They have a year of random hookups at parties and dancing around each other.
They never make any formal plans, but any time they end up in the same place—which is somehow more often than it's ever been before, though neither of them will admit it—they gravitate toward one another.
Tony always seeks her out with his eyes, searching the faces of every woman in the room for her, but Rose is much more discreet.
She doesn't let her eyes roam the same way he does. Instead, she lets her senses lead her to him; his cologne, his shampoo, his overall sense of being always draws her in.
It's been a long time since she's had to rely on her human senses like sight and sound. Ever since she arrived in this world she's been different. Much in the same way her mother predicted all those years ago.
Rose doesn't vocalise it; the ways she's changed, but she sometimes wonders if her mum experiences the same things. The way things smell different, look different, feel different. She wonders if she should talk to her about it, bring up the ways in which she feels so changed from her life in the other universe. Back when The Doctor was hers and not just a memory.
But she's too afraid of knowing her mum answer. Too afraid she's the only one who is changed by their time here and what that might mean.
More often than not, she chooses not to think about it.
In the beginning of this whole thing with Tony Stark, Rose hadn't even liked him. He'd been someone safe for her to fall into the arms of. A warm, willing body to give her the pleasure she craved without any of the feelings that came with it. Tony Stark was a notorious womaniser and she was still hung up on a man—no, an alien —she could never fully have.
Things between them just worked because neither of them had the expectation of more.
They stayed separate, on their own sides of the planet, only coming together by happenstance. At least, they did until Rose found herself held captive for three weeks by an alien faction that'd unwittingly found on Earth.
She'd been on a routine Torchwood mission: seek out the aliens and find out what they were after. Rose often went on these kinds of missions. Mostly because her mind is still somehow attuned to the TARDIS in a way she doesn't really understand. Rose can still speak and understand alien languages without the use of Torchwood's translators. So she finds herself in the field more often than not. Much to Pete's dismay.
Her new pseudo father, Pete Tyler, could be a little overbearing sometimes. He has never had a daughter before, but has always wanted one.
Rose still struggles to think of him as her father, mostly because she held her own father in her arms while he died in the street after being struck by a car. So, the song and dance they do every time she goes into the field is exhausting. She knows he means well, but she's been in far more dangerous situations.
So when she gets separated from her back up for this mission, Mickey and Lynn—a newer Torchwood recruit Mickey seems far too sweet on—only a few minutes after they arrive at the alien's makeshift homestead, Rose doesn't panic. She immediately follows protocol, ducking down a side corridor and trying to contact the two of them over coms. When she received nothing but static in return, she knew the mission was blown.
After that, she no longer had to follow Torchwood procedure.
Sure, she was going to get shit for this later, but she has good instincts. Most of the time.
Rose emerges from the hallway and began to search the ship for either Mickey, Lynn, or one of the aliens. She knew it was only a matter of time before she ran into someone .
She makes noise, she calls out to the aliens in their native tongue. One her brain, of course, already knows just like it always did back when the TARDIS was always there in the back of her mind.
When Rose finally does find the aliens, hours later deep in the bowels of their ship, she knows the mission has already gone critical.
There were five of them, all tense and angry, clutching their weapons and pointing them directly at her. They looked like something directly out of a budget Sci-Fi film all large and round and they sort of looked like hedgehogs or porcupines. If either of those species ever evolved large enough and intelligent enough to invent space travel.
Her ability to speak their language does absolutely nothing to soften them up. All it does is make her worth keeping and using as a bargaining chip between Earth (Torchwood), The Judoon, and themselves.
This wasn't her first time being held captive, though. She went through this a lot back when she did all of her...travelling. So she kept a level head, negotiating for the release of Mickey and Lynn first and then doubling her efforts on trying to get them out of trouble with the Judoon.
She got caught up in trying to explain the aliens' situation. Explain that they weren't, in fact, here to colonise Earth—which would've been illegal under intergalactic law—but they had instead crash-landed. Considering The Judoon were some of the thickest most brain-dead beasts the galaxy had to offer—and that was coming from a human for Christ's sake—that took far longer than it should've.
By the time everything was said and done and she was finally released back to England, she was exhausted, dehydrated, and starving. Her hosts for the past 3 weeks hadn't been very accommodating. Despite how much she'd done for them, the whole lot of aliens still never grasped how often to feed and water a human prisoner.
