With a spring in her step, Rose strolled out of the shop and started heading down the street to the bus stop in town. Despite her long, mentally-demanding shift, she was in an excellent mood. Work was never a chore for her anyway; being assistant manager was a job she had desired for a while now, and it was incredibly rewarding. Today had been particularly interesting, since although fewer customers visited, they had purchased larger orders so plenty of money was still rolling in. At lunchtime, Rose stayed on the premises and chatted with her colleagues. Gwyneth, a young girl whom she had befriended while working there, asked her why she wasn't going out to meet her mates this time. Rose had to think about it for a moment. She'd genuinely forgotten, what with being so preoccupied. Then again, she was sure Mickey wouldn't mind. He and Shareen got on fine without her.

Now, it was 3:57pm (the boss, Harriet, had let her get off early), and Rose was ready to go home. Truth be told, a certain messy-haired man had been at the forefront of her mind all day, and she couldn't wait to be greeted by his stunning grin. As she sat in her usual seat on the bus, Rose gazed dreamily out of the window, eyes unfocused as she allowed her mind to run away with her. She mentally replayed her conversation with John from the previous night, pausing every time he smiled or laughed. When he looked right at her with those emotive brown eyes, it felt like the rest of the world just melted away into insignificance. In those moments, she felt wonderful.

When the bus finally arrived at her stop, she practically leapt off it. Unable to resist letting the corners of her mouth turning upwards, Rose bit her lip to prevent her smile from growing. Although she was excited, she didn't want to appear too eager to see John. Keep it casual, that was the way to go about this. She didn't want to scare him off, after all, though Rose somehow didn't think that was quite possible. John certainly seemed just as enthusiastic to be around her, and he was rather an eccentric person himself. No, of course he wouldn't be scared off.

…Or could he?

As Rose rapidly approached her house, the smile dropped from her face. The familiar blue figure of John's car was no longer on the kerb, and there was no sign of its owner either. Rose frowned, her pace slowing as she realised she didn't have a reason to speed up anymore. Trudging over to where the car had been, Rose cast a glance over the immediate vicinity, desperately searching for something that simply wasn't there. Sighing gloomily, Rose accepted what had happened. John had gone.

Once the reality of the situation hit Rose, she felt hollow. No crippling sadness or even anger, just vague disbelief and emptiness. But hopeful. Despite the apparent irreversible nature of John's disappearance, a spark of hope remained deep inside of Rose, refusing to be extinguished. As a result of it, a sudden thought occurred to her. Maybe John had left a note? Surely he wouldn't just up-and-leave without telling her?

Walking over to her front door, Rose studied it for any traces of John that he might have left behind. She didn't know what she expected really; perhaps a folded piece of paper blu-tacked to the wood, just to let her know he'd decided to go his own way. No such luck. She thought, from how appreciative he'd been, that he might have given a reason for his disappearance. Then again, he was still a stranger at the end of the day. There was no need to feel so glum about losing him.

Before long, Rose had begun to wind down for the day by getting changed out of her work clothes and stepping in the shower. She was currently curled up on the sofa, half-heartedly munching a microwave curry and only half-watching a re-run episode of Countdown that happened to be on TV at the time. She considered phoning her mum again – she still hadn't explained herself for abruptly hanging up on her the previous night – but she wasn't really in the mood for it. In fact, the only thing Rose currently felt like doing was moping about in her living room.

After half-eating her curry, she shuffled into the kitchen and rinsed out the container. As the sound of the running water echoed around her empty kitchen, Rose was struck by the loneliness which had returned to plague her once again. She'd always been happy with her quaint little cottage in the countryside, but after meeting someone whose presence had filled every corner, she knew she would never be satisfied with living here alone anymore.

Sighing again, Rose clicked on the kettle in preparation for making a cup of tea. She needed to indulge in small comforts. Popping a teabag in her favourite mug, Rose tapped out a tuneless rhythm as she waited for the kettle to boil. Before long, she was cradling her mug of nice hot tea as she snuggled back into the sofa. It was going to be a long night.

Almost as soon as Rose sat down, she heard a gentle yet firm knock on her door. Rolling her eyes as a reflex response, she wondered who on Earth it could be. It was almost 6pm, which she found out after a brief glance at the clock. It seemed a bit of an odd time for someone to visit. Besides, who would be visiting her? It wasn't like she had neighbours; her house was completely isolated in the countryside. Rose was also fairly sure the postman didn't come round at this time. There was no one left it could be. Well, there was one, but Rose nipped that thought in the bud before it made her too hopeful.

Reluctantly setting her tea down on the little table next to her, Rose rose from the sofa and made her way down the hallway to her front door. At times like this, she wished she had one of those eyepieces in her door that enabled her to see who was on the other side of it. Instead, she opened her door, slowly but surely, until a wonderfully familiar figure was revealed.

"John?" Rose's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. Due to her refusal to hope for his arrival, she was pleasantly surprised.

