Guns and Roses: The Drabble Challenge

Seven: Formal

or

Two times Loki attended a formal event with Rose + the one time she went with the Doctor

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"That was tedious."

Oh, so says the man who looked like he could dine with the Queen herself and not miss a beat?

"Come off it, Mum was doe-eyed over you," Rose said, closing the car door behind her. "Pete looked like he was about to knock your lights out, t'be honest."

"I have no idea what got into him. Was it the jacket? Such a shame. It suited your father so well, too."

"I don't know how you did it, but you and I both know Pete didn't leave it in the punch bowl."

"What an accusation!" he said, putting a hand over his heart in mock despair. "I was dancing with you at the time, if you recall."

"You're really good at this mysterious, charming stranger rubbish."

"Charming, am I?" Loki's eyes glinted playfully as he stole a kiss on the top of her hand. Rose swatted at him, blushing and laughing as she started the car.

"Only when you aren't being a prat."

"But that's the fun part, my dear Rose."

She rolled her eyes and pulled out of the garage park to make the long journey home.

"What were you 'n Mickey chattin' about for so long, anyway?"

Rose thought she caught a flash of hesitation in his expression, but it was gone so quickly into his usual cool nonchalance she assumed that she just imagined it.

"Oh nothing. The boy was talking some nonsense about your work. Hardly caught a word of it."

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"You're blond."

"So are you. Shall we continue pointing out the obvious, or would you like to get to the ceremony on time?"

"Why are you blond?"

"I am to be introduced as your cousin, am I not? Might as well play the part."

Rose huffed, then turned back to the mirror, fluffing her hair over her shoulders. Sometimes it was just impossible to reason with Loki, and even more pointless to try and decipher the man's motives. She soon lost track of his magically-induced blond self after Tony's christening. When she finally laid eyes on him, he was talking with Frank, the lead engineer on the canon project. Frank looked like he had one too many glasses of wine.

"Loki, strange name."

"It's, ah…Nordic."

"Norway, eh? Been up there once or twice on the job. The sea's too cold for swimming."

"I hear you are a technician," Loki urged, placing another glass of wine in front of the man.

"Engineer, rather. You wouldn't believe the stuff I get to work with. I'm tellin' you, we'll have all of time 'n space at our whim by the end of the year."

"That so?"

"Loki, can I steal you for a minute?"

They had a spat that day. Rose told him off, and he promised not to meddle in Torchwood business. He claimed the conversation was harmless, but Rose couldn't help but feel that he was up to something. She eventually let it slide as paranoia. He was always up to something, anyway.

Months later, after her last look over Bad Wolf Bay, she would work out that he slipped Frank's ID in his pocket so he could access Torchwood and steal a dimension canon. Part of her was angry for using her influence and her friends, but another part of her understood the need to leave a place that wasn't home.

She supposed he was lucky in that sense; she had to make a home out of Pete's World and a new life with a new Doctor. She just hoped Loki could find a way back to his old one.

0o0o0o0o0o0

He was neither proper, nor charming in any conventional way, nor would he lie to her to gain something for himself. Rose loved these things about her human Doctor, but she had to admit that he and Loki had at least one thing in common. They both looked damn fine in a suit.

"You know, the last time I attended a wedding the groom was feeding Huon particles to the bride in order to feed spider children at the center of the Earth. Well, Racnoss children."

Rose turned to see her groom standing behind her, one hand behind his back and another stretched out in front of him.

"Care to dance?" he asked her. Rose smiled and took his hand.

"As long as there's no insects involved."

"Can't promise you that. In fact, I think I saw one or two ants eying the nibbles in the corner. Maybe we should have had an inside reception. Come to think of it, I don't like the look of the sky. See, there, in the south-south east? Do those look like rainclouds to you? Because—"

"Doctor."

"Hmm?"

"Shut up."

The Doctor's hand was warm in hers as she leaned forward to kiss him.