Written for the nwficolympics event on Tumblr. Thanks to whoson1st for the beta!
The premise was simple: sign up, and you get assigned an older mentor who would help you navigate Uni life. Of all the clubs and offers Rose had seen, this was actually the most useful, so she took a packet back to her dorm room and filled it out.
The questionnaire was pretty standard- interests, study habits, best and worst classes, personality- and she was done within the hour. Since her roommate didn't move in until tomorrow (something about the train breaking down; Rose had only skimmed the email) and she didn't fancy being alone, Rose walked back to the station and handed in her packet. The woman handing them out seemed surprised, but pleased, and told Rose her mentor would be assigned within a month, two weeks at the earliest.
"Anthropology, huh?" The woman said, surprised. "Don't get many of those."
"It won't be a problem, will it?" Rose asked, suddenly worried.
"No, no, it will be fine. Your mentor will just be in a different major, but we'll try to get as close as possible," she assured her.
Sincerely hoping she would be partnered with a maths major, Rose left to hunt down the cafeteria. She might as well see if the food was as great as the website claimed.
~*~
School started with the false sense of security, and the second week came like an avalanche. With three final papers already assigned and five chapters to read, Rose's head was swimming with notes and diagrams. She had already signed up for weekly tutoring in algebra, since she was convinced that numbers and letters had no business being in the same place.
Her roommate was gone again when she entered their room, and sighing Rose shoved the clothes to her roommate's side of the room. Lynda was nice, but a bit of a social butterfly. She had slept over at friend's rooms more than she had slept in her own.
Rose was expecting an email from her mum, but she was surprised to see one from an unknown address- thetasigma .
The subject read "Mentoring".
Truth be told, Rose hadn't expected an email so soon. A few girls from her art class had signed up for the same service, and said they weren't expecting theirs until two more weeks. The email to Rose had been sent last night.
Curious and a bit excited, she opened the email, reading through the brief introduction- his name was John Noble, and he was a senior chemistry major with a minor in computer engineering. He was planning on going into medical school, and was good with numbers. He seemed nice enough, and Rose agreed to a meeting the next day at the university coffee shop so that they could set up a weekly meeting.
Rose arrived five minutes early, her teacher having been delayed returning from a conference due to mechanical errors in the plane. A TA had arrived and showed them a video, and Rose had used the opportunity to work on other homework. Her coffee was delivered with little wait, and Rose sat down by the window and texted John that she was there. Nervously she fiddled with her earring as she stared out the window.
There was a commotion outside, as a brown-haired boy was nearly run over by someone riding a bike. His books tumbled out of his hand and the biker narrowly avoided a tree, shouting obscenities.
Leaving her bag and coffee where it was, Rose rushed out the door to help the boy with his books. "I saw what happened! Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, smiling at her as he gathered his things. "That was rather rude of him, wasn't it? And it's usually me who's being rude."
She smiled. "Well, let me help you. Where are you heading?"
"The coffee shop, actually. I'm a peer mentor and I'm meeting a student there," he replied, gratefully handing her a thick physics book and a organic chemistry book. "It's our first meeting."
Rose bit her lip. "Your name wouldn't happen to be John Noble, would it?"
He blinked at her. "Yes. Why?"
"I'm Rose," she said politely, shifting the books so she could hold out one hand.
John smacked his forehead with a palm. "Oooh, I'm thick! Nice to meet you," he beamed, and shook her hand heartily. "Anthropology, right? With a minor in Art and French?"
"That'd be me," she replied happily. "I was originally going to major in Art but my mother talked me out of it. Something about not enough money."
John rolled his eyes. "That's what they all say. I've gotten that speech more times than I can count." He held the door open for her, and Rose directed him to her table. "So, Rose Tyler, what can I do for you?"
She considered. "I've already signed up for math tutoring, so I'll see how that goes before I ask you for help. Um, I'm not taking any science courses, but I am taking a computer course."
"Which one?"
Rose looked at her schedule. "Introduction to programming."
"Ah, that's easy. Most of those codes can be written in five minutes or less. I can help out, but it's pretty straight-forward."
She blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, I signed up as a just-in-case."
He smiled. "It's alright. We can be study partners if nothing else. Maybe you can even help me."
"I doubt that," she laughed.
