A/N: I'm sorry, guys, I apparently posted this way before it was finished and had to take it down to change it. Here you go, tell me what you think! Better?
2: Rose makes a mistake
"I can't leave you alone for two seconds!"
"We thought it'd be funny..." Rose cowers in the barber chair.
"When you find yourself thrown into a parallel universe you don't go and make besties with your alter ego, Rose!" The Doctor fumes. "And you certainly don't go cut your hair the same way so that I can't tell you apart!"
"It was just for a laugh", she says quietly, looking at her hands. Other Rose stands beside her, mouth a little open, looking uncertain. "Um..." she says. The Doctor looks at her. When she doesn't continue he raises his eyebrows demandingly. The Roses exchange desperate looks.
"We were just..."
"We didn't mean..."
"And it's not like..."
"We're still the same!"
"I mean different!"
The Doctor tries to hold on to his justified irritation, but they're too entertaining. Rose is brilliant in her own right, all by herself, but two of her, stumbling over each other to come up with excuses is just too funny. He finds himself filling up with joy again, crowding out that pesky agitation. It's probably not as big of a deal as he first thought, anyway. He feels his face cracking up and gives in to the grin.
"Alright, you." He holds out an arm, as if waiting for someone's shoulders to take residence under it. "I'm taking you out to dinner. Come on."
Rose lets out a smiley breath of relief and jumps out of the chair. But she stops, hesitating. Carefully, she asks: "Can she come?"
Other Rose straightens and looks hopeful.
The big No in the Doctor's head reaches his lips and almost makes it out, but their faces stops it in its tracks. How can he deny the heart's desire of his hearts' de... li'l old friend there? Especially when there are two of her, looking at him like that. He rolls his eyes.
"Fine."
Other Rose squeaks happily as Rose hooks her arm with hers with a big smile. Following the Doctor out on the street towards that place they saw before, Rose tries to shake off how much it had hurt just then, having him mad at her. Having the Doctor actually yell at her. Having him think her so stupid. She'd never felt so dumb in her life. If she could choose one thing in the world it would be for him to be proud of her, and the brief encounter with the opposite still tears at something inside.
It's alright now though, she thinks, walking right behind him with Other Rose in complete sync with her own steps. His shoulders relaxed, hands in his pockets, neck craned to look up at the heavy aerotraffic. He's fine. They're fine.
She'll just have to never do anything stupid, ever again.
In the quiet restaurant she listens to Other Rose explain the political situation in her London, talks to her animatedly about Mrs Dillinger from fourth grade and contemplates how strange it is to meet oneself – to actually meet, and talk and hang out with oneself, them being you but still separate, same life but different details and it's all very mind-boggling. She also notes how the Doctor is watching them, peeking over his coffee cup with a strange look in his eyes.
"What?" She stares back, feeling rather cheeky. She would love to be the confuser rather than the confusee for once, even if it did come about by astronomic accidents and (according to the Doctor) bad decisions.
"What what?" The Doctor takes a gulp of coffee and puts the cup down.
"Is there something on your mind?" She leans forward with that slightly teasing expression that often plays on her face.
"Nah, nah... I'm just waiting to see if your co-existing will stir up enough background antimatter surges to have you implode into each other", he explains, matter-of-factly. But Rose's horrified face about to burst into tears pinches his conscience and his pokerface soon ruptures into a great grin.
"Just teasin'!"
Rose huffs, flicks at him, misses, and turns back to Other Rose.
"See? He's always like this. One time when..."
Actually, the Doctor is watching them trying to get a grasp of what he is feeling at the moment. There is something of an overwhelmed quality to it, tinted with entertainment, and a hint of jealosy. He would have much preferred both Roses' eyes on him, instead of on each other (just as he much prefers singular Rose's eyes on him rather than anyone else), but he decides it's mostly an enjoyable feeling. He is also trying to find the little details that will tell two versions of the same person apart. Tiny shifts in body language, expressions, reactions, derived from living through different possible experiences in the same life. And though they are miniscule, they are there. Rose's lips are slightly more easily drawn into a smile, Other Rose tends to emphasise her sarcasms with a twitch of an eyebrow. A few tiny, miniscule things. They are very much the same though...
"Look, he's doing it again." Rose nods towards the Doctor. "Wonder what he's thinking."
"If you're worried about telling us apart, I could always get a goatee", says Other Rose.
"Be the evil one!" Rose thinks this is the best idea anyone has had in years and they howl with laughter.
"No need", the Doctor says, but is ignored. When the Roses are done making evil twin-jokes, Other Rose turns to him to continue the conversation.
"So, Doctor, what were you saying about the..."
Rose is having so much fun with her alter ego. To her, Other Rose seems cooler, more in control, than herself. Just the fact that she didn't scream and run when they physically bumped into each other outside Tesco is incredible, but that she didn't call the police when Rose told her she was from a different reality is amazing. And when she told her, during that very long walk with those very big slushies, about other worlds and time travels, and the girl didn't freak out completely – well, that's just simply outstanding.
And she told her about the Doctor. Of course she told her. She was talking to herself! She couldn't not tell herself about her own best friend, the most important person in the world (in hers, in any). The wanderer, the adventurer, the hero. The one she cannot imagine living without anymore, but who Other Rose never heard of.
To be a Rose, but not have a Doctor.
What a meaningless half of a life.
Other Rose had been very curious about it all, with some reservations at first, but as their aquiantance proceeded more and more trustingly. Rose kept proving her story with facts from their shared life until there was nothing left but to believe, and she told Other Rose about every adventure she could remember and every detail she could think of regarding the Doctor and his Tardis. She tried to convey her own excitement about wandering the universe, always coming across new worlds and new beings, and Other Rose seemed very smitten.
Now, having dinner with Rose and the Doctor, she wants to know more about the ship, the travels, the strange other worlds they've seen. But she seems interested in the Doctor himself as well, in a way that creates a little nagging, writhing feeling in the pit of Rose's stomach. She feels strange about the way Other Rose leans forward with a cheeky grin, about the way Other Rose looks him in the eyes when she speaks to him, about the way Other Rose does anything that Rose would do herself and that she is perfectly and naturally entitled to do. Meaning, since Rose does them all the time. Act like herself, that is. Around the Doctor. Her friend the Doctor. Her best friend. Her amazing, quirky, admittedly extremely charming and foxy friend whom she sometimes finds herself looking a little too long at, whom she every once in a while wakes up from a dream about that she wouldn't tell her mother of. Or him.
But that's fine. Other Rose isn't doing anything wrong. She's just interested, that's all. (Too interested?) It's just that Rose feels strange about sharing the Doctor's attention with this particular rival – not that she ever has all of it anyway, he's always distracted by his own ramblings or some rock on the ground.
So it's fine. She's not jealous of her other self.
That would be silly.