roleplay for ibringlife and <lj site="livejournal.com" user="the_

[rude_not_ginger]

Stardusting

or

What Happens When a Mun Decides To Use Flavor Text and It Becomes a Plot All on Its Own


Now, it really, really would've been unprofessional for the Doctor to have gotten bored while waiting for Byron. He should've been thinking of all the ways that Byron could've been messing up time, what he could've been doing with Reinette, all those fantastic and wonderful things.

Of course, that would lead to extreme upset and a raging sort of jealousy.

Which, naturally, the Doctor would not have approved of. So, he busied himself with thinking of other things, like how many roundels there were in the console room. To do so, he was, of course, going to have to be comfortable, so he stretched out on the captain's chair.

Counting roundels? Very much like counting sheep.

He might've been snoring just a bit.

Cutely, though.

Comments

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

Rose wasn't thinking the sort of thoughts that might lead one to jealousy. She was very firmly NOT thinking those things, because it wasn't her place. She'd only met Byron recently, they'd only spoken a few times, and she most certainly wasn't wondering how he and Reinette were getting along.

In order to not think of such things, however, she was doing handstands a safe distance away from the TARDIS console. It had been a while since she'd done gymnastics, but she could still manage handstands.

... or could, until she put her hand on a slightly unstable spot in the TARDIS floor, lost her balance, and fell in a decidedly ungraceful heap from which she hurried to pick herself up before Byron came back.

"Oops?" She glanced over at the Doctor, who had been snoring, but most likely wasn't any longer.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

That somewhat undignified yelp? Yep, that came from the Doctor.

"What's happening? What?" His foot slipped on a lever on the console, but he didn't really notice, a bit more focused on the fact that the world was coming back into focus. So much for soldier-like reflexes.

"Rose, you all right?

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

"Fine," she replied, laughing a bit at her own stunning lack of grace as she brushed herself off.

"Just remind me not to try cartwheels in here, yeah?"

She walked back over to peer out the TARDIS window. It had been long enough for her not to seem too impatient in doing so.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor glanced down at his watch, a line of concern appearing in his brow. He glanced quickly at the time vortex and, discovering that little had changed, glanced back at the monitor.

"No sign of him out there, yet? Are we going to have to go off in search of him?" he sounded decidedly unhappy at the idea.

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

"No, let's not." Rose hurriedly turned away from the door, not really able to see much of use from the angle they'd landed, anyway. She didn't want to be caught waiting at the window like that anyway, and she certainly didn't want to know just exactly what sort of things Byron and Reinette might have been... talking about.

"I'm sure it's fine, they probably just got caught up talking about something really interesting."

[the-corsair.livejournal.com]

"There's no need to come after me," Byron said quietly from the door. He was leaning against it, watching them for a moment, then moved in with a flash of a bright smile.

"I have to thank you, Doctor, for such an enlightening experience. Never let it be said that I doubted your prowess in time travel again. Shall we be off then? "

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Enlightening, was it?" the Doctor didn't bother to do much covering of his distaste for the entire situation, "At least you managed to not alter the time-space vortex, everything should be fine, she should still meet Rose in a few more years, and re-meet me five more after that without a problem."

He hopped to his feet, rubbing his eyes (not because he was picking the sleep out, of course not) and fiddling with the controls, "All right, back to your own time, then, Byron? Now that you're not convinced my companion here is mad?"

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

Rose looked a bit embarrassed at having been overheard by Byron, though she supposed it could've been worse: he could've been there when she fell on her head not five minutes previous. And she hadn't been the one who was worried.

"I'm not even convinced I'm not mad, Doctor," she teased, trying to lighten some of the weird tension that still seemed to be hovering about. "Sometimes I think that's your qualification for picking companions."

[the-corsair.livejournal.com]

"I didn't mind if you were," Byron said with a small smile at her. "The mad are far more interesting than the sane most of the time..."

He wasn't going to speak of what happened, nor let anything else show, no matter how surly the Doctor became.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Mad isn't a prequalifier," the Doctor replied, "Impudent apparently is, however."

He narrowed his eyes a bit at the TARDIS console, then flipped back up the switch he'd knocked down with his foot. Odd, what did that lever do?

"All right, preprogrammed coordinates to your home time and place," he flipped another switch, "Then Rose and I have a couple of interesting places to go." Jealous over him seeing Reinette? Oh, whatever would give you that idea?

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

"Right. Home."

Rose tried very hard not to sound as disappointed as she felt, and she turned her attention to Byron, smiling brightly enough that she could almost believe she felt that bright, herself.

"Did you have a good time? Was it worth listening to the Doctor complain the whole way here?"

