Disclaimer: Not mine

Notes: Mild spoilers for 'Lights, Camera, Dax'.

--

Dax has read more movie scripts than most real actors, so he's very aware that the hero always gets the girl. Always. No one asks why, it's just how things go. And it's something Dax has never questioned... until he met Rose Ortiz.

The worst part is that he really does like her-- a lot. She's smart, and nice, and she believes he has an actual chance as an actor, which is more than he can say for most of the people he's met (including himself). He really, really wishes that she believes that because she feels a least a little of what he feels for her... but he knows better. She'll fall for Mack, or Will, or even Mack's dad. The girl gets with the hero, not a goofball with dreams that'll never happen.

Rose deserves a hero.

"What do you have there?" Rose beams down at him, pulling him out of his thoughts. When she realizes that she caught him off guard, she motions towards the script in his hands. "Are you getting ready for another audition?"

No. I was thinking of you. "W-well, it is a script, but it's not for an audition-- I'm pretty sure Mister Hartford wouldn't be too thrilled with me if I shirked Ranger duty for that again."

She gives that smile, the one that makes him wonder if she knows what he's thinking, as she sits down next to him. "That's a valid enough point. Although I have to confess," she says as she gives him a much different smile from before. "I'm kind of glad you're not this time."

Is it just him, or is Rose a lot closer than she was a few minutes ago? "Why's that?"

"Because I get you all to myself now," she says as she kisses him.

It's not like the kisses in the movies that inspired him to be an actor. It's short, and simple, but it's still enough to leave him gasping for air. He makes himself pull away. "We can't do this."

Rose gives him a skeptical glance. "Why can't we do this?"

"Because you're really in love with Mack-- or Will-- or I don't know, but I do know it's not me, because--" Rose cuts him off with a hand on his mouth.

"Dax." Her tone makes its clear that she's in no mood for arguing. "In case you haven't noticed... you and I aren't characters in a movie." Then she smiles again as she removes her hand and leans in a little closer. "We're not even characters in a television program."

Now that Rose has made that clear to him, their second kiss goes a lot more smoothly. It's still not Hollywood material, but you know what? Not everything in his life has to be Hollywood material.

Sometimes it can be better than that.