John nervously scratched the back of his head, his gaze flitting about and neglecting to meet Rose's. He was clearly flustered as he began to speak to her. "Rose, hi. Look, I, er, I know I should have told you where I was going before I went, but you were at work and I knew you wouldn't be back for a while and I couldn't just stay outside your house because it – well, it would just be a bit weird, and my car still wasn't fixed so I had to call breakdown services like you said, but I didn't have a phone so I had to go looking for a phone booth which took aaaaages, and-"

"Blimey, slow down!" Rose couldn't help chuckling. John was babbling at 100 miles per hour, leaving her utterly bewildered and unable to keep up. "Why don't you come in and start again?"

Exhaling a nervous laugh, John awkwardly stepped inside the house. He didn't think himself worthy to take a seat in Rose's living room this time – at least not until he'd explained himself properly – so he hung about in the hallway for now. Rose figured he wouldn't be staying for long, and was only too happy to remain leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded. She was aware she looked just like her mother when her father had come home late from work without telling her.

"Go on then, explain yourself. Start from the beginning." Fixing her gaze on John's face, Rose attempted to sound stern, but the delight of seeing him again betrayed her by seeping into her voice.

Composing himself, John took a breath and stared humbly at Rose through some unruly strands of hair that had fallen onto his forehead. "Right. I started trying to fix my car as soon as you'd left this morning, but it didn't exactly go to plan. Weeeell, that's probably an understatement. Weeeell, I might have kind of made it worse…"

"You told me you could fix it." Rose teased.

"Yeaahhh, I may have exaggerated a bit there. Anyway, I went to find a phone booth to give breakdown services a call, since my mobile was dead. I found one eventually, and the AA arrived. Took one look and knew it was knackered, so they towed it into the city for repair – gave me a lift, too, nice fellas. Turns out the problem wasn't as bad as it seemed, so it didn't take too long to fix. They told me to come back in a few hours, so I wandered about in town for a while."

"Did you do anything nice?" Rose inquired.

"Just explored the area really, though I did have a chat with some lovely local people while I was on my travels." John replied, still acting rather humble, but growing in confidence by the second. "I went back to the AA garage at about 4pm, and Travis – I mean, my car – was good as new! I then considered my next port of call. I didn't want to leave the city; I knew I couldn't just go without seeing you again, but I also didn't want to drive back to your cottage and expect to be invited back in again. So, I went looking for a hotel to stay in for a few nights."

"You didn't have to do that…" Rose started, but her tone said otherwise. It was evident she wanted him to stay for as long as possible, but she also knew it wasn't realistic for him to stay outside her house.

"It's no bother!" John insisted, clearly still feeling guilty. "I found a nice little B&B on a side street that had a single room free for the next few nights, so I booked that. By that time, it was 5:30, and I realised I hadn't left a note or anything for you. I would have phoned, but I never got your number either. It's no excuse, I know. I really am sorry, Rose," he gazed back at her with those giant brown eyes, just begging to be forgiven.

Rose considered his words for a moment. She knew she shouldn't be so trusting, especially after how he'd upset her today, but she also knew he didn't intend to hurt her. And who could say no to those eyes?

She sighed, unable to hold back a smile. "It's okay. I know you didn't mean to leave without saying anything, so don't worry about it. I'm grateful that you came back."

John's face split into a grin. "Thank you, Rose. I can't put into words how much I appreciate what you've done for me. You really are a star."

A faint pink glow spread over Rose's cheeks as she processed his flattering compliment. There was a slightly awkward silence as neither of them could think of what to say next.

"Soo…" John eventually spoke as a filler to break their lack of speech. Once they both realised how silly they were acting, Rose giggled and John smiled.

"Do you want to sit down? I'll make us a cuppa if you want?" Rose asked him, gesturing towards the sofa in the living room.

"Err, I might get off back to the hotel actually – if that's alright with you?" John added quickly, not wanting to seem eager to depart from Rose's company. In fact, he felt quite the opposite. He adored spending time with her; she seemed to exude a wonderful light that caused him to feel intense joy just by being around her. He only wanted to return to the hotel because he needed to sort out his suitcase.

"Yeah, that's fine!" Rose agreed, yet her smile dropped ever so slightly.

"Okay. I'll… see you around, then?" John half-asked.

"Sure."

Another silence.

"Right then." John strode over to the front door and opened it. However, instead of stepping outside and leaving straight away, he hesitated. He seemed to be having an internal conversation with himself, before finally resolving his predicament. "Actually, do you want to meet up? Tomorrow? For lunch?"

Rose was taken aback. "Oh! Um, I could do that. I mean, I'm not doing anything at lunch tomorrow," she mentally kicked herself for sounding so ridiculous. "I would like to meet up for lunch, thanks. That would be great. Where should we meet?"

John beamed. "Brilliant! Hmm, I saw a lovely coffee shop on a street called Wolf Road…?"

"Ah, I know where that is. It's not too far from where I work." Rose's smile returned, extending due to the coincidence.

"Fantastic!" John enthused. "So, I'll see you there at about half twelve?"

"Sounds good to me." Rose grinned, her tongue poking between her teeth.

"Alright then! See you tomorrow." John's excited expression mirrored Rose's as he stepped outside.

"Yep, see you tomorrow!" Rose waved cheerily at him before closing the door.

For the rest of the night, Rose was too distracted to watch telly or read any of her magazines. But this time, it wasn't because she was too upset; it was because she was looking forward to meeting John so much the next day. She missed him already.


A/N: A big thank you again to whovianhalfblood for beta-reading!