No matter how many times she explained it. Loudly . Very loudly.
She's ready to collapse by the time she makes it back to Torchwood for her debrief. She needs a shower, sleep, and a proper meal, but she also needs to wait a hundred years in the locker room for someone to come debrief her on this successful—but rather annoying, thanks —mission.
Rose passes the time by taking a long shower and then checking her phone. It's standard practice to leave all personal communication devices behind when going out into the field, so she's been separated from it for the three weeks she's been captive on an alien ship. There were a few standard texts from her mum updating her on the happenings of home life in her absence.
Her mum always did this when she was out on missions. Said it kept her sane when Rose was gone for a long time. And honestly? Rose appreciates it, these messages keep her in the loop and up-to-date on all the things her little brother Anthony did while she was gone. It was like a balm to her nerves every time she got back from something particularly stressful. And this mission had been one of the more stressful ones.
She opens her messaging app, ready to read all the texts from her mother, but stalls for a moment when she notices that she has several messages from Tony Stark.
Her heart leaps into her chest. He's never texted her before. They'd always left it to meeting 'randomly' at parties. So they never had a reason to be in contact before. She hovers her finger over the conversation, chewing her bottom lip nervously as she decides whether or not to read it.
The text preview is brief and cryptic, his words are cut off, but it reads: Missed you at the peace summit in D.C. Saw your da...
Rose clicks into the conversation at the same time the door to the locker room opens and Valerie Chard, assistant to the director of personnel, steps in.
"Rose," she says in her thick Spanish accent. "Harry is ready to see you now."
Speaking with Harry is always awful. He's not a bad man, just a boring one who drones on and on about policy and procedure and is dead-set on telling Rose everything she does wrong every time she goes on a mission. Which is fine, it's nice to have structure and she never gets formally reprimanded for anything because despite policy and what-not, Rose is far too valuable to disband. That and her fast thinking and negotiation skills always tend to do more good than harm.
Even if, according to Harry, they're against Torchwood policy.
He drones on-and-on for well over an hour, asking her a bunch of questions and expecting her to give non-sarcastic answers when she's exhausted and wants nothing more than to curl up in her bed and sleep for an entire month.
But since she can't, she lets her mind drag her back to the messages she had from Tony on her phone.
She wants nothing more than to whip her phone out and read them while Harry continues to drone on, but she forces herself to be patient. The messages would still be there when she was finished here and she could read them in the privacy of her own home. After she saw her mum and her little brother and maybe even after she'd slept for at least a few hours.
But...when Harry finishes and dismisses her, she doesn't even make it back to the locker room before she unlocks her phone and stares greedily at the messages he sent her.
Tony 21/11/2009 12:21am
Missed you at the peace summit in D.C. Saw your dad, but he's far less pretty to look at. Said you were out of the country in Italy visiting relatives, but there hasn't been anything in the tabloids about you there. Not that I've been reading about you in tabloids. Only curious since you haven't missed an event in a year.
Tony 21/11/2009 4:41am
Not that you have to come to events or can't take a break from living the lifestyle of an heiress I just wanted to say you were missed.
Tony 22/11/2009 2:02pm
I'll be in England next week for the Climate Change Summit in London. Maybe I'll see you there?
Tony 29/11/2009 10:10am
Saw your dad again...
Tony 14/12/2009 5:05pm
It's been 3 weeks, Rose. I'm going to be a grown up and admit I'm worried.
Rose doesn't bother with texting back. Instead, she calls him.
Tony picks up on the first ring.
"Rose?" He gasps into the receiver.
"Where are you right now?" She asks without preamble. She's already walking to the 'banned tech' wing of Torchwood. She has it on good authority that there's a transporter there that will get her to wherever he is instantly without her having to mess around with international flights. She knows she won't be able to take a plane ride for awhile after everything she's been through.
"New York, why?" Tony asks. He sounds worried through the phone and Rose gets it. She knows what he's going through because she's gone through it before. The life of people who choose to become...romantically entangled with people who are...
Well…
Like her.
"At Stark Tower?" she questions, turning a corner and slipping into one of the banned tech rooms.
Technically, her badge shouldn't have gotten her this far, but she fixed that little oversight ages ago. She wouldn't be kept from examining alien tech. Not when she had the most experience of all of them.
