[He smiles a little bit more. That's conversation almost approaching normal if it weren't quite for how aware he feels about every word being said.]

I like learning. Love learning. Always like learning. [Well it's more than he's usually willing to give, which he is a personality trait of hers he is rapidly appreciating.]

[That does make it tense. If it helps any, she feels the same sort of pressure. The eagerness, the willing to give more than usual makes her catch her breath. She considers for the moment that he might be serious about trying to fix things. That makes her heart beat faster and her breath come shorter. It's a wonderful thing that he's serious but there was some amount of doubt. he's never had to try with her before. She didn't know for sure if he would. She licks her lips, tries to tamp down her nerves. She's very grateful that their skin isn't touching, very aware and very careful not to brush her bare skin against his. She did catch on quickly to the whole touch thing, Doctor. She just didn't realize she'd be using knowledge of it to hide feelings from him.]

Ought to make a good student then.

[He's totally serious about trying to fix it, if only because now there seems like there's even more to lose than before if it isn't fixed. Not only is there more to the relationship, in a way, but there's not really any amount of running he can do within the City to try and distract himself from having screwed things up in this particular instance. When you've got the entirety of the universe, it's just a tiny bit easier to hide. I think if she's actively trying not to communicate emotion then it wouldn't do a whole lot even if they did touch; mostly it comes through clearly only if it's something she wants him to know, but that's likely not something he's explained or it's debatable. Either way.]

Slight role-reversal there. If I'm as good a student as you it shouldn't be too difficult. [Yes, he's probably going to be somewhat complimenty for a little while. One of the fifty ways of implying things.]

[Oooh good point. She doesn't understand the emotions transfer thing as well as she thought she did. She believes it's more just emotions about him than anything. In any case, she's very carefully not touching bare skin.

The compliment does make her smile a bit. Regardless of the fact she knows it's meant to make her smile or not. It's still him giving her a compliment. It's not the beaming, brilliant smile previous compliments might have brought.]

M'pretty sure you'll do all right. [Not brilliant, not fantastic. Just all right at the moment.]

[It's vaguely clear that he's really wanting things to be more normal but he's not about to push anything considering he's only just started on a second chance. At least she allowed for some measure of success. He nods a little bit and then appears vaguely at a loss for what to do next.]

What were you doing before?

[She gets that and she is trying. She just needs a little bit of time.]

I was goin' to take a bubble bath. Have a glass of wine. [It's on the tip of her tongue to ask him to sit in the bathroom with her while she takes a bubble bath, once she's already in the bath with sufficient bubbles. She'd like to keep him in her sight. At the same time, she's not entirely sure if that's remotely okay yet. Or if it was okay before this. She wouldn't turn him down if he suggested it though.]

Oh. Bubbles and wine is... good. [He nods a little bit, as though this statement requires some sort of immediate enforcement. There's a little pause before the next statement, since as mentioned neither one really wants to part company, but she's... having a bath. Which is kind of difficult to work with.] D'you want company? [No. Wait.] I mean, not-, once you're already... I can bring you the glass. Of wine. And talk. Or not. [That did not work like he wanted it to.] I'd just like to keep talking. But we can do it after.

[There's a moment where things are awkward and normal. She flushes slightly red and then nods.] Wouldn't mind company once I'm in the tub.

[It's not even that she necessarily wants to take a bath. it's more...well he asked what she was going to do before and that's what it was. And it would give them both something to do without having to make any sort of decision about who sits where and is she going to sit in his lap the way she has been doing so much lately. She doesn't know that she'd object to the sitting in his lap but she doesn't know if it'd be awkward either and yes.]

Sort of relaxin'.

[Said belatedly because internal rambles are distracting.]

...Really? I mean. Brilliant! That's not quite what I meant either but it was a convoluted question to begin with so I suppose the reaction to the response shouldn't be any less so. [It's amazing how many situations fulfill the correct requirements for a potential rambling. His are alllll external for now. Decent chance he'll be on slight overshare mode for a while, since it was not-talking-to-Rose that got him in trouble in the first place.]

Which kind did you want? Do we have more than one bottle?

There's nearly a full bottle of red in the icebox. Think there's some white in the cupboard if you'd rather have white. If you wanted a glass too.

[Over sharing is brilliant. It's one thing she won't mind because so often she has to use her own judgement and glean things from the little he does say or his body language. Usually she's good at it. Right now she's probably doubting herself a good bit. She bites her bottom lip and looks to the bath.]