"No, really. I'm taking an French class this semester. And while I'm good at languages that one eludes me."
"Well, I've only taken the basic lessons in Secondary," Rose replied. "Don't know how much help I will be."
"You already know more than I do, then," he replied.
Rose shrugged. "Alright. But I'm not doing your homework for you."
"Wouldn't ask it of you," he said, and they shook hands across the table.
~*~
They met twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and commandeered a corner on the third floor of the library. Rose grumbled about coding as John stumbled over French, and they debated psychology even though they weren't taking classes in it. Sometimes they even tried debating philosophy in French, which led to laughter and them almost getting kicked out on more than one occasion.
"What made you choose Anthropology?" John asked one day as Rose was quietly practicing one of her speeches. He was seated on a pilfered couch cushion, laptop open in front of him, as he typed up a lab report.
Rose finished her speech and shrugged. "Dunno. I just think people are interesting. Why'd you choose chemistry?"
"I like to see how the universe works," he shrugged. "If you think about it, our entire selves are made up of a series of chemical reactions. I want to know why."
She smiled. "You want to know the biological. I want to know the mental. Together we make up a whole person."
"Nah, we're already whole, you and me. We just need people to make us better."
Rose blushed from the way he was looking at her and grabbed her textbook. "Might as well start on algebra; I've looked at that paper too long."
When he finally looked at his own homework, Rose felt like she could breath again.
~*~
Midterms came, and with it the fundraisers. The mentoring program put on a dunking booth, which John had apparently signed up for without realizing.
"Dunno, keep the white shirt and you might make money," Rose teased as he scowled at her. "The girls'll be swarming this place."
"Assuming someone dunks me," he replied, and winced when the director called him over. "Wish me luck."
Rose scampered to the line and paid her fee, getting the nerf ball and grinning evilly when John noticed her. His eyes widened and he shook his head, but Rose merely raised her eyebrows and tossed the ball before chucking it.
It hit the target dead on, and John yelped as he fell. The people around her cheered and the director of the program laughed and gave her a high-five. Rose grinned and winked at John, who was giving her a look of utter betrayal, before she skipped off to take advantage of the free refreshments.
When he was finally released an hour later, still drenched, Rose was heading back. As predicted, the lines of females had increased exponentially, but Rose frowned when she noticed a curly-haired student waiting by the booth as John exited. She immediately wrapped him in a towel, but instead of drying him off, she was… caressing him.
Her hackles rose. It wasn't like she and John were like that, but he was attractive and paid attention to her and didn't think she was stupid. He treated her like she was special, and Rose had started to wonder if one day they could start something. She couldn't but feel like another woman was infringing on her territory.
She fixed a smile on her face, which turned into a genuine one when she saw his sulk. "Oh, come on!" Rose said. "It was for a good cause!"
"You betrayed me, Rose Tyler!" He exclaimed, batting the curly-haired girl away as he rubbed the towel over his hair. "Here I thought you were going to take mercy on me, and you were the first in line to get me wet!"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Your hair is fine, John." She ruffled it when he removed the towel, returning it to it's usual tousled state. "See? Fine."
"You shouldn't have signed up then, pretty boy," the other girl smirked and wrapped her arm around his.
He shook her off. "I told you not to call me pretty boy," he grumbled. "And I was just handed a paper! I didn't actually read it."
Rose smirked and bopped him on the shoulder. "That doesn't sound like you. What, did you think it was an attendance sheet?"
He shuffled his feet and muttered something.
"What?"
"I was trying to get out of there so we could make our dinner date," he repeated.
The curly haired girl smirked. "Dating your client? That's unprofessional."
They jumped apart. "We're just friends, River," he said hotly. "And I wouldn't talk about unprofessional. You've slept with three of yours."
River waved her hand. "Mutual understanding that it wouldn't progress beyond that. But I've been trying to get you out on a date in ages, and a Freshman comes along and gets you to start dating in a month!"
"Never going to happen with you," John said firmly. "C'mon, Rose. There's a ring toss I wanna try."
They walked away and John sighed as he took her hand in his. "Sorry about that. River is… very determined. And slightly inappropriate. But the director is her Aunt so she won't fire her any time soon."
"She seems… overly friendly." Rose replied diplomatically. "I would say she's had a troubling home life which is why she's jumping from partner to partner, but I don't want to assume."
