Relearning Communial Living: for Gwen, Wednesday morning

[sortofaman]

After a relatively restless night, the Doctor found himself not in the best shade of wakefulness when he went to boil up some water that morning in the fireplace. Coffee was necessary, that was certain, and while he wasn't as good as Ianto, it would do for first thing.

So he shuffled out of bed and downstairs, leaving his shirt off in the morning humidity left from the rain the day before, and started a tiny fire to boil up the water, then turned to go get the coffee he'd swiped from the kitchen.

Funny, he'd forgot that there were now women in the house again.

Comments

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

The fact that Gwen plods drowsily out of her room a moment later in nothing but a tank top and knickers might seem to indicate that she's forgotten where she is. The bed head doesn't assuage that assumption any, either. In truth, she is perfectly well aware of who she's living with, and that is why she doesn't think anything of her state of dress. Or undress.

"You makin' coffee?" she asks, half of it muffled in a yawn as she peers blearily at the Doctor and pushes some of the hair from her face.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor's eyes were only half open (probably not the best for dealing with fire). But now they opened a bit. He blinked a few times. "Uh," he said, then blinked a few more times, just a bit startled mostly because he'd forgot up until that moment that she'd already moved in and that it was warm.

"Uh. Yeah."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Make me a cuppa?" slurs Gwen, and yawns again behind her hand before plopping down onto the sofa. If she's noticed he's startled, she's not showing it. He's seen her naked more than once; she doesn't see why this is anything new.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"'sfor everyone, don't worry," he pointed out, but nodded anyway and added more coffee to the filter bit. She was naked for a reason when he'd seen her before. This naked was really without any reason and certainly not in a sexual manner, and he wasn't taking it as such. It was just a bit startling to be suddenly reminded that oestrogen had taken root once more.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Good," Gwen decides, and stretches her arms out over her head, her toes splaying like a cat. "I talked to Jack," she mentions, mostly for something to say, and it's accompanied by a shrug. "He didn' know I was-" Another wide yawn. "-moving in."

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

He pointedly was not really looking. Mostly because the water was near to boil. "He didn't?" he asked. "Did you talk to him about what you wanted to, then?"

And he wondered just what Jack thought of this moving in bit.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

That elicits a sigh. "No," she admits with a slight shake of her head. Her hair falls over her eyes and she pushes it back again. "And he didn't say why, but he's not happy I'm here."

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

The water started to boil and he set about turning it to coffee from component parts, but pondered over what she'd said. "I can think of a few reasons, I guess," he said.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Going to fill me in?" Gwen asks, arching her brows. "Because I've no idea, unless it just bothers him that you actually might be able to stand me."

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"He doesn't want you to be like him when it comes to me," the Doctor said, funneling the water through the manual filter, voice calm. "Doesn't want you to worship me, follow me anywhere."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

Gwen snorts at that, and it's not her intent to be derisive, but she can't help it. "For someone who loves me so intensely, he knows fuck all about me," she points out, more blunt than normal because it's early and she's had no caffeine. "He's bloody blind," she mutters, sinking down in her spot on the couch.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, picking up the coffee pot and setting a book under it on the table so that it steeped enough, then getting mugs.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

Gaze straying to her lap, Gwen picks idly at the hem of her shirt. "That I'm like him when it comes to him," she quietly replies without looking up. This isn't something she's necessarily proud of, but she's not in denial. She's watched herself on screen enough to see it.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

He sat next to her, and patted her knee, even though there wasn't anything on it. "Yeah," he said softly. "Maybe that's the bit he really doesn't want to see at all."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Probably not," Gwen allows, and shrugs again. "I'm not going to be sad today," she quietly continues, and leans her head on the Doctor's shoulder. "Not about Jack. Not anymore." This, she's decided. Just now.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like a good resolution," the Doctor said. One he had tried to make before and usually failed at, but he didn't tell her that. "How can I help?" He would start by pouring coffee, but she was leaning on him.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Make me coffee," Gwen replies, and noses once against his shoulder before sitting back again. "And..." Rolling her shoulders, she cants her head in consideration. "Take me swimming."

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"Okay," he said and poured the coffee. "But I do have to teach today, can it wait until after or did you want to go before?"

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"After's okay," Gwen replies, holding her hands out for one of the cups. Can't get it quickly enough. "I thought I'd straighten up a bit," she says with a nod back to her room. "Have bits and pieces all over." Mostly books and film cannisters, but she's not giving any of them up.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor patted her hand gently and took his own coffee mug, drawing his legs up onto the sofa. "Might be a good thing," he noted. "Though we certainly don't have cleanliness requirements around here." His own room had books everywhere, and Atalanta still slept sometimes in the Romantics pile, pillowed on Rousseau.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Ah, well, I reckon it's best to start off on the right foot, even if it doesn't last long," replies Gwen, her smile quirking as she lifts her cup to her mouth. "I didn't realize how much I'd collected until I had to move it all."

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"Good approach." He smiled a bit at her around the mug. "And you usually don't. You still got that hand of mine?"

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Yep," Gwen replies, as if that is a perfectly ordinary question. Just now, it is in the corner with a blanket thrown over it, because looking at it still creeps her out in spite of the fact that she refuses to let anyone else have it. "It's bloody heavy. I should have left it for the lab or something." As if.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"Just make sure Atalanta doesn't get into it," the Doctor said. He looked as if he was trying not to either laugh or be horrified at the mental picture that resulted from that. 'His Master's Voice' indeed.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure even I could get into it," Gwen points out. "The case is pretty sturdy." In fact, the only time she's seen the hand out of the case was when the case had been smashed. Well, not counting on screen. When it was still attached.

[sortofaman.livejournal.com]

"Good then," the Doctor said, and took a sip of his coffee to fortify himself against the thought of his dog romping about with his not-quite-dead severed forearm.