"Yes..." Tony trails off. "Rose, what—"
She hangs up on him and frantically searches the shelves for the transporter.
Not her finest hour, she knows. Hanging up on someone who's probably worried sick about her after she completely disappeared off the face of the Earth for three weeks. She's sure the tabloids have gone haywire trying to figure out why no one's spotted her in Italy.
She's also sure she shouldn't be here doing this. Searching for a transporter in a pile of presumably dangerous discarded tech when she should be going home to see her mum and her brother and not transporting across the ocean to see a man she's only known for a year.
The feeling that she's getting lost in Tony the same way she got lost in him is not lost on her.
It twists her stomach up into knots, but she still finds the transporter and sets the coordinates all the same.
She knows her mum will understand.
Rose feels a familiar pull at her navel as she transports herself through space, from one end of the Atlantic Ocean to the other.
Everything is white for a moment, her pupils pin-pricks as she adjusts to nighttime in Manhattan.
She set the coordinates to spit her out in an alley somewhere beside Stark Tower. Which somehow worked despite latitude and longitude not exactly being her strong suit. She was never really much for geography in primary school, but thanks to her Torchwood training and independent study, she's getting a lot better at gridding and pulling coordinates.
Rose steps from the alleyway and onto the street, staring up at the darkened facade of Stark Tower. There were still several lights on, indicating that either people were working late or the cleaning staff were making their rounds.
She slips into the revolving door and pushes into the lobby.
There's a security guard at the welcome desk, eyeing her with suspicion as she approaches him.
"Hello," she says brightly, waggling her fingers at him. "I'm here to see Tony Stark, I believe he'll be expecting me."
The guard narrows his eyes at her.
"I really doubt that miss," he replies with a heavy New York accent.
Rose smirks at him, sticking out her hand for him to shake it.
"I'm Rose Tyler," she says, taking some sick pleasure in watching the realisation dawn on him. Back in her world, her name never carried this much weight. At least, not Rose . Bad Wolf had always been a different story.
Here, though, no one knows about Bad Wolf, but everyone knows about Rose.
On her Earth, she often had to rely on things like psychic paper or dressing up like a lunch lady to accomplish things alongside…
She lets her thoughts trail off with a sigh and she digs her fingernails into the crook of her arm. Rose knows she shouldn't be thinking of him right now. Not when she's getting ready to do something incredibly stupid with another man.
A man who probably actually loves her.
She never could figure out if... he ...felt that way too.
Tony is different from him in so many ways. He wears his heart on his sleeve, despite the fact that he always deflects with humor and non-stop rambling about technology. He is so much easier for her to read.
She felt safe with him. Cared for. Which was not something she would've expected from someone Time Magazine once called "The World's Most Eligible Womanizer".
Rose was beginning to think all Tony really needs is a chance to prove that he isn't the person the press and social media paints him to be. Behind closed doors he is so much more than a genius, or a womaniser, or a billionaire; he's human .
And if she's learned anything on all of her travels, it's that humans are the most resilient thing any of them can be.
"Mr. Stark will be down in a moment," The security guard says, finally breaking the tense silence between them.
Rose smiles brightly, her gaze moving to his name tag.
"Thank you, Roberto," she says, stepping through the turnstile and into the lobby. It was enormous with a large stone floor, laid with blue and gold pebbles and the Stark Industries logo at its center.
There were chairs and meeting stations and even restaurants peppered throughout. Rose ignores all of it and makes her way to the back corner, where she knows Tony's secret elevator is.
This isn't her first time at Stark Tower.
When Tony emerges he's dressed down, wearing a pair of grey joggers and a black singlet and he barely gets a word out before Rose is starting towards him.
He says her name, his eyes wide and bloodshot. He looks beside himself, a million emotions passing over his face as she practically flings herself into his arms.
"How are you here?" Tony asks, breathless.
Rose shakes her head, walking him backwards into the elevator so she can pull him into a searing kiss away from prying eyes. The press hasn't found out about their little fling yet, and she's pretty sure the two of them want to keep it that way.
She makes a mental note to scrub the security footage later, and make sure Roberto knows that Tony's privacy is of the utmost importance. For now, though. All she wants to do is kiss him.
"Rose," he says, pulling away from her. He searches her face for a moment. "Are you alright? How did you get here? I thought—"
Rose cuts him off with another kiss. The last thing she wants to talk about is Torchwood or missions or anything about how she was held captive by an alien race as a liaison for 3 weeks.