"No one knows." He shrugged. "From things she's said I think her mother was abusive, but her cousin Amy doesn't seem to think so. She's just that way." He stopped at the ring toss and brightened. "Oooh, look Rose! You can win banana muffins!"
She laughed. "You'll spend all your money here, won't you?"
"Depends on how good they are," he replied, and promptly handed over five dollars.
Rose had to admit the muffins were decent, if a bit dry from being in the sun too long, and they wandered around the fair a bit longer. Rose eventually won three free t-shirts and a blueberry pie, and John ended up with a dozen banana muffins and had stolen one of her shirts to replace his wet one.
They convened in his flat, John putting the muffins and the pie in the fridge. Rose picked up her math book and started working on problems, grumbling quietly to herself as she worked out the problems her professor had told her to study in preparation for the test. John typed out a lab report on his computer, stopping occasionally to check calculations and look over his lab notes.
His phone buzzed at him, and he looked at it in confusion before frowning. He texted a quick reply before putting it away again, only for it to buzz at him again.
"Tell them you're busy," Rose replied, not looking up from her textbook.
"Can't. They're insisting it's an emergency." He sighed and got up. "I'll be back in an hour."
Rose waved, and realized five minutes later that she had forgotten one of her text books. With a groan she glanced around his flat, and spied his key hanging by the door. Since her dorm room was only a ten minute walk, she figured she could be back before John arrived from the emergency.
She was walking back, trying out a new shortcut, when she heard a giggle and a low murmur. Rose pursed her lips, ducking her head and hurrying her steps so she could pass the lovebirds that were behind the building.
When she rounded the corner, however, she saw River pinning John to the side of the building, snogging him enthusiastically. For a moment she froze, before she noticed tears blurring her vision and she spun and sprinted away. That kiss definitely wasn't between friends or colleagues.
When she got back to John's flat she paced, wondering what she was going to do. He clearly wanted to keep it a secret, but why? He admitted that he went on dates with her, even if they hadn't labelled their relationship, but why would he do that in front of the girl he was snogging. Was she going along with it? Were they friends with benefits, only meeting up for a quickie?
Her thoughts whirled and Rose felt like she was suffocating. She would give him a chance to explain, otherwise she was walking out the door.
He walked in five minutes later. "What was the emergency?" Rose asked, trying to be as casual as possible as she stared at a random page in her math book.
"False alarm. I dealt with it."
"Who was it?"
"One of the guys from mentoring. His student was thinking about quitting, but by the time I got there they had sorted it."
Rose stared at her textbook, then closed it. "Oh. Well, actually, I have to go. My mum is coming up for a visit and I have to go meet her."
He looked dejected. "Do you have to?"
"It's my mum!" She exclaimed as she began shoving things in her bag, being careful to not let him see the book she had brought back with her. "I'll call you when she's gone."
"Alright. See you next week?"
"Sure," she choked out, then dashed out of the flat.
Rose ran to her room, not caring that she was crying all the way there. Lynda, thankfully, was still out, so Rose was able to cry in peace and take a long shower after.
Once she had dried off and dressed once more, Rose emailed the director in charge of the mentoring program, and politely asked to be removed from the program.
~*~
She spent the next few weeks avoiding John, thankful for once for her short stature. If she saw him waiting outside her lecture, she took the other door. She started getting to-go boxes from the cafeteria so she could eat in the privacy of her room, and in some cases even raided the vending machines. Rose was grateful that she had never invited him to her room; he didn't know what floor she was on, and Rose had never put her nametag back on her door when it had fallen off the second week of school. That was one of her few safe havens, and when she left the room to study she camped out at the top floor of the music building, where she knew he wouldn't dare to go.
In fact, she was so intent on avoiding John that she didn't even think of looking out for River.
Rose was in line to get a sandwich when she saw the mass of curls behind her in the glass's reflection. She winced, ordering her sandwich as quietly as possible.
Unfortunately the cashier took ages counting her change back, and before Rose could escape out the doors River was calling after her.
Since it was impossible for Rose to feasibly get away with not hearing her- she cursed the fact that she had lost her earphones- Rose reluctantly turned to see River jogging towards her.
"Which way are you headed?" Rose asked, politely.
"I'm actually done for the day so wherever you are," River said cheerfully and Rose shrugged, heading towards her next class. She was nearly an hour early, but River didn't need to know that.
