#lipstickthatbites

“ Oh, nothing. ”

|     “ Oh, shame on you. Grow up. ”

“ no, no, no——i am, i am, and that’s the whole point, basically. ”

he jabbed his tongue into his teeth——then he lowered his head down very slowly, and aimed a sarky sort of look her way after a second.

“ i mean, there’s no use in being a grown-up if you can’t——yeah, okay. ”

he shut his mouth, and looked a bit guilty, or——well, he did by his standards, anyway.

|     “ Who said anything about being stuck? I’m not stuck! I’m just not going to jump like some raving lunatic, thank you very much. ” She gave a delicate little sniff and lifted her chin, eyeing the ground below with distrust, and some moderate discomfort, though she was endeavoring to disguise the latter. The branches beneath her rustled, and she drew her knees up more tightly, looking quite obstinate. “ So—go away. You’re distracting me. ” She made a shooing motion at him.

“ what, me? ”

he tried to grab one of her legs, but——well, ultimately he didn’t have very much success.

“ you know——you know, i really don’t know why you go on like this. there’s absolutely no shame in asking for——oof! ”

he recoiled very suddenly, grimacing——lifting a hand instinctively to cradle his cheek where her shoe had collided with it, and aiming a stormy look up the tree at her.

“ all right——all right, suit yourself, you silly girl! ”

he attempted to distance himself, glaring slightly——massaging the spot a bit irritably in an attempt to counter the mostly nonexistent sting.

“ you know, i may as well sit over here if that’s all the thanks i’m going to get. that way i can at least work on my double loops! ”

his voice was low, and sort of hotly incredulous——but actually it was his ego that was hurting him more than anything.

|     “ Still a show-off, I see. ”

“ oh, was i showing off again? ”

he squidged his eyes up a bit——dug his tongue into his teeth, then stretched a hand around after a second to massage the nape of his neck.

“ sorry——didn’t notice. must’ve been too busy, y’know——saving the universe. ”

he blew out a noisy breath, then let his arm drop to his side again, lifting his eyebrows and sort of——launching a sidelong look in her direction.

|     “ Oh, for Pete’s sake—lighten up. He’s just a kid, remember? ”

“ well, of course i remember! ”

he made his way around to the opposite side of the console a bit hotly, throwing various levers and the like as he went along.

“ i mean, it’s not as if there’s anything wrong with my memory! ” he scowled, then wrenched a couple more switches, and disengaged the time column while he was at it——whisking an hand very irritably underneath his nose.

“ seven hundred and thirty-six isn’t that old! ”

he stopped in his tracks after that, and——well, apparently, thought better of the last one he’d thrown.

“ anyway——you try telling him he is when he doesn’t think it’s convenient to be. ”

he sniffed a bit, then lifted a hand to massage his chin, and yanked it back into position——the lever he’d thought better of, that was.

then——seeming a tiny bit dismayed all of a sudden, he looked up at her——louring across the tardis’s controls.

“ have you noticed that? i mean, that he doesn’t like people telling him he is until he thinks it’ll help him to get away with something, and then he tells you? ”

his tone had turned very serious.

“ and in any case——in any case, what do you mean by ‘lighten up’? ”

he looked down at the console again——glowered, then went about inputting a series of coordinates.

|     “ Hey—you don't really expect me to stay here by myself, do you? ”

" hm? ” he shot a sidelong look at her——looked away, and then looked back again.

“ well——it should go without saying, shouldn’t it? ”

his eyebrows lifted themselves up a little.

“ i mean, it should go without saying that i wouldn’t expect you to wait here by yourself. ”

he’d averted his eyes again, making his way over to the wall opposite her where he attempted to look very busy with something.

“ adric——you stay here with sarah. ”

he lowered his voice as he motioned the boy over——unobtrusively, he imagined.

|     She leaned in very close, whispering. “ What's the matter with him—? ”

“ hm? ”

he looked up——and then he looked at her inquiringly. then——after a moment, he looked around.

“ i mean, him? ” he made an indicative sort of motion, and then he looked away again, and went on.

“ oh, never mind him, he always looks like that. ”

he swiped a hand under his nose, then held it out, waiting on her to supply him with the appropriate instrument------meanwhile, he went on tinkering with the bit of machinery he’d been working on.

“ in any case, you wouldn’t like it if someone did that to you. ” he made another indicative gesture.

“ judged you by your appearance, i mean. ”

the look he was wearing was unreadable, but, well——he sounded serious.

|     “ Sorry, you just—didn’t use to be much of a hugger. ”

“ well, y’know——on the inside, maybe. ”

he screwed his eyes up a bit, then looked away after a moment——then he made to massage his neck with his unoccupied hand.

“ or——well, y’know, when i say ‘y’know’, i don’t mean ‘you knew’——actually. ”

oh, okay, and that——that had made a bit more sense in his head, but——well, he knew what he meant.

“ yeah, because——yeah, why would you know that? ”

he let his arm drop down again after a second, and then he lifted his eyebrows up a ways——launching a look at her.