Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

It Usually Takes Two

"Aren't you going to ask me to dance?" Sliding in between him and the bar, she glances up at him shyly.

He sips his drink, swirling the tasty concoction around his tongue three times before swallowing and answering. "Knew you'd get ar-blimey, that's got a bite to it!" He scrapes his tongue on the bottom of his teeth, scrunching up his eyes and hopping slightly on one foot. In the next second, he's talking as if nothing has happened and he didn't just interrupt himself. "Knew you'd get around to asking me before I could get around to asking you."

She takes the drink from his hand, sniffing it delicately before sliding it behind her and out of his reach. "'S like I have to do everythin' myself these days."

He knocks her back with his hips until she clutches at the grimy bar to keep her balance. A hand swipes softly over her face and then trails its way down her neck as his voice takes on a deeper tone. "I know one thing you definitely won't be doing yourself tonight."

"Are you tryin' to seduce me?" She grins, tongue between teeth and suddenly he's thinking that he was always rather fond of that appendage, even before he'd had evidence of the entertaining things it was well apt to do.

"Depends if it's working." His hand slides behind her to grab at the drink, not noticing that the bartender had cleared it away.

"An' who's saying that I want to be seduced?" She slides away from him, hitching herself out on a stool and kicking out a leg to rest on his knee.

He glances down, eyes swirling around her legs. "That dress certainly is: screaming it, in fact. Owes me a drink as well." He pushes her leg until she spins in the stool, flicking out a hand to stop her at the perfect moment.

"Why would it owe you a drink?" Laughing, she anchors her hands on the smooth wood of her seat, cocking her head to the side.

He lays a hand on each of her knees, leaning forward to stare at her seriously. "Because when I saw you in it, I dropped mine." He looks slightly taken aback when she laughs, full and loud.

"Where'd you hear that one?"

"Who says I didn't just make it up?"

Her stare is challenging him and he's far too concerned with the fact that when she criss-crossed her leg the dress slid up even further to fight it, or her. "Fine, one of the girls at work told me that some bloke used it on her."

Rose snorts and he drops her gaze. "She didn't say it worked, did she?"

"No." He mumbled, eyes sliding to his own feet.

"Figured you'd have a go and try it on me, didja?" There's enough of a laugh in her voice to let him look up.

"Is this your way of saying that it worked?"

"This is my way of sayin' you really don't wanna start diggin' yourself that hole."

"Well, back to square one then. It's not as if I've really got to pick you up anyway, is it? I already have you." He smiles a beaming smile at her.

Her eyes are wide and her tongue is pushed firmly against her cheek. He realizes he probably ought to stick his foot in his mouth. "I didn't mean it like that. I don't have you, not in the sense that I own you. You're just here, with me. Just as I'm here… with you."

She nods, as if what he just said is a perfectly good apology, then kisses him swiftly on his cheek and glides away. She doesn't look back until he calls after her.

"Oi!! Where you off to?" He takes a couple of steps towards her.

"I'm goin' to dance. I'll let you know when I'm ready to leave, if I haven't let someone else "pick me up." With a wink and a swirl of the hem of her dress, she melts effortlessly into the crowd of dancers.

"I wonder exactly when that conversation made a turn for the worse." He says conversationally to a woman next to him. She just eyes him in a way that makes his scurry back to his seat at the bar. Thoroughly aware of the fact that Rose's not all that mad and that he most likely has nothing to worry about, he orders another violently colored drink.

But he still feels the need to keep an eye on her from across the room. That dress is definitely more than capable of causing more than a spot of trouble.

Said trouble comes quick, as it always did and will continue to.

The Doctor is just marveling at the fact that at any given time an any given place, Rose can have a couple of girlfriends around her in nothing flat. The particular few she's with tonight he's never seen before, but they at least form a dancing circle around her to block her from the wander gazes of the blokes that weave around them. Rose doesn't seem to notice, until a rather large one slides, more nimbly than the Doctor would have imagined, in between a gap and right next to her.

She smiles at him, and declines his offer of a dance with a polite shake of her head. He steps towards her, still offering. When she still refuses, he doesn't retreat.

"Why not?" He wanders, staring down at her.

"I came here with someone." She answers reasonably, grinning still.

He gestures toward the still dancing girls. "They won't care."

"I'm going to have to disagree with that." Rose turns her head, ducking it under the man's large arm to catch a glance of a livid Doctor, whose clear voice had rang throughout the club.

"Who're you?" The man asks, sizing the Doctor up rather quickly.

"I'm her 'someone.'"

"Well, I'm her 'someone else.'"

"I don't think so."

"I do."

"I said I didn't. And I'm usually right." The exchange flies by rapidly, and Rose watches, torn between her fascination and her knowledge that the Doctor is a bit on the skinny side while the other man is not.

The Doctor flexes his hands, and slides one into his pocket. She knows he's itching to grab a sonic screwdriver he doesn't have, maybe to mess with the sound system or make a light crash onto the bloke's head. "She came with me, and if she'll have me, she's leaving with me."

"We'll see about that."

"No, we won't."

More than a few members of the crowd have stopped and crowded around, excitement floods the air and Rose wanders if they'll start to chant "Fight. Fight. Fight.", if something isn't done. She steps up to the man, a smaller smile now on her face. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm still goin' to have to decline." She stares at him, a little colder than she did at the beginning of all this and he shrinks away with a shrug of his shoulder. Finally.

She waits until he's asking another girl to dance with better success before she turns to him. "Guess I'm replaceable." She waits for him to crack a smile, and when he doesn't, steps closer to him.

"Jealous suits you, just don't make too much of a habit out of it."

Wrapping his arms around her, he kisses her forehead. "You're not replaceable to me, you know. I'd scruff up a million muscle-heads like that one before I'd let one get to you."

He laugh is muffled against his chest. "Is that another line?"

"Is this one working?"

She shrugs, and they start to sway to the music. "I'm getting my dance at least."

"Was this all just an elaborate plan to get me to dance with you then?"

"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."

The End