"So," River said, "Why'd you quit? We don't get many people who drop out so it tends to rock the boat when it happens."
Rose kept her eyes straight ahead. "It wasn't working out. Besides, he wasn't so much as helping me as leading me on."
River guffawed. "John? Leading someone on? Sure, he's clueless, but he'll never intentionally hurt someone. Is it because of your dates? There really isn't any rules against you two dating, you know. I was just teasing him."
They stopped in front of her building and Rose faced her. "I saw you two snogging against the side of the building the day of the fundraisers. I say that's a pretty good indicator that he's been leading me on." With that, she whirled, hurrying into the building and ducking into the nearest elevator.
She ended up on the fourth floor and forced her sandwich down, wandering around the halls for thirty minutes before heading to her class. She took notes with half an ear, wanting nothing more than to return to her room and hide away from the world.
Despite the brave front she put on in front of River, Rose felt like she was barely holding herself together. In a month and a half she had made her entire university life about John; even the friends she had made outside the program asked about him, and Rose was done with pretending like everything was alright when it was far from the truth.
She peered out the door, relaxing when she saw John wasn't waiting, and darted out. The other half of her sandwich was in her backpack for dinner, so she didn't bother with the cafeteria. Rose headed to her dorm instead, since she had two hours until her next class started.
As usual Lynda wasn't there, but she was surprised to see a box sitting on her bed; thinking it was something Lynda had left, she started to move it to her side of the room before finding a note addressed to her.
Rose-
I don't know what I did to make you angry, but I hope you can at forgive me for it one day. I hope that the contents of this box will help, but if not, I do apologize for whatever it was I did. Making you unhappy is the last thing I want to do.
Yours,
John
PS- don't be mad at Lynda. She delivered this for me.
Though Rose wanted to throw it away curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box. Inside was the complete collection of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which she had mentioned in an offhand comment that she wanted to read several weeks ago.
She traced the cover before pulling it out, but couldn't bring herself to open it. Instead, she placed it on her nightstand and laid down on her bed, staring at the ceiling.
She had remembered seeing the box in his kitchen area the day of the fundraisers, and at the time had assumed it was cookies or brownies. The fact that he had gotten the book beforehand…
Rose shoved the thought away and grabbed her English book. She might as well use the time to catch up on her reading.
~*~
River found her the next day. "Rose, I wanted to apologize." She said, not giving her any time to speak. "Had I known you two were like that I would have never kissed him."
Rose kept a fake, but polite, smile on her face. "It's ok, River. Really."
"No, it's not," River said. "Listen, I got to get to class, but do you want to meet for lunch? I really want to explain everything."
Rose hesitated. She really didn't want to spend any time with her, but she figured she owed it to herself to find out the story. "Ok. I'm not free until one, though…"
"That's fine!" River said happily. "Want to meet at that on-campus cafe?"
"Tardis or something like that?"
"Yeah, that's it." River nodded.
"Okay. Sure. One o' clock," Rose said weakly.
River darted away, and Rose picked at her breakfast, no longer hungry. She was tempted not to show up at all, but River seemed to want to make things right, and if she didn't show Rose would feel awful. With a sigh she pushed the plate away and got up. With her stomach in knots she wouldn't be able to finish it anyway.
She went through her classes in a haze, dreading lunch time but strangely looking forward to it. In case it became too overwhelming she had a classmate on standby who was willing to call with an excuse for Rose to leave early. She hoped she wouldn't have to use it, but it was reassuring to have a backup plan.
Rose got to the cafe first, and fidgeted nervously with the tablecloth as she glanced over the menu. They seemed to have some decent tea and a soup that Rose would have ordered any other day, but the thought of eating made her feel slightly nauseous.
She heard the waiter approach, but didn't look up from the menu, pretending like she was interested in the salads. It wasn't until she heard John's tentative "Rose?" that she looked up, surprised.
They stared at each other. "I thought you were River," Rose said, finally.
"I, er, thought so too." John admitted. "Said she wanted to apologize."
"Does she?" Rose asked.
"Yes," he replied. "Though this is an odd way of doing it."
Rose stared at him some more before dropping her eyes back to the menu. "I saw you two snogging the day of the fundraisers. That's why I quit. Because I thought we had something special and then I saw you and her and realized I was just lying to myself."
