you and me, alright [roschel]

big word.

At exactly five pm sharp on a warm late Friday on the last day of May, Ross and Rachel step into Dr. Phalange's office to what looks to be an attempt at a friendly smile, but turns out to be more of a grimace, and are greeted with a new decoration set up by her side of the room, next to the side table separating the two opposing couches. The strange part of Rachel that is wired to inwardly shrivel at the sight of a chalkboard (whiteboard perched on an easel, in this case) does just that. Meanwhile the other part of her grey matter that is apparently attached to Ross's notices how he perks up, like he never left lecture hall. He takes a closer look, as if there's a hidden message behind their names written in sharpie - him on left, her on right.

"Whose apartment are we playing for this time?" Ross quips as they settle on their now familiar spots on the couch.

"Hopefully our upstairs neighbour's," Rachel volleys back with ease, voice almost groggy from how long it took for them to get Emma to sleep last night. "Now I know how Mr. Hankin felt about us."

"It was Heckles, Rach."

"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, tit-tat, brick brack - "

"Brack's not a word -"

"But break is," interrupts Dr. Phalange, tone veering on stern. "Sorry for cutting through your wavelength there. I understand that we're still chipping away at definition, which is completely understandable and a topic we can table for today. Because for this session, I would actually like to take a little crack at the infamous 'break'. Or rather, what seems to be your shared penchant for equivalent retaliation, which I want to talk to you about before we dive into some of your darker times to deal with evident trust issues."

Next to Rachel, Ross grunts out a raspy guffaw which then splutters over to his lips and he gives her a wry smile. "Oh, you're about to heckle the life out of me," he tells her and she tilts her head at him because she doesn't follow. "Deservedly so," he adds, and he makes a face that looks like whenever he's been sedated by sweets, and she's just as sleepy. "It's been so long since I said we were on a b - "

Rachel rolls her eyes on alert at those five cursed words and smacks him one, two, three times in the shoulder with the thick Louis Vuitton fall catalogue that couldn't fit in her purse. There's a playfulness in his voice that borders the line between sarcasm and coping mechanism, and she wracks her head if the way he said that has to do with his hidden epiphany last session, or if maybe their latest episode of push-and-pull has broken him already (not to say that she isn't cracking at the seams herself).

Her mind catches on immediate self-reflection, remembering the past two weeks of office visits, over the top PDA, and overall teasing in between blissful routine. Rachel watches Dr. Phalange's hands flail as Ross nods to himself, a lot more serious as he even pulls out a pocket moleskin from inside his coat to start scribbling. She, on the other hand, hears the words chicken and prisoner's dilemma and ends up drifting off in her own mind, diligently working back through the last couple of days by memory, trying to determine if Ross is about to go red and if so, if he has any right to do so. 

Okay, yeah, there was that simple comment at the club that sent them careening into a record scratch. Which by now has evolved into a spinning record of who will sing first. A duet composed of Rachel leaving Ross crumbs to get inappropriately close to her until those brown eyes of his turn to steel and her skin's set on fire. The first time it sparked in an ordinary Saturday night out over two weeks ago, coupled with him pressed against her ass, she had nearly tripped on the dance floor and it had been a thrill she sought out since, again and again. She knows it's reckless and childish and counterproductive to the professional advice they committed to. They wanted to sort themselves out, but instead she's waiting to pounce on their doorway or in the park or at lunch, trying to come up with new ways to make him bring it up without it looking like she wants to have it out in the open instead of questions circling in her head.