A/N: Hello everyone! I broke away from college and writer's block long enough to bring you this mini-fic, which should be done in four or five chapters; haven't decided exactly which yet. It might be considered a bit OOC perhaps, but regardless I hope you'll still enjoy it and leave me a review at the end.

Disclaimers effective…now. ahem This one doesn't own Doctor Who. No matter how much she prays to the Dalek emperor to give her full control over the series, he never does. What a jerk.

Boulevard of Broken Hearts
-By Do as Eternity

I

A glass screen faded to black and static. She wasn't in the mood to see the scrolling names, hear the soft music in the backdrop. Yet the accompanying silence seemed to be much worse in reality than it had in her mind. Rose sniffled and dried her face on the last bit of tissues in her hand, getting up to throw the discarded tears and paper in the bin where no one would find them.

The slow march to the console room didn't take as long as she'd hoped it would. Rose paused out in the hallway, leaning against the wall. Maybe she should go back, give her eyes time to lose some of their bloodshot glitter, but no; Her feet were already moving of their own volition, and she was entering the console room and throwing herself onto the worn yellow sofa. Unconsciously, she bit down on her thumbnail, lost in introspection.
Why did she bother to watch that movie all the way through to the end? She never did that, because it made her depressed. It was just a movie. Why was she upset about a movie? It wasn't real life.

She bit down harder. In some ways, it was. She didn't want to think about it.

Under the metallic mesh a few feet away, the Doctor lifted his head languidly, peering at Rose through his black-rimmed spectacles. He said something in greeting, but she didn't catch it. A cursory glance in his direction made her smile somewhere in her heart. He always looked adorable when he was fixing the TARDIS; the geek-chic glasses, the sonic screwdriver clutched between his teeth, the mess of brown locks that were subject to repeated teasing by his hands…Rose looked away an instant later, feeling her mood darken. The pressure on her thumb increased.

The Doctor removed the screwdriver from his mouth and sat up, still underneath the floor. An unidentified black object in his hand went flying across the room. He tended to throw random parts when he was irritated or fed up with something, she'd noticed.

"You know, I might just have to get a job. Finding replacement parts for the TARDIS is starting to become more difficult than getting a reading off of Schrödinger's cat. Well…" He amended. "…unless you've got a time traveling machine that can work out a quantum paradox. Did you know Schrödinger actually had a cat? I tried petting it once, but it scratched me. Hurt quite a bit, used to have a scar…" He paused. Rose wasn't even paying attention.

The Doctor slipped his glasses from his face and tossed them onto his discarded jacket, hoisting himself out of the hole and coming to stand in front of Rose a few strides later. She was staring at a spot just to his left, and didn't react when he moved to impede her sight of it. She then was staring absentmindedly at his kneecap until the Doctor finally sighed and cleared his throat loudly. Rose jumped, thumb flying from her mouth as her eyes came up to meet his.

"Hello." He gazed down his nose at her, arms folded across his chest. What was she pouting about?

"Hello," she greeted back, lips upturning into an unconvincing smile. What was he looking at her like that for?

"What's wrong?" Rose shook her head, also unconvincingly.

"Nothing. Why?" He didn't reply, only proceeded to stare at her until she shrugged uncomfortably.

"What?" Her tone became defensive. His gaze narrowed fractionally.

"You've been watching Moulin Rouge again." Rose sunk lower into the sofa in guilty exasperation, her knees accidentally brushing the tops of his legs in the process. He glanced down and up in a heartbeat, pretending not to notice. She did the same.

"I don't know why I even bother watching it," she muttered after a moment. "It's a stupid movie anyway." Rose paused to inhale a breath, while the Doctor felt himself deflate. Rose upset over a romance movie was never a good thing. He really shouldn't have brought the subject up.

"I mean…It starts off fine, but it ends just…miserably. Every time I watch it I feel so sad." She sat straighter, gazing back at him with a passionate stare in her honey-brown hues. His hearts contorted, just a little. He had to glance away.

"Most romance movies end that way. Great drama."

"I know, but…" She sighed. "Love like that only happens in movies, yeah? But the ending, that's what makes it sadder. You never see couples like that in real life. And if you do, it ends just like it does in Moulin Rouge; Someone…dies." She threw her hand up to emphasize her point. "True love's just rubbish."

The Doctor felt his jaw drop minutely, then close as he felt himself overcome by shock. When did Rose start talking like this?

"You don't think true love exists?" He asked her quietly, searching her features with a strange intensity. Rose tossed her head from side-to-side stubbornly, now staring at a column to the right, unable to see anger and disappointment slowly building on the Doctor's features.

"It's just something you read about in stories. My mate, Shireen, yeah? She once said that your soul mate was either married, gay, or engaged to be married. It never works out, even if you are lucky enough to find them." The Doctor managed to place an impassive mask over his face, though disbelief still was able to creep into his tone when he spoke.

"What about Jackie and Pete? You don't think your parents are an example of true love?"

"Actually, I do," she replied simply, now frowning. "Dad died. Left Mum an' me alone. That's what happens to true love in real life. Just…dies," she whispered.

Rose continued to stare at the golden support column, hoping cruelly in some corner of her mind that the Doctor would pick up on the double meaning of her words. Her dad had died and left her mum behind, and so would she do the same to him. It was inevitable.

No…She corrected herself. The entire idea of her 'leaving him behind' wasn't even possible. He'd leave her long before she could leave him. He had said he wouldn't, not to her, but what if something happened, something neither of them could help? What if they were eventually separated, against their will? Either he would leave, or she would die…It was the only thing that she could see for herself. Still…For a short life, a human life…Now was all she had. Rose just wished he would see that, too.

She glanced up, wondering why the Doctor was being so uncharacteristically silent only to find him walking to the opposite side of the control console, placing his hands on a lever and ignition keys.

"Rose Tyler, you've never been more wrong," was all he said before the room started to quake.