[the-corsair.livejournal.com]

"I had a lovely time, Rose. Thank you for making it possible." He kept the smile, however hard and forced.

"Where are you two off to, then, after dropping me off?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"My ship, my doing," the Doctor said, offhandedly, his eyes still on the controls, "Best be thanking me."

He snorted a little, the swirling Gallifreyan letters saying that something was wrong, but they had no idea what. Brilliant machine, really.

"Manclunian system," he said, "Got a ceremony to check out there, bicentennial. If it's good, I might take us 'round to the other side of the planet so we can watch it again. Like a double matinee."

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

"I think he just did that," Rose grumbled, half under her breath, in response to the Doctor. To Byron, her smile turned almost apologetic.

"I wanted..." She hesitated, biting the inside of her lip.

There was no use dwelling on what she'd wanted, how she'd plead with the Doctor to bring Byron along for that, too, for the Stardusting ceremony that had sounded so brilliant. "I just wanted this to be fun, for you. Because time travel is, mostly, and I don't get to show it to people very often."

[the-corsair.livejournal.com]

"Indeed I did. First thing, but it was brushed aside with a grumble and what could be mistaken for snark. So I thought expressing my gratitude to Rose might be accepted." Byron's tone was mild, if dry, and then he'd practically dismissed the Doctor.

He leaned in to kiss Rose's cheek gently. "It was brilliant and the chance to see 18th century France was one thing I've always longed for, and never attained. There was no court like it, even when they reestablished the monarchy."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder, feeling that familiar jealousy-something hit him at Byron's intimacy with Rose. Intimacy. The one thing he could never really have with someone.

"How is she?" he asked, his voice a little quiet, "Reinette? How...is she?"

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad." Rose smiled up at Byron, and might have said something more, but then the Doctor was talking and she felt some small twinge of... not quite guilt, exactly, but like maybe she shouldn't have pushed quite so hard for this trip, and maybe she shouldn't be standing there being so... friendly, with Byron.

Though there was a small twinge of jealousy in the way the Doctor asked after Reinette that replaced any other feelings she might have been having, at least for the moment.

[the-corsair.livejournal.com]

"A few years younger than when we spoke," Byron said drily, the only comment he was willing to make on the timing of their arrival and its inconvenience. "But she seems to be well. At the height of her glory, as it were."

He smiled back down at Rose, tucking a strand of her hair back behind her ear. "What did you all do to amuse yourselves, since you refused to leave the ship?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor nodded, eyes still on the console, "Good for her." That was the rest of what he planned to say regarding Reinette at all----he'd already mourned her loss, and there was no reason to pick at a wound that was only just healing.

Slipping on a mask of nonchalance (one he'd worked fairly hard to perfect), he shrugged, "Well, we chatted a bit, I counted the roundels in the console room...a rather exciting adventure in sitting, I imagine."

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

"Which isn't all that different from a typical evening if the TARDIS is charging somewhere we can't go outside."

Rose thought it an impressive display of self-control not to have teased the Doctor about snoring, or possibly just reward for his not having teased her about falling over, both of which they might have done had company not been present.

"So. Back to boring old present-day Earth, then." Rose sighed, still not moving any further away from Byron regardless of the way the Doctor was very pointedly not looking at them.

"Though I guess not that boring for you, you've got rehearsals and things to get back to, yeah?"

[the-corsair.livejournal.com]

"And meetings. And recording." Byron smiled. "All sorts of things, yes."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yes, sounds quite the dull life." It was strange, the sudden odd feeling of guilt that hit the Doctor. Rose wanted Byron to stay. And----

No, no 'and'. He was going home.

The console slid down again, and the controls flipped to 'landed'. The co-ordinates were wrong, though. Must've been a glitch from him hitting that switch.

"Uh...we're here. Take a peek outside, would you, Rose? Make sure I haven't landed us somewhere off?"

[ibringlife.livejournal.com]

"...'kay." Rose frowned a little, since he didn't usually worry about that sort of thing, but shrugged and did as she was told.

...

The shriek she emitted after a moment's silent disbelief could perhaps have been mistaken for something less joyful, particularly as she immediately disappeared out the door. However, as she dashed back in a moment later, beaming and fairly bouncing up and down with excitement, there couldn't be any mistaking her delight.

"You! You liar!" She ran over to hug the Doctor, and never quite stopped bouncing even as she did.

[the-corsair.livejournal.com]

Byron blinked and stared at both of them.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor was just about as befuddled as Byron. This was...unexpected, to say the least. Maybe she was very excited about leaving Byron behind, but that wasn't what the Doctor thought she wanted. And if that were true, it was rather impolite of her to show such excitement around Byron, might hurt his feelings a bit.

Wait, he was a liar and she was excited? What?