(Who she fancies the pants off of. And perhaps loves.)

"– I mean women in general. Not you personally. Weeelll, I suppose you as...no. No, I mean just generally," he clarifies finally. He rests his arm on the back of the chair, unintentionally brushing Rose's arm as he did so.