Work Text:
‘I think it's sweet,’ Rose says out of the blue one afternoon, interrupting the background sounds of the office, dripping taps and creaking pipes.
Carl sighs, making a bigger show of not being in the mood for talking than is true. When she doesn't continue, he rolls his eyes and asks, ‘What is?’
‘You and Hardy,’
‘What?’ Carl's head whips up at that, quickly trying to force a bored look onto his face when he catches himself.
‘I can see the way that yous look at each other now. I mean, you've always been close, but since he came back it's been different. And you laugh like, way more.’
‘Well maybe that's because I get a decent conversation out of him, unlike some’ he says, but he realises too late that he hasn't denied what she's clearly implying.
‘I presume that's not all you're getting out of him, with that bruise on your neck,’
‘What -’ he looks at his neck in the reflection of his phone. ‘For fucks sake, Hardy’. There's a noticeable purple splotch just above his collar.
He's on the backfoot now, and she knows it. ‘What happened to’, he does a weak impersonation of Rose's accent, ''you can't say things like that anymore'’.
Rose smiles, ‘Well, you do.’
Carl decides to take a different tack. If he's practically already confirmed it, he might as well try to make her regret bringing it up. ‘Alright, I am getting more than that from Hardy. Usually his hard cock up my-’
‘Too much, Carl!’
Carl smiles wolfishly, ‘- arse,’
‘Okay, okay, I'm sorry,’ Rose hurries, afraid that he'll keep going. ‘Point taken, you don't like it when people bring up your personal life!'/p>
She makes a show of shuddering and looks back to her computer. They work away for a few minutes, Rose debating starting into her apple before thinking better of it, before she tests all of the inks in her new pen. Carl can feel her eyes on him periodically.
>He sighs, ‘What is it now?’
‘It’s just, I know you don't want to talk about it so say I'll say it quickly, but I just wanted to say that I'm happy for you. And Hardy. It's nice to see you both happy. Well, happier, in your case.’
He's touched by that inspite of himself, and he almost considers saying something along those lines before he settles on, ‘who the fuck asked you for your opinion, Rose?’. But there's no heat in it, and he can see from her smile that she knows exactly what he means. He looks back down at his desk, about to attempt to read his notes for the third time when Rose pipes up once more.
‘I can't believe you said those things to me about Hardy though. He's like, my Dad…Wait, wouldn't that make you my step dad?’
He simply sticks two fingers up at her while she laughs.