"We did, Rose, we do," he said, sounding distressed. "When I was going to take care of the emergency I found out that River had gotten a hold of alcohol and was drunk. I was walking her back to her room when she kissed me. Apparently she thought I had changed my mind, I don't know. I pushed her away and told her that… well, that I was interested in someone else."
She chewed on her bottom lip. "Why didn't you tell me?"
John sighed and ran his hand through his hair, and Rose realized that he hadn't shaved for a few days; it was a distinct difference from the boy that was meticulous with his appearance to the extreme. "I didn't think it was important, and I had no idea you had saw that. The situation really was handled by the time I got there."
"But you never…" she paused, then met his nervous expression. "You never said what we were. You would say one thing and do another, and I would get my hopes up only to convince myself I was reading too far into it."
"That's because I'm an idiot, Rose… and you scare me," he replied earnestly, slightly desperate. "I've never felt so drawn to someone in so short a time. You're brilliant and beautiful and my best friend and I never want to let you go and it hasn't even been a semester since we met. And when I found myself wanting to kiss you three weeks into our partnership…can't you see why I was confused?"
She hugged herself. "You think you were the only one nervous or scared? You're a senior, John, and I'm just a freshman! Not to mention that you're going into med school and the most I'm aiming for is perhaps in a museum or even social work. You're going somewhere. I'm the daughter of a hairdresser who only went to school because of several scholarships and emptying my savings account."
"I don't see you that way," John said quietly. "You're just… you're Rose. I don't care if you're going into astrophysics or getting a bachelors in general studies. You're you, and that's all that matters to me."
Tears pricked at her eyes, and she swallowed as she blinked them away. "You could have said that before, you know."
He smiled hesitantly. "Yeah, well, idiot, remember?"
She sniffed then slowly relaxed. "Yeah." After a pause, she picked up the menu. "Do you, er… want to have lunch still?"
Rose knew he was trying to fight a smile when he pursed his lips. "Yeah," he finally said. "Yeah, I do."
She smiled slightly in response, then got the attention of their waiter.
~*~
John found her asleep on her laptop, her cheek on the keyboard as the screen kept repeating the random assortment of letters. He smiled and carefully removed the computer from underneath her, quickly deleting the nonsense and saving her work before picking her up from the floor.
She mumbled slightly and curled further into him, and he felt his heart quicken as he carried her to his room. It had been almost two months since he and Rose had their misunderstanding, and things were finally back to normal. Though Rose was no longer in the mentoring program, he had still secured a position for her next semester if she wanted to become a mentor herself.
Rose curled up under the covers as soon as he put her down, clutching his pillow and smiling. He looked down at her, his heart in his throat, before he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Sweet dreams," he said, before grabbing some spare blankets for the sofa and turning her computer off.
When he awoke Rose was crouched in front of him, smiling. "You didn't have to give me the bed, you know," she chastised as he yawned and worked the kinks out of his back. "I know you hate that thing."
"I was unconscious for most of it," he said, sitting up. He winced. "Thank goodness."
She giggled. "Come on, I got doughnuts. You were dead to the world."
"Haven't slept well lately," he defended as he stumbled to the kitchen area. "I've been working on my research."
"Which has been finished for a week now," Rose reminded him. "No excuses."
He pouted at her but Rose was immune, and simply handed him three doughnuts. He devoured them and grabbed more, but avoiding the glazed raspberry-filled ones that Rose preferred.
"So what's our agenda?" Rose asked when they were through, and she was helping him with the dishes. "We going to the library again or watching a movie?"
John smiled shyly. "Actually, I thought we would try something different."
"Really?" Rose asked as she finished drying the last plate. "Like what?"
He waited until she was facing him before bending over slightly to kiss her. After a few seconds he pulled away. "That ok?" he asked, worried.
She stared at him, shocked, before grinning. "More than," she replied, and pulled him back in for a kiss.
He smiled and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. If this was going to become their new past time, well… he couldn't wait.
"You're a brilliant kisser," he gasped when they finally broke apart.
Rose smirked. "Guess it's time I taught you something," she replied, and gave him that tongue-touched smile.
And if John thought he had liked learning before, kissing Rose Tyler- and being kissed by her in return - put all the other incidents to shame.