She couldn't even if she wanted to. That whole part of her life is classified.
Tony wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her into him as he deepens the kiss.
Rose sighs into his mouth, raking her fingers down the back of his neck.
"I missed you," Tony whispers against her mouth.
Rose sighs again, relaxing her whole body into his. They're so close now she can feel his cock when it stirs to life. She doesn't waste any time reaching down to palm him through the front of his joggers.
Tony gasps, gripping her wrist to still her hand.
Rose gives him a questioning look.
"I'd like to make it to the penthouse before we start anything," Tony laughs, leaning across her to send the elevator up. He manoeuvers their hands, lacing their fingers together as the elevator begins to ascend.
Rose watches him in silence, a soft smile on her lips.
He's devastatingly gorgeous, even with the dark circles under his eyes and the patchy facial hair he has growing in.
Usually he keeps his facial hair much cleaner. Always keeping his goatee and beard immaculately trimmed, but since it looks like he hasn't slept in weeks, she assumes he's put off a lot of his self-care routine.
"Where were you?" Tony asks as the elevator ticks upwards. It makes a soft beeping sound every 5 or so floors.
Rose squeezes his hand gently.
"Does it matter?" she asks. "I'm here now."
The elevator chimes one final time and opens, revealing the penthouse at the very top of Stark Tower.
Tony smiles at her, twirling her back into him, and in lieu of an answer, he presses his mouth to hers and kisses her soundly. He reaches his hand up to tangle in her hair and pull it free from the elastic. It falls in waves down her back, still wet from the shower she'd had before she came to New York.
She lets him walk her backwards, out of the elevator and onto the hardwood floor despite the awkwardness of it. She stumbles over her own feet a few times before she stalls him, giving him only a brief smirk as warning before she jumps up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and kisses him again.
Tony catches her easily, one arm across her back, the other braced under her ass as he walks them to the white suede couch.
He knows the way without even opening his eyes and Rose tries not to think of how many other women he's done this with before her. She knows it doesn't matter or it shouldn't matter, considering she knew who he was before they started this. And, of course, she has him now, but it still burns a little the more her feelings for him grow.
She can't change the past, though. That's something she learned the hard way in another life on another Earth well before she became the person she is now.
But she's not so far removed from the Rose Tyler she was then. If the jealousy and hurt igniting in her belly was any indication. This was almost the same jealousy she felt the first time she met Sarah Jane.
Tony sets her on the couch, settling between her legs as he moves his mouth from her lips to nip at her neck and Rose gasps, blessedly distracted from her thoughts.
He moves down her body, pressing kisses to the bits of her chest that are exposed in her loose fitting shirt, then to her arms, the crook of her elbow, down to her wrist. He lets his lips linger there on her pulse point, so long that she opens her eyes to look at his face.
She's not expecting what she sees there.
Tony looks sad and contemplative as he watches her, he opens her hand and presses it to his cheek.
"I thought you left me," he whispers, his voice thick with emotion.
Rose's heart sinks.
"Tony," she says his name like a prayer. Then again, in a whisper so soft, she's not sure he hears "Anthony."
Rose reaches her other hand up, pressing it to his other cheek and pulling his face down to hers. She presses her forehead to his, sighing softly and letting her eyes drift closed again.
She moves her fingers just so, pressing her index and middle fingers against his temples in a way that was so familiar and so utterly foreign to her. It feels right and good and she tries to convey everything she's feeling without words in that moment.
Because she's not ready to say any of this out loud, but she needs him to know she could never leave him. She would never be that cruel. Not to him.
Tony trembles against her, sniffling softly as he comes undone.
Rose moves her hands from the sides of his face, to rest at the base of his neck and she draws him closer, pressing his face to her neck.
"It's okay," she whispers, pressing a kiss to the side of his face. "It's okay."
Her heart feels wide open and raw and it should be horrifying, but all she can think about is how Tony is here and so willing to show her who he is. His face is pressed into her throat, wet with tears as he breaks and lets her inside of him in a way she's never been before.
She doesn't cry with him, not yet. She's still holding onto threads of hope just barely out of reach, locked away on the other side of the void between this universe and her home planet. But she doesn't close herself off from him either, she lets him in. Little by little, until he infects her too.