I'll just--[She gestures toward the room.] If I disappear again, wait for me, yeah?

[Because of course she'll come back. Even in this situation and she wouldn't stop until she got back.]

Red's fine. Like red. Not a big fan of white unless it's Turian. Turian white wine is brilliant. Although, there is-- [He cuts himself off because if he starts talking about kinds of wine he will stand there talking about kinds of wine and not actually go get any wine.] Red one from the icebox it is.

[I'm pretty sure he thinks that means she wants him to wait for her to be situated properly with bubbles and such before he comes in, because he doesn't know that she literally just disappeared and came back. So, he nods his 'understanding', and then is going to ask her what she meant by it once they're both sitting with wine in the bathroom.]

[He goes ahead and pours the two glasses of wine and holds them carefully as he sort of takes his time dallying over to the bathroom. Giving her time to get bubbles and such all situated. When he doesn't hear movement on the other side of the door anymore, he knocks.] You... bubbled?

[His phrasing makes her chuckle a little.] All bubbled. You can come in.

[The door probably doesn't open as much as it would normally, considering how he poked his head around first and then somehow slid around the rest of the door until it was closed behind him. He sets both glasses down on the counter for a moment, then picks one up and turns to hand it to her. Little grin. Then he picks up the other one and just sort of leans against the counter now, facing the wall opposite, not entirely sure about protocols for these sorts of things.]

You do look fair well... bubbled, yeah.

[It seems like something he'd do, slide around the door. She takes the glass with a bit of a smile and takes a sip. She sort of slyly glances down to the tub to make sure she is all bubbled up.]

Probably a good sorta thing, yeah? [Less blushing for both of them at the very least. She's not fishing for compliments or really even an indication of where they stand. Sort of a statement of fact that's not even really related to the whole setback their relationship just suffered. Neither one of them were really ready for nakedness before. Maybe closer but not ready.]

[He's up until now mostly not been looking too much at anything but the Rose-head he can see in the sea of bubbles, although now he quickly does a once-over down the rest of the tub and then looks mostly into his glass.] Probably. Might be okay to have just a few less bubbles. Maybe. [Just a little pink, but suggesting it anyway.] Wine's good.

[If he's a little pink then she's a good deal more pink but she'll blame it on the water. Also, nice distraction there. She sits up a bit more so that her shoulders are a bit more out of the water and perhaps the very tops of her breasts. It's still a very PG bubble bath. Also, there's a knee visible, bent and sticking out of the bubbles. She takes a much bigger drink of wine than before, almost a gulp.] Yeah. S'nice every now and then.

[He was raising his own glass to his lips when she sat up a little more and is now sort of looking at her through the top of the glass for a few seconds before remembering to swallow some wine and put the thing back down.] Yeah, wine's... Wine's nice every now and then, yeah. Always that interesting reaction it has on brain chemistry and... stuff. Nice.

Brain chemistry? [There's a lot of not looking at him going on right now but for very different reasons then previously.]

Well there's the body chemistry as well but a bit of it goes to the brain. Makes you all... Well, drunk, eventually. But before that it's actually got a decent number of antioxidants. Might be mixing up... stuff. Bit distracted.

Oh. Right. Drunk. I got that and there was a bit in the news at one time 'bout the antioxidants. [She glances over at him, eyebrows raised.]

Distracted?

[She bites her bottom lip and slides down into the bath just a tiny bit.]

[He glances over and sees her sink back down a bit. Opens his mouth to possibly say something in protest but can't come up with anything that sounds right and therefore closes it and looks back at his glass.]

Maybe. I'm still not... I'm still not really sure about... all of this. Not not-sure in that I don't want it, but not-sure in that I'm not sure what to say or do to keep... going. [That's probably not that clear but he's well into abstract-ramble-mode at the moment for some reason.]

[He probably isn't fond of it but she finds the abstract ramble kind of adorable. It's not often that he's uncertain about things. Or perhaps just not often that there's outward evidence of that uncertainty.]

If it helps, I think you're doin' all right, Doctor. [She takes another sip of her wine. It's her turn to ramble a little.] It's not--I still want all of--if you're goin' to keep your promise then I still want all of...that.

[He really wasn't fond of it, no, but hey, if it gets the point across. And if he catches on that she likes seeing that sometimes he also isn't totally sure, then there is a chance, however slight, he'll show that side a bit more often.

When she starts talking, he looks over at her. The words do make him feel a bit better; at least he's not screwing everything up.] I am not going to break that promise, Rose Tyler. You can have... all of that, if you want it.